PixlBit

 Chrono Crossing 1995

I know this is probably going to come up a lot for this edition of Chrono Crossing, but I have to give it up for Chrono Trigger! When I originally found out about it from online game sites in 1999-ish, our Super NES was long gone. So I didn't dare pass up the chance to play it on Final Fantasy Chronicles in 2001.

What surprised me the most was the feeling of nostalgia I felt when I heard the music themes early in the game, despite never having played it on the SNES before. From the melancholy piano theme of the forest to the heroic motiff of Frog's theme, the music is what tied the superb story and gameplay elements together for me.

Chrono Trigger was played at a time when I was still relatively new to RPGs and it hit me in just the right way!

Thanks for the shoutout. And I did reference what Julian said, but it wasn't out of pity. I legit think Julian is a good host. Thank you for giving me something to do in my office hours, which I make a point to have set aside for students, meaning I'm not usually doing much of anything else. Definitely love how this show fills the void. Although, while I'm dedicated, I am never pantsless when listening. 

Patrick, I want you to speak with my classes about video games and the power of them, because I hate that my media textbook doesn't have a chapter dedicated to them. I'm gonna mention it now so I can fail to follow through on it later. 

Japanese men are lucky. I would love to have women wear sweaters based on how ok they are with me hitting on them. The only problem is that red is a warm, "sexy" color and that might end up sending mixed messages if we color code things based on traffic lights.

Aw, c'mon ... shoulda played "Paranoid" too after Patrick used that word. lol 

Aw, shucks. You flatter me, sir.

Hitting Patrick up on twitter is probably the best way to reach him. I don't think he reads the comments unless I tell him he should.

Crazy Train will always be the song that is played whenever one of us says something so crazy that there are no words. So sayeth the editor!

You're mighty welcome. We disagree on a lot, but I think you're always fair and even handed about , which is a nice contrast to Patrick's semi-trolling (not that I don't dig that too; he and I actually have similar personalities I think).

Speaking of, that's probably why I fail to follow  through with him, since I almost always avoid Twitter and am a bona fide Facebook addict. Lol

And I don't disagree, I just thought "well he used the word paranoid..." lol I get the choice though.

Stage Select

My dream team would create a game where you control a clan of ninjas building up your territory on a turn-based overworld like Total War or Civilization, but instead of leading armies into combat you would control a solo-infiltrator into stealth levels with flexibility in how you accomplish objectives. To do this game I would have:

- Sid Meier creating the gameplay for the overworld and making sure the turn-based strategy is addicting on the macro scale of controlling your ninja clan, establishing trade, working natural resources, and strengthening your culture and religion.

- Hideo Kojima would create the realtime stealth gameplay where you could assassinate enemies, spread propaganda, rescue prisoners, steal technology and wealth, or sabotage the infrastructure of other clans, and otherwise have a variety of options to weaken another clan from within, subvert them to your cause, or unleash unethical weapons to outright destroy a village. I'd also want him to cleverly insert situations that make you think more critically about the human costs of the imperialism that you're engaging in.

- John Carmack would be our lead programmer and he could build the engine.

- Satoru Iwata would be a programmer/producer in charge of everybody, and I'd use him to make sure all the input and inevitable messes resulting from these big personalities stay on schedule and get cut until we have a shippable game of high quality. I don't think anybody said our developer had to be alive still, so I think Iwata would be very beneficial to a team.

Chrono Crossing 1995

 My pick is MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat. As a kid I was a big fan of the movie Robot Jox and seeing people get into huge robots to fight each other, so I thought MechWarrior was an awesome idea. It was too complicated for me at that age so I never finished any of the clan's campaigns and I had trouble understanding all the customization for the mechs, but I still thought it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen.

It was nice to have a solid Consumption Junction episode. I wish you had the time to make a 4 hour podcast. I know NWP isn't as renowned as Bombcast, Geekbox, or many others but I really appreciate  (as I'm sure many others here do) the time and effort you guys put to make this podcast. I think things are starting to fall in place. Seems like there's new listeners jumping on board every episode. I really hope NWP can reach the success other game podcasts do because you guys deserve it. NWP comes second (or third) only to Bomb/Beastcast. It's survived podcast purges and skyrocketed past so many of my weekly staples. Keep it up guys. 

