PlayStation Plus Game Club

This time we are highlighting one of the best games of 2018, Celeste. It won awards from multiple outlets that year and has been a part of the gaming zeitgeist for long after that. Celeste has been hailed as one of the best 2D platformers to come out in decades and that's all because of its perfectly tuned control and gameplay, classic-looking visual style, beautiful soundtrack, and very poignant story about coping with anxiety and depression. We hope you enjoy our discussion covering everything about Celeste and we tip our hats to the small team of Maddy Makes Games for giving us a wonderful piece of art to love.

Zaclre from the Mooglecast in the Trophy Talk Network joins us for a journey to AR-Y26, a new planet that the Kindred Corporation has sent us to in order to assess if it is viable for colonization. Unfortunately they didn't plan a return trip for us, so it's up to the player to find a way home while exploring and cataloging everything on the planet. It's still nice though that Kindred sent us a lot of entertaining commercials for us to watch. We share stories about our favorite animals and antics while exploring, reminisce about the few times we tried to squad up together, and talk about our successes in speedrunning this hilarious game. Zac and I also both notice that we view this game through different histories and recognize different inspirations that went into it. Because of that, we each bring our own recommendations for other games like it, but agree that you should take a Journey to the Savage Planet and we hope you enjoy the trip with us.

Rachel Saalfeld from Critically Tipsy joins the Game Club to talk about Bee Simulator, an endearing indie game that was surprisingly educational. We talk about the many ways it gamifies bee activities and tries to show life from their perspective. We also fly by a few of the buzz-worthy facts the game tries to teach. Did you know that bees can fly at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour? Or that they have five eyes on their head? After a few plat shoutouts from the Trophy Talk Discord we land on some of our favorite movies about bugs and any other games that you might like to check out if you liked Bee Simulator. Hope you enjoy hearing about this adorably bee-autiful game!

Max (MaXximumCARNAGE) from The MoogleCast and the Trophy Talk Network has picked Cursed to Golf as the game to cover. Armed with a few clubs and some incredible luck, we both describe our unique journey golfing our way out of purgatory. Even though neither of us tend to jump into rogue-like games, we both talk about what made this different enough to eventually win both of us over. We introduce a new platinum shout-out segment since we are now part of the Trophy Talk Network. Then Max talks about how he happened upon some of the greatest beginner's luck that will make even the best of us jealous. I share my own frustrating story about the game driving me to almost give up on it. Just like with any other rogue-like, we both learned that failure is a learning experience and to not give up, because there is always a fresh start with new possibilities in Cursed to Golf.

This is a quick special announcement regarding the PlayStation Plus Game Club. Thank you all for listening and I hope you have a great holiday season!

Jordan and I take a walk through The Gardens Between and discuss how this beautiful art piece is and isn't really a puzzle game. We cover all of our favorite set pieces that Arina and Frendt walk around and what makes some of the puzzle mechanics so intriguing. Then Jordan gives me a big update on all of the games we've played that have DLC and which are the ones you should return to.

With the recent release of The Plucky Squire, Robert, Markus, and Kade all have a lot to say about this adorable and very ambitious game. In this episode we gush over the imaginative style of the game, but then have some serious issues with who this game may actually be intended for. As we realize what some of the elements of this game actually are, we wonder what would have happened if the villain had looked elseware for the tools to take over the world. We also discover that one of the levels may have been a little triggering for one of us. Enjoy listening to us hang out for a while as we flip through The Plucky Squire!

Only weeks away from the debut of the next Life Is Strange game, Smackerly (Ray) and TheGreenGorillaGamer (Kade) join me to talk at length about the full story of Life Is Strange True Colors. We break down all of the major points in this particular story and what choices we had Alex make. And then we all realize that we may have been making the same choices, but for wildly different reasons. We question if maybe one of us made the wrong choice, but we then realize that these choices are so nuanced that there really is no wrong choice and everything that happens makes sense for the characters in Haven Springs.

