CO-OP 0309 -- Santa Cruzin' -- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, PixelJunk Shooter, Super Meat boy!
matt chandronaitIs December really the best time to be going to the beach in Northern California? No. What kind of idiot would think that’s a good idea? Santa Cruz idiot native Cesar Quintero would, apparently. Although, there was a method to his madness … Special thanks to 8-bit Vintners for providing our delicious beverage beside the fire! More after the show:
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is the best Zelda to come out in some time. Our good friend Kat Bailey came by to talk with Ryan and Fresh about the many ways this adventure is leagues ahead of Phantom Hourglass in both story and gameplay execution.
Ryan, JayFresh, and I all sit around a warm fire, enjoying some wine kindly provided us by 8-bit Vintners and reminisce fondly about playing a game the previous eve in a way that you should only reminisce about something you’ve enjoyed for years. Q-Games and the PixelJunk series just have that effect and PixelJunk Shooter is no exception. If you’re even a little, kinda-sorta into the PixelJunk games, this one is a no-brainer.
Edmund McMillen invited us down to his apartment in Santa Cruz, California to see a super-early version of Super Meat boy!. You never get this kind of early look at games outside of the indie scene and we feel privileged to have had the opportunity. If you’ve never heard of Edmund before, you’re likely to now. Google him and go play one of the ton of free flash games he has up (including the original Meat boy and Time Fcuk), you’ll love ‘em all!
Reader Comments (27)
No love for Left 4 dead 2?
Have you guys played Edmund's Spewer? It uses various liquids, like in pixeljunk shooter but in a weird and disgusting way, trademark edmund right?
Best episode so far. Interesting conversation, good " context skit" and great coverage of Super Meat boy.
@Himanshu ... definitely will be some L4D2 in our episode that we're recording next week (which will be out the following Tuesday). Yes, we're working Christmas week. Hooray for running your own business! ;)
Super Meat Boy and Pixel Junk Shooter look awesome. I agree with all the crew's sentiments: the graphics are amazing in both.
I'd kill for the chance to go to a real arcade, even at the beach in winter in Santa Cruz. At least it's only an hour for what looks like great gaming from yesteryear. Living in the Southeastern U.S., there really isn't too much here unless you travel to Florida or up north. Although it's clear across the country for ya'll, you guys should think about going out to Funspot in New Hampshire, which bills itself as the world's largest arcade. My group is trying to get a road trip planned for next year for my publication. I'd travel for that for real. :)
I'm also really looking forward to the Left 4 Dead 2 discussion. I'm eager to see what Area 5 thinks of it since I'm at home with a L4D1 player.
Lyndsey
This show has made me Super interested in Super Meat Boy. It was that Game Boy level. Straight to my 8 year old heart. Beautiful.
Awesome show Area5!
Super Meat Boy is now under my radar. It's like N+ with Donkey Kong combined together into a super platformer!
Nintendo of course is still rocking the Zelda thing.....
Next week, you got to have a best of 2009 special like all the other websites and you could even have an award ceremony where you can put on your suits and pretend like you're all happy when you give out the award. You could even have a best staff member of Area5 award, I think Jason would win that.....
Super Meat Boy does have great presentation, but I can't get myself to like the game because of it's style of gameplay. First off, I can't bear to play one round again and again (my patience levels are low), and second, the jumping is so precise that one tiny slip could lead to your death. But I love the idea behind the retro levels!
O btw, have a New Year's Bash or something.
Great episode.
Just finished Zelda tonight. Fantastic Zelda game, not "fantastic for a handheld" either.
I really liked the Super Meat Boy coverage, was Edmund too shy to talk on camera with you about it? That would be understandable, but I was hoping to see him in the discussion. I loved the replay feature, reminds me of the Trackmania videos.
Going to a Northern California beach in December looks similar to going to the beach in a Scottish Summer. This eps reminded me of going to the beach in Arbroath to play the latest arcade games at Pleasure Land (should have been taken up on the trades description act) and then eating fish and chips on the harbour.
