PixlBit

Sorry about the late Giantbomb application Julian. I think you'd be a great fit but I'd hate to see NWP go away. Though I don't see why itd have to unless it's too much to do both. I think the spot filled but who knows what could happen down the line.

I loved the Price is Right theme for Stage Select. There was only 1 right answer, even for me. I couldn't not pick it. I love the music and Frogs Theme is my favorite piece of music from those days. I forced myself to learn how to whistle just to whistle that song.

Also did you know that Ozzie, Flea, and Slash make an appearance in Chrono Cross? In NG+ you can go to a hidden island on the map. It turns out to be The Bend of Time. You have to do the 3 laps like in Trigger. Then you face off against the trio. Each has a great item to steal also. But the coolest part is if you use Sprigg and she finishes them off, she has a chance to dopplegang them later. So they can be teammates in a manner of speaking.

You should check out Yu Yu Hakusho if fighting anime is your thing. I even got my wife into it. The characters have some heart and it isn't 1000 episodes so It's actually watchable. 

Chrono Crossing: Super Metroid
It's not even close. This game was perfect. I'm sure Julian has already sung it's praises so I'll just ask: Did any of you play Axiom Verge and if so, does it fill that hole Nintendo drilled into our hearts?

Stage Select:

3. Exploding Barrels: Who cares how little sense it makes? Few things are more satisfying then blowing guys to hell with a single bullet. Just Cause 3 comes to mind.

2. QTE boss endings: I love crazy cinematic cutscenes where you wreck enemies in ways not possible in game. God of War comes to mind. That fight against Hercules was brutally awesome.

1. CG Cutscenes: Even in today's world where graphics are amazing, I'm still fond of some highly detailed CG technology. Chrono Cross is the first I really recall but damn was the Lost Odyssey opening awesome. Should have had that on my Top 3 favorite openings. Kicking myself now.

It was nice to have a solid Consumption Junction episode. I wish you had the time to make a 4 hour podcast. I know NWP isn't as renowned as Bombcast, Geekbox, or many others but I really appreciate  (as I'm sure many others here do) the time and effort you guys put to make this podcast. I think things are starting to fall in place. Seems like there's new listeners jumping on board every episode. I really hope NWP can reach the success other game podcasts do because you guys deserve it. NWP comes second (or third) only to Bomb/Beastcast. It's survived podcast purges and skyrocketed past so many of my weekly staples. Keep it up guys. 

Man, I was obsessed with hearthstone. But I cut ties with it hard. It became a chore and money pit. One day in the middle of a match I was winning, I forfeited. I took all my legendaries, which i had most of the best ones, and dusted them. Later when a new expansion came out, I got pulled in again. I had lots of dust from all those legendaries so I was able to make a killer deck. Two days later I dusted all my new legendaries, all my epics, and crafted 4 golden garbage legendaries. So if i ever get tempted, I'll look at my account and see a golden Pat Nagle, Millhouse Manastorm, Lorewalker Cho and Anomalus. Really glad I quit when I did but glad to see some are getting joy from it again. Now I'm just addicted to Fire Emblem Heroes...

Hey Julian, whats your opnion on Yu yu Hakusho? I loved it when I watched it. Wish itd make a comeback.

I also had a small list of Wii games that may be worth looking into. Some may be obvious to someone like you who's a collector but maybe there's a few surprises.

Lost in Shadow
Madworld
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn
Muramasa the Demon Blade
Sin and Punishment: Star Successor
Zack and Wiki
The Last Story
Pandoras tower
Boomblox 

I agree that From fans are some of the worst. I've argued that an easy mode would be a great addition to the series so anyone could enjoy them. They don't want to hear it. Git Gud cazul is the normal response followed by excessive cursing. I'll NEVER understand how more options in difficulty could ever be a bad thing. I personally wouldn't use an easy mode because the difficulty is part of the charm of that series to me. But if my friend who doesn't have 70 hours to bang his head against the wall on a game just wanted to experience it at a casual pace then it's fine. Every game should have a "Do it for me," option. It doesn't hurt anybody for someone else to experience a game in a manner of their choosing. 

Also I'm a fan of Sunshine. It isn't my favorite game by any means but I definitely look back on it fondly. I don't get all the hate behind it. It seemed to do something cool. Though I'm also a fan of Star Fox Adventures. So what do I know...

I'm with you Julian on Zelda. I'm playing it now. Very good but I feel it was severely over hyped. The world traversal is amazing but outside of that I don't think this game would get all the perfect scores had it not been called Zelda. I'd say solid 9 so far but not the game of the century people seem to claim it. I've had much more fun with Horizon: Zero Dawn. Excellent game throughout.

