### Ep. 185 - Newman On The Toilet, with Kazuma Hashimoto
Translator and media critic [Kazuma Hashimoto](https://twitter.com/JusticeKazzy_) joins the panel to cover zabbing bloboids, the three hundred and twenty six pathways of Shadow the Hedgehog, and The Masked Tuber. Original music by Kurt Feldman.
**Questions this week:**
1. Liz Ryerson asks: What’s the hot new genre of video game in the year 2050? (06:11)
2. Is there a spectrum of quality for pachislot games? (11:02)
3. What defining element of a video game series do you wish the developers would be more flexible with? (15:43)
4. What were the most self-ruinous business decisions in video game history? (19:59)
5. Friend of the show [Ash Parrish](https://twitter.com/adashtra) broke a story this week about a $10 calculator app for the Switch. What features can we expect? (24:42)
6. Dirtbag Deadbeat asks: What is the most interesting reason you have stopped playing a video game? (30:24)
7. Repeat from last week now that we have an expert: what are the components of an ideal RPG party? (35:45)
8. What are the best video games you can’t play anymore? (40:06)
9. When will we know vtubers have officially peaked? (45:18)
10. What is the Jurassic Park of video games? (50:14)
- [The Wait Is Over: Calculator Debuts For Nintendo Switch](https://kotaku.com/the-wait-is-over-calculator-debuts-for-nintendo-switch-1846878862) by [Ash Parrish](http://twitter.com/adashtra)
- Nier Replicant v.1.22474487139 is the square root of 1.5
- [Donkey Kong Jr. Math](https://www.mobygames.com/game/donkey-kong-jr-math)
**Recommendations:** **Brandon:**[Dreams of the Carrion Kind by Disincarnate](https://listenable-records.bandcamp.com/album/dreams-of-the-carrion-kind), [G2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0176741/) (1999), **Frank**: A big book of unreleased NES games Esper can't find a link to because Frank doesn't even attempt to read the Japanese title **Kazuma**: [+81 Podcast](https://twitter.com/plus81_pod), [Shusenjo](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8483558/) (2019), [HazVsRPG](https://www.youtube.com/c/hazvsrpg), [Kagenaga on twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/kagenaga_LN)
Support on [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/insertcredit)
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very happy to announce a little something extra with this episode, and (hopefully) all episodes going forward!!
insert credit will start uploading new episodes to youtube, and you can watch episode 185 right here (once it's done uploading, processing, etc): https://youtu.be/jF5SlNb73Xk
to explain a bit: we don't have everyone record video, or anything. but also it isn't just a 1+ hour upload with a still image!! I put together a little visual collage of footage for each segment and question, then Insert Credited up the visuals a bit here and there. also everything on screen moves very slightly over time, so burn-in shouldn't be a problem if you want to leave this on a TV.
we'll be doing these for each episode going forward, and *possibly* going back and making them for old episodes too. is this something people would be exceptionally interested in? any comments or suggestions are appreciated.
p.s. this week's lightning round is a real fun game to play on your own, I need to think of my own ranking scale
I like how this video kind of broke my algorithm for some reason and youtube is recommending me peppa pig videos and some weird stuff while I watch it.
It's proably because the insert credit channel is too new but I still find it funny.
@espercontrol#30634 Friend of the show Ash Parrish broke a story this week about a $10 calculator app for the Switch. What features can we expect? (24:42)
Nintendo has actually sold 2 calculators before, there was an animal crossing calculator and a mario calculator for the dsi.
They charged 200 points (2.50 usd) on the DsiWare store for each one, and I actually bought the mario one as a child.
They have nintendo style little easter eggs, animations and sound effects.
I used to play a lot with the unit converter and the age calculation feature, (which calculates and compares different animals life spans).
Apparenty you can still buy them on the 3ds eshop for 2 dollars each.
They are cute but probably not worth the price even when they were released in 2009? because I guess most people with a dsi at that point already had a cell phone with a calculator (probably not a smartphone for most people but I think a lot of 2009-ish cell phones had calculators in them, but I might be wrong in that). So I guess they were targeted at children? I bought it as a 9 year old so I guess it worked.
