Podcast notification, your Monday morn' marker
Quiz Master Jonathan, channels legend Sue Barker
Then J's progress through Morta, its children, Returnal
C's racing highs, racing lows, love for bad games eternal
M binds young Isaac, points, clicks and fishes
Then to Jonathan's six, a most wholesome of dishes
Metal Gear, Metal Gear, but not as you know
In the hand, in the pocket, a coloured Gameboy is stowed
'Best handheld game ever!'; tis high praise indeed
To find out more details, listen in, and take heed!
Number 6 (Minty Booth) - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
As sure as day follow night, Minty is here to sing the praises of a JAY ARR PEE…
…wait, what?!
Allow the man with a mint in his eye to extoll the virtues of Metroid Prime's first sequel proper - SURELY the highest ranked FPS on our collective lists?!
If that hasn't got you dribbling enough, activate those salivary glands for the following:
A rogue-like / rogue-lite combo pack of Children of Morta and Returnal!
A PlayStation 2 'buy one get one free' of The Sims and Earth Defense Force's earliest entry Monster Attack!
A wholesome meal for one in the form of thick, creamy thoughts on Pokemon Snap!
A descent into the measureless caverns of Mortal Kombat's multimedia empire!
…and Genshin Impact.
Number 6 (Chris Dow) - Rock Band 3
Did you know that the Rock Band series taught Chris how to play the drums?
Well gosh and darn it is he going to tell you!
Indulge Chris a little of your time to talk up what he describes as 'the crowning jewel in Harmonix's collective oeuvre’!
But of course, OF COURSE, there's more!
After listening to and marvelling at how this week's quiz round breaks Minty and Chris' brains, find out the answers to these questions:
How is Chris getting on in Genshin Impact now that its native PS5 app has launched?
Has Jonathan ascended to a higher plain given he's finally beaten The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth+ 100%?
Why doesn't Minty care about the illustrious return of Todd Snappington-Snapsworth in Pokemon Snap?
Is Chris going to become a famous EDM producer using only the Korg Gadget on the Switch?
Which pun-heavy, fruit and veg themed Zelda-a-like has Jonathan stomped through?
Will playing The Sims co-operatively on the PlayStation 2 lead to the end of Chris' relationship?
How did Jonathan find the time to session Giant Squid's The Pathless and Abzu in a single day?
How have Minty and Mrs Minty enjoyed Nairi: Tower of Shirin on the Switch?
But of course, OF COURSE, OF-BLOODY-COURSE there's even more - why not have a listen, eh?!
Bonus Level - Sequel Spectacular!
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What's better than a juicy sandwich? A second, even juicier sandwich, of course!
But wait, what if the second sandwich was dry, lacked filling, or was assembled without the care you'd come to expect from your sandwich artiste of choice?!
*heartbreak*
How about taking the very concept of the juicy sandwich and extending it to a new sandwich two point oh the artisan bread stuffers had yet to even envisage?!!
Join the usual Our Three Cents trio, as well as special guests Alex Miller and Will Thrasher from the Sequelcast 2 and Friends podcast to shift this stupid sandwich metaphor to video games!!
Number 7 (Jonathan Dunn) - Pokémon Gold
Jonathan Dunn is here to celebrate the 'A' game of the Pokémon Gold and Silver duology by way of Beowulf inspired progressive rock, a stuffed drawer of Eevee plushes and… the Backstreet Boys!
BUT NOT BEFORE a scintillating synonym heavy round of the quiz, Jonathan's weekly Isaac update, and thoughts from the gang on games as disparate as Toree 3D, the ageless Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Chinese-made free-to-play monolith Genshin Impact!
Poo jokes, discussions on random number generation, the Sega Saturn's Athlete Kings chucked through a thesaurus, and loads of other FLUFF that you WILL not get anywhere else!
Guaranteed!
Number 7 (Minty Booth) - Super Mario Bros. 3
Oh my golly, and oh my gosh!
Minty veers violently from his role-playing bread and butter to celebrate the platforming purity of Super Mario Bros. 3 as his 7th favourite video game of all time!