Anyway tough stage select. I'm really bad about knowing who's who in game development so I tried to find people responsible for the stuff I like best in some of my favorite games. Couldn't find the Chrono Cross battle system guy unfortunately, lol. Here goes nothing.

Stage Select: I would want to create an RPG or Action RPG to light up the industry.

Yasunori Mitsuda: The man who is responsible for the Chrono Series Music. I havent been captivated by game music since. This is a must for my game.

Daisuke Ishiwatari: The man responsible for the art of Guilty Gear/BlazBlue. I personally love the character designs he comes up with.  My perfect game will look as amazing as the latest Guilty Gear and run just as smoothly. Seeing the 2D to 3D transitions during battles is a sight to behold. A whole game running like that would be a dream.

Famito Ueda: The man behind the Team Ico trilogy. I'm sure he can bring something great to story and design. If he could recreate some of those amazing bosses, even better.

Yoshinori Kitase: Director for Final Fantasy VI, VII, X, XIII and Chrono Trigger. He's helped create some of the greatest games of all time.

Katsura Hashino: Admittedly I haven't experienced his Persona series yet but everything I hear about 5 seems to point to a huge advancement for the JRPG genre. His recent track record is enough for me to hire him.


Chrono Crossing: Chrono Trigger
It's a shame we haven't seen more to this series. I played this game late on the PS1 with the Final Fantasy Chronicles release. The load times between battles was killer but the game easily held up. A must play for RPG fans.

 

Great episodes of NWP. I really enjoyed the music episode. Would be nice to revisit something similar every year or 6 months. Top 3 villages was so hard because I typically just watch TV while playing. Favorite music would be very easy, and would be fun to do next time, but I really had to think hard about villages.

You missed my Chrono Crossing for Megaman X4 last week. I was interested in your opinions on it because it's my favorite of the series. I was wondering if anyone else around here has fondness for it. 

Also thanks for saying it Julian, "f*** the term Metroidvania..." It's almost up there with Nintendo's newest coined term, "Nindies." I think that alone may disqualify them for Stage Select... Alright I'm just looking for ways to shrink the list.

Anyway I thought this stage select would be hard to find developers but now I'm so torn between 6 of them. I know what I should pick but I may do some adjusting. So...

Stage Select: Top 3 Developers

3. Team Ico
Team Ico has a perfect track record with me. Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian are all gems. Unfortunately, there's no way to know if there's a future for them. Last Guardian won't make up the money for a 10 year development cycle and Famito Ueda isn't a part of the team anymore. I hope games like these won't be lost to time.

2. FromSoftware
While From is mostly known now from the Souls Series, they have a nice resume that includes the Armored Core and Otogi series. Though it's the Souls Series that make them hit my list. Those games are all amongst my favorites and sink me in like few others can. I dont know if there's another game the last 10 years that I've played through twice or more. There's no other developer outside of Team Ico who's next announcement I look forward to most.

1. Squaresoft
Square made my favorite game and dozens of others that are amazing. It would take episodes to fully discuss all their greatest hits and there'd still be many that would probably go unnoticed. I wish we could have the glory days of SNES/PS1 back but they are still near and dear to my heart. 

Chrono Crossing 1996: Duke Nukem 3D

I couldn't finish the campaign without cheats but this game was a blast. At the time I had 3 friends within 3 houses from me and we hit 4 player deathmatches for hours/days on end. I don't remember much single player stuff but Duke 3D surpasses Goldeneye Vs. Matches in my memory. 

Definitely real. I loved that game. Rented it like 3 times before I bought it years later. I actually just found my N64 and games last year. May have to plug it in. Valerie was my favorite. I always tried to pull off the Heaven-Earth Breaker combo. Not only was that cow a pain (that damn victory dance pissed me off every time) but that damn evil Joker (not Pierre). F that guy, lol. Every time you beat him he seemed to come back stronger. I'd definitely take a new Fighters Destiny over Tekken though my opinions tend to skew on the least popular side, lol. 

Great show guys. I totally missed Fighters Destiny. That would have hit my 5. It was a cool premise to base a match off who got to the point limit first. Nice call on who picked it. 

Stage select was tough. Favorite game music or specific genres is easy but specifically villages is hard because I don't remember most. Here's some of my standouts though. I'm sure there's many I'm forgetting.

Stage Select:

Guldove (Another World) from Chrono Cross
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FVqh7uiDgK4

Marbule (Home World) from Chrono Cross

around the 47 second mark especially https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd4tiM1yV7o

Wep'keer Village  (Okami)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PUXtd3gRwos 

Chrono Crossing 1997: Megaman X4

I started Megaman on Sega Channel with part 3 and loved the series. I missed all the SNES stuff and picked up X4. Having 2 unique characters was great for replay value. Zero was really cool and I can still remember the anime cutscene where he pummels Sigma vividly.

