Joshua Rivera
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writer for hire. catch me at slate, vulture, vanity fair, the Atlantic, and elsewhere. repped by @lynnjohnstonlit.
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Articles by Joshua Rivera
Vanguard's Descent - Kotaku
Build a three-hero party in a 3D action roguelite where you dodge attacks in real time, command your characters using powerful abilities, and combine character-specific archetypes into powerful synergies. Recruit new Vanguard and eradicate the Plagued!
Beat Boxy - Kotaku
Beat Boxy is a 3D rhythm-based auto-runner. Play as Boxy, a shipping crate running, skateboarding & rollerblading to make his delivery. Jump & slide through dozens of rhythm-fueled levels, and build your own custom levels! Collect gems, unlock gear & survive the chaos while listening to epic music.
Children of Blood and Bone’s NYCC Panel Was All Love
A big swirling bucket of the latest rumors, celebrity news and Hollywood gossip. The premier celebrity gossip app. The only apps that gives you a comprehensive real time celeb news stream. Gossip Bucket aggregates and streams the latest gossip news and headlines from the top sources in one place.
Children of Blood and Bone’s NYCC Panel Was All Love
For months now, the biggest story about the film adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone — a YA publishing sensation and the first entry in Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha trilogy — has centered around its author wanting nothing to do with it.
Children of Blood and Bone’s NYCC Panel Was All Love
21 hours ago At NYCC, the stars of the upcoming adaptation opened up about the love, betrayal, and grief driving the film's central families. There's plenty of magic, mythology, and larger-than-life action in Children of Blood and Bone, but beneath all that fantasy is something a little more grounded: family …
Spark of Tales - Kotaku
Ignite the spark of inspiration while writing tales in a cozy environment where readers become part of the creative process. Follow stories as they’re being written, interact with other authors, shape worlds through your ideas, earn reputation, unlock unique abilities, and get rewarded for your aid.
Michelle Yeoh Ascends Beyond ‘A Mere Human’ in First Look at Blade Runner 2099
According to Blade Runner 2099, humanity only has about 73 years left, which sounds about right. In the Prime Video limited series, set 50 years after Blade Runner 2049, the simmering conflict between the artificial beings, known as Replicants, and humans has erupted into outright war, and humans lost.
Common Side Effects Season 2 Isn’t Going to Give Easy Answers
Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects was one of last year’s most singular shows, an animated comedic paranoid thriller about two friends who discover a vast conspiracy to hide the existence of the Blue Angel mushroom, a powerful psychedelic that seems to have the ability to cure every malady.
The Violent Night 2 NYCC panel got into some very weird Santa lore
Perhaps you, like myself, believed Violent Night to be little more than what its punny title implied: A movie brave enough to imagine what if Santa Claus both looked like David Harbour and also kicked the shit out of an army of Christmas-codenamed assassins out to kill him. And like, yes. That would be an accurate description of what Violent Night is.
The Biggest Takeaways from BlumFest 2026
A big swirling bucket of the latest rumors, celebrity news and Hollywood gossip. The premier celebrity gossip app. The only apps that gives you a comprehensive real time celeb news stream. Gossip Bucket aggregates and streams the latest gossip news and headlines from the top sources in one place.
The Biggest Takeaways from BlumFest 2026
The back-to-back successes of Obsession and Backrooms have cracked Hollywood’s spine like a One-Wish Willow, sending producers into an online feeding frenzy. Content creators fluent in the uniquely liminal stylings of internet horror are in high demand, and as the production house with behind these hits (Atomic Monster was one of many co-producers on Backrooms) the combined Blumhouse/Atomic Monster horror factory is under considerable pressure to keep the wave going.
The Very Specific Reason Crystal Lake Had to Be a Period Piece
The first thing you’ll notice in the Crystal Lake premiere is Linda Cardellin’s Pamela Vorhees, covered in an impossible amount of blood. How that happened won’t be revealed until the episode’s final act, but before it returns to that moment, Peacock’s Friday the 13th prequel series wants to make it very clear that Crystal Lake is for the fans: Harry Manfredini’s creepy reverb-whisper, the big goofy title card, and teenagers who are too horny to live.
