House Show: A Revolutionary Fireworks Display!

t's been a while since we last had a House Show recording, and originally I thought we would record prior to AEW Revolution to hype up the upcoming event. I'm glad George suggested we record afterwards as a recap, because MAN! That ending and everything else AEW will be discussed in this episode as well as the recent news of the WWE Network moving to Peacock. Thanks for tuning in, hope everyone is doing well!

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QCF: Cyber Shadow

f there’s only one video game platform from the past that has to lead an everlasting brain trust spread throughout all walks of life, it’s the Nintendo Entertainment System. There are a bevy of other 8-bit machines that have their fans sure, but the NES has defined what people consider the 8-bit generation to be, establishing a style that still permeates a majority of the throwback indie titles that’s seen in the market today.

Drawing inspiration from the system’s aesthetics is one thing, but capturing the gameplay of that era is an entirely different beast, especially when it comes to channeling the essence of the challenge it’s famous for in an age of Save States and unlimited continues. Enter Mechanical Head Studio’s Cyber Shadow, a new title published by Yacht Club that chases the old ghosts of NES classics like Ninja Gaiden, Power Blade, Shatterhand, Shadow of the Ninja, and so much more—complete with a modern touch that aims to balance the scale of difficulty and fairness on the tightest of ropes.

There’s a lot to enjoy here for those who cut their teeth on the action genre during the days of the rectangular controller, but on that same token, arguably much of the beauty behind that generation is the “less is more” philosophy behind those games—something that Cyber Shadow is remiss to forget in its occasionally clumsy ambition.

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PPR 130

limate Change and Stonks be damned because we out here recording another fresh episode of Press Pause Radio for y’all, and we even brought back Sean for it too!

In this episode we talk some thought up on the Resident Evil Village demo that released, the Mass Effect Legendary Edition announcement, the bullshit of Six Days in Fallujah, and our shared impressions of the latest Nintendo Direct. We also dive in to what’s been in our consoles, covering a wide range of games that include Vitamin Connection, Capcom Arcade Stadium, Cyber Shadow, World of Warcraft Shadowlands, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Hades, Project Starship XX, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Turrican Flashback, and so much more.

Be warned though, somehow George’s Mic straight up shit the bed during recording, so his audio quality is nowhere near the quality standard we strive for in our podcast production at Press Pause Radio. The episode is more than listenable. but it’s certainly not at the audible fidelity we would’ve liked it to be, even after salvaging what we could post production (major thanks again to Stark and Sterlz Sound Design for their assistance in the matter!)

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!

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QCF: Yaga

lthough I have often heard the name of Baba Yaga in various media such as movies and television, I must admit I am not familiar at all about its origins or the impact that the Slavic folklore has had over time. Playing through the latest indie release from Versus Evil and developer Breadcrumbs Interactive shows just how much this tale is revered in culture and to storytellers across the world. I appreciate that Yaga presents an interesting hybrid of hack and slash, choose your own adventure and crafting all into a game that is only hindered by repetitive combat, clunky menus and an overabundance of mechanics. And even with that the game still allows the player to become enchanted with the storybook presentation and branching paths that are prime for replaying and finding all the possible outcomes.

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Late to the Party: Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time

ow that the character is over 24 years old, Crash Bandicoot has amassed a generation of fans that look at him with the same reverence as Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog—he’s a household name among Generation Z. On that token though, beyond the remastered releases and cameos, just how relevant is the property today’s gaming climate? Ironically enough, one of the biggest attractions the marsupial had over its competition was its sense of exclusivity, both in terms of gameplay difficulty and the platform brand the property wore heartily on its sleeve.

Interestingly, the Crash Bandicoot property made its bread and butter on appealing to the public as the coolest outlier on the market with the PlayStation, but as the years have passed, the marsupial mascot has evolved into a far more accessible franchise. That sentiment couldn’t be more apparent than the latest entry from developer Toys for BoB, and publisher Activision, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.

With the success of the remastered trilogy, the developer was tasked with releasing a new sequel that would invoke the initial spirit of Bandicoot’s PlayStation outings, and thankfully, Toys For BoB answered that call with a game that successfully caters to everyone like no other entry before it, and is easily the best Crash game to date.

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QCF: Dragonborne

t isn’t too often that you see a brand new Gameboy game released, let alone in the same year that we see next-generation hardware launch but that just goes to show just how powerful the how well Nintendo’s trademark handheld still holds up.

Despite the strength of the Game Boy’s legacy though, some novel ideas, as unique as they may be, can still find a way to disappoint even the most open-minded of players—that’s Spacebot Interactive’s Dragonborne.

While this new top-down RPG adventure does an admirable job of paying tribute to the Game  Boy classics that came before it, Dragonborne’s individual spin on these familiar tropes ends up being nothing short of tedious at best, and just plain boring at worst.

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QCF: Sega Astro City Mini

here Names like Nintendo, Atari, and SEGA respectively boast a large zenith of the home console market between themselves the past thirty years, no brand commanded a foothold in the coin-operated world of Arcade gaming quite like SEGA did. Beyond the global hits like Golden Axe, Space Harrier, and Virtua Fighter, the Japanese Gaming giant spanned a wide array of genres and gimmicks that redefined the arcade scene with Astro City line of Arcade cabinets. The horsepower behind their intricate PCB boards made way for unique experiences that deployed a wide array of technical marvels that set them apart from their upright peers like super scaling graphics, over-the-top, and JAMMA quality stereo sound.

As the preservation for Arcade software gets harder with each passing year, SEGA took to celebrating its 60th anniversary with a bang with the release of the Astro City Cab Mini—a scaled-down take of their signature 1993 arcade cabinet that’s packed with 37 games that shaped SEGA’s storied legacy of its quarter-fueled library. While it’s a shame that the retro gaming wizards at M2 weren’t programmers for this nifty little machine, the unit’s nostalgic design and collection of titles more than make up for its above-average emulation.

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QCF: Yakuza: Like A Dragon

espite all of the social and technological advancements we’ve made over the last century, there’s an old saying that still gets thrown in the face of anything progressive to this very day—the tired phrase of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 

There are merits to the sentiment though—it isn’t often that an open-world action-adventure dynamic like that of the Yakuza series is able to work as well as it has for the last fifteen years, as each entry only worked to improve upon the foundation of the 2006 PS2 original. Fortunately, that isn’t the case here, far from it; Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Yakuza Like A Dragon is a revival, unlike anything we’ve seen from a legacy franchise before it, taking the series to a new generation of players while successfully carrying it to new heights for longtime fans all the same.

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