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Watch Out for Fireballs!

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Watch Out for Fireballs! is a game club podcast that covers video games from every era, from retro to newer releases, indie to AAA. Each week we dive deep into the game's mechanics and narrative to figure out what works and what doesn't. Hosted by Gary Butterfield and Kaye Ross, this show has been going since 2011. New episodes every Thursday. For full versions of our premium episodes, back us at patreon.com/duckfeedtv! Public RSS Feed: https://www.patreon.com/rss/80117?show=800722
More details
Watch Out for Fireballs! is a game club podcast that covers video games from every era, from retro to newer releases, indie to AAA. Each week we dive deep into the game's mechanics and narrative to figure out what works and what doesn't. Hosted by Gary Butterfield and Kaye Ross, this show has been going since 2011. New episodes every Thursday. For full versions of our premium episodes, back us at patreon.com/duckfeedtv! Public RSS Feed: https://www.patreon.com/rss/80117?show=800722
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Episodes

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Live from the Midwest Gaming Classic, Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about Nintendo's little-loved Pilotwings series.

Afterwards, we talk about our experience at the convention.

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

More description

Live from the Midwest Gaming Classic, Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about Nintendo's little-loved Pilotwings series.

Afterwards, we talk about our experience at the convention.

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Extract Knowledge
Listen elsewhere
Published 2017-05-11

Watch Out for Fireballs! 156: Crimson Shroud

188 min
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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross chance upon Crimson Shroud.

Yasumi Matsuno is responsible for some amazing games, Final Fantasy Tactics chief among them. One of his lesser-known projects is Crimson Shroud, a JRPG released for the 3DS as a part of a collection of smaller games. While it's soaked in Matsuno's style, Crimson Shroud is truly special because it emulates the trappings of tabletop games, right down to simulating dice rolls. But does it stick the landing?

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

More description

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross chance upon Crimson Shroud.

Yasumi Matsuno is responsible for some amazing games, Final Fantasy Tactics chief among them. One of his lesser-known projects is Crimson Shroud, a JRPG released for the 3DS as a part of a collection of smaller games. While it's soaked in Matsuno's style, Crimson Shroud is truly special because it emulates the trappings of tabletop games, right down to simulating dice rolls. But does it stick the landing?

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Extract Knowledge
Listen elsewhere

Hi there, we have some news for you about the future of Watch Out for Fireballs! and Bonfireside Chat. We think it’s pretty exciting.

The short version of it is that Bonfireside Chat is ending in August, and will be replaced with more frequent episodes of Watch Out for Fireballs!.

The long version can be found below. We’ve got a lot of stuff to talk about, and we want to hear what you think. So we’ve set up a survey to gather your input. And we’re giving away three (3) $20 Steam gift cards to some randomly drawn people from the respondents. Please read everything here before you complete the survey, if you could.

Here’s a link to the survey: https://duckfeed.typeform.com/to/LDPTnY

Table of Contents
  1. Bonfireside Chat is Ending

  2. How is Bonfireside Chat going to end?

  3. What’s Replacing Bonfireside Chat?

  4. Watch Out for Fireballs! is Going Weekly

  5. WOFF! Will Change Schedules in August

  6. What’s Happening to the Crystal Chronicles?

  7. What’s Happening to Other Shows on the Network?

  8. How is the Patreon Changing?

  9. Early Release is getting better.

  10. We’re changing the Slack access tier.

  11. What are some open questions?

  12. We’re holding a survey.

Timeline of Changes

Not all of this is happening immediately. Here’s a brief timeline so you can know what takes effect when.

  • January: WOFF! expands beyond retro games.

  • May: Brayton replaces Gary on Check It Out, Comrade!

  • Late June: Changes to the Duckfeed Patreon will take effect.

  • July 1: Early Release shifts to 1 week early instead of 1 day early.

  • July 9: Bonfireside Chat Victory Lap season begins.

  • August 1: Watch Out for Fireballs! schedule change takes effect.

  • August 20: Final Bonfireside Chat airs.

Bonfireside Chat is Ending

It’s strange to begin an announcement about Watch Out for Fireballs! with news for a different show, but the fate of Bonfireside Chat affects everything on the network. We’ve thought about it long and hard, and we’ve decided to end Bonfireside Chat in August of 2017.

Bonfireside Chat and the Dark Souls series have both been very good to us. We’ve met a ton of great people doing the show, built an audience, and made some great episodes. But the Dark Souls 3 season kind of broke us. It was the first time we had to spend so much time playing, examining, and talking about a game that we’re not crazy for.

We knew the end of Bonfireside Chat would happen some day. As early as a year ago, FromSoft told us that the series was concluding. We entertained the notion of continuing the show by talking about SoulsLikes, but those are of wildly varying quality. And all of our thoughts come back to this: Dark Souls was a game that was so good that we couldn’t **not* do a show about it.* Most of the sequels were as well. But it makes no sense to bind ourself to things that merely imitate something that we love.

What if From releases a new SoulsBorne game?

E3 is in a few weeks, and it’s totally possible that From will announce something related to Souls. This won’t change our decision. Instead, that game will be covered on Watch Out for Fireballs! The same applies to any really good SoulsLikes.

How is Bonfireside Chat going to end?

We have a plan for ending Bonfireside Chat, and we’ve alluded to it before. This summer, we’re walking back through the whole series in the opposite order that we’ve covered it. Each game will get an episode + appendix pair, and we’re going to talk about each entry in the broader context of the series now that we know how it ends.

So that means the order is as follows:

  • Bloodborne (July 2)

  • Dark Souls 2 (July 16)

  • Demon’s Souls (July 30)

  • Dark Souls (August 13)

These episodes will have guests, and they’re already chosen from our Bonfireside Chat After Dark tier backers. They are John Hurst, Mitch Benes, Randy Walker, and Kilo Pascal.

Prior to that, we’re going to cover the remaining soulslikes we’ve committed to covering. Namely, Let It Die, Nioh, and Hollow Knight.

You’ll notice that this brings the entire podcast around full circle. We like how appropriate that feels.

What Happened to Bonfireside Chat After Dark?

