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Side Quests is back and so is series creator, Matt aka Stormageddon! They are a podcaster, editor, producer, writer and quarterback! The game they are talking about today is Tecmo Bowl by Tecmo. You can find everything they work on here! We have a Patreon! Gain access to episode shout outs, bonus podcasts, reviews, early downloads of regular episodes, an exclusive rss feed and more! Click here! You can find the show on Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!
Jon and Sam talk through preparations for the impending severe weather today. Jon discusses events of the weekend, including Sen. Booker's sit-in on Capitol Hill and the U.S. citizen child that was allegedly deported. Weekly guest Andrew Langer joins the show to discuss immigration, President Trump at Pope Francis' funeral, and Trump's first 100 days.
Review code provided by Ivy Road- thank you! I think we all viewed Davey Wreden's new project announcement, a "cozy game about making tea", with a bit of side-eye. Is it really just going to be about making tea? You sure there isn't going to be a subversion in there? Are you still reading this? Well, Wanderstop is here, and it may not have the type of subversion that we expected, but it is most definitely not just a cozy game about making tea. This is a longer episode, because there is just that much to discuss. Grab a mug and enjoy! Guest Info: Matt Storm aka Stormageddon and CGDannyB * Listen to Matt's podcasts: "Fun" and Games- https://www.certainpov.com/fun-and-games and Reignite- https://www.certainpov.com/reignite * Find Matt on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/djstormageddon.com * Find Danny's streams, Playlog Podcast, YouTube channel and more- https://solo.to/cgdannyb TIMESTAMPS * 0:00 Title Card * 0:36 Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts * 16:13 Story Setup/Themes Overview * 38:36 Gameplay and Story, Presentation * 1:16:24 Recommendations/Guest Plugs * 1:32:00 Spoiler Wall/Patron Thank-Yous * 1:33:44 Spoiler Section Music used in the episode is credited to C418. You can purchase the soundtrack here- https://c418.bandcamp.com/album/wanderstop-fm. Tracks used: Introduction, The Fighter, Unknowable, Broom, Wanderstop pt. 1, Boredom, Trust, Farewell Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/tftblpod.bsky.social) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!
McKenna and Sam are back with Movies I'd Like to Finish! This week's entertainment brings you 1996's The Birdcage! Take your Pirin Tablets because this week's topics include: Stormageddon, two tired parents, and a conversation about comedy.
A spoiler-free discussion on an indie gem!This month's bonus episode sees Jared joined by friends of the show CGDannyB and Matt Storm to discuss Eternal Strands. They talk gameplay, character romances, and general charm!You can find Danny here:https://www.youtube.com/@cgdannybYou can find Matt here: https://linktr.ee/dj_stormagedddonFind all of our socials as well as our discord server here!:https://linktr.ee/PlayAlongPodcast Episodes of this podcast go up every Tuesday at 9 am PSTIntro and outro music is done by https://boqeh.bandcamp.com
We spilled some tea in Wanderstop. Developer: Ivy Road | Publisher: Annapurna Interactive | Initial Release: February 24, 2025 Jacob and special guest Matt Storm aka Stormageddon run through the forest, grow some fruit and reflect on our own lives. PLAYERS: Jacob McCourt (Bluesky) SPECIAL GUEST: Matt Storm aka Stormageddon (Bluesky) Web: LeftBehindGame.Club | Twitter: @LeftBehindClub | Bluesky: leftbehindgameclub.bsky.social TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro 0:40 - Intro to Matt Storm 5:20 - Fast Pitch 6:20 - Disclosures 6:40 - How We Played 7:35 - Gameplay Basics 12:50 - Story Setup 19:45 - Graphics 23:00 - Mugs 25:20 - Voice Acting 27:20 - Music 29:15 - Our Tea Orders 31:00 - Final Non-Spoiler Thoughts 35:05 - Spoiler Warning 35:20 - What It's All About 37:30 - Staying Quiet 41:20 - Controlling Your Drive 42:30 - Ren 47:00 - Reflection & Achievements 53:40 - Business Men 58:40 - Your Trainer & Your Craft 1:04:50 - Monster 1:08:45 - Ending 1:15:30 - 10,000 Hours 1:17:45 - Seasons of Change 1:21:20 - Final Thoughts and Outro MATT'S PAST EPISODES: The Last of Us PAX West 2022 Mega Show Yakuza o [Part 2] Nintendo Gamecube Retrospective (Live from PAX East 2023) Coffee Talk RESOURCES: Our Interview with Karla Zimonja “Fun” & Games Podcast - Side Quest: Kirby Super Star “Fun” & Games Podcast - Side Quest: Sonic 3 & Knuckles “Fun” & Games Podcast - Side Quest: Psychonauts “Fun” & Games Podcast Episode 145: Mini Discs, Big Fun Matt's Review of Wanderstop DISCORD: The Left Behind Game Club is a monthly game club podcast focusing on positivity & community. To talk to members of the community, join our Discord server!
Matt aka Stormageddon emerges from a pipe to surprise Case and Sam with the power up of a movie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie! Can they make it through with only three continues? Music by Vin Macri and Matt Brogan Podcast Edited by Sophia Ricciardi Overview In the podcast recording discussion titled "Another Pass at The Super Mario Bros Movie," hosts Case Aiken and Sam Alicea, joined by guest Matt (Stormageddon), delve into their cinematic experiences of the 2023 film, praising its 92-minute runtime and appeal to both children and nostalgic adult fans. They highlight standout performances, notably Jack Black as Bowser and Anya Taylor-Joy as a proactive Princess Peach, while critiquing Chris Pratt's portrayal of Mario as merely average. The hosts discuss the film's visual splendor and numerous Easter eggs, though they express disappointment over its reliance on pop music rather than classic Mario compositions. Despite some criticisms of the plot's formulaic nature and suggestions for improvement, the overall consensus is positive, deeming the film entertaining while respecting the franchise's legacy; potential sequels and upcoming projects are also touched upon as they conclude the episode. Notes Introduction to The Super Mario Bros Movie Discussion (00:02 - 08:33) Matt (Stormageddon) returns as a guest to discuss The Super Mario Bros Movie (2023) Case Aiken introduces podcast with co-host Sam Alicea The hosts discuss their viewing experiences of the film The 92-minute runtime is highlighted as a positive factor that keeps the movie from overstaying its welcome Initial thoughts: The film works well for both children and nostalgic adult Nintendo fans Cast Performance and Character Representation (08:33 - 18:50) Jack Black as Bowser receives unanimous praise as a standout performance Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach also praised for making the character active rather than a damsel Charlie Day as Luigi received positive reviews Chris Pratt as Mario described as 'just fine' - not as bad as internet feared but not exceptional The group appreciates Charles Martinet's cameo as Mario's father and Giuseppe The opening commercial sequence featuring the 'Super Mario Super Show' song noted as a clever homage Keegan-Michael Key's performance as Toad highlighted as charming The film successfully modernizes Princess Peach as a proactive character rather than a damsel in distress Music, Visuals and Fan Service (18:50 - 30:01) Major criticism: The film relies too heavily on pop music needle drops instead of using iconic Mario game music Case and Matt express disappointment that classic Koji Kondo compositions weren't featured more prominently The DK rap inclusion was appreciated, though Grant Kirkhope wasn't properly credited initially The visual design receives high praise, described as 'one of the most gorgeous animated films' they've seen The group appreciates the many Easter eggs and references to various Mario games Notable references: Mario Kart customization, power-ups, Rainbow Road, and Luigi's Mansion sequence Film balances content for children with nostalgic references for adult fans of the games ️ Plot Structure and Pacing (30:01 - 40:01) The basic plot follows Mario Brothers from Brooklyn to the Mushroom Kingdom Main criticism: The plot feels 'paint by numbers' and moves from set piece to set piece for fan service The hosts appreciate the quick pace preventing the film from becoming boring Donkey Kong's substantial role questioned as potentially excessive for this film The 'plumbing scene' at the beginning described as feeling too 'illumination-style' and skippable The Mario Kart sequence, while visually impressive, doesn't serve the plot significantly The movie makes excellent use of character power-ups during action sequences Luma (star creature) from Mario Galaxy highlighted as a standout supporting character Suggested Improvements (40:01 - 50:06) Matt suggests removing or reducing the Kong Kingdom sequence to streamline the story The hosts discuss using more game music instead of pop songs for needle drops Fred Armisen's casting as Cranky Kong questioned; suggestions of other older actors who might have been better The group agrees the final act works well in terms of hero's journey storytelling Suggestions that Donkey Kong could have been integrated differently - as a mid-boss or obstacle rather than major character Discussion of how the film could have better incorporated game mechanics into the storytelling The movie's brief runtime (92 minutes) praised as preventing it from overstaying its welcome Final Thoughts and Future Discussion (50:07 - 01:00:38) Overall positive consensus: While not groundbreaking, the film is entertaining and respects the source material The film succeeds as a fun, colorful movie for kids while providing nostalgic entertainment for adults Comparison to other video game adaptations like Detective Pikachu and Sonic Discussion of potential sequels and the upcoming Donkey Kong movie The hosts appreciate the film's visual quality while acknowledging its formulaic approach to storytelling Matt mentions returning for future episodes to discuss the Venom movies Discussion wraps with information about where to find the hosts and their other podcasts
WE'VE MADE IT TO 350 EPISODES?! HELL YEAH! For this huge milestone Matt aka Stormageddon is joined by Sarah Moonen and Geoff Moonen to fulfill their destiny as Solstice Warriors while discussing Sea of Stars by Sabotage Studio. Spoilers start at 38:09 Spoilers end at 55:14 We have a Patreon! Gain access to episode shout outs, bonus content, early downloads of regular episodes, an exclusive rss feed and more! Click here! You can find the show on Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!
In 2024, we began a new community event in the Tales from the Backlog Discord server- the Backlog Resolutions Challenge. A big group of us picked a list of games that had been collecting dust in our libraries and resolved to play them! This episode is all about how that challenge went- what worked, what didn't work, why most of us didn't complete our lists, and any adjustments we are making going into the 2025 challenge. If you'd like to join us, hop in the Discord server (https://discord.gg/nmb3VCydkr), make your list and start playing! Guest info: * Matt aka Stormageddon, host of "Fun" and Games and Reignite podcasts. Find everything they do at https://djstormageddon.com/ * Jared Moss, host of Play Along Podcast (https://linktr.ee/PlayAlongPodcast) * Soccr TIMESTAMPS * Intros/General Thoughts 0:13 * Challenges 33:47 * Break/Patron Thank Yous 53:43 * Lessons Learned/Plans for the 2025 Challenge 55:03 Music used in the episode: * "Tinykin" (Tinykin)- Alexis Laugier * "BRIDGES" (Death Stranding)- Ludvig Forssell * "Catchy" (Picross 3D)- Yasumasa Yamada, Jun Ishikawa, Hirokazu Ando * "No.EX 01" (Xenoblade Chronicles X)- Hiroyuki Sawano Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!
To celebrate 3 years of Tales from the Backlog, I figured it was time to talk about the namesake of the show- The Backlog. Do we get FOMO as dozens of great games release every year? Do we feel pressure to complete the games we buy? What's the best approach to keep our habits healthy? All this and much more in this discussion episode! Guest info: * Matt aka Stormageddon of "Fun" and Games and Reignite (https://linktr.ee/dj_stormagedddon) podcasts. * Marcus Stewart of The Indie Informer (https://the-indie-in-former.com/). Find Marcus on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MarcusStewart7) and Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/marcusstreamsgames). Music used in the episode: * Pandora's Place (Yakuza 0)- SEGA Sound Team * Frozen Soul (Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere)- Tetsukazu Nakanishi * Yoga (Wii Fit)- Toru Minegishi, Manaka Tominaga Check out Dave's guest appearance on Retro Hangover (https://linktr.ee/retrohangover) discussing System Shock 2! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!
