This is a special live episode about the best Donkey Kong game, Donkey Kong for the Game Boy. The game begins as a faithful recreation of the Donkey Kong arcade levels, but after that, the roof flies off and the walls fall away... revealing a puzzle platformer with over 100 levels. This game also expands Mario's move set in an important way.

Really? Just go play it.

Huge thanks to everyone who came out to see us at the Midwest Gaming Classic 2018!

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Do you think life is a game? The Sims, writ large, is a massive series that nobody really talks about as a game. It feels like it exists over in a separate category with MMOs and other perpetual games. But its huge success has hidden the fact that it's incredibly important, and also very very fun. We specifically picked the Sims 3 because of its quality of life improvements, but this episode touches on all of the main Sims games at least a little bit.

This episode is very different from our usual releases. It's almost all generalities and mechanics, but there's lots of anecdotes and weird stories at the end.

Thanks for helping us get to episode 200!

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Links:

• Drew Carey | The Sims Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia
• The Creepy, Surreal Apocalypse of The Sims Online
• Winchester Mystery House by amariswiccan - The Exchange - Community - The Sims 3
• Kole Ross on Twitter: "For the upcoming Watch Out for Fireballs! about The Sims 3 (Episode 200!), I wanted to take on a big building project. So I decided to make the mansion and cast from Maniac Mansion. Read the thread!… https://t.co/nAB9pJO86p"

Let's hear what you think of A Way Out, Magicka, and Earth Defense Force 4.1. There aren't very many responses this time, so we hit some belated responses and Just Funnin' as well.

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This game really bugs us. Listen in to find out why... or read this short summary. Earth Defense Force as a series gets a lot of credit for its quirkiness and cheesiness. That praise is earned, but it doesn't paper over repetitive and mediocre gameplay.

The Ravagers are back again, and they've brought Giant Insects, spiders, lizards, and all kinds of nasties with them. It's up to the united Earth Defense Force to fight them off, once and for all. Over and over again. With very little difference between the missions. Forever.

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Links:

• Rampage 2:Universal Tour Intro Playstation One - YouTube
• GeoGuessr - Let's explore the world!
• The Avalanches - 'Frontier Psychiatrist' - YouTube
• Ballz 3D (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete - YouTube
• The World's Biggest Wasp | Bite, Sting, Kill - YouTube

This week, Gary and Kole conjure up some mixed praise for Magicka, a student project turned indie darling. But here's the hangup: while the core idea of this game is unlike anything we've seen before, its execution falls flat at almost every turn. The writing and humor don't add much to the proceedings, and the game is still a technical mess seven years after its release.

So, yeah, the mixture leans pretty heavily toward the negative. Someone make a better game out of this core idea!

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Links:

• Andrew W. K.- I Get Wet - YouTube
• Some Borderlands 2 Humor - YouTube
• Mr Show Taint - YouTube
• Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills - YouTube
• P4 Chapter 2 The Sword Gram and the Dragon Fafnir - YouTube

Ain't no co-op like A Way Out co-op because A Way Out co-op is mandatory. Back in 2013, Hazelight Studios developed a charming and affecting experimental adventure game called Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Five years later, it wanted to continue exploring its pet theme of togetherness, so it created A Way Out.

Following the lead of games like Heavy Rain and Until Dawn, it's a cinematic adventure game with one major gimmick: you must play it with someone else. The story is told in split-screen, and makes heavy use of prison and crime movie cliches to show how two convicts, Leo and Vincent, escape from prison and get revenge on a mutual enemy. It's an extremely funny game, but there's one problem... it's not supposed to be funny.

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Links:

• PS4 - Until Dawn Trailer - YouTube
• The Shawshank Redemption - Trailer - (1994) - HQ - YouTube
• The Boy Official Trailer #1 (2016) - Lauren Cohan Horror Movie HD - YouTube
• The Manhole - Wikipedia
• Casino Royale Movie CLIP - Parkour Chase (2006) HD - YouTube
• Point Break Skydiving scene - YouTube

Let's hear what you think about Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Doom 2016, Bayonetta, and Arcades!

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We talked about arcades almost six years ago, and a lot has happened since then. So it's time to go back. For this episode, we each played three games and prepared to talk about them. Spanning several eras and genres, we wanted to learn why arcade games are different and talk about how their design differs from home games. Here are the titles we discuss: TRON. Dig Dug. Captain America and the Avengers. Spider-Man: The Video Game. Area 51. Aliens: Extermination.

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Links:

• Special When Lit Trailer - YouTube
• Ultimate Retropie Joystick Controller
• Panic Park - Wikipedia
• DeadMalls.com: Forest Fair Mall / Cincinnati Mills / Cincinnati Mall: Cincinnati, OH
• Watch Out for Fireballs! Episode 31: Arcades
• Dig Dug - Wikipedia
• Tron (video game) - Wikipedia
• Spider-Man: The Video Game - Wikipedia
• Captain America and The Avengers - Wikipedia
• Area 51 (1995 video game) - Wikipedia
• Aliens: Extermination | Xenopedia | FANDOM powered by Wikia

Fly me to the moon and let me play Bayonetta, a crazy over-the-top character action game that is unabashedly all about style. This is a Patreon backer requested episode, and we were super happy to visit Platinum's breakout hit. Bayonetta is a very important character to the recent history of video games, inspiring both affection and controversy. Listen in to hear us talk about her first adventure, and hit on the points where it stumbles (I'm looking at you, motorcycle and missile levels).

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Links:

• GXTalks: GX3 • Day 1 - Bayo Studies: Year One - A Deeper Look at the Bayonetta Series - YouTube
• WildCat-Ratatat - YouTube
• Bullet Witch XBOX 360 Trailer - YouTube
• Achewood § July 2, 2007
• Bayonetta: Bloody Fate (2013) anime movie - YouTube
• Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice - YouTube
• Language of flowers - Wikipedia
• Enochian - Wikipedia
• Omega Red - Wikipedia
• Burglekutt | Willow Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia
• Peter Francis Geraci Law. Bankruptcy Attorneys in Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and their surrounding communities | Peter Francis Geraci Law | Bankruptcy Attorneys | Infotapes
• From Lara Croft to Bayonetta: what is a 'strong female character'? | Games | The Guardian

The winner of our remakes/reboots poll is all about ripping/tearing. The 2016 version of Doom, neé DOOM 4, is all about pace and rhythm. It's also all about gleefully tapping into the spirit of mayhem found in the early entries of this series, and updating it for modern play sensibilities. The result is one of the best-designed games we've played for the show.

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Links:

• Watch Out for Fireballs! Episode 110: Doom II: Hell on Earth
• DOOM: Behind The Music Part 1 - YouTube
• RAGE Debut Trailer - YouTube
• How Does The New DOOM Compare to Previous Dooms? [Huge Spoilers] - YouTube
• How to keep players engaged (without being evil) | Game Maker's Toolkit - YouTube