Well, the day is here when we’ve reached 200 shows. As always, shenanigans and worthless self-congratulating ensues. It’s a little tame this week, however, as we’re more the HUNG-OVER gamers after a bachelor party for a good friend put us all down for the count the night before.

In the meantime, we talk Dr. Mario for the DSi, Lode Runner for the XBLA and Excite Bots for the Wii. We talk the news and take some calls as we piss away another pseudo-milestone. Thanks, as always, for listening and putting up with our shit. Especially those of you who have been with us since #1. What the hell is wrong with you people?

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SHOWNOTES

DSiWare Review: Dr. Mario Express
XBLA Review: Lode Runner
Wii Review: Excite Bots-Trick Racing
Retro Review: Golvellius-Valley of Doom (Master System)
News: Uncharted 2 Multiplayer
Play as Joker on PS3
Wii Video Channel
Trade Warner BluRay Deal
Release List
The Last Shot
DGR Mailbag

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DGR: 04.26.2009

With the help of some Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut Down Ale and Carlson from Mad-Gear.com, we usher in the long dormant “Drunken John Demon”. By the end of the show, he’s no longer the man you recognize and the start of a much longer post-podcast night begins. But before all that, we manage to talk about The Dishwasher, New Adventure Island and a bunch of Sony news. Join us!

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Voicemail Line: 612-424-3835
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SHOWNOTES

Special Guest: Carlson from Mad-Gear.com
XBLA Review: The Dishwasher-Dead Samurai
Retro Review: New Adventure Island (TG16)
News: King of Kong at E3
Jak and Daxter-The Lost Frontier
Sony Drops PS2 Price
PS3 Firmware 2.70
Release List
The Last Shot
DGR Mailbag

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DGR: 04.04.2009

From Comments of DGR: 02.27.2009

Your comments on Flower are pretty interesting, John, in light of the podcast I heard right before this week’s episode. I was listening to a recent episode of The Geekbox in which Ryan Scott was discussing R-Type Dimensions. His take on the game was essentially this:

“It’s good, it’s really hard… Thank God they put in Infinite Mode because it’s too hard for me to get through otherwise. But the game’s really short– I mean, you can blow through it in 45 minutes.”

While this is technically true, as shmup fans, we get a [i]lot[/i] more out of the R-Type experience than this guy did. Perhaps the same is true for Flower. Obviously, you can’t directly compare Flower with a shmup– DJ Incompetent is likely to vomit upon reading this, in fact– but for many folks, the experience that they get from playing through Flower is good enough that the length isn’t a concern.

- M.C.

I hear what you’re saying. Flower is a “flight-ish” game for certain, reminding me almost of Nights.

I have no problem with short games. Hell, I wish a lot of games were much shorter than they are. I just don’t have time for it anymore. But it wasn’t just the length of Flower that gave me pause. It was just the feeling of, “They could have done so much more with this” that I had when it was done. But like I said, I sort of go back and forth with it. The experience I had playing it was mostly great and often unlike any other game I’ve played. That itself is worth the price. But when I finished it I just had this sort of unfulfilled feeling.

- John

As far as I’m concerned, short games are fine, but I put a lot of value in games that offer options and alternate ways to play through the content. That is what earns the timeless replayable triple-A award for me. Did you know one of the bigger complaints expert players have on Gradius V is that it’s too long? This game clocks in at about an hour, but the ideal time STG players (myself included) want to spend on a one-credit session is roughly 30-something minutes. This is a large complaint for many Compile games as well (Aleste series, Zanac series, etc.), being long stages are a fault and not a feature, especially when they have dead zones of no on-screen enemies for several seconds. An ideal way to maximize content of a single shmup title is to have several different ‘courses’ of 5 stages instead of one massive 8-stage trek. Developers have not thought to include this option besides the compilation multi-game packages. Raycrisis explored this by allowing users to plot a course of five stages out of a selectable eight.

But what’s the issue here with the semi-controversial Flower and FlOw?
They’re great stand-alone games, but players complain not enough is done with it.

(more…)

This week we talk to Chris Przybyszewski from the studio that created Thumbstruck for the iPhone/iPod Touch, Resolute Games. It’s a great conversation on just what it’s like to create games for the new, burgeoning mobile game market.

In addition we review Time Crisis and WordJong for the iPhone while John and Hilden debate which one has become the bigger soccer mom. Moe simply watches and laughs before declaring them both losers. We also manage to talk about R-Type Dimensions for the XBLA and the latest news. All this after we make our way through what may be one of our most confusing and funny reader letters of all time.

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SHOWNOTES
Interview with Chris Przybyszewski-Resolute Games
iPhone Review: Time Crisis
iPhone Review: WordJong
XBLA Review: R-Type Dimensions
Retro Review: Psycho Fox (Master System)
News: Left 4 Dead DLC
Onslaught for WiiWare
Lego Battles
Red Dead Redemption
Release List
The Last Shot
DGR Mailbag

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DGR: 02.07.2009

And for the text message battle, continue on inside…
(more…)

After imbibing some of the most fantastic beer ever to grace the bar, we manage to talk about ThumbStruck for the iPhone and The Maw for the XBLA. In addition, we talk about the latest gaming news and we give John massive amounts of crap for his recent Peggle fixation. You think you know a guy.

Thanks to Thom for sending us the great Belgian beer! Please be so kind as to Digg this episode! Thanks!

Email Us: mailbag@drunkengamersradio.com
Voicemail Line: 612-424-3835
DGR Twitter Feed
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SHOWNOTES

iPhone Review: ThumbStruck
XBLA Review: The Maw
Retro Review: Magical Chase (TG-16)
News: Onechanbara
Peggle for iPhone and XBLA
New Sackboy Costumes Coming
Hydro Thunder Sequel
Release List
The Last Shot
DGR Mailbag

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DGR: 01.24.2009

Glen Percival communes with the gods of the PlayStation in a holy ritual that includes the burning of a 360 every Sunday and forty virgins doing something naughty with all the leftover SIXAXIS controllers they have lying around. Of course, it’s easy to sacrifice a 360 when all you have to do is turn it on and try to play Castle Crashers online.

**BaDum CHA!!!**

I have no joke for the forty virgins part. That’s just me dreaming out loud.

But it all seriousness, our good friend of PSNation Podcast fame has clued us into something that we’re really damn excited about and gives us all another fine reason to be playing our PS3′s. We’ve heard rumors this summer that one of our favorite board games, Zombies!!! may be coming to XBLA and Twilight Creations confirmed not only Microsoft’s machine but Sony’s monster as well.

A perpetual Drunken Gamers Radio favorite and one of my regular gifts to John, the Zombies!!! board game consists of a randomized game board full of zombies trying to kill players on their way to an escape helicopter. It’s simple, fun and perfect for a downloadable game. Here’s hoping we get some of the awesome expansion packs that feature Zombie Chicks and Zombie Dogs. For those unfamiliar with the board game and the subsequent spin offs and expansions, hit up the link to the Twilight Creations web site and see the glory that is Zombies!!! for yourself.

Looks like Big Rooster is the one handling the publishing duties and the game is set to hit in the nebulous “sometime in 2009″. While it would be nice to have a firm release date, it’s good to know the rumors are more than just fanboy desire.

A link to the full story over at PS3 Fanboy can be found here.

Thanks again to Glen and PS3 Fanboy for the heads up!

We recorded the show right after getting back from Surlyfest 2008! As such, we are obnoxiously drunk and the entire podcast is slurred. You’ve been warned. In the meantime, we try to review a few games and talk up the news. Unsuccessfully.

SHOWOTES:

XBLA Reviews: Pirates vs. Ninja Dodgeball
Shred Nebula
Retro Review: Outrun 2019 (Genesis)
News: Sim City and The Sims 3 to iPhone
360 Price Cut
Mirror’s Edge Exclusive PS3 Content
Resistance 2 Details
Release List
The Last Shot
DGR Mailbag

DGR: 09.06.2008

You may have heard of a little game called Castle Crashers that got released yesterday on XBLA. It’s the final game in the “Summer of Arcade” series they’ve been putting on and it’s created by the good folks over at Behemoth. I’m sure all of you, like me, feel a little twinge of pain on mention of that studio. Try and purge the beating you took from Alien Hominid and look with happiness on the Behemoth’s latest offering.

I remember days spent in the arcades, plunking down quarters into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or The Simpsons arcade machines. Destined each and every time I played the game to spend all of my summer money on those machines, they provided hours of great fun. And it’s due to those games that the genre of the 4-player brawler is so ingrained in my mind.

While there have been many games that have tried and failed to live up to the standard those classic games set, Castle Crashers is not one of them. It is a perfect example of why the 4-player brawler still works in this day and age of online gaming. In fact, I think it’s a perfect fit for XBLA and I hate to add to the “best game on XBLA” talk but…I’m just sayin.

(more…)

The first time I played Bionic Commando, my friend Kevin and I went down to Wally’s Video, a stinky, porn-filled video shop in my home town. It was a pretty seedy place located near the railroad tracks, and Wally lived in the back room with his mother, both of whom weighed at least 400 lbs. each. Upon entering, the smell of B.O. and rotten food smacked you in the face. And then there was that smell. You know…that smell. The stink that lingers in every porn shop you’ve ever been to. I’m not sure if it’s the smell of desperation or just simply nut sweat, but that smell was thick in Wally’s Video.

It’s a wonder our parents let us go into that place, let alone give that fat pervert money. But despite the atmosphere, Wally had the best selection of NES games for rent in the entire town. And because of that, we happily gave him our money.

That day, Bionic Commando was sitting on the new release shelf, and it only took one look at the box art for Kevin and I to decide that this was the game we were taking home.

(more…)

We’ve been waiting for this one for ages now, but Braid has finally been released. Those of you who listen to Drunken Gamers Radio may remember our interview with Number None, the makers of Braid, back on our May 18th episode. David Hellman, the brilliant artist responsible for Braid’s visuals, sent over this graphic shortly after the interview.

We’ve had a chance to play about an hour of the game so far and have found this to be one of the most unique, original, and dare we say delightful games on the Xbox Live Arcade. A combination of old-school platformer with deliberate nods to classics like Super Mario Bros., and collection-based puzzle games, Braid is as engrossing to watch and listen to as it is to play.

The demo’s up on XBLA, and we encourage you to not only check out the official website but also David Hellman’s blog where you can find more of his artwork.

Oh, and this is bad ass…