Tales from the Backlog

Sunset Overdrive feels like a game that's been lost to time, doomed to a life of only being mentioned when a new game comes out that reminds people of it, despite being made by one of the industry's heavyweights (Insomniac Games) in the not so distant past. It's got a goofy tone, a bangin punk rock soundtrack, and an exquisite movement system that never gets old, but its mission design starts to wear thin long before the credits roll. Joining me to discuss Sunset Overdrive is streamer and YouTuber Goohi, and you can check out everything she is making by following this link! TIMESTAMPS Intro/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:37 Story Setup/Humor/Soundtrack 13:53 Gameplay/Movement 30:58 Gameplay/Combat 44:01 Closing Thoughts/Recommendations/Plugs 1:12:12 NO SPOILER SECTION Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

SURPRISE! Balatro comes for us all. Developed by solo developer LocalThunk and published by Playstack, the poker-themed roguelike deckbuilder has singlehandedly caused productivity to drop by 7% worldwide since its 2024 release. Thank you to Playstack and LocalThunk for providing me with a review code so that I could become a statistic! Joining me to talk about the game, its strengths and weaknesses, our favorite strategies and beginner tips are Matt aka Stormageddon ("Fun" and Games, Reignite, Screen Snark podcasts) and Aaron Klaassen (SuperPod Saga). Check their shows out, they are worth your time! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:43 SICKO SHOP TALK WALL 56:01 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

This is the PAX East 2024 retrospective and run-through of all of the games I played! Woooo! Games featured: Animal Well: The Art of Flight Duck Paradox Enter the Chronosphere Fallen Aces Fretless Lucid So to Speak Sorry, We're Closed Tape to Tape Throne of Bone YouTube VoD of the Nintendo DS panel I participated in! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Music composed by Bert Cole- find more music at [bitbybitsound.com](www.bitbybitsound.com) Patreon: patreon.com/bitbybitsound Twitter: @BitByBitSound Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

Titanfall 2, developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by EA, is one of those unfortunate games that seems to be universally beloved, but apparently didn't sell well enough for them to continue the series. Instead, Respawn is stuck in the Apex Legends and Star Wars mines for the foreseeable future, and we're left to replay this wonderful campaign (and multiplayer for some) and wonder what might have been. Titanfall 2 lives up to the hype, folks! My guests for this episode are Adam Bucceri and Cory Revis, hosts of the Half Tone Takes podcast, which is a deep dive into one of the hosts' interests each episode. The conversations are fun and enriching, and the show is worth your time. Adam also designs video and tabletop games on his Itch.io page, and Cory makes a webcomic called Dawn of Time. Check out their work! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 2:13 Story Setup 19:40 Gameplay/On-Foot Combat 28:41 Gameplay/Titan Combat 54:00 Visual/Audio Design 1:13:02 SPOILER WALL 1:32:04 INFO ABOUT MY PAX EAST PANEL HERE Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

- Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

How do you follow up a story that ends the way that Final Fantasy X did? Well, Square decided that Final Fantasy X-2 needed to shake things up. Most sequels escalate, but that wasn't really an option here, and so the girlpower J-Pop Final Fantasy game was born. This game gets a lot of hate out there, but not for the reasons that I think deserve it. Joining me to discuss Final Fantasy X-2 is Adam from The Good, The Bad & The Backlog. You can and should check out his show by following this link! TIMESTAMPS Intro/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 2:11 Story Setup 16:34 Gameplay/Combat 48:45 Gameplay, continued 1:20:36 Music 1:33:25 SPOILER WALL 1:47:26 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

In this discussion, Dave is joined by Chris Coplien (Retro Hangover podcast), Rick Firestone (Pixel Project Radio podcast) and Andre (Fine Time podcast) to discuss the challenges and our personal approaches to evaluating retro games. In this episode, we discuss our perspectives and some specific games like Rocket Knight Adventures, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Monkey Ball, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior and many more! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

How do you remake one of the most beloved games of all time? How do you fend off the masses who want to hold you to every decision made over 20 years ago? Well, in our opinion, Square Enix figured out the way with Final Fantasy VII Remake. This is a shining example of how a remake can update the graphics, completely revamp the gameplay, add voice acting, re-orchestrate the music....and still keep the heart and soul of the original game intact. It's a masterful game, and I was joined by returning guests Aaron Angle (A Top 3 Podcast) and Ryan Arrington to discuss it! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 2:08 Story Setup 18:00 This Game as a Remake 37:40 Visuals/Voice Acting/Music 49:06 Combat 1:17:29 SPOILER WALL 1:43:16 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

This War of Mine, by 11 Bit Studios is often labeled not only as a good game, but also as an important game, especially as countries are invaded and lives are turned upside down in the same ways, over and over again. Because of how forever relevant this game is, and with a little pushing from friend of the show Randall on our "Games in Real-World Settings" episode a few months back, I was eager to give this a try- and it ended up winning a poll on Patreon! I was also lucky enough to be joined by Alex, host of the First Five YouTube channel. You should check out his channel for wonderful gaming content, including The Time-Strapped Gamer's Guide to Life Sims, and helping you find what games you should try from that giant itch.io bundle you bought. TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:25 Story Setup/Setting/Bleak Tone 14:36 Gameplay Mechanics 39:29 Closing Thoughts/Recommendations/Housekeeping 1:16:45 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

Boy am I glad that I disregarded all of the "Metal Gear Solid 2 is the worst one, just skip it" chatter out there. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, by Hideo Kojima and Konami, is a step up in almost every way from the first Metal Gear Solid game, and does a ton of interesting things in the process. Its biggest issue is that it takes a long time setting up, and then the payoff hits you with too much all at once. But once I've had time to sit and process everything it's doing, I gain more and more appreciation for it. Joining me for this discussion is The Profit of Gaming Memories! He runs a podcast interviewing people about their gaming memories, as well as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube pages dedicated to retro gaming and emulation. Max Derrat's YouTube video as mentioned in the podcast TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:37 Story Setup/Visuals 12:29 Gameplay/Music 39:09 Closing Thoughts/Recommendations/Housekeeping 57:53 SPOILER WALL 1:12:00 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog