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Assassin's Creed Shadows
-1
One of the game's dual protagonists Yasuke, an African samurai, is the first main character in the Assassin's Creed series to be based on a real historical figure, but his real-life identity and status serving under Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga has been the subject of a contentious debate among historians. There are few scholarly/historical resources available describing him and his life, as well as no known resources from the time he was alive that refer to him as a samurai, with the most common conclusion being his title was a retainer to Nobunaga.

His reveal as a main character in the game on May 15, 2024 caused polarizing reactions worldwide on social media. Fans critical of the decision claimed Ubisoft were going against the series' penchant for accurate historical backgrounds and misrepresented Japan, which had never been covered in-depth in the globally-spanning game series, by inflating Yasuke's role in history and not having both protagonists be Japanese (the other protagonist, Naoe, is Japanese), claiming that Yasuke was not actually a samurai. Fans in support of Yasuke's role claiming that he was actually a samurai called these objections racist and based on narrow-minded arguments and inferences, with some going so far as to claim that Asian samurai protagonists in media were oversaturated and that critics would give the same complaints if it were a game set in Africa starring an African protagonist. This intense fighting led to an edit war on Yasuke's English Wikipedia article, with administrators publicly calling the article's Talk page "a complete dumpster fire". As of May 30, the consensus that was reached on the Talk page appears to be that the available resources are inconclusive, and there is still no historical evidence confirming that Yasuke was or was not a samurai. Reflecting this, the article does not call him a samurai when covering his documented life.

The lack of clarity on his life allowed popular culture and media to take creative liberties in speculating who he was, often depicting him in adaptations as a high-ranking samurai, and Ubisoft seemed to be going in a similar direction. The advertising for the game at its announcement described Yasuke as a "samurai of historical legend", and a press release stated:

"Ubisoft Quebec wanted to include a Samurai, and Yasuke's story was open-ended enough to allow for creativity; there are still plenty of questions and speculation surrounding him. The fascinating facts, though, were undisputable: of African origin, he arrived in Japan enslaved by the Portuguese; he impressed with size, strength, and wits; he served under the Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga. There must have been something exceptional about Yasuke to succeed in the service of a personality like Nobunaga's, [...] and the goal has been to expound on this in Assassin's Creed Shadows through his curiosity, openness, respect for values and tradition, valor, warmth, and charisma."

While the header for this section of the press release is called "Yasuke: A Real-Life Samurai", this description seems to be carefully worded to stop short of directly calling him a samurai, with the use of "historical legend" elsewhere suggesting that they were aware of the unconfirmed status and were fictionalizing Yasuke for the game.

In a set of developer interviews with Famitsu published on May 15, creative director Jonathan Dumont elaborated that they also chose Yasuke to fit with the game's story of a foreigner who fights off oppressing forces, like the Portuguese slave trade's effects on Japan, while exploring a country unknown to him alongside the player, stating that they were "first looking for "our samurai," someone who could be our non-Japanese eyes". The following day, the Famitsu article was edited to change developer quotes in the interviews that either directly or contextually referred to Yasuke as an "outsider" to being a "foreign-born samurai", and also removed the aforementioned Jonathan Dumont quote, for unknown reasons.
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month May 19, 2024
Game website with "samurai of historical legend" quote:
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/assassins-creed/shadows

Ubisoft press release:
https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/2LH4Ael4X1TlNJY3B3aYg5/assassins-creed-shadows-launches-november-15-features-dual-protagonists-in-feudal-japan

Ubisoft article with several videos explaining historical backgrounds behind previous Assassin's Creed games:
https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/6d4zQXyH0VF6z75Ab7jfss/discover-the-real-history-behind-every-assassins-creed

IGN articles:
https://www.ign.com/articles/when-and-where-is-assassins-creed-shadows-set
https://www.ign.com/articles/assassins-creed-shadows-yasuke-asian-protagonist

TheGamer article:
https://www.thegamer.com/african-assassins-creed-shadows-controversy/

Time article:
https://time.com/6978997/assassins-creed-shadow-yasuke-controversy/

Forbes article mentioning Wikipedia edit war and international reactions:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2024/05/15/japanese-fans-are-puzzled-that-yasuke-is-in-assassins-creed-shadows/

Yasuke English Wikipedia article (Note: while much of this controversy occurred on English language Wikipedia, bear in mind that Wikipedia articles by themselves are not reliable sources for historical research, and the English article is not a uniform representation of the information on Yasuke across the different language versions of Wikipedia that have this article. There are varying primary, secondary, historical and pop culture sources suggested for and used in all of these articles either backing up verified information about him, or making different claims that may not be accurate.):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Yasuke

Wikipedia administrator discussion:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240518220622/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Talk:Yasuke_is_a_complete_dumpster_fire

Earliest archive of original Famitsu interview (in Japanese; English machine translations for all archives of this article compared between Google Translate and DeepL prior to publishing this submission. Deleted quote in Japanese is "まず“私たちの侍”、つまり日本人ではない私たちの目になれる人物を探していましたが、これは") (May 15):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240515185159/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194

