Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. We’ve got a whole bunch of games to get to this week—including a few more spotlights from the recent Ludum Dare 48 game jam—so let’s things get started! After we chat about LD48, Kevin & John also took a look at the latest game from indie dev, Blabberf, Oracle Chain, from the ongoing #ChainLetter Jam, which is exactly what it sounds like! After that, Randall shares his thoughts on Toree 3D, the fantastic little fast-paced 3D platformer we discussed a few weeks back...and it’s only a buck!?! John decides to take a look at Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest after all of the retro gaming we’ve been doing lately, and shares some thoughts on this JRPG designed to target the Western audience. From there, Kevin does his usual thing and rattles off a few more indie games—this week discussing a few really fantastic upcoming platformers! Finally, we wrap things up with a little video game pinball action, as we plow through a ton of our retro favorites & new discoveries—along with some other games outside of the ‘genre’ that utilize pinball mechanics. Phew...that’s all folks!
Timestamps: More Ludum Dare 48 spotlights - 00:00:51 ↳ Below the Ocean - 00:01:22 ↳ Fallen Shovel - 00:08:06 ↳ Corla - 00:11:22 Oracle Chain - 00:14:53 Toree 3D - 00:20:25 Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest - 00:25:07 Awesome Indie Demos - 00:33:01 ↳ Germinal - 00:34:07 ↳ Teabat! - 00:36:43 ↳ OCDA - 00:41:03 Video Game Pinball Extravaganza - 00:45:11
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. We're trying something a little new this week, after announcing a slight change to the format of the podcast at the beginning of last week's episode! We'll be bringing you our traditional, 'core' episodes on a bi-weekly basis, while every other week, we'll be bringing you a multitude of other gaming-related goodies—conversations from the cutting room floor, guest interviews & discussions, and more...we're still brainstorming! With that out of the way, this week, we're bringing you a Game Boy focused conversation that Kevin, Randall, & John got into before 'pressing record,' on last week's episode. We're still discovering new hidden gems & playing through the classics, even all these years later!
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. We’ve got a whole bunch of games to talk about this week of all shapes & sizes, so let’s get right down to business! John kicks things off with an update on his ongoing adventures in Monster Hunter: Rise—he’s seen the credits roll at this point, but that doesn’t mean he’s anywhere near being done with this game! Sounds like there is ALL sorts of post-game goodness to dig into, so there’s a good chance it’ll come up again in the future! From there, we dive right into a discussion of the recent Ludum Dare 48 game jam, taking some time to highlight some of our favorite entries & discoveries so far, including a few from some of our favorite indie developers! There’s also a really good chance we’re gonna talk a little more Ludum Dare action next week—there are just TOO many incredible games! While we’re on the subject of game jams, Randall & Kevin dig into Space Gulls, the latest new NES game from Morphcat Games, made for the NESdev competition. Morphcat is definitely a developer to keep an eye on, for retro & indie fans alike. If you’ve listened to the podcast before, you already know how much John loves a good metroidvania, and he’s been playing through his favorite entry in the Castlevania franchise, Circle of the Moon. And while we’re on the topic of the Game Boy Advance, Kevin mentions a couple of import titles that never made their way over to North America—alongside Ufouria: The Saga, a quirky metroidvania on the NES that also never made its way overseas.
Timestamps: Monster Hunter: Rise - 00:02:17 Ludum Dare 48 spotlights - 00:07:20 ↳ Holey Hell - 00:10:00 ↳ Underneath - 00:14:09 ↳ Grapple Tongue - 00:18:30 ↳ Frog - 00:20:13 ↳ Tooth Toss - 00:22:24 Space Gulls - 00:24:49 Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - 00:32:32 ↳ What brings ‘you’ to a metroidvania? - 00:36:58 Import game streaming - 00:42:34 ↳ Ufouria: The Saga - 00:42:42 ↳ Densetsu no Stafy series - 00:45:54 ↳ Kuru Kuru Kururin - 00:48:19
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. We are ALL over the map this week after celebrating our Two Year Anniversary, so let’s get this show on the road… First things first, John’s got a new laptop!?! He hasn’t had a PC in ages and can’t wait to start combing through all of the (many) games he’s accumulated over the years through various bundles, crazy Steam deals, free Epic Store goodies, etc. No Man’s Sky is the first thing on the docket, and it sounds like John has found yet another game that is speaking his language! Kevin gives his first impressions on Kunai, and it’s nothing but high praise so far for this stylish pixelated metroidvania! He also talks about his Bit.Trip Beat stream from a little while back, after DJ brought up the series a few weeks back—and we get into a bit of a rhythm game discussion from there. Randall’s been sinking a lot of his ‘background gaming’ time into Hand of Fate 2, and has been thoroughly enjoying its balance of tabletop gaming & hack ‘n’ slash action. It’s been the perfect fit for him on Nintendo Switch to cozy up with on the couch with his favorite show on in the background. Finally, we talk a little bit about playing older handheld games in the modern era, both on emulators or various licensed (and unlicensed) hardware peripherals. We also tease a few more ‘white whales’ that we’re looking forward to checking out—whether their price tags are out of reach, or they never made it over here to North America.
