PPR Presents Limelight: Har-Fest 2023

ey all, with the incoming flood of “October 31^st Vs November 1^st” memes hitting the timeline, we are vastly approaching the Holidays, and with that, I think it’s time we usher in the first Limelight block in years—aptly titled, Har-Fest Month!

During this month, George will be streaming 6 games to ring in the change of seasons, and will be doing so on the following schedule!

Super Mario Bros. Wonder/Sonic Superstars                                   Friday, November 10^th 9:00 PM PST

Umihara Kuwase/Astal                                                                    Saturday, November 18^th  6:00 PM PST

Super Magnetic Neo/Castlevania: Rondo of Blood                          Friday, November 24^th 9:00 PM PST

You can check out the streams here or directly on our Twitch Channel, and vibe along with us as we work towards ushering in a new age of Limelight for y'all!

PPR's Sega Saturn Holiday Gift Guide 2021

f the mid-Nineties were anything, they were certainly busy; R&B took over the radio, Pro-Wrestling was finding its edge, and Video Games were transitioning to the third dimension—everything was changing. Even if you grew up at that time, there’s was so much going on that it was easy to get lost in all the noise—and nothing was more overlooked at the time than Sega’s 32-Bit Curio, the Sega Saturn. The system went from Champion to Martyr in just three short years, but has still played host to a handful of genre-defining classics that have garnered a legacy in their own right. The Saturn is currently enjoying a bit of a cult following in its afterlife with spectators and enthusiasts alike—steadily driving its secondhand market into high-dollar territory as a result.

Luckily, you don’t have to have deep-pockets to appreciate the Saturn anymore as this newfound interest in the machine has also inspired a wave of new advancements and peripherals from the Retro Game Community, making the process of hooking the Arcade Powerhouse up into your Modern-day setup an absolute cinch. So much so that we here at Press Pause Radio thought that a buying guide should be in order to commemorate all of these new products for the system!

 I honestly could not think of a better time to Publish a buying guide for the Saturn then the Holiday Season that the console is synonymous for. Aside from launching in the pivotal Holiday month December in Japan, the console has also received a special Christmas-themed System Bundle exclusively in Japan, with one of the most iconic Holiday-themed Video Games in existence, Christmas NiGHTS, a demo of the title with a heavy Yuletide Spin in its presentation. Here are some essential accessories and peripherals to start your journey into the “Real World” of the Sega Saturn.

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25 years of the Sega Saturn: Part 2-The Two-Pronged Stumble

ell, this is embarrassing; I had planned to publish this entry much sooner than now, given that it’s been a little over a year since I last published the premier piece to this editorial series, but I suppose it’s appropriate since we’ve now arrived at the anniversary of SEGA’s polarizing 32-bit powerhouse once more.

When we last left off, we looked at the pre-launch hype of the Saturn and SEGA’s internal dissension over the mechanical complexity of the hardware, with technical specs that were arguably geared more at enhancing the present climate of gaming than preparing for the next dimension of gameplay the medium had been building to. The corporate disconnection only grew from there as SEGA of Japan hedged all their bets on the console with one fateful announcement during their 1995 Electronic Entertainment Expo presentation—the Sega Saturn was available now, retailing at $399 MSRP with the inclusion of Virtua Fighter to the surprise of everyone, including major retailers.

It was with this first big step that the Sega Saturn had begun its perpetual tumble towards commercial failure, as we look back at one of the most infamously mismanaged console launches in Video Game History.

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PPR 127

id anybody else catch that video game documentary on Netflix, High Score? We personally forgot to finish it with all of the EXCITEMENT that was coming out of Gamescom 2020! Oh well, I guess we’ll have to talk about the weird omission of Dragon Quest in the RPG episode some other time…

Anyway, with pandemic still being a major threat, this year’s iconic trade show took a remote approach, featuring a showcase that brief lineup of upcoming next generation games appearing on next generation hardware that we STILL don’t know the release dates, or more importantly, the retail cost for.

These games include Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, Marvel’s Avengers, Proto Corgi, The next Dragon Age, Fall Guys Season 2 and more. We also talk about the new PlayStation ODE, the X-Station, the latest wave of games announced for the Sega Astro City Mini, GameTap, the 25^th anniversary of the Sega Saturn, Bon Appétit, 8K Display technology, Doritos Flamin’ Hot Limón Chips, the confusion of Wii U marketing along with a whole mess of other topics.

