It’s a short game rerun this week while Raygan takes some parental leave, but we’re bringing back a timely episode. Superhot Mind Control Delete is out this week and will be our new episode when we return. Let’s reacquaint ourselves with the 2016 original.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

For as long as the show has been around, whenever we asked “what’s a great short retro game?” the nearly unanimous answer was always “Super Metroid!” It’s the game that launched one of our favorite genres, but for various reasons none of us had played much of it. We correct that this week, and brought along a friend for that 1994 perspective.

We discuss the game’s forward thinking design and impact, as well as approaches and tips for playing it in 2020, and some listener responses.

Resources:

• Original Manual
• The Metroid Library – page with numerous scans of period appropriate guides
  • (Raygan mostly used the GamePro guide, which is short and spoiler-light, and the official Player’s Guide)
• Game Maker’s Toolkit – Boss Keys: The World Design of Super Metroid 
  • Dependency chart

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash
• Zoltan

Superliminal is a first person puzzle game based on optical illusions and forced perspective. In development by a small team since 2014, this game has some incredibly polished tech and clever puzzle design, while its story and theme fall little flat. Still, it has lots of clever ideas to show us in its 2-4 hour runtime.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane

Young love in the Lonely Valley.

JELLY is an interactive fiction game co-written by Short Game favorite Chandler Groover and newcomer (?) Tom Lento. It was recently awarded Best in Show at the Spring Thing interactive fiction competition. Laura, Shane, and Nate discuss the game, including a post-show spoiler break.

JELLY is a TWINE work, and is playable via a browser at the Spring Thing website. It can also be downloaded as part of a Spring Thing 2020 bundle on itch.io.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

This week guest host Anna Anthropy joins us to discuss an unexpected HD remaster of a beloved but obscure Japan-only GameCube game!

The Mr. Driller series burned brightly but briefly from 1999 through the early 2000s, and Drill Land is by far its most elaborate and varied entry. The game includes the classic Mr. Driller arcade-puzzle-action game, along with several variations that keep the same basic mechanics but transform the game in fun ways. We discuss everything that Drill Land brings to the table, from its gameplay to its wonderful soundtrack to its totally unnecessary, wildly elaborate lore.

Thanks again to Anna Anthropy for joining us on this strange descent. You can find more of Anna’s work on her Twitter, at her itch.io page, and this month as part of A Needle in a Gay Stack – A PRIDE Bundle

Mr. Driller Drill Land is available on Nintendo Switch and Steam for $29.99 (but if you’re really hardcore you’ll play an import copy in Japanese on a GameCube via a boot disc.) Length is open ended, but most players will complete the story mode on level 1 difficulty within about 5 hours.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Anna Anthropy – @adult_witch

Set in a colorful post-apocalyptic wasteland, Signs of the Sojourner is a narrative deck-building game about building a character – and deck – through conversations. It has a beautifully illustrated visual-novel style presentation, and a unique card based conversation system with dozens of characters to meet across its large map. Signs of the Sojourner merges narrative and mechanics in a way that is unlike anything else we have played.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Jet Lancer is a free-flying 2D shooter that feels like a colorful, expanded version of Luftrausers. Fly a high-tech jet that can flip 360° mid flight and boost to air-brake, and take on swarms of jets and massive robot bosses. It’s a tough but extremely fun and unique shooter.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl

This week on the show we are talking about the incredible itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, a pay-what-you-want bundle of over 1000 games supporting the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund. We go over the existing Short Game favorites in the Bundle, some new discoveries, and some recommendations from our listeners.

Black Lives Matter.

Things we’ve covered in the past:

(Links go to our past episode on each game)

• Quadrilateral Cowboy
• Wheels of Aurelia
• Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald
• Minit
• Wide Ocean Big Jacket
• A Short Hike
• Night in the Woods
• Octodad: Dadliest Catch
• Celeste
• Oxenfree
• Micro Mages
• Speed Dating for Ghosts
• Anodyne
• Pyre 
• 2064: Read Only Memories
• Pikuniku

There were too many things mentioned for me to add links past here, but the bundle page is searchable!

Nate

• Super Win The Game

Raygan

• Sky Rogue
• Extreme Meatpunks Forever
• Loot Rascals
• Glittermitten Grove
• Eat Girl
• Hot Pot Panic
• Serre
• Zone of Lacryma & Sonar Smash
• PHN-HOME
• Dusk Child
• Pixel Fireplace & Just Rain

Shane

Shane rounds up some of the tabletop RPG content in the bundle

• Spreadsheet of TTRPG content in the bundle
• One Page Dungeons
• One page Lore
• Hex Kit
• Lancer
• Blades in the Dark
• Gentleman Bandit

Laura Picks

Laura couldn’t make it but shared her favorites

• What Isn’t Saved (will be lost)
• A Mortician’s Tale
• Signs of the Sojourner
• This discord has ghosts in it
• Dominique Pamplemoose
• Hidden Folks
• Art Sqool
• Death and Taxes

Listener Responses

• Order a Pizza: a Visual Novel 
• 2000:1 a Space Felony (Or How I Came to Value My Life and Murder Mercilessly”
• Mausritter
• Cuckoo Castle
• Dogs Throwing Swords II
• Bleed 2!
• Wide Ocean Big Jacket
• Democratic Socialist Simulator
• Glittermitten Grove
• One Night Stand
• Loot Rascals
• Ticket
• Combo Postage
• The King’s Bird

Other Resources

• The games in the bundle are listed on How Long To Beat!
• A subreddit just for the bundle
• A spreadsheet of all the TTRPG content

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl

In this episode Shane and Laura talk about Mini Metro and Mini Motorways by Dinosaur Polo Club, a game and its sequel. One has had staying power and one hasn’t.

• When SimCity got serious: the story of Maxis Business Simulations and SimRefinery
• Xumo LG Channels Plus
• Only Connect

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash