Published July 29, 2015
Neil and Kaz sit down to wax poetic about Journey, from the perspective of a first time player and someone seeing it all again. This devolves into a discussion of how games age over time, talking about the glut of free games and coming to grips with that glut.
Good show this week, fellas. A couple thoughts…
I do agree that you need to play by Journey’s rules to get the most out of it, but replaying it on PS4, I’ve been enjoying exploring a bit more than I had the first couple go-arounds. Every now and then you find a cave obscured by a stream of falling sand, or some ruins beyond the markers that make the occasional detours worthwhile. Journey has clear boundaries, but it’s a bit more flexible than you might think at first glance.
And Kaz, I love ya, but your stance on Super Mario Galaxy is bewildering to me. As much as I love 3D World, Galaxy is the more ambitious, more awe-inspiring, more enjoyable game. Yeah, it would be *nice* if it were sharper, but as with Journey, you have to buy into it a bit. Same applies for any older game, and as higher definition screens proliferate in the future, I think that will apply to today’s games as well. I’d urge you to approach older games with same mindset as you would your favorite sci-fi/effect-driven movies. Sure, the puppeteering, makeup, seams, etc. show a bit, but there’s a magic to the best, most timeless movies that manages to overcome that.
(Then again, given your wacky comments about Jurassic Park a couple weeks back, I don’t know if that appeal will hold much weight.)