Mechanical Fail: Recent Episodes
jmsebastian
Mechanical Fail is a podcast designed and developed by one video game maker and two video game enthusiasts who enjoy talking about deconstructing game mechanics to discover what makes them work.
It's February, which means we're already late in going through our favorite games from the previous year. But that's alright, our thoughts got to marinate a little bit and hopefully they are a bit more fully formed than they would otherwise be. Gabe and I have very different picks for this year, so it was fun to chat with him about a year that was awash with fantastic games.
For this episode, Gabe and I morph ball our way through the tunnels of Metroid: Samus Returns. We cover a fair bit of the game, as well as the game that inspired it, and other general Metroidy things.
In this episode, Gabe and I put on our safari hats, wield our machetes and go exploring through the ways video games encourage and enable exploration.
In this episode, Gabe and I discuss a curious game, NieR: Automata. We try to unpack a bit of its less than uplifting story, as well as try to determine the purpose behind some of the game's interesting mixture of mechanics.
We are back with an examination of Nintendo's latest entry in the Legend of Zelda series: Breath of the Wild.
In this week's episode, Gabe and I go back on forth about what made The Last Guardian both incredible and incredibly frustrating. Our talk consists of how well we thought it executed on its ideas, and we mostly focused on what the experience of playing it felt like moment to moment. Enjoy!
A big thank you to Installed, as usual, for letting us use the song Oso.
In this episode, Gabe and I wade through the games of 2016 to talk about our favorites. There were plenty of games to talk through and we do our best to go into detail about what we enjoyed so much about the games we chose. Have a listen and hopefully you enjoy both our conversation and some of the games we also enjoyed.
You should also check out Salem's Bend as they were kind enough to lend their music to our show and because they are an awesome band: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/salems-bend
In Episode 5, Gabe and I end our discussion on Zelda (for now) by talking about Gabe's experience playing A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds before going off and speculating on how Breath of the of the Wild will come together. Thanks, as always, to Installed for the use of the song, Oso. If you're interested in checking out more stuff that Gabe and I do, Gabe can be found at gabem.me, and I can be found at jmsebastian.tumblr.com.
In this episode, Gabe and I talk more about my misadventures playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. My goal of finishing every release in the series was dashed as we discuss various issues we had with the game and my ultimate giving up.
In Episode 3, Gabe and I discuss our distaste for Skyward Sword's various offenses against the player, as well as the nature of Final Fantasy XI cooperation. We also veer into discussing the Wii and Wii U's augmented control methods. We hope you enjoy our conversation.
Thanks, as always, to Installed for the use of the song Oso.
In Episode 2, Gabe and I discuss procedural generation and its many manifestations in video games. We also gush a bit about the Binding of Isaac.
As always, a big thank you to Installed for the use of the song Oso.
Gabe and I enter the world of podcasting by talking about the games we've been playing before going into a general discussion of game design trends and choices we have a hard time reconciling as good ideas.
Thank you to Installed for the use of the song Oso.