This week, a calmer episode as we ramp up to our holiday episode next week.
Alex and Casey start the episode themselves because SOMEONE didn’t receive a critical text message, so they talk a bit about late night TV and the new Pokemon TCG Pocket expansion. Perry joins so we talk a bit more about ANTONBLAST, a cool Wario Land 4/Crash Bandicoot/Donkey Kong/Yoshi(?)-style platformer we introduced last week. Finally, Casey glows on Silent Hill 2.
Listener mail and presents next week baybeeeeeee!!!
This week, no Casey but have no fear, Alex and Perry are here! We talk about all sorts of stuff, like Pokemon cards, non-Pokemon cards, Mario & Luigi Brothership, Antonblast, Princess Peach: Showtime!, Psychonauts 2, and more! No, that's probably really about it. Fun lil show though, hope you enjoy. Send us some mail!
I don't know, it's a video game podcast. Take it or leave it!
We got a brisk-yet-packed episode for you this week. On the early part of the show we go over some of what we've been playing, including Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Tetris Forever, River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next, and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. Then we got some listener mail. What about a Donkey Kong game made by the 3D Mario team?
Happy Turkey Day, ya turkeyheads! Chill show this week, hang out awhile.
After some intro chat about Pokemon cards and Alex/Casey’s spiral into madness, Perry pulls us back in with a new game show based on Match Game: The Game of Matching! Thanks to all the listeners who helped out!
We got some listener mail reading coming up post-haste, so send some emails, won’t ya?
It’s a big week here in the states (new Mario & Luigi game) so we’re clearing the way for action command goodness by going through the backlog of games we’ve been playing.
At the front of the show, Alex and Casey sank a good amount of time into Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket, a new collecting/battling app that is actually super fun. Then we go into Slay the Princess, a visual novel with an interesting premise that blurs the line between horror, drama, and metacommentary. Perry then has a trio of neat/weird classic platformers, Aero the Acro-Bat, Aero the Acro-Bat 2 and Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel. Finally, Alex offers his thoughts on the Switch version of Sonic X Shadow Generations. Great game, decent port!
Hey, c’mere. We’re doing a big listener mail segment next week so send us your dang emails!!!
We will trade you ONE (1) discussion of a Smurfs video game, but in exchange you have to be okay with Casey ditching us this week. That's right, folks. Alex and Perry are in the house to talk about the hottest news in gaming, only on KTNP!
After a discussion about nostalgia, we have some impressions of The Smurfs - Dreams, a pretty good 3D World-style platformer that's got some kick to it! We then talk a bit about Crow Country and dip into an interview with developer SFB Games. Thanks to them for joining us BTW -- that Crow Country game is a real good pick for the spooky season! Lastly, Alex got a PlayStation Portal and he really likes it. Anyway, good stuff! We'll be doing our Radio Trivia collab next week.
Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town marks the third spiritual successor to the Boku no Natsuyasumi series, a PlayStation-published adventure game franchise in which a child spends their summer vacation in the rural Japanese countryside. Millennium Kitchen, a co-developer on Shiro and the Coal Town (with h.a.n.d.), also developed the Boku no Natsuyasumi series. Furthermore, it co-developed both of BnN's other recent successors, Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation and Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid. As someone who has played all three of Millennium Kitchen’s most recent releases, I’m pleased to report that its latest is the best of the lot.
Structurally, Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town will be most familiar to those who have played the other Shin chan adventure game published in the West in 2022. Like Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation, five-year-old Shinnosuke Nohara joins his family on a summer vacation to a remote Japanese village – in this case Akita. You then catch bugs, fish, complete fetch quests for the quirky, silly members of the village, and explore a gorgeously drawn countryside while progressing a primary storyline. It’s chill vibe, low stakes third-person adventure gaming at its finest.
On your third day in Akita, your dog Shiro brings you a magical rock that allows you to, almost like a Studio Ghibli movie, take a trolley to the far off land of Coal Town. Coal Town is an entire second area to explore, a dreamy town that appears to be in permanent golden hour. The town, which has its own cast of charming characters, is in dire economic and environmental straits. It’s up to you, a goofy five-year old boy, to save it.
Like its predecessor you navigate the game in a way that feels like a cross between the original Resident Evil and the original Animal Crossing. You have a fixed camera as you run around in third person, and the game’s maps are broken down into segments based on camera angle. When you move to different areas of the map, the game’s day-night cycle is ticked forward. This means that you technically have a limited amount of time to do what you need to do – each day takes about 10-20 minutes – but there’s no calendar or time crunch, though, so Shiro and the Coal Town has a structure much more akin to a traditional story-based adventure game.
