This edition of “The GameCola Podcast” features Michael Gray, Nathaniel Hoover, Zach Rich, Elizabeth Medina-Gray, and Paul Franzen. It is made up of four segments:
Intro: Michael sings “A Whole New World” (0:00 – 1:30)
Segment One: Versus Mode (1:30 – 10:08)
- It’s April 22, so Happy Birthday GameCola!
- GameCola no longer does Best of Year issues because nobody read them.
- The podcasters attempt to kill all their listeners by singing the world’s worst rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
- Can couples share a gaming system? Apparently, yes.
- Videogame sales were down, compared to March/April of last year, but that’s probably because no big games have come out.
- Peggle has been added to World of Warcraft. Now we shall never see Paul again.
- Props to Christian Porter for his comments about 2D and 3D gaming in question 3 of Versus Mode last month.
Segment Two: Speedrunning (10:50 to 18:16)
- Visit the Speed Demos Archive.
- Did Metroid invent speedrunning?
- Paul and Zach don’t do speedruns.
- Nathaniel and his friends do speedrunning competitions sometimes.
- Michael speedruns Nancy Drew games sometimes.
- Do speedrunners watch someone else’s speedrun when plotting their own run? Yes.
- We then do things speedrunning-style and go completely out of order by discussing how Michael is playing Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time here, instead of in Segment Four.
Segment Three: Phoenix Wright: Case #2 (18:37 – 33:13)
- Phoenix and Maya are partners, but not partners in time.
- Reusing the same puzzle multiple times in a game? Paul and Lizo say “no.”
- Is it OK to kill an important character at the start of a game?
- Michael gives the official explanation for the major character’s death: the developers thought three characters in the Fey & Co. Law Offices was one too many.
- Paul argues that Mia wants Phoenix and Maya to get together, while Michael argues that Mia wants to be with Phoenix.
- We get into the weird territory of dating someone who’s dead.
- Who is Mia’s type? Edgeworth? Gumshoe? Godot? Or is it Nathaniel Hoover?
- How do you interpret Mia’s phone conversation with Maya?
Segment Four: New Game Releases/What We’re Playing Now (33:42 to 54:15)
- Zach is happy that Virtual On is being released for the Xbox Live Arcade.
- Zach explains what Stop ‘N’ Swop is, and how it works in Banjo-Tooie.
- Fallout 3 DLC is coming out, so Paul will be playing Fallout 3 again.
- Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!…no longer featuring Mike Tyson.
- Lego Rock Band plays “She’s a Brick House.”
- We discuss IGN’s list of overrated videogame characters.
- Excuuuse me, Princess!
- Nathaniel is playing Final Fantasy VIII and Sam and Max: Season One.
- Lizo is too busy with schoolwork to play the second .hack game.
- Zach is playing Wave Race 64, Fallout 3, Super Mario World and Super Metroid.
- Paul is playing Quest 64 and the second .hack game.
- Bosses should not be able to heal themselves.
