A Retro Perspective: Recent Episodes
A Retro Perspective
“A Retro Perspective” is a video game podcast that takes an in depth look at long running franchises and how their designs have changed one game at a time. Over the course of a season, we’ll play each main entry in a video game series tracing it from its roots to present day.
In Season 1 we look at Nintendo’s flagship franchise: The Legend of Zelda. Although it defined not one, but two genres between its top-down dungeon crawling and 3D transformation, the series found itself growing stale by 2010 before being revitalized by 2017’s Breath of the Wild. At least, that’s how we remember it. We’ll revisit the series by playing every main console release (and throwing a bone to Link’s Awakening DX and A Link Between Worlds) to see just what has made Zelda so enduring.
New episodes the first Friday of every month.
A Retro Perspective is hosted by brother/sister team Cuyler and Carly.
The season finale is here! Carly and Cuyler dive into their experiences playing 2017's Breath of the Wild and their hopes for the future.
Thank you for listening and stay tuned for bonus episodes and our second season later this year.
Carly and Cuyler tackle the 3DS follow up to A Link To The Past -- a fun romp that is indebted to its predecessor while paving the way for the future.
Carly and Cuyler take a deep dive into the less than loved Skyward Sword. Motion controls, sweeping scores, low batteries galore.
Carly and Cuyler let the hot takes fly on this exasperated edition of the podcast as they get into the nitty-gritty of a game that has always been a thorn in their sides.
Listener discretion advised for diehard Twilight Princess fans.
Carly and Cuyler discuss Wind Waker's shortcomings and the charm that propelled it to masterpiece status despite them. Even though the first Gamecube Zelda is a little half baked, there's a lot to love.
This episode Carly mistakes Darmani for Darunia and accuses Lulu of being a bad mother. Cuyler waxes poetic about his favorite Zelda game.
In this hefty episode, Carly and Cuyler step into the child timeline and their own childhoods to figure out why the first Zelda game they picked up is still so hard to let go.
Carly and Cuyler discuss the first handheld Zelda and how it goes back to its NES roots while paving a new path for the series going forward.
The NES era is over and there's new hardware in town. Carly and Cuyler break down the series's jump to the SNES and the birth of the so-called "Zelda formula".
"I'm just glad it's over." After many trials and tribulations, Carly and Cuyler discuss Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Cuyler gets in depth with the combat system and swordplay while Carly just tries to find something nice to say.
"It's dangerous to go alone. Take this." In this episode we take on the 1986 classic: The Legend of Zelda. Carly and Cuyler discuss the game after a recent playthrough -- their likes, their dislikes, their favorite moments, and then they puzzle out just what made the original NES game so iconic and so enduring.