Super Smash Echoes: Recent Episodes
Justin & Magellan
Every month, your hosts Justin and Magellan explore the worlds of Super Smash Bros. by playing the games that inspired its characters, one franchise at a time.
What if you combined a game and a watch, and then added several thousand other functions to your watch (such as, say, the ability to make phone calls), and then you transformed the games into something much stranger and worse, and then you took those games out of your watch and you played them? This! This is what would happen!
Follow Justin on Bluesky at nopad.bsky.social.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on their other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast and follow them on Bluesky at notthatmagellan.bsky.social.
Over 20 years in the making, Nintendo gave the Smash Echoes hosts a gift better than they could have possibly imagined by making a sequel to the game that has shaped their gamer minds and all of modern gaming for the last two decades.
That was 6 months ago, and this monumental milestone has come and gone. It's time to start Lap 2 of your Kirby Air Riders journey by returning to the game and to Justin and Magellan's fresh, thorough thoughts from back in November.
Follow Justin on Bluesky at nopad.bsky.social.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on their other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast and follow them on Bluesky at notthatmagellan.bsky.social.
It's an interactive entertainment medium! It's a time-keeping device! No, it's sort of stuff inside of a museum inside of a thing! You'll get five fifths of a game for the price of none as we discuss Game & Watch Gallery 3.
0:01:20 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:09:45 for our discussion of Game & Watch Gallery 3.
Follow Justin on Bluesky at nopad.bsky.social.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on their other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast and follow them on Bluesky at notthatmagellan.bsky.social.
After a narratively significant two-year time-jump, we are now the children of Super Smash Echoes's former hosts, combining all of the best podcasting special moves from our progenitors in order to achieve victory in this discussion of Fire Emblem: Awakening.
0:01:15 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:13:00 for our discussion of Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Follow Justin on Bluesky at nopad.bsky.social.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on their other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast and follow them on Bluesky at notthatmagellan.bsky.social.
Welcome to Season 2 of Super Smash Echoes, in which we explore franchises introduced to the series during Super Smash Bros. Melee. If you like talking about climbing, and ice, and the computer lab games that live in our heads rent free, this is the episode for you!
0:02:45 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:10:45 for our discussion of Ice Climber.
0:44:00 for our discussion of Journey.
Follow the show on Twitter (or X I guess?) and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter (or X I guess?) @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast and read his random thoughts in his newsletter, Not That Magellan.
Our special guest, Allen from Chatz: A Television Podcast, joins us to discuss evil Captain Falcons and very fast vehicles.
0:02:50 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:13:00 for our post-play reflections.
Here's an example of a pretty funny post-race interview from the Grand Prix mode.
And here's an example of a short movie you can get by fulfilling specific conditions with the racer in question.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast and read his random thoughts in his newsletter, Not That Magellan.
Your friends at Super Smash Echoes put our Earthbound coverage on hold with this delightful trip through the wonderful indie RPG-seeming Franken. Join us as we discuss what it means to play a game and why we do it, the difference between labyrinths and mazes, whether there is such thing as strategy for puzzles, and how evil characters can redeem themselves by killing even more evil characters.
You can access the game and associated media here: https://splendidland.itch.io/franken
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
Justin and Magellan check in to discuss their progress on Earthbound, which ends up being in large part a discussion of what else they've been playing (Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Elden Ring, respectively) and how those games relate to Earthbound. They also discuss the newest member to their Earthbound parties, Jeff Who No Longer Lives At Home.
0:00:00 for our discussion of other games (potential light spoilers for Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Elden Ring)
0:41:30 for our reflection on this month's chunk of Earthbound
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
It's time for our favorite thing, podcasting! We take our first crack at the journey that is EarthBound, discussing BLTs, cults, and the doo-doo-doo-doo-doo from the memes. Please note that this podcast spoils EarthBound up until the big story thing that happens early on in the third town. If you know what that means, then you know what that means!
0:01:30 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:05:30 for our post-play reflections.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
In this special bonus episode nestled between two classic Nintendo JRPGs, we play Undertale - a game that breaks down and rebuilds that genre just as it breaks down and rebuilds us (emotionally).
