Pursuing Pixels

Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We're shorthanded once again this week, but we're back as always to talk about some video games!
Kevin & Randall get things started with a deep dive into the recently released Cyber Shadow, from Mechanical Head & Yacht Club Games.  With Yacht Club putting their stamp on this release, you know it's gushing with all sorts of 8-bit retro goodness—and you know we aren't complaining about that!
Kevin takes a few minutes to highlight a couple of indie arcade games that he recently picked up on Nintendo Switch, including another recently released title, Project Starship X, along with another game that we've briefly mentioned on the podcast before, Singled Out from Matt Glanville.
DJ & Kevin close things out with a discussion on Exit the Gungeon, which is Dodge Roll's follow-up to Enter the Gungeon.  Though it doesn't quite stack up to its predecessor in our opinion, we're both pretty into this sequel of sorts—and of course, DJ already beat it...seven freaking times?!?!?
 
Timestamps:
Cyber Shadow  -  00:03:05
Singled Out  -  00:24:28
Project Starship X  -  00:27:49
Exit the Gungeon  -  00:30:55
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We're missing Randall as he studies up for his final exams, but the rest of us were able to sync up on a handful of games for this week's episode, so let's get right into it...
John & DJ get things started off with some more thoughts on Dark Souls II, which John booted up last week to share his initial impressions—and it seems like things are starting to turn around for John!
From there, we all dive into Celeste 2: Lani's Trek, a brand new PICO-8 Celeste 'sequel' of sorts that was released by the developers for the game's third anniversary.  What an awesome way to celebrate?!?
Speaking of celebrations, we also all checked out Ugby Mumba 3 from Milkbar Lads, which was released in celebration of Pixel Day 2021 over at Newgrounds!
Tiny Heist from Terry Cavanagh is yet another game we all were able to some time with this week, and is even more evidence of Terry's game design brilliance!
We close things out with the wild & wacky adventure game, The Good Time Garden, from Coal Supper, which leaves us wondering just what the hell is going on...
 
Timestamps:
Dark Souls II  -  00:01:15
Celeste 'Classic' 2: Lani's Trek  -  00:16:33
Ugby Mumba 3  -  00:23:47
Tiny Heist  -  00:35:10
The Good Time Garden  -  00:43:48
Indie Demos Shoutout  -  00:51:29
↳  GigaSword  -  00:51:40
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  This week, we had some technical issues (aka some of our computers are super old), and we lost the audio from our first recording session.  Determined to get an episode out this week, we let the computers cool down for a bit and sat back down for take two, already a couple drinks deep.....
Randall kicks us off with an 8bit retro nostalgia trip with his recently imported physical copy of the Aleste Collection on Nintendo Switch!  With M2 handling the cultivation of the collection—and even making a brand new Game Gear game—you know this one is top-notch!
Kevin fired up the demo for Big Boy Boxing before recording tonight and can't wait to see what this Super Punch-Out!! inspired boxing game has in store upon its full release.  He also takes some extra time to gush about a couple of indie devs that he's mentioned on the podcast in the past—pixel-boy & rxi—spotlighting a couple of games from each developer.
DJ takes the reigns from here, and continues to rave about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, as it might be his favorite FromSoftware game yet!  He also has some mindless fun with a couple of PS Plus games this week, including the latest entry in the Worms franchise, Worms Rumble, and the GTA/Jaws inspired Maneater.
John keeps the FromSoftware train rolling and closes us out with his opening thoughts (40 hours in) on Dark Souls II, now that he finally has his hands on DJ's old PS4.  We'll definitely be hearing more of his thoughts on this one next week, so stay tuned...
 