We miscalculated when we added Bonfireside Chat After Dark to the Patreon. We had no idea what would happen with the series or the show when we thought that up. We’ll own that mistake, and we also want to make it right… and here’s how.

Those backers who would have been guests on Bonfireside Chat After Dark will instead guest on those final revisit episodes. It feels right to get people from the community involved in the victory lap, especially if they are people who have supported us as much as those individuals have. We’ve spoken with them, and they’re cool with it.

If you paid for a prompt or question on Bonfireside Chat After Dark, we will use your responses during those recap appendices. Please look for a message in your email inbox toward the beginning of June.

What’s Replacing Bonfireside Chat?

We’ve gotten a lot of suggestions about what to cover after Bonfireside Chat ends. People were pulling hard for games like the Witcher and Nier. We seriously kicked around the idea of starting up a show that chronologically examined the Resident Evil games. The Crystal Chronicles was on our Patreon milestone goals for a very long time (more on that later).

Starting up a new show about a new series of games makes less sense than making big changes to Watch Out for Fireballs!, which has always been our flagship show. What happens if we broaden that umbrella, and make changes to the schedule to allow us to cover more games in greater depth?

What’s it look like if the Witcher 3 becomes a game we could cover on WOFF!?

You end up with something we’ve codenamed WOFF! 2.0. But we likely won’t use that name in the future.

Watch Out for Fireballs! is Going Weekly

WOFF becoming more frequent is a huge deal for us. And here’s what it looks like.

The first 3 weeks of each month (or the first 4, if it’s a 5 week month) will feature full episodes about short or medium length games, or episodes about portions of larger games (like we’ve done with large games in the past). The last episode of each month will be a collective listener response episode about all of the games we covered that month.

This kind of grouping will also let us do themed batches of episodes each month. Hypothetically, this is what “Weird NES Sequels” month would look like.

  • Week 1: Super Mario Bros. 2

  • Week 2: Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest

  • Week 3: Zelda II: The Adventures of Link

  • Week 4: Feedback episode about all three of the previous games.

Other ideas for themed groups of episodes would be a long look at the Wolfenstein series, going from Wolfenstein 3D to the 2008 reboot to Wolfenstein: The New Order. We could also do a Resident Evil cleanup month, with Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Code: Veronica, and Resident Evil 6. We aren’t promising that either of those will happen right away, but they’re examples.

If this sounds familiar, it’s similar to how we’ve treated JRPGs and CRPGs in the past. The Neverwinter Nights II series of episodes was a test model for this, and we think those episodes turned out very well.

Looking at the math, our old “tick tock” model of release would usually result in 26 episodes per year. Our multi-part episodes have made us come out with slightly more than that (for example, we released 30 episodes in 2016). Under the new model, you would get 40 mainline episodes per year.

Here are a few things that will happen as a result of this:

  • We will cover more “small” games. The Pac Man 2 episode in the Duck Bundle was a test for how this would work.

  • Split episodes will go away (namely, single episodes that feature two games, like the Starflight/Toe Jam & Earl episode, or the Brawler special).

  • We’ll be a little more liberal about splitting meaty games into multiple parts (example: Metal Gear Solid 2 is on our docket, and we’re splitting that 12 hour game in 2 because we will have a lot to say).

  • We’ll have to be more comfortable with some episodes being “only” 60-90 minutes, as we cover some shorter stuff.

Two things that won’t go away are poll episodes and executive produced episodes. Those will be folded into the model, and remain unchanged. That means one of those will happen each quarter (or four times per year).

Another consequence is that listener response episodes will be much meatier since they’ll cover 3 or 4 games, and there will be a more consistent deadline… namely, responses about all of the games should come in by the 15th of each month.

WOFF! Will Change Schedules in August

The changes to the WOFF! schedule will begin August 3, with Final Fantasy IV month. That’s right, we’ll be covering all of Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. For reference, here’s the schedule up through that point:

What’s Happening to the Crystal Chronicles?

You may wonder what us covering FF4 on WOFF! means for the Final Fantasy show we had planned. It means that show won’t happen. We pegged that show at a very high milestone amount because it would take a tremendous amount of work. But as Bonfireside Chat wound down, we realized we probably wouldn’t hit that total any time soon. And redesigning WOFF! presented an opportunity to cover the Final Fantasy games that were meaningful to us without taking on an unreasonable workload that would harm the rest of the shows.

In general, we want to be very circumspect about adding new shows, so we’re going to make some changes to the Patreon campaign to reflect that. Expect more details later.

Of note: Heartbeat City will not go away. Gary will record and release a pilot for that soon.

What’s Happening to Other Shows on the Network?

This change shouldn’t have a huge impact on other shows, but there are some things we’d like to announce/clarify so people know what’s up.

Gary is taking a leave of absence from Check It Out, Comrade!, the network’s indie game show. Brayton Cameron from Teenage Dirtbags will be replacing him. Gary made this decision to free up more time for working on his book, and playing things for the new iteration of WOFF! We’re really excited to have Brayton take over his seat. Brayton is hilarious, and has different taste in games than Gary does, so you will see them cover different stuff. Gary will still come back for specific games (think Thimbleweed Park or Torment: Tides of Numenera).

File Under Water has an end date. Right now, it’s slated to end in late October. A show about R.E.M. was always going to be limited, because they only put out a limited number of albums. We currently have no plans to cover another band.

Radio Free Mid-World is a limited show as well. Once we run out of Dark Tower books, related works by King, and related media (the movies, TV show, whatever else comes) we will end that show. Don’t worry, this won’t happen until 2019 at the earliest.

How is the Patreon Changing?

We’re making some adjustments to the way our Patreon works, in order to reflect these changes to our show lineup. Chiefly (and logically), we’re getting rid of the $75 BSC Afterdark tier, and removing the “get a prompt on BSC Afterdark” from the $10 tier.

We are also removing The Crystal Chronicles as a milestone goal.

Both of these will be replaced by something else in due time… Look a little further down to see what we’re thinking of (and to see how you can help).

We’re also making two other big changes.

Early Release is getting better.

Effective around the end of June and the beginning of July, episodes on the Early Release feed will come out a week early, instead of a day early. We are also raising the price of this perk to $5 per month. This is more valuable, we think, and it brings us closer in line with other Patreon campaigns that offer a similar perk.