0:01:30 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:05:30 for our post-play reflections.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
Further Reading
- How Undertale Was Made and Why its Success Scared The Creator
- What The Internet did To Undertale
In this episode, we live the millennial dream of partying like it's 1999 and protecting our very own Pikachu with our lives.
0:01:45 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:12:00 for our post-play reflections.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
Happy Halloween! In the time between our regular episodes (in which we explore how our understandings of the echoes of Smash franchise games compare to the games themselves), we're doing our first bonus episode on a game that is itself an echo of a Smash franchise game. Join us as we discuss Spookware (and WarioWare: Get It Together! as well)!
Coming this summer, Fox McLeod in A New Hope - uh, I mean, Star Fox 64!
0:02:50 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:11:00 for our post-play reflections.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
Further Reading
- The Geek Critique's Review of Shadow The Hedgehog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js0ts1csSVs
If Kirby swallowed this podcast he would get the good takes power.
0:02:15 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:10:45 for our post-play reflections.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
We may not be parents ourselves, but we understand how hard it is now because this month we played the SNES parenting simulator, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
0:01:40 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:05:30 for our post-play reflections.
Note: It is with a sad heart that we have to inform you that, between the time of recording and publication, Magellan is no longer in Elite Smash with Yoshi. His time in the sun was brief, but beautiful.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
Further Reading
- An op-ed critical of Yoshi's lack of agency in Yoshi's Island https://www.avclub.com/even-in-his-own-game-yoshi-was-mario-s-disposable-serv-1798285059
- An op-ed on Yoshi-as-parenting-metaphor https://www.avclub.com/how-yoshi-s-role-in-the-super-mario-world-games-is-a-me-1798285204
- The Yoshi's Island soundtrack (it's great background music for whatever you're doing right now!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRxgYC5zrV4
- The jan Misali video we mentioned in which his audience voted on which games are part of the "Super Mario" series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XejJ6PzPtEw
- A video on the Super Mario Baseball relationship system Justin mentioned https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1N4SI9CqMk&t=4s
We go back to the game that didn't start it all, but definitely started half of our modern understanding of "it all" - Samus Aran's entry into the world of 3D gaming with Metroid Prime.
0:01:15 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:10:45 for our post-play reflections.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
Further Reading
- Reddit thread on "The First Ever Flick Stick Game: Boomerang X" https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/oep9n5/the_first_ever_flick_stick_game_boomerang_x/
- The Geek Critique's Review of Metroid Prime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CsWlocKa7E
- Arlo's Guide to Getting Into Metroid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJNW5vm8l90
- The Unusual Excellence of Halo's Most Iconic Level https://kotaku.com/the-unusual-excellence-of-halos-best-level-1631041139
Want to think about a different cycle of impending catastrophe than the one we live every day? Join Justin and Magellan as they discuss The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask!
0:03:12 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:13:50 for our post-play reflections.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
Further Reading
- The Man Who Invented Majora's Mask Reflects on 30 Years at Nintendo https://www.ign.com/articles/the-man-who-invented-majoras-mask-reflects-on-30-years-at-nintendo
- Who Am I Rooting For Again? – Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and the Problem with Link https://abnormalmapping.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/who-am-i-rooting-for-again-ocarina-of-time-majoras-mask-and-the-problem-with-link/
- How Koji Kondo Writes Creepy Music - 8-bit Music Theory https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HlNFaaW3sB0
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask's Dungeon Design | Boss Keys https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pmOVS-qLG6o"
We're the leader of the bunch, you know us well! We're finally back, to play another video game representative of a franchise from Super Smash Bros., in this case Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze!
0:01:45 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:24:20 for our post-play reflections.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.
Super Smash Bros. is a game made up of the echoes of other games, games which themselves echo in the wider conversation about video games as a whole. This is a podcast about our relationship to those echoes, and about how the games themselves align to or belie what we hear and say about them. Justin and Magellan start their exploration of these phenomena with the Mario Franchise, specifically by discussing, then playing, then discussing Super Mario Bros. 3.
0:05:50 for our pre-play thoughts.
0:21:30 for our post-play reflections.
Follow the show on Twitter and other social platforms @smashechoes.
Follow Justin on Twitter @nopadBridges.
Listen to Magellan talk about television on his other podcast, Chatz: A Television Podcast.