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The Best Donkey Kong Country Ever Made

The Donkey Kong Country series contains some of the most beloved platforming titles to ever grace a Nintendo console. The series revitalized a classic villlain as a hero. It boasted 3D-esque visuals in a market of predominantly 2D games. It had a swinging soundtrack so catchy that I bet you’ve already begun to hum the…

Illustrator/Legend of Zelda fan Jessica Smith, to celebrate Zelda Wii U coming out this year, painted this magnificent picture of what the Forest Temple might look like in the game. It probably won’t be anywhere near as beautiful as it is here. Look here for more of Smith’s work, and below for the full painting.…

Portal 2’s Long Fall Boots Can’t Be Far Off

There’s been a couple of takes on shock-absorbing feet-tech in the Portal-verse. Now, someone’s trying to make impact absorbing footwear for real. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK Meet the Enko running shoe (via Engadget): a trainer with two built-in pistons that’s the result of 12 years of work by engineer Christian Freschi. Those…

Live-Action Smash Bros. Video has Real Martial Arts

And not just that, but cool visual and practical effects, excellent fight choreography, good sound editing, a fitting soundtrack… overall, it feels like a short Smash Bros-themed kung fu movie. And it might even be the first in a series! Uploaded by YouTuber Tim Wang (via D Piddy), Little Mac vs. Dark Ness shows the…

League Of Legends‘ Latest Character Skin Is Damn Cool, Damn Expensive

Meet DJ Sona. She doesn’t just look radically different from her old self/selves, she also sounds different. Using her mighty technicolor turntable, she can alter League of Legends‘ entire soundtrack. Oh, and she has multiple forms. The only drawback? A possible deal-breaker of a price tag. DJ Sona is a new League of Legends ultimate…

Very 90s Commercial Has Guitars And…Stuff

The acting, the wardrobe, the guitars, the first half of this fake commercial is about as 90s as it gets. Only… Look, just don’t watch this at work.

A Game About Taking Selfies As A Skeleton. That’s It.

You are a spooky, scary skeleton. You take selfies. That is the whole joke. It’s fucking fantastic. OK, there’s a bit more to it than that, but not much. Spooky Selfies is a free game where you walk—or, you know, skulk—around a graveyard and take selfies. It’s simple and dumb and, for roughly two minutes…

Please, Make A New Power Rangers Movie Like This

Yeah, a big part of the appeal of Power Rangers (and Super Sentai) is how damn corny everything is, but let’s imagine for a second that someone wanted to make a modern Power Rangers movie. And wanted to ditch corny for more of a Godzilla vibe. It’d look like this, and this looks badass. It’s…

H1Z1 Players Have Created An Actual Fight Club

You know the first rule of fight club, don’t you? Well, these H1Z1 players broke it a bunch. But in the process, they herded other hapless players into a tooth-and-nail brawl to the death, and I’d like to think that having a fight club at all is more important than remembering to not talk about…

Why So Many Games (And Movies) Are Blue & Orange

You’ve likely noticed it, and probably even joked about it: it feels like every game (and movie) these days is all about the colours blue and orange, at least when it comes to posters and box art. There’s a very good reason for that. It’s more than a trend: there’s some science and colour theory…

Joystiq, an essential read for many years for gamers interested in gaming news, shut down today, a victim of cost-cutting by parent company AOL as it gets folded into Engadget. All of us at Kotaku wish the entire Joystiq team the very best. Read Joystiq editor Ludwig Kietzmann’s farewell.

Vietnam Contra Game Is A Huge Bummer

Aliens! You can always feel good about killing aliens! Too bad imaginary Contra clone Hanoi Strike is set duringthe Vietnam War. It’s a different kind of hard. The soul-crushing kind. Modern war games like Spec Ops: The Line have tried to put players in the middle of combat scenarios weighed down with horrible moral consequences.…

Life Is Strange‘s Mouths Are Freaking Me Out

As Keza’s already mentioned, you’ll want to play Life Is Strange. It’s a clever and heartfelt ode to being an awkward teenager, albeit one who can rewind time by holding out their hand. But I can’t help but get distracted by one of my modern gaming pet peeves: horrible lip-syncing. It’s not terribly apparent in…

Schools Use Genius Plan To Stop Students From Checking Their Phones

For some students, putting away their phones during class is an impossible task. Normally, schools develop rules and polices about cell phone use, and students happily ignore them. But at a couple of universities, the administration is trying something new: they’re turning “don’t check your phone during class” into a game. Using an app called…

Wyatt Cenac’s Got a Theory About Mario and Princess Peach 

“Luigi is a man who lives in fear of constant Bowser attacks… I think his fears are misplaced.” If anybody should be afraid in comedian Wyatt Cenac’s weird version of the Mario universe, it’s Princess Peach. In the debut episode of The A.V. Club‘s new game show Pick A Choice—hosted by my good friend and…

Hotline Miami 2 Voicemail Is Weird As Hell

If someone asked you to dial a random phone number, what are you gonna do? Not call it and find out what’s on the other end? That’s doubly true if it’s from the creators of Hotline Miami We know Hotline Miami 2 isn’t far off, but an official date has eluded us. Or does it?…

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Discount, Humble Star Wars Bundle, More Deals

Newegg is coming strong with the preorder deals yet again. Today you can save $7 on the upcoming Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, which is almost certainly the best preorder price we’ll see. On the fence? Here are your questions, answered. Preorder Final Fantasy Type-0 HD [PS4] ($53) | Newegg | Promo code EMCANAP43 Preorder Final…

Hidden Details Buried In The Dark Souls II Expansion’s New Trailer

A patch to prepare Dark Souls II for its upcoming Scholar of the First Sin update is coming on February 5. Though Scholar of the First Sin itself doesn’t arrive until April, Bandai Namco’s revealed a tiiiiny bit more of what’s in store for players who return to Majula in a new trailer. There’s still…

My Brain Just Melted While Reading This

It used to be so easy to buy video games. But just try wrapping your head around how Tecmo explains the various ways to buy the upcoming Dead or Alive 5 Last Round: Core Fighters: Players wanting a taste of what DEAD OR ALIVE 5 Last Round has to offer can play the main game…