Tag Archives: Gaming trivia

Crash Bandicoot has a fossil named after him. And the name isn't some lab nickname that stuck: the extinct animal is officially Crash bandicoot. Somewhere between the crates and the boss fights, our orange idiot made it into scientific classification. The animal lived about 15 million years ago in what is now Australia. The PlayStation obviously arrived a little later. When researchers named the species in 2014, they borrowed Crash's name for… Read more

When Nintendo’s Punch-Out!! arcade game first emerged in 1984, it introduced a roster of wild, tongue-in-cheek characters. Among them was a hulking Russian fighter whose rough appearance and drinking gag made him especially memorable. In the arcade version of Super Punch-Out!!, he was known as Vodka Drunkenski, and yes — he drank a bottle of vodka between rounds. But when Punch-Out!! was brought to the NES, Nintendo of America made a key… Read more

Boo is one of Mario’s most beloved enemies, the little ghost that covers its face when you look at it but balloons into something terrifying when you turn your back. Generations of players have laughed and cursed at its strange behavior, but few casual fans know the story of where it came from. Boo wasn’t just pulled out of a sketchbook. It was inspired directly by a real woman: Takashi Tezuka’s wife.… Read more

The Accidental Horror of Silent Hill’s Fog When players think of Silent Hill, the first image that often comes to mind is its thick, suffocating fog. It is one of the most haunting visuals in all of gaming, setting the tone for fear, dread, and the unknown. But here is the twist: that fog was never meant to be scary at all. The original Silent Hill was released on the PlayStation in… Read more

Hideo Kojima is known for pushing the boundaries of video games, but during the development of Snatcher he almost took things into a whole new dimension — smell. Kojima wanted the game’s floppy disks coated in a special chemical that, when heated by the computer, would release the scent of blood. His vision? To fill the room with the “stench of a murder scene” during key moments in the game. Imagine playing… Read more