FunFactor

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/ac4194d5-23d7-46fe-b6e2-0f364600532a Super Smash Bros. Melee is Nintendo’s tightest, deepest, most technically rewarding fighting game of all time, with an active playerbase and tournament scene still uncovering its secrets. But what did reviewers make of it in 2002, when “lets put all the characters and properties we own in one game” wasn’t an obli...

ISSUE LINK : https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/69555def-0cd8-4b5a-b4d2-3d324c7863f4 Console exclusivity was the talk of this recent Summer Game Fest, and Aidan and Ty start off the episode with a discussion of their most badly missed-out-on exclusives from platforms they didn't have. And then, the issue: With Future Publishing/Imagine Media getting the "official" XBox magazine tag, Ziff-Davis l...

ISSUE LINK : https://archive.org/details/game-informer-issue-105-january-2002 (sped-up audio was Ty's fault; it's been fixed!) FINAL. FANTASY. X. After the final PS1 release was a mechanical, graphical, and literary callback to the deepest roots of the series, the first PS2 release set the tone for what this series would look–and, to an extent, play–like for the next quarter-century of HD video an...

NICK’S PATREON: PandaMonium | creating a Sega Saturn documentary series. | Patreon   GREG’S PATREON: Greg Sewart | creating Generation 16 | Let's Read Videos | Retro Game Streams | Patreon   Please enjoy this snippet of our first Season Two ULTRA Review Crew bonus episode, where we're throwing it back to, um, the disastrous 1995 surprise launch of the Sega Saturn in North America?? That’s right–th...

ISSUE LINK: https://www.retromags.com/magazines/usa/official-xbox-magazine/official-xbox-magazine-issue-2/ XBOX OFFICIAL MAGAZINE: MAGAZINES EVOLVED. We had to stay in January 2002 for one more episode this season, because we just couldn’t overlook XBox Offical Magazine ’s massive walkthrough for Halo: Combat Evolved . We also couldn’t overlook the fact that Imagine Media/Future U.S. Publishing la...

ISSUE LINK : https://archive.org/details/electronic-gaming-monthly-issue-150-january-2002/mode/2up January 2002 was all killer, no filler! EGM kicked off the new year by revisiting their Top 100 games of all time, and we take a look at the changes since their last attempt (which we covered last season)! But EGM also ranked their worst 20 games of all time, thanks to freelancer Seanbaby , and we st...

ISSUE LINK: NextGen issue 85 at the Internet Archive SEASON TWO: RISE OF THE CORPOS has arrived! We've skipped forward in time to the dawn of a new era - where the dorky world leader in business software, Microsoft, has dropped a massive black-and-neon-green bomb on a gaming industry. Likewise, the games media's shift to both an older target audience and parallel online coverage means a lot of bel...

Four people, five rounds, and all the best video games of 1995-1997!  Coury and Try from My Life in Gaming join us to snake-draft our way through the Generation Gap--building four 'teams' of five games each released across all game systems and regions during our first-season time period. The competition was friendly but fierce, with plenty of you-took-my-picks and even more surprise curveballs! We...

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/NextGeneration38Feb1998 QUIZ LINK:  https://forms.gle/9cFPG8EsJesFAEB59 BILLY BAKER’S 2007 BOSTON GLOBE PIECE ON HIS WIFE SECRETLY BEING THE WORLD’S BEST TETRIS PLAYER: https://archive.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2007/08/19/bizarro_world/ Our Season 1 wrap-up extravaganza has never been more extravagant: Chris and Eric from Retrograde Amnesia joi...

We told you to ask us anything, and you did! Our Season 1 wrap-up continues with a special AMA/Q&A. From assembling our own ultimate mid-90s gaming mag Voltron-style to talking through how we handle offensive/problematic content, we answered all the questions you submitted via Discord and Bluesky! As an extra-special treat, Ty also reveals the (published!) letter he sent in to Game Players bac...

The grand finale of Season One is here! Our coverage of the 1995-1997 “Generation Gap” ends with a blowout review of (nearly) every (English-language print) review of Final Fantasy VII that we could find. Starting with a quick look back at the first year of FunFactor, and discussion of what’s coming next, we then re-looked at the magazine we debuted the podcast with nearly a year ago, PSM No. 1. ...

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/game-informer-issue-53-september-1997/mode/2up EGM DOCUMENTARY BY MY LIFE IN GAMING & GAME SACK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E010OPY1Tzw Everybody’s favorite* N64 game ever is here: GoldenEye 007! But did Game Informer’s weird four-voice feature review system capture all the excitement at release? *if you didn’t have a PC capable of playing first-per...

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/NEXT_Generation_36 It’s time to review…the consoles?? NEXT Generation issue 36 marks the start of the magazine’s third year–and they’re not only calling winners and losers of the console generation the magazine was named after, this issue has leaks and rumors of the specs of the next-next generation! And then, wonder of wonders, they declare *the PC* the bes...

