NOCLIP Pocket E64 - Go to Gurt's - Lost Kingdoms

Don’t you have a burly podcast hidden away somewhere?

Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about a FROM Software title from the olden days of their catalog, where they would release a game about fighting with cards exclusively on the GameCube. And that game is Lost Kingdoms, an RPG where you collect cards to make a deck to take into levels and serves as the kinds of attacks and spells you can perform. It’s got skeletons. It’s got princesses and dragons. it’s an RPG. But the card system is what takes something that could be kind of rote and boring and turns it into something much more interesting. While probably not the absolute first card based game of this sort, it is one of the earliest and you can feel its mechanics reverberating into more modern takes on this style. And with a release in 2002, for a lot of people of a certain age, it is likely the first they had ever played. And all that above not to say it themes and visuals are bad. It’s a very classic fantasy style, but done very well, especially for the time, and with an almost nostalgic Dungeons and Dragons kind of flavor. We’re going to be talking about how the game negotiated with its card mechanics, winning with some designs and losing with others, the nature of a game that seems like it wants you to lose or intentionally replay content to get the most out of it, and how shocked we are at the number of lizards we each have. It’s a lot of lizards!

Thank you for joining us again this week! This was one on the original list for the podcast that we never got around to for a number of reasons, some good and some stupid. Let us know if this is a game you played back in ye olden days of the Gamecube, or if you became aware of it after FROM’s rise to fame. It definitely stood out to me, but I can see it being forgettable for other people. Let us know what you think in the comments or over on our Discord. Next time, we’re going to be taking things in a more abstract direction and talking about Hylics. Also an RPG, but that’s about where the similarities end, so check us out then.

Episode 133 - Bobblehead Sneak King - Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

The coolest sword in the whole world: the Sword of Podcasts,

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, an FPS developed by Gearbox and a spin off of the Borderlands franchise. For a spin off title, the game mechanically plays much the same as any other Borderlands game, but with its priorities flipped around a bit and with a different narrative and theme. Rather than the wasteland-y aesthetic the series is known for, this title (while still existing in that universe) has table top role playing games as its central conceit, with you playing a character in a campaign being run by Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2 (and presumably onward). This RPG theming is more than a coat of paint, but not by too much, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your tastes and how much you like the Borderlands franchise. There’s a lot of fantasy style creatures in the form of wyverns and skeletons and the like, but at its core you are still shooting guns, grenades have been replaced by spells which have similarly varied effects like grenade mods. Class mods are armor, shields have become wards, etc. The mechanics are all still present here, but with a flavor overhaul, and the world and story have been restructured to match the fantasy ideas. If you’re familiar with Borderlands, I can’t explain much more about the mechanics you don’t already know, so jump into the podcast to hear us talk about the RPG systems in the form of skill trees and player customization, voice casting in a triple A game and how that effects how we feel about the dialogue and writing, and we use Comedy Algebra to explain the phenomenon of finding something funny when you’re 18 and ceasing to find it funny at 30.

Thank you for joining us again this week! Borderlands isn’t a game in our typical wheelhouse as far as the podcast goes, but the idea of playing a new shooter seemed like it would satisfy a craving for (one of) us, so here we are. Is this the type of game you’d like to hear us talk more about? Are you a Borderlands fan from way back? Did the writing in this game land for you, and did you engage with the endgame content gear grind? Let us know over in our Discord or in the comments below. Next time, we’re curling back up into a ball and getting cozy under the familiar adventure game blanket to talk about Night in the Woods, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

NOCLIP Pocket E63 - Rusty Playground - Solar Ash

Your podcast is a profanity.

Welcome back! Today on NOCLIP Pocket, we’re going to be talking about Solar Ash, a movement-based 3D platformer which was developed by Heart Machine, the developer of Hyperlight Drifter. While the aesthetic and other stylistic elements of this game relate back to Hyperlight Drifter, this game is very much a departure from the type of thing that that game was, and I think it may be this difference that made it fly so far under the radar of so many people, even those that were fans of their first game. Solar Ash is a platformer that places its emphasis strongly on its movement mechanics. Your character skates around the terrain like they have a pair of rocket-powered Heelys, making use of momentum to jump large gaps and navigate tighter obstacles with a host of context sensitive mechanics like grappling hook points and bouncy surfaces. The game also has a unique approach to boss design, mixing the fluid movement with Shadow of the Colossus-style encounters by forcing you to navigate your way up onto them and then accomplish a timed platforming challenge to deal damage. The weakest part of the game, however tends to be in its level design, though there was much disagreement between us as to what specifically we found good and bad, so we encourage you to give it a try if it seems interesting and make your own decision. We’re going to be talking about how movement mechanics really make this game what it is, our favorite and least favorite levels and why we disagree so much on their quality, and we make a quick note of IKEA’s diminishing influence in this developer’s work.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We love to talk about all kinds of games, but the ones that don’t get much attention hold a special place in our heart. And this was no different. We may have fallen into different camps on this game in the end, but it was still a fascinating experience to have and offers insight into how games like this are designed, especially with how different it is from the developer’s previous work and how well the mechanics came together. Did you play this when it came out, or were you one of the many people who seemed to miss this one? Let us know over in our Discord or in the comments! Next time, we’re going back to the GameCube (which would be more novel if we hadn’t just done Monkey Ball a few months ago) and talking about FROM Software’s card game RPG, Lost Kingdoms, so be sure to join us for that, if only to say how much better it would have fit as the Pocket companion for Inscryption and we just barely missed it.

Episode 132 - Past in Games - Inscryption

It’s been so long since I’ve had a podcast.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today we’re going to be talking about Inscryption, and, before moving on I have to say that I will be crucified for writing anything about Inscryption online that people who haven’t played it can see with their virgin eyes and ruin the experience for themselves. So note that this is one of those kinds of games and proceed with caution if you really don’t want to know anything about it, though I’m going to stay as spoiler free as possible in this description. With that out of the way, Inscryption is a… card game. It’s a game with some twists and maybe even a few turns, but at its mechanical heart it is a deck building card game, and a genuinely good one at that. The game is easy to pick up and understand with a level of mechanical depth that can be imposing at times later in the game, and it meshes thematically with the world the game creates exceedingly well. In fact, a lot of what aids in the grokability of the game is how well it fits within the fiction, sparking curiosity in the player and letting that naturally turn into an investigation of the mechanics. Beyond that, it’s hard to talk about this game’s tone without spoiling some of it, but I’ll say that it does remain interesting throughout and is one of the best things about the game. It pulls off “creepy” better than most traditional horror games do and packs an alarming amount of detail into even its smallest environments. The rest I’ll leave to you to find out for yourself. We’re going to be talking about how figuring this game out while not knowing anything at the outset is more enjoyable than most, the card game mechanics and what they do right and when they get complicated, and we fail to make a poop joke which should come as a big relief to everyone.

Thank you for joining us and also for putting up with that vague description! We really liked this game, for the record, so if you’re on the fence about it and our opinion means anything we’d try pushing you in its direction. If you’ve played it, how much did you know about it before going in? Did you find it mysterious and cool? Are you a card game player and did you pick up on all the references and clap your hands or roll your eyes at them? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! We’re taking a pretty big jump in the style of game we’re talking about next time, and covering Tina Tina’s Wonderland, the Borderland’s spinoff based around fantasy and D&D, which is apparently pretty hot right now, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

NOCLIP Pocket E62 - The Perversion of Pac-Man - Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures

Slow down, Pac-Podcast!

Welcome back NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, which is among the stranger entries in the Pac-Man franchise. In Pac-Man 2, you guide Pac-Man around a world map to accomplish goals, most of which are mundane chores, by shooting at things with a slingshot or directing his attention, making the game a sort of second-person adventure game. You’ll need to identify objects that will help you and avoid the ones that won’t while managing both Pac-Man’s attention as well as his mood. This makes the game fluctuate between being a colorful shooting gallery where you’re often surprised by the results of your actions and a kind of tedious experience once you figure out what needs to be done and just need to make it happen through all the curve balls the game throws at you. Despite this dichotomy, this is still an extremely unique game that uses a familiar character in an extremely unexpected way and is worth taking a look at, particularly if you’re interested in the history of games. We’re going to be talking about the amount of environmental interaction the game encourages with its systems, the strangeness of the concepts and mechanics and we crack into the real Pac-lore this game sheds light on.

Thank you for joining us again this week! This was the game that actually inspired “Fan-bruary” a few months back and we felt like we should definitely do an episode on it even if we didn’t manage to squeeze it in back then. It certainly is an odd one and is appealing in that "you don’t see that very often” kind of way. Have you played this game? Or even heard of it? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Solar Ash, the third-person platformer (kind of?) from the creator of Hyperlight Drifter, so be sure to check back then.

Episode 131 - Dick Holden - Disco Elysium

Maybe we wouldn’t welcome you if you were being chased by men with guns. Or maybe we would, because that’s just the kind of podcast we’ve built.

