Nintendo

Today Nintendo announced online qualifiers for its upcoming Smash Bros. Ultimate and Splatoon 2 tournaments being hosted at PAX East on March 30. There’ll be three rounds, beginning on February 2, for players to try and earn spots at the live event. Complete schedule and signup info is at Nintendo’s website.

What Made Pikmin Special

The Pikmin series was one of those bold moves by Nintendo that seemed to be going in a different direction than anything else in the gaming industry. It didn’t pay off quite as successfully as the herd-defiant Brain Age, Wii or Nintendo Switch, to name three of the company’s more radical creations, but it did…

Japan’s Most Downloaded Nintendo Switch Games of 2018

Wonder what Switch games were downloaded the most last year in Japan? How about which download-only games did well? Let’s find out! Nintendo has released its 2018 Switch download rankings. There are no publicly revealed figures so we don’t know how many times the games were downloaded, but Nintendo did put them in order. Here…

The Queen’s Golden Wii Has Been Found

Ten years ago, a THQ marketing stunt sent a gold-plated Nintendo Wii console to Queen Elizabeth II. She obviously never received the gift personally, which led People Make Games’ Chris Bratt to wonder: then where the hell was it? If the Queen never opened it, and THQ are long gone, then it was going to…

Nintendo’s Adorable 8-Bit Robot Fighting Game Is Now Playable On Switch

As usual with Nintendo’s classic game services, Switch Online’s NES app now has more games in Japan than it does in the rest of the world. While today’s worldwide update included Blaster Master and Zelda II, Japan also got a very cool fighting game called Joy Mech Fight. Fortunately, since Switch is region-free, anyone with…

Zelda, Banjo Kazooie Levels Modded Into Super Mario Odyssey

Perhaps to give Odyssey that Smash Bros/Nintendo Museum feel, modder ItzSkahas been importing custom levels into the Switch platformer, like Clanker’s Cavern from Banjo Kazooie and the exterior of Wind Waker’s Dragon Roost Island. It’s not just the textures, either; both levels have custom collectables as well. Here’s Clanker’s Cavern: And here’s Dragon Roost: If…

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes: The Kotaku Review

Goichi “Suda51″ Suda loves video games. Oh, sure, I love video games, and you probably do too. But when you play one of the games from Suda51 and his studio Grasshopper Manufacture, you can’t fail to come away with the impression that he lives and breathes this stuff—the passion for games, players, the culture around…

Let’s Hear It For Really Good Role-Playing Game Battle Music

I’ve got a song stuck in my head that’s somehow not getting old. A colleague recently wrote about a new Mario & Luigi remake, I dusted off an unfinished older Mario & Luigi game, and next thing I know, I’m on the subway and… am I bobbing my head to some boss battle music? Why,…

Super Nintendo Game Names Are Buried In The Switch Online NES App

Switch Online’s NES classics app now has titles and descriptions for 22 Super Nintendo games buried in its code, according to dataminers who have looked at the program. That’s a welcome glimmer of hope for anyone hoping to play Super Mario World on their Switch, but it doesn’t necessarily mean those games will show up…

Bowser Jr. Finally Gets His Due

When Bowser Jr. came onto the scene in 2002’s Super Mario Sunshine, the first words out of his mouth were “Leave my mama alone!” He’d kidnapped Princess Peach because Bowser had told him she was his mother and was trying to stop Mario from rescuing her. After Mario eventually defeated him, Bowser Jr. confessed to…

Bowser’s Inside Story Holds Up Nicely 10 Years Later

Anyone who hasn’t played the original on DS shouldn’t bother at this point. The remake is better-balanced and better-looking, arriving with a fair bit of extra side content as well. For everyone else, it’s worth remembering that you can still play DS games on your 3DS, and unlike 2017’s remake, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga,…

Fans Create Short, Terrific Breath Of The Wild Animation

Since Nintendo hasn’t licensed an official Breath of the Wild animation, it’s up to fans to do the work. This amazing clip was made by Youyang Kong (with help from Qianya Yin), who has some other very cool animations on their YouTube page

Monthly Waves Of NES Games Are Triggering Monthly Complaints About Switch Online

Every time Nintendo posts a YouTube video about its NES games for Switch Online, it gets more thumbs down than thumbs up. Some Switch owners are clearly unhappy with how the paid online service is going so far, but they’re not all in agreement about what it is they’re complaining about. That’ll make it a…

The ridiculously adorable Yoshi’s Crafted World will launch March 29 on Switch, Nintendo said today. This would be a good time to start stocking up on insulin for the impending sugar overload. Also, Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn, an upgraded version of the Wii game for the 3DS, will hit on March 8.

Giant LEGO Mario Is Also A Giant Amiibo

Reader Cody got a nice surprise for Christmas: this enormous Mario, which his mum made out of 6000 Lego bricks. And just so nobody could tell her that her baby boy’s new gift wasn’t practical, Cody went and added a base and chip so that it could function as an Amiibo as well. Actually…swapping that…

Nintendo Officially Shoots Down Bowsette

Here’s the first heartbreak of 2019: Nintendo has officially made Bowsette non-canon. Last year, Nintendo announced that the Switch version of Super Mario Bros. U would feature a new item, the Super Crown, that turns Toadette into a Princess Peach-esque character called Peachette. Fans ran wild with this idea, imagining it on other Mario characters.…

It’s Much More Fun To Play Phantasy Star On Switch

Over my holiday vacation, I played all the way through Phantasy Star, Sega’s classic 1987 Master System role-playing game. I did this by way of playing the new Sega Ages release of the game for Switch—and now that I’m finished, I realize that I’d never have played it any other way. RPGs for 8-bit game…

Top Speedrunner Outlines Perfect Dark‘s Wildest Skips

Rare’s 2000 shooter Perfect Dark is a classic game, building upon Goldeneye 007’s frame to create a more robust shooting experience. Speedrunners are good at finding the cracks in even the best games, and one runner has collected some of the game’s biggest skips and breakthroughs into a video, showing how some of the trickiest…

Iran’s Growing Nintendo Scene Pins Hopes On Smash Ultimate

In the early hours of March 9th, 2018, Amir Badvipour, a university student and admin of the fan-run group Nintendo Iran, watched a new Nintendo Direct on his laptop. His closest gaming friends, all locals of Tehran, Iran, had stayed up to watch as well. With each new reveal and game update they shot messages…

Dragalia Lost Gets Its First (Very Short) Story Update

Having torn through Dragalia Lost’s first six story chapters within a couple weeks of launch, I’ve spent the past few months collecting characters and dragons and participating in regular special events while I waited for the narrative to expand. Well, it expanded. I burned through the new stuff in an hour, and now I wait…