Chloe Spencer is the summer intern for Kotaku and recently graduated from the University of Oregon. She enjoys reading graphic novels and playing video games.
Ahh, fall. The time for pumpkin spice lattes, long walks amongst colorful autumn trees, and watching scary movies underneath the safety of your favorite blanket. It’s also the time for some big releases in video games.
When I was about ten years old, my brother Mike introduced me to my favorite game, a JRPG for the PS2 called Radiata Stories. It was a fantasy love story about a young man, Jack Russell (yes, you read that right) whose dreams of becoming a knight are shattered after his teammate, Ridley, is nearly killed. Later, Jack…
Nintendo has a longstanding poor reputation with the YouTube community, and the latest change to their Nintendo Creators Program may harm that relationship even more.
In the past, I’ve thought a little about making a game, but never got around to learning actual coding. Recently, I’ve started to develop that abstract “what if” idea into a passion project of my own. I’m learning how to create maps, program quests, and write cutscenes with the help of a program that can build RPGs.…
You know that feeling you get when you ride a roller coaster? The breathless anticipation, followed by the shrieking joy and terror as you plummet down to the bottom? That’s the feeling I get when I ride the pen in Super Fancy Pants Adventure, an action-packed sidescrolling platformer.
On any given day, CEO André Thomas arrives at his company Triseum’s office in Bryan, Texas at nine in the morning. While this is when Thomas gets in, his work day usually starts hours before by checking sales on the company’s educational video games. On one of the days that Thomas and I spoke, he told me he had been…
In Mushroom Heroes, I’m looking at a fast-moving platform over a bed of spikes. Timing my jump is one thing, but figuring out which character should jump first is another. There could be a monster on the other side of the ledge, and there’s only one person who uses arrows. There might be blocks to push around,…
It’s been a year since Gravity Falls aired its series finale, and I, one of the show’s many super-fans, miss it so much. But now, there’s a visual novel on the way that can help me relive some of the wackiness of that small, mysterious Oregon town. It’s called Reverse Falls.
Beast Battle Simulator added a new animal to the game: a Megalodon, or giant prehistoric shark. The developers also added another new creature that you can unlock once you achieve a gold star ranking on all challenges.
You are a mother fox who awakes to find that your three babies have disappeared. As you set off through the vast wilderness to find them, a voice begins to speak. It’s the voice of a man named Joseph. At first he talks about your journey, but then the focus switches to his own story. As the player, you realize you are…
I started playing Breath of the Wild a few weeks ago, and, so far, I love it. However, I’ve come across a few things while playing that have left me confused. Here are some questions I have about magic, Princess Zelda, and other characters in Breath of the Wild.
A few days ago, the developers of the physics-based battle game Beast Battle Simulator introduced a new beast: sharks. These sharks don’t need any water—they skitter across the land at a slow pace, and launch themselves at their opponents. Like their real life counterparts, they fight with their teeth and jaws.…
Netflix dropped another season of BoJack Horseman this weekend. As is tradition, I sat down and watched all of it all in one go without realizing. While Kotaku’s managing editor Riley MacLeod, intern Chloe Spencer and I had some problems with the fourth season’s execution, we all still love this weird, depressing,…
Have you ever seen a zombie and thought, “Look at those squishy rotting cheeks. I just want to pinch them!” Well you’re in luck, because in Raise the Dead, you can keep adorable (but vicious) zombies and perform experiments with them.
When I first got Stardew Valley last December, I spent days playing it. To date, I have 70 hours on record. I swapped study time with hours of slashing monsters, caring for crops and livestock, and doting on my husband, Harvey. But lately, I’ve been bored with Stardew Valley.
On Tuesday, President Trump and his administration announced that they would end the DACA program which allows undocumented youth brought to the United States as children to work and receive protection from deportation. Some major tech and gaming corporations have spoken out about DACA, including Madden and Sims…
The New Super Luigi U community has been a shitposting safe haven on the Miiverse since 2016. But soon, it, along with several other miiverse communities, will be no more. You can still save your shitposts, though.
You’ve heard of side-scrollers, but what about depth-scrollers? DARQ, an upcoming psychological horror game, allows you to bend physics in order to solve puzzles.
Last week, Hurricane Harvey touched down in Texas, causing unprecedented amounts of catastrophic damage to the area and killing at least 38 people according to the New York Times. Entire sections of Houston, the United States’ fourth largest city, are underwater. The storm has been chronicled on the news and social…
Imagine a world where everything is controlled and monitored by computer programs. Every citizen has a unique ID given to them at birth. Bitphones process your brainwaves. This is the world of 1bitHeart, a new side-scrolling adventure game.
