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.
Episode 077 – Super Mario RPG (1996)
Episode 077 – Super Mario RPG (1996)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are smashing goombas with hammers and racking up sweet, sweet numbers in the process! From 1996, we’re playing Super Mario RPG by Nintendo and Square for the Super Nintendo. Our special guest is Doctor Tony, friend of Steve’s friend Mary!
You can manually download this week’s jump-tastic 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.
As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win!
Want to have an email or comment read on the air? Send us a message on the ole Twitter or Facebook, or, shoot that mail to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.
TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, which is the Mario-est music of today’s game.
- 44:00 – Emails! Helping to keep the lights on at the Kirk Cameron household.
- 1:05:00 – No Sweet Boy Asks this week, so it’s right to the Snifferoo!
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, Super Mario RPG is still quite pricy. It’s $46.50 for the loose cart, and $139 for the cart, box and manual. However, it’s available on the Wii virtual stores, which is much more affordable.
– Jason Schreier of Kotaku had a good retrospective on Super Mario RPG this year, in honor of the game’s 20th anniversary. Read it here!
– Likewise, the TV Tropes page for the game is quite robust.
Vidya Game News – June 30, 2016
Image from MobyGames.
– The Nintendo 64 turned 20 last week, which led to retrospectives from plenty of places, like Nerdist and Tech Insider.
– The fine folks at Shmuplations are dong the lord’s work, as they’ve unearthed an old interview from developers on Super Mario Kart. You can read it here.
– The new Toejam and Earl game has gotten more funding, and it’ll see a console release! Read more about it in a piece by Brandon Orselli from Niche Gamer. And, check out our episode on the original!
– RZA will be doing some music inspired by old Atari games, which actually sounds kind of cool. Read more on Billboard here.
– Good news, everyone! Adventures of Mana, a 3D remake of the old Game Boy game Final Fantasy Adventure, is now out for the Vita. Read the release from Sony here. It’s the first game in the Secret of Mana series, which we covered in the past.
– From MCV, via Famitsu, the new Harvest Moon game for the 3DS is #1 on the Japanese sales chart. It’s scheduled to come out in America at some point in 2017.
– It’s short notice, but Nintendo is hosting a festival in Montreal this weekend! For more details, go here. And if you’d like to head Down Undah, there is an 8-bit festival in Melbourne later in July, according to Time Out Melbourne.
– Yougurtland is partnering with Nintendo.
– A Final Fantasy VII version of Monopoly is coming out in April 2017. It’s by Merchoid, and you can read more on Examiner.com here.
– A Kickstarter campaign has been launched for a “complete remake” of System Shock. Read more on the project page here.
– The producer of the Tetris movie now claims it’ll be a three-movie series! Yikes. Read more on Empire.
– The Angry Video Game Nerd re-visits Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES, 10 years after he first covered it. Check out the video here. For James and Mike Mondays, they played Alex Kidd in Miracle World.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Star Fox 64 came out this day in 1997. And hey, we reviewed it! Check out our show here.
– On June 29 in 2000, Icewind Dale by Black Isle Studios was released by Interplay. It was a well-reviewed game based on Dungeons and Dragons.
– In 1996, Bruce Jenner’s World Class Decathlon came out for the PC. It was 20 years ago Jenner won a gold medal in the decathlon, so, that was kind of weird.
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 – March 17, 2016
– Hey, the NCAA tournament starts today! While there was a lot of fanfare when the college football series by EA ended, the NCAA Basketball series went with a whimper in 2010. It kind of sucked, since the 2K series was better, but even that ended in 2008. Amusingly, even though it’s not a great game, NCAA Basketball 10 now goes for more than $30 because it’s the last one. (NCAA Football 14 is in the same boat, with prices staying at $25+, although that’s a much better game.)
– Matt Peckham of Time.com, which apparently used to be a magazine, has an interview with Miyamoto on Star Fox Zero.
– I Am Setsuna is the latest new RPG series from Square Enix, and according to IGN, it’s inspired by Chrono Trigger. Nice!
