In Tharsis, you command the crew of the badly damaged Mars mission Iktomi, scrambling to keep the ship’s systems active and the crew alive. In form it’s closer to a solo board game than a typical video game, with on-screen dice and lots of information and resources. Reviews have been divided, with some loving the game’s take on board game mechanics and others being turned away by the game’s punishing difficulty. We discuss the game, who it’s for, and strategy tips on getting your crew safely to Mars.

Tharsis costs $14.99 for Mac and PC on Steam, and is also available for PS4.

• THARSIS
• Choice Provisions
• Woah Dave! It’s a VIDEO GAME!
• Space Dave! Teaser – YouTube
• Bit.Trip – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• TUTORIAL — THARSIS
• LEVEL-5 – Crimson Shroud
• OXENFREE: LAUNCH TRAILER – YouTube

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame
See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions..

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

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

Birds. Nature’s weirdest dudes. This week, we date birds, we defend birds in court, we shoot birds, and we… I guess birds eat bread right?

We’re talking rounding up four games that for whatever reason we didn’t feel like doing a full episode on, which all conveniently follow a theme.

• Hatoful Boyfriend
• Aviary Attorney
• Duck Game
• I am Bread

We also talk about our favorite birds from all of video games. Turns out there are a LOT of birds in video games.

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame
See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions..

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

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

Journey by thatgamecompany and designer Jenova Chen is the game most often suggested to us by listeners, and for good reason. This 2 to 3 hour wordless game experience changed the critical landscape when it launched on the PS3 in 2012, and it continues to be a touchstone for gamers of all sorts. Some of our hosts are returning to this game and others are completely new to it.

Journey is available for download on PS4 and PS3 and is available on disc for PS3 as part of the Journey Collection.

Links for this episode:

• Braid
• Monument Valley: an iOS and Android game by ustwo
• Brothers – a Tale of Two Sons – Out Now for PS4 and Xbox One
• Flow (video game) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Gone Home: A Story Exploration Video Game
• Journey Game Creator Jenova Chen “Theories Behind Journey” – Full Keynote Speech – YouTube
• The Incomparable | Journey: Then We Touched, Then We Sang (Episode 108)
• Sigur Rós – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Hatoful Boyfriend – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Aviary Attorney
• Duck Game on Steam

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame
See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions..

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

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

Laura and Raygan discuss Cibele by Nina Freeman and Star Maid Games. Autobiographical and naturalistic to a fault, Cibele tells the story of game designer Nina’s first romance (?) with a boy she meets in an online game. Cibele is one of the most personal and authentic stories we’ve ever seen in a video game and it’s appeared on several best of 2015 lists.

This game isn’t for everyone, and our reaction to the game was as complex as the emotions on display. Expect it to take 1 to 2 hours to complete. Cibele costs $8.99 and us available for Mac and PC on Steam and via the author’s website.

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame
See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions..

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

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

Mushroom 11 is a puzzle platformer with a truly unique movement mechanic. You control a green blob (the Mushroom) by destroying and pruning its cells bit by bit and allowing it to move and regrow. The slightly out-of-control and unpredictable feel combines with clever puzzle designs to provide one of the best puzzle platform games of 2015.

Mushroom 11 is available on Steam for Mac, PC, and Linux for $14.99. (Currently on sale for $10 as of this writing.) Expect it to take between 6 and 8 hours to complete.

Links for this episode

• A speed run of the first level
• Indie Fund
• Slash (card game)
• King of Tokyo (board game)
• The Talos Principle

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame
See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions..

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

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

With just a few days left in 2015 we round up our favorite short games of the year.

3) Her Story

2) Tie between Rocket League and The Magic Circle

The Short Game Game of the Year 2015
Undertale

Also Ranked

• Alto’s Adventure
• Until Dawn
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Life is Strange
• Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Axiom Verge
• Helldivers
• You Must Build A Boat
• Does Not Commute

Other games mentioned in this episode:

• EarthNight
• A Dark Room
• Downwell
• The Executive
• Firewatch
• Day of the Tentacle Remastered
• Inside

Other links:
– DATING START (MEETING ALL MY STANDARDS VER​.​)by Slime Girls
– New Yorker GOTY list 2015
– Time Magazine GOTY list 2015
– Watch Out For Fireballs EPISODE 63: DISHONORED

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame
Like the show? Support us by telling a friend or writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

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

We finally catch up on a game we’ve meant to play since March. Ori and the Blind Forest is a beautiful Miyazaki inspired Metroidvania style romp through a lush forest landscape full of bright characters and fluid animation. We discuss the game’s beautiful art style, its “story” (such as it is,) and compare it with some other high-profile indie Metroidvania style games like Axiom Verge.

Ori and the Blind Forest is available for Xbox One and Windows (Steam) for $19.99. Expect it to take about 7.5 to 9 hours to complete.

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame
See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions..

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

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

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and the Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist is a 15 minute free heist game from Crows Crows Crows, a new development studio headed by William Pugh, one of the creators of The Stanley Parable. It’s totally free, and absolutely certain to put a huge smile on your face.

Saying more would almost spoil it. So naturally, we talk about it for over half an hour.

We start by catching up on what your hosts have been up to since our last episode, including Laura’s new PS4 and Raygan’s trip to Playstation Experience. After the spoiler break at about 23 minutes in we discuss the game in depth.

If you haven’t already, go grab Dr. Langeskov on itch.io or Steam.

Links for this episode:

• Downwell
• Geekway to the West 2016 – Tabletop Board Games – May 19-22, St. Louis Missouri
• Dominion | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
• Dungeon! | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
• Regency Solitaire [Official Site]
• Campo Santo – Firewatch
• EarthNight
• Alone With You – A Sci-Fi Romance Adventure by Benjamin Rivers – Coming to PS4 and PS Vita in 2015
• MANIFOLD GARDEN | Reimagine physics. Explore the Infinite.
• Report A.807 (Crows Crows Crows ARG
• Alto’s Adventure – out now on the App Store

For some reason we all decided to share our PSN IDs on this episode. They are as follows:

• Laura: spiderlaura
• Raygan: raygan
• Nate: getpaid4free
• Shane: 8bitshane

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame
See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions..

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

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

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes has more in common with party games played with boards or cards than with most video games. You play it in person with friends, one of whom is the bomb-defuser, looking at a simulated bomb on their laptop (or VR headset) with the others trying to talk them through the complex defusing process with the help of a hilariously complex bomb defusal manual. It’s a game designed to facilitate fun communication, minor panics, and hilarious mistakes.

Each round/bomb takes about 5 minutes to play/defuse. The game is available on Steam for Windows PC, as well as for Samsung Gear VR in the Oculus Store.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• BANG! | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
• Spaceteam: Cooperative Party Game for Phones and Tablets

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame
See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions..

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

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

We’re back with more discussion of Undertale, but this time we’re talking about the story, characters, and endings! This all-spoiler episode follows up on our spoiler free discussion of the game, so if you haven’t played the game, start there!

Thanks for nerding out about Undertale with us some more. Next week we will be back with a quick episode on bomb-defusing pseudo-party-game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes! We’ll also be discussing the results of the 2015 IFComp interactive fiction competition.

Undertale Review – Giant Bomb

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame
See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions..

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes!

Your hosts this week were:

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