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CultureTotal RecallThere was a Good Super Mario Bros. Movie. Let’s Watch it!
When someone talks about the Super Mario Bros. movie, you’d be forgiven for assuming they’re talking about the 1993 live-action flick starring Bob Hoskins. But there are actually two Super Mario Bros. movies, the first one – a feature-length anime – having been released in Japan in 1986. It was called スーパー マリオ ブラザーズ ピーチ姫救出大作戦!…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012 -
Culture
Guns, Pretty Ladies & Street Fighters
Artist Arnold Tsang worked on APB before it died and was unceremoniously brought back. He’s also, as Capcom fans may soon recognise, part of the Udon crew, who are unrelenting in their ability to release coffee table books full of awesome Street Fighter art. Right now, he’s working at Blizzard. And right now, we’re going…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallYes, This is Andy Warhol Painting Deborah Harry on an Amiga
These days, we remember Commodore’s Amiga system for its games. Classics like Cannon Fodder. In 1985, though, the company had grander plans. In this bizarre live demonstration as part of the machine’s launch, artist Andy Warhol, only two years before his death, sits down and “paints” a portrait of former punk idol Deborah Harry using…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 18, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallUm, Sega Once Made a Sonic Fighting Game
As promised, today we’ll be looking at Sonic the Fighters. Otherwise known as That 3D Fighting Game Sega Made That For Some Reason Starred Sonic The Hedgehog The story of the game goes like this: in 1995, Sega released an awesome (and sadly forgotten) fighting game called Fighting Vipers. One of the game’s character designers,…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 18, 2012 -
Culture
The Men, Women & Puffy Shirts of The Witcher 2
Polish artist Marcin Blaszczak is one of the men to thank for bringing the world of The Witcher 2 to life. A 3D modeller, Blaszczak has worked on both games in the series. In this gallery, you’ll see some of his work from The Witcher 2, which this week gets a welcome re-release on the…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 18, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallEvery Nintendo 64 Game, in One Giant Video
There were 296 games released for the Nintendo 64 in North America. Which is hardly any, I know. But it’ll still seem like a lot when you sit down and watch this movie which collects footage from every single one of them. I always forget StarCraft came out on the N64. Man, those were the…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 17, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Giant Alien Dick Machines of Space Invaders Pinball
In 1980, Bally released a pinball machine called Space Invaders. It was about as shameless a rip-off as you could hope for, as despite the opportunity to lift iconic imagery from Taito’s arcade classic of the same name, it instead stole designs from Ridley Scott’s 1979 movie Alien Given that was over thirty years ago,…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 17, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallRoad Blaster, You Have Stolen My Heart
It’s not often I come across a game I’ve never even heard of putting this feature together, but that happened yesterday with Road Prosecutor. Which means, yes, I’d never heard of its arcade original Road Blaster either. Man, I wish I had. All these years I’ve wasted without having seen this clip. So, first things…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 16, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Check Out What’s New On Total Recall, Our Very Own Retro Section
Brought to you every day, from 11pm-midnight (EST), Kotaku goes retro. The most recent batch of stories include: Mr. Awesome, the Greatest Video Game Player Who Ever Lived Maybe I Liked GoldenEye For Weird Reasons There was Once a U.S. National Video Game Team, and This Guy Was Its Captain The Greatest Justification For Messed-Up…
By Tina Amini Published April 16, 2012 -
Culture
Trials by Fire
The long-awaited return of RedLynx’s acclaimed Trials series, plus the Xbox 360 release of The Witcher 2, highlights an otherwise light week for core video game releases. Tuesday • The Witcher 2 (360) • Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention (Vita) • Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat (360, PS3) • Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (PC) Wednesday •…
By Owen Good Published April 15, 2012 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Mass Effect Retake
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. ActionTrip by Borislav Grabovic and Ure Paul published March 19.—Read more of ActionTrip Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published March 19.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!!…
By Owen Good Published April 15, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallMaybe I Liked GoldenEye For Weird Reasons
Earlier this week, we published an intelligent takedown of the beloved Nintendo 64 James Bond first-person shooter GoldenEye. Maybe, our guest writer wrote, this game was a little bit flawed. Maybe the campaign was monotonous and the multiplayer map design was weird. Maybe we can still love the game despite or because of its flaws.…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 14, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThere was Once a U.S. National Video Game Team, and This Guy Was Its Captain
A leader of a national team of athletes could reasonably expect to make a few endorsements or appearances, and in his day, Donn Nauert had his. Whether supplying a pro’s advice on Gradius or judging a video gaming triathlon, the captain of the U.S. National Video Game Team offered confidence, rectitude and, of course, a…
By Owen Good Published April 13, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Greatest Justification For Messed-Up Video Game Graphics I Ever Saw
I’ve forgotten most of the things I read in video game instruction manuals when I was a kid. But one thing I read in the instruction manual for the Commodore 64 version of Double Dragon stuck with me. It taught me something about the reality of video games. I’m talking about a note in the…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 13, 2012 -
Culture
You Guys Like Giant Robots, Space Pigs and Fighting Octopus, Right?
Concept artist Trevor Claxton has, in addition to working on projects like Magic the Gathering, also lent his talents to games such as Dust 514, EVE Online and Warhawk. If anyone’s going to draw awesome mechanical killing machines, it’s this guy. I’m not saying these images come from any of those games. I am saying,…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 13, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
When “Sexy” Meant “Fully-Clothed With Expensive Race Cars”
I remember when I was 8, and my important bits still didn’t quite know what they were doing, I thought this was the single greatest image on the planet. A sexy European lady and a McLaren F1 car? It was heaven. Twenty-four years later, my bits know exactly what they’re doing, and…this is still pretty…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 12, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Sad Story of a Japanese Gaming Legend who Pretends War Crimes Never Happened
Here at Total Recall, we deal in history. Partly because I love my video games, but also because as a graduate in the field I love my history as well. So it saddens me deeply when I see people involved in video games trying to mess with real, actual history. Which leads me to something…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 12, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Greatness of Terrible Voice Acting
The AV Club’s newly-relaunched games section, the Gameological Society, explores one of the greatest single examples of voice-over work in the history of the industry: Last Alert, a shooter for the TurboGrafx-16. A game renowned the world over for just how shitty its localisation work was, just about everything that could go wrong does go…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 11, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallA Controversial Arcade Classic Gets its Own Documentary
Arcade classic Dragon’s Lair has its share of critics, but because it was so beautiful for the time, it’s also got its share of fans. Enough for there to be a market for a very slick documentary. Inside the Dragon’s Lair is an upcoming documentary being put together by Sleepyeyed Films, who are looking to…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 11, 2012