Pursuing Pixels

Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  It's our first episode of the new year, and we're kicking off 2021 with a boatload of games to talk about, so let's get started...

DJ gets the ball rolling with a bunch of multiplayer gaming that he's been doing lately, starting off with a Killer Queen Black & Rocket League session that he had with Randall & John over the weekend, and wrapping up with some Apex Legends.  It hasn't been all competitive gaming for DJ though, as he's also been playing some Mario's Super Picross.

Kevin finally got around to booting up the PICO-8 fantasy console, which was included in the itchio Bundle for Racial Justice & Equality, and highlights a handful of the standouts he's played this week.

From faux-retro to neo-retro, Randall finally got his hands on the Analogue Nt Mini Noir that he ordered back in February—the retro enthusiast's definitive HD NES experience!  And he's super into it!

John closes us out with a little comfort food, as he's been plowing through one of his all-time favorites, Tales of Symphonia, before moving onto a later entry in the series, Tales of Vesperia—and he's already well over 30 hours in...

Timestamps:

Multiplayer Gaming  -  00:00:46

↳  Killer Queen Black  -  00:01:08

↳  Rocket League  -  00:02:21

↳  Apex Legends  -  00:06:40

Mario's Super Picross  -  00:11:44

PICO-8  -  00:19:27

↳  High Stakes  -  00:21:38

↳  Marballs 1 & 2  -  00:24:23

↳  Combo Pool  -  00:25:25

↳  8 Legs to Love  -  00:26:21

↳  Just One Boss  -  00:27:31

Analogue Nt Mini Noir  -  00:29:13

Tales of Symphonia  -  00:34:48

Tales of Vesperia  -  00:36:52

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...and welcome to our second annual, end-of-the-year, wrap-up episode!?!  [Click here for last year's episode!]

To close out 2020, we're highlighting a BUNCH of our favorite games that came up on the podcast over the course of the year—consider it our version of the GOTYs.  And we're closing things out by looking forward to 2021, each resolving to play something from each of our respective backlogs before the clock strikes 2022...

Our (sort of) GOTYs:

Kevin  -  00:02:10

↳  Lonely Mountains: Downhill | Kero Blaster | Daniel Linssen & mmatt_ugh

Randall  -  00:11:54

↳  AC:NH | Monster Boy & The Cursed Kingdom | Streets of Rage 4

DJ  -  00:23:32

↳  Invisible, Inc. | Resident Evil VII: Biohazard | Hades

John  -  00:31:07

↳  Animal Crossing: New Horizons | Hades | A Short Hike

2021 Resolutions:

John:  Murder by Numbers  -  00:41:36

DJ:  Deltarune   -  00:42:47

Randall:  Ori and the Will of the Wisps  -  00:43:47

Kevin:  Hyper Light Drifter  -  00:45:00

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 full house again this week, and a whole bunch of video games to talk about, so let's get started...

DJ kicks us off with an update on Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout and finds himself getting sucked back into the game after the Season 2 update—and after burning ourselves out last time it came up.  He also goes on a high-jinks-filled little adventure in Mom Hid My Game.

Kevin was really looking forward to checking out Disc Room, but ended up being pretty disappointed with how the game ended up coming together, in spite of its addictive gameplay mechanics.  That said, he checked out a couple of entries from the Disc Room Game Jam, Harvest Doom & Pigments, and ends up finding more of what he was looking for!  He also ripped through the original Celeste 'Classic' on the PICO-8 fantasy console.

Randall is moving us into the neo-retro realm, and also into the wide world of sports, as he recently started playing NHL '94 Rewind—a bonus retro classic courtesy of his NHL '21 pre-order!

John's been playing through the SNES All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. 3 (for some reason?!?), and we inevitably end up going down the Mario rabbit hole (or warp pipe, perhaps?) to close out the episode this week...

Timestamps:

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Season 2)  -  00:01:09

Mom Hid My Game  -  00:06:38

Disc Room  -  00:09:34

Disc Room Game Jam  -  00:15:11

↳  Harvest Doom  -  00:16:12

↳  Pigments  -  00:17:55

Celeste 'Classic' on PICO-8  -  00:20:23

NHL '94 Rewind  -  00:21:43

Super Mario All-Stars + World  -  00:26:57

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 breaking the mold once again this week, as we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to chat with Aivi Tran & Sabrielle Augustin—two of the composers of the fabulous Ikenfell soundtrack!

We talked about Ikenfell on the podcast a few week's back and the OST was certainly one of the standout feature of the game, for a multitude of reasons! 

We keep it (mostly) *spoiler-free* as we dig deep into the inspirations behind the soundtrack, how this masterful team of composers & musicians came together, and get to know two of the artists behind the game a little bit better!

Thanks again so much to Aivi & Sabrielle for taking the time to sit down & chat with us!  Please check out their work(s), Ikenfell and beyond.

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 are absolutely jam-packed with video game goodness this week, so let's get right to it...

John kicks us off with some more Control talk, which leads into a general discussion about aerial combat in games after he tracks down his Daemon X Machina cartridge.

Kevin's been streaming a whole bunch of games on our Twitch channel lately and specifically carves out some time to discuss a couple more games that were included in the itchio Bundle for Racial Justice & Equality, Zone of Lacryma & Eves Drop.

Dj's been bouncing around a little bit himself, first polishing off Watch Dogs 2, and then plowing through Rise of the Tomb Raider in no time flat—let's just say, Nathan Drake is no Lara Croft!

Everyone but John has been sinking some serious time into Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair and the three of us have some widely differing opinions on this modern 2D platformer.

Randall closes things out by selling all of us HARD on the TurboGrafx-16 Mini, one of the latest additions to the mini retro console lineup...though there's a pretty good chance you missed out on the vast majority of these games the first time around, just like we did!

