Ep. 224 - Video Game History Pope

In which our heroes (and you!) are absolved of the sin of piracy by the highest authority in game history, and Ice the Goose reveals arcane knowledge of anthropology.

Questions this week:

1. What the hell is wrong with Nintendo? (02:32)
2. What games with a setting contemporary to release have best aged into being period pieces? (13:32)
3. What’s your favorite kind of environment in video games? (18:36)
4. Other than canceled, what do you predict Netflix’s Bioshock movie will be like? (24:19)
5. Jerry BreadyToDie asks: When is autosaving better than manually saving, and vice versa? (33:12)
6. How do you balance player progression with game difficulty? (38:37)
7. Review Super Mario Bros. 2 in six minutes. (44:07)
8. Write the first sentence and the last sentence of a text book about video games. (53:31)

Recommendations and Outro (55:45)

If you discuss this episode in the forums, who knows what could happen!

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

• Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
• Nintendo shutting down Wii U, Nintendo 3DS eShops and frustrating fans
• Video Game History Foundation’s tweet on the subject
• Yakuza / Ryū ga Gotoku series
• EarthBound
• Red Dead Redemption II
• Batman: The Video Game
• Yo, Bro
• MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head
• Lester the Unlikely
• Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude!
• California Games
• NBA Jam
• Third World War (aka Cold War)
• Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode
• Third World War Japanese box art
• Ninja Five-O
• Elevator Action II
• Rolling Thunder
• Resident Evil 4
• Marvel Spider-Man
• Bullet Witch
• BioShock
• Netflix is making a live-action BioShock movie
• The Shape of Water (2017)
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn
• Shining Force
• Jak II
• The Last of Us
• Adventure Island
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Keith Courage in Alpha Zones
• Yume Kōjō: Dokidoki Panic
• Tokimeki Memorial
• Bonk’s Revenge
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
• Murder Club
• Famicom Detective Club series
• Pong
• Pac-Man

Recommendations:

Frank: Resident Evil 4 HD

Brandon: Green Frontier

Tim: Don’t buy crypto

Jaffe: Dog Days of Summer

Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Tim Rogers and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.