Episodes
What better way to spend time in the ocean than to fish while trying not to succumb to ancient malices from the deep? For this is apparently what is on offer with 2023's indie darling, Dredge. Chris O'Regan with James and Brian along with contributions from the Cane and Rinse listenership – tell tall tales of fishes larger than a house they 'allegedly' caught, while fighting off stress induced fatigue in this boat bound action adventure. One can only wonder what is hauled up from the sea bed...
Published 11/13/24
Marvel's relatively obscure comic book sci-fi misfits received a huge boost in recognition with their first MCU movie in 2014. Following a sequel and a Telltale series, Square Enix tasked their Eidos Montreal studio with making an action game starring the underdog antiheroes. Leon, Brian, Karl and Leah team up to celebrate the highs and nitpick at the lows of the resulting romp. Along with contributions from the Cane and Rinse community, we also consider the stink that the reception to...
Published 11/05/24
New protagonists for a new era. Initially, officially, considered to be a gaiden, Konami's second game entitled Vampire Killer was arguably canonised as Castlevania: Bloodlines in the USA. Leon, Leah and Sean talk whips, spears, level design and boss fights. Even the always excellent contributions from the Cane and Rinse community can't persuade us to spend much time on the neutered European/Australian PAL version, robbed of this instalment's signature pace and blood.
Published 10/29/24
It could have been Sonic 3D, but the tech wasn't ready. In fact, the game itself wasn't entirely ready when it was due to release, leading to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles coming out on separate (full-price) cartridges. Leon, Leah and Tony - along with community contributors - dash into the eventual complete title, Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Published 10/22/24
Vampire Survivors started off as a solo developer effort that turned into a huge indie hit. A compulsive experience that employs various slots-style visual and audio cues to give upgrades more 'juice', the game is nevertheless an incredibly generous affair with rock bottom store prices and no microtransactions. Thomas, James and Sean – along with contributors from the listening community – chat through the basic, charming visuals, the gameplay loop, and the ethics of tricks borrowed from...
Published 10/15/24
Yie Ar Kung-Fu marked the first appearance of many core one-on-one fighting game tenets that remain in use fully 40 years later. Join Leon, Chris O, Chris W and Jesse (as well as contributions from the listeners) to find out which parts of the rulebook Konami wrote all the way back in 1984. There's also time for talk of opponent strats, as well as the lowdown on the game's many conversions, a sequel, plus a not really a sequel.
Published 10/08/24
This week, we put the "cane" back in Cane and Rinse with our discussion of DuckTales on the NES and the ahem dynasty of duck games that followed. We detail the pre-interactive origins of everyone's favorite policy failure, Scrooge McDuck, and track his adventures up to 2013's WayForward remake. Ryan, Leah and Michiel quack the case of this buried treasure with contributions from the community and woo-oos from the soundtrack.
Published 10/01/24
Covering all the main games from thirty years of Iron Fisting, we relive the mad, bad Mishima saga and recall its many combatants. Leon, Michiel, Rich and Sean wax lyrical of 10 hit strings, mighty juggle combos and multipart, limb-breaking holds.
As usual, we have some great, nostalgic memories from the Cane and Rinse listenership to share as well.
Published 09/24/24
From oaks to acorns. The Fable series began life as O.G. Xbox exclusive, released under the weight of some big talk of tantalising concepts in 2004. Leon, James, Tony and a returning Darren Gargette - along with contributions from the Cane and Rinse listenership - relive the legend of the first Fable, and replay the game in a post Dragon Age, post Witcher III, post Elden Ring, post Baldur's Gate III landscape.
Published 09/17/24
All-but abandoned after just two critically successful entries, Capcom's Power Stone is a series that lives on only in the hearts of those who played it quarter of a century ago. Leon, Karl, Michiel and Ryan - along with contributors from the listening community - bash out what made Power Stone such a blast, and ponder what the sequel was an eternal party favourite for some, yet an over-egged pudding for others.
Published 09/10/24
Terror most fowl or anserine champion? James, Brian and Leah are going to find out if House House’s goose is cooked or whether they laid the golden egg with 2019’s Untitled Goose Game.
There sure are a lot of goose idioms, huh?
Published 09/03/24
The infamous odd-one out. Nintendo SPD collaborated with Tecmo's Team Ninja for the Wii-exclusive follow-up to the Prime trilogy, with results that weren't greeted entirely enthusiastically by press or punters alike. Leon, Chris Worthington, Leah, Rich and community correspondents get to grips with Metroid: Other M - its quirky cameras and unintuitive interface, and perhaps most controversially, its character-changing portrayal of series hero, Samus Aran.
