Ethan Gach

Donkey Kong Country 2’s Soundtrack Is A Perfect Mix Of Hyped Up And Zoned Out

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re going to revisit some of the chillest gaming beats around: David Wise’s music for Donkey Kong Country 2 Unlike 1994’s SNES Donkey Kong Country, whose mix of naturalistic themes and retro-swing jazz was a…

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit Looks Like Fun If You Have The Space (And Money) For It

Earlier this week Nintendo let me preview its upcoming attempt to graft Mario Kart onto remote control cars through augmented reality. It’s called Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, and it looks like a lot of fun. It also looks very niche. Because of the ongoing pandemic I didn’t actually get to play Mario Kart Live:…

Super Mario Bros 35‘s Novelty Doesn’t Last Long

Super Mario Bros. 35 is an interesting social experiment: Pit 35 players against one another in a contest for survival while playing through classic Super Mario Bros. levels. Unfortunately its charm is already wearing thin. Out today on Switch for players with a paid subscription to Switch Online, Super Mario Bros. 35 borrows the basic…

Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s Next Fighters Are Steve And Alex From Minecraft

Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai announced today during a brief video that Steve from Minecraft will be joining the game’s roster. He’ll be joined by Alex, Zombie, and Enderman. Steve and co. will be able to use pickaxes, throw down blocks, and even have a crafting ability. Sakurai added that every stage currently in…

Stadia Doesn’t Even Work On Google’s New Chromecast

Google revealed its new Chromecast device yesterday and it does a lot more than the previous versions. One thing it doesn’t do, however, is stream Stadia games. Officially called ‘Chromecast with Google TV’, the new device comes with a remote and functions more like a standard streaming box, letting you watch stuff on Netflix or…

Pokémon Go To Pokémon Home Transfers Will Be A Little Annoying

The Pokémon Company announced yesterday that Pokémon Home support for Pokémon Go will arrive before the end of the year. But when it does it sounds like it will come with a weird caveat. Pokémon Home is the new version of the Pokémon Bank which lets you house Pokémon from just about every modern game…

Nintendo is announcing Smash Bros. Ultimate’s next fighter tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. ET. The presentation is set to be three minutes long and conclude with a message from game director Masahiro Sakurai. Anything but another Fire Emblem character please.

That’s Not Right…

Flight Simulator pilots discovered a trippy glitch over the weekend that causes the earth to open up and warp space-time like a black hole. The glitch is located in Brazil, around the coordinates 6°02’19.9″S 36°27’17.1″W. Things look normal at first as players pull off the rugged, country airstrip, but immediately ahead is a vortex of…

Randy Orton’s Tattoo Artist Sues Take-Two For Using Her Designs In WWE Games

Take-Two and World Wrestling Entertainment are headed to trial after a judge ruled WWE 2K games copied the work of an artist responsible for some of pro wrestler Randy Orton’s tattoos. Orton’s arms are fully inked from shoulder to hand, an intrinsic part of the four-time World Heavyweight Championship belt holder’s stage appearance. According to…

Nintendo’s 35th Anniversary Mario Pin Set Spawns Another Pre-Order Hell

Have you heard? It’s the 35-year anniversary of Super Mario Bros. Nintendo commemorated the occasion with, among other things, a special limited-edition Mario pin set. A lot of people wanted it. Unfortunately a lot of them also didn’t get it. The pin set was announced back at the beginning of September, but didn’t finally go…

Report: Beyond Good & Evil 2 Director Michel Ancel Left Ubisoft Amid Investigation Into Complaints Of Toxic Leadership [Update]

Rayman creator, Beyond Good and Evil 2 director, and longtime Ubisoft veteran Michel Ancel retired from the video game publisher earlier this month while being investigated for toxic behavior, according to a new report by the French newspaper Libération Ancel, who had been at the company for over 30 years, announced last Friday that he…

A Bunch Of Classic Metal Gear Games Are Coming Back To PC

Konami announced this morning that the original Metal Gear, Metal Gear Solid, and Metal Gear Solid 2 are all headed back to PC via the GOG storefront, alongside the Konami Collector’s Series: Castlevania & Contra collection. The three Metal Gear games had all previously been on PC back around their original release, but this is…

It’s About To Get Spooky In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is getting pumpkin patches, Halloween costumes, and a trick-or-treat event as part of its fall update starting September 30. The free update adds new DIY recipes, costumes, and character customization options to make your island extra spooky in time for the Halloween, Nintendo announced via a new trailer. Do you like…

Destiny 2‘s File Size Is About To Go Way Down

Destiny 2‘s file size will shrink by somewhere between 30 and 40 percent when Beyond Light releases, Bungie announced yesterday. Unfortunately, you’ll also need to re-download the entire game when that happens. A lot of games are big these days, but even in a crowded field of bloated file sizes Destiny 2 stands out. I…

Sega Wants To Make A Yakuza Movie

Sega is in talks to adapt the Yakuza games into a movie, according to a new report by Variety. What could go wrong? Variety writes that Sega is currently working to develop the adaptation with the production firms 1212 Entertainment and Wild Sheep Content, which I’ve never heard of before. The two firms are still…

Destiny 2 Is Getting Snow Storms

Bungie announced yesterday that dynamic blizzards will be waging across the Jupiter’s frosty moon of Europa, and they’ll be so bad at times you might need a new thermal scope to keep enemies at bay. “We were brainstorming and Ed Brennan [Europa World Art Lead] proposed the idea of a blizzard to help sell the…

Xbox Series X Expandable Storage Costs $219.99

The price for 1TB of expandable storage on Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and S consoles has finally been revealed and it’s a whopping $219.99. That’s based on a listing that recently went up over at Best Buy and was first spotted by The Verge. (Update – 11:34 a.m., 9/24/20: Microsoft confirmed the price over on…

Endless Space’s Alien Music Makes Spreadsheet Management Feel Transcendent

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today I’m here to sing the praises of Endless Space’s lowkey ode to micromanagement, which featured the only game soundtrack that’s ever made me feel equal parts noble and enlightened for spending hours fiddling with resource…

Destiny 2 Honors Deceased Developer With Moving Piece Of In-Game Lore

When players log onto Destiny 2 this week they’ll be asked to go investigate some lost Golden Age tech on Mars as part of a special tribute to Matt Helsom, an artist at Vicarious Visions who passed away last year. Touching down on Mars there’s no objective marker for where to begin the Signal Intercepted…

Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access Beta Delayed A Week

Baldur’s Gate 3 won’t make its early access debut on PC and Stadia at the end of this month after all. Instead, it’s been pushed back to October 6. Larian Studios announced the delay on Twitter today, citing some issues with stability and hold-ups around the game translation into various languages. “We’re nearly there but…