Timestamps: No Man’s Sky - 00:03:36 Kunai - 00:15:10 Hand of Fate 2 - 00:21:30 Bit.Trip Beat - 00:30:44 Retro games on emulators - 00:38:55
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. It’s hard to believe it’s been a full two years since we started up this project!?! We’re gonna break the mold just a little bit this week and take a little time to discuss some of our favorite games that somehow haven’t come up on the podcast yet. But before we get to that, we’ve got another franchise we need to revisit… On the very first episode of the podcast, we discussed the first ‘season’ of the current-gen Hitman trilogy in an effort to step out of our respective indie & retro comfort zones, so we decided to take a look at the subsequent entries in the franchise to kick things off—plus, we NEED to get John’s opinions!! After that, we move into a discussion of our ‘comfy cozy’ games: our aforementioned favorites that have yet to come up on the show! Unsurprisingly, we spend the majority of this discussion hanging out in retro land, looking back to some of our favorite gaming memories, many from the N64 era. We wrap things up with a brief chat reflecting back on the last two years, and also looking forward to the years to come! We’d truly love to get your feedback on ways you’d like to see us grow and expand this project in the future, so PLEASE don’t hesitate to drop us a line at: pursuingpixels@gmail.com—we’d love to hear from ya!
Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. Can you believe we’ve been at this nonsense for (over) 100 episodes?!? We’re not doing anything special for the occasion this week—we’ll be celebrating our Two Year Anniversary on next week’s episode—but we do have a bunch of recently released & relevant games to talk about for a change, so let’s dig into it! We kick things off with Pac-Man 99, which surprisingly dropped on the Nintendo Switch Online service, shortly after we ‘mourned’ the loss of Mario 35. This might be the our favorite iteration of the ‘99’ series from Nintendo so far, and we’re really excited about the potential for more releases in the future! From there, Kevin & Randall take a look at the Balan Wonderworld demo after some encouragement from indie dev ‘TheXandan,’ who had a really good time playing through the whole game. We’re pretty much on the same page after playing through the demo, and while we may not be itching to drop $60 on this 3D platforming fever dream, we’re looking forward to snagging it on sale in the future! We also give a shoutout to Winning is Fun, which is an awesome little game jam entry from ‘TheXandan’! While we’re on the topic of 3D platformers, John & Kevin take a look at Toree 3D from Siactro, a bite-sized obstacle course platformer with an emphasis on speedrunning. It’s only $1 and cannot come with a higher recommendation! We also talk a little bit about the rebirth of the low-poly N64/PSOne aesthetic in the indie game world lately...we’re not complaining! Lastly, John talks us through his journey with the Monster Hunter franchise—and his journey through the rain to pick up a copy of the latest entry in the series, Monster Hunter Rise. This one is hitting ALL the right notes for John, and really scratching at that pesky RPG/MMO itch!
