House Show: That's Not Ciclope!

o we've been away for a bit, sorry about that everyone. But just like George's favorite wrestler Dean Malenko in that match against Jericho, we have returned! This is a catch-up episode where we just try to touch base on everything that has happened over the last several months, including Cody Rhodes going back to WWE, that recent MJF promo and Kingston trying to commit a gasoline-fueled crime on PPV. Hope everyone is doing well and hope to be back with more regular episodes soon!

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Parallax Pilgrimage: The Timeless Charm of 2.5D Action Video Games

sn’t it just wild what a simple addition or twist can do for a recognized formula? Just look at what tossing in a splash of Lime or Vanilla to a can of Pepsi does for the drink—the same cola base is there, only now it offers a whole new perspective to its taste, and they did this all without completely reinventing the wheel either. It took Pepsi forty years to come up with the idea, while the brilliant minds of the Video Game industry came up with their “Pepsi Lime” moment in thirty-seven with the 2.5D Platformer.

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PPR 141

ven though some Video Games that are so good that you just want to play them over and over again, you can’t help but wish for them to get some tinkering under the hood to supe’ them up with the times. Luckily, there are plenty of titles getting new life again for the High Definition screen and a slew of other improvements for audiences both old and new, especially for some of those “Deep Cuts” that didn’t get their fair shake the first time around like Klonoa Phantasy Reverie or Pocky & Rocky Reshrined.

Still, there are a ton of other titles that could use the Remaster treatment, and we each have our own little personal wish list of software that we want to get a fresh coat of paint to share with y’all here on the latest episode of Press Pause Radio. Join Ed, Ren, and George as they go over a rundown of some cult-classics and sleeper-hits primed for the Ninth Generation of gaming!

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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Late to the Party: Lost Judgment

eing a Spin-Off from a popular series is hard because you’re either as beloved as Family Matters, or as forgettable as The Cleveland Show—the reception to these ventures is rarely in-between.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s first foray into the Yakuza Universe outside of Kiryu’s story continuity, Judgment, fringes between both ends of that measuring stick. The crux of this weakness fell upon its failure to carve a meaningful identity of its own from the rich source material it pulls from, well, aside from a fickle protagonist who was charming one second and irritatingly cringe-worthy the next at the very least.

Inconsistent delivery aside though, the premise of an Ex-Lawyer turned Private Eye in the world of Kamurcho still carries plenty of merits to re-visit in its own right, especially with mainline Yakuza series shifting into the Turn-Based RPG Genre for the indefinite future. This is where the follow-up sequel to Takayuki Yagami crime-solving caper, Lost Judgement, comes into the grand picture.

The Private Eye’s latest case leads him to the rough streets of Ijincho, and the setting isn’t the only thing that’s new as Lost Judgment is a sequel that boldly builds upon its formula instead of trying to deliver a familiar formula with some forced twists, making for an immensely better experience this time around.

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PPR 140

t’s pretty wild to see how many Video Game properties have been adapted for viewing over playing the last year or so. As James Marsden and Company ride the Box Office Success of “Rachel Adventure” (or Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for you Layman’s out there) we here at Press Pause Radio have been getting utterly swamped with our collective pile of games to play, and when we mean collective pile of games, we mainly mean whatever we can squeeze in between sessions of Elden Ring and Tunic.

While Elden Ring and Tunic DID command a lot of the conversation in this episode—George, Sean, and Andrew still had plenty of other games and news to talk about. In this episode of Press Pause Radio, we discussed the 2022 cancellation of E3, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Fish Plays Twitch, that thing that happened at the Oscars (sigh), Exile “Un-Worked Designs” Hack, Super Mario Sunburn, Miner 2049er, NORCO, Montezuma’s Revenge, Pac-Man, Kirby & The Forgotten Land, Ghostwire Tokyo, and so much more!

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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PPR 139

ow more than ever, Online Multiplayer has established itself into a bonafide standard in the Modern Gaming Climate with dedicated servers that operate on a scale that gets bigger by the year, making the term “Massive” a bit redundant in the process.

Even as you read this, there are thousands of players scrambling through the Online landscapes of Elden Ring and Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, titles that are packed with all of the Cooperative and Competitive ventures you can shake a sword or gun at—and yet neither of them fall under the category of MMO.

As we see the “Games as a Service” Model getting used more frequently, we stop to ask the question as to whether or not the genre of Massive Multiplayer Online games is steadily becoming a thing of the past. Granted, the immensely wild success of Final Fantasy XIV certainly says otherwise, and even contemporaries like Elder Scrolls Online and World of Warcraft are still operating at an impressive capacity despite Endwalker’s dominating performance—it’s still enough to make you wonder just how far these titles can go?

Join George Sean, and Andrew as they pore over the timeline of MMORPG’s, covering everything from their humble beginning, to their boom, and soft crash in the late ‘aughts, and so much more. Be sure to brush up on your HIPPA laws, because we’re going to punch down deep for Episode 139 of Press Pause Radio.

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: Phantom Breaker: Omnia

ack in the day I used to attend several conventions a year, where all forms of gaming, anime and related avenues of fandom would occupy a weekend inside the meeting rooms of an unsuspecting hotel. In those game rooms of my past, I recall seeing Phantom Breaker tournaments and casual play amongst the other 2D fighters. Now over a decade later, Rocket Panda Games has teamed up with MAGES to release an updated and streamlined version of the title for the first time in the West. Does Phantom Breaker: Omnia earn a place in today’s crowded field of fighting games? I think to certain groups of players it very well may have a spot.

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PPR 138

echnical issues be damned because Press Pause Radio is stronger than any defective update or worn-out Graphics Card broken that’s crappy enough to try and stop us this late in the GAME.

This week, we decided to keep it chill, and catch everyone up with what we’ve been playing since our Golden Zonkies Special for 2021, along with throwing in our thoughts on the latest Nintendo Direct, and the subsequent Shutdown announcement for the Wii U/3DS eShop to cap it off.

Chairs for the week were Ed, Sean, and George as they gabbed on about Metroid Dread, Tatsujin, PC Denjin, Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker, Animal Crossing New Horizon, Arcade Archives, Phantom Gear, Grapple Dog, Darius Extra Version, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and so much more.

Next Week, we’re going to discuss the current climate of Massive Multiplayer Online Games, their history, and the blurred line between them and the burgeoning “Games as a Service” trend we’ve been seeing in this current generation—see you then!

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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