A goat that solves puzzles to escape a magical tower with the help of his little mouse friend. Sure why not. This week we play Escape Goat 2 by MagicalBeanTime and published by Doublefine.

This game has expertly-crafted puzzles perfect for long time puzzle platform players, but has a smooth difficulty curve and low skill barrier that should make it a great game for players at any level. We discuss our thoughts on the puzzle design, and try to fill in the details of the minimalistic goat-themed story.

Escape Goat 2 is available on Steam and PS4 for $20. Best experienced in short dips of a few levels at a time, expect Escape Goat 2 to take around 5 hours to complete (but potentially much more to clear 100%.)

Links for this episode:

• Escape Goat 2
• Escape Goat 2 at Indie MegaBooth
• Escape Goat 2 on Steam
• Escape Goat 2 on the Playstation Store
• Escape Goat 2 Launch Trailer
• Soundtrack on BandCamp

Escape Goat (the original)

Other puzzle platforms

• Thomas Was Alone (The Short Game episode 6)
• Braid
• FEZ
• Teslagrad
• The Swapper (The Short Game episode 35)

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

Following up on our previous Shortisode on Game Music, this week we discuss… more game music!

Nate wasn’t able to join us last time, so we hear his picks and those of some listeners and friends. This was fun to edit.

Note: An earlier version of this episode was published which included an editing error that left large gaps missing after the 16 minute mark. This release corrects the error. We’re releasing it as a separate episode post to ensure folks who already downloaded the first version get the good copy. Sorry for the duplication!

Picks

Nate’s Picks:
– Duck Tales – The Moon
– Sonic the Hedgehog – Green Hill Zone Theme
– Katamari Damacy – Katamari on the Rocks
– Civilization IV – Baba Yetu

Molly’s Picks:
– Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker – Dragon Roost Island
– Banjo-Kazooie: Click Clock Wood (Spring)
– Final Fantasy X: Besaid Island

Justin’s Picks:
– The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – Tal Tal Heights
– Final Fantasy VI – Shadows Theme
– Metroid Prime – Space Pirates Battle

Listener Michael’s Picks:
– Timeline (PC) Title Theme
– The Longest Journey Soundtrack

Other links:
Bastion – Spike in a Rail
Bear Hive

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

Grim Fandango is arguably the last mass-market adventure game, and is indisputably a great classic of the genre. Tim Schaffer’s last LucasArts adventure is a stunning amalgam of film noir storytelling, Mexican day of the dead and Art Deco imagery, and Aztec mythology into a sublime (if slightly dated) storytelling experience.

Playing this nearly 20 year old game can be a bit daunting, even with the great remaster. We discuss how to get the most out of this great while avoiding the frustration that comes along with its slightly antique game design.

Grim Fandango Remastered is available on PC, Mac, and Linux, and on the PS4 and PS Vita consoles. It’s a steal at only $15! Expect it to take between 7 and 12 hours to complete, depending on your reliance on hints or walkthroughs.

Walkthroughs

Eurogamer walkthrough
Grim Fandango Hints from UHS – Desktop site
Grim Fandango Hints from UHS – Mobile site (less ugly)

Links for this episode

• 1998 in video gaming
• ResidualVM
• Digital archaeology: How Double Fine, Disney, LucasFilm and Sony resurrected Grim Fandango
• InvisiClues
• Our Interactive Fiction Episode
• The Digital Game Museum
• Tim Schafer Plays Grim Fandango – Part 1

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

This week begins our sort-of-book-club on the ongoing episodic adventure game Life is Strange. Told in what can only be described as the “Telltale” style, this series of 5 episodes follows Max Caufield, an 18 year old art school student who witnesses a murder and discovers she has the ability to rewind time. It’s a high school mystery!

Only the first episode is currently out (as of early March 2015) so we’re not treating this as a review, just talking about the game and what we think of it so far. We’ll be following the rest of the episodes as they are released, maybe with full episodes, or maybe just as follow-up. Let us know what you prefer!

So far we really liked it!

Life is Strange is available for basically every major platform including Windows (through Steam), PS3/PS4, and Xbox 360/One. It is priced at $5 per episode or $20 for the complete game. A demo is available. Expect each episode to take between two and four hours to complete.

links

• The Walking Dead by Telltale Games
• Storify: 80 Days at GDC (with images, tweets)
• The Wolf Among Us by Telltale Games
• Why did we talk about these…
  • The Boxcar Children
  • Nancy Drew
  • Encyclopedia Brown
  • Nate the Great

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

This week our podcast literally can not stop running/falling/snowboarding as we discuss the Endless Runner genre. This sometimes celebrated, sometimes maligned mobile focused offshoot of the platform genre is (believe it or not) full of awesome games amongst all the shovelware.

We talk in depth about the beautiful new endless snowboarder Alto’s Adventure, as well as run down the short history of the genre while calling out notable, quality examples.

