Nintendo

Fake Smash Bros. Character Screens Flood The Internet

For me, probably the funniest thing during last week’s E3 was the reveal trailer of Smash Bros. for the Wii U and all the hilarity that followed. The internet picked up that poor villager character from Animal Crossing quickly, which was followed by crazy fictional character intro screens that have taken on a life of…

What Will It Take to Get EA on the Wii U Again? ‘Sell More Boxes.’

The most glaring indictment of the Wii U’s poor performance to date is the fact that FIFA—one of the biggest-selling franchises worldwide, in any genre—is publishing for everything but Wii U. FIFA 14 will come out on the PSP. It will publish on the original Wii. There’ll be a version on the PS Vita, for…

Meet Four New Pokemon, The First Gym Leader, And Everybody Else In X/Y

You’d think The Pokemon Company would have gotten all of its Pokemon X and Pokemon Y news out during the major gaming trade show that just blew through, but no — the info train keeps rolling. Meet your trainer’s pals, the first gym leader, and four new entries in the Kalos Region Pokedex. Let’s do…

Yoshi’s New Island Is Like the Old Yoshi’s Island. That’s a Good Thing.

The new game for Nintendo’s most nurturing dinosaur was available to play this week at E3 and Kotaku‘s Jason Schreier did exactly that. In the video above, you’ll see Jason try to talk and play at the same time—harder than it looks, especially in a crowded E3 Nintendo booth—while he gives you a quick glimpse…

Compare the Look of the Newest Smash Bros. Game to the Old One

Lots of attention—some of it creepy—has been paid to all the new characters coming to the fourth installment of Nintendo’s all-star beat-em-up. It’s great that the Animal Crossing villager, Wii Fit trainer and Mega Man are getting people excited. But there’s another reason to get hyped: this Smash will be in hi-def. That means a…

The New Smash Bros. Characters Blew Up The Internet

Smash Bros. got introduced for the Wii U and for the 3DS on Tuesday, during Nintendo’s E3 direct and we had the chance to see the Villager from Animal Crossing, the Wii Fit Trainer and Mega Man among others. People liked them a lot and they can’t get away without some Internet attention. Especially the…

Look, no one’s actually expecting that more characters and critters died in this week’s Nintendo Direct broadcast than in Sony or Microsoft’ E3 presentations. But, still, the question remains: just how many folks kicked the bucket while the House of Mario showed its cuddly brand of carnage? More than you’d guess? Or less? Watch The…

AT E3, You Can Have a Cool (and Slightly Weird) Convo With Luigi

The Nintendo booth at E3 has a curious station featuring a screen with its most iconic characters, Mario and Luigi. The booth let people go up to the characters and hold a conversation with em (which you can see above)—which is cute, but also kind of eerie for some reason. I’m curious as to how…

Retro Studios Wants To Expand The Metroid Prime Universe

Retro Studios, makers of the legendary Metroid Prime series, is currently busy creating the next generation of Donkey Kong Country, much to the chagrin of a lot of Metroid fans. That doesn’t mean, however, that they abandoned Metroid. On the contrary, Samus’ world might be getting bigger in the future. IGN spoke to Nintendo’s Kensuke…

The Next Smash Bros. Will Balance Casual And Hardcore, Creators Say

If Super Smash Bros. Melee was for hardcore players, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl was for casual players, the next Smash Bros. game will fall somewhere in between, creator Masahiro Sakurai says. This time around, Sakurai is going for the best of both worlds. This morning, Sakurai and I had a long chat about all…

Don’t Expect A Lot Of Third-Party Characters In The Next Smash Bros

The people behind Smash Bros. say not to expect a lot of third-party characters in the next incarnation of their fighting game. Mega Man is an exception. While chatting with Smash designer Masahiro Sakurai this morning, I pointed out that fans are very psyched about the Blue Bomber making an appearance in his next game.…

No More Tripping In The New Smash Bros

Good news for Smash Bros. fans: there’s no tripping in the newest one. For the uninitiated: Tripping is the colloquial term for those moments in Smash Bros. Brawl when your character runs, stumbles, falls, and is temporarily stunned. Most fans hated it. When I asked my Twitter followers what they’d like to know about the…

Here’s Why Sailing Took So Damn Long in Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

There’s a reason sailing the sea in the GameCube version of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was so slow and tedious. If the boat moved any faster, you’d sail off the edge of the ocean. Flat-Earthers smell a conspiracy! No, really, the GameCube didn’t have the power necessary to render the entirety of…

Nintendo Defends Choice To Have Retro Make a New Donkey Kong Country

Nintendo knows that the choice to have the company’s top-flight development studio in Texas make another Donkey Kong side-scroller was controversial—so controversial, in fact, that Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime actually addressed it in a video yesterday shortly before I asked him about it. The video stands out as one of the few original…

Mario’s Creator Likens Game Ownership to Toy Ownership

It’s clear what Microsoft thinks of game ownership—the Xbox One’s policies don’t communicate much of a belief in it. Sony scored a lot of points on Monday, but to be fair, it was a defense of the status quo. Where does Nintendo come down on the subject? Shigeru Miyamoto, the creative face of the company,…

The Best Moments of Nintendo’s E3 Direct, Mixed With Attack on Titan

If an anime with Nintendo characters existed, the powerful opening theme of Attack on Titan series would be a perfect cover song for it. It sums up Nintendo’s E3 direct rather well. The video, by demoncry54 is similar to one made for the Sony event. I have a strange feeling we won’t see an Xbox…

StreetPass Has Problems In The West. Nintendo Is Fixing Them.

At their E3 analyst briefing yesterday, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata revealed the company’s plans to revitalize sales of its handheld 3DS system in the US and Europe by fundamentally changing the way its StreetPass feature works. Currently, StreetPass operates by exchanging game data between 3DS consoles in close proximity to each other. Iwata explained that…

A Very Wonderful Wii U Game

Maybe it’s because it’s a hard game to nail in a single sentence, maybe because it’s Platinum’s “other” Wii U game (after Bayonetta 2), but Wonderful 101 has sadly not gotten the attention it deserves this week. Let’s change that. I mean, what’s there not to love about a game that can channel Viewtiful Joe…

A Glimpse of E3 With Their Own Eyes, Far From the Lights of L.A.

In line for Nintendo’s booth, Terence Polk checked his smartphone and chitchatted about what he’d come to review. “Super Mario 3D World,” he said, because he was skeptical—not because he was thrilled by what he’d seen in Nintendo’s presentation. It was the second day of E3. In Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Polk, 30, is not an…

The Furry New Donkey Kong Yanks A Gimmick From Super Mario Bros. 2

Why is the giant ape of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for the Wii U so damn fluffy? Why is he fighting Vikings? And why is it borrowing a mechanic from, of all games, Super Mario Bros. 2? Producer Kensuke Tanabe has answers, and in one case he is the answer. You see, one of…