Abnormal Mapping

An early podcast, because this week is a weird holiday week! Ignore the many instances where we say it’s coming out on Thursday in this podcast! Heading back to the early days of the playstation, this episode pits us once again against a certain type of anime war story that we’ve encountered before, and just how much a game about nothing can be entertaining if it’s breezy enough. This was a strang...

We head into the history books for one of the most notable B games of the PS2 era, the action classic Shinobi! What do we think about revisiting a classically hard game in 2020? What does it mean to be out right after Devil May Cry changed everything? And most importantly, what would adaptive triggers bring to the ninja experience?? Send us questions about our game clubs, other games, or gaming in...

We’re joined this week by a guest out of history as Six Dettmar makes ver’s second appearance on Abnormal Mapping to talk about infinite anime power and how you use it. We cover the strange realities of DLC from the olden days, ambitions of character action games to be cinematic, the downfalls of QTEs, and much more in this surprisingly dense episode for a relatively slight game! Much like Asura h...

now with updated music We’re back with a whopper of an episode this time as we played through four entire games this month and have two hours of hot content for you. Do you like shooters? Do you like cars? Do you like running and jumping? That’s all the genres! There’s no other type of video game, so you better enjoy these ones! Send us questions about our game clubs, other games, or gaming in gen...

This month we return to the heady days of the early 00s when all things seemed possible and Nintendo unleashed the Citizen Kane of video games on all of us. What does Metroid Prime tell us about American soft power in a post-war era? Not very much, turns out, but it’s still pretty good! Thank you to patron Dan for bringing this game to us and guesting on this long episode full of platform love, sh...

We return with some cool things you can check out that our friends made and a long talk about the strange idea of a ‘starter’ RPG in 2020. Also, we desperately need someone to tell us why people care about Geno, because we don’t know and we don’t know anyone else who knows either. Send us questions about our game clubs, other games, or gaming in general! podcast@abnormalmapping.com If you would li...

It’s a long one this month as we enjoy the brief and difficult journey of Ryu Hayabusa in the NES classic Ninja Gaiden and then spend way more time than we expected answering the many questions we received. Thank you everyone for sending in all your emails, I hope you like our answers! If you would like to support us please visit patreon.com/abnormalmapping for exclusive podcasts, writing, and eve...

This month we discuss a game that has been coming out as long as we’ve been doing this podcast as we head down the Zero to discover what awaits us in the great american indie game and its sprawling nightmare of decayed capitalism. This turned out to be one of the most difficult games we’ve ever covered, but I also think it resulted in one of our best discussions. Please enjoy! If you would like to...

We return to the halcyon days of PC gaming to explore the origins of an independent game that shook the foundations of the world. That’s right, we’re dropping into a world of dual stick movement, space marines, only two weapons and regenerating shields as we explore the strange powerhouse that is HALO. What does the game that changed everything have to offer in 2020? Well, that depends on what you...

It’s the middle of the month and it is time for a very special episode of Abnormal Mapping, something we basically never do: a timely spoilercast for a brand new video game! This is an episode all about the recently released Final Fantasy VII Remake, and if you have not finished it or the original Final Fantasy VII then be warned: there are spoilers for the entireity of both . Em has not spent the...

We wake up in a nightmare of runaway neo-liberal capitalism and find ourselves wondering where the potential of Communist revolution is, and then we have to record a podcast about detective RPG Disco Elysium! In this lengthy conversation, we cover everything about what it means to make a world and say things through art, and whether Harry and Kim can ever truly find peace in such a broken world. W...

We’re joined this month by our friend Nora to talk about the surprising and surprisingly forgotten Metroidvania Timespinner! Join us as we talk about the embarrassing writing of indie games, the gestures toward good ideas, and how fun it is to just be a lord even if difficulty is very hard to get right. Our guest this month was Nora Blake, who you can find at @neithernora and on norablake.online I...

A hundred years, a hundred games! Abnormal Mapping does a full journey around the sun as we reach the centenary celebration of our podcast, the world’s first and only game club, by tackling popular GotY winner Outer Wilds! What do two hardened Star Trek fans think about this space mystery? What do these two space communists think about fate and hope? And what do two very tired podcasts think about...

