Nintendo

It’s Pokémon Rumble U day in the Nintendo Download. They might not be the Pokémon you’ve been waiting for, but they’ll do in a pinch. Don’t forget to hit up GameStop for the near-field communication toys. And hey, is that the entire Bit.Trip Saga on 3DS for $5? SOLD! And that’s pretty much it for…

Super Smash Bros. Creator Believes in the Oculus Rift

In his weekly column in this week’s Weekly Famitsu, Super Smash Bros creator Masahiro Sakurai wrote about the changing forms of media technology. In particular, the article talked of the release of new digital readers and the advance to digital media from paper media. One upcoming tech in particular that Sakurai predicted would be a…

Online in Japan, the Nintendo 2DS Baffles Many

Yesterday, Nintendo of America revealed a new handheld: the Nintendo 2DS. Kotaku checked it out and chronicledthe reaction in the West. But what about the reaction in Nintendo’s home turf of Japan? Not… good. On 2ch, Japan’s largest web forum, the reaction was rough. At first, many 2ch commenters thought the announcement was a prank.…

Let’s Help Nintendo Choose Next Year’s “Year Of ” Star

The best thing about 2013 is that it’s the Year of Luigi. So it’s going to suck when 2014 comes around and it’s not the Year of Luigi anymore. Unless… …unless we can keep the good times rolling and make 2014 the Year of Blathers. Or the Year of Birdo. Or the Year of Any…

The Internet Reacts To The 2DS Reveal

Think what you will of the recently-unveiled Nintendo 2DS, but at the very least we can’t say that it’s a hardware reveal that went unnoticed—Nintendo’s curiously-designed budget handheld started getting reactions from the internet almost immediately. Even just the headlines announcing the handheld anticipated bafflement or reacted to the console—we wrote that the 2DS name…

Nintendo 2DS vs. 3DS: A Direct Comparison

Wondering how Nintendo’s newest piece of portable hardware stacks up to their older pieces of portable hardware? Via Nintendo of Europe, here’sa nifty little chart to show you all of the differences between the company’s three different 3DS models. Yes, the 2DS is a 3DS model. If you find that confusing, well, you’re not alone.

Top Smash Bros. Fan Sites Knocked Offline, Hackers Blamed

Having a single website go down isn’t so unusual. But in this case, bizarrely, the Smash Bros community has allegedly become a target for multiple distributed denial of service attacks (which disable a website’s server with high traffic). Meaning, we’re not just dealing with one downed website. We’re dealing with multiple out of commission websites.…

New Zelda For 3DS Gets Handsome Boxart With Intriguing Icon

Here’s the excellent box art for November 22’s Nintendo 3DS (and 2DS—wow that feels weird) game The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Hey, listen! What’s that orange icon in the top right corner? Why, that’s the logo for the Nintendo Network, which indicates that a game might have online multiplayer or support DLC.…

Introducing… The Nintendo 2DS. No, That’s Not a Typo.

Nintendo will be launching a new portable gaming system in October. It’s called the Nintendo 2DS. It’s a 3DS without the 3D, and it’s shaped like a thin piece of cake. “This is an entry-level handheld gaming system,” Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told Kotaku earlier this week when we got our hands on…

Wii U Price Drops $50 Effective September 20

Nintendo’s home console can be yours for just $299.99 starting September 20, the house of Mario announced today. That’s a $50 price cut for a console that’s about to get a steady flow of Nintendo-made games but that’s been struggling to sell at even half the pace of its predecessor. The Wii U will sell…

Wind Waker HD Releasing Early, If You’re Willing To Download It

The Wii U remake of the the GameCube’s Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker will be available two weeks earlier than initially announced by Nintendo, but only if you download it to the console. The download will be available on September 20. The disc version remains slated for an October 4 release. The digital-first promotion is…

Nintendo Doles Out Release Dates, Changes For Big Holiday Games

Mario and Donkey Kong are flipping release dates for Wii U this fall for what will be a Nintendo console and handheld line-up stacked with big Nintendo franchise sequels. Nintendo gamers, these are the major Nintendo game releases to choose from and, with few exceptions, the biggest games of the season for Wii U and…

What Can You Do with a Broken Nintendo DS?

You can play Game Boy Advance games, that’s what! Who needs dual screens? Who? While the Nintendo DS and DS Lite have GBA slots, the Nintendo DSi, released in 2008, does not. こいつのDSレベル高い [Twitter] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft Kotaku East is your slice…

How A Basically Blind Girl Can Play Nintendo Games

Jennifer Powers suffered an anoxic brain injury at birth, and as a result she’s practically blind, unable to “focus within a few inches of her face, even with very thick glasses”. That should rule her out of playing regular video games, but nope, luckily, she’s found a way to get her game on. As her…

Five Life Lessons I’ve Learned From Pokémon

I’ve grown up — rather fondly, I might add — with Pokémon. Over the years the several different hundreds of pocket monsters have become my dear friends. Simply settling into a new game (like I’ve recently done with Black) is a comfort to me. In a tumultuous, changing world, I find solace in the fact…

How Do We Feel About A Portable 3D Sonic Game? Watch This.

It’s been clear at least since the Dreamcast era, if not further back, that Sonic the Hedgehog’s console games were going to be in 3D. If you wanted old-school 2D Sonic, you went to the handhelds. Well, now the next Sonic game on handhelds is 3D, too. Is this a bad thing? Maybe not! To…

Link might need another one of those bombs to defeat this Dodongo, a classic enemy from The Legend of Zelda games. It’s hard to tell who’s scarier in digital artist Jason Custer‘s poster: Link with his bomb or the funky-looking reptilian. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest,funniest…

American Developers Comment on Japanese Video Games’ Weaknesses

Back in the 1980s and 90s, if you played arcade games or console games, you played Japanese games. Lots of them. But maybe things have changed. Why? At a recently held game developers’ convention in Japan, Kento Kojima, a lead animator at 2K Games, gave a presentation on things he has learned working for an…

Street Fighter II For The Virtual Boy Exists, Looks Amazing

And you thought the Virtual Boy was only good for tennis and tired failed hardware jokes. Coder Mr. Anon has somehow modified a homebrew fighting game engine to bring a bootleg version of Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting Edition to Nintendo’s ancient novelty “handheld”. This shouldn’t exist. And yet. It does. If you’ve got the…

Hideo Kojima Keeps It Short And Sweet For His 50th Birthday

All-star game designer Hideo Kojima turned 50 on Saturday, so consider this a belated happy birthday to the Metal Gear mastermind and your opportunity to wish him a happy 50th. What did the man himself have to say about 50? Not a ton. He tweeted this early Monday morning in what was either a delayed…