Archived edited interview (May 16):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240516194746/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194

Latest archived edit (May 18):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240518034336/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194
The Joy of Creation
1
THE JOY OF CREATION is the first and so far only officially endorsed Five Nights at Freddy's project to be developed in Unreal Engine 5, with past games using Clickteam Fusion 2.5, Unreal Engine 4, or other less commonly used game engines.
person Violett calendar_month May 13, 2024
Nikson Unreal Engine 5 tweet:
https://twitter.com/nikson_dev/status/1550209225367879680

Scott Cawthon Clickteam Fusion 2.5 interview:
https://www.clickteam.com/clickteam-blog?p=interview-of-the-author-of-a-top-paid-game-in-appstore

Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted Unreal Engine 4 intro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL0ETZxfSs4
Company: Sega
subdirectory_arrow_right Nintendo (Company)
1
Attachment The first official crossover between a Nintendo property and a Sega property is often assumed to be either Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games or Super Smash Bros. Brawl. While these are indeed the first Nintendo-Sega crossovers within the gaming medium, there have been instances prior of crossovers in supplementary marketing material:

• A 1994 advert made by DIC for animation industry insiders showing their global reach through the Panda Club and Dragon Club TV blocks in China shows Sonic the Hedgehog waving through a TV screen while Mario pats him on the back, joined by Madeline from the Madeline book series and Billy Lee as seen in the cartoon adaptation of Double Dragon.
• The infamous Fight for the FoxBox promotional film made by 4Kids Entertainment in 2003, which utilizes existing anime and cartoon clips to make a new crossover story, shows Dr. Eggman and King Dedede as allies alongside Dial-bolic from Ultimate MUSCLE, Dr. K from Cubix: Robots for Everyone, and Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles working for Wayne from The Cramp Twins in an attempt to shut down the titular television channel. Although the villains do interact in this half-hour film, the heroes mostly do not, with Kirby and Sonic never sharing screen time in particular.

This is, of course, discounting instances of unauthorised parodies and mockery at the height of the console wars.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month April 8, 2024
Print ad cel:
https://twitter.com/SatamHistorian/status/1452085625558118402

Full advert found on eBay, and attached as a file.

Fight for the FoxBox:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKHYLf8uxnk
Sound Voltex: Exceed Gear
1
"いまきみに" ("Ima kimi ni") marks both composer Silentroom's first Konami Original composition and their last song prior to their hiatus in August 2022, planned to end in 2024. The purpose of this hiatus, according to Silentroom's website, is to focus on their main field of work.
person aa1205 calendar_month March 21, 2024
RemyWiki Page on Ima kimi ni:
https://remywiki.com/Ima_kimi_ni

Silentroom tweet regarding Ina kimi ni and hiatus mention:
https://twitter.com/plcube/status/1559384269633400832

Silentroom's hiatus announcement:
https://silentrm.net/announcement-of-temporary-suspension/
DanceDanceRevolution
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In August 2015, location tests for DanceDanceRevolution (2014) were held in North America. This marked both the first time the series was location tested in North America since Dance Dance Revolution X2 and the first time eAMUSEMENT was officially supported in the region. The English translation was a more completed version of the one present in the Korean version. Furthermore, 47 songs were removed from this version due to copyright restrictions, mostly being licensed songs from previous entries and all the "U.M.UXBEMANI" songs.

In the end, DanceDanceRevolution (2014) was not released in North America, with the following game Dance Dance Revolution A becoming the first Arcade release in North America since Dance Dance Revolution X2.
person aa1205 calendar_month March 8, 2024
Franchise: Ace Attorney
1
From 2009 to 2013, Capcom Japan collaborated with the all-female musical theater company Takarazuka Revue to produce three musicals based on the Ace Attorney series, the first time Takarazuka had ever collaborated with a game company. The first production, "Gyakuten Saiban: The Truth Reborn", sold out all tickets on its first day, and with the second musical ("Gyakuten Saiban 2: The Truth Reborn, Again...") drew a combined total attendance of over 50,000 people. According to series creator Shu Takumi, the musical's director Suzuki Kei cleared the first four Ace Attorney games seven times each before sitting down to write the script. Additionally, while he was not involved in the first musical's production, Takumi did contribute feedback midway through the second musical's production. The musicals were successful enough that it prompted the Revue to partner with Capcom again to produce a musical based on the Sengoku Basara series, and once more to produce "Dai Gyakuten Saiban: New Truth Reborn", a musical based on the The Great Ace Attorney spinoff games.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month March 2, 2024
Balloon Kid
1
Alice from Balloon Kid, while not Nintendo's first female main video game protagonist, (being predated by Bubbles from Clu Clu Land and Samus from Metroid) was the first to be unambiguously female in all regions in which her game was released, as opposed to having her gender be a surprise reveal or having an androgynous design and being assigned as female in a Western localization.
Tank
1
Attachment According to The Cutting Room Floor, a website devoted to archiving unused content in video games, Tank is the first video game known to have unused content. Specifically, the game's score numbers are stored as one sprite even for double digit numbers, with the numbers going up to 63, despite such a score being impossible in the game due to the game's maximum 120 second timer and invulnerability frames.
Gran Trak 10
1
Gran Trak 10 was the first video game to store graphics on the ROM instead of mathematically generating them, the first video game about cars, and the first video game with a steering wheel control scheme.
This Is Football 2004
subdirectory_arrow_right WALL-E (Game)
1
This is Football 2004 was the first Western video game to be officially localised into Arabic. In 2008, THQ would attempt to pass off the HD version of Wall-E as the first, using the rather dubious wording of "first current-gen game".
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month December 26, 2023
Zoo Tycoon
1
Attachment Predating Zoo Tycoon: Dinosaur Digs, the Triceratops is notably the first ever prehistoric creature included in the Zoo Tycoon series as a hidden unlockable within the first base game. Players could unlock it as an adoptable animal by completing the "Breeding the Panda" scenario, but it could also be unlocked earlier by renaming an exhibit to "Cretaceous Corral".

