Nintendo

Look At Squirtle’s Little Raincoat

Build-A-Bear is killing it with their Pokémon line. Available this week as a special online exclusive, the $60 Squirtle set includes a plush water Pokémon capable of making six different Squirtle sounds. Along with a very fetching rain slicker, Squirtle can also wear its Ultra Ball Hoodie and comes with an exclusive trading card. Sadly…

Game Freak Is More Than Just A Pokémon Developer

The studio is always experimenting with new projects

Nintendo Switch’s Online Service Will Be $20/Year, Includes Classic Games [UPDATE]

Nintendo Switch’s online service will cost $20/year and will launch at some point in 2018, the publisher said today. Playing Switch games online will be free until the service launches. You can also get a one-month subscription for $4 and a three-month subscription for $8. As Nintendo previously said, voice chat and online lobby features…

Breath of the Wild Helped Me Beat The Legend of Zelda’s Second Quest

My childhood friends thought the original The Legend of Zelda for the NES was easy: just gather the eight triforces and defeat Ganon. I had a hard time just finding the second labyrinth. I eventually learned that my trek through Hyrule at the age of seven was actually the Second Quest, a remixed journey with…

Splatoon 2 Voice Chat Set-Up Looks Totally Bonkers

If you are planning on using voice chat for Splatoon 2, here’s an official headset with an officially nutso set up. As Kotaku reported earlier this year, Splatoon 2 voice chat will be in the form of an app through your phone. If you’ve been wondering what exactly that will look like, we now know…

Watch (Part Of) A Mario Anime That’s Been Lost For Almost 20 Years

While most of Mario’s adventures through 1980s animation have been preserved on YouTube, not everything has managed to find its way online. Like 1989’s Super Mario Traffic Safety, which for the first time we’re now able to watch (well, at least some of it). Produced by Toei as an instructional safety video for Japanese schoolkids,…

Nintendo Switch Survives 1,000 Foot Drop

Nintendo products are primarily known for two things: functioning as portals to wonderlands of whimsy, and being so durable that they can survive being hit by trucks, or more dangerously, children. The Switch is a worthy heir to that legacy. Thin, glossy, and fragile as it looks, Nintendo’s console/portable hybrid is a damn brick. UnlockRiver…

The Weirdness Of Fire Emblem Heroes‘ Bride Class

While Fire Emblem has had “Brides” for years now, their recent inclusion in a seasonal Heroes event makes the label “waifu simulator” feel less like a joke and more of a staple of the series’ identity. I’ve learned to love the sillier side of Fire Emblem Heroes and the franchise as a whole. A funny…

Fire Emblem Echoes‘ DLC Removes All The Challenge

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia normally provides a solid challenge, but the latest downloadable content might make the game too easy. There’s a lot of DLC available for Fire Emblem Echoes, enough that Nintendo’s charging a very steep $44.99 for a season pass. While future content includes prologue chapters that tell the story of…

Arms Players: Motion Controls Or Standard Controls?

Over the weekend a bunch of people had their first chance to play Arms, Nintendo’s upcoming rubber-band boxing game. If you played one of the hour-long “testpunch” betas, I have one question for you: motion controls, or nah? Arms can be played by detaching the Switch Joy-Con and moving them through the air: push them…

Some Thoughts On Arms After Playing This Weekend’s Open Beta

Arms is hard to pin down, both literally and figuratively. While this weekend’s global testfires offered a good introduction to the house of whimsical party combat Nintendo is trying to build, a quick stroll around inside left me wondering, Peggy Lee-style, if that’s all there is. Across the roughly three to four hours I spent…

Fire Emblem Heroes Adds Wedding Costumes

These are the latest heroes to be added to the game starting May 30. The spring event came with bunny costumes, so naturally a series of special characters sporting bridal gowns was the next logical step. The latest trailer for Nintendo’s mobile slot machine shows off old characters all dolled up for the big “I…

Monster Hunter XX Getting Special Switch Hardware In Japan 

To mark Monster Hunter XX’s Switch version, Capcom is releasing a special MH emblazoned Switch. The whole Switch isn’t covered in Monster Hunter—just the Switch dock. But for most fans, that should be enough! Guess so, because it’s already sold out on Capcom’s online shop. This hardware bundle also comes with a copy of the…

Curious to see what upcoming Nintendo punch-a-thon ARMS looks like? We played the first hour of the live ‘test-punch’ today on Twitch. You can watch the archived stream down below.

Zelda Player Builds Ridiculous Metal Block Contraption To Get NPC To Hyrule Castle

When going on a date in Hyrule, location is everything. One player decided to take the timid priestess Paya to his favorite location in the game: Hyrule Castle. After all, nothing’s more romantic than Ganon’s evil lair. Reddit user BOOXMOWO had spent countless hours drawing enemies and friendly character far away from their designated locations…

The Hori fighting stick for the Nintendo Switch has a release date for Japan: It will be out this July and is priced at 14,980 yen (US$135). No word yet on an international release. 

Nintendo Bans A Bunch Of Hacked 3DSes

This week, 3DS hacking communities are clamoring over a so-called “ban wave” that permanently knocks systems offline. On forums like GBA Temp, Reddit, and 4chan, there are dozens of pages where people are trying to figure out if their systems have been banned. According to online reports, users hit by the ban hammer are seeing…

Blindfolded Speedrunner Beats Super Mario World In Under Fourteen Minutes

Clearing Super Mario World in just over thirteen and a half minutes is a stellar achievement no matter what. One speedrunner took it to the next level by achieving that time while wearing a blindfold. Katun24 is a speedrunner known for titles like Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. While…

Whoa, Your Pokémon Can Die In The New Magikarp Game

Magikarp Jump, a game about raising Pokémon’s most useless monster, is out today for iOS and Android. It is just as much a game about training Magikarp as it is a game about losing your Magikarp in horrible ways. I have been playing the game for about two hours, and I am terrified about making…

Burnt-Out Smash Pros Are Talking About Unionizing

Earlier this week, Smash 4’s top player admitted he was overwhelmed: “We really need an off season,” Gonzalo “Zero” Barrios wrote on Twitter. “Committed players are traveling the whole year [with] no breaks.” The conversation snowballed. Fans, tournament organizers and fellow players noted that, to organize an off season, the anarchic Smash 4 community would…