The Short Game

Grim Fandango is arguably the last mass-market adventure game, and is indisputably a great classic of the genre. Tim Schaffer’s last LucasArts adventure is a stunning amalgam of film noir storytelling, Mexican day of the dead and Art Deco imagery, and Aztec mythology into a sublime (if slightly dated) storytelling experience. Playing this nearly 20 year old game can be a bit daunting, even with the great remaster. We discuss how to get the most out of this great while avoiding the frustration that comes along with its slightly antique game design. Grim Fandango Remastered is available on PC, Mac, and Linux, and on the PS4 and PS Vita consoles. It’s a steal at only $15! Expect it to take between 7 and 12 hours to complete, depending on your reliance on hints or walkthroughs. Walkthroughs Eurogamer walkthrough Grim Fandango Hints from UHS – Desktop site Grim Fandango Hints from UHS – Mobile site (less ugly) Links for this episode 1998 in video gaming ResidualVM Digital archaeology: How Double Fine, Disney, LucasFilm and Sony resurrected Grim Fandango InvisiClues Our Interactive Fiction Episode The Digital Game Museum Tim Schafer Plays Grim Fandango – Part 1 You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash

This week begins our sort-of-book-club on the ongoing episodic adventure game Life is Strange. Told in what can only be described as the “Telltale” style, this series of 5 episodes follows Max Caufield, an 18 year old art school student who witnesses a murder and discovers she has the ability to rewind time. It’s a high school mystery! Only the first episode is currently out (as of early March 2015) so we’re not treating this as a review, just talking about the game and what we think of it so far. We’ll be following the rest of the episodes as they are released, maybe with full episodes, or maybe just as follow-up. Let us know what you prefer! So far we really liked it! Life is Strange is available for basically every major platform including Windows (through Steam), PS3/PS4, and Xbox 360/One. It is priced at $5 per episode or $20 for the complete game. A demo is available. Expect each episode to take between two and four hours to complete. links The Walking Dead by Telltale Games Storify: 80 Days at GDC (with images, tweets) The Wolf Among Us by Telltale Games Why did we talk about these… The Boxcar Children Nancy Drew Encyclopedia Brown Nate the Great You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash

This week our podcast literally can not stop running/falling/snowboarding as we discuss the Endless Runner genre. This sometimes celebrated, sometimes maligned mobile focused offshoot of the platform genre is (believe it or not) full of awesome games amongst all the shovelware. We talk in depth about the beautiful new endless snowboarder Alto’s Adventure, as well as run down the short history of the genre while calling out notable, quality examples. Raygan would like to re-iterate that his high score in Alto’s Adventure is 130,881. Thank you. Links: Alto’s Adventure – out now on the App Store CANABALT (on the web) CANABALT for iOS The Secret of Bryce Manor, by Tiger Style Crash Bandicoot Moon Patrol The Most Officialest SkiFree Home Page Aladdin 1993 Level 7 Rug Ride Battletoads Level 3-Wind Tunnel Pitfall! Tiny Wings Jetpack Joyride Sonic Dash Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the App Store Sonic CD on the App Store Temple Run Temple Run Arcade Don’t Run With A Plasma Sword Flappy Bird Race The Sun: An Infinite Speed Experience Bit.Trip.Runner RUNNER2: FUTURE LEGEND OF RHYTHM ALIEN Banana Kong Boson X Off The Leash Crossy Road: Endless Arcade Hopper Game Time Surfer Ski Safari You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash

This week’s topic is Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition. (That’s a long title for such a short game!) Guacamelee is a “Metroidvania” with combo-based, beat-’em-up combat, and it’s a game we’ve been looking forward to covering on this show since we recorded our first episode. It’s really, really good. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (the third revision of the game after the original release and the Gold Edition) is available for ALL THE PLATFORMS: – Steam (Windows) – $14.99 – PS4 – $14.99 (Original version also available for PS3 and PS Vita) – Xbox One – $14.99 (Original version also available for Xbox 360) – Wii U – $14.99 Links for this episode: I’m Mexican. Am I Supposed To Be Offended By Guacamelee? @DrinkBoxStudios on the pronunciation of X’tabay You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash

“I have entered into the service of a new gentleman. It would seem he is a gambling man.” 80 Days by Inkle Studios is a video game adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic novel of world travel and adventure. It’s also one of the best games of 2014. It was named the Time Magazine Game of the Year and was also honored by numerous other publications and critics. This week we look at what makes this interactive storybook based on a familiar tale so very, very compelling, and discuss some of the exciting details of our own trips around the world. Links for this episode 80 Days 80 Days on the iOS App Store – $4.99 80 Days on the Google Play Store – $5.00 The Short Game Episode 31: Interactive Fiction Inkle Studios Dragon Age Author Meg Jayanth on Twitter (@betterthemask) You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Laura Nash – @laurajnash

This week we’re taking another short break from regular format to talk about our favorite video game music! Did we miss your favorite soundtrack? (We probably did!) Let us know! We’ll play followup to this episode in a future show. Picks: Fez – Adventure Super Mario Galaxy – Star Festival Chrono Trigger Chrono’s theme Frog’s Theme Festival of Stars Sim City 3000 – Building Nights into Dreams – Take the Snow Train (Shane says Dreamcast when he means Saturn. We regret the error.) VVVVVV – Pushing Onwards The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker – Title Screen (10 hour loop!) Dragon Roost Island Also mentioned: – Bastion – Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery – Canabalt – Machinarium – Scott Pilgrim vs The World The Game You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Laura Nash – @laurajnash

The Swapper is a surprisingly awesome 2D puzzle platformer from small Finnish indie developers Facepalm Games. Released for PC/Mac/Linux in May 2013, it’s now also available for current generation Playstation and Nintendo consoles. Its puzzle design and mechanics are often compared to Portal (though it is a very unique game on its own) and it has an unusual art style, accomplished by building all the in game objects out of clay and photographing them to create the in-game graphics. Expect the game to take between 5 and 8 hours to complete, depending on what kind of crazy clone swapping puzzle solving space genius you are. Links for this episode: Humble Indie Bundle 11 Guacamelee! Super Turbo Chamionship Edition ClayFighter Tengami Lumino City Kirby’s Epic Yarn – Wii Kirby and the Rainbow Curse – Wii U Waking Mars A Dark Room You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash Nate’s Saint Louis Cardinals baseball podcast, Talking About Birds is returning for another season. Check it out!

Machinarium, a point and click adventure game by Czech game developers Amanita Design, is our topic this week. Released in 2009, it was their first full-length adventure game after numerous web-based titles. It has been widely praised for its gorgeous art style and a charming story told entirely without dialogue. Machinarium is available for numerous platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and the PS3 and Playstation Vita. A web-based demo is available at their website. It was included in Humble Indie Bundle #2 in 2010 and the Humble Botanicula Debut bundle in 2012. Expect the game to take about 5 to 6 hours to complete. Links for this episode Triplets of Bellville The Stinkey Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka (Author), Lane Smith (Illustrator) Josef Čapek Machinarium Soundtrack on Bandcamp You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash

To The Moon by Freebird Games is our topic this week. When it came out in 2011 this game was hailed as a triumph of video game storytelling. Using the visual language of 90s RPGs, To The Moon tells the story of a pair of scientists investigating and altering the memories of a dying man to retroactively fulfill his life’s wish: to go to the moon. To The Moon is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux through Steam and The Humble Store for $9.99. Expect it to take about 4 hours to complete. Links for this episode: RPG Maker Kotaku – Like Scott Pilgrim Before it, To The Moon Tells a Personal Story in the Language of Video Games A Bird Story Our next game: Machinarium Machinarium Demo You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Gunpoint by Tom Francis aka Suspicious Developments is our topic this week. Tom Francis began his game industry career with 9 years as a writer for PC Gamer, and this game is his response to what he learned in his years of game criticism. It was so successful that he was able to quit his boring day job as a games journalist and become an indie game developer full time! @GunpointGame on Twitter Developer Tom Francis (@Pentadact) on Twitter Gunpoint is a puzzle platformer for PC, Mac, and Linux. You can buy it for $9.99 from the developer’s website or on Steam. We recommend buying it through the Humble Store for both a Steam key and a DRM free copy. Expect it to take 3-4 hours to complete Links for this episode: How Reviewing Games for Nine Years Helped in Designing Gunpoint – GDC13 Video – 25 min Heat Signature – Tom Francis’s next game. Looks great! The Marvelous Miss Take Join us again next week, as we discuss To The Moon. You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Laura Nash – @laurajnash Nate Heininger – @natestl