Published 08/27/24
Two shoot 'em ups with two names each, from Capcom's arcade heyday of the late 80s/early 90s. Leon, Chris Worthington, Michiel and expert guest Ed Tremblay equip formidable loadouts and launch into the skies of Area 88 / U.N. Squadron and U.S. Navy / Carrier Air Wing.
Published 08/20/24
That game with the cat. Actually - as we briefly discuss in this podcast - there are loads of games with cats. But we're talking about this one: Stray. Leon, Jay, Tom, Tony and community contributors chime in on BlueTwelve Studio's underground feline hopepunk adventure, and its furmidable protagonist.
Published 08/13/24
A trio of games, but not a trilogy, make up our The Ninja Warriors series podcast. Leon, Chris Worthington, Michiel and guest Bog Hog stomp and slice their way through the arcade original, the Super Famicom/SNES ground-up reimagining and the contemporary remake of that: The Ninja Warriors. The Ninja Warriors Again and The Ninja Warriors Once Again (AKA Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors) all get the usual analysis, including some passionate paeans contributed by the community.
Published 08/06/24
We return to Hideo Kojima's back catalogue in the 1994 Japan-only title Policenauts. Rich, Chris Worthington and Leah look into the mind of Kojima before he took the world by storm with Metal Gear Solid. Borrowing heavily from 1980s cinema, blending visual novel and point-and-click, as well as science fact and fiction, Policenauts tells a near future crime drama about life, thriving and surviving in space.
Published 07/30/24
It's the newest game we've ever covered on Cane and Rinse. Probably. But also, it's 20 years old. What gives? Leon, Brian, Leah and Ryan - along with contributions from the listenership - jump right back into Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, hyphen and all. The panel gets into the usual forensic dissection of the 2004 follow-up to the N64 original Paper Mario - and we talk about the 2024 version for the Switch too.
Published 07/23/24
A double game 'twofer' show, as we look back at the start of the so-called 'Golden Age' of arcade games and two titles depicting similar concepts with wildly different approaches. Leon, Brian, Chris Worthington and Tony touch down with Atari's 1979 Lunar Lander, a vector graphics-based sim of sorts. Then the crew turns its attention to the Japanese developed Space Invaders spin-off, Lunar Rescue from Taito - also from 1979. Accompanied by a couple of intrepid correspondents, we hark back to a...
Published 07/16/24
It's Elden Ring. In the lead-up to the long-awaited Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Leon, Brian, Jay and Thomas summon collaborators and take on the daunting quest of podcasting about a game with just so much to it. With a collective play time of 750 hours or so - thousands if you include our community contributors - we attempt to encapsulate the scale and scope of FromSoft's epic open-world RPG, share the highs and lows of our times in The Lands Between and even address the feeling shared by...
Published 07/09/24
Rich, James and Jon are joined by Sean Bell of The Computer Game Show as they come together to discuss Inxile Entertainment's spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment , 2017's Torment: Tides of Numenera.
Published 07/02/24
For our second look at a Ghostbusters videogame (there are plenty of others that didn't make the cut), we look at - er - Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Leon, Brian, Karl, Tony and community contributors look at the canonical third story - at least it was until the recent movies came along and changed some stuff. We focus on the PS3/360/PC version and its subsequent remaster, rather than the Wii, PS2, PSP, DS incarnations. Did bustin' make us feel good? Listen to find out.
Published 06/25/24
"Ahead of its time" is a barely adequate phrase with which to describe Star Raiders. Doug Neubauer's 1979 space combat simulator was a sensation at the time, and still manages to impress 45 years later. Leon, Chris O'Regan and Jesse activate shields and take on the might of the evil Zylon empire, before diving into the game's incredible legacy, including long-range scans of its various conversions, spin-offs and follow-ups.
Published 06/18/24
A visual novel about ten hours in Shibuya, Tokyo. Not much could possibly happen, right? Spike Chunsoft’s cult classic, originally released for the Nintendo Wii in 2008, would tell you differently. Join Chris Worthington, Brian, Karl and Leah as they peel back the layers.
Published 06/11/24
The summer of 1984 and Activision lights a fire under Davd Crane's butt, giving him and his team six weeks to get a computer game out to ride the hype-wave of smash hit supernatural comedy movie, Ghostbusters. 40 years later, Leon, Chris O, Chris W, Jesse and community contributors fire up unlicensed nuclear accelerators and wave P.K.E. Meters at the C64 resulting software, as well as its many conversions to other formats.
Published 06/04/24