Nintendo

Nintendo’s Unexpected Massively Multiplayer Puzzle-Solving Experiment

Games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Fez and Destiny get a lot of credit for challenging the packs of people who play them to put their heads together to solve puzzles: players share tips online and make message board breakthroughs. Nintendo kids were doing that on the playground a quarter century ago, of course, trying to…

Someone Made A Kendrick Lamar Super Mario Bros. Mash-Up

Made by an Australian Soundcloud user victorylaptop, it’s the lyrics of Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta”, mixed up with the classic 8-bit theme of Super Mario Bros., and it just works perfectly. It’s not a proper mash-up without a pun, so the track is called… Kendrick Lamario Bros. To contact the author of this post, write…

Inside the Nintendo Building Few Outsiders Ever See

Eight years ago, Kotaku reader Daniel sent us a YouTube clip where he waltzes right into Nintendo’s original Kyoto headquarters. Even now, it’s a fascinating peek into a historic building that isn’t open to the general public. Since YouTube took the original clip down because it had a “Stephen Colbert” tag (Daniel used to tag…

Pokémon’s Backstory Might Be Darker Than Most People Realize

The cute monsters are a distraction—there seems to be something much more sinister going on in Pokémon. Hardcore Pokémon fans know this as the “Pokémon War Theory,” which PBS Idea Channel recently outlined in the video above. To understand it, you have to take into consideration a weird quirk of the games: have you ever…

The Sims, In The Style of Pokémon

YouTuber Hat-Loving Gamer has imagined and animated a life simulation game based in the Pokémon world. So, yes, think The Sims meets Pocket Monsters. It has aesthetics of old Game Boy Pokémon games. Too bad we didn’t have this back then! A game with unhappy Pokémon, glitchy tiles and that cool custom UI would have…

Victory was close, but my eternal struggle against nightmare Super Mario Maker level designer Dan Ryckert continues. I’m still angry. If you want to be angry, too, you can try to “play” Spikeshoe Plains (6E3C-0000-008D-C11F).The full archive is here, and I’ll be livestreaming an attempt to finish it later today.

Lost Mario Levels Remade In Super Mario Maker

Super Mario Maker isn’t just for making your own nightmarish creations. It’s also proving useful as a means of preserving (well, recreating then preserving) Nintendo history. In 2002, Nintendo released an accessory for the Game Boy Advance called the e-Reader. A product of what I consider the company’s Golden Age Of Weirdness (GameCube LAN! Four…

World’s Best Smash Bros. Player Makes Awesome Comeback After Almost Burning Out

Last weekend, things didn’t look so great for Smash Bros.’ top player, Gonzalo “Zer0” Barrios. For a moment, it seemed like reigning champ might actually lose a tournament. (I apologize for the auto-playing Twitch embeds below. You might want to scroll down and pause those before reading further.) What you have to understand is, up…

Hero Player Dunks On Mario Maker Troll, Saves All The Yoshi

Killing Yoshi to save your own skin is a time-honored tradition in Mario. Noble players who decide against ruthlessness do exist, though. Those of you who play Mario Maker know about a popular type of level that has the player sacrificing Yoshi to make particularly tricky jumps. Then, in a shitty twist, the levels typically…

The GameCube’s shape is perfect for a unique dual paint job like this. It’s Hyrule and its parallel universe from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by artist Zoki 64 Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest, funniest game-related screenshots and art we can find. Send us suggestions…

Conker’s Bad Fur Day Was Once A Very Different Game

One of the filthiest games released on a Nintendo console was originally going to be just another kiddified 3D platformer. Check out some never-before-seen footage of the game that would become Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Long before Conker became an alcoholic shit-battler, Rare’s squirrel hero was something much more kid-friendly. After a debut as a…

Inside a Pokémon Dream House

Imagine a house that is covered entirely in Pokémon goodies. Wait. Don’t imagine it, watch it on television! This Sunday a new Pocket Monster themed program called Pokémon no Uchi Atsumaru? (or Meet Up at the Pokémon House?) debuts in Japan. As with previous Sunday morning Pokémon shows, this one will introduce new Pokémon news,…

Someone’s Making A Working Copy Of Pokémon Red In Minecraft

Well, this is pretty damn incredible. What you’re looking at above is a screenshot of an ambitious project undertaken by RedditorMagib1, who is using command blocks in Minecraft to rebuild Pokemon Red in its entirety. The result is a working Game Boy of sorts, which is pretty bonkers to think about. “This is meant to…

Pokémon-Themed Game Boy Is A Kanto Region Map

Not every Pokémon-themed handheld has to be covered with Pikachu. This lucky fan-made Game Boy Color for example has the entire region of Kanto painted on its front by Belgian graphic artist Vadu Amka The purpose of this creation was to give the illusion that it’s an old and mysterious artefact found in the ruins.…

Nintendo’s New Text Bot is Kooky

You know that red mushroom guy that hangs around with Mario? Apparently he’s got a little friend. His little friend is nuts. LINE is a free texting app that is freakishly exceedingly popular in Japan. Like Facebook, companies can have official accounts that people can friend for regular updates and bonuses and such. Some such…

New Animal Crossing Amiibo: Blathers & Resetti

Nintendo Japan just announced four new Amiibo. Among them are Blathers and Resetti. Blathers. And Resetti. There’s also Amiibo coming for Kicks and Celeste. They’ll be out in Japan on December 17.

How To Sort Through The Crap And Find Good Mario Maker Courses

Believe it or not, Super Mario Maker has a ton of great courses floating around. Here is the system I used to find these elusive levels. First, I’m going to assume you already hit up our list of “20 courses you should play”—there is a lot of good stuff there that you can check out.…

A Very Special Nintendo Bento

During New Year’s in Japan, people eat special food called osechi ryouri (お節料理). Nintendo is ready to 1up that traditional cuisine with Mario and friends. In the past, Japanese business, including food markets, would completely shut down for New Year’s. People would eat osechi, serving the food in stacked bento boxes, over the course of…

Guy Cries Tears of Joy After Beating Mario Maker’s “Hardest” Level

Thousands of people have tried this grueling Mario Maker level. Only a handful of people have actually beaten it thus far—and they had to go through hell to do it. Here’s what that feels like: This video, uploaded by 広樹 あああ, shows what happened after a Japanese broadcaster beat the infamous “Pit of Panga: P-Break”…

Triforce Heroes sure looks cute, huh? This new trailer gives a sense of how the totem-pole team-up will work in the next portable Legend of Zelda game, which comes out October 23. Contact the author at [email protected]