Welcome back to Mystery May! On June 5th. It happens. For our final mysterious game this month, we’re talking about about Disco Elysium. This is an RPG in the tabletop RPG or CRPG sense where it sets out to mechanically emulate playing a TTRPG with stat checks and many dialog choices, letting you choose where to go and what to do in order to accomplish your goals. Combine this freedom with the massive catalog of stats to increase and you have a game that leans heavily on player choice. As the game checks your stats constantly in the background against a number of possible results, this means that the type of character you choose to play heavily impacts what you end up learning about. A character with many points in Empathy will know more about people while a Motorics based character will learn and interact with many objects, which all play in to your understanding of the world and the case you’re trying to solve. And of course, it wouldn’t be such a good Mystery May game without a case to solve. The world of Disco Elysium is very bleak, and your job as a cop solving a murder isn’t much of a relief from all the darkness around you. This isn’t to say the game doesn’t have levity, it actually has a ton of very well-written jokes, but the overall themes are ones dealing with picking up the pieces of a broken city and a broken mind. This makes a lot of the game feel very heavy, and it can be exhausting to play at times, but it’s worth it to see something unique with a fresh perspective, not just on the RPG genre, but on people and the world they live in as well. We’re going to be talking about how the many stats can be motivating to how you play, how we feel about the mystery contained in this game and its resolution, and we complain about being old and tired and not having time for a game that demands this much of you.

Thank you for joining us this week, and this slow past month of mystery games. As alluded to above, we’ve been very busy personally the last several weeks and it’s impacted our ability to get out episodes at our usual speed, but we’re genuinely really happy with the choices made for this theme this year. This was an, admittedly, kind of expected treat, a game we knew had a lot of hype behind it and seemed up our alley, but the actual contents were still surprising upon playing it. Did you play Disco Elysium when it came out, or when the final cut was released? Is it a game you could see yourself playing for a second time? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord server, where you can also suggest some games for us to play, perhaps for next year’s Mystery May! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Inscryption, a game that is more of a mystery to us than it maybe is in game, but with a trusted recommendation and the assurance you should know as little about it as possible before going in, we’re excited nonetheless.

NOCLIP Pocket E61 - Juice Heads - Gemini Rue

We hope you’ll listen to this podcast so we don’t have to wipe your memory again.

Welcome to Mystery May! This week, we’re going to be talking about Gemini Rue, a detective point and click adventure game with a cyberpunk setting. This game came out during an era that you could call the Adventure game revival period, if you think the genre actually was revived at some point, but the important thing is that it is obvious the design was inspired by classic adventure games. There are several ways to interact with objects in the environment, an inventory system and progress is made by solving puzzles. There are a few wrinkles here, a gunfight mechanic as well as the ability to swap between two playable characters, but these don’t act to really shake up the basic functionality of the genre and the result is something that feels very retro. While the adherence to the old adventure game style is a strength if you are a fan of the genre, the real appeal here is a very competently told story that, yes, contains its fair share of mysteries. It could have done more to work the detective angle and make the player work to figure out the solutions to those mysteries, but watching it unfold is still an entertaining experience. We’re going to be talking about economic use of assets that work from both a design perspective and also fit thematically within the game world itself, voice acting taking the story telling potential of the game to another level, and we construct a food metaphor so deft it will finally get us the recognition we deserve.

Thank you for joining us this week! We’re having a truncated Mystery May this year with only two episodes, but I think the game selection ended up pretty strong nonetheless. Have you played this game before, or were you compelled by this episode to pick it up? Do you find point and click games boring and obtuse, a genre that only appeals to sleepy old men and pedants? Let us know down in the comments or over on Discord! And while you’re over there, drop us a suggestion for a game to play, which I mention because… our next game is the inspiration for Fanbruary (which we’d recommend checking out if you haven’t already), Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures! We hope you’ll join us for that.

Episode 130 - Big Ice Bag - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Podcast juice, huh? I have no idea what it is, dude, but it tastes radical!

Welcome back to the podcast and our final episode in Ape-ril! We’re going to be discussing Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. This is a sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns which is itself a spiritual follow up to the original series of games from the SNES, which puts this in a fairly odd position as a part of the franchise. A lot of the base elements of the game are tied to those original titles as the new series tries to relate back to what made those games so memorable, but then again the mechanics and designs of DKCR are being iterated on to further polish the game and the “tropical freeze” goes much further than a fresh coat of paint. This sequel-to-a-successor status and strong thematic elements make Tropical Freeze actually a very interesting standalone game, despite it’s close ties to its predecessors. We’re going to be talking about level design and the kind of platformer this strives to be, the way its stages tell stories on both a micro and macro level, and we discover the punchline to a joke about Cranky Kong that started over twenty years ago.

