Press Start To Start

The holiday seasons are upon us, which may explain why your news and reviews are a week and a day late. Or it could just be that, while there is little news, there is a lot to talk about in recent releases. After all, Jeff has managed to put time into the new Hitman episodes, the new Pokemon, and is ready to touch RDR2's online mode! Meanwhile J.D. is... oh, wait, revisiting Splinter Cell? Does that franchise exist anymore? The rest of the world is dealing with Switch sales, Game Award reveals, and some disappointing game releases, but all that is not quite as important.

Sometimes it seems like the world is falling apart: video games are being changed for foreign audiences, mobile versions of beloved classics are expected to be hailed as the next best thing, and your favorite horror game is being blocked for no reason. But at least there's a light down the tunnel: a new, super-long announcement of your favorite silly fighting game, gone over in detail (with extras!) by Jeff and J.D. Oh, but you want to be mad about that, too? Well, maybe we can't help you.

The whole world's already talking about it, so you may as well listen to Jeff try not to gush about why Red Dead Redemption 2 is so good, and why some people may not like it as much. After that, a helpful explanation of what this whole Grinch thing is about and what it has to do with Smash Bros, after which there is a brief, excited explanation of what the Castlevania Netflix producer is up to. Plus HDR and why it works, Playstation Classic's lineup, and the Vatican!

You thought the whole Rockstar crunch thing would be dead and gone by now? Think again. The huge Kotaku expose came out earlier this week and there's a lot to unpack, directly from the employees themselves. It doesn't quite affect your boys, of course: J.D. is still mucking about with killing all of Norse mythology, and Jeff has mostly been driving through the various seasons. But with RDR2 coming out on Friday, hard to say this isn't the most relevant time to discuss it...

It's unfortunate how much of a matter of fact video game developer crunch time is, and this latest thing with Rockstar is a doozy. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Jeff and J.D. will fill you in with the latest news on Red Dead Redemption 2. They also have two takes on two different mythologies, with God of War's impressions and a very late-coming review of Gat Outta Hell. Then it's on to Pokemon, where everything is not right (with a weirdly obsessive minority).

You know? Sometimes you just can't get into a game. You like a lot of it, you want to play more of it, and yet... it haunts you. Jeff and J.D. discuss this today after their grand re-appearance, as well as Jeff's impressions of Forza Horizon 4 and Super Mario Party. Plus! All the news that happened in a three-week span that you probably heard yourself! Harry Potter! New console versions! A telltale heart, beating... beating.

It's the 300th episode of Press Start to Start, the Screen Peekers podcast! What does this mean to you, listeners? Well, that it's available on YouTube. Which is pretty silly. Why would you put a podcast on a video sharing site? In this case it's to talk about very normal things: some light gaming, a little bit of news sharing. That Nintendo Direct finally dropped, and it has, whew, a lot of release dates. A ton.

Okay you're going to have to hang in there for this episode because it starts out a little on the wild side. It really depends on how strongly you feel about the seminal Mel Gibson movie "The Patriot". Anyway, after that, Jeff's been trying out Spider-Man, and has opinions! Then we dive into how difficult it is to experience inconveniences from giant natural disasters, the expectations from Tokyo Game Show, and a remake of a game long desired from J.D.'s tender heart.

Well, summer's over by any sane definition of it, and Jeff and J.D. are just clearing out their backlogs before the fall onrush of games come. Seems like the news is the same way, because nothing too crazy has been happening--apart from charging tickets to watch a livestream of a convention for a game that hasn't come out yet. You know. Besides that. When J.D. is done being astonished, Jeff and J.D. look back into the past and laugh, look slightly to the future and ponder, and also go over this whole Piderman thing.

It's a bit later in August than normal, but Jeff and J.D. have still taken the time to highlight 10 songs that they think you need to listen to and appreciate. SO APPRECIATE THEM. But before that, Jeff has been trying out Hollow Knight's new free expansion, and the new Nindies showcase had sights and sounds to delight and amaze. And then: music!

