Here’s an interesting little tidbit that I had absolutely no idea about prior to this morning: in many Nintendo games a certain short piece of music has been hidden by the one man who worked on them all, composer Kazumi Totaka. It isn’t a particularly amazing tune and it appears in its retro format in most games, but it is a rather cool little thing to discover having been under my nose for so long.

What’s even more interesting is that even though it’s been found in loads of games, there’s many more that the composer worked on where it hasn’t been found. Apparently this is almost certainly because not that many people are actually aware of the ongoing secret, and consequently aren’t looking for it.

So, time to change all that! Go ahead and watch the YouTube video. It runs for just over seven minutes and demonstrates how to find the music in a number of games including Mario Paint, Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Super Mario Land 2, Yoshi’s Story, Animal Crossing, and Yoshi Touch and Go. It’s also suspected to be in Luigi’s Mansion amongst others that’re listed in the video.

I love finding little in-jokes like this. Of course, Nintendo’s effort is certainly no comparison to the mighty stump joke!

Those who visited my old blog may recall a post concerning two people who decided to name their first baby after a World of Warcraft character. Needless to say, it was a worrying suggestion; I took a screenshot of the forum thread so you can see for yourself. I don’t think I really need to say any more.

It looks like we have a comparably insane couple though, judging from a thread on some massively multiplayer game forum. In short, a chap named Shinzo has proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Rooh. Complete with paragraphs upon paragraphs of soppy writing, snide comments from the forum’s members, and a blunt “fuck off” from Shinzo in retaliation, it really does make for very amusing reading.

Update: It turns out that the two haven’t ever actually met, and she’s having trouble flying across to meet him for the first time. In addition, the female in the relationship has a MySpace, she’s left an explanatory comment on Digg (do a page search for “Shinzo and I both have real lives”), and a page has gone up documenting the event. Crazy stuff.

Ah yes, this is what I like to see. While I’ve been busy obsessing over Twilight Princess videos, Nintendo 64s and global thermonuclear war, I’ve forgotten what really matters in life. What drives us all. What brings communities together as one happy family, arms wrapped around one another. Dressing up as video game characters.

Now, anyone who’s seen my older posts is probably aware of the fact that I’m not a big fan of cosplay. There’s something about dressing up as video game characters for no particular reason that unsettles me. But this is different! It’s Halloween at the end of the month. Yes people, now’s the time to go crazy on those video game costumes.

Today’s item of choice is a Gordon Freeman costume, based on the namesake main character of the Half-Life games. Click the big thumbnail and you’ll get a nice big comparison of the real Gordon Freeman and the costume that I took the liberty of producing. As you can see it’s rather accurate, although some proportions are a bit off. And of course the fact that he’s even made a headcrab earns double points!

Thanks to Planet Half-Life for bringing this beauty to my attention. Although it’s not a massive deal for many here in the UK, I hear you guys in the US get quite giddy over Halloween. Any of you planning on grabbing some video game gear for the event?

Sorry about the hiatus in updates guys. I’ve had what I can only assume is flu this week and have been coughing, sneezing, headaching and occasionally hallucinating like a git. It’s largely gone now, but the leftover headaches are still putting a damper on me. As such I’ve not felt very motivated to get through my RSS feeds and update my blog — sorry! One thing I’ll post about to get back on track though is an absolutely superb fan-made trailer for Zelda: Twilight Princess, which amounts to a whopping seven minutes of footage and is accompanied by some random movie soundtrack-like music. It does the job though!

Although the video was evidently posted in June and features quite a bit of old footage, which is in turn from the GameCube version and hasn’t enjoyed the Wii enhancements, it manages to show off a massive variety of gameplay and locations in the game that’ve been carefully chosen from the spoiler-filled demonstrations and such that most of us have avoided thus far to produce a spoiler-free but highly impressive video. The huge contrast in locales is as abundant as ever, and it certainly looks like a world that’ll be an absolute joy to explore as Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker were. Minus the sailing in Wind Waker, anyway.

This video has really added to the general feeling of excitement I have about Twilight Princess. Not only does it look visually superb even in the outdated footage, but the game just looks massively fun. It’s very reminiscent of Ocarina of Time, yet takes that world so much further and makes it all look richer. Backed up with what we now know is at least 70 hours of gameplay and a larger game world than both Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, the possibility of this being the best Zelda yet and consequently one of the best games ever remains very real. December really can’t come soon enough.

Although DEFCON hasn’t been on the radar for a particularly large amount of people, those who keep an eye on Introversion (also responsible for Uplink and Darwinia) have probably been quietly anticipating it. I’m one of them, and having just tried out the demo I am fairly impressed by how well they’ve managed to convey the atmosphere of carrying out a nuclear war.

