Pursuing Pixels

Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  You're stuck with just Kevin & Randall this week, which means we're going to be veering a little further off the beaten path and into some more niche territory than normal, so buckle up!

We kick things off with the latest release (and collaboration) between a couple of our favorite indie devs, mmatt_ugh & dev_dwarf, with Connor Grail cranking out some killer tunes, as always.  They recently put out their precision platformer SELF, and we are both in love with this little game—they're planning on expanding this project into a full release too, so stay tuned for more?!?

Kevin gives a quick shoutout to a lesser-known fantasy console, the TIC-80, after playing the Fetch Quest on the platform, yet another little precision platformer that we feel in love with.  Randall's also still plugging away at Paprium, and having an easier go at things after Analogue pushed out an update for the Mega Sg to support this recently released Sega Genesis beat 'em up!

From there, we head on over to the actual retro realm and discuss some Fire ' n Ice, which was, far and away, the highlight of the recently added games to the Nintendo Switch Online service.  We also have our Japanese eshop accounts set up in order for us to check out the Famicom releases overseas, and we got totally sucked into Konami's Ping Pong.

Finally, we close things out with some Xbox Game Pass indie highlights, Carto & Star Renegades, and also discuss our desires to check out The Falconeer, and finally dig into Sea of Thieves.

Timestamps:

SELF  -  00:01:55

Fetch Quest  -  00:12:32

Paprium  -  00:17:22

Fire 'n Ice  -  00:20:07

Konami's Ping Pong  -  00:31:08

Xbox Game Pass Round Up  -  00:41:55

↳  Carto  -  00:43:06

↳  Falconeer  -  00:48:02

↳  Sea of Thieves  -  00:48:50

↳  Star Renegades  -  00:49:41

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen!  If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at:

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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We've got a whole bunch of gaming goodness to discuss this week, so let's get right into it!

John's kicks us off with his thoughts on Downwell, which he's been digging deeper into after it came up on the podcast a few weeks back—it's all about that 'boulder mode' baby!  And while John makes his way down the well, Kevin tries to keep it from spilling over in Overflow, a game jam entry from indie dev, shmoozey.

From there, Kevin & John discuss a couple of bite-sized Minit-inspired games.  SURGE was an entry to Mini Jam 73 from Reeds and Steps is yet another gem on the PICO-8 platform from Amidos.

Randall's firing up his Analogue Nt Mini Noir again for another modern-day NES game from Morphcat games, Micro Mages.  It's absolutely mind-boggling that they could cram this entire game onto a 40kb cartridge, which you know Randall got his hands on!

And finally, since PICO-8 already came up, you know we're gonna spend a little more time highlighting a couple of our current favorites on the fantasy console.  First we talk about the fantastic arcade puzzler, Mai-Chan's Sweet Buns, from the developer of High Stakes, Krystman.  And we wrap things up with Alpine Alpaca, a deckbuilding skiing strategy game from Johan Peitz, who also just put out the incredible picoCAD.

Timestamps:

Downwell  -  00:00:54

Overflow  -  00:03:52

SURGE  -  00:05:39

Steps  -  00:09:57

Micro Mages  -  00:13:08

Mai-Chan's Sweet Buns  -  00:24:05

Alpine Alpaca  -  00:29:40

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen!  If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at:

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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We kick off the episode this week with a brief discussion about the most recent Nintendo Direct, which gave us some news & updates on first-party Switch titles for the first time in quite a while.

From there, Randall fills us in on the latest beat 'em up on Genesis/Mega Drive, Paprium, from WM's Magical Game Factory.  This game sounds absolutely insane, and Randall's also got the details on The GRANDSTICK III, the custom arcade sticks that were bundled with the game.

Kevin's been playing a bunch of the SNES version of Wild Guns online with his brother recently, so he and Randall finally take a little time to highlight the souped-up 'remake' that came out back in 2016, Wild Guns: Reloaded.  You really can't go wrong with either version here!

John closes us out with some Stardew Valley talk, as he's been diving into the 1.5 update which was recently released on consoles.  He's got the rest of us itching to either get back to, or start up, our farms—and possibly explore the latest additions to this lovely, handcrafted world online together...

Timestamps:

Nintendo Direct  -  00:02:22

↳  TLoZ: Skyward Sword  -  00:03:26

↳  Mario Golf: Super Rush  -  00:08:01

↳  Project Triangle Strategy  -  00:12:03

Paprium  -  00:20:19

Wild Guns: Reloaded  -  00:31:01

Stardew Valley (1.5 update)  -  00:38:50

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen!  If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at:

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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We're shorthanded once again this week, but we're back as always to talk about some video games!

Kevin & Randall get things started with a deep dive into the recently released Cyber Shadow, from Mechanical Head & Yacht Club Games.  With Yacht Club putting their stamp on this release, you know it's gushing with all sorts of 8-bit retro goodness—and you know we aren't complaining about that!

Kevin takes a few minutes to highlight a couple of indie arcade games that he recently picked up on Nintendo Switch, including another recently released title, Project Starship X, along with another game that we've briefly mentioned on the podcast before, Singled Out from Matt Glanville.