Matt Storm AKA Stormageddon is a podcaster, DJ and content creator. More Matt: https://linktr.ee/dj_stormagedddon
On this episode of Unlockables, its time to LIVE AND LEARN. After foolishly beginning the Year of Shadow at the end of the story, we've gone back to right the wrongs by playing the game where Shadow debuted, Sonic Adventure 2! Matt aka Stormageddon from "Fun" and Games podcast and the Reignite podcast stopped by the show to help us escape from the city and see the true origin of SHADOW. Links and Social Media! Support the Show on Patreon! Linktree to All Socials Eric's Twitter Unlockables Twitter Unlockables Instagram The Unlockables is a video game podcast about people's stories and memories around the video games they play, as well as the story of video games themselves! Each week a guest or guests join Eric on the show to talk about the games that meant the most to them growing up, the games they love now, and memories they have with friends, family, loved ones, or even themselves about playing videogames. There are also some solo episodes sprinkled in with random topics related to anything and everything video games!
We all have backlogs. I usually pick games from it for my Patreon polls to help me work through it steadily. But sometimes I just pick a game off of it with no intention of playing it for the show and then I enjoy it so much I feel like I have to. Alan Wake was one of those games for me. Joining me on this episode are Phil Morgan from the Deleted Saves podcast and Matt aka Stormageddon to break down Alan Wake from Remedy Games. This episode delves into some heavy topics, expecially later on in the episode so please note the content warning below along with the time stamp for where that portion starts. Content warning: Suicide, Self Harm 1:47:19 Check out Deleted Saves! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deleted-saves Follow Phil on Twitter! https://twitter.com/DeletedSaves Check out the Fun and Games Podcast https://twitter.com/funandgamespod Follow Matt on Twitter! https://twitter.com/dj_stormageddon Shout-out Song: Tonberry Takeout (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles) Artist: Chjolo Album: Halloween https://gamechops.com/halloween/ End Song: Out of Time (Castlevania) Artist: Mykah Album: Halloween https://gamechops.com/halloween/ Get Still Loading Podcast merch! https://www.teepublic.com/user/still-loading-podcast Check out the Bit by Bit Foundation! https://www.bitbybitfoundation.org/ Support the Podcast! https://www.patreon.com/stillloadingpod
On this months episode of Get Rec'd Ben is joined by Matt Storm (aka Stormageddon) as they discuss their time playing through Solar Ash and A Plague Tale: Innocence You can find Matt and his shows here! https://linktr.ee/dj_stormagedddon Find all of our socials, as well as our discord server here!: https://linktr.ee/PlayAlongPodcast Episodes of this podcast go up every Tuesday at 9 am PST Intro and outro music is done by https://boqeh.bandcamp.com Music Break 1: Crater Ouroboros (Solar Ash) Music Break 2: Plague Tale (A Plague Tale: Innocence)
Every now and then, I want to take a break from story-focused games and just play a puzzle-ass puzzle game. Geometric Interactive's Cocoon was just what the doctor ordered, from that perspective. But Cocoon's world hinted at a deeper story, one that seems inaccessible yet present, and that left me with a feeling of want, despite how great the puzzle experience was. Listen to the episode for more! And also a big shoutout to patron Matt aka Stormageddon for submitting this game into the poll it ended up winning! Thanks Matt! Joining me for the discussion about Cocoon is Brenden Groom from Pass the Controller. Pass the Controller is a great spot for chat about what's going on in the world of video games and other nerd culture, as well as interesting cocktail mixes to pair with your favorite games. You can check them out at their website (https://passthecontroller.io/)! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:53 Story Setup/Puzzle Gameplay 11:16 Visuals/Music 37:14 Closing Thoughts/Recommendations/Housekeeping 48:14 SPOILER WALL 58:42 Music used in the episode is credited to Jakob Schmid. You can purchase the soundtrack on Steam to support the artist! Tracks used in the episode: Signal, Cosmic Mystery, A Dance in Phases, Leviathan, Journey II, Spheres Check out friend of the show Flora Merigold's written review of Cocoon (https://epiloguegaming.com/the-fluid-ambience-of-cocoon-a-game-thats-its-own-worst-enemy/) on Epilogue Gaming! Listen to Dave's appearance on Retro Hangover's King of Games 1996 (linktr.ee/retrohangover)! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!
Side Quests is back and so is series creator, Matt aka Stormageddon! They are a podcaster, editor, producer and true ruler of Vermund! The game they are talking about today is Dragon's Dogma II by Capcom. You can find this episode's host on twitter and you can find everything they work on here! We have a Patreon! Gain access to episode shout outs, bonus content, early downloads of regular episodes, an exclusive rss feed and more! Click here! You can find the show on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!
Time to escape the Underworld! In this episode, Jared, Ky, and Ben are joined by Matt Storm, also known as Stormageddon, from Fun & Games and Reignite Podcast to discuss the acclaimed indie game Hades! From the rogue-like mechanics to the Olympian Boons and the relationship building, Hades is packed with great content and an even better soundtrack to accompany Zagrius as he tries to escape. Will we be able to escape the Underworld and find out the truth about Zagrius' past? Tune in to find out! You can find Matt and their podcast, Twitch, and Patreon below! Be sure to check them out. djstormegeddon.com Episodes of this podcast go up every Tuesday at 9 am PST Intro and outro music is done by https://boqeh.bandcamp.com Music Break: Hades (No Escape) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playalongpodcast/message
We're jumping back into the review season for the pod, we have a few lined up to be coming at you full force here pretty soon. We're joined this week by Matt Storm aka Stormageddon to discuss and do a full-blown analysis of Dragon's Dogma 2! This action RPG is pretty cool and quite polarizing for any who play it. We had great discussions surrounding the design ethos form the Itsuno-helmed team over at Capcom and what actually makes this experience special!Time Stamps:0:00 - Introductions01:59 - Dragon's Dogma 2 Billing02:49 - Background & History18:11 - Story Setup39:09 - Considering the Open World01:00:09 - Fast Travel?01:23:05 - Combat / Pawns / Vocation System02:00:25 - Enemy Variety Issues02:08:17 - Story Conclusion & Spoilers02:29:36 - Final Thoughts02:40:45 - OutroPlease find Matt at all their links & shows below!https://twitter.com/dj_stormageddonhttps://twitter.com/funandgamespodhttps://funandgames.libsyn.com/https://www.certainpov.com/reignite/Music by: Daniel Campolihttps://www.danielcampoli.com/portfolioDragon's Dogma 2 Tracks:Composed by: Satoshi Hori, Hana Kimura, Masahiro Oki, Shusaku Uchiyama If you want to reach out to Nick and Will personally to engage with us about the show, follow us on any link here:https://linktr.ee/FridayNightGamecastSupport the Show.
WE ARE DOOM GUY! Matt aka Stormageddon joins Dave and Jiggyloookback for a classic FPS game with all the gore, demons, keys, wild guns, and creepy vibes you can imagine: DOOM 64! The trio jump into all the games mechanics and dig into this being Jiggy's first ever DOOM experience! You can watch this full episode on YouTube as well! We've launched a Patreon page where you can get episodes early and pre-show chats about pretty much anything and everything! PLUS, some free content is dropping on the page as well like mini reviews, and your chance to take home a free holographic Remember 64 sticker! patreon.com/remember64show Find more of Remember 64 on TikTok, Threads, Instagram, & Twitter @Remember64Show --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/remember-64/message
300 EPISODES?! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! For this huge milestone Matt aka Stormageddon is joined by Kenneth Shepard and Geoff Moonen to steal hearts in the name of justice while chatting about Persona 5 Royal by Atlus and Sega. You can find Matt here and Kenneth and Geoff on Twitter as well as check out Kenneth's work here and here! We have a Patreon! Gain access to episode shout outs, bonus content, early downloads of regular episodes, an exclusive rss feed and more! Click here! You can find the show on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!
SURPRISE! Balatro comes for us all. Developed by solo developer LocalThunk and published by Playstack, the poker-themed roguelike deckbuilder has singlehandedly caused productivity to drop by 7% worldwide since its 2024 release. Thank you to Playstack and LocalThunk for providing me with a review code so that I could become a statistic! Joining me to talk about the game, its strengths and weaknesses, our favorite strategies and beginner tips are Matt aka Stormageddon ("Fun" and Games, Reignite, Screen Snark podcasts (https://linktr.ee/dj_stormagedddon)) and Aaron Klaassen (SuperPod Saga (https://www.superpodsaga.com/)). Check their shows out, they are worth your time! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:43 SICKO SHOP TALK WALL 56:01 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!
