The Pitch

Outer Wilds is a cozy adventure game about the thrill of exploration and the triumph of curiosity. You walk in the footsteps of a long-gone civilization to find your way out of a deadly time loop, ultimately triumphing and being reborn. The game's expansion, Echoes of the Eye, takes a bit of a darker tone. You explore an artificial world haunted by precursors who aren't quite as gone as you've been led to believe.

There are some real design missteps here, and we talk about them, but also talk about what makes Outer Wilds in general work for us in spite of them.

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This one's a treat for all the Aussies out there! A*Mazing was Australia's most beloved kids' game show in the 90s, featuring a tiny bit of competitive video game play between very easy trivia and searches for hidden objects in an obstacle course. And the entire thing was presided over by one of the most critical childrens' show hosts we've seen in our time doing this show.

We cover two episodes of the show: this one from 1994 and this one from 1995.

Future Will here.

Todd hates slime. He hates it when things get goopy. So he went to a planet full of it to exact his revenge. We, however, are indifferent to slime, and also think this game isn't too terribly bad. So we talk about the dead-end economics of the slime-content, and carousels for some reason.

This week we wrap up Chinatown with a little science experiment... performed on us. Our quest for the Ankaran Sarcophagus has led us into the underworld of the Kuei-jin, who want to subject us to something called the Belmont Protocol. Additionally, we do some standout side quests, with one massive addition from the Clan Quest Mod.

Other Segments:

• Clan Chapbook: The Kuei-jin

• Chronicles of Darkness: Fera (animal shapeshifters)

• Up on a Soapbox: The Troika Curse

Kaye, Ben, Jala, and Moxie talk about Metal Gear Solid Delta, Heartworm, SPRAWL, and much more!

The Grind:

• Jala: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Alterium Shift. Cyclopean: The Great Abyss. Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy.

• Kaye: Metal Gear Solid Delta. Heartworm. Picross.

• Ben: PAX West. The Fate of the Fellowship.

• Moxie: SPRAWL. Fallen London. The Division 2.

The Multiplayer:

• Put together an RPG team out of any video game character!

The End Boss:

• Silksong stomped all over other indie game release dates.

• The Division 2 is getting a new game mode.

• Call of Duty movie is coming and there are NO details so far.

Bob Mackey of the Retronauts joins Kaye this week to talk about Majora's Mask, whose pitch is that you only have three days to save the world, but you have as many three days as you want. This is the bleaker and more ambitious sibling to the beloved Ocarina of Time, and it's a standout title in its own right even if it's (wrongly, in our opinion) divisive. The inhabitants of Termina walk daily under a reminder of their pending doom, and Link and his many transformation masks are their only hope against Skull Kid and his mysterious cursed mask.

Note: The first version of this episode cut off early. Redownload it to hear the last five minutes or so!

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Shame.

Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike and the Quest for Stale Gum advertises itself as a lost NES adaptation of the Garbage Pail kids line of collectible trading cards. In reality, it’s a modern game made by talented devs who make games for NES hardware. And it’s pretty fine! But there are so many Garbage Pail kids to talk about, so we spend most of our time camping out on them.

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Let's get to know our friend Ignacio a little bit. Our friends, the Kettlemans, have gotten into a bit of a bother and Ignacio might know where they went. He was the last one to see them before they went missing, after all.