That's a Texas-sized 10-4, good buddy!
Welcome to the penultimate episode of Nerds Without Pants for 2023! It’s a pretty chill and low-key show, as we talk about a small handful of games and then hop on the Email Banana Boat one more time before the end of the year. Enjoy!
Mergeajuana.
Well hello there! This is the final standard format episode of Nerds Without Pants of 2021, so we decided to bring Mike Fallek on and recorded an episode so long that you won’t finish it until 2022. Yep, totally meant to do that. Wasn’t an off-the-rails affair from minute one. Nope.
Or: How the heck did we make 200 episodes of this crap?!
It's the 200th episode of Nerds Without Pants! We're asking for your help with donating to a special cause: Special Effect. They help get video games into the hands of kids with disabilities, and we'd love to break past the $500 mark. There will be some prizes to the top contributers, so please listen to the details in the show and give generously if you are able and so inclined.
Fifteen years old but still fresh for newcomers.
As much as I love games, I dread the hours it takes to get over the hump of one that’s new and unfamiliar. When I finally get over it, I hope that I didn’t waste those hours on a game I won’t keep playing. So when I fired up Disgaea 1 Complete for the Nintendo Switch I wasn’t sure what to expect. Even though it’s been fifteen years since the game’s initial release, it was still a new and unfamiliar title for me. Thankfully, I’m glad to say that the hours spent getting over that initial hump were worth it.
If Seltzer and Friedberg made a game.
For all the retro-inspired indie titles out there, the genre seems mostly earnest, even deferent. There may be a small jab, such as Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon regulating the whip to a sub weapon, yet these are smaller details as opposed to poking fun at the original retro titles. Granted, the goofy nature of many retro games renders parody harder to accomplish, as even Shovel Knight feels like it could have once been an earnestly made game from the '80s or '90s. Enter Old School Musical, a rhythm game which pokes fun at an entire smorgasbord of games.
Meow meow, meow, meow meow meow meow, meow meow.
MagiCat is a fascinating example of a game. While it’s not particularly great, it takes a simple concept and tries everything and anything possible with the idea to see what sticks. Oftentimes it’s frustrating and cheap, other times brilliant and fun, it all depends on what level you’re in and what gimmick is on display.
I probably liked this a little less than Angelo.
For those familiar with the 3DS release, originally published by Atlus, Code of Princess EX is a technically and visually upgraded version of the game. Outside of the nicer coat of paint and a crisp 60 frames per second, a variety of other changes were made that have a fairly significant impact on the progression of the main quest. Regardless of the evident love poured into this HD upgrade, Code of Princess EX can be a bit of a slog that will likely only appeal to the most dedicated of brawler fans.
The one where Julian trolls Angelo after the fact during editing.
Hey, it’s a bonus episode of Nerds Without Pants! Oh, you lucky people. Basically, we’ve fallen behind on Consumption Junction stuff, so we got together to catch up on a bunch of games, media, and crazy tangents. Enjoy!
A Street Fighter veteran, pro, and rookie walk into a bar...
Welcome back to another edition of Nerds Without Pants! We are joined by JD this time to get into some deep talk about Street Fighter V, but we save that for the end of the show in case fighting games aren't your thing (like Angelo).
