The legacy of the crystals, blah, blah, blah
Welcome to a big edition of Nerds Without Pants! It’s a slow news week, but that’s okay, because we have a lot to say about Final Fantasy XVI, and a good amount of emails. Enjoy!
Or: This Episode is Terrible
We’re still getting things off the ground for 2021 here at Nerds Without Pants, so this is an all Consumption Junction episode of the show. Mike Fallek joins us for a show that goes off the rails almost immediately and never recovers. So if that sounds like your bag, here we go!
Sega's Little Miracle
Let's take a minute to go back in time to 1986. Nintendo was basking in the success of their NES console with hits like Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, and The Legend of Zelda. Meanwhile, Sega wanted to prove that the Master System was the better entertainment medium of choice. Attempting to go toe to toe with Mario, they created Alex Kidd in Miracle World. For Master System fans, the release of this game was a day to remember. According to them, it was the dawn of a new era. According to some, Mario had met his match, and Nintendo would soon crumble under Sega's mighty fist. But reality had other plans.
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Ok, I won’t lie; I’ve been editing this episode for almost an entire week, and I just don’t have the mental bandwidth left to write a pithy, entertaining show post. Y’all don’t read this stuff anyway, amirite? Yeah, so here we go.
N. Sanely beautiful.
Back when Crash Bandicoot hit the scene, I was a firmly entrenched Nintendo fanboy. Crash, to me, was a second rate 3D platformer that was put to utter shame by the fantastic platformer offerings of the N64. I’ll admit, the N. Sane Trilogy has done little to elevate the core material for me, but it does leave me wishing that other companies would show as much love and care to their older 3D games as Vicarious Visions has shown here.
I expect better from you, WayForward.
I don’t know about you, but when I hear about an indie developed game sporting a pseudo-16-bit pixel aesthetic I find myself rolling my eyes. This goes double when said game is an action/exploration game (“Metroidvania” if you’re lazy). I just find these types of games to be played out. However, if you tell me that WayForward is working on the game you pique my interest enough to plunk down twenty bucks on The Mummy: Demastered, a game I hadn’t heard of. Was my curiosity rewarded? Ehhh…
Those sure are some pretty looking games...
There is no doubt that Microsoft has had a rough, uphill battle since they first showed the Xbox One at E3 2013. Between a misguided push towards an all-digital future and a higher launch price point than the PlayStation 4, the market penetration that MS had with the Xbox 360 seemed to vanish in just a couple short years. With Sony continuing to win with their console and so much positive feedback on the Nintendo Switch, all eyes were on Microsoft for their E3 2017 press conference. Would their widely hyped Project Scorpio hardware be enough to put them back into competition? Only history will tell, but for now, it may be a case of too little, too late.
We can rebuild it. We have the technology.
As video game enthusiasts, we tend to want sequels to be these huge shifts from the previous iteration of a series, sporting tons of new features and locations while retaining the core concepts that made the game fun in the first place. It’s a tall order, and obviously some sequels nail this formula while others miss the mark entirely. Then there are games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, which is “just” more of the same mechanics and progression as seen in 2011’s Human Revolution. While there is little to set Mankind Divided apart from its predecessor that isn’t a bad thing, is it?
Don't let the cute article image fool you; this one is filthy!
Welcome to what is easily the craziest episode of Nerds Without Pants of ALL TIME. That’s because we have Tyler and Bob from the TnB Podcast on this week, and Patrick is running the Stage Select segment. Seriously, you don’t stand a chance against this episode. Just surrender now. All your attention is belong to us.
We share our love of gaming with our loved ones.
Welcome back to Nerds Without Pants! On this episode, Friend of the Show John Gholson joins us to discuss how gaming works with romantic relationships. Before that, we have some Consumption Junction fun.
