Nintendo

The Dark Side Of Nintendo’s Miiverse

Miiverse, Nintendo’s social network, is a pretty kid friendly place…most of the time. The Miiverse is a social network that you can post to from a Nintendo Wii U or 3Ds. It’s designed like any other social network—users can post little notes, game tips, or drawings that will be seen by players around the world,…

Splatoon Players Are Obsessed With Spongebob Squarepants

Are you feeling it now, Mr. Krabs? As those of you playing Splatoon know, every time you boot up the game, you are spawned in a plaza called Inkopolis. It resembles real-life Shibuya Crossing a little bit: Here, players have access to Splatoon’s many shops and modes. What makes Inkopolis cool is that it’s populated…

Splatoon Doesn’t Assume You Want To Be A Boy

When you boot up Splatoon for the first time, this is what you see. Girl? Boy? The game doesn’t pick one for you, which is different than how most games approach this decision. Most video games, even ones that allow players to swap genders and customize your character, choose male/boy/guy as the default. When you…

Surprise! Here’s A Bunch Of Nintendo News

Sometimes, Nintendo just randomly throws up a “Nintendo Direct Micro” and announces a bunch of new 3DS games for North America, including Bravely Second, Dr. Mario, and Chibi-Robo. Because Nintendo likes surprises. In the 17-minute video, hosted by Bill Trinen and published out of nowhere this morning, Nintendo announced Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash (for 3DS this…

Rumor: Nintendo’s Next Console Will Use Android

Current Nintendo hardware uses the company’s own proprietary operating systems. But according to Nikkei, one of Japan’s largest newspapers, that will soon change. One insider tells the paper that the NX will supposedly be built around the Android OS. The NXis Nintendo’s codename for its upcoming console. We don’t know much about the NX, other…

Another Gorgeous Animal Crossing 3DS

To this day, my favourite 3DS design is the Animal Crossing one. That place in my heart is being challenged today, however, by a new Animal Crossing 3DS design. This one’s a 3DS XL, and is being released to tie-in with the upcoming Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, a version of the game which lets…

New Fire Emblem Has Private Castles, Sexy Bathhouses

There was a new trailer for Fire Emblem if this morning, and it ran for nearly ten minutes. Nearly that entire time was spent showing players that they’ll now have their own castle, which they can expand, explore and hang out in between missions. You can also build a bathhouse. If you’ve played enough JRPGs,…

Our first look at Bandai Namco’s Project Treasure, a free-to-play four-player third-person adventure game for the Wii U. Shown during this morning’s Japanese Nintendo Direct, it looks to be some sort of supernatural treasure hunting game with four-player co-op. Expect more info later in the summer.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Bowser’s Big Interview: Winners!

When Nintendo of Americahired Doug Bowser to be its new VP of sales, the world had one question—how did he dress for the interview? Question answered. The question was answered in many different ways, some silly, some sexy and some a little of both. Cartoonivore’s ‘shop this week was almost too subtle—it took me a…

Chibi-Robo! Returns, Bringing An Adorable Amiibo With Him

This morning’s Japanese Nintendo Direct revealed a new side-scrolling platformer Chibi-Robo! game, along with a super-empowering Amiibo companion. Guru-Guru! Chibi-Robo! (I’m guessing that’s Go-Go Chibi-Robo!) looks like it takes everyone’s favorite helper robot and transforms him into a more practical sort of Bionic Commando, using his plug and cord as a grappling hook, as you…

And Now, Some Splatoon Fan Art

Splatoon was just released in Japan! Loads of people are tweeting about how much fun the game is or how excited they are to get it. And those who aren’t talking are showing their affection with art. Fan art. Via Twitter, here is some (certainly not all!) of the best Splatoon fan art to come…

After 55 Hours of Xenoblade X, I Finally Got My Mecha

Then I promptly broke it. In a lot of ways, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a bit of a slog. Main story quests are few and far between—and you’ll need to level up before attempting each one. So when you’re not aimlessly exploring (which, don’t get me wrong, is by far the most enjoyable part of…

Splatoon: The Kotaku Review

Every year, some new game claims to have revolutionized the art of shooting people in the face. Most of the time, it doesn’t feel true. With Splatoon, it does. Splatoon is fresh. Splatoon is exciting. Splatoon makes me forget that I ever had shooter fatigue in the first place, something that I haven’t felt since…

Winning By A Nose, Mario Kart Edition

“It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile,” Dominic Toretto famously said at the beginning of The Fast and the Furious, “Winning’s winning.” Well let me ask you this, Dom: have you ever played Mario Kart? Just look at that finish line! Those two Miis were literally racing neck and neck.…

Truck Full Of Nintendo Games, Amiibo Stolen

A ton of Nintendo fans in the UK have been left without the games they pre-ordered after a truck full of copies of Splatoon (and related Splatoon Amiibo) was stolen. The theft of the truck, lifted on its way from Nintendo’s European warehouse to British chain GAME, means that anyone who pre-ordered Splatoon’s Special Edition…

The Nintendo 3DS gets a new color in Japan: Pearl White. It goes on sale on June 11. No word yet on an international release.

Nobody Is As Good As Nintendo At Making Cute Games

Nintendo’s greatest skill will always be game design. Whatever else you might think about Nintendo games, their design is often exquisite, relying on elegant visual and gameplay cues and your natural curiosity to guide you rather than tutorial prompts and objective markers. People who’ve grown up with Nintendo are fluent in the language of this…

The Times Mario Wasn’t a Nintendo Exclusive

When you think of Mario, you think of Nintendo. The two are linked so firmly in your mind it’s almost impossible to think that the beloved character’s games ever showed up on other systems. But it has happened—and more than once. Donkey Kong (1981-1988) The first Mario game (though he was only known as “Jumpman”…

The Dream Nintendo Game That Was Never Released

Shigesato Itoi (Mother), Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario, Zelda) and Tsunekazu Ishihara (Pokemon), all working on the same game? We should have known it would be too good to be true. In 1997, Nintendo announced a game called Cabbage. It sounded weird (by 1997 standards, anyway), was headed for a weird console and had a (presumably working)…

Game Boy XXL Is A Handheld For Giants

Earlier this year, reader Ilhan Ünal got started building his own Game Boy, which he only recently completed. It’s…a little bigger than Nintendo’s original version. Named the Game Boy XXL, Ünal’s handheld is more of a deskheld. It’s running off a Raspberry Pi, with an old 19” computer monitor acting as the screen, and was…