1UP Pod

We go together like an x, a circle, a triangle, and a square... hang with Andy, Bash, Becky, and Chip on our chaotic podcast! Get a life, play video games.  

[1uppod]

Andy has inherited a cute, low stakes farm from his now dead grandfather. He grows spinach and tends to the cattle. It's all very cozy. This brings to mind two of the best cute, cozy, low stakes life sims on the market - Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing New Horizons.

While Andy contends with life on a farm, he pits these two comfy classics against each other over the course of five categories: Visual Presentation, Sound & Music, NPCs, Gameplay, and Special Events. The game with the most wins will be declared the winner.

Can Andy keep things running smoothly while contending with automatics sprinklers, pesky crows, and difficult fishing spots - before attending the popular Midnight Jellyfish Festival, where nothing could possib-lye go wrong.

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And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[1uppod]

Andy has signed up to join a mysterious fighting tournament. While he prepares to battle his way to glory, he takes the time to compare and contrast two iconic early ’90s fighting games – Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat.

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was released in 1991 in arcades, released by Capcom. It was later ported to the SNES, Mega Drive, and home computers the following year. Mortal Kombat was released in arcades by Midway, and was later ported for the SNES and Mega Drive and handheld systems.

As he fights for his very survival (and an undetermined prize), he pits these two games against each other in the following categories: Presentation, Characters, Gameplay, Special Moves, and Historical Impact.

Which game will prevail as the ultimate fighting classic? Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat? Will Andy make it to the finals, or will he die in an embarrassing bloodied heap? Listen and find out!

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And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[1uppod]

Andy is staying in a secluded cabin in the mountains to witness a stunning meteor shower, which got him thinking about cabin in the woods related horror stories such as Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn and The Quarry – so what a perfect time for him to pit the two against each other in another episode of Video Game Deathmatch!

Until Dawn was released in 2015 for the PlayStation 4 while The Quarry was released in 2022 for the PlayStation 4 and 5, the Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Both games share a lot in common but just enough to make it a competitive (and bloody) face-off.

The two games compete in the following categories: Characters, Story, Location, Gameplay, and The Scare Factor. The game with the most W’s will be declared the winner.

While Andy tries to analyse and compare Until Dawn and The Quarry, he has to deal with a masked psychopath who was last seen on these mountains during the last meteor shower, and now Andy is running for his life as the slasher killer butchers his way through the mountains.

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And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[1uppod]

Welcome to the latest episode of 1UP Pod! This month the gang sit down to celebrate 20 years of Steam.

Join Bash, Andy, Orange, and Ben for a discussion on all things Valve and Steam!

The gang discuss the games they have been playing, including En Garde, Democratic Socialism Simulator, Starfield, Portal 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3!

Bash shares a brief history of Steam, from the early plans for the platform to its incredible growth into gaming’s biggest digital storefront and the best indie games library on the planet.

The opening topic of discussion features favourite (and least favourite) Steam features – and a rundown of everyone’s Steam stats that includes the first and last game bought, the size of everyone’s library and wishlist, and most played games! This includes Bash’s latest FFXIV figures and a very surprising name from Andy, that even he doesn’t understand!

The group share the games they’ve bought on Steam based on critical acclaim or popular consensus, split into the games that lived up to the hype and the ones that let us all down.

The episode culminates in some fun bonus rounds where everyone shares their favourite unhinged Steam reviews and the most deranged game they can find on Steam.

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And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[1uppod]

Welcome to the latest episode of 1UP Pod’s new series, Retro Reboot! The show that sees our three hosts discussing two retro games of note and then pitching their modern day reboot! This month’s episode includes the notorious Night Trap, Peter Molyneux’s ambitious god-sim Black & White, and overlooked PS1 adventure game Kingsley’s Adventure!

This episode sees Orange, Andy, and Foxy discuss a lot of memorable games (for good and bad reason) – including 1992’s Road Avenger, 1995’s Yoshi’s Island and Donkey Kong Country 2, 1994’s Night Trap, 2001’s Black & White, and 1999’s Kingsley’s Adventure!

Hear about Andy’s personal gaming masochism as he discusses two kinda bad (ok, very bad) Mega CD titles, and then mounting the difficult task of rebooting Night Trap – considered one of the worst games of all time! Foxy gets nostalgic with his favourite platforming game and an incredibly ambitious god-sim that is sadly no longer available to play, while Orange celebrates another platforming sequel and an overlooked gem from the PS1 era.

Which game would you like to see get rebooted? Let us know!

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And always remember to get a life and play retro video games.

[1uppod]

Let’s get nostalgic! Join Orange, Andy, and Ben for a brand-new 1UP Pod series: Retro Reboot!

In this series, each host takes a look at two retro games that means something to them – and then they choose one of those titles to reboot for modern audiences!

