Pod 'em Up! - The Video Game "Book Club" Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

We're celebrating our 64th episode with not one, not two, but THREE (count 'em) games in this bumper edition of the book club this month, across the Commodore 64 and Nintendo 64 systems!

Mayhem in Monsterland reveals what the C64 is truly capable of, and Spacestation Silicon Valley provides some great puzzles and silliness. 1985's quaint British platformer Monty on the Run, however, brings us the highlight of the show, in which Tibbs attempts to explain to Ollie what's so great about the game's Game Over screen.

As if that weren't enough, Sega is as inconsistent as ever this episode, as we praise Sonic X Shadow Generations, but bemoan their upcoming, and unexplained Steam delistings. We also ponder Nintendo's plans for backwards compatibility in the next gen, and smell something fishy about that SuperSega FPGA console..

Plus, look out for Vampire Survivors, Buckshot Roulette, and we discover some weird WWE crossovers and tie-ins!

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We're pointing and clicking once again this month, this time with Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror, for PS1 and PC!

Plus, we discuss the ridiculous price tag of the PS5 Pro, the Plucky Squire, Rugrats, wrestling, tabletop dishwashing and slippery knives!

Incoming Indie:

Fading Skies - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/distantbluegames/fading-skies

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Baba is who? That's what we intend to find out, as we cover this 2019 indie puzzler for PC and Switch that lets you rewrite the game's rules in order to solve its fiendish puzzles!

Not content with one book club pick, Tibbs basically brings another one along with him as he packs in a full blown review of the game that completely out-Pokemons Pokemon - It's Cassette Beasts! Plus, an arcade/laundrette/toilet management game, and Ollie shares some holiday gaming books.

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Hair-whipping half-genie half-belly-dancer, Shantae arrives in the book club this month, as we play the very first game in her series of popular 2D metroidvania platformers for the Game Boy Color! Our impressions of this indie darling may surprise you!

Plus we look back on last month's slew of game announcements, despite E3's absence, and offer thoughts on Sonic Superstars, Mario Wonder and Metal Gear Solid Master Collection. Plus Switch 2 speculations, more tales from Tears of the Kingdom, and for some reason, lots of elephant chat!

Incoming Indie:

Viewfinder: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1382070/Viewfinder/

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This time we're tackling a thoughtful and narrative-driven puzzle platformer, Sephonie, for PC. Also up for debate is the new Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - in which a big portion of the discussion focuses in on the important matter of why Link keeps starting adventures in his pants. Plus: Bad times for Tibbs, Into the Breach, a lovely new Incoming Indie platformer, and probably the most uninteresting news section we've ever delivered.

Incoming Indie: Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chibig/koa-and-the-five-pirates-of-mara-endless-summer-adventure?ref=9e461e&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjryjBhD0ARIsAMLvnF-xuuI_3SgtIt-pTWetNcP3HqACuX_wKbqE-EvnydfhAJV3sXfL238aAl1OEALw_wcB

Yoppi's video essay on Sephonie:

https://youtu.be/Dbb58plahdo

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We've got a guest this month! "Pod 'em Up superfan" (that's what we call him anyway) Rik comes along for a chat, and brings to the book club the convolutedly-named "Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness". An episodic series for XBLA, PSN and PC, though we mainly cover episode 1 here.

Plus we've got other matters to discuss too, like E3's cancellation, Sega's surprise April Fools day game, "The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog", Super Kiwi 64, Plague Inc Evolved and the Mario movie. Plus, we have opinions about the Resident Evil 4 remake, and we won't let the fact that none of us have played it stand in our way!

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We're back, with a brand new logo and a bullseye of an episode for you this month! (cockney rhyming slang for fifty, innit?) Featuring pride of place is a book club double whammy, in which we play two games that are sequels to titles we've already covered on the show before!

We understand the concept of Jet Set Radio Future on the Original Xbox and discuss whether it surpasses its stylish predecessor, but not before coming to some surprising conclusions about the ambitious but forgotten OverBlood 2 for PS1 (aka "we've got Final Fantasy VII at home").

Plus, as it's our fiftieth (and you didn't even bother to get us a cake), we'll just celebrate by ourselves by putting Tibbs' knowledge of his own podcast to the test, in a surprise quiz! If that's not enough, there's also the wizarding school game that must not be named, the continuing misfortunes of the Wii U, and a load of other stuff. FREE STEAM KEYS INSIDE!!1

The video that completely changed our minds about OverBlood 2, by TheGamingBritShow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq8fpuFSXWY&t=1799s

And also, a superb OverBlood 2 unofficial-but-official-sounding website: https://overblood2.com/

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It's high time for some Saturn love on the podcast, and what better way to do that than to play Sonic Team's futuristic fire fighting action game, Burning Rangers! One of the final great games for Sega's oft-overlooked machine.

Alongside that, we've got thoughts about Sports Story, X-COM, GoldenEye and of course the PS3 game that everyone in 2023 is talking about - 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. Plus, there's much preparation for next month's 50th episode sequels special, and we dust off our email inbox at last!

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It's the hardly-at-all-Christmassy Christmas Special of Pod 'em Up! We assess the self-destructive habits of unlikely 3D platforming hero Voodoo Vince, from the original Xbox (now also on PC and Xbox One), plus we review Sonic Frontiers and Ollie ruins the Pod 'em Up awards with his terrible vote counting abilities! But at least you finally get to find out which of our great book club games this year earned our coveted annual prize!

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This month, we're going on about Skyblazer - never heard of it? Good, sit yourself down and find out if we recommend this infrequently-discussed SNES platformer!

Plus, there's much talk about Grapple Dog and the recent Mortal Kombat games, we offer our impressions on the Mario movie trailer after verbally dancing on the grave of Google Stadia, and Tibbs suffers some serious open wallet surgery after a major new purchase that takes us all by surprise!

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Incoming Indie: Aero GPX (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aaronmac64/aero-gpx)