Retronauts

In the past decade, developer From Software went from making poorly reviewed oddities to being one of the most important developers in our modern era. And it all started with Demon's Souls, a humble, slightly janky game that challenged the new standard of frictionless gameplay in the HD era, and delivered an experience we didn't know we were so hungry for. On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy's Parish, USgamer's Kat Bailey, and Duckfeed.tv's Gary Butterfield as the crew explores the bleak and endlessly compelling world of Demon's Souls. Listen now, so the world might be mended. So the world might be mended.

Jeremy Parish teams up with the Retronauts East crew to discuss PC classic puzzle-action game Lemmings before jumping into a one-on-one interview with one of the game's designers, Mike Dailly of DMA Designs.

Now that Retronauts has transitioned to deep dives of single titles over the past few years, it's about time to focus on a genre we rarely touch: adventure games. That said, this marks the beginning of a limited series where I (Bob) will be covering the entire LucasArts adventure library—one game per episode—hopefully with new and/or rare guests. Since I'm not covering these games in any particular order, there's no better place to start than The Secret of Monkey Island, the release that would define LucasArts' house style for its remaining decade of adventure game output. And there's no better guest than Monkey Island superfan Nina Matsumoto (of FanGamer and Sparks fame), someone who's loved the series since 1990 and even created the cover art for Ron Gilbert's latest adventure game, Thimbleweed Park! So join us as we enter the world of corrosive grog, rubber chickens with pulleys in the middle, and insult sword fighting and jump back in time nearly 30 years to explore a game that launched a much-beloved series.

Continuing our journey through the Final Fantasy series, Kat Bailey joins Jeremy Parish and Bob Mackey to talk about what makes Final Fantasy VIII such a weird and wonderful chapter in the series—just in time for the remaster! Just mind the spoilers...

Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Shane Bettenhausen paraglide into Kazakh S.S.R. to profess the glory of a game that remains indelibly cool even 30 years later: Capcom's Strider.

The curse of the podcaster means we usually have so much to say in our limited time that we often don't have space to let you get a word in edgewise. So, every six months, I (Bob) like to collect comments and questions from the last six months' worth of my episodes—from both the main site and Patreon—and respond to them with a guest. So this week, join me and Jeremy as we respond to your thoughts on Spider-Man games, Reggie Fils-Aime, Kingdom Hearts 3, Sonic the Hedgehog's many voice actors, Stardew Valley, Resident Evil 4, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the year 1989, and Nester (another mutant, but not a turtle or a teenager). Will YOUR words be read live on the air? Listen now and all will be revealed!

Just as video game boss fights were becoming more sophisticated, Hollywood gave us 1987's The Running Man, a movie that—whether its writer knew it or not—exists as a 100-minute-long boss rush. Though other big, beefy action movies of the '80s inspired video games more directly, this lower-profile entry in the Schwarzenegger canon might have had an even bigger effect on the way we look at boss fights in general. On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, and Henry Gilbert as the crew examines this cheesy chunk of social commentary, and the many games it would influence in its wake. It's showtime!

If you like Smash Bros., you'll be angry about this episode! Jeremy, Chris, Ben, and Benj gather to discuss the classic influences that define Smash Bros. Ultimate, but they get sidetracked and turn what was supposed to be a quick series overview into a full, rambling, off-the-cuff episode that veers wildly beyond what they had prepped and researched for. Whoops!

Composer Nathan McCree reminisces about his groundbreaking work creating the soundtrack for Lara Croft's earliest adventures, the challenges in revisiting that material decades later, and... The Spice Girls?!

By patron request, Jeremy Parish and Bob Mackey recruit Kat Bailey and Jason Wilson to scramble all fighters and mount an unrelenting assault of knowledge against the topic of LucasArts' classic Star Wars sandbox shooter series X-Wing (and TIE Fighter).