Thank you for joining us again and for closing out this mon(key)th with us! What are your feelings on Retro Studio’s take on the Donkey Kong franchise? Do you think these games are great? Are they overhyped? What about, and this is extremely important, what about Rambi? Do you…do you like Rambi? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord server where we talk about the games. Next time, we’re diving into our annual tradition of Mystery May and talking about Disco Elysium, so we hope you’ll join us then!

NOCLIP Pocket E60 - Freshly-Jellied - Ape Escape

What’s happening? What’s wrong with you? Do you realize what you’re saying? Do you know who you’re talking to? Snap out of it! Pull yourself together! Can you hear me?

Welcome back to the podcast! For our second pocket episode for the very cohesive and not stupid in any way themed month of Ape-ril, we’re going to be talking about Ape Escape. This is a Playstation 1 title that necessitates the use of the Dual-Shock analog controller. Which in the grand scheme of things doesn’t necessarily sound all that important of a detail to focus on, but playing the game it becomes very clear that its purpose was really to showcase all of things that were possible by having multiple analog sticks (as well as the L3/R3 button concept), and does so in a really unique way. The control scheme of this game is actually really clever, with the face buttons used to switch between multiple gadgets that can be mapped by the player and all use the right stick to function, as well as having jump mapped to the R1 button to keep the stick always available to be used. It was certainly novel at the time, and since we live in a world now where every modern controller has multiple analog sticks, it’s clear that the Dual Shock has had an impact with Ape Escape having at least a small part in introducing this concept to players. On top of that, the game is just solidly designed, having a lot of mechanical complexity and player abilities, but with a simple concept and mostly very tightly designed levels. This overall simplicity meant that the player can focus on using platforming, stealth, climbing and all of the different gadgets without sacrificing the flow of the level. We’re going to be talking about the successes and failures of the novel control scheme, the legacy of the game and why it’s worth playing, and our desire to see someone in a big foam Spike mascot costume.

Thank you for joining us this week! This game wasn’t an unknown quantity for us coming in, but we were still surprised by just how well this game held up, particularly in the face of some of the older games we’ve played recently. It really is an interesting title with a lot of good ideas that really haven’t been iterated on much outside of its own series. Did this game introduce you to twin stick controllers? Did you have an equally smooth time playing this one in the modern era? Let us know down in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time we’re leaving Ape-ril and entering into Mystery May (and then hopefully taking a fairly long break from themes) and we’re going to be talking about Gemini Rue, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

Episode 129 - The Wheeling Wizpigs - Diddy Kong Racing

You must find 8 podcasts from each level and WIN.

Welcome back to the podcast, and to our stupidest themed month yet, Ape-ril! Today, we’re going to be talking about Diddy Kong Racing. This is Rare’s effort in the kart racing genre, and we’re willing to bet that if you’re around our age and had an N64, you probably have some positive memories of this game. Cherish them. Those memories betray how soul crushingly difficult this game is to play. The core concepts at play here in this game are very strong, though. With three different vehicles and a large cast of characters to choose from, this has more variety than other games in the genre at the time, and a unique hub for level selection is a very cool addition. The presentation is colorful and fun in the way Rare is known for, with music that is straight out of their heyday. However, the game demands you to be absolutely flawless, completing challenges that would be optional in most other games and compounds with the N64 hardware not allowing for the most responsive controls to make a game that will kick your ass six ways to Sunday as soon as you finish your first time through each course. We’re going to be talking about how each of the three different vehicles feel to pilot and how this variety helps to make this game stand out, how certain elements of the game feel like they’re there to milk as much runtime out of the content as possible, and we cast a movie to let the game’s best character, Wiz Pig, really shine.

Thank you for joining us this week! There’s something about monkeys that makes a game more difficult than most for some reason. Between this and Monkey Ball, we’ve already had two difficult games, but each in their own way. Have you gone back to play DKR at any point in your life? Did you also not remember just how tricky some of the challenges were, or did you stick it out because you aren’t as weak-willed and frail as we are? Let us know down in the comments or over on Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and after what we’ve already put ourselves through this month, that Funky Mode is looking pretty appealing…

NOCLIP Pocket E59 - A Crossover With Lettuce - Super Monkey Ball

Ready? Podcast! Hurry up!