This year I have bought far more downloadable games and DLC, than retail games. Paying 5 to 10 pounds for a week or two gaming and then moving onto the next thing seems to suit me as I get older and have less spare time. The main exception being RPG’s, which is my drug of choice.
Regards
Al
I'm curious how they flew into the lava in some of the scenes of PixelJunk Shooter. Didn't know that was even possible. Anyone know?
In some stages, you acquire an item called the Inverter Suit which allows the player to move freely in lava; the catch is that water becomes deadly. The gameplay is essentially identical, but reversed. It's often easy to forget you're vulnerable to water in these stages, and I suppose that's the challenge.
Looking forward to watching it at the weekend as always. Have it sitting on the hard drive. Hope the Diggs build up again ok, dropped a bit with the issues over the past few weeks.
How are things going for Area 5 anyway? Hope you guys are doing ok.
Great show as usual guys. Super meat boy looks very interesting. Side note that I dont know if anyone care about but the videos on your page dont show up embedded when using internet explorer. Just thought you should know.
Love to see the indie titles! Thanks for the great show week in, week out!
@Lyndsey Mosley ... It was pretty cool walking into a bona fide Arcade after so many years and to see it have a ton of active (and WORKING) machines. Still, you could tell it's probably seen better days. I hope they can hold out!
@Novato ... Jason doesn't need an award. He already knows he's the best.
@Matthew Klundt ... actually, we did an interview with Edmund, but we didn't have time to get it edited into the piece, I'm sorry to say. Hopefully we'll get to do something more personal once SMB (acronym an accident? I think not!) is fully, 100% live.
@Al ... I find myself enjoying more and more games that I can finish in a single weekend-day, though there are obvious exceptions--RPGs for me, as well. Downloadable games are definitely the best way for you to get bang for your buck in this day and age. Also, I've been to Scotland, I can see how your beaches might not be quite the destination year-round that they are in Southern California ;)
@matseffect ... We're still a noob business so we're straining a bit in our quest for success, but I'm positive on it over all! The EGM stuff is exciting and we're really looking forward to getting cracking on that. We have some other potential opportunities and changes over the course of Q1, as well, which, of course, I can't talk about :)
@John ... I think you might be the only one experiencing that or we would have heard about that before. Can anyone else with IE confirm John's issue?
@Skye ... No, thank YOU for watching!!
Hey guys, just wanted to say that I never would have even heard of Extract without the ad in your video. Normally I'm guilty of skipping through a lot of the ads that get repeated in your episodes, and with the exception of Gamefly (which I already use off and on) none of the services previous advertised were things that would ever be useful to me, so I was kind of surprised to see that pop up. Just wanted to drop a line in case your advertisers were looking. I hope you guys can get enough suitors that I might again in the future be surprised by something relevant to my interests.
I know that sounds probably comes off incredibly shill-y. Normally ads irritate me (No, I'm not going to go buy a new car just because it's fucking Toyotathon), so I felt it was kind of my duty to let you guys know you lead me towards something I never knew I wanted.
@Matt
I can confirm that the video isn't working with IE. I think I'm running IE 7 (using a friend's computer).
I am so pumper for Super Meat Boy. I havent gotten into any indie games in a while, and this one has me stoked. Thanks guys!
Super Meat Boy looks amazing. It's like everything I love about n+ and more. I just hope it's on XBLA or PSN, not just WiiWare.
One of the best episodes :-)
No love for Left 4 Dead 2 guys!?:( Anyways keep up the greatness.
Another great show, as usual. I was hoping to suggest the game League of Legends for a future show. Thoughts?
i think that assassin creed should have co-op but with slipt screen but if one of the other characters complete a mission and lvl up the other one should lvl up to.
I can't believe I missed this episode! Santa Cruz! I miss you!!!
Damn, I want a Planet Fresh Burrito
Was it just me, or was the voice in the Synch commercial a sped-up Ryan?
loved it, dugg it