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The Creator of Mario and Zelda Wants to Make a First-Person Shooter
Can someone at Nintendo please step up and take over some of Shigeru Miyamoto’s work assignments. Can someone make his coffee for him? Answer his phonecalls? Zero out his inbox? The most successful game designer of all time, the chief creative mind behind Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and a slew…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 13, 2012 -
Nintendo Has a Plan to Deal With Its Wii U Calibration Problem
The most significant flaw I found with the otherwise-sturdy Wii U last week was the new screen controller’s inability to “remember” its position vis a vis your TV. This proved to be a problem for games that required the GamePad to be aimed at the TV, since the GamePad’s internal motion sensors would gradually lose…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 13, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Nintendo Isn’t Making a New 3DS. It’s Making a New Handheld Generation.
Remember all those rumors about a 3DS redesign? According to Nintendo, the company isn’t concentrating on a tweaked 3DS. Instead, it’s working on what will probably be a totally new handheld. Earlier this month, respected Japanese newspaper the Nikkei ran a story, which stated that Nintendo was going to reveal a new 3DS at E3.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 13, 2012 -
Kotaku EastWatch Two Scared Girls Play a Horror Game for Six Minutes
Those Fatal Frame games sure are frightening. Don’t believe me? Check out this six minute clip of the new Wii remake of Fatal Frame II, known as Fatal Frame: Deep Crimson Butterfly. The clip is in Japanese, but the language of scary is universal. The game is out in Japan and Europe this month. It…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 13, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Wrong About Japan’s Coolness
A recent issue of the Japanese edition of Newsweek poses this question: Is Cool Japan going cold? The cover reads “Cool Japan Is Running Out of Steam” (息切れクールジャパン). The article centers on “Cool Japan”, which was adopted by the Japanese government and trade organizations that hoped to tap into the country’s soft power status. Cool…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 13, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Nintendo’s Early DRM Was Simple (And Didn’t Work)
DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is in many ways the great scourge of modern gaming. Designed to limit the effects of piracy, it’s often more of a pain in the ass for paying customers than it is a hindrance to pirates. It’s usually associated with PC games, but Nintendo is no stranger to it either.…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012 -
Can Nintendo Convince Us To Care About The Wii U?
For this week’s Burning Questions, Jason and Kirk return from E3 to talk about their impressions of Nintendo’s next big console. What kinds of new games will the Wii U make possible? What will it take for the Wii U to be a success for gamers? Why can’t any company but Microsoft make an easy-to-use…
Kirk Hamilton & Jason Schreier Published June 12, 2012 -
Final Fantasy Creator’s Next Game Is Just The Kind Of Complex, Meaty JRPG I’ve Been Waiting For
A long time ago, the combat in Japanese role-playing games was extraordinarily simple. Classic turn-based RPGs would hit you with a deluge of random and scripted battles. To beat them, you’d select options like “fight” or “magic” from a series of dropdown menus. You’d usually only die if you were under-leveled, in which case the…
By Jason Schreier Published June 12, 2012 -
This Is How Nintendo Prefers You To See Their Games
Nintendo likes to prioritize their screenshots by what they consider to be the best images to use when discussing their games. Last year we looked at what Nintendo’s favorite and least favorite screenshots post-E3 were, according to the notes in their batch of press kits. It seemed like angle-choice, depth of background action and color…
By Tina Amini Published June 12, 2012 -
Shigeru Miyamoto Thinks He’s Right About Pikmin 3, But, if Not… Uh-Oh
After years of being badgered about making a new Pikmin game, Nintendo is finally making a new Pikmin game. It took the company a while, Nintendo’s head of game development, Shigeru Miyamoto, told me in Los Angeles last week, because the company was experimenting with how to get Pikmin right. They’ve finally settled on an…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
This Summer, Nintendo Is Cutting Bonus Pay
More and more Japanese companies are feeling the pinch—Nintendo included. After posting its first annual loss in donkey’s yonks, the Kyoto-based game company is reducing its employee summer bonuses by 20 percent. #firstworldproblems Last year, full-time Nintendo staff got the average of approximately 4.4 months worth of their salary as summer bonus. This year, it’s…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
How Many Fists Fit in Pikachu’s Mouth? Japanese Children Find Out.
Poor Pikachu. The character shows up for a Pokémon “quiz rally”, and a bunch of Japanese kids stuff their fists into his mouth. The nerve! The official (and current) Pikachu costume worn at events features the character with an open mouth, presumably so the wearer can see out and not so children can stuff their…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Pikmin 3 Won’t Have Online, Because, Um, Because…
Just when you think Nintendo finally gets the internet, the Kyoto-based game maker does stuff like this. In a recent interview with website IGN, game designer Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that the upcoming Pikmin 3, a launch title on the Wii U, will not have online. Because? According to Miyamoto: You have to be very careful…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 12, 2012 -
The 3DS’ Circle Pad Pro Gets a Very Attractive Makeover
Nintendo’s official 3DS Circle Pad Pro extension is, well, it’s not very pretty. It’s also getting hard to find. Thank the maker for Nyko, then, who have not only produced the world’s first third-party alternative, but have come up with something that looks much nicer than Nintendo’s offering. For $30, the Nyko Power Grip Pro…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012 -
It’s-a Me, Sexy Mario
If you thought porn star Ron Jeremy was the only sexy Mario, you are wrong. There are other Marios, sexy Marios who like to preen and pose for the camera in overalls and with mushrooms and fireballs. Hot. Say hello to this sexy Mario, who goes under the clever nickname “Sexy Mario”. All the photos…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 12, 2012 -
Everything You Need to Know About the Wii U, at a Glance
Need to know the fundamentals of Nintendo’s upcoming console but don’t like, I don’t know, scrolling? Or looking at tables? This infographic, listing all the Wii U’s publicly-released specs, has you covered. It comes courtesy of Nintendo Europe, and breaks down both exterior components as well as some of the console’s internal specs. Wii U…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012 -
Sex and the City‘s Samantha Gets Turned On By Mario’s Raccoon Suit
Now, I know that Samantha gets turned on by most things. But all the same, this one’s pretty funny. In a departure for Nintendo’s usually family-friendly celebrity spokespeople, a new British ad for Super Mario 3D Land features Sex and the City‘s friskiest character talking about her predilection for men who play dress-up. “I go…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 11, 2012 -
Better Friend Codes, Achievements and More: Nintendo Answers Our Burning Wii U Questions
Nintendo will have a much less annoying Friend Code system for the Wii U, four layers of protection in their online service and system-level Achievements, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime tells Kotaku The Nintendo boss and I rapidly ran through a list of questions about the Wii U’s features during a wide-ranging interview a…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 11, 2012 -
Here’s the Fake Arcade Classic Disney’s New Video Game Movie Comes From
Maybe you’ve seen the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph, the upcoming Disney movie about a video game villain who doesn’t want to be bad anymore. That clip’s got bad guys like Street Fighter‘s Zangief and Bowser from the Super Mario games opening their hearts in a support group. Those villains earned their bad reputations by body-slamming…
By Evan Narcisse Published June 11, 2012
