Nintendo

During its first three days on sale, the Nintendo Switch Lite sold 177,936 units in Japan. Combined with the regular Switch units, nearly 250,000 Switch consoles were sold that same week. In case you missed it, here is Kotaku’s Switch Lite review. 

Link’s Awakening‘s Big ‘Twist’ Is Mind-Blowing When You’re Eight

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a mystery. Link, the hero of the Zelda games, wakes up after getting shipwrecked on Koholint Island. He meets a mysterious owl who tells him that in order to return home, he must wake the Wind Fish, the guardian of the island, who is currently asleep in a…

Mario Kart Tour Kicks Off Tomorrow In New York City

Nintendo’s latest free-to-play mobile game, Mario Kart Tour, launches tomorrow on iOS and Android. Every two weeks the nickley, dimey racer will test players in tours, special races inspired by real-world locations. The first destination is New York, New York, where players can earn Musician Mario and Super Mario Odyssey Pauline as playable racers. New…

Nintendo Was Founded 130 Years Ago Today

On September 23, 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Koppai (koppai means “cards”) in Kyoto, Japan. Originally a playing card company, the company would go on to revolutionize video games forever. When the company was first founded, Nintendo made hanafuda playing cards. It was only three years earlier that the Japanese government legalized the cards, which…

Fans Found An Assault Rifle Texture Hidden In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Princess Peach is powerful and not to be messed with in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. But I never expected that she was secretly carrying an assault rifle. Yet that’s what fans found when they dug around the files of Brawl. YouTuber Oddheader recently released a video showcasing some secrets in video games that players and…

Tips For Playing The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Link’s Awakening is not a challenging game, but it can be a little abstruse. Originally released for the Game Boy in 1993 and overhauled for Switch in a delightful remake that’s out this week, the fourth Zelda is full of secrets, mysteries, and weird quirks to discover. Here are some tips to help you leave…

Nintendo Switch Lite: The Kotaku Review

The Nintendo Switch Lite is one of the finest handheld gaming devices I’ve ever used. It’s sturdy, stylish, and comfortable. It launches with a library that’s already over 2,500 games strong. If all you’re looking for from the Nintendo Switch is personal, portable play, it’s perfect. But is that all you’re looking for? From its…

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening: The Kotaku Review

The best feeling you can possibly feel while playing a video game is the act of swinging a sword in Zelda. I came to this conclusion recently, while playing the new remake of Link’s Awakening and trying to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes me love Zelda games so much. The answer, I think,…

The Internet Reacts To Sirfetch’d, Pokémon Sword‘s New Farfetch’d Evolution

Farfetch’d, the leek-carrying bird pal that’s been around since the original Pokémon games, is finally getting an evolution of his own. His buff new form, appearing exclusively in Pokémon Sword, is called Sirfetch’d, and the internet has some thoughts about this smug bird knight. According to the official Sword and Shield website, Sirfetch’d is incredibly…

I’ve Finally Gotten Tired Of Making My Video Game Characters Look Like Boring Slobs

I recently got my hands on Daemon X Machina, the new mech action game for the Nintendo Switch, and I was immediately dazzled—not by the power and might of my giant robot armor, or the weighty action of sci-fi combat—but by how much fun it was to style my mech and its pilot in some…

The First Puzzle Quest Is Still The Best

2007’s Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords combined tile-matching puzzles and role-playing game mechanics to create an incredibly compelling hybrid game that was near impossible to put down. One sequel, several spin-offs, and countless copycats later, the Switch version of the original Puzzle Quest is just as captivating as it was 12 years ago. Launching…

Developers Cash In By Selling Their Switch Games For Pennies

Every few days, I tap the eShop icon on my Nintendo Switch. I’ll look at the new games released that week, but honestly, I just want to see what’s on sale. I especially want to see what’s really on sale. One of the few categories by which you can browse Switch games on the eShop…

I Have Several Issues With This Year’s Halloween Pokémon Toys

Pikachu as Mimikyu. Charmander as Cubone. Lucario and Celebi as live-action role-players. This year’s batch of special Halloween-themed “Pumpkin Parade” plushies from The Pokémon Company are adorable at first glance. But if you look closely, the cute facade begins to crumble. Let’s start with Charmander wearing another Pokémon’s dead mother’s skull as a costume. Depending…

Nintendo’s New Fitness Game Puts Joy-Cons In Strange Places

Nintendo is heading back into the fitness business with Ring Fit Adventure, a new game where you strap a Joy-Con onto your leg, put another in a big squeezy new peripheral and flail about like nobody’s watching. Here is the game’s first trailer—it looks like a surprisingly decent use of RPG mechanics, given the fitness…

Zelda: Link’s Awakening‘s Chamber Dungeons Are A Big Disappointment

The appeal of a Zelda dungeon is in its intricacy. A good dungeon starts off feeling overwhelming, full of buttons and doors and strange obstacles. As you make progress, solving puzzles and acquiring items, it all slowly begins to make sense. You get a complete understanding of how the passages flow and the rooms all…

Nintendo Suing Another ROM Site Into Oblivion

Nintendo filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the site RomUniverse, looking for millions of dollars after accusing the site of “brazen and mass scale infringement.” Sometimes, when Nintendo sets its lawyers on a site, it can be contentious, because the targets are small fan-run operations hosting retro releases that it can be argued are doing…

I Can’t See Myself Enjoying The New Kirby Game Much Longer

Launched following last week’s Nintendo Direct, Super Kirby Clash is a free-to-play multiplayer game pitting multicolored Kirbys in medieval cosplay against massive bosses. I love the battles, but the game’s economy and endless upgrade cycle have me wondering how long that love will last. Nintendo calls Super Kirby Clash a free-to-start game, which is a…

Gun Gun Pixies Is A Silly Erotic Game With A Serious Message About Your Health

Gun Gun Pixies for the Nintendo Switch and PC is a third-person shooter-platformer about a pair of miniature aliens learning about human behavior by infiltrating a women’s dorm. It’s silly. It’s racy. There are panty shots galore and lots of censored anime nudity. I expected as much from the latest PQube release. What I did…

A Series Of Sweet Luigi And Gooigi Comics Comes To A Touching Close

When I first saw Gooigi, a puzzle-solving Luigi clone made of goo who first appeared in the 3DS remaster of Luigi’s Mansion and will also be in Luigi’s Mansion 3, I had a few questions about him. Namely: Is this a fetish thing? Perhaps I was being a little too adult and cynical at the…

The Pokémon Anime Is Now Old Enough To Drink

On September 7, 1998, the first episode of the Pokémon anime aired in the United States. That was 21 years ago. Oh God. The show’s first-ever episode, Pokémon – I Choose You!, is the beginning of the whole Pokémon universe, showing Ash’s first meeting with Pikachu. It’s all fairly pedestrian when you just watch this…