But before any of Minty's childhood memories of the mustachioed, there's another nail biting round of the revised quiz, and thoughts on a whole bunch of bona fide gamey games that our trio has played using their fingers, hearts and minds!
In unnecessarily alphabetical order:
Balan Wonderworld: THE DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF AVERAGE
The Binding of Issac: NEVER-ENDING
Bravely Default II: BESTED
Cadence of Hyrule: A RHYTHMIC CONFUSION
The Outer Worlds: ELEGANTLY RESOLVED
Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy: GOING BACK TO THE SHOP
Spider-Man Remastered: ASTONISHINGLY POLISHED
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Remastered: CAN'T STOP, GOT TO POP
Games.
Number 7 (Chris Dow) - Super Mario 64
After a ludicrous 50/50 score draw in the quiz, we enter QUIZ TWO POINT OH with a revised format!!
Then, onto the games…
Chris plays his shiny new PlayStation 5, and has many, many thoughts on the console he loves, yet describes as being 'very much a product that has had its final QA pass during a global pandemic’!
Jonathan hits an insane 'hours played' milestone in The Binding of Isaac, a game he just cannot quit, and then blows off some steam with the bloody duology of Super Blood Hockey and Serial Cleaner!
Minty continues the now stalwart Booth pairing of Bravely Default II with its layered bluff endings, as well as grinding away at Isaac to prepare for Repentance's potentially wobbly Switch port!
Dinner for today's spread? Super Mario 64!
Allow Chris twenty minutes of your time to try his best to say something new about a game our trio have already collectively talked about for about 100 hours since this show began. Pawn-shops! Nesting dolls! Bubsy 3D! Silly voices!
Games are so bloody good!!
Bonus Level - Feeding the Fire
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Blue Fire is a fantastic debut indie that melds intense, freeform platforming action with a Legend of Zelda-come-Dark Souls structure and aesthetic.
Robi Studios is the Argentinian team behind this little cracker, and Gabriel Rosa, the director of the project, was kind enough to spend some time talking with us about the game's design, development and surrounding post-release community!
Find out how Rosa and team were inspired to make what would become the extremely well received Blue Fire; the games which did and didn't feed into their original design specification; and their desire to use their games to 'improve the lives' of their players!
Also, hear Minty and Chris give their thoughts on a title that Jonathan has already gone on record as calling 'a very good game’!
Number 8 (Jonathan Dunn) - Golden Sun
It’s only another ruddy Monday and we’re at the end of an octagonal triptych - it’s the last eighth-favourite-video-game-of-all-time from us three cents!
But before we do that - the Our Three Cents Quiz spectacular reaches the finish line - who will carry the baton over it? Will either of them? Will both of them?! What will we quiz upon now?! Gosh darn it if you don’t just want to know the answer to those rhetoricals!
Then the chaps discuss games that were spurned by many but loved by them! And their recent gaming activity sees Chris find a very ‘Chris’ game in Sumo Digital’s Hotshot Racing! And Minty continues his adventuring in Bravely Default!
Elsewhere Jonathan dutifully takes on the toughest challenges that Edmund McMillen can throw at him in The Binding of Isaac, and then he goes from “way ‘ard” to Weyard with his 8th favourite video game of all time - the extraordinary Golden Sun - the enormously epic JRPG, that “didn’t care it was ‘just’ on the Gameboy Advance!”
Number 8 (Minty Booth) - Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros.
In the latest smackerooney of an episode, Chris returns to work and suffers an inevitable dip in his gameplay activity, and Minty, as is his Default, is adventuring Bravely on in his latest JRPG epic!
Meanwhile, Jonathan is still making babies cry in every direction for the sake of the podcast’s YouTube channel, and he also ventures to The Outer Worlds to discover an adventure that is more Firefly than Fallout, and more Bioshock than Bethesda!
And then, the main pudding! Big long boys, lots of green lads, glowing green letters, whimsy, fantasy and a huge dose of earnest storytelling, all play a part in Minty’s entry for this week!
Listen on to find out why the albeit admittedly flawed Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros. gave Minty “the most emotive gameplay experience of his life” and thus made it his 8th favourite video game of all time!