Notably, with the installation of the aforementioned Dinosaur Digs expansion pack, the Triceratops' sprite is modified to be much smaller in size and duller in color; it also now functions like the other dinosaurs, such as now requiring to be hatched out of an egg and be taken care of by a scientist (as opposed to a zookeeper), and will break out of all fences from the base Zoo Tycoon game.
person Dinoman96 calendar_month December 21, 2023
Just Dance 2023 Edition
1
Just Dance 2023 Edition is notable for being the first game in the series' 14-year history to feature a story mode, titled "Enter the Danceverses". When asked during a discussion panel with Ubisoft Paris, the game's content director Franck Chapelat stated that they added the story mode because they "wanted to make a link between reality and the Just Dance universe."
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month December 5, 2023
Poostall Royale
subdirectory_arrow_right Postal Babes (Game)
1
The 2009 Java Phone game Postal Babes is the first game in the series to feature a female playable character, with the second game to do this being Poostall Royale in 2023.
person Wingzzzzy calendar_month November 28, 2023
Ryuu ga Gotoku Kenzan!
1
Ryuu ga Gotoku Kenzan! allows you to briefly play as certain bosses in the series like Majima Gorohachi and Ito Ittosai in certain battle scenarios. This would mark the first time the Yakuza series would allow you to play as a character besides the main protagonist.
Madden NFL 15
subdirectory_arrow_right Madden NFL 15 (Game), Madden NFL 99 (Game), Madden (Franchise)
1
The Madden curse was an urban legend which claimed that athletes who appeared on the box of Madden games would either under-perform or sustain an injury in the season following their game's release. After a 16-year streak of "bad luck" starting from Garrison Hearst's appearance on the box of Madden NFL 99 in 1998, the first Madden game to feature a cover athlete and not John Madden himself, the "curse" would finally be broken in 2014, when Calvin Johnson managed to have one of the best seasons in his career following his appearance on the box of Madden NFL 15. Although the streak ended, the curse would strike sporadically over the continuning years, but so far has not begun another continuing streak of bad luck.

In 2010, a film adaptation of the Madden curse was announced by EA, but no news has surfaced on it since and it can be assumed cancelled.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 21, 2023
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2
subdirectory_arrow_right Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway (Game), The Legend of Korra (Collection)
1
The 2023 game Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 was the first Nickelodeon product where Korra from The Legend of Korra isn't voiced as an adult by Janet Varney, instead being voiced by Jacqueline Grace Lopez, while Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway was the last time Varney portrayed the character in 2022. The reason for this is that Varney announced that year that she was stepping down from the role, because she wanted Korra to be voiced by a person of color, much as Korra herself is, following the announcement of a new Avatar: The Last Airbender movie starring Korra to be released in 2025.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 20, 2023
Janet Varney confirming that she was retiring from the role:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t8JCGLM85M

List of Korra's actors:
https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/characters/Avatar-The-Last-Airbender/Korra/

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCXOsq0UT-Y#t=10074

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYu9BRfLSDE#t=4370
Garten of Banban 4
1
Sheriff Toadster is the first male English-speaking character in the Garten of Banban series to not be voiced by one of the Euphoric Brothers (Faris and Ghepo), instead being voiced by Paul Hikari.
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
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1
person CLXcool calendar_month April 8, 2018
Cruis'n World
1
Attachment The stock sound effect of an Islamic chant which sparked controversy for being used in the original Fire Temple theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and in the soundtrack to Kakuto Chojin: Back Alley Brutal was first used in the music track 'Cairo Cruis'n' for the Egypt race track in the Nintendo 64 version of Cruis'n World. The chant comes from a sound library collection called "Voice Spectral - Volume 1" released by 'best service'.
Moonmist
2
Moonmist is believed to be the first video game to include a lesbian character in the form of Vivien Pentreath, a criminal artist who is stated to be jealous of her girlfriend marrying a man. It should be noted, however, that she is never actually referred to as a lesbian in-game.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month April 23, 2024
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