What is This: Sacred Citadel

t's time for another "What is This!?", where Scott and I play a game completely oblivious to what it actually is. Join us this week to discuss Sacred Citadel and what the world would be like if we could all double jump in real life!

Earthbound is for Children

This week on PopMatters, I discuss Earthbound as Children's Literature.

My favorite children's books, for the most part, have some dark or very adult themes. I hated Peter Pan when I was young because I only knew the story depicted in cartoons. Reading it again as an adult, you instead find some depressing stuff about man's fear of death. Some of this you just can't appreciate when young.

Even so, I don't think adult themes removes a work's ability to speak to children. Indeed, it heightens it. I use Maurice Sendak's work as an example, but you find it everywhere in literature, from Alice in Wonderland to The Lorax. There is something different, I would argue, between a work meant to be enjoyed by adults and children alike, and a work meant to be enjoyed by children but nevertheless touches upon adult themes. Earthbound is resoundingly the latter.

Having never played Earthbound as a kid, I keep going wondering how something like this ever got made. It's not just weird, it's at times unsettling. How did anyone play this game and think "Yes. This will do gangbusters!" I have a hard time imagining how a ten year-old me would have understood the contents of Earthbound. Would I have caught all the subtle cultural references? Probably not, but they would have been there regardless.

While playing, I find myself feeling nostalgic for the experience of playing the game as a child, an experience I never had. I find the game fascinating today, but I can't help I missed out on visiting Earthbound when I was still a child.

EXP Podcast #321: Pixels, Snakes, and Nintendo News

Rumor has it Kojima is actually hiding in this picture

Classic arcade characters are on the rampage, Kojima has disappeared, and Nintendo has acknowledged the existence of smart phones: what the heck is happening out there?  This week, Jorge and I do a quick news roundup in an attempt to make sense of the chaos.  If we try to predict the box office, the fate of Kojima productions, and Nintendo's 5-year strategy, we have to get at least one.  I believe that's how statistics works.

- Here's the show's stand-alone feed
- Listen to the podcast in your browser by left-clicking here, right-click and select "save as link" to download the show in MP3 format, or click play below.

Show Notes:

- Runtime: 36 mins 16 secs

- The official trailer for Pixels
- "Konami removes Kojima name from Metal Gear games, Kojima rumored to leave (update)," by Megan Farokhmanesh, via Polygon
- "Exclusive: Nintendo CEO Reveals Plans for Smartphones," by Matt Peckham, via Time
- Music by Brad Sucks

Spelunky: El Juego de Muerte

Jorge and Scott brush up on their spelunking and foreign language skills. ¿Cómo se dice "jetpack bros?"

 

New Perspectives on 'Journey' and 'Earthbound'

Each year the journey is a little different

This week on PopMatters is all about revisiting some familiar games: Journey and Earthbound.

I don't get the chance to replay that many games.  More accurately, I don't make the time.  There's always something new and shiny.  There's always countless responsible-adult type things to focus on.

It's not like I have a problem playing the same game for what some might say is an excessive amount of time.  Spelunky, Titanfall, Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros.; I've sunk dozens of hours into each.  There's a common theme though: they're all unscripted.  There's no real story, so everything that comes up is either procedural or driven by my interaction with other players.

I seem to forget that even in a story-driven game, there's lots of variety between sessions.  Sometimes it's just picking up on small elements I missed the first time, but mostly it's reinterpreting things based on what has happened to me since the last time I played the game.  I remember reading Invisible Man as a kid and thinking it was fine.  I read it again as an adult was in awe.

The nice thing about Journey is that it remains an incredible game and continues to impress with its attention to detail.  Earthbound is following the trajectory of Invisible Man; what was once cool is now quickly becoming a masterpiece to me.  These games haven't changed on any mechanical level; it's the intervening years that have changed my mindset.

EXP Podcast #320: Con Artists

The Game Developers Conference, PAX East/Prime/South/West/Arctic, Twitch Con. There are just so many conventions to attend each year, all hoping to grab your attention with a selection of games, from Triple A to indie. This week on the EXP Podcast, Scott and I discuss the landscape of fan conventions, the presence of virtual reality hardware, and some of the games at the three conventions that just wrapped up over the past couple weeks. If you are a con-regular, let us know in the comments sections which you attend and what makes them interesting in particular?

- Here's the show's stand-alone feed
- Listen to the podcast in your browser by left-clicking here, right-click and select "save as link" to download the show in MP3 format, or click play below.

Show Notes:

- Runtime: 37 mins 45 secs

- Music by Brad Sucks

Risk of Rain: Stayin' Alive

Scott has honed his "risk of raining", so we go back once more into the breach. Have our skills improved? Are we better than ever!? Probably not.