NOCLIP

Hold down and swipe up to podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! For our last episode in Fanbruary, well into March at this point, we’re going to be talking about Mario Hoops 3 on 3. MHTOT (lol) is a bit of an anomaly in the Mario sports game pantheon, as it is a DS game that makes heavy use of the touch screen in its control scheme. This seemed like a pretty innocuous suggestion when we got it, but playing this game is a whole experience. It is without a doubt the most complicated basketball game I’ve ever played, and it is really interesting, but I’m not sure where this would even fall on the good game-bad game scale. The overall content is pretty limited, but that is partly made up for by just how difficult it is to get a handle on the controls. There isn’t too much preamble for this one, honestly, it’s just mad swiping on a DS for a few hours. We’re going to be talking about the insane control scheme, the insanely lengthy tutorial, and how this game is exactly like The World Ends With You. Thank you for joining us again this week! This episode was requested multiple times and honestly I’m so glad we finally got to it. It’s such a bizarre time capsule for when new hardware brought innovations, some of which were good and others which were Mario Hoops 3 on 3. Was this a game you had heard about, or enjoyed when it came out? Did you actually play it with other people, and if so how was that experience? Let us know in the Discord or down in the comment section. Next time, we’re going to be playing Pseudoregalia as part of our souls-like themed month we’re trying to do, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

You could pod another cast. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, for our second bite at the Fanbruary apple on the main cast, we’re going to be talking about Valheim. Valheim is a survival game that largely captured the audience for this type of game when it released in early access with it’s Norse theming, boss laddering and robust base building mechanics. Since those halcyon days, the updates to the game have slowed down a bit and the player base has dwindled some, but it still remains one of the most popular survival games. Now, we are not the most avid survival game players. You might say that we all but never play these games. But, we gave this the old college try despite being very unfamiliar with the conventions of the genre, and for the most part managed to get by. Valheim is a game about very slow resource accretion with helpfully well defined goals, those being to build a shelter, improve your equipment, find a way to navigate to each boss, and defeat them for powerups, and then proceed down the line. It is compelling to have an extrinsic goal in a game like this, but there are also myriad decisions that place it squarely within its genre and make it lack some appeal outside that audience. We’re going to be talking about chopping down trees, mining copper, and chopping down trees. Thank you for joining us again this week! Following our stated objective of playing games we wouldn’t normally during Fanbruary, this is squarely outside of our usual comfort zone. That said, the game has its merits and I hope we were able to identify them successfully. And if not? Why, you can let us know down in the comments or over on the discord, from whence this suggestion came! Next time, we’re taking a look at Lunacid, a King’s Field inspired title, so we hope you’ll join us then!

We are not enemies, but we are a podcast. Welcome back to Fanbruary! For our second game of the month (don’t look at the calendar, please), we’re going to be talking about Wet, a third person shooter that iterates on the mechanical innovations of games like Prince of Persia and Max Payne, and takes its title both from a shortened version of the term “wetwork” and also people who are bad at naming things. Wet is honestly a fascinating game just in the sheer difference between its relative obscurity compared to other games from the era and the amount of effort that was clearly put into it. The mechanics are fleshed out, if not always polished, the visuals hold up pretty well for its period, the soundtrack features over a dozen guest artists and that’s not to mention the insane voice cast (and I mean that literally, we entirely forget to mention it in the episode). And yet, if you’re like anyone I’ve talked to about the game, you’ve probably never heard of it. While we may not know exactly what caused this game to fall into obscurity, we can look at it now and see what it brings to the table. We’re going to be talking about the game’s exploitation film theming and aesthetic, how the mechanics come so close to realizing their potential, and the impossibility of asking your parents for a game called Wet. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket! We are slowly getting our wheels spinning again after taking most of January off, but Fanbruary is underway with five whole days left in the month! We like to do games we would most likely not do outside of the fan-suggested month, and while Wet fell more into the “we would have never thought about it” category more than the “we would never play that” one, we still wanted to give it a chance because of cool it looked. Was Wet a game you had played, or even heard about? Let us know down in the comments or over on Discord! We’ll be back next time to talk about Mario Hoops 3-on-3, so we hope you’ll join us then.

You did not survive the podcast, Raziel. Welcome to Fanbruary! As we have for the last three years, this month we’re going to be looking at games suggested by members of our community and we’re starting today with Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver! This is an action/adventure Metroidvania title from 1999 and, especially considering the era in which this released, it has a lot going on. The game has full voice acting for all characters, a not insignificant world to explore and a large amount of side content for the player to stumble onto. Over the course of the game you will pick up a few traversal abilities, health and mana upgrades, spells, and an upgrade to your weapon by exploring the world. That said, this game shows its age pretty significantly and has a number of features and design decisions that maybe don’t hold up so well playing them in a modern context. Whether that be controls, enemy design or the mechanics of puzzles and combat, there is always something off about most systems that really put a hinderance on your enjoyment of the game. What are these? Well, tune in to hear us discuss the exploration-focused world that the game presents, the different things the game tries in the Metroidvania genre, and to hear us say what every 90s kid would about water levels and swimming. Thank you for joining us again this week! We got a lot of great suggestions from you all for this month and it has been genuinely hard to narrow down which games best meet our criteria for great Fanbruary titles, and Soul Reaver felt like a good pick to start us off because it’s fairly well-known, but not one we would likely go back to had it not been suggested. After playing it, it’s fair to say that we understand why the series has the reputation it does, though it’s also a pretty powerful reminder of the effect nostalgia can have on our perception of something. Were we too harsh on the game? Are you a long time fan who is upset we only played this game and skipped Blood Omen? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Valheim, which will be our first episode on a survival game, so we hope you’ll join us then!

A podcast inside a podcast inside a podcast… Welcome back to the podcast! For our January episode, which we kind of did so you didn’t forget we exist before Fanbruary begins, we’re going to be talking about Cocoon. Cocoon is a puzzle game developed by Geometric Interactive, a studio formed by members of the developer Playdead, and while this game is something else entirely than Limbo or Inside, the style they bring is definitely present. Cocoon is not a horror game, yet it creates a sense of eerie foreboding all while being saturated with color and without the threat of death to the player hanging over their head. It’s an intriguing world to exist in, and that’s not even getting into the actual puzzle mechanics. These involve ducking in and out of different playable areas which you can physically carry with you and eventually imbue you with additional abilities. It’s almost hard to explain in a way that impresses upon you what makes it interesting, but it’s a great set of mechanics to center the puzzles on, which get progressively more complicated in the ways you might expect and in some ways that you definitely won’t. It’s a very satisfying, but not overly difficult experience and one that is well worth giving a shot. We’re going to be talking about the puzzles that really had an effect on us and the way we see the game, how the sound and visuals work together to create an incredible atmosphere, and we use the word Kafkaesque in what seems like a safe scenario but probably still use it wrong. Thank you for joining us! Cocoon was a game that we were both excited for given its pedigree and one that feels thematically appropriate as the first of a new year. What was your experience with Cocoon? Did you find the puzzles as satisfying as we did? Were you able to create a more satisfying interpretation of the themes? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re heading into Fanbruary, the month where you the listener chooses what games we play. We’ve gotten some great suggestions so far, but it’s still open for the next couple weeks if you want to give us any further games to consider. Our first full episode is going to be on The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

The awards show least likely to be compared to Dark Souls What a year it has been! We played some comical old PC games, overrepresented horror, had some unnecessary and frankly inscrutable themed months and most of the good games we played came as suggestions from you guys. Okay, so maybe it was exactly the same as every other year, but it’s all about the content variety, really. This year had a good amount of that, at least. And of course, as has been said for untold past millennia, variety in games played means excellent choices for the NOCLIP Awards. Today, we’re bringing back some old favorites as well as new categories. From Best Soundtrack and Smashiest Balls to Coolest Ancient Artefact and the Another Man’s Treasure award (in which we find the most worthless collectibles), we’re recapping the truly standout moments of the year and reflecting upon the games we played and talked about. We hope you can use this opportunity to join us in celebration, or at least get drunk and yell at our bad decisions. Thank you for listening this week, and for your continued support over the last year! Contrary to the joke in the beginning of this description, things have changed a decent amount for us. We crossed 100 YouTube subscribers this year, which is funny, but still a milestone. The podcast is also being recorded mostly fully remote at this point, which was a learning curve (that we’re still climbing, so thank you for bearing with us). All that in addition to the usual time spent and decision making we do to try to make the show as entertaining as possible means that we put forth some effort to make this thing. That said, we as always had a great amount of fun even with the worst games we played, and continue to love doing it. Thank you to everyone who listens and we hope we continue to be, at minimum, satisfactory in 2024.

This early in the game, I doubt you have the podcast to back that up. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, and the final episode of the year! We decided to try to do holiday themes this year and based on our success rate, I doubt we’ll go for it again. Cthulhu Saves Christmas is a novelty follow up to another comedy RPG by this developer, Cthulhu Saves the World, but this time it is obviously themed around Christmas. The game is a throwback RPG with turn-based combat and (kind of) random encounters, where you lead Cthulhu and a party of festive followers around locations from different Christmas mythologies to defeat an evil league of ne’er-do-wells. On top of that, the combat has numerous systems, including a character specific mechanic involving building and spending chicken power as well as shifting the moves available to you based on your use of yet another recharge system. If that all seems like a lot for an indie game as short as this one is, well, you’d be right. There are a lot of good ideas present here, but it lacks the focus that’s necessary to really bring it all together into a game that is both novel and fun. That being said, if the game’s particular brand of humor speaks to you and you can appreciate the presentation, with a particular highlight on the music, this could still be worth the pretty low asking price. Thank you for joining us again this week and this year for NOCLIP Pocket! We hope your holidays are going well (or at least better than the games we chose for this month, lol). I want to spotlight the upcoming Fanbruary event we’re doing here, so if you have suggestions of games we’d like to play, let us know over on our Discord or in the comments (or an email, or wherever else you’re comfortable doing so) and we’ll put those games in the running for an episode. Check out the last two Februarys for some examples of what we chose if you’re looking for inspiration. Thank you for listening this week, and next time we post a pocket, it will be one of the games we chose, so we hope you’ll join us then!

I will podcast unfulfilled! Happy holidays! To celebrate the season, we’re talking about a game that has at least one time on the internet been compared to Home Alone, and that game is Trapt! Trapt is a game in which you prepare and trigger traps within a 3D environment to attack and kill your enemies. Unlike what you are probably imagining, the game plays nothing like a tower defense game or even a puzzle game. It is instead the clunkiest action game you’ve ever played. As you have to trigger traps manually with most of them affecting only a single tile or a row of tiles, most of the game consists of meticulously leading the pretty manipulable AI into specific parts of the map where all of your traps are set up to trigger them all at once. But this isn’t all bad! Well, the gameplay is kind of a wash, but there is more to the game than that: the narrative and character work are also really bad! But in this case it is a major boon for the game, because if there is a reason to play it, it’s likely for this absolute camp. Every enemy you kill has a backstory and unique entry and death dialogue, with some levels having up to ten enemies, and each stage begins and ends (at least) with a cutscene. There is a lot of story content to enjoy, and while the plot itself is pretty basic, and character’s motivations seem very easily swayed, the melodrama of it all is very worth it. We’re going to be talking about how the game itself plays and what we expected from it, the dialogue we found especially hilarious, and we defend our choice to make this a holiday episode. Thank you for listening to the podcast this week! We talk a bit of trash on this one, but the game is still doing something unique (even though it’s the fourth in a series, technically) and deserves some flowers for that. We didn’t have a bad time or anything, it’s just a fairly basic execution of the concept. Have you played other games in the “Deception” series? Is the first one you’ve even heard of? Let us know over in our Discord or in the comment section! Next time, we’re going to be rolling out the green carpet for the NOCLIP Awards, so get your bingo cards ready and start making predictions! We hope you’ve had a good year and we’ll see you in 2024 for more episodes!

My intentions are podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about The Fall. Despite being almost ten years old, I’d consider this to be part of the new wave of adventure games, ones that seek to capture some of the elements of the classic games but without the more obtuse elements. The Fall mostly manages this, using a 2D sidescrolling style which limits the amount of screen searching and navigation you have to do to find all the pieces to each of the puzzles. It’s not without its stumbling points, but for the most part the puzzles are well designed and placed very smoothly into the difficulty curve. Slightly more questionably, it also includes combat mechanics and some exceedingly light platforming, but the mechanic set is well rounded and it’s easy to overlook some of the less polished aspects. The kicker, though, is that what you didn’t know you were actually here for is the narrative. The game is shockingly well written, both for the genre and medium as well as the time period, doing a great job of communicating its themes without dumbing them down for the player to understand. It’s a sci-fi narrative focused around AI that feels very focused, and honestly ahead of its time, and it’s well worth playing just for the story alone. We’re going to be talking about the more misguided elements of the puzzles and mechanic systems, how impressed we are that we cared about the characters at all, and ways to improve coffee…puzzles. Thank you for joining us again this week! This is a game that had made it onto the Mystery May list for how long we’ve known about it, but having now played it, it’s surprising how little it shows its age. Certainly in some mechanical ways it feels old, but we were impressed by its maturity. Let us know what you thought in the comments section or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re doing what may be our first ever Christmas special, and talking about Cthulhu Saves Christmas, so we hope you’re in the spirit for it then.

I’ve got some oomph in my bloom. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a new 2D Mario platformer, which in a weird way kind of feels like part of a trend of Nintendo making more nostalgic releases, like Pikmin or Metroid Dread and remaking Link’s Awakening and Mario RPG. Mario Wonder is a classic 2D Mario game like we haven’t seen since the New Super Mario Bros. games, but unlike those games, Wonder has a direct goal of making more innovations and changing the basic gameplay of Mario. This is a AAA video game, though, so don’t expect something so radically different and risky, but with a more whimsical aesthetic and a surprising mechanical section in each level, it certainly feels much different than past games. And this is definitely a good thing, Wonder lives up to its name by giving you something new to discover in each course and encourages you to explore to ensure you see as much of it as you can. In addition, the game contains new powerups, a badge system that can change your moveset and the layouts of the world as well. All this to say, this game isn’t the next best thing in the history of platformers or even just Mario. It is refreshing, and fun, and well designed and it looks and sounds very pretty, but it isn’t going to stress your abilities, it isn’t jam-packed with content and much of the gameplay is straight out of previous titles in the series. This makes up the bulk of our conversation: in a very mechanically driven genre, is what Mario Wonder provides different enough to be recommended despite the polish that comes with being a first party Nintendo title, is it too different, with differences in kind appearing partway through every single level while not giving the base platforming room to shine? We’ll discuss this and also be talking about the importance of collectibles and how they influence you as you play, the difficulty management present in the badge and character systems, and we take a hard stance on how Toads are treated in the Mario canon. Thank you for listening again this week! As one of the more anticipated Nintendo releases this year, we were excited to get into it and it is interesting to see how it compared to each of our expectations. Or maybe it was very boring to see and I’m just trying to drum up excitement to try to convince you to listen to our podcast, who’s to say? Either way, what did you think of Mario Wonder? Are we just extremely old and have been playing platformers for too long, or was this game easier than you would have expected? Let us know in the comments or over in our Discord! We are getting into the holiday season and so next time, we’re going to be getting into the spirit by talking about that classic Christmastime game: Trapt on the PS2. We hope you’ll join us then, if only to figure out how that makes sense.

The podcast is watching. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Rollerdrome, a game that mixes the extreme sports of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater with the extreme crime of gun violence. In Rollerdrome, you are tasked with eliminating all the enemies that spawn in waves within a level while performing tricks to reload your guns, and doing so quickly to maintain combos and end up with a high score. Maybe the concept doesn’t sound simple at first, because it isn’t, but even so the game is still much harder than you might expect at the outset. The game’s short length means that compared to the amount of time you have to practice for it, the challenge ramps up quickly, with levels in the first round of the game being able to kill you repeatedly if you aren’t careful, and probably still a few times even if you are. Is the game worth learning well enough to push through these difficult stages? I’d say yes. The act of getting better at this game is incredibly satisfying because the mechanics all play so well into each other. Your weapons all serve very distinct purposes and each contain different mechanics to get used to, like timing or charge-up mechanics, but all feed off of the same ammo pool, meaning that managing your resources by sprinkling tricks in wherever possible is a major part of keeping combos up and even just surviving. This means that when it clicks, your runs look very fluid, improvisational, but controlled. We’re going to be talking about, yes, the difficulty and how we each felt it handled it, the game’s light narrative, and we discuss the pros and even better pros of being able to skate on a huge monster’s ass. Thank you for joining us again this week! Rollerdrome is one of the rare video game ass video games done for Pocket, and one that didn’t really take me by surprise. But just because I got exactly what I expected from it doesn’t mean it isn’t great. Did you feel that Rollerdrome was a satisfying challenge, or are we babies? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord! Next time we’re going to be talking about The Fall, which is an ancient (by today’s standards) indie adventure game, so we hope you’ll join us then.

Use the Holy Pod to follow the Golden Cast Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Tunic, a game styled very much after the classic 2D Zelda titles, but with some other influences that will become apparent as you play through the game. Tunic is a colorful, cute game, with a fox wearing a shirt as a protagonist and bushes that squish and bounce when you cut them down. This seems to be to lure you into a false sense of security because the game itself is actually much more difficult than its aesthetics would lead you to believe. The combat in this game is simple in terms of your actions, but has depth in execution. Regular enemies can pose a threat early on, some much more than others, but the bosses of the game are all tests of your abilities. Beyond that, the game primarily focuses around navigation puzzles and exploration, rewarding the player with upgrades and items they can use to get stronger, make fights easier or open up further paths for traversal. And you can’t forget what is essentially the selling feature of the game, the instruction manual. There is a booklet programmed into the game itself that you pick up pages from over the course of your adventure. The book mostly isn’t written in a readable language (though it can be deciphered with some dedication), but it gives hints on everything from what you should be doing to how to perform basic actions like the dodge roll, explaining invincibility frames, and what the different parts of the UI mean. Collecting pieces of this manual is a driving force for a lot of reasons, and we’ll get into all the things it means for the experience in the episode. We’ll also be talking about the accessibility of certain features and how much the average player should be accommodated, the ups and downs of the combat and our experience with the bosses, and Dark Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls. Thank you for listening to the podcast again today! This one was always going to happen eventually, and now that it’s done we’re left with some complicated feelings, but this game is genuinely incredible in a lot of ways. How did you get along with Tunic? Was the difficulty on par with what you look for in games, or were you taken aback by the level of challenge? Were you able to solve the end game puzzles or did you leave that for the more cryptographically-minded out there? Let us know down in the comments, or over on our Discord (where you can also suggest games for us to play)! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Super Mario Wonder, the newest Mario platformer, so we hope you’ll join us for that.

I’m just podcasting my Wares. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re talking about Anodyne, a Zelda-like indie game from ten years ago, which, boy does that just feel like forever these days. Anodyne doesn’t so much have a shtick as it just tries to be a solid action adventure game while exploring its mechanics and themes, and realistically that’s all it needs to be. This is a decently well focused game that understands its own scope very well, and because of that it manages to hold up incredibly against the passing of time. Anodyne takes place within a dream and explores a variety of settings from apartment buildings and hotels to fantasy forests and abstract representations of “place,” which keeps each new area feeling fresh which does wonders for keeping the player engaged as they go through it. Its mechanics are mostly simple, as it doesn’t port over the item collection aspects of a Zelda game, but it does have depth in the mechanics it does have, which are both a little surprising and largely unexplained. It manages to hold a bit of mystery all while being a focused, unassuming little game, and is definitely worth playing if you haven’t already. We’re going to be talking about balancing tone in a game with so many different aesthetic elements within it, what areas we felt were most well executed and most unexpected, and we no joke read a definition out of a dictionary, so get absolutely pumped for that. Thank you again for joining us this week! It’s been a couple months since we’ve done an entirely unthemed pocket, and Anodyne has been on our list for a while (it was relatively new when the podcast started, unbelievably), so we finally got to bring it out. If you played Anodyne, were you early enough to have played before the remaster? If not, do you think the game holds up after so many years? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Rollerdrome, and for no other reason than we wanted to. Which changes the tone of the end of these descriptions, I’m realizing. I got very used to being able to just sort of follow a formula. But it’s not “Retrovember” where we’re talking about all the games featuring 90’s trends like rollerblading or something, so this will just have to do. We hope you’ll join us then!

I’m as podcast as you are. Welcome back! For our final episode of Halloween, we’re talking about Dredge, the fishing game that takes its aesthetic inspiration from cosmic horror, and of course, H.P. Lovecraft. In Dredge you play as a fisherman and you catch fish to pay for upgrades to your ship, repairs, etc., all while working toward the goal of collecting several relics for a mysterious man who lives on an island by himself. Which isn’t weird at all. The fishing itself is engaging enough, but the atmosphere of the game is where it really shines. There is a sense of foreboding as day turns to night and things start becoming more dangerous. This ends up being the main point of contention as far as how successful the game is, because while the aberrant catches and mysterious strangers are all very interesting, and the darkness always hides an unknown threat, the other half of the game is inventory management and resource collection. The more mechanical half of the game can be satisfying, but the tension is broken during extended periods of supplying metal and wood to upgrade your ship, making sure your fish are perfectly tetris’d in your storage, and managing net catches. The game is pulled in two directions, with one wanting to be an atmospheric, dread inducing horror title and the other wanting to be a pretty decent management sim. None of it is quite enough to make the game bad, or not worth playing, and the narrative makes up for it by being just mysterious enough to lead the player along and make them want to learn more about the characters, but it does feel like a weak spot in an otherwise good game. We’re going to be talking about the curse that is trying to do cosmic horror in a video game, how we engaged with the story of the game and our expectations, and we redesign the Pokemon games to make them better, just as a free bonus. You’re welcome, Game Freak. Thank you for joining us again this week, and for the month of spooky games that we look forward to all year. And we even kinda did it twice this time. How was everyone’s Halloween? Did you play anything particularly scary, or do anything else to get in the mood of the season? Let us know in the comment section or over on our Discord server! Next time, we’re going to be shifting gears a fair bit, and talking about Tunic, so we hope you’ll join us then.

Welcome home. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Midnight Manor, a late entry suggestion for Pocket this Halloween that ended up probably saving our schedule. Midnight Manor is a short horror-themed platformer from a solo developer that encourages players to play the game multiple times in different ways to see all the narrative possibilities it has to offer. Mechanically speaking, the game is simple, revolving around carrying items necessary for progression from place to place and navigating the titular manor. This simple gameplay lends itself, in a way, to the multiple ending-based design of the game, encouraging you to make small optimizations to make each successive run a bit faster, but admittedly does very little to make the game more engaging to go through each time. With no enemies, and therefore no fail state, to speak of, what is left to really engage with lies in its atmosphere, music, art and narrative content. All of these things are subjective, but given the short time investment to actually complete the game, and even seeing all the endings isn’t going to add all that much to your total playtime, it is likely worth the low barrier to entry to playing. We’re going to be talking about how character design can raise questions and eyebrows and our thoughts on the intentionality of it, what vibes the presentational aspects of the game put off, and we theorize on what this game may be a sequel to. Thank you for joining us again this week! Midnight Manor was a strangely nostalgic experience that harked back to indie games during our more experimental years when we were just trying anything we could find. That said, it’s a mixed bag, though still more polished and with more thought than you might expect from a project that was this tiny. Did Midnight Manor send you back to a simpler time? Did it get you to play through it more than once? Let us know in the comments, or over in the Discord, where the suggestion for this game came from. As I said at the beginning, our time was rather tight this month, and our last Halloween game is going to bleed over into November a little bit, but we’re always happy to try weird things for October and this certainly qualifies. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Anodyne for a bit more of an adventure-y feel for November, so be sure to check back with us then!

Dismember their podcast. Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be talking about our first horror title for the Halloween season with Dead Space. Specifically, we’re talking about the 2023 remake of the game with only a limited understanding of the original. That said, this is a game that makes a pretty brutal impression very quickly, so we did pick it up quickly. Dead Space is an action survival horror game in the same vein as Resident Evil 4, with an over the shoulder camera. The game’s hook is centered around its enemies, the necromorphs, forcing the player to cut off their limbs to dispatch them efficiently, and this is accomplished in about the most inelegant way imaginable: with power tools and a phenomenally heavy boot. The game is gory and over the top, and while it stumbles over some of the more nuanced elements of the artform, like character development and story, sometimes an extremely raucous horror title is exactly what you want. Which isn’t to say this game goes full Doom. The violence is extreme, yes, but it has scary moments, sometimes maintaining something resembling quiet for seconds to even minutes at a time. It builds and releases tension in quick bursts, and uniquely handles its music cues so as to allow the player to jump scare themselves at times, making it a perfect game for that mid-October horror kick. We’re going to be talking about the arsenal and how the game’s take on weapons sells its premise and mechanical hook, how the remake’s expanded take on Isaac Clarke impacts its narrative and storytelling, and we produce two extremely professional box quotes for them to use on any future physical releases of the remake. Thank you for joining us again this week! The remake of this game re-sparked our interest in doing it for Halloween, despite continually putting it off for other things, and honestly I’m pretty glad we waited. The visual spectacle of this game is one of its major selling points and the more modern version of it probably helped it take effect. That said, have you played the original version of the game? Do you think we should have played the original over the remake? Let us know over in our Discord or in the comments! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Dredge, the Lovecraftian fishing game that released earlier this year and took the world by storm. Or at least, by drizzle. By squall? Some people liked it, for sure.

I’m sorry. I couldn’t keep my podcast. Welcome to Halloween! Our favorite month of year for being our birthday month, it’s also time for us to play just so many, many horror games, starting today with Signalis. Signalis is an indie survival horror game, set in a dystopian sci-fi world in which you play as a “Replika,” a robotic servant, assigned to a pilot of a spacecraft. When laid out like that, a lot about the game’s setting and plot don’t really seem that remarkable. It’s part of the reason I think it’s pretty difficult to really “spoil” this game in the traditional sense, because Signalis is much more of a tone piece than it is a straightforward narrative experience. Yes it has a plot, one that has development and changes and satisfies in its own ways, but the visuals, the cutscenes, the sound, all play into what really makes this game special, in that it creates this eerie, uneasy sense of not really knowing what is and isn’t real. And the other thing that makes this game special is just how well it manages to pull off the classic survival horror style. Limited inventory spaces, enemies that reanimate if you haven’t burned them and specific save rooms are likely pretty familiar to you at this point, but it hasn’t been done this well in a long time. The game isn’t exceptionally difficult, per se, but that classic Resident Evil feeling is definitely there, as you make progress through zones you need to plan routes through as you begin to memorize them, solving puzzles and making tactical decisions about which enemies to kill and which to run away from. It really hits both of its points of focus dead on and is a horror experience I’d recommend to nearly anyone. We’re going to be talking about the game’s clear inspirations and what it does to mimic or improve on their systems, the plot of the game and how it gives you enough to make a certain type of person really want to engage further with it, and we put our belief in the eternal universality of waifus. Thank you for joining us again this week! We know our output has been somewhat diminished recently, but we will get through four horror titles this year even if we need to leak into November a bit. Signalis came pretty highly recommended from a number of people, so it’s good to see y’all have good taste (please save some of that for Fanbruary!). If you haven’t played Signalis yet, I do highly recommend, it’s a perfect game to get in the mood for the season, likely more so than the other games we’ve got coming up this month, so get on it and let us know what you think down in the comments or over in our Discord, which is actually where our next Pocket game is coming from. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Midnight Manor, so we hope you’ll join us then.

We are celebrating our eighth birthday here at NOCLIP, but I can’t help but feel like something is off. In computer memory, there are eight bits in a byte, and memory is necessary to run video games. Video games are like stories, but the players can do things. They have verbs. Eight represents the verb in the classic joke about how seven ate nine. An eight looks like two donuts, which are things you might eat. It’s all coalescing around something, I just don’t know what. Coalesce! Eight letters! 8L, 8lesce. Octolesce. Sounds like… Talk less. Is the universe trying to say that we are getting annoying? Or that we should cover Octopath Traveler? What does the universe know anyway? In radical defiance of nature’s wishes, we are in fact going to expose you to even more talk. Talk that is unrelated almost entirely to video games and which we in fact removed from episodes of the show, only to now regurgitate back to you in the form of a blooper reel. I hope that’s what you wanted, as you can see, the signs are difficult to decipher at times. Regardless, none of this mutes our level of appreciation for those of you who are listening, those who have provided feedback on the show over on our Discord or in comments, and those who have joined us recently, who honestly have gotten the best deal since I feel like we are always improving. I hope this brief gag reel works as a palette cleanser, as I hope every year, and that you will join us for the upcoming Halloween month exploration of games like Signalis and Dead Space. Happy NOCLIP Day, and thank you for sticking with us!

Oooh, banana. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, for Simian September, we’re going to be talking about Donkey Kong 64, the only 3D Donkey Kong collectathon platformer that’s fit to print. This game certainly has a reputation, it’s almost infamous, so we thought it would be interesting to see if that reputation is warranted coming back to it after all this time. DK 64 is a platformer, as mentioned, and one that is in the vein of Rare’s prior N64 classic Banjo Kazooie. The difference, primarily, is that in DK 64, the game centers around the fact that you have five characters to play as, all with unique abilities, forcing you to swap characters many times to complete objectives and collect all the bananas, coins, golden bananas, etc. (seriously, there’s a lot more). This is probably the most important aspect of its design, because while it opens up a ton of space for design to create a bunch of challenges in a relatively small space, it also forces the player to constantly be mindful of who they’re playing as and what they need to progress. This is cool, for sure, but it can also be extremely annoying and, by design, time-consuming to have to continually swap Kongs to do something as simple as grabbing coins off the ground. It has a solid game underneath it all, though, so depending on your tolerance for these annoyances, it can definitely be worth going back to check out, if for no other reason than the kickass soundtrack and the absurdity that gave this game its cultural impact. We’re going to be talking about games preservation, the signature style of Rare’s music team, and in a stunning return to form, we determine what food DK 64 is most like. Thank you for joining us again this week! We barely squeaked this one out within Simian September proper, so I hope y’all don’t mind our diminished output recently. We’ve been podcasting remotely for a bit and are still working the kinks out, so give us some time and things should get relatively back to normal. Did you have opinions on DK 64 before you played it? Do you think the game holds up or does it deserve its current status as a meme? Let us know down in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be entering into October, which means horror games, an original concept pioneered by us and no one else, so we’re going to be kicking that off by talking about this year’s Dead Space remake. We hope you’ll join us then…if you dare!

That’s the stupidest podcast I’ve ever heard! Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about one of the all time classic point and click adventure games, The Secret of Monkey Island as our pocket episode for Simian September, the month that’s like Ape-ril, but in September. Monkey Island is notable for a number of reasons, but it releasing in 1990 means that it was one of the first hits in the genre to really take off and did a lot to popularize Adventure games. It also featured the lighthearted comedic tone that many adventure games, particularly the LucasArts games, would adopt for the rest of the genre’s time in the zeitgeist. That being said, the version of the game we’re playing today is the Special Edition, which infuriatingly came out 19 years later in 2009. This version has updated visuals, making the game look more like a cartoon than the original was able to given technological limitations and added voice acting, which makes the game a bit more accessible for modern audiences. Not so accessible as to make some of the puzzles easier to solve, but I don’t really think anyone expected that from a point and click from 1990. The actual gameplay is where the game shows its age most obviously, though not in the usual way for games of the genre. Monkey Island isn’t a long game, but it is pretty slow, with players needing to meticulously check for items, areas and zones throughout its few maps, but the puzzles never quite get into the outlandish cause and effect logic puzzles of other point and clicks. There is good and bad, but taken as product of its time, the game does surprisingly well, but may not hold up to modern scrutiny. We’re going to be talking about comedy and how the style of this game’s writing manages to make it feel pretty timeless, puzzle difficulty without resorting to pixel hunting or other less-than-logical designs, and we speculate how well fighting a robot fits in with the setting of this game. Thank you for joining us this week! We’re going through some tumultuous times currently, so only a couple episodes for this month, but Monkey Island has been on our list for a while and it’s good to finally have a place to put it. There are even a few proper monkeys in the game, too, so this was less of a stretch than we maybe originally thought. Are you, well, old, and played this game as a kid or around the time of its release, or were you, like us, someone who heard about it as a classic of the genre? Let us know over in our Discord or in the comments. Next time, we’re entering into the scariest, spookiest month of the year and are going to be talking about Signalis, a game that has been recommended to us by nearly everyone we’ve ever met, so we hope you’ll join us then.

A scattered dream that’s like a far off podcast. Welcome back to the podcast this week! Today we’re doing an episode that was a long time coming and talking about Kingdom Hearts II. The only numbered entry in the series we hadn’t talked about yet and probably the simultaneously most loved and most controversial Kingdom Hearts game. KH2 is an action RPG like its predecessor, but amps up a lot of the mechanical interaction to be much faster and more stylish. At times, it plays like a character action game with you executing 20+ hit combos and flying through the air, but its depth in combat lies in a different area than in those games, focusing more on the different meters and timings as well as your ability to navigate the command menu and just generally being aware of your surroundings. In a way, this is the first game in the series that has a real mechanical hook to latch onto rather than its presentation and IP crossover content. However, that is still present and is a large part of why these games are so loved. The Disney worlds are back and the narrative writing here starts the trend of what people understand to be Kingdom Hearts story writing as a whole. This game introduced Organization XIII, nobodies, and characters like Roxas and Namine to the larger public and whether that stuff is going to float your boat is purely a matter of taste. What is noticed though is a loss of the simplicity and innocence the first game had. Though this could also be a good thing, as the characters introduced add a lot more depth to the storytelling, and lore wonks most likely come back to things said in this game as a basis for many theories, but it is markedly different than it was in Kingdom Hearts and the feel of the game is changed because of it. There are other changes, too. Levels are more open to facilitate the flashier combat, platforming has been all but stripped out, and the gummy ship levels are fully reworked, but these are all things to be played and listened to, so let’s just jump in. We’re going to be talking about the game’s focus on being bigger and bolder and badder and some other b’s too, probably, than its predecessors, the moody character writing and how this actually set the game apart from its contemporaries, and we discuss what part of the game if executed slightly differently would be on the front page of the New York Times. Thank you for listening this week! It took us a long time to get to this game, but it’s finally done and we’re all better off for it. The legacy of this series is taken pretty seriously by its fans, and that’s something that is difficult to talk around when going back to this game after a long time. While we, when taken as a whole, are very familiar with the game and have nostalgic attachment to it, it is pretty old as far as games go, and while that reflects in some of the design decisions that were made, it absolutely does not diminish the impact this game had both on its own franchise, which was paradigm defining, but also on games as a whole. It has a lot of appeal both for people who already played similar games as well as for people who got into it for the Disney stuff and ended up getting exposed to some of that classic RPG weirdness. So which are you? Did you play this game at the time of its release and grow up with the series as many people my age did, or did you play it retrospectively, or something else? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be devolving into a more primitive state and talking about Donkey Kong 64 as we kick off (and in all likelihood, also end, given our current schedule) Simian September, the spiritual successor to Ape-ril, so we hope you’ll join us for that, and not stop listening for the continuous unhinged themed month ideas.

Podcast go, Sora go, go! Welcome back to NOCLIP Epilogue! Today we’re going back to one of our first ten episodes and talking about Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG with a dash of platforming on the side, as exploring the different worlds is a big part of both the goal of the game’s design and the appeal. That being said, the real notable thing about Kingdom Hearts, particularly at the time of its release, is its association with Disney. The game incorporate characters, locations, music and other themes and references to many Disney films throughout its levels and its plot. For a lot of people, this is probably why they got into the games in the first place, and I really can’t blame them. The source material is treated reverently, and at least here in the first game, incorporated into the plot in a way that feels real, necessary and additive. Waiting to see what movie each level is going to take you into is a real selling point for the game and because of their incorporation of characters and music, it really makes the sense of being in a movie you love even more palpable. Aside from this, it’s a game released in 2002. There are some limitations due to original hardware, design trends and other problems of the time, but if you can look past that, it was an extremely unique game and of the sequentially numbered entries in the series (358/2 does not count as numbered, lol) still the one that delivers on its premise the strongest. We’re going to be talking about what can make going back to the game a struggle for some and a joy for others, the game’s dedication to its concepts and unique ideas, and we do everything in the end of the world. Thank you for joining us again this week! We’ve piled up a few epilogue episodes (thanks to an unlucky roll during Mystery May, one more than we had originally intended) so far this year, so I hope you find it a worthwhile exercise. Let us know in the comments if you’ve been enjoying them or not and if you have suggestions of other games we should revisit! Kingdom Hearts is obviously a huge series and the reason we decided to handle this one now is because our next main episode is going to be on its sequel, which will complete the trilogy of episodes for us, so we hope you’re looking forward to it. Until next time, remember you can leave a comment or join us over on our discord to leave game suggestions or talk about the games we’ve been discussing. Next time, we’re going to be talking about the Secret of Monkey Island, since we’ve been suffering point and click withdrawals recently, so be sure to check us out then!

