Watch Out For Fireballs!

Gather 'round the stage birthday boys and girls! It's time for a special episode about what for some will be a fond childhood memory, and for others will be a resounding horror: Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza. A product of the arcade boom in the late 70s, these combination pizza parlor / arcade / entertainment centers were a place where childhood could be embraced. We look at the history of the dueling companies, clown on the characters, and share our own memories of the place.

Thank you Randall! Check out Crashcoral.com! (pw: crashcoral). Oh, a cult simulator/management game with heavy lovecraftian elements, striking minimalist art, and a roguelike structure. Did someone leave this under a box with a stick tied to a string, trying to trap both Gary and Kole? Not so fast. The Shrouded Isle has some potential and some genuinely good aesthetics, but the game is so barebones and numbers based as to pose an existential question: how much flavor, depth, and context do games actually need to be successful?

This week we talk about a new spectrum on which we can analyze games: is it prescriptive, or is it permissive? Does it force you to conform to its demands, or does it say "yes" to the way you try to meet its challenges? This has been bubbling up for a while, and it was satisfying to talk about it. We also answer your questions and read your responses to March's games.

TEENS! TEENS! TEENS! No, it's not some sort of horrible chant, it's what we're killin. Hop in. Until Dawn showed how you can take steady principles of narrative adventure games such as The Walking Dead, or, shudder, Indigo Prophecy, and evolve them into something new and fun on its own. Very fun performances, a twisty plot, and appropriate interactivity make this one of, if not the, best "interactive movie" in games. Give it a listen! Thank you to Dr. When!

Quest Questingson conquers all of the continents of Continentia in this foundational strategy game. The king's sceptre has gone missing, and as a result both he and the kingdom itself are falling into ruin. It's up to you to track down all of the villains who conspired to steal the sceptre, recover the artifact itself, and save the day. This is a very basic strategy game, which is reflective of the time that it came out, but there are charms to its gameplay loop, and you can't help but smile at all of the Monster Dance Parties you destroy.

Nintendo is a company that is sometimes too in love with it's own history. But sometimes, that love bears beautiful results. This creative lil nugget functions as a reader's digest version of some of the best games on the NES, as well as a fun meta toy, where elements are mixed and matched. Underrated gem!

You wake up in a cabin and you're playing a dangerous game. Sacrifices must be made. And the only way forward is to play your cards right. That's about all we can say about Inscryption, an ambitious and wide-ranging card game by Daniel Mullins, the creator of Pony Island. If we gave too much detail right now we would spoil it, which we don't want to do, since it's a great introduction to deck building games, even if there are some... inconsistencies.

We answer your questions, discuss GOTY discourse, read your responses to February's games and announce April's docket.

The world's gone to shit, and the only way to stay alive is to work together. You start State of Decay playing a man named Marcus, but very quickly you gain access to a whole settlement full of simulated survivors, and are given the goal of building and stocking a home by breaking, entering, and scavenging... all while fighting off hordes of the undead. The management sim elements are a little too light, and the story is rushed and unfinished, but this is still the consummate B-game and we recommend you give it a shot. This is a preview of the full episode. To hear the rest, just back us at our Patreon (http://patreon.com/duckfeedtv). You get access to all of the other premium episodes, plus a whole bunch of other shows too!

Thanks Abe! Is it metal? It's metal. It's undeniably badass in a way that is extremely appealing to our skeleton loving souls. The game itself is a pretty frustrating and dated RTS but our eyes are open to the coolness of the Warhammer world.

This game reminds me of a puzzle. About 120 of them, to be exact. You could be forgiven for thinking that Professor Layton existed before his debut game on the Nintendo DS. The whole series has such a strong aesthetic and vibe that it feels like a European cartoon that you just never heard about. But no, this was created whole cloth as a way to adapt a series of Japanese brain teaser books into video game form. While the story beats are ludicrous, and not all of the puzzles work, it's hard to be entirely mad at this quaint and amusing DS game. Thanks to William for executive producing this episode!

Are games too long? 500 hours? What does that mean, Dying Light 2? Also, we answer your questions and read your responses to January's games before announcing February's CROP.

Charles Reed enters a waking nightmare to try and end his sleeping nightmares. That's the opening of The Sinking City, an open world detective game by Frogwares, the Sherlock Holmes people. However, this has a distinctly horrific flavor, pulling in gods and elements of the Cthulhu Mythos. But while the story and mystery are good, does the repetitive and simplistic play support it? A huge thanks to Johnathan for sponsoring this episode!

Thank you Ryan! Appealing to young horny gamers everywhere by putting a demon in your head that offers to suck you off if you do her evil bidding: Not that far off from the actual plot of DMoMM. Isn't that wild? This jank fest from one of our all time favorite developers is certainly a weird one, but there's charm in them thar hills. And good kicks.

We start the new year with an old classic, covering Super Mario Bros. 3. This was Nintendo's biggest effort on the NES, and it deserves its reputation. This episode concerns itself with comparing and contrasting Mario 3 with the rest of the series, talking about the things it introduces, and hitting the design principles of each of the game's eight worlds.

Questions get answers, responses get read, games get announced, and Duckstream gets discussed.

This week's premium episode takes us to the biggest DLC pack for Fallout 4, Far Harbor. A missing person's case brings us to an island torn in three pieces, split among factions who can barely tolerate each other, with a buried secret that might bring the whole place tumbling down. This DLC is the best story content in Fallout 4 by far, and it's go a great horror atmosphere that we couldn't wait to talk about.

It's all over but the crying. And the DLC. And the DLC next week. We continue our way through the side quests of the wastes before visiting the first couple of story dlcs for this massive game.

This week, we finish talking about the main quest of Fallout 4 and talk about the various faction side quests. Next week we'll get in-depth on the rest of the side quests and start talking a bit about the DLC.

Why does the sun go on shining? Why does the sea rush to shore? Don't they know it's the end of the world because you don't love me anymore? We begin our discussion of Fallout 4 with beefy generalities and discussion of the first act of the game. Fallout 4 is a big beautiful mess that's simultaneously a bad Fallout game and the best Bethesda game. On the balance, we're more into how its crafting, exploration, and settlement management systems tie together than we're turned off by a truly dogshit character build and dialogue system. Join us, as we make our case.