We’re going to make a great deal of these changes in the middle of June, and the “1 Week Early” change will happen for any episode that would have normally come out in July.

The only show this doesn’t apply to right now is The Level, which will come out 1-2 days early because of how that show is produced.

We’re changing the Slack access tier.

Effective sometime in June, Slack invites will only go to backers at $5 and up. If you already have access to the Slack team, or access the Slack team before the change is made, then you will be grandfathered in. We will not revoke Slack access from people.

We’re doing this for a couple of reasons. The community is getting very big, and it’s requiring more work and more touch than it did in the past. This will help control that. Additionally, it will reduce the number of drive-bys that happen, as $5 is a bigger investment.

Something to note is that the $1 tier will not go away. Those small donation amounts are huge for us. You will still get access to incidental content, and access to Watch Out for Fireballs! polls.

What are some open questions?

Everything laid out before this paragraph is a decision we’ve already made. We feel like they are good decisions, and we wouldn’t shake things up so much if we didn’t feel so secure in how things are going.

But each big decision is accompanied by multiple smaller decisions. And that’s why we’re running this survey… to gather useful information from you, and to hear your thoughts and ideas about how the network can get better at giving you things you want.

Here are some questions that have gone unanswered, and we want your help.

What’s a good replacement for the $75 tier? That’s a lot of money to give, and we want to make it awesome. Would you want to guest on an episode? Dictate a piece of media for a Try This type show? Dictate the subject of some video content like Let’s Plays?

What kind of new milestones goals would you like to see? Should we do another live show each year? Should we hold a virtual DuckCon? Include more guest episodes on WOFF!?

Do one-off milestones interest you? Not every milestone needs to be an ongoing commitment. Maybe we could do some actual-play tabletop one-offs. Maybe we could set a goal for Gary and Kole to stream some co-op games.

And there are other questions we haven’t even thought to ask. We want to know what would make you a patron if you aren’t one already. We want to know what stuff we do that you care about, and we also want to know what you don’t care about.

We’d also like to hear how you feel about the changes to our biggest shows. We’ve already made our decision about ending Bonfireside Chat, but it’s worth understanding how this will impact your listenership and patronage.

Something we don’t want to hear is “Stick to Games” or “Stop mentioning politics.” We also don’t want to hear “Be more positive.” Save yourself the time and hassle if that’s what you were going to say.

We’re holding a survey.

After this novella of a post, we want to know what you think. Use the button below to fill out the survey. It will be a huge help to us. Completing the survey and selecting “Yes, I would like to enter the contest” will enter you for a chance to win a $20 Steam gift card (we are giving out three of them). We are especially interested in your responses if you’re not already a Patron of Duckfeed.tv on Patreon.

A link to the survey: https://duckfeed.typeform.com/to/LDPTnY

Thank you so much for reading this, if you’ve gotten this far. Your support has meant the world to us, and we are incredibly excited about what these changes mean for the network. Thanks for being along for the ride.

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

More description

Hi there, we have some news for you about the future of Watch Out for Fireballs! and Bonfireside Chat. We think it’s pretty exciting.

The short version of it is that Bonfireside Chat is ending in August, and will be replaced with more frequent episodes of Watch Out for Fireballs!.

The long version can be found below. We’ve got a lot of stuff to talk about, and we want to hear what you think. So we’ve set up a survey to gather your input. And we’re giving away three (3) $20 Steam gift cards to some randomly drawn people from the respondents. Please read everything here before you complete the survey, if you could.

Here’s a link to the survey: https://duckfeed.typeform.com/to/LDPTnY

Table of Contents
  1. Bonfireside Chat is Ending

  2. How is Bonfireside Chat going to end?

  3. What’s Replacing Bonfireside Chat?

  4. Watch Out for Fireballs! is Going Weekly

  5. WOFF! Will Change Schedules in August

  6. What’s Happening to the Crystal Chronicles?

  7. What’s Happening to Other Shows on the Network?

  8. How is the Patreon Changing?

  9. Early Release is getting better.

  10. We’re changing the Slack access tier.

  11. What are some open questions?

  12. We’re holding a survey.

Timeline of Changes

Not all of this is happening immediately. Here’s a brief timeline so you can know what takes effect when.

  • January: WOFF! expands beyond retro games.

  • May: Brayton replaces Gary on Check It Out, Comrade!

  • Late June: Changes to the Duckfeed Patreon will take effect.

  • July 1: Early Release shifts to 1 week early instead of 1 day early.

  • July 9: Bonfireside Chat Victory Lap season begins.

  • August 1: Watch Out for Fireballs! schedule change takes effect.

  • August 20: Final Bonfireside Chat airs.

Bonfireside Chat is Ending

It’s strange to begin an announcement about Watch Out for Fireballs! with news for a different show, but the fate of Bonfireside Chat affects everything on the network. We’ve thought about it long and hard, and we’ve decided to end Bonfireside Chat in August of 2017.

Bonfireside Chat and the Dark Souls series have both been very good to us. We’ve met a ton of great people doing the show, built an audience, and made some great episodes. But the Dark Souls 3 season kind of broke us. It was the first time we had to spend so much time playing, examining, and talking about a game that we’re not crazy for.

We knew the end of Bonfireside Chat would happen some day. As early as a year ago, FromSoft told us that the series was concluding. We entertained the notion of continuing the show by talking about SoulsLikes, but those are of wildly varying quality. And all of our thoughts come back to this: Dark Souls was a game that was so good that we couldn’t **not* do a show about it.* Most of the sequels were as well. But it makes no sense to bind ourself to things that merely imitate something that we love.

What if From releases a new SoulsBorne game?

E3 is in a few weeks, and it’s totally possible that From will announce something related to Souls. This won’t change our decision. Instead, that game will be covered on Watch Out for Fireballs! The same applies to any really good SoulsLikes.

How is Bonfireside Chat going to end?

We have a plan for ending Bonfireside Chat, and we’ve alluded to it before. This summer, we’re walking back through the whole series in the opposite order that we’ve covered it. Each game will get an episode + appendix pair, and we’re going to talk about each entry in the broader context of the series now that we know how it ends.