Some Men of Steel are actually MONKEY! Case and Jmike are joined by Derek Van Dyke to talk about what is undoubtedly the "Optimal Optimus" (as well as "Code of Hero" because we are not monsters). Transcript (Subject to error) 00:00 Case Aiken Season one has a couple, like, events that feel like this should be the season finale. Like the floating island one. Yeah. And then it's like, oh, no, we're just gonna keep going. 00:07 Derek Van Dyke Season one just did a lot of great, like, mini story arcs leading up to. Yeah. Watching Beast wars, like, out of order on syndication, over the air was. 00:17 Jmike Folson Yeah, that would have messed with you. 00:18 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, because it's like every other week there's some season finale, and you're like, what is happening? 00:40 Case Aiken Hey, everyone, and welcome back to the Men of Steel podcast. I am an optimal case Aiken, and as always, I am joined by my rat trap, J. Mike Falson. 00:51 Jmike Folson I gotta be rat trap, though. Why couldn't it be Cheetor? 00:53 Case Aiken Oh. 00:54 Jmike Folson Anyway, hey, welcome back, everybody. 00:55 Case Aiken I mean, honestly, you're probably the rhinox of the team. 01:01 Derek Van Dyke A higher compliment you cannot give. 01:05 Case Aiken Well, and there's the peacemaker right there. So that's the tiger Tron, Derek Van. 01:09 Derek Van Dyke Dyke, although I do not have nearly as deep and dulcite of tones as Tigatron's voice actor. 01:16 Case Aiken What's his name? Blue Mankuma. 01:18 Derek Van Dyke Beautiful, beautiful voice. 01:20 Case Aiken An incredible voice. So we're not going to mince words here. I tried to do a bit and it didn't quite work. But you know what? We're going to maximize this effort here. Today we're talking about maximize Transformers, Beast wars, and specifically, we're going to talk about Optimus Primal and how I would argue that he is a Superman analog. And before we started recording, Derek and I were talking about how probably of any Transformers character, especially any Beast wars character, Optimus prime is the best example of a Superman type character in the series. 01:50 Derek Van Dyke And that also, I think that primal specifically is probably the best version of Optimus to make that analog with in terms of the ways that Primal is a unique character from G, one Optimus, or, like, prime or Energon or any of those other versions of Optimus Primal, very much stands out in that regard to me. 02:11 Case Aiken Yeah. I mean, so much so that in the episode victory, there is a direct, like, it's a bird, it's a plane. It's exactly. I mean, we're all 90s babies here. This seemed kind of like an appropriate little session of just, like, nostalgia and looking at a thing that definitely, even if the metaphor is forced, it is the heroic archetype that we try to talk about on this piece, where a character has the power of action and does his or her best to make the world a better place, regardless of threats and regardless of the ability to do more in a way that would be harmful to others and trying to avoid those types of situations. So we picked out a bunch of episodes from the first season to really focus on for this. But we'll talk about the series as a whole. 02:56 Case Aiken We'll talk about some of the other characters. We're obviously going to talk about code of Hero because we're not monsters on this podcast. And that has to be discussed if we're talking about beast wars. But we are going to try to frame the conversation mostly about Optimus Primal, who is just goddamn awesome. And I think a good place to start, then, before we actually get into the episodes, is just how Optimus Primal is not Optimus prime. They're very similar characters. They are obviously both the leader types for the group. But for one thing, Optimus Primal isn't just the biggest fucking dude in the room. 03:28 Jmike Folson Always. 03:30 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, he's interestingly, like, perfect middle size. Rhinox and Dinobot are bigger than, like, several characters. Outsize him in stature, so he's not the big guy of the team like Optimus traditionally is. 03:45 Case Aiken Right? I mean, Skyfire aside, or Omega supreme or any of the other really weird ones out there, Optimus prime was always sort of positioned as being the biggest one. And some of that is japanese toy convention of having the leader types always be the biggest action figure, which is true for the Optimus primal gorilla figure. Although of course, for those of us from the 90s who remember when the Beast wars toys first came out, Optimus Primal was a bat. 04:09 Derek Van Dyke Oh God. That's right. I forgot that the first toy was a bat. Wow. 04:15 Case Aiken Yeah. And Megatron was a crocodile. 04:17 Derek Van Dyke I don't think I ever saw the megatron crocodile. 04:20 Case Aiken Yeah, well, and then they got phased out and they put out. Right, right. 04:23 Derek Van Dyke And then we got the ones that. 04:24 Case Aiken Are the monkey nut truck version of Optimus. While the figure was the biggest. There's a little bit of a weirdness when you look at Rhinox. Like, depending on the shot, rhinox is clearly bigger in beast form, but sometimes a little bigger. A little. Maybe not quite as tall, but wider in terms of sizing. It's still early. 04:40 Derek Van Dyke They don't always make him, like, way taller than everyone else. Rhinox is the big guy because he's also just wide and stock. He's built like a linebacker. 04:49 Case Aiken Yeah. Meanwhile, Dinobot is definitely the tallest of at least the season one maximals, and just is one of the biggest of the show, just generally speaking, which continues to be useful for him even when he does not get some of the upgrades that the others do. But yeah, no, Optimus, he's not the biggest one in the room. He is pretty tough, and he is actually pretty capable. One of the big differences that they make in Beast wars versus g one transformers is that they can't all fly explicitly whatever the hell was going on in the more than meets the eye pilot. And then in later episodes where it's like, oh, I guess we forgot how to fly. Optimus Primal is the unique one on the early team. He's the flyer for the group to. 05:27 Derek Van Dyke The point that's a huge advantage for the enemy team, the predacons, because they have multiple flyers, and we've just got Optimus on the good guy's side. And since he's also the commander, it's risky to have him flying around on basic scout duty. 05:42 Case Aiken Right. Scouting, you would think, would go to the flyer. He's also not the heaviest heavy, but he's a heavy on the team. They make a very big point early in the pilot of, like, in terms of COVID fire, Optimus can move faster to a location, but he's also going to be a better person to lay down suppressing fire in a situation. You kind of need him to be able to move into those spots. And so what that means is that Optimus primal in Beast wars is a generalist for the majority of the show. Yeah. 06:09 Jmike Folson Mid tier character. 06:10 Case Aiken That's a niche that a Superman type often falls into when they actually scale the power levels accordingly for a team, as opposed to having the big fluctuations of a full on Superman in the group. Because Optimus is durable as hell. He's strong as hell. He can fly, and he's got firepower, but he's not necessarily the top for any of them. He's the red mage on the team, which, if you're seeing everyone as having stats that get spread out and some people focus on some, the Superman type is going to be. Yeah, fast, strong, durable, good up close. 06:39 Derek Van Dyke Good from afar, good at thinking out a plan while not necessarily being, like, the master tactician. Like you said, a little bit of everything. 06:46 Jmike Folson Yeah, I thought that was because this iteration, like, when the first episode, they clearly say they're explorers. 06:52 Case Aiken Yes. 06:52 Jmike Folson So I was like, okay, they're not, like, beefy types that we're used to seeing. So I thought that kind of got explained away right there. I was like, okay, they're just doing their thing, and this optimist is just like, copernicus, Galileo. 07:03 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, well, and that's kind of a good point too, that this optimist is not a definitive military leader with a ton of experience. This is a scientist and a man of peace, and he has doubts. I think that, like, g one Optimus, who was really the only other version of Optimus that existed at the time that beast wars came out, right? 07:27 Case Aiken I think, yeah, I mean, there's g two Optimus toys and comics, but there hadn't really been, like, a mainstream transformers. 07:34 Jmike Folson I remember Megatron saying throughout these episodes is that at this point in the Transformers timeline, the Autobots had won the war. The Autobots had won the war. And the predicons, decepticons were underneath them. Now, I don't know how that figured out and everything else. 07:49 Case Aiken Well, it's a weird part, and I'll go into it, because I watched these to death back when I actually got them dvd. I watched these back in the day. Initially, I taped these off of vcrs and rewatched it, but I bought the dvds and I listened to the commentary tracks a ton. So I have some input from that which I did not get a chance to re listen to. So I'm only going touch on it a little bit. It's a weird series of a show in that it is technically in continuity with the original Transformers show in a way that is different from all the other transformers stuff that has come since. There has been a ton of Transformers material of all types, including additional versions of Beast wars characters and so forth. 08:23 Case Aiken What we're saying, though, is at the time when this came out, there was Peter Cullen as Optimus prime, and now we're getting Gary Chalk as Optimus Primal and setting those two up as different characters. 08:35 Derek Van Dyke Yes, and spoilers for a late 90s animated series. But it's both a sequel and prequel to the original transformers as opposed to a reimagining. And I just think that's also so interesting because to me, gen one Optimus is not a lot of a character. He's cool, right? But because it's Peter Cullen, and he just has some raw lines to lay down. But to me, it's the more dynamic personality of primal, of being somebody who does have doubts, being somebody who does fail more, somebody who is a boy scout, but also kind of aware of the ways that holds them back sometimes and has to struggle with that, I think makes him a more interesting character for actually engaging with the question of what it means to be a leader. 09:26 Case Aiken What it means to be a hero. 09:28 Derek Van Dyke Even sometimes, if you don't want to be, but just because you're the one. 09:32 Case Aiken Who is best able to be, right? I mean, he was the leader of a scientific exploration vessel and all of a sudden had to do a police action against war criminals. And it's stuck in this situation where in a Dino riders style pilot sequence, they transport back in time and crash land on ancient Earth and have to contend with weird histories and all that. I think this also goes for the fact that the supporting cast is so strong. And part of that is that this is a mid to late 90s CGI cartoon wherein they couldn't have that many characters. Like the original Transformers had, like, a fuck ton of characters, especially, oh, my God, we can't keep track of. And on purpose, like, to the point where they just start introducing characters. They don't need to be like, oh, here's the new guy. 10:16 Case Aiken It's just like, this guy's always been here, right? Like, you know, Perceptor, the microscope guy. You know him, right? He's been in all these episodes somewhere. 10:25 Derek Van Dyke He was just off screen. 10:26 Case Aiken Yeah, no, he was down in the science lab doing science stuff. And this episode has science stuff. So here's Perceptor. You know the guy. And so with Beast wars, the show had a very small roster. It's five characters on each side initially, where they make up for the fact that they don't have the virtue of Transformers properties in general, which is that you like the ones that you think is cool, and then you have so many that everyone's going to find one that they think is cool, and you keep going. In this case, they had to be like, here's the distinct personalities for the five that we can animate on each side. 11:00 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, here's the personalities they have. Here are the skills that they have, how all of this stuff informs each other, and then how those characters have to change over the course of the episodes. Because Beast wars is really good about having characters start at one place and then have to change and grow, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, as events affect them and stick with them in a way that was kind of rare for a lot of animation of the time. You have a lot of these animated shows of the time, and especially the original Transformers. Right? Where the point was, like, we have our episode plot of the week, and at the end, everything's going to go back to the status quo, right? And Beast wars really threw that out. 11:42 Case Aiken The window, for one thing. We have such dynamic supporting cast members like Rattrap and Dinobot on the hero side, where Rattrap is insubordinate, a coward, super competent, and a prick. Like, it's great, that whole combination right there. And then you have Dinobot, who was a reformed bad guy, and anyone who knows me knows that I am a sucker for reformed bad guy. No, like, Anubis is my favorite character on Ronan Warriors, Dinobot is one of my favorite characters. Piccolo is my favorite dragon Ball Z character. The honorable bad guy who realized the errors of his way and has reformed in ways that are logically consistent and not just because we needed a heel face turn for the sake of the plot, is so fucking good. And Dinobot is that. 12:31 Case Aiken And again, we're going to talk about code of hero, because we have to talk about code of hero. It's so goddamn good. But that means that right from the get go, we've got people who are arguing against Optimus Primal. Rattrap, who is on his team, who was part of his crew, asks him if he's up to the task constantly because the mission is different. First episode all the time. Like, Rattrap refuses a direct order, and so Optimus Primal has to put himself in danger. And then later is like, here is why I did this thing. Here's why I explained it this way, and I asked you to do it because it made more sense that way. And instead, we did it this way, and now we're hurt, and we're not in a good position where we can actually easily fix ourselves. Things are bad. 13:13 Case Aiken And then Ratchup still is giving him shit. It's not like a one time, and then it's fine. Every single time afterwards, he's giving him crap until eventually he finally learns to trust him. 13:23 Jmike Folson Optimus had to tell him early on. He's like, I'm not going to put you in positions and things that I wouldn't do myself, so you're going to have to trust me. And Raptrap's like, man, whatever. 