Nintendo

Miitomo Hits the U.S. This Thursday 

Nintendo’s first social app for smart devices, Miitomo, will be released in North America on March 31. Users need to sign up for a Nintendo Account at Miitomo.com before March 31 to get an email letting them know the Miitomo app is available for download. Those who preregister also receive Platinum Points for the My…

Report: Nintendo of Korea Is Laying Off Most of Its Staff [Update]

According to respected Korean game site GameMeca, Nintendo’s South Korean branch is being hit hard with layoffs. Nintendo of Korea was founded in 2006. Prior to that, a local distributor released Nintendo games and consoles in the region. Update (March 30 5:40am) – According to Gameple (via tipster Sang), Nintendo of Korea has commented on…

Old School Nintendo. Kyoto, Japan. By Stephen Gibson. 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!

 What Made F-Zero Great

F-Zero GX was a critical hit that, 13 years later, stands as a racing game classic for Sega and Nintendo. It was the latest in a string of excellent F-Zero games. It was also the last one ever made for a console. Nintendo has largely neglected the series beyond the mid 2000s, and as such…

Streamer Transforms Super Mario World Into A Whole Other Game Just By Playing

Using an exploit allowing him to write processor instructions to Super Nintendo system memory, speedrunner and Minecraft builder extraordinaire Sethbling injected the code for mobile hit Flappy Bird into Super Mario World in under an hour. (Video below will autoplay, sorry.) This is not an emulator running code. The Super Nintendo was not modded. A…

The Old Nintendo 3DS Turns Five

The Nintendo 3DS was released in North America five years ago today, and we’re still using at least two of its Ds. Do you still have yours, or did you trade it in for something sexier last year?

Two Smart Ideas In The Bravely Second Demo Make JRPG Grinding Less Tedious

Always searching for JRPGs that respect my time, I’ve made some happy discoveries in the demo for the upcoming 3DS game Bravely Second I shouldn’t have been too surprised that the demo has some player-friendly features. The game’s 2014 predecessor, Bravely Default, already let players lower (or raise) the frequency of random encounters on the…

Those Rumored NX Controller Photos Are Both Fake

A reddit user claims they were behind the original “leaked” photo of an NX controller, and released a video showing his Photoshop work. But what about those other photos?! Well, those are fake, too. Sorry, #TeamReal. Update 10:23 am, 3/25/16: Disregard everything you think is real; both “leaks” are now confirmed fakes. Not long after…

The Man Who Wrote Earthbound

A few weeks ago, Marcus Lindblom logged onto TwitchTV. He found someone playing Earthbound, and he watched them stream for a while. Every time they smiled in the right place or laughed at the right joke, he felt a jolt of vindication. Validation. Eighteen years later, he could finally see people enjoying his work. This…

Nintendo Finally Fixed Mario Maker‘s 100 Mario Challenge

I’ve been trying to beat Mario Maker’s 100 Mario Challenge on Expert ever since the game came out last September. It’s brutal. But only today was I able to pull it off, and there’s a reason for that: Nintendo’s made it easier. Starting with the most recent patch, Nintendo introduced super expert, another difficulty tier…

Rumored NX Photos Show A Controller Without Buttons [UPDATE: It’s Fake]

A series of new photos, posted two different places and purporting to show the controller for Nintendo’s next console, reveal a controller without buttons, one that’s shaped like a football. Update – 10:39am, March 25: It was a hoax, as we noted it might have been. Sorry for wasting your time. Original story follows. I…

Drama Ensues As Fire Emblem Fates Fan Translation Gets Canceled, Then Uncanceled

The team behind a nine-month-old fan translation of Fire Emblem Fates disbanded yesterday, appearing to cancel their project in the process. That decision prompted disappointment and anger, but there are reports a new team has picked up the project. I profiled this translation group a little while back, a group of fans both interested in…

In Japan, Nintendo is trying to trademark its iconic “coin sound” from Super Mario. It’s hard to believe that they haven’t already!

Nintendo Denies It’s Ending Wii U Production Anytime Soon

Respected Japanese newspaper Nikkei published a rumor this morning that the Wii U will soon be ceasing production to make way for the upcoming NX. Nintendo is now denying that report. Nikkei reports Wii U production will apparently end before the year is out. The reasons Nikkei gives are a lack of popularity compared to…

How’s Miitomo doing? Nintendo reports that in the first three days that the app launched in Japan, Miitomo racked up over a million users. In case you missed it, check out Kotaku’s Miitomo walkthrough.

Nintendo Deletes Every Stage By Prominent Mario Maker Speedrunner

Nintendo has a real problem on its hands with Mario Maker. Left and right, creators are seeing their levels removed from the online servers without an explanation. David “GrandPOObear” Hunt, a speedrunner who makes a living streaming games, is the latest victim. All of his levels have vanished. (We last featured Hunt after he pulled…

(Maybe) Your First Look At Pokémon Go

John Hanke, CEO of Pokémon Go developers Niantic, gave a talk at SXSW Gaming over the weekend on the future of AR (Augmented Reality) games. Shortly afterwards, this video showed up. Of course, with no official video of the talk available (or a transcript), we can’t be 100% sure that this is something actually shown…

Pokken Tournament: The Kotaku Review

If you’ve ever wished your Pokemon battles could be more exciting than a pair of Pokemon taking turns making battle animations at each other, Pokken Tournament is your game. This post originally appeared 3/15/16. Basic Pokemon battles haven’t evolved much over the past two decades. The combatants have gotten prettier, the attack animations more elaborate,…

‘Dickbutt’, ‘Shitlord’ and Other Naughty Words Your Character Can Say in Nintendo’s First Mobile Game

Miitomo is brand new, marking the first time that the House of Mario is entering the brave new world of mobile gaming. The game currently has a big rookie mistake: you can swear like the rudest teenager ever in it. Let’s hear how my Mii sounds with a mouth full of filth. Nintendo has a…

A Quick Tour of Miitomo, Nintendo’s First Mobile App

Three years ago, the very idea of Nintendo creating an experience solely targeted at smartphone users seemed like an outlier, bizarro-world possibility. Today, Nintendo released Miitomo in Japan for iOS and Android devices. Here’s what it looks like. Miitomo’s debut is only limited to Japanese storefronts right now, meaning that you’ll need a Japanese iTunes…