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CultureTotal RecallX-Men’s Giant Six-Player Cabinet Was an Arcade Marvel
While many arcade games can accommodate two players, and some even four, there aren’t many that can crowd six around a single cabinet like the incredible X-Men arcade game could. Released in 1992, and developed by Konami, the game came out at the height of the studio’s arcade power, during which similar side-scrolling games (all…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The History of Blizzard Entertainment, in One Very Pretty Timeline
In 1991, a small development studio called Silicon & Synapse was founded. It would make a name for itself with cult driving games like RPM Racing and Rock N’ Roll Racing. Fast forward to 2012, and that small studio is now known as Blizzard Entertainment. The entertainment juggernaut, behind such blockbusters as World of Warcraft,…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2012 -
Culture
Frito-Lay’s Handling the Skylanders Freebie Like It’s 1980 or Something
Thirty-two years ago, Dad came home with what could only be described as the Holy Grail of my childhood—Boba Fett. Dad was the kind of guy who once called Kenner, under the auspices of a local newspaperman, to ask if they were making a Yoda action figure and when it would arrive. In secret, he…
By Owen Good Published July 5, 2012 -
Culture
Crytek Concept Art Includes More Battlefront III Images
Chris Matthews is a senior artist at Crytek UK, the studio formerly known as Free Radical (Timesplitters). The art you’re about to see, then, has not only some Crytek stuff such as Crysis, but also some art from the developer’s cancelled Battlefront III project. Just to tug at the heartstrings a little more Having been…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe One Game To Play on the Fourth of July
Not being American, I have no personal affinity towards 4th of July celebrations. If I were, though, you can bet your ass I’d be spending the day playing Sid Meier’s Colonization over and over and over again. First released in 1994, Colonization remains something of a cult favourite amongst PC gamers, never reaching the heights…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 4, 2012 -
Culture
Bikini Cowgirls, Heavy Rain and British Zombies Lead This Concept Art Parade
Over the years French artist Morgan Yon has worked on games such as Heavy Rain and Zombi U, and movies like Prince of Persia and GI Joe. His work is incredible. We featured some of it a while back, back when Heavy Rain was in the news, but that was then (when we only showed…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 4, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Dragon Ball’s Creator Takes on Street Fighter
Akira Toriyama is famous as being the creator of Dragonball, though he’s also worked on video games, most notably doing character design for the Dragon Quest series of RPGs (as well as Xbox 360 RPG Blue Dragon). This antique image, from what looks like an old Japanese magazine, has the legend giving his take on…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 3, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Time Nintendo Forgot About Games, And Went After The…Stock Market?
Unlike its rivals Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo has usually had a staunch games first philosophy when it comes to hardware. But it hasn’t always been that way. In the 1980s, the company had a brief flirtation with, of all things, the business market. Booming business and ambitious technology were two of the hallmarks of Japan’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 3, 2012 -
CultureThere’s Beauty in a Game’s Menu System
And here you thought Fine Art was just about the guys making the stuff that goes in the game. Today, we’re looking at the work of design firm 1910, who design stuff that goes before, or on top of, a game. Specifically, they’ve designed menus and user interface systems for games like Syndicate, Bionic Commando…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 3, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Bringing the Perfect Pixels of the Past to Life
Noirlac’s Tumblr is maybe one of the best in existence. The mysterious man, known only as an anonymous Ubisoft employee, has a site cataloguing weird and wonderful pixel art from old video games, many of them obscure Japanese titles that you haven’t even heard of, let alone played. We’ve featured him a few times here…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 2, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Some Things You May Not Know About Mario
You know he’s got a moustache, a red beret and a penchant for jumping on people’s heads, but have you ever stopped to wonder what you maybe didn’t know about Mario, the world’s most popular and iconic video game character? He’s Had Three Names In Mario’s first ever video game appearance, as the hero of…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 2, 2012 -
Culture
Nobody Can Finish (Or Bomb-Moonwalk Through) Majora’s Mask Faster Than This Guy
Speed-runs of video games can be hypnotising. Not to simply see people run through a game flawlessly, but because in order to get through them quickly, players think up weird and wonderful ways to get their digital asses moving. Take ZeldaFreakGlitcha, for example, who just set a new world record for getting through The Legend…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 2, 2012 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: ‘We might see an Xbox 720 for $99’
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “We might see an Xbox 720 for $99” – Analyst Michael Pachter, talking about how the Xbox 720 might sell for as little as $99 if you buy a two-year cable TV subscription QUOTE | “They have a major issue with…
Steve Peterson Published June 30, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Let’s Settle This Once and For All: Genesis Aladdin or Super NES Aladdin?
It’s time. It’s time to settle this. A while back, I got into a HEATED EXCHANGE with Kotaku columnist Lisa Foiles about her flagrant proclamation that the Super Nintendo version of Aladdin was superior to the Genesis version of Aladdin I did not remember this to be the case—from my recollection, the Genesis version was…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 30, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThings Sure Got Steamy (And Sandy) in This Insanely Cheesy Atari Commercial
Oh, where to begin with this bit of gaming nostalgia. This commercial for the Atari 5200 is just all kinds of amazing, featuring the beach, surfing, hot girls in bikinis, and some hot! Joystick! Action! Seriously, I kind of wish video game commercials were still this joyfully dorky. I ALSO wish I could play video…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 29, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallGet a Load of This Super-Hot Game of Thrones NES Game Cartridge
Last week, I wrote about the 72 Pins collection of amazing custom NES art, done in a classic style and affixed to real NES cartridges. They looked plenty cool in pictures on the 72 Pins site, but I didn’t anticipate that they’d be so cool-looking in real life. The people behind 72 Pins were kind…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 29, 2012 -
Culture
A StarCraft II Marine Won’t Shoot Monsters This Pretty
Former Blizzard man Fausto De Martini is an award-winning artist who has worked on the cinematics for games like Diablo III, StarCraft II and World of Warcraft. In addition to some of his 3D model work for StarCraft II, in this gallery you’re also going to see some of the coolest aliens, monsters and future…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Spice Girls & PlayStation Just About Sum Up The Late 1990s
Just in case you woke up this morning feel good about life, music or the PlayStation, here’s Spice World, released in 1998. It featured the vocal talents of all five Spice Girls! Which is about all it featured, really.
By Luke Plunkett Published June 28, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Mario Games That Were, For Some Reason, Released on PC
Being Nintendo’s principle mascot, you’d think that Mario would only ever appear on Nintendo consoles. And for the most part, you’d be correct! But, as with most things in life, there are exceptions. I thought with the sad news today of the cuts at Radical Entertainment that we’d look back another one such exception: the…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 28, 2012 -
Culture
A Game of Thrones Concept Art Banished to The Wall
Cyril Tahmassebi is a French concept artist and visual designer who has worked on games like Darkworks, I’m Alive, Project Kane and, most recently, Dishonored and Cyanide’s Game of Thrones RPG. While that lost one might not have been much of a game, the art Tahmassebi put together for it is terrific Every piece you…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 28, 2012