This baby can fit so many games in it!
Heya! I bet you weren’t expecting this episode of Nerds Without Pants so soon! Well, since we got delayed a week with our first episode back from hiatus we decided to record this one a week later to stay on the schedule we had planned. It’s an all-Consumption Junction edition of NWP because we…had a ton of games to talk about!
The 25th anniversary of a victory fanfare for the PlayStation.
“And now, the most anticipated epic adventure of the year will never come to a theater near you. Final Fantasy VII.” And so began my interest in RPGs. That commercial blew my 12-year-old mind back in 1997. Besides the impressive animations shown (which we would later learn were only cut-scenes), I was intrigued at seeing that we somehow jumped from Final Fantasy III on the Super NES to now VII on the PlayStation. “What manner of sorcery is this?”, I wondered.
This Stage Select was a mistake.
Oh, hi! Xavier joins us for another rip-roarin’ episode of Nerds Without Pants. This week, our listeners throw the Stage Select concept in the trash and opt instead for personal attacks on Julian and Justin. Also, is Digimon Survive the game of the year??? And, listen to Justin somehow not understand the concept of JRPGs.
Press R2 to hold hands.
Welcome to the first music edition of Nerds Without Pants of the year! It’s been a long time, so we are here to rock your face off. We also have a lot to say about something topical for once. Enjoy!
Final Fantasy gets a job.
When Final Fantasy VII appeared in the late 90s, my initial reaction was that of shock at the significant gulf in sequels for the US. It was a harsh reality to learn that, of the three mainline Final Fantasy releases we received, Japan had double that number by the start of the PlayStation era. As time marched on, Square (now Square Enix) eventually released the sequels we had missed. Meanwhile, I’ve been playing a nearly 30-year-long game of catch-up since 1997. A particular blind spot for me was Final Fantasy III- the last one to be developed for the Famicom. However, after finally getting around to playing it, I now have a new appreciation for this long-running series.
It’s all downhill from here.
In 1996, UEP Systems released Cool Boarders on the PlayStation. It was one of the few pioneers of snowboarding games on home consoles. The popularity of extreme sports was steadily gaining momentum in the United States, as were releases of snowboarding titles from other game developers. So it was only natural that UEP Systems would follow up in 1997 with their sequel, Cool Boarders 2.
Damn you, John Popper!
The last Nerds Without Pants of the year is our annual State of the Generation episode, and we have a lot to say about the new consoles, where they may be going, and also highlight a ton of the biggest stories in gaming from 2021. Check the timestamps to skip ahead if we are covering a story you don’t care about. We’ll see you in 2022!
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.
That's a good button.
Welcome to another banger of an episode of Nerds Without Pants! We hope this episode pushes all of your buttons, because that’s the topic of the day: BUTTONS! It will make sense when you listen to it, we promise. We also cover a handful of recent releases, and Serious Sam steps into the cage with Turok Evolution!
Gatsby, old boy, that's a fine go-kart you have there!
Welcome, to another Nerds Without Pants that, despite hardly having any listener interaction, still snuck past the three-hour mark. I don’t know, y’all. This is the reality you have created for yourselves. We won’t be held responsible. You fell in love in the first place.