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re starting our hopefully not recurring theme month of Ape-ril by talking about Super Monkey Ball! While we ended up playing a little of the first game and a bit of Banana Mania for this episode, the original games do sort of conglomerate in your head if you’ve played them both, so it seems fair to consider this more of a look at the series rather than a specific game. The Monkey Ball games are defined by their mechanical design: similar to a Marble Madness type game, your goal is to roll the ball from the start to the goal in a physics simulation by tilting the stage and navigating obstacles. Because of this unchanging mechanical throughline, you can almost consider the game’s sequels (apart from Banana Blitz) as expansion packs, adding new stages and mini games but keeping the same core engine that makes the game work. These stages can be absolutely dastardly at times though, with later levels requiring a mix of fast reflexes, careful navigation and a deep understanding of the game’s physics to competently complete. While we were not always competent, we persevered. We’re going to be talking about the style of engagement this game traffics in, the juxtaposition of cute monkeys and colorful presentation with tough as nails level design, and the dystopian banana future the Dole corporation previewed in the original title.

Thank you for joining us again this week! Is Super Monkey Ball the hardest game you’ve ever played, or are we just babies? What was your favorite stage name and what did the level it’s associated with make you feel while looking at it? Let us know over on Discord or in the comments on YouTube! And strap in, because it’s a weird theme month again, so next time we’re going to be talking about Ape Escape and we hope you’ll join us for that.

Episode 128 - The Hill That Killed Me - Elden Ring

Put these podcast ambitions to rest.

Welcome back to the podcast, where we absolutely couldn’t not talk about Elden Ring. This is the latest game from From Software, the developer behind the Dark Souls franchise and the creator of the genre that spawned a million imitators. These are all things you probably knew before going in, though. The surprising thing about Elden Ring though is just how much like Dark Souls it ends up being. The design philosophy behind all of the Souls-like titles is present, but now set in an enormous open world, which is a change that really shouldn’t be discounted. The emphasis on exploration that the Souls games have always had is pushed to a different kind of emphasis now, with a larger than ever amount of optional content and a huge space to work with. This presents some issues, for sure, as all open world games have: things that could be important certain builds can be hard to find, there being a sort of directionless feeling to parts of the game and boss fights repeating themselves in some of the optional dungeons, but these issues rarely come to the forefront of your mind while playing due to the sheer amount of authored content throughout the huge open world. We’re going to be talking about build variety and how the way you choose to play can make the game feel completely different, bosses we like and those we don’t and how the design of the major bosses makes them stand out in a game full of unique enemies, and we flaunt our knowledge and understanding of the game when we talk about the “whatever temple of Marika.”

Thank you, as always, for joining us this week. As we state up front in the podcast, the first time experience of playing Elden Ring is unlike much else in the world of video games, so I’d like to drop at least one more warning that the blind experience is something you want to have and we’d recommend playing the game before listening if you have any intention of doing so. Otherwise I hope you enjoy the episode, all six billion hours of it. How did the game stack up against your expectations? Were you as surprised as we were as to how much like Dark Souls 3 it ended up playing? Was the difficulty in the mama bear, papa bear or baby bear range for you? Let us know down in the comments or over on our Discord server where we talk about the games. Next time, we’re breaking tone pretty severely and entering into another themed month everyone didn’t ask for: it’s Ape-ril, and we’re going to be talking about Diddy Kong Racing, so be ready for that.

NOCLIP Pocket E58 - White Knuckle Frenzy - Dragon's Lair

To slay the podcast, use the magic sword!

Welcome to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about Dragon’s Lair and it’s sequels and spinoffs, which were all developed for arcades and use the animation of Don Bluth. The animation is really the selling point of these games, and if you can put yourself in an arcade in the 80s, you can imagine how these would stand out. The hand drawn animation recalls Bluth’s movies and makes up most of what appears on screen, with the only UI elements being a score display and the flashing yellow indicators to show players what to press. The other half of the game is a mechanic set that involves pressing one of four directions or a button to ensure Dirk is headed down the correct path. Simplicity was pretty normal in games at the time, but the incredibly punishing timing windows makes it fairly clear that in addition to the hard work put into making the animation look as good as it does, a decent amount of work was also done to make the game good at vacuuming quarters out of the pockets of children. In the modern era, this game is like a turbo version of Simon Says, but is still interesting to look at nonetheless. We’re going to be talking about visual fidelity and the art of appealing animation, the differences and similarities between the three games in this spiritual series both mechanically and in the way they tell a story with their short animations, and the abject chaos that is Dragon’s Lair 2: Time Warp.

