Karffin’ Mofang podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, as the last episode of Mystery May this year, we’re going to be talking about Obduction. This is a game in the style of Myst by Cyan, the developers of Myst, and boy did they ace the assignment. Obduction is more accessible than the originals, yes, but it does get into that same headspace more and more as it goes on. So the game has complicated puzzles (and some less complicated ones), but while the design mechanically hasn’t evolved t...
Jul 07, 2024•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 169
Podcast to the shelled ones. Welcome back to the podcast! Today we’re talking about Ecco the Dolphin, a side scrolling adventure game and a real classic of the Genesis era. Ecco is a weird game in a lot of ways, the most obvious of which is the fact that it’s a game in which you play as a dolphin and all the surprisingly fluid movement that comes with that. Moving around in this game is surprisingly cool for the time, with the ability to swim very quickly around the map and jump out of water. Th...
Jun 22, 2024•44 min•Ep. 98
There is surprisingly little use for the podcast block. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, the dice have ordained we talk about Infinifactory. This is a game that has been on our list for many years at this point and the main reason we ended up putting it on the (now comical misnomer) Mystery May table was mostly out of fear. Fear of exposing our deep inability to play puzzle games with any kind of ability. Infinifactory is a game by Zachtronics, who are known for creating this sort of puzzle g...
Jun 15, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 168
Podcast.Mystery(1); wait(31) Welcome back to the podcast, and to, shamefully, our first episode of Mystery May! Quadrilateral Cowboy is a part heist, part desktop simulation game in which you use a portable “deck” to hack into security systems and use gadgets to get into locations in a cyberpunk dystopia. And the thing that really sets this game apart from most other games in this genre is that you actually have to do all the hacking yourself. It’s not quite complicated on the level of something...
Jun 02, 2024•46 min•Ep. 97
Pod bless you, Andreas. Welcome back to the podcast and somehow, despite it being the middle of the month, not our first game of Mystery May! Today, we’re going to be talking about Pentiment, an adventure game in which you play as an artist as he is thrust into the middle of murder mysteries, however unlikely that might be. In each act you collect evidence and talk to the people of the town to gather information and do so in a way that changes the narrative of the game and the other options avai...
May 18, 2024•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 167
I can’t just hide here forever and podcast. Welcome back to the podcast where this week we’re going to be talking about Pseudoregalia! This is a metroidvania platformer that was originally developed as part of a game jam. The game is set in a castle and tasks you with navigating around to discover new abilities and, eventually, keys to end the game. The method by which you do this is some absolutely badass movement tech. I think it’s safe to say that for the majority of people, this movement is ...
Apr 21, 2024•51 min•Ep. 96
Grand Covenant’s Fourth Law: A podcast cannot lie. Welcome back to the podcast! Lies of P is definitely a game that turned some heads when it was announced, given that it’s based around Pinnochio. Set in a city overrun by automatons, stylized as puppets, who have broken their safeguards and begun attacking people, Lies of P takes its themes and ideas from Pinnochio, along with some of its characters, but not necessarily its plot. In fact, the way it manages to weave this inspiration into the res...
Apr 13, 2024•2 hr 8 min•Ep. 166
Banished into the depths of the Great Podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Lunacid, a game that is in its own words, inspired by old FROMSOFTWARE titles like King’s Field and Shadow Tower. And while you can definitely feel the influence, the game does enough to stand out on its own that it’s definitely worth playing. You play as someone cast into the Great Well, essentially an enormous dungeon, with escape being your only goal. This goal is pretty emblematic of the ga...
Mar 23, 2024•1 hr 53 min•Ep. 165
Hold down and swipe up to podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! For our last episode in Fanbruary, well into March at this point, we’re going to be talking about Mario Hoops 3 on 3. MHTOT (lol) is a bit of an anomaly in the Mario sports game pantheon, as it is a DS game that makes heavy use of the touch screen in its control scheme. This seemed like a pretty innocuous suggestion when we got it, but playing this game is a whole experience. It is without a doubt the most complicated basketball gam...
Mar 09, 2024•39 min•Ep. 95
You could pod another cast. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, for our second bite at the Fanbruary apple on the main cast, we’re going to be talking about Valheim. Valheim is a survival game that largely captured the audience for this type of game when it released in early access with it’s Norse theming, boss laddering and robust base building mechanics. Since those halcyon days, the updates to the game have slowed down a bit and the player base has dwindled some, but it still remains one of t...
Mar 02, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 164
We are not enemies, but we are a podcast. Welcome back to Fanbruary! For our second game of the month (don’t look at the calendar, please), we’re going to be talking about Wet, a third person shooter that iterates on the mechanical innovations of games like Prince of Persia and Max Payne, and takes its title both from a shortened version of the term “wetwork” and also people who are bad at naming things. Wet is honestly a fascinating game just in the sheer difference between its relative obscuri...
Feb 24, 2024•54 min•Ep. 94
You did not survive the podcast, Raziel. Welcome to Fanbruary! As we have for the last three years, this month we’re going to be looking at games suggested by members of our community and we’re starting today with Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver! This is an action/adventure Metroidvania title from 1999 and, especially considering the era in which this released, it has a lot going on. The game has full voice acting for all characters, a not insignificant world to explore and a large amount of side co...
Feb 10, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 163
A podcast inside a podcast inside a podcast… Welcome back to the podcast! For our January episode, which we kind of did so you didn’t forget we exist before Fanbruary begins, we’re going to be talking about Cocoon. Cocoon is a puzzle game developed by Geometric Interactive, a studio formed by members of the developer Playdead, and while this game is something else entirely than Limbo or Inside, the style they bring is definitely present. Cocoon is not a horror game, yet it creates a sense of eer...
Jan 20, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 162
The awards show least likely to be compared to Dark Souls What a year it has been! We played some comical old PC games, overrepresented horror, had some unnecessary and frankly inscrutable themed months and most of the good games we played came as suggestions from you guys. Okay, so maybe it was exactly the same as every other year, but it’s all about the content variety, really. This year had a good amount of that, at least. And of course, as has been said for untold past millennia, variety in ...
Jan 06, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 2023
This early in the game, I doubt you have the podcast to back that up. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, and the final episode of the year! We decided to try to do holiday themes this year and based on our success rate, I doubt we’ll go for it again. Cthulhu Saves Christmas is a novelty follow up to another comedy RPG by this developer, Cthulhu Saves the World, but this time it is obviously themed around Christmas. The game is a throwback RPG with turn-based combat and (kind of) random encounters, w...
Dec 30, 2023•48 hr 49 min•Ep. 93
I will podcast unfulfilled! Happy holidays! To celebrate the season, we’re talking about a game that has at least one time on the internet been compared to Home Alone, and that game is Trapt! Trapt is a game in which you prepare and trigger traps within a 3D environment to attack and kill your enemies. Unlike what you are probably imagining, the game plays nothing like a tower defense game or even a puzzle game. It is instead the clunkiest action game you’ve ever played. As you have to trigger t...
Dec 24, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 161
My intentions are podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about The Fall. Despite being almost ten years old, I’d consider this to be part of the new wave of adventure games, ones that seek to capture some of the elements of the classic games but without the more obtuse elements. The Fall mostly manages this, using a 2D sidescrolling style which limits the amount of screen searching and navigation you have to do to find all the pieces to each of the puzzles. It’s n...
Dec 09, 2023•57 min•Ep. 92
I’ve got some oomph in my bloom. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a new 2D Mario platformer, which in a weird way kind of feels like part of a trend of Nintendo making more nostalgic releases, like Pikmin or Metroid Dread and remaking Link’s Awakening and Mario RPG. Mario Wonder is a classic 2D Mario game like we haven’t seen since the New Super Mario Bros. games, but unlike those games, Wonder has a direct goal of making more innovations and chan...
Dec 02, 2023•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 160
The podcast is watching. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Rollerdrome, a game that mixes the extreme sports of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater with the extreme crime of gun violence. In Rollerdrome, you are tasked with eliminating all the enemies that spawn in waves within a level while performing tricks to reload your guns, and doing so quickly to maintain combos and end up with a high score. Maybe the concept doesn’t sound simple at first, because it isn’t, but even s...
Nov 25, 2023•48 min•Ep. 91
Use the Holy Pod to follow the Golden Cast Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Tunic, a game styled very much after the classic 2D Zelda titles, but with some other influences that will become apparent as you play through the game. Tunic is a colorful, cute game, with a fox wearing a shirt as a protagonist and bushes that squish and bounce when you cut them down. This seems to be to lure you into a false sense of security because the game itself is actually much more difficul...
