Nintendo

Switch Is A Port Machine, And I Love It

I’ve been playing a ton of old games on my Switch. If you own one, you probably have too. Now, sure, that is in part because the Switch doesn’t have that many exclusive games. But it’s also because Switch is a fantastic way to catch up on older ones. Today it’s getting Limbo and Inside,…

Nintendo Made Some Labo-Themed Switches, And I Want One Real Bad

Starting next month, Nintendo is running a contest for people to design their own Labo creations, and the prizes include these very nice custom Switch units. Painted in a pale shade of cardboard brown, and with a docking base to match, it’s one of the most unique—and gorgeous—custom consoles I’ve seen from a platform holder…

The Fight Between Switch Hackers And Nintendo Is Ramping Up [UPDATE]

People love their Switches. Some people love them so much they want to break them open and make them do things they’re not supposed to. That means Nintendo has to respond. The back-and-forth between Nintendo and hackers reached fever pitch this week. First, some background: In April, Switch hackers found a way to jailbreak Switch…

Crowdfunded Switch Accessory Lets You Play Handheld Arcade Games The Right Way

The Nintendo Switch is slowly becoming an arcade game player’s best friend. Nintendo’s Arcade Archive collection, alongside a healthy smattering of bullet hell shooters and pinball games, bring classic experiences to the console. That also means playing vertically, which can be a pain in handheld mode. A Kickstarted add-on aims to fix that. The Flip…

Breath of the Wild’s Champions’ Ballad Expansion Is Better After A Long Zelda Break

Like most things with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the game’s Champions’ Ballad expansion did not immediately thrill me. It took some time. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it’s now what I need. The Champions’ Ballad has been available for Breath of the Wild since December, nine months after the main…

Splatoon 2‘s Octo Expansion Is Wrecking Me And I Love It

Splatoon’s campaigns have always been wacky, inventive, but rarely too difficult. They seemed designed to introduce players to the game’s different weapons and mechanics. The newly released Octo Expansion for Splatoon 2 isn’t about warm welcomes. It’s about mastering all that Splatoon can throw at you and then some. The setup of the Octo Expansion…

Nintendo And Microsoft Are Rubbing Sony’s Face In It

We’re conditioned to expect console manufacturers to be bitter rivals, constantly at each other’s throats in a battle for market supremacy. But sometimes, the enemy of an enemy can be a friend. We got a reminder during E3 that the PS4, unlike most other platforms on Earth, does not support crossplay between consoles. That means…

I Don’t Know If Nintendo Won E3, But They Are Winning June

The traditional way to view game companies when it’s E3 season is to look at what they announce for the future. In that regard, Nintendo had a so-so E3. During its pre-recorded presentation, Nintendo announced relatively few games, most of them safe sequels and a line-up for the remainder of the year that’s a little…

Nintendo’s Two-Switch Combo Is A Neat Digital Magic Trick

At an E3 where Nintendo and its partners largely played it safe with big Smash Bros. and Pokémon sequels, the company tucked a clever new Switch development in a trailer for a new Mario Party. Blink and you’d miss it: the sight of two Nintendo Switch screens connected into one oddly-shaped game board. On the…

Splatoon 2 Producer Explains Nintendo’s Approach To Deleting Shitposts

Splatoon 2’s face is all inky rainbows and cutesy cephalopods. It would be an adorable, idyllic wonderland, if not for the fact that controlling all of those snuggable urchins are real-life humans, who are often bad. If you’ve tromped around Splatoon 2 for more than a few hours, you might have stumbled upon a few…

Nintendo Switch RPG Octopath Traveler Won’t Have DLC Because It’s ‘A Finished Product’

Octopath Traveler, the Nintendo Switch exclusive from the team behind Bravely Default, will not have any DLC. Why? Because it’s already a complete game, says Square Enix. In an interview with Dengeki Online, Square Enix producer Masashi Takahashi said that it should take about fifty to sixty hours to complete the main story. “It took…

Every Super Mario Odyssey Transformation, Ranked

The core innovation of Super Mario Odyssey is Mario’s companion, Cappy. Cappy is a hat that can magically possess everything from non-living objects to living characters. Toss Cappy at an enemy, and the enemy will sprout a Mario moustache and a signature red hat. Mario gains full control over the creature’s movements and abilities. There…

How Yoshi’s Island Got Its Beautiful, Hand-Drawn Look

Prior to her interview at E3 this week with Splatoon 2 producer Hisashi Nogami, Kotaku’s Cecilia D’Anastasio asked me if there was anything I wanted to know. “Yeah,” I said. “Ask how Yoshi’s Island got its hand-drawn style.” Nogami, you see, was credited as a character designer on that legendary 1995 Super Nintendo game, which…

Poor Waluigi, Nintendo Is So Cruel

It’s early Friday morning. E3 is over. Yet, I still cannot stop thinking about how Nintendo treats Waluigi. Super Smash Bros. Ultimatewas announced with the tagline “Everyone Is Here.” Kotaku previously posted how the internet reacted, but the one that continues to linger is how Waluigi has been wronged. Again. Now, Waluigi is in the…

Podcast: Let’s Talk About Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Did you know Nintendo just unveiled a new Smash Bros. game for Switch, and that it features every fighter in the history of the series? You say you did know that? Oh, okay. At E3 in Los Angeles, my colleague Jason Schreier sat down with Kotaku senior reporter (and Smash expert) Cecilia D’Anastasio to talk…

Two Long-Lost Nintendo Arcade Games Are Heading To Switch

Nintendo kicked off the final day of Treehouse Live with a huge announcement for fans of its classic games: Two arcade games that have never been officially released on home consoles are coming to Switch’s Arcade Archives: the original Donkey Kong, which is available now, and Sky Skipper, coming in July. Donkey Kong is a…

Ubisoft’s Starlink Is Surprisingly Cool, With Or Without Star Fox

Starlink: Battle For Atlas isn’t a Star Fox game. Nintendo’s furry pilot and his famous Arwing fighter are in the Switch version and—I hope you’re sitting down—not in the Xbox One and PS4 versions. It’s not even fully a toys game, a la Skylanders or Disney Infinity, because it turns out you don’t even need…

PS4 Fortnite Accounts Are Blocked On The Nintendo Switch

Fortnite players who had an Epic account on PS4 and have tried to play the new Nintendo Switch version of the game are reporting that they’ve run into a problem: they’re not allowed to use the same account. That’s right, if you have played the game on PlayStation 4—even just once—that’s enough to have got…

Some More Characters We’d Like To See In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

So,Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is going to feature every fighter to ever appear in Nintendo’s fighting game series. That’s fine, but it’s not enough. There could be, and should be, even more fighters. After all, why go back in time to rehash old favourites when there’s a whole world out there of characters who have…

Splatoon 2‘s Octo Expansion DLC will be available tomorrow evening, June 13, Nintendo said at E3 today. The expansion lets you play as an Octoling in multiplayer, but first, you have to make your way through a series of tricky single-player challenge levels. It’s $19.99.