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CultureTotal Recall
Your Uncle Who Worked At Nintendo Still Had To Pay For His Games
Even if someone’s uncle really did work at Nintendo, guess what: he probably didn’t get that kid down the street a copy of Mario for free. Chris Bieniek from Video Game Ephemera has got hold of some 1991 “Employee Purchase Order” paperwork from Nintendo of America, which shows how workers were able to buy their…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2018 -
CultureTotal RecallThat Time An Island In GoldenEye Disappointed A Generation
Far off in the distance, beyond the murky arctic waters, the vague silhouette of a tower can be seen through the mist. You raise your sniper rifle for a closer look. A solitary island is nestled away from all the chaos. What secrets does it hold? This piece originally appeared 3/21/17. GoldenEye 007 is one…
By Heather Alexandra Published January 5, 2018 -
CultureTotal RecallAssassin’s Creed IV’s Sea Shanties Are A Treasure
Once a means of passing the time while sailors engaged in back-breaking labour on a ship, 2013 saw sea shanties take centre stage in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV, where they promptly stole the show. They are, without a doubt,one of the best things about a very good video game Because of the way we’re taught…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 11, 2017 -
CultureTotal Recall
Nintendo’s First Electronic Toy Was Very, Very Cool
We all know Nintendo is a company with a long history. In over 100 years they’ve made everything from playing cards to LEGO sets to video games. But as important as some of those products were (or still are!), few are as important as the Nintendo Companion. Why? Because it marks Nintendo’s first foray into…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 30, 2017 -
CultureTotal Recall1994 Nintendo Documentary Gives Us A Look At Miyamoto’s Desk
In 1994, Jean-Jacques Beineix made a documentary called Otaku. It features a nine-minute tour of Nintendo’s offices, and it is wonderful to watch. The original recording is in French (and has circulated online for a while), but ComputerTales recently uploaded a version featuring machine translation into English, which while jarring still at least lets you…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 10, 2017 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Best Baseball Game Had Explosions And Robots
Being Australian, I don’t have much time for baseball. That doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy baseball video games, though. Especially when they’re from the future Super Baseball 2020 is a game developed by SNK and was first released in 1991 for its Neo Geo platform. It is, as the name suggests, an idea of what…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 2, 2017 -
CultureTotal RecallCircle Of The Moon Is Secretly The Best Castlevania Game
The original Castlevania released 31 years ago on the Famicom in Japan. It launched a franchise that dominated games for decades. But there’s one game in the series that’s woefully underappreciated, the Game Boy Advance’s Circle of the Moon Released in 2001 as a flagship title for the Game Boy Advance, Circle of the Moon…
By Heather Alexandra Published September 26, 2017 -
CultureTotal RecallWorking For Nintendo Used To Be Hell, But At Least We Got Cool Music Out Of It
Super Metroid has one of the most famous themes in video games. If you’ve ever wondered where it came from, you’ve got the nightmarish working conditions of 1990s video game development (and some impromptu one-man karaoke) to thank for it. In an interview on Nintendo’s site, Composer Kenji Yamamoto remembers that during the development of…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 20, 2017 -
CultureTotal Recall
Nintendo’s “Boob Shaped Controller” Was, Sadly, A Failure
One of Nintendo’s most important innovations in video games has been the invention of the d-pad, which is still used prominently on controllers today. To get there, though, they had to go through some less successful prototypes. Some with stupid names. While working on Game & Watch designs in the early 80s, Nintendo legend Gunpei…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2017 -
CultureTotal RecallEarthworm Jim’s Mean-Spirited Satire Doesn’t Hold Up
Earthworm Jim first released on the Sega Genesis today in 1994. The strange side scroller married offbeat humor and experimental level design. The result was a hodgepodge of a game that was frustrating but engaging. Developed by Shiny Entertainment, Earthworm Jim positions itself largely as a work of satire seeking to upend various side scrolling…
By Heather Alexandra Published August 2, 2017 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Kojima Game That Made You Play In The Sun
Hideo Kojima is famous for being the driving force behind stuff like Metal Gear and Snatcher. But today, we’re going to talk about another of his games: Boktai, a quirky little Game Boy Advance title that asked the player to go outside and get some sun. While that sounds…odd, it was for a very good…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 21, 2017 -
CultureTotal RecallThat Time Nintendo and Sega Introduced 3D Gaming, In 1987
Years before Sega did what Nintendon’t the two gaming giants briefly went head to head in the newly discovered market of 3D gaming. It didn’t go very well for either of them. In the late ‘80s both Nintendo and Sega had put their main focus on expanding their brand to North America. Nintendo’s Famicom had…
By Ben Bertoli Published June 4, 2017 -
CultureTotal RecallWatch (Part Of) A Mario Anime That’s Been Lost For Almost 20 Years
While most of Mario’s adventures through 1980s animation have been preserved on YouTube, not everything has managed to find its way online. Like 1989’s Super Mario Traffic Safety, which for the first time we’re now able to watch (well, at least some of it). Produced by Toei as an instructional safety video for Japanese schoolkids,…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 31, 2017 -
CultureTotal RecallA Rare Video Tour Of Peak Sega
The Innoventions pavilion at Epcot is still around, but it’s a bit blergh in 2017. In 1994, though, it was the future, and a big part of that was getting to enjoy Sega in its prime. Which we can all do now, thanks to this video. It was shot by iretrogamer’s dad during a vacation…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 29, 2017 -
CultureTotal RecallWorld Heroes Was A Damn Good Fighting Game
When Street Fighter II hit the big time in the early 1990s, it spawned a lot of competition. Some of these rivals emerged as beloved fighting game series in their own right, and would live on for years. Others, like World Heroes, couldn’t quite escape the crush of the bandwagon. Developed by Japanese studio Alpha…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 25, 2017
