Games featured in this episode:


Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
Legacy of the Wizard (NES)
Pokemon Diamond / Pearl (DS)
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames (GBA)
Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Wii U)


Also, the answers to hint questions 2 and 5 are in the title of this episode.
(Highlight the text above with your cursor to view it.)

Thanks for using one of my requests I sent in, TYP!  I had actually meant to register right after sending that email and then forgot to get back around to it and felt silly when I realized I just signed the email "Jims" and that's it.


Regarding Game #2...


I was really glad you used Legacy of the Wizard because, even though it is definitely obscure these days, it's a really unique little part of gaming history.  As you mentioned on the show, it was an early game by Falcom, a company that is really proud of its game music, and the soundtrack itself was done by Yuzo Koshiro.  It's an interesting little music relic from the past for some of their later titles.  And the game itself is a really early example of sandbox gameplay that you didn't see much on the NES (aside from Zelda, I guess).  It's a game basically just about wandering around figuring out where your character can go, and often forcing them into places they don't belong (especially by jumping on enemies and stuff).


It's definitely way too obtuse, though, and could've been improved greatly by simply indicating which of the 4 major sections of the map belonged to which character.  There are definitely hints with the barriers in the way, but it's still not always clear where to actually go when you're in the right section.


Oh, and to confuse things even more, there's a 5th character who is mostly useless and is only supposed to be used toward the end of the game.


Only ended up getting 2 out of the 5, including my request.  Never played Game #3 (skipped that one), but knew it thanks to a Brawl remix.  I really enjoyed Game #5's music, though.  That last track seemed like it was inspired by Inception.

Your attempt at subterfuge has failed, TYP! I saw through your elaborate ruse immediately.

The instrumentation in Warioware inc.: Mega Microgame$ happens to be very similar to the instrumentation to that in Wario Land 4, and I could tell that that wasn't the version of the Flyswatter minigame from Mario Paint. I got it quite quickly.

4/5. Game 2 had me stumped a little. my cousin has it in his collection. Likewise, Game 5 is what actually ended up defeating me...


I really don't like video game soundtracks that try too hard to sound like movie scores. I think when you go down the movie score soundtrack route, you end up having even less identity than even the ambient soundtrack or the dynamic soundtrack. Movie scores don't really stand out unless you're composed by like... John Williams or Danny Elfman. It's actually one of the main reasons I find the Lords of Shadow Castlevania games so  unbelievably milk toast and BORING to me. Then again, Call of Duty is a series that kinda bills itself as being very... cinematic , which I honestly cannot stand in a video game, because it feels like you compromise having a cohesive game in exchange for those.

Answer to TYP's question of a Legacy of the Wizard successor is... La-Mulana!

Now i'm interested in that Legacy of the Wizard game.

Another great episode and a good co-host!

I got one game correct, since I just recently played game #1, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. Yeah, it's a great game!

I never heard of game #2 but I like the music.

I knew what game series the 3rd game was, but I had a hard time remembering which specific game it was. I have played Diamond/ Pearl and almost all the main Pokemon games (I skipped over Black/White 2 and am just starting X/Y). They're fun games!

The second song for game #4 also tipped me off that it was a WarioWare game, but I just couldn't pinpoint which one! The vocals in that song seriously impressed when I heard it on the GBA!

And I should have guessed the 5th game, since I put a lot of hours into COD: Black Ops II (both campaign and online). I agree with all the good things Alex had to say about this Wii U game. It's only my 2nd COD game (I also have World at War on the Wii), and I thought it was a pretty awesome game. I don't play FPS'es much, but this one is very solid. It was great to have this at Wii U launch.