A Warg is hunting the podcast for food! Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Rimworld, a colony sim strategy game. Rimworld is one of those games that you probably either already love or have never heard of, which is to say, it is exactly what its audience wants it to be, but appears absolutely inscrutable from the outside looking in. In Rimworld, your goal is predominately just to survive by collecting resources, managing colonists, and handling combat, all of which can become vastly more overwhelming than it appears on the surface. That sense of not being able to quite manage everything feels like it is an intentional decision, though. The game bills itself as a “story generator,” and a well-oiled machine of a colony, while satisfying, doesn’t exactly generate many stories. Having to handle unexpected breaks in the system, and in your colonist’s emotional state, keep things feeling tense and unexpected. As a simulation-heavy game, and one made by an extremely small team, there isn’t much power left for the cutting edge graphics, which have not been pumped up on level three, that you may be used to in modern games, but it’s simplistic style fits well and is part of a presentation that does not slouch in other areas. The sound design in particular is outstanding, with instantly recognizable sound cues for different actions and events, and a soundtrack that will, subjectively, rock you into another dimension. The UI, on the other hand, can be a bit confusing at times and lends the game its notoriety for being immensely difficult to get into if you’re new to the genre. It is a complicated game with a lot of deep systems and a lot of strategies to learn and develop, so you’ll have to listen to see how we adapted. We’re going to be talking about the struggles of starting the game, the wackiness the mechanics can bring to the table, and determine which famous work of Spanish surrealist art it most resembles. Thank you for listening this week! Once you listen to the episode, it will become abundantly clear that one of us in particular is a massive fan of this game, so it comes highly recommended if you can stomach the learning curve and the amount of time it will suck out of your life. But I also get that it’s a tough game to start, so we’d love to hear your experiences. Have you been playing for years, or did you pick it up recently? Have you played with the DLCs or only vanilla? What do you think about Thrumbos? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord. Next time, we’re going to be finally talking about Kingdom Hearts 2, the last in the main trilogy we haven’t talked about so expect that to be kind of the reverse of this episode. We hope you’ll join us then!

Oh no! They podcasted the building down! Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Chop Goblins, a surprising-in-many-ways FPS by David Szymanski. Chop Goblins is short, with only five levels and five weapons, and can be beaten for the first time in two hours or less, but because of this it never overstays its welcome and keeps introducing new things over the course of the game, including new enemy types. The titular Chop Goblins are not a design that is easy to take seriously, along with most of the rest of the game, but you can see in them that there actually was a lot of care put into making the game feel right. Different kinds of enemies require different strategies to effectively defeat without taking damage, and managing groups of them is core to playing the game well. The game is a “boomer shooter” by definition, but it has a strong core that comes from experience and the love of the genre. I’m not sure how else you’d want me to synopsize Chop Goblins, it’s just a simple, fun game with a better core than you might expect. We’re going to be talking about how the levels and music are used to emphasize the game’s innate silliness and comedy, the feel of all the weapons and what makes them each interesting choices, and we draw a a comparison to one of our favorite games of all time, Rascal. Thank you for joining us this week! We did this game partly to get through something short because we have a lot of more time-consuming games coming up this month, but also because I played it on release and it has really stuck with me for some reason. Seeing a game this competent with this ridiculous of a premise just really warms my heart. Did you play Chop Goblins? …why not? Let us know down in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re returning to the ole Epilogue well and doing an episode about Kingdom Hearts, sort of in preparation for our next big episode on Kingdom Hearts 2, so we hope you’ll keep an eye out for that!

Next time we meet, I’ll have lived a good full podcast. Welcome back to the finale of Spooktember in July! Today, we’re going to be talking about Ghostwire: Tokyo, a first person shooter game from Tango Gameworks, the developer of The Evil Within. Ghostwire is a sort of a horror game, but with an emphasis on magical first-person combat and Japanese culture, which makes it sort of an odd experience because of where its priorities seem to be. The open world parts of the game are in a lot of ways bog standard, with myriad collectibles, “Ubisoft towers” to clear to open new sections of the map, sidequests and other digressions, but on the other hand, there are also pages upon pages of item and character descriptions, full of folklore and details about everyday life in Japan. It makes the actual world of the game feel very realized, and downright educational at times. The combat contains a lot of systems, but not a lot of incentive to engage with that depth, as encounters tend to be fairly easy to overcome either with your basic “elemental weaving” attacks or with stealth, limiting the amount the player will actually experiment with the advanced techniques or other weapon items like the bow and talismans. To some extent, this is a shame, because the game’s setting and visuals are at times captivating, but taken as a whole this still isn’t a bad game and there’s a lot of fun to be had if you’re willing to look past the more banal parts of its design. We’re going to be talking about our perception of how this game was received and its potentially overlooked content update that adds a lot of good things to the game, how the open world both succeeds and fails by following trends in design that are over a decade old, and we address the very real danger of flip-kicking school children. Thank you for joining us again this week! We had fun cobbling this stupid theme together, and this was the game I’m most happy to have had a reason to play. Not because it’s the best of the games we talked about, but because it’s a title we likely wouldn’t have played otherwise, and one that is pretty fascinating at times. It isn’t groundbreaking, but it focuses on things most games don’t, and it’s always fun to see something in the triple A space trying to do weird things. What did you think of Ghostwire? Did you play at release and if so were you aware of the update that came out? Was I justified in comparing this to No Man’s Sky? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! Next time, we’re going to be tackling a game on the complete opposite end of the genre spectrum and talking about Rimworld, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

If this is podcast, we never should have climbed down from the trees. Welcome back to Spooktember in July, the month where we barely even know what’s going on anymore. Today, we’re talking about Ghostrunner, a first person platformer action game where you have to execute difficult platforming while avoiding bullets and doing cool cyberpunk sword tricks. It is a categorically awesome concept in all the ways that games can be, really. The obvious first comparison to make is to Neon White, which we just talked about a few months ago, and the comparison isn’t a stretch. Both games necessitate the player repeat sections repeatedly to get them as close to perfect as they can in order to succeed and move on to the next level, but Neon White is much more forgiving, and subjectively, a bit more motivating. Ghostrunner is a much harder game, something that is obviously a design choice, but because of that the act of completing a section is often reward enough without wanting to go back and get all collectibles or improve your time. This doesn’t make the game bad, however, but it is a much more daunting experience just to complete. The mechanics are very tight and their strength comes in the form of trying to get the player into a flow state, but then the biggest issue facing the game is that when it does stumble, it breaks that mindset and begins to feel frustrating more quickly than a more forgiving game might. This could all be irrelevant to you, though, depending on how tough you like your challenges to be, and it is a well polished gem if hard is what you’re looking for. We’re going to talk about boss fights and why they weren’t as successful as they could be, difficulty and its necessity to the game on a conceptual level, and we determine the true identity of the Ghostrunner to be an eighteen wheeler. Thank you for joining us again this week! This game was really the lynchpin for the whole “Spooktember in July” bad idea we had, since we were able to cobble together a theme after wanting to just talk about the Resident Evil games we did. That said, it’s a game I’m happy to have played, one because I had a reasonably good time with it, and also because it’s such a good example of the razor edge you walk when designing a game with difficulty at its core. Which side of the fence did you fall on? Were you able to carry this game out to completion? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time we’re going to be talking about Chop Goblins, a bit because it’s short and we need some breathing room for some bigger episodes coming next month, but you can see it as a bit of a bonus Spooktember game if that suits you. Hope you’ll chop on down for that one.

How dare you talk about saving your podcast when you’ve murdered mine? Welcome back to the podcast, and to our delightfully themed Spooktember in July. We’re concluding our first set of games with Resident Evil: Village, currently the latest main series, non-remake Resident Evil game, and one that received a lot of hype prior to release thanks to a marketing strategy that involved a nine foot tall vampire lady. One of the first things you might notice in the game itself is how it relates to other games in the series. Specifically, RE8 features the same protagonist, Ethan Winters, as RE7, a game that was making obvious strides to return to the series’ survival horror roots, which had largely been supplanted by a more action-heavy approach since RE4. Now, in Village, it seems like Capcom wanted to mesh the two and the inspiration taken from RE4 is pretty obvious with the game containing a merchant who can upgrade your weapons, and a more dynamic combat system with enemies who are faster and more threatening than those in the previous title. While this persists across most of the game, several quieter moments break up the action (sometimes becoming the best parts of the game themselves), but the two halves of the design philosophy never really meet in the middle and it ends up feeling more episodic than a real blend. That isn’t to say the game is bad, it’s actually quite good, but it does sit in an awkward place in the series. Unless something this game does is just really your “thing” it’s hard to recommend if you haven’t played some of the games it is directly referencing in its design. We’re going to be talking about the design of each of the levels and how they follow a certain structure and brisk pace, we talk about the inclusion of the merchant and an economy in the game and how that effects how you play it compared to other RE titles, and we discuss the nuances of the relationship between the “Big Bad” and the “Small Bads”. Thank you for joining us again this week! The Resident Evil cycle of the month is now over, so let us know what you think. How do you feel RE8 stacks up against other games in the series, or just other horror games in general? I personally like that there is a high-profile triple-A horror franchise that is willing to pour money into doing weird stuff like this on occasion, but game development of this scale always comes with some baggage. Continue the discussion over on our Discord server or in the comment section. Next time, we’re moving into the “Ghost” phase of Spooktember in July and talking about Ghostwire: Tokyo, so we hope you’ll join us then, even if it is statistically unlikely you played the game.

“Fun” rhymes with “podcast” for a reason, stranger. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about the Resident Evil 4 Remake that was released this year. Why are we talking about this game on Pocket? Well, we wanted to squeeze it in closer to its release date and the focus of the episode is mainly going to be on the way the remake differs from the original, rather than our typical beat by beat discussion of the game itself. This resulted, of course, in an hour long Pocket episode because they changed a whole lot, actually. The bones of Resident Evil 4 are still here, obviously, and the Village portion of the game is still similar to the original in many ways, but there is a ton of new and altered content throughout and that’s without talking about the fundamental changes to the gameplay. Leon controls in a much more fluid way which feels more modern, but necessitates a change in the overall combat system. Enemies are much more aggressive and have new angles of attack to match Leon’s ability to parry with the knife, perform stealth kills and even move while shooting (what a novel idea). This makes the game even more action-focused than the original, which was a massive departure from the series at the time of its release. Basically, even for fans of the original game, this remake represents fantastic new content, rather than a replacement, and that’s probably the best thing they could have done for a remake of an icon like this. We’re going to be talking about combat and difficulty and how the updates change what the game feels like to play, the slight change in tone to bring it out of the B movie camp that defined the original, and we call out the great offense that is adding crafting to Resident Evil 4. Thank you for joining us again this week! We probably could have gone on about this game for another hour and done a full episode, but we were afraid it would be a little redundant both with the discourse that has already happened and the fact that we had already covered the game in the past. Not to mention we have a slate of games planned for the extremely well-thought-out Spooktember in July theme month we have going on and didn’t feel like it would fit at a different time in the schedule. How did you feel about the changes to the game? Was the remake the first time you’ve played RE4, and if so do you have any desire to go back and see where it came from? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord server! Next time, we’re going to be moving along into the next subtheme of the month and talking about Ghostrunner, so we hope you’ll join us then.

Expand-a-band-band, podcast stash! Welcome back to the podcast! We took a bit of an extra long time with this one, but if you’ve played this game, I imagine you’ll understand why. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a massive open world game and the sequel to Breath of the Wild, the game that some people said redefined what open world games should be. To an extent that is true, and we have already seen a lot of its impact on the genre, but Tears of the Kingdom adds a pretty significant amount of innovation on top of that, and some of that stuff is going to be hard for developers to replicate. And all of that while reusing the same ground map as Breath of the Wild. Tears of the Kingdom is huge, yes, adding large new areas to explore and containing thousands of discrete goals to accomplish from quests to shrines to dungeons and collectibles, but its most defining feature is a more fiddly one, specifically the new abilities that let you manipulate the game’s physics system on an entirely new level than Breath of the Wild was able to pull off. Ultrahand, Recall and Fuse let you use the game’s environment more or less to your whims, building contraptions with prepackaged device spheres to do anything from driving a car across Hyrule to making an enemy-seeking robot, shoot arrows imbued with an absurd number of item specific properties and move objects back and forth through time, opening a ton of possibilities not just in combat, but in traversal and puzzle solving. Meanwhile Ascend makes you entirely rethink the way you look at the game world, the effect of which isn’t dissimilar to Red Faction’s destructible environments way back in the PS2 era feeling like a revolutionary upheaval of game systems. The experience of playing this game is somehow very different from playing its predecessor, but with a familiarity that makes it feel simultaneously very comfortable but also tricking you into maybe not being as blown away as you could be. We’re going to be talking about our exploration of the mechanics and how our experiences differed in how and when we realized we could take advantage of our new abilities, the inclusion of new enemies and dungeons that felt significantly different from each other and from Breath of the Wild, and we confirm that the Ganondorf we are talking about is the shirtless sexy Demon King one. Thank you for joining us this week, and apologies for the late release! Tears of the Kingdom is probably going to be one of (if not the) most talked about games this year, and we aren’t exactly early to the discourse, but I hope you enjoy the episode. I’m not kidding when I say Ascend has changed the way I view games, with me thinking I can travel vertically in everything I play now. It’ll be a while before the effects of this game wear off on people. What did you think? Was the game worth the wait since 2017? Did the game make your Switch catch on fire? Let us know over in our Discord or in the comment section! Next time, we’re entering into the very well named and not stupid at all “Spooktember in July” where we’re going to be talking about Resident Evil VIII (or Village, or 8, I suppose) so we hope you’ll join us for that.

One whiff of this and you’ll have your throat slit over the last tin of podcasts. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about The Bunker, an FMV adventure game with a surprising level of production value. We chose to cover this game partly because we had played it before, and there are several other things coming up that are going to take up a lot of our time, and also partly just to expose ourselves as people who keep really hoping for an FMV game to really knock our socks off. This didn’t manage that, but it still has some interesting qualities. Being a more modern game, The Bunker lacks the B-movie cheesiness that is honestly the selling point for a lot of older FMV titles these days, but having a focus on more of the filmic quality is a direction you rarely see these types of games go. Using actors with experience and some truly outstanding set design goes a long way to make the game feel more like a movie. More like a movie, in fact, that it does a game. The Bunker’s level of interaction is low. Barring one or maybe two instances, your choices have no impact on the plot unfolding, and most of the things that require player input could have easily been accomplished without it, making the interactivity feel like a token inclusion. While it doesn’t strike the perfect balance, or much of a balance at all, there is something that still feels pretty novel about it, and the story it tells is at worst competently executed and pretty interesting. We’re going to talk about how much interaction the game has and what impact it really makes, the environments in the game and how much they sell the premise, and we talk about the things that really don’t need to follow a schedule. Thank you for joining us again this week! This was a short episode on a pretty short game because we are gearing up for some bigger things in the future and we wanted to maintain living while still being able to get them out in time. Still, this is at least kind of a strange one to look at right? FMV is a dying, some would say dead, subgenre and to see the amount of care put into making this feel like a modern piece of media gives me at least some respect for it. Have you played any FMV games in recent times? How do you think the genre holds up, and is there a way of making an interactive film like this more satisfying to play? Let us know over in the Discord or in the comments section! Next time, unless we find the inspiration to do some kind of filler between this and Zelda, we’re going to be talking about the Resident Evil 4 remake, so we hope you’ll join us then.

It is decreed that one shall pound the podcast. Welcome to the 150th episode of NOCLIP! Today, we’re celebrating, in a way, by finally talking about Super Mario 64, one of the single most defining video games of all time. Platformers, and probably games generally, were changed forever following the success of Mario 64, and that influence is impossible to deny. We’re going to be looking at that influence, and specifically, the problem solving that went into making this game work as well as it did. The technology that made this game possible was new at the time, and much of what makes playing video games in 3D possible needed to be defined and explained to the player. How do you see where you are, how do you interact with enemies and navigate the world? These questions needed solutions and the elegance with which most of them were handled is extremely impressive for what is essentially a first attempt. That being said, the game is extremely old in the context of the medium, and playing the game now is very different than playing it then, so seeing how the things pioneered in Mario 64 have been iterated on, or in some cases, have remained staples of the genre since, is also an interesting exercise. Does it “hold up” to the cruelty of time? Is the game even fun for someone playing it for the first time today? This is a question that will have a more immediate and well known answer as time goes on, but we are right at that edge where its legendary status and ubiquity among people playing games still mean that most people have an attachment to it and are able to contextualize it in line with its contemporaries. This much is true though, it holds up better than most, if not all of its immediate contemporaries, and the contributions it made to the medium are still obvious even now. We’re going to be talking about the obsessive diegesis of Mario 64’s world and how charming it is, the level and objective design and how experimentation was core to the game’s success, and we make an argument for Nintendo to do some pretty unorthodox DLC. Thank you for joining us this week! Super Mario 64 is a game that, honestly, hasn’t been on our schedule for a very long time for a number of reasons. The number of people who have talked about it already being among the most potent reasons, but there were other reasons this didn’t feel quite right for us to do. However, given the kind-of milestone of being our 150th episode, and with Nintendo being in the spotlight recently due to Zelda, it felt appropriate to take our shot at the almost 30 year old game finally. And personally, I’m pretty happy with the result. Let us know what you think of our discussion of this classic down in the comment section or over on our Discord. Next time, we’re going to be talking about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and it’s probably going to be delayed by a bit, so we hope you’ll anticipate that.

Why is every podcast fish? Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, and our final episode from Mystery May! Today, we’re talking about Octodad: Dadliest Catch, a game about an octopus doing his best to blend in with human society. The game is straight out of the Goat Simulator era of physics-based games, and owes a lot to all the QWOP-inspired physics hell games that came before it, but what makes Octodad stand out is that it’s just much more playable than most other games in the genre. In Octodad, you control your legs and arm separately, with a wobbly ragdoll character and everything in the environment weighs nothing to allow for it to maximally fly around everywhere when you bump into it. However, the game has a plot and it wants you to finish it, so it never reaches Getting Over It levels of difficulty. In a way, this does make the game weaker, as the crazy physics interactions are less pronounced, but it’s a game you can finish and one that doesn’t overstay its welcome, giving it more of a feeling of real player-friendly design and making it a great jumping off point for getting into the genre. We’re going to be talking about the game’s perceived difficulty, how Octodad cultivates its comedy and makes it work, even at the player’s expense, and give you our top strategy tips for cheating at the arcade. Thank you for joining us again this week, and for seeing us through Mystery May this year! We’re really happy with how it turned out, so we’ll be dredging the table up again next year as well. Did you play Octodad at any point in the 9 years since it came out? Did you play the original freeware Octodad? How did you feel about Mystery May and are there any games you were really pulling for off our table? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to keep it a little bit unorthodox and are going to be talking about The Bunker, an FMV game about people living in the post-apocalypse, so we hope you’ll keep an eye out for that.

What is love known by? When it hurts to say “Welcome to NOCLIP.” Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we are doing as the dice instructed per the rules of Mystery May and playing Child of Light. Another game that’s been on our list for a while, Child of Light is an Ubisoft developed RPG that showcases the studio’s “UbiArt Framework” engine that was designed with the intention of being able to develop with artist’s ease of use specifically in mind. As a result, Child of Light is a game that has an obvious focus on delivering it’s storybook-styled visuals over all else, and therefore has a strong and consistent aesthetic throughout. Beyond the visual style itself, the music fits the theme well while not being overly showy, and conversely, the writing is done entirely in rhyme, calling attention to itself massively and just being a big in-your-face element of the game. Playing the game, though, is more traditional RPG fare, with its big distinguishing twist being a combat timer that allows strategies based around slowing or interrupting enemies and choosing attacks based on the length of time they take to cast. It fits together well enough but contains some design pitfalls that makes this a flawed game, but still an interesting one. We’re going to be talking about the abundance of systems and the harm they can do to the player’s experience, the really charming character and visual design and how they fit it together with the narrative and gameplay, and how Ubisoft really changed as a person once they got that sweet-sweet Rabbids money. Thank you for joining us again today! We’re sad to see Mystery May close out, because it’s been a surprisingly fun time not having to make decisions about what to play. Were you one of the people who played Child of Light when it released, and if so, what made it grab you then? Did you pick it up recently and become confused at the weird DLC elements that just kind of got thrown in? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, with full control back in our hands, we’re going to be talking about Super Mario 64, sort of keeping with the theme of “how did it take them this long to cover this,” so we hope you’ll join us for that!

Take out the reptile, first of all. Welcome back to the podcast! For our first Mystery May title for Pocket, we managed to roll a critical miss, forcing us to do an epilogue episode on Rascal, probably the worst game we’ve covered for the podcast. What started as a joke episode based on a history with the game became probably the podcast’s most enduring reference point for things being done badly and given how old the episode is, it probably was high time we took another stab at it. This episode isn’t overly long, and features far fewer hosts, but hopefully this is a good introduction to the game and why we keep talking about it, even after five years. Rascal itself is a 3D platformer for the PS1 that pretty much behaves in every way contrary to how a platformer should. You have tank-esque controls, a camera that will absolutely not do what you want it to do, and a terrible gun that you use to fight infinitely respawning enemies that appear offscreen and kill you. It’s a nightmare, but at least it’s a funny nightmare. The game so confidently thrusts you into its meat grinder of ill conceived challenges that you can’t help but laugh at your own poor fortune. We’re going to be talking about the outdated design philosophy that is expected of games of this era, the baffling design philosophy that makes up the rest of the game and we talk about all the games that were definitely inspired by Rascal’s secret genius. Thank you for listening this week, or at least I hope you listened to make playing this game again worth it. We are actually happy to resurrect this particular meme, though, because we’ve referenced the game already this year, possibly multiple times. This is as close to a signature game as we have on this podcast, so hopefully this can be the last word, unless we roll a critical miss again at some point in the future… But did you play Rascal? Why? Was it out of a call of the void style curiosity because you saw the game lying around? Were you given this game as a gift, either by someone who didn’t know better, or more likely, as a gag? Let us know over on our Discord server or in the comments below! Next time, the dice deigned we talk about Octodad: Dadliest Catch, closing out an extremely weird chapter in NOCLIP Pocket history, so we hope you’ll join us for that. Also, massive credit to this frankly incredible guide, that we reference multiple times in both this and the original Rascal episode: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/198413-rascal/faqs/37867

All those years ago, Tim had left the podcast behind. Welcome back to the podcast! For our first episode in Mystery May (but with rolling dice instead of solving mysteries), we’re going to be talking about Braid! Braid, as honestly you’re probably already aware, is a puzzle platformer that received a massive amount of recognition and acclaim when it launched on the Xbox Live Arcade way back in 2008. Far more puzzle than platformer, in Braid you use standard platforming controls and the ability to reverse time to collect puzzle pieces and complete levels, with each new level offering a different gimmick that changes the way the world and sometimes your abilities work. Gameplay-wise, the puzzles are extremely well-built. Never being outright unsolvable for the average person but also deep enough to provide a challenge and featuring some truly unique solutions. To some, this will be the biggest draw of the game. For others, the game’s melancholic tone and vague story will be the thing that hooks them, and it is also well crafted. The writing is eloquent and evocative, calling to mind how we as people handle mistakes and questioning the fantasy of being able to turn back time to correct them. As two different elements of the game, they both really sing, but when experienced together, how well do they mix? We’re going to be talking about our difficulties with the puzzles, our difficulties with piecing the game’s message together from the parts it gives you, and we make listening to the episode without being embarrassed about it a difficulty by telling a yo mama joke at the halfway point. Thank you for joining us again this week! Braid coming up first on Mystery May is a great example of what we designed the whole system around because it’s been on our list literally since the inception of the podcast and kept getting kicked further down the road. It feels good to have finally played it, but missing the cultural zeitgeist on this game may have done more harm than we realized? Do you think Braid still holds up and its intentions still come across in the modern day? Do you think Braid has had an impact on game development or just indie game popularity generally? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Child of Light, as deigned by the fates, so we hope you’ll join us then.

Podcasts that are once lost cannot be reclaimed. Welcome to the very first (kind of) NOCLIP Epilogue! On this series, that we’ll come back to every once in a while, we’re going to be revising some of our earliest episodes to rehash our discussions but with more media literacy and higher quality audio. For our first formal entry in the series (not counting Undertale, which we did as a primer to the Deltarune series, which, you know, we’ll get back to at some point), we’re going to be covering Shadow of the Colossus, which was our second ever episode. Shadow, in case you’re somehow unaware, is the second game from Team Ico, and is loosely set in the same universe and has a similar visual and mood to Ico. There is a dour atmosphere over the whole game, with a plot centering around a character attempting to revive a dead woman, a mysterious masked man and his cadre of knights and a Godlike figure named Dormin who promises to help with the resurrection if we do a task for him. There’s an air of mystery around the entire process, from what you’re doing to the plot itself and even who the characters are, and this lack of certainty cements the atmosphere of the game as well as keeps the player on the hunt for clues, making the whole experience more intellectually stimulating in addition to its mechanical challenges. As for what you actually do, Shadow tasks you with taking down 16 enormous boss creatures by physically climbing all over them and attacking weak points. Your player character controls in what feels like a very fragile and imprecise way, making this task feel difficult and imposing. There’s a lot more to say about how the game mixes its themes and its mechanics, but that should be the gist if you aren’t already a fan, so listen to us unpack the rest of it in today’s episode. We’re going to be talking about the way everything from the world to your horse contributes to the overall themes of the game, we talk about the pacing of the game and its ambitions versus the game we really got, and we speculate on what Mono’s last will and testament probably had in it. Thank you for joining us again this week, and for indulging us this nostalgic look back at one of our favorite games we covered. Hopefully the epilogue series continues to do what we intended, as I feel like even this shorter episode gets across what makes the game good better than we were able to do seven, almost eight, years ago. What did you think about this episode format? Do you have suggestions for other games we covered in the long-long ago for us to take another look at? Let us know over in our Discord or in the comments! Next time, we’re doing our first Mystery May pocket episode, which is a different style to previous years, and through a series of events that are unfortunate, we ended up being forced to do an immediate epilogue follow up on the worst game we’ve ever covered (debatably) in Rascal for the Playstation, so if you enjoy when we suffer, please join us then.

Not bad for a dead podcast, huh? Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Neon White, a first person platformer with a little bit of shooting in it. First person platformers aren’t exactly rare, per se, but they’re less common than the majority of other types of games in the genre, and so it’s worth considering the intentionality of its choice when a game comes out that uses the perspective. Neon White is maybe one of the best uses of the genre that I’ve ever seen. Because of its focus on getting fast times on each stage, the first person perspective gives a real sense of speed that you can actually feel, making you physically lean around when you play the game because of the focus it requires. It offers precision in shooting, an element of the game that feels less like eliminating threats and more like doing tricks in a Tony Hawk game; quickly spinning around to pick off some enemies after taking a shortcut or strategically shooting something coming up in the distance to save a weapon card for use later. The whole game gives a sense of continuing improvement and trains you to see the lines each level has and then to look away from them to find a faster route. The game has a less-than-novel, but still very cool narrative which feels like Battle Royale but set in Heaven, and characters that are easy to like despite falling into certain tropes and archetypes. It’s serviceable, and serves as downtime between the frantic action of the main missions. Neon White is a very rad game that does cool stuff in an awesome way. We’re going to be talking about the functionality of the gun/soul card discard system and how it adds to the decision making in gameplay, motivation to do better and whether it comes from the game or from within yourself, and we do some classic shipping of characters. Thank you for listening today! Neon White was one of those games that seems like it’s going to be intimidating, but then ends up being surprisingly accessible. If you got through the game, did you feel like it could have been harder and offered a more robust challenge, or was what’s there more than enough to keep you entertained? Did you try to push your scores as low as they could go? Let us know over in the Discord, or in the comments below! Next time, we’re entering into Mystery May, but not like the old Mystery May where we did mystery games. Now, we’re taking a bunch of games that have been on our various lists of games to play for years that we never seem to get around to and putting them on a table and letting dice decide our episode. The first one selected for this month is Braid, the classic puzzle platformer, so we hope you’ll join us for that.

At least I’m not ugly and annoying! Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re talking about Perfect Tides, a point and click adventure game in true throwback fashion. With a pixel art style and several ways to interact with your environment, you explore the island of Perfect Tides solving puzzles and picking up inventory items. Yet, this isn’t really the draw of the game. It can be, if you’re looking for an adventure game that’s like the classics, but more forgiving, but the character work is the real star of the show here. You play as Mara, a 15 year old girl (in the year 2000), as she struggles to find her place in life, participating in the early internet, going to high school and trying to get along with her family. It’s not new ground to cover, for sure, but the depth of characterization given to Mara, as well as many of the supporting characters in the game, is deeply impressive. Most people will be able to relate to at least something Mara is going through, and the game’s perspective helps to provide some self examination on how we all handle our trauma. It’s a rough game at times, both mechanically and as far as content goes, but the end result is a beautiful study of teenage life. We’re going to be talking about the up-and-downsides of styling this game after old school adventure titles and express our mechanical woes, we separate the story from the characters and discuss how much importance is placed on the latter, and we make some medical suggestions, even though we are not doctors. Thank you for joining us again this week! This game caught at least me off guard with just how frank and relatable it was, but I imagine that must be different for everyone. If you played it, what did you think? Were you in the age range to appreciate the references to the culture of the new millennium, or do you think that doesn’t really matter because we all know Flagpole Sitta or whatever? Let us know down in the comments or on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be introducing a new (kind of) series to the podcast, epilogue episodes, where we go back to games we did early on in the podcast and examine them with fresh eyes and give our updated opinions in a more listenable package. For our first (second, if you count Undertale, which is part of a separate series on Deltarune, which…oops, stay tuned on that one) epilogue, we’re going back to Shadow of the Colossus, which was our second ever episode, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

Close your heart to it. Welcome back to the podcast! Today we’re going to be talking about God of War: Ragnarok, Santa Monica Studios follow up to 2018’s God of War. And honestly, you in all likelihood know what this game is all about, so let’s just jump into it. Ragnarok is a direct continuation of the events in the previous game, and more than that, it almost feels like a direct continuation of the development of that game. It builds entirely off the systems that existed in the first game but adds some more variety in the form of more unique bosses, different companions and, eventually, a new weapon to play around with which does expand your options in combat. Does this variety actually change enough, though? Yes and no. While the combat feels more varied, and not fighting thirty more trolls is a welcome change, it still has some issues, some of which feel even more pronounced here in the sequel, and the basic systems aren’t really altered enough to ever really feel like you’re playing something different than 2018’s game. As a narrative continuation of the previous game though, this one does make strides in fleshing out its characters further, giving several of them proper arcs they didn’t have previously and completely revitalizing some characters into something more than archetypes. It’s a mixed bag of a game and one whose successes and failures are actually pretty complicated and a good indication of how huge games are being made, so we hope this episode can unravel at least some of it. We’re going to be talking about the sequel-y-ness of this game, both in how it’s built off its predecessor and how it sets up for a probable third game, the combat and its accompanying gear system, and what sort of hairdo they could give Kratos to most set off the vocal internet video game fans. Thank you for listening again this week! This episode sort of exemplifies why it can be so complicated to talk about the big new releases when they come out. For one, we’re like six months late to this particular party because of our scheduling, and for two, we aren’t really “God of War fans” in the traditional sense, so we aren’t coming at this from a place of excitement or anticipation for the sequel. If you are, what did you think of the game? Do you think our criticisms were well placed? Let us know in the comments or over on the Discord. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Neon White, a fast-paced FPS platforming game that somehow jammed a deck building element into it, so we hope you’ll join us for untangling that.

If you need me, I’ll be in the podcast cellar. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket this week! Today we’re talking about Jazzpunk, an unorthodox adventure game from 2014. When I say unorthodox, what you do in the game from a base mechanical level is pretty normal, moving around and interacting with objects and your inventory to solve puzzles and progress, but the logic of the game and the scenarios you play through are all pretty surreal and feel designed around the question “why not.” The game isn’t too hard to wrap your head around though; the scenes themselves are bizarre, not the puzzles’ requirements. The result is a game that is genuinely funny at times, with lots of one off interactable gags and minigames that you can get through pretty smoothly, with enough content you will probably miss to make each playthrough a little bit different. We’re going to be talking about why it is that jokes landed sometimes and not others, the aesthetics and world design that feels so varied from level to level, and the number of Wilhelm screams one is allotted in any particular work. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket again this week! If you hadn’t surmised, yesterday’s fast food centric episode was an April Fools gag, but honestly this game could have fared fine as an April Fools Day episode itself. It was a weird little experience to play through, and one I wish I had actually played closer to when it came out. Comedy ages in weird ways sometimes, and something felt a bit dated about some of these jokes, though the overall vibe is still pretty good. What did you think? Did Jazzpunk hit the right notes for you or is it a bit too aggressively strange? Let us know over in the Discord or in the comments below! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Perfect Tides, which is a point and click game, so we hope you’ll join us for something very much in our usual wheelhouse.

[Cross-post due to scheduling issues] Welcome back to FWTBT, where we eulogize empanadas and bereave burritos! Today, by popular demand we’re going to be going over the Loaded Griller trilogy and breaking down Taco Bell’s breakfast menu to see where it went wrong, plus so, so much more. So buckle in, because this episode is going to be XXL Stuft with historical menu item content.

This is a podcast that is actually a podcast. This is a big step for us. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Shadows Over Loathing, a turn based RPG and a follow up to Kingdom of Loathing and West of Loathing, the latter of which we’ve covered on the podcast before. The Loathing games are all RPGs, but the combat isn’t really the part of the game that should draw you in. It’s pretty unbalanced in the player’s favor, and you shouldn’t have much trouble making it through no matter what mechanical choices you end up making. However, the game’s expressive writing, both in the form of dialog and scenario design, is at the absolute top of the pile when it comes to being consistently funny and imaginative. The game is constantly subverting your expectations, aided by the random encounter system, so you can’t possibly guess what’s going to pop up at any given time. Now while this is unequivocally a good thing and the reason you should be playing the game, Shadows Over Loathing, as compared to its kin, is themed around cosmic horror, which is not historically the funniest genre. And it’s true, the game’s tone clashes with its theme a decent amount and it means that while there is some solid horror writing in here, the game never really becomes scary. The tone remains light even in the most Lovecraftian scenarios and it probably doesn’t help that the game’s aesthetic is “stick figures,” though admittedly the detail in some of the designs can be surprising. We’re going to be talking about what areas were the most (and least) imaginative, how the mechanics can rub against the rest of the game in a lightly uncomfortable way, and shoes. We talk about a classic shoes. Thank you for joining us again this week! I was pretty sold on doing this game from the moment I heard about it, but in the end I think we were a little disappointed at how similar to West of Loathing it ended up being. Still a fantastic game and entirely worth playing if you haven’t played West or just loved it, but it did have the opportunity to be a bit more different and just didn’t quite make there. Did you feel the same? Was this your first Loathing game? Let us know in the comments or over on the Discord. Next time, we’re going to be talking about God of War: Ragnarok, which while a pretty big game for us to be talking about, is still about three months later than everyone else talked about it. So I hope you’ll join us anyway, lol.

Thank you, but the podcast is in another coffin. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re talking about Vampire Survivors, the game that seemingly everyone has played. Vampire Survivors released in a form of early access on PC and mobile, and grew a pretty large player base by the time it hit its official release last year and has since popularized a genre that it has become the blueprint for, coincidentally similar to its main inspiration, Castlevania. In a Survivors game, the player defeats hundreds (or thousands, or hundreds of thousands) of enemies to incrementally become stronger, in this case without any controls beyond movement, until the entire play area becomes a visual disaster of exploding projectiles and whips and skeletons and giant plants, etc. That absurd endgame, which only gets wilder as the game progresses, is the main driving force for the player like a bite sized roguelike where the goal is to outscale the challenges the game sets against you. And Vampire Survivors, in its simplicity, has really nailed what makes this work. There is very little input required from the player, meaning that outside of making decisions on how to build your character, and which character to build, the skill floor is very low. Anyone with the desire to beat this game can get to the point where they are clearing levels reliably eventually, and the steady drip of new content up to and including paid DLC means they will have new levels to clear and things to unlock for a long time. Combine that with the nostalgic homage to Castlevania and the sick ass soundtrack, and the picture of how this game is as much of a success as it is becomes pretty clear. We’re going to talk about the unlock system and how it compels you to keep playing the game, how characters and weapons impact your strategy and by how much, and we briefly discuss the merits of referring to this game as a walking simulator. Thank you for joining us again this week! We’re trying this new experiment this year called “play games Andy won’t like” and so far I think it’s gone pretty swimmingly. With Vampire Survivors being such a smash hit recently, did you pick it up? And if so, did you get a handle on the fuss, and what it was all about? Have you played other games in the budding genre? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! Next time, we’re going back to a game that’s been on our list for literally years, but felt appropriate (and short enough to help maintain our schedule), Jazzpunk! We hope you’ll join us for that.

Adds one podcast every one week. Resets on shield break. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re finishing up our listener suggested games for Fanbruary by talking about Gunfire Reborn. Gunfire Reborn is a co-op first person shooter roguelite title with an emphasis on multiplayer play. This is a very mechanics focused game, with the primary enjoyment coming from the loop of gradually improving your character abilities, finding new and better guns and experimenting to see what works. As such, being someone who likes to get into the details to determine what builds will provide the biggest damage numbers at the end of the day is going to be pretty important to enjoying this game. Between having eight characters, each with their own abilities, upgrades and a small skill tree, the massive overall skill tree, a lot of different weapons, over one hundred scrolls to modify gameplay and a development roadmap that appears at the beginning of the game indicating they’re going to be adding even more, a lot of experimentation is required. And all of this is a good thing, because it gives the game the variety it needs to remain fun over many hours of gameplay. On the other hand, the game’s levels and enemies are less varied, which can sometimes feel a little underwhelming without any major shakeups beyond increasing difficulty. It’s a tricky balance to strike as a game that is designed to be played over a long period. The presentation elements of the game are serviceable, bordering on cool at times, with the character and enemy designs mostly being very solid, but it’s really the multiplayer roguelite elements that are going to carry your enjoyment with this one. We’re going to talk about choosing characters and how different each of them can feel from one another, we judge the feeling of different guns and how they compare to other games in the genre, and we hem and haw about comparing roguelikes to Hades for the umpteenth time. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP this week! We finally finished Fanbruary deep into March at this point, so I hope everyone is ready for more regularly scheduled programming, so to speak. This game was fun and unfortunately for my coverage of games moving forward from this, I’ve added it to the list of things that I’m playing regularly. How did this game land for you? Did this recapture the feeling of a game like Hades or is it a bit too unpolished for your liking? Let us know over on Discord or down in the comments below. Next time, we’re going to be moving in a pretty vastly different direction and are going to be talking about Shadows Over Loathing, so we hope you’ll tune in then!

You’ve been cursed…to podcast. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, and our final Pocket episode for Fanbruary! Today, we were suggested Cursed to Golf, an indie roguelike golf title, which is just the kind of genre fusion to get you excited. Cursed to Golf uses what has been established as the “golf video game mechanics” where you play a timing minigame to set your shot power and the angle of your shot and then the physics system takes it from there, but places them within something akin to a precision platforming level. All of this is then wrapped in the roguelike genre where you play semi-randomized levels and running out of shots means you start again from the beginning, with the goal of completing 18 stages before that happens. We take issues with some of the global decisions that the game makes (and you’ll just have to listen to find out what those are), but from a nitty-gritty design perspective, this game is incredibly clever and the relatively simple gameplay is hyper focused and plays extremely well. Add to that a killer soundtrack and gorgeous pixel art and this game comes off as extremely well made and something that is just fun to be in. We’re going to be talking about the merits of combining the genres this game mashes up, how the game handles its roguelike elements, and whether or not you should always have beer when golfing. Thank you for joining us again this week! This was an interesting game both to play and talk about because it really kicked our asses across the front and back nine. If you’re a fan of roguelikes generally, what did you think about the implementation of that genre in this game? Were you able to figure out the Ace Cards easily or was there a lot of trial and error involved? Let us know down in the comments or over on our Discord! And while you’re there, feel free to drop us a suggestion. Fanbruary is coming to an end, but we’re always open to hearing what people would like us to play. And as we move out of the month, we’re doing the first chosen-by-us game of the year, and we’re going with Vampire Survivors, a game that you’ve probably already played given its recent popularity, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

An enemy wizard is approaching your podcast! Welcome back to the podcast! Today, for the first main episode of Fanbruary, we’re going to be talking about Sacrifice, an RTS title from 2000. Sacrifice is billed as an RTS game without a bunch of resources to manage, and it in fact does have only three: your health, mana and souls, the resource you use to summon units, but this did not stop us from being overwhelmed and bad at it. If you are looking for nuanced discussion of the game from seasoned RTS veterans, this isn’t going to be the podcast for you, but from a first encounter with the game, there’s still a lot going on. The production value present in Sacrifice is much higher than we could have expected, and there were many choices, both large sweeping decisions to smaller touches that show a lot of care was put into the game. Voice actors that video game fans and just average people would recognize, imaginative creature designs and a pretty expansive tutorial make this an appealing game to just about anyone. We’re going to talk about managing units in a third person RTS game, how the narrative/gameplay interaction is shockingly robust for a game of this era, and we somehow find a way to shoehorn in a reference to Blitzball. Thank you for joining us again this week! When we first heard about Sacrifice, we thought we may have another Realms of the Haunting on our hands, but it turned out to be just a very competent entry in the RTS genre that people just seem to be less aware of than the big ones. Is it our unfamiliarity with the genre, or is Sacrifice actually a hidden gem? If you played along, were you able to manage the game easier than we did? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Gunfire Reborn to close out Fanbruary, so be sure to join us then!

Dangerous podcast grows in the northeast. Keep it secret. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, and to Fanbruary! We’re back from our time off from the podcast and are diving into games suggested by listeners, the first of which is Strange Horticulture, a plant-based puzzle game that tasks you with identifying supernatural plants and using them to fulfill requests and solve puzzles. That’s the type of description where you’re probably either grabbed by it or not and it exists to fill that particular niche, but I’d say that’s only mostly right. You need to be able to enjoy plant classification as a game mechanic to get the most out of this game, but beyond that, the puzzles are well designed enough to appeal to a very broad spectrum of people. They tend to lean more into the Obra Dinn style of inductive reasoning, requiring you to examine your plants and make inferences given a description of the thing you’re looking for, and keeping that information in your brain to use later as you uncover more pages of your book and more plants to identify. This leans away from the more logic-puzzle style of a lot of dedicated puzzle games and none of them are so difficult that you’ll be held up for too long or too easy as to be a waste of your time. And while this is the biggest selling point if “supernatural plant puzzle game” doesn’t immediately make you want to play it, the presentational elements do a lot of heavy lifting as well. The game maintains a dour atmosphere that helps sell the tone and the visual detail on the plants is impressive, making them look both natural in a group on your shelves and still able to be picked apart as individual species on closer examination. We’re going to be talking about our mild disappointments with the game’s narrative, how much of a positive effect rain sounds can have on a game’s atmosphere and we really put mushrooms in their place. Thank you for joining us again this week! We took some time off and then accidentally took a little more, so Fanbruary is probably going to stretch on into next month, but we’ll make sure we get four listener-suggested games in before moving on to our regularly scheduled programming. Having now played this game, it probably falls a little bit too much into “we would have played this anyway” but we had no idea what it was about before jumping into it, so here we are. Hopefully you enjoyed it as well if you’ve played it, or at least the episode if you’re listening anyway, and we’ll be back next time with an episode on Cursed to Golf!

Beep beep! Welcome back to another, uh, sneaky episode of NOCLIP Pocket! Today we’re talking about Hidden Folks, which is a hidden object game and the first game in the genre we’ve talked about. Spurred by a conversation from an earlier episode, we tried finding what a majority of people would consider the “best” game in this genre, as it’s one we have functionally zero experience with, and Hidden Folks was suggested by a pretty large number of sources. And honestly, I can see why. If you have an image in your mind of what a hidden object game is, it likely looks like single screen levels in games developed sort of in the way books of crossword puzzles are, created relatively cheaply for an audience that typically approaches games in a different way and with different expectations than most of the enthusiast market you typically see talking about games. This isn’t a particularly charitable view of the genre, but it’s one I think a lot of people have, if they have a view on hidden object games as a genre at all. This isn’t Hidden Folks, though. This game takes full advantage of the medium, doing things that wouldn’t be possible in a printed book like having hundreds of interactable objects in each level, puzzles to solve before being able to find some items, and absolutely sprawling stages that take a very long time to comb over. Does this mean we ended up enjoying this? Well, not really, but there are parts that we can all appreciate and see why this appeals to the audience it’s built for. We’re going to talk about the daunting nature of the immense levels in this game, how this differs (and doesn’t) from the I Spy books of our youth, and we imagine a version of this game as a Car Town mat. Thank you for joining us for the first and only Pocket episode of January! Unfortunately, we discovered we aren’t much of hidden object players and likely won’t be playing anything further in the genre unless something really jumps out at us, but I for one am at least glad to have tried one out. Are you a fan of the genre? Did Hidden Folks actually rise above the crop or is our outsider perspective skewed on what most of these games look like? Let us know in the comments or over on discord! We’re going to be taking the rest of the month off (our first actually scheduled break since the podcast started, unbelievably), but we’re coming back with the fiery passion of thousand exploding stars in February with Fanbruary where we play the games suggested by our community! So let us know what you want to see us play by leaving a comment or messaging us on Discord!

For accomplishments in ball smashing We are closing out yet another year, and like your New Year’s resolution or the mirror in your bathroom the day after a New Year’s Eve party, it’s time for some necessary but unwanted reflection. We had a year of pretty diverse games this time around, and so we have further complicated our awards, giving them inscrutable titles and measuring more abstract criteria than ever before. Not to say we don’t weigh in on quality, as our best and worst of the year are on display mixed in with our coolest ancient artifacts and Bunta Eve Classic awards. So prepare your bingo cards, drinking games, or your own lists and settle in to find out our thoughts on what was interesting about games in 2022, and what interesting games from 1998 can be made relevant with a silly awards category. Thank you for joining us this week and this year! I hope you enjoy the awards and have had some unique experiences as well. We’re going to be taking a short break through the month of January, with only a pocket release coming up, but be sure to get in your suggestions for Fanbruary before the end of the month. We’re excited to see what we end up playing this year. Until that time, happy New Year!

Podcast Kids 2! Welcome back and happy holidays! We decided to look back to our own childhoods this month, and to cap it off appropriately during this year’s very unfortunate winter cold snap, we’re going to be talking about Snowboard Kids 2. This is an N64 kart racer, but still not the one you think of when you hear someone say “N64 kart racer.” And also there are no karts. And your snowboards evidently don’t need snow to function. Snowboard Kids 2 is an enigma. It’s a racing game, featuring powerups that are both offensive and defensive, races, challenge modes and boss battles, and a threadbare plot that centers around a villain who just wants to hang out with you, and who you ignore. It’s pretty standard stuff for the genre, but it gets by on its solid presentation and a killer soundtrack. Honestly, there isn’t too much to say or that you need to know going into this one, so tune in to hear us wax nostalgic about old favorites. We’re going to be talking about the sound design and the catchy music, why boss battles should never have been a thing in kart racers, and we rename a powerup in a way you’ll wish we didn’t. Thank you for joining us again this week! This is a light, fun one that we hope will be enjoyable at this time of year. So we hope you’re staying warm and that any traveling you may have had to do has gone safely, and that maybe we can accompany you on the way back. We’re going to be taking a short break after this. We’ll be putting out the NOCLIP Awards next time and then one more Pocket episode, and then we’ll see you in again in February…I mean Fanbruary. So get your game suggestions in over on our Discord or in the comments or at our email address and we’ll announce what we’re up to near the end of the month.

Podocasta. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Gorogoa, a puzzle game centered around manipulating the four discrete sections of the screen to progress. While not being too difficult a game, as many dedicated puzzle games tend to be, the depth comes from the sheer number of creative ways they use the core conceit. You can shift quadrants around, which can sometimes uncover additional tiles, create a transparent layer to overlay on another tile, or align two tiles showing disparate scenes into a single image. Add to that the ability to zoom in and out, with different levels of detail having entirely different functions within the puzzle, and it creates a huge number of possible actions for the player to take at any time. The game is plenty interesting from a mechanical standpoint, but the game’s art style feels unique as well and serves as its other main selling point. Because of the level of detail necessary to make the puzzles function, the visual design of the game has a more traditionally “artistic” quality to it, almost feeling like the illustrations in a book. With a solid use of color and minimal animation really highlighting the points of interest, it helps both communicate the minimalist and somewhat abstract story as well as the puzzles’ solutions to the player. We’re going to be talking about individual puzzles that we thought stood out and made a good use of the game’s mechanics, our interpretation of the games events, and we discuss the proper way to use an eldritch monstrosity. Thank you for joining us again today! It’s pretty rare we talk about puzzle games, but this one caught our eye for whatever reason and seemed to fit well in the schedule to give it a bit of variety. Did you find this game interesting in the ways we did? Was its approachability a positive or a negative for you? Let us know down in the comments or over on our Discord! And hey, while you’re over there, or down there or whatever, why not toss us a few suggestions for Fanbruary? That’s coming up pretty soon. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Hidden Folks, our very first (and depending on how it goes, maybe only) game in the hidden object genre. We hope you’ll join us for that and that you’ll please suggest some games for Fanbruary, please.

That’s a hit podcast for groovy cats. You just don’t dig it. Welcome back to the podcast and to the final month of the year! Today, we’re going to be talking about Space Station Silicon Valley, a fairly strange puzzle platforming game from 1998 from a developer that would go on to become Rockstar North. When I say “fairly strange,” I’m predominately talking about its concept: you play as a robot’s CPU and are able to jump into and control a variety of robot animals which you then use to accomplish different tasks. That rules. That’s just an objectively cool idea on paper. Unfortunately, whether it’s an inexperience with the medium, pressure to release a game that fits in with other bestselling titles of the time, or just plain bad decision making, the final product just does not do service to the idea behind it. The game is bloated, overlong and full of tasks and missions that don’t take advantage of the mechanics the game sets up. Some other strange decisions include the games tone, writing and music, but these are all things that need a bit more set up we get into in the episode. The game still holds some nostalgia value, and the concept alone is worth at least looking into it, but the strongest lesson you’ll probably take from this title is how to squander a very good idea. We’re going to be talking about early 3D game frustrations this game does not succeed in avoiding, level and mission design in a game where theoretically anything is possible, and we debate on what the main characters’ names are (and do actually get it right!). The way our preparation works, we usually have games planned for October and November well in advance, October due to the Halloween theming and November holding the games we were excited to do earlier in the year and needed to find space for. Because of this, December usually ends up being a pretty wild time where we end up choosing games that are either recent suggestions or, like Space Station Silicon Valley, distant memories of games we have had in the back our minds for one reason or another and just never got around to. Does this game still hold nostalgia value for you? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re closing out the year with a similarly long lost childhood title, Snowboard Kids 2, and then we’re preparing for the NOCLIP Awards at the end of the year, so we hope you’ll stick with us for that!

Our podcast is finally finished! Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about WarioWare: Get it Together, the first WarioWare game to come out on the Nintendo Switch. Unlike previous entries in the franchise, this is releasing on a console with few major hardware gimmicks that can affect gameplay. Yes it has motion controls and whatever intense IR, HD Rumble Joycon technology they used in 1-2-Switch, but this game doesn’t take advantage of those specifically and the result is maybe the first game in the series that really plays a lot like the original. However, the main difference comes in the form of multiplayer and character selection. This entry features a huge roster of playable characters to choose from (and cycle through in each level) who all have a unique mechanic set and play at least a little differently from one another. This is a cool idea, and some of them really stand out as inspired designs, but it does have one drawback. The games can never be designed around the mechanics of a particular character, which means they have a sort of homogenous air around them. This doesn’t suck all the fun out of the game by any means, but it is a pervasive sense of missed opportunity that follows it throughout its runtime. The multiplayer main story mode does make up for this somewhat, as throwing another person into the mix creates chaos and can provide fun social moments the game doesn’t have solo, which is a good thing, but this also comes with a host of pros and cons. We’re going to be talking about the challenges imposed by having multiple people playing a microgame at the same time, the various factors that you have to consider when choosing who to play, and we celebrate the return of Guy Who Drinks Water Too Fast from Smooth Moves. Thank you for listening this week, and I hope you didn’t notice we did all Nintendo games this month. We did it as a sort of theme, but as it has spilled into December a bit, now it just seems like we’re being massive fanboys. If you’ve played this title, how do you think it stacks up against other titles in the series? Is the lack of a major control gimmick holding the game back, or did the multiplayer aspect save it for you? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord server! Next time, we’re going to be talking about the puzzle game Gorogoa, which is considerably less chaotic than this game, but does still get a bit weird in its own way, so we hope you’ll check it out with us!

I was able to do this using only a fraction of my ancestors’ podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! For our annual Zelda title, we’re going to be talking about Twilight Princess, the game that released on both the GameCube and as a launch title for the Wii. We, however, played the HD remake for the Wii U, released ten years later, so do keep that in mind going through. Twilight Princess is a Zelda game in its usual form for the most part, seeing Link swap between exploring an overworld and going through dungeons, with a host of items and equipment to collect and use. The main thing separating it, then, from other titles in the franchise is aesthetic and story and boy does it separate. There is a clear new direction for the look of this game, with characters being rendered in a higher detail than was ever done before (or was really possible before), and between the age of the game right now and the other elements incorporated into its aesthetic, this gives much of the world an eerie uncanny feeling. This could be a positive feature that was gained over time, as the visuals fell from being “top of the line,” but from the design this feels intentional. The game is intentionally much creepier than previous entries, with disproportioned or emaciated humanoid characters and the strange digital creatures that occupy the Twilight realm, and it helps this game form its oddly shaped footprint on the Zelda franchise. As far as the game holds up today, it mostly does, with the dungeon design being on par with previous titles while containing some real standout examples, but it stumbles in a few places, the beginning of the game and wolf Link’s utilization being a few notable ones. We’re going to be talking about gameplay and the expanded combat system, how the game’s aesthetic design actually meshes with the overall series, and we expose the secret inspiration for Dreamwork’s Boss Baby. Thank you for joining us again this week! We’re love to come back to the Zelda franchise pretty regularly because it’s a series that commands a lot of influence on the industry and inspires a huge amount of argumentation. Is Twilight Princess one of your favorites, or do you hate it with a burning passion? Or more likely, do you think it falls somewhere in the middle for not doing any one thing to an extreme? Let us know over in our Discord or in the comments. Next time, we’re going to be talking about a possibly underappreciated (TBD) childhood game in Space Station Silicon Valley, a puzzle platformer about robot animals. So if that sounds up your alley, we hope you’ll check back for that!

You were close! Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re finally doing the game we said we were going to do back in September before we got blindsided by the entire month of October. Sneaks up on you sometimes, I know. And that game is New Pokémon Snap! Concluding our now trilogy of episodes on Snap-alikes, New Pokémon Snap is the sequel to Pokémon Snap on the N64, and a game that was pretty heavily speculated on and vocally desired by fans of the original. Nintendo had released numerous consoles that seemed to be begging for a Snap sequel, from the Wii with its pointer controls to the Wii U and 3DS with gyroscope enabled screen devices, but we didn’t get a new entry in the series until the Switch, and that game ends up being very much like the original. Not that the game doesn’t have new content, with hundreds of new Pokémon being created since the original title, there is a huge number of new subjects to take photos of, and the system for grading those photos is improved a lot. In addition, you can store many more shots both in your photodex as well as to an album, which is compatible with the Switch’s system storage, preventing the need for trips to Blockbuster to save your favorite photos. The game also looks very good, which is important for the type of game this is, but also isn’t exactly what the series has been known for recently. However, there is an intangible element of the original game that is noticeably missing from this one that is hard to articulate concisely that we spend a good amount of time talking about in the episode. This is a passionate one, so strap in. We’re going to be talking about level design both on a mechanical and thematic level, how Pokémon lost its edge over time, and we bring justice for the Pester Balls who have had their free speech silenced. Thank you for joining us again this week! We’ve been trying to get to this game for a while and are happy we finally did. Despite our complaining, this is still a pretty good game that we’d recommend to fans of the original, and if you’re capable of being a bit more objective than us, you may even prefer it. Did you notice the shift in design between the original and this title? Do you know of any other Snap type games you’d like to recommend to us? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord, where we take suggestions for games to play and talk about the episodes! Next time, we’re going to be talking about WarioWare: Get it Together, so we hope you’ll join us then.

When I’m with you, everything is a podcast! Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be palette cleansing after a month of horror titles and talking about Kirby and the Forgotten Land, a game that… takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth after the invasion of an alien species with reality warping powers. Like most Kirby games, this one is an action platformer with a focus on cute designs, ease of play and a mechanic set that revolves around Kirby’s ability to inhale and copy enemies and objects. This time around, the gimmick is mouthful mode, a contextual ability that allows you to inhale large objects and then do prescribed challenges with a modified moveset, and it works pretty well and most of them are fun to use. However, the bigger change for this title is its shift into a fully 3D world. In addition to changing the overall perspective and how the game plays, this allows for it to feature more complex levels, a strong focus on secrets and adds utility to copy abilities that grant movement skills. Not that this is a groundbreaking new perspective for games to have in the last twenty years, but its fun to see Kirby gameplay mapped onto a different style of world and level design. Overall, if you’re looking for something a bit more relaxing, Kirby is going to give you what you expect from a Kirby title while adding enough interesting mechanics to feel reasonably fresh for its fairly short run time, with a lot of content left over if you want to go for a more complete experience. We’re going to be talking about how the game designs around its secrets by making the rewards feel more rewarding, how the endgame content really shows what the game is capable of, and we slightly expand the lore of Thorpo Fantasy, the podcast OC. Thank you for listening this week! We really took our time with this game, more so than it probably needed, coming out of a busy previous month and it was definitely a good choice for some people who were kind of tired. How do you feel about Kirby as a franchise? Do you wish there was a Kirby game that used its more interesting mechanics to really challenge the player, or are you happy with it as a simpler title? Let us know over in our Discord (where you can suggest games for us to play!) or in the comment section (where you can also suggest games, I guess). Next time, we’ll be diving into a more robust Nintendo title and talking about The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, so I hope you’ll be there for that.

The old god stirs. Click to reveal its podcast. Welcome back to the podcast and happy Halloween! For our final horror game this year, we’re going to be talking about World of Horror. As a disclaimer, this game is technically still in early access, and we end up discussing it as though it’s a full release, so consider that some of the things we’re talking about may end up changing by the time a version 1.0 comes out. World of Horror is a throwback CRPG reimagined as a Roguelike game, with short replay times and a huge number of random elements. In the game, you are tasked with solving five mysteries to enter a lighthouse and prevent the return of a Lovecraftian old god. “Solving mysteries” in this case meaning surviving a number of random encounters while the story of your mystery solving is told to you by text. Not having to actively solve the case doesn’t mean the game doesn’t take brainpower to get through though. In addition to making some choices that will affect the outcome of the mystery and determine what ending you get for each one, you need to manage resources and make smart decisions (or at least, be ready to remember what decisions led to what outcomes) to survive through the session. While the game mechanically is a callback, the art style also, while rendered in the 1-bit style of old PC games, references manga artist Junji Ito, who proves to be a significant inspiration for both the look and themes of the game, with “cosmic” and “body” being the horrors du jour. All in all it’s a fascinating game to play that may fall just a bit short in the content department at the time, but it embraces community made content and still has some updates ahead that could really elevate it. We’re going to be talking about the slow drip of unlocks that make the game feel a little stale on multiple playthroughs, how the obfuscation of mechanics and the old style aesthetic lend themselves to the mystery inherent to cosmic horror stories, and we discuss the ins and outs of the Clap Bow system. Thank you for joining us this week and this year for our annual month of scary games. This was, to my mind, a really solid selection for the season with a lot of variation on style and type of horror, proving that things can be frightening in a ton of different ways, and this genre of game is one that I wouldn’t consider at the top of my list for horror. And yet, it ended up being very good anyway. What do you think? Were you drawn in by the Ito-inspired art style to this very strange title? Do you think the game contains enough things to keep you interested for long periods, or better yet, have you delved into the community made content? Let us know in the Discord or down in the comment section! Next time, we’re fulfilling a promise we made last month and actually talking about New Pokémon Snap, and rounding out our discussion of Snap-likes. We hope you’ll join us for that and thanks for listening!

I just heard a riveting podcast with my father. Which would be great, except he’s dead. Welcome back to the most terrifying podcast around! Today, we’re going to be talking about Realms of the Haunting, a 90s FMV adventure game with some FPS mechanics thrown in for good measure. This game falls well into the campier side of old FMV games, and if I was trying to sell you on the game it’s what I’d be focusing on. It is both laugh-out-loud funny and also impressive in almost equal measure between the absurd cutscenes and the level of detail they and other parts of the game contain. The lighting effects in the game are surprisingly good for the time, the voiceover is not terrible and is incredibly expansive, with dialog describing most of the objects in the environment and all your inventory items and things you interact with. That said, it is still an old adventure game and there are going to be some hurdles to overcome to enjoying the game. The level design, while pretty cool aesthetically, can lead to players getting lost and has a bit of an overreliance on that maze-style design of early FPS games (not to mention having several literal mazes in it as well). Where to go next isn’t always clear and using weapons and items isn’t as straightforward we would like, causing some hiccups in the moment to moment gameplay. However, if you can get past all that, or are just used to it because you play a lot of older PC games, this is a strange and interesting one worth checking out. We’re going to be talking about the missed opportunity to emphasize the survival horror elements of this title with meaningful resource management, how the silliness of the story and cutscenes really elevate the experience of playing, and we reveal what is the most metal of outerwear. Thank you for joining us again this week! We only discovered this game fairly recently and knew almost instantly it was something we wanted to talk about and bring other people’s attention to. I give this game a lot of credit for what it was able to do for the time and for fans of the adventure genre or just campy old horror stuff it hits a sort of sweet spot between being engaging and silly. What did you think? It isn’t the most hidden, but had you heard of this game before today? Do you think the navigation and puzzles are just too obtuse to be fun? Let us know in the comments or over on our DIscord server! We still have one pocket episode to do before the end of Halloween season (and that one will be coming out pretty damn close to the holiday itself), but that’s all she wrote for the main episodes this month. Next time, we’re lightening things up a lot (or a little, depending on how much you buy into the “dark lore” part of the franchise) and are talking about Kirby and the Forgotten Land, so we hope you’ll stop by for that!

If you make it out, don't ever return, because the podcast will find you. Welcome back to the podcast! We’re trucking through Halloween, and today we’re talking about Bendy and the Ink Machine. Bendy is a horror adventure game that was released episodically, and it’s one of those titles that just isn’t satisfied with walking simulator mechanics. This game includes more typical object interaction and puzzle solving as well as combat, boss fights and even a few minigames thrown in. Does all this extra interaction add to the game? At times, it can, but overall the game lacks focus. It has some good things going for it, though. The game has a stellar concept, with the “Ink Machine,” probably the most overshadowed part of a title ever, being a real physical thing in the game, the implications of which are both bizarre and very cool. The art style and theme reflecting generations old cartoons also shows promise, especially in the context of a horror game, corrupting something of childhood innocence, though this concept has been done before. Still, the actual act of playing the game teeters between tedious and disappointingly unfrightening, which holds back a lot of the good ideas this title has. We’re going to be talking about how adding an abundance of mechanics can harm a game holistically, the importance of designing levels and quests in a way that hides their mundane nature from the player, and we have a senior moment and call back to a YouTube channel that hasn’t been relevant in years. Thank you for joining us again this week! This was a game we had on our minds for a while, probably due to some level of internet word-of-mouth that made it seem like a cool one, but it ultimately let us down a bit. Did you try taking this on for a Halloween present or past, and did you end up feeling similarly? Were you able to dive into the backstory and extract something more valuable than what’s on display in the base game? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! Next time, for the final episode of the Halloween season, we’re going to be talking about World of Horror, a manga-inspired throwback game wrapped into a rougelike, which is scary on at least a few levels, so we hope you’ll join us for that.

I’m going to stab the podcast out of you! Welcome back to spooky Halloween! Today, we’re going to be talking about the Evil Within 2, a survival horror title from Tango Gameworks. The Evil Within 2 focuses more on larger areas than the game it’s a sequel to, with a pseudo-open world design, but gives the player an expanded action set to handle this larger space. There is a focus on stealth, and the bigger areas means that running away to hide somewhere else is more feasible than it would be in a more corridor-focused game. That being said, this isn’t really an open world game, with few options for returning to previous areas or completing quests out of sequence, which ends up working well with the survival horror mechanics. A truly huge area risks overwhelming the player and leaving them without any way to defend themselves once their meager supply of ammunition runs out, or alternatively, providing far too many resources for the game to maintain its bite. Sticking with the Big Rooms Game™ approach mitigates these issues, keeping it grounded in the genre, though the design can still be somewhat problematic for players trying to fully complete the game. We’re going to be talking about resource management (on the player side as well as from a design perspective) in a game that features semi regular boss fights, how the sci-fi elements of the plot can get in the way of the splatter horror theme of the overall aesthetic, and we point out several places in the game that could have just been doors. Thank you for joining us for the first full episode of Halloween this year! We actually played the original Evil Within back before we were even doing the podcast, and a bounced off of it pretty quickly, so playing the sequel after several years mostly comes down to word of mouth about it being more accessible and maybe even a little better in some aspects. We found this to be pretty true, but what did you think? Were we just being baby gamers, unable to handle the masterpiece of the first game? Did you enjoy the more open design of the sequel? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be dipping back pretty far to take on the shooter/point and click adventure game “Realms of the Haunting” so we hope you’ll enjoy whatever it is that ends up being.

Some people say seven is a lucky number. I’m not sure where that comes from, but I’d say this was a pretty lucky year for us. We talked about your suggested games in Fanbruary, found our true niche with hit theme month Ape-ril, and were actually able to talk about a FROM Software game while it was still in the zeitgeist. We also won the lottery, the NOCLIP Awards finally got onto Spike TV to replace their terrible awards show and the film adaptation of the Super Mario Cereal episode is entering the final stages of production. Okay, half of that is accurate, but we are very happy with the direction the podcast is headed as far as our content goes. This year featured a huge number of really interesting games both new and old, and we unironically think Fanbruary was a great success. Your suggestions have made up an increasingly large number of the games we talk about, and it’s upped the variety and generally rounded out our experience with games overall. So, as NOCLIP Day comes and goes, as it does every year, we reflect on the impact these games made on us, good, bad and sometimes stupid, with this bloopers episode. We’ve got TV show pitches, impromptu song parodies, and our usual technical issues, so if that sounds enjoyable to you, then today is the best day of the year on our podcast. We’re in the month of horror, so the upcoming few episodes will be on some scary games, but as always, I hope this serves as some comic relief and we hope to see you again next year!

The whole podcast is made of a single piece of iron. Welcome to the spoooookiest month of the year! To kick things off, we’re going to be playing four very short games by the same developer. David Szymanski is probably more well known now for developing “DUSK,” a horror FPS game that specifically harks back to the early days of Id shooters like Doom and Hexen, but his solo efforts, which stretch as far back as 2014 are more appropriate for our purposes here. They tend toward walking simulators in terms of genre, but have a focus that feels demonstrably different than most other horror games. Specifically, they focus on narrative and tension building in a low fidelity setting. These are games that do not go out of their way to wow you with impressive graphics or intricate systems. They are simple, and rely on your understanding of the story, as well as setting and sound to unnerve the player, rather than make them feel in imminent danger. This is true for all four games, though the way they go about it is different, whether through an eerie and oppressive atmosphere (a desolate island in a storm, or a place where the rain hurts you) or a crushing sense of claustrophobia (submarine, underground tunnels). Each game manages to get that creeping dread into the player, assuming you meet them at face value, and all within an hour and a half or less. We’re going to be talking about the difference in production value between each game as time goes on, the use of text and sound to do the heavy lifting in an atmosphere-reliant genre, and for the longtime fans, we touch on another video game character who is ambiguously a motor vehicle. Thank you for joining us again this week, and for another month of horror titles! We always look forward to this time of year because we collect ideas for October over the course of time and finally get to do all of them at once. It’s very exciting. Were you also sucked into the Szymanski-verse through finding Fingerbones for free or playing Dusk and wondering “what else has this guy done?” or is this the first you’ve heard the name? We do recommend trying these games out due to the extremely low barrier to entry both in cost and time investment, so let us know in the comments or over in our Discord server what you think of them. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Bendy and the Ink Machine, similarly in the adventure genre, but with a much higher emphasis placed on visuals to sell its world, so we hope you’ll join us again for that.

Alright, I’ll start the podcast from here next time. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, an action adventure game that was released in 2003 and was one of the biggest triple A titles of the time. Sands of Time is a sort of reboot of a game that was released way back in 1989 on the Apple II and the creator of that original game actually worked on this one. Knowing this, you can see some design philosophies that apply to both in an interesting way. Both feature platforming and combat, with an emphasis on a smooth motion and context sensitive actions, and that smoothness is one of the things that really propelled this game to the heights it achieved at the time of its release. Not a lot of other games looked like Prince of Persia did, with the Prince running across walls and jumping between ledges in a way that felt almost realistic. And that is really the selling point. The platforming is close to movement based puzzle solving: the levels of the game are less likely to be described like playgrounds as you might in other platformers and come off more as prescribed challenges. This is still very fun though, as the Prince is responsive and stages are satisfying to complete. The places the game suffers are in all the other aspects of its design. It contains a lot of systems that developers tended to think were just necessary parts of games at the time, like combat and puzzle solving, and story that never really gets off the ground, even with an interesting setup. This game feels like a relic of the past, and a useful one at that, showing us that for a lot of games, having a focus on what you want to accomplish and cutting the things that don’t work is usually the path to a better game. We’re going to be talking about the game’s movement and camera and how they stack up against other platformers of the time, the combat system and its layers of unnecessary complications, and we debate what types of magic the final boss neglected to learn. Thank you for joining us again this week! Often when we dip back to this era of games it’s due to a favorite we remembered from our pasts or because something was suggested to us, but in this case it was the game’s reputation. If you played games during the early 2000’s, Prince of Persia was a game you knew about and was considered a tentpole release at the time. Playing it back then would have likely been a different experience for us, but as two first time players, it’s interesting to see how far we’ve come in terms of design and development. Do you think the game holds up? Was the game at the time more palatable, and do you think that it had an influence on other games at the time? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re heading into our favorite month of the year, and beginning our selection of Halloween games! We’re going to be starting off with The Evil Within 2, so be sure to check back in with us then.

Ride your podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! This week, we’re talking about Audiosurf, a procedurally generated rhythm game that uses your music as the seed for all its levels. No need to worry about spoilers on this one, as Audiosurf doesn’t have anything in terms of a plot and all game modes are unlocked right from the start. In fact, that is part of what makes this game feel sort of weird in the overall landscape of games. It feels more like a piece of utility software than a traditional game at times, with it’s function essentially being applying a point system to listening to music. The game was extremely popular among the PC crowd around the time of its release because of its novelty, and there’s a lot of impressive tech going on to make it work, but it’s rhythm game elements are pretty soft. Difficulty can largely be determined in any given song by looking at tempo and the sort of noisiness of the track, and it ends up feeling a bit linear once you understand that. Not that there isn’t merit to what Audiosurf is doing. It’s a way to engage with music in a way that passive listening can’t accomplish, making you think more about the songs before you play them and letting you appreciate the nuances of each one that led to what its track looks like. It’s an extremely cool thing, and the different playable ships bring a ton of varying mechanics giving it a lot of depth in terms of practicing and getting better and it’s well worth checking out if you can get it running on modern hardware. We’re going to be talking about how your musical taste can influence the difficulty, sometimes without you even realizing, why most of the character choices can feel overwhelming, and how the bygone staple of leaderboards can make you feel like a World Famous Gamer(TM). Thank you for joining us again this week! We’re trying to inject some variety into Pocket in the time leading up to Halloween here, and Audiosurf was a game we’ve had on the list for years and years and just never got around to actually talking about. For us, this is a definite nostalgia pick, something that we played years ago and remembered loving and getting to sit back down with it again did bring back a lot of those positive memories. Do you have any positive memories of Audiosurf, or other rhythm games you played when you were younger? Let us know in the Discord, or down there in the comments! Next time, we’re going to be talking about New Pokémon Snap in our quest to play every rail shooter photography game, so join us then and let us know if there are any others in that genre we’ve missed because this pointless objective is for some reason really important to me.

He is not a podcast, but a concept. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the most recent release in the series and the game that is supposed to end the story that started in Xenoblade Chronicles. Comparisons to the earlier games in the series are bound to happen, with the two main factions in the game taking their aesthetics and even combat mechanics from each previous title specifically. However, even with many direct calls back to the earlier games, this game manages to be its own unique thing. With 6-7 characters active in combat all at the same time and the ability to freely switch between them, combat is even more active than it ever has been, managing “arts” to maximize damage and keep everyone alive. The world itself is a mashup of the titans featured in XCs 1 and 2, but still feels like a distinct place with an open world design that has an entirely different feel to it. It’s the rare game that has made its prequels a immutable part of its identity, but manages to incorporate them without it feeling like a pile of references and nudges to the player. The game is less noisy in combat, less stupid than the gashapon girl blades of two, and more accessible to the average player. Probably. We’re a bit too deep in at this point to be sure. We’re going to be talking about the feeling of the world and how it feels differently designed to the similar worlds of previous games, the potential and troubles with the class system for the ways we each engaged with it, and how enemies in these games compare to water balloons, or sandbags full of blood. Thank you for joining us! If Xenoblade isn’t your bag, we’re happy to say that we’re done with it for the time being. This game really took over our lives, and with me playing the second one not that long before, I’ve been livin’ on Alrest for quite some time. If you’ve played it, did this game make you interested in the series, or have you been along for the long and occasionally bumpy ride Monolithsoft have taken us on the past decade? Where does this land in the grand scheme of Xenoblade, and do you think it’s a fitting conclusion to the story? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be reeling it way in and talking about Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a pretty classic title that was about as far away from the games we’ve recently covered as we could think of. So we hope your palette will be cleansed then.

This game makes me feel all blushy-crushy. Welcome back! Today, on a not-such-a-surprise-if-you-listened-to-the-last-episode episode, we’re going to be “quickly” (by our standards) running through our thoughts on Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in preparation for our upcoming episode on Xenoblade Chronicles 3. As the third game more directly references the previous games than any other entry in the series, we thought it was important to have at least covered the basics of the second game to lay the groundwork. This week we’re going to be giving a summary of the important plot points and then giving our impressions and takeaways. XC2 is an RPG in the same style of its predecessors in the Chronicles series, but with an overhauled combat system and full of complicated interactions with its main differentiating factor, blades. Blades serve the game both as characters and your classes, in a way, with different blades using different weapons and having a different selection of arts to use, which makes your interactions with them meaningful in both a narrative and mechanical way. They are also largely embarrassingly pornographic. There’s a lot of give and take with this game. Your ability to stomach the more juvenile elements will probably be a deciding factor in how much you enjoy the game, and our feelings toward it are complicated to say the least. There is a lot more to the game than we get into today, but it should serve as a decent refresher and lay out what we’re going to be comparing to next time in the sequel’s episode. Thank you for joining us for this bonus episode this week. We intend to do a full episode on this game at some point in the future, as the sequel being released early sort of quashed our original plan of doing it before that game came out, so take this one with a grain of salt. Emotions ran high and we took it out on the Nopon. Next time we’re going to be going full length on Xenoblade Chronicles 3, so we hope you’ll look forward to that.

Podcast: probably causes enemies to fall asleep. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about Hylics, the “recreational program with light JRPG elements.” If this game appeals to you at first glance, it will be almost entirely based on its visual style and a promise of something a bit more out of the ordinary. As far as visuals go, it fully meets that expectation. This game has an absurd art style, with a claymation-like aesthetic and designs, both for characters and for props and scenery in the environment, that are colorful, interesting and difficult to parse. Characters lack obvious human qualities, environments look more like someone’s messy desk than traversable locations and in combat actions are punctuated by hand gestures and visual effects that are as beautiful as they are strange. The parts of the game you actually interact with, moving around the world and engaging in combat, are also odd but don’t stand out quite as much. An obvious effort was made to make sure things don’t progress in the way you’d expect them to. You’re rewarded after your first few deaths, traditional leveling systems are absent and combat is pretty unforgiving until you figure out how to gain additional party members (or where to even go to begin this process), and that lack of direction is part of the uneasy feeling this game wants you to have. The combat is more basic, leaning pretty heavily on its aesthetic design to make it feel unique, which it mostly succeeds at doing. Hylics is a game that has earned its reputation and if you think it might be for you, it probably is. We’re going to be talking about the early parts of the game and how confusing and off-putting they can be, the indecipherability of characters and text, and how the game is exactly like Pac-Man. Thank you for joining us again this week! This one was suggested to us, and falls under that elusive category of “exactly the thing we want to do on Pocket.” It’s short, cheap, and does a lot of things in an unorthodox way, resulting in a something that gives you a lot to chew on. This is one of those games that may not top many people’s favorite games lists, but you do want to go through if you’re interested in things that buck the rules of game design and use the medium in a more freeform way. If you are one of those people, what did you think of Hylics? Did it live up to your expectations? Are you more thoughtful than us and were able to pick out what the game had to say? Let us know over in our Discord server or in the comments below! Next time, we’re going to be talking about one of the earliest indie darlings, Audiosurf, a rhythm game that lets you play on tracks procedurally generated from audio files on your own computer, so be sure to check back in for that!

I believe in a universe that doesn’t care, and a podcast that does. Welcome back! Today, we’re going to talk about Night in the Woods, and we’re not going to apologize for how late we are covering this. We are late to this, though. Night in the Woods is an indie adventure game with other interactive elements coming in the form of light platforming mechanics and minigames ranging from Guitar Hero style rhythm sections to top down hack-n-slash games. And if you go back through our catalogue, you’ll notice that this is right up our alley. Possibly too far up our alley, because while this is a standout example of the genre, we can’t help but compare it to a half dozen other games we played and talked about on this podcast, some of which came out well after this game and were probably inspired by it. What makes it stand out from the crowd, though? The game’s subject matter focuses squarely on the personal lives of people who are a part of the younger millennial generation living in a world that is explicitly based on our own. They just happen to be like cats and bears and stuff. The way this game faces the struggles of young people attempting to cobble together a life while dealing with economic realities, personal relationships and their own mental health is unique in its bleakness and how closely that bleakness mirrors our own reality. This grounds the characters, with the help of some very strong writing, and makes them relatable to a wide swath of people in their core audience. Oh, and there’s a storyline about a ghost in here as well. We’re going to be talking about how the game handles personal struggle and makes it a main part of its theme, how its mechanics help and hinder the overall experience, and we creatively rename one of the characters in the game and just keep calling them that and don’t look it up. Thank you for joining us this week! We’re probably going to take some time off from this genre of game because we had a bit of an existential crisis in the middle of this episode because we felt like we might be deeply pigeon-holed. That said, this is still a unique entry in the adventure game genre and one we felt like we needed to cover eventually. Did you play this game when it came out? Maybe even backed it when it was being crowdfunded? Do you feel as strongly about its characters as we do? Did you find a reason to play Demon Tower? Let us know over on our Discord or in the comment section! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the recent sequel that supposedly ends the story arc that series has had for almost a decade. And if you need a refresher on how the plot has gone thus far, we intended to do an episode on the second game until the third one got released early, so we’re going to supplement that episode with a bonus on Chronicles 2 that should come out in the next couple weeks, so keep your eyes open for that.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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…

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.

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.

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.

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 todays 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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

I hope I was able to prove I’m more handy than the average podcast. Welcome back! Our first game of 2022 is going to be Wandersong, the indie adventure game that refused to just be an indie adventure game. In this game, you play a Bard who is clued in to the forthcoming apocalypse and sets out on an adventure to save the world. Carried by an immutable (literally and figuratively) enthusiasm, the Bard overcomes obstacles using a combination of song and some light platforming mechanics. Tonally, this game is delightful, with the bard meeting all comers with a positive attitude and a desire to make peace over all else. It’s a great way to express the game’s philosophy in a way that manages to be heartfelt and funny while feeling appropriately storybook even if it’s a bit on the nose. Mechanically, it’s more of a mixed bag. If you want to see a developer really try everything, this could be the perfect game for you, and you certainly will never get tired of any one thing. However, you can see a bit of a lack of polish across the game’s many unique mechanics and challenges, although you’ll never engage with one of them for more than a few minutes at a time. Put together, this is a game worth giving a shot to if you’re looking for something colorful that isn’t afraid to experiment. We’re going to be talking about focusing your game on a musician and what that means both in presentation and in mechanics, how a simple narrative can work well when you’re priority is getting across an emotion, and we determine whether this game’s McGuffin is better or worse than the Triforce. Thank you for listening to the podcast this week (and this year)! We should be back to releasing more regularly from here on out, but it was nice to have a bit of extra time on this game for the sake of our other responsibilities over the holidays. Let us know what you think of this game in the comments or over on our Discord. Were the rapidly shifting mechanics and simple story a bit too hard for you to take seriously, or did they come off as amusing, entertaining or just a novel experiment? Next time, we’re going to be talking about Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight to coincide with our main episode on Metroid: Dread, so get your Metroidvania brain in gear because we’re going to be lookin’ at maps for the rest of the month.

We’re rolling out the green carpet, and not just to play executive golf. The NOCLIP Awards are our most important annual tradition, and we’re back again this year with a new crop of categories alongside our old favorites. Find out what game did jumping the worst, which game focused the most on its mechanics and least on anything else, and join us as we figure out which host knows the other the best in our own version of the Newlyweds Game. All this and many (or at least some) more will be debated and judged for the enjoyment of your perfunctory NOCLIP Awards house parties I expect all of you to be hosting. Thanks for listening, and I hope you were on the correct side more than not. Do you think we picked correctly here? Was anyone monstrously robbed of their amazing submissions? Did you have a totally different pick for a category, or could you come up with your own list based on the games you personally have played this year? Let us know over on Discord or in the comments below. We’ll be back next time with NOCLIP Pocket focusing on Wondersong and after that a full episode on Metroid: Dread, so we hope you’ll join us in kicking off the new year.

Bah! What a thankless life! Being a podcaster in the age of monsters! Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Life is Strange: True Colors, because we just can’t quit this series apparently. The third game follows the gameplay precedents the series has adhered to thus far, being an adventure game in the “Telltale style” (a term that seems more and more dated since the studio was closed and then reanimated), that focuses on dialog trees and choice-matters narrative branches as opposed to puzzles. It even maintains a lot of the aesthetic and tone set up in the previous games, though notably the plot is now a lot more grounded barring Alex’s power to read and occasionally feel other’s emotions. And that power is probably the closest the series has come to smoothly integrating new mechanics into its overall structure, given how important emotions are to, you know, interfacing with other human beings. If you don’t know the series, everything revolves around its characters and plot, so we’d recommend playing the game first if you’re interested before listening to the episode and I won’t get into anything more spoiler-y here. We’re going to be talking about character building and how the game chooses to focus its emotional energy this time around, the setting of the game and how it succeeds in setting the groundwork for the game’s tone, but may stifle other aspects, and we spoil the true lore of the game which mixes an eldritch death cult and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Thanks for joining us today! If you’ve been listening for a while, you may have caught our episode on Life is Strange 2, which I would say we had…some issues with. Coming off a series low (in our opinion), we wondered if this third game could recapture what made the first game actually good. And it mostly does! We’d love to hear about your views on the trajectory of the franchise and whether you agree with our assessment on this (or any other LiS game). Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going from a game you can mostly play with one hand to a game that feels like you might need three to competently manage in Metroid Dread, so check us out then.

A new podcast has been added to your HikeLady, Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Toem, a photo-taking adventure game from developer Something We Made, and a game that is, well, frankly, sort of squarely in our wheelhouse. In Toem, you are tasked with going from place to place and fulfilling requests, which you do by using your camera and some limited environmental interaction to solve puzzles and obtain items. The camera is definitely the most noteworthy mechanical part of this game, switching from the game’s isometric perspective into a first person one and allowing you to freely move around and take pictures at whatever angle you choose. This is used to good effect, putting things in locations you can barely see without the on-the-ground viewpoint given to you by the camera. It makes the puzzles feel engaging and occasionally challenging, yet the lenient completion requirements allow you to moderate exactly how chill of an experience you want from it. Combine that with the game’s grayscale art style and varied characters, and you have a short, laid back game that scratches that itch for a do nothing night at home that you can play in a single sitting. We’re going to be talking about the unique way this game approaches puzzles, what it does to encourage completing the game at your own pace, and we try to turn the podcast into a news show for some dumb reason. Thank you for joining us again this week! Toem was, to us, a pretty decent follow up to Ocarina of Time, just because it is so short and laid back. There is functionally no pressure in this game and it makes for a really calm experience to sit down and play. Did you find the slow but dense style of this game to work for you, or were you searching for something a little deeper? How did you feel about the presentation, whether it be the simplistic visuals or the acoustic indie soundtrack? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord, and maybe drop a suggestion for what we should play next. Next time, we’re playing a game that no one requested, in the form of Wandersong, which, debatably, is a pretty similar game to to all the indie adventure games we play, but with a more musical bent. It’s certainly a lot more colorful than Toem, so at least that sets it apart. We hope you’ll come back for it next time.

Would you like to hear what I said again? Welcome back! I don’t know how much I really need to say about Ocarina of Time, it’s one of the few axioms of video games that you can just assume people know about and understand. This game accomplished a lot for the industry at the time, making a lasting impact on both games, in the form of how design changed after it came out, and players who would use it as a point of comparison for action adventure games for years to come. But we’re playing it now, in 2021, and want to examine it using our modern lens. What design decisions hold up, and what felt like a limitation of the time or the hardware it was originally released on? How has its impact affected other games in its series and otherwise? How annoying, comparatively, are the different NPCs who talk to you against your will? We try to answer these questions as well as discuss our experiences more in our usual way and hopefully that ends up being an entertaining take on this game that has been talked absolutely to death over the last twenty years. We’re going to be talking about dungeon design and how the 3DS update brought out the best in some of them, the presentation of the game in terms of its world and atmosphere and the effect that had to enrapture players at the time, and the many Unix systems that we should know. Thank you for joining us this week. This game almost feels like a right of passage for content creation, and it’s probably about time we finally talk about it. It certainly has a legacy that is lasting, and coming at it with fresh-ish eyes won’t really change that, but it’s interesting to see what parts of it still work because it really shines a light on the parts of the game that have been emulated by developers over the years. Is this a nostalgic classic for you, or did you get on the boat late? Have you, however impossible it might seem to people, not ever played this? Let us know in the comments, or over on Discord. Next time, we’re going from an all time classic to a newer title in a beloved (by us) franchise with Life is Strange: True Colors, so come back for that if you thought it was weird for us to not be talking about a game mostly about walking around and talking to people.

All hail Podcast John! Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re talking about The Procession to Calvary, a point and click adventure game with an art style composed entirely of renaissance era paintings. If that hasn’t already sold you on the idea, then I don’t really know what your deal is. Comparisons to Monty Python are pretty common in the discourse surrounding this game, and it’s pretty clear why that is, given the art style and the game’s emphasis on humor. To some extent, the game is much more focused on being a comedy than it is a point and click game, and that absolutely works for it. The barebones mechanic set also allows for more of your verbs to be used in these jokes as well, with the ability to punch pretty much anyone and applaud the in-game musicians performing the music you’ll hear throughout the game. Overall, it’s a interesting and pretty strange little title that’s worth trying out if only to see something visually new and outlandish. We’re going to be talking about what made jokes land or not for us, whether or not the puzzles in this game constitute “moon logic", and, somehow, some way, for some reason, Chalk Zone. Thank you for joining us again this week! If you played this one, did the old-ish adventure game mechanics make you feel nostalgic while playing this game, or were they a hurdle to get over? Was this funny to you? Let us know in the comments, or pop over to our Discord to talk about it with us. Starting, well, technically last episode, we’re going to be slowing down releases a bit due to some scheduling concerns, so sorry about that. If this game was up your alley, though, maybe try out some of the other weird games we’ve covered over the years in the meantime. No time like the present, right? Next time, we’re going to be talking about Toem, a recent release which is less on the irreverent humor side and more on the cute photography side of games we talk about on Pocket, so we hope you’ll come back for that.

Name for me this podcast so roughly bearing me o’er the sea! Welcome back to NOCLIP in the not so spooky month of November! Today, we’re going to be talking about Psychonauts 2, the long-awaited sequel from Double Fine. Psychonauts 2 is an action platformer game in much the same way as its predecessor, but with a more ambitious scope that comes from having so many years in between titles. As it picks up briskly from where Rhombus of Ruin ended (which, itself, picks up immediately after the events of the first game), you might be surprised at the depth of the game’s themes. The tone is very much the same, with an emphasis on humor that plays into the game’s outlandish premise, but it spends the time to much more critically examine its characters. The game focuses on the real impact its characters have on each other and their surroundings all the while honing the platforming elements, elevating it from a cult favorite to a pretty genuinely well made game on all fronts. The movement is smooth and your abilities feel more integrated in combat, making everything from level progression to the greatly expanded side content feel natural, exciting and fun. We’re going to be talking about how the levels in this game feel more fleshed out, though maybe less punchy, than in the first, the psy powers and how they’ve been changed and updated, and about Nick Johnsmith’s juicy middle. Thank you for listening! By the nature of us doing the podcast only in recent years, it feels like it hasn’t been that long since we played the original Psychonauts, but as big fans of the original, we couldn’t let this one go without comment. How do you feel about this game and the changes it made? Was it satisfyingly different to you? Not different enough? Did you also wonder why the other intern kids got pretty roughly sidelined for most of the game? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord where you can talk about the game and suggest new games for us to play! Next time, we’re going to be talking about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which I’m going to say like it’s no big deal, but am actually nervous to have something interesting to say about it after like 25 years and a million think pieces. So I hope you’ll join us in our existential dread then!

Podcast 60% breached. Happy Halloween! For our final game this October, we’re going to become the monster and take on Carrion, a Metroidvania where you play as a big tentacle monster. On its own, that is kind of a lackluster description for the game, but what makes the game successful at its goals is a bit difficult to describe in a short way. What the game really excels at is making the monster you play as feel just right, in a way that the premise doesn’t quite get across. You’ll stalk enemies from just out of sight and attack in a quick and lethal way. Your movement is extremely free, being able to move straight up vertical shafts as if gravity doesn’t exist by propelling yourself up the walls, but also encumbered enough by your sheer mass that getting to some places takes just long enough to create tension. You are extremely powerful, but very fragile. The game may not be particularly scary, exactly, but it does succeed in putting you in the headspace of a monster, which if that isn’t in the Halloween spirit, I don’t know what is. We’re going to be talking about how the level design keeps you moving forward while still keeping the ability-unlock progression system of a Metroidvania, how wrapping your head around the controls and your movement options actually forces you to play the game like the monster should, and we talk about the butchery equipment that was sold to us as kids. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP this week, and for another year of October horror games! We’re pretty happy with the variety we managed this year and will keep an eye out for more of the strange and interesting projects as we plan for next year’s crop. How about you, though? What horror games, if any, did you play to get into the spirit this year? Did we manage to introduce you to something new or at least have you try something you haven’t yet? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord! As we move into November, we want to go in an entirely different direction, and are going to be talking about The Procession to Calvary, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

When people get scared, they’re as likely to turn to podcasts as anything else. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Outlast, which is one of the classics of the modern horror game community. This is a first person horror adventure game that gives you no way of defending yourself against the things that are coming to kill you (a “haunted house game” in our parlance), but despite coming out when this type of game was decidedly in vogue, it sets itself apart in two big ways. First, it is shockingly fast paced for a game in the genre, with a lot of your time spent running and following a fairly clear path, and less of it spent investigating and exploring the way something like Amnesia would play. And the second, pretty clearly, is its aesthetic. The washed out green atmosphere is a staple of the game’s marketing which carries over into its DLC and sequel as well, but also emphasizes the found-footage style they were going for here. Using your camera as a flashlight and as a way to get collectibles in a kind of token way is the gimmick that the game rides on and it does succeed in generating an identity of its own. We’re going to be talking about how the game holds up after several years and multiple refinements of its genre, the effectiveness of patrolling enemies, and we explore the assumptions created by the “gamer brain.” Thank you for joining us for the last episode of Halloween! On the main podcast, anyway, we still have one more horror title to talk about on Pocket next week, so be sure to check in for that to really round out the month. Did you play Outlast when it came out, or had it recommended while talking about horror titles? Do you think it holds up? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Thank you for listening and I hope your October has been pleasantly spooky, or unpleasantly, or whatever you wanted it to be. As we’re leaving October, next time we’re going to be talking about Psychonauts 2, the newest entry in the list of game sequels that released extremely far apart from their predecessors, so we hope you’ll be back for that.

Once they started calling me that, I figured if I owned the podcast, they couldn’t use it against me. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! It’s the middle of October which means we are right in the middle of horror season, and so today we’re talking about Sally Face. Sally Face is a horror adventure game made by a single person that mashes together so many elements of horror that you might find it surprising that the game actually manages to be surprisingly sentimental. While the game begins with a combination of real world horror and a couple of ghosts, it quickly spirals out of control and adds more and more elements, potentially as a consequence of its episodic release structure, or maybe a desire to fit all the developers ideas into the game, but whether you find this disarming or charming is going to come down to personal preference. It’s a game that has a certain edge to it from its lo-fi production and subject matter, but in the end, if you stick with it, you will become strangely endeared to the characters. We’re going to talk about how tone and atmosphere fit around overall aesthetics, having a mix of different mechanics thrown in for variety and how well it was pulled off, and we discuss this games meets meets meets between Nickelodeon cartoons, video games and collectible cards from the 80s. Thank you for joining us again this week! This game comes from a recommendation from an IRL friend (thanks, btw, if you’re reading this), and we were pretty surprised by how positive we came off on it. Which is a spoiler for the episode, I guess. If you played along, let us know how you felt about it down in the comments or over on Discord! I would imagine for people less entrenched in adventure games this may feel a little mechanics-light, but it hits a sweet spot I think for most audiences with a tolerance for the kind of game this is. We’re going to be wrapping up Halloween on another pocket episode, so be sure to join us while you’re carving your jack-o’-lanterns or eating candy corn or whatever you do for the season as we discuss Carrion next time!

Remember, you can’t save every podcast. Welcome to our first episode for this year’s Halloween! We’re going to be talking about The Medium, a horror adventure game with the hook that you are able to control your character in two different versions of the game world simultaneously; both the real world and the spirit world are accessible due to your status as a “medium.” What this translates to mechanically is that you move around the two versions of the world and need to solve various puzzles in order to get around. It has a little bit more depth than that, with sections having you in only one world or the other, or swapping between the two, but it does mostly consist of traversal obstacles and simple lock-and-key style puzzles. It tends to get by on its visuals, which are genuinely interesting, using color grading and surreal landscapes to really separate the two versions of the game’s world. We’re going to be talking about variety versus depth of mechanics, the importance of considering the non-literal interpretation of your narrative, and we try to figure out how to blink your ears. Thank you for joining us again this week, and this year for another spooky Halloween. This developer, Bloober Team, sort of gained their popularity with “Layers of Fear” and has been steadily growing in budget in their later releases. We haven’t exactly kept up with them, so it was a bit surprising to see a game with more of a mechanical focus than the games we were aware of previously. How did this game sit with you? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord. And stay tuned, as we still have another game (and a couple more Pocket episodes) on horror games this month, and next time we’re talking about Outlast, one of the classic horror titles with a deliberate found footage aesthetic.

Unbelievably, we’ve now been doing this podcast for the length of a US Senator’s term, and that’s weird in at least several ways. We hope we’ve pleased our constituency during that time, though, especially since the other candidates in the upcoming race are likely much more popular than us and we do intend to try skating by on the high incumbency rates of elected officials. This metaphor kinda stopped working immediately. For today’s anniversary celebration though, we’re giving you another selection of outtakes, bloopers and our sound test ramblings culled from this year’s episodes covering topics from how thoroughly we theme our episodes to reality tv dating shows and slogans for fictional companies. We hope you enjoy, and if you don’t, well, I can’t exactly blame you. We want to thank our friends for joining us on several episodes this year, the listeners for showing interest in what we do and validating this particular questionable use of our time, and whoever is out there creating the market for the unique and exceptionally weird games we like to play on Pocket sometimes. More horror titles are coming up for the rest of this month, so keep an eye out for that, and we’ll be back to provide an awful listening experience again next year. See ya then!

What’s your favorite podcast? Welcome to Halloween! To kick off the spooky season, we’re talking about Buddy Simulator 1984, which is a kind of a weird melding between a number of different genres, most of which I won’t want to give away if you haven’t yet played the game. While Buddy Simulator definitely has the look and feel of a horror game, especially in its advertising, that mix of genres is equaled by a mix of tones and the game can be as funny as it is unsettling at times. To avoid giving too much away, this is an experimental indie game with a retro art style, old school musical sensibility, self aware sense of humor (and general themes of self awareness) and a quirky way of blending these things together, and that’s either something you probably know if you’re into or not. We’re going to be talking about games that can be both narratively and mechanically different for different players or playthroughs, comparisons to other games and what this says about this game’s design and what it does to stand out, and how the game handles you asking to bring a sea predator around with you at all times. Thank you for joining us this week! We’re just getting started both as far as our October horror games go and, in fact, episodes we’re releasing today, so be sure to stick around and subscribe for the incoming deluge of episodes. Did you play Buddy Simulator? How do you feel about the infinite comparisons it gets to that certain other black and white indie game? Is it warranted, or does this do enough of its own thing to stand on its own? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! Our next episode of Pocket for this month is going to be exploring Sally Face, a hand drawn point and click adventure game with a sort of early 2000’s indie comic aesthetic sense. It’s a bit of an odd one, so we hope you’ll check out the episode!

Raiden something happened to me last Thursday when I was driving home. I had a couple of miles to go - I looked up and saw a glowing orange podcast in the sky, to the east! It was moving very irregularly... suddenly there was intense light all around me - and when I came to, I was home. What do you think happened to me? Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Metal Gear Solid 2, the sequel to Metal Gear Solid and arguably the game that cemented Kojima as a designer with an eye for details who was willing to do some of the strangest things in AAA games. And also made it clear that he really wanted to make movies. Regardless of how you feel about MGS2’s plot, or many of Kojima’s plots generally, the game tells its story through some of the most elaborate cutscenes and lengthiest dialogue ever seen to this point in the industry, and that was debatably among the things most discussed when the game came out. Beyond that though, this game is mechanically a step up from its predecessor as well, and does a lot more with its stealth action framework than people were used to, making use of the new first person aiming mechanics as well as a robust inventory of usable items to force its players to think outside the box (ha ha) to tackle its challenges. The game gained notoriety from the surprises it kept hidden in the lead-up to its release, and even afterward received praise for being inventive and focusing on things games usually didn’t at that time. All that said, it’s been twenty years since it first released, so we have to ask if it held up? Is it still a justifiable favorite MGS2 game even when stacked against its later sequels and prequels? Find out, as we talk about the bizarre twists and questionable plot decisions made in the game, the variety of ways you can deal with the games obstacles, and when the bird crap comes back. Thank you for joining us once again. The spoilers for this game are more or less a known quantity by anyone who plays games these days, but I still don’t want to get too much into them here because they were the type of thing that really intrigued me when I played the game the first time. If you’ve played MGS2, what was your favorite weird thing that happened? Do you think it held up, or is it kind of a nightmare to play these days, or did you always find it kind of pretentious? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! Next time, we’re getting into Halloween, our favorite time of year, and we’ll be talking about The Medium, so I hope you’ll join us for that.

Press A to Podcast (I don’t know, there’s no text in this game!) Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about Limbo, which is the first game from Danish developer Playdead, and their breakout hit as well. Something about the game’s simplicity, both in controls and art style really struck a chord with people when it released and it became surprisingly successful in the indie space back in 2010. A lot of the cinematic platformer type gameplay seen here would get refined in their next game, Inside, which we talked about like a million years ago, but there is still something distinctly eerie about Limbo. The game is very quiet and pretty dark, with each failure by the player punctuated by a more grisly animation than you would imagine, and the overall difficulty means you’ll be seeing these deaths fairly often. Whether the trial and error gameplay sits well with you is a matter of personal taste, but you can’t deny the tone it sets or the atmosphere it puts you in. We’re going to be talking about difficulty and how the game ramps up in complexity as it goes on, the intricacies in the detail Playdead packed into the world, and how I am a big hypocrite (or am I?). Thank you for joining us again this week! We felt like this game was an appropriate lead in to the spookiest month of the year, given its dour tone and creepy visual style. What did you think of Inside? Did you play this years ago, or maybe visited it for the first time for this podcast? How did the difficulty of the game strike you, and did you feel it became appropriately complex near the end of the game? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re entering Halloween proper, and for our first Pocket episode, we’ll be talking about Buddy Simulator 1984, so please check us out then… or else! Scary enough for you?!

Mario, this podcast is out of control! I tried to help it but it’s too big and mad. Welcome back to the podcast! It’s been a long time since we’ve talked about a Mario platformer (depending on if you could Mario Maker, it’s been two to three years), so with Nintendo celebrating the 35th anniversary last year and releasing the Switch port of 3D World, it seemed like a good time. So we waited a year and then did it. Our lack of timeliness aside, 3D Word was the Wii U’s entry into the world of 3D Mario platformers, and like the console it was originally on it was, let’s say, differently appreciated. 3D World follows the design sense of Super Mario 3D Land, a game that was on the 3DS and tried to merge the 3D and 2D Mario titles in the way it was presented and designed and this felt normal and pretty good on a handheld console. 3D World, however, puts the spotlight on some of the stranger aspects of this choice now that it sits in the same circle as games like Mario Galaxy or 64. It being different than Mario’s other 3D outings is not inherently a bad thing, though, and the game is still as charming and polished as you’ve come to expect, but whether or not it’s what you’re looking for in a Mario game will be up to you to decide. As an added bonus, we’ll be talking about Bowser’s Fury, a game that is more in the design space of Mario Sunshine et al., which came packed in with the Switch port of 3D World. We’re going to be talking about camera controls and perspective in a game that is trying to be a hybrid of 2D and 3D platformer design, presentation and absolutely nailing the musical interpretation of Mario, a game series that helped create the video game music paradigm, and we try for several minutes to remember the names of some Mario 64 levels. Thank you for joining us again this week! It really has been a startlingly long time since we’ve discussed a Mario game, and despite this being a newer title (in the form of the Switch port), it’s still one of the more off-beat games and one we probably would have gotten around to had the port never released. How did 3D World strike you? Did you think Bowser’s Fury was worth getting the game for, or maybe not think we should have devoted almost half the podcast to it? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! We’ve been going back to some older games recently, and we’ve got one more to go before we hit Halloween hard. Next time we’re going to be talking about Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, a heavily anticipated sequel and one that didn’t do what a lot of people expected, so we hope you’ll join us for that.

POD: By casting this spell, the caster may talk about video games weekly. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Sorcery!, a game based on a series of choose-your-own-adventure books created by Steve Jackson that seek to emulate the experience of a traditional tabletop RPG in a single player format. The task of adapting these books falls to Inkle, the developer of previous podcast game Heaven’s Vault, and it somehow feels so natural I’m surprised I haven’t seen more of these types of books adapted in a similar way. Between the flowery language, some of which was taken directly from the books and others which have been invented for the game, the implementation of the spellcasting system and the beautiful visual presentation of the maps and characters, it really makes you feel like you just hopped on Roll20 with your GM for a weird one-on-one session of an RPG. Not to say that the game doesn’t have its shortcomings, but even as it drags in some places and can feel a little cheap at times (though the pain of getting killed unexpectedly is lessened significantly by the generous retry system), the novelty of it makes it worth checking out anyway. We’re going to be talking about the pushback that your typical player will feel against being able to rewind at any time, how spellcasting works and how it allows for interesting solutions to the game’s problems, and how, if it is in any way, this is like a Jumanji. Thank you for joining us again this week! This game has been out for some time, and the books it’s based on have been around for almost forty years, but we couldn’t help but play it once we heard about it. Are you an RPG-er (a godless servant of the magiks), and does this game tickle the same fancies that playing D&D or whatever flavor of TTRPG you jive with does? Let us know down in the comments or over on our discord! I realize we are hurtling toward October at this point and it represents a big month for us typically, so to get in the mood, let’s talk about a game that falls more on the unsettling side and less as outright horror. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Limbo! (I’m just excited, this game doesn’t also have an exclamation point in its name) Which, of course, is the breakout game from Playdead, whose later game, Inside, we already covered what feels like a million years ago, so we hope you’ll join us then.

I should have been the one to fill your podcast with light! Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Devil May Cry, the first game in the DMC series that defined a genre in a way. Character action games of today all have a bit of DNA (the D stands for “Devil” here, presumably) from this game in them, whether that’s in level design, unlockable moves/combos or just the focus on stylish combat, usually with an accompanying rating system, and so going back to see how they were all implemented in the first DMC game was quite an experience. An experience made all the more unexpected by how well the first game manages all these systems. Truly, the level of competency on display here for what is more or less the first try is impressive and makes me question whether this game really was designed that well, or if the genre hasn’t pushed that far forward in the last twenty years. Presentation and questionable voice acting aside, even the game’s visual style with it’s gothic architecture, quietly grotesque enemy design, and the anime sword biker detective himself, Dante, has gone down as nothing short of iconic in the world of games. We’re going to be talking about the strength in simplicity in a combat system, the elements of old-style design that do manage to hold this game back on a modern playthrough, and how we think that castles are…pretty cool. Thank you for joining us again this week. We may have played the remastered version of this game, but it did still feel like the proverbial blast from the past to pick it up again after nearly two decades. How do you feel the game holds up? Is this game your favorite in the series, or was it dethroned by one of its many sequels? Do you want to make some kind of meme about our podcast featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord server where we talk about the games and take suggestions. Next time, we’re going to be taking on another game that’s been remastered in the form of Super Mario 3D World (+ Bowser’s Fury), the Switch port of the Wii U Mario game that presumably very few people ended up actually playing in its original incarnation. We hope you’ll check that one out too.

In the end we all become podcasts, Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Oxenfree, the narrative adventure game about some spooky things that happen on an island at night. The game is extremely focused on its story, so I hesitate to give much more of the plot away from that, but its unique elements come from the way that story is delivered. The primary mechanic of the game is a conversation system that uses fully voice acted dialogue in an attempt to more naturally mimic actual conversations as opposed to more traditional adventure games where you can sit around for thirty minutes before answering someone’s question. Does it always work? Well, no, not always, but it gives a sense of urgency to a system that rarely has one without displaying a hokey timer on the screen. Beyond that, the game’s appeal comes largely from the tone and aesthetic, with a cartoony art style and dreamy synth music all wrapped around a very modern collection of characters who are all written well enough to be believable in a Spielbergian kind of way. We’re going to be talking about how this game fits into the wider genre of adventure games, how the mechanical elements function and help drive the plot forward as well as giving you incentive to act in a reasonable way toward the other characters, and we debate whether the existence of ghosts has any bearing on this fictional narrative. Thank you for joining us this week! What did you think about Oxenfree? I know the game definitely has a following, likely driven by the likeable characters and deeper mysteries it contains, but on a first playthrough, how much of this did you actually engage with? Did this game inspire multiple playthroughs to see what other endings it offered or were you satisfied with letting the story be what it was based on your decisions? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! Next time, we’re breaking out our fancy dice and player’s handbooks to play through Sorcery!, a TTRPG simulation game from Inkle, the developer of Heaven’s Vault, a game we played 8 months ago but feels like it was more recent than that because time is an illusion. Anyway, thanks for listening!

This is the strongest podcast ever built! Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about another expansive JRPG in the form of Xenoblade Chronicles. A series that debuted on the Wii, and took off, like several before it, due to its protagonist being included in Super Smash Bros., Xenoblade is an RPG with a subgenre that is really tricky to pin down. The overarching game, with its characters and story, feels like a traditional epic JRPG in the same way that a Final Fantasy game does, but its mechanics between combat and its quest system feel ripped straight out of a more Western MMO. With an emphasis on cooldown management and positioning based attacks, there isn’t much like it in the single-player realm of the genre, though the staple classes of Tank/DPS/Healer are all present here. That isn’t to say there isn’t room for experimentation, and the depth present in the game’s systems are arguably one of the most engaging parts of playing this. And if you aren’t here for the mechanical depth and number crunching, the game makes a pretty significant impression aesthetically as well. With an emphasis on huge vistas (which also translate into a large overall world map) and a soundtrack that kicks way more ass than you would expect, it doesn’t really pull its punches in this area either. Obviously the game has its flaws, and it’s been polarizing if public opinion can be believed, but it’s definitely worth checking out if only for the couple of things it does absolutely incredibly well. We’re going to be talking about the mechanical interactions the game almost hides away behind a probably-too-strong protagonist character, how the game’s emphasis on character plays into it both narratively and mechanically in an extremely satisfying way, and we pitch the movie that the expansion should have been and cast the really underutilized Composite Jason Alexander. Thank you for listening this week! We have been (read: Chad has been) putting off playing this game for a while due to just how long it is, but it was surprisingly easy to sink into the game once it started. What side of the “love it or hate it” spectrum do you fall on? Did Sharla’s incredibly stupid costume design and weird posture make you quit playing this game the second she appeared on screen? Let us know over in our Discord or in the comments! Next time, prepare to have your dark soul filled with light, because we’re going to be playing Devil May Cry (the first one), so we hope you’ll join us for that!

Frontside Varial Podcast Welcome back to the show this week! Today, we’re going to be talking about OlliOlli. This is a skateboarding game from 2014 that approaches the genre in a different way than it’s usually handled. While still definitely showing an arcade style high score type of design, your run will end as soon as you bail, enforcing an almost Meat Boy or Hotline Miami style of iterative gameplay, where you repeat a level over and over until you get that “perfect” run. This means that even the early levels can be an intense experience, and when compounded with the controls, which have you performing tricks by inputting a sequence of directions on the analog stick (not unlike fighting game special moves), the game definitely presents a system that is difficult to master, but satisfying once achieved. Given that, the biggest hurdle for this game to clear is whether or not it contains the breadth of content necessary for most people to want to actually make it to that level. We’re going to be talking about the value the difficulty brings to the game, how music can help motivate players, and lament the fact we were never forced to pull out the claw grip. Thank you for joining us for this episode on a game that is a staggering seven years old at this point. My opinion on this game kinda flipped since first playing it nearer its release, and it feels a lot more interesting these days. How do you feel about this game? Did you make it to the level of mastery we could only speculate on? Do you also think high level play of a pretty simplistic overall game is a cool thing? Does the sequel fix the issues we perceive as being present in this one? Let us know over on our discord or in the comments. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Oxenfree, a narrative adventure game with a focus on puzzles and dialogue, making it about as unrelated to this game as it can be. We hope you’ll join us for that.

Podcasts AND zombies? This is seriously supernatural. Welcome! On this episode of the podcast, we’re going to be talking about TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, a game developed by Free Radicals and and the third and final entry in the TimeSplitters franchise, a console FPS franchise that rode the wave of multiplayer shooters released on consoles during the span of time between when Goldeneye released and when people got sick of them. This particular entry lands on the latter half of that timeline, and is in some ways better and worse for it. Better because there is clearly experience behind the design of this game, with a huge emphasis on variety both in the campaign and multiplayer modes, a bevy of content to unlock, and smaller, arguably more unnecessary, complexities hidden within each of these. And worse because it does feel a bit like a hodgepodge of FPS design philosophies, taking the originality it has in its theme and running with it over that huge amount of content in ways that may stretch it a bit too thin. Either way, if you’re nostalgic for this game, or even just this era of everyone sitting on the couch in the basement, arguing over who gets the good controller and drinking Surge, this game will help you travel back in time to relive that experience. We’re going to be talking about the impact of Rare’s FPS games on the N64 on how the genre, and therefore this game, developed, the aesthetics and theme that place this game somewhere between pastiche and parody to video games’ most favorite media genres, and we discuss which character might be a silly himbo. Thank you for joining us this week, Dan. This episode was an inevitability that we successfully put off for almost six years. The game holds a bit of special place for a subset of our childhood friends and was a preferred game to play in those after-school moments and weekend parties in the suburbs as a tween. But what about the rest of you? Did you play this game when it came out, or, even more unlikely, revisit it recently? Do you think it holds up as well as we did, or were we fully blinded by the heavy tinting of the nostalgia glasses? Let us know over on Discord or in the comments on YouTube. Either way, we hope you enjoyed the episode and join us next time when we talk about Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition!

I suppose there are people who engage more freely with the podcast, and I do prefer it. Welcome to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re talking about Tacoma, the second game from Fullbright, and one that shares a bit in common with its predecessor, Gone Home. The game is a walking-sim type adventure game, set on a space station, with much of your interaction coming in the form of interacting with documents, some environmental items, and a form of digital recording that shows the characters of the game moving about. You can rewind, pause and fast forward this playback at will and interact with each character’s personal terminals while they’re using them in these recordings. This is getting more difficult to explain, so just consider it a sort of forensic adventure game where your overall goal is to salvage the station’s AI, though the majority of the actual adventure takes place tertiarily to that. We’re going to be talking about unique mechanical interactions in a game without a lot of mechanical interaction at all, the legacy of this game both in relation to Gone Home and its wider influences as well, and we discuss the current Subversion Meta in narrative fiction. Thank you for joining us again this week! We waited probably altogether too long to play this game from the time it actually came out, so if you were planning on playing it you probably already have. If not, though, I think our overall takeaway is that it is very good and we recommend trying it out if it seems interesting at all. Next time, we’re going to be talking about indie skateboarding game OlliOlli, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

This podcast is new to me, but I am honored to be a part of it. Welcome back! Today we’re going to be talking about Outer Wilds, the space sim/adventure/exploration game that, for people who connect with it, is an absolute gem. In this game, you fly around from planet to planet, each of which is individually authored with a surprising number of things to find and learn, and try to discover more about an ancient race of aliens who have presumably died off. This is your express goal, anyway. The one that is given to you by the characters, but the game really starts working when it is your own self-motivation driving you to uncover more, to push further into the secrets of each planet and to stop yourself from dying for even one second. Admittedly, this isn’t an easy goal to achieve and the difficulty present in the systems of the game makes this even harder to get into, but if you push past it, and get a handle on the game, what lies beyond is an extremely deep and satisfying experience with a lot to love. We’re going to be talking about spoilers, and what that means for the game and its community, the long journey of mastering the game systems and how you develop personal goals and obsessions, and we reveal the instrument that your player character is proficient in. Thank you for listening this week! Outer Wilds is one of those games that got a lot of press (which, episode spoilers, it was for good reason) but because of a lot of elements we weren’t able to check out right away. I have to thank our Discord server for being very into it and keeping it in the forefront of our minds because I really would have kicked myself if I hadn’t gotten around to it. What did you think about the game? Are we being babies when we say parts of this game felt really difficult? Let us know in the comments, or over on the aforementioned Discord server. Next time, we’re going to be talking about TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, which I could attempt to make some tangential comparisons with this game, but it would be an enormous stretch. We hope you’ll join us then anyway!

More damage to basic podcast enemy, Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! This week, we’re going to be talking about Nanotale: Typing Chronicles, an RPG that uses a (surprise) typing interface and the follow-up to Fishing Cactus’s previous game Epistory, which we talked about way back in 2017. This new game sees them iterating on the concepts that were started in Epistory, with a more dynamic combat system, more expansive exploration features and less of a focus on the Typer Shark style wave based combat. We discover, though, that the effect of all of this comes down to how you felt about those systems before, as the the result is a bigger, less repetitive game, but one that focuses a lot less on skill, in the form of how fast you can type, and more on your ability to think and solve problems using the tools available to you. In a lot of ways, it’s a very different game with the same wrappings. We’re going to be talking about the intricacy and number of puzzles found throughout the game, the implementation of more NPCs and story elements than were done previously, and how me like type fast. Thank you for joining us again this week (a day late, for those of you here on the day of)! Epistory always felt like one of those hidden gem kind of games, so I was particularly excited to see where the developer went with its follow up. I fully expect not everyone to have played this game, given it’s small scale and sort of niche genre, but if you did, how do you feel about the changes made? Do you wish it taxed you more on the actual typing front, or did the game’s more puzzle-centric engagement hit the spot for you? Let us know over on our Discord or in the comments on YouTube. Next time, we’re talking about Tacoma in a real “why haven’t I played this yet” moment for both of us as it has been haunting our backlog for much too long given the quality of game it is, and I hope you’ll join us for that.

You got anymore dead podcasts back there? Welcome back to NOCLIP, and thank you for joining us for the conclusion of Mystery May! To round this month out, we’re going to be talking about one of the most prolific adventure games ever made, Grim Fandango. Grim is one of LucasArts’ adventure games from the heyday of the genre, and the studio’s experience combines with the Tim Schaffer’s stellar writing to create one of the most celebrated adventure games of the era. There is a lot of enjoyment to be found in the characters presented here, and on top of that, the mechanics, while not perfect, make puzzle solving a decidedly more fair task than it has been in past games, with a simple inventory system and little to no pixel hunting, depending on how you define that. As for what makes Grim such a strong entry, we think it boils down to a great sense of worldbuilding and a streamlining of the features that made adventure games sort of an inaccessible genre for many years. We’re going to be talking about why Manny Calavera is a cool character while still being a good one, the puzzles and how many are very readable despite the fact that some still stumped us, and we determine that we are, in fact, big Man Boys. Thank you for joining us again this week, and this year for another Mystery May. Grim was a perfect game to revisit for this month because of its themes, but is also a perennial favorite and we don’t get to talk too much about point and click games these days as the genre has sort of fallen by the wayside. We hope you enjoyed, and you can let us know if you’re an adventure game fan in the comments or over on our Discord! We’ve continued the Mystery May theme for a few years now, probably in spite of our best interests, but do you have any suggestions of what to cover next year? Let us know, but next time we’re heading into June and talking about The Outer Wilds (which could arguably fall into this theme, but whatever)!

I can play saxophone and record a podcast at the same time. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! To continue our celebration of Mystery May, we're going to be discussing Hypnospace Outlaw. This game is a desktop simulator set in the late 90's and revolves around a parody of the early internet that users visit in their sleep... What? You expected us to pick a game that wasn't super weird? We're going to be taking about the games difficulty when compared to more traditional adventure games, the aesthetics and personality that make up this fictional internet, and the immersive qualities that led us to worry about infecting our fictional desktops with viruses. Thank you for joining us for our final pocket episode for this year’s Mystery May! Next time we're going to be dusting off our mechanical keyboards and talking about Nanotale - Typing Chronicles. We hope we'll see you next time!

If you’re looking for rain, dead bodies and podcasts, you came to the right place. Welcome to Mystery May! This time we’re starting with an arguably pretty contentious (or at the very least pretentious) title in Heavy Rain, a game developed by Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain is essentially an adventure game that is loaded to the brim with quick time events and branching narrative paths. Say what you will about the core engagement present here, but a lot of the story elements are pretty intelligently designed with paths branching and reconvening convincingly around a mystery that actually pulls off its twist elegantly. Other elements of the game don’t age quite as well, with stiff animations and a voice cast that fluctuates wildly between solid performances and laughably inconsistent ones. For these reasons mostly, this is a game we recommend enjoying (responsibly) with a few beers by your side or at least a couple of friends. We’re going to be talking about what the game gains by treating one of its characters mostly as a mechanical punching bag, how QTEs play out as the primary mechanical interaction and when it feels appropriate, and we debate the appropriate time to describe something as “in shambles.” I realize this is the second episode we released this month, but just bear with me. Or pretend that Dragon Age is more mysterious than it probably actually is. Either way, thank you for joining us for our most unlikely of continuing traditions. Did the mystery land with you in this game? Were you able to look past the gameplay itself to find something enjoyable underneath like we did, or does David Cage’s name equate itself to poison in your mind? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! And if you thought QTEs were a dated mechanic, we invite you to brace yourself, because next time we’re going to be talk about the most classic of point and click adventure games: Grim Fandango! We hope you’ll dust out your A drives and plug in the PS/2 connector of your IBM Model M keyboards for it.

Your podcast’s name is NOCLIP? We’re going to need to come up with a better name. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! This time, for our first episode of Mystery May, we’re going to be talking about Telling Lies. This game is a follow up to Sam Barlow’s previous game Her Story, and the two share a lot of the same DNA. Both are desktop simulations that see you searching through a database to find clips of people talking and use those clips to figure out the characters’ stories. If that sounds exactly like Her Story, well, you wouldn’t be wrong. The main difference comes in a higher level of production value and a much different narrative that is less about uncovering the mystery and more about learning about the characters. Which, I know, Mystery May game doesn’t even have much of a mystery, oof, etc. The mystery that is there, though, is interesting and the characters are all extremely well-acted. It’s hard to pin down exactly what it is that makes us feel so differently about this game as compared to Her Story, but that’s what we’re going to be trying to do over the course of this episode. We’re going to be talking about how the game uses its keyword system to create narrative threads to lead you along its story, the new mechanical elements and design of the clips that makes this game feel and play differently to its predecessor, and we uncover the conspiracy that we agree isn’t a conspiracy. Thank you for joining us this week! As Her Story is one of our favorite games from the podcast or otherwise, we were excited to carve out the time to finally play this. If you’re a fan of the original, how do you feel about the direction this game went? Did the inclusion of more notable actors enhance the experience for you or take you out of it? Even after doing the episode I still feel kind of torn. And that uncertainty will be the perfect emotional state for the remainder of Mystery May, as for our next pocket episode we’re going to be talking about Hypnospace Outlaw, so we hope you’ll come back for that!

Dwarven podcasts! Fine Dwarven Podcasts! Direct from Orzammar. Welcome back to the podcast! Today we're going to be taking another dive into the world of CRPGs, which of course means that Chad won't be joining us. Instead, Andy will be joined by special guests Daniel and Janelle to discuss BioWare's 2009 classic, Dragon Age: Origins. We'll be discussing engaging world building, intricate quest design, important narrative decisions, and most importantly, which characters we want to smooch. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP this week! We hope you'll join us next time as we kick of Mystery May with a discussion of Heavy Rain.

This podcast has great tunes and water balloons. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, where we are making our way through every twee indie game that has made its way to the Switch, apparently. Seriously though, Donut County channels the gameplay energy of Katamari Damacy, or I guess Feeding Frenzy, through a much less chaotic, more relaxed style and into a world that is characterized by clever writing and likeable characters. Well, sometimes the characters are unlikeable, but in a fun way. This writing, which made us realize we may be closer to the nursing home than we had previously assumed, is what brings the game its levity, having less vim and vigor and more of an ironic shoegazy feel with conversations had through text nearly indistinguishable from those had face to face. Along with the games simplistic yet pretty absurd plotline, everything meshes together to create an aesthetic that feels very complete. We’re going to talk about gameplay complexity and how we wished the game would ramp up or maintain its more intricate puzzle elements, how the writing style deviates from the norm in a way that may reveal the path forward rather than stand out as a novelty, and what you can say that could justifiably get you kicked out of a restaurant. Thank you for joining us again this week! Despite coming out a few years ago, this game only recently came to our attention and fit into that nook of things we are confused and intrigued by, and I can’t say we were disappointed. Did the game’s indie charm work for you, or were you curmudgeonly grumbling about it’s frequent use of “lol”? Let us know on Discord or in the comments below! Next time, we’re going to be entering Mystery May, one of the traditions we’ve managed to keep going, and talking about Telling Lies the successor to perennial favorite Her Story, so we hope you’ll join us for that, as well as the other perplexing titles we’re going to be talking about next month.

I’ll say something really teary at the funeral, like “Welcome to NOCLIP!” Welcome to the podcast! This week, we’re going to be talking about Jak and Daxter, which has been on the list for quite some time. Jak was one of the first of the 3D platformers that defined the genre during the PS2 era, and like many of its contemporaries, is one of the games that’s quick to come to mind for a lot of people when talking about the console. Unlike games like Ratchet and Clank or Sly Cooper, though, Jak is light on gimmicks, predominately taking the style of game Naughty Dog established in Crash Bandicoot and expanding it out to offer more freedom and more character. The game’s fairly simple design, mostly revolving around using 3D platforming to get collectables, is what helps it hold up today. We’re going to be talking about world design and the benefits presented by having all the levels exist in a single contiguous map, the cartoony aspects of the game and its characters, and we dissect the true purpose of the bolted shut mine carts in the Volcanic Crater level. Thank you for joining us this week! On occasion, we get to go back to our original list of games we made for the podcast years and years ago and find something that we finally think it’s time to cover, and this was one of those games. Does it hold up? Yes and no, really. It holds up about as well as you could expect given the decades since its original release, but it still feels worth returning to if you haven’t played it before. Do you agree? Let us know in the Discord or in the comments. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Dragon Age: Origins, but without Chad, so I’m sure that will entice all of you to join us for that episode!

The podcast’s name is NOCLIP. Saying it’s name will anger it. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket. We’re a ways off from Halloween, but today, we’re going to be talking about Phasmophobia, with our regular guests Dan, Janelle and Steven. Phasmophobia is a cooperative ghost hunting game where you and (hopefully) your friends use a variety of tools to determine what kind of spirit is occupying a space in the vein of popular ghost hunting TV shows. The game was released last year in early access and drew in a surprising number of players given its pretty janky state. The game is obviously a horror title, but the aforementioned jank also gives the game an (intentionally or not) outlandishly silly tone at times, meaning that emotionally, you’re usually swinging back and forth from laughing and goofing off to running out of a spot where some spooky audio or visual trick happened. All in all, even being kind of unfinished, the game offers a kind of depth and experimental play pattern that does keep it fun and entertaining, especially when you’re playing it with people you like. We’re going to be talking about how the strength of the audio design pulls more than its weight in making this horror game scary, role playing and teamwork in a slow paced horror title and the enviable but occasionally problematic nature of The Guy in the Van. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket this week! We decided to talk about this game mostly as an excuse for us to get together online and play games. Is it selfish? Nope, it’s content creation, baby! Did you play this game during its big boom? By how far did we miss the boat on this game? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Donut County, a game where you play as a hole in the ground, which is a concept too intriguing for us to pass up.

Try to focus on maintaining the proper podcast! Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, after many months of preparation, our sweat and tears (but fortunately no blood) have culminated in this episode about Ring Fit Adventure! Ring Fit Adventure is a game about exercising set within in a pretty self-aware RPG. You travel from place to place and fight monsters, yeah, but all of your general movement and attacks are performed by doing simple exercises like squats and leg lifts. And that is ostensibly what we’re going to be talking about today. However, if there was ever a way for a video game podcast to analyze the mechanical feel of working out, we haven’t found it, and the artifice surrounding the actual game systems are so buck wild that they steal a lot of the focus. The “Adventure” part of Ring Fit Adventure centers around a quest to regain your ever-present companion’s powers to stop a comically jacked dragon from wreaking havoc, all of which is nestled in a very forgiving game that reminds you to take breaks at regular intervals and to stay hydrated, far from the concerns of your typical RPG protagonist. These things make Ring Fit both a real novelty in the realms of both fitness games and RPGs and help it to hit a ratio between carrot and stick that actually makes it worth playing. We’re going to be talking about item management and fail states in a game that wants you to keep playing it for your own well-being, characters and voice acting existing where you kind of didn’t even think about them as important elements, and we explore the real and unreal universes lorded over by Tipp, Master of the Space Between. Thank you for joining us again this week! This was a weird one in a lot of ways, and if you didn’t play along, I can’t say you’ll be spoiled exactly. If you did though, how did the game work for you? Did it successfully trick you into doing aerobics in your free time? We were personally surprised how much of an actual workout it was and how little pretense it has for that workout, unlike other games in the genre. Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! Next time, we’re jumping back not just from very active games but also to the far flung year of 2001 to talk about Jak and Daxter, so we hope you’ll join us then.

Aw, poor baby! Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket (monsters)! Today, due to some scheduling conflicts, we are not going to be talking about Phasmophobia, but instead the 2000 match 3 puzzle game Pokémon Puzzle League. Puzzle League is a game that both of us played a good bit in our younger years, but wasn’t quite notable enough to really maintain any level of popularity long after its release, coming out as part of the never ending deluge of Pokémon branded content that has existed since the series became popular. And do we think that should be different? Well, at the risk of spoiling parts of the episode, no not really, but it is still a fun game, holding up largely by its nostalgic value and simple mechanics. The game largely follows the same design as Tetris Attack, which is definitely a good game, and by extension this is similarly satisfying to play and get better, which is amplified by the one big twist in the form of 3D mode. We’re going to be talking about the Pokémon coat of paint and what it does for the game, how we think the game could have differentiated itself, and we hypothesize about what a show called “Rocket Mode Today” would be like. Thank you for joining us this week, and sorry we didn’t have the specifically scheduled game ready this time. Did you play this game as a kid, and was it closer to 90 or 100 percent because it had the word Pokémon in the title? And we’d like to know if you enjoyed this episode, because we were able to turn this one out quickly because of our vast experience with the game and there are definitely some other nostalgic hits we could turn out with more of a focus on the emotional experience of a childhood favorite than breaking down why matching colored blocks is fun. Let us know in the comments, or over on Discord! Next time we will almost certainly be talking about Phasmophobia.

He ain’t eatin’ the podcast, Jack! I made that for him! Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today we’re going to be touching on a somewhat out of season horror game, but fear not (or fear yes, in fact), as there is a sequel coming in just a couple of months. Resident Evil VII, which released a few years ago, before the series began remaking its games like it was going out of style, marked what is a long awaited return to form for much of its fanbase. The series had progressed beyond its survival horror roots into something more action focused following the massive success of the fourth game, but after a 5 year hiatus following the most controversial entry, to put it generously, in the series, the shift back to the more limited and slow paced style of horror was a welcome one. RE7 is set entirely in first person, a move that both sheds light on the influence Capcom took from popular games in the genre and allows for a VR mode to be implemented without changing the base mechanics, and contains more resource management and slow methodical exploration. Because of this, and the “large domicile” locale, the game ends up being compared more often to Resident Evil than it does to Resident Evil 6, and that feels like a successfully implemented design to me. We’re going to be talking about inventory space limitations and what it brings to the table, the reinforcement and undermining of character and plot, and we have hidden a personality test in the episode that will tell you if you have a big brain or are an ignorant baby. Thank you for joining us this week! This was a game we’ve wanted to play (both at all and in VR) since it came out, and the buzz surrounding the sequel seemed like a good enough excuse. Not to spoil our thoughts, but we were surprised in a lot of places at how well the game pulls off what it’s going for, and it’s definitely worth playing or revisiting if you’ve been through it before. It may not have a tall lady you want to do frankly confusing but undeniably sexy things to you, but it does have a door you have to put sigils in to unlock, so the sanctity of Resident Evil is safe and sound.

A fish ate my podcasting license… Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about A Short Hike, an indie adventure game and the third game in our deeply important series of bird based games on Pocket. A Short Hike is a very minimalist game, both in style and length, but there is still a good bit to do and explore, even if the game’s world isn’t so big. Part platformer, part adventure game, you spend much of your time in the game collecting items to reach new heights and complete tasks to deepen your relationships with the animal characters who inhabit the camp in which the game takes place. It’s these charming characters that give the game it’s personality. To the point where it feels reductive to refer to doing things for them as “completing tasks,” as the rewards you get for finishing them are much less important than the mostly tiny stories they all have. Combine that with a surprisingly satisfying set of movement mechanics and a dynamic soundtrack, and you get a really focused experience that oscillates between calming exploration and exhilarating flights around the island. We’re going to be talking about the host of different activities available to do in the game’s open world, how the dialogue really sells the game’s light but personal narrative, and how close we are in age to the target demographic for fishing. Thank you for joining us again this week! This game comes from a half-joking suggestion on our Discord server we got after posting the Unfinished Swan episode, and I’m personally really happy to have been made aware of it. This type of short, calming game is really welcome during stressful times (see, e.g., a global pandemic, playing Resident Evil VII, etc.), so I hope if you decided to play along this week that this game was able to put you in a more relaxed headspace. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Phasmophobia, partly to act as a counterpart to what we’re playing for the main podcast next, and partly as an excuse to screw around online with some friends, so I hope you’ll join us for that!

Your podcast provides you with a certain mindless strength, but such power has its limits. Welcome back to the podcast! This week, we’re, along with everyone else over the last few months, talking about Hades, Supergiant’s action Roguelite game. One of Hades’ most successful design decisions was to make the game extremely hard to become frustrated with. With an extensive list of unlockable abilities and upgradeable weapons as well as in depth character relationship paths, every time you die in the game you always feel like you’re making some progress. Even more than that, though, you actively look forward to returning to the hub, as each time you set out, you’ll have goals in mind for what to do with the resources you acquire on the run. This takes away the sting of losing a run that dissuades many people from continuing with Roguelike games most of the time, and makes you feel like you are always stronger than the last time you began. And that’s just scratching the surface of why this game has become so popular. Everything from the music to the dialogue to the art is polished and enticing and the mechanics feel like they have been boiled down from the essence of what made Supergiant’s other games as good as they were. We’re going to be talking about how the themes of the game play with the genre and mix to tell a compelling story, how the core gameplay loop keeps you engaged through multiple runs, and who in the game gives off the best himbo vibes. Thank you for listening this week! With this game in the bag, we can finally focus on actually playing other games for the podcast… But did you get as sucked into Hades as we did? What gods did you favor, and how many runs did it take you to taste sweet victory for the first time? Let us know in the comments, or over on Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Resident Evil 7, as Village is releasing early and we always have too many games we’re excited to play around Halloween time, so we hope you’ll enjoy a slightly out-of-season horror and check us out then.

This podcast was recorded in “Arm Swing” style. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, where this week, we’re going to be talking about Downwell, a Rougelike platformer where your goal is just to fall all the way down to the bottom. Obviously this is more difficult to do than it sounds, but even with as difficult as this game is, it’s that simplicity that makes it stand out. You only ever need to move left and right and press a single button, making the game incredible easy to learn and putting you immediately into the loop of getting better, rather than having to take the time to teach you everything you are capable of doing. This also means that the first area of the game never needs to be so easy as to be a tutorial, meaning that your runs begin nearly as intense as the previous one ended. Combined with the short length of most attempts and how quickly you can restart and try again, it makes the game an extremely frantic experience. We’re going to be talking about how the audio and visual elements of the game play into making the mechanics as smooth as possible, how the different powerups and styles affect your decision making, and our overwhelming lack of skill. Thank you for listening again this week! This is our first Roguelike, though admittedly it’s fairly atypical of the genre mechanically, and it immediately butted up against the idea of how much of a game needs to be played before you can make a judgment on it. For fans of the genre, how much time do you put into a Roguelike before you know you like it? As a genre designed to be difficult from the start in order to make the die and restart flow meaningful, sometimes it’s hard to tell. Let us know in the comments or on Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about A Short Hike, which you could argue is more our speed.

I know it’s selfish, but this is my podcast! Welcome back! Twenty years after the game’s release and five years of doing this podcast, we are finally going to talk about our first Final Fantasy game. Ten specifically is a game that we have a history with and which has been specifically requested, so we carved out the time to talk about it. FFX is the first Final Fantasy game to be released on the PS2, and made use of the new hardware to create a game that was of an extremely high fidelity for the time, spawning an association between the franchise and high quality visual presentation. Crisp 2001-era graphics aren’t the only innovation though, and FFX also introduced us to the Sphere Grid, an intimidating-looking change to the way leveling was handled that didn’t really get revisited afterward, but is extremely interesting nonetheless. All this set against the typically high-stakes story about saving the world from an ancient evil, now with fully voiced characters portrayed by a professional cast. We’re going to be talking about how the game feels scaled-down from previous games in the series and how this linearity affects everything from mechanics to the plot to the end game content, how complicated the sphere grid really is, and which character is actually an animatronic shark behind the scenes. Thank you for joining us this week! Doing JRPGs like this always takes us a bit, since they tend to be on the longer side, and that’s probably reflected in the length of this episode. So, I apologize if you prefer us to be a little snappier, but we wanted to give the game its due. Still, it feels like there’s so much involved with this game’s legacy, do you think there’s anything we left out? Were we too hard on Kimahri? Let us know in the comments or on our Discord server! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Supergiant’s Hades, so that I have a reason to stop playing it and do something else with my time, so I hope you’ll join us then.

Underneath your seat, you will find your complimentary Podcast Snap-A-Lot 9000. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket. Today, we’re going to be talking about Penko Park, a game that uses unique assets, but is solidly in the very small genre shared by Pokémon Snap. The game’s controls and objectives are largely the same, as you drive around in a self propelled cart and take pictures of the creatures that inhabit the titular park. It’s very interesting to play a game that feels like an intentional refinement of existing game, and we won’t be able to avoid comparing the two throughout our discussion. Where the game sets itself apart from its inspiration is in its tone, which strides the line between horror and humor exceptionally well, never being truly frightening but just unsettling enough to maintain an air of mystery. We’re going to be talking about the application of old, almost nostalgic, mechanics in a new setting, how the audio visual presentation mashes up creepy and joyful in an effective way, and an epic gamer moment. That’s for joining us again this week! We’re on our way to becoming the predominate Pokémon Snap podcast on the internet, and this game sparked our interest as soon as we heard about it. Next time, though, we’re going to be taking our first steps into the Roguelike genre, taking on Downwell (which may or may not be a sign of things to come, hmmmm?), so I hope you’ll check that out!

The annual awards show everyone isn’t talking about. Welcome to the NOCLIP Awards 2020, where we decide the best games we played this year in different categories. Our newly moderated debate format will help show the minute distinctions between which games really were the most perfect for the Switch, or what child in games this year most deserves the coveted Burger King birthday crown. And of course, we’ll be celebrating those most tentpole gaming achievements like Game of the Year, unique mechanics, and smashiest balls. So place your bets, or listen to the episode and then place bets with your friends afterwards to take all the rewards for yourself. Just make sure to get a few of them wrong, because plausible deniability is imperative in a grift like this, and if they start to catch on, we’ll have the car running outside. Thank you for joining us again this year, and I hope this is as fun to listen to as it is to make. We’ll be back with a Pocket episode on Penko Park soon, and after that our full episode on Final Fantasy X, so keep an eye out, and start thinking of which games will win these awards next year!

Coconuts are more valuable than podcast lives! Welcome back! Today on the podcast we’re going to be talking about No More Heroes, a hack’n’slash action game, and likely the game that made Suda51 a name people recognized. A definitely very quirky game with a, uh, we’ll say virile sense of humor, No More Heroes is a game that seems like it tries to make as many choices as it can to stand out and be different from most games released at the time. And I think this wild differentiation is what made it such a remarkable game at the time of its release. The version of the game we played prior to this episode, however, was the Switch port, which notably does not feature the motion controls made so famous by the original. Mechanically translating any game from the Wii is going to cause some hiccups, but without the novelty of masturbating your sword with a physical motion (and maybe some other changes), the blemishes in design really come to the forefront. We’re going to be talking about mechanical strengths and weaknesses both in regular combat and in boss fights, the open world and how it mostly subtracts from the overall quality of the game, and studying the blade. Thank you for joining us again this week! This was definitely a fun one to talk about, even if there was some disagreement as to whether it was fun to play. One of the side effects of mostly being a retrospective show is that when you put a game like this in a modern context, it makes you think about how far we’ve come and what types of mechanic sets hold up best over the years. Do you think we were too harsh on the game? Not harsh enough? Let us know over on Discord or in the comment section of wherever you’re listening to this, and make sure you join us next time because we’re looking at another game from a lot of years ago in Final Fantasy X.

We Scythians loathe podcasts, Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, an adventure game originally released on mobile platforms. You’re given a sword and a shield and a quest to go do, but the game takes a very irreverent stance toward all of it, meaning the tone is a lot lighter and more jokey than you would expect from a game of this type. Mechanically, the game is mostly about puzzle solving, with the combat sitting somewhere between Punch Out! and a rhythm game, and honestly not playing much a role in the time you spend with it overall. The game has some very unique ideas, especially for the time it came out, and a genuinely likable attitude about it, but as a whole its biggest issue is just that it might not withstand the test of time. We’re going to be talking about how music was implemented in the game, the relative difficulty of the puzzles and the clarity of instruction, and how every description you give of this game sounds kind of like the lyrics to a folk song. Thank you for joining us again this week! With this game being re-released on Switch recently, it does raise the question: What games are really perfect for da Switch? If only there was an award show coming up soon where we could give our thoughts on this kind of question…Anyway, next time, we’re going to be talking about Penko Park, a creature photography game which is a genre with very few entries and of which I think we’ve covered all of. So make sure to come back and check that one out as well!

Podcasts don’t always have a tidy beginning. Welcome back to the podcast! This week we’re joined by Janelle and are going to be talking about Heaven’s Vault, an adventure game with a focus on linguistics that was developed by Inkle. As you can imagine based on that description, this game has a very different way of engaging you mechanically than other games, even within the adventure genre. While the game is designed to deliver on its narrative, the story of an archaeologist exploring ancient ruins within the game’s sci-fi setting to discover details about the civilization that once lived there, one the fulcrum that story is balanced on involves deciphering a surprisingly fleshed out fictional written language. While this element of the game can be engaged with in the style of other puzzles in video games, by finding patterns and using the in-game context to figure out which symbols correspond to which words, it still hits on the critical thinking skills many games’ puzzles fail to stimulate. The result is a game that is surprisingly rewarding and does something that very few other games accomplish: making you feel like you’re actually doing the same thing your character is. We’re going to be talking about the robustness of the translation systems and the overarching impact that language has on the game, the highs and lows of the other more video game-y elements of the game, and by which specialty coffee name you should refer to the state prior to “new game plus.” Thank you for joining us this week, and thanks again to Janelle for coming on and sharing her comparable expertise on the subject, as I think it really helped open up the dialogue beyond what Andy and I could have mustered on our own. How did this game sit for you? Were you excited to begin recognizing patterns of symbols and take the time to figure out what a “morpheme” is? Did you also think that Aliya moved too damn slow? Was Six your loyal companion and best friend forever, or an unhelpful trash robot? Let us know in the comments or on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about No More Heroes, because we thought the idea of doing two games that shared anything in common in a row absolutely repulsive. So join us then to hear more of what you’re used to from us: games from over ten years ago!

Welcome to NOCLIP! Do you ever wonder “what is NOCLIP?” Well this episode probably won’t help that much, but hopefully it can provide some helpful examples of the kind of rhetoric you can expect from us in episodes of the show in convenient skit form. And remember, like we always say, or have always said after not saying it for one hundred episodes, NOCLIP is the podcast that’s like a book club for people who don’t think books reward them enough for being good at them. Thanks for listening!

There might be two naked podcasters out here. Thank you for joining us again this week! We’re going to be talking about Firewatch, the first and currently only game from Campo Santo. Firewatch is a walking simulator mystery game set in a open world forest, but that really doesn’t get to the meat of why you should play this game. While the game world is beautifully designed, and it’s fun to explore the forest, the key to the game’s success is in building a relationship between yourself and the game’s other lead character Delilah. Everything from scripting to the voice performances of the lead actors really sells their dynamic and makes the character exploration a real joy to play through, even though the narrative itself is pretty troubling. And that’s the beauty of it. Firewatch does a lot to put you in the headspace of its lead character, making you really focus on the moment to moment little things that are going on, while still being able to explore its big picture themes in the time between conversations. Also, you can adopt a turtle, which is pretty great too. We’re going to be talking about how the A and B plots of the game intermingle and how the tone of each effects how we feel about the game overall, visual style and color, and a hypothetical short film version of Pixar’s Up. So that’s Firewatch, possibly a couple years late, but it’s been on the list for a while. Did you play this game at release, or at any point over its releases on a bunch of different platforms over the years? Were you aware that they were bought by Valve and if so, are you as sad as we are that their next game seems to have been pretty much shut down because of it? Let us know on our Discord, or in the comments! Next time, we’re going to be tackling another indie game in the form of Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP, so be sure to check us out then.

Oh yeah. Let’s a go. Welcome back to the podcast! This has been a pretty rough time for the world in general, and to make things worse, now we’re uploading Halloween episodes in mid-November. Today we’re talking about Luigi’s Mansion 3, the Switch’s entry to the franchise that kind of launched the Gamecube. This series is Nintendo’s take on horror, and it has a number of the traits associated with horror adventure games spanning the almost thirty years. The game is focused on exploration and puzzle solving, which serves to make this a fairly slow experience that allows the game to build an atmosphere that, while never really scary, sets the tone for this goofy ghost game. As before, Luigi is tasked with exploring the setting, a hotel this time, and dealing with ghosts with his legally-distinct-from-a-Proton-Pack Poltergust vacuum cleaner. Combat makes up a more sizable portion of the game than it has in past entries, but the use of a number of tools keeps it dynamic, as you have to discover how to defeat each type of enemy or boss. What this ends up as is a surprisingly engaging game that definitely feels “Halloween” but not “horror.” We’re going to be talking about mechanical and thematic pacing, the utter success that is Gooigi, and the inherent differences between mansion games and hotel games. Thank you for joining us this week! Sorry to extend the spooky themes out into November, but we wanted to get our two episodes in since episode 100 delayed us a bit. Are you a long time Luigi’s Mansion fan? How was Dark Moon? How much of our appreciation for the first game in the series is just nostalgia? Let us know in the comments on YouTube or on Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Heaven’s Vault, a language-based adventure game from the developers of 80 Days, and just really getting back into the swing of playing games you haven’t heard of.

At least Halloween should be fun. Happy Halloween! Today we’re going to be talking about Fatum Betula, a game that was inspired by Japanese games of the PS1 era, but will probably be most often compared to LSD Dream Emulator. This comparison is not unjust, but truthfully, while there is less going on in this game, it has a much clearer sense of play to it that revolves around puzzle solving and exploration. Overall, this is a wise choice, as the experience of playing this feels very genuine, as opposed to something that is trying to simulate another game’s sense of incomprehensibility. Where the inspiration really sings is in the visuals, and a lot of the design feels extremely faithful to the era it is trying to match. Everything from texture work to UI mimics the time period in aesthetic and functionality, and it gives the game a real sense of place, that place just isn’t here and now. We talk about designing with an eye for the aesthetics of the past, puzzle elements and how they fit into the game, and that cozy autumnal feeling that this game doesn’t exactly provide. Thank you for joining us for another October of horror games. We covered a variety of styles of games this month (with one more coming in the form of Luigi’s Mansion in November), and this is by far the least traditional among them. Despite that, and despite it’s intentionally obtuse design, this was a lot more puzzle game than it was surreal walking sim, so to follow it up, next time we’re going to be talking about Firewatch, a predominately real walking sim.

Some podcasts mustn’t be forgotten. It’s Halloween season! Every year we put out our bowl of candy for all our podcast listeners, so thank you for joining us again this year and I’m glad to see so many of you are wearing costumes! For our first Halloween episode here on the main podcast, we’re going to be talking about Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the game that effectively resurrected horror games in terms of public perception. And the expected mechanics of the genre, honestly. Amnesia came out in 2010, and the Resident Evil 4 effect was in full swing, with very few survival horror games releasing and mostly not abiding by the methodical gameplay and anemic resources of genre games of the older generations. Amnesia, however, came from a team who had been making horror games for several years in which you were mostly helpless against those who sought to do you harm, and that ethos, as well as an expanded budget, are what really made this game take off. The game spikes that lack of agency in action with a narrative that by design forces both you and your player character to learn the specifics of your predicament as you go along and creates a cocktail that still manages to be scary even after a decade. We’re going to be talking about preserving fear over the course of the game’s runtime, mechanics by way of object physics and sanity meters, and we somehow fit in a mention for coconut crabs, for what it’s worth. So that’s Amnesia. I genuinely think this game holds up after so many years, but there have been a million iterations on this formula after this game exploded. Are there games that did it better, or does the original still hold true for you? Have you played the game’s sequel, or the newest entry that we didn’t mention because when we recorded this we didn’t realize it was a thing? Let us know over on our discord. Hope this game has you in a creepy mood (one that lasts for a couple weeks, anyway) because we have one more game planned for the season, and while it may fall outside of October, hopefully you’ll still come back for more next time, when we’re going to be talking about Luigi’s Mansion 3!

Those guys are out panning for Manchurian gold, or whatever they think they’re going to find on this podcast. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, and welcome, formally to the start of our Halloween season! We have a hopefully pretty satisfying variety of horror games to talk about this month, but first and foremost we’re going to be looking at one that takes a lot of its inspiration from horror movies, Man of Medan. Developed by Supermassive, Man of Medan is the first part of their ongoing “Dark Pictures” anthology series and plays very similarly to their previous game, Until Dawn. Your interaction is primarily focused around making choices in action and dialogue, with the rest of the mechanics being padded out by simple exploration and quick time events. The twist on what was set up in Until Dawn is that these games are designed to be played in a group of up to five people, with each person making decisions for one of the principle characters. While we didn’t have a full party of five, between the two of us, it did a good job of making you feel like your actions weighed on the other player and led to moments where we were yelling at the other player to try and influence them, which seems like the kind of experience this game was trying to foster. The other elements of the game, however, hold up a lot less positively under scrutiny. We’re going to be talking about game design in a series with so many branches to its story, the role difficulty plays in creating a satisfying multiplayer horror experience, and we learn what kind of fruit Crash Bandicoot picks up in a moment that fits perfectly into the discussion, I swear. Thank you for joining us this week! We’re going to be pushing out several episodes fairly quickly to try and fit them into the appropriate spooky season, and the next game on our list for Pocket is going to be Fatum Betula, a game we know very little about, but should prove to be about as different from this as you can possibly get. And if you’re still in the mood for some terrifying audio entertainment, we have a playlist on our YouTube channel of all the horror games we’ve covered over the years, so maybe catch up on some of our backlog and play some classic (and not so classic, and sometimes not even real) games to make sure you’re in the spirit.

Six players? I’ll try to podcast slowly because statistically at least one of you is hard of hearing. Welcome to the 100th episode of NOCLIP! We decided to pull all of our recent guests (and former hosts) together to talk about a game we all routinely play. The Jackbox Party Pack emulates classic board game night games with a slant toward drawing, wordplay and social games in a way that’s easy to set up and get into. The real triumph with this series, though, is that most games allow the players to really take center stage. Unlike a lot of popular board games with the premise of creating comedy, Jackbox games set you up with a prompt, but let your own creativity in your lies, quips, drawings and t-shirt/slogan combinations provide the entertainment. This makes each time you play feel memorable because of the very noticeable part each person plays in making it funny. We’re going to talk about the perils of being forced to draw with your finger on a phone screen when you’re good at drawing in a more normal way, succinct tutorials and presentation, and Cards Against Humanity and why it sucks and is bad. …and, we’re going to talk about ourselves! It’s been 100 episodes, and that calls for a little navel-gazing. We spend the last 30ish minutes of this already too long episode talking about the podcast and the impact its had on each of us, what we’d like to do with it and our appreciation for each other, those who listen, and the growth it has inspired in us. Thank you all for joining us this week and for the last five years as we played and talked about the games that interested us, hopefully you got something out of it as well. But while this is a landmark episode for us, we’re going to continue our normal October exploration of horror games beginning next time with an episode on Amnesia, the Dark Descent, so please join us then! The happenstance of episode 100 falling in October has pushed our schedule back a bit, but we’re going to continue talking about horror into November, or until we feel good and properly spooked, so keep an eye out!

Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! We’re cleaning up everything we needed to do before episode 100, and that means it’s time to play Minit, which was initially supposed to be a fun thematic companion piece to go along with A Hat in Time, but ended up stumbling into October a bit. Either way, this is an adventure game that you play in one minute chunks. You spawn in a fixed location, do as much as you can do in sixty seconds and then die, respawning in the same place unless you found another place to spawn. This does produce a bit of an illusion of depth, as things seem more complicated when you can’t think about them for more than a few seconds at a time, but the game’s overall design is actually really impressive and the illusion is about as good as the real thing. Trying to make the most of your time while traversing the map or solving a puzzle is an interesting challenge and makes each subsequent run feel like a practiced routine. When you’re working on something specific, you will know when something goes wrong and how to optimize your movement and that’s a play pattern that very rarely gets emphasized in the normal experience of playing a game. We’re going to be talking about clever level design to account for the consistent time limitation, the use of visuals and sound that call back to an even older era of games than indie games typically do, and, uh, economics? Thank you for joining us this week! Next time we’re getting into the full swing of Halloween and talking about Man of Medan, the first entry in the “Dark Pictures” series from Supermassive, the developers of Until Dawn. That’s a ton of proper nouns all in a row, but the gist is that it’s a horror game in the modern dialogue-driven adventure game style with the twist that it’s designed to be played with multiple players. We will hopefully have that episode up soon-ish so we can squeeze at least one more horror game out of the month, so check back then to find out what that might be!

It’s internationally observed and very important holiday NOCLIP Day, meaning it’s time to comb through our old episodes, find the stuff that we didn’t think you would want to listen to then, and have you listen to it now instead! Our festivities this year are twofold, as we are celebrating not only five years of doing this podcast but also hitting 100 episodes. The numbers are lining up, the planets are in alignment, and, just as predicted in the prophecy, we’re probably going to turn into a werewolf or a bear or something. But whichever enchanted mammal we take the form of, we hope that what we’ve produced so far has at least been enjoyable for you. Today’s collection of nonsense notwithstanding. Thank you all so much for listening! We have a lot of fun with this thing, and the fact we’ve picked up a couple of people along the way who interact with us makes it that much more fulfilling. We’re going to be making some changes in the next year, some of which you’ve already seen, and others that we’ll be experimenting with starting on our next episode. I hope you’ll all join us next time, as we talk about the Jackbox Party Pack with all of our friends and probably generate a noisy mess. Until next time.

There’s only so many times my voice can handle podcasting like that. You’re taking the experience away from other people. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about A Hat in Time, a 3D platformer developed by Gears for Breakfast that was largely crowd funded and even published by Humble Bundle. 3D platformers are a novelty in recent years and this type of funding really speaks to how the community that wants them is underserved, and what we got was a game that really wears its inspiration on its sleeve. With a lot of design sensibility taken from other games and references sprinkled throughout, it would be easy to call this game derivative. In reality, though, the game is very earnest and genuinely does a lot to put its own spin on the genre. We’re going to be talking about the different platforming mechanics and where they feel right and wrong, how the player movement in the game informs what level designs work the best, and we try to get Andy a job. Thank you for listening today, we had wanted to talk about this game for a while and things fell into place this time around, so I’m pretty excited to hear if any of you guys played it as well and what you thought of it, given that the genre has been in retrograde outside of Nintendo for a number of years. Next time…well, next time we’re getting started with a bigger month than we’ve had in a long time. It’s October, so we’re going to be talking about some horror games both here and over on Pocket, but next episode specifically is actually somehow really our 100th episode. We’re going to be getting JJ, Dan, Janelle and Steven back on to talk about The Jackbox Party Pack, collectively, and probably get very sentimental and nostalgic about the podcast. And before that it’s coming up on the 3rd, which, if you didn’t know, is NOCLIP day and our 5th anniversary, so we’ll have a bloopers compilation coming out then as well. And we’ll follow that up with as many horror games as we can fit in the rest of the month and maybe even bleed into November because why not? Anyway, love you all, thank you for listening, hope you have a good weekend. Have some fun.

We have always been much better at starting podcasts than finishing them. Welcome to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about The Unfinished Swan, an adventure game from Giant Sparrow, the team behind What Remains of Edith Finch. This is an adventure game that has a very concrete idea and it goes about expanding on that idea in an extremely fluid way. Pun intended. The game revolves around throwing balls of liquid, which change properties throughout the game, to accomplish a variety of things including revealing pathways (the mechanic on which the game markets itself ), interacting with objects and growing plants. This is a double-edged sword because the different ways to interact are all interesting in one way or another, but because of how little time you spend with any one verb, none of them feel fully explored in the way we would like to see them. This isn’t a death sentence by any means, and the accolades this game received are evidence of that, but it leaves a lot of slack to be picked up by the game’s other elements. We’re going to be talking about the implications of the game’s visual design, the experience of playing with the different forms of interaction and about the plants and how they were mushy. Thank you for checking out the episode! This was a game that got a lot of attention from indie game circles when it was released, so it’s always been something we’ve wanted to go back to. Plus, it was recently released on PC and mobile so it’s easier than ever to play along. Next time, we’re going from a game that was pretty universally appreciated to one with a more mixed reception: Minit. So join us then for what will assuredly be the correct opinion to hold.

Holding on to what I am, pretending I’m a podcast man, Welcome back to the podcast! With the remastered versions of THPS 1 and 2 releasing, it seemed like the right time to go back and play all of the Tony Hawk games that started this extremely long series. Well, not all of them. The franchise started strong by giving people something I don’t think many people knew they wanted and featured a really iconic licensed soundtrack, which propelled it to household name status among the game playing population in 1999, and this success guaranteed that sequels would come. After over a decade of annual releases, the quality dwindled and the series was taken in directions it really was never meant to go, even if the core mechanics stayed generally the same. This is part of what makes this franchise interesting, not just because it hit on a really enjoyable game play loop from its very first outing, but also as a look at how even great ideas can grow and decay through enough iterations. We’re going to be talking about how level design plays an important part in killing sick lines, how the games’ humor and politics seem to be incongruous with the game’s core demographic and The Bert Slide. Thank you for joining us this week! This was an extremely nostalgic experience and as THPS 1+2 came out yesterday (at the time of writing), that doesn’t seem to be slowing down much at all. Next time, though, we’re playing a much newer game: A Hat in Time, so be sure to check back if you’re a fan of 3D platformers. On top of that, we’re getting extremely close to episode 100, our fifth year, and Halloween time, so there’s a lot going on around these parts, so keep an eye out and maybe join the Discord to keep up to date with all the things we’re planning for.

Leave your front door open and your podcast unguarded, Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket this week! Today, we’re going to be talking about Plants vs. Zombies, arguably PopCap’s breakout game, a casual tower defense game with a distinct theme. But I probably don’t need to explain what this game is to you, because statistically you’ve probably played, seen, or at least heard of it before given how crazy popular it was. Revisiting the game after so many years really puts into context what about the game made it popular and how we’ve advanced in design space and that historical context makes up a lot of the discussion this week. We’re going to talk about casual tower defense game design and how the game wants to make you feel good, the attractive visual design and presentation and we go on and on about how free mobile games have become a detestable quagmire of unacceptable advertising. Thank you for listening to us shatter our nostalgia this week! We’re trying to balance our pocket episodes between smaller titles that don’t take a long time to play and ones that can actually be played on a device that fits in your pocket, and this game is pretty emblematic of the latter. However, next time we’re sampling a little more of the former and talking about The Unfinished Swan, from the developers of What Remains of Edith Finch, so be sure to check back then.

Whosoever would oppose our podcast is welcome to try. Welcome back to the podcast! We’re going to be talking about Supergiant’s Pyre, a fantasy sports RPG, which feels like the description of a very boring game where orcs sit around making roster adjustments on their phones, but I swear to you that isn’t this. Instead, this game follows a growing band of exiles as they participate in “The Rites,” a ritual that makes up the “action” part of this game. The Rites themselves are interesting and can be strategically quite deep, but they are broken up by character-centric segments that help your attachments grow and provide stat boosts and items to aid you as you progress through the game. These two elements create the back and forth loop of Pyre and your enjoyment of these two things will largely determine how much you will like the game overall. We’re going to be talking about developing character stories and how they force you to make hard choices, the depth of the systems we couldn’t hope to fully explore, and we compare a character in this game to the star of a classic nineties adventure game. Which one it is WILL SHOCK YOU. Thank you for listening this week! We had a grand time playing through this game, despite both having some reservations going in, so I hope your experience was at least as enlightening. Next time, we’re taking on a Superman-worthy endeavor and grinding through as many classic Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games as we can (specifically THPS 1, 2, 3, 4, THUG, THUG2, and THAW if those acronyms mean anything to you) to provide a series retrospective, pitting one host’s extremely long running experience with the franchise against a relative newcomer, so we hope you’ll join us for that.

*Sniff Sniff*, I podcast best when my bladder is full, Welcome back to the podcast! Today we’re going to be talking about Dujanah, which is a tough game to describe. With an art style predominately defined by claymation, randomized events that mean no two playthroughs of the game are entirely alike, and a sensibility somewhere between jokes and universal emotional truth, the game runs the gamut of moods and tones. The game is far from meaningless, however. The majority of interactions play into the game’s larger themes, and deciphering that is the main puzzle the player is presented with. The idiosyncratic characters and disjointed scenes serve their own purposes and which things you focus on will affect your takeaways from the game. And despite all these art-game pretensions and ruminations on death and consciousness, Dujanah has an understanding of play, and still makes sense as a game, even if what game that is takes a lot of forms over its short runtime. We’ll be discussing the parts of the game that we individually found most effective in communicating its themes, whiplash inducing tonal change, and whether or not we thought the game would show us an anus. Thank you for joining us this week! We had a good time with this weird game, and it fits well within our range of tastes when it comes to indie titles. But weird games don’t get the clicks, baby, so next time join us as we talk about the original mobile tower defense vegetation sensation, Plants Vs. Zombies.

Why don’t you do whatever podcast you’ve got rehearsed and get this over with? Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about The Last of Us Part II, which was the (surprisingly, since we’re talking about it) highly anticipated sequel to one of, if not the most popular game from the PS3. This game is a pretty straightforward followup to the original, picking up where it left off just a few years down the road, and the story has a similarly dark tone. While the original game was mostly driven by it’s characters as well, the state of the world is taken as more of a given here in the sequel, and that bleakness permeates every interaction you have. Underneath the game’s plot, it functions much like it’s predecessor. Arguably too much. It’s a stealth action game where you scavenge items along the way to use to make decisions of what items you want or need in the game’s crafting system and you perform combat where you employ stealth to even the odds against an enemy force that outnumbers you by a significant margin. And all of this is backed up by a signature level of high-fidelity visuals and world design that can be frankly quite breathtaking. We’re going to be talking about controversy surrounding large scale releases, overbearing mechanical similarities, and how your monkey brain feels about whether characters live or die. Thank you for joining us this week! This was an easy choice for us because our thoughts on the original game were so mixed, the franchise has a really interesting give and take in our minds. What did you think about the game? Did it live up to your expectations? Were you one of the people who thought the game’s plot wasn’t up to snuff? Did you skip the game for one reason or another, and if so, what did listening to the episode make you imagine the game was like? I want to play that game. Imagination games sound nice. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the episode, and be sure to check back in next time, as we’ll be talking about Pyre!

There is no place for me on the podcast of a starway, Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re talking about Sayonara Wild Hearts, the most recent game from Simogo, and it once again feels like nothing they’ve done before. Sayonara takes elements from infinite runners, rhythm games, shoot ‘em ups, and others to create a constantly changing, but smooth, play experience. The real stroke of genius here though is paring it with a dynamic electropop soundtrack that, if it speaks to you, will have you absolutely spellbound when combined with the abstract colorful visuals. It, at times, is an overwhelming sensory experience, but one that is extremely focused. If you can get over the short length, or you’re the type to chase high scores, this comes highly recommended. We’re going to talk about genre conventions in a game that’s hard to define, how music and visuals combine to bring about a flow state, and being accosted by magicians. Thank you for listening again this week! Going in not knowing much about this game is a real jarring experience, and I hope at least some of you got to have that. And speaking of not knowing much about a game, next time we’re going to be talking about Dujanah, which is a game it’s almost impossible to understand before playing. We hope you’ll join us then.

About fifteen percent of patients report a generalized sensation of “podcasts.” Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Kentucky Route Zero, because the whole thing is finally released. Starting with a Kickstarter campaign nearly a decade ago, this game released in “Acts” periodically in the ensuing years and is now available as a complete package along with all the interstitial segments playable as a single experience. Can you tell I’m stalling? This game is hard to talk about. Ostensibly, KR0 is an adventure game, but it’s difficult to draw comparisons to other games in the genre. The central mechanical engagement of the game is in the form of making dialogue choices, but the characters and stories don’t really change based on what your choices are. Largely, these only serve to influence your perspective on the story and the players within it. And that probably sounds highfalutin, but the game resists the kind of analysis we usually use for games and honestly that’s what makes it so unique. We’re going to be talking about natural versus supernatural interpretations of events, character and narrative development across a decade-long timetable, and whether you can identify more with an old-fashioned hipster or one of these newfangled millennial hipsters. Thank you for joining us this week! For a game we held off on playing for so long, it was a real blast finally getting to experience the entire story from beginning to end. If you played the game, how did it strike you? Is this kind of weird choice based story up your alley, or would you prefer to take a more active role in your video games? If so, I bet you’ve already started playing The Last of Us Part 2, which is good, because next time, we’re going to be talking about The Last of Us Part 2, so please join us then!

So, did you figure out why she did it? Recorded the podcast? Welcome back! Today, we’re going to be talking about Her Story, Sam Barlow’s desktop simulator mystery game, which has you searching terms in a database of interviews to find clips that each tell small parts of the story, and assembling the answers from those. Of all the games we’ve played for Mystery May (or Nancy June, this year), this game relies the most on your own ability to figure out what’s going on and only rewards your intuition with terms that provide progressively more context. The game doesn’t even have a traditional ending, instead allowing the player to determine when they are satisfied with what they know. All this adds up to one of the most unique games we’ve talked about and one that is actually pretty difficult to analyze in our usual way. We’re going to talk about design in a game where the player has complete freedom within its mechanics, how the premise is sold on aesthetic and great acting, and about a horrible CG lady. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket this week, and we hope you’ve enjoyed our choices for mystery games this year. This is one we’ve considered doing for years now, but it’s surprisingly intimidating to talk about a game that we like this much for reasons that are so unusual. Next time we’re going to be talking about Sayonara Wild Hearts, so we hope you’ll check it out then.

Podcasting is a criiiiiiime, baby! Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re dusting off our DS to play Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, an underappreciated adventure game by the team responsible for Ace Attorney. As a very narrative-driven game, Ghost Trick comes off as wordy at times, particularly since the game uses no voice acting, but with the dialogue comes a lot of wit and charm that give the game its personality. The counterpoint to these sequences of dialogue are the actual puzzles, which see you manipulating objects in the environment to change the sequences of events leading to someone’s death. Due to your limited range of motion, only being able to jump between objects that are a short distance away, it gives a sense of urgency to the game’s sort-of-timed gameplay segments and creates a mechanical experience that is genuinely unique. The combination of these factors gives you a game that is exceedingly weird coming from a developer like Capcom, but also one that is interesting for all the right reasons. We’re going to be talking about the strange narrative conceit, expressive animation, and why your oral fixation could cause you to lose several DS styluses. Thank you for joining us today for the first full episode in this year’s Mystery May replacement series Nancy June. We’ll be back at the end of the month, assuming the stars align, with Kentucky Route Zero, a game we’ve been waiting literally years to finish.

You’re always in here, writing your weird little podcasts. Welcome to NOCLIP Pocket! And welcome to “Nancy June,” our Mystery May replacement for the year where everything seems to have gone wrong. Today, we’re going to be talking about The Astronauts’ The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. This is a walking simulator type adventure game, where you play the part of a psychic detective tasked with finding Ethan Carter, a boy who wrote to you and then, well, vanished. The game itself focuses largely around environmental exploration and puzzle solving to uncover the events that led to Ethan’s present circumstance. The beauty of this game is its presentation; set in the woods and with a striking use of visuals, the game succeeds in drawing the player into its world and never putting up quite enough of a speed bump to pull them back out. We’re talking about memorable puzzle set pieces, graphical fidelity lending a sense of atmosphere to an environment, and how this game is seasoned with just a peppering of ancient sci-fi secrets. Thank you for listening this week, and hopefully you weren’t thinking like “oh man, thank god they dropped that stupid Mystery May garbage. That was the dumbest and worst thing they ever did,” because we’ll be back next time talking about Her Story to cap off this enigmatic month and we’re very excited about it.

Did you sleep well? No thanks to your podcasting, yes. Welcome back to a moderately special episode of NOCLIP! JJ has returned to discuss Halo: Combat Evolved. The first game in one of the unarguably largest game franchises in history, Halo really brought the first person shooter to consoles in a way that managed to popularize the genre much more universally than had been accomplished in the past. While this growth really hit a fever pitch with the accessibility of online multiplayer through Xbox Live, the single player campaign mode was still an expected and important part of a console game experience, and Halo delivered on that front and was probably most known for its creature design, protagonist and stunning outdoor vistas before the ubiquity of team deathmatch really took hold. And this is what we’re going to be talking about today. How does the campaign hold up under a modern lens, and what elements of design did they get so right to spawn such a monumental series? We’re going to be talking about the game’s presentation of it’s sci-fi plot through visuals and dialogue, the way the game diversifies its encounters with enemy AI and weapon availability, and discuss the existential horror of being caught in a “Womp loop.” Thank you so much for joining us today. Halo is a game that has been looming as one of the “must talk about” games since the beginning (along with a few others I’m sure you’re thinking of we haven’t covered yet), and I’m really happy with how it turned out. What do you think about Halo? Does it hold up to modern games, or even other entries in the same series? Do you feel like a badass because you have grenades that stick to stuff and have a twenty foot tall vertical leap? Join us in discussing the game on our Discord, or leave us a comment on YouTube, and make sure to subscribe, because we’re heading into Mystery May in June, "Nancy June," next time when we talk about Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.

Pig? No, it’s not just a pig. It’s my podcast. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about Zeno Clash, which is an episode idea that started as legitimate suggestion, to a running joke, and finally to reality. The game is a first person game that switches between shooting and melee combat, but definitely gives the brawling the lion’s share of attention when it comes to depth. And while the combat is interesting, the aesthetic design is what really brings the game together and makes it a unique, weird kind of game we think is worth playing. We’re going to talk about how the game balances between melee and ranged combat, the strength of indie games for unusual and creative designs, and the graphical differences between a sofa and a picture of a sofa. Thank you for joining us again this week. This is the kind of game I feel like is intriguing when described, so if you did end up playing it, I hope you enjoyed yourself. That intrigue is exactly why it’s stayed in my mind for as long as it has. And speaking of intrigue, we realize that Mystery May is already halfway over and we haven’t done anything explicitly mysterious, but we are correcting that next time when we talk about The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I hope you’ll tune in for that!

Welcome back to the podcast! Chad will be sitting out of todays episode and in his place Andy will be joined by special guests, Daniel, Janelle, and Steven. This week we’re taking a look into the world of CRPGs with Divinity Original Sin 2. We discuss our experience of playing through the entire game in co-op, the importance of well implemented customization options, and the joy we find in eating body parts for a glimpse into the memories of their owners. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP this week! We hope you'll join us next time for a discussion of Halo: Combat Evolved.

You know that podcast that went missing? This one’s even better. It cannot die. Welcome back to the show! Today, we’re going to insist you have friends, because we’re talking about Tick Tock A Tale for Two. The title isn’t all onomatopoeia and alliteration though, this game requires two players on two separate devices to play. While that is a little cumbersome, there’s something really convenient about not having to connect over the internet. The two games both function entirely on their own, but progress is gated by information that one player will have but not the other, creating a uniquely cooperative puzzle solving environment. This is basically the prescribed version of playing an adventure game with your friends, and as lovers of the genre, that makes this a truly novel experience. We’re going to talk about puzzle solving with two people, the good and bad of overloading a player with details, and we finally discuss the elusive definition of the word “attic.” Thank you for joining us this week! This was sort of an unexpected game we ran across during a bored moment, and we wanted to talk about it just to do it. In stark contrast to this, next time we’re talking about a game that has been in the back of my mind for over a decade: the ever questionable first person brawler Zeno Clash. Expect some more outlandishness on that episode, and I hope you’ll join us!

Time to take the microphone, dude. Welcome back to the podcast this week! Today we’re vising the world of Life is Strange again to cover the sequel, but things are a little different this time. First, we have two guest hosts today, returning favorites Dan and Janelle. And second, this time around things are a lot less “go ape” and more “go see a therapist.” The second full season of Dontnod’s premier adventure series does a lot of things right, and it tackles larger, more immediately relevant points than broached in its predecessors. There is a lack of subtlety in approach, though, and the messages it sends don’t always succeed in being as profound as the personal lessons taught by the first game. Find out more as we talk about the cast of characters and narrative structure, how you can play too safe with politics, and see why we compare Life is Strange 2 to books you’re assigned to read in class. Thank you all for sitting down with us today! Fun fact: this is the longest ever episode of the show, but I suppose that’s kind of to be expected when we have twice any many people on as we’re used to recently… Still, I think this is some of our most valid critiquing we’ve done in a while, and I hope the length didn’t wear you out of Dan and Janelle, as they’ll be back next time to talk about Divinity: Original Sin 2. Hope you’ll check it out!

I can not podcast, for I am a spirit. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about the first portable entry in the Harvest Moon series. The GameBoy feels like the most appropriate console for a game like Harvest Moon, with the success of later entries in the series as well as things like Animal Crossing excelling on portable platforms. Being able to quickly go through a couple days of checking on your crops and performing daily chores while on the go seems like it would comprise a simple and relaxing gameplay loop to perform with the convenience of a handheld. However, given how new the series was to the limited hardware, the game ends up with some hiccups that make the experience oscillate awkwardly between incredibly stressful and exceedingly boring. There’s just something missing from this installment (or a lot of somethings, in some cases) that fails to meet expectations, even for fans of the genre. We’re going to talk about stamina management on both the side of the player and developer of the game, how this game makes us long for the tutorials of modern games like the caress of a long lost lover, and whether clearing out the tunnel in the tool shed in this game would net you marvelous secrets, or just a “thank you” from a harvest sprite. And call me a harvest sprite, because thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket this week! Twenty-one is an exciting birthday, but this was kind of a boring game, so to make up for that lack of thematic consistency, for episode twenty-two we will be playing Tick Tock: A Tale for Two, so be sure to come check that out.

What I do know is that, according to The Rule, one must carry out the Three Humiliations to podcast about Souls-like games Welcome back to the podcast! Today we’re going to be talking about Blasphemous, a Kickstarter funded indie game that takes inspiration from various platformers and metroidvanias and, rather explicitly, Dark Souls. What this means for the game is actually pretty varied, with some elements, like boss fights, absolutely flourishing in their inspiration, while others, like platforming, feel inappropriate for the style of engagement this game presents. The game asks you to explore a world and collect the necessary holy do-dads and other plot important knickknacks, and you do so by jumping over pits and utilizing the simple but weighty combat system. All of this seems pretty standard, but the level of detail in the pixel art visuals the game boasts really draw you in and keep you entertained throughout the experience. We’re going to be talking about the differences between overworld exploration and boss combat, the implementation of collectibles and using it as a case study to examine how they should and shouldn’t be used, and things get really heated when we drop trou and compare Fervor Bars. Thank you for joining us this week as we begin our countdown to episode 100. This probably won’t be something we make a big deal out of or comment on a whole lot, but it is only 10 episodes away, and that’s kind of insane. Thanks for sticking with us, if you have, or joining us whenever you did! As we enter the 90s, we’re revisiting a series that at the very least has an appropriate appreciation for flannel, though admittedly less so in this installment. We’re talking about Life is Strange 2, so check us out then!

I got the NOCLIP Podcast! This might be my chance! Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re taking a look at Link’s Awakening, a Gameboy game, that got a rerelease on the Gameboy Color, and then finally remade and released this last year on the Nintendo Switch. What has changed in nearly three decades since this game’s release? Not a whole lot, actually, but the game holds up to modern standards a lot better than that may imply. Playing through the game now, the somewhat opaque design of the game stands out but, barring a few hiccups, you can see why the early Zelda games really felt before their time. We’re going to talk about an appreciation for narrative and characters in a game as old as this one, puzzle design in a game with limited resources, and we rename one of Nintendo’s least beloved characters! Hoo? Er, who? You’ll have to listen to find out! Thanks for joining us again this time, and keep an eye on the feed because next time we’re going to be talking about Blasphemous, an indie Soulslike Metroidvania, which is a pretty healthy genre who’s name couldn’t exist without like at least three or four other games.

Stop putting lampposts in my podcasts. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! For our first episode of the year, we’re going to be taking a look at Davey Wreden’s The Beginner’s Guide. While the developer is certainly best known for The Stanley Parable, this game does a lot to show the level of dedication Davey has to making narrative games that break the mold of what you would expect from the genre. In this particular instance, we are being taken on a tour through the games of “Coda,” a hobbyist developer and friend of Davey’s, as they become more and more disjointed and laden with symbolism. While this is happening, there is narration playing to give context to the games and explain what some things mean and how they came to be. And all of that text was necessary to give you a basic explanation for what this game is, but it is the emotional core that really gives the game its flavor. Play it for yourself before listening if it at all seems interesting. Why? Because we’re talking about the narrative structure of a game about games with narrative structures, game development and its associated stresses, and how this game is basically a sequel to Half-Life 2’s developer commentary. Thank you for joining us this episode, and we’ll be back (hopefully in a shorter time) with an episode about Harvest Moon, marking the legendary return to handheld consoles in a series called “Pocket.” We hope you’ll check it out!

In the streets, where true might is chosen. The podcast games of have been gathered, the categories curated and our three podcasting pedants re-assembled, it’s time to hand out the 2019 NOCLIP Awards! As is tradition every year, for one year, we have organized a list of highly relevant categories, such as “Least Likely to be Compared to Dark Souls” and “Worst Map”, and will be deciding the best of the best or the…smashiest of the smashy…games we’ve played this year, not in clickbait YouTuber top ten list form, but in a spirited debate to really get to the heart of the issues. Thanks for joining us again this year! How do you feel about our choices? Are we the pinnacle of good taste, are our categories so thought provoking they’re keeping you up at night? If so, join the discussion over on Discord or in comments or something! Which games did you play this year that felt like Oscar bait? I genuinely need to know.

Thank you for purchasing the Little NOCLIP Entertainment Podcast! Welcome back to NOCLIP for our final episode this year! We’re talking about Little Inferno, a game by The Tomorrow Corporation that doesn’t quite play like any other. This is a game about burning things, from just some bricks to military grade explosives and everything else in between, but also it’s a game about telling you jokes and about figuring out what’s really important in life. Little Inferno is even a great game to play around the holidays, both because of its cozy aesthetic and because of the values it emphasizes in its narrative. You’re also more likely to enjoy it if you don’t know much about it while playing, so we’ll leave it at that. On the episode, we talk about classifying a game that intentionally chooses unorthodox mechanics, character moments communicated in an entirely one-sided interaction, and being surprised at the quality of a McDouble. Thank you for joining us again this week, and we hope you all have a safe and fun holiday season, whether that’s catching up with old friends or staying safely indoors to binge a couple of games you’ve had on your list this year (maybe an old indie gem from 2012?). The next thing you’ll hear from us will be The NOCLIP Awards 2019 in the early part of next year, but our next Pocket episode will be on The Beginner’s Guide, so check back with us then!

We’re NOCLIP. But we’re not that NOCLIP. Welcome to the UCA, listeners, because today we’re talking about Death Stranding. This game has been stirring up a bit of controversy among the AAA game discussion crowd, coming from Metal Gear visionary Hideo Kojima and yet being mostly a game about how walking around with a bunch of stuff on your back is hard to do. While you’ll have to listen to the episode to get all the nuances of why we feel the way we do on the game’s many aspects, I think we’ve landed fairly positive overall, which is not to say the controversy is not well deserved. This game does some very different things that aren’t expected of a game with this budget, this creator, and hell, this star power, which is even a weird thing to say about a game. This is a game you have to sit with and its long run time means that you’ll be sitting for a while and whether this game is an acquired taste or a taste you need to born with is a question we’ll leave to history to decide, it is certainly an interesting taste and a dish we’re happy to serve this week on the podcast. We’re going to be talking about the utility of things to shoot in a game that isn’t really focused on it, an assumption of weirdness that might overshadow a clearer reading of a game, and a biological feature of Sam Bridges that is an objective 0 out of 10. Thank you for joining us this week! This game is one we wanted to do pretty much immediately given its pedigree and potential for hot takes, but coming up we’re kicking off the new year with a game that we waited so long to do it was remade and released on a new console. That is, The Legend of Zelda, Link’s Awakening (but like, the Switch version). And keep an eye out because coming up sometime in the near future, we will be reprising our favorite end-of-year non-game-specific fortunately-hyphen-free discussion episode: The NOCLIP Awards!

Overly…intricate…podcast! Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today we’re going to be talking about Double Fine’s platformer classic Psychonauts, which really set the standard for games coming from the company for years to come. Psychonauts is pretty unique as far as platformers go, with an emphasis on strong character writing and level designs that are based on those character’s personalities. Really, the writing in the game is what stands out the most, and they take the concept of a psychic summer camp and really run with it, squeezing as much as they can from the campers and their relationships with each other. The actual play experience, while containing some hallmarks of early 2000s game design has also aged surprisingly well and means while Psychonauts may not be all you remember it, it is still a game worth going back to. We talk about comedy and setting acting in service of one another, the ubiquity of the Levitation power and its place in making the core gameplay feel unique, and how the Meat Circus should have been abject horror but somehow wasn’t. Thank you for joining us again this month. Next time we’re going to be talking about Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding, a controversial title to be sure. So make sure you check us out then to hear the objectively correct take on the game.

Knock the podcast on its bottom. Welcome back to Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about contemporary internet darling Untitled Goose Game, which is a puzzle game where, unsurprisingly, you play as a goose. As a goose is want to do, you spend the majority of your time attempting to accomplish goals that, in the grand scheme of things, mostly just annoy people into fits of rage. The systems behind this are predominately physics and interaction based, using the game’s fairly limited mechanic set along with your understanding of character’s patterns and behaviors to accomplish your goals, but the context it is all set in is what gives the game its charm. Is it worth the hype? Is it correct to say that a public bemusement over a game about an irritating goose is hype? We dive into these questions and more as we talk about the cultural reasons this game seems to have become as popular as it is, expectations and experiences within the world of the game, and what it is about this game that reminds us of Napoleon Dynamite. Thank you for joining us this week to talk about Goose Game. As is tradition, we’re a couple weeks behind popular discourse on this one, but we’re really outdoing ourselves next time as we’re talking about 2012’s Little Inferno, placing us squarely 7 years after its relevant popularity. Hopefully you’ll join us then.

You are the spark emanated by my light. The podcast of my will in the hidden spheres. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket on this very special Halloween night (well, if you’re catching it like right as we upload it’s very early in the morning, but like, shut up, I’m trying to be thematic). Hopefully you’re having a spooky holiday season, and in an attempt to help you further along that path, we’re talking about Tamashii. This is a puzzle platformer that pulls its visual and narrative inspiration from old Japanese indie games that put theme and spectacle above silly little things like “making sense.” Tamashii is still more approachable than some of the art house games that inspired it, but has a style that is simultaneously abrasive and pretty intriguing. We explore this odd game in this episode and attempt to explain how it engaged us. We’ll be talking about what different kinds of imagery accomplish in establishing tone, how the platforming mechanics help drive engagement without being the explicit focus of the game, and whether or not something with a “butthole mouth” can be cute. Thank you for joining us this month, and I hope you’ve been sufficiently frightened by our game choices…because we’re saving the most terrifying for AFTER Halloween. I know it’s unusual, but it’s the perfect way to catch all you SUCKERS off guard. Get ready, because we’re talking about Untitled Goose Game. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I guess I really don’t care if it’s dangerous or not. I’m going to podcast either way. Welcome to our spooky Halloween episode this year, where we’re talking about Silent Hill 2, among the most classic of classic survival horror games. Being a pillar of the genre, Silent Hill accomplishes a lot of what you would expect, providing a unique memorable atmosphere and characters that have persisted as icons of the series. But that’s what you’ve heard about Silent Hill 2. The experience of actually playing it for the first time, nearly 20 years after its original release, is something really strange and different, and what we’re actually here to talk about. As anyone who revisits childhood favorites is familiar with, games from older generations, particularly those that were considered cutting edge at the time, have a tendency to feel a little wonky and dated to modern audiences. And I hesitate to say that this game avoids that completely, but the original intent of the game is still in full force despite its age. Find out more as we talk about survival horror conventions, the importance of symbolism in psychological narratives, and why it is there is no boat% speedrun for this game. I hope you enjoyed this year’s horror offering. While this is our only full horror episode this year, we tried to make it the best one we could, and this was a game that has been sort of calling to us for years. We hope you enjoy the retrospective on one of the most classic of horror games. And be sure to keep an out for the next episode, which will be on Psychonauts, because I guess we’re feeling nostalgic these days.

Let us meet again, in another podcast. Welcome to October! It’s time to play some horror games, and boy are we starting off with a bleak one. Detention is set in Taiwan during a period of marshal law, and despite its supernatural elements, really wants its lasting horror to be about the oppressiveness of life during this time. The game itself is a point-and-click adventure game, with puzzles to solve and diary entries to collect and uncover more of the story, and taken together, all its elements are in an eerily even balance. And that’s a good thing. The puzzles are not too hard, but not brainless. Narratively, there is equal weight placed on character-driven plot as well as the surrounding gloom of the world they inhabit. The game is spooky for its imagery and terrifying for the consequences its characters face. It all blends together into a really worthwhile experience in a genre of game that has seen its fair share of auteur works recently. We talk about the mechanical implications of narrative themes, good adventure game puzzle design, and ghosts that move just waaaaay to slowly. Thanks for joining us again this episode! This is a game we played sort of on a whim based on the coverage it got and subsequently felt we had to put out an episode on it. We’re still in the early stages of the spookiest month of the year, and have a few more episodes queued up to talk about, but what have you guys been playing? Anything really scarin’ your socks off? Am I too late in the description now to be asking questions? No one’s reading? …yep.

NOCLIP Day Tidings, everyone! It’s the season of giving here on the podcast, but as usual, all we have to give is utter garbage. Specifically, the garbage we edit out of each episode and save in a special folder to break out for just such an occasion. This year we took steps toward improving our quality, making better jokes, and expanding our horizons to talk about a wide variety of still no real time strategy games. More seriously, though, we want to thank all of you for listening. We appreciate everyone who has joined our Discord to talk to us, sent us ratings, likes and feedback, and everyone who has just given us a chance and then was like “eh, it was okay.” Because “Okay” is all we strive for. We hope you enjoyed this annual indulgence before we dive into spook season, because coming up in the next couple of weeks we have a NOCLIP Pocket episode on Detention and a regular episode on Silent Hill 2! Hopefully we’ll be able to jam a few more episodes in October, since it’s when we really get to run wild with horror games, so be on the look out for that, as well!

When something stinks, it’s probably the NOCLIP Podcast. Thank you for joining us again today! We realize this one’s a bit late, but we needed to get it out before October starts and all non-scary content is expunged from the Internet. Today, however, we’re going to be talking about Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the first in what has become a series of games where you play the part of the titular Wright, and attempt to make the task of being a defense attorney fun to do. Fortunately, the game does succeed in that endeavor in most cases (get it?), with what was at the time a real twist on the adventure game formula. The gameplay generally breaks down to collecting items and information and then applying those things in an appropriate context in the trial sequences. The trials are a real joy to experience at times and really highlight how drab the investigation scenes are, which the game attempts to make up for with generally good writing throughout. We are going to be talking about characters, both in design and development, mechanical implementation in a courtroom environment, and we have a REAL LAWYER comment on the two (count ‘em, two) rules of evidence. Thank you for listening again this week! We appreciate those of you who are sticking through our transition to a JJ-less podcast, and I hope the new perspective brings something valuable to the table. We’re going to be back again in October talking about a real horror classic in Silent Hill 2. Until then, be on the lookout for a new Pocket coming in the next week, and our annual celebration of unprofessionalism on our fourth anniversary on the third!

I don’t know any people who listen to podcasts, nor do I care to. Welcome back! On today’s episode of Pocket, we’re returning to phone games, and, in fact, returning to a mobile developer we’ve talked about before. Device 6 is a game by Simogo, who also developed Year Walk, which we discussed last Halloween, and between the two games prove that they get that using phone hardware in a unique way is key. This game, however, focuses on text almost exclusively. The game’s text tells the story and provides descriptions, but is also your map, the space you play in, and also forms the basis for interaction. There’s a lot of unique elements present here and the low-barrier to entry makes it worth trying out. We talk about the game’s use of its unique conceit to blend mystery and more spooky elements, the pros and cons of having to spin your phone all around, and whether we are, in fact, just brains in vats. Thanks for joining us again today, and we hope you give the game a shot, as it’s (ironically, given its name) really one of a kind. We’re going back to talking about short games that won’t necessarily fit in your pocket next week as we talk about Detention. Got to gear up for Halloween eventually, right?

Your words are as empty as your soul! Mankind ill needs a podcast such as you! Welcome back to the show this week. Join us in bidding a fond, but temporary, farewell to JJ, who will be taking some time off in the coming months, by playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Also, sorry for spoiling the first five minutes of the podcast. Castlevania is a groundbreaking game that helped to establish a particular genre of platform/action game and is regarded by many to be one of the most influential games of all time. With Konami having fallen under in terms of public opinion, and the most recent releases in the Castlevania series being mostly remasters and collections, Symphony stands as a perennial favorite of the older crowd of nostalgic players, but for three newcomers to the Metroidvania title, how does it feel on a first look? We’re going to talk about intermixing systems, level design in a game set primarily in one location, and we establish a new holiday: August 25th, Whipmas. Thank you for joining us, and while JJ may be leaving us for now, we intend to keep going as we are able to pick up new guests and releasing Pockets on our usual schedule. As for what we have on the horizon, next time we release an episode it will be on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the original lawyerin’ game by Capcom, and will be joined by Dan, who you may remember as being last heard yelling about Bad Rats on the Obra Dinn episode.

We’re here to rebuild Princess Peach’s Podcast. Welcome back to the show this week! Maybe this content isn’t so original at the moment, but we’re going to be covering Super Mario Maker 2. A game focused on user-generated content is particularly difficult to cover holistically, so we’re going to be looking at the elements of the game that are not focused on specifically playing people’s levels. Presentation, the robustness of the editor and how building and playing levels makes you feel are our focus and in some respects, are the real focus of the game as well. Everything in Mario Maker is expressive, colorful and fun to use and look at, and what lies beyond that is really up to your personal ability in platformers. We’re going to be talking about the satisfaction of seeing people playing your creations, the variability in playstyles forced by the possibilities present in the available tools and that nagging feeling you missed some cheese, and some 14 year old kid on the internet is going to comment that Bowser Jr. “EASY” sticker, and you are just GOING TO LOSE YOUR MIND DAMN IT JOHNNY JUST ENGAGE WITH THE LEVEL AT FACE VALUE I’VE HAD IT WITH YOU! …thanks for listening! This is one of those games that just keeps on giving as far as new and interesting stuff to do goes, so I’m sure those of you who are playing it will likely still be playing for some time. But we are moving from one genre pioneer to another, and talking about Castlevania, Symphony of the Night on the next episode, the game that pushed the Castlevania franchise in a new direction, melding with the groundwork set out by Metroid and creating a new genre. And if you want to play our levels, or on the flip side, have us play your levels, head on over to our discord, where you can submit codes for us or just talk about how every level you get in Super Expert is a big troll. https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

I’m listening to the podcast. The one with the anime painting. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today we’re talking about Only If, which is a free PC Adventure game that dedicates itself to doing things that are strange and interesting. While the inexperience of the team holds the game back from completely accomplishing its goals, what this game does provide is a great snapshot of the things indie game developers were trying to accomplish at the time in a very accessible package. There are some really good ideas here, and some of the elements (using the keyboard to type responses, surreal landscapes, a unique mishmash of mechanics) are ones we have previously praised in other games because they do such a good job of keeping the player on their toes and subverting expectations. These combine with some genuine creativity to make something that is worth the low bar of investment to experience despite the game’s relative lack of polish and narrative shortcomings. We’re going to talk about the search for weird indie titles, characters that are both really good and really very bad, and we design a hypothetically really bad Metroidvania that’s all about green pots. Thank you for joining us again this week! This game kind of represents a desire for us to tackle some smaller titles on Pocket and look at some of the weirder elements experimented with in games. In a similar vein, next time we’re talking about Device 6, a very much text-based puzzle game from the developer of Year Walk, so be sure to check us out then. Did you like this episode and want us to do more in the same style? Did you think this was a stupid idea and we should go back to covering Game Boy games from the early 90’s? Are you still angry that we didn’t like Detective Pikachu? Let us know, and maybe drop us some suggestions for what you’d like to see us cover in our discord! https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

Podcast Is You And Podcast Has Bad Jokes Welcome back! I hope you’ve been enjoying the scorching summer months as we pack into a single air-conditioning-less room to record a new episode on Baba Is You. This is an indie puzzle game with an incredibly unique concept, namely, being able to push around words that define the rules of the puzzle. The primary mechanic set of each level is then to manipulate these rules to provide a clear passage for whatever object you happen to be inhabiting at the time to reach whatever object represents the goal. Sound abstract? We think that’s kind of the point. We’re going to be talking about puzzle game accessibility, face-value readability in a game with a lot of moving parts, and how maybe, deep down, there’s a creepypasta in here somewhere. Thanks for joining us again this week! We’re encouraging some viewer participation on our next episode as we’re discussing Mario Maker 2! Have a level you’re proud of? Or a level you think will make us pull our hair out? Send it to us! Leave a comment wherever you’re listening to the podcast (or on our Discord at https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6 ) or send us an email at [email protected] and we’ll probably give it a shot!

Dueling is more fun than just listening to podcasts! Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! This episode, we’re going to revisit a childhood favorite of, I think, every single kid who grew up in Pokémon’s heyday. Even more than an adaptation of the card game everyone was playing and collecting at the time, the game seemed almost like a full-fledged Pokémon game, with a similar conceit and art style. While that seemed good at the time, almost too good to be true, in fact, reflecting on the game in the current landscape of Pokémon the way that it is colors our opinion a little. Still, the game is still the same, being based on a TCG means that the rules are close to timeless and the things it did well in adapting a card game to the limited hardware of the Game Boy are still impressive to this day. We’re going to talk about our experiences with this and other physical card games, the narrative aspects of the game that would go largely overlooked in a modern TCG adaptation, and debating the voracity of the most prevalent of urban myths: can you just press “A” when the coin is heads up to win every flip? Thank you for joining us again this week, and hopefully you will proceed to absolutely JAM to this game’s soundtrack over the next few days like we have been since we started playing it. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Only If, which is currently still free to play on Steam as of this writing. Got a sweet deck list for Pokémon you want to share? Want to tell us that games from 1998 should stay in the ground where they belong? Join our Discord to have conversations about all this and more! https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

There is one unavoidable truth you will never escape: you cannot change. You will always be... a podcast. Welcome back to the show, where today we’re going to take a look at the return of the God of War franchise with the, uh, aptly titled “God of War.” We meet Kratos this time around on a much more somber mission than in previous games, with him setting out with his son to scatter his wife’s ashes on the highest peak in the realms. This is of course swiftly interrupted and the journey continues but with more of a focus on the action combat the series is known for. This isn’t to say that the gameplay is unchanged, as the polish here has gone into smooth, satisfying animations and really tremendous visuals which help make the fighting feel, for the most part, fluid and satisfying. Yet, despite this polish and despite the budget, there is some niggling feeling that something else could have been done and we discuss what it is that makes this feel like maybe a little less than the triumph it was largely sold as. We’re going to talk about the value of iteration over innovation, implementation of RPG elements in seemingly every game, and what is truly the genre-defining title in the arms (big beefy arms)-race that is Buff Guy Games. Thanks for joining us again this time, it’s a few days late but there were some holidays and some driving and stuff that prevented us from finding a convenient time to record so we hope you’ll forgive us. Next time we’re going to take a step in a decidedly different direction to talk about Baba Is You, an indie puzzle game that works on the very abstract formula of moving words and objects around the screen to change the rules that govern how you interact with the world. It’s fascinating, and we hope you’ll join us for it. And hey, maybe you’re wondering “NOCLIP, why are you talking about this game that released last year and most people don’t really consider to be that relevant anymore? Also, why don’t you like anything? Jesus. Consider yourself uninvited from all future parties we might hypothetically have cause, honestly? Honestly? You’re bringing everyone down.” Well, for one, harsh. And for two, maybe the relevant games discussion you’re looking for can be found on our Discord server, where we have a great group of people with whom we recently live-reacted to E3 and are always up to talk about the recent developments and old favorites. Come join us! https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

Those ungodly hosts carry a curse! Throw the podcast back or doom us all! Thank you, once again, for joining us today on the NOCLIP Podcast! Today, we’re going to be wrapping up Mystery May in a (hopefully) satisfying manner by talking about Return of the Obra Dinn with help from our guest Dan, who you may remember, and at this point you probably do remember, from past episodes. Obra Dinn was developed by Lucas Pope and like his previous game, Papers Please, has a unique style that has made it the source of a lot of conversation. Maybe the truest “mystery” game we’ve played for our mystery-themed month, the game tasks you with figuring out the names and causes of death of everyone who was present aboard the Obra Dinn, using a stopwatch that lets you view the moment of death of any corpse you happen across. It doesn’t take too long for the player to become accustomed to this, all things considered, pretty radical mechanic set and this game boasts some of the most rewarding puzzle solving of any we’ve played. We’re going to talk about visual style and aesthetic substance, logical deduction and leaps of faith, and what we’ve all learned by reading the Job Dictionary. I hope you enjoyed our selections for this month of interactive head-scratchers. As is (somehow) a tradition, we are marching steadfastly from Mystery May into Wah-June where we will be talking about 2018’s God of War. We hope you’ll join us then. …and we hope you’ll join us NOW, over on our Discord server to discuss the game, offer suggestions and debate what qualities make a Dark Souls game the best first Dark Souls game. https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

I AM SOCIETY RESHAPED. A PODCAST DESTINED FOR ASCENSION. A HYPERREAL EXISTENCE. Welcome back! I hope everyone is having a properly mystifying Mystery May so far. For our pocket episode this month we’re going to be tackling a phone game that takes its platform quite seriously. Simulacra is a mystery/horror adventure game where you take on the role of a faceless bystander trying to solve a disappearance with access only to the victim’s phone. An iteration on a similar, if not identical, concept explored in this developer’s previous work “Sara is Missing” (or SIM, as a very pointed acronym), the game’s interface is really what sells its concepts and it is well designed enough to compensate for Simulacra’s less adept areas. While less transformative than its Black Mirror facade, literally and figuratively, would have you believe, it is stylish enough to maintain a surprising amount of suspense throughout its short runtime and qualify it as a gem. A diamond-studded Motorola Razr in the rough. We talk about the highs and lows of jump scares, the surprisingly diverse play environment allowed by a smartphone home screen, and how for the first time ever, a piece of writing could have been saved by more liberal emoji use. Thanks for listening to the podcast this week. I’m kind of in love with the whole “Mystery May” concept, even though it is incontrovertibly stupid, so I hope you’re getting as much of a kick out of our more guided game selections as we are. We’re finishing up the theme on the next full episode with Return of the Obra Dinn, which you should absolutely play because having it spoiled would be kind of tragic, but Pocket returns next time with the Pokémon Trading Card League. I hope you’ll join us then, and remember to join our Discord to puzzle these games out with us and other members of the community! Discord: https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

How could your podcast take place entirely in the library? Here’s a hint, it can’t! Thanks for joining us on the podcast again this week. We’re kicking off Mystery May with Detective Pikachu. With the movie releasing recently this IP has been in the public eye, but the film’s inspiration is comparatively less known. Now that we’ve played it, we’re here to…well, tell you why that is, unfortunately. The game follows a tried and true structure of setting up environments full of clues and witnesses to help you find solutions using logic, but the game is tuned to be accessible to Pokémon’s main demographic, which may be too young to make this title appeal to a wide variety of players. Still, the game is well made, and the aesthetic elements are charming to fans of the series so the novelty inherent in its off-the-wall-for-Pokémon-at-least design could very well be enough to hold your attention. We’re going to talk about helper mechanics for inexperienced players, how the game and movie interact in the landscape of popular culture, and who does and does not have a ponytail. Hopefully you enjoyed the episode, though it was maybe one of the least mysterious games tackled for May so far. Next time, we’re dipping into the cold waters of Return of the Obra Dinn so prepare for a pretty dramatic shift in tone. Join our Discord so you can discuss new episodes, strategize your approach to Sekiro and help us build out the lore of Thorpo Fantasy! https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

What are you doing in my podcast? This is my podcast! Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, and on this episode we’re going to be talking about Accounting+. This game is a VR experiment that is full of absolutely off the wall scenarios and an abrasive sense of humor that really takes advantage of the medium to make things extra uncomfortable for the player. A kind of escape room game, it ushers you between scenes where you solve puzzles or just generally do whatever you feel like while commenting on your actions with an unending waterfall of dialog. If this sounds overwhelming, that’s probably what they were going for. We’re going to talk about exploration of game worlds, meta narratives and metatextual content, and turds. Turds everywhere. Thanks for checking out the episode, and if you don’t have a VR setup, I either hope these past episodes have helped you experience the technology vicariously or am sorry that we’ve just been entirely impossible to engage with during this theme. But from a high barrier to entry to a very low one, our next Pocket episode, following suit with Mystery May, is going to be on Simulacra! We hope you’ll join us then. As mentioned, our Discord channel can be found here:https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

Faeries are wondrous creatures who podcast in the place where time stands still, Welcome back from the viiiiirtual woooooorld, where today, in this humdrum realm we call reality, we’re going to be talking about Déraciné. The first VR title from FROMSOFTWARE, Déraciné is a much different experience than the games that put the developer on the map. With no combat, no bosses and no constantly clanging armor sounds, we’re in for a much more subdued game, though still full of the exploration and obtuse storytelling you’ve come to expect. Playing as a faerie in a world you can only manipulate in limited ways seems like a good fit for VR, but how the hardware jives with the rest of the game is a contentious topic. We strap in to see how this experiment pans out and how one of our favorite developers can turn “interacting with orphans” into an engaging experience. We talk about VR and how it interacts with the human body, morose tone and character writing, and the unique feeling of childlike joy and very sad sadness. Thanks for joining us today even though this episode is a little exclusionary, given its platform. If you’ve read this far, and haven’t been able to play the game, we do talk for about 20 minutes on just what we think of VR after getting our sea legs without spoiling the game if you’re interested at all in that. Next time we’re reentering the labyrinth that is… well, May. Mystery May is back, baby, and we’re kicking it off with Detective Pikachu! As promised, the link to our brand new Discord server:https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6 We’ll be using this to hopefully stir up some discussion about games, take suggestions and feedback, and maybe even build up a little community. Join us if you’re interested in any of that or just helping us grow.

This podcast is fueled by EVIL! ...and friendship! Welcome back to the podcast, where after announcing the series seemingly one million years ago, we’re finally tackling the first release of Deltarune, the episodic followup to Undertale. Set in a world with familiar characters and musical motifs, Deltarune does a lot to change, and dare I say, improve the design set forth in its predecessor. With a party involved, battles are a lot more dynamic and the look and feel of the game overall has been changed significantly. The plot also makes its deviations from the original, putting the mystery of the world at the forefront while still presenting a complete narrative even in this first episode. The question we look to answer here is: how does all this come together? And of course, we can’t help but wonder what the remaining episodes have in store for us. We discuss the narrative potential of having the character arcs of multiple party members play out simultaneously, the mechanical implications of antagonistic friends, and the physical experiences possible once you unslide the Switchies. Thanks again for joining us today, and be on the lookout for the next entry in this series soon after the next episode releases. On the topic of this series, do you like this format? Would you like to see a dedicated series comparing and contrasting other franchises, either here or on the main podcast? Does anyone actually read the descriptions? Am I trapped typing out a paragraph of notes for every episode in a Sisyphean effort to fill space in a text block that I’m required to populate, but says nothing of value by its own nature to keep the content of the episode itself a surprise? Are we all this lonely? Like, comment…and subscribe?

Huh, it's pretty big. We imagine it'll make a pretty podcast. If it were Ours, We'd make it much bigger. Welcome back to the podcast! We’re finagling the release schedule a little to meet some time sensitive goals (hopefully you’ll be equally shocked and gleeful at the results), but that doesn’t mean we ROLLED out this episode without putting our usual SPIN on it. Eh? What I mean to say is that this week we’re talking about Katamari Damacy, the delightfully weird roll ‘em up from Namco that can spark childhood joy in even the lamest of people. Originally a PS2 title, the series proved itself worth a remake with Katamari REROLL and we figured there was no better time to talk about the game. The logic-defying aesthetic and almost serene mechanic set make this game both unusual and unforgettable and it exemplifies the kind of experience you really need to play to understand. We talk about outlandish music direction, stupid sexy controls, and the alternative religion Katamari clearly intends to propagate through the impressionable youth…of 2004. Thanks for joining us again this week, and if you’ve got reasonably deep pockets and brand loyalty to Sony (or just happen to want to hear us talk about the game without necessarily playing it) join us next time when we talk about Déraciné! This will be our first examination of a VR title, and it’s FromSoftware, so expect us to enthusiastically reference Dark Souls even more often than usual.

To strike down Xehanort, we need the podcast Mickey spoke of in his letter! Welcome back to the podcast! This work has been a long time coming and fans of the series probably never thought it would come out at some points. After delays and issues in making it, it finally released to droves of ravenous fans. I’m talking, of course, about this episode of the NOCLIP Podcast on Kingdom Hearts 3. Kingdom Hearts is one of those franchises that earned a lot of die hards and the third main series game being the conclusion to the story arch that began in the first Kingdom Hearts meant that a lot of people were understandably excited for it. Now that it has released, though, the reception has been decidedly mixed, particularly among those most enthusiastic about the series. We break down the game mechanically and narratively to figure out why that is, as well as to express our own points of interest and disappointment. We’re going to talk about combat flow, the value of visual spectacle, writing consistency, emotional character moments and what definitely is and is not a boat. Thanks for bearing with us on the not-quite-13-year development cycle of this episode. Given our history with the series and the monumental nature of this release as well as the indecision around it we wanted to make sure what we released was at our standard of quality. We hope you enjoyed the episode, and join us next time when we talk about Katamari Damacy!

Get Hint! by listen podcast Surprise! We’ve had some delays in recording the last few weeks, so to compensate we decided to cover a podcast favorite mobile game, Hidden My Game By Mom! This unassuming iOS and Android title hides a massive amount of personality in its design and is a consistently surprising experience. A puzzle game by nature, the real appeal here is in the comedic tone and absolutely wacky logic that is required to solve its levels. Assuming you gel with the game’s offbeat humor, this is a totally free, entertaining and leisurely experience we recommend to everyone. We talk about intentional versus unintentional humor, minimalist visual design and the psychological onslaught that is this series’ soundtrack” Thanks for being patient with us, and we’re sorry it’s been so long since our last upload, but we should be getting back on track in the coming weeks. Check us out on our next episode of NCP where we’re going to finally discuss Deltarune Episode 1 and our Kingdom Hearts 3 episode will drop in just a couple days.

Got it memorized? Welcome to a very special bonus episode, where today we’re going to cover the plot of Kingdom Hearts in an attempt to get everyone up to speed before we talk about Kingdom Hearts 3 next week. Sit down with Chad (who knows nothing about anything) and Andy (who has always known he has two hearts inside of him) as they go game by game and give you a recap and summary of the important points and connections of the entire franchise. Whether you’ve only played the numbered games or you’ve been playing each iteration as they’ve released, we help you understand the characters, their amnesia, time travelling escapades and trips to the Realm of Darkness. We talk about key plot points, key blades and χ blades. Thank you for joining us and listening to us spoil a record number of games in one episode. We’ll be back for the next main episode to talk about Kingdom Hearts 3 and hopefully make Master Yen Sid proud, so stay tuned!

I suppose a boy like you has much to learn about podcasting, Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today we’re going tackle one of our oldest requests and talk about The Minish Cap. The Minish Cap is an odd Zelda game that was developed by Capcom for the Game Boy Advanced, but despite this, stays true to the elements of 2D Zelda games that make them work as well as they do. Whether this is a good or bad thing is going to come down pretty strongly to if you are the kind of person who loves Zelda’s tropes and mechanics. Regardless, Minish Cap’s absolutely has its strengths, and whether it’s aesthetic choices or dungeon design, the game surpasses expectations for a non-Nintendo developed entry in the series, and in some elements surpasses some first-party offerings. We’re going to talk about repetition in Zelda games, uses and variability of items, and the weird bed that had the potential to go so wrong. Thanks for tuning in! Next episode is going to be an exciting one for us, as we celebrate the end of more than a decade of waiting by talking about Kingdom Hearts 3! That episode will release in a few weeks, but in case you’re a little rusty on what Sora and pals have been up to in the interim, keep an eye on the feed for a bonus episode in which Chad gets educated on the story so far. Well, either educated or put into a coma, we’ll find out soon enough.

Undertale’s real, right? Welcome to a very special prologue/epilogue episode of NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be revisiting Undertale, the indie game that has so completely saturated the Internet, that the sequel/spinoff game needed to be made into an event. While we’re going to be covering each episode of Deltarune as it is released, this episode should serve as a primer to get you familiar with where we stand on the beginning of the series proper. Therefore, this episode will focus on the larger themes of Undertale as well as the impressions the game made on us and on the landscape of games as a whole, so we recommend being somewhat familiar with the game going in. We’re going to talk about how Undertale affects the player and reflects on their choices, the game’s strengths and weaknesses and discuss the upcoming campaign for Game President 2020. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket this week. We’re continuing with the special episodes next time as the next episode of NCP will be the first in our Deltarune series talking about Episode 1, so join us then and we hope you enjoy!

“In the spirit of continually doing new and dumber things…” Consider this your invitation to the hottest and most exclusive awards show of the new year. Join us at the NOCLIP Awards, where we consider every game we recorded an episode on this year for myriad categories that range from legitimate judgments of quality to asinine judgments of minor features. While other awards shows hit you with nominees and winners, a cool verdict, an unquestioned decision, deliberated behind closed doors for the purpose of knowing what you need to spend two hours watching to hold a shallow conversation about cinematic quality over glasses of 10 dollar wine, the NOCLIP awards present you our arguments, runners up and decision making process as we roast each other over our choice for Smashiest Balls. Now with real envelopes. We hope you enjoy this exercise as much as we did recording it. We’ll be back with a real episode about a real game (feels like forever, I know) in three weeks and we’re going to be talking about The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap! For your consideration: Mr. Game. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56f99a07f8508214f1944f5f/t/5c43688f575d1f15a9702807/1547921708182/image1.jpeg?format=750w

Three friends talk about a game, They speak of squids but make no quid. ”Welcome to NOCLIP!” they exclaim. Welcome back to the pocket podcast this week! Today JJ makes a guest appearance because we’re talking about Splatoon 2, a favorite of the show, and more specifically diving into the Octo Expansion DLC. As an amped up single player campaign, the expansion does a lot to increase the challenge and variety from the base game’s single player and riffs on the mechanics that make Splatoon unique compared to other shooters. Whether this is done by limiting your ink capacity or by sticking you in a hamster ball for an entire level, the differences in kind really shine here and the difficulty lives up to the DLC’s darker, yet vaporwave-y, aesthetic. We’re going to be talking about challenge-based level design, tone and writing in a multiplayer shooter, and T H A N G S. Thanks for joining us this week, and be sure to check back with us next time as we kick off our multi-part indefinite length-and-quantity series on Deltarune with an episode revisiting Undertale!

We’ll bear this torch against the cold of the night, search our souls and podcast for the undying light, The Smash Bros. theme with lyrics is kinda weird, isn’t it? Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be talking about what is one of the most anticipated games of the year, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Officially announced at E3 and then released in December, we had half a year full of mechanical discoveries, live demonstrations and surprisingly convincing leaks brought to you by Dr. Seuss characters. Now that the game is out, how does this game compare to previous entries in the series? There is a massive, sprawling single player mode, online functionality that is in a controversial state of flux and the largest roster the series has ever seen with every playable fighter returning alongside new and varied characters both unexpected and longtime requests. Will this be the game to get the community to put down their GameCube controllers? Or at least plug them into an adapter? We’re going to be talking about the variable design of World of Light, debating the optimal ways of playing in multiplayer, and puzzling over Simon Belmont’s shaved armpits. Thank you for listening to the podcast and we hope you have a smashing New Year. We’ll be back at the beginning of 2019 with the first (and likely only) NOCLIP Awards show, where we’ll be categorizing the design achievements of the games we’ve covered this year in strange and interesting ways!

Press Up, A and Select on the Title Screen to start a new podcast, Thank you for joining us on NOCLIP Pocket this week, where we’re only thinking about and playing Smash Bros. In the spirit of the season, we’re going back to one of Sakurai’s earliest games with HAL, Kirby’s Dream Land. Dream Land is a fairly simple platformer, but it is the introduction of Kirby, one of the longest-standing Nintendo mascot characters. Its design made strides toward accessibility in games, particularly for younger children, something that was rarely considered in its time. The aesthetic design combined with the easygoing challenge of the game really make this a relaxing and enjoyable experience to go through and it’s a game that has stuck with at least one of us for more than 20 years. We’re going to talk about solid, readable visuals in Game Boy games, how Kirby’s mechanics lend themselves to a game that doesn’t want to frustrate, and how our incredible professionalism and preparedness ensure that NOCLIP Pocket is truly the trash bin of comedy. I hope you enjoyed listening to us this week, and next time on NOCLIP Pocket we’ll be discussing Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion with JJ on as a not-so-special guest. Happy holidays everybody!

We shall become the podcast of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity, Thank you for joining us this week, and, if you’re playing along, sorry for how very long this game is. This time we’re tackling Persona 5, the most recent entry in Atlus’ flagship RPG series (in the West, anyway). While the game’s combat system is still the simplest form of JRPG combat, featuring menus as well as physical and magic attacks with elemental weaknesses, the real gold is what surrounds this baseline system. Everything set before you in Persona is stylish, polished, and for the most part very open and user-friendly, meaning it is the kind of game that can pull you in, even if you aren’t typically likely to engage. We’re going to discuss confidant storylines and upgrades, stewing over myriad combat choices, and Goblio, the world’s handsomest goblin. Thank you again for listening, and if all this sloooow JRPG talk has got you snoozing, join us again next time when we're going to talk about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate!

“Finally! Someone’s talking about Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2! THIS is what I’ve been waiting for!” - Everyone, 2018 Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket where we’re going to be looking at the 1991 Gameboy Title The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2. The game is a sequel to an NES title, but with its short levels and puzzle platformer gameplay, the portable console proved to be more of a home for games of this ilk. With that out of the way, the question I’m sure most people have has more to do with why this game is being talked about at all. Well, in addition to the nostalgic feeling it brings to revisit games from our childhood, there’s actually a surprising amount of depth here. This isn’t a game worthy of any substantial amount of retroactive praise, nor did it push the industry further in its time, but this should absolutely be held up as an example of not judging a book by its cover and finding something quality in even the most seemingly unlikely places. We’re going to talk about mentally taxing execution as opposed to reflex tests, surprisingly successful audio/visual presentation, and making the tough choices in life, like “should I kill Sylvester?” Thanks for listening to us again this week, and following the next episode of the main podcast, our next Pocket episode is going to be on Kirby’s Dream Land. I hope you’ll join us then!

I don't mind if I only have a year left. Or a month. Or a single week. I'd be happy with one new podcast. Welcome to NOCLIP this week! Today we’re going to be talking about What Remains of Edith Finch, a walking simulator that uses short vignettes to constantly impose differences in kind to tell its narrative. The game follows storytelling conventions typical of other walking sims, but uses different styles of gameplay to keep you engaged through its admittedly short run time. The story explores death and superstition from a variety of angles ranging from childlike innocence to more violent ends, but manages to skirt being too morbid or depressing. We’re going to talk about environment design, exploring characters both through their own eyes and the world they left behind, and we mention CatDog at least twice. Thank you for listening to the podcast this week! Next time, join us as we finally talk about Persona 5, one of the longest experiences we’ve talked about to date! Links to things we discussed, but knew very little about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House

I’m what you could call a collector of bootleg Pokémon podcasts, Happy Halloween! As was alluded to in the previous episode, we are in fact playing a couple of the various recreations of the famous (infamous?) creepypasta Pokémon: Black Version. This haunted or hacked first-generation Pokémon game relies on the tried and true horror formula of taking something you’re very familiar with and forcing you to view it from a new, more macabre, perspective. While this effect works for the story, widely circulated on the Internet for almost—or possibly more than—a decade, when applied to the real game, the terror doesn’t really take hold. Nevertheless, the existence of hacks like these is a fascinating topic, so come for the discussion of the video game in question, stay for the cultural discussion of creepypastas and Internet folklore. We’re going to talk about the glitch hunting phenomenon in Pokémon, demographics and their expectations, and the ingredients that make up a “Good-Bad Sandwich.” Thank you guys for listening today! We can all let out a collective exhale because the busy month of October is at last over. I genuinely hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s survey of horror games, as well as our Anniversary bloopers episode, but as we head into November we’re going to make a slight, barely perceptible shift in tone; next time, we’re going to be discussing Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 2!

A podcast of empty souls and fevered thoughts, reeking of foetor and decay! MAY THE RATS EAT YOUR EYES! Thank you for joining us this week on the NOCLIP Podcast, where today we’re going to be talking about Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. This GameCube exclusive horror game once again takes its inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft, but unlike almost anything before it and even most games that came later, Eternal Darkness nails some of the lesser used themes of Weird fiction, like the madness of the protagonist, which play into the game both narratively and mechanically. Central to this game’s notoriety is the sanity meter and its associated effects, which add a meta layer to the game’s horror and are still something of a calling card for the game many years after its release. We discuss pacing in combat, the intricacies of this game’s magic system and the eldritch properties of desserts. They are unknowable. They are delicious. Thanks for listening to the podcast during our favorite month of the year (though we’ve got one more thing for you before the season’s over)! Hope you enjoyed our spooky selections, but we’re going back to our usual variety next time when we talk about What Remains of Edith Finch!

The podcast trap?! NOOOOOOOO! Welcome to the newest episode of NOCLIP Pocket where we’re going to be talking about Night Trap (25th Anniversary Edition). Originally a Sega CD game, the game was re-released last year spanning all the major consoles for a wider audience to experience one of the most controversial games of all time. Does it hold up? Was the game ever really “good” in a traditional sense? Well, there’s definitely something charming here, and the notoriety this game has is a hilarious backdrop with which to experience this game today. We’re going to talk about the way FMV is integrated into the mechanical experience, the way the trial and error gameplay relates to storytelling, and the characterization and nuance of cinema’s unsung hero: Weird Eddie. thanks for listening today, and keep an eye out on halloween because we’re going to HavE pLayed PokeMon black vErsion.

Remember to take the podcast out for Jimmy. You know how he gets. Welcome to our first proper episode of the Halloween season! Today, we’re going to be taking a look at Harvester, a ‘90s point and click adventure game that touts itself as the most vile and shocking you’ll ever play. While this may not be entirely true, Harvester does not pull its punches when it comes to being weird and transgressive, and confronts its players with scene after scene of nonsensical characters and irreverent dialogue. This proves to be the game’s charm, though, and once it stops feeling like Twin Peaks on a hallucinogen bender, it’s actually pretty funny, whether it intends to be or not. We talk about surprisingly tame adventure game puzzles, the way the game handles tone, and whether or not something is just too pink to be a real ass. Thank you for spending some quality time with us this week and keep an eye out later this month for our second, decidedly less bizarre, horror episode on Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem!

People tried to glimpse the future in the strangest ways. They locked themselves in dark rooms, not partaking in podcasts. Thank you for joining us as we begin our extra spooky Halloween month this year! Today we’re going to be talking about Year Walk, a Simogo developed horror-adventure game based on a Swedish folk tradition in which people would perform a ritual in an effort to see into the future. The way the act of Year Walking was adapted to this game, originally released only for iOS, maintains the inherently creepy nature of such practices, but also helps to incorporate other elements of folklore that purely add to the game’s iconography and atmosphere. However brief, Year Walk does a fantastic job of accomplishing its goals in tone and story making it an enjoyable, moody experience and one perfect to kickstart the season. We’re going to discuss puzzles, folklore and an anthropomorphic suit-wearing horse man. Thank you for joining us today (a very important day as it’s our third year anniversary!) and we’ll be back in two weeks with an episode on Night Trap. Stay spooky, everybody!

Happy NOCLIP Day, everybody! Hopefully you’re celebrating over a delicious NOCLIP Day dinner, and are enjoying your traditional NOCLIP Day Eve gifts you got from your family and friends. That’s right, this means that NOCLIP is now three years old and today we’re here to present you with our annual bloopers episode. It’s like if you had a child that turned three and is now walking and so you upload a cruel home movie compilation of all the times they fell over or ran into things while learning to keep their balance. As always, we want to thank all of you for listening as we’ve grown and changed over the last three years. It means a ton to all of us and we still sincerely enjoy playing these games, making these episodes and talking about it with all of you. Anyway, enough with the saccharine stuff, enjoy the episode and stay tuned, as we’ve got a NOCLIP Pocket on Year Walk coming out later today and we’ll be back with a full episode on Harvester this weekend!

Sacred geometry was our pride, our downfall, but forever will our podcasts stand in this valley. Welcome back to another episode of NOCLIP Pocket, where today we’re going to be discussing mobile gaming darling Monument Valley. The impossible objects and puzzling landscapes of M.C. Escher do seem to lend themselves to, well, a puzzle game, but the necessary visual complication can sometimes detract from the actual puzzle solving. However, this rarely hinders your enjoyment and the game is consistently gorgeous and unexpected making for a solid overall experience, particularly considering its platform. We’re going to talk about difficulty in puzzle design, clean and beautiful aesthetic choices, and we will say a French word but probably mispronounce it. Thank you for joining us again this week (or off week, depending on how you want to look at it) and we’ll be back at the start of October to talk about Year Walk!

A strange podcast dribbles down from the point and onto my visor. The entity waits for the order to plunge it deep into my brain. Welcome to another episode of NOCLIP! This week we’re going to look at Hello Games’ vast universe generating game No Man’s Sky. While the initial release of this game was fraught with controversy (a subject we can’t avoid addressing), the game has received consistent and constant updates to transform itself into what it is today, currently going under the moniker of No Man’s Sky: Next. The changes that have been introduced fundamentally alter the way No Man’s Sky can be played, but where does the game stand now as a product? We discuss depth of mechanics with a limited verbset, visual and word design in a proceduarally generated universe and how your propensity for Rush could help in your enjoyment of this game. Thank you for listening this week, and, since our next episode will be releasing in October, brace yourself for the very weird and very abrasive Harvester!

I picked up the podcast, it's weight felt comforting in my pocket, Welcome back to another episode of our Pocket series where we're going to be talking about the game that is impossibly difficult to Google, Home. Home is a narrative-focused adventure game whose main draw is the fact that it's ending and your interpretation of the entire game can change depending on your actions. This concept is furthered by a dreary atmosphere and isolating sound design which casts a dark tone over the entire experience. We join up with previous NOCLIP guests Dan and Janelle to determine if this execution succeeds in making an intriguing game from the perspective of both first time players and people who have played through the game a number of times. Thank you for joining us this week, and the next Pocket episode will be on Monument Valley!

If my "podcast" almost did you in, the mountain might be a bit too much for you, Welcome back to the NOCLIP Podcast! Today, we're going to be talking about indie platformer Celeste. Celeste falls under the category of precision platformers, with an ever escalating difficulty curve that continues to get harder even after the game proper ends. This difficulty is then set against the personal challenges the main character is tasked with overcoming in the narrative, making for a beautiful melding of theme and mechanics that makes the entire experience an extremely satisfying one to complete. We discuss challenge versus iteration time, narrative rationing and pacing, and we roast those pink clouds so good, man. They don't even know what hit them. Thank you for joining us for this episode, and join us next time as we explore No Man's Sky with a million procedurally generated words.

The first level in NOCLIP Zone, Welcome to the inaugural episode of NOCLIP Pocket!  Today, we're going to spend some time with Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, a Mario platformer originally released on the Game Boy. While the game itself brings what was, even in 1992, standard Mario platforming gameplay to a handheld console, the game's music and visual design make it stand out from others in what was the most ubiquitous genre at the time. We're going to talk about platforming difficulty in a nonlinear game, the origins of Wario, and rare species of flying rabbits. Thanks for listening to the first episode of NOCLIP Pocket! While recording our regular episodes is difficult at the moment, hopefully we can keep up a stream of content through this mini-show. For the next episode, we're going to be talking about Home!

You've met with a terrible podcast, haven't you? Welcome back to the podcast, where today we're going to be talking about the follow-up to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask. Majora is one of the precious few direct sequels in the Zelda series and yet it feels completely different to the games that came both before and after its release. With a much stronger focus on tone than the series had ever seen, a focus that would presumably go on to inspire the design of the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, Majora's oppressive atmosphere brings an element of sadness to the table that serves to make its mysteries that much more intriguing. We're going to be discussing the reuse of assets, world and dungeon design in a game with a repeating time mechanic, and indifference toward the suffering caused by allowing the spirits of the dead to possess your body and the existential dread that comes with wrenching them back out again. Fun stuff! Thanks for joining us again this week, and keep an eye on your feed because next time we'll be talking about Celeste!

Room temperature? Please. A podcast should be ICE COLD. Welcome back to the podcast this week, where we're getting boots on the ground in what is arguably the most popular video game franchise of all time. The fourth CoD is the entry that really elevated the series within popular culture, and for good reason. This game took a step away from the setting and tone of previous games as well as most games within its subgenre of shooters to deliver something that was—dare I say it about a Call of Duty game—original. We're going to talk about the mechanical and tonal successes of the game, the ubiquity of certain controls and mechanical interactions present in shooters and the staleness this can cause, and both surprising and unsurprising political implications made by the game. So you know, don't play this episode at the dinner table around your weird uncle. Thanks for joining us this week and thank you for bearing with us through a less than regular release schedule.  Due to numerous real-life-related events, our availability to record and release episodes is more sporadic than it has been in the past and we apologize for that. We should have an update on that soon, but until then, the next time you hear us we'll be talking about The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D!

Podcast! Welcome to another episode of the NOCLIP podcast!  Today, we're going to be talking about WarioWare, the schizophrenic Nintendo title that asks you to complete its challenges in mere seconds.  The game's sense of humor combined with the insanity inherent in its concept makes this a charming surface level experience with enough room for improvement to get some fairly serious mileage out of it. We talk about designing games that are meant to be understood in an incredibly short time frame, cartoony character design and we speculate on the ultimate Waluigi VR experience. Thank you for listening to the podcast this week, and join us again next time as we talk about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare!

Baseball! Soccer! Mobile games! They're all nothing compared to the NOCLIP Podcast! You may be wondering why you're here. Why you woke up in a locker and are being cajoled by bears who look like they took fashion advice from Harvey Dent. It's because you are the Ultimate Podcast Listener, and you're listening to the NOCLIP Podcast! We're taking a look at Spike Chunsoft's eclectic adventure game/visual novel/dating simulator this week, breaking down what works and puzzling over all the elements that combine to make this game so dense. We laugh, cry and get fatigued and come away sure that the game was good, even though we might not always know why.  We talk about high tension and tonal whiplash, coming to love unlovable characters, and how some of the mechanics in this game seem designed to be cheap and fun. ...you know. Like a sex motel. Thanks for danging our ronpas with us this week, and be back two weeks from now when we talk about WarioWare: Mega Microgames!

What do you mean "what the hell is the NOCLIP Podcast"? You mean...you don't know?! Welcome to the podcast, and the first episode of Mystery May, where today we're going to be talking about 999, an escape room/graphic novel adventure game that goes heavy on its convoluted plot in its attempts to engage the player. While we think the puzzles are well designed, there is a helping of disagreement over whether the game accomplishes what it sets out to do with its plot and characters. We're going to talk about adventure game puzzle design, mature content being handled in a less than mature manner, and whether this game would be peeeeerfect for the Switch. Next time we're talking about Danganronpa V3, so be sure to check back then!

I found a nice podcast, Meowster! Welcome back to NOCLIP, where this time we're looking at Capcom's item crafting, Felyne training, stat pondering, social dancing, and yes, monster fighting action RPG: Monster Hunter: World. Monster Hunter is a long standing, but largely niche, series and this entry is the first in seven years to be released outside of the handheld market. This seems like a decision that largely paid off, as Capcom is in the monster hunting business, and brother, business is a-boomin'. We look at the best selling game in Capcom's history and let its hooks sink deep to find out what is so compelling about the boss fight-centric game. We talk about the meaningful difference weapon choice makes, the ecology of Monster Hunter's world and what motivates a mountain to do what it does. Thanks for checking out this episode, and prepare your magnifying glasses and pick up a debilitating smoking habit as we kick off Mystery May next time with 999!

Wealth, glory, enlightenment... that podcast seems to promise all things! Welcome back to the podcast (and apologies for how long of a break we've had)! Today, we're going to be talking about Hollow Knight, an action-heavy Metroidvania that's an overwhelmingly impressive feat coming from a small indie team. Every corner of the world Hollow Knight contains is teeming with life, or at least undeath, and this sense of discovery drives engagement all the way through the game. We'll discuss all the ideas this game brings to the table, and how even our complaints seem small in comparison to the scale of this game's accomplishments. We talk about the experience focused design of the game's world and combat encounters, using vague hints at backstory to further a mood, and tapping into your latent instincts to be a high school bully. Thanks for checking us out again this week, and be sure to check in next time when we talk about Monster Hunter World!

NOCLIP Podcast, find it in your grocer's freezer! From deep in the bowls of the Internet, we're going to be talking about Super Mario Cereal today. When this promotional cereal released, it was met with continental amusement, seemingly because of the inherent ridiculousness of it. But, rather than be spoon-fed opinions on it, we decided to pour up and try it for ourselves. Join us to find out if our favorite Nintendo hero has made the switch from plumbin' to bakin' or if his breakfast effort is another milquetoast effort on the shelves of your grocery store. Thanks for joining us for this admittedly kind of silly tangent this week, and we'll be back again next time to talk about Hollow Knight!

I awoke to find myself listening to a strange podcast... Welcome back to NOCLIP, where this week we're going to be talking about The Last Guardian.  The third game in what could be considered a spiritual trilogy of games including Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian similarly features a bleak atmosphere and an unassuming protagonist.  The hook this time around comes in the form of a massive beast and the connection that you create with it over the course of the game.  While the game is touching and technologically very impressive, the devil, as it usually is, is in the details of the execution.  We're talking about puzzle design, questionable mechanical and UI decisions, and what type of thing it is more okay to be angry at: at person or a horse? Thanks for checking us out again this week, and be sure you come back next episode when we talk about Hollow Knight!

You're about to listen to a podcast with the color and viscosity of maple syrup, except instead of maple it's flavored with the inside of the mouths of people who chew cigars instead of smoking them and have never brushed their teeth. Welcome back! Today we're taking a look at West of Loathing, an RPG set in the wild west from the makers of Kingdom of Loathing. Despite being an RPG, the real draw of this game is in its writing, and funnier writing is not often seen in this industry. As quaint as it can come off with its rudimentary art style and turn-based combat, the world present here is deep and interesting, leveraging both its excellent dialog and knack for creating interesting and worthwhile quests to keep players invested. We're going to talk about sprawling quest structure, enjoying the journey in spite of the destination (really a life lesson, if you think about it) and the intricacies of discrimination in Goblin culture. Thank you (yes you!) for listening this week, and check back with us in two weeks when we talk about The Last Guardian.

You will podcast with me in Ragnarok! Welcome back to the podcast where we're going to be talking about Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. Ninja Theory made this game with what was a shoestring budget for its goals and ambitions, and what results is hopefully a proof-of-concept game to show that this type of development can still be viable despite the risks. Choosing to focus the game around the concept of mental illness and Norse mythology gives the game a well of rich narrative and thematic content to draw from, but beyond that is where the game starts to fall down. We're going to talk about strong art direction, repetitive combat and the lemon-lime soda most likely to exist in the afterlife. Thanks for listening this week, and be sure to check back next time when we talk about West of Loathing!

Analysis: A large amount of entertaining audio data incoming. Recommendation: Listen to the NOCLIP Podcast. Thanks for joining us again this week while we talk about NieR: Automata! This game is a sequel to a Square Enix Action RPG from last generation that Platinum Games has put their own spin on, eschewing some of the more traditional RPG elements for the hack and slash gameplay that Platinum is known for. While the combat itself is kept fresh by repeatedly changing from character to character with new control schemes and abilities or from genre to genre, sometimes becoming a Shoot 'em Up for some segments, it's the narrative and thematic content of the game that really keeps players pushing forward. With a focus on story not really present in other Platinum games, it makes this one a compelling experience and really feels like the best of both worlds for the game's developer and publisher. We're going to talk about combat flow, world and quest design and oh yes, there will be butts. Thanks for checking us out this week, and be sure to check back next time when we talk about Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice!

I hear a podcast, and you can't outrun those. Thank you for joining us for another episode of NOCLIP today (and apologies for the delays!). We're back to talk about Mirror's Edge, a first person platformer that came to define the genre for the majority of average game players for years. Mirror's Edge emphasizes your character's movement as you free run through buildings and on rooftops, but rarely gives you a chance to catch your breath. We discuss whether this breakneck pace is a benefit or detriment and how the other mechanical elements mesh together to create a parkour game all others will be compared to. We talk about movement mechanics, maladroit combat, and what level of social responsibility you have for constructing coherent metaphors. Thanks for tuning in again, and be sure to check us out in two weeks when we discuss Nier: Automata!

Happy New Year, everyone! With another year over and a busy holiday season winding down, we have basically entirely forgotten to play any video games or record a podcast. So while we make up for that oversight, we discuss what surprises 2017 brought to the industry and some of our own observations about the things we care about. We talk about Twitch, the Switch and EA's bid to get rich. Thanks for being patient with us this week, and check us out next week for our episode on Mirror's Edge!

Are you part of that podcast subculture? Have you died and gone to podcast heaven? No, it's much worse than that, because we're going to be talking about The Cat Lady. The Cat Lady is a Horror Adventure game that examines themes of real life and depression through a surrealist lens that never ceases to be interesting and emotional. The design of this game uses and eschews convention in equal measure and the end result is an Adventure game that feels unique, while still reminding you of why this genre can work in the first place. We're going to discuss how audio/visual decisions add to an unsettling atmosphere, the importance of puzzles in Adventure games with such a strong narrative focus, and the unsurprisingly disappointing combat system. Thanks for listening to the podcast this week, join us again next time when we talk about Animal Crossing: New Leaf!

Mama always said, "go podcast outside," One trip around the kingdoms later, and we're back with another NOCLIP Podcast. This time we're going to be talking about Super Mario Odyssey, the latest 3D platformer in the most iconic video game series of all time. Odyssey shows a desire to return to the design principles that made Mario 64 one of the most talked about and influential games of its generation, and while there was some progress to that end, Odyssey feels like a different beast entirely, bursting with things to do and a simple but diverse moveset with which to do them. We're going to talk about fluidity in platforming, captivating visuals and music, and we get political, cracking open the conspiracy to reveal whether Pauline is a good mayor or a cool mayor... or neither! Thank you for listening to us this time, and join us again in December to talk about The Cat Lady!

The Podcast must be protected, the Black Water must not overflow. Welcome to the podcast this week, and as Halloween is right around the corner we're going to be talking about a ghostly Wii U title, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. The fifth game in a long running Japanese horror franchise, the Wii U release seemed to be in danger of not being localized for other regions. Fortunately, there was enough demand to bring the game stateside, even if only in a digital version. Fatal Frame V maintains the thematic and mechanical elements the series is known for, with a new control scheme focused around the central gimmick of using the Wii U gamepad as a diegetic camera, which is the central focus of combat and puzzle solving. We're going to be discussing sloppy controls in horror games, mechanical mastery and point systems, and QWOP (but for your core). Thank you for listening, I hope we didn't give you too many nightmares. Next time, join us as we talk about Epistory - Typing Chronicles! 

'Til next time... Don't get bypassed, stay with the NOCLIP Podcast! Welcome to the fiftieth episode of NOCLIP. For the occasion, we're taking a deep dive back to our very first episode and talking about the sequel to that game, Splatoon 2. Nintendo has taken their squid-based competitive shooter property and updated it for a new audience on the much more popular Switch console. Despite many people claiming that the sequel isn't much more than an update, we take stock of the differences and the strengths and weaknesses they bring with them. We're going to be talking about how the game feels to play compared to the original, the glory of Salmon Run's design, and the trials and tribulations of being a try-hard idiot. Thank you for listening to the episode this week. While we were very excited to hit this fifty episode milestone, we haven't forgotten the season; so join us again next week as we talk about Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water for the Wii U!

It's that time of year again. Time to say thanks to all of you, sincerely, for listening to this show. We've been going for two years now, and we're still loving making every single episode. We're still trying to improve, and we're still trying not to commit to tape the kind of thing you're about to listen to nigh on a half hour of right now. Thanks for letting us indulge this week, and we've got a couple of great October episodes planned coming up: Splatoon 2 for our fiftieth episode and our Halloween special on Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water Stay tuned, keep an eye on our feed, and thank you again for listening to NOCLIP.

He is the reason we're alive, he's the reason we podcast, Welcome back to another episode of NOCLIP this week. We're going to be talking about Ori and the Blind Forest, Moon Studio's Metroidvania that takes the platforming that's expected of the genre and ramps it up to be the main focus. The platforming challenge combines with stellar presentation to create a game that is lauded by many, so we take a closer look at the way the pieces fit together. We discuss movement through a Metroidvania's levels, visual design and visibility, and nature's most perfect of cold-hearted assassins: frogs. Thanks for listening this week, and join us next episode for a very special fiftieth episode where we revisit the series that started it all and talk about Splatoon 2. Also keep an eye on the feed for a bonus episode celebrating two entire years of our dumb show!

At this rate, it'll take ya 100 more podcasts to catch me! Welcome back to NOCLIP! This week we're going to be talking about Super Mario RPG, Square's take on the Mario franchise and the first RPG to carry Mario's name. Square handling a Nintendo RPG seems like a natural fit, and their touch is noticeable here. However, Nintendo's influence can be seen as well, and a lot of the "Mario" elements are the things that make the game feel unique. We're going to talk about the evolution of the RPG, tedium in combat and Wario's secret identity! Thanks for listening to NOCLIP again this week, and join us next time when we talk about Ori and the Blind Forest!

Podcasts are software, bodies are disposable. Welcome back to NOCLIP, where this week we're going to be breaking down Superhot. The central gimmick to Superhot is controlling time. Time only progresses when you move, turning the skill set required for a first person shooter completely on its head. This makes for a more contemplative, though still tense, experience. The mechanical themes of this short game are incredibly strong, but unfortunately, looking further into the narrative can distract you from what it is that it does incredibly well: glorious dodging and shooting. We'll talk about how level repetition can lead to badass perfection, a detrimentally heavy handed plot, and sick, awesome jumping. Thanks for checking us out again this week, and join us next time as we talk about Super Mario RPG!

Sasha, come outside. It's time you learned how to podcast. This week on NOCLIP, we're going to be talking about Drinkbox Studio's Severed. Severed makes use of the touch screens prevalent in modern devices by creating a frenetic sword fighting dungeon crawler while striking a very somber tone. The pieces fit so well together, and we enjoyed our time with this game so much that it's one of the few games we've covered that we absolutely recommend getting and playing if you've never heard of it, or just not given it a shot yet. We're going to talk about touch screen gaming, symbolism and abstract plot, and just the grossest papayas. Thanks for checking out the episode, and subscribe to our feed to hear our next episode on Superhot!

Once our podcast here is complete, we will peer inward and discover the truth. Thanks for joining us this week as we talk about Metroid Prime. A severe turn from the appearance of previous Metroid games, Prime retains a lot of the DNA that makes up the series it belongs to, despite the shift in perspective. Because of these similarities, design appears to have been focused around making a traditional Metroid game play well in first person and were generally successful enough that the game has maintained a following over the fifteen years since its release. We discuss controls, loneliness in aesthetic and admiring those beautiful, stupid ass Puffers. Thanks for checking us out again this week, and come back next time for our conversation on Severed!

Who's leaving podcasts on your answering machine? Welcome back to the show this week. We're going to be talking about Dennaton's Hotline Miami, an ultra violent top down beat 'em up that became a bit of an indie darling at the time of its release in 2012. While we end up thinking the game misses its narrative mark, the games punishing but intensely satisfying mechanics combine well with the cocaine-fueled pseudo '80s aesthetic making the game difficult to put down. We're going to be talking about violence and the game's commentary thereon, gameplay loops and variety, and feverishly bumpin'. Thanks for checking us out again this week, and we'll be back next time to talk about Metroid Prime!

How can I work under a doctor that doesn't even try to podcast? Welcome back to NOCLIP! This week we're going to be dissecting Atlus's Trauma Center: Second Opinion, a Wii game that used the Wii Remote to simulate surgery of all things. An expanded version of Under the Knife on the DS, Trauma Center changes up its control scheme for the console and creates an entertaining and incredibly challenging game that manages to feel unique and interesting over a decade after its release. We're going to be talking about difficulty, level design and variety, and a mysterious zombie man. Thanks for checking us out this week and join us next time when we tear into Hotline Miami!

NOCLIP. Innovation comes standard. Apologies for missing a week, our Trauma Center episode will be going up this Saturday. In the meantime, what you're going to be listening to today is more of a general discussion podcast. We had the (retrospectively not super bright) idea of duct taping our microphone to the dashboard of my car while we took a trip and recorded our conversation. Because of this, the audio quality isn't up to our usual standard, but I think the discussion topics we cover warrant putting this out anyway. We're talking about the Wii U, Splatoon, Dark Souls, Fire Emblem, the Switch and we teach you about the West Virginia tradition of Rolling Coal. Hopefully this is a fun one for you guys and we'll be back on our regular schedule next week.

Do you think a podcast can bloom, even on a battlefield? Welcome back to NOCLIP this week, where we're going to be discussing Konami's classic stealth action game, Metal Gear Solid. Before Konami went complete off the rails and their business philosophy drifted toward "we hate Kojima," they released one of the most prolific stealth games of all time which spawned an extremely popular series, lauded by players and critics alike. We crack open the first of the series to examine how it holds up today and what design decisions make it an all-time classic that has influenced games in and out of the genre to this day. We talk about stealth gameplay, attention to detail, and the meatiest, manliest ways to end your game. Thanks for checking us out this week and prep yourself for surgery, because next time we're talking about Trauma Center: Second Opinion!

Like a bolt from the blue, it's time for the podcast review, Welcome back to NOCLIP, today we're going to be talking about Square's unique DS Action RPG that is absolutely JAM PACKED with mechanics. Like an environmentally conscious hunter, Square uses every part of the console from the touch screen to the microphone to the internal clock to govern the myriad systems that sacrifice user accessibility for a complicated and ultimately satisfying combat system that has you constantly doing something, or even forgetting to do things. We're going to talk about action management, incredible aesthetic themes and being a God. Damned. Slammurai. Thanks for listening this week and be sure to check us out next time when we talk about Metal Gear Solid!

I don't think I've got time to entertain your blather. I'd much rather hear it straight from your podcast .Thanks for joining us again this week while we talk about Bayonetta.  Platinum's flagship franchise started with this send-up of classic Devil May Cry games featuring satisfying action combat and a tone that's straight out of grindhouse cinema.  We talk about combo systems, Bayonetta's character design and the cultural ramifications thereof, and the best Subway sandwich advertisement of all time. Thanks for checking us out this week and be sure to come back next time when we talk about The World Ends With You!

NOCLIP is recorded inside of a dead studio audience, This week on NOCLIP we're going to be talking about Playdead's Inside. Inside is the second puzzle platformer from the developer of Limbo and the evolution in design is immediately apparent. The game evokes a dark tone in a way that is incredibly effective given its presentation. We discuss striking visual design, puzzle difficulty and pacing and how deep underwater you can be before you can no longer make friends. Thanks for checking us out this week and join us again next time when we talk about Bayonetta!

The Blood Cast rises once again... Welcome back to NOCLIP as we finish out our discussion on Breath of the Wild and are joined again by Dan and Janelle.  With the formalities out of the way, we get into the depths of the design of the dungeons and the ways in which you interact with the physical world. We're going to be talking about physics simulations and weapon degradation in games, the lifespan of narrative tropes in the medium, and the... it's a... well it's a door that's like... it's sphincter doors. We talk about sphincter doors. Thanks for checking out this second part of the Legend of Zelda, we'll be back in two weeks to talk about Inside, Playdead's follow up to Limbo!

The podcast that must shine upon Hyrule once again, Welcome back to NOCLIP, where this week we are beginning our discussion on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and we're joined by our friends Janelle and Dan. This game's release is an event for a number of reasons, as it launched a new Nintendo console and represents a departure from what most would consider the way a traditional Zelda game works. The fact that it has been embraced by fans of the series in light of this is testament to how well Nintendo pulled the open world game off. We talk about Shrines, Zelda's role in her games over the years, and everything you need to know about horses. Thanks for listening and join us in two weeks as we close out our discussion on Zelda!

The world needs podcasts, This episode of NOCLIP is going to look at Blizzard's populous dominating FPS, Overwatch. The key to the overwhelming reaction to this game seems to be the game's near universally appealing design that was assembled and iterated on from a number of sources. We're going to dive into that design and see why this game keeps us playing it for a number of hours that is frankly embarrassing. We talk about incredible character design, the reasons behind frequently balancing and patching a live game and how much extra health you get just for being ridiculously swole. We hope you enjoy the episode this week, and be sure to check in next time when we talk about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas's podcast, This week, we're going to be talking about one of the most interesting RPGs to come out of the SNES era, Earthbound. Known as Mother 2 in Japan, Earthbound is the first entry in the Mother series to be released in the States and despite underselling on its initial release has developed a cult following and it's tone and visuals have inspired both game players and developers for years, and we haven't seen too many games that are this unusual and aggressively weird out of a major developer since. We talk about contrasting tones, mechanical and narrative pacing, and neurosurgery. Thanks once again for checking this episode out, we'll be back in two weeks to discuss Overwatch!

Once we're done with this whole thing, I'm gonna teach you how to podcast. Yeah, I reckon you'd really like that. Welcome to NOCLIP this week, and this time we're talking about The Last of Us. One of the most popular games to release on the PS3, Naughty Dog's take on the zombie apocalypse got a lot of people talking about the narrative elements of games, including a lot of people who seldom considered games to be a great storytelling medium beforehand. We break down that story, as well as the game it's attached to, in what ends up being a surprisingly divisive discussion on what elements live up to the hype, surpass it and sometimes even fall short. We talk about the evolving perspective on the narrative throughout a playthrough, crafting and dissonance, and what kind of belt buckle or trailer hitch decoration Joel is most representative of. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time when we talk about Earthbound. There's been enough time since we covered Undertale, right?

We are born by the cast, made men by the cast, pod by the cast, Welcome back to NOCLIP everyone! Having established ourselves as a podcast that likes to talk about Dark Souls, we sit down to talk about FROM's Souls-alike game Bloodborne. Despite the fact that the games do have a lot in common and share the majority of their major design points, we find a lot to talk about to differentiate the two series and talk about the points that make Bloodborne a unique experience in its own right. We discuss Lovecraft's influence, weapon and stat progression and what effect it has on a playthrough, and a whole lot of disgusting grossness. Thanks for listening this week and join us again next time for our discussion on The Last of Us!

When Adam decided who would podcast, he chose incorrectly, Welcome to NOCLIP and this week we're talking about Metroid Fusion, the first GBA game in the series and one that attempted to add an explicit narrative with dialogue and also dial back the difficulty present in previous Metroid games. The result is a game that feels very unlike its predecessors, but still manages to nail a tone and be enjoyable to play. We talk about claustrophobic level design, conveyance of tone, and a non-threatening bouncy stalk man. Thanks for listening to the podcast this week and join us again in two weeks when we talk about Bloodborne!

Our top 3 games (each) that released in 2016 After a full year of podcasting, we've decided to do an obligatory January retrospective episode. We sat down and talked about what games really gripped us this year, and generally speak to why these games were successful, which games we think are interesting and what really failed to meet expectations. Not much more explanation is necessary, so let's get to the high-octane, hyperinteresting blathering. Hope you enjoy this bonus episode, and check out our episode on Metroid Fusion next week!

If the Police Aren't Complaining, You're Not Podcasting Loud Enough, Thanks for joining us for our second series examination where we're looking at the genre defining games of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. We look back on why these games were so immersive, and why they started a sensation in a way no other rhythm games could. Basically, we're looking at plastic guitar peripherals. We talk about the popularity of Rock and Roll, difficulty of Metal music, and the differences between a human being and someone who is good at Dance Dance Revolution. Thanks for listening this week and tune in next time when we talk about Metroid Fusion.

Five Out of Five Podcasters Agree, Rascal is Terrible, Thanks for joining us, and our guests Dan and Steven, again this week while we talk about an objectively awful game, Rascal on the Playstation. Developed by Traveler's Tales, Rascal is a mostly unheard-of action platformer that focuses on a young boy traveling through time to shoot enemies with bubbles and rescue his father. As exciting as this might sound, Rascal is truly a masterclass in poor design decisions and a lack of understanding of the concept of fun. We talk about curved walkways as prescribed challenge, unexpected death and frustration, and how, while bad, the game might be made well enough to enjoy as an example of poor design. Thanks for listening (and thanks to Dan and Steven for coming on to fill out this conversation), and be sure to check us out next time as we take a look at the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series. Map: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56f99a07f8508214f1944f5f/t/586807be03596efaebdeadcf/1483212805212/?format=750w

Your Pokémon Was Holding This Podcast, We Have No Idea How it Got There, Today, we're concluding our discussion on the Pokémon franchise. It's been a constant part of the gaming landscape for twenty years, and those twenty years have been pretty stable for the Pokémon Company. Now with the seventh generation released and a new console on the horizon, the franchise has to look to the future and start designing hundreds of new monsters to keep itself relevant. Or does it? We look into the design of the games and what we believe the franchise is doing to ease expectations and prepare its audience for change as well as take a more in depth look at Generation 7 now that we've finished the games. We talk about Pokémon visual design, the future of the franchise, and the unending cycle of remaking games until the only logical alternative is to create Jurassic Park. Thank you for listening this week and come back next time as we're joined by Dan (from the Trine episode) to talk about a childhood favorite and all around terrible game, Rascal, on the Playstation.

NOCLIP Unleashes Its Full-Force Z-Cast! On today's episode, we're going to begin our massive undertaking that is talking about the Pokémon series as a whole. With the franchise celebrating it's 20th anniversary, the popularity of what was the biggest fad among kids in the nineties has spiked back up to numbers rivaling those it had in the beginning. The games have largely stuck to their roots, offering minor changes from generation to generation of main series games while nurturing a ballooning collection of TV series, movies, toys, and spinoff games, and this has developed a fan base ranging from the enthusiasts who have played each game from the beginning to new converts. In this episode, we discuss what it is about the series that created the sensation that it was, how the design has, however slowly, gotten better over time and things that #Only90sKids will remember like Zoids and Monster Rancher. Thanks for listening again this week and check us out next time for Part 2!

You Broke Her Heart! Now I'll Cast Your Pod! Welcome back to the show, today we're going to be talking about Ubisoft's follow up to 2007's Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed 2. Released two years after the first, AC2 is widely considered to have successfully iterated on the concepts the first game pioneered and has become warmly remembered by fans of the series. This, however, does not keep the game safe from retrospective criticism, and we take a look at what about this game worked at the time and still works now and a few areas that time has not been particularly kind to. We talk about parsing the game's combat system, climbing all over a meticulously rendered city, cruising with whores and dropping cheddar. Thanks for listening this week and tune in next time when we take our first ever look at an entire series, talking about the Pokémon franchise.

How's the Podcast? 590pts? Hmm, It's Not Very Good..., Today on NOCLIP we're going to be talking about Pokémon Snap, the oddball N64 game where you ride around and take photos of Pokémon. The game has quite the following and is remembered fondly by most people who played it, ourselves included, despite having very little actually going on. However, the nostalgia surrounding Snap and the design sensibilities it represents are exactly what make it such an interesting game to discuss. We talk about what could be done to bring the game into the modern age, why making a game that scores players on an artistic pursuit is inherently difficult to do, and the ethical lengths Todd Snap is willing to go to capture a mythical Pokémon on film. Thanks for joining us again this week, and check us out next time when we talk about Assassin's Creed 2!

You Want to Come Back to My Place for Some... Podcasting?, Welcome to our second and last October horror episode on Resident Evil 4. Released on the GameCube way back in 2005, RE4 is often held up as the best game in the series, and we dive into why that is. The action elements of this game mark a significant departure from the series' Survival Horror roots, and the result is a very different kind of game, groundbreaking at its time, that still wants the player to feel unsettled. We're going to talk about strategic combat, B-Horror trappings, and sexual tension on a long jet ski ride to America. Thanks so much for listening (and we apologize for the delay in releasing this one), and be sure to come back next time for an episode on Pokémon Snap!

NOTE: For an unknown reason, a popping noise was picked up on our recording for the first half of this podcast. This begins around 14 minutes, and ends during the second half. If this proves incredibly annoying to you, skip to 57:10 for our discussion on P.T. and the end of that sound. Apologies for the terribleness. The only me is me. Are you sure the only pod is cast?, Welcome to our first episode for the month of October. Being the spookiest month of the year, (got my eyes on you, June) we have chosen to take a look at the recent demo for Resident Evil 7 and pretty much the scariest thing on the planet, P.T. These games share a lot in common, but looking at them in direct comparison gives a lot of insight on the design of horror games and how good P.T. is at what it sets out to do. We're going to be talking about agency (or the lack thereof), use of limited space in design, and the proper identification of bird flesh and meat bags. Thanks so much for listening and come back in two weeks as we talk about Resident Evil 4!

Thank you for listening to NOCLIP! A year ago we released the first episode of this podcast, and while it hasn't resulted in a whole lot, we have definitely gained some momentum. We love doing this and we appreciate everyone who listens. So, in honor of this slightly less-than-momentous occasion, we present you with half an hour of some of our dumbest jokes and silliest tangents that didn't make it into actual episodes. Learn to make iced coffee, take a few lances to the chest, and answer the age-old question "Do you want some Doritos?" Thanks for a fun first year and be ready to crap yourself in fright next week, guaranteed, when we talk about Resident Evil 7: Beginning Hour and P.T.!

Together We Cast!, Today, we're going to be talking about the first entry in a long running series to come to the U.S. only in its seventh installment, Fire Emblem. This game has become Intelligent Design's flagship series, and it focuses on turn based, tabletop RPG-like combat and heavy character development. We're going to discuss strategy, characters and dialogue, and the seeming inefficacy of poison in the middle ages. Thanks for joining us for NOCLIP (and for JJ's month of picks!) this week. Two weeks from now we're starting October (and what is more or less Chad's month of picks) with Horror Demos. Specifically, we're going to be looking at Resident Evil 7: Beginning Hour and P.T., Silent Hills' teaser. Spooooky!

Fucking Pods, I'm Gonna Cast the Shit Out of You, On today's episode we're going to be talking about Atlus's block pushing, trust shattering, heavy drinking puzzle game Catherine. The off-the-wall aesthetic, odd subject matter and brutal difficulty make this game a hell of a thing to behold and it rests comfortably in the "only thing like it" category. We discuss puzzle mechanics, visual craziness and Chad being an absolute baby. As always, thank you for listening, and be sure to check back in next time when we look at the Game Boy Advance game Fire Emblem, the first in the series to be released outside of Japan.

Loud and... Very Loud, Today we're going to be joined by our friend Faun and talking about one in the PlayStation 2's stable of mascot platformers, Sucker Punch's Sly Cooper. The first game in what would become a well received series, we debate what relevance Sly has in the current day and try to determine what made it popular in the first place. We discuss platforming, minigames, and how one contextual button press can turn us all into the super spy of our dreams. Thanks as always for listening, and check us out again in two weeks when we begin JJ-September with Atlus's Catherine!

In the Technological Dystopian Future, Only Podcasts Remain, This week we talk about Heart Machine's fast-paced action game Hyper Light Drifter. This game is tough and beautifully animated, and we draw comparisons to a number of classic games that got everything mostly right, but some of the finer details leave us wishing the game could have been slightly more than maybe it was capable of. We talk about dodging, bosses, beauty in pixel art, and prospecting for game consoles in the mountains of Appalachia. Thanks for joining us this week, be sure to check back two weeks from now when we are joined by our friend Faun to discuss the PS2 platform classic Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.

It is a Podcast, My Child, Thanks for joining us this week as we talk about The Talos Principle. This Croteam designed game puts us in the first person perspective of an AI solving puzzles in a simulation. While that probably seems pretty well within the realm of games, what Talos Principle prides itself on is its incorporation of philosophy into its themes and story. The game wants to make you think, but how well does it accomplish this? We talk about narrative pacing, puzzle design, and potentially motion sickness-inducing speed. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us in two weeks when we talk about Hyperlight Drifter!

I judge this podcast guilty as charged, Welcome back to the podcast, everyone! We're celebrating twenty episodes by talking about our first Mario game ever, and what better entry to talk about during the hot summer months than Mario Sunshine, the plumber's vacation away from abstract platforms to contrived, realistic platforms. We're going to be talking about design consistency, voice acting, and Strollin' Stus, even though we didn't know their name until now. Thanks for joining these Podcastin' Stus today and come back in two weeks when we talk about The Talos Principle!

Sorry! We won't be uploading an episode today, but we do have a YouTube video to share! (I will post a link here once it is up.) We will be recording the Mario Sunshine episode still and putting it up next Saturday, so apologies for the delay, but we should be back on schedule next week. As per usual, thank you for listening and we'll see you next week!

The road to hell is paved with the NOCLIP Podcast, Thank you for joining us today as we run, gun, punch, rip, tear, smash and chainsaw our way through Hell in the Bathesda published remake of Doom. For being the game that ushered in the relevance of the First Person Shooter genre, the 2016 take had some large shoes to fill. Wisely, they decided to refine what the genre had become since Doom's release rather than try and mimic what the first game did, and what we end up with is an extremely fast paced arena shooter that looks and feels like what we all thought Doom was in the '90s. We talk about violence, viscera, and vivisecting vehement villains. (I promise the alliteration isn't going to become "a thing.") Thank you for listening and come back in two weeks for our twentieth episode on Super Mario Sunshine!

Whoops. We accidentally recorded an episode about Flappy Bird. This discussion cropped up during the break for the Doom episode, so I figured it would be the perfect off-week content. I hope you enjoy it, and join us next week for hectic demon-shooting goodness; Doom!

Don't waste your time. Alfador only likes podcasts, Today we shake off the shackles of time's slow march and talk about Chrono Trigger, an SNES RPG that used active combat and time travel to mark its place in history as one of the most beloved games of its time. The legacy of this game is well established, but we dive in to figure out what makes it tick and why it is held in such high esteem. We discuss RPG combat, characters and their inherent tropes, and one very, very buff arm. Thanks for listening to us, and be sure to join us in two weeks when we talk about 2016's Doom!

Welcome to Mog Chothra's chosen podcast, On this episode we're going to be discussing Broken Age, a point and click adventure game that was funded by a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. This game's notoriety comes from a combination of its Kickstarter combined with the fact that it was an adventure game with very traditional adventure game mechanics released so long after their heyday by one of the genre's most prolific creators. We're going to be talking about adventure game mechanics, this game's storytelling, and how much of the budget was probably spent just on Elijah Wood. Thanks as always for listening, and come back in two weeks as we discuss Chrono Trigger!

We're talking about Journey today! This very simplistic game banks on its beautiful visuals and emotional presentation to keep players interested. And based on how well it did on the marketplace, I'd say it succeeded. We're going to be discussing meaningful multiplayer, minimalist mechanics, and matronly meanderings. Thanks as always for listening, and check back with us next time when we talk about Broken Age!

Forgive me, I was absorbed in thought, Today we finish our examination of Dark Souls, hopefully ending a months long podcast theme of comparing every game we play to it. We'll be discussing bosses, plot and storytelling in the Souls series, and ideas for reality shows with Dark Souls as the central motivating factor. Thank you for listening, and join us again next week as we shake off the grimness present in Dark Souls and play ThatGameCompany's Journey!

My pods… They’re casting. It’s dark. So dark, Covering this game was a challenge. Not just in the sense that the game is a challenge, which rest assured, it is, but because it’s so divisive, so finely crafted and so highly revered that discussing even the smallest details of this game proved to be a lengthy experience. But in the spirit of the game, we persevered, podcasted against a brick wall for a long time and produced two full episodes worth of content and a lot of butt sweat which assuredly soaked into Andy’s couch. We talk about difficulty, area traversal, and the dark, seedy underbelly of Googling your way through the game. Thanks for listening and join us again next week when we tackle combat mechanics, bosses and more in our second part of Dark Souls. Until then, don’t get yourself killed. Neither of us wants to see you go hollow.

Gather round children, and I’ll tell you a tale, Thanks for joining us on our week off this time. I cut so much content from the Skyrim episode that I was able to stitch together this brief anthology of stories detailing our time spent in Tamriel. The intro says it all, so I hope you enjoy our bardic performance. While you’re listening, don’t forget to reinforce your Estus flasks because next week is part one of Dark Souls!

At long last, the Dovahcast has arrived, Strap on your mountain climbing shoes and tell your housecarl you’re not to be bothered, because today we’re talking about Skyrim, Bethesda’s massive (single player) RPG that has consumed millions of man hours and has become a pillar of open world game design. We talk about compulsion, rewards, emergent gameplay, and level 100 blast wizards. As this is Skyrim, we ended up recording a lot of us just telling stories about our experiences. To prevent this podcast from being far, far too long, we have separated these out, so check us out next week for our Skyrim Story Time episode! As always, thanks for listening, and be sure to come back next time for our talk on From Software’s Dark Souls!

I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to describe this podcast in person, This week on NOCLIP we’re talking about the walking simulator that simulated walking all over a bunch of sour GamerGate dudes’ nuts. This game was very popular for what it was, not least due to the fact it succeeds so completely on its admittedly narrow goals. We’re going to discuss how this game chooses to tell a story, what decisions lead the player to become immersed in the game’s world (and which do not), and bringing the disembodied soul of an old dead punk rocker back from the grave to walk among the living once more. Thanks for listening (as always!), and join us again in two weeks when we discuss the ever-expansive Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!

No pods. No casts. Only men. This week on NOCLIP we’re going to be talking about Bioshock, a first person shooter with an agenda. One of the earliest games of the seventh generation of consoles, it took its themes and aesthetics seriously and has largely become a classic because of it. We talk about the game’s setting, the combat, and the story and how the game does so much that it sometimes fails to deliver. As always, thanks for listening and join us again in two weeks when we play Gone Home!

Keep listening! Trust your instincts! This week on NOCLIP, we’re going to be discussing Star Fox 64, a Sci-Fi rail shooter designed as a remake of an SNES game that became one of Nintendo’s all-time classics. We’re going to be talking about level design, the game’s legacy, and hot dog guns. (Probably the most comprehensive hot dog gun analysis ever committed to tape.) Fun fact: Star Fox 64 came bundled with the Rumble Pak and is largely responsible for the success of the device. That’s the kind of interesting trivia you get for reading the episode description! Thanks again for listening, and check us out next week when we discuss Bioshock!

Welcome to [PODCAST NAME HERE]! Today we’re going to be talking about Valve Software’s Portal, a first person puzzle game that we evidently think is pretty good. Going through Aperture Science’s test chambers again in 2016 is just as satisfying as when the game originally came out in 2007, and the impact the game has had on the industry leads us to discuss a lot more than just its mechanics. We’ll talk about Portal’s design, Dead Space, PC gaming, virtual reality, King Kong, Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves… and more. This one will be a doozy. Thanks as always for listening, and join us again in two weeks when we talk about Star Fox 64!