PPR Presents Golden Zonkies: Class of 2024

ell, we should have guessed that it wouldn’t be a Golden Zonkies episode without a troubled production to delay the release! Some traditions really do die hard! Anyway—our sincerest apologies for the delay, the Golden Zonkie class of 2024 is officially here!

Unfortunately, 2024 saw more of the same crap that permeated 2023. The games industry layoffs didn’t slow down, unionization efforts have a long way to go, technical shortcomings have handily proven that we’re not ready for the all-digital landscape the industry is barreling towards, and in the best Oscar Isaac impression we can do—somehow Gamergate has returned….

Still—there were plenty of games to get excited about, and developments to look forward to, so without further ado, here’s the lowdown on Press Pause Radio’s Golden Zonkies special.

In case y’all don’t remember the updated flow from the last couple of years, we have changed up our format and have done away with categories!  Now, bear in mind, that we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, only, we’re not doing so by a respective genre, or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of five (we just happened to have played more killer games in 2023 than usual.)

Also, the biggest change to the process is that we will no longer limit nominations to the titles that were released that same year but instead, games that we had the opportunity to play that year, because honestly—it gave a somewhat stressful deliberation process a much-needed shot of levity for us to play with for Golden Zonkies!

 Normally we would have done a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year, but we decided to mention them in passing instead, along with some not-so-honorable-mentions (we also chose a few more not mentioned on the show to include in the post!) We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to the previous format, and conclude the show from there.

With that being said, thanks again for tuning into our Game of the Year special, and for just listening, watching, or reading anything done by us. We’re hoping to make 2025 a banner year for Press Pause Radio, so stick around, and enjoy!

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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PPR 154

ew year, same tardy nonsense—we recorded a few weeks ago, but life and technical issues got in the way of the production process, and for that, we sincerely apologize to y’all.

Before we get into the Golden Zonkies’ class of 2024, however, we wanted to have an old-school “PPR-ass PPR” round robin on a featured topic, and what better subject than the art and science behind video game box art?

Join George, Ed, and Andrew as they discuss the history, culture, and legacy of box art, such as the ever-changing motifs of design and the artists who famously brought them to life on shelves like George Opperman, Greg Martin, Bob Wakelin, Yoshitaka Amano, Tom DuBois, Ken Sugimori, Yoji Shinkawa, and more. Hell, have you ever thought about what the box of your favorite video game may have looked like in a different country? Raccoon Mario soaring against a yellow backdrop may be a Mount Rushmore type of pastiche here, but in Japan, the giant ensemble piece of characters against a teal palate is what tickles the nostalgia bone in that corner of the world, and that’s so weirdly fascinating don’t you think?

Every year that passes is another year closer to a fully digital media landscape, and while that can have huge ramifications on the preservation of software, something as innocuous as box art can sometimes be the little dumb thing that makes physical media truly that much more special. We hope you enjoy the latest episode of Press Pause Radio—and don’t forget to check out the next one, because we’ll be doing the Golden Zonkies for 2024 next!

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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PPR 153

ife has been pretty hectic for all of us, and even when we have in some time to play some games in between the bustle and hustle of day-to-day life, it’s been a little harder to find time in the day to talk about what we’ve been playing amongst ourselves…

So for that, we’re really sorry about the delay with this week’s episode, but hey, we’re pretty excited to say it was a real doozy to chat it up for the show because we brought a good friend to record with us!

This week’s episode of Press Pause Radio, we asked Game journo luminary and current editor-in-chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Mollie L. Patterson to join the cast of Ed, George, and Sean for another edition of What’s-in-Your-Console and a bit of news impressions on the side!

In Episode 153 of Press Pause Radio, the gang discusses Nintendo Alarmo, Taito Arcade Kits, PlayStation 5 Pro, Eliminate Down, Elsie, Metaphor: ReFantazio, UFO 50, Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland, Tutankham, El Viento, Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Magic: The Gathering, Actraiser, UN Squadron, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the state of the United States Healthcare system, and a whole lot more!

So mail in your ballots, gear up for winter flood of holiday releases, and get ready to jot down your game-of-the-year candidates because the Golden Zonkies are coming up super soon!

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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PPR Presents Limelight: Analogue Pocket Adapters in Action

After what’s felt like EONS of waiting, Analogue has FINALLY sent out the remaining Analogue Pocket adapters for their FPGA-engineered portable powerhouse, and we’ve got our hands on a set of the elusive do-hickeys to dive in on with y’all.

Join George as he streams an assortment of GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, Sega GameGear, Atari Lynx, SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color, and TurboGrafx 16/PC Engine/SuperGrafx games off of the Analogue Pocket on August 23rd, 7:30 PM PST! We don’t know what edgy 90’s slogan to end off on? So maybe we should use all of them—like, To be this good, it take PPR, or WARNING: the following may cause chills, dizziness, and shortness of breath or some other goofy dumbass shit like that…

We don’t know, just show up and check it out!

