8-4 Play

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the NES, 8-4 invites retro gaming legend Kevin "tsr" Gifford, founder of tsr's NES archive and keeper of the world's largest collection of obscure game knowledge, to take us back (back... back...) to the 80s to talk about the birth of the era's most popular 8-Bit system. But before that, listen to round-ups of the recent Level-5 and Grasshopper events in Japan,...

The demo for Monster Hunter Portable 3rd has hit Japan, and who better to discuss it with than Naughty Dog Community Strategist Arne Meyer? ...Well, just about anyone, actually. But Mr. Meyer does have plenty of interesting things to say about helping launch the Xbox and Xbox 360, working in the studio that brought us Uncharted 2, and more. Also: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Kirby's Epic Yarn, an...

Former Nintendo, Sega, EA, Zombie, Irem, Boss, and Enix superstar Jake Kazdal (now of indie newcomer Haunted Temple Studios) joins the 8-4-some to talk about his experiences working his way up the game industry ladder, from having the dream job of being a Nintendo game counselor in the 80's to...having the dream job of working on Space Channel 5 and Rez with Tetsuya Mizuguchi in Tokyo.

Fresh from Nintendo's big 3DS (re-)unveiling in Tokyo, the 8-4 crew is ready to drop all kinds of knowledge on the upcoming portable picked up at and after the show. Opinions on the price and date? You got it. Breakdown of all the new hardware features? Natch. Analysis of games and other announcements? Sure. List of questions used to point out show highlights? Done.

It's a guestacular second episode of 8-4 Play as two of the industry's finest - former EGM/1UP scribe Shane Bettenhausen (now of Ignition Entertainment) and Kojima Productions alum Ryan Payton (now of Microsoft's 343 Industries) join us to give their thoughts on this year's Tokyo Game Show, the state of the Japanese game industry, Dante's new hair, and a whole lot more.

Special Guest and 1UP.com podcast-legend Garnett Lee joins the 8-4-some in a game-by-game analysis of everything at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, including Tactics Ogre, Parasite Eve, Yakuza, Castlevania, Monster Hunter, El Shaddai, Mega Man Universe, Child of Eden, and more. And before you start, be sure to listen to Weekend Confirmed Ep. 26 over at Shacknews.com to get the first half of our TGS 2010...