Vidya Game News – December 1, 2016
– The new Pokemans games have sold 3.7 million copies in two weeks, making them the fastest sellers ever for Nintendo, according to press releases given to Polygon and other sites. You can listen to our Pokemans show here!
– In other Big N news: Although they announced a Japanese partnership with Universal for theme parks last year, the effort has spread to the U.S. now too, per Den of Geek and other sites.
– In other, other Big N news… The NES Classic Edition is still impossible to find, but ThinkGeek is doing a sweepstakes for some. They might also have some for sale this week. Huzzah!
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– November 30 is a popular day for PC releases. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness came out in 1995, Diablo came out in 1996, and Baldur’s Gate and Starcraft: Brood War came out in 1998. You can listen to our shows on Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo here, here and here.
– November 30, 1999 was also popular for RPGs. Koudelka and Vandal Hearts II both came out on that day. They’re both considered cult classics, and Koudelka continued on via the Shadow Hearts series, which is for the PS2 and awesome.
– Quake III Arena came out on Dec. 2, 1999. While it wasn’t horrible, it was a bit of a misstep by id Software, as Unreal Tournament was generally more popular.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – November 17, 2016
– Polygon has released their massive video game gift guide, which is neat to read just to catch up on all of the cool stuff you didn’t even know existed.
– The new Daytona USA game, confusingly called Daytona 3 Championship USA, has some trailers out now.
– To hype the (incredibly hard to get) NES Classic, Nintendo has interviews with the developers of Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 here. And hey, check out our episodes for the first and second games of that series!
– In a fun feature, Polygon’s Owen S. Good tallies up how much it would cost to just buy an NES and all of the games on the NES Classic, instead of paying the prices online for it.
– From Motherboard and other sites, a guy is shooting for 2017 for the release of Tanglewood, a new Genesis game programmed on an authentic development kit.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Mentioned prominently in last week’s show was WWF No Mercy, which was released on this day in 2000 by Asmik Ace and AKI. It’s still considered to be one of the gold standards for wrasslin’ video games.
– The ole Xbox was released on Nov. 15, 2001. That old chestnut didn’t sell well in Japan, and ultimately came out behind the PS2 in America, but it established a firm beachhead in console sales for Microsoft.
– Three days after the Xbox came the Gamecube. Again, it finished behind the PS2 in the sixth generation console wars, but it had some very well-received games, like…
– The Metroid series is kind of a big deal in November. In 2002, both Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion had concurrent releases for the Gamecube and GBA. The sequel to Prime came out on Nov. 15, 2004. (And hey, check out our episode on Super Metroid here!)
– On November 16, 2004, Valve released Half-Life 2. The incredible FPS was followed by sequels, Episode One and Episode Two, and then NOTHING. The third installment will never come out because Valve clearly hates us now.
– Dragon Quest VIII, the first of the series to drop the “Dragon Warrior” name for an American release, came out for the PS2 on Nov. 15, 2005. It was a solid effort, although not as long and deep as previous efforts from Enix.
– In 2006, the PlayStation 3 came out. It was a swell system, but it ceded the control of the market that the PS2 and PSX had established because of a high initial price and lack of third party support. (And by the way, the PS4 came out on Nov. 15, 2013, so Sony likes to push them consoles out in the holiday season.)
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – November 10, 2016
– Unsurprisingly, Gandhi remains an asshole in Civilization 6, per Kotaku. Check out our show on the original Civilization here!
– On Kill Screen, Emma Kidwell has a nice essay about how video games helped with language when she spent her summers in Japan.
– The NES Classic Edition comes out Friday in the U.S., and some reviews are coming in for it. Kotaku also notes that the old Nintendo call-in lines will be active, too.
– Also, as you may have heard, new Genesis consoles are being made… in Brazil. Polygon’s Charlie Hall notes that the system won’t have HDMI support or ship internationally, but it does come with 20+ games preloaded. Sega in Brazil is like Spinal Tap in Japan, or David Hasselhoff in Germany.
– Kyle Orland of Ars Technica writes about four “found” Kirby games for the SNES, and the difficulty of preserving old digital games, here. You can find our Kirby show here.
– From Matthew Figueira and other sites, Blizzard won’t be doing remakes of Warcraft 1 or Warcraft 2 anytime soon. Also, no news on a potential Warcraft 4 either. But hey, listen to our show on the old series!
– Obduction, the new game from Myst creator Rand Miller, will be released for the PS4 and VR in 2017. Read about that and more in Miller’s interview with Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat. And listen to our Myst show here!
– From Kotaku: What should you feed your pregnant characters in The Sims?
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Golden Sun, a popular RPG series by Camelot and Nintendo, first hit U.S. shores on Nov. 11, 2001. It’s 15 now! Almost old enough to drive.
– It was only a year ago, but the sweet baby boys can scarcely remember what our lives were like before the release of Fallout 4 on this day in 2015. We have a lot more time… Stupid, pointless time without Fallout 4. Bethesda’s masterpiece has had several DLC expansions and mod support added, and people are already clamoring for the fifth installment, or a side game, or anything else because Fallout is LIFE.
