Watch Out For Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about the final portion of Metal Gear Solid 2. Or do they?

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross do a postmodern postmortem on the first portion of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Metal Gear Solid 2 is a game that's been talked to death, but we try our best to bring our own perspective and approach to it. It's a sequel that Kojima never wanted to make. It's full of curveballs and "fuck you"s aimed at series fans. It has lots of ideas that are shockingly prescient. But, most of all, it's got some play issues that haven't aged super well. This episode covers up through the encounter with Fat Man on the Big Shell. Special thanks to Zachary Deane, this episode's executive producer.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Nox.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross chase their orbs into the world of Nox. It was marketed as EA's answer to Diablo, but it's categorically different. It introduces itself as a goofy and irreverent take on fantasy fiction, but then it plays it straight. After all of the feints, what you end up with is a profoundly strange action RPG. Big thanks to Garrett for executive producing this episode!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to SSX Tricky.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross flip out about SSX Tricky. This episode is our recital: to talk about to talk about how important SSX Tricky is in the pantheon of extreme sports games. For their second outing, EA Sports BIG totally nailed the combination of racing systems and trick systems, creating a game that is satisfyingly fast and technical. But lest you think this will be a 100% glowing episode, we have some very harsh words for the terrible cast of characters.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Yakuza.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross kick and punch their way through Yakuza. Here it is, the winner of our Open World Game Poll. Except, it's a very different kind of open world game. Yakuza picks up where Shenmue left off, but does everything a lot better... especially the story, which follows ex-enforcer Kazuma Kiryu as he tries to get to the bottom of what insidious actors are using the Yakuza for malicious gains.

Live from the Midwest Gaming Classic, Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about Nintendo's little-loved Pilotwings series. Afterwards, we talk about our experience at the convention.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Crimson Shroud.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross chance upon Crimson Shroud. Yasumi Matsuno is responsible for some amazing games, Final Fantasy Tactics chief among them. One of his lesser-known projects is Crimson Shroud, a JRPG released for the 3DS as a part of a collection of smaller games. While it's soaked in Matsuno's style, Crimson Shroud is truly special because it emulates the trappings of tabletop games, right down to simulating dice rolls. But does it stick the landing?

Hi there, we have some news for you about the future of Watch Out for Fireballs! and Bonfireside Chat. We think it’s pretty exciting. The short version of it is that Bonfireside Chat is ending in August, and will be replaced with more frequent episodes of Watch Out for Fireballs!. The long version can be found below. We’ve got a lot of stuff to talk about, and we want to hear what you think. So we’ve set up a survey to gather your input. And we’re giving away three (3) $20 Steam gift cards to some randomly drawn people from the respondents. Please read everything here before you complete the survey, if you could. Here’s a link to the survey: https://duckfeed.typeform.com/to/LDPTnY Table of Contents Bonfireside Chat is Ending How is Bonfireside Chat going to end? What’s Replacing Bonfireside Chat? Watch Out for Fireballs! is Going Weekly WOFF! Will Change Schedules in August What’s Happening to the Crystal Chronicles? What’s Happening to Other Shows on the Network? How is the Patreon Changing? Early Release is

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Super Princess Peach, along with a smattering of listener questions and prompts.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross feel their way through Super Princess Peach. After two decades of being rescued, everyone's favorite princess finally gets a star turn as the hero. Super Princess Peach is an incredibly easy game with some (ahem) problematic elements. But the saccharine trappings hide a mechanically complex game that tries and fails to be a followup to Yoshi's Island.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Dead Space.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross stomp through Dead Space. Resident Evil 4 changed games forever. Especially horror games. Pretty soon it wasn't acceptable for a scary game to sacrifice mechanical sophistication for atmosphere. While the world waited for Resident Evil 5, which would carry the idea further, EA came through with Dead Space. The world and story are science fiction cliches, but the aiming based gameplay loop is incredibly satisfying. But does it hold together enough to make re-entry? Listen to find out.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Tomb Raider.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross rise to talk about Tomb Raider (1996). For as important as Tomb Raider and Lara Croft are to the history of games, it's surprising it's taken us this long to cover her debut. So we extend our thanks to Allison Baker for getting us off of our asses to talk about this bizarre early evolution in 3D platforming and cinematic play. It's a game that's very much of its era. It's way too long, it becomes downright hateful in its last act, and not everything is there, but over all the game lives up to its reputation.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your fond memories of Nintendo Power and other video game magazines.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross thumb through the history of Nintendo Power, and visit some other game magazines along the way. Every year we choose a special topic for a special episode, and we've wanted to cover this year's topic for a while: Nintendo Power. While this magazine was specific to America, most major regions had their own version of an official Nintendo sponsored publication. This episode takes a look at the history of the magazine, talks about the usual contents, and reflects on video game magazines as a whole. Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll that determined the topic of this episode. We really appreciate it!