ISSUE LINK: https://www.retromags.com/files/file/6814-pc-gamer-issue-037-june-1997 One of the world’s biggest, hottest developers took an unprecedented dive into the rich fantasy world of one of their beloved gaming IPs, and pulled strings to get its beautiful, hand-painted art onto the cover of PC Gamer. So why didn’t it ever come out? PC Gamer’s huge feature preview of WarCraft Adventures: War o...

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/GameFan9700/GameFan%20Vol.%205%20-%2012%20%28Dec%201997%29%20Quest%2064/page/n112/mode/1up MOLLIE L. PATTERSON'S OLD LETTER TO DAVE HALVERSON (she's since said she's cooled down quite a bit, and they're on better terms):  http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/gamefan/fatbabies.txt Don't let the extremely long intro discussion on journalism, writing, and editorial...

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/9e656342-878a-4098-9f49-0ca4dc313cb2 It's a huge episode for a huge issue: EGM No. 100!  Aidan and Ty go through the magic of Christmastime gaming, before settling in to a nice long trip through this 100-game time capsule of how EGM's staff viewed the history of games at the time. Some such lists were made before, and many many many made since--but...

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/official-u.-s.-play-station-magazine-volume-1-issue-02-november-1997 For the first time, we were ON CAMERA as we dug in to The Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine's hard pan of The Lost World, a beautiful and ambitious mess from Dreamworks that barely connects to the blockbuster Jurassic Park movie sequel it's an adaptation of. Check out the video on our YouT...

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/gamepro-issue-108-september-1997/GamePro%20-%20Issue%20108%20%28September%201997%29/mode/2up Grab your whip, your holy water, and your PlayStation 1, because we're reviewing GamePro's review of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night! We also get on one of Aidan's biggest hobby horses--2D graphics vs. 3D graphics, and whether the latter inherently beat the former...

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/NEXT_Generation_31/mode/1up Great jumpin' ray guns, or some similar 1950sesque exclamation! Captain Blasto, everyone's favorite James Bond-meets-Inspector-Clouseau-meets-Flash-Gordon, except make it a parody, and also it's Looney Tunes, superhero got a big, splashy cover and a huge preview spread in this issue--and why wouldn't it? A bold, new, original-IP a...

ISSUE LINK: Computer Entertainer, Volume 5, Number 3 | Video Game History Foundation Library – Digital Archive VHGF HOME: Home | Video Game History Foundation BONUS UNLOCKED!! This week, for our six-month anniversary, we're making one of our favorite bonus episodes available for everyone--one featuring a pair of guests we've been dreaming about landing since before we launched the show: Frank Cifa...

DESIGN ROOM DOT SITE: https://www.designroom.site/ Matt Leone, formerly of Polygon, EGM, and elsewhere, has launched a new subscription-based site that gets right to the heart of everything Ty and Aidan love about games media: oral histories of classic, beloved and/or interesting old games. Not only do we get deep into how and why Matt launched the site, we also look back on some of the vital work...

ISSUE LINK: https://www.retromags.com/magazines/usa/game-players-1993/game-players-issue-83/ Here come the RPGs...sort of. Aidan and Ty revisit Game Players yet again, as the drumbeat for more RPGs gets louder across 1996 and 1997. The splashy cover art of  Beyond the Beyond 's Finn helped rook a young Ty into buying one of the most disappointing and frustrating games he's ever played. But the rev...

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/game-informer-issue-47-march-1997 ANDY MCNAMARA ON MY PERFECT CONSOLE: https://shows.acast.com/my-perfect-console/episodes/andy-macnamara-former-editor-in-chief-game-informer MATT MILLER ANNOUNCING GI'S RETURN: https://gameinformer.com/letter-from-the-editor/2025/03/25/game-informer-is-back We've been grinding XP and saving up MP for this one: Our first issu...

ISSUE LINK: Video Game History Foundation Library | Collection: PC GAMER (US) More info on " Free Speech and Magic Money ," Jillan E. Foley, PhD's forthcoming book from Harvard University Press: Book – Jillian E. Foley We enter the dangerously Adult world of PC gaming: Mail-order explicit games, game-deletion utilities to keep people from finding out you play explicit games, politicians fear-monge...

ISSUE LINK: Tips & Tricks - Volume IV Issue 1  GAME LOSERS T&T ARTICLE: A Comprehensive Oral History Of Tips & Tricks – The #1 Video-Game Tips Magazine | Game Losers We're the Tomb Raiders! Aidan and Ty teased Tomb Raider takes last episode, and here they finally are--and so is our look at a very popular game magazine that didn't (quite) have reviews at all, Tips & Tricks. Our host...