retronauts

Episode 425: Year-In-Review Revue - 1972 & ’82

It's time for [gasp] another annual tradition: The Year-In-Review Revue. And in keeping with tradition, my best efforts to structure this in a way that would allow us to get through all the planned years turned out to be for naught thanks to Benj and Jared dropping some major Magnavox Odyssey Knowledge Bombs. A podcast that allows information and conversation to get in the way of the intended schedule? That'll never fly.

Anyway, yes, we delve 50 and then 40 years into history to look ba...

This Week In Retro: PlayStation Vita

December 17, 2011: More like PlayStation Culpa

by Diamond Feit

The older I get, the more I realize the importance of revisiting past failures. I don't mean dwelling on my mistakes—my brain does that on its own, all the time, without any effort on my part. I'm talking ...

Episode 424: Holiday Special 2021 - Totally Pokemon

It's time once again for the annual journey to Retronauts' Christmas locale for another holiday treat. And this year, we're kicking off our eleventh yuletide celebration with a look at the third and final Pokemon album to grace our ears: 2001's Totally Pokemon. Though the fad had slowed slightly by the turn of the 21st century, our friends at Rave Music managed to assemble one more collection of songs—and a collection of photogenic young people to sing them. So warm yourself by the...

Episode 423: Street Fighter II - Beyond the Game

We've talked about the World Warrior, we've talked about its many ports and revisions, now it's time to talk about All The Rest. Street Fighter II was so huge, it quickly spread beyond the world of games into other media. What kind of media? Let us tell you!

Diamond is your host on this journey to the 1990s as we run throu...

This Week In Retro: Mega Man 4

December 6, 1991: Think of this as Mega Man 2 2

by Diamond Feit

When it comes to video games, the magic word is "progress." Since the earliest days when Pong showed players which paddle had the most points, we expect games to let us know how far we have come si...

Episode 422: Radiant Historia

We have a patron request this week for a game that is somehow more than eligible for discussion under our 10-year cutoff rule! How is that possible? Can it really be that old? Apparently so. 

But it makes sense that this topic would have a slippery sense of placement in time: Radiant Historia was all about breaking the boundaries of linear time in order to rejigger history. Nadia leads this conversation as Jeremy, guest Anthony John Agnello, and Lifestream patron Lorenzo H...

This Week In Retro: Another World (1991)

November 1991: "Leh-tsoo-bah!"

by Diamond Feit

Are you familiar with the Japanese word "isekai"? It's a popular genre of fiction wherein the hero leaves the familiar world that we live in and ends up someplace else. It's not just a "fish out of water" scenario because t...

Episode 421: Golgo 13

I vowed 12 months ago that 2021 would be the Year of Golgo 13—by which I meant I was going to publish a couple of videos about Golgo 13 games. I did not expect 2021 to be the one where Golgo 13 made international news because its creator passed away after working on the series for more than 50 years! But here we are, and with the topic front of mind for multiple reasons, it only seemed right to make a podcast about it, too. 

So, this week, I connected w...

Episode 420: Retronauts 15th Anniversary Mailbag

Can you believe it? Our little podcast has now been around for 15 years! (That's the crystal anniversary for all of you out shopping for gifts.) So instead of reflecting on classic games this week, we've decided to do some self-reflection by talking about where we've been, where we are, and where we're going on this wacky rollercoaster we call "podcasting." And, in the back of half of the episode, we respond to your questions and comments about 15 years of Retronauts. Thanks again fo...

This Week In Retro: Fatal Fury

November 25, 1991: Legendary men debut

by Diamond Feit

When we speak of Street Fighter II changing the medium of video games, it wasn't overnight. Capcom's sequel to Street Fighter spent months capturing the attention of arcade regulars, eventually spr...

Episode 419: Pikmin

Our string of 20th anniversary extravaganzas finally comes to an end this week as we offer a little love to the GameCube, too. In celebration of the best launch-window release for GameCube, we look back at the charming, inventive, and long-overdue-for-that-sequel-Miyamoto-keeps-promising Pikmin series.

Description:

Henry Gilbert, Bryan Auer, and Wesley Fenlon heed the call of Jeremy Parish's whistle and race to gather as much information about Nintendo's ...

This Week In Retro: The King of Fighters 2001

November 15, 2001: The king has stumbled. Long live the king.

by Diamond Feit

Annual franchises get a bad rap. We point at big-budget brands like Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty and deride them as soulless corporate creations but how can we hold their...

Episode 418: Batman: The Animated Series Games

Back in 1992, a group of artists who'd previously honed their skills on Tiny Toon Adventures came together and redefined the Caped Crusader for a new generation. Their creation? Batman: The Animated Series, a phenomenal weekday cartoon that many still swear by as the definitive Batman adaptation. And with a new reboot on the way, there's never been a better time to look back on B:TAS, the games it spawned, and its remarkable legacy over the past three decades. On this episode of Retronauts, j...

Episode 417: Halo: Combat Evolved

As promised, the sorta-second part of our Xbox anniversary coverage. A note from this episode's host, Stuart:

Halo, good evening, and welcome to this Chief-tastic installment of Retronauts—the ARBITER of retrogaming podcasts! Join host Stuart Gipp, returning guest John Linneman and Master Chief Jeremy Parish for a deep dive into the inaugural entry of Bungie's incredible Halo series. Fun chat—evolved!

Art by Shaan Khan and edits by Greg Leahy. Music this episode:

This Week In Retro: Metroid II: Return of Samus

November 1991: Nintendo's mightiest hero gets her second shot at stardom

by Diamond Feit

Sequels are never a given, regardless of the medium. True, as costs rise and the expansion of entertainment necessitates bigger audiences to justify backing expensive productions, t...