Thank you for joining us this week! We love a weird one, and this one was pretty strange. Though the design intention was pretty easy to suss out, it was still fun to take a look at a game that is this old in comparison to what we’re usually playing. Are you old enough to have played this back in the arcade days, or have you given it a look more recently with the collection release? Did you watch this game on YouTube because playing it seemed like a really tedious effort? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord server! As we enter a new month, next time we’re going to be talking about Ape Escape, a classic PS1 title about apes…who have escaped. Pretty straightforward.

Episode 127 - Slaps Soft Ass - Shovel Knight

Steel thy podcast!

Welcome back! Today, we’re going to be talking about Shovel Knight, the 2D platformer developed by Yacht Club Games in the long ago age of 2014. Yes, this is an older game that has been talked to death already, but it was definitely interesting to see it now with more or less fresh eyes, particularly in today’s landscape where the game is taken as sort of a given. Shovel Knight exploded on the scene when it released because it was an indie 2D platformer that seemed to actually nail what we all remembered as being fun from those games when we played them as kids. And that is the game’s biggest strength: taking a very light touch to modernization and creating a game that truly feels like the games it’s emulating, while still being palatable to a modern audience. That doesn’t mean it’s all killer no filler, though, as some of the design still feels a little dated, or emphasizes a kind of gameplay that might not appeal to everyone, but all of that still feels part of the charm. When partnered with an absolutely stellar presentation in visuals and music, my god, the music, and taking into consideration the changes and adjustments it has undergone through its multiple releases, the game still stands as an excellently executed ode to the 90s era of platformers. We’ll be talking about how the game’s emphasis on its cast of characters brings out its charm, how the level and boss design calls back to the retro era, and we pitch a series of Shovel Knight merchandise like we’re Mel Brooks in Spaceballs.

Thank you for listening to the podcast this week. Scratch another game off the original list we made back in 2015 when this game could have been considered “on the newer side.” Was it worth the wait? Does anyone care? When did you play this game, and what do you think of the cultural hype that’s built up around it, effectively making it one of the most well known indie games of all time? Let us know in the comments, or over on Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Elden Ring, which we somehow, some way, found time to finish and record an episode on in a month. Please be impressed by our lack of things to do in real life, and also please come back then to listen to the episode.

NOCLIP Pocket E57 - Group Project Vibes - The Bouncer

I don’t care if I destroy my podcast, as long as I slaughter all of you!

Welcome to the final episode of Fanbruary, which happens to be in March, but February is a short month so cut us some slack. In this episode, we’re going to be talking about The Bouncer, a weird little 3D beat ‘em up from Square and the first game they released on PS2. This game feels like a release that was feeling out what could be done on the new hardware, that Square would eventually put to use in the games that would define their presence in this console generation. And because of the success of games like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X, this game tends to slip, largely forgotten, into history. Now, I’m not here to say that this is a big tragedy, on the contrary, this is an extremely odd game with a pretty niche audience who is going to really engage with it. But if you find yourself in that audience, or if you’re looking for an experience that seems to defy explanation both in its narrative and by its very existence, this game might be worth checking out. We’re going to be talking about how buck wild the story can get at times, the impressive technical elements of the game, and how old you have to be to undergo Kung-Fu training.

Thank you for joining us this week! This is our last episode that was explicitly listener suggested, but stick around, particularly if you made suggestions, because some of them will worm their way into our schedule one way or another. Did you play the Bouncer when it came out, or is this a totally new experience for you? Did you go through the game a hundred times to unlock all the playable characters and their moves? What bouncer rank are you? Let us know over in Discord or in the comments below. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Shovel Knight, another game we have had on our list for some time, but now seemed like the best time to pull it out. Something about a grand fantasy quest just feels right post February 25th for some reason…oh well.

Episode 126 - Coulda, Shoulda, Keycards - Prey

We spent years trying to put the podcast into you, we never tried to put you into the podcast.

Welcome back! We’ve had a pretty good time so far on Fanbruary, the month where our listeners select the games we play, and we’re going to continue that good time with Prey, the 2017 Arcane immersive sim game. Prey is a first person shooter, but with a heavy focus on systems and a wide array of things the player can do, either by default or by spending some resources to unlock abilities. This is fairly standard for the immersive sim genre, but as the games that meet that criteria are pretty few and far between, it’s safe to say this is among the most accessible of them. The game is pretty not confusing, and the threats and objectives are always clear, so even a player with little to no experience in specializing toward a playstyle can jump in and get a handle on it. I mention this because it describes both of us prior to playing this game, and once we jumped in, we ended up taking two entirely different paths and found the game about as balanced and fluid despite our vastly different playstyles. This is the strength of Prey’s design: the game gives you tools and lets you decide how best to use them, and no matter your choice, you’ll find yourself uniquely capable of taking on its challenges without needing to bend your playstyle around them. We’re going to be talking about tried and true vs novel mechanic sets, world design across the whole title with special emphasis on the brilliant intro, and we talk about how the fat cats over at Big Arrow got their hands into our games again.