Josh and Colin from the Trophy Talk podcast jump in to talk about Prodeus, a game crowd-funded and released by Bounding Box in 2022, but one that looks like it came out in 1997. It's plain and simple - shoot all the bad things and get to the exit. This game hits all the nostalgic high points. With low framerate animations, cardboard cutout enemies, and pixelated blood everywhere. Prodeus takes us back to those days of first finding Doom on a parent's PC. This time, it's just a couple of buds sitting around gushing about a very bloody game and making up the story that could have gone with it, just like we did in 6th grade.

Jordan and I voyage into the seemingly cozy game of Dredge ready to fish and solve mysteries. We both share how we found much more than expected and trade harrowing tales of trying to out run sea monsters. We also discover there were elements to the game that each of us missed and we enlighten each other to the little tricks and tips that can help you fish more effectively and responsibly around the islands of the Marrows and beyond.

Sarah joins me as we take a trip down a dark road through Little Hope - a horror movie game from the same same studio that gave us Until Dawn. We each have our own theories about what is really happening in Little Hope and we try to analyze how they can fit into the story. We discuss how having imaginary friends is usually harmless and then wonder if in this case, is that friend really just imaginary? And this wouldn't be a good horror movie if it didn't have some spectacular deaths, so we talk about some of the best (or worst?) to happen to the people of Little Hope.

Gage Luke from the Neon Pocket Dimension provides a lot of insight to the historical references and mythology featured in Raji: An Ancient Epic. We also highlight some of the most interesting designs and beautiful set pieces seen in the game, some of the myths that it's based on, and we have a short tangent about Mirror's Edge way back on the PS3 and XBox360. Raji can be looked at as an example of the budding trend of representation of cultures in games that were not traditionally seen before, but there are also other implications this game has and we touch on those important points too.

Darryl (@TheTallSamoanGuy) from the Trophy Talk Podcast picked the super cool perspective puzzle game Superliminal to talk about. We go through our favorite puzzles, how much we love this unique mechanic, and how this game does a great job of giving you confidence to overcome the seemingly insurmountable task of finishing it. Fun fact: hearing how Darryl went after the challenge mode in this game gave me the confidence to try and complete it the following day! As Dr. Glenn Pierce would say, do you find yourself blowing things out of proportion and coming face-to-face with impossible situations? Then maybe Superliminal is for you!

Tofer and Jordan are back to talk about Dead Cells and our love/hate relationship with the rogue-like genre. We go into all of our favorite parts and random configurations that this game can take. We discuss some of our favorite weapon styles and synergies and then tell a few stories about ridiculous deaths that we should have seen coming. We also talk about what makes the DLC so great and why you should get it if you love this game so much. And then we explain why, even though we kept getting knocked down, we planned to jump back in after recording to try again, and probably die again.

Fellow Castlevania enthusiasts Jordan and Topher both join me to talk about Koji Igarashi's Kickstarter-funded game that fans had been eagerly clamoring for ever since he left Konami. It's an understatement to say that we have complex feelings about how this game turned out, but we are still very glad to have it. We go into all our favorite weapons, spells, locations, and bosses. We also go into inevitably getting stuck and the frustrating effort it takes to make something as simple as spaghetti or beef curry in the castle.

Steve picked the Outer Wilds to play through this month and we break down what we love and sometimes hate about each planet in this micro solar system. We talk about the joy of discovering something new and being able to just share that joy with someone else. We also talk deeply about what it means to travel to new and unexpected places, even though it might be scary, and why we feel the urge to keep going despite that. We also laugh a lot over the many ways to die in Outer Wilds - being crushed by a giant sand waterfall, having the autopilot fly us straight into the sun, or just forgetting to put on our space suits when exiting the ship, it's all here and we loved doing it over and over again in the name of discovery.

Colin Kolhoven, the host of the Trophy Talk podcast just played Shadow of the Colossus for the first time and we dig into what makes it so much of a masterpiece, but still somewhat difficult to play. We gush about the beautiful landscape, the majestic beauty of many of the colossus, and then how you kill them. We talk all about which side of this story might actually be evil and question what our actions really mean. Then in a spoiler section we theorize about the many possible meanings of the ending and then break down each of our top five colossus fights. Mere hours after we recorded I already wanted to change my list - there are just too many incredible moments in this game.

