Expansion Pass #166 - Top 10 Console Launch Titles

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame A milestone episode calls for a milestone game, and for my stone's money there's no game as big as The Last of Us. Without any exaggeration, I can safely say this is one of my 3 favourite games of all-time. The story is unlike anything I've ever played before. Frankly, it's better than practically every show or movie I've ever watched, too. And then add in incredible acting, awesome gameplay, and one of the most endearing characters in the history of media, and you've got yourself something special. And that ending?? Forget about it! My guest this week is an institution here at RTG Industries, my bosom chum, Mark McCue. We spent an hour and a half praising the hell out of this game, going over the story and characters, and I think we did a damned OK job of explaining why The Last of Us is just so freaking special. And before we look for the Fireflies, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks me what retro gaming podcasts I listen to. How do I deal with haters online? And why the HELL am I not playing Metal Gear Solid Delta?? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 of the highest rated PS3 games on Metacritic: Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, and Infamous 2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame And you can check out Andre's wheeling and dealings over at: Twitter @thatcanadaguy Instagram @thatcanadadude http://www.youtube.com/@andreandmelballwrestlingtalk www.sundaynightsmainevent.com http://www.youtube.com/@OURLOCALESTABLISHMENT http://www.twitch.tv/ourlocalestablishment We waited about 250 episodes too long to cover one of my favourite PS2 games of all-time. This week, we're talking Twisted Metal:Black, which is the best game in one of the coolest franchises in the history of gaming. I fell in love with the Twisted Metal series on the original PlayStation, so when I saw a next-gen version of the series on PS2, I couldn't resist. And they didn't just live up to my expectations, they blew 'em out of the water. The graphics and combat were rock solid, and the morbid, dark, twisted backstories of each character (those cutscenes!) were insane. I hate that this series seems to be dead on the vine, but you can always (and should always) go back to Twisted Metal: Black for car combat perfection. My guest this week was the guy that broke down the OG Twisted Metal games with me a few years ago, my pal Andre. And we both agreed that this game stands up as not only the best Twisted Metal, but one of the best games in the PlayStation 2's legendary library. And before we twist metal, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks straight up, what means more to me: retro gaming or modern gaming? We're covering The Last of Us for episode 300 next week, what version should you play to get ready for it? And have I ever tried to repair a console myself? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 car combat games: Vigilante 8, WWE Crush Hour, and Carmageddon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've made the decision to start skipping one Wednesday per month for RTG. I just can't keep up the schedule of playing one game per week, so I'll start giving away a freebie early every month to give myself a little time to catch up. This week, I'm counting down what I consider to be the 10 greatest console launch titles in gaming history. A banging launch game is critical to a console's success, and I had a blast looking back at the GOATs. If you enjoy this, we have a TON more waiting for you on Patreon (ad-free, too!). You can also write into the show, join our Discord, help choose the games we cover, and more! Subscriptions start at just $3/month at Patreon.com/RememberTheGame Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame And you can find David and his podcast 'Quantum Kickflip' at: www.quantumkickflip.com Twitter: @quantumkickflip Instagram: @quantumkickflip I love The Simpsons. And I can look passed the flaws in their video games most of the time because of that love. But Bart vs The World is the suckiest bunch of video game suck that ever sucked. It has the DNA of my beloved Bart vs The Space Mutants in it, with the crappy jump mechanics, awful hit boxes, and boring levels. But it adds a bunch of lame mini games that take up like 60% of your play-time, and leaves you wishing you were playing in the deepend of the sandbox with Ralph Wiggum instead. My buddy David Rae makes his return to the show this week, and unlike most of his episodes that involve talking about great NES games, this one brought us both down as deep as Timmy O'Toole in that damned well. And before we "vs the world", I deliver another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone hits me with a play one/remake one/erase one based on games featured on The Simpsons cartoon. What Pokemon would I want to have in real life? And what's a better name: Sega Genesis, or Sega Mega Drive? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 Simpsons NES games: Krusty's Fun House, Batman Meets Radioactive Man, and Bart vs The Space Mutants. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame I'm still new to the Sega Genesis universe, so every game I play is exciting because it has potential to become one of my favourites right out of the gate. And that's exactly what X-Men 2: Clone Wars did. This game is awesome. It's a classic 16-bit beat 'em up, and you play as a bunch of the X-Men (and Magneto). What's awesome is that each character has strengths and weaknesses, and they all play differently. So not only does that open the door to a little strategy talk, but it gives you a bunch of replayability as well. And believe me, you'd be replaying this game anyway, because it's pretty damned tough. The Cyclops to my Gambit, my buddy Chris, is my guest this week. He's a card-carrying Sega kid and he gave me a call to sing this game's praises. The graphics, the gameplay, the characters; all praise worthy. (We do crap on the camera a little bit). And before we join the X-Men l, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks why 2023 was such a banner year for video games. Have we found a definitive answer for what's considered "retro"? And where do I stand on the WarioWare series? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 Genesis superhero games: Separation Anxiety, Captain America and The Avengers, and The Adventures of Batman & Robin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

