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Nintendo’s New Rewards Program Is Actually Pretty Good

This week Nintendo finally rolled out its new rewards program. After a year of only letting players redeem coins for discounts on Wii U and 3DS games, people can finally start leveraging their purchases to save money on Switch games. Compared to the rewards programs elsewhere in gaming, it’s actually pretty good. The updated version…

Google Maps Gets Its Very Own Mario Kart

Google’s already tossed Pac Man into its maps—now it’s Mario’s turn to shine. To celebrate Mario Day, users of the Google Maps phone app can now send their favorite plumber karting around their neighborhood. Leading into March 10th–whose abbreviation Mar. 10 looks like the most l33t spelling of Mario ever–anyone using the Google Maps app…

Kotaku XP: Nintendo Direct, Call of Duty, The Division 2

Last week we started a new weekly series called Kotaku XP. Being the first episode, it technically wasn’t “weekly” yet. Well, it’s exactly one week later. Surprise! It’s the second episode. We are officially weekly. In Kotaku XP, Gita Jackson and I discuss 10 Kotaku stories for around 30 seconds each. This week, we got…

Fortnite Seems To Be Overtaking PUBG 

For a long time, the love affair between PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Twitch looked like it was meant to last. The blockbuster survival shooter captured the hearts of Twitch’s biggest streamers all through 2017, and, in August, finallydethroned Twitch mainstay League of Legends in the “most hours watched” category (73.7 million to 71.9). Now, Battlegrounds is…

The Endless Appeal of a Good Video Game Character Creator

Earlier this month, a hentai game blew up. It wasn’t the sex, though: people were talking about the game because of the incredibly detailed character creator. It’s not the first time a game has exploded largely due to a character creator. Remember Black Desert Online, the MMO that eventually released a standalone just so players…

Here’s What We Know About Artifact, Valve’s New Card Game

Valve demoed its upcoming card game Artifact recently at its Seattle office and the details have begun pouring in. While Valve founder Gabe Newell reportedly called Blizzard’s Hearthstone the “benchmark” for online card games, Artifact sounds like it will be very different. Previously, all we knew was that the game was inspired by Dota and…

Mike Dies Keeps Finding Exciting New Ways To Kill Me

If Spaceman Mike stands completely inside a portal, he’s transported to another place. If even a tiny bit of him remains outside, he dies. Developer Psydra Games does so much with such a simple mechanic in the disturbingly-named Mike Dies. Mike Dies, available on Steam, has many things going for it. It’s a Metroidvania-style puzzle…

A Peek Inside Final Fantasy‘s Ultimania Art Book, Now In English

In 2012, Square Enix Japan published a trio of Final Fantasy 25th Memorial Ultimania books collecting art, developer commentary and background information on the first 14 numbered Final Fantasy games. Now Dark Horse is publishing the books in English, with the first 336 page volume arriving in July. We got samples. Wanna see? Square Enix…

First hinted at last week, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth’s official website was launched. It’s announced the “smartphone version of Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth” and will be released on iOS and Android this spring in Japan.

You Are Not Looking At A Manga Drawing Of Cars

This isn’t an Initial D drawing. It’s not a page from the manga. You are looking at model cars painted like manga or anime art. Incredible, no? This is the work of a talented Twitter user named Shinga, who says he painted them in the style of Initial D creator Shuichi Shigeno. Here’s a look…

Why People Keep Saying “Perfect Body” In This Twitch Streamer’s Comments

Actor Kane Kosugi recently started streaming League of Legends on Twitch. His comments section filled up with people saying “Perfect Body.” On Twitter, “Perfect Body” even started trending in Japan. The US-born Kosugi has starred in an array of films, including Godzilla: Final Wars, the live-action Terraformars, DOA: Dead or Alive and Tekken: Kazuya’s Revenge.…

Spoilers Leak About Dragon Ball Super‘s Last Episode

On March 25, Dragon Ball Super’s last episode will air, bringing to an end the series which debuted in June 2015. Warning: This article has spoilers. According to an Animage magazine scan, which was linked by Hachima but which Kotaku hasn’t confirmed firsthand, the episode’s title is apparently “A Miraculous Conclusion! Farewell Goku! Until The…

Stripes. Tokyo, Japan. By Willis Lai | Instagram  JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Yes, Give Mercy Two Guns

I used to main Mercy. Now I don’t even play Overwatch. Partly because the growing obsession with the game’s meta among friends was poison to my casual Overwatch habits, but also because Mercy only had one gun. As a Battle Mercy guy, healing always came secondary to the accuracy and range of her pistol, and…

Do Not Call Yourself ‘Fuck,’ Spider-Man Doesn’t Like It

As long as there have been video games that let you enter text, there have been people using rude words. Many just let you use them, others will block them, but Spider-Man on the PS1 did something a bit different. At the player name entry screen, it would detect naughty words and as voice actor…

Fortnite Is Coming To Mobile, Will Support Cross-Platform Play

Epic just announced that Fortnite: Battle Royale is coming to Android and iOS. It’s not a weird conversion, or downsized experience either. Epic says “Fortnite is the same 100-player game you know from PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac. Same gameplay, same map, same content, same weekly updates.” There’s even talk of letting mobile…

Bungie has gone into more detail about the 1.1.4 balance patch coming to Destiny 2 on March 27. A bunch of weapon types are getting PvE damage buffs, and several perks (including Kill Clip and Dragonfly) are also getting buffed. Competitive and Trials PvP matches will no longer have radar (!!), and super cooldowns will…

Trump Meets With Game Executives, Watches Clips Of Violent Video Games

President Donald Trump spent an hour today talking to partisans on both sides of the violent video game debate, without any sort of conclusive outcome. The White House also ran a reel of violent video game footage. The meeting was held following the president’s remarks linking video games to violence in the wake of the…

Japan Is Getting Some Switch Games We’re Not (Yet?)

We just got a whole bunch of awesome Nintendo Switch game announcements in today’s Nintendo Direct, but as usual, Japan got a little bit extra. Here are the announcements you didn’t see if you only watched the U.S. Direct. SaGa Scarlet Grace, the latest in Square Enix’s long-running series of really complicated RPGs originally released…

Everything Announced During Today’s Nintendo Direct

Today, Nintendo officially announced that Super Smash Bros. is coming to Switch. Equally exciting: the original Luigi’s Mansion is getting a 3DS remake! It was a port-heavy Direct this time around, with some cool news tucked in around the edges. Here’s everything Nintendo showed. Super Smash Bros. is coming to Switch. Not the most surprising…