Timestamps:

Control  -  00:03:41

Daemon X Machina  -  00:07:23

Kevin's Been Streaming..... -  00:13:46

↳  Alan Wake  -  00:13:46

↳  Kero Blaster (Omake mode)  -  00:15:04

↳  Donut County  -  00:15:17

↳  Zone of Lacryma  -  00:16:21

↳  Eves Drop  -  00:19:03

↳  10S  -  00:22:48

Watch Dogs 2  -  00:23:59

Rise of the Tomb Raider  -  00:24:59

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair  -  00:27:37

TurboGrafx-16 Mini  -  00:45:02

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 back with a full house again this week, and we kick things off with a little gaming session in the clouds!

John snagged Control on Switch immediately after it was announced, during the most recent Nintendo Direct.  He shares his initial thoughts on both the game, and the prospect of streaming games over the interweb.

Kevin & Randall are getting their asses handed to them by Sky Racket, a tennis-inspired bullet hell shmup that's bursting with character!

Kevin also circles back around to briefly mention a couple of games he's finished off recently, Gato Roboto & Kero Blaster, before digging into his latest arcade obsession, Null Drifter.

DJ closes us out with a trio of games as well, beginning with follow-ups to our conversations on Undertale & Haque, before getting into his initial thoughts on Watch Dogs 2 after checking out the trial...

Timestamps:

Control (on Nintendo Switch)  -  00:01:44

Sky Racket  -  00:17:23

Gato Roboto  -  00:26:48

Kero Blaster  -  00:28:07

Null Drifter  -  00:29:22

Undertale  -  00:34:04

Haque  -  00:39:57

Watch Dogs 2  -  00:43:40

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.  DJ & Kevin are both getting their resolution games from 'Episode Number Holiday Edition 2019' in under the wire this week, before we start thinking about wrapping things up for 2020.

DJ gets us started with Deadbolt from Hopoo Games, stealth-driven action platformer that (mostly) lives up to our lofty expectations from the mighty Risk of Rain 1 & 2 devs!

Before Kevin gets to his own resolution, he takes a stab at Transistor from SuperGiant Games—after being both in love and overwhelmed by the intense combat in their latest release, Hades—and ends up plowing straight through it.  It was also John's resolution game, but he already talked about it earlier this year like a responsible human being.

After that, it's onto Undertale, which Kevin, unfortunately, bounced off of pretty hard.  However, it did get Randall to fire up the game for the first time and he ended up playing all the way through to the end, while DJ dives deep down the rabbit hole of 'multiple endings.'

Finally, we close things out with Ikenfell, another cheeky turn-based RPG with its own set of unique combat mechanics, pulling heavily from series like XCOM & Paper Mario.

*Ikenfell also has an INCREDIBLE original soundtrack and we were fortunate to sit down with two of the game's composers, Aivi Tran & Sabrielle Augustin, for a fun and informative conversation!  The interview episode will be coming SOON...stay tuned!*

Timestamps:

Deadbolt (DJ's Resolution)  -  00:01:04

Transistor (John's Resolution)  -  00:05:27

Undertale (Kevin's Resolution)  -  00:08:26

Ikenfell  -  00:32:02

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, John kicks things off with a new arcade puzzler, Petal Crash, and he's certainly got the rest of our attentions!

Kevin spotlights Yin and Yang, the latest release from mmatt_ugh, and it's yet another slam dunk puzzle platformer.  After that, it's onto the buttery precision platforming of RITE.

Speaking of slam dunks, Randall is back on his NBA2K20 bullshit, this time digging deep into the depths of MyGM mode!

Timestamps:

Petal Crash  -  00:02:28

Yin and Yang  -  00:12:49

Apple  -  00:16:07

RITE  -  00:16:46

NBA2K20 (MyGM mode)  -  00:22:00

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.  Although we're missing John this week, all four of us have been playing some Killer Queen Black thanks to another ludicrous deal on the Nintendo Switch eshop!

From there, Randall & Kevin have mixed thoughts on The Gardens Between, which we discussed digging into a few weeks back on the podcast—once again, thanks to Xbox Game Pass.

Kevin tackles Zangyou mode (aka 'New Game +') in Kero Blaster and moves onto another game with an amazing 'New Game +' all its own, Super Mario 3D Land—Randall also joins in on the gush-fest!

DJ ended up picking up Super Mario Bros. 35 again and is seemingly trying to '100%' the game, in typical DJ fashion.  Please don't take this game away from us, Nintendo!

Timestamps:

Killer Queen Black  -  00:01:09

The Gardens Between  -  00:14:15

Kero Blaster (Zangyou mode) - 00:24:05

Super Mario 3D Land  -  00:29:55

Super Mario Bros. 35  -  00:41:13

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. It's a full house once again and you know we couldn't talk about Hades for only one week!

DJ & John are digging deeper into the depths of hell this week, but before we get there, we've all been dabbling in the newly released Super Mario Bros. 35—another addition to Nintendo's ongoing celebration of Mario's 35th anniversary!

Kevin's doing his usual thing and highlights a couple of little indie gems!  We stick with the devilish theme first, and discuss yet another game entitled Imp, this time from developer Andy Miller.  After that, it's time to deliver some pizzas to some cute lil' rabbits in Bunny Eats, from Securas, aka 'SunshineMan'.

John closes us out with another overlooked indie, Super Crush KO, from Vertex Pop—a side-scrolling, high-score chasing beat 'em up that sounds right up all of our alleys!

Timestamps:

Super Mario Bros. 35  -  00:01:38

Hades  -  00:14:28

Imp  - 00:29:17

Bunny Eats  -  00:31:59

Super Crush KO  -  00:35:46

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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