Number 8 (Chris Dow) - WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!
Want to know the gaming imagery We Three Cents would have permanently etched onto our buttocks?
Want to know how Chris has got on with a number of games like Lonely Mountains: Downhill, awe-inspiring Vita ports of the PS2's Grand Theft Auto trilogy, or 3DS ports of some pixel art classics?
Want to know how Jonathan has got on with a bigger number of games like a 3DS platforming triumvirate, the Champion's Road of Super Mario 3D World, or the entire launch line-up of the Playstation 5?
Want to know how Minty has got on with one game, the cavernously large Bravely Default II?
Then, the meat and potatoes of the episode - want to know just how much can one man say about a game comprised entirely of three-second experiences?!
Find out why Chris considers WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ Nintendo's most immediate but also most cerebral release to date!
Bonus Level - The Joy of Text
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Do you like typing?
Smashing your little fingies down on your keyboard, laptop or touchscreen to make wonderful words manifest into being?
How about typing to play a game? Not just bouncing across W, A, S and D as you whip your mouse around for frags, but using the actual letters themselves to manipulate on-screen action?
Join the Our Three Cents team, as well as members of the developer RNG Party Games, as we plot the checkered history of the typing genre via MS DOS commands and edutainment, through Typing of the Dead and Pokémon Typing Adventure, to modern examples like Epistory, The Textorcist and RNG's own Backspace Bouken!
Whether you're a touch typist, or a one-digit stabber; come revel in the clickety-clack of the keyboard!
Number 9 (Jonathan Dunn) - The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
'ERE WE, 'ERE WE, 'ERE WE FACKIN' GO!
What are our intrepid podcast heroes thoughts on the recent Nintendo Direct? More Hyrule Warriors? A new Mario Golf? A weird Octopath Traveller follow-up come sequel? Stubbs the Zombie DELUXE?
Jonathan finds a new ball-rolling indie obsession in Glyph. Minty blasts through Bowser's Fury in the flick of a cat's tail. Chris breaks down and buys a New 3DS XL!
Then, and you better be ready for this, Link's Awakening RIGHTFULLY becomes Our Three Cents approved, as Jonathan nominates the dreamy surrealism of the first pocket size Zelda as his ninth favourite video game of ALL BLOODY TIME!
EGGS!
SEASHELLS!!
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS!!!
It's one of the best games of all time!!!!
Number 9 (Minty Booth) - Saints Row 2
bang, bang, shoot 'em up, cops and robbers
Minty goes blat, blat with his gat, gat as he talks up Saints Row 2, his ninth favourite video game, and perhaps Volition's crowning glory as the game that transformed the Saints Row franchise from a soulless GTA-copy, to the fun-loving series it would become!
ALSO THIS WEEK: the trio get stuck back into The Binding of Isaac in a big way; Minty asks for suggestions to play on his peat-powered-personal computer; and Chris deals vigilante justice in The Outer Worlds. Jonathan gives his thoughts on playing Super Mario 3D World for the first time; Chris and Jonathan go on and on about the 3DS's joyous stereoscopic 3D; and a certain Souls-like-liker gets all fired up talking about Robi Studio’s Blue Fire!
Go and play some video games, you deserve it.
Number 9 (Chris Dow) - Lumines
How many references to Handforth Parish Council can our trio slip into this bumper episode as Chris breaches the TOP 9s?
Chris and Minty tussle quizzically as part of the, y'know, quiz. The boys attempt to explain their approaches to fitting gaming into modern living. Jonathan does his damnedest to sell Chris on his recently acquired PlayStation 5!
Thoughts on games as far reaching as: THE BINDING OF ISAAC, THE OUTER WORLDS, THE MESSENGER, SPIDER-MAN REMASTERED, PARATOPIC, ASTRO'S PLAYROOM, DEMON'S SOULS as well as some reverent nodding in the general direction of Sony's adaptive triggers!
Then, pull up a chair, make sure your bladders are drained and that you have access to a hot drink and snack of your choice, as Chris takes a deep dive into Lumines, his 9th favourite game of all time!
