Famicom Dojo Video Game Podcast

Problems with video games are already something of a first-world issue, but some of the specifics can be so much worse. Which controller to get for Smash Bros. Wii U? GameCube or a GameCube-like HORI pad? Buy a PS4 on Black Friday, or do it some other time so we don't feel icky? How are we supposed to organize our video game collections when the labels don't wrap all the way around? Sean and Vinnk assert their privilege this week. We move yet another game from Pile of Shame to Future Retro, and need a little help determining where to start playing the Fire Emblem series. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

Magazines have themselves become a retro medium, but what if someone could use that to their advantage in a dying industry? Double-win if you can tie it to retro video games. That's exactly what we have with our guests this week! Vinnk and Sean welcome co-founders Mike Kennedy and Mark Kaminski of Retro Magazine to talk about their Year 2 Kickstarter, and their favorite retro games. They also stick around for Future Retro and Pile of Shame to share some really interesting games we (or at least some of us) haven't played before! "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

What are your favorite scary games? How about just ones that remind you of Halloween, or are about traditional "scary" critters, but are just too darn cute to be scary themselves? Or, depending on what actually scares you, extreme isolation? Sean and Vinnk invite Sindra and David back to the podcast for this special Halloween episode! And we may or may not discuss the P.T. Silent Hills demo... JUMP SCARE!! "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

Rob Matsushita is a Madison, WI based filmmaker and playright. More importantly for our purposes he is also host of the 10 Minutes About Your Favorite Movie podcast on the Little Podcast Network. We're big fans of his show, and thought that the best way to get Dojo Disciples to become fans to is to show him how awesome it is through the lens of video games. Fortunately, Rob plays them too. Vinnk, Sean, and Rob give each other their top five favorite games, and chose one to talk about for ten minutes. Er, apiece. This is Ten Minutes About Your Favorite Video Game! Times three. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

Some of our favorite Famicom and NES games are nearing the end of their respective lifespans. Famicom Disk System games degrade, no matter how well you take care of them. Cartridge games with battery backups will eventually lose power, along with your data, and never be able to save again. Even the batteries that help consoles like the PS2 and Dreamcase keep time are fizzling out. Is there anything we can do to stop it. Sean and Vinnk ponder the move to digital media as a way to preserve their game collections, but at what cost? No, literally, what would that cost? Especially since only a portion of those games are even available on anything but the original release media. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

Way back when we ended Season 1 of the video series, we announced our new Denshimail segment. While we've answered many of your questions in video forms, we've only been getting more and more of them in the years since. While we'd love to answer many of the in video format, we have a lot of catching up to do! Vinnk and Sean answer a backlog of voicemails, and a selection of listener and viewer questions asked on Facebook, YouTube, and our email. We'll also try to answer one question per episode from now on! "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

We haven't been to Tokyo Game Show in person, but that doesn't mean we haven't been to Tokyo Game Show! Famicom Dojo has had an official presence covering the show in 2013 and 2014. This year we got Mr. Presence on the show to discuss what he saw on the floor this year. Sean and Vinnk welcome David to the podcast for the first time to talk about how the console market is going, bemoan Square-Enix's risk-averse library, and the difficulty of coming down with Sonic Boom. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

Is it wonderful or worrying that two grown men need a place to store all of their stuff from a childhood that in some ways never ended? Or is doing a podcast and video series about classic video games excuse enough? Vinnk and Sean have both moved into new houses, and new places to keep all of their cool stuff. Sean rediscovers Punch Out for Wii in Future Retro, and Vinnk tells the harrowing tale of his missing Retron 5 in Pile of Shame. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

It's a bit later than expected, but the 3DS has finally gotten the second stick (well, a nub really), and enough buttons to make it nearly feature complete with a Wii U GamePad. A herald of things to come for Nintendo, or sheer coincidence? Sean and Vinnk wonder if this is the next logical step for the 3DS, or merely a placeholder for what's really coming next. Vinnks Zonks out with Future Retro, and Sean tries out a Nintendo classic finally coming to the US on 3DS Virtual Console. Vinnk adds another chapter to his Ace Attorney 5 saga in Pile of Shame, and Sean tries out Vindicators thanks to Reddit. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

After the y cant metroid crawl meme sprang into being upon the release of Super Metroid on the Wii U Virtual Console, Sean recorded a bunch of footage performing tricks in the game, but it's been over a year and we haven't made it into a proper video yet. Sean put out the raw footage on another YouTube channel at the same time Phil was working through the GBA Metroid games. So we decided to talk to Phil about his experience playing through (quote-unquote) old 2D Metroid again! Sean and Phil talk about replaying the Game Boy Advance games, sequence breaking, and undocumented secrets in Super Metroid. Future Retro covers the unofficial Project M mod for Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii, and Pile of Shame laments how difficult it is to get back into Metroid Prime 2 after almost a decade. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

Shovel Knight is more than a retro-styled game made to make you wistful of a bygone era -- it makes you wish that era had never ended, and gives a glimpse of what it may have been like if it hadn't. From emulating an actual Famicom sound chip to sticking almost entirely within the capabilities of the NES hardware, Shovel Knight is nothing less than a work of art. It's also pretty fun to play! And it learns lessons from the last three decades that its proper 8-bit brethren never had time to internalize. Vinnk and Sean share their views on Yacht Club Games' maiden voyage, heap praises on the Metroid series and Sakura Wars in Future Retro, and try to talk themselves into taking some more games off their pile of shame. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Little Podcast Network. Sponsor an episode, or listen to other great shows at http://LittlePodcast.com.

