Super Mario

You Can Instantly Summon Bowser In Bowser’s Fury With An Amiibo

The most infuriating part of Bowser’s Fury is Bowser himself. King Koopa’s arrival can both ruin your day and grant access to previously inaccessible areas, meaning the bite-sized Bowser’s Fury is somewhat of a waiting game. But you don’t have to wait for Bowser to do his thing. You just need a Bowser Amiibo. Amiibo,…

What’s The Best Co-op Game To Ruin A Relationship With?

Fellow post-Valentine survivors, it’s time for Ask Kotaku, the weekly feature in which Kotaku-ites deliberate on a single burning question. Then, we ask your take. This week we Ask Kotaku: What’s the best co-op game to ruin a relationship with? That is to say, what co-op games might be risky to undertake with one’s romantic…

Bowser’s Fury Should Be A Template For Future Nintendo Projects

I played Bowser’s Fury this weekend. I’d intended to save it until I’d finished my first run through the Switch’s remake of Super Mario 3D World, having—like most humans—never owned a Wii U. But boy did I get bored of that quickly. And there was Bowser, just waiting on the launch screen, tempting me with…

Super Mario 3D World Penis Uncut On Switch

Super Mario 3D World, out today on Switch, is pretty much the same game that appeared on Wii U with a few minor changes. As such, the large, dong-shaped bridge in the World 4 castle remains gloriously intact. (h/t Akfamilyhome) And here’s a different angle, just for funsies. Look, there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit…

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury: The Kotaku Review

Super Mario 3D World would be incredible if I didn’t already know who Mario was and what he was all about. In his 2013 review of the Wii U original, Kotaku writer Luke Plunkett described Super Mario 3D World as a “greatest hits collection, bringing together all the best things Mario has already done in…

Cactus Props At Super Nintendo World Appear To Be Based On A Fan Game

It appears someone working on the cacti props at the Super Nintendo World theme park in Universal Studios Japan might have inadvertently built them to look just like some cacti that appear in a New Super Mario Bros Wii fan mod. Whoops! As spotted by Twitter user Meatball132, the cacti in question can be clearly…

Super Mario World Soundtrack Remaster Spoils Original’s Lo-fi Brilliance

A group of Super Mario World fans are currently remastering the SNES platformer’s soundtrack (h/t Chris Kohler) with high-quality versions of the original samples. But if you’re hoping for some grand, orchestral versions of tracks you’ve loved for decades, these really aren’t that. It started with a fan combing through files from the so-called “Gigaleak,”…

I Hope Bowser’s Fury Is The Future Of Mario

Bundled with the enhanced port of 2013’s Super Mario 3D World coming to the Switch on February 12, Bowser’s Fury is an open-world side-story that pits Mario against the scariest damn Bowser ever. So far it’s the most fun I’ve had with Mario since Odyssey Bowser’s Fury is a 3D Mario sandbox adventure that would…

First Look Inside Super Nintendo World, Which Opens In Japan Next February

Here it is. What we’ve all been waiting for. This is the first look inside the eagerly anticipated Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Osaka. Announced in 2015, the park was originally slated to open this year, but due to the global pandemic, it was delayed. Super Nintendo World has been coming along nicely!…

Let’s Debate The Merits Of Super Mario Sunshine

Super Mario Sunshine. Mario’s second foray into a three-dimensional plane built on the foundation of 1996’s Super Mario 64. It gave Mario a new way to get around (the F.L.U.D.D. jetpack-gizmo) and sent him out of the Mushroom Kingdom. It also featured an unmistakable pro-environment bent, wherein Mario had to clean up an island coated…

Super Mario 64 Runs On A PS2, Universe Does Not Implode

Last year the source code for Super Mario 64 was reverse-engineered by fans. If you were wondering, “What good is that?”, well it means you can do all sorts of things with the game. Like get it running on a PS2. Yeah, you read that right. This is Nintendo’s all-time classic Super Mario 64, running…

Nearly Every Super Mario Game Posing For A Family Photo

In case you’ve ever wanted to see it, here is every major game from the Super Mario series (and some spin-offs), all gathered together for a beautiful group shot. So yes, that’s why Super Mario RPG and Super Mario Kart aren’t there, which despite the names aren’t members of the Super Mario platforming family. (It…

Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World Delayed Due To Covid-19

This summer, Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World was slated to open. As Kotaku has previously reported, the park is coming along nicely. However, due to the novel coronavirus, the Mario-themed area will not open. The state of emergency has been lifted in Japan, and USJ re-opened on June 8. Visitors, however, have been restricted,…

Nintendo’s stocks have hit a two-year high in Japan over second-wave covid-19 concerns. “The stock had been struggling the past two months with demand for stay-at-home stocks dropping as the economy re-opened…” said analyst Katsuyuki Fujii. “But as fears for the second wave of coronavirus grow, people are taking a second look at those stocks.” 

Human Toad Is Freaky And Terrifying

Artist Miguel Vasquez is a genius at taking beloved video game and cartoon characters and turning them into nightmare fuel. His latest? Toad from Super Mario Vasquez uses a 2D image of each character as a reference but then gives them realistic human eyes. He also takes inspiration from movie make-up effects artists like Rick…

LEGO Is Making Super Mario Themed Playsets

Yesterday, Nintendo teased LEGO sets. Today, they’re official. Nintendo and LEGO are joining forces for Super Mario themed playsets. You can see what to expect in the clip below. The LEGO Mario playsets are interactive, not only recreating the world of Super Mario in brick form but also the experience of playing the games. “I…

The Donkey Kong Timeline Is Truly Disturbing

Are you sitting down? I’ve got something to tell you—something that may shock you. Between the events of the various Donkey Kong games, the Kong family was involved in a bitter and vicious war. Among its many casualties, this war may have claimed the life of a classic Kong character, explaining his disappearance from all…

Super Mario 64 Land, An Enormous Fan-Made Mario Game, Is Out Now

Superstar Mario modder Kaze Emanuar, whose work we’ve featured here a ton, has a huge new project out today: Super Mario 64 Land, an all-new Mario game based on Super Mario 64 that adds new levels, new bosses, new powerups and new music. There’s a catch—it’s technically a mod for Super Mario 64, not a…

Shaved Mario Is Making Me Feel Strange

Here is a very simple, but very effective mod for Super Mario Odyssey that shaves Mario’s moustache for the entirety of the game. Cutscenes, gameplay, everything. It’s gross and I hate it. And yet…I also cannot stop looking at it. At how young it makes him look. Like this is the Young Super Mario Chronicles.…

It Took 7 Years, But Now You Can Play Super Mario Bros. On The Commodore 64

A tireless developer, working for nearly seven years, has created a perfect recreation of Super Mario Bros. for the Commodore 64. This would have been huge in 1985. Today, it’s still pretty darn cool. This week, a developer called ZeroPaige released Super Mario Bros. 64, which he bills as a 1:1 recreation of Super Mario…