With that being said, enjoy the show, and wear a fucking mask when you go outside…Thanks!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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25 years of the Sega Saturn: Part 1-The Doomed Singularity

ut of all the rituals that you’d expect a seven-year-old to have in the early nineties, feverishly running to the supermarket newsstand for the latest video game magazine isn’t one that I’d imagine topping a Family Feud chart anytime soon. Yet there I was, a twinkle-eyed sap who cared for nothing more than to drool over the latest news and gossip of the one brand that ruled my kid life: SEGA.

The year 1994 was a particularly lucid period, because of the gaming hype for releases like Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, and Sonic & Knuckles, nothing was more exciting to me than Sega’s 32-bit project, the Sega Saturn. I couldn’t tell you how many times I read the August issue that year of Electronic Gaming Monthly, and the preview coverage they gave to the specifications of the system, and games that were going to be able to run on it like Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter, and Virtua Cop.

May 11th, 2020 marked the 25th anniversary of the polarizing console—even to this day, the same fevered school ground arguments over the Saturn have transcended into keyboard wars across online forums and social networks because unlike anything else like in the medium. The Sega Saturn is a complex story that peels back like an onion; so I figured what better way to way to reminisce on my favorite game machine than with an editorial series on it.

In this chapter, we’re going back to where it all began, as the system’s origin is one that’s born through a gradual divorce between the East and West divisions of SEGA, with the Saturn being the child that was caught in the middle of it all.

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PPR 123

olidays are rough but boy-howdy are they really just the Gosh-dammed best!

Hey y’all, we took a bit of an impromptu break from Press Pause Radio for a few weeks because among the many preparations that the holiday asks of us, we also needed some time to refresh, and actually sit down with some of the games that we picked up o that we could properly talk about them.

The Golden Zonkies for the year of 219 is right around the corner, until then, this episode is a jam-packed what’s in your console, where we’ll be discussing ALL the damn games we’ve been plugging away at since we last recorded. Those games include Radirgy, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Tatsujin Ō, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, Galaxy Force II, Shenmuee III, Death Smiles XX, Death Stranding, Control, Pokémon Sword/Shield, and so much more.

So strap in folks, because we’ve got enough 5 Minute Craft tips, box cakes, and third-party Taki impersonators to blow your mind with in this week’s jamboree of an episode.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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QCF: Sonic Mania

he power of fandom is a fickle force to be reckoned with; the passionate devotion of a dedicated following can either propel the object of said affection to perpetual stardom, or alienate any sort of appeal it may have had with an obsessive toxicity that could stigmatize it beyond repair, for years upon years.

This sort of phenomenon has struck a number of video game franchises, but none have been more affected by it quite like the Sonic the Hedgehog property. The speedy SEGA mascot has been an industry icon for over 25 years, and yet has fallen from the place of universal acclaim, into a spot of irreverent polarization. These two camps are broken down into the somewhat ambivalent spectators who barely bother to care about him, and those who still swear their loyalty to the spikey-haired hero, in spite of the checkered past that he’s led in recent in years.

It’s been clear for near a decade now that most of the folks still on Sonic Team have forgotten what made the character so appealing in the first place, but it’s only now that SEGA has finally arrived at that same conclusion. The big wigs have tried a myriad of ideas to reinvent their icon, and most have them have fallen flat; why not give the reigns to the only force that could give their star mascot the justice that he deserves—the fans themselves.

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PPR Presents Play Play: Sonic CD

 

onic Mania is fast approaching, and while we don’t have our review ready just yet, we do have a few special looks at some choice cuts from the Blue Blur’s past that we think have influenced the direction seen in the new 2D throwback.

The next game up is one that gets a lot of praise despite being another obscure entry from the Hedgehog’s prime, as we sit down and play Sonic CD on the SEGA CD. Unlike Chaotix, this title has recently seen re-releases across a bevy of modern platforms, and it was in that re-release that Christian White got his start with the franchise under SEGA’s payroll as well.

Join Ser and George as they discuss whether or not this game deserves the distinction of being the best 16-bit Sonic title ever done in another new Play Play!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!