QCF: Shantae and The Pirate's Curse

or all of the self-indulgently romanticized tributes to the nostalgic age of platform gaming, the arguably saturation of this new trend sure forgot to bring with it one of the most important components that made this particular era so riveting—the personality.

Sure, the comfortingly familiar sights of the various mascot tropes in motion like vivid colors, or obnoxiously radical attitudes slowly came together like an awesome homecoming , but this wave of passionate tributes are starting to run out on the goodwill of the source material they homage.

Leave it to Way Forward to not only keep that charming blaze of platformer fire alive, but studio’s has labored a great deal of adding a new flare of innovation to the genre with the third entry to their flagship series, Shantae. Pirate’s Curse not only capitalizes on all of the trademark charisma and features that made the franchise what it is today, but it strives on to go a step further to burnish a new layer of polish the likes that would make exceptional present-day contemporaries like Shovel Knight blush.

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QCF: Full Bore

t’s refreshing to play a game that quite literally drops you into the wild and leaves you to your own devices after a relatively quick intro. The world exists on a 2D plane and you play as this little bore. You can move left, right, fall down, and climb adjacent blocks at 45-degree angles. The little bore can also tunnel through dirt and shove blocks around. As you explore you’ll meet the denizens of this underground world whom offer up subtle clues about the game play and the world they inhabit. To boil it all down you’re going to be collecting diamonds buried in the mine.

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PPR Presents Play Play: Muramasa: The Demon Blade

egend tells of a sword that grows in strength by feasting upon every drop of blood it spills, soaking in the rich mineral of the crimson life of every victim it claims; the mythical blade—Muramasa. George, Andrew, and Ser continue their path of playing Vanillaware titles as they discuss what makes Muramasa one of the, if arguably not, the very best title the Japanese studio has put out yet; too bad the Metroidvania design is shit, which they’ll cover too…

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

QCF: Steamworld Dig

hen developers attempt to shove a veritable smorgasbord of buzz-worthy elements and tropes into their games, they’re banking on killing that sales bird among consumers with the two forecasted stones of expectations in the video game marketplace. The first is being able to promote a distinction of unique gameplay that’s conveniently composed of familiar elements that gamers know and love from other titles—it’s an assumptive projection for success that mostly results in being a shallow disaster than an innovative title.

Which is what makes Steamworld Dig from Image & Form Games a completely unexpected surprise that gloriously earns the title of being a worthy exception to the trend—The titles has now expanded to Steam, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita and is now, more than ever, one of the easiest must-own games to obtain out of 2014 to this very day.

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PPR Presents Play Play: Strider

ouble Helix has been killing it lately with all of these sweet, and we mean SWEET remakes they’ve been pumping out lately. Coming off the heels of the surprisingly successful Killer Instinct, Double Helix collaborated with Capcom to usher the return of their ruthless super assassin, and man, did they do it with style.

Coincidentally, as we just finished talking about Metroidvania, we talk about how Strider utilizes traits of the sub-genre, and we go on to talk about how it’s still a pretty good game, despite it being rough around the edges, in the weirdest of ways…

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Press Pause Video-Episode 01: Metroidvania

he guys have gone Video! Every other week, we plan on sitting down and essentially recording mini-podcasts in the vein of Press Pause Radio, only with visual aids and other horseshit of the like. The inaugural topic of discussion has us breaking down the meaning and association of one of George’s favorite distinctions that he loves to romanticize—Metroidvania.

What is it exactly, and why do we love it so much, and why does the label seem so arbitrary in the grand scheme of things in today’s gaming landscape; Andrew, Ser, and George sit down to chew that fat.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

QCF: Castlevania Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate HD

he Castlevania reboot from Mercury Steam and Kojima productions is a noteworthy one amongst it’s peers that have attempted to modernize with a new beginning. In some degree, no matter how drastic the change to the conventions or tropes with the source material that’s being reworked, there’s always some form of semblance to the roots of the property; Lords of Shadow barely identifies with remotely recognizable to the Castlevania label.

It wasn’t until players were greeted to a cliffhanger ending comprised of several spontaneous details tof a drastic change to story direction. Gabriel’s predicament and radically changed outlook displayed no inkling of clarification to what sort of events took place prior leading to the revelations portrayed within these last scenes—just a bait and switch for the upcoming sequels that would deliver the answers we were seeking. Before we would see the true sequel to Lords of Shadow however, Mercury Steam in true Japanese fashion, would give us the midquel that is Mirror of Fate to bridge the two main games on the 3DS—unfortunately, it didn’t do so hot.

The theme of Lords of Shadow has always been about second chances however, and with Mirror of Fate being rereleased on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network with an HD facelift and improvements directly responding to the criticisms of its portable cousin; the redemption pays off, but comes off a bit winded in the process.

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QCF: Guacamelee

very culture possesses a title of incredible significance, one that grants the individual who bears it fame and the opportunity to leave behind a legacy for those who succeed said title; the proud lineage of the luchador is such a title. Majestic forces of strength in the ring, these masked heroes symbolize the principals and codes of virtue as they launch from colorful ropes and transform into deadly flying emissaries of justice against their opponents—Lucha libre is storied lifestyle and that’s what Drinkbox Studios’ Guacamelee aims to deliver, and it does just that, and surprisingly more.

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