*The audio is a little crackly on this episode. That's my bad, sorry about that!* Game Patch is our weekly gaming news podcast over on Patreon, where I look at the biggest news in the worlds of PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and gaming in general. This week I thought I'd give everyone a free episode to help you get through your Monday. New episodes go live every Friday for all our Patreons, and they're 100% ad-free. Hope y'all enjoy the gaming news, and have a great week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame Viewtiful Joe took down 63 games in our 2024 Pre-March Madness tournament, and I'm so stoked that it did. It's one of the coolest games I've ever played, even if I can't finish it because I'm constantly rage-quitting. If you've never played it, it's a side-scrolling beat em 'up, but with the extra hook of superpowers. You can slow everything down, speed everything up, and zoom the camera in while doing it. Those abilities makes the combat infinitely more fun, and you use them to solve puzzles too. Oh, and the game is tough. Really fucking tough. Normally I'd toss my controller away at some point and give up, but the addictive combat just keeps me coming back for one more try. Viewtiful Keegs gave me a call (literally, he's on vacation so we had to do this one over the phone) to talk about what makes this game so cool. Seriously, it's really fucking cool. We also got into how we both suck at it, and then we slapped some Hall of Fame worthy scores on top to wrap everything up. And before we get Viewtiful, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks if I ever watched my parents play games back in the day. Are there any niche games my brother and I grew up playing? And did I play Tiger handhelds as a kid? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 Capcom Gamecube games: MegaMan X: Command Mission, Killer 7, and Resident Evil 0. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've made the decision to start skipping one Wednesday per month for RTG. I just can't keep up the schedule of playing one game per week, so I'll start giving away a freebie early every month to give myself a little time to catch up. This week, it's my spoiler-free review of the SUPERB Sea of Stars. If you love classic RPGs, or just good video games, this is beyond a must-play. I do tack a short spoilercast on at the end, but I play music and warn you and stuff before that starts. If you enjoy this, we have a TON more waiting for you on Patreon (ad-free, too!). You can also write into the show, join our Discord, help choose the games we cover, and more! Subscriptions start at just $3/month at Patreon.com/RememberTheGame Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're super stoked to be sponsored by the folks at OurKade! Play spins on classic games and win CASH PRIZES! You can play their games (for FREE) at OurKade.io on your mobile device or PC/Mac, and enter cheat code into the secret Kade Genie section of the site for some free credits and to be part of the RTG leaderboards. I'll shout out this week's leaders on next week's show! Play now at OurKade.io Our Patreon podcasts are FINALLY available on Spotify! You can browse the entire catalog by searching for 'Remember The Game? Industries' on Spotify now! Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame And you can check out Bradley's Twitch streams at: Twitch.tv/VideoGameOdyssey It's one of our world-renowned 'revisited' episodes this week, and we're taking another look at the game I consider to be the best looking, and possibly best playing, in the entire Game Boy library; The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. If you didn't grow up in this era, I could see how you might write Awakening off. The inventory system is a pain in the ass, it's easy to get lost, and compared to something like Link to the Past, it might seem a little basic. But for those of us that were obsessed with the SNES Zelda in the mid 90's, having a competent portable adaption like this to keep us busy on the road was mind blowing. To this day, Link's Awakening is a contender for my top 5 Zelda games. I can't talk Zelda on this show without a McCue brother popping up, and Bradley gave me a call this week to talk about our adventures trying to wakeup a fish in a bird egg with weird self playing instruments so we don't have to dream anymore. Trust me, it'll make sense soon. And before we Awaken, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks if someone will be hosting a show like this about modern games in 20 years? Would I ever consider waiving my PC bias and playing the original Fallout? And should I judge people's game rooms? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 old school Zelda's: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventures of Link, and the Oracle games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame   And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year!   Patreon.com/RememberTheGame And our Patreon podcasts are FINALLY available on Spotify! You can browse the entire catalog by searching for 'Remember The Game? Industries' on Spotify now!   We all had those games we rented over & over when we were kids, and for me and my bro, Spy vs Spy was one of them. It's one of the best PvP experiences on the NES, and I'm ready to help some of you learn how to play it! (Seriously!) It's split-screen multiplayer, where you play as the Spies of MAD Magazine fame. You run around a maze of rooms collecting items you need to win the game while planting boobytraps in an attempt to stop your opponent from doing the same. It could be pretty confusing without a manual, but I genuinely think the game has an awesome concept, and I'm ready to show it a l'il love on my l'il podcast. I'm rolling solo this week, but I have so much nostalgia for this show that I had no problem wasting an hour of time talking into a microphone. Let me waste an hour of your time, too.   And before we blow shit up, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro!   This week, someone asks who I'd love to have on the show if could. What ever happened to our 'Top Secret Episodes' from the early days of our Patreon?? And what are my Steam Deck recommendations??   Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 competitive NES games: Dr. Mario, Bomberman II, and Super Dodge Ball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices