After the long-awaited arrival of last week’s video podcast, many of you expressed your wishes that we not wait so long before the release of the next one. Well, for the first time in my life, I’m afraid I won’t be disappointing all of you – here’s a brand new podcast, fully of shiny gaming stories, GamerSushi memes and all kinds of other wonders.
This podcast brought us the monumental task of trying to recap an entire season’s worth of games, ranging from Bastion all the way to Skyrim. We used this as an excuse to try out a new game, Lightning Round, and I think all of you are going to be happy with the results. It was a nice way to run down a staggering list of games in a way that didn’t take 87 podcasts and two years of our blabbering to cover.
In addition, we played a game of Buy or Sell with a number of industry topics. Like we do. Listen up and enjoy, friends.
This post was actually written by Eddy, posted by Nick. Just to clear up any confusion.
Wow. Uh, hi dudes. I know it hasn’t been a long time since we’ve chatted, but it’s certainly been a long time since we’ve chatted in this format – you know, the format where I’m bringing you a brand new podcast. So that’s pretty cool, right? Especially considering the fact that this isn’t a normal podcast, but a special video podcast!
Yes, this is the long-rumored video podcast from GamerSushi Weekend, AKA PAX South, where the GamerSushi dudes convened for a weekend of hanging out, video gaming, drinking and yes, podcasting. I know it’s pretty ridiculous that it’s just now coming out almost six months later, but sometimes life happens and bearded dudes have to go to California to work. And yeah, that gets in the way every now and then.
I’ve never been a guy that gets all that into competitive gaming. Sure, it’s fun to watch some skilled players go at it from time to time, but I’d rather just sit down and play the thing myself. Up until the recent bouts of watching pro StarCraft 2 players, I’ve never understood why someone could sit and watch someone else play a game for hours. I just assumed StarCraft 2 was different because of the level of the players.
All that changed over Christmas break, when I discovered Siglemic on Twitch TV. You see, Siglemic is a Super Mario 64 player. And not just any Super Mario 64 player – he’s the recent world record holder for a 120-star speed run. I watched in awe over most of the break to see him capture this record, and sat there for a number of failed attempts as he dodged, dove and ran impressively through the game’s many challenges in just under 2 hours.
I’m not sure if it’s just the joy of seeing Super Mario 64 in motion again that had me so enthralled, the skill of Siglemic, or both. But needless to say, I’m fascinated with watching people stream themselves playing through old games right now. I think part of the fun of this is just experiencing some nostalgia with thousands of people (Siglemic had up to 7000 people at a time watching him try to beat the record) all at the same time. Ever since then, I’ve been checking out people playing through Final Fantasy VII, IX, X and even Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4. And somehow it’s riveting.
Have you guys ever checked out streaming games on Twitch TV? What game would it take to get you hooked on speed runs? Go!
Few things compare to the joys I’ve gotten from the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Whether it was after school on the Nintendo 64, skipping class in college with the GameCube or taking a break on the Wii, the Nintendo branded brawler is the perfect mix of insanity and trashtalk-inducing competition. If I were one of the other big console companies, I guess I’d be eying something similar for my own franchises.
And according to rumors, that’s just what Sony is doing. For a while now, there have been whispers that one SuperBot Entertainment has been hard at work crafting the PlayStation’s own take on the Smash Bros. style of mayhem. Until the last couple of weeks, these rumors didn’t have much substance to them. However, SuperBot employee Chris Molina’s twitter account recently outed not only the game’s existence, but also a few details like the inclusion of characters Kratos, Sweet Tooth and Parappa.
So what do you guys think of this idea? Would you play a Sony version of Super Smash Bros.? What characters would you like to see? What about a Microsoft version? Go!
As a devout player of video games and a fan of Nintendo’s flagship franchises I feel it is my duty to remind our dear readers of something they may have forgotten ever existed: the GameCube. Now the reason I say that you may have forgotten it is because it never really left. It’s still there, collecting dust like it did before, only now in the form of a Wii. The GameCube is a SHAPESHIFTER!
Seriously though, this month marks the 10th anniversary of the GameCube in North America (my favorite of all the Americas) and I thought we should pause and reflect on the system that confirmed Nintendo had lost its freaking mind. We weren’t sure if the Nintendo 64 was an anomaly or the way of the future for the Big N, but when we caught our first glimpse of the GameCube and its WTF controller, well I think we all called our local mental hospital and asked if it was possible to check in an entire corporation. (Same thing happened this year with Netflix. And the answer is no, you can’t. And I thought corporations were people, too!)
But the GameCube did have its moments of greatness. Pikmin, for instance. Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker rank amongst my favorite games of all time to this very day. Even if Super Mario Sunshine wasn’t up to the usual standard of amazing associated with the plucky plumber, it was still a damn good game. And who can forget about Eternal Darkness and the mind games that it played with you?
So what are your fondest memories of the GameCube? What games stood out for you?
It’s been kind of quiet here at GamerSushi for the past week, but can you really blame us? Skyrim is like some sort of vampire, but instead of sucking blood, it absorbs your very life force. That said, it’s rocketed itself to my Game of the Year just like every single other triple-A release before it. It’s been a really good year, guys. Before I get off on a tangent, I found this video of an orchestra re-recording the Legend of Zelda theme for the 25th Anniversary CD which is being bundled with Skyward Sword, hitting this Sunday. If you don’t get nerd chills, then you might not have a soul. Just saying.
So who thought that was awesome? Who’s getting Skyward Sword this weekend?
Oh, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. You look like a fairly interesting take on the Zelda universe, complete with a sky diving Link, imaginative monsters and some of that fancy Nintendo art design that has made your series famous. But you seem to have some confusion regarding your control scheme.
I guess it’s kind of rude of me to keep having this conversation with a video game while ignoring my fellow Sushi-ans, so I’ll clue you in. As you guys all know, Skyward Sword is a game slated for release on the Nintendo Wii, and as such, requires playing the game with a Wii-mote. Unfortunately for southpaws, though, there is no left-handed control scheme, despite earlier reports that it would end up in the game.
Now, I’m not going to bash Nintendo for this, even though it seems like a drastic oversight. Plenty of game companies don’t allow for control schemes that work for everyone. In fact, it’s often a big deal now when video games come packaged with options for handicapped players, like what Modern Warfare 3 is doing.
I guess my big question is why more developers aren’t allowing for these kinds of options in games? One of the biggest advantages to PC gaming in my mind is that you can customize your keyboard to play the game however you want to play it, and it doesn’t make any difference to anybody. I get that there needs to be some kind of standardized way to play, but would it hurt games to have a more customizable experience in that regard?
What do you guys think of this? Fair/foul on Nintendo? Should more games allow for changing the controls as you see fit? Go!
A couple of decades ago, if you had asked me what the term “multiplayer” meant, I probably wouldn’t have had an answer. The most “multi” I could get for my gaming dollar was adding my brother into a game of Streets of Rage or the Captain America and the Avengers game for Sega Genesis. In a time where gaming knew a lot of limits, the shared experienced capped out at two players max.
Things were different at the arcade, of course. There, two to four players could race against one another, or four mutants could tackle the coin-op challenges of the classic X-Men arcade cabinet. That was an experience that was fancy, almost futuristic in appearance compared to the tethered wired controllers that got thrown around in frustration over hat tricks in NHL 94.
In what is looking like hyperbole week here at GamerSushi (See Mitch’s post about the canceled Avengers game), I am taking a similar stance with this video of Mario tunes all mashed together with some of the most nostalgia inducing visuals you will ever see: this video is a work of pure genius and the creator should be carried on the shoulders of geeks for all time.
If you don’t believe me, just watch. And do me a favor: leave a note in the comments exactly how far into the video it took your jaw to drop or the goosebumps to form on your pale, nerdy flesh.
Am I right? Doesn’t this just make you want to play all the Mario games back to back? Nintendo should hire this guy and find him a position just doing tributes for their various franchises.
Nintendo’s been in a bit of a pickle lately. If it’s not the drastically falling sales of the Wii, it’s the unfortunately handled launch of the Nintendo 3DS. In addition to cutting the launch price by almost half, Nintendo has also been forced to announce a peripheral that appears to complete the hardware functionality of the handheld. As can be expected, their investors haven’t taken too kindly to this, and stocks are falling.
There could be any number of reasons cited for the 3DS woes. One might easily point to the system’s price and the marginal upgrade of the DS hardware, the lackluster lineup of launch games or an interest in 3D gaming. However, as we’ve talked about before, some are citing the competition from smartphone gaming as one of the direct causes. While I don’t think that tells the entire story, it does raise a good point: people expect more from handhelds these days and Nintendo could stand to change their formula on either the hardware or software side.
But what does Nintendo think about the idea of developing for smartphones? Here’s what president Iwata says:
This is absolutely not under consideration. If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It’s the duty of management to make use of those strengths. It’s probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we’d make profits. However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo’s mid and long term competitive strength.
While I agree that this would be a fundamental change for Nintendo, it seems like Iwata might be a bit too resistant to change. It’s odd that after the company touted the Wii as a change in the way we play games, they’re so hesitant to embrace the idea of smartphone applications. Wouldn’t a Pokemon or Zelda app perform really well?
What do you guys think about their stance? Would it ruin them or would it serve them? Go!
“Hey, Anthony, did you hear about the new Final Fantasy game for the 3DS?”
“No, why? If it’s another stupid Crystal Chronicles, don’t even tell me. I can’t live with the disappointment.”
“It’s not. It’s actually a rhythm game, sort of like Elite Beat Agents, but with Final Fantasy characters and music. It’s called Theatrhythm.”
(Stunned silence) “Is there a video?”
“Why, yes, right here…”
“Oh…my…GOD! Did you see Ultros from Final Fantasy VI? And the awesome boss theme? And the dance scene from FF VIII? And that annoying song from FF XIII that somehow makes me still want to go back and play it? Why is this the first game for the 3DS I MUST HAVE???”
“Because you’re a sick and twisted FF fanboy who’s iPod is filled with this crap already.”
“Fair enough.” (Throws wallet at PC)
So…what do you guys think? Am I a moron for thinking this might actually be cool? Or is it just the nostalgia of that sweet FF music that is calling to me?
A new challenger arrives: Episode 34 of the podcast, in which we repeat the phrase, “To Be Fair” quite a bit, even though we are usually anything but fair in these raucous casts which we pod. Also, sorry for Anthony’s robot voice. These things happen over the tubes.
As per usual, we bounce around along various topics, including but not quite limited to Team Bondi, Valve, GameFly’s PC rentals and a throwback to Metroid Prime. After that, we launch into a game of Fill in the Blank, where we vocabitate about next gen consoles, The Old Republic’s expected sales numbers and Bethesda claiming the word Scrolls.
We recorded this guy the day before Counter-Strike: GO was announced, so sadly there’s none of that on there. But next week! Oh, next week there will be counters struck, you guys.
Last year, we did a feature highlighting some of our favorite multiplayer maps of all time, in which we singled out Halo’s Blood Gulch, Mario 64′s Block Fort and Left 4 Dead’s No Mercy, among others. All of you answered with some great suggestions, and I promised I would return with another edition (and beyond) honoring some of those mentioned.
So, here we are. Remember, these aren’t intended to be definitive lists, but rather, a way for us to reminisce on some great games and some great maps that we enjoyed in our time with them. If you have more suggestions for awesome maps that deserve to be in the Multiplayer Hall of Fame, by all means, post them in the comments and we can continue to induct new members.
Look at that, two weeks in a row. My, we are on something of a streak. In fact, you might even say that we are streaking. Just throwing that out there.
In this edition of the podcast, Jeff and Anthony acted like divas and stormed off the set, leaving myself, Nick and Mitch to discuss things all by our lonesome. We basically used this time to talk about all the things we can’t normally talk about with those two bozos around, which really means we spend a good chunk of time talking about StarCraft 2. It gets… fairly in depth at a couple of points, so hopefully you like that kind of thing. I know I do.
We also took the three-man opportunity to play a game we’ve never been able to play before on the podcast – a real-time edition of GameCop Versus LameCop, with each of us swapping roles as we see fit. I think the results are particularly entertaining, and hopefully you do, too. You will either love it or turn the podcast off and throw it from your window.
**Also a big shout out to Temp0, who’s song, “All I do is Stim” we stole for the outro this week. Check him out on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Soundcloud.**
Much like The Legend of Zelda a few months ago, another one of Nintendo’s long-running franchises is celebrating twenty-five years in existence this week. This particular game is the company’s sci-fi dark horse Metroid, best known for its more mature feel and its female protagonist.
While Metroid is far from Nintendo’s most lucrative franchise, it was no less important than Zelda or Mario in forming the gaming landscape back in the early days. Besides the aforementioned gender bender it pulled, it was also played its part in the advent of the “Metroidvania” style of games where players would start off strong and lose their items to some unforeseen circumstances.
The Metroid series has also given me one of my favorite games ever, Metroid Prime. The first game in the franchise since Super Metroid in 1994, Metroid Prime took some early flak from fans because of the transition to First-Person-Shooter. Despite the nay-saying, the game was very well received, holding a 97/100 rating on Metacritic, one of the very few games in existence to do so. The game did see a couple of sequels, but the original Metroid Prime will always stand as the greatest game in the series to me. While this may not be a surprise to anyone, I did 100% the game and see the real ending.
Another thing that can’t be overlooked about the Metroid series is the music. Even though the themes are not as iconic as Zelda or Mario, the music in Metroid has always been one of my favorites, mostly because of its haunting nature. The music added to the lonely feeling of the games and has given rise to quite a few fan interpretations as well. Seriously, look up Metroid Metal if you don’t believe me.
It’s a shame that Metroid’s 25 anniversary is being a little over-looked by Nintendo, but after Metroid: Other M’s reception, I can’t really blame them. Do you guys have any memories of Metroid? What’s your favorite game in the series? Will we see another Metroid game?
We’ve taken a bit of time away from the podcast (and if you’ve noticed, the site in general) to recharge our batteries a bit before heading into the fall. The thing about video game news is that like anything else, it works in seasons of dry spells and deluges, and the month of July is a drought of anything worth talking about on the whole. This is mostly due to E3, since the games industry seems to save all its mojo for one special week, and then deals with the announcements for another couple of weeks after. And then the dread silence.
So, we decided that for the podcast, August through E3 will now be a “season” of the show. Which technically makes this season 2, I guess. Welcome! We’ve got a game of over/under for the first few games of the fall, some talk about Bastion, as well as some silliness about the Nintendo 3DS price drop.
Anyway, you’ll see more posts in general around these parts, including the continuation of the weekly podcast. I for one am ready for the Fall of epic gaming to be upon us. Here are the topics for this week’s prodigal podcast:
One of the more useful things about E3 is that it allows us to take stock of where the industry currently is – and more importantly, where the powers-that-be think it needs to be heading. Each year, we can come away with a few lessons about the kinds of trends we’ll be seeing for the immediate future. For instance, since the unveiling of the Nintendo Wii a few years back, we knew that motion gaming had arrived in a major way.
While there are always going to be fanboys and naysayers on every side of the table, Cracked took some time to put together a list of The 6 Most Ominous Trends in Video Games, in which they outline all the dire portends that loom on the horizon. While the list is meant to be hilarious (and it is), it does have a few things that I find worrisome as well. Most notably would be the idea that technology is moving backward (touch gaming, the Wii-U, etc.), and that the video games industry seems to be moving towards a place of creative bankruptcy (countless sequels and re-hashed ideas).
So, what do you guys think of this list? Do you think the things it lists are fair towards the game industry? What are some of the more ominous trends that you’ve observed? Or is all of this just hogwash? Go!
This is kind of a tricky GamerSushi Asks, what with all the quality showings from many publishers and developers, but I feel that we can get an interesting discussion going around this one. Now that E3 2011 is behind us, we can gaze back fondly at the at the games and scoff at the terrible press conferences and Mr. Caffeine.
Since we’ve seen everything that the industry’s biggest trade show had to offer, we’re going to open this up and ask you guys what your Game of Show was for E3 2011. There’s so many strong contenders from the shooters to the RPGs and the sandbox/adventure games that it might be hard to choose just one.
So what are you leaning towards? Personally, I’m thinking Battlefield 3 with Skyrim, Saint’s Row: The Third and Gears of War 3 coming in close behind. It was really hard to choose, but the tank video impressed the hell out of me and the multiplayer sounds super tight with lots of new improvements. I also know that at least one of you lucky devils made the trek out to L.A., so maybe there’s something we all missed that we should pay more attention to going forward? Hit me up in the comments, son!
The most epic week of the gaming year has passed us by, and there’s certainly enough news to keep everyone buzzing for the rest of 2011. That’s why we fast tracked this week’s podcast, in order to get it out the day after E3 ended. The result is a super-sized podcast that’s fit for one of Skyrim’s mammoth-herding giants.
In it, you’ll hear our thoughts on everything from the ridiculously confusing Wii U announcements to fighting dragons, buildings forts and rips in space-time. After all of that, we embark on a hilarious rendition of Grades, where we evaluate each of the “Big 3″ conferences in turn.
Alright, you know what comes next, fools. Listen + Rate + Enjoy.
Nintendo came late to the party this year, holding their press conference this morning as opposed to following tradition and doing it on Monday. With rumors abound about Project Cafe and lots of buzz around the 3DS, Nintendo was poised this year to once again steal the E3 crown. Did they succeed?
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Nintendo came late to the party this year, holding their press conference this morning as opposed to following tradition and doing it on Monday. With rumors abound about Project Cafe and lots of buzz around the 3DS, Nintendo was poised this year to once again steal the E3 crown. Did they succeed?
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