Last Time on Video Games!: 2014

Monday, December 15, 2014

Episode 91: And They Couldn't Put Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again [King's Knight]

Remember those epics where knights shoot their sword lasers at things? No? I mean... Zelda's an epic, right? Anyway, join us on a magical adventure to save a princess and rebuild the king!

Downloads are the new powerdowns!

Show Notes

(00:40) Ed joins us!

(07:10) From the people who brought you Layton: Weapon Shop de Omasse. Related: Jacksmith.

(12:40) John Wick was pretty decent.

(16:30) Sm4sh!

(20:00) Gihren's Greed is a pretty sweet looking game.

(30:00) Dragon Age: Inquisition is Zach's current conquest.

(38:30) This week's game: Bar USA, Monster at Law.

(50:00) Killer Bee: master rapper.

Next time on Last Time, Fallout!

Rad-X for sale at

Geremy@lasttimeonvideogames.com,
Tyler@lasttimeonvideogames.com,
Zach@lasttimeonvideogames.com,
or LTOVG@lasttimeonvideogames.com.
You can also go to the show page at plus.google.com/+LastTimeOnVideogames or comment on the site at www.lasttimeonvideogames.com.
Also, you can follow our tweets @LTOVG.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Episode 90: I Dunno, That Peanut/Popcorn Mix [Baseball]

Remember that time we played Bases Loaded? Good times! Turns out there were roughly 20 baseball games for the NES, and this was the first! Join us as we play Baseball the baseball game about baseball, which mostly involves timing a hit and watching the worst fielders ever fumble for a catch.

Our download is the mercy rule.

Show Notes

(01:00) The great Poppycock vs. Cracker Jack debate.

(02:00) Potato burgers!

(03:30) Soylent, the "edible" powder!

(12:30) Insurgency is a customizable class based shooter developed by a handful of people compared to Modern Warfare 2's 2009 release.

(16:00) A discussion about the ending of The Walking Dead (the game, not the show... or the comic... who do you think we are?!).

(28:00) Rogue Legacy and the problem of difficulty balance. Boss remixes!

(30:30) Hyrule Warriors time! Also, for those who don't know Fist of the North Star...

(38:00) Baseball, the game where the batter always wins.

Next time on Last Time, King's Knight!

Only you can prevent face stabbing at

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Episode 89: Japan is Mine [Nobunaga's Ambition]

Join us as we engage in the grand strategy of building a bigger army than everyone else! Conquer Japan, keep the peasants happy, and try to cause the peasants elsewhere to revolt; you've got a lot to do if you want to be emperor. Rather fortuitously, you have a giant menu at your command so you may direct your kingdom.

Our download is mostly divided into cavalry, so you had best have a lot of guns.

Show Notes

(02:00) Yuuki!

(04:45) Jadeite's small business strategies.

(07:30) Holy melonade, Batman, it's new Homestar!

(11:10) Daniel Boringcliffe on Jimmy Fallon.

(15:00) Spirit bomb of cash Kickstarter?

(20:00) Sweet headband, Light.

(23:15) Gihren's Greed isn't actually made by the same company.

(24:30) That story Zach was talking about. Also, the guy worshiped by cops.

(26:00) Attempting to explain the main menu of Nobunaga's Ambition. See those tabs at the top? The each expand to 5-8 options.

(35:00) Cavalry, riflemen, and infantry and the problems with losing troops every fight. The bottom line: combat is boring and it's the only way to win.

Next time on Last Time, Baseball! Halftime!

Home run time,

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Episode 88: Seems More Like a Nightmare [NiGHTS into Dreams...]

Dreams are pretty cool, especially flying dreams. Sometimes, though, you get mugged before turning into a flying clown, which can suck. Usually, there'll be a giant lobster or an inflatable villain you have to pop, or sometimes you'll be fighting a giant fish with smaller fish. Dreams are weird... but sometimes a clown is just a clown.

Inserting 20 orbs causes our download to... go slightly faster!

Show Notes

(00:30) Necrotizing fasciitis: like leprosy, but way worse.

(02:00) Abobo is that one boss from Double Dragon. I feel like I link to that episode way more than any other. I could probably write a script to find out.

(03:30) John Wick! Super good might be an overstatement, but it looks pretty decent based on the trailers.

(07:45) "Jigglypuff to death" is my new favorite compound verb.

(11:30) Don't Starve and Monster Meat.

(15:30) For the interested, here's Zach's Kha'Zix build.

(21:00) That mountain game. Also, a deeper talk about Five Nights at Freddy's... from Zach! Still seems to be a jump scare simulator, though... What Does the Fox Say?

(25:50) Golden Freddy!

(26:30) Speaking of Damned...

(28:00) Slenderpasta. He likes to walk behind people.

(31:00) 8-player Smash with Mewtwo!

(35:30) The crazy story of this game following Elliot and Claris helping the Nightmaren fight the evil Wizeman.