Episode 416: The Xbox Launch and Legacy

In one sense, this episode is the first of a two-parter—next week we'll be looking at Xbox's big debut killer app, Halo. In another sense, this is a standalone episode dedicated wholly to the larger Xbox universe. It's like Obi-Wan says... something something certain point of view.

Kat, Stuart, and Ray join me this week to help cope with the reality that Xbox is, indeed, 20 damn years old. Weird. We dig into the extensively documented backstory of the system, discuss its launch lineup...

This Week In Retro: Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 3

November 2, 2011: We're going to need a bigger slime

by Diamond Feit

This is one of the hardest columns I've had to write. I'm a positive person by choice (because I've lived my life the other way and I know it does not work), but this week's topic is an unfortunate tal...

Episode 415: Metal Gear Solid 2

Want to feel old? This is Metal Gear Solid 2's surreal treatise on digital information's devastating impact on society and democracy today:

But I kid! Well, not entirely. I only regret that we recorded this Metal Gear Solid 2 retrospective about a month ago and therefore missed out on any number of "more like META Gear Solid 2!!" jokes. Seriously, though, this game ha...

This Week In Retro: Super Castlevania IV

October 31, 1991: Crack that whip...wiggly whip!

by Diamond Feit

Why a whip?

There is no shortage of stories about vampires, and all of them have their own guidelines on what does and does not destroy these creatures who consume human blood to survive. A wooden st...

Episode 414: The Addams Family Games

Video games were but the fevered dream of a madman when Charles Addams invented his creepy, kooky cartoon family 85 years ago, but in the futuristic year of 2021, Gomez and his clan of freaks have quite the collection of interactive adaptations under their belts—most of them designed to make children as miserable as Wednesday herself. On this episode of Retronauts, celebrate Halloween as Bob Mackey, 2021-10-31 07:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Episode 413: Green Mario Gaiden

Hey, it's that one guy! The one major Mario character we haven't discussed in elaborate depth yet. You know the one. We're finally talking about him, which means we're probably done with Mario characters? I guess there's always the possibility of a patron request to talk about, I dunno, Bowser Jr. or something. But hopefully not.

Edits by Greg Leahy, and cover art by Amanda Pruitt.

Music this episode:

• 09:48 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Mario Br...
  2021-10-25 12:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post

This Week In Retro: Batman: Arkham City

October 18, 2011: When you get caught between a loon and Gotham City

by Diamond Feit

Holy rebounds, Batman! After a few shaky years of lousy scripts, directors dropping out, and controversial casting choices, 2021-10-24 13:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Episode 412: Dark Souls

2011 amounted to a fantastic year for video games, but one of the most surprising releases of the year came in the form of Dark Souls. A sequel to a game Sony didn't even want to release in America, Dark Souls took advantage of a higher budget and lessons learned from Demon's Souls for an installment that would not only shape the direction of the series, but game design as a whole. On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey<...

Episode 411: Skyrim

Hey, folks, Jeremy here to share the 411 on Skyrim. 

Podcast humor!

I'm going to be honest: This topic was chosen in one part because Skyrim was one of the biggest and most influential games to arrive in the absolutely gobsmackingly content-packed fall of 2011. And in part because the game's extremely long legs mean it really doesn't feel like it belongs in Retronauts, and people are gonna be angry about it. But the point of this show is to...

This Week In Retro: Mortal Kombat Trilogy

October 11, 1996: Mortal Kombat counts to 3 thrice

by Diamond Feit

There's not much I miss about the 1990s. The fashion trends did not impress me, much of the music 2021-10-17 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Episode 410: Castlevania Ranking Hootenanny

Following hot on the heels of our extremely correct and authoritative Mega Man Ranking Hootenanny, newly minted co-host Nadia Oxford steps in to force Jeremy Parish and Kurt Kalata to apply similar academic rigor to the Castlevania franchise (just in time for the series' 35th anniversary, and also Halloween). Take it away, Nadia...

Greetings, good people of Warakiya. I am Nadia Oxfor...

This Week In Retro: Tempest

October 1981: Hell is empty and all the devils are here

by Diamond Feit

Do you believe hell is real? I grew up in a non-Christian household, so I viewed the existence of a bad place where people go after they die as just another popular myth, similar to Santa Claus, ...

Episode 409: Game Manuals

Today's post is actually only part one of this episode. Part two will be coming next week, in the form of the visual companion promised in the episode. (I'd post it now, but I'm off for another recording weekend and ran out of time amidst all the prep work.) 

After all, this episode is about game manuals: The tactile physicality of them, the experience of reading them... basically, it's a highly visual topic being presented through audio. Which is challenging! But I think it is a f...

Episode 408: Tales of Series

When the plucky developer Wolf Team set out to make a Super Famicom RPG on a grand scale in the mid-90s, the resulting production nearly destroyed the group, but resulted in Tales of Phantasia. Now, nearly 26 years later, the Tales of series stands as one of the few b-tier RPG brands from the 90s that's still going strong with regular installments, while the Star Oceans and Wild Armses of the world have fallen by the wayside. On this episode of Retronauts, join 2021-10-04 07:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post

This Week In Retro: Sunset Riders

September 1991: Draw, Konami!

by Diamond Feit

I don't know if coincidences are real or if everything we encounter is a deliberate arrangement of events for the benefit of an unseen force, but one funny thing I thought of recently is how closely the rise of video game...