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Rumor: The Wii U has $180 Worth of Parts, Won’t Be Sold Under $300
The closer we get to E3, when the Wii U seen there is expected to be the finished product, you can expect rumors on this machine to increase commensurately. Here’s another one. The Wii U’s parts will cost about $180, with roughly $50 of that going to the controller. That’s according to the unidentified sources…
By Owen Good Published April 8, 2012 -
Play Classic Mario Games With a Tennis Racquet in Mario Tennis Open
The coolest feature of the upcoming 3DS game Mario Tennis Open is the ability to play the original Super Mario Bros.… by hitting a tennis ball against a wall. That may sound strange, but it feels very natural once you see it in action. It’s easily the most interesting part of the game, which for…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 5, 2012 -
ReviewsXenoblade Chronicles: The Kotaku Review
Xenoblade Chronicles taught me an important lesson: Never trust the Internet. You see, for the past few months, everybody everywhere on the web has been hyping the hell out of Monolith Soft’s new Wii role-playing game, which publisher Nintendo will release in the United States this Friday (though it’s been out in Europe for almost…
By Jason Schreier Published April 5, 2012 -
This Week’s Nintendo Download is Every Bit as Exciting as Free Mass Effect 3 DLC
Just because we pre-empted this week’s Nintendo Download for some special Mass Effect 3 news doesn’t make it any less exciting and important. Does Mass Effect 3 have music from The Shins? Not unless it’s a very special episode of Mass Effect 3. Does it have an exclusive interview with Epic Mickey creator Warren Spector?…
By Mike Fahey Published April 5, 2012 -
If Nintendo Had Made Angry Birds. In the 1980s.
Swedish artist Giorgio Cantù has imagined what it would like if Nintendo had come up with the idea for Angry Birds and, instead of releasing it on a phone in the 21st century, had released it on a Game & Watch device in the 1980s. It looks way easier, even with the series’ revolutionary new…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 5, 2012 -
Sonic‘s Co-Creator Joins Nintendo
Well this is a line-crossing worth taking note of. Gamasutra reports that Hirokazu Yasuhara, co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, has taken a job at Nintendo. Because it’s never the wrong time for a Ghostbusters quote: Dogs and cats! Living together! Mass hysteria! Yasuhara has joined Nintendo’s Software Technology devision, an American-based second-party developer that has…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 4, 2012 -
Nobody Knows How Powerful The Wii U Actually Is
Gamers and game developers have spent much of the past year arguing and speculating over Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console. Will it be more powerful than other gaming devices? Less powerful? Just as powerful? Will it have HD graphics? Online connectivity? Arms? Will it do your taxes? The truth is that nobody seems to know…
By Jason Schreier Published April 4, 2012 -
Pokémon Conquest Brings Hit Japanese Game To America… For the DS
America is getting a Pokémon strategy game this June. It’s called Pokémon Conquest, a name-change from Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition, which is what it’s been called in Japan. It’s not made by Nintendo. It’s made by Tecmo Koei. Our guy in Japan has played it and declared it… “a decent foray into the strategy RPG…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 4, 2012 -
Kotaku East
So Who Was Making Crap Up: Nintendo or a Japanese Newspaper?
Last month, an article appeared in Japanese newspaper Nikkei. In it, Nikkei stated that Nintendo was targeting Asia. Moreover, the paper gave a specific example of this tactic—namely that Nintendo was launching the 3DS in South Korea on April 28. Nintendo aggressively refuted the article, releasing a statement that the article “isn’t anything our company…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 4, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Where There’s Hardware in China, There’s This Lady
Xia Xiaowei is one of China’s most famous “tech models”. Whenever big hardware is released, the 20-something year-old Xia Xiaowei, who goes by Vivihoney in English, is there to pose with it. Chinese tech models like Vivihoney pretty much exclusively pose with hardware, combining glossy gadget pics with pin-up photos. Vivihoney is actually signed with…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 4, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Japan’s Club Nintendo Now Offering Official Polo Shirts
Does Japan’s Club Nintendo get the best stuff? Yes, yes it does. Take this wide selection of Club Nintendo shirts available for 550 Club Nintendo points. There are different monograms available, like a Fire Flower or a Triforce. You can select your size and even the color of the polo shirt. There are eight different…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 3, 2012 -
If Nintendo Made Children’s Books…
…they wouldn’t just be awesome, they’d be this awesome. They’re the work of artist Caldwell Tanner, and it’s making me incredibly upset that these aren’t real books that can be bought and read to children who will grow up thinking the wrong story is so damn right Video Game Childrens Books [LOLDWELL, via Super Punch]
By Luke Plunkett Published April 3, 2012 -
We’re Not Buying New Fast-Spreading Wii U Launch Date Rumor [UPDATE]
You might have read rumors swirling around the Internet today that suggest the Wii U will be out on November 18. Multiple gaming websites, such as GameSpot and Eurogamer, have reported on the rumor, which originated at the website Wii U Daily. Wii U Daily says it obtained an e-mail from a Japanese retailer that…
By Jason Schreier Published April 2, 2012 -
Google Announces Google Maps — for the Nintendo Entertainment System [Update]
The undisputed Internet-age leader in April Fool’s hoaxes gets a one-day head start on its latest gag—a brilliant announcement video for “Google Maps 8-Bit,” a port of the popular, well, map service to the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicon. The best part? It’s an homage to Dragon Quest Not only is the video a first rate production—including…
By Owen Good Published March 31, 2012 -
The Most Compelling Image I Could Find to Represent This Week’s Nintendo Download
REMIX! This week sees the release of only two new games across Nintendo’s three platforms, signaling a time of change for the Weekly Nintendo download. Oh don’t worry, it’s not going away or anything. It’s just expanding to include whatever new videos the 3DS is getting in any given week, along with demos released for…
By Mike Fahey Published March 29, 2012 -
Pedophile Caught Thanks to Girl’s Nintendo Camera
A girl in the United Kingdom put away a man who molested her thanks to the camera on her Nintendo DSi, using it to surreptiously capture his assault and force a confession. John Fisher, 46, did admit to the abuse after his accuser (unnamed) snapped a picture of his hand groping her. Fisher’s going to…
By Owen Good Published March 28, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Nintendo’s Shameless 1970’s Advertising
Before Nintendo made home console titles and hardware, the company made, among other things, arcade games. Behold, then, the might and majesty of Nintendo’s advertising, circa the late 1970s. In which the company releases clones of other people’s games (in this case Space Invaders), and is damn proud of it to boot! Flyers out of…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2012 -
The Nintendo 3DS Is Now One Year Old. And It Doesn’t Suck.
Happy birthday, 3DS! It’s been a rollercoaster of a year for Nintendo’s glasses-free 3D gaming handheld, which was first released on March 27, 2011. In the 366 days since it first hit America’s grubby hands, the 3DS has been the subject of both admiration and derision, both high highs and low lows. And although at…
By Jason Schreier Published March 27, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Why It Took Me A Year To Buy a 3DS
When the 3DS was announced in March 2010, I knew it was only a matter of time before I bought one. It wasn’t the wonder of 3D or even the games Nintendo was sure to release that gave me this moment of clairvoyance. It was the simple fact that eventually, I buy every system. The…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published March 27, 2012 -
Nearly-Nude Men are Selling Nintendo 3DS Games
If our gripping gameplay footage of the title from last year’s Gamescom wasn’t enough, here’s an advertisement for the upcoming Farming Simulator 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS. Not that I looked that closely at the pic, but it does creep me out a little that his red underpants seem to be Photoshopped on. UPDATE –…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 27, 2012