Infinite Cities

We've got a long game this week, and it's for our first turn-based rpg of 2024, Sea of Stars! Feather played like, 5 minutes and proceeds to talk a lot of mad shit before Will, Karp, and Gary gush over every little thing we can.  in this episode: two wooden boards of protagonists, feather knows none of the nouns, combat chat, shoopdawoop, timing attacks and blocks, we'll get to garl, parfaits are...

It's been a pretty wild year, and despite everything that's happened we're glad to still be here, poddin' through it! What better way to mark another year behind us than with a joyful look back at everything we've played? It's the game of the year countdown! In this episode: the Rest In Piss award, we can't count to five, the big countdown, an interlude about bikes, the absolute uncontestable obje...

Control is behind us, and it's been a minute since we've been this conflicted about a game. Is the plot fantasic, or literally nothing? Is the combat great, or kinda tedious? Is this game making a statement, or did they just forget to put in a final boss? We're not sure!  All we know is all games should have a rocket launcher this good. In this episode: getting into it, you don't have enough clear...

It's our first off-week "mini" episode (if you can call a 2 hour runtime mini), so Will and Gary sat down to talk about open world games, the history of the genre, and our experiences playing them! in this episode:  the first open worlds, the legend of zelda, hydlide, sierra online, super mario 64, rareware games, donkey kong 64, teeth gang, assassin's creed, bethesda games, rockstar, do your home...

Control's story is only pretty good. The combat is great, but shallow. It has a few too many extras to be a clean game. And yet, this game rules. Even more than "what is the Hiss?" or "is she talking to like, us us?", the central mystery of Control is "how is this game so awesome". The answer? Hella vibes. Impeccable vibes. Vibes for daaaaaaays. In this episode: I can't tell them about you, doming...

Will is out this week due to the holiday, but the rest of us got together to play a fun little indie about worlds within worlds... within worlds... within worlds? Who knows how deep this little bug world goes.  in this episode - cw alcohol, potluck tips and tricks, orbsception, morbs, orange deserts, we still dont know what's going on here, the correct action jingle, getting yeeted by bosses, real...

Neon White is a stylish, graceful, elegant joy of a game, exactly half the time. The other half the time, it's a cringe fiesta, a fanfic of anime - not a specific anime, but a fanfic about the concept of anime.  Kill the part of you that cringes. In this episode: being super persona, what if rwby had good voice actors, the second best reward in video games is whatever metal is cooler than 'gold' a...

A Little to the Left is a game about organizing items into "pleasing arrangements", but maybe it's a little too peculiar. Can it redeem itself with some clever ideas and a nice hint system? Or are we going to mash the "skip stage" button until the remains of this digital house look as scattered as Feather's room? Let's all learn to love and Leave It Be~ In this episode: Feather doxes her past self...

Feather might be gone, but that'll never be enough to stop us, so this week we played a game from Karp's childhood, and we talked about everything else! in this episode:  2.5d, he's just a creature, beach vollyball, a seven out of ten game, connecting to the ps1, karp's shrine, crimes, a big deal game, moving two dimensionally in a 3d space, generational differences in gaming, '98 was a good year....

Karp didn't write an episode description and so I, Gary, have taken over to deliver you this week's podcast, the conclusion to our Hollow Knight discussion! Karp beat the game, Feather stopped a while ago, Gary wants to keep playing, and Will is (not) dead. We dug a little deeper into the Hallownest this week and we went full spoilers before the end (with a new (temporary) spoiler sound, now that...

Few games achieve as much as they set out to accomplish as Hollow Knight. It's both a near-perfect execution of its genre, and a unique experience with few competitors. It's also so goddamn frustrating. Maybe some of us just need to git good? In this episode: unity being terrible, being a lil guy, arguing about nails, how deep did you get, being lost, favorite bug, death salt, badges, genres, some...

It's just Karp and Gary this week, so we picked a game from the Itch.io Bundle for Ukraine. It's a lovely little musical platforming adventure called Wandersong! in this episode: dancing, you are not the hero, no doubles, a very grumpy stubborn witch girl, ajoining a band, eleven thousand beans, so much dialogue, mermaids, happy kid, they all have pokemon, dreaming of home, gary hates audrey, the...