After 20 Years, Dexter Finally Faces His Deadliest Foe Yet: His Enormous Ego
“Can a serial killer have a normal life?” has always been the darkly comedic heart of Showtime’s Dexter, fueling eight seasons of deadly serious murder. Dexter: Resurrection, last year’s full-on revival (following the dour limited series Dexter: New Blood) has gotten a lot of mileage out of revisiting this, but with a sense of whimsy, moving Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) to New York City to reinvent himself as a rideshare driver with a dream of making it as a heroic serial killer.
Reacher Season 4 Became an Incredible Philadelphia Show
Alan Ritchson, Reacher Jessica Kourkounis/Prime From the very first two words spoken in Reacher's fourth season, it's clear the show means business. Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) wanders out into the Philadelphia streets after solitary drinks at the bar, goes to the first cart he sees and confidently makes his order: Whiz wit.
Resident Evil’s Ending Is the Right Kind of Cruel
This post discusses the ending of Resident Evil. If you consider that a spoiler and care about such things, stop reading now. Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil isn’t the kind of movie that does plot twists. The Weapons and Barbarian writer-director’s exhilarating, goofy franchise debut is remarkably straightforward, taking audiences on a propulsive ride along with a poor sap who is about to have the worst day in his life.
Lanterns can't quite make up its mind about aliens
When you shift your gaze to the horizon just beyond Lanterns‘ central manhunt/murder mystery, the HBO show is about a world coping with the fact that aliens exist, and the humans of Earth barely register to them. Our home planet, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) tells John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) early on, is a backwater to most civilized beings of the universe.
Lanterns can't quite make up its mind about aliens
Polyamorous Couple Was ‘So Casual’ About Dating Other People. Then a Moment of Jealousy Changed Their Relationship Forever (Exclusive) Hayley Folk was first introduced to the concept of polyamory through a simple online search: “Can you love multiple people at once?” She was living in California at the time with her husband, whom she had married when she was 21 after meeting at a Christian Baptist college. Their wedding, she tells …
The Warfare - Kotaku
This is a classic tower defense game where players can experience the charm of tower defense. A wide variety of weapons and turrets. Players move the muzzle of the gun by sliding the screen to fire bullets and kill the invading enemies.
The dinosaurs in The End Of Oak Street demand respect, not affection
11:12 10 hours ago Why The End Of Oak Street Failed To Take Off At The Box Office Looper • 10h Warner Bros. wanted "The End of Oak Street" to be the sci-fi event of the summer, but moviegoers had other ideas. Why couldn't the dino-themed thriller trample its way to box office gold? Max Greenfield 19 hours ago The End of Oak Street, Don't Say Good Luck ve bu hafta başka ne izlesek?
Seeker Eye - Kotaku
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Wants To Have Its Cake And Splatter It Too
100 Dragon Cats - Kotaku
Join the cutest adventure in cat-filled, themed locations! Explore charming, hand-drawn illustrations of special places and try to find 100 adorable cats hidden throughout the game. ️Can you find them all? ️
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls review – an anime-style rumble that’s rooting for you
Arriving at the turn of the millennium and the twilight of the video arcade, Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes has long been a high-water mark for fighting games, with no heir apparent; its massive, colourful roster and frenetic, spectacular combos have lured newcomers and elite competitors alike. Developer Arc System Works, a fan-favourite studio famous for its hyper-fluid and extremely technical anime-style fighting games, has been on a long journey to usurp Capcom’s throne.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day makes Peter Parker an accidental villain
Here are some things you can count on in a Spider-Man movie: You're probably gonna hear some jingle riffing on the classic ‘60s theme song. There will be some angst over whether or not people should know who is behind the mask. And Peter Parker? He's gonna screw up big time. This is part of the soap opera pattern baked into Spider-Man's tragic origins: Everything about the character's life is Sisyphean. If Peter Parker's superhero career is working out, then his personal life is in shambles.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Makes Peter Parker an Accidental Villain
Here are some things you can count on in a Spider-Man movie: You’re probably gonna hear some jingle riffing on the classic ‘60s theme song. There will be some angst over whether or not people should know who is behind the mask. And Peter Parker? He’s gonna screw up big time. This is part of the soap opera pattern baked into Spider-Man’s tragic origins: Everything about the character’s life is Sisyphean. If Peter Parker’s superhero career is working out, then his personal life is in shambles.
