Spoony Bard Podcast

Stark and I take a break from talking about all of the retro games that fill our minds and took this time to talk about the best games that have come out this year. We hand out some awards, talk about our biggest disappointments, and even try to make sure that some people get thoroughly angry at some of the choices that we have. After all of that we decide that the best thing to do would be to steal a page from fellow retro gaming podcast, "Retronauts," and talk about the Disney afternoon on the next pod. No worries, we are even going to talk about the cartoons as well.

Did you miss listening to us talk about old games that pretty much no one remembers as much as we missed talking about it? While I am not going to wait for your answer to record and post the podcast we decided that the best thing to do would just be to go ahead and record another one. This week we are talking about Lunar, and Lunar 2, along with some of the --mostly-- forgotten others in the seires. Along the way we discuss anime, Atlier Totori, Dark Souls, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, and some current news. Let us know what you think in the comment section below, and feel free to follow us on twitter or like us on facebook. We are shallow and need instant gratification like that.

So in an attempt to keep giving our fans content we decided that since Stark and I were in the same area, we should probably record something and call it a podcast. Turns out that we didn't do what we were supposed to, but instead just end up talking for about an hour regarding life, the universe, and everything. As always, when we do something different, let us know what you think.

Oddly this week seems to have been kind of a hard conversation to have, even though we rarely have trouble talking about anything ever, as it was about an entire system that we have already talked so much and so long at length about. Needless to say we do go on for awhile, and bring up a great deal of memories and awesome that had to do with the system. We also talk about the new Deus Ex game for awhile as well, so there is that too.

Stark and I recorded a podcast. It is long. I knew that something was awry when Stark started the pre-cast conversation by referring to what we were about to do as "the podcast of his dreams". Something else seemed to be up as he seemingly had nothing to say in that prep conversation, and even told me that he brought notes. For someone that I have struggled to get an hour long "podcast friendly" conversation out of, he came to play. Try as I might I could not shake him from talking about anime. If you are looking for an expert on the subject, I think that we found ourselves one. You guys wanted to hear about anime, and we did that for you. From our introduction in middle/high school all the way to current, we talk about everything noteworthy about our lives and anime.

You want to talk about a game that, for me, could not have aged worse? I think that at this point in my life I would have to bring up Resident Evil 2. For a game that basically help my entire attention for almost year I there was nothing that could even touch its place in my mind until RPGs started getting super insane in the way of Disgaea. We stay on topic, again, for awhile this week before we just start to break down and talk about anything we can think of-- summer of arcade, movies, what games we are playing, and pretty much anything else that we can think of at the moment. Did I mention that Stark starts calling me the film dick because of my taste in movies? True story.

So this week I start off with a story and Stark finishes with arguably a much better one. We also talk about Donkey Kong for awhile. It is funny that I can remember a couple of years ago when Penny-Arcade took a website, GameSpy, to task over the fact that they had made a list of over-rated games and Donkey Kong was number one on it. Turns out that everyone is sort of coming around to that conclusion. We talk about other things, I bring up editing the pod --but if we are being honest that isn't ever going to happen. We talk about all kinds of fighting games and old games, which is on topic and I almost feel like we should be rewarded for. Next Podcast coming sooner then later.

Just so everyone is aware, I have been in the process of moving. I know that I probably should have had this cast up two weeks ago, but it was kind of hard with no internet. Anyway, this week we talk about Half-Life! The odd thing about Half-Life is that you can't really begin to talk about it without talking about the massive influence that it had on gaming in general. When you start talking about that you have to bring up Half-Life 2, because beside the Unreal Engine almost everything good in gaming pretty much has its roots in there. This is also probably the first time that Stark and I honestly didn't feel like we ended up giving the game of the week enough of a conversation, and kind of want to go on more. Interesting because we have been talking about doing a spoiler cast on Portal 2 seeing as I am currently working my way through that entire experience as well. Shorter this week as I had to run out and keep moving stuff, but don't worry we record tomorrow as well, so there is another cast that i

This week we talk about Blaster Master and everything awesome that has involved with it. I would love to blame this podcast going up late on my new job, but the truth of the matter is that I have just been sitting on possibly some of the easiest to edit content that we may have ever recorded. I don't know why it hasn't gotten upload, and you can blame that entirely on me. Besides the standard block of video game talk we also discuss important things like anime and old movies that no one besides the two of us would ever care about. You know, the things that really matter in life. Also, tell us how you feel about the new-- much longer-- format. We always love reading any and all fan feedback.

I don't know about most people, but back in the day I was terrible at Parappa, and while time has made me mildly better at the game I can't say that it is really something that I can ace on the first try--or even the 12th. After bringing up the main thread of old games we talk for awhile about anime and some of our favorite shows that are coming back, namely Futurama and how awesome John Benjamen has a Van is. We bring up my new iPhone and why Stark thinks that I am becoming one of the many faceless mobs, and why Dungeon Siege probably isn't helping that cause that much. Also I discuss the lengths that a Disgaea hole can last for, while we have why everything about Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2 isn't what you really want in a game. So, for those of you that listen on the site--or for those that just want to inform us more-- I feel like pointing out that we would love you guys commenting on how you think that we are doing with the show now that it is back in full swing. I would also like to point out that

We are late with this newest addition to the ever growing family of dysfunctional pods that keep getting produced. This week Stark has decided that it is entirely his job to inform people that we don't fact check, but in all honesty I was kind of hoping that people already knew that from 30 seconds of us talking. We start off really well this week, and instead of even making an attempt to talk about the game find a way to complain about people getting married or inviting us to parties. We do discuss the topic, Katamari, with a great amount of love--even though we don't give it the time needed-- and find ways to talk about so much else. E3, complaining about Family Guy (again), current games we are playing, and FPS' are just small taste of the devotion that we show for staying on topic.

