Ep. 260 - Banjo-Kazoomer

The full panel reunites to determine what a video game is, how to do RPG dungeon music right, and Bob Oldfather. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Tim Rogers and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

Questions this week:

1. Why did Embracer Group acquire Square Enix Montreal, change its name to Onoma, and then immediately shut it down? (05:25)
2. What kind of video game items do you never want to use again? (08:09)
3. When you’re playing an RPG and you complete an enemy encounter, should the overworld or dungeon theme start over from the beginning, pick up where it left off, or just play through the encounter itself? (15:15)
4. NASCAR racer Ross Chastain pulled off a risky wall-riding maneuver this week setting a lap record, claiming that he learned the move from playing NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube. How is it that video games are changing the way sports are played in real life? (21:04)
5. Is this particular dartboard a video game console? (30:02)
6. Violence Island (39:17)

LIGHTNING ROUND: From Yeso: Guess the game based on its Metacritic review (01:06:38)

Recommendations and Outro (01:13:31)

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

• The Laughing Cow Light Cheese Spread
• Kosher Natural & Kosher Shredded White Mozzarella Cheese
• Cheez-It® Extra Toasty Snack Crackers
• Goldfish Crackers
• Video Game Studio Goes Through Expensive Rebrand, Is Then Immediately Shut Down
• Final Fantasy series
• Hollow Knight
• Yakuza / Ryū ga Gotoku series
• Pokémon main RPG series
• Dragon Quest series
• Adventures of Superman
• NieR series
• Phantasy Star IV
• NASCAR driver pulls off crowd-stunning ‘wall ride’ he learned on GameCube
• NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup
• Marvel Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Formula 1: Drive to Survive
• A dartboard by a company called Arachnid
• Dartslive
• Gyromite
• Mario Golf series
• Pong
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