No longer enslaved to Enslaved!
Final thoughts: Pigsy is a pig, Monkey is kinda like a monkey, and Trip is... kinda hot. What, you want to know more? Well listen to the 'cast!
It's probably best to keep games with "Mystery Dungeon" in the title away from Nick.
Mystery Dungeon. Seeing those two words in succession are enough to make me cringe. For years now, Chunsoft has been developing this series of roguelikes across different licenses, with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity marking the third in the respective subseries. No matter how they seem to spin this core concept, I simply can’t build an appreciation for it. While it tries to cater to a wider audience by removing the “hunger” facet and dialing down the difficulty, it’s still possible given its random nature to have the odds stacked so highly against you that there’s no chance for success.
Errbody inna arcade get tipsy!
This is a video game site, and you are a video game fan, but sometimes it’s important to look at games that have no video at all. These games appeal to players for the same reasons we pump thousands of dollars into our hobby and can give us great insight into some fundamentals of the latest modern console releases. Mechanical games are still around, mainly spitting out tickets at Chuck E. Cheese’s, but I want to explore some classics too. Whenever possible I plan to look at some of these games and discuss how they operate, why they’re fun, and if there’s a way to simulate playing them without too much trouble.
What will the label of the first official 8Bit Beer look like? You decide!
[UPDATE: The people have spoken! Due to community input, we've added a fourth option! Unfortunately this means that the poll has to be reset - so if you already voted come back and do it again!]
Infinite Praise
The wait for BioShock Infinite has been extremely long for some. I however, failed to realize the hype until I finally finished the original BioShock just a mere six months ago. Though I experienced the game late, its effects still resonated with me, and I found myself extremely excited for more. Ken Levine’s promises sounded fascinating: A living breathing world, a constant and helpful partner, and a refinement to the core BioShock action. The only question for me was “can Irrational Games pull it off?” After finishing BioShock Infinite, I can easily say… yes.
Get in on this Game Freak gem before Nintendo cuffs them back to Pokémon.
Pretending to be a rock star with mini-guitars was pretty cool for a few years, but we’ve thankfully moved past that fad and can start getting music-based games that aren’t just for fulfilling your leather pants wearing fantasies. We’ve had a few highlights in the rhythm genre here and there as those plastic instruments made their way from Best Buy to Big Lots, but now that they’re completely gone it looks like we should get more innovative and quirky music games like we used to. If HarmoKnight is an indicator of the upcoming rhythm game onslaught, then I say “bring it on.” Mixing platforming with call-and-answer beat matching, HarmoKnight is a wonderfully cute and addictively fun journey that will keep you on your (tapping) toes.
Play it loud!
It's time again for Nerds Without Pants! This week, JD joins us for a very special look at growing up in the '90s, and all the great games we experienced back then. So lace up your army boots, tie a flannel around your waist, and chug some Crystal Pepsi folks, because this episode of NWP is full of attitude and is so effing XTREME!
And the winner is....
It’s been an exciting couple of weeks, but just like that MIA March Madness is winding down. The polls have been closed and the votes tallied. It was anyone’s guess as to who would be crowned the 2013 MIA Champion, but we do have a clear winner. And that winner is….
Oh my!
In this week's PB & Jason, a few blogs are invaded, specifically Nick's "Ask Me Anything -- Volume #2" and GirlGamerBritt's "Replay Hell: Final Fantasy XIII (Yes, I'm going there)." Beyond those blogs, talk continues about Square-Enix's problems, courtesy of Coolsetzer's comment last issue, along with discussion about why LucasArts may have closed, Gearbox's Borderlands 2, and a little bit of Luigi's Mansion 2. Click through to listen to the podcast!
Comments: exposed!
At some point, somebody (or a group of people) asked me if we had a page out there that displayed all of the comments they left across the site. Of course, that feature did not exist at the time, so I added it to the list of components to create. Yesterday, I stealthily updated the site to include said functionality.