This is just one of those things that reminds me Nintendo didn‘t used to have such a stick up their ass about doing dumb stuff on their consoles. I love the Switch but I’m sad that it‘s clearly served as proof to them that all the fun extraneous stuff they used to indulge in on the last couple generations of home and handheld consoles is not worth it. Financially I’m sure that‘s right but damn if it’s not a shame. It‘s 100% the reason why I haven’t gotten my long-wished for Wii Sports Resort Deluxe for Switch and probably never will. RIP to the Nintendo that did actually make dumb little calculator games.
@ana-yipyip#30641 My kids love watching Peppa Pig videos on YouTube, and I always supervise them when they do. Now I'm hoping Insert Credit will show up in their algorithm.
Shadow the Hedgehog's zillion paths in a nutshell:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/bs4EPfR.png[/img]
Shadow has a morality-based mission system: stages contain optional "hero" and "dark" missions—kill x enemies from either faction, typically—and completing either or neither mission determines the next stage in the sequence, with the final stage in your run forcing a hero/dark choice that determines the final boss and one of ten endings; clearing all the endings unlocks a true final stage with the canonical ending. They're all very, very dumb and many feature Eggman being murdered via karate chop.
For reasons known only to Sonic Team, the game not only keeps track of your exact route from beginning to end but also assigns unique and extremely overwrought names to every one of the 300+ possible route variations, which you can and should read here because they are the Shadow-est things imaginable: https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Shadow_the_Hedgehog_(game)/Library_Sequences
RE: removing lives from games, I disagree! Sometimes!
I played through Crash Bandicoot 4 recently, which gives you the option to play in 'Retro' mode (finite lives that need to be replenished) or 'Modern' mode (unlimited lives, lots of checkpoints). I started in modern mode and the game felt lightweight and disposable. There was essentially no way to lose - play a level enough times and you can memorise / fluke / brute-force your way through. The difficult levels were frustrating rather than challenging.
I then started again in retro mode and the added peril of potentially having to start again if you mess up makes it a completely different game. You take fewer risks, and the ones you do take feel like a bigger achievement. It also makes returning to a level for collectables / time trials actually worth something more than cosmetics and skins, as you'll inevitably pick up some lives along the way to use in the harder levels.
@billy#30665 Therein lies the rub - lives are only good when the game is designed around them.
And I forgot to say how much I enjoyed the episode and guest, too! Kazuma's insights were great, I am not familiar with RE for example and never considered that there are political themes lurking in there.
seconding the guest praise and I know I‘m a dang broken record but kazuma should play pathologic 2 if he hasn’t already (if I may make a suggestion re said political themes)
I was thinking of MAG on the PS3, an online FPS shooter that boasted 256-player matches. Unplayable now since the servers shut down. Also the Satellaview games on SNES.
@exodus it may please you to find out that the platformer+hacking gamejam game that was supposed to expire actually had its players actively work _against_ making it unplayable for others. Not sure what the state of it is now but it lasted much longer than expected. Vice covered it: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dbmmq/players-were-meant-to-make-cruel-world-unplayable-now-theyre-saving-it
@espercontrol#30639 love the hangoutable video version. maybe it could have similarly insert-credited little gameplay loops (as in looping short videos of gameplay footage, not as in rewarding game design). i think it's very pleasant as it is though, if it just showed every game they talk about it would be annoying because when not looking at the screen i would be wondering if i missed something. anyway, good job!
@tombo#30672 i thought about getting gameplay in there, but it’s a big question of “intellectual property” since i’d have to pull from some streamer or another to get my hands on the footage unless there’s a big archive of free use gameplay footage I don’t know about. i’ll look into it more!
@gouis#30682 hmm!! i just opened Apple Podcasts and it downloaded and played ok, but I did have some problems last night due to originally typo-ing the MP3’s url at first (fixed that problem pretty quick, though). try closing and reopening the app? thanks for letting me know about the issue, I’ll keep looking into it
@espercontrol#30683 Closed and re-opend the app, deleted the episode, marked as unplayed, and then was unable to re-download. Could just be me but just wanted to let you know.
