Game Night: DuckTales by Rich Flood

My uncle’s mentally disabled.

He’s got size 16 shoes and probably weighs like 250 pounds and used to have a nasty fucking temper. When my cousins and I were really young, (not babies, but still pretty little) he would chase us down, trample us then grab our heads and shake the shit out of us until an adult would call him off. Suffice to say we were scared shitless of him and wouldn’t try and provoke him, except that he had a room absolutely full of cartoons and cool shit, which despite it being potentially life threatening, we tried to get into all the time.

I was in third or fourth grade this when this game came out. Now, my uncle had a shit load of NES games, including this one. I had already beaten it a few times, and – being a little older - was able to talk my way into his room and play this game with him. Later that developed into being able to come into his room to play a bunch of games, but he always liked watching me beat this one, either because I got to where I could beat it quickly without dying, or so he could shriek when you found Gizmoduck.

He still lets me into his room.

Obscure Myth: Krampus by Rich Flood

http://www.krampus.com/who-is-krampus.php

WWII: Hitler's Head Explodes by Justin Zyduck

This is not actually a reference to Inglorious Basterds, but rather one of my all-time favorite video games: the NES classic Bionic Commando. If you are unfamiliar with that game, and specifically its ending, let me drop a little education on you.

The game, as originally released in Japan, dealt with a neo-Nazi group seeking to bring Hitler back from the dead to complete a doomsday weapon. During the English translation process, Nintendo of America--somewhat notorious for censoring anything that might be considered offensive for the U.S. market--removed all explicit references to Nazism, calling the enemies "Badds" and replacing swastikas with a falcon-like emblem.

NOA, however, apparently did not vet the game's ending, or else they'd surely have made alterations to the following game elements:

• Although Hitler is never named--rechristened "Master-D" for the translation--his character model is unmistakably Hitler.
• Hitler/Master-D calls you a "damn fool," which was strong language for the family-friendly NES.
• When you beat the final boss by firing a bazooka into the cockpit of a helicopter, you are treated to an intensely graphic portrayal of a man's skull bursting apart in a bloody explosion.
  

I must admit: I had fun on this one.

(If you're interested, see the 20th century's most hated man explode in black and white.)