ATTACK
THE
BLOCK(s)
Bonus Level - Let’s Get Physical
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To break up Season 3 (and make sure the grand reveals of our number one games gets further and further away), we invite you to meet the first of our guest stars: JP of Premium Edition Games and JP's Switchmania fame!
In a SPECIAL EPISODE dedicated to physical games and their collection, hear how, why and what our group and guest collects; personal memories of standout releases over the years; as well as hopes and dreams for games that have yet to be immortalised on disc or cartridge!
PLUS: exclusive, behind the scenes information on how physical games make it to market, as well as hot-off-the-press details on the first two Premium Edition Games releases Super Blood Hockey, and Pigeon Dev Games Collection!
"how the sausage is made"
Number 10 (Jonathan Dunn) - The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+
Starter
The boys think on bad games they played for just that bit too long - a cavalcade of handheld ports and novelties that our trio defended vehemently, until they just couldn’t!
Main
Chris plays some punishing platformers on the Vita courtesy of Ratalaika Games and endless runners on the Switch courtesy of the dregs of eShop sales past to distract himself from home working.
Jonathan continues a roguelike Greek Odyssey, revisits some cowboys he previously poo-pooed, and gets very excited about the bit-switching, chiptune joy that is Sabotage Studio’s The Messenger!
Minty finally concedes that Grindstone is an absolute belter of a pocket-sized puzzler!
Dessert
Jonathan Dunn rounds out the first round of the top 10 with a deep dive into the nested design of 'the crying baby game - Ed McMillen's The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+!
Number 10 (Minty Booth) - Doom
Another week, another NUMBER TEN, this time courtesy of Master Minty Booth!
The original Doom ranks as MB's game for your consideration on this drizzly January day. Find out why it's so much more than a 'legacy entry' chosen only for its historical value, and remains a bloody (no pun intended!) good time, even today!
But of course, we shan't be allowing any of that ripping and tearing payoff, before binding you to a metaphorical chair and forcing you to hear our collective opinions on topics as disparate as: mind-blowing mechanics; perfunctory passwords; ruminations on lockdown malaise; and of course, games wot-we-have-been-playing!
Go and play some games. You deserve it!
Number 10 (Chris Dow) - Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Can you believe it? I mean, seriously, can you believe it? It's the top bloody ten, gals an' guys!
The quiz returns with a fantastic new theme tune! The trio discuss some of the weirdest games they've ever played, giving separate nods to Desert Child, Horace and Humanoid 47 for your consideration. Chris and Jonathan try to sell Minty on the mobile magic that is Grindstone. And, of course, the gang collectively play an awful lot of G A M E S!!
Then, to get the top ten underway proper, Chris is here to tell you not only why Sonic 3 & Knuckles is his tenth favourite video game of all time, but also:
- how its lock-on cartridge tech is perhaps the most impressive piece of creative problem solving in games history;
- why it’s the Mega Drive’s crowning glory;
- how it laid the groundwork for the triple A cinematic action game a la Naughty Dog’s modern oeuvre!
The countdown is ON, baby!
Bonus Level - The Big 2020 Roundup Episode!
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SEASON THREE BEGINETH!!
AS PROPHECY HAS FORETOLD, JONATHAN DUNN, THE PRODIGAL SON, HAS RETURNED!!
After a week’s break, we’ve missed you all, and maybe you’ve missed us?
—————
2020, eh? It was certainly a year.
Allow Jonathan, Chris and Minty, your good pals from the Our Three Cents towers, to:
> tell you which games they used to ring in the New Year!
> tell you which games made them feel a veritable swathe of ‘happy, happy, joy, joy’ over the apocalyptic year that was!
> tell you which games they hope to play in 2021!
> tell you which games they hold up as the very best released in 2020!
Want to know if Shrek: Hassle at the Castle on the Gameboy Advance is any good?
Want to know if Jonathan enjoyed The Last of Us Part 2 when he returned to Naughty Dog’s critical darling?
Want to know how Minty is faring in his quest for a Living Dex via Pokemon Home?
Want to know how many Nintendo franchises feature in the trio’s best of the year?
GOODBYE 2020 and HELLO 2021!!