Timestamps:
Aleste Collection  -  00:02:28
Big Boy Boxing (Demo)  -  00:12:59
pixel-boy games  -  00:16:40
↳  The Station (Demo)  -  00:16:58
↳  Fairy Song  -  00:19:20
rxi games  -  00:21:53
↳  Stray  -  00:22:51
↳  Gift  -  00:24:20
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice  -  00:26:48
Worms Rumble  -  00:28:12
Maneater  -  00:30:58
Dark Souls II  -  00:34:28
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  Sorry if you can hear a little extra background noise on this week's episode—most of us are recording from older apartment buildings with antiquated heating systems.  That said, nothing's gonna stop us from us from talking some video games, so let's get rolling...
DJ gets us started once again with another PS5 update, though he's moved onto Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice after polishing off Demon's Souls last week!  Randall is also spending some time with one of his 'new' consoles, as he and Kevin take a look at Böbl from Morphcat Games—an NES game released in 2020 that Randall tested out on his jailbroken Analogue Nt-Mini.
While searching for Böbl on itch.io, Kevin stumbled across another platforming gem called Bobls, this one being a one bit, bite-sized precision platformer.  He also raves about one of the most immersive games he's played in a while, known as either Meow, or simply 'ᗢ'.
John closes us out with a conversation inspired by Awesome Games Done Quick—after watching a 'gotta catch 'em all' run of Pokémon Red & Blue (and digging into the most recent Sword & Shield DLC), he's wondering how the rest of us go about 'completing' games these days.  Does anyone still go for 100% completion anymore???
 
Timestamps:
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice  -  00:01:14
Böbl  -  00:15:02
Bobls  -  00:26:17
Meow (aka 'ᗢ')  -  00:27:30
Awesome Games Done Quick  -  00:31:17
Pokemon Sword/Shield  -  00:33:56
↳  'Compulsion' Gaming  -  00:39:41
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We've got another jam-packed episode full of video games this week, so let's jump right into it!
DJ is still playing around with his brand new PS5 this week, kicking things off with a quick Demon's Souls update from last week, before digging into the wacky world of Bugsnax—and he's definitely got the rest of us intrigued!
From there, he also shares some brief thoughts on Eves Drop & Downwell, which are a couple of Kevin's favorite modern arcade games!  And speaking of awesome arcade games, Kevin also quickly highlights Slugcaster & Disc Gun—the latter being yet another entry to the Disc Room Game Jam that he likes more than the game the jam was based upon...
Kevin also had an absolute blast with a couple of puzzle platformers, Bombastic & Puzezl—the former offering up a perfectly balanced mix of precision and puzzle solving, while the latter won't necessarily be testing your platforming skills, but will certainly leave you scratching your head!
Randall is also still playing with his shiny new console and ends up getting entirely sucked into River City Girls, thanks to its availability on Xbox Game Pass—and also takes a little time to thanks the video game gods for supplying us with a smattering of awesome beat 'em ups in recent memory!
Finally, John closes us out for the week with a Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity gush-fest, and has Randall & Kevin ready to pull the trigger on picking up the latest game set in the Breath of the Wild universe!  After that, we end up talking all sorts of Zelda stuff after that as we wind things down, before wrapping things up for the week.
 
Timestamps:
Demon's Souls  -  00:01:15
Bugsnax  -  00:02:38
Downwell  -  00:06:23
Slugcaster  -  00:12:47
Disc Gun  -  00:14:08
Bombastic  -  00:16:27
Puzezl  -  00:18:06
River City Girls  -  00:20:48
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity  -  00:27:15
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We're jam-packed with video game goodness once again, so let's get right into it!
DJ's PS5 has officially arrived as of this week, and he was delightfully surprised by the console's pack-in game, Astro's Playroom.  And after that, you know he's getting straight into Demon's Souls, which is definitely the system seller for Sony's new platform!
John is sticking it to a whole bunch of creeps and jerks in Grindstone, which has finally been released outside of the sphere of Apple Arcade—there's a pretty good chance that we'll be discussing this game further in the future, once some more of us get our hands on the latest puzzler from Capybara Games.
Kevin takes a brief moment to remove his foot from his mouth, as we discuss a little more Unruly Heroes & Rayman.  From there, he's giving a little love to our pals at SuperTry Studios, who just released their 12th game of 2020 last month, Bazooka Panic!  He also discovers a new indie developer, Dazlog, and touches on a couple of their games, Mystical Samurai & Bobo Gooey.
Finally, Randall closes us out with the next gen basketball experience, as he's been plowing through NBA2K21's management mode—he's already dismantled his hometown team, the Detroit Pistons, and won back-to-back championships?!?
 
Timestamps:
Playstation 5  -  00:01:01
↳  Astro's Playroom  -  00:01:48
↳  Demon's Souls  -  00:04:45
Grindstone  -  00:15:14
Unruly Heroes & Rayman Legends  -  00:23:50
Bazooka Panic!  -  00:30:44
Mystical Samurai  -  00:32:14
Bobo Gooey  -  00:32:54
NBA2K21  -  00:34:51
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We're less than full-strength for the first time in a little while, missing DJ this week, but we've still got plenty of games to talk about this week!
Randall gets us started with his first impressions of the Xbox Series X and appears to be incredibly happy with his purchase so far!  Between Xbox Game Pass and the platform-wide backwards compatibility, he's already got a slew of games to re-experience before splurging on the console's true next-gen offerings!
Speaking of Game Pass, Kevin & Randall have also been checking out Unruly Heroes from Magic Design Studios, consisting of many former Rayman Origins/Rayman Legends devs.  We're almost entirely at odds during this conversations—do you agree with either one of us?
From there, Kevin highlights a couple of indie demos that we streamed over on our Twitch channel recently, Aurascope & Elechead.  Whether you like your platformers precision-y or puzzle-y, we have a feeling you'll be adding one, if not both, of these to your wishlist!
After Kevin hyped up the PICO-8 fantasy console last week, John shares his thoughts on a variety of games, including a couple that we talked about last week (and in our Discord), while highlighting a few more gems, as well.
Finally, Kevin wraps things up with -SPROUT-, which we streamed a full playthrough of after the game's developer, Zedsquadron, sent us over a copy of his awesome lil' precision platformer!
 
Timestamps:
Xbox Series X  -  00:01:03
Unruly Heroes & Rayman Legends  -  00:08:46
Aurascope  -  00:20:58
Elechead  -  00:24:31
PICO-8  -  00:26:01
↳  High Stakes  -  00:26:33
↳  Breakolf  -  00:27:58
↳  Molecules  -  00:31:13
↳  Wandering Magic  -  00:35:53
-SPROUT-  -  00:44:36
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  It's our first episode of the new year, and we're kicking off 2021 with a boatload of games to talk about, so let's get started...
DJ gets the ball rolling with a bunch of multiplayer gaming that he's been doing lately, starting off with a Killer Queen Black & Rocket League session that he had with Randall & John over the weekend, and wrapping up with some Apex Legends.  It hasn't been all competitive gaming for DJ though, as he's also been playing some Mario's Super Picross.
Kevin finally got around to booting up the PICO-8 fantasy console, which was included in the itchio Bundle for Racial Justice & Equality, and highlights a handful of the standouts he's played this week.
From faux-retro to neo-retro, Randall finally got his hands on the Analogue Nt Mini Noir that he ordered back in February—the retro enthusiast's definitive HD NES experience!  And he's super into it!
John closes us out with a little comfort food, as he's been plowing through one of his all-time favorites, Tales of Symphonia, before moving onto a later entry in the series, Tales of Vesperia—and he's already well over 30 hours in...
 
Timestamps:
Multiplayer Gaming  -  00:00:46
↳  Killer Queen Black  -  00:01:08
↳  Rocket League  -  00:02:21
↳  Apex Legends  -  00:06:40
Mario's Super Picross  -  00:11:44
PICO-8  -  00:19:27
↳  High Stakes  -  00:21:38
↳  Marballs 1 & 2  -  00:24:23
↳  Combo Pool  -  00:25:25
↳  8 Legs to Love  -  00:26:21
↳  Just One Boss  -  00:27:31
Analogue Nt Mini Noir  -  00:29:13
Tales of Symphonia  -  00:34:48
Tales of Vesperia  -  00:36:52
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels...and welcome to our second annual, end-of-the-year, wrap-up episode!?!  [Click here for last year's episode!]
To close out 2020, we're highlighting a BUNCH of our favorite games that came up on the podcast over the course of the year—consider it our version of the GOTYs.  And we're closing things out by looking forward to 2021, each resolving to play something from each of our respective backlogs before the clock strikes 2022...
 