Raygan would like to re-iterate that his high score in Alto’s Adventure is 130,881. Thank you.

Links:

• Alto’s Adventure – out now on the App Store
• CANABALT (on the web)
• CANABALT for iOS
• The Secret of Bryce Manor, by Tiger Style
• Crash Bandicoot
• Moon Patrol
• The Most Officialest SkiFree Home Page
• Aladdin 1993 Level 7 Rug Ride
• Battletoads Level 3-Wind Tunnel
• Pitfall!
• Tiny Wings
• Jetpack Joyride
• Sonic Dash™
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the App Store
• Sonic CD on the App Store
• Temple Run
• Temple Run Arcade
• Don’t Run With A Plasma Sword
• Flappy Bird
• Race The Sun: An Infinite Speed Experience
• Bit.Trip.Runner
• RUNNER2: FUTURE LEGEND OF RHYTHM ALIEN
• Banana Kong
• Boson X
• Off The Leash
• Crossy Road: Endless Arcade Hopper Game
• Time Surfer
• Ski Safari

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

This week’s topic is Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition. (That’s a long title for such a short game!) Guacamelee is a “Metroidvania” with combo-based, beat-’em-up combat, and it’s a game we’ve been looking forward to covering on this show since we recorded our first episode. It’s really, really good.

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (the third revision of the game after the original release and the Gold Edition) is available for ALL THE PLATFORMS:
– Steam (Windows) – $14.99
– PS4 – $14.99 (Original version also available for PS3 and PS Vita)
– Xbox One – $14.99 (Original version also available for Xbox 360)
– Wii U – $14.99

Links for this episode:

• I’m Mexican. Am I Supposed To Be Offended By Guacamelee?
• @DrinkBoxStudios on the pronunciation of X’tabay

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

“I have entered into the service of a new gentleman. It would seem he is a gambling man.”

80 Days by Inkle Studios is a video game adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic novel of world travel and adventure. It’s also one of the best games of 2014. It was named the Time Magazine Game of the Year and was also honored by numerous other publications and critics. This week we look at what makes this interactive storybook based on a familiar tale so very, very compelling, and discuss some of the exciting details of our own trips around the world.

Links for this episode

• 80 Days
  • 80 Days on the iOS App Store – $4.99
  • 80 Days on the Google Play Store – $5.00
• The Short Game Episode 31: Interactive Fiction
• Inkle Studios
• Dragon Age
• Author Meg Jayanth on Twitter (@betterthemask)

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
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

This week we’re taking another short break from regular format to talk about our favorite video game music!

Did we miss your favorite soundtrack? (We probably did!) Let us know! We’ll play followup to this episode in a future show.

Picks:

• Fez – Adventure
• Super Mario Galaxy – Star Festival
• Chrono Trigger
• Chrono’s theme
• Frog’s Theme
• Festival of Stars
• Sim City 3000 – Building
• Nights into Dreams – Take the Snow Train
• (Shane says Dreamcast when he means Saturn. We regret the error.)
• VVVVVV – Pushing Onwards
• The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker – Title Screen (10 hour loop!)
• Dragon Roost Island

Also mentioned:
– Bastion
– Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery
– Canabalt
– Machinarium
– Scott Pilgrim vs The World The Game

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
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

The Swapper is a surprisingly awesome 2D puzzle platformer from small Finnish indie developers Facepalm Games. Released for PC/Mac/Linux in May 2013, it’s now also available for current generation Playstation and Nintendo consoles. Its puzzle design and mechanics are often compared to Portal (though it is a very unique game on its own) and it has an unusual art style, accomplished by building all the in game objects out of clay and photographing them to create the in-game graphics.

Expect the game to take between 5 and 8 hours to complete, depending on what kind of crazy clone swapping puzzle solving space genius you are.

Links for this episode:

• Humble Indie Bundle 11
• Guacamelee! Super Turbo Chamionship Edition
• ClayFighter
• Tengami
• Lumino City
• Kirby’s Epic Yarn – Wii
• Kirby and the Rainbow Curse – Wii U
• Waking Mars
• A Dark Room

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

Nate’s Saint Louis Cardinals baseball podcast, Talking About Birds is returning for another season. Check it out!

Machinarium, a point and click adventure game by Czech game developers Amanita Design, is our topic this week. Released in 2009, it was their first full-length adventure game after numerous web-based titles. It has been widely praised for its gorgeous art style and a charming story told entirely without dialogue.

Machinarium is available for numerous platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and the PS3 and Playstation Vita. A web-based demo is available at their website. It was included in Humble Indie Bundle #2 in 2010 and the Humble Botanicula Debut bundle in 2012.

Expect the game to take about 5 to 6 hours to complete.

Links for this episode

• Triplets of Bellville
• The Stinkey Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka (Author), Lane Smith (Illustrator)
• Josef Čapek
• Machinarium Soundtrack on Bandcamp

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