J.D. and Jeff get downright goofy in this episode as they try to recount exactly why Gamescom is such a thing, because everything and its brother is now being announced there. Some things exciting, like the Sekiro release date, and the Hat in Time expansiony stuff, and others... confusing! Like Saints Row on Switch! Meanwhile, back in sane land, Amazon is making a move to make themselves more money that has more than a few gamers in a tiff, and we talk about Sonic Adventure 2 for quite a while.

If you missed the 30 minute Smash Bros presentation and want to listen to an hour and a half summation of it, do we have an episode of this podcast for you! There's more than Smash Bros squeezed into this package, of course: some stupid Ghost Recon stories, Jeff's rambling attempts to talk about why NieR Automata is so strange, and one silly, silly, plagiarizing journalist... but really this episode is about one thing.

Hello to the future! By the time this podcast is live, you should already know some more things about the newest Smash Bros that Jeff and J.D. did not while recording this stuff. Out of jealousy, J.D. has tried a few of the best Smash Bros clones on the market. Or are they echos? This weekend also saw the biggest fighting game tournament in the world, which held a few surprise wins--and not-so-exciting moments. Plus: Ghost Mode! Ghost sailors! Ghost football player names!

The heat is melting Jeff and J.D.'s brains, turning them nostalgic for those days in the past when even a really terrible game could occupy your mind for hours. Before they get to wax on about the good old times, though, they need to give updates on the crazy big patch for No Man's Sky, or the final (final) final Kingdom Hearts game, or how weird Hellblade will be in VR. Or, you know, just talk about Ghost Recon some more.

Somehow all of the developers of a lot of games that came out two years ago got wind that you're supposed to provide free, game-changing makeovers to your games after a set period of time. That can be the only explanation for why Shadow of War and No Man's Sky are getting these huge changes, right? Or maybe it's the downfall of modern game development. Jeff and J.D. hash it out in this episode after J.D. reviews the new JRPG for Switch and Jeff reviews yet another effing Kingdom Hearts game.

The official lack of anything of substance is finally drawing everything on Jeff and J.D.'s plate to a close. Even Smash Bros. How do you talk about it more? Go back and play Smash 4? Think about the worst non-Nintendo character that could grace its doors? Either way, there's a new Far Cry standalone game coming out, Jeff's Kingdom Hearts journey is thankfully nearing its end, and Monster Hunter will finally be on PC very soon.

We guess there's been this big news item slowly coming to a boil in the past few weeks that Jeff and J.D. have failed to mention: Sony not playing well with others. Well, fear not! This episode they have good advice: read the terms and conditions before clicking yes, apparently. Also some ruminating on what makes Sonic Adventure 2 so bad, a few more weird details about those screwy Kingdom Hearts spinoffs, and yet more wishing and wanting from the Smash Bros aisle. Like, half of a podcast of it.

Like a popped balloon, E3 took all of the news. All of it. Seriously, all we have are a couple of announcements and some clarifications. So instead Jeff will talk about the nature of keyblades, really long movies that summarize entire games, and... a mix of Mario Party and Monopoly. Meanwhile J.D. has finally finished Wildlands and has a few opinions on how the Tier system changes the game up. Then it's on to the fun of predicting, wildly, what's going to be in Smash Bros. There are some surprisingly good ideas.

Sure, maybe it's a little late, and maybe you already heard everything, but that won't stop Jeff and J.D. from going over literally every conference, announcement, and thing of interest from the expo that ended a little over a week ago. Check this extra-long episode for their thoughts, excitements, and, yeah, basically a lot about Smash Bros. Plus reviews of two extra-good platformers for the Switch, if that's your thing.

It's time to make safe bets and to swing for the fences, people! This time Jeff and J.D. are sure to be 100% accurate with everything they thing may or may not show up at E3. Of course, it's only time to make those calls after a quick review of this week, from the new platformer J.D. is testing out, to the rerelease of the port of the release that Jeff has dived into. Plus, what does J.D. think of the greatest, fasted, bluest game to ever come out for Dreamcast and Gamecube?