So that means the order is as follows:

  • Bloodborne (July 2)

  • Dark Souls 2 (July 16)

  • Demon’s Souls (July 30)

  • Dark Souls (August 13)

These episodes will have guests, and they’re already chosen from our Bonfireside Chat After Dark tier backers. They are John Hurst, Mitch Benes, Randy Walker, and Kilo Pascal.

Prior to that, we’re going to cover the remaining soulslikes we’ve committed to covering. Namely, Let It Die, Nioh, and Hollow Knight.

You’ll notice that this brings the entire podcast around full circle. We like how appropriate that feels.

What Happened to Bonfireside Chat After Dark?

We miscalculated when we added Bonfireside Chat After Dark to the Patreon. We had no idea what would happen with the series or the show when we thought that up. We’ll own that mistake, and we also want to make it right… and here’s how.

Those backers who would have been guests on Bonfireside Chat After Dark will instead guest on those final revisit episodes. It feels right to get people from the community involved in the victory lap, especially if they are people who have supported us as much as those individuals have. We’ve spoken with them, and they’re cool with it.

If you paid for a prompt or question on Bonfireside Chat After Dark, we will use your responses during those recap appendices. Please look for a message in your email inbox toward the beginning of June.

What’s Replacing Bonfireside Chat?

We’ve gotten a lot of suggestions about what to cover after Bonfireside Chat ends. People were pulling hard for games like the Witcher and Nier. We seriously kicked around the idea of starting up a show that chronologically examined the Resident Evil games. The Crystal Chronicles was on our Patreon milestone goals for a very long time (more on that later).

Starting up a new show about a new series of games makes less sense than making big changes to Watch Out for Fireballs!, which has always been our flagship show. What happens if we broaden that umbrella, and make changes to the schedule to allow us to cover more games in greater depth?

What’s it look like if the Witcher 3 becomes a game we could cover on WOFF!?

You end up with something we’ve codenamed WOFF! 2.0. But we likely won’t use that name in the future.

Watch Out for Fireballs! is Going Weekly

WOFF becoming more frequent is a huge deal for us. And here’s what it looks like.

The first 3 weeks of each month (or the first 4, if it’s a 5 week month) will feature full episodes about short or medium length games, or episodes about portions of larger games (like we’ve done with large games in the past). The last episode of each month will be a collective listener response episode about all of the games we covered that month.

This kind of grouping will also let us do themed batches of episodes each month. Hypothetically, this is what “Weird NES Sequels” month would look like.

  • Week 1: Super Mario Bros. 2

  • Week 2: Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest

  • Week 3: Zelda II: The Adventures of Link

  • Week 4: Feedback episode about all three of the previous games.

Other ideas for themed groups of episodes would be a long look at the Wolfenstein series, going from Wolfenstein 3D to the 2008 reboot to Wolfenstein: The New Order. We could also do a Resident Evil cleanup month, with Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Code: Veronica, and Resident Evil 6. We aren’t promising that either of those will happen right away, but they’re examples.

If this sounds familiar, it’s similar to how we’ve treated JRPGs and CRPGs in the past. The Neverwinter Nights II series of episodes was a test model for this, and we think those episodes turned out very well.

Looking at the math, our old “tick tock” model of release would usually result in 26 episodes per year. Our multi-part episodes have made us come out with slightly more than that (for example, we released 30 episodes in 2016). Under the new model, you would get 40 mainline episodes per year.

Here are a few things that will happen as a result of this:

  • We will cover more “small” games. The Pac Man 2 episode in the Duck Bundle was a test for how this would work.

  • Split episodes will go away (namely, single episodes that feature two games, like the Starflight/Toe Jam & Earl episode, or the Brawler special).

  • We’ll be a little more liberal about splitting meaty games into multiple parts (example: Metal Gear Solid 2 is on our docket, and we’re splitting that 12 hour game in 2 because we will have a lot to say).

  • We’ll have to be more comfortable with some episodes being “only” 60-90 minutes, as we cover some shorter stuff.

Two things that won’t go away are poll episodes and executive produced episodes. Those will be folded into the model, and remain unchanged. That means one of those will happen each quarter (or four times per year).

Another consequence is that listener response episodes will be much meatier since they’ll cover 3 or 4 games, and there will be a more consistent deadline… namely, responses about all of the games should come in by the 15th of each month.

WOFF! Will Change Schedules in August

The changes to the WOFF! schedule will begin August 3, with Final Fantasy IV month. That’s right, we’ll be covering all of Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. For reference, here’s the schedule up through that point:

What’s Happening to the Crystal Chronicles?

You may wonder what us covering FF4 on WOFF! means for the Final Fantasy show we had planned. It means that show won’t happen. We pegged that show at a very high milestone amount because it would take a tremendous amount of work. But as Bonfireside Chat wound down, we realized we probably wouldn’t hit that total any time soon. And redesigning WOFF! presented an opportunity to cover the Final Fantasy games that were meaningful to us without taking on an unreasonable workload that would harm the rest of the shows.

In general, we want to be very circumspect about adding new shows, so we’re going to make some changes to the Patreon campaign to reflect that. Expect more details later.

Of note: Heartbeat City will not go away. Gary will record and release a pilot for that soon.

What’s Happening to Other Shows on the Network?

This change shouldn’t have a huge impact on other shows, but there are some things we’d like to announce/clarify so people know what’s up.

Gary is taking a leave of absence from Check It Out, Comrade!, the network’s indie game show. Brayton Cameron from Teenage Dirtbags will be replacing him. Gary made this decision to free up more time for working on his book, and playing things for the new iteration of WOFF! We’re really excited to have Brayton take over his seat. Brayton is hilarious, and has different taste in games than Gary does, so you will see them cover different stuff. Gary will still come back for specific games (think Thimbleweed Park or Torment: Tides of Numenera).

File Under Water has an end date. Right now, it’s slated to end in late October. A show about R.E.M. was always going to be limited, because they only put out a limited number of albums. We currently have no plans to cover another band.