The gang start out by talking all about what retro games mean to them – the nostalgia, the exciting sense of discovery, the appreciation of gaming history – even when the gaming industry fails to properly preserve it.

Covered in this episode is a broad range of gaming classics, ranging from 1990 to 2002! Ben discusses The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (for the Game Boy Colour) and Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (Game Boy Advance), Andy brings two early Hideo Kojima classics to the table with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX) and Snatcher (Mega CD), while Orange brings Crash Bandicoot (PS1) and Sitting Ducks (PS2).

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And you can contact us on Twitter or Instagram or via these options.

Please reply to this survey if you’d like to share your thoughts on the show to help us understand our audience better.

And always remember to get a life and play retro video games.

[1uppod]

Join Andy, Ben, Orange, and Foxy for a uniquely 1UP Pod look at the best and the worst of video games based on the movies and TV shows that we know, but not always love! The Movie Tie-In games!

Andy, the only OG 1UP Podder representing on this episode, has been left in charge of our three newest team members and that goes about as well as you could hope for – as he accidentally insults everyone introducing the ‘What Have We Been Playing?’ segment. This section includes games like Divinity: Original Sin 2, Gris, Civ 6, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Powerwash Simulator, and Andy inflicts another one of his unhinged game choices with Torrente 3: The Protector (a movie tie-in game!) and we’ll let Andy explain what’s so wrong with that game!

The movie tie-in games discussion starts out quite positively with everyone sharing some of their personal favourites – featuring The Thing, RoboCop 2, Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets, Disney’s Aladdin, Revenge of the Sith, Disney’s Adventure Game featuring Hercules, Blade Runner, and Alien Isolation.

Discussion turns to the negative side of the spectrum with talk/rants about Disney’s Story Studio: Mulan, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (on the Atari ST), Minority Report: Everybody Runs, and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Video Game Adventure!

Unexpected movie tie-in games were up next – and we’ll keep that a secret – followed by games that stray far from the source material including Chronicles of Riddick, Small Soldiers, and more!

The big discussion of the show is ‘do movie tie-in games still have a place in modern gaming?’ so stick around for some enlightening/depressing thoughts!

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Please reply to this survey if you’d like to share your thoughts on the show to help us understand our audience better.

And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[1uppod]

oin Bash, Orange, and Ben for another instalment of Indie Showcase – our monthly celebration of all things indie gaming! This month’s episode features discussion of Death’s Door, Planet of Lana, Sticky Business, Oxenfree, Dredge, Crime O’Clock, BOSSGAME: The Final Boss is My Heart (or: Lesbian Cuphead), and a host of games that Bash picked up from Humble Bundle. Plus, lots of other Humble related plugs. Please sponsor us, Humble Games. I’m not too proud to beg.

The gang also look ahead to what’s coming soon in the world of indie gaming – featuring much excitement over Under The Waves, Stray Gods, En Guarde!, Super Space Club, Goodbye Volcano High, Word Factori, and The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood.

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And always remember to get a life and play video games.

Sticky Business key kindly provided by Mark Allen PR.

[1uppod]

[NOTE: THE OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE IS WITH HEADPHONES] Andy heads away from the comforts of the Shire on a long journey into Mordor – to destroy the One Ring once and for all. Along the way, he analyses and compares two Lord of the Rings video games – Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and LOTR: Gollum.

The five categories up for discussion this month are Art Design, Presentation, Story, Gameplay, and a Mystery Round. How unexpected!

His journey sees him walking long forest paths, hiding out in dank caves, scaling mountains, being lured into less dank caves, and finally entering an active volcano. Pretty standard stuff for any video game critic.

Andy praises Shadow of Mordor’s combat and ground-breaking Nemesis System and trashes just about everything in LOTR: Gollum, all while dodging the most terrible dangers the world can throw at him.

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And you can contact us on Twitter or Instagram or via these options.

Please reply to this survey if you’d like to share your thoughts on the show to help us understand our audience better.

And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[1uppod]

Join Bash, Andy, Becky, and Foxy for an all-new 1UP Pod episode – dedicated to the characters you love to hate, or just plain hate! This is our video game villains episode!

Before the gang get into this diabolical subject matter – they share a few of the thing they’ve been playing, including Dave the Diver, Graveyard Keeper, Divinity 2: Original Sin, and Bash goes on an extensive rant about the buggy mess that is Pokémon: Violet.

On the topic of big video game villains, Bash asks the gang what makes a good bad guy, with answers ranging from absurdity to subtlety, and even some wrestling psychology thrown in there – before moving on to what makes a BAD bad guy with examples ranging from

The gang break down different components that make up video game villains, including character designs, music, voice acting – with characters like Sephiroth, the Joker, among others. This is followed by a discussion of their favourite boss battles, including games like God of War Ragnarök, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and NieR Automata, to name a few!