Timestamps: Pac-Man 99 - 00:01:34 Winning is Fun - 00:15:33 Balan Wonderworld - 00:16:27 Toree 3D - 00:25:38 Monster Hunter Rise - 00:32:19
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. We’ve got ALL sorts of games to talk about this week, so let’s dig right into the action… We kick things off this week with a spotlight on Starjump, a brand new top-down precision platformer (you don’t see those everyday?!?) on the PICO-8 fantasy console. The game even has its own atmospheric OST that you can pull up on YouTube while you play! From there, DJ fills us in on the things he’s been playing lately, including crossing off his resolution game for this year, Deltarune. On top of the follow-up to Undertale, we also touch on Baba is You, both games in the Yooka-Laylee franchise, and a few of the games from the classic Bit.Trip series. He also gives some love to Days Gone, after getting sucked into this world a little more than another zombie-themed game on the PlaySation that we won’t mention here... Kevin finally gets into a deep discussion on a couple of roguelikes that he’s been bouncing back and forth between, ScourgeBringer & West of Dead. ScourgeBringer is scratching the ‘hectic action’ itch, while West of Dead offers up a more strategic & stealthy approach, making these two games a perfect pairing—both of which are absolutely dripping with style! Finally, John is still plowing his way through Dark Souls III, as he continues to update us on his journey through FromSoftware’s flagship franchise. He & DJ also dig a little into the pros & cons of each game in the trilogy (and the other Souls-like games) and look forward to checking out some of their non-Souls games next...
Timestamps: Starjump - 00:01:00 Baba is You - 00:05:34 Yooka-Laylee (2D & 3D) - 00:07:33 Deltarune - 00:15:35 Bit.Trip Series - 00:17:57 Days Gone - 00:25:00 ScourgeBringer - 00:32:58 West of Dead - 00:37:11 Dark Souls III - 00:40:20
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. We’re itching to dig into some ‘retro gaming’ goodness on ALL fronts this week, so let’s get right into the action… Kevin kicks things off with an awesome new indie arcade game, Satryn, that is heavily inspired by retro classics like Robotron, while simultaneously leaving them in the dust—this one is still a work-in-progress, so we’ll definitely be keeping you updated! From there, John & Kevin dig deep into a handful of games on the PICO-8 fantasy console! We kick things off with a couple of gems from one of our favorite indie devs, Sebastian Lind, Cards With Personalities & I Demand Coffee—the former is an incredibly deep deckbuilding RPG, while the latter is a super solid puzzle platformer! After that, we dig into a couple of precision platformers, GRiPPY & Yolo Solo, each with their own unique take on climbing your way around from point A to point B. Finally, Randall & Kevin keep the NES/Famicom train rolling from last week, and check out a couple more semi-obscure titles from Nintendo’s 8-bit era. First, we dig into the run ‘n’ gun platformer Metal Storm from Irem—which has even seen a modern re-release from retro-bit that Randall scooped up, with a bunch of extra goodies! After that, we briefly touch on Kabuki: Quantum Fighter from HAL Laboratories (yes, that HAL Laboratories?!?!?), before springboarding into yet another conversation about difficulty in retro games, versus the modern indie games that might give some of us all the ‘retro’ we need...
Timestamps: Satryn - 00:02:05 Cards With Personalities - 00:08:50 I Demand Coffee - 00:17:14 GRiPPY - 00:19:14 Yolo Solo - 00:25:31 Metal Storm - 00:29:20 Kabuki: Quantum Fighter - 00:40:02 ↳ Modern Difficulty vs. Retro Difficulty - 00:43:19
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. First things first, if you happen to notice John sounding a little different this week, his computer decided to record the audio from the mic built into the laptop—but we’ll just pretend he needed to keep his distance from his latest trek into the ‘Souls’ franchise, with Dark Souls III. With that note out of the way, let’s get on with the show… Kevin kicks things off this week with a spotlight on Lonely People Potion Shop, yet another incredibly stylish game from one of our favorite indie devs, Kultisiti—this game was also included in the recently released Care Package Bundle on itchio, along with six other ‘wholesome’ games for $7!?! And while we’re on the subject, Kevin takes a little more time to highlight a few of his other favorite discoveries from Kultisti. From there, Randall & Kevin roll into a couple of obscure NES/Famicom platformers that were released late in the console’s lifecycle, Little Samson & (Mr.) Gimmick!, both of which are essentially out of reach in the cartridge collecting world due to obscurity. You really need to check out these forgotten ‘classics,’ if you can!