Radio Free Mid-World is a limited show as well. Once we run out of Dark Tower books, related works by King, and related media (the movies, TV show, whatever else comes) we will end that show. Don’t worry, this won’t happen until 2019 at the earliest.

How is the Patreon Changing?

We’re making some adjustments to the way our Patreon works, in order to reflect these changes to our show lineup. Chiefly (and logically), we’re getting rid of the $75 BSC Afterdark tier, and removing the “get a prompt on BSC Afterdark” from the $10 tier.

We are also removing The Crystal Chronicles as a milestone goal.

Both of these will be replaced by something else in due time… Look a little further down to see what we’re thinking of (and to see how you can help).

We’re also making two other big changes.

Early Release is getting better.

Effective around the end of June and the beginning of July, episodes on the Early Release feed will come out a week early, instead of a day early. We are also raising the price of this perk to $5 per month. This is more valuable, we think, and it brings us closer in line with other Patreon campaigns that offer a similar perk.

We’re going to make a great deal of these changes in the middle of June, and the “1 Week Early” change will happen for any episode that would have normally come out in July.

The only show this doesn’t apply to right now is The Level, which will come out 1-2 days early because of how that show is produced.

We’re changing the Slack access tier.

Effective sometime in June, Slack invites will only go to backers at $5 and up. If you already have access to the Slack team, or access the Slack team before the change is made, then you will be grandfathered in. We will not revoke Slack access from people.

We’re doing this for a couple of reasons. The community is getting very big, and it’s requiring more work and more touch than it did in the past. This will help control that. Additionally, it will reduce the number of drive-bys that happen, as $5 is a bigger investment.

Something to note is that the $1 tier will not go away. Those small donation amounts are huge for us. You will still get access to incidental content, and access to Watch Out for Fireballs! polls.

What are some open questions?

Everything laid out before this paragraph is a decision we’ve already made. We feel like they are good decisions, and we wouldn’t shake things up so much if we didn’t feel so secure in how things are going.

But each big decision is accompanied by multiple smaller decisions. And that’s why we’re running this survey… to gather useful information from you, and to hear your thoughts and ideas about how the network can get better at giving you things you want.

Here are some questions that have gone unanswered, and we want your help.

What’s a good replacement for the $75 tier? That’s a lot of money to give, and we want to make it awesome. Would you want to guest on an episode? Dictate a piece of media for a Try This type show? Dictate the subject of some video content like Let’s Plays?

What kind of new milestones goals would you like to see? Should we do another live show each year? Should we hold a virtual DuckCon? Include more guest episodes on WOFF!?

Do one-off milestones interest you? Not every milestone needs to be an ongoing commitment. Maybe we could do some actual-play tabletop one-offs. Maybe we could set a goal for Gary and Kole to stream some co-op games.

And there are other questions we haven’t even thought to ask. We want to know what would make you a patron if you aren’t one already. We want to know what stuff we do that you care about, and we also want to know what you don’t care about.

We’d also like to hear how you feel about the changes to our biggest shows. We’ve already made our decision about ending Bonfireside Chat, but it’s worth understanding how this will impact your listenership and patronage.

Something we don’t want to hear is “Stick to Games” or “Stop mentioning politics.” We also don’t want to hear “Be more positive.” Save yourself the time and hassle if that’s what you were going to say.

We’re holding a survey.

After this novella of a post, we want to know what you think. Use the button below to fill out the survey. It will be a huge help to us. Completing the survey and selecting “Yes, I would like to enter the contest” will enter you for a chance to win a $20 Steam gift card (we are giving out three of them). We are especially interested in your responses if you’re not already a Patron of Duckfeed.tv on Patreon.

A link to the survey: https://duckfeed.typeform.com/to/LDPTnY

Thank you so much for reading this, if you’ve gotten this far. Your support has meant the world to us, and we are incredibly excited about what these changes mean for the network. Thanks for being along for the ride.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Super Princess Peach, along with a smattering of listener questions and prompts.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Super Princess Peach, along with a smattering of listener questions and prompts.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross feel their way through Super Princess Peach.

After two decades of being rescued, everyone's favorite princess finally gets a star turn as the hero. Super Princess Peach is an incredibly easy game with some (ahem) problematic elements. But the saccharine trappings hide a mechanically complex game that tries and fails to be a followup to Yoshi's Island.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross feel their way through Super Princess Peach.

After two decades of being rescued, everyone's favorite princess finally gets a star turn as the hero. Super Princess Peach is an incredibly easy game with some (ahem) problematic elements. But the saccharine trappings hide a mechanically complex game that tries and fails to be a followup to Yoshi's Island.

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Published 2017-04-06

Watch Out for Fireballs! 154: Dead Space

202 min
View

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross stomp through Dead Space.

Resident Evil 4 changed games forever. Especially horror games. Pretty soon it wasn't acceptable for a scary game to sacrifice mechanical sophistication for atmosphere. While the world waited for Resident Evil 5, which would carry the idea further, EA came through with Dead Space. The world and story are science fiction cliches, but the aiming based gameplay loop is incredibly satisfying. But does it hold together enough to make re-entry? Listen to find out.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross stomp through Dead Space.

Resident Evil 4 changed games forever. Especially horror games. Pretty soon it wasn't acceptable for a scary game to sacrifice mechanical sophistication for atmosphere. While the world waited for Resident Evil 5, which would carry the idea further, EA came through with Dead Space. The world and story are science fiction cliches, but the aiming based gameplay loop is incredibly satisfying. But does it hold together enough to make re-entry? Listen to find out.

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Published 2017-03-22

Watch Out for Fireballs! 153: Tomb Raider

165 min
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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross rise to talk about Tomb Raider (1996).

For as important as Tomb Raider and Lara Croft are to the history of games, it's surprising it's taken us this long to cover her debut. So we extend our thanks to Allison Baker for getting us off of our asses to talk about this bizarre early evolution in 3D platforming and cinematic play. It's a game that's very much of its era. It's way too long, it becomes downright hateful in its last act, and not everything is there, but over all the game lives up to its reputation.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross rise to talk about Tomb Raider (1996).

