At long last, Earthbound is on Switch. Nintendo added the 1995 RPG to its online offerings earlier this week alongside its NES predecessor, Earthbound Beginnings. New players and longtime fans alike, including the series’ director, Shigesato Itoi, can now enjoy the colorful acid sci-fi journey on a beautiful OLED…
Source: Kotaku – The Best Video Game Strategy Guide Ever Can Be Downloaded For Free
Twitch streamer Alexandra “Alliestrasza” Macpherson, a prominent Hearthstone player and a member of esports organization Fade 2 Karma, was arrested on February 9. But it wasn’t her fault. She was swatted while playing the collectible card game live on stream, with police showing up fully strapped and ready to take…
Source: Kotaku – Hearthstone Streamer Swatted Live On Twitch
Ah, Friday. The fifth day of the typical workweek. The end of said workweek, for many. But how nice would it be if [sentiment redacted by bosses]? Just ask folks from Blackbird Interactive, the developer behind Homeworld 3 and Hardspace: Shipbreaker and the latest studio to switch to a four-day workweek.
Source: Kotaku – The Four-Day Workweek Is Getting Popular Among Devs, And It Sure Sounds Nice
Retro beat ‘em up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge isn’t pulling its punches. Indie developer Tribute Games revealed yesterday, during a mini-PlayStation indie event, that mutant rat and ninjutsu master Splinter will be playable in the arcade homage when it releases later in 2022. The event also shared…
Source: Kotaku – The Rat Has A Name And Will Be Playable In TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge
Lost Ark, despite just now being experienced by a great many players for the first time, isn’t a new game in the traditional sense. It was first released in South Korea back in 2019 for PC. After finding huge success there, Lost Ark publisher Smilegate has partnered with Amazon to bring the MMOARPG to the US and…
Source: Kotaku – Lost Ark Has Over 500K Players On Steam, But What Is It?
Nolan North voices Nathan Drake in the Uncharted games. Tom Holland plays the character in the upcoming movie version. So how do you cast for the audiobook of the feature film’s novelization? Nolan North, that’s who.
Variety (via Eurogamer) reports that North will be narrating the novelization and doing the voices for…
Source: Kotaku – Nolan North Is Voicing Nathan Drake For The Uncharted Movie Version’s Novelization
When Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, the first new Disgaea game in six years, was released on the Switch, it was a bit disappointing. A complete version called, wait for it, Disgaea 6 Complete is coming to the PS4, PS5, and Steam.
Source: Kotaku – Hopefully Disgaea 6 Will Be Better On PlayStation 5
Ownership of the Lord of the Rings series has somehow been in the news twice this week. Firstly and most prominently because the rights to the series are going up for sale for the first time since the 1970s. Secondly, and more bizarrely, because this week of all weeks a prominent Lord of the Rings mod was hit with a…
Source: Kotaku – Lord Of The Rings Mod Hit With Takedown Just As Series’ Rights Are Up For Sale
Recently indicted Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser has been handed a 40-month prison sentence by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington for creating and selling “console-hacking software and devices used to play pirated Nintendo Switch games.” This is according to a victory lap-style press release…
Source: Kotaku – Nintendo Thanks Feds For Sending Hacker To Prison For 3 Years
If you made it through the entire series of Book of Boba Fett, you were treated to a terrible finale and a two-episode narrative diversion that derailed the entire premise of this being a show about Boba Fett. Enjoy! You also, however, caught a glimpse of a very cool, very old piece of video game hardware.
Source: Kotaku – Boba Fett Had A Cameo From a 1981 Video Game System
If you’ve played a competitive online shooter, it’s happened to you. You shoot an enemy a bunch. You swear you saw your shots connect. But the next minute, it’s you who’s sitting through a respawn timer. To take it from hardcore players, Halo Infinite can seem particularly egregious about such matters of desync, and…
Source: Kotaku – Halo Infinite Finally Addresses Desync Lag, And You’d Better Pull Up A Seat
Yesterday’s Nintendo Direct had a little bit of something for everyone, from Wii Sports jocks to Mario Kart speedsters to Kirby vore fanatics. But that doesn’t mean that something incredible wasn’t missing. In fact, the Japanese Nintendo Direct included something pretty terrific that the version we got didn’t: an…
Source: Kotaku – You’re Not Paying Enough Attention To Square Enix’s New Time-Traveling Detective Game
On January 31, publisher Team17 announced a Worms NFTs and was roundly rebuked by fans and studio partners alike. A day later it apologized and canceled the whole thing. According to a new report by Eurogamer, that was only the tip of the iceberg of Team17’s bullshit, which also included bad pay, rising workloads, and…
Source: Kotaku – Report: Gaming CEO Pushes NFT Scam While Devs Struggle To Buy Food
We all know Daisy is a little weird, what with her third eye and all. But were you also aware that she’s the only prominent woman in the Super Mario series with teeth? Well, now you are. I’m sorry.
Source: Kotaku – Daisy Is The Only Super Mario Girl With Teeth, Apparently
A 32-year-old man in Lincolnwood, Illinois was arrested by police after breaking into an elderly woman’s home and holding her hostage for 17 hours. Police were called by the woman’s family to do a wellness check after she failed to send her daughter the usual morning Wordle puzzle.
Source: Kotaku – Wordle Saves Elderly Woman From Kidnapping
There exists within the indie gaming world a vocabulary that few can capture faithfully. It’s that bespoke patois that can be found in A Night In The Woods, in Oxenfree, in A Short Hike. None sounds the same as the other, and yet all have that same cadence, a truthfulness about their dialogue that is missing from the…
Source: Kotaku – One Of The Best Games Of 2020 Comes To Switch Today
The many lives of Mario Kart 8 continue with Nintendo’s DLC announcement during its first Direct of 2022, which will see courses from the series’ past added through 2023. But it’s not all sunny circuits and rainbow roads for longtime fans. Many are currently comparing screenshots between what Nintendo aired during the…
Source: Kotaku – Mario Kart 8 Fans Say DLC Is A Graphical Downgrade
Shortly before yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, Mother creator Shigesato Itoi tweeted, causing speculation to go wild.
Source: Kotaku – Mother Creator Shigesato Itoi Does A Master Class In Trolling
In the past few weeks, popular artist Cotoh Tsumi has been repeatedly hit with tracing allegations. On 2ch and Twitter, critics have posted examples of what they say proves these charges, which the artist has denied. The criticism has become incessant, and now, some collab goods are being pulled.
Source: Kotaku – Artist Hit With Tracing Allegations, But Pokémon Company Says Collab Shirt Is Original
The Russian government is notoriously homophobic, to the point where a law was passed in 2013 that everyone outside of Russia simply refers to as the ‘Russian gay propaganda law’. Which goes a long way to explaining why EA won’t be releasing the latest Sims expansion in the region.
Source: Kotaku – Sims 4 Wedding Expansion Won’t Release In Russia Over Homophobic ‘Federal Laws’