After spending three weeks climbing (or failing to climb) that mountain, the Infinite Cities crew is back with a game that is short and dumb. It's Betrayal At Club Low! Enter self-named protag, a spy sent in to help rescue a fellow undercover agent through the power of pizza dice! Make stew, steal a car, take over a DJ booth, and make your escape!    In this episode:  pizzaiolo, deadly dice rolls,...

After a brief hiatus (sorry! Feather crashed her car and then also had to go see Streetlight Manifesto) we're returning to the mountain to finish our discussion of Celeste! Although only one of us might be actually done with it? This game does a magic trick, in that the difficulty curve is one impossibly long mountain, where the next challenge is always just barely not impossible. It's good!  In t...

On the way up a mountain, it's important to take breaks! In keeping with this message from Celeste itself, we're deviating from our normal format a bit - partly because we're busy, partly because we're still just getting started on our climbs, and mostly because we keep getting distracted by several new and exciting releases (or in feather's case, a jank puzzle game collection from 2004.) So join...

What happens when a company disintegrates? What happens when that company owns your house and/or body? What kindness can you find from strangers? Most importantly, is today a bones day, or a no bones day ? Gary and Feather team up to hold down the station just the two of them, because Will and Karp are off being besties in the far off fantasy land of Sweden. This one gets real big thonk! In this e...

Umurangi Generation manages to be a lot of things for its miniscule budget and tight runtime. It's a reflection of early 2020s fear and pressure. It's a photography simulator with PS1 era graphics. It's a bit of a puzzle game. It's a "first person point-and-shooter". It's a perspective of what it is like to slowly die. Like any scene, it really depends on how you frame it. Also, we spend a ton of...

We've finished tunic - at least, by some measure of finished! Gary's gone completely tunic-mad, pinning things to a corkboard and tying them with red yarn, and was rewarded for his efforts. Karp stays winning and breezed through the final fight, Feather was a baby and got hardstuck, and Will was busy being a good friend. Not that you'd be expected to finish - this game goes and goes, and it goes *...

We've got another new game this week, and this time, we're giving in to our astonishment and playing Tunic! It's a lovely little slice of zelda exploration with some dark souls mechanics and some pretty difficult combat for the unprepared, but it's the delight of discovery that really carries the game forward for all of our hosts this week. If you don't want things spoiled, we'd suggest you play t...

Our last game, Slayers X, was faux-retro, with all the edginess and jank of the 90s despite coming out in 2023. This game is real-retro, but is cute, colorful, and in surprisingly good shape for its age! Except for maybe some of the literal (3d) shapes? We must have just had lower standards back then! It's Mode 7!  No wait...  It's Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island! In this episode:  MODE 7 , th...

For this week, we've decided to pick up our first boomer shooter of the podcast, and what a hell of a game this turned out to be. Slayers X is a spin-off/follow-up to 2019's Hypnospace Outlaw, and is a game created by the fictional character of Zane Lofton. It's full of 90s nostalgia, hackblood charges, and just so, so many poop jokes.  In this episode: we've got new intro music (thanks cliff!), n...

We're finally putting Outer Wilds (mostly) behind us, as four of the the five of us have finished - and all five of us have some  really big thoughts . Mostly praise! This was a game truely like no other, and while Feather from the future really wants you to know the game is like an 8.5 / 10 (even if it's a 5/5 hole score) it's still a special gem that we're all glad to have gotten to experience....

Outer Wilds is an absolute joy of a game, capturing wonder and exploration and puzzles in a near-perfect  little solar system. It's so good, that we're recommending you hold off on this episode (or at least all of the episode after about 20 minutes in) until you've started it. Not finished it, mind you - we haven't finished it either! (Except Gary, who doesn't count.) This episode is just part 1....

Hello Listener.  This episode talks about the 2014/2016/2022 puzzle adventure RPG game OneShot - but you knew that already. You also know how this episode ends. We've been here before. This is not the first Episode 2. This is just the first Episode 2 you can still change. Do be careful though, because you only have One Shot - and if you close this podcast, Gary dies. (he does not actually die he i...

We begin with a game about life changes, finding yourself in a new place, and making yourself a home out of a space. We think this is a good fit for our beginning, although Feather still doesn't know where to put all the little towels and Karp is still unpacking even more socks.  Content warnings: full unpacking spoilers from 0:16:00. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse spoilers in the postpod, fr...