DJ & Kevin close things out with a discussion on Exit the Gungeon, which is Dodge Roll's follow-up to Enter the Gungeon.  Though it doesn't quite stack up to its predecessor in our opinion, we're both pretty into this sequel of sorts—and of course, DJ already beat it...seven freaking times?!?!?

Timestamps:

Cyber Shadow  -  00:03:05

Singled Out  -  00:24:28

Project Starship X  -  00:27:49

Exit the Gungeon  -  00:30:55

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen!  If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at:

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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We're missing Randall as he studies up for his final exams, but the rest of us were able to sync up on a handful of games for this week's episode, so let's get right into it...

John & DJ get things started off with some more thoughts on Dark Souls II, which John booted up last week to share his initial impressions—and it seems like things are starting to turn around for John!

From there, we all dive into Celeste 2: Lani's Trek, a brand new PICO-8 Celeste 'sequel' of sorts that was released by the developers for the game's third anniversary.  What an awesome way to celebrate?!?

Speaking of celebrations, we also all checked out Ugby Mumba 3 from Milkbar Lads, which was released in celebration of Pixel Day 2021 over at Newgrounds!

Tiny Heist from Terry Cavanagh is yet another game we all were able to some time with this week, and is even more evidence of Terry's game design brilliance!

We close things out with the wild & wacky adventure game, The Good Time Garden, from Coal Supper, which leaves us wondering just what the hell is going on...

Timestamps:

Dark Souls II  -  00:01:15

Celeste 'Classic' 2: Lani's Trek  -  00:16:33

Ugby Mumba 3  -  00:23:47

Tiny Heist  -  00:35:10

The Good Time Garden  -  00:43:48

Indie Demos Shoutout  -  00:51:29

↳  GigaSword  -  00:51:40

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen!  If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at:

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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  This week, we had some technical issues (aka some of our computers are super old), and we lost the audio from our first recording session.  Determined to get an episode out this week, we let the computers cool down for a bit and sat back down for take two, already a couple drinks deep.....

Randall kicks us off with an 8bit retro nostalgia trip with his recently imported physical copy of the Aleste Collection on Nintendo Switch!  With M2 handling the cultivation of the collection—and even making a brand new Game Gear game—you know this one is top-notch!

Kevin fired up the demo for Big Boy Boxing before recording tonight and can't wait to see what this Super Punch-Out!! inspired boxing game has in store upon its full release.  He also takes some extra time to gush about a couple of indie devs that he's mentioned on the podcast in the past—pixel-boy & rxi—spotlighting a couple of games from each developer.

DJ takes the reigns from here, and continues to rave about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, as it might be his favorite FromSoftware game yet!  He also has some mindless fun with a couple of PS Plus games this week, including the latest entry in the Worms franchise, Worms Rumble, and the GTA/Jaws inspired Maneater.

John keeps the FromSoftware train rolling and closes us out with his opening thoughts (40 hours in) on Dark Souls II, now that he finally has his hands on DJ's old PS4.  We'll definitely be hearing more of his thoughts on this one next week, so stay tuned...

Timestamps:

Aleste Collection  -  00:02:28

Big Boy Boxing (Demo)  -  00:12:59

pixel-boy games  -  00:16:40

↳  The Station (Demo)  -  00:16:58

↳  Fairy Song  -  00:19:20

rxi games  -  00:21:53

↳  Stray  -  00:22:51

↳  Gift  -  00:24:20

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice  -  00:26:48

Worms Rumble  -  00:28:12

Maneater  -  00:30:58

Dark Souls II  -  00:34:28

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen!  If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at:

pursuingpixels.carrd.co

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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  Sorry if you can hear a little extra background noise on this week's episode—most of us are recording from older apartment buildings with antiquated heating systems.  That said, nothing's gonna stop us from us from talking some video games, so let's get rolling...

DJ gets us started once again with another PS5 update, though he's moved onto Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice after polishing off Demon's Souls last week!  Randall is also spending some time with one of his 'new' consoles, as he and Kevin take a look at Böbl from Morphcat Games—an NES game released in 2020 that Randall tested out on his jailbroken Analogue Nt-Mini.

While searching for Böbl on itch.io, Kevin stumbled across another platforming gem called Bobls, this one being a one bit, bite-sized precision platformer.  He also raves about one of the most immersive games he's played in a while, known as either Meow, or simply 'ᗢ'.

John closes us out with a conversation inspired by Awesome Games Done Quick—after watching a 'gotta catch 'em all' run of Pokémon Red & Blue (and digging into the most recent Sword & Shield DLC), he's wondering how the rest of us go about 'completing' games these days.  Does anyone still go for 100% completion anymore???

Timestamps:

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice  -  00:01:14

Böbl  -  00:15:02

Bobls  -  00:26:17

Meow (aka 'ᗢ')  -  00:27:30

Awesome Games Done Quick  -  00:31:17

Pokemon Sword/Shield  -  00:33:56

↳  'Compulsion' Gaming  -  00:39:41

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen!  If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at:

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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We've got another jam-packed episode full of video games this week, so let's jump right into it!