Our (sort of) GOTYs:
Kevin  -  00:02:10
↳  Lonely Mountains: Downhill | Kero Blaster | Daniel Linssen & mmatt_ugh
Randall  -  00:11:54
↳  AC:NH | Monster Boy & The Cursed Kingdom | Streets of Rage 4
DJ  -  00:23:32
↳  Invisible, Inc. | Resident Evil VII: Biohazard | Hades
John  -  00:31:07
↳  Animal Crossing: New Horizons | Hades | A Short Hike
2021 Resolutions:
John:  Murder by Numbers  -  00:41:36
DJ:  Deltarune   -  00:42:47
Randall:  Ori and the Will of the Wisps  -  00:43:47
Kevin:  Hyper Light Drifter  -  00:45:00
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We've got a full house again this week, and a whole bunch of video games to talk about, so let's get started...
DJ kicks us off with an update on Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout and finds himself getting sucked back into the game after the Season 2 update—and after burning ourselves out last time it came up.  He also goes on a high-jinks-filled little adventure in Mom Hid My Game.
Kevin was really looking forward to checking out Disc Room, but ended up being pretty disappointed with how the game ended up coming together, in spite of its addictive gameplay mechanics.  That said, he checked out a couple of entries from the Disc Room Game Jam, Harvest Doom & Pigments, and ends up finding more of what he was looking for!  He also ripped through the original Celeste 'Classic' on the PICO-8 fantasy console.
Randall is moving us into the neo-retro realm, and also into the wide world of sports, as he recently started playing NHL '94 Rewind—a bonus retro classic courtesy of his NHL '21 pre-order!
John's been playing through the SNES All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. 3 (for some reason?!?), and we inevitably end up going down the Mario rabbit hole (or warp pipe, perhaps?) to close out the episode this week...
 
Timestamps:
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Season 2)  -  00:01:09
Mom Hid My Game  -  00:06:38
Disc Room  -  00:09:34
Disc Room Game Jam  -  00:15:11
↳  Harvest Doom  -  00:16:12
↳  Pigments  -  00:17:55
Celeste 'Classic' on PICO-8  -  00:20:23
NHL '94 Rewind  -  00:21:43
Super Mario All-Stars + World  -  00:26:57
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We're breaking the mold once again this week, as we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to chat with Aivi Tran & Sabrielle Augustin—two of the composers of the fabulous Ikenfell soundtrack!
We talked about Ikenfell on the podcast a few week's back and the OST was certainly one of the standout feature of the game, for a multitude of reasons! 
We keep it (mostly) *spoiler-free* as we dig deep into the inspirations behind the soundtrack, how this masterful team of composers & musicians came together, and get to know two of the artists behind the game a little bit better!
Thanks again so much to Aivi & Sabrielle for taking the time to sit down & chat with us!  Please check out their work(s), Ikenfell and beyond.
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We are absolutely jam-packed with video game goodness this week, so let's get right to it...
John kicks us off with some more Control talk, which leads into a general discussion about aerial combat in games after he tracks down his Daemon X Machina cartridge.
Kevin's been streaming a whole bunch of games on our Twitch channel lately and specifically carves out some time to discuss a couple more games that were included in the itchio Bundle for Racial Justice & Equality, Zone of Lacryma & Eves Drop.
Dj's been bouncing around a little bit himself, first polishing off Watch Dogs 2, and then plowing through Rise of the Tomb Raider in no time flat—let's just say, Nathan Drake is no Lara Croft!
Everyone but John has been sinking some serious time into Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair and the three of us have some widely differing opinions on this modern 2D platformer.
Randall closes things out by selling all of us HARD on the TurboGrafx-16 Mini, one of the latest additions to the mini retro console lineup...though there's a pretty good chance you missed out on the vast majority of these games the first time around, just like we did!
 