For as important as Tomb Raider and Lara Croft are to the history of games, it's surprising it's taken us this long to cover her debut. So we extend our thanks to Allison Baker for getting us off of our asses to talk about this bizarre early evolution in 3D platforming and cinematic play. It's a game that's very much of its era. It's way too long, it becomes downright hateful in its last act, and not everything is there, but over all the game lives up to its reputation.

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Published 2017-03-09

Watch Out for Fireballs! 152: Nintendo Power

153 min
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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross thumb through the history of Nintendo Power, and visit some other game magazines along the way.

Every year we choose a special topic for a special episode, and we've wanted to cover this year's topic for a while: Nintendo Power. While this magazine was specific to America, most major regions had their own version of an official Nintendo sponsored publication. This episode takes a look at the history of the magazine, talks about the usual contents, and reflects on video game magazines as a whole.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll that determined the topic of this episode. We really appreciate it!

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross thumb through the history of Nintendo Power, and visit some other game magazines along the way.

Every year we choose a special topic for a special episode, and we've wanted to cover this year's topic for a while: Nintendo Power. While this magazine was specific to America, most major regions had their own version of an official Nintendo sponsored publication. This episode takes a look at the history of the magazine, talks about the usual contents, and reflects on video game magazines as a whole.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll that determined the topic of this episode. We really appreciate it!

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Shadow of Destiny / Shadow of Memories.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Shadow of Destiny / Shadow of Memories.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross will always have been talking about Shadow of Destiny (or also Shadow of Memories).

If you're sensitive to us being negative about games, this might be one to skip. Eike Kusch is fated to die, but a strange interloper has given him the power to manipulate time itself so he can find out who killed him (and why). From that great premise springs a truly awkward adventure game, filled with early PS2 charm, but completely baffling. On the plus side, it serves as a very good example of how not to do time travel puzzles.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross will always have been talking about Shadow of Destiny (or also Shadow of Memories).

If you're sensitive to us being negative about games, this might be one to skip. Eike Kusch is fated to die, but a strange interloper has given him the power to manipulate time itself so he can find out who killed him (and why). From that great premise springs a truly awkward adventure game, filled with early PS2 charm, but completely baffling. On the plus side, it serves as a very good example of how not to do time travel puzzles.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross delve through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for our 150th episode spectacular!

We're creatures of habit and pattern, not creatures of the night. Whenever we hit one of these big anniversary episodes, we want to blow the doors off and really play something noteworthy. Symphony of the Night is one of the most beloved games of all time. It took elements of Super Metroid, added RPG elements, and created a genre that still dominates certain parts of the industry. But looking back, we try to decide if it all hangs together as well as we remember.

Thanks so much for listening and joining us for 150 episodes (and more).

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross delve through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for our 150th episode spectacular!

We're creatures of habit and pattern, not creatures of the night. Whenever we hit one of these big anniversary episodes, we want to blow the doors off and really play something noteworthy. Symphony of the Night is one of the most beloved games of all time. It took elements of Super Metroid, added RPG elements, and created a genre that still dominates certain parts of the industry. But looking back, we try to decide if it all hangs together as well as we remember.

Thanks so much for listening and joining us for 150 episodes (and more).

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Published 2017-01-22

Watch Out for Fireballs! 149: Dishonored 2

208 min
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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross take a vacation to the present to talk about Dishonored 2.

The original Dishonored is an amazing game with a pedigree that made it perfect fodder for the show. Following in the footsteps of Deus Ex and Thief, this series was always going to be something we'd swoon over. That said, would Arkane be able to top themselves the second time around? Listen to find out... but the short answer is this: Extra refinements to the play somewhat paper over some story, world, and thematic shortfalls that still end up being bummers in their own right.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross take a vacation to the present to talk about Dishonored 2.

The original Dishonored is an amazing game with a pedigree that made it perfect fodder for the show. Following in the footsteps of Deus Ex and Thief, this series was always going to be something we'd swoon over. That said, would Arkane be able to top themselves the second time around? Listen to find out... but the short answer is this: Extra refinements to the play somewhat paper over some story, world, and thematic shortfalls that still end up being bummers in their own right.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross flash through Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 2.

We're home again. Watch Out for Fireballs! began with an episode about Mega Man X, and now it's time to talk about Capcom's platforming superstar at the height of his powers. After a shaky debut in Mega Man 1, Mega Man 2 came out of the gate as one of the best games of all time, with memorable stages, music, and bosses. Mega Man 3 iterated on that formula and maybe reached a little too far, but it's still some top tier NES stuff.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross flash through Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 2.

We're home again. Watch Out for Fireballs! began with an episode about Mega Man X, and now it's time to talk about Capcom's platforming superstar at the height of his powers. After a shaky debut in Mega Man 1, Mega Man 2 came out of the gate as one of the best games of all time, with memorable stages, music, and bosses. Mega Man 3 iterated on that formula and maybe reached a little too far, but it's still some top tier NES stuff.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross absorb the second portion of Mask of the Betrayer.

The story continues AND the plot thickens, as we learn more about the nature of our curse and take the battle to the gods themselves. Seriously, just play this game.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross absorb the second portion of Mask of the Betrayer.

The story continues AND the plot thickens, as we learn more about the nature of our curse and take the battle to the gods themselves. Seriously, just play this game.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross devour the first half of Mask of the Betrayer, the first expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights 2.

Guess what... it's the Fireworks Factory! We laid out our case about Neverwinter Nights 2, painting it as a mechanically troubled game that occasionally rose above standard Forgotten Realms fare for some inspired story beats. However, the Mask of the Betrayer expansion pack is all killer, no filler. This episode covers up until midway through Chapter 2.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross devour the first half of Mask of the Betrayer, the first expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights 2.

Guess what... it's the Fireworks Factory! We laid out our case about Neverwinter Nights 2, painting it as a mechanically troubled game that occasionally rose above standard Forgotten Realms fare for some inspired story beats. However, the Mask of the Betrayer expansion pack is all killer, no filler. This episode covers up until midway through Chapter 2.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross crumble over the back half of Neverwinter Nights 2.