Thank you for joining us again this week! This is the last full episode of “Fanbruary” (and, would ya look at the time, maybe the last episode in February at all), but we have one more listener-suggested pocket title to get to next week. We’re extremely pleased with how these turned out as far as quality and variety, so we’re going to count this as a successful theme and will probably revisit it next year. If you want to get in on it, let us know in the comments, or come join our Discord server where you can talk about this and all the other games, as well as make regular suggestions whenever you want. What did you think of Prey? Did you play it at launch, or is it one you came back to? Did you become hopelessly addicted to Neuromods like I did? Did you accidentally play the 2006 game because they share the same name? Let’s hope not. Next time, we’re going to be diving into Elden March, which is to say, we’re talking about Shovel Knight, a game that has very little to do with Elden Ring. But I hope it’s exciting nonetheless.

NOCLIP Pocket E56 - Gorgon Conclusions - Killing Zone

Sensational 3-D Podcast!

Hooooo boy, welcome back to the podcast. This week, as part of Fanbruary, we’re talking about Killing Zone, a PS1 fighting game starring some conspicuously public domain monsters. You might ask, is this game good? That’s a really fair question. No, it’s not great, for sure, but what it does provide is nostalgia (and at least one pretty cool idea, but I’ll get to that later). Sure, maybe your favorite games are actually good, but I bet all of you have at least one game that gives you that warm fuzzy feeling from remembering days in your childhood playing a game you got as a gift, from a bargain bin, or that you rented. This is that kind of a game: not one we’d recommend going back to if you haven’t played it, we’ve done that for you, but one that reminds you of the Glovers or Rascals of the world. As a bonus, the game also includes a CPU training mode called “Auto Mode” that is actually a cool idea, even if it fails in execution, so you’ll get a little regular game design talk out of this episode as well. See, we’ve kind of got a bit of everything in this one. We’re going to talk about fighting game mechanics and balance since I suppose we have to at least try, aesthetics and audio design done in a way only the PS1 era could have accomplished, and we attempt to decipher the one spoken line of dialogue and extrapolate that into a backstory for the game’s announcer.

Thank you for joining us this week! While we don’t necessarily recommend seeking this one out, we do recommend listening because I think there is value in looking at things that don’t quite meet their goals. We talk a bit about the difference between games that seem like they had aspirations, obvious cash grabs, and those that are harder to figure out, and I think it’s actually a pretty useful discussion to have when talking about “bad” games. Plus if you don’t listen we won’t get that sweet content cash. Do you have a pet favorite weird game from a bygone era that you enjoyed as a child? Let us know down in the comments, or come talk about it over on Discord! We sourced every one of the games we’re playing this month from our suggestions channel over there, so do join if you would like to be a similarly bad influence to us in the future. Next time, we’re going to be checking out Square’s The Bouncer, a game that has mostly been forgotten to time, so do keep an eye out for that!

Episode 125 - Strawberry Laser - Everspace

You’re a podcast? Then why didn’t you attack on sight?

Welcome back! This month is Fanbruary, which means that we are playing games suggested to us by our audience, and the very first we’ve chosen to cover is Everspace. This is a space combat game with a rougelite framework, seeing you making runs through six different “Sectors” to explore and collect resources and starting from the beginning each time you die. The “lite” part of the genre title comes in the form of credits, the game’s metacurrency which you can spend to upgrade either yourself or your ship, making subsequent runs a little bit easier. And I really can’t stress “a little bit” enough. This is a difficult game, particularly if you don’t have a lot of experience with this type of combat, but it is helped immensely by the shocking amount of fine control you have over your movement, making the actual experience of playing pretty smooth and the fights feel more strategic. Once the game has its hooks in you, it actually is a really compelling experience and it had us engaging with its narrative mysteries as well as its mechanical ones once we got the hang of it. We’re going to be talking about the many layers of systems in the game and how it might be better off explaining more of them a little earlier, the surprisingly solid presentation in the form of audio and visuals all the way up through writing and voice acting, and all the good, flavorful lasers.

