Super Podcast Bros. Retro Gaming Show

There is a reason you don't often see movie-based video games being included on gaming "best of" lists. More often than not, a movie license is just an excuse for a publisher to make a quick buck off of name recognition alone . The list of crappy movie-based video games is long and varied, but we're aiming to identify the games that did right by their respective cinematic properties; giving fans a quality complement to their film franchise fandom. We're back, and we've added to new voices to SPB crew! Come along for our discussion of the top ten movie based games on this episode of Super Podcast Brothers!

Over the last two years, the Nintendo Switch has slowly become the go-to source for retro gaming on modern console hardware. Gone are the days of waiting patiently for Virtual Console updates that rarely came. In it's place is a steady stream of arcade gems, an on-demand NES library, and plenty of retro gaming anthologies and compilations. That's right, we're leaving the comfy confines of our decades old legacy hardware to play some vintage games on modern technology.

While 2018 wasn't our most active year, we still have plenty of gaming memories to look back on. Sometimes, it was a newly discovered game, and other times we were falling in love with old favorites all over again. For Tim, it was a questionable 80's movie tie-in, while Andy finally understood why a classic Nintendo franchise is so universally beloved. Come along and join us for our fifth annual end of year special!

View the countdown cover art gallery at: tinyurl.com/SPB70. In gaming's early days, sometimes the only information you could find on a game was it's packaging. The internet wasn't in our pockets with highly analytical reviews just a few button presses away. No, we'd often take a blind leap of faith and hope that our hard-earned cash was going to good use with the latest purchases. On this episode, we're counting down our favorite seventy video game covers. Some of these would lead us to the purchase classic games that would forever be a part from of collections... Others, not so much. Yet, there's still plenty to discuss!

Beware, we live! After another long hiatus, we’re back to do a little podcast housekeeping. This irregular episode of the show sees us catching up on news and happenings from the last three months and discussing what’s in store for the future. You’ll also hear us reveal which games we’d feature in our “dream arcades”; the coin-op titles that we’d choose to play and love forever.

With Major League Soccer and our beloved Loons back in action for the 2018 season, the time was right to take to the digital pitch and test our luck against digital keepers from all generations of gaming. Of course, who better than a bunch of ignorant Americans to break down the finer points of football? We'll tell you which games stand tall atop the table, and which deserve to be relegated to the lowest tiers of gaming history.

There are many reasons for which a game can be canceled. Financial and quality issues are usually to blame, but often a game will just disappear without explanation. On this episode, we're taking a look at a handful of games that were never commercially released, but due to the preservation efforts of the retro gaming community, are now available to experience. We’re also reviewing two crappy games as chosen by the Emulate This podcast as part of a bet we lost. Which insufferable turds did they choose for us to endure? Find out on this brand new episode.

Part of the appeal of video games is the feeling of satisfaction that comes with taking down an opponent in humiliating and often hilarious fashion. It could be giant gun, a giant sword, or hell, it could be both! We’re celebrating these fantastic tools of destruction with Retro Game Squad by counting down our top ten badass power-ups and weapons on this new episode!

When Sega looked to go all-out in their attempt to compete with Nintendo, they created a new mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, to lead the charge. While the series’ 2D platforming gameplay was somewhat familiar, its incomparable sense of speed and flashy aesthetics were unique and incredibly appealing to gamers of all ages. It’s a formula that has been called upon many times since, albeit with wildly varying results. On this episode, we're revisiting the series' roots as Josh Wirtanen joins the show to discuss the blue blur’s first three outings.

At the crossroads between Nintendo’s glory age of market dominance and the years of varied success that followed, sits the curious case of the Nintendo 64. Seemingly as beloved as it detested, it is perhaps the most polarizing piece of video game hardware from the 1990's. Its unusual controller design and adherence to cartridge based gaming draws the ire of some, while others praise the system for its quality first party library and unparalleled multiplayer offerings. On part 2 of this episode, we count down our ten favorite games for the Nintendo 64.

At the crossroads between Nintendo’s glory age of market dominance and the years of varied success that followed, sits the curious case of the Nintendo 64. Seemingly as beloved as it detested, it is perhaps the most polarizing piece of video game hardware from the 1990's. Its unusual controller design and adherence to cartridge based gaming draws the ire of some, while others praise the system for its quality first party library and unparalleled multiplayer offerings. Clay Howard joins us to discuss the history of the console, our own personal memories about it, and more.

In 2006, Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions released Grandma’s Boy, a low-brow stoner comedy about a middle-aged video game tester who has had a few too many bad breaks in life. Its theatrical run was an abject failure, and gamers cried foul for being misrepresented by the film. However, Grandma’s Boy found a sizable cult after being released on DVD and remains a staple of late-night film rotations for gamers and non-gamers alike. We’re taking an in-depth look at the film on this special bonus episode!

Back in the day, Robert Ferguson was but a young Atari-loving paperboy from Delaware. Decades later, he would go on to found one of the most influential retro gaming podcasts of all-time, the Atari 2600 Game-by-Game Podcast. Andy sits down for a one-on-one interview with the Podfather himself, now more commonly known as Ferg, to discuss his journey in podcasting, history with the Atari brand, favorite Christmas baked goods, and more!

We’re wrapping up 2017 in our traditional way, by handing out Game of the Year Awards to the best games of not only this year, but 1977, 1987, 1997, and 2007 as well. We’ll also count down the ten best retro games that we were introduced to over the past twelve months. It’s been a fantastic year, and we’re celebrating it all!

Not all games are created equally. While we all tend to devote our time and energy to the higher-quality titles, every now and then some garbage seeps in. But today, we’re celebrating that garbage by highlighting the terrible abominations of electronic media that somehow keep finding their way into our consoles. We’ve got irradiated chickens, weaponized urinals, city slicker sasquatches and more!

After the tragic death of our last collaboration, the Pie Factory Podcast joins us on the show yet again to count down our favorite ten arcade game characters. After all, a quality character can make or break a game franchise and we’ve chosen the very best avatars that have most competently complemented our coin-op crusades. That’s a lot of alliteration, and this here is a whole lot of Super Podcast Factory!

The first Turok adventure was a massive success for struggling publisher Acclaim, and for the N64 in general. It arrived on the scene at the perfect time, when owners of the new Nintendo console were desperate for new titles. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter filled that void with its intriguing blend of first person shooting and exploration, but by the fall of 1998, things had changed. GoldenEye 007 had changed the console shooter game completely, and while a Turok sequel was inevitable, could it possibly match up to the new standard set by Rare’s instant classic? We discuss that and more as Jeff Knox joins this episode of SPB to discuss Turok 2: Seeds of Evil.

There have been many twists and turns in gaming history over the past four decades. Each generation of home consoles has built upon the successes and failures of the ones that came before it, and with the help of Greg and George from the SNES and PlayStation Power podcasts, we attempt to adequately cross-section each era to highlight the most important and most infamous facets of each. From the Channel F to the Nintendo 64 we journey across generations on this new episode.

To most of us, video games are a way to escape the frustration and drudgery of everyday life. Unfortunately, video games can also be a source of pure anger and irritation, caused by the digital adversaries that keep us from accomplishing our in-game goals. With the help of the hosts of Emulate This, we pick out the ten most annoying video game enemies that have caused us to throw controllers, punch walls, and scream psychotically.

Despite a relatively sparse and inconsistent release schedule, the Metroid series remains one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises outside of Japan. In celebration of its proper return in the form of Metroid: Samus Returns for the 3DS, we’re looking back at the first two titles in the series. While they don’t quite maintain the same status of their 16-bit sibling, Samus’ first two adventures are noteworthy and fascinating all their own.