7 Minutes

Games journalism has by its nature always been bound up with games marketing, but in the NES/Game Boy/SNES era of Nintendo’s uncontested industry dominance, the biggest Nintendo-focused magazine was not only endorsed by Nintendo but actually produced in-house. Zack, Angela, and Robert discuss that strange and charming cultural artifact, Nintendo Power, and drift into talking about other game magazines past and present too.

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While home consoles have always tried to differentiate themselves from the competition with Blast Processing, Emotion Engines, and other chimeras of engineering and marketing, no home console did so much to differentiate itself from its competitors and predecessor as Nintendo’s weird little Wii, which turns 15 this month. Robert, Zack, and Angela talk about their Wii memories and the console’s legacy.

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After its uncontested dominance in the PS1 and PS2 eras, Sony started the following console generation on the backfoot, beaten to market by the 360 and outshone by the wildfire success of the Wii. Still, even if eclipsed by competitors for much of its lifespan, the PS3 was a great little (or not so little) system with a number of selling points. Fifteen years after its launch, Angela, Robert, and Zack talk about the Spider-Man 3 font for an hour and a half straight.

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Six years after its release, Witcher III: The Wild Hunt is still frequently held up as the benchmark for both RPGs and open world games. Listeners know this game is a favorite of both Angela and Zack, who take the opportunity to talk at length about it. Robert fans will be heartbroken to know he couldn't join for this episode, but he'll be here next time. Warning: major spoilers for Witcher III and its DLC!

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Whether we're in search of an escape, a virtual vacation, a comfortable set of genre tropes, or just some pretty lights to look at, the setting of a game can enhance, define, or completely undermine its appeal. Robert, Zack, and Angela tour the wide world of game settings, from forests to cities to space.

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There’s no accounting for taste, but that doesn’t stop Angela, Robert, and Zack from taking turns trying to express and explain our love for our favorite video game characters, heroes and villains and little oddballs alike. Fair warning that due to its nature this podcast will potentially contain spoilers for every character discussed, with the exception of Final Fantasy XIV’s Emet-Selch, who is discussed only vaguely.

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0:00 - Introductions and what we've been playing (Hotline Miami, Murder By Numbers, Great Ace Attorney, Silver Case).

Nintendo had a virtual monopoly on console gaming in the NES era, to such an extent that in the 90s "Nintendo" was a colloquial term for games in general. By the time they rolled out their 16 bit successor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the world had started to change around them, both in terms of stiff competition from Sega and the proliferation of unofficial resources and devices, from GamePro to Game Genie. Thankfully, developers stepped up to the challenge with some seminal titles that are still revered today, like Super Metroid, Earthbound, and ... Cool Spot? Zack, Angela, and Robert revisit a console that was formative for all three of them in different ways.

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Adam finally gave us permission to release our 35th anniversary Metroid podcast, so here we are. Robert, Zack, and Angela methodically bomb jump their way through the canonical series. Superfans of Metroid Prime Pinball, Metroid Prime Hunters, and Metroid Federation Force are advised to look elsewhere for their fix.

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There’s a lot of received wisdom among both gamers and the games commentariat regarding what counts as good or bad game design, and sometimes the line between a real flaw and a pet peeve is extremely blurry. Angela, Robert and Zack run through a hit list of classic “bad design” complaints and talk them out.

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From cheat codes to hidden items to entire inverted castles, games have always been saturated with secrets. In the era before the Internet, these were slowly propagated via playground blacktop, print magazine, and BBS. GameFAQs changed the game by giving an entire Internet’s worth of weirdos a gathering place for sharing discoveries, and secrets have become much harder to hide, although vague patch notes and live service games add their own wrinkles. Zack, Angela, and Robert shine a light on the history of secrets in video games.

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