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 152

s real as Bobby Braddock’s melodic soliloquy "Time Marches On" gets, we are now on the other side of another digital sunset as Microsoft closes down the Xbox 360 Marketplace. The term "sunset" may not be the right choice here, though with all of Microsoft’s confusing cross-pollination between the last couple of Xbox generations, this “sunset” comes off more like a hasty “sweep under the rug” where front-end accessibility to the iconic storefront can still be accessed through weird exploits that are reminiscent of a secret-menu at your local drive-thru.

The latest episode of Press Pause Radio is a full round-table of PPR pundits as George, Andrew, Ed, and Sean pour their hearts out on a post-mortem look at the Xbox 360 Marketplace and the ups and downs of what the service did in its prime and the legacy it holds into this weird twilight-esque second life on the Xbox One/Series era of Xbox Live. We also wax nostalgic on all the choice cuts the store had to offer, whether it was a delisted Konami Arcade port, a SEGA gem, or the HD re-release of the only decent thing that Doug TenNapel has ever done with his miserable existence—we get heavy into the gems that players could only find on the Xbox 360 Marketplace, and explore how these games helped shape Xbox into the household name that it is today.

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: Dragon's Dogma II

he ever-growing presence of video games in pop culture meant that it was only inevitable for it to be a hacky trope in television melodramas and sitcoms. And dammit all if the interpretation of gaming on the silver screen isn’t just some of the cringiest shit any time they’re presented, or in some bizarre instances, how people play them (Tony Soprano playing Mario Kart 64 with one-hand lives rent-free in my head.) Why the random contrast though you ask? Well, one of the more frequent genres used for the trope is the fantasy RPG, often for an MMO sort of deal that’s supposed to espouse some sort of moral about teamwork or the dangers of game addiction. It’s common to see the settings for these fictional games that’s used for the TV show plots have some of the most superficial presentations or gameplay mechanics ever seen in games, and I won’t make any bones about it—Dragon’s Dogma II from Capcom looks and plays like one of the most egregious parodies of this concept…

I mean, the notion isn’t entirely a negative thing—there are instances of moment-to-moment gameplay in which Dragon’s Dogma II delivers this sort of absurdity that you’d either hear from another kid spouting off tall tales on the playground from your youth or see in a TGIF sitcom with the most slapdash workshop of combat mechanics. The naked truth of Dragon’s Dogma II being an unabashed remake trying to disguise itself as a full-fledged sequel aside, the potential chaos that you can derive from the surprisingly deep combat and vocation system is where the game really shines, even if it is a glorified “do-over.”

It’s just too bad the game has no real-world or personality to compliment the kind of excitement the action offers. Aside from a few novel twists on the tired medieval setup, Dragon’s Dogma II delivers fewer peaks than valleys, made all the more worse by the world-building in between. Just because Skyrim isn’t crowding it’s release window, doesn’t mean there haven’t been several other titles in recent memory like Final Fantasy XVI or Elden Ring that have done the premise significantly better.

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Late to the Party: Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

ou know—some trends just don’t live past their 15 minutes of fame; Zombies? Played out, Vampires? Done to death, & Superheroes? We’re approaching terminal velocity on that can of worms soon, just give it some time. There are, however, some exceptions in Pop Culture that’ll just never NOT be rad as all hell, and one of those things is giant mech-suit robots.

Where mainstays of the genre like Gundam, Macross, and to some loose extent, Transformers have populated the public headspace in the genre, one particular property has commanded an underground yet dedicated peak of fandom in Video Games like no other IP specifically has—Armored Core.

Riding on the wave of new fandom that Dark Souls and Elden Ring have afforded them, FromSoftware unveiled the next entry in their long-dormant series that hasn’t seen a release in well over a decade with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon and they’re giving it the red-carpet treatment to boot. This new release does ask an interesting question though; where its demanding twitchy-trigger gunplay carved out a modest niche of dedicated fans much like that of the “Soulsborne” series of games, those titles were able to steadily evolve and refine their gameplay hallmarks with the sort of resources that Armored Core has never had the privilege of receiving.

How exactly does Fires of Rubicon close such a long gap between releases without compromising the ardent quirks of its combat and difficulty? Well, it turns out that the answer is a lot easier than you’d think—Fires of Rubicon takes everything Armored Core V did and doubles down on it with all the technical performance the ninth generation of gaming hardware could afford the long-awaited sequel.

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PPR 151

t’s raining diss tracks y’all, and ain’t nobody safe from the rhyming raids of character assault up in this BEE-yotch that we call LYFE…

Alright, that’s enough cringe—with all of the harrowing news we’ve seen out of 2024, we’ve decided to try our hand at some levity with a brainstorm-fueled feature topic that we think can bring out the sort of trademark fun the video games are iconic for. In the same vein of fantasy booking your favorite sport, we’ve decided to come together and choose one intellectual property to revive for a modern-day release from twelve different companies who have either dabbled in publishing or development for that property and make a case for why that given franchise is worthy of a new game over any other dormant franchises that have also been left in the gaming past.

It’s the type of “think-tank” discussion that we haven’t had on the show in some time! Join Andrew, George, and special guest, Joie of Super RPG Friends and Cerulean Skies as we wax nostalgia in the future tense as we plead the importance of a ninth-generation rally for dozens of cult-classic properties for y’all in episode 151 of Press Pause Radio!

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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