For many Americans, Cinco de Mayo is a grand opportunity to crowd into Mexican restaurants, get drunk, and wear ridiculous hats while not knowing the first thing about what the holiday’s actually about. Now that it’s come and gone, however, Gamespot’s Chris Watters joins us to talk about a different kind of cultural appropriation: Japanese games that include sombrero-wearing characters, often for no clear thematic reason. After that, there’s some argument about alternate histories in general, and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood in particular, followed by Tony Hawk news and a look at some of the fan art that you consider to be your most embarrassing/favorite work.
Question of the Week
What’s your favorite game set in an alternate version of history?
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Theme song by Matthew Joseph Payne. Break song is Mexican Flyer by Ken Woodman and his Piccadilly Brass. Haunting and beautiful New Releases Theme by David B. Cooper.
If ya haven’t checked out the Laser Time YouTube channel, here’s something swell you might’ve missed!
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Easily my favorite alt-history game (well, games) is the Fallout series. I love how the nuclear apocalypse is portrayed not only to have nearly wiped humanity out and given rise to all kinds of hilarious and/or hideous mutations, but it also had the effect of stopping the progress of aesthetic design at 1950s Atomic Age chic.
Plus they’re all just terrific games.
Taco Bell is as Mexican as Carlos Mencia is…
Anyway, this is why I love you Mikel. Thank you for helping point out the ridiculousness of celebrating a foreign holiday that actually barely matters in it’s country of origin. No one in Mexico gives a shit about cinco de Mayo anymore, not even the government.
How did you guys miss Ludicolo, the Pokemon that grows his own sombrero?
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ludicolo_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29
Also, Amazing World of Gumball has a cactus character.
http://theamazingworldofgumball.wikia.com/wiki/Carmen
….cause they hate pokemon. 🙁
I wouldn’t call it hatred. It’s more like… bemused disinterest. I wasn’t young enough to appreciate it when it came out, and now it’s like a parallel universe of fandom that I’ll never be able to comprehend.
I also missed Deku, the somrero-wearing, maraca-wielding anthropomorphic bean from Fighters Megamix. Good lord.
Yay for more Watters!
Can Chris Antista maybe not be on this show?
I recognize that that’s extremely unlikely, but given that the alternative is asking him not to constantly derail conversation to berate his cohosts for not giving him what he feels is the appropriate level of appreciation for a joke he just made, I’m siding with the more likely option.
Sarcasm Filter font needed?
I’m not being sarcastic. I find the constant need for Mikel to have to say, “Anyway, what were we talking about?” obnoxious, and there’s only ever one culprit.
Dave Rudden drops one-liners with similar regularity, but he lets his hit-to-miss ratio lay as it lands rather than forcing everyone else to recognize his jokes.
Sand in vagina much?
Thanks for that well-reasoned, articulate response. You’ve added to the discourse.
cmon now wittynickname, Mikel is an adult, and he runs that show like a boss. If he feels that Chris is interrupting too much, thats his call, but obviously since he continues to have Chris on the show, clearly he isn’t too bothered by it. If it’s bothering you and would effect listenership, than its something i’m sure Mikel has considered, but seeing as how they are really good friends and have been for years, i’m guessing he’s not really that bothered by it. I know i’m not bothered by it, and i’m guessing i’m in the majority on that. Its just their dynamic.
Side note, I was drunk when I wrote that. I still mean everything I said but I’m bothered by my own grammar and certain repetitive wording choices. Just wanted to throw that out there
I have to agree with wiitynickname – I think Chris detracts a fair amount from the show, also due to his tendency to drop racist / misogynist remarks. I was listening to a recent podcast and it got so bad that I’m going to unsubscribe altogether since it’s not worth it to me to wonder if/when I’m cringe every podcast even though I like their content.
hmmmm, me thinks siya and wittynickname are one in the same! evidence you say? siya, (see ya) is but a witty nickname for someone threatening to leave the listenership! what rascally devil better to have such a witty nickname but wittynickname him(her)self! IM BATMAN
The interruptions are only really an issue when I’m trying to set something up at the start of the show, but that’s my own damn fault for not being able to quickly re-rail my train of thought. Chris is the comedy glue that keeps the show interesting, and keeps everyone else on their toes. Without him, it would probably devolve into me just comfortably monologuing at Anne and Tyler in a nasal monotone, and who wants to listen to that? I don’t, and that’s my voice we’re talking about.
Amen. It ain’t broken bro, don’t fix it.
Stop interrupting Mikel, he tries really hard.
This isn’t related to the show, but I just wanted to thank whoever’s responsible for getting the older Laser Time episodes back on iTunes. My only problem now is that I’ve got a shitload of stuff to catch up on…
That really sucked, having SO MANY Laser Time shows suddenly downloading in iTunes at once. It’s a pain to get them stopped, when I’ve already listened to all of them.
I’m still not sure what game Amingo is from, they never said on the show, only that they thought he was in the background of Marvel vs Capcom 3, so I guess he’s in the first or second MVC. They seem to be slipping back into the habit of assuming all the listeners can tell what game they’re talking about with only sound clips and whatever the guys are saying that relates to the game.
I was in Japan for a couple of months in ’98, and I never found any Mexican food. There was a place called Saboten, which is Japanese for cactus, but it ended up being a Japanese restaurant. Taco rice is popular in Okinawa, though.
There’s actually a book about Hitler coming back called Look Who’s Back and he does actually become a YouTube sensation.
I’m going to say the original Bioshock. To this day, I have yet to experience the wonder and curiosity for a video game setting as I did when Rapture is revealed in the beginning of the game. The need to learn everything I could about Rapture, along with the plasmid mechanics kept me completely hooked. I remember talking to my friends for months about it after it released, and it remains one of my favorite games to this day. I haven’t personally felt such a need to learn more about a setting as I did when I first played Bioshock.
QotW: This one is easy! STALIN VS MARTIANS!!. This game rules*** In case you arent familiar with the RTS game, here’s a synopsis.
“Year 1942. Summer. The martians suddenly land somewhere in Siberia and attack the glorious people of Holy Mother Russia. It is a hard time for USSR as you might know from the history books if you ever attended school. The situation is really fucked up, so comrade Stalin takes the anti-ET military operation under his personal control. The operation is a top secret and virtually nobody knows about the fact of extraterrestial intervention.”
***statement about game ruling may be false, unless you’re very very high.
I’ve always been partial to the Crimson Skies universe. It began live at a tactical board game and also spawned 2 video games, one on the PC and the other on the original Xbox. It’s set in an alternate 1930’s, where the US has splintered into multiple smaller countries, and trade is conducted via blimp. The creators of the setting have pretty much stated they needed an excuse for air pirates and the game featured some fascinating and very oddly designed prob-driven aircraft.
QOTW
My favourite alternative history game has to be Super Temporal Infinite Manipulation Expert Force [ Super TIME Force]. Single player co op madness plus and un lockable character called Dolphin Lundgren.
I think my favorite alt history game was bioshock infinite. I think the original bioshock was a better game but infinite felt more like it was a part of history with all the different takes on modern song and the return of the jedi cut scene. I loved all the bioshock games, they were amazingly well thought out. And keep Chris in, he would get in too much trouble otherwise. More Anne on the podcast would be nice though.