This is the first episode to come out for “Fanbruary” but we’re pretty deep into the games already and I gotta say I haven’t been this excited about doing some episodes in a while. We were both kind of expecting to get left in the dust by this game and were pleasantly surprised at how captivating we ended up finding it. Have you played this game? Are you a space games kind of person or someone constantly searching for that new roguelike that’s going to grab you? In either case, this is one to at least give a shot to. Let us know on our Discord or down in the comments if it worked as well for you as it did for us. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Arkane’s Prey, a reboot in the loosest sense of the term that puts the Dishonored developer’s immersive sim trademark back on the genre in which it started, the sci-fi FPS, so check it out then.

NOCLIP Pocket E55 - The Birdboss Challenge - Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight

This sacred podcast is one of the few untouched spots.

Welcome back to NOCLIP pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, which is the fourth game in the Momodora series, but the first one to really take off. This is a Metroidvania game, but one that is surprisingly compact. It’s fairly rare in the genre to have a game this short, and it brings with it some disadvantages but also some surprising advantages. The smaller map makes backtracking and exploration a lot more clear, and encourages the player to explore more thoroughly, and makes your destination more clear due to it being more fresh in your memory without the need of more obvious signposting. The game falls within the Souls-like subgenre, a boon to its coming to prominence at the time of its release, but even so, feels very at home as a Metroidvania and less like copy-paste of Souls mechanics common in the era. The combat system, while simple, feels very satisfying when you’re engaging with it at face value, though there are ways to exploit it. It’s a mixed bag, but one that feels worth your time, as long as you don’t mind a pretty silly looking boob boss. We’re going to be talking about using new abilities to reach areas in a map small enough for you to remember where you should be using them, the balancing of the combat system and difficulty, and a lot more than could have ever been thought necessary about the Swamp Witch.

Thank you for joining us this week! We knew little about this game prior to playing it, but it seemed like a decent go-along with Metroid: Dread, and I’m personally pretty satisfied with the experience. As a short indie Metroidvania, it can sometimes highlight the things that really are cool about the genre even though it doesn’t really strike out in too many new directions itself. What did you think about it? Did it hit the right notes of the Soulslike formula for you, or would you have preferred something longer or more complex? Let us know over in the Discord or in the comments! And while you’re there, in the Discord, doing whatever, keep an eye out on the announcements channel, because we’re going to be announcing all the games we chose for Fanbruary, our audience choice theme month, very soon. So check us out then!

Episode 124 - Imagine Skin - Metroid Dread

You have been stripped of most abilities. You might call it podcast amnesia.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Metroid Dread, the 5th mainline 2D Metroid game, which is admittedly a lot of qualifiers. Dread picks up following the events of Fusion, a game that was nearly 19 years old at Dread’s release, and carries over its story elements as well as some of the design that made Fusion feel different from the games that preceded it. For example, Dread feels like a more linear experience than previous Metroid games, with less of an emphasis on exploration, but it does so much more with its design, guiding players with a much more invisible hand than Fusion was able to do, and making navigation feel much less daunting than in classic Metroidvanias. Instead, Dread shifts its difficulty more into combat, which is more fluid than its ever been, leaning partially on the newer hardware it’s been released on, but also because you are given a host of new abilities both for movement and combat, chief amongst them being the counter, a mechanic developed in the remake of Metroid II on the 3DS, and put to use again here to great effect. This counter mechanic, as well as the speed and fluidity of the combat, shifts the focus of gameplay from careful exploration and resource management into a more run and gun experience, with the exploration being relegated to uncovering upgrades and hidden paths. While some may lament the loss of a more traditional Metroid experience, it does still provide a mix that keeps the feeling of exploring an unknown planet while smoothing out the frustrating experiences and focusing more on player execution. We’re going to be talking about abstraction in level design and how this can better immerse the player in the game, combat difficulty and boss fights, and we discuss how Samus has over time become a cocktail of genetics.

Thank you for joining us again this week! Metroid, being one of the genre naming franchises of “Metroidvania” style games, has largely existed on its classic catalogue, with many years between releases and spinoff games and remakes holding down its presence in the gaming landscape, so to get a new game with comparatively little time between announcement and release was a pretty exciting thing for fans, most notably, me. How do you think Dread handled the franchise’s tropes and design sensibilities? Was it what you were looking for, or do you still pine for another game like Super Metroid? Let us know down in the comments or over on our Discord server where we talk about the games. Next time, we’ll be playing… something. We’re opening up the suggestions to the listeners for next month, so check back in to find out what we were recommended, or drop a suggestion of your own in the comment section!