(37:45) It's hard to describe, but when we say this game isn't really 3D, we're trying to say that you have no agency over moving on one of your 3 axes. You get full control over X and Y, but Z is left as an unexplored teaser. Also, you get mugged at the beginning of every level.

(45:00) Bosses and telegraphing: how this game failed at it.

Next time on Last Time, Nobunaga's Ambition (the SNES one)! Rifle's n' calvary!

Horses and spears and peasants, oh my,

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Episode 87: Wake Up! [Link's Awakening]

The chain chomps and goombas are invading! Despite that, we're actually playing a Zelda game. In fact, it's the first that gives you an apparently mystical and well guarded secret in the LoZ universe: the power to jump! Travel with us as Link discovers an island of NPCs worth having dialogue boxes and the first of many trading sequences.

The download, 'tis but a dream.

Show Notes

(03:00) Final LCS tales!

(03:45) Feng Shui 2 sounds pretty cool.

(13:00) Abyss Odyssey is a game about Spanish/French mythology and also killing things... by Atlus, because of course.

(16:00) Just gonna throw this out there: Payday 2: A Payday for Pigs. Smooth, John. They've fixed that bug by now, so ya'll know.

(23:00) AC4 continues to sound awesome.

(31:10) Tribunals in games.

(36:45) Cosmetic changes that greatly affect performance.

(45:00) No sword? No problem!

(50:30) Roc's Feather.

Next Time on Last Time, it's NIGHTS Into Dreams!

Get your clown on at

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Episode 86: Why Is the Second Game Always the Worst? [Metroid II]

Join us for our second foray into sci-fi spelunking with everyone's alien bird hybrid bounty hunter! Although, she may be the only one. Come explore caves, remnants of an ancient culture, and more caves with us as Samus attempts to commit genocide. Also, she can roll on ceilings!

The download is a little sticky from the spider ball...

Show Notes

(04:30) Gamergate. Seriously, people, is some class too much to ask?

(13:30) Deicide and you.

(16:10) Zach's League tales and edifying Tyler about lane mechanics.

(24:00) I'm announcing an announcement about an announcement.

(28:30) Some discussion on what qualifies as a "free" game.

(32:35) Innocent Life looks mildly amusing.

(38:00) Metroid II could have had better music. I shouldn't feel like I'm in Subrosia in a Metroid game. Or maybe I should? It looks good, though.

Next Time on Last Time, it's Link's Awakening!

We can put some wind in your fish at

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Episode 85: Faster, Faster, C'mon, Faster! [Sonic Chaos]

Gotta go fast! Like, 800 km/h! That's pretty fast, kids! Apparently, our blue erinaceomorph friend is back again with springy tiles and rocket boards to go at least that fast. Somehow, Tails can keep up with him, which is pretty impressive. Go collect those emeralds or Eggman will get the last laugh (while cursing the fact that he has to get all those raw materials for building more robots again).

Our download clocks in at Mach 1, which is only 150% the speed Sonic can go in this game.

Show Notes

(01:45) ChaCha is terrible.

(05:45) Apollo Justice is pretty great! Related: Azran Legacy was fun.

(08:45) *POTENTIAL SPOILERS* Walking Dead time!

(19:00) *END SPOILER TIME GO!* Now, some GoT.

(22:00) LCS tales! Also, Various Artists is the most prolific band ever.

(26:00) Superhero TV shows. Also, comics!

Next Time on Last Time, it's Metroid 2!

Our surplus brain slug emporium is available for contact at

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Episode 84: Black And White Lemons [Mega Man GB]

Did you ever wish you could play Mega Man, but hated that stupid Guts Man? Dislike playing games in color? Love getting masses of weapons right at the end of the game? Well, you're in luck! This week, take your lemon cannon with us on the Blue Bomber's first foray onto a mobile platform.

Mirror download! (distinct from a download mirror)

Show Notes

(05:00) Hyrule Warriors is still looking pretty cool.

(10:00) Shadow of Mordor has gotten pretty good reviews.

(17:30) Zach's short review of Fallout: Tactics.

(20:00) Tales from the LCS.

(29:00) Mega Man! It's a remarkably good game for the first Mega Man game on the GB, though it's pretty hard.

(31:20) The name of the beer is Tsingtao. This note makes sense in context.

(34:45) Walrus Boss! Also, if you like the "boss music" it plays, it's Break-A-Leg by RoccoW. Also, the Fireman game Tyler mentioned.

(40:30) The special weapons seem more useful in this game than any other Mega Man. Also, the super awesome Mirror Buster.

Next Time on Last Time, it's Sonic Chaos! Also, maybe some control.

Pogo boards for rent at

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Episode 83: Oh! Daisy [Super Mario Land]

It only took us more than 80 episodes to get around to it, but it's our first foray into the fabulous fun time that is the Game Boy! Because everyone's played Tetris (not to mention that it's been talked to death), we're starting off with a trip to Sarasaland, best known for its Super Ball exports. Wait... what's that over there? Is that... OH! Daisy.

