Ethan Gach

Street Fighter Pro Goes Looking For An Energy Drink Mid-Match To Keep Corporate Overlords Happy 

Daigo “The Beast” Umehara is a legendary Street Fighter player, but even legends need to eat, which is why the pro dropped everything in the middle of a match to find a can of Red Bull. Red Bull is one of his sponsors. And since those in the fighting game community don’t get rich off…

New Mod Lets Mario Go Shirtless In Smash 4

“Shirtless Mario!” is a skin mod that lets the Italian fighter trade his iconic overalls for swim trunks. Super Smash Bros. on the Wii U already has alternate costumes for some characters along these lines, including Xenoblade’s Shulk, so the shirtless mod would have seemed like a natural fit for the game long before the…

Sunday Comics: Flavor Of The Month 

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published September 17. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published September 11. Read more…

Looking Back At Some Of The Weirder Limited Edition Consoles 

In 2017 most video game consoles look pretty similar: black boxes of varying size aimed at being as discrete as possible. The brands who manufacture and distribute them also have more clout and prestige of their own. So it’s weird to think that in the late 90s Nintendo thought it was important to use Tommy…

The Iris Cutscene From Mega Man X4 Is Somehow Even Better When It’s Skipping 

Speedrunner Calebhart42 was playing Mega Man X4 at the 2017 Smash The Record event when he got to one of the game’s more infamous cutscenes and it started to skip. Like at Awesome Games Done Quick, Smash The Record runs have donation thresholds that unlock special audience requests when met (the money raised is for…

Track: Fast Driving Rave Up | Artist: ESPRIT 空想 | Album: 200% Electronica Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Dragon Ball FighterZ Gets An Original Character Named Android 21

Revealed in the latest issue of the Japanese magazine V-Jump, the new character was designed by series creator Akira Toriyama and will take part in the game’s alternate timeline story based around the gentle Mohawk giant we all know as Android 16. According to Siliconera she’s a scientist with an intellect that rivals Dr. Gero,…

The Weekend In Esports: Counter-Strike Descends on Barclays

In an otherwise quieter weekend, four elite CS:GO teams will be lighting up the Barclays Center for ESL One New York. The big story so far is that both Cloud9 and Team Liquid managed to eek out spots in the semifinals despite the best efforts of European powerhouses Astralis and Na’Vi. That the unlikely triumphs…

Battlegrounds Continues To Break Records On Steam

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds continues to dominate Steam, dethroning Valve’s Dota 2 for highest concurrent player count of all-time. It was only a month ago that the game reached over 800,000 active users, placing at the top of the digital platforms chart for what people are currently playing at any given time. Now it’s also displaced Dota…

The Week In Games: Once More Unto The Breach 

Some habits are hard to kick. Destiny is second on my list of most-hours-played, wedged firmly between Dota 2 and Super Smash Bros. Melee. Hundreds of hours later I’m still not sure what that says about the game or me. Is Bungie’s post-Halo MMO shooter my second favorite game of all time? No. Do I…

League Pro Goes The Entire European Summer Final Without Dying A Single Time

Sometimes it’s enough just to not die. Survive, and the rest might follow. That was certainly the case for G2 Esports’ Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen at today’s European League of Legends Summer Final. In League, as in most sports, the plays that often get the most attention are the ones that do damage. We remember how…

Game Developers Explain Some Of Their Favorite Ways To Trick The Player 

Games lie to us all the time. Recently, some developers took to Twitter to share a few of their ones, revealing design tricks used in games ranging from Surgeon Simulator to Bioshock In the latter, for instance, the first bullets fired at you by enemies always missed. You might have thought you were just an…

Track: Dirty Work | Artist: Steely Dan | Album: Can’t Buy A Thrill  Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Good Life Shows Off Sheep And Day Drinking In New Gameplay Trailer 

Revealed earlier this month as the latest game from the creator of Deadly Premonition, The Good Life looks as weird as anything Hidetaka “SWERY” Suehiro has ever worked on. The latest trailer offers a first look at some gameplay and, yup, it’s definitely looking like a SWERY game. The Good Life is a murder mystery…

Sunday Comics: Official Lore

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published August 31. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published August 28. Read more…

Gwent Delivers The Witcher 3‘s War-Weary Fatalism In Elegant Card Form

The Witcher 3 is one of this console generation’s best games. It might even be one of the best role-playing games ever made. Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise then that Gwent, its side-quest distraction turned standalone card game, is every bit as detailed, complex, and beautifully crafted. There’s a card in the game…

Sonic Mania Boss Pays Homage To Deceased Fan Hacker

Moto Bug is the first enemy you ever encounter in Sonic. Is the series’ Goomba, in other words, and there’s one in Sonic Mania named after a member of the Sonic hacking community who died a few years back. Named Jimmy after the late Polygon Jim, it appears in the Lava Reef Zone as part…

Here’s A Ton Of New Lore On Destiny 2’s Cabal

Destiny 2 doesn’t release until next week, but at least one Collector’s Edition was delivered early thanks to Amazon Canada. The $250 bundle is filled with art work and lots of different knick-knacks, including a special booklet filled with lore that Reddit user Canadian decided to upload and share with the internet. Bungie’s shooter MMO…

The Weekend In Esports: League Summer Finals And More

It’s Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer, which means it’s also time for the League summer season to draw to a close. Immortals will be making the organization’s first-ever appearence in LCS finals where they will have the tough task of taking on veterans Team Solo Mid. It’ll be up to the newcomers…

The Week In Games: Rabbids Ahead 

Summer must be winding down because the release schedule is starting to ramp up. Knack II is just around the corner! But this week belongs to Mario and the Rabbids and a few other late August slackers. Absolver’s out this week, along with another episode of Life Is Strange. And of course, the long awaited…