PixlBit

It's funny that it was mentioned that block puzzles are just obsolete because I think these recent years have shown the exact opposite! Stephen's Sausage Roll is essentially nothing but quote-unquote simple block puzzles and that won a bunch of journalist awards in 2016 and currently has a 97% on Steam. Or to use a recent example, Baba Is You which just came out combines block puzzles with logic puzzles (for instance, if there's a line that says WALL IS STOP, removing any of those blocks from that line means walls won't physically stop your character anymore) to make something fascinating and genre-breaking. In actuality it's almost something of a block puzzle resurgence!

STAGE SELECT: Six words: Final Fantasy Sixteen Milk Mod Economy. You may ask "cows"? Who cares all farms have cows! Yes Sir! You are absolutely right, all of Eos have cows! Just think about the possibilities! So, your are interested? Let’s continue then, when you join our ranks, you get exclusive access to milk machines spread across the Eos all equipment will be provided with a small fee. You will have exclusive contracts to sell your milk at finest prices, or you can leave it to yourself and enjoy its effects during dark cold evenings.

Seriously, though, I really like the old mix-and-match job systems that the old Final Fantasy games, let's say up to V, had. Something about mastering a job and then using its quirky masteries together with other job's abilities to destroy superbosses just feels really satisfying. That, or belts. Nobody's sick of adding more belts.

VIDEO GAME CAGE MATCH: Ooh, what close one! My numbers say that The Witcher 3 has an 11% chance of winning over Bloodborne! That's hardly anything. It's almost enough for somebody to fix the results or something. Say, does anybody remember that The Witcher 3 shipped with a movement scheme that was so horrible they patched it out instantly? Boy, I wouldn't want to be somebody to vote for The Witcher 3, how embarrassing! Also, make sure to put my vote towards Bloodborne for... totally valid, readily apparent legal reasons of course.  I mean, gameplay reasons.  Gameplay.

It's weird, the part I stuck on longest with this podcast, of all things, was the audiobook discussion. I guess it really depends on your concentration. Like, an audiobook you're listening to when you're doing three different things (or just driving! Which honestly you probably shouldn't be doing) doesn't seem to me like it'd get retained as well as the concentration required to even just focus on a book. Or maybe I'm just good at noticing when my reading slips and to refocus and reread? I can't imagine doing that really with an audiobook, at least on the level or with ease you can do that with a normal book. Even relooking something up, I seem to be able to refind stuff easier in a physical book than, "Oh, didn't I hear something about this? Oh, I'll never find it." Maybe I'm just a poor listener!

STAGE SELECT: Favorite puzzle? Any puzzle where the solution is to reenter the door you seemingly just came from. Take that, spatiality! Favorite puzzle maker? Zachtronics. I don't know how Zach makes a living (a living!) making obtuse, programmic puzzles fun but, by gawd, somehow they've done it!

VIDEO GAME CAGE MATCH: Yakuza 1 vs Skyrim!? What is this? Ketchup vs Chocolate? Houseplants vs Screwdrivers? I can't make odds on this nonsense! Also, am I crazy or is this like comparing something the size of Knott's Berry Farm versus something the size of Disneyland? You want odds, let's get odd. Give it to Knott's Berry Farm... er, Yakuza (and let's pretend it's 0. Go play 0).

Heck yeah, Tomba!  I mean, totally wrong on the Cage Match (like anyone would care if it wasn't Disney and Final Fantasy nostalgia.  Replace the paint with, I don't know, Hello Kitty and whatever Western RPG is popular and see who gives a dang.  Meanwhile, Mother series produced 3 totally original, creative games) but what can you do?

STAGE SELECT: I think it's easy to just throw a coat of paint on a popular game, add some horrible bloom, and, bam, successful remake.  But what's the point (I mean, you know, besides money)?  Why not take a great game that hasn't aged well and fix those things that make it unapproachable to today's audience, or even to take a flop in an otherwise fantastic series (misunderstood or not) and make that series's legacy even stronger?  So my submission is Zelda 2, possibly the least approachable mainstream Zelda game.  It's got a lot of fantastic things going for it (great sense of exploration, a strong combat system from a limited console, interesting platforming, and really a grand example of early Adventure games before that genre became more codified) but it certainly isn't for anyone that can't appreciate old-school-style Adventure games.  Give it a go, Nintendo!

VIDEO GAME CAGE MATCH: Booky's odds: 5:2 that Street Fighter V will lose (if you know your odds, that's bad). The numbers don't lie, people, Street Fighter V will win!  Personally, I think Mortal Kombat XL is the winner here, Street Fighter V not knowing what it wants to be and just another in a long line of missteps (woof that single player), with Mortal Kombat XL being the latest in a long line of funnest-if-not-always-consistent games that knows what it wants to be (wackadoo city).