DJ is still playing around with his brand new PS5 this week, kicking things off with a quick Demon's Souls update from last week, before digging into the wacky world of Bugsnax—and he's definitely got the rest of us intrigued!

From there, he also shares some brief thoughts on Eves Drop & Downwell, which are a couple of Kevin's favorite modern arcade games!  And speaking of awesome arcade games, Kevin also quickly highlights Slugcaster & Disc Gun—the latter being yet another entry to the Disc Room Game Jam that he likes more than the game the jam was based upon...

Kevin also had an absolute blast with a couple of puzzle platformers, Bombastic & Puzezl—the former offering up a perfectly balanced mix of precision and puzzle solving, while the latter won't necessarily be testing your platforming skills, but will certainly leave you scratching your head!

Randall is also still playing with his shiny new console and ends up getting entirely sucked into River City Girls, thanks to its availability on Xbox Game Pass—and also takes a little time to thanks the video game gods for supplying us with a smattering of awesome beat 'em ups in recent memory!

Finally, John closes us out for the week with a Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity gush-fest, and has Randall & Kevin ready to pull the trigger on picking up the latest game set in the Breath of the Wild universe!  After that, we end up talking all sorts of Zelda stuff after that as we wind things down, before wrapping things up for the week.

Timestamps:

Demon's Souls  -  00:01:15

Bugsnax  -  00:02:38

Downwell  -  00:06:23

Slugcaster  -  00:12:47

Disc Gun  -  00:14:08

Bombastic  -  00:16:27

Puzezl  -  00:18:06

River City Girls  -  00:20:48

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity  -  00:27:15

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen!  If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at:

pursuingpixels.carrd.co

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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We're jam-packed with video game goodness once again, so let's get right into it!

DJ's PS5 has officially arrived as of this week, and he was delightfully surprised by the console's pack-in game, Astro's Playroom.  And after that, you know he's getting straight into Demon's Souls, which is definitely the system seller for Sony's new platform!

John is sticking it to a whole bunch of creeps and jerks in Grindstone, which has finally been released outside of the sphere of Apple Arcade—there's a pretty good chance that we'll be discussing this game further in the future, once some more of us get our hands on the latest puzzler from Capybara Games.

Kevin takes a brief moment to remove his foot from his mouth, as we discuss a little more Unruly Heroes & Rayman.  From there, he's giving a little love to our pals at SuperTry Studios, who just released their 12th game of 2020 last month, Bazooka Panic!  He also discovers a new indie developer, Dazlog, and touches on a couple of their games, Mystical Samurai & Bobo Gooey.

Finally, Randall closes us out with the next gen basketball experience, as he's been plowing through NBA2K21's management mode—he's already dismantled his hometown team, the Detroit Pistons, and won back-to-back championships?!?

Timestamps:

Playstation 5  -  00:01:01

↳  Astro's Playroom  -  00:01:48

↳  Demon's Souls  -  00:04:45

Grindstone  -  00:15:14

Unruly Heroes & Rayman Legends  -  00:23:50

Bazooka Panic!  -  00:30:44

Mystical Samurai  -  00:32:14

Bobo Gooey  -  00:32:54

NBA2K21  -  00:34:51

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen!  If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at:

pursuingpixels.carrd.co

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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We're less than full-strength for the first time in a little while, missing DJ this week, but we've still got plenty of games to talk about this week!

Randall gets us started with his first impressions of the Xbox Series X and appears to be incredibly happy with his purchase so far!  Between Xbox Game Pass and the platform-wide backwards compatibility, he's already got a slew of games to re-experience before splurging on the console's true next-gen offerings!

Speaking of Game Pass, Kevin & Randall have also been checking out Unruly Heroes from Magic Design Studios, consisting of many former Rayman Origins/Rayman Legends devs.  We're almost entirely at odds during this conversations—do you agree with either one of us?

From there, Kevin highlights a couple of indie demos that we streamed over on our Twitch channel recently, Aurascope & Elechead.  Whether you like your platformers precision-y or puzzle-y, we have a feeling you'll be adding one, if not both, of these to your wishlist!

After Kevin hyped up the PICO-8 fantasy console last week, John shares his thoughts on a variety of games, including a couple that we talked about last week (and in our Discord), while highlighting a few more gems, as well.

Finally, Kevin wraps things up with -SPROUT-, which we streamed a full playthrough of after the game's developer, Zedsquadron, sent us over a copy of his awesome lil' precision platformer!

Timestamps:

Xbox Series X  -  00:01:03

Unruly Heroes & Rayman Legends  -  00:08:46

Aurascope  -  00:20:58

Elechead  -  00:24:31

PICO-8  -  00:26:01

↳  High Stakes  -  00:26:33

↳  Breakolf  -  00:27:58

↳  Molecules  -  00:31:13

↳  Wandering Magic  -  00:35:53

-SPROUT-  -  00:44:36

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen!  If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at:

pursuingpixels.carrd.co

Join us on Discord

Support us on Ko-fi :)