Each of the two towns has its own storyline, characters, activities, and community needs, and as such you divide your time between the two to move the overarching narrative forward. This amounts to deciding when you want to dedicate time to material gathering (like minerals, plants, bugs and fish), when you want to do whatever the next main story beat is, and when you want to pursue various sidequests. To be clear, it, like its predecessor, operates primarily in a fetch quest structure. You’re almost always getting something to give to someone.
Although this threatens to get tedious the way its predecessor was at times, the game’s relaxed pacing, top-notch slice-of-life narrative, and second location to explore provides plenty of welcome momentum.
I was particularly fond of the mine cart races, a new mode introduced about halfway through the story that allows you to compete against CPUs on Mario Kart-esque courses for additional materials. The objective is to earn more points than your opponent by picking up gems on winding, curving tracks while regulating your speed based on when you know a sharp turn is coming up. There’s also a light customization piece where you can outfit your cart with new armor, rockets, a drill, and more. Simple-yet-addicting, the mode is a blast and a standout highlight of the experience.
As you would hope from a slice-of-life adventure game, the audiovisual experience is decadent. Cel-shaded characters are animated beautifully, and whether you’re running through Akita’s rice paddies or looking at tchotchkes outside Coal Town’s general store, there’s an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia that makes it clear these Millennium Kitchen adventure games are stylistically in a league of their own. The soundscape is similarly understated but perfect.
I think what impresses me most is how much heavy lifting this art is able to do. On a mechanical level, Shiro and the Coal Town is an adventure game where you run on linear paths through fixed camera angles and complete fetch quest after fetch quest. But the visuals, audio and writing are so charming that I found myself getting a little emotional as I looked back on my own childhood and forward to when my son is Shinnosuke’s age a few years from now and we can go on our own family summer vacations. It’s a game that does a lot with a little, if that makes sense.
I have two small-to-medium complaints. The first is that, as I hinted to earlier, the simplicity of the game means things sometimes get a little repetitive and tedious in rare moments. It’s not too bad, but it happens.
The second is a bit more complicated, and not exactly Shiro and the Coal Town’s fault. In the last couple years (at least in the West), we got three very similar adventure games co-developed by Millennium Kitchen where you’re doing many of the same kinds of activities. Yes, even with Natsu-Mon’s Breath of the Wild-lite exploration. Although this latest release is my favorite of the lot, I feel Millennium Kitchen and its development partners need to change things slightly more radically for future releases. For example, more fun action elements like the mine cart mode would be greatly appreciated.
But let me be clear: Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is a great experience that has me fully invested in Millennium Kitchen’s flavor of adventure games. Between a well told slice-of-life narrative, an improved structure, a super fun minecart racing mode and some really pretty art, this is a top tier adventure game for anyone hungry for some weapons-grade nostalgia.
Hey, we're back! Guess what we don't have? New games to talk about! Guess what we do have? News and Listener Mail!!!!!!!!!
We start out with a batch of stories regarding the Game Freak data breach, Alarmo, and Nintendo's mysterious playtest. After that, a beeeeeeeg batch of listener mails about stress relief games, pizza toppings, Switch 2, Steam Deck, and more. Also, hey, thanks to Luke AKA "the kitten caboodle" AKA Lemonade for providing listener mail AND this week's stinger! What a king!
Y’all said you liked the messy episodes, so we got you a messy episode where we mostly just shoot the hey. I’m not even sure we’re going to attempt detailed timestamps on Spotify this week. What did we even talk about again?
Casey is back this week and so we start out with him trying to guess the Mystery History game from last week. Then he does about 14 minutes of “quick” bites RE: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance and the Diablo IV expansion.
Sorry, I don’t know why I’m so sassy this week. I (Alex) don’t really have a right to be sassy since after Perry talked about his experience beating the impending platformer (that he worked on) Hatch Tales, I began an impromptu segment where we read Wikipedia and reported on our most anticipated game releases still to come in 2024. Only after that point did I take a moment to discuss Kill Knight, a sick new twin-stick shooter that is really dang good. Check it out!
Down a Casey and up a baby, Alex and Perry convene to talk The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, plus we got us a Mystery History and an interview with our buddy Lockjaw (AKA Wes Welch) for his new book MetaGamers: Origins -- a neat lil novel about video games! You can check his book out here.
Hey guys and gals, it's time for a new Zelda game!
Through unrelated circumstances we ended up recording on Thursday, and as such we have 20-30 minutes of *very* positive first impressions of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (outside of Casey who will NEVER buy it#). We also have impressions of Castlevania Dominus Collection, Iron Meat, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, Luigi's Mansion 3, and maybe more???
We also may have snuck an extra segment in the stinger this week, but the stinger is supposed to be secret so don't say we told you anything, ya gibblethead!!!
We got the whole crew this week, which can only mean two things: deep sea diving and visual novels made by the developer of Steins;Gate!
