Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Mortal Kombat's Raiden is a thunder god in disguise
The thunder god's hat-wearing protector of Earthrealm is inspired by Raijin, the Shinto god of lightning, thunder, and storms.
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The fighting-game kick that makes blocking a guess
When a jumping kick crosses over an opponent, it can land from the other side, forcing the defender to guess which direction to block.
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Why Mortal Kombat's blood turned gray on Nintendo
Nintendo pushed developers to recolor the blood gray to protect its family-friendly image, making it look like sweat.
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Video-game ragdoll physics turns bad collisions into bodies that fold like spaghetti
Game engines use constraints to limit how body parts move; when a fast collision pushes those limits, a character can fold and tumble in absurd ways.
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The bizarre Sega accessory that made you fight thin air
The Activator used a plastic hexagon on the floor to detect karate-chop movements, but it was expensive and often misread them.
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Guitar Hero was once dismissed as a terrible idea
Publishers thought players would rather learn a real instrument than play with a plastic guitar. The game ultimately brought in $2 billion.
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Why Dark Souls feels like a half-understood story
Miyazaki has said that as a child, he struggled to understand the English fantasy books he read, so he imagined the missing pieces. That experience helped…
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Valve threw away most of Half-Life and started over
Valve scrapped its 1997 build of Half-Life because it felt like a generic Doom clone, then rebuilt the game from the ground up. The restart alarmed its…
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Dots and Boxes hides a tactical trap in a child's drawing game
Completing a box earns another move, so offering an opponent one square can sometimes shape who gets a much longer chain later. The rules fit on a scrap of…
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Why terrifying joint locks can be gentle hugs
In a staged performance, a hold can look like a leg is being twisted to the breaking point while the performer applies no pressure. The opponent can rest…
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Tetris helped send Soviet entertainment software abroad
Alexey Pajitnov's puzzle became an international licensing challenge as companies sought rights for different machines and markets. Soviet institutions were…
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Why fighting-game combos leave you helpless
During a long combo, your character can be stuck in the air and unable to act, leaving you to watch your health bar drain.
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Why Breath of the Wild goes quiet in empty fields
The soundtrack uses occasional, lonely piano notes in open fields instead of a continuous epic score, echoing the feeling of being lost in a vast landscape.
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Nintendo Switch stops saving screenshots after 10,000 images
After 10,000 screenshots, the capture button stops working. You have to delete images before you can take more.
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In Silent Hill, a siren signals the town is becoming a blood-soaked nightmare
The siren marks the shift from the foggy, relatively safe abandoned town to a rusted nightmare world where the real threats live.
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Why a seven can ruin everything in craps
A seven can win on the come-out roll, before a point is set; afterward, rolling seven makes the shooter lose. That’s why saying it at the table can turn…
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Modern Sudoku began as Number Place in an American magazine
Howard Garns's puzzle appeared in Dell Pencil Puzzles & Word Games in 1979. A Japanese publisher later popularized the form and supplied the name Sudoku. The…
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Elite esports players issue hundreds of commands every minute to control a battle
In real-time strategy games, elite players can issue hundreds of commands a minute, turning battlefield control into a rapid-fire test of speed and precision.
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In Cyberpunk, medical aid arrives by gunship
In the game’s dystopian world, subscribers can summon an armed tactical team by gunship to extract them from danger.
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In fighting games, blocking a heavy hit can freeze your character long enough to be punished
That recovery window leaves your character unable to act, giving the attacker time to follow up.
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A game lets you destroy Beethoven with a fake trombone
In Trombone Champ, you match notes by sliding a cursor to mimic playing a brass instrument. The imprecise controls make accurate playing difficult, turning…
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Why Mass Effect's Asari are blue
BioWare leaned into the 1960s sci-fi trope of the seductive alien: the all-female species has blue skin and humanoid, conventionally attractive features.
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Sonic rings scatter everywhere upon taking heavy damage
When Sonic takes a hit, he drops the rings he has collected, scattering his golden stash across the screen.
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Why video-game villains get to finish their speeches
Many games pause the action for a villain's monologue, leaving your armed character standing by while the plan is explained.
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