Seriously, Justin needs that eye procedure...
Welcome to another stellar edition of Nerds Without Pants! Gonna be some abridged show notes this week, as typing this is literally causing Julian physical pain, so let’s hop right in!
Money tight? Why not play an amazing game from yesteryear for cheap?
Hello all, April is over. Now we move on from the showers into May. May doesn't seem to be brimming with exciting new titles this month. Rage 2 is probably the highlight. While the original was fairly mixed, maybe this new entry can boost the series. We also have the new kart racer, Team Sonic Racing. I know we have all been waiting for this. While May be a bit light in 2019, it has historically hit some grand slams this generation. Let's take a look.
Two games enter, one game leaves!
Welcome, to a very special episode of Nerds Without Pants! Wait, wasn’t last episode special because we began the Great Game Giveaway? Yes, yes it was, but this time we’re unveiling our new third segment: Video Game Cage Match! We have a banger of an opening bout for you, too, as Sonic 2 squares off against Mega Man 2 in the Battle of the Blue Boys!
Listen and win!
Welcome, friends and lovers, to the next episode of Nerds Without Pants! This week, we are very excited to kick off the Great Game Giveaway! Somewhere in this episode is a secret code phrase. Listen for it, and DM Julian (don’t expose it publicly please) for a chance to win a digital copy of Kingdom Hearts 3 or Resident Evil 2 remake! Follow us on Twitter and retweet the episode post for another entry, and you can share the show on Facebook for yet another chance to win! Good luck, and now, on to the show!
Sit down and let us school you.
Welcome back to a thoughtful Nerds Without Pants! Patrick had a smarty pants Stage Select topic, so we enlisted the smartiest pants person we know: Mike Fallek of the Hackthought Podcast. What follows is comedy, heated debates, and the debut of the Patrick Leap? Listen and find out, Pantsless people!
Half of this episode is missing, too!
Gah! What the hell happened? Well, Julian will explain, but basically, this edition of Nerds Without Pants is problematic. Wait, that’s not the right phrase. It’s plagued with problems. Lots of problems! To quote The Doctor: “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” Hopefully you power through the audio issues, because we have former PixlBit Features Editor Jesse Miller to talk about missing in action games. Please be gentle in the comments; Julian agonized over this one.
All warped out.
Velocity 2X, by all measures, is a well made game. It has a pretty extensive amount of content including 50 core levels with a healthy number of objectives to achieve in each, a set of unlockable puzzle-based bonus levels, and the Switch version even includes the DLC out-of-the-box. But even after completing the whole game, I never really felt satisfied with it. While there’s a lot of content, each level feels similar to the last and this lack of diversity eventually wore me down. By the time the credits rolled, I was relieved to be done with it.
Oh, we've got your Heat Actions right here!
Wait, what's this? Two special episodes of Nerds Without Pants in a row? Yes, friends, it's true! Our...modified recording schedule led to some, er, confusion. Luckily, we had special guest and long time NWP commenter SuperStep on hand to pick up the slack. So buckle up for a non-spoiler, deep dive discussion about Yakuza Kiwami 2 and the Yakuza series as a whole.
A little NWP is better than no NWP, amirite?
Welcome to a slapdash special edition of Nerds Without Pants! Scheduling and tech woes have kept us from recording a proper episode, but instead of leaving our wonderful audience high and dry, Julian has cobbled together this impromptu resurrection of Digital Mystery Tour, our failed video game music podcast from...4 years ago? Sheesh. Anyway, we hope you enjoy!
Just one more level...
20XX, despite being thoroughly inspired by Mega Man X, manages to distinguish itself by throwing away a good portion of that formula for something much more chaotic. The team at Batterystaple Games has managed to recreate the feel of Mega Man X, in both its control and enemy design, but mashes it into a roguelike design that includes randomly generated levels and temporal upgrades that are gained and constrained to your given run through the game. Each pass you’ll encounter different power ups, approach bosses in a different order and apply different approaches to make your way through. Level and boss design, as well as their relative challenge, will even vary based on how deep into a run you are. Progress can be slow, but somewhere along the way, 20XX will get its hooks into you and you’ll be unable to resist the pull of taking on another level or starting up a new run in an effort to make it to the end.