The essence of the game is simple: you’re somebody high up the food chain sat deep within a bunker in your country of choice, and using an elaborate map (as you’ve seen in films) you watch global war unfold before you. What exactly’s happening is left to your imagination; whatever the case, some kind of war is happening down there and you’re the person who must coldly protect your nation from the biggest threat of all, while also deciding when and where to fire your own. All actions have consequences, and when we’re talking about nuclear ICBMs you can’t expect a country you just devastated to have much mercy when retaliating. It’s tense, and as the official site says: nobody wins, but maybe you can lose the least.

While DEFCON is a real-time strategy game and that may immediately turn a lot of you off, I wholeheartedly recommend trying it out simply to experience the atmosphere. If there’s one thing this game does well, it’s atmosphere. Everything from the stylish visuals (which look great ingame, though screenshots and videos seem incapable of conveying it) to the deeply moody music adds to the feeling. And then when one of your missiles hits a city, a white flash and a deep rumble lets you know and a matter-of-fact statistic such as “New York: 3.2m dead” pops up. It’s a dark feeling, and you don’t know whether to be proud or guilty of your destruction. If nothing else, it gives an appreciation of how devastating but impersonal nuclear war could be.

For a quick preview of the gameplay in action, this YouTube video is a rather good example. Also of note is the official trailer, although it fails to capture the sheer atmosphere and mood of the game. If you’re as intrigued as you should be, pick up the demo. You can also download the demo via Steam, and the game is just £10 to buy. If you’d like more detailed information about the accessible but deep mechanics of the game, head over to Wikipedia’s article.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting this at all. I mean there was a rumour ages ago that a Banjo game might be on the Xbox 360 horizon in some magazine article listing future titles, but I didn’t really have that much faith in it coming to fruition any time soon. After all, Rare’s been very busy with other projects on said console, the most predominant of which being Viva Pinata. But no, it looks like Banjo-Kazooie 3 really is coming and isn’t too far away. Although just a teaser, there’s now a one-minute trailer available that shows off the new style of the lovable bear and bird, plus a very short glimpse of one of the levels: the overworld from the first game, complete with Gruntilda’s Lair on the cliffside.

Although the visuals look terrific in typical Rare fashion (presumably they will look very similar on to this trailer ingame, if not the same), I have to say that I’m not too keen on the new style of Banjo’s face. While I’m sure it’s barely noticable in actual gameplay since you’re zoomed out quite significantly for the majority of the time, it looks like they’ve tried to lower the cutesy value; since Banjo-Kazooie had a distinctive, weird sense of humour to contrast with the cutesy look I’m not sure it’s necessary.

Still, it’s presumably quite a way off and the fact that another sequel to one of my favourite 3D platformers of all time is coming along is good news in my book. I just sincerely hope that Rare has managed to sort themselves out and come up with the goods this time, a hope that I’m also keeping alive for Viva Pinata. I’m sure there’s nobody who doesn’t want Rare to recapture their earlier magic and consistently deliver stunning games.

You can watch the trailer on YouTube where it’s scaled down and lowered in quality, or alternatively try to download the 640×480 original (11mb) from Everdred.

Update: You can now grab a high-definition version of the trailer (direct link). Having been following forum comments and such, the general consensus seems to be that while Banjo’s new look is overall fairly good, it’s the eyes that totally throw it all off; I’ve seen people do some quick image edits where they put his old cover art eyes onto the new body and it looks pretty damn fine. I just hope Rare realises this before they get too far into development.

To celebrate it being ten years (Jeeze!) since the release of the Nintendo 64, 1up has decided to post a five-page article that looks at the rich history of the machine, ranging from its original aspirations to the disaster that was the hyped but generally absent 64DD. If you’re a fan of Nintendo and owned a Nintendo 64, you’ll definitely want to give this feature a read.

It gives some insight into various aspects of the console’s achievements and failures, and is generally really nice to read considering a lot of us were in our gaming prime once the Nintendo 64 kicked into action. I wasn’t actually aware the console only launched with two titles, though I’m not sure if that was the case in Europe. There’s also a bunch of other tidbits in there that I’m sure you didn’t already know.

I’d also like to remind you all that Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one freaking hard game. My sister’s currently playing through it alongside Wind Waker, and it’s just a complete sod. I’m not sure if it’s as generally infuriating to play as the stealth fortress section towards the beginning of Wind Waker, but it’s certainly up there once you reach the adult Link dungeons. I advise not going back to the game if you feel tempted, and instead make do with your happy memories of it. Going back to it will ruin them.