When we were kids, someone introduced each of us to the world of video games. Maybe it was a parent, or a friend who had the latest and greatest. Or maybe that love developed in arcades and translated into the home. This week, we revisit the formative years that made us gamers. And we have other stories that listeners like you sent in to celebrate our 100th episode. Sean and Vinnk interview their families, play user submissions, and give their own individual stories about what it meant Growing Up Gamer. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Famicom Dojo Video Series. Train Your Game at https://youtube.com/famicomdojo.

The thing about being a gainfully-employed adult and parent is that time becomes your most precious commodity. So any time you use for games can only be used on the good ones -- if you can figure out which ones those are. Vinnk and Sean reveal how they balance their real lives with gaming life, how the Wii U is great for that, and get all excited over Future Retro that's really just a quasi-remake of a 20 year old game. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Famicom Dojo Video Series. Train Your Game at https://youtube.com/famicomdojo.

It's amazing how things looked a year ago, with Nintendo all but left for dead by the gaming press. Now, with a much-needed lift by Mario Kart 8 and a killer showing at E3, Nintendo looks like it might earn the title of number one console (in Japan) -- and not just because the PS4 is selling so poorly there. And perhaps do better in America too. Whatever works. Sean and Vinnk skip Future Retro and Pile of Shame to dedicate the entire episode to E3 reactions. And maybe pepper that stuff throughout the show anyway. You better believe we won't be letting Ubisoft off lightly, either. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Famicom Dojo Video Series. Train Your Game at https://youtube.com/famicomdojo.

Nintendo appeases the hardcore Super Smash Bros. tournament crowd with a wired adapter for GameCube controls, playable at the Smash Bros Invitational. The newest Mario Kart was released last week, selling out Pro Controllers everywhere, crashing the Club Nintendo website, and increasing sales of the Wii U in the UK alone by 666%. In less than a week, Mario Kart 8 has sold 1.2 million copies worldwide. YouTube announced a monetization scheme for users uploading Nintendo videos. Is Nintendo finally listening to its fans, or did it just take this long to unlock the Wii U's potential? Vinnk and Sean put down Mario Kart 8 long enough to discuss what Nintendo is doing right, and if there are bigger things on the horizon. The Wii U is having a renaissance, and it's not even E3 ye. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Famicom Dojo Video Series. Train Your Game at https://youtube.com/famicomdojo.

We've long been wary of digital services on consoles at Famicom Dojo, because every time one shuts down there's the inevitable pain that follows, and features that can never be recaptured. This is what is happening with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection going dark this week, which takes with it all online multiplayer (and related features) for not only Wii and DS titles, but anything that relied on GameSpy for online connectivity. Similarly, Microsoft has continued its Xbox One backpedaling and has decided that the Kinect 2.0 isn't required hardware after all. Sean and Vinnk wonder if this change to the Xbox One will make them more likely to get it over the PS4, and decide how best to go out on Nintendo's original online service. Also, we discuss the Amplitude Kickstarter by Harmonix (which, by now, should be fully funded). We review a brand new game in Future Retro, and Pile of Shame isn't about video games at all! "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podca

Physical game releases, and increasingly their digital versions as well, often get a hefty price cut as the game ages, but the price of the DLC never goes down. Should it? Vinnk and Sean backtrack on some earlier positions to talk about DLC they like, grapple with their feelings on DLC in general, and what alternatives publishers can pursue without giving up a revenue stream that helps to increase the software development tail of a game and its engine. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Famicom Dojo Video Series. Train Your Game at https://youtube.com/famicomdojo.

NES Remix 2 is chock full of sequels to games from NES Remix 1, and of course NES followups to other games not seen in the series before. Conventional wisdom dictates that sequels are mere cash-ins of a great idea, but sometimes they can perfect that idea in fun and surprising ways. Sean and Vinnk discuss the sequels we think are better than the originals, some clearly superior, others more controversial. Vinnk touches a game designer's hair in Future Retro, and pile of shame goes digital-only... kind of like this podcast! "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Famicom Dojo Video Series. Train Your Game at https://youtube.com/famicomdojo.

Recent installments of the Super Smash Bros. series have included characters from third party companies as fighters joining the Nintendo menagerie. Game developers often hide references to their other titles in some of their games, either by obscure references or through sharing characters -- sometimes where they don't really belong. Gamers seem to enjoy these cross-overs and in=jokes... but why? Vinnk and Sean share their favorite cameos in well-known games as well as more obscure titles. Future Retro looks more at the recent past, and Pile of Shame spans a couple of generations. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Famicom Dojo Video Series. Train Your Game at https://youtube.com/famicomdojo.

While the rest of the world is picking up the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at an admirable pace (sorry, Wii U), the former was only just released earlier this year in Japan, and the latter is not yet on store shelves. The latest Nintendo Direct makes it seem like the company doesn't understand that they need to support the Wii U over the 3DS with games like Smash Bros., but perhaps the situation underscores a deeper problem. Sean and Vinnk discuss what happened to all of the console gamers, where they went, and what it means for the future of game companies if it all goes away forever. Maybe Nintendo's mobile strategy isn't so short-sighted after all. "Famicom Thrash" and "RPG" theme songs by the Imari Tones: http://imaritones.net. This podcast is brought to you by the Famicom Dojo Video Series. Train Your Game at https://youtube.com/famicomdojo.