There are times that I am sitting here and uploading the podcast to the server and I don't even know what to write here about it. It is clearly the longest one that we have ever done, clocking in around two hours and twenty minutes, it also ends with Stark yelling about Breaking Bad and how he can't enjoy anything that may ever encourage anyone to do Crystal Meth. Glad that we could fit a PSA in at the end, but I thought that this was supposed to be a geek podcast about video games and nerd stuff. Although there is about two hours before that where we talk about the finer things in life, like Shadow Run, Duke Nukem Forever, and complain about Final Fantasies again. A full episode to be sure.

In a perfect world this podcast would have been uploaded Saturday night. This is not that world and you people aren't here to listen to me complain about the worst week ever, you are hear to talk about video games. Episode the 29th of the classiest podcast on the planet brings us a new guest, Sheeley, who is an expert on all things sports related-- this is good as Stark and I have no knowledge about anything like that. He explains to us that it is basically a football game that you can kill other people and not much else. That is fine because we quickly start talking about Kristy Alley, Star Trek, and how much we really enjoy making fun of people who aren't around to defend themselves. Stark wanted a mellow adventure next time, so we are breaking from tradition and doing a modern classic for next week, Katamari. Leave us a note to let us know what you think about that, or what you thought about this cast.

Back to basics this episode, Stark and I are joined by no one and we talk about a game that neither one of us really know that much about-- Yoshi's Island. Everything from Mortal Kombat tournaments to how we feel that PSN isn't doing a terrible job at making up for what it did (although it isn't really going out of its way either), we don't really stay on anything that could ever be a topic. We also welcome everyone to leave some feedback, even make lots of suggestions on how you can go ahead and manage to do that. And if any of you are wondering what we are going to be talking about next week, it is Mutant League Football.

For the first time ever Stark asked for a week off from podcasting. Well I wanted to do something special for our listeners, and since we can't have a Spoony Bard without Stark we decided to do something else. Less talk about games, less talk about things that matter, and in all honesty more talk about things that probably should never be brought up. Once again we have a late arrival, John, who joins us about 11 minutes into the events. If you aren't a fan of our side conversations into insanity this one might not be for you; but if you are please join Elise, John and I for the most classiest podcast on the net, This is Not The Spoony Bard Podcast.

Episode 27 of the Spoony Bard Podcast, the classiest podcast on the net. Roughly five minutes into the pod we lose stark for a couple of minutes and try to cover long enough for him to come back, which doesn't really work. We ended up losing about five minutes of the pod because of random computer issues, which is par for a pod at this point, but at the end we come back with Stark-- so we all win. All aside it sounds way better than the last one. Besides the talk of R-Type, which is limited to only me remembering it fondly and everyone else complaining about it, we go in all kinds of random directions. Mortal Kombat takes up most of the converstaion, but we bring up Pizza, beer, and Dr. Who, so there is that I guess. Also PSN is still down so we kind of needed to complain about that too.

Never being one to do anything that would call the integrity of the show into question Stark made a very conscience choice to not play the game this week at all. That is OK, because I went entirely out of my way to be overly bored with Legend of Legaia. Stark talks about playing Ar Tonelico 1 and 3 and how much he really really hates PSN at the moment. I talk about the article that I did on Valve and how everyone is complaining about DLC in Portal 2, even though that never went up on the site. We also talk quickly about Forza 3. There seemed to be something wrong with the recording this week, so there is some odd feedback. I thought that it would be better to give it to you guys instead of making you wait even longer for me to figure out how to fix it in post.

Stark and I start talking about Mega Man Legends and then are quickly joined by our newest writer Elise. From that moment forward pretty much everything goes south and we have one of the more insane and out of control conversations that we have ever had. Stark manages to fit in conversation about Ar Tonelico, I bring up Monster Hunter Tri, and Elise talks about TV. While most of us don't care about Fringe or True Blood they are brought up non-the-less. I could go on, but I don't want to lose some of our feeds.

Stark and I spend a large amount of time talking about 80?s movies, other games in the Contra series, and one liners. We spend very little of that time talking about the first Contra game, besides the fact that we could only ever beat it by cheating. Stark talks about how much he loves Ar Tonelico and our new writer for the site, and I talk about the passing of my chinchilla and how I really want a sumo chair/bag. I bring up Pokemon and the Shin Megami Tensei series on the DS.

Taking another suggestion from the fans to talk about we played Tomba this week; saying that we had mixed results would be kind. It doesn't take long before we start talking about pretty much anything else that we are doing. Ar tonelico, Pokemon, and even articles that we have thrown up on the site all end up being fair game. Sorry about the pod going up late, again, at least it still weekly.