The gang choose their favourite video game villains from Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Red Dead Redemption 2, Thief: Deadly Shadows, and one surprise pick!

Bash asks the gang to pitch a video game remade from the villain’s perspective with some really cool ideas that you’ll wish were real things to add to your Steam Wishlist – and, finally, everyone names their choice for sexiest villain. Believe us when we say you will want to hear some of these choices.

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And you can contact us on Twitter or Instagram or via these options.

Please reply to this survey if you’d like to share your thoughts on the show to help us understand our audience better.

And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[1uppod]

Join Bash, Becky, and Ben for a new Indie Showcase where the gang talk all about the indie games they’ve been playing (but not necessarily enjoying) over the last month – as well as looking ahead to the games that are exciting them on the horizon!

As this is Becky and Ben’s first Indie Showcase, they receive the mandatory induction process, and share their favourite indie games of all time – and what they love about indies in general.

Becky admits to being relatively new to the indie scene – but loves Stardew Valley – and has a fondness for sims and narrative-driven games, such as Oxenfree! Ben is a bit of a roguelite obsessive and his major addiction is Slay the Spire, but he also has a lot of love for other genres like Hollow Knight and Rocket League.

This month Becky’s been playing a lot of spooky themed games, namely The Room series and Graveyard Keeper, while Ben’s been on a bit of a sci-fi kick with The Fermi Paradox and A Long Journey to an Uncertain End. Bash has been struggling with Fall of Porcupine, enjoying the punishing difficulty of Tiny Thor, and basking in the tidy vibes of Cats Organized Neatly!

Some of the exciting games on the horizon including Toasterball, Snufkin – Melody of Moominvalley, and Bash’s top 5 best games from the Wholesome Direct!

Fall of Porcupine key provided by Mark Allen PR Tiny Thor key provided by UberStrategist The Fermi Paradox & A Long Journey to an Uncertain End keys provided by Player Two PR

Cover Games: A Long Journey to an Uncertain End, CorpoNation: The Sorting Process, Slay the Spire, Tiny Thor, Monster Train, Fall of Porcupine, Cats Organized Neatly

[1uppod]

Andy finds himself trapped in a sinister, isolated mansion – separated from the rest of his team, who are almost certainly already dead. Andy desperately tries to navigate this maze-like structure, filled with horrors unimaginable (unless you can imagine zombies), all while trying to analyse and compare Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Resident Evil 4 (2023).

Capcom dropped these two remakes of their earlier classic releases to enormous critical acclaim, both remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 are heralded as all-time great survival horror games. But which one is better?

The five key categories for this episode are Art Design, Level Design, Story, Gameplay, and their effectiveness at Remaking Classics.

Andy will attempt to solve obscure puzzles, fend off the ravenous undead, and uncover the dark secrets that lie beneath this malevolent abode.

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And you can contact us on Twitter or Instagram or via these options.

Please reply to this survey if you’d like to share your thoughts on the show to help us understand our audience better.

And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[1uppod]

Join Bash, Becky, Andy and our latest Fake Chip (Foxy!) for an extensive and honest discussion about the relationship between mental health & games – in The Games That Saved Us!

Having narrowly missed mental health month in May, due to poor physical health (always put your well-being before anything else), we take a look at all the ways video games have helped improve our mental health throughout our lives. It’s a vulnerable, thoughtful episode but still possesses plenty of 1UP Pod brand nonsense!

Before the show gets underway, the gang share some of the games they have been playing recently – including The Stanley Parable, XCOM 2, Pillars of Eternity, and Breath of the Wild – as well as a plug for our new series: Indie Showcase!

Bash shares a few of the ways games have been proven to help mental health, and throws to the gang to share some of their thoughts on the ways video gaming has helped them.

The games discussed in the roundtable portion of this episode include Skyrim, Discworld, Celeste, Child of Light, Space Invaders (for the PS1), It Takes Two, Bioshock, A Night in the Woods, Fall Guys, Death Stranding, and Firewatch!

The gang wrap up by sharing their own coping strategies for when they suffer burnout from games or gaming communities – not all of them helpful.

Here are some of the resources shared in the episode, should you need them:

Samaritans | Shout | Rethink | Mind | YoungMinds | Safe In Our World

Please do drop us a like, share, subscribe, and drop us a review/rating:

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And you can contact us on Twitter or Instagram or via these options.

Please reply to this survey if you’d like to share your thoughts on the show to help us understand our audience better.

And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[1uppod]

Join our host, Bash, along with Andy & Orange for a new monthly series: Indie Showcase! Taking a look at the indie games that are exciting us the most in the brilliant, innovative, endlessly original world of independent games!

The gang share their favourite indie games of all time, featuring: Disco Elysium, Hades, Papers Please, Journey, Cuphead, Tunic, Celeste, Night in the Woods, and Untitled Goose Game.

Each guest shares the indie games they have been playing over the last month. Bash has been playing and loving her time as cult leader in Cult of the Lamb, and building a new friend in Birth, and they stop to tell anyone getting refunds on indie games under two hours long to go fuck themselves.

Orange has been playing Bramble: The Mountain King, Beacon Pines, and Bash shares that they were a Kickstarter backer for the game – but no one has any idea if their name appears in the credits!

Andy has been receiving a lot of keys from PR companies, so he has been playing the spooky and evocative The Children of Silentown, the hyper-violent Hyperviolent, and the gripping horror (slash) comedy puzzler Killer Frequency.

The gang look ahead to the games they are most excited for in the coming month including Do Not Feed The Monkeys 2099, Planet of Lana, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Fall of Porcupine, Tiny Thor, Scarlet Deer Inn, and Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus.

All the while Andy keeps casually bragging that he is a Steam Deck dickhead now.

Please do drop us a like, share, subscribe, and drop us a review/rating:

Amazon | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher

And you can contact us on Twitter or Instagram or via these options.

Please reply to this survey if you’d like to share your thoughts on the show to help us understand our audience better.

And always remember to get a life and play video games.

Children of Silentown key kindly provided by Renaissance PR.

Hyperviolent key kindly provided by Dead Good PR.

Killer Frequency key kindly provided by Team17.

[1uppod]

Join Andy as he bounds through a platforming adventure of his own, all while trying to work out whether Super Mario World or Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the superior game.

Super Mario World was first released in Japan on the 21st of November 1990 for the Super Famicom while Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released in Japan on 21st November 1992 for the Sega Genesis. It was also released for the Master System and Game Gear, these 8-bit versions were notably different to the 16-bit release.

Both games were massively influential releases on their respective systems, released during the most intense years of the console wars. And Andy will be working out which is the best of the two.

This episode spans five categories – Characters, Level Design, Presentation, Gameplay, and Historical Impact – and sees Andy explore idyllic meadows (while killing weird creatures), lava worlds, the obligatory water level, and dank caves, before storming the lair of the final boss for a dramatic battle!

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Please reply to this survey if you’d like to share your thoughts on the show to help us understand our audience better.

[1uppod]

It’s-a us, the 1UP Pod. Joined by longtime friend of the pod, Orange, standing in for Chip this month, the gang are here to discuss the pop culture legacy of gaming’s greatest icon – Super Mario.

Charting (most of) his history, starting at his early days in the Donkey Kong series, before setting out on his own to headline his own platform game. This set the stage for the groundbreaking Super Mario Bros to debut on the NES, which helped pull the gaming industry back from the brink.

We discuss his 8-bit classics, including some of the odd side jobs Mario has taken on, as well as look at the anime (credited as the first video game adaptation) and three different TV shows that spun out from Super Mario’s sudden success!

They move through the Super Nintendo era, including Super Mario World, Mario Kart, and Yoshi’s Island – as well as oddities like Mario is Missing and Hotel Mario. This leads them to the N64 era and Mario’s adventures in three dimensions, including Bash’s general disdain for the console and its controller.

The GameCube era brings along the Luigi Renaissance with Luigi’s Mansion and the release of Mario Kart: Double Dash, which brings out the savage in Bash. Don’t test her, she sounds serious.

The Wii and Wii U are covered to varying levels of enthusiasm before the gang discuss the genius of Super Mario Odyssey.

They wrap things up by talking about the new Mario Bros Movie, and discussing whether Super Mario is a gaming icon that transcends the medium.

All that, plus the usual 1UP Pod nonsense.

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And you can contact us on Twitter or Instagram or via these options.

And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[1uppod]

Welcome to a new recurring series for the 1UP Pod – Video Game Deathmatch! This time, Andy will be pitting Streets of Rage 4 vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge!

Following Andy’s experiences comparing The Callisto Protocol and Dead Space, Andy is back on terra firma through the cunning escape plan of dying. Now he’s in a crime-infested city, fighting street punks left and right.

As a lifelong fan of the beat ’em up genre, from the late ’80s arcade golden era to the present, Andy can’t wait to get stuck into the intricacies of these two modern revivals of classic games. He just has to deal with the occasional baseball bat-wielding thug. Good thing there’s plenty of food to be found in steel barrels.

Streets of Rage 4 is based on the popular trilogy of Sega MegaDrive tiles, while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder’s Revenge is a spiritual successor to Konami’s iconic series of arcade releases.

Streets of Rage 4 vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge will take place over five categories: Presentation, Playable Characters, Enemy Types, Gameplay, and ‘Nostalgia vs Reinvention’.

Will he make it to the final boss before he’s done critiquing these two titles? Listen to find out!

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Please reply to this survey if you’d like to share your thoughts on the show to help us understand our audience better.

And always remember to get a life and play video games.