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– We’re finally getting to some decent historical release dates! On this day in 1994, Castlevania: Bloodlines came out for the Genesis. It was the only ’Vania game released for the Genesis, and it was very well-received. (The photo comes from this website.)
– Also for the Genesis in 1994, there was Streets of Rage 3! It was more of the same – basically, that system’s answer to Final Fight – but still good.
– Legend of Legaia, a perfectly average PSX RPG, came out in 1998. From the developer Contrail, it had a sequel in 2001, but otherwise, it hasn’t been prominent.
– Last year, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD came out for the PS4 and Xbox One. It was based on an old Playstation Portable game, and it shows with the weird, frenetic gameplay. Steve just bought it last week for $10 and says it’s pretty passable.
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 031 – Bubble Bobble (1988)
Episode 031 – Bubble Bobble (1988)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are playing as dinosaurs as we entrap enemies and solve puzzles with bubbles! From 1988, we are playing Taito’s Bubble Bobble for the NES and Arcade. WARNING: This week’s show does not have the swears censored out!
You can manually download this week’s podcast that encases your body with a bubble 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.
As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win! Want to have an email or comment read on the air? Send us a message on the ole Twitter or Facebook, or, shoot that mail to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.
TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, which is a cool rock cover of the Bubble Bobble theme song. You can find it here on YouTube.
- 45:00 – The Bubble Bobble Theater Players.
- 49:00 – Emails. The boys talk about snow levels, and about whether emails are real… Multiple times.
- 1:06:00 – Snifferoo. We expand into a new era of gaming next week, although we do so with stealth and tactical precision.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, and mentioned on the show, the original Bubble Bobble goes for about $18 for just the cart, but shoots up to the $300 range if you want a copy in pristine condition, with box and manual. It’s available on the various Wii shops for around $5. The second game, which came out in 1993, is even worse, costing $290 for just the cart and $5,299 for a new copy.
– The oddly named Rainbow Islands is cheaper on Price Charting, ranging from $27 to $102. Although we were not really familiar with it on the show, critics ate it up, with most giving it 90-plus percent.
– Taito made its hay in the 1970s with a ton of arcade games, and its list of games is massive. It was purchased by Square Enix in 2005 though, and since then, things have of course gotten weird.
Vidya Game News – September 17, 2015
I am Error. Read these news stories.
– Hey, what are the odds? Shortly after our episode on Tecmo Bowl, it was released for the Wii U shop. Clearly, we’re influencing companies!
– In mixed news, depending on where you stand on Square Enix doing yet another remake… Final Fantasy Adventure, which is actually the first game in the YPB-covered Secret of Mana, is getting a remake for the Vita and smartphones. Siliconera has an article here. It is keeping the same story from the original, but upgrading the graphics and what not.
– Mashable has a sponsored story on some racin’ games from the past. Pre-2000, they focus on F-Zero, Micro Machines, Mario Kart 64, Gran Turismo and Crazy Taxi, and I’ve played four out of five of those splendid games!
– From the AV Club, a piece by John Teti on how Super Mario Bros. is the loneliest Mario game.
– There were a bunch of articles released this week about the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. But as Frank Cifaldi points out in an older piece for Gamasutra, the actual release date of the game in the U.S. is up for debate. Time.com also has a cool slideshow on the evolution of Mario’s look.
– Of all places, USA Today has a good, long oral history on some of the Playstation’s development, on the anniversary of its launch 20 years ago. It’s by Mike Snider, and you can read it here.
– Speaking of the Playstation, Nathan Birch at Uproxx has a good collection of some of the trivia on the device, like that Crash Bandicoot was hated by the Japanese portion of the company and that the system worked better upside down.
– There are now Sega-inspired kicks, although I agree with the comments, that the boxes look cooler than the shoes.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Depending on what source you use, Kingdom Hearts was released today or yesterday in 2002 for the PS2. While it wasn’t my cup of tea because of its reliance on button mashing and a stupid AI, the presentation values (graphics and sound) were top-notch for the collaboration between Disney and Square.
– Some game called Grand Theft Auto V came out for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Although it’s only two years old, it’s kind of a big deal, to the tune of 54 million copies and counting.
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 