To close out 2023 Robert has picked for us to play Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. We go over all there is to love about the story and what's not to love about some of the action. We gush about how much we both love Drax and all of the things he just doesn't seem to understand. And there's a space llama involved.

Jordan has picked Inscryption fot the month's game and we try to unravel all of the mysteries and secrets inside the game, but of course that's impossible with just one episode. We do our best anyway and probably say "What the f---" more than enough times to drive home how weird this game gets.

To celebrate the Halloween season Brian has picked the 2019 remake of MediEvil. We cover everything to do with how the game has stayed very faithful to its 1998 roots and all the good and bad that comes with it. We also trade stories about how scary it was to play a PlayStation game without a memory card, momentarily reminisce about an obscure Sean Connery movie, and pitch a Pet Cemetery management sim. Happy Halloween everyone!

This month Sarah has chosen for us to play though and make sense of Shinji Mikami's first game outside of Capcom. We break down this mind-bending mystery in spoiler-ific detail and dissect the best and worst parts of its twisted nightmare.

In our first episode with four people we each pick our favorite Turtle or non-turtle character to play as in this nostalgic re-imagining of those classic Turtles arcade games from the early 90's. We share all of our favorite memories about those games and why this game is actually better then those older ones. If you're ever played a few rounds of those beat-em-up's with your friends, then this one is for you. Darryl Fuimaono and SluggerJD both share a bit about their own show, the Trophy Talk Podcast, and Jordan announces a new show he is planning to launch as well. For a real added treat look up the YouTube version of this episode, because at 3 minutes in Jordan has a bit of show-and-tell that I was able to include there. We hope you enjoy the show and as Mikey likes to shout "Party on dude!"

Brian Everett joins me to unravel the very weird, cool, and unsettling pixelated world of Blasphemous. We go into all the gory details of how the land of Cvstodia and its residents are slowly being transformed. We dissect this very obtuse story thanks to some help from the internet and then highlight some of our favorite boss fights and character encounters. Cvstodia seems to have a very warped definition of the word "miracle."

On this very special episode Steve Watkins and Sarah Amini call in to talk about the riveting game Brothers from the mind of Josef Fares. We talk about every step of the journey that the brothers Naia & Naiee take and what it all means to us. Note that there is a constant annoying clicking sound that I couldn't remove.

Jordan Vickers and Robert Fitton join me to talk about Rayman Legends, a weird, beautiful, and very funny cartoon-like platformer released in 2013. We talk about our favorite levels, music, and bosses, all while gushing about how much the game made us all laugh and smile so much.

This time I talk with Jordan Vickers about Tetris Effect and Tetris Effect Connected. Tetris Effect first released in 2018 through Enhance Games and later received the "Connected" update which added multiplayer and other modes to this already very well-crafted version of Tetris. Fun fact: while I was editing the episode and pulling audio clips from my gameplay, I very often found myself saying "No wait, I think this is my favorite track in the game."

This time we take a trip among the stars though randomly generated open environments in Everspace. Developed and published by Rockfish Games and first released in May, 2017, Everspace is a rogue-lite space shooter where players travel to randomly generated stages in open space and encounter a variety of enemies and hazards that can quickly end their run. In this episode we tell stories of many unique chance events that we just happened upon in our voyage through this beautiful looking, but deadly and fast-paced space shooter.

This month we dive into Maneater and talk all about how fun it is to cause chaos as a shark terrorizing seaside neighborhoods while hearing Chris Parnell share ridiculous shark facts. Developed and published by Tripwire Interactive and released in May, 2020, Maneater is a fun romp where players take on the role of a shark that eats its way through a fictional town, evolves super powers along the way, and grows into an over-powered megashark. Thanks for listening!

For our very first episode we take a deep dive on Observation. Developed by No Code and published by Devolver Digital on May 21, 2020, Observation is a game about one crew member of a space station trying to survive a disaster and uncover the mystery of what happened.The first half of our show will be about the game in just a general sense and what we thought of it overall. Then the second half is a spoiler-filled deep dive into the story and the events that happen through the game's story, as well as some of the best and most interesting puzzles. Thanks for listening!Guests: Robert Fitton and Sarah Amini