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CultureTotal Recall
Thank Your God The SNES Didn’t Actually Look This Hideous
The North American Super Nintendo looked…OK. The Japanese and PAL version looked hot. Oh, how things could have turned out differently, had early concept art become reality. These two early designs for the SNES, drawn at a time when they were still calling the machine the “Nintendo Entertainment System 2”, were hideous. Where the final…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 8, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
A Robot Sex Doll. From The Future.
This incredible animated gif doing the rounds this week (though first published in February) is taken from Paragon Sexa Doll (パラゴンセクサドール Doll), a Japanese “visual novel” developed by Heart Soft and released in the early 80s on the NEC PC-8801, a primitive PC that was pretty big in Japan. Visual novels are barely games; like…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 8, 2012 -
Culture
Some of the Greatest Video Game Pictures You’ll Ever See
If you’ve been reading Kotaku for a while, you may already be familiar with the name Genzoman. Or, as his mother knows him, Gonzalo Ordoñez Arias. The Chilean illustrator, part of the illustrious Udon Crew, is responsible for some of the most amazing video game images on the internet. Some of them were clearly drawn…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012 -
Culture
A Whole New Way To Play Video Games: Standing Up
It’s not every day you discover a whole new way to play video games. Yet over the past month, I’ve done just that—I’ve found a way to play games that makes me feel better, more alert, healthier, and more involved. How have I accomplished this? I’ve started playing video games while standing up. “Oh, damn…
By Kirk Hamilton Published August 7, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallPelé and Pete Rose Should Have Stuck to Sports
Athletes still do a pretty poor job in commercials in the 21st century. So as you can probably imagine, in the 1970s, they were terrible This Atari clip from 1978 featured baseball star Pete Rose, football legend Pelé and…Don Knotts. OK, so Don did just fine, but he was an actor, not a sportsman. 1978…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Taito’s Love Affair With Old Jackie Chan Movies
What kind of developers have the peanuts to rip off Jackie Chan not once, but twice, at the same time? Taito have the peanuts, that’s who. This image is from Silent Dragon, a side-scroller Taito released in 1992. The blue dude on the left may look familiar to anyone who’s seen Jackie Chan’s awesome Big…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012 -
Culture
Exclusive: Killer Concept Art From The New Total Recall Movie
Stephan Martiniere is a long-serving concept artist who has worked on some of the biggest (or best) movies of the past fifteen years, from the new Star Wars movies to Fifth Element to Tron Legacy. He also served as art director on id’s 2011 shooter Rage (Stephen interviewed him a few years back about the…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012 -
Culture
Planters NUT-rition “Adult” Peanut Butter: The Evolutionary Snacktaku Review
There was a time that I’d spend at least a third of each week driving from grocery store to grocery store, hunting for the star of the next Snacktaku review. I’d walk the aisles for hours, making note of which items shoppers were putting in their carts. I’d measure stock density hour-by-hour. Sometimes I’d just…
By Mike Fahey Published August 6, 2012 -
Culture
One Man’s Terrific Art for Assassin’s Creed, Prometheus and More
Here’s another awesome Fine Art to get your week started on the right foot: a collection of works by David Levy, aka vyle, aka another of my very favourite concept artists in the whole wide world. David has worked on a number of big video games like Assassin’s Creed (we’ve actually shown some of his…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012 -
Culture
The Week in Games: Short and to the Point
Persona 4 Arena arrives in the west this week, accompanied by the funky rhythm game Sound Shapes. On Xbox Live Arcade, the third-person multiplayer shooter Hybrid continues the Summer of Arcade. Tuesday • Sound Shapes (PS3, PS Vita) • Persona 4 Arena (PS3, 360) • Deponia (PC) Wednesday • Hybrid (XBLA) Friday • The Amazing…
By Owen Good Published August 5, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
This Stupid Controller That Looks Like a Sex Toy Helped My Brother Win a Silver Medal
Hurry! There are only two days left until this auction for “Le Stick” closes. You can have this hunk of junk for $29.99, but I warn you, it’s practically useless. Except for one video game, that is. Rewind: It’s 1983. My brother and I live next door to a guy who is an electronics buyer,…
By Owen Good Published August 5, 2012 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Friendship is Tragic
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. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Aug. 4.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published July 30.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good Published August 5, 2012 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: ‘PS Vita is an Utter Flop.’
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “PS Vita is an utter flop.”—Rob Fahey, veteran game journalist, talking about Sony’s losses with their games business QUOTE | “The Old Republic was sold as a story; very soon, it will have to double as a shop.”—Matthew Handrahan, staff writer…
By Steve Peterson Published August 4, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallWelcome Back, Rise of the Triad, You’ve Been Missed
Perhaps the strangest news of the day, if not much longer, is that cult 90’s shooter Rise of the Triad is getting a remake Considering a whole generation of gamers has now grown up likely not having played the thing, they’re probably wondering, what’s all the fuss about? Here’s what all the fuss is about.…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 3, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Horror of Broken Old Nintendo Games
Old video games may have a certain charm to them when they’re working, but what about when they’re not? When they’re crashing and bugging out all over the place, no matter how many times you shake them or blow in the cartridge slot? Glitchee’s site is a wonderful catalogue of just such episodes, mostly of…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 3, 2012 -
Culture
The Stunning Concept Art of Sebastien Larroudé (Deus Ex, Tron, etc)
Sebastien Larroudé is one of my favourite concept artists working today. Formerly a senior concept artist at Eidos, where he worked on Thief 4 and Deus Ex (we actually featured some of his DE:HR work previously here), Larroudé – aka Rainart – now heads up Steambot Studios, a collection of brilliant artists that includes the…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 3, 2012 -
Culture
Uncharted’s Art Director Can Also Draw Cool Spaceships
Robh Ruppel is the art director at Naughty Dog, the developers of the Uncharted series. Before that, he spent over a decade working at Disney’s animation studio. This gallery of his work includes examples of both concept art and matte paintings from across that period, and features pieces from the Uncharted games, personal projects, Disney…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 2, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Destroy Satan and Escape From Hades? Sounds Simple Enough.
I remember Ghosts ‘N Goblins being about two things: underpants and skeletons. Mostly about underpants. It’s easy to forget amidst all the cheesy humour of the game, then, that it had a fairly brutal premise. I mean, it’s not like destroying Satan himself and then escaping the netherworld of Hades is tough enough. No, there…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 2, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Show Today’s Kids a 1980s Computer and, Well, Yeah
The Commodore 64 turned 30 this week. As the firs video game platform my family ever owned, it will always have a very special place in my heart. But I was born in 1980. What do kids born in the 21st century think of the machine? The BBC and C64 fan Mat Allen went to…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 2, 2012 -
Culture
Concept Art From Guild Wars, Halo and Beyond
Meet Thomas Scholes. Well, meet his art. An illustrator and concept artist who has worked at 343 Studios, ArenaNet and Disney, he’s now a freelancer who can draw some of the nicest pieces of environment art around. In the gallery below you’ll see examples of his work on games like Halo 4 and Guild Wars…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 1, 2012