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Gaming: Konami code unearths hidden Stranger Things game, Game of Thrones mobile & more
You don’t have to turn the whole internet upside down to find one of the coolest Stranger Things easter eggs we’ve seen anywhere outside of Hawkins. All you have to do, in fact, is remember the good old Konami code — you know, the very one that hails from the same 1980s halcyon days where Stranger Things is set.
With the show’s third season just around the corner at Netflix, a retro-themed cross-promotion with Polaroid has yielded a Stranger Things version of the company's popular OneStep2 instant snapshot camera. But when you visit the item’s official web page, the coolest part is what you don’t see: an 8-bit-styled Stranger Things game called Monster Flash — which only appears when you use your keyboard to enter the classic NES-era Konami code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A).
Offering up the famous secret gaming handshake magically dissolves the web page into a vertical-screen maze game that looks and plays a whole lot like Dig Dug, Namco’s 1982 arcade classic that eventually appeared on tons of ‘80s consoles. This time out, though, you’re burrowing beneath Hawkins, where you’ll take on freshly spawned pollywogs and their more fierce Demogorgon siblings. Choose from one of four characters, grab instant flash photos of each monster type you conquer, and turn it all in to save the city from the Mind Flayer (while racking up those precious arcade high scores).
If you’ve already re-binged the first two seasons of Stranger Things and need one last fix to tide you over until Season 3 arrives, see how deep you can dig by unlocking Monster Flash (it’s totally free to play) over at the game’s well-concealed landing page.
Game of Thrones will live on as HBO gets to work on its new prequel series, but TV isn’t the only place where you can return to Westeros while awaiting the next chapter in George R.R. Martin’s bloody, fantastical universe.
A new Game of Thrones RPG is heading to mobile devices later this year, letting you channel your inner Jon Snow as a playable member of the Night’s Watch. Developer Behaviour Interactive’s first preview trailer gives you a three-eyed raven’s view of Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall, and we’ve gotta say — the newly animated versions of the show’s iconic locations already are looking pretty sweet:
Described as a “collectible strategy RPG,” Beyond the Wall will task you with taking command of a castle of the Night’s Watch, “to defend Westeros and recruit unique characters from around the Seven Kingdoms and beyond.”
Set in the years before the events of the show, the backstory includes the disappearance of Lord Commander Brynden Rivers (aka the Three-Eyed Raven who preceded Bran Stark), with GoT’s mystical Weirwood trees helping you bounce through history (just like Bran!) to visit “key moments” and rack up playable versions of Jon, Daenerys, Jaime, and more key characters.
Pre-registering via the official website will let aspiring Lord Commanders “begin their watch with bonus characters and items” while we wait for word on when the game will debut. There’s no firm release date yet, but at least we know it’ll be arriving before the prequel series does. Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall is slated to land for Android and iOS devices before the end of the year.
Finally, you don’t have to be a World of Warcraft fan to fall down the rabbit hole of more than 500 official Warcraft-themed movie props that’ve just gone up for auction.
From now until July 12, aspiring fantasy cosplayers and WoW fans alike have a chance at snagging choice pieces from a trove of props up for bid from 2016’s star-crossed Warcraft movie, giving everyone a real-life chance to plunder Azeroth for gear like this Alliance Foot Soldier sword and shield, or the green skin orc bust below:
Hosted by Prop Store, an online curator and retailer of movie memorabilia, Warcraft Auction: Alliance and Horde is serving up hundreds of exclusive wearables, weapons, props, and more from Blizzard and Legendary Pictures’ live-action film. So if you’ve been scouring the Stormwind Kingdom with no luck for that perfect elf soldier costume, there’s no better time than now to shower all that gold you’ve been hoarding over at the auction’s landing page.
