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What People Used To Say About The Game Boy

3D without glasses? No thanks. I’ll take my monochrome sprites and go and have some real fun. The Game Boy was kind of a big deal. Revolutionary, even. Console-quality games on the go? Great Scott. Let’s look at what people thought of that. “Game Boy promises ‘any game, anywhere.’ It has a 2 1/2-inch LCD…

This Week’s iPad Charts: Hold Me Closer Tiny Dentist

I’ve only been doing these weekly charts since fall of last year, and this is the second time a free dental simulation game appeared on the free charts. At least this one features cartoon animals getting their mouths drilled full of holes. I can understand the appeal. It was a week of great change on…

Square Enix the MMO dev, can they fix it? Phase one of the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn beta begins on Feb. 25.

A Game So Weird, It Needs to Come With Its Own Encyclopedia

The developers at Simogo have made some of my favorite mobile games, the musical platformer Bumpy Road and rhythm stealth hybrid Beat Sneak Bandit. Those games were cute and easy to grasp. But their latest one Year Walk looks like a weird, first-person exploration head-trip. Thankfully they appear to know this and are offering up…

Class, Your Homework Today Is to Learn About BioShock Infinite’s Creepy Pseudo-History

The first installment of the Columbia: A Modern Day Icarus? video series reminded Luke, me and loads of other folks of the low-budget, off-putting documentaries and filmstrips that aired in the ‘70s and ‘80s. I used to have to watch those things in class, too, with some annoying homework assignment attached to them. Imagine if…

Here’s Five Of The Best Attempts At Creating A PS4 Logo

On February 20, there’s a good chance we’ll not only get to see the PlayStation 4, but also get to see its branding. Stuff like the logo. Unable to wait that long, Aussie company 99 Designs held a competition for users, asking them to come up with their own take. Being open to the general…

An IndieGoGo campaign for this great-looking Mark of the Ninja fan film is launching on March 11. Trailer to the left.

iPad? No, Sony Patented Something It’s Calling the “EyePad”

A new Sony patent hints at the possibility of tablet style, motion controlled gaming. It’s called the “EyePad”. Because that’s totally not confusing. Sony has a long proud history of “Eye” devices, such as the EyeToy and the PlayStation Eye. This moniker, which seems to be a codename, isn’t final. It’s not even a product…

Nude Photos, Drugs, and Cockroaches: Wild Stories from Game Shops

Retail is a tough racket. It’s no easy gig. Sometimes, it’s boring. Sometimes, it exhausting. And sometimes, it’s completely bonkers. Here are some colorful, disgusting, and just odd moments from the trenches of gaming retail, dealing with your fellow gamers. Kotaku reached out to a couple retail vets for their war stories. Eric Jou, former…

Naming Your Son “Pikachu” Will Get Him Girls. Wait, What?

Selecting names ain’t easy—especially in Japan. Some Japanese parents consult with fortune tellers in hopes of picking a name that will bring their child good luck. One soothsayer has one. That name is Pikachu. Kotaku previously covered why Pikachu is a terrible name for Japanese children. Today, a fortune teller tells us why it’s a…

A Beautiful GIF Of My Most Hated Video Game Enemy

Look, I know if there was a list of the top 100 toughest bosses in video gaming, Minish Cap’s Vaati wouldn’t make the cut. There are NES games, or games that end in “Souls”, that are way harder than any handheld adventure Nintendo has ever conjured for Link. But for me, for some reason, I…

The Last Barfighter Is An Arcade Game That Literally Pours The Winner A Beer

This is The Last Barfighter. It’s a 2D arcade fighting game. It looks pretty awful, but that’s OK. The point here isn’t to simply enjoy a video game. It’s to beat your opponent so you get beer The video above explains it all. Players insert their cups, they fight, and the winner’s cup is filled…

Meteorite Explodes Over Russia, Crazy Footage Looks Like A Disaster Movie

A meteorite has exploded over central Russia, resulting in some absolutely nutso footage. The first video above shows the moment the meteorite streaks across the sky before exploding, while the subsequent videos give you an idea how loud the thing was, before showing you the amazing trail left behind. If ever there was a time…

Watch Capcom Get Sound Effects By Recording Some Very Angry Zoo Animals

If there was a list of the most underappreciated fields in the video game industry, surely sound design would be up near the top. Despite creating and capturing one of a game’s most crucial aspects, you never really hear from the men and women working in the field, and you rarely get a chance to…

You Can Preorder This Game Before You Even Know What It Is

Indie developer 11 Bit Studios has quite the deal for you: if you preorder their game now, you’ll get 50% off the final price. That’d be quite the saving, if we actually knew a damn thing about the game. But we don’t. The deal “is for those brave souls who are willing to jump into…

All This Beautiful Landscape Needs Is An Actual RPG To Play It With

Unigine are a busy little company. They make games, like 2012 RTS Oil Rush. They make PC benchmark tools. And they also make engines. We’re looking at a combination of the latter two here today, as this video takes us on a sweeping tour of an enormous, 64 square-kilometre wooded landscape that looks just perfect…

Maybe Mods Can Improve Aliens: Colonial Marines On PC

No other version of Aliens: Colonial Marines is as disappointing as the PC edition, seeing as it ships with such limited support for even the most basic level of visual flair gamers on the platform are accustomed to. Seeking to fix that, though, as they always do, are modders, who in only a few days…

No One Dies Harder Than John McClane

This weekend, a new Die Hard movie comes out. I’m just going on a hunch here, but I’m guessing that it will continue the series’ ever-downward spiral since the nearly flawless original movie came out in 1988. But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to talk about Die Hard. We can only hope that Guyz…

Grown Man Turns Living Room Into Enormous, Incredible Battle Of Hoth Diorama

So, Barry here likes Star Wars. A lot. So much so that he’s sacrificed an entire room of his house to recreate Empire Strikes Back’s Battle of Hoth, in a diorama that would make even Industrial Light & Magic proud. It’s a completely static piece; the explosions and smoke you see don’t move, despite how…

If Something Awful Happens, Someone Will Make An Awful Game About It. Chris Dorner Is Just The Latest.

When a tragedy or major event occurs, you can bet on a few key things happening. People will grieve. The newsreel will spin. Twitter will blow up. The Onion will satirize. The blogosphere will write. And of course, thanks to the blessings of accessible game development: someone will make a game. Unfortunately, recent happenings with…