I figured the heavy Switch talk was the biggest culprit. It's too bad cause I know you would fit right in on a standard show. I hope it isn't the last time you guest star on there. Especially since they always seem short a guest with Adam or, typically, Alice missing. 

Great one guys. Julian it was great to catch you on Comics Conspiracy and Geekbox. Thanks for the shout out. Hopefully you get some carry overs from there. Though I got to be honest and say you seemed much more reserved on there. I'm sure it's hard to guest on a podcast with an established crew. I hope there's a next time in line. 

I'm playing through Horizon now and it's amazing. The combat is excellent and it's challenging. At least so far. I didn't think I'd die much but I'm definitely getting it handed to me. I can't recall your thoughts in the new Tomb Raiders but I see some similarities there in a good way. 

Anyway, on to my picks. I'll start off and say that I missed a lot of PSX stuff and never got into PC so it'll probably look strange. Well stranger than normal when it comes to my picks.

5. WCW vs NWO: Revenge
This was the wrestling game I wanted for years. The fact that it was WCW at a time where I was all WWF (screw you pandas) didn't matter. The gameplay was excellent and kept my friends and I busy for a long time.

4. Pokemon Trading Card Game
I was obsessed with Pokemon this year and picked up this gameboy game. I was addicted for months and would still be today if a new one released. It taught me how to play the physical game which I already had a nice collection of. I wish we would have gotten a US release of the part 2. Maybe one day...

3. Parasite Eve
I picked this up on a whim and really liked it. It took me awhile to finish between other games but when I finally buckled down and finished it years later, I wish i had done so sooner. The story behind Mitochondria was really intriguing and had me doing research. I enjoyed it so much that I even named my daughter after the main character, Aya.

2. Pokemon Red
Pokemon became such a huge addiction for me. Looking back I guess it may have been my first RPG but I never associated it as one. I just wanted to catch'em all. I dropped the series years later but jumped in fully a few years ago and am glad I did.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
My first Zelda game and number 2 on my all time list. No other Zelda has come close to topping it to me. It could be nostalgia but I feel it easily holds on it's own by today's standards. Outside of Chrono Cross, it's the game I've completed most. Especially with the 3DS release. It seems like every new Zelda comes with the, "Possibly better than Ocarina of Time" quote but I think if you grew up with this one that will be nearly impossible.

Great podcast again. I got you Julian, I will not miss my chance to glorify my favorite game of all time. It's the only reason I stumbled into NWP which has become a favorite of mine.

Once I realized I'd be sticking with NWP for the long haul, I did a quick inspection of my entire collection for possible Chrono Crossing candidates. I then used a quick Google search to get their release dates. Before submitting I tend to hit Metacritcs best games of whatever year to nail down my final choice in case I missed something. I had Chrono Cross under 1999 initally because Google gave me the Japan release date. So with that technicality in mind...

Chrono Crossing 1999: Chrono Cross

Easily my favorite game of 1999 (based on the Japan release date) and even my favorite of all time. Without it I don't think I'd be here listening to NWP which would be a shame. I've replayed Chrono Cross enough times to see all endings and collect everything. It was my first trip into RPGs which may be why I'm so nostalgic for it. I remember seeing the commercial for it. The cutscenes and music grabbed me and I knew I had to have it based off nothing else. I can still recite the opening poem since I'd watch the whole opening cutscene before starting the game every time. I would even sit down the controller while I listened to "Another World" play in the background constantly. I realize it isn't perfect, especially as years have passed, but it's still the game I remember most fondly. I know I'll be replaying it well into my old age.



Hope I'm doing stage select right. I wasn't sure if it was for games never released that we saw were in development or something rumored could be sufficient as well.

Stage Select:
3. Ura Zelda:

A recent article reminded me of this. It was going to be an expansion to Ocarina of Time. At the time I had replayed OoT at least a dozen times and couldn't put it down. The idea of new content was making me anxious. The Master Quest was supposedly the end result of Ura Zelda but, while great, was disappointing because it lacked true new content. 

2. Metroid Dread:
The hints of another side scrolling Metroid game had me salivating. Especially since it was going to be the first to take advantage of my lovely DS. Unfortunately, it never manifested into a game we could all enjoy. At least Metroid Prime: Hunters gave us our DS Metroid fix, right? Prime Pinball? Federation Force, maybe...

1. Chrono Break:
The game I still hold onto with the sliver of hope that it'll come. Not long after playing Chrono Cross, I read news about Squaresoft copyrighting the name of something called Chrono Break. It immediately jumped to the top of my, "MUST HAVE" list and I waited very impatiently for ANY news I could get on it. Every E3 that passed without even a name drop drained my soul little. That said I do believe that there may be a day where Square brings back the Chrono series.