Our community chest is firm, yet supple.
I'm up against a deadline folks, so I will have to keep this description of Nerds Without Pants brief. See what I did there? Ahem.
A considerable improvement from the first.
After NES Remix, I badly wanted a sequel. My main concerns with the first Remix were that developers EAD Tokyo and indieszero focused on Nintendo’s 1983-1986 Famicom line-up, which has not aged well. This second Remix, like all good sequels, takes what made the first game so great and improves upon the flaws. They also threw in backwards Super Mario Bros. with Luigi physics and a Nintendo World Championship mini-game if you own the first NES Remix -- how can you say no to that?
This episode is a super rare limited edition that will be worth big bucks some day. Trust us!
They said we’d never make it! They said we’d fail after a couple episodes! They said we wouldn’t survive, and yet here we stand, defiant! Okay, maybe nobody ever said that, but I sure as shootin’ didn’t expect to be posting the 50th episode of Nerds Without Pants! We do things in style with the biggest assembly of pantsless nerds yet. Fan favorites Erika Szabo and John Gholson join us to celebrate this huge milestone.
Not Bad for a Rookie
Alright, let’s get the obvious out of the way: Yes, Metal Gear was originally released on the MSX in Japan. Yes, it looked and played better than the NES version. And yes, the NES version is riddled with typos, inaccurate plot elements, and a counter-intuitive menu system. But let’s be honest-- few, if any of us were aware of the MSX version before internet gaming sites came into full blossom. Be that as it may, the NES version was respected as one of the most innovative (albeit frustrating) games of its time, and rightfully so. Despite the many differences from the MSX version, Metal Gear still provided a unique experience you couldn’t get elsewhere.
This could be the “Doom Clone” you've been hoping for.
If you’ve tried Wrack in its current early access version on Steam, you’ve no doubt realized that this isn’t another shooter marching lockstep behind Halo and Call of Duty. Wrack is an intentional throwback to the sensibilities of Doom II, and its lead designer, Brad Carney is hoping there are enough people out there looking for that classic experience. Carney sat with me at QuakeCon and talked about the good and bad of having an early access game on Steam and how a six-year (!) development cycle can really benefit an indie game like Wrack.
Hack the planet!
It’s an episode of Nerds Without Pants 8 months in the making! Watch Dogs is the impetus for this very thoughtful discussion about our addiction to technology, the insidious way that we are expected to share everything about our lives, the intrusive NSA, and more. But first, Consumption Junction!
This retro-styled 2D platformer is looking to Kickstarter for funding.
Effortless beauty, meaningless confusion.
Exhilarating yet tedious, beautiful in a construction paper sort of way, and most of all both ingenious and boring, Secrets of Raetikon is a perfect example of the general state of indie games – inspired, but poorly crafted. I went into this work with no expectations, and no clue what it was, and for the most part, I was impressed and thrilled with what I played. But it’s a far from perfect game, with a pretty crappy ending, and play that can be both really fun and totally infuriating.
More like "bored" games, amirite?
Sorry folks, but this one is coming in hot! As in, recorded less than twelve hours ago hot. So apologies for another rough episode. We almost didn't record this week, but life, ah, ah, finds a way.
