I’M ON ANOTHER… ON ANOTHER LEVEL

This week we are talking about the retro-inspired, Ska-infused rally car racer Parking Garage Rally Circuit. Race through the most iconic parking structures of the US! It’s a really great little game to welcome the show back to 2025. Stick around after for our first What’s Making Us Happy of the year!

• (00:00) - 428: Parking Garage Rally Circuit

It’s Game of the Year time again! This week we’re looking back at 2024 to pick the best short video game of the year, and recognize some other great games as well.

00:00 Intro
04:52 Game of the Year
12:00 Short Short Game of the Year – For Rules Lawyers!
15:51 1000 Hour Short Game
23:47 Most Unfairly Overlooked Game of 2024
30:32 Dirtbag of the Year
35:00 Galerius of the Year
40:06 Most Little Guy Who Goes Around
43:11 Best Short Game in a Not Short Genre
49:46 Late to the Party
54:44 Honorable Mentions
01:06:58 Outro

• (00:00) - Intro

This Thanksgiving week the hosts gathered to play a bit of a game, trying to match short games to randomly chosen genres and adjectives. What’s a David Lynchian Platformer, or an “I Want To Go To There” Card Game? What on Earth is Snacks ‘n Jaxson? All will be revealed. Happy Holidays!

Press Y to Neva

There’s a certain sector of our listenership that loves it when we talk about games that don’t work for us. If that’s you, then please enjoy our discussion of Neva, the latest game from the developers of Gris. Raise your teleporting wolf-deer-puppy, nurturing her through many double-jumps, until finally she can become a gun.

• (00:00) - Neva

What a story. 1000xRESIST is one of the best works of science fiction we’ve seen in a game, and it opens new territory at the intersection of visual novels, adventure games, and interactive fiction while drawing on other media like film and theater.

1000 years in the future, humanity is all but extinguished and a disease spread by an alien occupation keeps the survivors underground. You are Watcher. You dutifully fulfil your purpose in service of the ALLMOTHER, until the day you learn a shocking secret that changes everything.

This game is a LITTLE long for us at about 12 hours, but it’s divided into ten tightly plotted chapters and respects your time in every conceivable way.

• (00:00) - 1000xRESIST

This is a show nominally about video games.

• (00:00) - Miscellaneous

An unsettling game for the tail end of spooky season. Mouthwashing is a non-linear narrative horror game about a doomed space freighter and her crew. Please enjoy Dragonsbreath X mouthwash.

• (00:00) - Mouthwashing

We cover a few more games before the close of the comp. Get those votes in!

• (00:00) - IFComp 2024 Part III

This has been recommended to us a lot, so we finally decided to clean out those drawers and organize those bookshelves. A surprisingly fun series of tiny organization puzzles which added up to an interesting discussion!

• (00:00) - A Little to the Left

Laura and Raygan talk about another handful of games from this year’s interactive fiction competition.

Thanks to the authors, and to all our patrons who are sharing their IFComp experiences on the Discord!

• (00:00) - IFComp 2024 Part 2