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Former Nintendo Idol Now Treads the Sales Floor
In 2003, then 17-year-old Asami Abe was the face of Nintendo’s GameCube title Nintendo Puzzle Collection. It’s a big deal to appear in commercials in Japan, and Nintendo, like Toyota, is selective of who it picks. Then the unthinkable happened. A photograph of the underage Abe and a friend smoking appeared in tabloids, and within…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 30, 2011 -
Nintendo of America Hears You, Disgruntled Wii Owners! (But You’re Still Not Getting Those Games You Want)
Last week, Wii owners in North America desperate to play games like Xenoblade, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower, games already released in Japan, pleaded with Nintendo of America to bring those games stateside. Today, Nintendo has responded with a resounding, “Eh, probably not gonna happen.” Those passionate, motivated Nintendo fans showed their support for…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 29, 2011 -
Somewhere Between Predator Drones and Battlefield Have We Lost Sight of the Horrors of War?
Predator drones and other high-tech weaponry are turning war into video games and making the use of military force a more, perhaps too, palatable option, an Aljazeera op-ed piece argues. In The Virtue-less war of the ‘Nintendo bomber’, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, a Glasgow-based sociologist and the co-editor of Pulsemedia.org, writes that clinicalizing war with the…
By Brian Crecente Published June 29, 2011 -
This Wii Cycling Peripheral Costs More Than the Console
Nearly two years ago Bigben Interactive teased us with the Cyberbike, a full-sized stationary bicycle that acts as a game controller for your Nintendo Wii. Now that the Wii has dropped in price to $150 and a new console is on the way, the Cyberbike finally hits North America for $199.99. The Wii has been…
By Mike Fahey Published June 29, 2011 -
Capcom Denies Used Game Sales Had Anything to Do With “Forever Saves”
The inability to start fresh on a copy of The Mercenaries 3D after someone has played it was a design decision that had nothing to do with second-hand game sales, Capcom tells Kotaku Saved data on copies of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is permanent. Since Nintendo 3DS games are saved directly onto the card,…
By Brian Crecente Published June 28, 2011 -
Duel of the Links
Link and his evil other half designed in classic playing card style by Winter-Artwork. This Zelda themed design will be heading to fangamer.net very soon! Related Rampages: GI Bullet | Frosty Ice Kream (More) Duel Links by Winter-Artwork (Flickr) (Facebook) (Twitter) Via: winterartwork Need your daily fill of geek eye candy? If so, head over…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 27, 2011 -
‘Portalmon’ Design Now a Catchable, Testable T-Shirt [Updated]
Remember Matt Parson’s ‘Portalmon’ mash-up design? For the next 48 hours, you can now buy it as a lovely t-shirt for €20 (plus modest shipping). Update: Qwertee has set up a special promotion for Kotaku readers. Simply add the code ILoveKotaku when checking out to get the Portalmon tee for €10—half off!—with €3 shipping anywhere…
By Joel Johnson Published June 27, 2011 -
Used Copies of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D Will be Forever Haunted by the Last Owner
Used Copies of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D might not be worth your money because Capcom made it impossible to for anyone to erase game save date from the game card. Capcom included a note in Resident Evil‘s game manual that reads: “Saved data on this software cannot be reset.” Translation: Everything is permanent. What…
By Sam Winstrom Published June 27, 2011 -
Nintendo, Americans Are Pissed Off You’re Not Giving Them RPGs
Xenoblade Chronicles is a Wii RPG that’s been out in Japan since 2010. It’ll be out in Europe in September. With no firm release date yet set for America, though, Yankee RPG fans have taken it upon themselves to convince Nintendo to take action. While last week there was a plan to write Nintendo a…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 27, 2011 -
Japan’s Nintendo Online Shop Carries the AWOL Bits You Need
Nintendo catches heat for being clueless about the internet. That’s not exactly fair, because Nintendo is doing cool stuff online—selling instruction booklets, for example. Joining Nintendo of America, Nintendo just launched its own online shop in Japan. While other game companies might try to sell you things you do not need, Nintendo is selling things…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 27, 2011 -
Some of Ocarina‘s Original Glitches Were Deliberately Kept in 3DS Version
In building the 3D remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the mandate for the developer Grezzo was to preserve fans’ memories of the original as much as possible. That meant, where possible, that bugs from the original Nintendo 64 game were intentionally left in. “As programmers, we wanted to get rid of…
By Owen Good Published June 26, 2011 -
Lulzsec Hackers Call It Quits
Whether planned retirement (or, more likely, hounded into disbanding), Lulzsec, the unlovable clowns behind hack operations against BioWare, Sony, Nintendo, EVE Online and Minecraft, ended its brief reign of semi-terror today with its final dump of stolen data, highlighted by 550,000 user names and passwords for the Battlefield Heroes beta of 2009. Another 50,000 users’…
By Owen Good Published June 26, 2011 -
How Badly Do You Want The Last Story, Pandora’s Tower and Xenoblade for Wii?
Bad enough to write Nintendo a letter? On actual paper? That’s what some passionate North American Nintendo fans have resorted to, pleading with paper and ink for Nintendo of America to bring more Wii games stateside, including The Last Story, Pandora’s Tower and Xenoblade Nintendo of America has not confirmed those games for release in…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 24, 2011 -
Realistic Gengar is the Pokémon of Your Nightmares
The dual-type Ghost/Poison Pokémon Gengar gets a super creepy redesign by artist Gavin Mackey. Just try going to sleep tonight… Related Rampages: Patrick Star | Raticate Gengar – Commission by Gavin Mackey / SoupAndButter Need your daily fill of geek eye candy? If so, head over to Justin Page’s Rampaged Reality and get your fix.…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 24, 2011 -
Check Out this Sexy, Custom Resident Evil 3DS Case
This custom 3DS case came to Kotaku from Capcom along with an embargoed copy of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. While I’ve seen a few 3DS cases in stores, this is the first fitted case I’ve gotten my hands on and it’s pretty rad. In particular, I’m a fan of how subtle it is. There’s…
By Brian Crecente Published June 24, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Horror of Nintendo’s White Knuckle Scorin
In 1991, before the company realised it was a good idea to pay closer attention to the shit it was licensing its name and characters for, Nintendo gave its blessing for the release of a CD called White Knuckle Scorin While the name and the cover art give faint hope that this might be a…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 24, 2011 -
Suspected Lulz Hacker Told Mom He Was Gaming, Not Hacking
The teen linked by international law enforcement to anarchist hacking group LulzSec told family he was spending his days and nights locked in his room gaming, not hacking, the Mirror reports. Ryan Cleary, 19, was arrested earlier this week in connection with a string of attacks on websites around the world. The arrest was the…
By Brian Crecente Published June 23, 2011 -
Valve Likes What It Sees in Nintendo’s Wii U
Could Valve’s future games finally come to a Nintendo platform? Thanks to the Wii U, a system that appears at least as powerful as an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, it sounds like that’s a very real possibility. Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of the studio that makes Team Fortress, Half-Life, Portal and Left 4…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 22, 2011 -
How the Wii U One Ups Television
The master controller for Nintendo’s Wii U was born not of a desire to replace television, but to fix one of television’s very small problems. Those few second between when a person presses the power button on a remote control and when a television blinks to life prevents gaming consoles from becoming the sort of…
By Brian Crecente Published June 22, 2011 -
The Wii U Could Have Been a Handheld Console Instead
The main appeal of the Wii U, other than the promise of Mario and Zelda in HD, is its large controller with a fancy touch screen. That controller wasn’t ordained to be a controller from the start, though. “During the roundtable discussions there were such arguments about should we make it capable of being a…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 22, 2011