1Upsmanship

We’re back, fresh from the barren, content-less Dark World, and we’re starting this season with a bang! This week we warp into the 2D Zelda that perfected the formula, and we’re joined by our favorite Zelda Enthusiast, Danielle Radford! Some would say this is one of the greatest games ever made. Some would say this game is still being imitated to this very day. Some might even say this game remains a blast to play. But none of those people are Michael Swaim! Yeah. He goes pretty hard this episode. So pick up your hookshot, zip over the gap and join us for the new season of 1Upsmanship!

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Possibly Rockstar’s most divisive open world experiment, 2011’s hard-boiled noir film homage gets the once-over by your favorite creative investigation duo. But beneath the glossy paint and ground-breaking motion capture is this game actually fun? How does the storytelling hold up in the twelve years since this game’s release? Does the game handle its problematic topics like race and gender inequality well? Would we want a sequel if they ever made one? Forget about it, Shipheads, it’s Rockstar.

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Adam and Michael discuss the crunchy combat of this year’s Sifu by Sloclap! Both hosts found the game’s ability to create the feeling of becoming powerful incredibly satisfying. Unfortunately for them, it isn’t real fighting and they’re both still wimps in real life. Seriously, you could probably just push Swaim over and he’d just say “Left Stick Up, Left Stick Up + X.”

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Michael is the Halo hater. Adam is the Halo lover. This episode they talk about Halo Infinite and 343 Industries in some kind of red vs. blue deathmatch. See who wins the podcast. I bet it’s Adam. I don’t know why, that guy just seems like he has his shit together.

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We brought David Bell, big bean and famous pervert, to come talk about one of our GOTYs: Deathloop, a first person shooter with a groundhog day twist. All the 1Uppers enjoy this title and discuss what made it compelling. Is its simplicity a feature or a bug? How did the hosts’ play styles differ? Michael mined the story and embraced the puzzle structure. Adam shot all the people with impressive precision. Dave found a way to make AI do all the work. This all makes sense.

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