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This Week's Retronauts Gets an "Aaaaay!" for Effort

Join your classic gaming podcast crew for a discussion of when good games go bad. (Really bad.)

This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.

Since this week's episode of Retronauts contains some pretty strong opinions, I feel the need to offer the following disclaimer: We're just a bunch of people talking about video games, and you're more than welcome to disagree. (Heck, we even disagree with each other frequently throughout!)

That said, the Retronauts I put together are usually tightly controlled and driven by way too many notes, but for this most recent season, I've decided to assemble one "casual discussion" episode per marathon recording session—both to save myself some time, and to try an approach out of my comfort zone. And this week's topic—brought to us by contest winner Scott Schrader—gave us plenty of material to work with.

Given the complicated nature of game production, it's nearly impossible for a series to maintain the same level of quality for long. More often than not, sequels bring a slow and steady decline in quality and new ideas, but, for the sake of this episode, we zeroed in on the most outrageous disappointments: those "jump the shark" incidents that bring about the lowest, most shameful moments imaginable. In this hour and 40 minutes, I think we did a pretty thorough job of discussing the infamous ones, but if we've forgotten anything, please let us know in the comments!

Joining us for this one is the always delightful Mikel Reparaz, who pilots the good ship Vidjagame Apocalypse, and Kat Bailey, who you may recognize from this very website! As always, you can keep up with the latest Retronauts news via our Twitter and Facebook accounts, and check out some of our video content over on our YouTube page. And, in case you forgot, Retronauts is fully funded by our Patreon campaign, so if you can afford to donate even a dollar a month, please consider it! Every little bit really helps our cause.

Final note: All the music in this episode is from the sublime Rhythm Heaven Fever, which has absolutely nothing to do with this topic—I just love the soundtrack!

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Bob Mackey

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