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If You Missed Last Year’s Detective Game Subsurface Circular, Play It On The Switch
In Subsurface Circular, you ride a subway full of robots going about their daily lives. Your job is to help solve their problems, but there’s a catch: you can’t ever leave your seat. The game came out on PC last August, but, like most things, it’s even better on the Nintendo Switch. Subsurface Circular is…
By Heather Alexandra Published March 1, 2018 -
This Local Two-Player Mode Looks Rather Silly
Handy Mah-jong for Nintendo Switch is a budget-priced download game with a budget-looking local two-player mode. Developed by Imaginative Technology Land, Hand Mah-jong’s official website has a PDF download for TV mode (above). It looks rather imaginative and goofy, but so does the PDF download for the portable mode. Hey, whatever works! Kotaku East is…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 1, 2018 -
Super Mario Odyssey Players Think They’ve Found New Secrets
Super Mario Odyssey’s latest patch added a highly exploitable balloon hunting mini-game to Mario’s to-do list, but it might have brought secrets as well. Dataminers searching through the new patch have found a handful of hidden images that appear to showcase the location of extra Power Moons. Odyssey’s patch 1.2.0 mostly focused on adding a…
By Heather Alexandra Published February 28, 2018 -
Nintendo Adds User Reviews, Immediately Pulls Them [UPDATE]
Late last week, Nintendo began allowing users to post reviews on the Switch’s eShop for certain games, with ratings and comments also appearing under each game’s listing on the Nintendo website. This morning, Nintendo suddenly pulled the feature, and it’s not clear why. The new feature, which was originally brought to people’s attention last Friday…
By Ethan Gach Published February 28, 2018 -
CultureAs Mario Odyssey Patches Change The Game, Speedrunners Scramble To Keep Up
Super Mario Odyssey speedrunners often use glitches to grab tricky power moons or skip through major portions of the game. A new patch implemented alongside the new Luigi’s Balloon World mode last week blocked some of those crucial tricks, slowing any runner who upgraded their game. Now, the community is trying to figure out what…
By Heather Alexandra Published February 27, 2018 -
You Can Finally Play A Long-Lost Donkey Kong Game
An extremely rare, officially-licensed Donkey Kong game has finally been released to the Internet, and now the entire world can experience the bizarre journey of Donkey Kong 3: The Great Counterattack In the early 1980s, Nintendo licensed some of its properties to developer Hudson Soft, which released versions of Nintendo’s arcade and NES games for…
By Chris Kohler Published February 25, 2018 -
Mario Odyssey Players Are Breaking The New Balloon Mode
Growing up, you probably played hide-and-seek, and you probably had one friend who was so good at hiding that it felt like they’d vanished. Well, imagine that they could literally phase through walls in order to win, and you’ll have an idea of how Mario Odyssey players are feeling right now. Mario Odyssey’s new mode,…
By Nathan Grayson Published February 23, 2018 -
“Nintendo Guy” Is Excellent At Accepting Nintendo Awards
At today’s DICE Awards, Nintendo cleaned up. The Kyoto-based game company didn’t send their development teams to the ceremony. Instead, it was up to one man to collect all the trophies. His name is Nintendo Guy. Of course, that’s not his real name (it’s Nate Bihldorff), but tonight, it was. Bihldorff, who works as a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 23, 2018 -
Luigi Will Comment On Your Super Mario Odyssey Outfits
Luigi is finally in Super Mario Odyssey as part of the game’s new Balloon World update which went live today. What strange wind brought him and his balloons to New Donk City is anybody’s guess, but while he’s around he has some thoughts to share about Mario’s clothes. Last fall we wrote about how Bowser…
By Ethan Gach Published February 22, 2018 -
It’s Good To Be A Kirby Fan
Nintendo's voracious pink blob is on the move again
By Stephen Totilo Published February 21, 2018 -
OpinionTactics Game Lets You Possess Hapless Villagers
Ambition of the Slimes is a tactical roleplaying game where the player wrangles an army of vulnerable slimes. By themselves, these cute critters are squishy and easily defeated but they have a trick up their sleeve: they can possess enemy units. Created by altairworks, Ambition of the Slimes offers a quick blast of tactics action…
By Heather Alexandra Published February 21, 2018 -
Mario Is Getting His Own Fancy Encyclopedia
Having had tremendous success withits trio of The Legend of Zelda reference books, Dark Horse Publishing sets its sights on the Mushroom Kingdom, chronicling three decades of Nintendo gaming in the Super Mario Encyclopedia. The Super Mario Encyclopedia is an exhaustive look at nearly every Super Mario game Nintendo’s made, from Super Mario Bros. in…
By Mike Fahey Published February 19, 2018 -
Nintendo Labo Packaging In The Wild
Nintendo Labo display kits are starting to appear in Japanese retail shops. The boxes themselves are good sized, which isn’t that surprising if you’ve seen the cardboard Nintendo Labo sheets. It’s up to you to fold the cardboard, not Nintendo! While the boxes are a decent size, they are not that thick. Kotaku East is…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 19, 2018 -
Esports
The Smash Bros. Community Is Arguing About Bayonetta
One of Super Smash Bros. For Wii U’s more controversial characters is in the spotlight again. Pros and casuals alike are debating whether to ban Bayonetta. The gun-heeled domme star of some pretty good spectacle fighter games, Bayonetta’s presence in Smash has been a sore spot for the competitive Smash community for a while. She…
By Eric Van Allen Published February 17, 2018 -
Bayonetta 2 Is Too Good To Have Stayed Buried On The Wii U
For years, the Wii U exclusive Bayonetta 2 has been like that amazing restaurant that’s tucked away in a depressing mall on the far side of town. It’s fantastic, sure, but it’d be so much better if it were easier to reach. Originally released in 2014 as a Wii U exclusive, Bayonetta 2 outdid its…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 16, 2018 -
CultureSuper Mario Bros. Speedruns Are One Step Closer To Best Possible Time
Super Mario Bros. speedruns are almost as perfect as humanly possible. The swift sprint through the Mushroom Kingdom has only seen incremental gains over the last few years, with runners besting times by fractions of a second. Runs of the game have become so optimized that it seemed impossible to do any better. Last night,…
By Heather Alexandra Published February 16, 2018 -
Xenoblade 2‘s 1.3.0 update has been delayed until March 2. The latest version adds a “New Game Plus” and some other gameplay tweaks as well as new unlocked abilities. It was originally due out this week but was postponed because of some recently discovered bugs.
By Ethan Gach Published February 16, 2018 -
Zelda Fan Breaks Down BOTW’s Most Overpowered Move
Ever heard of Breath of the Wild’s “bow spin”? It’s an advanced technique that helps Link terrorize his enemies, perhaps in ways that Nintendo never intended. Here’s how you do it. The bow spin entered the general public consciousness with RinHara5aki’s phenomenal Zelda video “27 obscure combat secrets and tricks,” which he uploaded at the…
By Patricia Hernandez Published February 15, 2018 -
Nintendo’s stingy video restrictions recently kept us from showing you some of the cool things we got to do with their new Labo games, but now you can see what we played—and more—in some nice hype videos. The Robot Kit still seems thin; the Variety Kit looks very fun. Highlight: Motorbike course-maker stuff at 4:15…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 15, 2018