Alon’s joined by Teddy and Madeline talking about two games we’re playing in the saaaaameish genre: Slay the Spire and Balatro. Comparison may be the thief of joy but also it’s really fun to do bad things (like being really greedy in card games). Let’s dive in. The next episode will be the first in our Majora’s Mask Gameclub! Play along! Join the Wide Flank discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ Everywhere that you can find us: https://linktr.ee/wideflank Show Notes: Often...

The game is over and the credits are rolling! This is the grand finale episode of the Ocarina of Time Gameclub and for this one we played from the Fire Temple through beating the entire game. There are a lot of spoilers in this episode, and this game is kinda unhinged. Did we get every heart piece? No. Did we get every skulltula? No. But we had a fun time playing through a great journey and a great game. Not sure yet what’s next, but it might be Majora’s Mask. Stay...

Is this game good or stale or dated? No, it turns out this game still rules. We played all the way through the Forest Temple for this episode and talked about solving the puzzles, the combat, being a kid, the music, time, Navi, technology, and more. Hey, listen! Next episode we’re recording after beating the whole damn game. Dan Bruno article: https://danbruno.net/writing/ocarina/ Join our discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ Everywhere that you can find us: https://linktr.ee/wideflank

How many episodes will there be? Time will tell. We're going with the flow. For this episode Dugan and Alon are a couple of hours into Ocarina of Time and we’re talking about our progress so far, Dark Souls, the difficulty, the vibes, the nostalgia, and more. Next episode we’re recording after the first three dungeons. Everywhere that you can find us: https://linktr.ee/wideflank

"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make and end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from" – T. S. Eliot

Special guest Damon coming in hot off the press for this episode. We basically rediscover books and what is good about reading because that's mostly what Citizen Sleeper is, a good old picture book. There are also some dice rolls and currency management but they don’t mean that much after you get rolling ^_^. We forgive the lack of difficulty because this game has style, beautiful descriptions of mushrooms, and a critique of capitalism that hits hard. Next Gameclub we’re doing Hollow...

This game is about Marissa Marcel. You watch raw footage of three of her movies, and some behind the scenes footage associated with those movies. You can rewind and fast forward. But all the clips are hidden from you, and you can only find these clips by clicking an object in the scene that takes you to another clip with a similar item, and you watch all these scenes out of order. Sounds kinda bad? But it totally rules! We briefly debate whether or not this is a game, and really the answer...

StarCraft (gotta love that one word and double capitalized title). This is a cool game. Even the metallic lettering of the title is cool. The music is good. The voice lines are funny. If not entirely dignified, StarCraft feels mature where other games in the 90s were often irreverent or puerile. The human campaign follows the rise of a terrorist faction in the midst of a galactic race (species) war. The Zerg campaign follows the quest to bring their species to biologic perfection, where...

For this gameclub the Wide Flank gang played “Tunic”. An isometric action game that at first glance looks like The Legend of Zelda, but is really so much more. Spoilers aplenty this episode so if you are considering giving this a go, play it before listening and reading below. What you thought was a cute little Zelda game turns out to be much deeper and darker as you explore the far reaches of its world. You gradually uncover pages of an in-game manual, written in an alien language, and you...

What words describe Bloodborne? Gothic? Victorian? Lovecraftian? Scary? Impossible? Funny? Bloodborne is an enigmatic, genre-defining game. Chat GPT described it best in a haiku: “Bloodborne’s Depths Hidetaka’s Twisted World Challenge Accepted” Its gameplay loop and mechanics are polarizing inside and outside of the Soulsborne fandom; too fast for lovers of Dark Souls, but too slow for high-octane gamers like Alon. We played it to varying levels of success. Is a game that is most fun...

18 months later, Danny, Alon and Teddy sit down and reflect on the glory of the Wide Flank catalog. Jump in and listen as we discuss our favorite and least favorite Gameclub games, talk about what has aged well, and where we are thinking of going next. It’s been a blast playing games and hanging with you all in discord, and we hope that you’ll stick with us as we keep this train moving in 2023. This is a spoiler-free relaxed episode, and we’ll be back next week to release Bloodborne! Join...

It’s time to take your first journey into space, little Hearthian. Blast off into an alien solar system to uncover the strange physics and mechanics of planets you’ve only dreamed of. Many spoilers in this episode. But if that doesn’t bother you, read on. Awaiting your arrival are the Hourglass Twins, a “double planet” (this is a real term), where two celestial bodies are locked together in their orbit around the sun. One is slowly spraying away the sands on its surface to reveal mysteries...

Hades is the latest release from Supergiant Games, a studio that consistently releases some of the slickest and most stylish games of the generation. This is the best yet. You are Zagreus, a son of Hades, determined to break free from the Stygian realm of your birth. A roguelike (roguelite?) that will test your twitch skills with weapons and power ups that make each run unique. Maybe most remarkably it has a nearly endless trough of voice lines and story beats that punctuate each run and...