This episode picks up where the last left off, covering all of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. This period of the game includes some of the best stuff... the Trial, the Crossroad Keep mechanic, and Ammon Jerro's lair. Be sure to join us next week when we begin our discussion of the Mask of the Betrayer expansion.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross crumble over the back half of Neverwinter Nights 2.

This episode picks up where the last left off, covering all of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. This period of the game includes some of the best stuff... the Trial, the Crossroad Keep mechanic, and Ammon Jerro's lair. Be sure to join us next week when we begin our discussion of the Mask of the Betrayer expansion.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross roll on through the first portion of Neverwinter Nights 2.

Let's face it, this is an awkward, awkward game. They heydey of Dungeons and Dragons CRPGs didn't involve 3D graphics or voice acting, and Neverwinter Nights 2 leans on those when it ought not to. But that doesn't mean there's nothing to recommend it. Beyond the infuriating camera, you will find a really fun adaptation of the D&D 3.5 ruleset, and some very inventive story beats.

This episode covers the entirety of Chapter 1. The next episode will cover Chapters 2 and 3.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross roll on through the first portion of Neverwinter Nights 2.

Let's face it, this is an awkward, awkward game. They heydey of Dungeons and Dragons CRPGs didn't involve 3D graphics or voice acting, and Neverwinter Nights 2 leans on those when it ought not to. But that doesn't mean there's nothing to recommend it. Beyond the infuriating camera, you will find a really fun adaptation of the D&D 3.5 ruleset, and some very inventive story beats.

This episode covers the entirety of Chapter 1. The next episode will cover Chapters 2 and 3.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross capture the hearts of PRGE by talking about Pokémon Yellow.

This is our Portland Retro Gaming Expo live show for 2016, where we talk about Pokémon Yellow, and Gen1 Pokémon in general. The game is an archaic drag mechanically, but it has the fundamental core that Nintendo would polish to a shine over the years. And boy-oh-boy, that personality!

Thanks so much to everyone who came out and joined us at PRGE this year. We look forward to seeing you again.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross capture the hearts of PRGE by talking about Pokémon Yellow.

This is our Portland Retro Gaming Expo live show for 2016, where we talk about Pokémon Yellow, and Gen1 Pokémon in general. The game is an archaic drag mechanically, but it has the fundamental core that Nintendo would polish to a shine over the years. And boy-oh-boy, that personality!

Thanks so much to everyone who came out and joined us at PRGE this year. We look forward to seeing you again.

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Published 2016-11-10

Watch Out for Fireballs! 142: Bastion

141 min
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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk over Bastion's narration.

It's a newer game, but ancient when it comes to the fast-moving indie scene. The Kid is on a mission to reassemble the old world after a Calamity, but at what price? Bastion takes the action RPG formula and leans heavy on player choice and mechanical intricacy. Mixed with its poignant story and pitch perfect presentation, Bastion truly earns its spot on this show.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk over Bastion's narration.

It's a newer game, but ancient when it comes to the fast-moving indie scene. The Kid is on a mission to reassemble the old world after a Calamity, but at what price? Bastion takes the action RPG formula and leans heavy on player choice and mechanical intricacy. Mixed with its poignant story and pitch perfect presentation, Bastion truly earns its spot on this show.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Resident Evil 4.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Resident Evil 4.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross burst with joy over Resident Evil 4.

We held off on playing this game for too long. There's so much going on here. So much great design, so many memorable moments, that our discussion of Resident Evil 4 is our longest single episode to date. Leon Kennedy is back, this time on a mission to rescue the President's daughter Ashley from a mysterious cult in rural Spain. His mission marks a turning point for the Resident Evil series, for Survival Horror, and for all action games that followed it.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross burst with joy over Resident Evil 4.

We held off on playing this game for too long. There's so much going on here. So much great design, so many memorable moments, that our discussion of Resident Evil 4 is our longest single episode to date. Leon Kennedy is back, this time on a mission to rescue the President's daughter Ashley from a mysterious cult in rural Spain. His mission marks a turning point for the Resident Evil series, for Survival Horror, and for all action games that followed it.

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Published 2016-10-14

Duckfeed.tv State of the Union

42 min
View

This is a special announcement about a few important policy things, and a few big changes to our Patreon campaign. It's all good stuff. [Please direct your attention to the public post on Patreon for the full text of the announcement](www.patreon.com/posts/duckfeed-state-7001000), and pose all of your questions as comments on that post. Thanks!

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This is a special announcement about a few important policy things, and a few big changes to our Patreon campaign. It's all good stuff. [Please direct your attention to the public post on Patreon for the full text of the announcement](www.patreon.com/posts/duckfeed-state-7001000), and pose all of your questions as comments on that post. Thanks!

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We had to scramble to make the best of a bad situation. If you listened to the main public episode about Punch Out, you will have heard the story about how the audio recording of our live show from Austin in the summer of 2016 was destroyed. We stand behind the technical execution of the re-do more, but we don't want to lose the magic of that live ep... So here, we're presenting the recording of the actual day in question, warts and cauliflower ear and all.

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We had to scramble to make the best of a bad situation. If you listened to the main public episode about Punch Out, you will have heard the story about how the audio recording of our live show from Austin in the summer of 2016 was destroyed. We stand behind the technical execution of the re-do more, but we don't want to lose the magic of that live ep... So here, we're presenting the recording of the actual day in question, warts and cauliflower ear and all.

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Published 2016-10-13

Watch Out for Fireballs! 140: Punch Out!!

73 min
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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about Punch-Out!!... again.

You'll hear the sordid story about what happened in the episode, but suffice to say that we ended up having to re-record our live episode about Punch-Out!! We love this game so much that we didn't want our only episode about it to be compromised by a live band playing loudly in the background. So, listen as we extoll the virtues of this sports game that's not really a sports game.

If you want to hear the full live recording, it's available for all of our patrons on Patreon (see the links below).

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about Punch-Out!!... again.

You'll hear the sordid story about what happened in the episode, but suffice to say that we ended up having to re-record our live episode about Punch-Out!! We love this game so much that we didn't want our only episode about it to be compromised by a live band playing loudly in the background. So, listen as we extoll the virtues of this sports game that's not really a sports game.

If you want to hear the full live recording, it's available for all of our patrons on Patreon (see the links below).

