Info

Arcade Castle: A Gaming Podcast

Welcome! You've reached the home of the Arcade Castle Podcast, a podcast that looks a little at video games, a little at board games, and those things that got a little bit of both. While most podcasts tend to look at the latest and greatest, we have opted for a far darker path through the sprawling realms of digital and analog games. For lying between the two genres is a pile of games few dare to play, games that often defy categorization. Bizarre chimeric creations and licensed games abound here. Found in thrift stores and online, studying these games will be a global effort a countries across the planet send these objects to the Arcade Castle for examination. Why do we do this? To determine how well these board games capture the essence of their parent franchise. To see how the strategies, gameplay, game mechanics, player challenges, and player roles are translated from the digital realm of video games to the analog base of the board game. Can we learn anything about design and gameplay by comparing how a single franchise is represented in two different mediums? Can one inform the other? That, and who doesn't love board games and video games?
RSS Feed Subscribe in Apple Podcasts
Arcade Castle: A Gaming Podcast
2020
May


2019
May
March
February
January


2018
October
September
July
June
April
March
January


2017
August
April
March
January


2016
August
April
March


Categories

All Episodes
Archives
Categories
Now displaying: June, 2018
Jun 25, 2018

Continuing the adventures from Episode 12, Arcade Castle looks at two more Kickstarter games, this time in the form of food-themed card games. The first game Arcade Castle examined was a card game based off the 1982 arcade smash hit BurgerTime. Following this, Arcade Castle had dessert in the form of Robots ♥ Ice Cream, based off a mid 2010s iOS phone game.

 

The BurgerTime Card Game attempts to overcome the challenge any developer faces when they try and adapt a typical arcade title into a board game or card game: how does one take the often "easy to learn, lifetime to master" simplistic gameplay of many arcade titles and make it a compelling and strategic game for multiple people to play. Does BurgerTime successfully create an enjoyable dish, or bring something to the table that deserves to be tossed into the trash?

 

After Arcade Castle digested BurgerTime, they decided to get some dessert in the form of Robots ♥ Ice Cream. Based off a Space Invaders-esque iOS game, it requires players to militarize their ice cream trucks and use weaponized ice cream to destroy robots across a series of worlds before they are able to steal that world's ice cream. Players work together to fend off the robot menace and save the galaxy's ice cream! Does this game provide a sweet treat, or a goopy mess?

**********************************
 
Webpage: www.arcadecastle.com
 
Additionally, you can find us on Itunes (and a number of podcast services), TwitterFacebookBoardGameGeek, and Instagram!

Check out our videos on Youtube!
  
You can contact us at: contactarcadecastle@gmail.com

Also, if you like the new theme song, check out Tony Robot at: www.facebook.com/louisvilletonyrobot/


 
***********************************

Episode Outline:

00:00 - 20:00 - Arcade Castle talks about Talking Mcdonald's Trees, Fast Food Jobs, Cob Slevins, Board Games About Food, Video Games About Food, Fist-Fights At Old Folk Homes, Drive-Thru, and more!

20:00 - 35:00 - Arcade Castle discusses the Burgertime video game series, the Burgertime Card Game, and how the game 'plays'.

35:00 - 45:00 - Arcade Castle looks at Robots Love Ice Cream, how it plays, and whether or not they recommend either game.

45:00 - 62:00 - After playing three Kickstarter games that run the gamut of good to bad, Arcade Castle has a discussion about the pros and cons of the Kickstarter phenomenon.

Jun 4, 2018

Riding the high that was Rollercoaster Tycoon, Arcade Castle gets on board their next ride in the form of the Megaman Board Game by Jasco Games, approved by Capcom, backed by 2,639 backers on Kickstarter to the tune of $415,051, developed for over two years, and released in 2015! (*phew*) But as the ride begins for Arcade Castle, a ride, unbeknownst to them, that last for hours and hours and hours, can Arcade Castle survive until the ride is over?

 

In Episode 12, Arcade Castle tackles the Megaman Board Game, which attempts to capture the essence of the Megaman series through custom dice, challenge decks, and modular board. However, the centerpiece of the game, and the main selling point via this board game's creator--Jasco Games--is the board game's miniatures. But, as Arcade Castle begins hour 3 of the Megaman Board Game, they begin to question if the miniatures even serve a purpose beyond window dressing and discuss the real question: has anyone ever played an eight player game of the monstrosity and, if so, are they still playing?

 

With all new music from Louisville, KY artist Tony Robot, Arcade Castle tries to figure out just where Jasco Games went wrong with the Megaman Board Game, and how to fix it, since Jasco Games has stated they will no longer support this game. Well, they may if you give them more money...

**********************************
 
Webpage: www.arcadecastle.com
 
Additionally, you can find us on Itunes (and a number of podcast services), TwitterFacebookBoardGameGeek, and Instagram!

Check out our videos on Youtube!
  
You can contact us at: contactarcadecastle@gmail.com

Also, if you like the new theme song, check out Tony Robot at: www.facebook.com/louisvilletonyrobot/


 
***********************************

Episode Outline:

00:00 - 20:00 - Arcade Castle talks about artificial intelligence, 3D printing, video game board games and board game video games, Nintenhard, flooding bowling alleys, Megaman, 20XX: fact or fiction?

20:00 - 30:00 - Once Upon a Powerup: How Megaman Almost Was Megamain't.

30:00 - 45:00 - Arcade Castle takes an in-depth look at the components and gameplay of the Megaman Board Game from 2015. Arcade Castle examines how Jasco Games' approach to both of these elements directly led to the main issue with this board game: longevity.

45:00 - 60:00 - Both members of the Arcade Castle have different approaches on how to fix a fundamentally broken game, yet also find common ground and overlap that lead to an overarching approach that owners of this game can take to try and make this game that is MEGA on style and mega on substance more playable and more enjoyable.

 

1