A listener asked us if we prefer the perfect brevity of Portal, or the focused improvements of Portal 2. But that gives it away – perfection wins every time. We often described Portal as a proof of concept, but that isn’t a criticism. What else could you ask of a three hour game? It says everything it needed to say. After Portal was released, the thoughts of a generation of gamers were changed, maybe forever, about what games were and could be. Portal 2 really wrung the rag of what we loved...

Alon is joined by Neil and Chris to talk about the fast, hyper, and hardcore game that is Neon White. We love it and it kicks ass, check it out. Neil is on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/clineil_ Chris recently made a game called Silly Seance: http://sillyseance.com/ Happy gaming. Everywhere that you can find us: https://linktr.ee/wideflank Timestamps: 00:00 - Opening 01:10 - Neon White background 02:00 - How the game feels and the mechanics 03:34 - How it makes you feel ...

Another classic that really held up. Released in 1995 for the SNES, Chrono Trigger continues to top “Best Of” video game lists. None of us had played it, so we played it! The combat sort of sucked but there was so much that made up for that. It looked great, the world was compelling, some weird good NPC dialogue and a soundtrack that rocked. Next Gameclub is Portal + Portal 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/620/Portal_2/ Two months from now we are doing Hades, so start whenever is...

Play the game, then come back and listen to this podcast. How to talk about one of the more peculiar games of the last decade… Inscryption is a lot and it’s hard to describe it without spoiling it. It’s a deck-builder, it’s an escape room, it’s a roller coaster of a roguelike (sort of). You can approximate this game’s vibe by combining the strategy of Slay the Spire, the wonder of Myst, the adventure of Jumanji, and the weirdness of Adaptation. Perhaps it’s best to say Inscryption could...

This is the story of a man, John-117, the Master Chief. This is the story of America. Of Bungie. This is the story of developer crunch, of sleeping in the office, of grandiose expectations, and of delivering on them (albeit imperfectly). The name itself “Halo: Combat Evolved” is a corporate compromise between Bungie artists and Microsoft marketing shills. This is the story of multiplayer so good that it made mothers across America weep. It’s the story of staying up all night at your...

For this gameclub the Wide Flank gang played “Prey” (2017). The Typhon have broken containment and are running amok on the space station Talos 1. But this is an immersive sim so as much as it is your job to blast these aliens to bits, you also need to read a lot of emails between HR and disgruntled office workers. The game is a little messy, but that's kind of the point. Unfortunately Prey doesn’t communicate the broadness or possibility of its systems early on so your mileage may vary....

This month the gang played Mega Man X. Was it good? Yes. Could it have been better? Yes. It's a blast from the past with a killer soundtrack and a half-assed attempt at a Blade Runner plot line. What's not to love? How about enemies respawning immediately after killing them just because the camera moved. We spend a lot of time comparing MMX to other games trying to pinpoint what about the mechanics feel so good. We also try to nail down what makes boss fights fun -- if they are ever...

This month, Aleah, Teddy and Danny discussed Dune Part 1. There's a lot to like about this film and a lot to look forward to in Part 2, but it definitely has its missteps. As readers of the book, we definitely felt that Denis did a great job visualizing Frank Herbert's novel. Next game for Gameclub is Mega Man X. Happy gaming.  Everywhere that you can find Wide Flank: https://linktr.ee/wideflank

The Last of Us. Yep, we decided to play it one more time (or in Alon’s case, the first time). Teddy and Danny have played this many times since its release, and to no one's surprise, still loved it. It’s a game that gets its storytelling so right. The voice acting is 2nd to none. The plot is familiar, and even has its fair share of tropes, but its characters are so well developed that we didn’t mind. The level traversing and combat leaves something to be desired, but hey, nobody is...

Before Wide Flank, there was a podcast called Zero One Why. It was a show where Teddy, Danny and Aleah reviewed movies and gave them a One (watch it) or a Zero (don’t watch it) and talked about why. We reunited to review and react to Bo Burnham’s Netflix special “Inside”. We had an amazing time recording together again and did our best to add some unique takes on the widely lauded and over-reviewed comedy special. Zero One Why is making a return on the Wide Flank channel. Expect to see one...

For this month’s Gameclub, Alon, Danny and Teddy talk about Metal Gear Solid (1998). This was our hardest episode yet. What can you add to the pile of think pieces and criticism of one of the most beloved games of a generation? We do our best to use terms like postmodern and the 4th wall to describe our experience but not sure if we say them correctly. There are some misses here: Why is it in 3D? Why can’t you aim in first person? But some of its flaws are its greatest strength, like why...