Michael B. Jordan has never been shy about his love for Japanese animation, from Naruto and Dragon Ball Z to Bleach and My Hero Academia. A decade’s worth of endearing press appearances spread across his 25-year career attests to that fact. But for the 36-year-old actor-turned-director, the love goes deeper...
Worlds Beyond Number is the next big breakout actual play podcast
Actual play experiences — video or audio performances featuring people playing tabletop role-playing games — are extremely popular right now. Look no further than the gang at Critical Role, a group of talented actors who have parlayed their private weekly game of Dungeons & Dragons into a multi-million-dollar entertainment machine....
Diablo is haute as hell at Milan Fashion Week
Blizzard Entertainment and Danish fashion house Han Kjøbenhavn unveiled a surprising new collaboration on Saturday at Milan Fashion Week: a Diablo-inspired, high-end, ready-to-wear collection for 2023 that will be available for purchase this summer. Han Kjøbenhavn’s fall/winter “Chthonic Penumbra” womenswear collection goes far beyond the T-shirts and hoodies one typically...
The wizard of gaming psychedelia is back on his bullshit
If it’s possible to be an institution and an outsider at the same time, then Jeff Minter is both. He is, perhaps, the last of the original lone gunmen in video games. As a self-taught teenage coder, he joined the explosive homebrew game development scene in the U.K. in the...
Scythe artist Jakub Różalski returns for a sequel to his award-winning board game
The genesis of board game Scythe dates back to nearly a decade ago, after game designer Jamey Stegmaier visited Kotaku and encountered the world of 1920+, as depicted in Jakub Różalski’s series of paintings. Now Stegmaier and Różalski have teamed up once more for Expeditions, a stand-alone sequel to the...
Even Mario’s creator wasn’t sure a Nintendo theme park could work
Super Nintendo World, which opens Friday at Universal Studios Hollywood, is a wholly unique and unforgettable new addition to the theme park. It brings Nintendo’s colorful worlds to life, allowing visitors to move through the space — speckled with Thwomps, stacks of Goombas, spinning Koopa shells, and other iconic characters...
Halo dropped the ball on Cortana’s villainous turn
The Halo series has a sizable villain problem. It’s not that there aren’t notable antagonists, but that they tend to disappear after a couple games, get relegated to simple boss battles, or fade into grander stories. The Flood was the first big mystery threat, but the Gravemind and his booming...
As D&D increasingly goes digital, Dwarven Forge brings focus back to the tabletop
During the COVID-19 pandemic, fans of Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, and other tabletop role-playing games suddenly found themselves at a crossroads. Should they stop their campaigns, pausing months or years of continuous play, and wait things out? Or should they make the jump to digital formats —...
Darth Vader, the problematic fanzine fave of 1977
When Star Wars hit theaters in 1977, fans had no idea it would be a trilogy, let alone remain a household name 45 years later. But they knew they had seen something special, and they wanted more. So they created their own extended universe. Fan zines with art, fiction, and...
The making of Vox Machina’s Umbrasyl fight, from Critical Role arc to epic animated finale
Critical Role’s The Legend of Vox Machina season 2 has officially wrapped on Prime Video, and the finale’s big fight already stands out as one of the animated series’ best. Season 2 focused on the overarching threat of the Chroma Conclave, a group of dragons who threaten Tal’Dorei, and Vox...