Half-Glass Gaming [Episode 12] : What’s Heroic About Getting Your Finger Bitten Off?
3/4 of the gang returns from the Minnesota Renaissance Festival with tales aplenty. We drank mead, we threw axes, and we may have run into a familiar friend. Is Pillowcase Head single now? We think so.
Our Ren Fest activities lead into a discussion of The Lord of the Rings, and how the laziness of the Bard of Gondor will forever tarnish the Baggins name. Other post-Ren Fest topics include sexual attraction to fantasy tropes and Shovel Knight. Of course, Shovel Knight reminds us that a listener requested an episode on platformers, so we attempt to deliver one. Did you know that the platformer is kind of a hard genre to define once you start getting into it? Did you know there’s also a platformer-like genre called the comical action game? Did you know that over the course of a single meeting, Bubsy 4 morphed into Syphon Filter?
Yes, we discuss all this and more in the 12th episode of the Half-Glass Gaming podcast. We wager you’ll love it!
Here’s a full list of games we mention in this episode:
- The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
- The Legend of Zelda
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
- Shovel Knight
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- DuckTales (NES)
- Mega Man (series)
- Battletoads
- Donkey Kong
- Bubble Bobble
- Puzzle Bobble (Bust-a-Move)
- Super Mario 64
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
- Donkey Kong Country
- Super Mario Bros.
- Mega Man X
- Mega Man
- Mega Man 3
- Sonic the Hedgehog (series)
- Crash Bandicoot
- Bubsy 3D
- Alpha Waves
- Thomas Was Alone
- Bubsy 4 (never actually made)
- Siphon Filter
- Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind
- ToeJam & Earl
- ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
- Rogue
- Cool Spot
- Spot Goes to Hollywood
- Jumping Flash!
- Road Rash
- 2Xtreme
- Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
- Star Wars: Dark Forces
- Max Payne
- Portal
- Portal 2
- Dishonored
- Prince of Persia (series)
- Braid
- The Lost Vikings
- Lemmings
- The Humans
- Kirby (series)
- Rayman (series)
- Rayman Legends
- Final Fantasy VI
Retrovolve Staff
At Retrovolve, we love discussing, studying, and playing retro games, though not necessarily in that order.
I’m honored that you took on one of my suggestions. I really enjoyed the first Bubsy game when I was a kid and the fact that it’s now widely considered to be mediocre is news to me. I prefer it over Syphon Filter. Another great and educational episode!
Yes, I enjoyed Bubsy quite a bit. I haven’t gone back to it in several years, but I remember it fondly. I was as surprised as you were to find so much retroactive hate for it.
Also, thanks for the episode idea! I could see us also doing an adventure games episode in the future, since Mandi has played a bajillion of them, and I’ve played a lot of really obscure ones.
Since you like Atlus I was wondering if you played Catherine? Its like a platformer but you climb instead of jump.
I’ve heard Catherine is akin to a Q-Bert dating sim. But then again I hear a lot of things, very little of which is true..
Rofl, if Q-bert had sex, alcohol and jumping on boxes.
Q-Bert has at least 33% of those things, hahaha!
I played the Catherine demo back before the game came out. It was fantastic, and I’ve been meaning to go back to it ever since. I just keep getting distracted by other games. (Currently trying to finish the Witcher 3 before the DLC comes out!)
Its hard as fuck like Demon’s Souls and the story is really good. Catherine good end is the best one though and everything else isn’t as good after that.
Julian is wrong, there is platforming in The Witcher like in the mountains and in Skellige
where you fight the sirens. I don’t like it because Geralt never grabs a ledge when you
want him to.
Funny thing! I was wandering around in Skellege shortly after this episode aired, and I found a bunch of legit platforming stuff! I think we’ll address that in the next episode.
Wow. I never thought I’d gear a video game podcast namedrop Max Fleischer.
Old Fleischer cartoons are my favorite! I still can’t believe how good the Fleischer & Famous Superman cartoons look!