The Talk Nintendo Podcast has heard your pleas, and we are happy to provide you a podcast in which we discuss such topics as “going to Dave & Busters by yourself” and “ignoring your friends’ pleas to go on vacation together.” On the game front, we have Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, a really interesting release from Nintendo that Alex was head over heels for. We also talk about cool sci-fi visual novel Anonymous;Code (which, like Steins;Gate, is part of MAGES’s Science Adventure series); gorgeous precision platformer Bzzzt; and chill vibes adventure game Dave the Diver. Not bad at all!
Balex is off in parts unknown, so you know we had to get a little off the rails. But we get down to some business with Mystery History and Listener Mail!
They localized Mama’s Bakery? And there were two Nintendo Directs? What’s next, raining cats and dogs???
Casey is out this week (finally something believable#) so Alex and Perry convene to discuss the dual Nindie/Partner Nintendo Direct showcase. Between a new Castlevania DS collection, a Tetris Digital Eclipse documentary and Pizza Tower, it seems like Switch fans are eating pretty good!
On the what-we’ve-been-playing front, Alex played the new English localization of BAKERU and checked out 3D shadow-based puzzle platformer SCHiM. Big week for games stylized in ALL CAPS! Perry provides us with some updates on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Luigi’s Mansion 3.
Casey is out doing whatever it is he does when he's not recording this podcast every other week. Leave it to Balex and Perry "The King of Salt Lake City" Burkum to pick up the pieces.
On the agenda: SteamWorld Heist II! The Dreamcast-vibed puzzle platformer Vividlope! Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid! Listener Mail! We end things on an interview with Mattieu Bégin, director and co-founder of video game developer Clever Plays! You can check out their game Operation: Tango on the eShop right here[CASEY HYPERLINK HERE pls].
You want a podcast? Here’s your dang podcast. Put it in your ears or don’t (please do, we need your listen – specifically your listen – to put food on the table *tonight*. Gloop’s gotta eat!).
This week, the boys are back in town for a pretty standard ep with some good games to talk about. Alex has two releases from D3 Publisher this week featuring bug killing (Earth Defense Force 6) and fake mobile ads turned into real minigames (YEAH! YOU WANT "THOSE GAMES," RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET'S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM! 2). Both of them are really good! We also got Steam Deck/Stardew Valley check-ins from Casey and the latest on Perry’s trek through Castlevania: Lords of Shadow/Luigi’s Mansion 3.
We got a pretty standard one for you this week. Not much to say. We did a podcast episode. What else do you want?
This week, Casey got a Steam Deck and played some Hades. Oooweee that's a mighty fine handheld console. On the Steam Deck front, we also get some impressions on Doom Eternal (Casey) and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Perry). More relevant to Nintendo, Alex and Perry both got the new Nintendo World Championships game and their thoughts are...mixed? Softly positive? It's okay!
Here at the Talk Steam Deck Podcast we're talking all things Deck, mainly Casey's acquisition and the recently released Anger Foot. We do find some time to talk about some othe things too, like Listener Mail!
We got a full crew here for the fourth time in seven years, so we might as well have a decent episode, no?
We go into a smattering of topics including the new Devolver Digital game Anger Foot (it plays like a first-person Hotline Miami), Steam Decks new and old, and a bit of Dark Souls III. In the back chunk of the show, we take three listener mails including two extremely old ones. LOL.
Here at the Talk Steam Deck Podcast we're talking all things Deck mainly Casey's acquisition and the recently released Anger Foot. We do find some time to talk about some othe things too, like Listener Mail!https://t.co/IGWUPULJb7pic.twitter.com/s3EQqYgGkB
— Talk Nintendo Podcast (@TalkNintendoPod) July 19, 2024
Casey was running late, but he showed up quickly enough that I honestly don’t need to include this sentence here (just want to twist the knife a bit#). In any case, our agenda this week is pretty mixed. Perry has some thoughts on Metroid: Samus Returns and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD (a distinct entity from Dark Moon), Balex has Fallout 4 and Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition Switch port thoughts (it’s good!), and Casey has a bit of this and that. BTW, send us an email. We are going to try to do Listener Mail next week!
We got a regular crew back, but Alex is getting back from Sick City so we had a pretty laid back hour of convo. The biggest piece was that Alex is loving Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble despite a series of mediocre monkey puzzlers preceding it. Perry then dips out for a bit so Alex and Casey talk about Steam Summer Sale purchases and a bit of whatever else. Perry comes back and we close on...Idris Elba and The Bear? Anyway, see you next week!
Show Posts
but have no fear, Alex and Perry are here! We talk about all sorts of stuff, like Pokemon cards, non-Pokemon cards, Mario & Luigi Brothership, Antonblast, Princess Peach: Showtime!, Psychonauts 2, and more! No, that's probably really about it. Fun lil show though, hope you enjoy. Send us some mail!
