The Retro Breakdown

Thought experiment of the week: Is "not as bad as you thought" a negative review or a positive one? Tom and Dean talk about SGDQ, the massive original Xbox controller, and briefly touch on the new Battletoads, amidst a rant about how much we hate modern airline travel. Then, we discuss UK-only release Action Man: Robot Atak, a game which has us digging into the history a 1960s line of European G.I...

"What the..." Dean and Tom discuss Vice: Project Doom, a NES game that is all over the place on the quality scale. We've got aliens, clones, genetic experiments, shadowy organizations, and a hilariously threadbare plot trying but failing to hold it all together. Will we, in fact, live long enough to see ourselves become the villain? Also, hey Sega, please localize Yakuza Ishin. It might be the onl...

Tom and Dean come into the podcast this week prepared to give lukewarm reviews on Gunstar Heroes for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, but then hype each other up remembering it and totally change their minds. But before that, Tom talks about the PS4 Spider-Man game and the change in how licensed games have been handled in recent years, and Dean defends old trashy licensed games because he's doing sort...

"Palm trees.... and 8." This week, Dean refuses to stop saying "Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden," Tom wants everyone to feel sad, and the guys record a 3-hour podcast after deleting the first 2 hours of aimless conversation. Calculated. We discuss what it means to be a "retro" game, the "right" way to release content over time, and the difference between series reboots that try to "remake" t...

This week we talk about what's happening with loading times, Dean badly explains Fall Guys, and Tom shares his ultimate console modding dream. Then we talk about Demon's Crest, the game with the raddest title screen of all time, but the WORST final boss. This game seriously sent us on a rollercoaster of opinions.

This week, Tom and Dean discuss the merits of the modern game review and Ghost of Tsushima before diving into Rygar for the NES! Rygar brings us to discussions on the importance of instruction manuals on old games, checkpointing vs. long-term saves, and making blind exploration worth your time. Also, behold what may be the WORST GAME MUSIC TRACK OF ALL TIME. We also talk about how bizarre the actu...

In the first episode of The Retro Breakdown, Dean and Tom discuss oft-overlooked SNK classic Crystalis, but disagree on how to pronounce it. How do we go from killing dragons to killing robots and computers? INSTANTAEOUSLY, APPARENTLY. Also, every gaming company has a Direct for marketing now, even Stadia, even though they had nothing to announce. Attempts to discuss the Ubisoft "Forward" were met...