Retronauts

Matsuba! Regardless of how you interpret this alien expression, Eric Chahi's Out of this World (or Another World to our European friends) wowed its early-'90s audience with its enigmatic atmosphere and lack of respect for convention -- which is probably why it remains so playable today. Join Bob Mackey, Ray Barnholt, Jeremy Parish, and Watch Out for Fireballs' Gary Butterfield as the Retronauts travel to hostile, new worlds and befriend hulking (but pleasant) humanoids.

In those oh-so optimistic '90s, Parappa the Rapper taught an entire generation there's no shame in playing a game about a paper-thin puppy who raps about pooping. But when the end of the decade saw a sequel about a guitar-playing lamb, our love affair with musically adept cartoon animals was over. Join Bob Mackey, Ray Barnholt, Jeremy Parish, and Gamasutra's Christian Nutt as the Retronauts discuss the Parappa the Rapper series and get cocky, even in the face of potential rockiness.

By request of Jeff Tibayan, we follow up on last week's Yasumi Matsuno episode with an in-depth look at the lore and evolution of Matsuno's largest single body of work (plus some other games) to date: The Ivalice series.

By request of supporter Hugh Franck, we delve into the complex (and often very earth-tone) world of Yasumi Matsuno, from the early Quest era all the way through the recent Unsung Story Kickstarter. 

Ancient Chinese novel meets 1980s Japanese manga meets 1990 video game. We discuss the finer points of Capcom's NES role-playing game Destiny of an Emperor.