Man, I was obsessed with hearthstone. But I cut ties with it hard. It became a chore and money pit. One day in the middle of a match I was winning, I forfeited. I took all my legendaries, which i had most of the best ones, and dusted them. Later when a new expansion came out, I got pulled in again. I had lots of dust from all those legendaries so I was able to make a killer deck. Two days later I dusted all my new legendaries, all my epics, and crafted 4 golden garbage legendaries. So if i ever get tempted, I'll look at my account and see a golden Pat Nagle, Millhouse Manastorm, Lorewalker Cho and Anomalus. Really glad I quit when I did but glad to see some are getting joy from it again. Now I'm just addicted to Fire Emblem Heroes...

Hey Julian, whats your opnion on Yu yu Hakusho? I loved it when I watched it. Wish itd make a comeback.

I also had a small list of Wii games that may be worth looking into. Some may be obvious to someone like you who's a collector but maybe there's a few surprises.

Lost in Shadow
Madworld
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn
Muramasa the Demon Blade
Sin and Punishment: Star Successor
Zack and Wiki
The Last Story
Pandoras tower
Boomblox 

Giant Bomb is my favorite podcast by far, so you even mentioning us in the same sentence is the highest praise I can think of, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. While I don't think we're anywhere in their league (difficult to do when we're not in the same room), I have to admit some frustration recently that we aren't bigger than we are. But we're definitely growing, and we appreciate every person that listens, even if we don't hear from many of them.

I have not seen Yu Yu Hakusho, but martial arts anime is my favorite, which is why I love DBZ, Ranma 1/2, Naruto, and Rurouni Kenshin. I will have to check it out. I watched the first episode of Fist of the North Star, which is total 80's over the top goodness. 

Let's see...I actually just recently picked up Madworld, Last Story, and Pandora's Tower. Fire Emblem has quickly become one of the most expensive games on the system. I already own Zack and Wiki, but I really need to grab Sin and Punishment and Boomblox while I can. Muramasa would definitely be on my list, but I own it on Vita. Thanks for the suggestions! 

Stage Select:  I do not know developer names that well, but Metal Gear being my favorite series, I do know Hideo Kojima.  I would team with him up with David Jaffey ( don't think I spelled that right ).  I would have them create an action and stealth game with an awesome story since I like the stories in the games both of them have made.  Story has always been my favorite thing in games, so I would be interested in what they could come up with. 

Chrono Crossing:  I did not get to comment in time on the stage select where we got to rank our favorite consoles but I love Sega Genesis.  It would have been number two on my list. My game for 1995 is Comix Zone. I have probably beat this game 50 times.  It was very fun to play and I always carried the rat with me to help me find secrets.  I bought the Sega Genesis Collection for PS3  and still play it on there to this day. 

 I keep missing the deadlines to submit my answers.  I am writing this having not listen to this week's podcast yet. I like that you are putting the topics and the deadlines in the articles now. That is very helpful. Keep up the good work. 

A Wild Newb Appears! *Que Pokemon Battle Musics*

Crono Crossing: So I have two, becasue I'm a scrub who couldn't decide. The first of which is Earthworm Jim 2. Despite the fact that I was only 3 in 1995, I destinctly remember my older sister playing Earthworm Jim on our rented Sega. It sparked a gaming madness in me that will stay until my last heart drops and I'm out of quarters. The second is a game I actually played. In 1999 my parents bought me a used Gameboy Pocket and I joined the Ranks of the Pokemon Gremlins (What up Pokemon Red). But in the bottom of the box of my also used Pokemon Game I found something that probably should have been. Kirby's Dreamland 2. KD2 Sparked a love of colorful plateforming and eating that has stuck with me well into adulthood. 

Stage Select: I am terrible at knowing the names of the wonderful people who create my most precious addiction... er... Hobby. But ever since I was a kid I wanted to see a hybrid of the pokemon clone Robopon, and Capcoms, Metal Walker. Creating a Post-Apocalyptic Pokemon style adventure where you battle with cobbled together robots that don't make a whole lot of sense when you actually look at them (Or a good Zoids game, really either one would satisfy me). 

I