Natalie Degraffinried

  • The Poké Ball Guy Is Not Your Friend, Friend

    Among all the controversy that’s arisen around Pokémon Sword and Shield, one new feature has stuck out to me as particularly egregious: the Ball Guy. You know the one. He pops up at every Pokémon League stadium, shilling exotic Poké Balls and cheerfully spreading his propaganda. His face, like that of many mascots, is agonisingly…


  • The Pokémon Studio’s New RPG Sets Itself Apart

    Little Town Hero for the Nintendo Switch is a Game Freak role-playing game about a young boy who’s charged with fighting a bunch of viciously powerful monsters as adults stand idly by. No, not that one. Little Town Hero is totally its own thing: a deceptively simple RPG-card-game hybrid with light tactical elements that manages…


  • Daemon X Machina: The Kotaku Review

    Daemon X Machina, out September 13 from Marvellous, is a game about gigantic customisable mechs. Here is another way to describe it: the worst filler episode of your favourite anime series. It is a mess of a game, with a story mode chock full of unintelligible cutscenes, repetitious anime tropes, and a core of mech…