Just Pool - Kotaku
Just Pool is a minimalist 8-ball pool game. Score all your balls to win the match, play with friends or solo. • Anker Soundcore 2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker Is Practically a Steal at a Record Low, Just in Time for Summer Travel For a limited time, you can save $15 on the Anker Soundcore 2 portable Bluetooth speaker at Amazon.
Splatoon Raiders review – Nintendo’s inky shooter fades to grey
Updated Tue, 21 July 2026 at 1:02 pm UTC Better with friends … Splatoon Raiders.Photograph: Nintendo Splatoon is among Nintendo’s most ingenious inventions of the last decade: a series of shooting games whose paint-splattered turf war nature means being bad at shooting is just as valuable as – if not more so than – being good. It is also blessed with an abundance of personality, with vibrant characters, a richly imagined world, and a hipness that the competition can only dream of achieving.
Many Shows Could Learn From the Relentless Pace of X-Men '97
X-Men '97 How familiar are you with the Surf Dracula problem? Coined in 2021 by Twitter/X user Topher Florence, the meme became a popular shorthand criticism for the heavily decompressed storytelling that defines many modern streaming shows. An old broadcast show called Surf Dracula, Florence wrote, would be about a Dracula that surfs, something that you would see every episode. A modern Surf Dracula, however?
With Saros, Housemarque makes a case for doing next-gen games differently
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
With Saros, Housemarque makes a case for doing next-gen games differently
007: First Light - The Final Preview – Maybe the Most Detailed Bond Game Ever We played the opening hours of 007: First Light, and came away feeling even more excited about what's in store for Bond's origin story. The …
In the killer world of online gaming, there are no hits any more – just survivors
Sensational and stylish … Marathon. Photograph: Bungie/Sony What does success look like for developers of online video games? In 2026, the answer could not be clearer: no one has a clue. Consider Highguard, 2026’s first big flop. Signs were promising on its launch on 26 January, with a peak of 100,000 concurrent players on Steam – plus those enjoying the game on PlayStation and Xbox, which do not make player counts public. As a free-to-play game, the barrier to entry for Highguard was low.
I went to the Stranger Things finale in theaters and the strangest thing happened
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I went to the Stranger Things finale in theaters and the strangest thing happened Original
The secret to Netflix’s biggest hit wasn’t its love of the past, but how it spoke to the present. by Joshua Rivera Jan 3, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC Image: Netflix The secret to Netflix’s biggest hit wasn’t its love of the past, but how it spoke to the present. by Joshua Rivera Jan 3, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC Part Of The end of Stranger Things: all the news from the Netflix show’s fifth and final season see all updates The parking lot was packed. That’s the first Strange Thing. A little background.
2025: The Kotaku Review
Generally speaking, the bigger a subject being reviewed, the more likely the person reviewing it is to skew white and/or wealthy. Based on purely anecdotal evidence‚ÄĒI am not doing “reverse eugenics” or whatever‚ÄĒI have found that wealthy whites get first dibs on writing about important things.
2025: The Kotaku Review
1 day ago For AAA gaming, the top of 2026 sure looks a lot like the top of 2025. Xbox is rebooting Fable. Bungie is rebooting Marathon. Captain America and Black Panther are headlining a Marvel game. And everything under the sun has to break through under a Grand Theft Auto 6-sized shadow. But the lesson of …
The Last Jedi's Most Famous Line Is Still Misunderstood Original
One of the worst things you can do on the internet is have an opinion about Star Wars, which is why I’m usually content to nod in approval when Star Wars is good (rarely) and shake my head when it is not (all the time). Am I going to divulge which Star War is which? Absolutely not.
Simogo Legacy Collection review - remember when phone games were this wonderful?
Fifteen years ago in Malmö, Sweden, animator Simon Flesser and programmer Magnus “Gordon” Gardebäck left their jobs at the now-defunct games studio Southend Interactive to strike out on their own. Tired of the fussy nature of console development, the pair would stake their claim on Apple’s App Store, which in 2010 was regarded as one of the most exciting frontiers in games.