Timestamps: Care Package Bundle - 00:02:00 ↳ Lonely People Potion Shop - 00:04:57 Don’t Eat My Mind You Stupid Monsters! - 00:09:40 Little Samson - 00:13:45 (Mr.) Gimmick! - 00:27:03 The Adventures of Cookie & Cream - 00:40:10 Dark Souls III - 00:41:42 ◫ - 00:55:30 OOO - 00:58:00
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. We've got all sorts of video game goodness coming your way this week, so let's start the show... John gets us started with his first impressions on Apex Legends after spending an entire evening syncing up with DJ, with only a small break for dinner. Kevin also recaps one of his most recent streams, after getting completely hooked on Spinch, a super trippy 2D precision platformer. From there, Randall sticks around in the platforming realm and talks about Doodle World, a recently released homebrew NES title designed by Nate Peters and his daughter! Kevin checks out a homebrew title as well, with Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe on the Game Boy Color—a frantic action arcade game with an octo-directional triple dash! John's been looking for an RPG on the PICO-8, so he and Kevin decided to take a look at The Lost Night, which is an incredibly impressive & ambitious title on the retro-inspired fantasy console! We also give a shoutout to a couple other games from the same developer. Finally, we wrap things up with a couple of 'winners' from Lonebot, You Are Now Possessed & What Goes Up—two incredibly clever puzzle games that each took first-place in the 'overall' category of their respective GMTK Game Jams.
Timestamps: Apex Legends - 00:01:44 Spinch - 00:06:40 Doodle World - 00:10:00 Mr. Rescue - 00:15:13 Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe - 00:15:42 The Lost Night - 00:19:27 Virush - 00:26:12 Pullfrog - 00:26:41 You Are Now Possessed - 00:29:36 What Goes Up - 00:31:52
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. First things first, you're probably going to hear a little bit of crackling in the background this week (particularly in the back half of the episode), due to a janky mic cable that has since been replaced. That said, let's get to the video games! Kevin's been spending some more time hanging out in the SELF discord, also known as 'the bugcord,' and couldn't wait to check out the game's first patch, featuring some seriously challenging new levels! And thanks to the bugcord community, he also discovered the lovely little platformer, Clockwatch, from Aplove Studio. Randall has been diving head first into his collection of homebrew retro cartridges lately, and this week he takes some time to highlight Tanzer, another modern Sega Genesis/Mega Drive release from Mega Cat Studios. Bouncing off of that, Kevin quickly highlights Magnet Man Adventures from Ohsat Games, who is another indie developer that plays around in the retro Sega realm. John is digging deeper & deeper into Stardew Valley and getting into some of the endgame activities, as he continues to be blown away by the ongoing efforts of ConcernedApe. We wrap things up with a little more Wild Guns talk, which Randall & Kevin had a chance to stream earlier in the week...and made it all the way to the final boss—John even hopped in on the call and hung out with us for a bit! Kevin also debates streaming some Aztec Ride: Quetzalcoatl in the future, after getting totally hooked on it before recording the episode tonight.
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. We've got the trio back together again this week with games of ALL shapes & sizes, so let's get started... Randall kicks things off with a couple of games that he's been going back to now that we can (sort of) see a light at the end of the COVID tunnel. First, he dips back into Breath of the Wild and finally takes a stab at Eventide Island in earnest and is able to overcome the challenge! After that, he's onto the never-ending gloominess of The Last of Us 2 and will continue to chip away on that one in the background. From AAA to the tiniest of indies, Kevin is on his usual bullshit and takes a little time to highlight a few smaller games he's stumbled upon recently. Our buddy Lewmoth teamed up with a couple of indie devs, Frogrammer & HumanIsRed, for the game Hinoken, an entry to Wowie Jam 3.0. And thanks to some fanart done by HumanIsRed, Kevin discovered the solo dev, Kultisti, and highlights a couple of their hyper-stylish game jam entries, Rusty Wind Blows & Roborazzi. John's wife Lauren was assigned a game to 'play' for an art class she's been taking, Black Room from Cassie McQuater, so we decided to take a look at it ourselves. It's an incredibly unique & personal experience that is definitely worth a look! Finally, in true Pursuing Pixels fashion, we wrap things up with a little basketball talk, as we all recently snagged NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 on Nintendo Switch for super cheap! We're ripping open packs with high hopes that our favorite players will be inside, and really enjoying the N64-era nostalgia.