On today’s very special Abnormal Mapping, we are here today to celebrate the end of the year, and indeed the end of the decade! We’ve got some lists of our favourite games, from this year and the decade at large. There’s some music in there as well, but not as much as on previous years, because it’s been a weird one. Here’s to the second decade of podcasting. That’s a terrifying thing to say. If y...

We return to a franchise we haven’t explored since our earliest days as a podcast as our friend Cassie brings us on a journey through both of our favorite Zelda games remade for one of our least favorite Nintendo platforms! What does it mean to remake a game? Does toy Link really have the appeal of pixel Link? And why would you do anything other than jump all the time if a game allowed you to do i...

This month we stray far from our comfort zone and find a game that spurs one of the best discussions we’ve had all year, even if our feelings on the game in question are turbulent. It’s time to talk about Hacknet, a game that inspired the longest email the podcast has ever seen and a remembrance of Abnormal Mappings past. Note: please send us your Episode 100 suggestions ASAP, we really do need yo...

What does it mean to try to make a mech game that captures the experience of mech anime but using the power of the PS2 and the incredible resources of Kojima’s production studio? We find out as we explore the hellscape that is Mars by gathering our Metatron and tackling the rollercoaster that is playing through Zone of the Enders as a series! Dingo Egret, Jehuty, ikimasu! If you would like to supp...

We tuck into our endless backlog with this classic of the SNES era as we too create order from chaos with ActRaiser! What does it mean for a game to be enshrined for its novelty long after these genres have been much more fleshed out? How much of a mashup is about the juxtaposition over the individual parts being good? What does it say about religion that when you help everyone out they stop prayi...

We head all the way back to the last flagship Sonic game released on a dedicated Sega console with the divisive Sonic Adventure 2. Em regales us with the tales of discovering Sonic ten years later than everyone else, and Jackson talks about how this fits into their conception of Sonic as something only discovered recently. Also, we needle drop four of the best songs of one of the greatest soundtra...

Summer is in full swing and we’re feeling the heat as we struggle to muster the energy for games in our broken brains and post-E3 stupor. That said, we’re able to run down two fun things that are both worthy of your time in opposite ways: the slow joy of cartoon murder and the soft afternoon with some new round friends! It’s the two genders of gaming represented in one episode! If you would like t...

A short but intense episode this week as we strike from the moon to bring you a slightly different vision of ‘what if Gundam but video games that can’t contain it’ than Titanfall 2 gave us two months back. We’re going into our PSX demo disc favs and pulling up Square’s attempt at a flashy shooting game—Einhander! This is our first shmup/shooter, and we still can’t figure out what to call this genr...

We return to the franchise that has haunted us since the very inception of Abnormal Mapping as we gear up with everyone’s loudmouth demon hunter for the first time, for the last(???) time as we climb the tower of the supposed best game in the franchise, Devil May Cry 3! Do we agree with the hype? Or is Dante a character who gets better with age? Find out! If you would like to support us please vis...

What does it mean to get into a robot? What does it mean when that robot is cool, when juxtaposed against war being hell? What does any of this mean when you do it all in a South African accent? We open the chamber of guf as we leap across the mighty gulfs between intent and execution as we talk about everyone’s favorite neglected mech shooter, Titanfall 2! If you would like to support us please v...

From the mists of time we finally move on from Final Fantasy to other classic JRPGs as we play everyone’s favorite time travel adventure Chrono Trigger. What delights do we find in the ATB 2.0? How do we feel about silent protagonists in 2019? What makes a game beloved and what makes an old game worth revisiting if one was to go back? All time compresses into an hour and a half of adventure in thi...

Joined once again by special guest Aisling ( @heartjanedoe ), we take a journey into the first strange game Em ever played and one of the cult classics of the GameCube and Goichi Suda’s gameography with Killer7. Just how strange is a game known for being strange in 2019? What does it say about the dead ends of shooter and adventure game design? Just who is Emil Parkreiner? We find out today! This...