Nov 18, 2023•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 159
I’m just podcasting my Wares. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re talking about Anodyne, a Zelda-like indie game from ten years ago, which, boy does that just feel like forever these days. Anodyne doesn’t so much have a shtick as it just tries to be a solid action adventure game while exploring its mechanics and themes, and realistically that’s all it needs to be. This is a decently well focused game that understands its own scope very well, and because of that it manages to hold up incr...
Nov 11, 2023•58 min•Ep. 90
I’m as podcast as you are. Welcome back! For our final episode of Halloween, we’re talking about Dredge, the fishing game that takes its aesthetic inspiration from cosmic horror, and of course, H.P. Lovecraft. In Dredge you play as a fisherman and you catch fish to pay for upgrades to your ship, repairs, etc., all while working toward the goal of collecting several relics for a mysterious man who lives on an island by himself. Which isn’t weird at all. The fishing itself is engaging enough, but ...
Nov 04, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 158
Welcome home. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Midnight Manor, a late entry suggestion for Pocket this Halloween that ended up probably saving our schedule. Midnight Manor is a short horror-themed platformer from a solo developer that encourages players to play the game multiple times in different ways to see all the narrative possibilities it has to offer. Mechanically speaking, the game is simple, revolving around carrying items necessary for progression from place to pl...
Oct 28, 2023•34 min•Ep. 89
Dismember their podcast. Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be talking about our first horror title for the Halloween season with Dead Space. Specifically, we’re talking about the 2023 remake of the game with only a limited understanding of the original. That said, this is a game that makes a pretty brutal impression very quickly, so we did pick it up quickly. Dead Space is an action survival horror game in the same vein as Resident Evil 4, with an over the shoulder camera. The game’s...
Oct 20, 2023•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 157
I’m sorry. I couldn’t keep my podcast. Welcome to Halloween! Our favorite month of year for being our birthday month, it’s also time for us to play just so many, many horror games, starting today with Signalis. Signalis is an indie survival horror game, set in a dystopian sci-fi world in which you play as a “Replika,” a robotic servant, assigned to a pilot of a spacecraft. When laid out like that, a lot about the game’s setting and plot don’t really seem that remarkable. It’s part of the reason ...
Oct 14, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 88
We are celebrating our eighth birthday here at NOCLIP, but I can’t help but feel like something is off. In computer memory, there are eight bits in a byte, and memory is necessary to run video games. Video games are like stories, but the players can do things. They have verbs. Eight represents the verb in the classic joke about how seven ate nine. An eight looks like two donuts, which are things you might eat. It’s all coalescing around something, I just don’t know what. Coalesce! Eight letters!...
Oct 03, 2023•24 min•Ep. 2920
Oooh, banana. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, for Simian September, we’re going to be talking about Donkey Kong 64, the only 3D Donkey Kong collectathon platformer that’s fit to print. This game certainly has a reputation, it’s almost infamous, so we thought it would be interesting to see if that reputation is warranted coming back to it after all this time. DK 64 is a platformer, as mentioned, and one that is in the vein of Rare’s prior N64 classic Banjo Kazooie. The difference, primarily, ...
Sep 30, 2023•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 156
That’s the stupidest podcast I’ve ever heard! Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about one of the all time classic point and click adventure games, The Secret of Monkey Island as our pocket episode for Simian September, the month that’s like Ape-ril, but in September. Monkey Island is notable for a number of reasons, but it releasing in 1990 means that it was one of the first hits in the genre to really take off and did a lot to popularize Adventure games. It also fe...
Sep 23, 2023•58 min•Ep. 87
A scattered dream that’s like a far off podcast. Welcome back to the podcast this week! Today we’re doing an episode that was a long time coming and talking about Kingdom Hearts II. The only numbered entry in the series we hadn’t talked about yet and probably the simultaneously most loved and most controversial Kingdom Hearts game. KH2 is an action RPG like its predecessor, but amps up a lot of the mechanical interaction to be much faster and more stylish. At times, it plays like a character act...
Sep 09, 2023•1 hr 53 min•Ep. 155
Podcast go, Sora go, go! Welcome back to NOCLIP Epilogue! Today we’re going back to one of our first ten episodes and talking about Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG with a dash of platforming on the side, as exploring the different worlds is a big part of both the goal of the game’s design and the appeal. That being said, the real notable thing about Kingdom Hearts, particularly at the time of its release, is its association with Disney. The game incorporate characters, locations,...
Aug 30, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 86
