Uncategorized

The First Playable Villain in Avengers Alliance Isn’t All Bad

Dear Playdom, when you announce a playable “villain” for the wildly popular Facebook role-playing game Avengers Alliance, I expect a real villain, not Mr. Flippity-Floppity Magnet Man. Readers that have been following X-Men continuity since the early days are familiar with Max “Erik Lehnsherr” Eisenhardt’s propensity for switching sides at the drop of a hat.…

The Injustice Comic Prequel Explains Why Superman and Batman Are Fighting (Again)

It’s become a recurring trope that the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight beat each other up when things go terribly wrong in the DC Universe. The big difference in each of these brawls is the catalyst for the conflicts. As shown in a comic-book prequel releasing tomorrow, the reason for the World’s Finest…

This New Super Street Fighter Graphic Novel from Udon Delivers a Greasy Battle Royale

If you’ve seen an incredibly cool piece of Street Fighter art, chances are it originated from one of the talents at Udon Entertainment. The Canadian artist collective cranks out illustrated works for some of nerddom’s most beloved characters and has been making sharp, stylized interpretations of Capcom’s premier fighting franchise for more than a decade…

A Detailed Look At Character Progression In Fire Emblem: Awakening

Nintendo is really pushing Fire Emblem: Awakening, the strategy-RPG that comes out for 3DS next Tuesday. This new Awakening trailer—one of quite a few on Nintendo’s feed—shows off some of the class advancements, skills, weapons, and other aspects of character progression you can find in the game. Expect more on Fire Emblem—including Kotaku‘s full review—later…

Epic Citadel Shows Mobile Gamers Just How Pretty Android Can Be

Back in 2010, Epic Games released an Unreal Engine 3 tech demo for the iPhone and iPad that opened gamers’ eyes to the potential for console-quality gaming on Apple’s portable devices. Now it’s out for Android, and it’s prettier (and more useful) than ever. Available as a free download on Google Play and the Amazon…

Ni no Kuni Is Gorgeous, Reviewers Agree. But Not Everyone Is Head Over Heels.

I heard this one thing this one time. I heard that Ni no Kuni is whimsical? Have you heard that? I dunno man, I just heard it randomly somewhere. From the harshest critiques to the more forgiving ones, I’ve gathered the range of review scores pulled from Metacritic. Everyone definitely agrees this Studio Ghibli/Level-5 collaboration…

Why We Love (And Hate) Call of Duty’s Nuketown

Few maps evoke as much of a reaction as Nuketown does. Some love it, some hate it, and some—like me—can’t decide between these extremes. The Gameological Society’s Ryan Smith wrote a fascinating writeup on the divisive Nuketown, which delves into its history and explores the virtues and shortcomings of the map. As some of you…

Maybe All Games Should Have A ‘Very Easy’ Mode

This morning, I got an e-mail from a Kotaku reader named Jaime. “I am married to a wonderful woman,” Jaime wrote, “but she doesn’t enjoy playing videogames. She has from time to time, sat down to watch me play games like Okami, Ico or Shadow of the Colossus. She’s a big fan of Studio Ghibli…

FarmVille 2 Love is the Air Crafting Recipes: Everything You Need to Know

In addition to the Love is in the Air items that have been released in the store in FarmVille 2, productive farmers can also use some of these new Valentine’s Day items to earn coins via the game’s Crafting Kitchen. There are three new recipes available to craft in the Valentine’s Day theme, but as…

What Metroid Looks Like Through the Eyes of a 2nd Grader

Yesterday, a good friend of mine invited me to speak at an after-school game club in East Harlem about the game industry. As an adult, it was one of those very illuminating and humanizing experiences that reminds you exactly what it was like to love games dearly when you’re 11 years old. Trust me, the…

The action game Soul Sacrifice now has a release date: April 30 for Vita, both retail and digital

With Video Game Writing, the Devil Lives in the Details

In DmC, the new reboot of Capcom’s Devil May Cry series, hero character Dante is the offspring of an angel mother and demon father. He looks human but is of another breed altogether, a species of celestial rarity called nephilim who are incredibly powerful. They’re wild cards, nephilim are, and their bloodlines gives them the…

The Studio Behind Epic Mickey Has Shut Down

Following rumors yesterday, Junction Point, the development studio behind Epic Mickey and its sequel, has shut down. Parent company Disney confirmed the news in a statement today: It was with much sadness that we informed our teams today of changes to our Games organization, which include the closure of Junction Point Studios. These changes are…

Dungeon Quest is a Free Dose of Heavily-Distilled Diablo

The opening screenshot for this review of Shiny Box’s Android action role-playing game isn’t very flattering. That’s because every time I picked up my Nexus 7 to capture a screen I ended up playing Dungeon Quest for another half-hour instead. To take a screenshot on the Nexus 7 you have to hold down the power…

This is the debut trailer for Rogue Star, a game aiming to bring a PC space combat and trading-style title to iOS.

A Little Fake Leather Can Turn Your World Into An Adventure Time Episode

In a show full of quests and magical items, it is the most special. The Enchiridion, Adventure Time’s ancient and sacred tome. The iPad isn’t quite as special, but this awesome cover lets you pretend it can be. Made by HarryDumitrescu, it’s built from “fake leather”, drawn with a Molotow graffiti pen and then covered…

Is This Gameloft’s Team Fortress 2 or Battlefield Heroes?

Can’t it be both? Coming soon to iOS and Android, Blitz Brigade is a team-based online multiplayer shooter. It’s set during World War II (can’t you tell?) and features vehicular combat, five character classes, single-player challenges and trailer music that sounds like it’s being performed by a Team Fortress 2 cover band. It’s Team Fortress…

Death Comes Suddenly in This Spectacular Day Z Live-Action Fan Film

The popular Arma mod DayZ lets us struggle to survive in a barren world, where silence is inevitably interrupted by the bizarre and the deadly. Would that make for a good movie? Sure would! The talented gaming movie-makers at Corridor Digital prove it in the 9 1/2 minute movie “After DayZ”. Watch it above. These…

The Original Capture the Flag Game Makes Its Online Multiplayer Debut

I had completely forgotten how much fun the classic strategy board game Stratego was until I played the online multiplayer version launched today by Keesing Games on Facebook, Stratego.com and the iPad All the subterfuge, misdirection and mechanics of the beloved strategy board game come to life like never before in Stratego Online, and you…

Let’s Rank The Final Fantasy Games, Best to Worst

For the past two months, we’ve been running a feature called Pecking Order, in which we rank every game in a series, from best to worst. First up was Halo, then Grand Theft Auto Now it’s Final Fantasy‘s turn. Which game in Square’s crystal-packed behemoth is the best? Which is the worst? Which has the…