It’s ugly, it’s beautiful, it’s how you know a game might be a classic
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
It’s ugly, it’s beautiful, it’s how you know a game might be a classic Original
Square Enix’s HD-2D titles have evolved to encompass a new philosophy for gaming graphics. by Joshua Rivera Dec 8, 2025, 6:30 PM UTC Image: Square Enix At their biggest and most expensive, video games all sort of look the same. The reason often comes down to simple economics: More resources means more costs that need to be recouped, and historically the way publishers have done that is by being comically risk-averse.
It’s ugly, it’s beautiful, it’s how you know a game might be a classic
1 day ago Blinded by the lovely, colorful pixelated world of Orsterra, I severely underestimated how utterly brutal Octopath Traveler 0 would be. And when I say “brutal,” I don’t mean the bazillion innocent NPCs who get slaughtered in horrible ways throughout the story. No, I’m referring to the RPG’s ruthless …
Sports & Racing Games
Yes, you can really play as Ted Lasso and Richmond AFC in FIFA 23
Arcade Franchises From the ’80s Are Back to Punish Players
‘Escape From Tarkov’ Has Officially Gone Gold Ahead Of Release Escape From Tarkov has officially gone gold ahead of it’s release in a few weeks time, marking the end of the development for the 1.0 build. In a post on social media, game director Nikita Buyanov confirmed that Escape From Tarkov has gone gold, with development work on the 1.0 build now fully …
The Outer Worlds 2’s satire has a Microsoft-shaped problem
Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.
The Superheroes Are Not OK
Generate Key Takeaways You know that joke about the man who says he’s depressed, and the doctor who tells him to see a clown—only the problem is the patient is that clown? The old chestnut dates back at least 200 years, attributable to an Italian stage performer and a Mexican poet.
It’s Always Been Our Meanest Sci-Fi Franchise-and Our Most Honest
Generate Key Takeaways Alien: Earth begins where most Alien stories end: with a crew of blue-collar workers realizing that they are, and have always been, doomed. Deemed expendable by their employers over the monsters in the cargo hold (at least the crew of the USCSS Maginot, unlike the Nostromo, knew the monsters were the mission), they are made mortally aware of their place at the bottom of several food chains at once.
Meet the new James Bond: how 007 First Light earned its license to thrill
Four years after No Time to Die – the 25th 007 film and the final outing for Daniel Craig’s version of the world’s most famous spy – there is still no named successor to put on the tux, order a martini, or get behind the wheel of an Aston Martin. At least, not in cinemas. However, for the first time in Bond history, the world will meet a new James Bond in a video game, before a new 007 makes their debut on film.
Do You Trust Your Friends Enough to Play Elden Ring Nightreign?
I imagine that for most video-game designers, people having friends is a huge pain in the ass. Making a satisfying interactive experience for one person is hard enough. People are fickle and unpredictable; give them a rule and they’ll immediately try to break it. But asking multiple people to play together? As collaborators? The variables must be maddening. Elden Ring Nightreign attempts to brave this challenge.
Video Game Violence Got Boring
Once upon a time, Doom was the biggest villain in video games. Released in installments over the early internet beginning in 1993, the game about shooting tons of demons on Mars was a sensation like no other, popularizing the now-common first-person-shooter genre and marking a tectonic shift in the rapidly growing medium.
The Need For GTA 6's Success Is A Symptom Of A Broken Industry
Imagine, for a moment, that you can see the future, and it is one where Grand Theft Auto 6 is a massive flop. Maybe it's a technical disaster. Maybe it doesn't connect with anyone. Maybe industry rumors about a $100 price tag are true and, in the economic picture of summer 2026, that's just not tenable for anyone. Does that seem absurd? Perhaps it shouldn't. This is not about rooting for the game to fail, or hating on a game that no one has played yet.
Best Puzzle Games on Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and iPhone
Clockwise from top left: Blue Prince; Portal; Fez; Return of the Obra Dinn Blue Prince, this spring’s buzzy and wildly engrossing indie sensation, is a terrific reminder of something video games do tremendously well: Puzzles! The game, about exploring a mansion where the layout is different every day, exists to confound players, and dares them to enjoy it.
Expedition 33’ Review: Very, Very French
In the crowded video-game landscape, it takes real verve and style to stand out. There are a lot of ways for a developer to do this: arresting trailers, beguiling mysteries, the enthusiasm of livestreamers. But consider: What if, instead of all that, a game was just the Frenchest thing you’d ever seen in your goddamn life?
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