13:34 Case Aiken Sure, Optimus. And that's such a good line. 13:37 Derek Van Dyke Better you than me. 13:39 Case Aiken That honestly has stuck with me in terms of my management style so much more, probably more than it's, like, healthy in some regards, where I'll throw myself out there to work on a project where I'm like, I probably should have been focusing on the macro. There have been plenty of times where it's like, oh, yeah, this project that needed to be done by the end of the month. I'm now cramming to finish because were in the weeds about something else somewhere earlier in the month kind of thing. But I think that's such a great aspect of his character. He is completely prepared to lead from the front, to take the hits, to do all that, even if he sees the best way to do it is this. And that's the plan I'm going to go with. 14:13 Case Aiken But when something doesn't work, when circumstances change, he'll get out there. There's no problem with that. And it's not for glory. It's not for honor. It's not for anything like that. This is the best plan. And does it make the most sense for me to be there? Yes. No. But it's never out of cowardice. It's never even self preservation from the standpoint of, like, well, I'm the commander. I have to survive so I can keep making new plans. Like, when the plan fails to make a new plan type character. No, he's not that. He just is aware that he's also pretty well equipped to do a bunch of different jobs because he's the red mage on the right. Yeah. 14:47 Derek Van Dyke And especially bringing up rat Trap and the way that rat trap kind of does not respect Optimus's authority at first. 14:55 Case Aiken Can we just pause before we go further on a discussion of rat Trap? And let's just say for anyone who has not watched the show, rat Trap is Rocket Raccoon. 15:03 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, I mean, that's a great point of comparison for modern audiences, like, to. 15:08 Case Aiken The point where I'm wondering if when they kind of rebooted rocket raccoon to be the character that he is in the comics, if they were looking at, like, they're that close. Yeah, we're all going to die, right? That's his catchphrase. We're all going to die. 15:22 Derek Van Dyke God, Scott McNeil is just so good as half the cast of this show. Yeah, but, like Rattrap, it's a great example of. One of the most powerful aspects of Optimus Primal, to me, is the effect that he has on the rest of the cast. Rat Trap is somebody who starts off as very cowardly, very insubordinate, and obviously, he's always going to be the team loudmouth and the team cynic. But over the course of especially that first season, you really watch rat trap, like, one step at a time. Have to learn from Optimus's example and from Cheetor some. But in that case, it's still indirectly Optimus, because Cheetor adores Optimus and is trying to do everything he can to mirror that behavior, sometimes to overly enthusiastic. 16:12 Derek Van Dyke But, like, it's that drags rat trap into being more of a team player, being more heroic, putting himself at risk more when he's the best person for a job you can watch over the course of that first season, how much he changes. And that's entirely Optimus's influence as a leader. 16:33 Case Aiken Yeah, that's the best part about Optimus, which is that the team becomes better because of his presence there. He inspires people to better, which is exactly the kind of thing we talk about on this show and why the archetype of, like, a hero who is doing their best is important. 16:51 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, it's not enough to be the leader and be like the jack of all trades. You also have to be a little bit the Paladin. Right? Like, you have to be somebody who, it's not just the actions that you take, but how you empower the people around you to better, to teach young and impressionable Cheetor to think a little bit more ahead, to teach rat trap to be kind of braver, to be an example for Dinobot to clash against. Right. Which is so fascinating because Dinobot never fully takes on Optimus's ideals. But I think especially by code of Hero, we'll get to it. You do see how much he has learned by his time with the maximals. 17:33 Case Aiken Why don't we actually dig into the episodes that we wanted to talk about? The ones that we highlighted specifically were the two part pilot BSors, episode ten, guerrilla warfare episode twelve, victory episode 24 before the storm, which is really just the first part of the three part finale, and then the two part finale of season one, which is other voices, and then Code of hero, because again, we're not monsters here. Yeah. So talking about beast wars, the Pilot, I emailed you guys when I was watching it because right from the get go. Oh my God, this show is so good at economy of storytelling. 18:06 Derek Van Dyke Yes. 18:06 Case Aiken We've got the whole transwarp. We've come through time and space and we're having this whole fight over this weird alien world. And we set up elements about all the different characters on the ship. We set up like, it's an exploration vessel, not a battle cruiser. Like all those little bits right there. We set up the proto forms, which is such an ingenious little element of like. Yeah. Now we know we're going to want to introduce characters more over the course of the season, at least. How do we do that? Here is an element that will work, but we don't have to worry about it right now. 18:37 Derek Van Dyke Here's a massive number of ticking time bombs for new characters that we can introduce as many as we want whenever we want down the road. But they're not here now, right? 18:46 Jmike Folson They're floating in space. 18:47 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, they're just sleeping. 18:50 Case Aiken There's the whole inner John situation that is on the planet in season one, where their robot forms are unable to function for prolonged periods of time in the environment. And so that they have to turn into animals as a way of basically, like, Terminator style clothing themselves in meat as a way to bypass a thing. And that's a really fun exposition bit that they set up very quickly. They bring up the great War, which, according to the commentary tracks, they didn't fucking know what that meant. They didn't know they were necessarily talking about the original transformers at the time. That all came later. And the fact that it fit so smoothly is incredible. 19:24 Derek Van Dyke Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you say the phrase the Clone wars, and you figure it out later. 19:30 Case Aiken You know what I mean? We introduce all these characters. We set up all that, and then we start setting up their capabilities very quickly. 19:38 Derek Van Dyke Right. 19:38 Case Aiken When they leave the ship for the first time, we start seeing the zooming in eye effect that Optimus Primal has, even in ape form, which I think is such a great way of one reminding everyone they're robots and they can do XYZ. I always thought that their augmented reality vision stuff was, like, one of the coolest secret abilities that they had, as opposed to the really obvious, like, I have a gun that comes out of my ape arm kind of thing. Yeah, no, they're still robots here. And just to continue the comparison with Superman. Yeah, he's got supervision on top of flight, and he's a robot. Yeah. 20:11 Derek Van Dyke Every character gets moments that are, like, establishing the most important pieces of their personality at the start of the show. Right. Like, rat trap is going to be cynical and cowardly from the get go. Rhinox is going to be the Peacekeeper and also the big guy who's like, nope, you know what? I don't care if there's a rock I can break through that know Cheetor is going to run off on his own when everyone says, stop, wait, he's already gone. 20:40 Case Aiken Right. And then establish that the communications are limited because of the environment that they're in, so they can't just, like, radio everywhere. 20:47 Derek Van Dyke The energon is such a brilliant little piece of plot BS in Beast wars, because the way that they've made the energon out to be in this, it is a resource that they desperately need and can fight over in however many episodes they feel like. It is the reason the bad guys are there, which makes it accidentally the reason the good guys are there. It is a limiting factor. Right. Because it is incredibly dangerous and forces them to arbitrarily whenever the plot demands it. Right? Oh, there's so much energon. We've got to stay in Beast form. Right? Like, it can be a limiter for the plot of the episode, which is used to great effect many times. 21:29 Derek Van Dyke And then finding out new weird things and ways that it interacts with a lightning strike or a certain piece of technology gives them the ability to bs in the plot. For a bottle episode, it's one singular element that really makes the show kind of by how it gets to both be the prize and the hazard. Yeah, if that makes sense. 21:54 Jmike Folson I feel like later on, they kind of forgot about a lot of the energon stuff they set up. 21:58 Case Aiken Yeah, because at first they're like, oh. 22:00 Jmike Folson We can't be in our robot forms for more than, like, two minutes. And by season two, they're having full on guerrilla warfare out there for hours at a time, like killing each other. And like, oh, wait, the season two. 22:14 Case Aiken They deliberately say all the energon because it's unstable energon, as opposed to what we had seen in OG transformers, where it's like, here's just cubes of stuff that soundwave emitted from his chest that can soar up the coal energy from this furnace or whatever. They make a point that it is different. It's unstable. It's dangerous, and there's so much of it and that the season one finale destroys most of it and transforms what's there into a stable version that does not affect them. 22:42 Jmike Folson Energon cubes. 22:43 Derek Van Dyke Unless you're, like, right up on it. 22:45 Jmike Folson Right. 22:45 Case Aiken Really, the split between season one and two is like a complete, like, we're just like, wiping the floor with all the status quo that we had set up in season one so that we can get away with doing a much weirder season two. And I like a lot of season two, but it loses some of the vibrancy of the first season. It's way more deserts and it's way more like battleground vistas as a. 23:04 Derek Van Dyke Just mesas and stuff. 23:05 Case Aiken Yeah, exactly. 23:06 Derek Van Dyke As far as the eye can see. 23:07 Jmike Folson So what you're saying is you don't like silverbolt? Shame on you, Casey. 23:10 Case Aiken I actually like silverbolt. But you know what? If fucking Silverbolt showed up in season one, he'd be interesting showing up in season two, right when they're showing up, like, being like, here's transmetals and here's all this other stuff going on, and here's Jesus fucking gorilla, man. Like, Silverbolt gets lost in the gouache at that point. 23:26 Derek Van Dyke He's just here to be very beautiful and stupid. 23:32 Case Aiken I mean, yes. So, like, the pilot does a lot of great stuff here. We set up the stakes. We establish, like, yeah, at first it's four on five as far as teams go, because dinobot, very quickly, you think he might be like the starscream of the team gets into a fight with Megatron. I love it where it's like leadership takes cunning and cleverness as well. Wouldn't you say? So Scorponok, like, just shoots him away. 23:55 Derek Van Dyke I do like, also, the pilot is the only time Scorponok is ever a threat. Very quickly becomes the butt monkey of the enemy team. 24:07 Case Aiken I mean, is he the worst butt monkey? It's hard to really say. 24:11 Derek Van Dyke Look, nobody out. Butt monkeys. Waspinator. 24:14 Jmike Folson Hey, we put some respect. 24:20 Case Aiken Secret best characters, the same. God, we love some of these characters. And some of these best characters are all voiced by the same person. 24:33 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, I know, right? I do love how they have a completely unsubtle like, yeah, this is the actual starscream in pterosaur. To the point of, like, he just sounds, looks, acts like everything like him gets possessed by Starscream. 24:48 Case Aiken In an episode. 24:50 Derek Van Dyke Waspinator gets possessed by Starscream. That's right. 24:53 Case Aiken When Starscream shows up in that. Not exactly a deep cut, but the fact that the Starscream ghost thing had been set up already, it's like, oh, that's fun. 25:02 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. 25:02 Case Aiken And also, as one of my favorite lines in the show, which is when black Arachnia betrays starscream and says, are all your dreams in Technicolor? But getting back to the pilot, so we've got this power imbalance, which I think is really fun. We also established that they are not that fucking big. Like, it's not Transformers OG style, where it's like, yeah, he's a truck that turns into a robot, but what if he's even bigger than that truck? What if the microscope guy is as big as the truck guy? What if the boombox is four stories tall? 25:33 Derek Van Dyke What if the bad guy turns into a regular handgun? 25:37 Case Aiken At least it made sense with G two when they turned him into a tank. 25:40 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, but, yeah, all the transformers are like, roughly analogous to human size. I think they're mostly a little bigger than your average person if you scale them against the pre humans in later seasons. But they're like six to 10ft tall, not 18ft 45. 26:00 Case Aiken Yeah, we know that Cheetor is the same size as a regular cheetah because of direct comparison there, we know that rat trap is very big. For a rat. But it appears that Optimus Primal is about the right size for a gorilla, which means that he's big for a person, but not terrifyingly big. And rhinox actually seems kind of small. And actually, Megatron seems kind of small for a T Rex. 26:20 Derek Van Dyke I mean, again, getting into the arachnids, I've never seen a tarantula that size. And if I ever did, I would die on. 26:30 Jmike Folson Snap my own neck. 26:32 Derek Van Dyke I'm out. 26:35 Case Aiken And what a roster of villains. We talked about terror sore being just the starscream. Like, he's there for that role. We've got Waspinator as the bumbling ally that we like, and we've got Scorponok as the bumbling ally that we don't like in terms of the bad guys, but fucking tarantulas, man. 26:52 Derek Van Dyke Fucking tarantulas. And it's crazy to go back to the first few episodes of the show and realize, like, a, they hadn't quite nailed down how much Waspinator was going to suck, and they hadn't quite nailed down what they wanted to do with tarantulas yet. Right. It takes a few episodes for them to really be like, actually, tarantulas is going to be the smart guy. 27:11 Case Aiken Well, they, right off the bat, say that he's the only one who has the skill to break down the giant rock of inner John that they find. And then the next episode is the web episode where he captures and tortures Cheetor. So I think at the very least, they were like, he's going to be the scary spider, right? 