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CultureTotal RecallThe Japanese Game That Was Played in English, Based on Shakespeare
The Book of Watermarks is an adventure game released in Japan, and only in Japan, in 1999. Rare for a Japanese adventure game, it featured full-motion video acting and 3D visuals. Oh, and it also tipped its hat to the work of William Shakespeare. Though it’s of course heavily inspired by Myst, being a puzzle-based…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 10, 2012 -
Culture
From Dune to Dublin’s Wilderness to Zombies, This Art Has Seen it All
Mark Molnar is a concept artist and illustrator who has worked with of the biggest names in entertainment. People like WETA, Games Workshop, Time Warner and Square Enix. To see more of his work, check out his personal site Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 10, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallArcade Lights Made Michael J Fox’s Hair Look Magnificent
Of all the teen movies that crawled out of the 1980s, High School USA was far from the finest. And yet here we are, watching a scene of it, right here on Kotaku. Why? Because Michael J Fox is in it, looking divine. And because it reminds us Crispin Glover has always been a little…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 9, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
What Arcades Looked Like Before Video Games
The word “arcade” is these days synonymous with video games, but it wasn’t always that way. In 1968, there was no such thing as a consumer video game. So arcades had to make do the old-fashioned way. With pinball machines, novelty amusement machines and lightgun games. There was even room for a fortune teller. These…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 9, 2012 -
Culture
The Concept Art Behind The Avengers
Pardon this brief interruption to our regular video game concept art schedule, but I figured a movie that’s on track to be one of the biggest of all time – and one starring a whole bunch of awesome superheroes – was worth the detour. This art is the work of Nathan Schroeder, for whom The…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 9, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallDo Classic Sega Arcade Games Make you Want to Buy Burgers?
I’m not American, and I don’t live in America, so my familiarity with Sonic (apparently a drive-in burger chain) is limited. I am however very familiar with classic arcade racer OutRun, which Sonic is tapping into with this retro-infused commercial. Sonic Drive-Thru Guys / Out Run Commercial [PatrickScottPatterson]
By Luke Plunkett Published May 8, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Japanese Box Art vs Western Box Art
As a box art fetishist, this might be the best website I’ve ever seen. It’s called Box vs Box, and its purpose is to compare the box art of Japanese video games and their Western counterparts. Sometimes it’s a straight Japan vs US matchup, other times it’s a three-way royal rumble, with PAL games joining…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 8, 2012 -
Culture
The Wonderful Place Where Diablo III Meets Robots
Phroilan Gardner spent a few years at Blizzard as a concept artist, working on stuff like World of Warcraft and Diablo III, as well as spin-off projects like trading cards and novels. He’s not there anymore, but his art – and the stuff he’s come up with since – lives on! Gardner, who now works…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 8, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Before Menu Screens, we Adjusted Consoles With Buttons
These wonderful shots are courtesy of Bleeping Relics, and show the control boards of a trio of old Pong consoles. These old analog systems weren’t adjusted via menu screens or fancy UI systems. If you wanted to change something, well, there was a button right there on the console. Bleeping Relics [Flickr]
By Luke Plunkett Published May 7, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallStraight from 1990, One Kid’s Adorable Painstaking VHS Guide for Beating Mega Man
Before the internet existed, millions of players toiled away in lonely obscurity to find the best way to beat the oh-so-hard games of yesteryear. Lots of us scribbled in notebooks, drew our own maps and called tips lines to figure out how to beat the games we were obsessed with. And then we shared this…
By Evan Narcisse Published May 7, 2012 -
Culture
Have a Lollipop, Batman. You’ve Earned it.
Leonid “leopardsnow” Enin is currently working as a concept artist with mobile gaming powerhouse Gameloft. He’s also done work for other video game companies like Sidhe and Realtime Worlds. Say what you will about Gameloft’s games, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this artwork. On the contrary. It’s fantastic, even if a lot of it is…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 7, 2012 -
Culture
What’s Yours is Mine
Mother’s Day isn’t typically a huge sales weekend for video games and the upcoming launch schedule reflects that. Minecraft‘s console release is the week’s only highlight. Tuesday Warlock: Master of the Arcane (PC) Asura’s Wrath: Lost Episode 1 – At Last, Someone Angrier Than Me (PSN, XBLA) Datura (PS3) Wednesday Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition (360)…
By Owen Good Published May 6, 2012 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Crowded Source
Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published May 4.—Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published April 30.—Read more of Awkward Zombie…
By Owen Good Published May 6, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Moment When Max Payne Realized He Was In a Video Game
It’s not that common that a video game character realizes that he’s actually in a video game. And like any fourth-wall breaking shenanigans, it can be a tricky maneuver to pull off. Leave it to Remedy, the guys running the Max Payne franchise before Rockstar took over, to put their own paranoid protagonist through the…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 5, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Forgotten TV Debut of the Original Star Wars Game
Happy Star Wars day! There have been, to date, one jillion Star Wars video games. (That figure is approximate). But in many ways, there was only one—the 1983 Atari game Star Wars. I played this game when I was barely old enough to understand the films, much less do well at any of the levels,…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 4, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallCut a Rug to All of the Greatest Video Game Dance Routines
You know what the world needs more of? Choreographed dance routines. You know what I’m talking about. This is what I’m talking about. In the storied history of video games, there have been a surprising number of amazing dance numbers. Just for you, Chris edited together this video of… pretty much all of them. Sit…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 4, 2012 -
Culture
From EVE Online to…Deadwood?
Andrei Cristea is a lead character artist at CCP, the developers behind EVE Online. You know those awesome human face screenshots we showed you the other day? That’s the team Andrei is on, with work pioneered by guys like Jeff Miller and Vigfus Omarsson. But pretty faces and hair aren’t all Andrei can do. So…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 4, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Cover Your Eyes, it’s the Horror of Third-Party N64 Contollers
I hated the N64 pad. Hated it. Didn’t like the button placement, didn’t like the ergonomics, really didin’t like the fact the little joystick was broken on half the controllers you ever picked up. But you know what? I could easily live with it if I had the choice between Nintendo’s official pad and those…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 3, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall“Celebrate” May 4th With Possibly the Worst Star Wars Video Game Ever Made
There are loads of terrible Star Wars games. We’ve talked about them here before. But there’s different reasons someone can say a game is terrible. They might not like the genre, or the platform, or the way the game has treated the Star Wars canon. One thing many will agree on, though, is that the…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 3, 2012