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CultureTotal RecallZelda’s Redead Can Absolutely Fuck Off
The ReDead isn't a Nintendo zombie. It's so much worse.
By Luke Plunkett Published February 25, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallAll I Want From Skyrim Is To Go Hunting On A Sunny Day
Many people’s favourite experiences with the last Elder Scrolls game — Oblivion — probably revolve around dungeons, magic, horse-riding and Sean Bean. Mine are a little more sedate. You see, while I appreciated the effort that went into crafting all those “unique” dungeons and the citizen’s clockwork routines, I also quickly saw through the “cracks”…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 24, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Great Zelda Switcheroo
If you ever need a reference point for how ferocious – and some would argue unnecessarily so – Zelda fans can be about their beloved franchise, one need only look at a public showcase Nintendo held in the year 2000. For a few years between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, Nintendo decided against revealing major…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 24, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Zelda Games The Whole World Hates
Over the past 25 years, not every single Legend of Zelda game has been made by Nintendo. Some were developed by Capcom, and are outstanding in their own right! And some were made by other people, and are supposed abominations At least, that’s what popular opinion will have you believe whenever the topic of the…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 23, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallRemembering Possibly The Worst Thing Zelda Ever Did
Nearly every single Legend of Zelda video game is revered, if not as an all-time classic, then at least as a pretty good/good/great game. The franchise’s one major departure onto TV screens? It was not good. Not at all While Mario was turned into a big Hollywood movie and Metroid was long rumoured to be…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 22, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallHappy 25th Birthday, The Legend Of Zelda
Twenty-five years ago today, an ambitious title was released in Japan that would, in time, become one of the biggest and most important franchises in video game history. That game was The Legend of Zelda. While it may look crude now, it’s easy to forget that, at the time of the game’s release, it was…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 21, 2011 -
CultureCan a Controller Be Programmed to Speed-Run Super Mario Bros.?
Long story short, this modder built a controller that, when plugged into a Nintendo Entertainment System, auto speedruns Super Mario Bros. in just a shade under 5 minutes. Naturally, commenters have shouted it down as a fake, but the Tool-Assisted Speedrun community is unanimous in calling the mod real. Modder pjgat09 provides a step-by-step, with…
By Owen Good Published February 20, 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 Feb. 14 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. published Feb. 18 – Read more of Nerf…
By Owen Good Published February 20, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
Microsoft, Why Did You Lie To Velocity Girl?
You may not remember her, but Velocity Girl was one of the stars of E3 2005. Young, funky and a casual gamer, she was promised the Xbox 360 would be the console of her dreams. Sitting cross-legged on the floor during the big reveal of the Xbox 360, controller in hand as if he was…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallBalls To The Wall, It’s The Rock N’ Roll Video Game Soundtrack
My favourite video game soundtrack is not a collection of original orchestral pieces, nor tracks by famous artists. It is one performed by a band that, were it not for this game, few of you will have ever heard of. Full Throttle, an adventure title released by Lucasarts in 1995, is rightly regarded as one…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 17, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallNintendo’s War On Blood, Nazis, Religion And Puppy Dogs
While these days it’s not that hard finding violent, mature titles on Nintendo consoles, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, that wasn’t the case. And when you did find them, well, some “changes” had been made. As anyone around in and gaming during the time can probably remember, it was a strange era for…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 16, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThere Is Blood On Your Hands, And On This Controller
Since we showed you a novel controller from Nubytech that you’ll never play, it only seems fair to spend today’s Total Recall talking about one you can play. And is way cooler. This is Nubytech’s Resident Evil 4 controller, fashioned for the game’s release back in 2005. Originally designed only for the GameCube, which the…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 15, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallIs This The Worst Controller Ever Made?
This is the controller for the ill-fated Atari Jaguar, a peripheral so so poorly-conceived that, even eighteen years later, it looks as stupid as the day it was first unveiled. Hitting the market in 1993, the Jaguar was the last console Atari — former powerhouses of the video game market — would ever release. This…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 14, 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 Feb. 7 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Feb. 10 – Read more of Nerf…
By Mike Fahey Published February 13, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallRest In Peace, Guitar Hero
Today, publisher Activision put the Guitar Hero franchise on hold. Maybe forever. For a series that once threatened to become the biggest thing video games had ever seen, it was quite an inglorious end. The gallery above will take you, from left to right, on a journey looking at every Guitar Hero game ever released,…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallDon’t Touch This Horror Of A NES Controller
This is the U-Force. It’s a motion-control peripheral released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the late 1980’s. In some ways, it’s an amazing piece of technology. In most other ways, it was an absolute disaster. Unlike Sega’s rival Activator peripheral, which we looked at the other day, the U-Force was not a full-body motion-sensing…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 9, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Finest Cast Ever Assembled For A Video Game
In 1996, a PC adventure game was released that has been all but forgotten. Which is strange, seeing as it features probably the greatest ensemble of actors ever assembled for a video game. While many contemporary games boast the names of impressive stars on the back of their box, those are generally restricted to voice-over…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 8, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
Kids Shouldn’t Play Games About Jerking Off
NSFW: If you’re a parent — or even just an all-round concerned citizen — and think games featuring cartoon violence and mild cussing is bad, spare a thought for me. One of the first ever games I played was about jerking off. In 1984, and at the age of four, my father (rightly) realised that…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 7, 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 Jan. 31 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Feb. 3 – Read more of Nerf…
By Owen Good Published February 6, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallMicrosoft’s First Console Adventure Was A Lesson In Failure
Like most other things associated with Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast console, it’s been largely forgotten that the ahead-of-its-time machine featured the first ever console appearance (at least in terms of the console itself) for a company by the name of Microsoft. While Microsoft would of course enter the console business properly with the Xbox in 2001,…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 4, 2011