Timestamps: TLoZ: BotW (Eventide Island) - 00:01:56 The Last of Us 2 - 00:08:51 Hinoken - 00:10:57 Rusty Wind Blows - 00:13:58 Roborazzi - 00:16:22 Black Room - 00:19:48 NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 - 00:29:55
Thanks so much for taking the time to listen! If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at: pursuingpixels.carrd.co Join us on Discord Support us on Ko-fi :)
Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. You're stuck with just Kevin & Randall this week, which means we're going to be veering a little further off the beaten path and into some more niche territory than normal, so buckle up! We kick things off with the latest release (and collaboration) between a couple of our favorite indie devs, mmatt_ugh & dev_dwarf, with Connor Grail cranking out some killer tunes, as always. They recently put out their precision platformer SELF, and we are both in love with this little game—they're planning on expanding this project into a full release too, so stay tuned for more?!? Kevin gives a quick shoutout to a lesser-known fantasy console, the TIC-80, after playing the Fetch Quest on the platform, yet another little precision platformer that we feel in love with. Randall's also still plugging away at Paprium, and having an easier go at things after Analogue pushed out an update for the Mega Sg to support this recently released Sega Genesis beat 'em up! From there, we head on over to the actual retro realm and discuss some Fire ' n Ice, which was, far and away, the highlight of the recently added games to the Nintendo Switch Online service. We also have our Japanese eshop accounts set up in order for us to check out the Famicom releases overseas, and we got totally sucked into Konami's Ping Pong. Finally, we close things out with some Xbox Game Pass indie highlights, Carto & Star Renegades, and also discuss our desires to check out The Falconeer, and finally dig into Sea of Thieves.
Timestamps: SELF - 00:01:55 Fetch Quest - 00:12:32 Paprium - 00:17:22 Fire 'n Ice - 00:20:07 Konami's Ping Pong - 00:31:08 Xbox Game Pass Round Up - 00:41:55 ↳ Carto - 00:43:06 ↳ Falconeer - 00:48:02 ↳ Sea of Thieves - 00:48:50 ↳ Star Renegades - 00:49:41
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. We've got a whole bunch of gaming goodness to discuss this week, so let's get right into it! John's kicks us off with his thoughts on Downwell, which he's been digging deeper into after it came up on the podcast a few weeks back—it's all about that 'boulder mode' baby! And while John makes his way down the well, Kevin tries to keep it from spilling over in Overflow, a game jam entry from indie dev, shmoozey. From there, Kevin & John discuss a couple of bite-sized Minit-inspired games. SURGE was an entry to Mini Jam 73 from Reeds and Steps is yet another gem on the PICO-8 platform from Amidos. Randall's firing up his Analogue Nt Mini Noir again for another modern-day NES game from Morphcat games, Micro Mages. It's absolutely mind-boggling that they could cram this entire game onto a 40kb cartridge, which you know Randall got his hands on! And finally, since PICO-8 already came up, you know we're gonna spend a little more time highlighting a couple of our current favorites on the fantasy console. First we talk about the fantastic arcade puzzler, Mai-Chan's Sweet Buns, from the developer of High Stakes, Krystman. And we wrap things up with Alpine Alpaca, a deckbuilding skiing strategy game from Johan Peitz, who also just put out the incredible picoCAD.
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels. We kick off the episode this week with a brief discussion about the most recent Nintendo Direct, which gave us some news & updates on first-party Switch titles for the first time in quite a while. From there, Randall fills us in on the latest beat 'em up on Genesis/Mega Drive, Paprium, from WM's Magical Game Factory. This game sounds absolutely insane, and Randall's also got the details on The GRANDSTICK III, the custom arcade sticks that were bundled with the game. Kevin's been playing a bunch of the SNES version of Wild Guns online with his brother recently, so he and Randall finally take a little time to highlight the souped-up 'remake' that came out back in 2016, Wild Guns: Reloaded. You really can't go wrong with either version here! John closes us out with some Stardew Valley talk, as he's been diving into the 1.5 update which was recently released on consoles. He's got the rest of us itching to either get back to, or start up, our farms—and possibly explore the latest additions to this lovely, handcrafted world online together...
Timestamps: Nintendo Direct - 00:02:22 ↳ TLoZ: Skyward Sword - 00:03:26 ↳ Mario Golf: Super Rush - 00:08:01 ↳ Project Triangle Strategy - 00:12:03 Paprium - 00:20:19 Wild Guns: Reloaded - 00:31:01 Stardew Valley (1.5 update) - 00:38:50
Thanks so much for taking the time to listen! If you'd like to find us elsewhere on the internet, you can find us at: pursuingpixels.carrd.co Join us on Discord Support us on Ko-fi :)