Half-Glass Gaming [Episode 11] : Consistently Better Than Babies
Having recently returned from a road trip to the wonderful city of Duluth, Minnesota, the gang tells tales of the ridiculousness of highway billboards. This leads to a surprisingly impassioned conversation about advertising philosophy and brand management.
Then, we delve into the topic of challenge. How hard is too hard? Are difficult games usually the product of bad design choices? Have games gotten easier over the years? And how can you keep a girlfriend if you can’t beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES? These are troubling questions indeed.
We cover some of the more famous difficult classics, like Battletoads and Mega Man, and jump into some more modern challenging games like Super Meat Boy and Bloodborne. Oh, and an episode about challenge just wouldn’t be complete without Josh explaining his complex relationship with the Dark Souls series.
We’ve got all this and more in the 11th episode of the Half-Glass Gaming podcast, so take a listen.
Here’s a full list of games we mention in this episode:
- Fallout 3
- Super Mario Bros.
- Super Meat Boy
- Tetris
- Columns
- La Pucelle: Tactics
- Mega Man (series)
- Mega Man 3
- Bloodborne
- Castlevania
- Rygar
- Ace Attorney (series)
- Matt Hazard (series)
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Battletoads
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
- King’s Knight
- Final Fantasy (series)
- 1941
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Game Boy)
- Rogue Legacy
- Long Live the Queen
- Hitman: Absolution
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
- Dance Dance Revolution
- I Wanna Be the Guy: The Movie: The Game
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Metro 2033
- Resident Evil
- Metroid
- GoldenEye 007
- Disgaea (series)
- Call of Duty (series)
- Mother 3
- Silent Hill 2
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Dark Souls
- Dark Souls II
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Ico
- Chrono Trigger
- BioShock Infinite
- BioShock
- Submerged
Retrovolve Staff
At Retrovolve, we love discussing, studying, and playing retro games, though not necessarily in that order.
Long Live the Queen is the hardest fucking game I’ve ever played. I hate
failing the random skill checks like history or trade. Every time I
avoid dying I just die again.
To be fair, that’s sort of the *point* of Long Live the Queen.
Speaking of which, I’m due for another suicidal play through. Might do that today.
I suppose I see billboards every day, but I don’t notice them much. I’ll have to pay closer attention. I enjoy the challenge of a retro game, but I understand they’re not for everyone. Like Josh, I have beaten Battletoads, and I’ve also completed Ghouls and Ghosts. I’m still chuffed abut it.
I’m sorry but you can’t use DkS2 to say that the Souls games are bad. Most Souls fans agree that it’s the ugly child of the Soul series. It’s playable but everything is watered down and the level transitions make no sense.
Well, I did enjoy Bloodborne. A lot.
Plus, my opinion of the original Dark Souls was mostly shaped by a really bad experience at E3 (which I explained in the episode). It’s not Dark Souls’ fault, but I can’t help but have a sour taste in my mouth after being treated that way by a Namco Bandai rep when I was trying to do my job.
Yeah Atlus is a much better publisher and cares more about their fans. When I got my DkS2 collectors edition the metal case was dented all to hell. The same thing happened to my friend too.
Atlus is cool as hell. They really are.
Great episode. Any chance you’ll putting episodes on Soundcloud in the future? I have an iTunes aversion.
No plans for SoundCloud right now, but we are on Stitcher Radio! You can find us here:
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/halfglass-gaming?refid=stpr