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross cram-jam Super Mario Galaxy.

3D Mario is a tricky thing. Though Mario 64 forged a path, it arrived at a different feeling and flow than we were used to in our 2D Mario games. Over a couple of iterations, it feels like Nintendo finally arrived at the apotheosis of SM64-style play... and then they promptly abandoned it. So, let's take a close look at this weirdo entry in gaming's most established series.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross cram-jam Super Mario Galaxy.

3D Mario is a tricky thing. Though Mario 64 forged a path, it arrived at a different feeling and flow than we were used to in our 2D Mario games. Over a couple of iterations, it feels like Nintendo finally arrived at the apotheosis of SM64-style play... and then they promptly abandoned it. So, let's take a close look at this weirdo entry in gaming's most established series.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Starflight and Toe Jam & Earl.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Starflight and Toe Jam & Earl.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross blast off and crash down with Starflight and Toe Jam & Earl.

This is the "Genesis Games that Want to be PC Games" special, as we look at two bizarre console titles from the early 90s. Starflight is the prototypical galaxy exploration simulator, with a wide world and tons of character. Meanwhile, Toe Jam & Earl is an early take on a rogue-lite whose style doesn't quite make up for its mechanical shortcomings.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross blast off and crash down with Starflight and Toe Jam & Earl.

This is the "Genesis Games that Want to be PC Games" special, as we look at two bizarre console titles from the early 90s. Starflight is the prototypical galaxy exploration simulator, with a wide world and tons of character. Meanwhile, Toe Jam & Earl is an early take on a rogue-lite whose style doesn't quite make up for its mechanical shortcomings.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Team Fortress 2.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Team Fortress 2.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross gang up to talk about Team Fortress 2.

For our fifth anniversary show, we wanted to do something special. We wanted to play a classic game with our community, and it turns out choosing Team Fortress 2 was a great move. Team Fortress goes way back, but Valve has taken the formula and engineered and iterated it to the point where it's a joy to play. Huge thanks to everyone who played with us!

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross gang up to talk about Team Fortress 2.

For our fifth anniversary show, we wanted to do something special. We wanted to play a classic game with our community, and it turns out choosing Team Fortress 2 was a great move. Team Fortress goes way back, but Valve has taken the formula and engineered and iterated it to the point where it's a joy to play. Huge thanks to everyone who played with us!

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross launch through the latter portion of Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium.

It's now time to leave Motavia and head to Dezolis, because the Algo solar system is in peril. Can we fix the systems, retrieve the data, and conquer the Darkness?

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross launch through the latter portion of Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium.

It's now time to leave Motavia and head to Dezolis, because the Algo solar system is in peril. Can we fix the systems, retrieve the data, and conquer the Darkness?

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross soar through Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium.

We're guilty of focusing on Final Fantasy games when we talk about JRPGs because that's mostly what we grew up with. However, concurrently, there was a whole big, important series living and thriving on Sega systems, doing amazing forward looking things before it died an unceremonious death. Phantasy Star IV is considered to be the best, most friendly iteration of the main series, and you should join us to hear about how prescient it was in terms of design.

LINKS OF NOTE:
  • [Vancian Magic](theevilgm.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/a-…ancian-magic/)

  • [Sparkly the Crow](demonssouls.wikidot.com/crow)

  • [Man-Thing](marvel.com/universe/Man-Thing)

  • [Wild Arms Credits](www.youtube.com/watch?v=muDfmLwBvjM)

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross soar through Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium.

We're guilty of focusing on Final Fantasy games when we talk about JRPGs because that's mostly what we grew up with. However, concurrently, there was a whole big, important series living and thriving on Sega systems, doing amazing forward looking things before it died an unceremonious death. Phantasy Star IV is considered to be the best, most friendly iteration of the main series, and you should join us to hear about how prescient it was in terms of design.

LINKS OF NOTE:
  • [Vancian Magic](theevilgm.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/a-…ancian-magic/)

  • [Sparkly the Crow](demonssouls.wikidot.com/crow)

  • [Man-Thing](marvel.com/universe/Man-Thing)

  • [Wild Arms Credits](www.youtube.com/watch?v=muDfmLwBvjM)

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross groove to Elite Beat Agents and Rhythm Heaven.

This summer, we decided to let our listeners decide which rhythm games we should play. The resounding winners were to non-peripheral Nintendo DS rhythm games that couldn't be any more different. Elite Beat Agents is soaking in charm, but we find a lot of problems with it mechanically and musically. Meanwhile, Rhythm Heaven is drenched in charm, and manages to be in the upper echelon of games we've played for the show.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross groove to Elite Beat Agents and Rhythm Heaven.

This summer, we decided to let our listeners decide which rhythm games we should play. The resounding winners were to non-peripheral Nintendo DS rhythm games that couldn't be any more different. Elite Beat Agents is soaking in charm, but we find a lot of problems with it mechanically and musically. Meanwhile, Rhythm Heaven is drenched in charm, and manages to be in the upper echelon of games we've played for the show.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross link up to talk about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

How do you follow up a masterpiece? Almost never with another masterpiece. Invisible War has some real problems, but taken on its own it's a perfectly competent shooter with some really great ideas and a fantastic reveal. Don't expect a game that redefines any genres, and you'll be fine.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross link up to talk about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

How do you follow up a masterpiece? Almost never with another masterpiece. Invisible War has some real problems, but taken on its own it's a perfectly competent shooter with some really great ideas and a fantastic reveal. Don't expect a game that redefines any genres, and you'll be fine.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross experiment with Day of the Tentacle.

It's a time-hopping, interactive Looney Toon that's also LucasArts at the height of their powers... We revisit the world of Maniac Mansion to solve adventure game puzzles with the added twist of causality logic, visiting Colonial America and the distant, tentacle-run future.

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Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross experiment with Day of the Tentacle.

It's a time-hopping, interactive Looney Toon that's also LucasArts at the height of their powers... We revisit the world of Maniac Mansion to solve adventure game puzzles with the added twist of causality logic, visiting Colonial America and the distant, tentacle-run future.

LINKS OF NOTE:

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

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