Four years ago, we undertook a pilgrimage to explore the world of the Final Fantasy franchise, and here we are still truckin' along. We've finally made it to the double-digit entries of the series, though of course their reliance on Roman numerals in their titles means we've somehow reve...
2021-04-23 12:02:34 +0000 UTC View Post
The summer of 1990 brought about the end of Back to the Future with Part III, which traded the frantic, high-concept time travel adventures of the second movie for a more grounded finale rooted in the Old West. Though it's gained a bit of a reputation as a lackluster final act to an otherwise ste...
2021-04-19 07:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
April 18, 2011: Portal 2 delivers everything but cake
by Diamond Feit
We tackled the first Wario Land game and its unnumbered (but nevertheless essential!) Virtual Boy sequel a few months back, and now it's time to venture back into the games with numerals at the end. One Roman, one Arabic. That's Wario for ya, though. Always breaking the rules, even the o...
2021-04-12 13:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
April 7, 2011: Japanese retro gamers flock to the Xbox 360?
by Diamond Feit
Thanks to the generous patronage of Victor Hunter, on this super-size bonus episode we're digging deep into one of the few 16-bit RPGs from the Square catalog that's yet to see an official English translation. And that game is Live A Live, an ambitious creation that experiments with eight differe...
2021-04-09 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Godzilla is depicted in many films as a being of chaos, an unknowable and uncontrollable force beyond human control. And that perfectly describes this episode! Or rather, the production of this episode. My original hope was to have this up in advance of the new King Kong Vs. Godzilla, bu...
2021-04-05 14:08:29 +0000 UTC View Post
March 29, 2001: Illbleed points at the survival horror genre and laughs
by Diamond Feit
I've spent a lot of time over the past couple of years journey back into the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s to catch up with acclaimed or influential media that, for various reasons, have passed me by. Ultimately, I consider it research and education so I can be more informed when I mouth off about t...
2021-03-29 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post![This Week In Retro: Resident Evil [1996]](https://img5.doujinstars.com/storage/11/df/qe/a4542c-019e861e-7adf-7a7d-bd75-2060852209be.jpg)
March 22, 1996: Dawn of the Dread
by Diamond Feit
What makes a video g...
2021-03-28 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Our next stop in the year-long journey across the history of Street Fighter is the main event, the game that turned 30 years old last month and inspired this entire trip through time: Street Fighter II. Specifically, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. Yes, this episo...
2021-03-26 13:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
It's finally happened: a game once covered as a new release by this very podcast is now officially retro! And that game is Sam & Max Save the World, the 2006-2007 episodic release that brought about the grand return of Sam and Max 13 years after their original video game outing. Now, 15 more ...
2021-03-22 07:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
March 21, 2001: This castle is a creature of chaos—now in your pocket!
by Diamond Feit
You know what's nice sometimes? A low-stakes episode where we can just sit around and chat for a while instead of recounting the rigors of video game history. And that's what we have this week, as I summon Nadia Oxford, Diamond Feit, and Stuart Gipp to basically banter for two hours about which <...
2021-03-15 12:59:59 +0000 UTC View Post![This Week In Retro: Defender [1981]](https://img5.doujinstars.com/storage/10/bp/on/a4542c-019e861e-7e1e-72db-8cf5-799c10b55f34.jpg)
March 1981: The space-shooting genre goes sideways
by Diamond Feit
I m...
2021-03-14 14:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
In 1990, the innovative brawler River City Ransom was released to some acclaim, but mostly went forgotten until the late '90s emulation boom led to its highly influential Renaissance. And with this newfound attention came the shocking knowledge that River City Ransom belonged to a series known as...
2021-03-12 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Good thing we did the "gaming in 2001" episode a few weeks back to help soften the blow of this revelation. The Game Boy Advance doesn't seem like it should be 20 years old, and yet, here we are. We're getting to the point of the systems I cut my teeth on as a professional reviewer hitting 20, an...
2021-03-08 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post![This Week In Retro: The Simpsons [1991]](https://img5.doujinstars.com/storage/11/al/nm/a4542c-019e861e-7e9d-7778-8921-bc3c5dd12418.jpg)
March 4, 1991: "I heartily endorse this event or product"
by Diamond Feit
UPDATE: This survey is now CLOSED, thank you! We'll be in touch!
Hello! In 2021 Retronauts will celebrate its 15th anniversary and we are quickly closing in on our 400th episode, two landmarks we would never have reached without your genero...
2021-03-03 23:57:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Around here, 2021 is the year of Actually Finishing Things (including, one hopes, global pandemics). This week we make good on that promise by finally wrapping up the Indiana Jones film/game trilogy Retronauts East started a few years back with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the fin...
2021-03-01 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post![This Week In Retro: King of the Monsters [1991]](https://img5.doujinstars.com/storage/9/yk/cu/a4542c-019e861e-7ef4-7c68-bb72-f8ff18e0a94b.jpg)
February 25, 1991: Fighting comes to the NEO•GEO and...it big
by Diamond Feit
Before leaping into this week's column, it is necessary to address the 180-foot-tall ...
2021-02-28 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
A new journey begins here! This year, we'll be exploring the span of Capcom's Street Fighter series (or at least as much as we can make time for), in celebration of Street Fighter II's recent 30th anniversary. Of course, just because Street Fighter II had a birthday rec...
2021-02-26 14:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Certain conditions have made time mostly meaningless, so it may shock and alarm you that 2001 happened 20 years ago. Yes, it's true. And while it was a monumental year in terms of events that shook the world, 2001 was also home to huge, industry-changing games, console launches, and so many other...
2021-02-22 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post![This Week in Retro: Marvel vs. Capcom 3 [2011]](https://img5.doujinstars.com/storage/2/xn/ex/a4542c-019e861e-7f62-7850-8b08-b9df94419cd1.jpg)
February 15, 2011: Capcom finally learns to count to 3...again
by Diamond Feit
Wow! Heck! Next week, the Nintendo Family Computer Disk System turns 35 years old. For those keeping score, that's pretty old. Chances are very, very high that you personally did not own a Disk System back during its heyday, since most of you did not grow up in Japan. Since the Disk System never ...
2021-02-15 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post![This Week in Retro: Sengoku [1991]](https://img5.doujinstars.com/storage/5/tu/bv/a4542c-019e861e-7f99-74c9-a832-24f2753c0af2.png)
February 12, 1991: Swapping bodies & snapping swords in Sengoku
by Diamond Feit
After a decade of toiling away in the Ace Attorney factory, Capcom's Shu Takumi finally got to make something completely different—but still uniquely him—with 2011's Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Like his notable law-talking-guy series, it's an adventure game with a heavy focus on ...
2021-02-12 08:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Heck! How is the Nintendo 3DS a decade old? It doesn't make sense, and yet it's true. With this episode, we've very nearly completed our surveys of Nintendo handheld systems; only Game Boy Advance remains. I hear it has an anniversary coming up soon...
Given the relative recency of this ann...
2021-02-08 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post![This Week in Retro: Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 [2010]](https://img5.doujinstars.com/storage/7/be/oj/a4542c-019e861e-8008-74a3-a5d8-f8b1ebd42c5a.jpg)
February 1, 2011: A Farewell to (Bionic) Arms
by Diamond Feit
The rece...
2021-02-07 15:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
In keeping with our pledge to follow up on multi-part episodes in a more timely fashion (well, my pledge... Bob doesn't really need to amend his ways), here is the sequel to our new year's episode on video game history in years that end with the numeral 1. We covered 2021-02-01 13:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post
