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How Drawing Comics Helped Shigeru Miyamoto Make Great Mario Games
Stories of how Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto draws inspiration for game design from his everyday life have become beloved bits of video game mythology. The Legend of Zelda sprang from his experiences playing outside in caves as a child, his family’s pet canine sparked the idea for Nintendogs and so on. But the principles that…
By Evan Narcisse Published April 13, 2012 -
Fantastic, Odd Art Made From Bullet Hell Video Games
Oliver Payne makes stickers out of the bullet-hell graphics of Japanese shoot-em-up arcade games and sticks them on pages of a Greek sculpture catalogue. The results are unexpectedly wonderful. See more of his work below. Or, if you’re in Tokyo, look for them at the Nanzuka Underground gallery, where they will be featured in an…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 13, 2012 -
What Battlefield Might Look Like With Google Glasses
Google Glasses is somewhat of a creepy concept, but it can also mean a drastic change for gamers. Imagine playing the next Battlefield title like something of an ARG, where the playing field is the literal space you stand in. Can’t imagine it? That’s fine, because YouTube user ThereIsaCanal has uploaded a video of what…
By Tina Amini Published April 13, 2012 -
EA Wants Need for Speed to Race into Movie Theaters
For all that movies and games so often feel like they should be a natural partnership, they usually aren’t. A huge number of films based on game franchises have been developed in the last thirty years or so, and most of them were awful. This doesn’t seem to be deterring EA, who are shopping around…
By Kate Cox Published April 13, 2012 -
Geralt Makes “Rated M for Mature” Sound So Sexy
The Witcher 2: Assassin’s of Kings‘ hero doesn’t get laid all the time for nothing. In this launch trailer for the Xbox 360 edition of the game, Geralt of Rivia warns of mature content in a way that’ll have your parents purchasing the game for themselves. I vote we have Geralt’s voice actor Doug Cockle…
By Mike Fahey Published April 13, 2012 -
Meet The Fifth-Grader Who Made A Video Game For His Blind Grandmother
Video games are for having fun. They’re for escaping. They’re for pretending to be somebody you’re not, for machine-gunning through alien mines or hopping between cartoon chasms. They’re for zombie shooting and portal opening and cube collecting. But sometimes they’re something else. Sometimes, as ten-year-old Dylan Viale has already discovered, video games are for sharing…
By Jason Schreier Published April 13, 2012 -
Mario Is Written For Simpletons, Assassin’s Creed Is A Gore-Fest And Other Problems Crippling Video Games
A lovely profile of the ever-fascinating game designer Jonathan Blow in the Atlantic magazine is bundled, online, with a sneer about the world’s non-Jonathan Blow video games. The profile’s writer Taylor Clark is trying to establish what’s special about Blow and his intent to make games like Braid and the forthcoming The Witness use the…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 13, 2012 -
These New Assassin’s Creed III Screens Show Off Some Beautiful Hunting
We already know that new character Connor is going to be a formidable woodsman and these apparently leaked screens show the newest Assassin protagonist tracking prey in snow-covered woods. Those tracks, those branches… man, October 30th can’t get here soon enough. Assassin’s Creed III [All Games Beta] (Note: Images appear as they did today on…
By Evan Narcisse Published April 13, 2012 -
Indie Man Valiantly Brings Down The Big Bad Game Companies
All of the qualms you’ve been having over your favorite AAA games—like bad endings and online passes—have Indie Man to blame. Indie Man bursts into high profile game company meetings and inserts his crazy ideas to bring down the man. All of his valiant efforts are to help indie games’ popularity. So, does it work?
By Tina Amini Published April 13, 2012 -
Dabble With Word Puzzles and Just Enough Strategy
Dabble is an incredibly simple but satisfying game that combines two of my favorite things: words and puzzles. Like any other word game, Dabble gives the player a bunch of tiles and asks them to form words; this is fairly straightforward. Then the puzzle catch comes in: each round has exactly 20 tiles, from which…
By Kate Cox Published April 13, 2012 -
You’re Trapped Inside a Gigantic Claw Machine. What Do You Do?!
It’s all fun and games until the giant claw descends from the sky and threatens to make you the unwilling plaything of a surly teenager. This brilliant (very) short film from SoKrispyMedia captures the sheer panic experienced by brave men that have, perhaps foolishly, made the inside of a claw machine their preferred hang-out spot.…
By Mike Fahey Published April 13, 2012 -
Someone Please Build This Magical Kingdom of Disney Minecraft
I don’t think anyone can say they don’t like Disney World. But if it’s missing something, it’s certainly a Minecraft themed park. After all, the last time the resort received a major addition was in 1998. How cool would it be to walk through a pixelated universe with hired actors walking around as creepers? Whichever…
By Tina Amini Published April 13, 2012 -
Two-Thirds of Parents Admit They Don’t Bother Checking Video Game Age Ratings
The ESRB has a fairly detailed and complex system that determines what games are marked kid-safe and which are considered appropriate for adults’ eyes only. All major publishers participate in the voluntary rating system, and it is instrumental in physical, retail game sales in stores like GameStop and Walmart. But does any of it actually…
By Kate Cox Published April 13, 2012 -
With Every New Resident Evil Comes A New Typo
Remember that typo on the box art for Resident Evil: Revelations? The one even publisher Capcom admitted was “embarrassing“? Check out the series’ latest gaffe, spotted on the front page of GameFAQs by Twitter user @cvxfreak. Either they meant to say “mercenaries” or they’ve just straight up thrown subtlety out the window. Merchandising, merchandising!
By Jason Schreier Published April 13, 2012 -
The Witcher 2 Makes it to Xbox 360 Intact and Ready For Sexy Action
If you’re an RPG fan who doesn’t own a super-fast gaming PC, you probably spent this time last year watching your PC-owning friends with no small amount of jealousy as they went on and on about this great game they were playing called The Witcher 2 I was one of those PC ownerrs—I played the…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 13, 2012 -
Behind on Schoolwork? Distracted at the Job? Let Us Know If You Need a Kotaku Suspension
A loyal Kotaku reader contacted me yesterday to notify me that they needed to focus on schoolwork and would like to be blocked from our site for a bit. I didn’t want to ban this reader, so I offered a one-week commenting suspension. They accepted it and are now, hopefully, productively Getting Things Done. I…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 13, 2012 -
Talk Amongst Yourselves
It’s Friday the 13th. Be careful as you head into the weekend, folks. Welcome to Kotaku’s official forum, known affectionately as Talk Amongst Yourselves. This is the place where we gather on a daily basis to discuss all things video game and existential. Want to talk about new games, old games, games that aren’t even…
By Evan Narcisse Published April 13, 2012