Nintendo

10 Things You Should Know About Bravely Default

If you’ve got a hankering for some medieval RPG action, you’re in luck—in just a bit over a week, North America will finally get to play Bravely Default, which comes out for the 3DS on February 7. I’ve played 16 hours of Square’s newest role-playing game, on a review copy provided by Nintendo, who published…

Let’s Compare Old Video Game Scenes With Their Movie Counterparts

Copying scenes from movies, and putting their 8-bit replicas into their licensed video games was a bit of thing back in the NES era. NYC-based artist Brother Brain started a series where he compares these particular scenes using animated GIFs. The top one is Predator on the NES. And here’s Kevin from Home Alone, and…

Nintendo Boss Is Taking a Huge Pay Cut (Because of the Wii U)

The Wii U isn’t doing as well as Nintendo had hoped. Someone must take responsibility! That someone is Nintendo president Satoru Iwata—as well as other Nintendo execs. According to Nikkei, Iwata is having his pay cut in half due to Nintendo’s poor performance. Other company directors will get pay cuts between 20 and 30 percent.…

The sub-boss battle music from Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is some of the most hilariously over-the-top JRPG battle music I’ve ever heard. From 1:50 to the loop-around, it’s… it’s like composer Revo built a giant robot out of DragonForce members, gave it a Red Bull and told it to perform three lead guitar parts at…

See How Powerful Your Pokémon Are In X & Y

Not all Pokémon are made equal—one Magikarp may kick way more butt than other Magikarp, even if they’re the exact same level. That’s because every Pokémon has hidden stats called “IVs” attached to things like their “attack” and “speed”—and there’s a way to tell what these values are in-game. Pokémon X & Y have been…

The Super Bowl Ends With a Safety, Says Tecmo Super Bowl

Yesterday Madden NFL 25 gave its prediction for Super Bowl Ex El Vee Eye Eye Eye, handing it to Denver, 31-28, on a field goal in overtime. Today, the guys keeping alive 1991’s Tecmo Super Bowl offered their own version of events: another OT game, with Denver winning on a goddamn safety You can see…

Nintendo Denies Smartphone Game Rumors

Yesterday, a report from Japan’s Nikkei newspaper asserted that Nintendo would be putting trailers, promotional info and mini-games about upcoming releases on smartphones. Now, a statement from Nintendo says that they won’t exactly be doing that. Engadget has a full statement from the House of Mario that shoots down the rumor that made the rounds…

Watch Kirby Suck Like He Has Never Sucked Before

The coolest thing about Kirby has always been his ability to suck in his enemies and absorb their powers. And the newest game in the series, Kirby: Triple Deluxe, definitely has plenty of that. In Triple Deluxe Kirby now has five new copy abilities: sniper, beetle, circus, bell, and, my personal favorite, hypernova. And that’s…

Report: Nintendo Will Be Releasing ‘Free Mini-Games’ On Phones

This year looks to be Nintendo’s toughest. Nintendo, however, is looking to change that. Respected Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that within this year, Nintendo apparently plans to use smartphones to win back gamers. Well, kind of. According to an unconfirmed Nikkei report, Nintendo plans to release trailers for new games on smartphones (presumably Android and…

23 More Illuminating Hours With Assassin’s Creed IV

When a new year starts, I go back and finish the previous year’s Assassin’s Creed. I spent early 2013 rediscovering AC III. I’ve rung in 2014 by playing 23 more hours of Assassin’s Creed IV. I have some more thoughts about this one… Actually, first, I have a lot of videos to show you! These…

Mario Gets Angry, Goes on a Rampage Across Gaming History

Seeing poor Mario like this, as an angry anti-hero, going against other famous video game protagonists, is a really weird concept. Sebastian von Buchwald, an artist on DeviantART created a pretty big gallery around this idea, featuring some rather unconventional fights. So here’s a really upset Mario, and video game characters from all points of…

It appears Retro City Rampage is headed to the Nintendo 3DS, possibly next month, according to the game’s creator, who says the game’s missions and minigames have been reworked to fit the 3DS. A release date should be announced this week.

The Week in Games: Raider of a Lost Month

We’re about to climb out of the customary two-month hibernation video games enter every December. An updated Tomb Raider releases for the newest consoles on Tuesday, along with Broken Age for everyone. There’s much more on the horizon. Jan. 28: Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z (360, PS3, PS Vita) Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Xbox…

Monster Hunter 4G will be released in the west as Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Save data from Monster Hunter 4 will be transferrable to the new game. It will release in Japan this fall and in the west in 2015.

Luigi’s Mansion recreated in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. By Rae Broom of StreetPass Princeton. Her town’s Dream Address is 7300-3355-9805.

That ugly looking Nintendo World Championships cartridge for sale on eBay has been bid up to more than $99,000 over the past two days. The auction closes in two hours.

New trailer: Yoshi’s New Island. The game launches March 14 on the 3DS.

The Water Temple Doesn’t Seem Difficult In These Ocarina of Time Maps

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the favorite of many, and a classic like this deserves maps with similar qualities. Peardian, a veteran user of VGMaps, decided to map the whole game in an amazing-looking isometric view. According to VGMaps, he had to render the maps twice, both from top and side view,…

The One Feature All Modern JRPGs Should Have

There is perhaps no feature more reviled in gaming than the one this column is named after: gamers, as a general rule, hate random encounters. Take Stephen Totilo, for example. The other day I was showing Kotaku‘s fearless leader a little bit of Bravely Default, the upcoming 3DS game that is best described as “what…

GameStop Wii U Pre-Order Cancellation An Error, Game Still Coming

[UPDATE 2, 2:58PM:] Good news, everyone! GameStop Italy and our U.S.-based source have both said that this was all a glitch in the system and that Watch Dogs is—or will soon be—available for pre-order for Wii U again in Italy and the U.S. Apologies for making everyone nervous about this and for not getting that…