27:26 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, yeah. That's why they gave him the. It's. It's perfect. But the amount to which tarantulas becomes a capital p problem, I don't know that they had really planned out at that point. 27:40 Case Aiken No. And that's fair. This show is so good at. Yes. Ending in a way, once you know how little they knew what they were doing in the pilot, it fits so goddamn well. When you get to the end of season one and you see all the machinations of tarantulas and Megatron and how it plays out and all that. That's all really good. And you get to the shit at the end of season two where it's like, oh, man, it's g one transformers. And they're all there. But they didn't know shit about transformers when they made the show. They didn't know what they were doing. They were told, make a fucking show with these toys. These are the reboot guys. 28:19 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. Even the pilot is a perfect example of how they. Yes. And did from the beginning. Because I think you look at the pilot episodes compared to the third episode, and you see that within the pilot, there is so much more of transforming has to come with the full. 28:37 Case Aiken Yeah, they have, like, an activation mode. 28:39 Derek Van Dyke Or Cheetor maximize and then lengthy transformation sequence. And from as early as episode three, they're like, okay, we can cut down on the dramatic yelling at the sky and then stock footage. That's not the tone that's working for us. Let's minimize that a bit. I think it's interesting to see how much more expositional dialogue is in that first episode or two in a way that works great. Like you said, to set up, like, economy of storytelling, to set the stage in one or two episodes. But the format of dialogue changes so much by the third episode. 29:14 Case Aiken Yeah, I mean, obviously, it's kind of nice in the first episode to have them all do individually their activation codes where they say their full name and then what team they're on. If they say maximize or terrorize and go through that, also establish that it's just a code word that they can just change because Dynobot does it, which is a nice detail there. That's fun. That's power rangers for you. 29:34 Derek Van Dyke Changes his tattoo. 29:38 Case Aiken It's the 90s. We were suckers for it then. I'm still a sucker for it now. But you don't need to do that going forward. And eventually we get an episode where they full on are just like, oh, no. They're all in sync with their animal selves. Now. The call of the wild episode where they all regress to their animal forms and then, like, tiger Tron gets them stoned and, like, no, man, you just need to vibe with your animal self. But that does allow for really cool moves, like rat trap, like rolling as a rat and then standing up as a robot and shooting things. All those kind of maneuvers that really come into play in the second half of the season, which also goes for what kind of choreography can they do in the early episodes, if you're really paying attention? 30:14 Case Aiken Even some of the shots where it's like a different angle, it's still the model in the same motion. They can move the camera around, but the gunfire motions are oftentimes the same animation. Just like, move which angle that they're looking at the model from. And that's because this is a 90s CGI show. This is the reboot studio. This is the show that the reboot studio did right after reboot. Yeah, I was going to say to. 30:34 Derek Van Dyke Clarify for a lot of folks who don't. There was a show called reboot. 30:38 Case Aiken That is not the recent show called Reboot. 30:41 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, there's a CGI show called Reboot before this. This is not a studio that does reboots. It's a capital r reboot. I remember nothing about reboot, to be honest. 30:52 Case Aiken Reboot is great, but this came out between season two and three. And so season one and two of reboot is rough, particularly season one. 31:01 Derek Van Dyke It looks rougher to look back at, for sure. I think part of it, too, is that because beast wars, the designs are robots and toy animals, they don't have to look as off putting as, like, we made blue people. 31:15 Case Aiken Right. 31:15 Derek Van Dyke You know what I mean? 31:17 Case Aiken And even that was choices that were made to get around the fact that it was Tron as a tv show. It was set inside of a computer so that they didn't have to be that realistic because it was a tv budget CGI show, which at the time was really difficult to do. Side note, there is a call out to reboot, which is one of the catchphrases for the main character, which is there's just no pleasing some people. Optimus Primal says to rat trap at one point in the pilot. 31:40 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, I remember that line. 31:43 Case Aiken But the point is, this is the show that they pick up after that before they come back for the amazing season three and the lackluster season four of reboot. Season three of reboot, one of the best things you can ever watch. I will continue to sing its praises forever. It's fantastic, but this show is very clearly part of this phase of a group of people learning to work with their budgets and using the restrictions of the medium that they're working in to jumpstart creativity. We have such a defined, cool supporting cast in the show because they only have the resources to make five models for each side. We've got ten characters total, and we have a pretty clear idea of what they're able to do in all cases. 32:24 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, well, and that's why, again, new characters come in at a semi steady pace, but paced out, it takes a bit for Tigatron to show up, and then it takes a bit for black arachni to show up, and then it's eraser and then Inferno. Right. 32:40 Case Aiken And there's a reason why the first two that come in, I mean, also this kind of ties into the toys, which is that they're palette swaps. Like, yes, they have design changes, but a lot of the foundations for the models are based on the same characters. Tiger Tron is Cheetor. 32:55 Derek Van Dyke They're clone characters. 32:56 Case Aiken Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 32:57 Derek Van Dyke Down to the same rifle with the brain in the back of the gun for some reason. 33:01 Case Aiken It's a marthroy situation. Yeah. And black arachnia with tarantulas. And it's great there because. Oh, my. Like, what two wonderful characters did they spawn from this whole thing? Yeah. 33:13 Derek Van Dyke Holy shit. Those two being at each other's throats the entire time is just. 33:18 Case Aiken Yeah, just great details. But we don't get them until later. And they're fun additions, but they have to pick and choose their battles for when they bring a new character in who's going to be important, and yada, yada in the pilot, right off the bat, it's like, all right, well, here's, like, a little first confrontation. There's, like, a little pit and a rock, and we can establish some character stuff. And they do really good stuff because this is where Rattrap refuses to jump into battle. And we get, like, rhinox being, like, the big tough. Like, they need cover fire. 33:45 Case Aiken So I'm picking you up, and this is a whole groot rock and raccoon situation right here, where he's holding Rattrap, who's firing in one hand, using Cheetor's gun in the other, because they didn't really want to show off his Uzi as his main weapon in the pilot. 33:56 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, the chain gun with a buzzsaw blade on it for some reason. 34:01 Case Aiken Buzsaw blade within three. It's so weird. 34:08 Derek Van Dyke He never once used that thing to hit him. 34:11 Case Aiken No, but he does shoot some people at point blank rage several times. 34:14 Derek Van Dyke He sure perforates some folks with it. That's for sure. 34:18 Case Aiken Is so great. And we will mention beast machines at the end of this. But there is a reason why I hate beast machines. 34:24 Derek Van Dyke There's no human being who loves beast. I cannot believe that's possible. 34:30 Case Aiken So we get, like, this wonderful confrontation between them that sets up all this character stuff. We set up the efficacy of the Predacons, and then the first episode of the two part pilot ends with, well, now we've got to have a battle for victory between Dinobot and Optimus Primal, which is nice to set up. I love Dinobot. I love him having this, like, well, I need honor. Like, I can't just beat you with treachery. I wouldn't have earned leadership there. And that's such a good way of setting up. He's going to work here because he's the bad guy, but he's lawful evil. And you guys are fighting chaotic evil right now. Yeah. And he's powerful. 35:06 Case Aiken He's got those fucking eye beams and he's big and he's got a weird tail spin blade thingy, which, thank God, in code of hero, he uses as like a helicopter device. Yes, man, dinobot. So here's a weird thing. I love the Megatron design in season one. I think it's really cool. I love the Trex head as the arm. I feel like it's a great shout out to the g one transformers, where Megatron, weirdly, it's the scope of the gun, but it acts as a blaster that's on his arm. I feel like it works very well there. I always thought it was weird though, that they didn't just use the Grimlock design. And then I realized that Dinobot is Grimlock. And in fact, there is an alternate color toy of dinobot that is called Grimlock. 35:47 Derek Van Dyke Oh, I didn't know they did have Beast Wars. Grimlock. 35:50 Case Aiken Never in the actual series. Yeah. But if you look at his transformation sequence, it has actually the same positioning that's going on where the head goes down to the chest, the legs extend out from the chest and are not part of the main body. And that the legs of the dinosaur form slide up and become the upper torso arms. 36:08 Derek Van Dyke Okay. 36:09 Case Aiken And then the tail splits open. And on grimlock, it splits open and becomes like part of his back. In this case, it becomes a separate spinny weapon thing with his spine being his sword. 36:19 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. Or something. 36:21 Case Aiken That's the extension of the spine. 36:23 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. It's one long thing. One long spaghetti noodle. Right. 36:28 Case Aiken So there is some weird headcanon of like. Well, but maybe Dinobot is the descendant. The point is that they went with this very tried and true design for the character to be then this weird villainous lancer character. 36:44 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. 36:44 Case Aiken In a five man band. That sort of makes the most sense. Right. Because then, yeah, he was effectively the. 36:50 Derek Van Dyke Number two on the predicon side. And then he defects. And because the maximals just do not have that same explicit sort of hierarchy structure, it's like, okay, well, I'm not the leader. What am I? And it's like, here's the guy. Here's one of the boys now. And clearly he struggles forever to figure out how he is supposed to work as a soldier, as somebody who believes in hierarchies, as somebody who believes in a chain of command. Again, like there's science. This is not a military that he has joined. 37:24 Case Aiken Yeah. And it's like a small crew. It's not the starship Enterprise. Like, yeah, we've got rhinox. He's really good at scanning shit. And Rattrap's really good at fixing machines and making bombs. 37:35 Derek Van Dyke He's sort of the engineer. 37:36 Case Aiken Again, Rattrap is just fucking rocket raccoon. 37:40 Derek Van Dyke Technician, demolitions expert, snarky little guy, and I love it. 37:48 Case Aiken It's definitely not plagiarism in terms of rat trap, and it's archetypal, but it's just so well done here. Yeah. 37:53 Derek Van Dyke It's a defining version of that archetype for me. 37:57 Case Aiken We have this wonderful face off between the two of them where we get to establish Dinobot's credentials as being honorable, and we also get to see Optimus primal showing that. Yeah. In addition to having guns that come out of his body and rockets and guns that come out of his arms, he also has swords. He has, like, dual scimitars. Yeah. 38:17 Derek Van Dyke Like a copesh or something. 38:19 Case Aiken He is very capable. And then we establish, like, all right, well, the predacons show up, and they fuck up the whole thing, and then they blow up a mountain. It's like, oh, there's a big energon thing, and they both have to separately go to it. And again, economy of storytelling, or at least, like, seeding what's out there, they're like, this is a really weird world with, like, two moons and all this other shit. Also, that's fucking Stonehenge right there. That definitely was not put here by a thing we've seen so far. 38:41 Derek Van Dyke And I love, too, how it kind of confuses you of, like, okay, well, we've landed on earth, clearly, because there's earth animals and there's Stonehenge, but there are two moons that they call attention to. And the geography and landscape is still very alien and full of energon in a way that it is not by transformers g one time or just the modern day. And I love how they even use the pilot to set up things that will be the focus of several episodes separately down the road, and then many of which will loop back around for the season finale. 39:16 Case Aiken Yeah. And then the pilot kind of concludes with a big five on five battle in the energon field. So they can't transform because it's too dangerous. And we get. 39:25 Derek Van Dyke You get to watch the aminels fight. 39:27 Case Aiken I mean, some really, like, right off the bat, they are okay with reminding people, like, yeah, no, a t. Rex would be really, like, there's a shot, and they use it. In the opening credits of Megatron trying to bite Optimus Primal's neck. 39:41 Jmike Folson Oh, yeah. 39:41 Case Aiken And you're like, yeah, no, that's real bad. And side note, a gorilla would not have been able to survive. We gorillas are strong compared to us gorillas are not strong compared to Tyrannosaurus rexes. 39:54 Derek Van Dyke Right. There's a mass difference. Know. 39:57 Case Aiken But he's also a small T Rex. 39:59 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, but also just the way that, like, coming into that sequence, like, megatron, like, stomping in and the fact that it shakes the camera as he strides in ahead of the rest of his crew. It's very like, yes. Okay. Yep. You're selling that. This guy's big. Like, way bigger than everyone else on the field. 40:18 Case Aiken Right. But we also got a Mario 64 styled Optimus primal spinning it. 40:24 Jmike Folson Optimus swinging around, which I have to. 40:26 Case Aiken Imagine is just easy to animate because they're not really moving. You just spin the model around. 40:32 Derek Van Dyke But it's so good. It's so good to watch a gorilla swing a T Rex around. Right. And just yeet him there. Well, and also you get to see, like, rat trap. Do whatever rat trap does to tarantulas. That counts as an attack. 40:47 Case Aiken I don't know. 40:47 Derek Van Dyke It kind of seems like he tickles them. 40:49 Case Aiken I'm not really sure what it is. 40:50 Derek Van Dyke He goes, that's not even close to the sound. I give up. 40:56 Case Aiken Yeah, I mean, the pairing is okay, but as we pointed out, there's two flyers on the predicon side already. And it's not really, like a one to one kind of comparison right there. But it is close enough that it would fit any of the myriad two opposed army kind of tv shows that we had grown up on. At this point. If you could pair. 41:19 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, you could pair any of them off against any of the others. But I do like how the predicons and the maximals do not have clear analogs between each other. You don't have the clear cut good and bad version of the archetypes. You have pretty different dynamics on each team. 41:39 Case Aiken Yeah. Like, season one especially has just, like, very clear, different characters there. And then as we start adding people, they usually come in pairs. So that kind of puts them as opposite each other. Like, Tiger John and Black Arachnia are the first two that come in, and then Airazor and Inferno are the next two that come in for those fill in the slot of like, well, were missing this thing on our team. And then we get the fusors, where we get quickstrike and Silverbolt at the same time. Yeah. 42:08 Derek Van Dyke It's interesting to think of each character that gets added. And like, what is it that they're adding to each team? Right. And with Tigatron, we get the heroic character who can't be relied on to always be part of the super 6th. 42:22 Case Aiken Ranger when he shows up. 42:23 Derek Van Dyke Yes, the heroes get a one up, but it's not a one up that counts. And then Black Arachnia shows up. But Black Arachnia is even more double timing than pterosaur and tarantulas are. So it kind of doesn't fully count for the Predacons. And then we get Air razor and Inferno, who both do kind of fill out. But like, Inferno gives the predacons even more firepower. Air Razor gives the maximals another flyer they desperately needed. 42:52 Case Aiken But when Inferno joins, he's also a flyer in addition to being a heavy. 42:57 Derek Van Dyke Completely unreliable, no, he's reliable. 43:00 Case Aiken He's just. He's an idiot, though. 43:03 Derek Van Dyke Reliably going to fuck up everything in. 43:05 Case Aiken Front of him for better and for worse. Like, if you tell him, follow them, he will dig a hole underground below the level of a force field to make sure that he gets there because he's going to do his job. He's going to live up to the demands of his queen. For the colony, for the royalty. For the royalty. Yes, my queen, I do. She wouldn't call me that. But the pilot does his job is what I'm trying to say here. It's not an intensely complicated story that happens, but it sets up the first season so well. 43:39 Jmike Folson We will call these the beast War. He said the thing. 43:43 Case Aiken He said the thing. 43:44 Derek Van Dyke It's definitely cornier than the rest of the show, but it does a miraculous job of doing so much setup in just the first half of the pilot. You could do a writing class using that as an example of setting the foundation for what's to come. Most tv shows do not do that well. 44:03 Case Aiken Yeah, like, you know, the stakes. You know, everything that pops up after this point is introduced in the pilot. You have a clear idea of all of the characters, even if some of them end up being more of a fuck up than they are set up in this episode, and some of them end up being more of a fucking asshole than they are set up in this episode, they do a pretty good job of making sure you're aware of what are the players and what are they like. And God damn it, we haven't talked about Megatron that much yet. We got to talk about Megatron a little bit because his whole talking to himself thing and talking to his T. Rex hand especially is so good. 44:38 Jmike Folson Yeah, that got interesting. 44:39 Derek Van Dyke Later on, he gives it a rubber ducky. 44:41 Case Aiken Yeah. 44:41 Jmike Folson Because at times it looks like the arm is sentient and it's like looking back at him and communicating with him. But he's also kind of doing his. 44:51 Case Aiken He's not well, he's also doing the. 44:52 Jmike Folson Whole Dr. Claw thing where he's like. 44:54 Case Aiken Rubbing the arm, pets it like a cat. 44:56 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. 44:59 Jmike Folson Oh, yes. 45:01 Case Aiken I think in terms of setting up how different he is from, like, g one Megatron. He's fucking insane. He talks to his hand for the majority of season one. 45:10 Derek Van Dyke Yes, he's crazy, but he's crazy like a fox. 45:13 Case Aiken Yes. 45:14 Derek Van Dyke Because he is genuinely incredibly cunning. He is usually one step ahead, if not several steps ahead of Optimus and everybody on his side who is trying to murder him and take his place. Because that's the dynamic of the Predacons is like, most of them think they'd do a better job than him, and all of them are wrong. 45:34 Case Aiken Yeah. That's such a fun dynamic of the Predacons in general, where unlike in the original transformers, where it's two opposing sides and this is the army, that's like, kind of in the winning position. Like, the Decepticons have Cybertron mostly under control at the start of the series and pretty much cements their hold over the course of it. And so Megatron is the leader of this army. And while there's starscream, the majority of the people are like, people in the army with him. The Predacons in this are all criminals. And by that I mean there are predacons on Cybertron and they have their own governing body. Sorry. We're recording this in 2023. And you can probably make some weird comparisons to geopolitical stuff going on right now. But suffice it to say they are a subsidiary state with the maximals being the dominant power. 46:19 Case Aiken But the maximals are the good guys and kind of nice. And the Predacons are kind of like, well, we're working with them and we would like to not be doing this, but right now we've got our government and whatnot. And Megatron is a terrorist and he has criminals working with him that all have their own goals. And they're all criminals amongst the predacons. 46:38 Derek Van Dyke Yes, because there's a major plot point of the actual predicon leadership wanting him fucking taken care of. Because his actions destabilize the peace that they are currently in. And it's like, look, we don't like the maximals either, but we have our plans, and we're operating within the realm of politics, and you are operating within the realm of car bombing. You know what I mean? And we cannot have this. 47:05 Case Aiken Right. And that's a really interesting dynamic for these characters. You have to assume that some of that comes from the fact that this is a 90s show as opposed to an 80s show. The original show. Yeah, you could probably make a cold war parallel. And this is like the end of history. Everything is technically fine. We're at peace with everyone. But, oh, hey, there might be these terrorists out there. It's pre 911, but it's not pre the concept of terrorism. 47:30 Derek Van Dyke I mean, look, diehard existed before, you know what I mean? 47:35 Case Aiken And I also don't want to assign too much thought about the larger state of the world, but it is the zeitgeist that the show comes out of. 47:42 Derek Van Dyke Right. I think it gives us, like, a really interesting squad of villains in that regard. And I think to this day, it makes the Beast Wars Megatron the most memorable and version of Megatron out there. 47:57 Case Aiken Yes. Why do you always talk to yourself? 48:01 Jmike Folson His best and biased impersonation. 48:03 Derek Van Dyke I don't talk to myself. 48:04 Case Aiken I'm not intelligent conversation. It's not until episode ten that we really get a real optimus focused episode, and that is guerrilla warfare. And I love several things about this episode. For one thing, while it is a goofy as fuck, like, we learn something about this plant and it becomes, like, important for later element, which is very much a part of early beast wars. Like the first half of season one has a lot of these kind of like the natural world. We're studying these things, blah, blah. We get one, an incredible use of the biology of the different species that we're in, which is that we see that the dinosaurs have issues when shit gets attached to their neck. 48:42 Derek Van Dyke Oh, yeah. 48:43 Case Aiken Like the way dinobots tiny arms when it's happening is so good. We get some fun uses of Optimus primal, being a giant gorilla in that when he has to move a boulder, he uses his foot to move a stone to shift. Things like those are fun. Right there. We get Scorponok attempting to be the mad scientist archetype that he was intended to be, but then everyone immediately remembering that he's a giant fuck up in everything he does. 49:11 Derek Van Dyke Yes. And we get Optimus with the limiters removed. 49:17 Case Aiken And this is actually the thing that I really wanted to get to when I was saying, like, well, Optimus has the power of action to do a lot more than he necessarily does in the majority of the show, like, he's typically one of the strongest members of the team until he's definitely the strongest member of the team. 49:33 Derek Van Dyke Right. 49:33 Case Aiken The fact of the matter is, he could probably go into a bloody fight and kill a lot of people or lead a lot of people into a situation like that. But he's not about murdering people. He's about apprehending people who stole something. Like the death penalty is actually not what is required of that. He has restraint all the time up until he doesn't hear when a giant fly attaches to his chest and really fucks with his central nervous system. Yeah. 49:59 Jmike Folson Isn't the kryptonite. 50:00 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, well, and it's like, it's a great look. Everybody knows the famous world of cardboard speech with Superman. And that kind of applies here as it's the reminder that Optimus is holding back, because from his concept of morality, he is not supposed to be killing if he can avoid it, that's not what he is here to do. He is not comfortable with that. But also in terms of, like, he puts himself greatly at danger by going full berserker rage, and his team can't afford to lose him. So he could probably take out. As the episode establishes, most of the predacons single handedly die in the process, but then his team is left without him, and then where are they? It's multiple ways in which there's that recognition of, like, this is why I hold back. 50:49 Derek Van Dyke This is why I am not the ace on the team. 50:52 Case Aiken Yeah. When he is taken off the team, they fuck up trying to be like him, where we have to negotiate, and what they do is they spoil everything. They're like, here's a heads up that Optimus is coming your way. He's out of his mind. You can expect him anytime in the next hour. 51:07 Jmike Folson Perhaps only Optimus can think like Optimus. 51:10 Case Aiken Yeah, no way. So, yeah, I mean, he takes on tarantulas and he takes his anchor thingy. That is like, such a toyetic element. I remember, actually, that toy. It's like a spring loaded, like, grappling hook that fires off, and he uses the other end of it, which is sharp, to impale him against the wall. 51:25 Derek Van Dyke It's brutal. This episode goes hard. 51:28 Case Aiken Tanks. Like, all of these shots throughout these, which is such a Superman sequence of him just like, walking through gunfire to go into this whole fight. Fantastic stuff there. I mean, we're reminded, like, oh, yeah, big, scary, flying super monkey is kind of a scary thing. 51:43 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, it's fitting making him a gorilla because it's like, just like a gorilla. Right? We tend to not remember, oh, yeah, those things can rip your arm. 51:53 Case Aiken Yeah. It's a gentle giant situation. Yes. 51:55 Derek Van Dyke And be happy when they're being a gentle giant. Like, that's much preferred. Do the alternatives. 52:02 Case Aiken But in this episode, he decides to stop monkeying around and just truck on through everyone. And at the very end, we get the callback to the first part where it's like, oh, just shit. Attached to his neck. But in this case, it's Megatron, and he's got even smaller arms he can't even reach. It's a fun episode. I mean, it's not the deepest episode. It's like, well, what if he went angry and bad? And wouldn't that be bad? And I think it's good for this point in the show. It's ten episodes in. To remind us, like, yeah, no, the leader could be, like, a more aggressive Rob Liefeld style character, and that would be a problem because X, Y and Z and X, Y and Z here is like, he would probably die. You guys would probably die. The amount of devastation isn't worth it. 52:43 Case Aiken Like, the collateral damage, death, they are fighting, but they can be rebuilt. Most of the characters here take really bad punishment over time, and that doesn't kill them because they're robots. The rules are a little different. The rules get laid out over the course of the series for, like, what is a fatal kind of thing. But the death penalty is not just an automatic thing here. And that kind of incident is a big deal. Like, when a character actually dies. Dies. That is taken as a very serious thing, but it's also always on the table. 53:14 Derek Van Dyke This is a great example of a sort of a bottle episode. 53:17 Case Aiken Great. 53:17 Derek Van Dyke Like, first half of season. One example of we have a plot that wraps itself up by the end that doesn't drastically change the status quo and is informed by and also tells us more about certain characters. One of the things that does happen is there's a lot of collateral damage to equipment and bases, and that's the sort of thing beast wars makes a huge point of keeping you abreast of that. Damage to the ships matters because eventually these things have to get fixed and fly off. And you can put a somewhat damaged robot in the tank, and they will slowly recover over time if it's not a fatal injury. But when something gets broke, it's broken. When a door or a side of the ship gets blown out, now you've got a side of the ship that needs to get repaired. Resources are limited. 54:05 Derek Van Dyke Manpower is limited. That stuff matters. 54:08 Case Aiken And by this point in the series, we had seen a bunch of these kind of gimmicky episodes. Like, I think we had already had the teleporter episode at this point, the chain of command episode where Optimus is taken away and Ratchet has to lead. All the stuff that we kind of need to do just to be like, yep, this is the show we're dealing with here, but this is just a fun episode in terms of being like, we really need to establish what the leader is capable of and why is he not doing some of those things. Yeah, and I think you make a great point in terms of the damage to equipment. While the show has a status quo, more or less in season one, there are big shifts. 54:42 Case Aiken And when things happen that damage the two ships, that does have lasting impact in terms of the capabilities of the group, even while they are becoming more effective in their warfare, in developing new technology to fight with each other. 54:55 Derek Van Dyke But yeah, guerrilla warfare. Great. First half of season one episode, the pilot gives us the hero. We get to see Optimus continue to be just the leader in the background of several episodes leading up to that. And then we get to see, okay, no, he can rip ass in the right circumstances, but also here's why he does not. 55:15 Case Aiken Yeah, so moving on to. It's sort of the midseason finale, which is victory. I remember seeing this episode a lot, which I feel like the block probably ended somewhere about here. It's episode twelve. There's no actual victory. It's a fake out episode. It does do a really good job of setting up a recurring theme, which is that every time the maximals think that they have figured out espionage, they are reminded that the predacons are way better at espionage than they are, which I love because every time it's like, yeah, we figured out how to spy on their camera system. It's like, it's a good thing we figured out they're spying and now we have like fake information being fed to them. Right? Yeah. That's really great. 55:52 Jmike Folson Yes. 55:55 Case Aiken We open with. Were you guys deep Space Nine fans? There's an episode called the Pale moonlight, which is seen as like one of the better episodes of Star Trek in general, wherein there's kind of a similar thing where via deception, they are using a fake prerecorded sequence to mess with people in it. And in that scenario it's like way more fucked up than this. But it's still a scenario of the predacons have figured out that the maximals have been able to hardwire a feed from their security cameras. And so they pretend to die. 56:23 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, they stage, like, a fake rebellion and fight that leads to a horrible accident that kills them all, right? 56:29 Case Aiken Which, knowing going into the episode, it's like, okay, they're really playing it up in it all. But on the same token, pterosaur is a piece of shit who has betrayed Megatron multiple times at this point and continues to betray him because he is just fucking scream. The show knows that we're transformers fans. 56:47 Derek Van Dyke Starscream, but less intelligent, to be clear. 56:50 Case Aiken So much worse. Which is why they bring in real starscream, just to be like, oh, better Starscream here. 56:56 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. 56:56 Case Aiken And a reason why Pterosaur does not make it into season. You know, it's plausible. The only part that really threw me is that Scorpinok is on the side of pterosaur in that sequence. 57:06 Derek Van Dyke That should have been the giveaway, I think, to a lot of people. 57:09 Case Aiken Right. 57:09 Derek Van Dyke Because Scorponok's main defining trait for most of season one is that he's the one who stays loyal to Megatron. Unquestionably. Which probably also like the fact that Inferno comes in and is just that, but funnier is probably why Scorponok gets written off. 57:25 Case Aiken Right? Yeah, we're not going to talk that much about Inferno here, but I actually really like Inferno. He's a giant fuck up, but in a way that I really adore. 57:33 Derek Van Dyke Oh, incredibly funny. 57:37 Case Aiken But yeah. So they stage this fake death and then abandoned their base. And apparently black arachnia has developed some kind of tech that hides the signature from their sparks so that no one can actually identify that they are still alive and allow the maximals to raid their base, take all the stuff they would need to get their ship able to fly again, with the intent of then attacking the maximals and stealing the ship and flying off of it. I do have questions about how that all works based on the timeline that we see in this episode. But the big focus, and while Optimus is part of it, the big focus of this episode is Dinobot being like, well, if I go back to Cybertron, I am a criminal who was part of a massive theft of one of the great relics of our world. 58:21 Case Aiken And I left, and you guys pursued me and I was a turncoat and joined you when you pursued me. I have nothing to go home to. 58:29 Derek Van Dyke You're all going home. And I'm going to prison, right? 58:33 Jmike Folson Forever. 58:35 Case Aiken And it's an interesting moment because he decides to stay. And they are like, well, we got to get the ship going. We're going to go. And he's like, I'm going to conquer this world. It's like, well, that's kind of fucked up. I don't think that's a good idea. It's like, well, yeah, I'll probably die eventually. That won't be tomorrow. 58:50 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. 58:
The Lads are joined once again by special guest Claire Helmberger (The LukeWarmGames Podcast) to finish out their discussion of the best games of the year in the Crossplay Conversations Best of 2023 Awards. Big thanks to Matt aka Stormageddon for narrating our best of 2023 video! Find timestamps for this episode below 0:00-Intro 1:39- Addendum To The Business Boy's 2023 Bit of Bad Business 3:55- Best Visuals: Technical 15:56- Best Visuals: Art Direction 32:45- Best Character Performance 49:28- Best Narrative 1:11:00- Best Moment 1:12:08- Spider-Man 2 Spoilers 1:13:59- End of Spider-Man 2 Spoilers 1:14:48- Alan Wake II Spoilers 1:19:17- End of Alan Wake II Spoilers 1:20:17- Final Fantasy XVI Spoilers 1:23:47- Final Fantasy XVI Spoilers End 1:24:13- Planet of Lana Spoilers 1:25:59- End of Planet of Lana Spoilers 1:26:00- Jusant Spoilers 1:27:20- End of Jusant Spoilers 1:28:25- Slay The Princess Spoilers 1:28:58- End of Slay The Princess Spoilers 1:36:29- Our Top 10 Games of 2023 List Reveal 1:48:37- Celebrating our Games of The Year! 1:58:54- Outro Find Links to our previous GOTY Shows: 2022: https://lukewarmgamespodcast.buzzsprout.com/1187351/12006503-the-2022-lukewarmgame-awards-day-1 https://lukewarmgamespodcast.buzzsprout.com/1187351/12051526-the-2022-lukewarmgame-awards-finale 2021: https://lukewarmgamespodcast.buzzsprout.com/1187351/9898683-the-2021-lukewarmgame-awards-part-1 https://lukewarmgamespodcast.buzzsprout.com/1187351/9937700-the-2021-lukewarmgame-awards-finale Find us on Twitter for show updates and more: Podcast: @crossplayconvos Joseph Hooper: @Th3HoopMan Jacob McCourt: @JacobMcCourt Luke Lewis:@lukewarmlewis Claire Helmberger: @clairehelmberg1
The day a new Yakuza / Like a Dragon game drops is like a holiday for me. Imagine my surprise and delight when I realized that we don't have to wait years for new games in the series anymore, as we got the Like a Dragon Ishin! remaster earlier in 2023, and then the connecting game, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name to set up the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name didn't need to exist, but I think it does a lot of interesting character work with Kiryu, as well as just being plain old fun to play. I'm joined in this episode by Matt aka Stormageddon ("Fun" and Games, Screen Snark, Reignite podcasts (https://linktr.ee/dj_stormagedddon)) and Flora Merigold (Left Behind Game Club podcast (https://leftbehindgame.club/)) to discuss it all! You can check out Flora's writing on Epilogue Gaming (https://epiloguegaming.com/), including this article about Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (https://epiloguegaming.com/ranking-the-yakuza-series-like-a-dragon-gaiden-the-man-who-erased-his-name/) and you can check out Matt's writing over on the "Fun" and Games Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/funandgamespod/posts?filters%5Btag%5D=writing) (free for all!) TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:25 Story Setup 20:00 Visuals/Voice Acting 55:23 Gameplay 1:11:50 Closing Thoughts/Recommendations/Plugs 1:42:06 SPOILER WALL 2:01:10 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!
Side Quests is back and so is series creator, Matt aka Stormageddon! They are a podcaster, editor, producer and troubled writer battling the darkness from within! The game they are talking about today is Alan Wake II by Remedy Entertainment and Epic Games. You can find this episode's host on twitter and you can find everything they work on here! We have a Patreon! Gain access to episode shout outs, bonus content, early downloads of regular episodes, an exclusive rss feed and more! Click here! You can find the show on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!
Welcome back to a very special episode of Side Quests! It's our 250th episode special! For this milestone episode Matt aka Stormageddon is joined by Brian Shea and Geoff Moonen to adventure through Dinosaur Land while chatting about Super Mario World by Nintendo. You can find Matt here and Brian and Geoff on Twitter as well as check out Brian's work here! We have a Patreon! Gain access to episode shout outs, bonus content, early downloads of regular episodes, an exclusive rss feed and more! Click here! You can find the show on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!
We are returning with new episodes starting on August 17th! This season, we are covering Summer Blockbuster movies aka big dumb video game movies! If you like what you've heard, consider a 5-star review on your podcasting platform of choice! Make sure to follow us on Twitter (@cutscenes_pod) and Instagram (@cutscenes_pod) and hit the notification bell/follow/subscribe to our show on your podcast app of choice to get the latest episode when they release! Music (used under Creative Commons): “Introduction” by Lifeformed | Intro Voiceover by Matt Storm aka Stormageddon
S5 E4: Who will emerge victorious in the epic battle between Godzilla, the King of Monsters, and the legendary Power Rangers? Join us along with special guests Matt from Fun and Games, Reignite, and ScreenSnark, and Benjamin from Affable Chat, as we debate the outcome of this colossal showdown and share our love for these iconic franchises.We'll take you on a nostalgic journey through the Power Rangers universe, discussing our favorite moments, characters, and the recent resurgence of the franchise in movies and games. Our guests bring their unique insights from the worlds of gaming and cinema, and we also dissect the Godzilla franchise, from its origins in 1954 to the latest movies and everything in between!In this edge-of-your-seat episode, we analyze the strengths, weaknesses, and potential strategies of both Godzilla and the Power Rangers. Will the Zords be enough to take down the mighty Godzilla? Or will the King of Monsters prove too powerful for our heroes? Tune in as we explore every angle of this ultimate showdown and settle the debate once and for all!Find more about Benjamin and Affable Chat hereFind out more about Matt AKA Stormageddon hereDiscover where else Super Bracket Bros can be found hereSee the current bracket at the pinned post at the top of the page of our FacebookVote on the all the matchups on our InstagramGet in contact with us: superbracketbros@gmail.comCheck out Eli and his many good things hereIntro music created for this show by Nick HerediaBig thank you to our current Patrons for helping support the show: Andrew, Matt, Wait For It Podcast, Kyle O, and EmilySupport the show
Side Quests is back and so is series creator, Matt aka Stormageddon! They are a podcaster, editor, producer and Jedi struggling to survive! The game they are talking about today is Star Wars Jedi: Survivor by Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts. You can find this episode's host on twitter and you can find everything they work on here! Also special thanks to Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts for providing Matt with a review code for the game. We've also have Patreon! Gain access to episode shout outs, bonus content, early downloads of regular episodes, an exclusive rss feed and more! Click here! You can find the show on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!
Dave is joined by Matt aka Stormageddon for another Producer's Choice episode, focusing on why we love the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. Ryu Ga Gotoku's long-running crime melodrama series has introduced us to some of our favorite protagonists, side characters and level 100 weirdos through the years, so we wanted to take some time and talk about it. You can find all of Matt's wonderful podcasts ("Fun" and Games, Reignite, Screen Snark) on your favorite podcast app or at their website (https://linktr.ee/dj_stormagedddon). Producer's Choice is a bonus series on Tales from the Backlog, where Patreon supporters at the "Tube Producer" level get to pick an episode topic and come on the show to chat about it. If that sounds cool to you, or you want to vote on games for the show, get patron-only episodes and have my everlasting love and respect, you can support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson). If Patreon isn't your jam, you can buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!
On Today's Journey Down the Champion's Path Matty is rounding out the releases with the OTHER host of Fun and Game's with Matt and Geoff it's Matt Storm aka Stormageddon. They discuss pokemon discourse, how ineffective they would both be as members of team rocket, and why Bulbasaur is the bestest boy in all of the regions. Find out the secrets behind Matt Storm's Pokemon Gym on this journey down the Champion's Path.
We drink lots of caffeine in Fantasy Seattle thanks to Coffee Talk. Developer: Toge Productions | Publisher: Toge Productions, Chorus Worldwide, Serenity Forge | Initial Release: January 29, 2020 Jacob, Flora, and special guests Luke Lewis and Matt Storm listen to some lo-fi chill beats, fight about the best way to caffeinate and swoon over Hyde. Players: Jacob McCourt (@JacobMcCourt) Flora Merigold (@LudonarrativeFM) Special Guests: Matt Storm aka Stormageddon (@dj_stormageddon) | "Fun" and Games Podcast Luke Lewis (@lukewarmlewis) | LukeWarmGames Podcast Web: LeftBehindGame.Club | Twitter: @LeftBehindClub | Instagram: @LeftBehindGameClub SHOW NOTES: 0:00 Start 1:30 More about Luke and Matt 4:05 The Fast Pitch 6:10 Our Coffee Orders 9:50 What You Do in Coffee Talk 13:55 Characters 19:30 Storylines 24:30 The Metanarrative 26:45 First vs. Second Game 31:30 Music 35:20 Checking Our Phones 39:30 Multiple Playthroughs 42:00 Coffee Talk Episode 2 Preview 48:00 Fahmi and his Lasting Impact 50:40 Games We'll Play After Coffee Talk: A Space for the Unbound VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action The Red Strings Club Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to) Varney Lake When The Past Was Around Emily is Away Emily is Away Too Boyfriend Dungeon 1:01:45 Wrap-Up RESOURCES: Review: Coffee Talk [via Kotaku] Coffee Talk Review [via Game Informer] Emily is Away & Emily is Away Too [via Left Behind Game Club] Side Quests Episode 163: Coffee Talk with Keith Lehtinen [via "Fun" and Games Podcast] DISCORD: The Left Behind Game Club is a monthly game club podcast focusing on positivity & community. To talk to members of the community, join our Discord server!
2001 was an excellent year for gaming, thanks to the little purple lunch box that could. In this special bonus episode of the podcast, live at PAX East 2023, some of the biggest fans of the Nintendo Gamecube were assembled to discuss the device's history and their memories of the console, as well as build an essential collection of Nintendo Gamecube games with help from the PAX East audience. The Nintendo GameCube Was The Greatest Game Console Ever Made was recorded live at PAX East 2023 on Friday, March 24th at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Centre. There's one section that relies on visual aids; you can download the slides here. Big thanks to the Video Game History Foundation for providing research assistance. Find them on Twitter, Patreon and on the web. Sections: 0:00 Intro 2:40 A Speedy History of What Led to the Nintendo Gamecube 4:20 Why It's the Greatest Console of All-Time 26:40 A Definitive List of the 15 Best Gamecube Games as crafted by the PAX East Audience Panel: Jacob McCourt: https://twitter.com/JacobMcCourt Cam Hawkins: https://twitter.com/CamFinalMix Janet Garcia: https://twitter.com/Gameonysus Matt Storm aka Stormageddon: https://twitter.com/dj_stormageddon Mike Towndrow: https://twitter.com/itsMikeTown Asa Greenriver: https://twitter.com/agreenriver07 Web: LeftBehindGame.Club | Twitter: @LeftBehindClub | Instagram: @LeftBehindGameClub DISCORD: The Left Behind Game Club is a monthly game club podcast focusing on positivity & community. To talk to members of the community, join our Discord server!
In this week's episode of Cutscenes, we look for the light in episode 9 of our The Last of Us series! Hosted by Jacob McCourt (@JacobMcCourt), Katie Lesperance (@lesperak) & Travis Colenutt (@TravisColenutt). Show Notes: 0:00 Intro 0:55 Ashley! 5:25 Ellie's Whole Life is Lies 9:00 44 Minutes? 17:00 Joel's Decision 20:40 The Hospital Scene 26:20 Crying 28:20 Time Heals All Wounds 34:50 Future Seasons 50:00 Naughty Dog's Next Game 53:40 The MCU Bet 55:00 Cut or Scene? Cutscenes will be going away for a little while, but look for Season 5 later this year! Make sure to follow us on Twitter (@cutscenes_pod) and Instagram (@cutscenes_pod) and hit the notification bell/follow/subscribe to our show on your podcast app of choice to get the latest episode when they release! If you like what you've heard, consider sending this show to a friend and giving it a 5-star review on your podcasting platform of choice! Music (used under Creative Commons): “Introduction” by Lifeformed | Intro Voiceover by Matt Storm aka Stormageddon
Bayonetta 3 represents a turning point for the series. A new protagonist is introduced, story takes more of a center stage role, and the levels give you lots of optional content to do in between fights. But all of that raises the question...is all of that worth it? And even more crucially, did it enhance the game? Joining me to discuss it all is Matt aka Stormageddon, host of many great shows on the Certain POV Network, such as "Fun" and Games, Reignite, Screen Snark and CPOV: Autographs. You can find all of Matt's shows and more by visiting djstormageddon.com (https://www.djstormageddon.com)! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:06 Story Setup 20:20 Combat/Gameplay 35:18 Level Exploration/Optional Gameplay/Final Thoughts 58:40 SPOILER WALL 1:27:34 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!
Time for another year-end wrap up! Matt wraps up 2022 by sharing some of their favorite media, moments, and accomplishments. They also take some time to thank those that have made an impact on them and supported them over this past year. If you want to check out the brand new Patreon their video game podcast "Fun" & Games just click here! Next Episode: Rick Ives
Weather was bananas yesterday. Corey experied all 4 seasons in a few hours. This can't be a good sign. Plus, is your boss a "seagull boss"?
Welcome back to a very special episode of Side Quests! It's our 200th episode special! For this milestone episode Matt aka Stormageddon is joined by Sulfur and Geoff Moonen to kick Foot Clan butt while chatting about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge by Tribute Games and DotEmu! You can find Matt, Sulfur and Geoff on Twitter as well as check out Sulfur's music here! We've also launched our brand new Patreon! We have some really cool stuff planned so if you want to check it out just click here! You can also find us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!
Side Quests is back and so is series creator, Matt aka Stormageddon! They are a podcaster, editor, producer and Cyber Space exploring hedgehog! The game they are talking about today is Sonic Frontiers by Sonic Team and Sega. You can find this episode's host on twitter and you can find everything they work on here!
Today Matt chats with musician and podcaster Micah McCaw! Together, they discuss Micah's latest album, A Beautiful Divorce, as well as the origins of the podcast he does with his wife, Jordan, "The McCaw Podcast Universe." They also chat about Micah's songwriting process, his sources of inspiration, and what it was like writing the new album at the height of the pandemic. Next Episode: 2022 Highlights w/ Stormageddon
Ep. 83 - In the final episode of the year, we are joined by Matt Storm aka Stormageddon, to discuss the 2023 game release calendar. Time Stamps: Intro - 00:00:00 2023 Game Releases - 00:04:25 Crossplay - 01:53:40 Outro - 02:13:34 Find Matt at the links below! Twitter "Fun" & Games Podcast Want to send us a question to read on the podcast? Send us one down below. https://forms.gle/A3CaqmZeVHc56EfWA Interact with us on Discord Below! https://discord.com/invite/swtt8Ajtd4 Check out our website! Follow us on Twitter for updates on the podcast. Twitter Subscribe to YouTube to get our new video versions of the podcast. YouTube For other links related to us, use this link. https://linktr.ee/xintoteract
It's Hedgehog vs Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)! Matt Storm aka Stormageddon joins the pod to geek out about Sonic's cooler, redder friend Knuckles. Also, Tails is here. Its a regular who's who of Sonic squad members! Find out how we feel about Idris Elba's Knuckles voice on this episode of Moviestruck! Where to find Stormageddon:Website: https://www.djstormageddon.com/Twitter: @dj_stormageddon"Fun" and Games Podcast: https://www.certainpov.com/fun-and-gamesScreen Snark: https://www.certainpov.com/screen-snarkContact the Podmoviestruckpod@gmail.comwww.moviestruck.transistor.fmPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/moviestruckDiscord: https://discord.gg/cT2vm3KdeSTheme by Prod. DomSoundcloudThank you to our $10 Patrons!insomnite, Link Brenton, Nathan Dunlap, Ronin drake, DaddySwan, Jason S, Alexander mendez, Norbert Wagner III, Stag Hart (Deer Deer), William Warren, Ebony Voigt, AnOptimist, Lairde Ray, Audun Landøy Solli, Travis Poe, Case Aiken ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
Today we're going on a fun walk through the film cannon of Studio Ghibli. Matty is joined by Matt Storm aka Dj Stormaggedon to talk their favorites, sleeper classics, and if there is a weak point in the collective cannon, so make yourself a bowl of ramen and join us for today's deep dive!
In this extraordinary bonus episode of the Left Behind Game Club, Jacob is joined by Matt aka Stormageddon, Joseph Hooper, and Luke Lewis to share some of their favourite games from the PAX West 22 show floor! We also have half a dozen interviews from the show floor! Players: Jacob McCourt (@JacobMcCourt) Special Guests: Matt aka Stormageddon (@dj_stormageddon), Joseph Hooper (@th3hoopman), and Luke Lewis (@lukewarmlewis) Web: LeftBehindGame.Club | Twitter: @LeftBehindClub | Instagram: @LeftBehindGameClub SHOW NOTES: 0:00 Start 1:55 WrestleQuest 7:45 Shovel Knight Dig 14:10 Anger Foot 17:20 River City Girls 2 23:00 Gunbrella 28:50 Demonschool 31:55 Demonschool Interview with Brandon Sheffield 34:50 30XX 39:50 Turbo Overkill 45:25 It's A Wrap Interview with Guillaume Bernard 50:10 It's A Wrap 53:00 Video Game Trivia Panel (Watch Here) 56:30 Matt & Joseph's PAX West Coverage 59:00 The Big Con Interview with Dave Proctor 1:03:25 The Last Case of Benedict Fox Interview with Bartłomiej Lesiakowski 1:07:00 RE:CALL 1:10:30 Goat Simulator 3 Interview with Santiago Ferrero 1:14:15 Paper Ghost Stories: Third Eye Open with Jez Harris 1:17:30 Show Close DISCORD: The Left Behind Game Club is a monthly game club podcast focusing on positivity & community. To talk to members of the community, join our Discord server!
Abu and Leo share a selection of curated Spice Morsels– deep-cut lore tidbits too short for dedicated episodes but too delectable to miss. This episode contains SPOILERS for both Dune and Dune: Messiah.This episode was edited by Matt Storm aka Stormageddon. Find them on twitter @dj_stormageddon.Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GomJabbarCheck out our merch: https://www.gomjabbarshop.comThis podcast is part of the Lore Party Podcast Network. Visit our site to learn more about all our great shows: https://loreparty.com/
The far more censored version of the award-winning and unparalleled "A Mediocre Time with Tom and Dan." - "A Corporate Time" is a daily companion and terrestrial radio show heard nationally on iHeartRadio. It's silly.
Grab your umbrella and put on your boots because there's a storm a-brewing. Gather your friends and family and hunker down inside the old library. You know about the old library don't you? We abandoned it when we built the new one, but still left it exactly as it was. Luckily John Morrison makes his return to the show to protect us from STORMAGEDDON! Oh... Did we mention there's also killer cyborgs in this movie? Does that do anything for you?
It's time to celebrate the Sunnydale High Class of 1999, as we celebrate the 25th episode of the television cultural phenomenon Buffy The Vampire Slayer. For this deep dive Matty is joined by fellow Certain POV podcast Hosts Matt aka Stormageddon from Screen Snarks, Reignite, and CPOV: Autographs and Sam Alicea from Another Pass Podcast. Did the show age well, what are the stand out moments 25 years later, and how to we praise the power of the slayer and separate the content from the creator?
Side Quests is back and so is series creator, Matt aka Stormageddon! He is a podcaster, editor, DJ, streamer, producer and brush wielding pup out to save the world! The game he is talking about today is Chicory: A Colorful Tale by Greg Lobanov and Finji. You can find this episode's host on twitter and you can find everything he works on here!
At first glance, the Batarians may appear to be a one-dimensional race of bandits and slavers with an unprovoked aggression toward humanity, but there's more to this civilization than it seems. In this episode, Matt Storm of Reignite joins us to discuss a very misunderstood species.This is an EXPERT level episode, which means some parts of the discussion may not make sense unless you've played the game. Expect lots of spoilers.Listen to all of our Mass Effect episodes here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6OeWVz5sWy2LjsSQMnWi4v?si=5da478dbef454078Email us: lorepartypodcast@gmail.comSlide into our DMs: https://twitter.com/lore_party