Timestamps:
Control  -  00:03:41
Daemon X Machina  -  00:07:23
Kevin's Been Streaming..... -  00:13:46
↳  Alan Wake  -  00:13:46
↳  Kero Blaster (Omake mode)  -  00:15:04
↳  Donut County  -  00:15:17
↳  Zone of Lacryma  -  00:16:21
↳  Eves Drop  -  00:19:03
↳  10S  -  00:22:48
Watch Dogs 2  -  00:23:59
Rise of the Tomb Raider  -  00:24:59
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair  -  00:27:37
TurboGrafx-16 Mini  -  00:45:02
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  We're back with a full house again this week, and we kick things off with a little gaming session in the clouds!
John snagged Control on Switch immediately after it was announced, during the most recent Nintendo Direct.  He shares his initial thoughts on both the game, and the prospect of streaming games over the interweb.
Kevin & Randall are getting their asses handed to them by Sky Racket, a tennis-inspired bullet hell shmup that's bursting with character!
Kevin also circles back around to briefly mention a couple of games he's finished off recently, Gato Roboto & Kero Blaster, before digging into his latest arcade obsession, Null Drifter.
DJ closes us out with a trio of games as well, beginning with follow-ups to our conversations on Undertale & Haque, before getting into his initial thoughts on Watch Dogs 2 after checking out the trial...
 
Timestamps:
Control (on Nintendo Switch)  -  00:01:44
Sky Racket  -  00:17:23
Gato Roboto  -  00:26:48
Kero Blaster  -  00:28:07
Null Drifter  -  00:29:22
Undertale  -  00:34:04
Haque  -  00:39:57
Watch Dogs 2  -  00:43:40
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  DJ & Kevin are both getting their resolution games from 'Episode Number Holiday Edition 2019' in under the wire this week, before we start thinking about wrapping things up for 2020.
DJ gets us started with Deadbolt from Hopoo Games, stealth-driven action platformer that (mostly) lives up to our lofty expectations from the mighty Risk of Rain 1 & 2 devs!
Before Kevin gets to his own resolution, he takes a stab at Transistor from SuperGiant Games—after being both in love and overwhelmed by the intense combat in their latest release, Hades—and ends up plowing straight through it.  It was also John's resolution game, but he already talked about it earlier this year like a responsible human being.
After that, it's onto Undertale, which Kevin, unfortunately, bounced off of pretty hard.  However, it did get Randall to fire up the game for the first time and he ended up playing all the way through to the end, while DJ dives deep down the rabbit hole of 'multiple endings.'
Finally, we close things out with Ikenfell, another cheeky turn-based RPG with its own set of unique combat mechanics, pulling heavily from series like XCOM & Paper Mario.
*Ikenfell also has an INCREDIBLE original soundtrack and we were fortunate to sit down with two of the game's composers, Aivi Tran & Sabrielle Augustin, for a fun and informative conversation!  The interview episode will be coming SOON...stay tuned!*
 
Timestamps:
Deadbolt (DJ's Resolution)  -  00:01:04
Transistor (John's Resolution)  -  00:05:27
Undertale (Kevin's Resolution)  -  00:08:26
Ikenfell  -  00:32:02
 
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Welcome back to Pursuing Pixels.  This week, John kicks things off with a new arcade puzzler, Petal Crash, and he's certainly got the rest of our attentions!
Kevin spotlights Yin and Yang, the latest release from mmatt_ugh, and it's yet another slam dunk puzzle platformer.  After that, it's onto the buttery precision platforming of RITE.
Speaking of slam dunks, Randall is back on his NBA2K20 bullshit, this time digging deep into the depths of MyGM mode!
 
Timestamps:
Petal Crash  -  00:02:28
Yin and Yang  -  00:12:49
Apple  -  00:16:07
RITE  -  00:16:46
NBA2K20 (MyGM mode)  -  00:22:00
 
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