Abstract
Sustained academic engagement with the colonial and imperial implications of videogames is a relatively recent phenomenon. This article employs the case study of Medieval II: Total War’s 2006 simulation of the battle of Otumba to interpret player interactivity with grand narrative formations dating back to the sixteenth century. The steady revitalization of imperial apologism, colonial violence, and commemorations of heroic action suggest the complexity of player reception of gamified history and the importance of games to not only popular culture, but also historical memory and constructions of identity.