– Also, Skyrim came out on Nov. 11, 2011. It’s now five years old! A regular sweet kindergarten baby boy. Bethesda sure loves to spoil us in November.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – November 3, 2016
– Daaayyyyyyttttoonnnnaaaa! From Polygon and other sites, Sega has confirmed that a new entry in the Daytona USA series will be coming out. Read more here.
– Apparently, the creator of Balloon Fight first brought up the NES Classic Edition idea about 10 years ago! You can read a translated interview with Yoshio Sakamoto here, via Nintendo Everything.
– The director of Deadpool (Tim Miller) is stepping away from that series, and his next project will be Sonic the Hedgehog, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
– Supermodel Gisele Bundchen dressed up as Luigi for Halloween, because her SBB was dressed as Mario. Popsugar has the story here, based on her ‘stagrams. (And hey, listen to our shows on Mario 1 and Mario 2 here and here!)
– And speaking of the Brady household… From Steve’s home state paper The Providence Journal, what game did Tom Brady like to play with his roommate? Well, Tecmo Bowl, of course! Read more here. And listen to our Tecmo Bowl show here.
– Via Gamespot, Crash Bandicoot now talks! … in the Netflix TV show Skylanders Academy. Check out our Crash Bandicoot episode here!
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Fire Emblem came out for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. While it was the first (official) English localization for the series by Nintendo, it was the seventh main game of the series. Rumor goes that Nintendo finally decided to give it the ole translation try because of the popularity of Marth in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
– Ratchet & Clank came out Nov. 4, 2002 for the PS2. Insomniac’s effort was well-reviewed, and spawned a series.
– Valkyria Chronicles, a solid turn-based, tactical RPG, came out on Nov. 4, 2008 for the PS3. Surprisingly, it was by Sega! A remastered version came out on May 17, 2016 for the PS4, to rave reviews.
– The first Dragon Age game from Bioware came out for the PS3, 360 and PC on this day in 2009.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Episode 079 – Ghosts ‘n Goblins series (1985-1991)
Episode 079 – Ghosts ‘n Goblins series (1985-1991)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are slaying a variety of monsters in our underwear! From 1985 to 1991, we’re playing the games of the Ghosts ‘n Goblins series by Capcom for the Arcade, SNES, Genesis and NES! We are joined by special guest, superfan and father of the show’s sweetest baby boy listener, Hawk!
You can manually download this week’s spooktastic podcast here or subscribe to the show via the iTunes store. To manually subscribe, use this link in the device / podcast player of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.
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TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, which features the creepy music from the prologue to the SNES version.
- 36:00 – Emails! Julian Assange writes in, and so does Harry Carey!
- 56:30 – It’s everybody’s favorite… Ask The Sweet Boys!
- 1:01:00 – Snifferoo. Next week, we’re whipping about the waves with a Nintendo 64 game.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, prices have held up pretty well for the series. The loose cart price can range from $13.50 (NES) to $22 (SNES, Genesis) to $80 (Master System), and the box and manual shoots the price up to a range of $41 to $132.
– Ghosts ‘n Goblins is one of the prepackaged 30 games coming out in the sweet baby boy NES Classic Edition. It’s scheduled to be released in November.
– Here is a ridiculous speedrun of the game, done in 21 minutes with no deaths.
– Hawk Man 5000 previously guested for Mega Man 2, which you can listen to here!
Vidya Game News – August 12, 2016
Today’s roundup is a day late because Steve has a case of OLYMPIC FEVER. It’s unclear if he contracted it from the waters of Rio, or some other way. Without further ado though, the links!
– Anddddd it’s gone. Nintendo Power has been removed from the Internet Archive, per Polygon.
– Band of Savers has a very important article posted: “10 Things Duck Tales Taught Me About Money.” And, check out our old episode on the vidya game!
– Nintendo Everything has a translation of an interview a Nintendo official did about the NES Classic Edition. Apparently, the save states are going to be more integrated and extensive than originally thought, and there will be several new visual modes for the games.
– Fun times, as Entertainment.ie has a screenshot quiz on SNES games.
– From Mike Diver at VICE, a Top Ten list of Sonic games.
– The AV Club has an insanely long roundtable on the camera in Super Mario 64.
– Unsurprisingly, a fan remake of Metroid 2 was quickly taken down, according to Twinfinite.
– Kotaku has a look inside Smash Hell, the server where Nintendo banishes spammers and others.
– Shack’s Arcade Corner on Amazon looks at Black Tiger, a past YPB game! [WARNING – The first is a video link!]
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Hint for next week’s show: August 13 marked the 25-year anniversary for a slew of SNES launch games, namely, F-Zero, Pilotwings and Super Mario World. And hey, the SNES itself came out! Good times, good times.
– System Shock 2, one of the biggest cult classics ever on the PC, came out on August 11, 1999. It was designed by Ken Levine, and developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios, but a sequel has been caught in rights snafus for years.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Your Parents Basement 