Nintendo

Little Girl Finally Gets To Play Mario Kart 8 Thanks To Smart Steering

If you’ve been playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch this weekend, you might have noticed that the game has something called Smart Steering turned on by default. While most players have started the game by turning it off, the feature was a welcome addition for Molly, a four-year-old who suffered a stroke…

The Accidental Origins Of Kirby

25 years ago this week, the pink puff ball made his Japanese debuted in Kirby’s Dream Land for the Game Boy. But the game’s titular character was originally just a placeholder. One of Nintendo’s most iconic characters almost didn’t get created, at least not in the form we’ve come to know and love. Kirby started…

Nintendo Finally Says Goodbye To 3D

Few video game systems have had as strange a journey as Nintendo’s 3DS. The spunky portable console flopped, got a massive price cut, gradually built up a spectacular library of games, and received several bizarre (and confusing) hardware models throughout its six years on store shelves. And now, it’s ditching its biggest selling point. Farewell,…

The World of Pokémon Fan Games Has Become A Minefield

Some of the people who make Pokémon fan games are scared, if not a bit angry. They’ve been crafting amazing Pokémon games that rival the official releases for a decade, dodging lawsuits and relying on increasingly dated tools. It’s never been easy, but it’s also never been as stressful as it is today. Pokémon fan…

Try Not To Be So Greedy, Fire Emblem Heroes

This week, Fire Emblem Heroes added characters from the popular title Path of Radiance. But an additional banner with top tier characters raise the question: why don’t you slow the hell down? Fire Emblem Heroes is a mobile take on the popular strategy game series. I’m a big fan but it’s not perfect. The most…

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: The Kotaku Review

Mario Kart 8 is an excellent game. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is even better. Normally in a situation where a game we’ve reviewed in the past gets an updated version on a new console, we’d simply republish the original review with some notes on any significant differences. The Mario Kart 8 situation is a little…

The First Special Edition Nintendo 2DS XL Is Beautiful 

The 2DS XL was just revealed. But that isn’t stopping Nintendo from announcing the new iteration’s first special edition: a Dragon Quest Metallic Slime 2DS. Just look at it! So lovely. Priced at 22,480 yen (US$201), the handheld comes bundled with Dragon Quest XI and will be released on July 29 in Japan. No word…

Some interesting nuggets from Nintendo’s financial presentation this evening: 1) the company has somehow shipped nearly a million copies of 1-2 Switch; 2) the 3DS has hit a total of 63 million sales; and 3) Nintendo won’t be holding a big E3 press conference this year, which isn’t a surprise. The company hasn’t had a live…

Nintendo Announces The New 2DS XL

Just because the Switch can go places doesn’t mean Nintendo is done announcing mobile hardware. Meet the New 2DS XL. It’ll be out in July 28 (the same day as Hey Pikmin and Miitopia) in the US and will retail for $150. And it looks…really nice. If this is how the 3DS line goes out,…

Pokémon Player Uses ‘Explosion’ On Veteran Competitor, Leaving Him Speechless

Pokémon Sun and Moon’s online Battle Spot ladder is full of wild teams. Since all games are best-of-one (unlike live tournaments, which are best-of-three), many players bring gimmicks to steal the win in unexpected ways. Even the best competitive player can be caught off guard, because they never know what to expect. Take this episode…

Zelda Players Have Found Wild Ways To Break Breath Of The Wild’s Shrines

When most people enter a Zelda shrine, they try to solve the puzzles. Sometimes a shrine will accept multiple solutions, allowing players to get creative. Some fans, however, have figured out ways to bend and break shrines in ways that Nintendo probably never anticipated. By now you’ve probably seen GIFs or videos of “shrine skips,”…

According to The Wall Street Journal, when asked if there will be a mini SNES like the NES Classic, Nintendo top brass said there was nothing to talk about now.

Nintendo Has Sold 2.74 Million Switch Consoles 

Wondering how the Switch is doing around the world? What about the new Zelda? Nintendo announced their global sales figures in a newly released financial statement. In Japan, Nintendo sold 600,000 Switch units between March 3, when the hardware launched, and March 31, when the financial quarter ended. In the Americas, during that same period,…

Nintendo Game And Hardware Designer Genyo Takeda Is Retiring 

Genyo Takeda has worked on some of Nintendo’s most iconic games, consoles, and tech. As of this June, the 68 year-old is stepping down. Hired in 1971 by future Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi, Takeda cut his teeth working on a gun game that nearly broke the company. However, he would go on to produce…

You Don’t Have To Eat McDonald’s To Get Super Mario Happy Meal Toys

McDonald’s employees across the country have begun stuffing the latest series of small Mario-themed pieces of plastic into smiling cardboard grease boxes. New Super Mario Happy Meal toys don’t mean you have to eat the food they come with. There are other ways. Have children: No matter how good your intentions are towards your children’s…

Emulator Helps Open Zelda’s Impossible Treasure Chest

As we’ve seen, you can play Breath of the Wild on a PC using an emulator. It’s not exactly optimal, but there’s a tiny bright side to the struggle: you can open a busted treasure chest that on both Switch and Wii U is inaccessible. Because it’s half-buried and underwater, in retail copies of the…

Competitive Pokémon Player Brings Good Luck Pineapple To Tournament, Takes First Place

When it comes to competitive Pokémon, many players have good luck charms. A lot of the time, that means tournament tables are crowded with plushies. But for Ashton Cox, as he won the first Latin American International Championship last weekend, it was a pineapple. Cox tweeted that the day before the tournament in what has…

The Last Splatfest Actually Influenced Splatoon 2’s Story, Holy Shit

During the final “Splatfest,” an event where Splatoon players are divided into global teams, most of us believed we were just voting for the best waifu. Turns out, we were helping decide the future of Splatoon’s lore without knowing it. Yesterday night, the official Splatoon site uploaded a “Prologue” page for something called “Squid Sister…

Breath Of The Wild’s Best Rewards Aren’t Always ‘Useful’

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild does not dole out rewards predictably. Often you’ll spend an afternoon figuring out some elaborate puzzle, only to walk away with some rupees or a weapon you didn’t need. Other times the reward will be just as “useless,” but more special than any pile of loot could…

Solving The Mystery Of Perfect Dark’s Hidden Passwords

The 2000 Nintendo 64 game Perfect Dark was full of secrets. There were cheat codes to find, hidden pieces of cheese scattered around levels, and special modes to unlock. One mystery remains, nearly two decades later, with only a few hidden passwords hinting at its existence. Unfortunately, even the game’s developers were not able to…