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Culture
When Japan Does Star Wars, Things Change
In 1987, Namco released Star Wars in Japan for the Famicom, a title that took more than a few liberties with the movie trilogy’s storyline. Sounds outrageous, but one look at the game’s manual art and everything was suddenly OK. Why? Because the lizards, scorpions and pterodactyls you’re fighting—and that aren’t exactly canon —are so…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 26, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallSorry, Everyone, It’s Time to Talk About the Wing Commander Movie
When people look back on films based on video games, they tend to skew towards the good (Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia) or the bad (Mario, Double Dragon). They don’t talk about the greats because there haven’t been any. And they don’t talk about Wing Commander because it’s just too damn painful. Wing Commander, if…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 26, 2011 -
Culture
The Epic Video Game Art of Young-june Choi
As you may have noticed, Fine Art is a new feature here on Kotaku where we celebrate the work of video game concept artists. Today, we’re looking at the very talented Korean artist Young-june Choi, and his work on the upcoming Kingdom Under Fire II The game, which has been in development for over three…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 25, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallBefore They Were Famous: Bungie
Today is the first in a new “Before They Were Famous” series here on Total Recall, where we look at the games some of the world’s biggest developers worked on before they became some of the world’s biggest developers. First up is Bungie, creators of the Halo series. While most got their introduction to Bungie…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 25, 2011 -
Culture
The Man Who Creates Pokémon For a Living
Ken Sugimori may not be a household name, but the monsters that have flowed forth from his sketchbook certainly are. You see, Sugimori designs Pokémon He’s been involved with the mega-popular franchise from day one, having forged a friendship with Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri in the 1980s, when the pair both worked on a gaming…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 24, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallWhat Do Warcraft, Optimus Prime and Zelda Have In Common?
Before its realm of Azeroth was brought to life in 2004’s World of Warcraft, Blizzard had tried once before to add a little depth to their fantasy franchise with a game that sadly never saw the light of day. That game was Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans In the late 1990’s, and seeking to…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 24, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThis is Why You Don’t See Many Games Based On Soap Operas
Think games based on movies, action-oriented TV shows and classic works of literature are a bad idea? They’ve got nothing on games based on soap operas. This is Neighbours. It’s a game based on the mega-popular Australian soap of the same name, which has been shown in over 50 countries since its first episode in…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 23, 2011 -
Culture
Dealt DiRT
Codemasters’ rally-racer DiRT 3 is the lone major console release this week, bringing a new gymkhana mode to its menu of off-road offerings. Tuesday DiRT 3 (PC, PS3, 360) Also: Cake Mania: Main Street (DS); Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS); Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale (PC, 360); Emily The Strange (DS); Kung Fu Panda 2: The…
By Owen Good Published May 22, 2011 -
Culture
Sunday Comics
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. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published May 16. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published May 18. – Read more of Nerf…
By Owen Good Published May 22, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: 200 Million
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “We know we owe a great deal.” – Sony’s statement to its “valued” PSN partners as the company began to restore the PlayStation Network in some countries. QUOTE | “Derivative, uninspired, narcissistic.” – Former Ubisoft developer and Splinter Cell and Far Cry…
James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published May 20, 2011 -
Culture
Guild Wars 2, Your Art is Simply Beautiful
I usually don’t play MMOs. Never played Guild Wars, may never play its upcoming sequel either. But boy, I could look at this concept art for Guild Wars 2 all day long. These are all the work of artist Levi Hopkins, who has been toiling away on the series and its various campaigns for a…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 19, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
My Favourite Nintendo Console Wasn’t Even Made by Nintendo
We’re going to get a little personal today on Total Recall, and take a look at my favourite Nintendo console of all time. Not the best, not the biggest-selling, just…my favourite. And that console is the Panasonic Q, a machine sadly never made commercially available in the West. The Q, a very fancy version of…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 19, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
When Mario Had a Best-Selling…Book?
Mario has gone through three distinct phases of super popularity. One in the early 90’s. One is seemingly just on the wane, born of the success of his games on the DS and Wii. The other, though, was in the mid-80’s. The fat plumber was so popular then that he didn’t just have a best-selling…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 18, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Atari Games That Became Comic Book Heroes
While we normally associate multimedia cash-ins as a recent phenomenon, the practice of spinning games off into other mediums dates back decades. One of the earliest examples of this is the Atari Force line of comic books. While most adaptations of games are expected to be based on the events or characters in the actual…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 17, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Beautiful Art of Arcade Video Games
Since for most of arcade gaming’s heyday graphics weren’t exactly easy on the eye, to lure customers in companies often had to rely on artwork to make a sale. The biggest, grandest works were reserved for the side of the cabinet, but since they usually weren’t seen (with machines stacked side-by-side), it was the “marquee”…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 16, 2011 -
Culture
Here’s the Juice
Rockstar’s cop thriller L.A. Noire dominates this coming Tuesday, though RPG enthusiasts on the PC will want to take note of The Witcher 2. For those picking up Noire two DLC extensions are available the day of release via PSN and Xbox Live. Clarification: These extensions are preorder premiums; they are not DLC available for…
By Owen Good Published May 15, 2011 -
Culture
Sunday Comics
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. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published May 9. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published May 9. – Read more of Nerf…
By Owen Good Published May 15, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: “Extraordinary Losses”
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Extraordinary losses.” – Square Enix describes its unfortunate financial state (losses this year to near $200 million) partially due to the Japanese earthquake disaster. QUOTE | “Or they will lose developers.” – PixelJunk creator Dylan Cuthbert warns of developers jumping ship from…
James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published May 13, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Day the Secret Service Raided a Role-Playing Game Company
Steve Jackson Games is a company well known for its tabletop RPGs and card games. An innocent enough trade, then, so why in 1990 were its offices raided by the United States Secret Service? It wasn’t because SJG’s products were somehow illegal, or that the company was peddling counterfeit currency. It was because, at the…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 13, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe HD Console Game From…1993?
While most people would peg the beginning of the high definition era around the time of the PlayStation 2 (some games able to run in 1080i), here’s one game that was running in HD nearly twenty years ago It’s Hudson’s Hi-Ten Bomberman, which has the honour of being the world’s very first high definition video…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011