Larry Bundy Jr - Fact Hunt: Fascinating, Funny and Downright Bizarre Facts About Video Games

FACT HUNT

First published in 2020

Unbound

6th Floor Mutual House, 70 Conduit Street, London W1S 2GF

www.unbound.com

All rights reserved

Larry Bundy Jr, 2020

The right of Larry Bundy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Text Design by Virtual 15

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78352-832-5 (hardback)

ISBN 978-1-78352-834-9 (ebook)

Printed in Barcelona by Novoprint

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FACT HUNT

FASCINATING, FUNNY AND DOWNRIGHT BIZARRE FACTS ABOUT VIDEO GAMES

LARRY BUNDY JR

FOREWORD7

CANCELLED SEQUELS, RELEASED AS ALL-NEW GAMES11

BUFFOONISH BUSINESS BLUNDERS21

FEMALE PROTAGONISTS IN VIDEO GAMES BEFORE SAMUS ARAN31

UNFORTUNATELY TITLED GAMES (DYKG)45

DISASTROUS VIDEO GAME LAUNCHES51

GAMES TOO BIG FOR THEIR BRITCHES (UNCLE YUU)61

GAMES RENAMED FOR REALLY SILLY REASONS69

WRESTLING GAMES BOTCHES (WESLEY LOCK) 81

GAMING STATUES THAT LOOK ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE THEIR IN-GAME COUNTERPARTS89

COMPLETELY STUPID NINJA-THEMED GAMES101

GOLDENEYE 007 (N64) SECRETS AND FACTS (THE EASTER EGG HUNTER)109

ANNOUNCED VIDEO GAME MOVIES THAT WILL PROBABLY NEVER HAPPEN, EVER115

WEIRD GUEST CAMEOS IN FIGHTING GAMES (RABBIDLUIGI)123

COMPLETELY RANDOM VIDEO GAME FACTS131

VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS FORCED TO BE RENAMED141

POLARISING GAMES THAT SPLIT GAMING PRESS (JAMES EGAN)155

BIZARRE INFLUENCES FOR VIDEO GAME MASCOTS163

MY PLAYABLE LIFE (VIOLET BERLIN)171

GAMES CANCELLED FOR STUPID REASONS179

FIVE THINGS NINTENDO PROBABLY DONT WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT (MR BIFFO)189

POINTLESS PERIPHERALS197

FOUR FORGOTTEN ROBOTS CREATED BY POPULAR VIDEO GAME COMPANIES (DANIEL IBBERTSON)213

CONSOLES RENAMED FOR REALLY SILLY REASONS219

FIVE OF THE STUPIDEST PR STUNTS IN GAMING, EVER (PUG HOOF GAMING)225

PROBLEMATIC PRONUNCIATIONS233

THE FORGOTTEN MARIO TV SHOW: THE SUPER MARIO CHALLENGE243

FIVE FABULOUS FACTS ABOUT ATARI YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW! (KIEREN HAWKEN)247

RUBBISH COLLECTORS EDITIONS255

FIVE BOSSES WHO DONT FIGHT BACK (ASHENS)271

GAMES ACCIDENTALLY GIVEN AWAY FOR FREE279

SPORTS GAMES ENDORSED BY CELEBRITIES YOUVE NEVER HEARD OF289

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR298

ABOUT THE AUTHOR299

SUPPORTERS301

Foreword

Hello you...

Im Guru Larry, and I welcome you to Fact Hunt: The Book!

If youre reading this, youre either fully aware of me and/or my Fact Hunt YouTube series... or, knowing my luck, casually flicking through the pages as youve found a pile of unsold copies in a garden centre bargain bin. And if thats the case, can you do me a favour and put them on top of all the other books there; I really need the money! >.>

Ever since my brother Colin brought home an Atari VCS from WHSmith when I was two, my life has always been filled with video games. Our first home computer was a ZX Spectrum...well, it was until my other brother Shaun thought it was a better investment to sell it in order to buy army clothing instead (FYI: he ended up getting a job with Royal Mail), but my very own first machine was an Amstrad CPC 464 I got when I was six.

Being so engrossed in the video gaming, I would often buy multiple gaming magazines every month to keep abreast of all the latest news and events... This is where I discovered my rather unique party trick, the uncanny knack of remembering stories and anecdotes. It was great fun freaking out friends who told me personal stuff I reiterated back to them years after the fact, weirding them out as most of the time they had completely forgotten telling me. (Its not as creepy as it sounds, honest!)

But, having a head full of bizarre video game facts and trivia was a completely pointless talent to have for decades, even when I was producing/presenting retro gaming shows on TV, and later content for YouTube, I barely used any of it. Until one day, I was writing a script for my video series about games that were never released in the US, but it didnt quite fit the narrative: Five Games You Never Knew Had Sequels. So I uploaded it as a standalone video instead and it did amazingly well, far better than most videos in my other series. But it was the video Five Games Purposely Made Broken by Dickish Developers which really exploded and pretty much laid the groundwork of future videos on my channel.

And, three years later, this very book youre looking at right now!

So, whether you were awesome enough to back this book into existence through Unbound, are perusing this periodical in a book store, or traversing this tome in a charity shop, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Guru Larry

LARRY BUNDY HAS BEEN an icon in the gaming industry for decades. But I discovered him through his incredible YouTube series. He is easily one of the best gaming content creators on the platform and Fact Hunt remains one of my favourite series.

Boogie2988

WE LIVE IN UNCERTAIN times. This era of fake news, Russian bots and flat-earthers has placed under threat the very notion of what we consider to be certainty.

Larry Bundy Jr is a fact-hunter, a truth-seeker; the retro gaming equivalent of Indiana Jones, and every bit as brave and dogged. He thinks nothing of squaring up to the Peddlers of Deception and drawing a line in the sand.

No! he will bellow in those unmistakable tones. Your lies are not wanted here! You did say that if you planted an acorn and returned to it years later it wouldve grown into an oak tree.