The download just keeps bouncing everywhere.

Show Notes

(04:45) Deicide and the new gods! Also, some comics history.

(19:45) On motorcycles!

(26:00) He's drinking your arm!

(29:30) Satchel like a bag!

(32:00) Rosalina's heritage.

(33:00) Conversion to the Game Boy did not treat this series well.

Next Time on Last Time, it's Megaman! No, not that one.

Grayscale lemons available at

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Episode 82: Fightin' Ufoes [Galaga and Asteroids]

Once again tackling two arcade titles, we now venture into space! Apparently, all ships in videogame space are triangular to improve their aerodynamics. While that doesn't help you fly through space, maybe it lets people hear you scream better? I suppose if your exhaust is funneled behind you... At any rate, come break rocks into smaller rocks and shoot endless hordes of space bugs with us!

Our download breaks into pieces then carries itself off.

Show Notes

(01:30) For the interested, 8-bit Crazy Train and 8-bit Ghostbusters.

(02:10) Not that it's a surprise, but the Super Sm4sh demo is fun, and the full version comes out tomorrow as of this post. Hadouken! It's a bit awkward on the 3DS, leaving us to think the Wii U is the better platform for it.

(06:50) Hyrule Warriors is out, apparently.

(9:30) Mojang has been sold for 2.5 billion U.S.D.. Fear the oncoming Minecraft 2. Speaking of which, Minetest is the opensource C++ clone.

(18:00) We discuss how Microsoft is likely going to monetize Minecraft.

(26:20) League of Legends championship!

(33:00) Asteroids lets you fight rocks and ufoes! While fun, the sounds are a bit distracting.

(38:00) Galaga's pretty fun, kids!

Next time on Last Time, we kick of Mobile Month with Super Mario Land!

Hi, I'm Daisy!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Episode 81: No Ninja, No Ninja, No [Legend of Kage]

Super jumping ninjas are a lot less cool when they die in one hit. Or when they can't change their jump arc because of the committed relationship. Or when their sword arts don't have lightning effects. They're still ninjas, though, which is pretty awesome.

Our download can cling to trees.

Show Notes

(05:00) Game shows and trivia! Coincidentally the element krypton is not named after the fictional planet.

(07:20) Finally, the end of Grandia. The usual tropes apply.

(08:00) Mole people have great potential! They'll dig their way to the heavens! Who the hell do you think they are?!

(09:00) Payday 2 did a reward balance.

(12:40) Phoenix Wright has some weird opponents.

(13:45) Undead & Undressed, the game about undressing vampires in broad daylight to kill them.

(15:10) Destiny! It's a game, apparently!

(17:10) The LoL lore reboot is a bit disappointing.

(21:30) Fallout: Equestria! Apparently both a tabletop RPG and a huge fanfic base.

(31:00) Gone Home seems pretty cool. Still.

(33:00) Troll WIZARDS!

(34:40) Magic Power Rangers?

(37:30) I Am The One Who Knocks is waaay easier than Full Measure.

(38:30) Power Rangers/Sailor Moon crossover needs to happen.

(40:10) 8-Directional shuriken is not as good as metal blade.

Next time on Last Time, Asteroids and Galaga!

Pew? Pew PEW!

Monday, September 22, 2014

Episode 80: Elevators As a Lethal Weapon [Elevator Action]

Super spies are cool, and so are elevators! Somehow, though, these concepts are not peanut butter and chocolate, for they blend somewhat confusingly. You can, however, crush your foes, which is amusing. You'd really think this guy would have a better escape plan than "take the elevator".

The mission, should you choose to accept it, is to download this episode.

Show Notes

(01:30) Sailor Moon, the best hero!

(07:30) Back to the League.

(11:30) The Street Pass add-on games for the 3DS are pretty awesome. Sadly, no one carries their 3DS on them.

(15:20) Super Sm4sh Bros. is out soon. By the time of publishing this, the demo is available for everyone!

(23:00) DoS: Hitting a server so much that it can't serve requests reliably. DDoS: Doing that with a ton of computers. Lesson: The secret to being a hacker is to be rich!

(25:00) There's both Galactic Civilization III and Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth.

(27:20) Duck, D-Jump, Dive, D-shoot-the-enemy-spies, and Duck!

(31:00) Consensus: It's a little boring. Some powerups or different enemy types would help this immensely.

(37:00) Gone Home sounds pretty cool. Also, The Walking Dead is fun.

Next time on Last Time, Legend of Kage!

Up and down!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Episode 79: Only You Can Prevent Building Fires [Ignition Factor]

Like a mighty Squirtle squad, we now rush to extinguish fires! Actually, though, there's very little fire fighting in this game, and a lot of rescuing people who refuse to leave a burning building. Gear up and get ready to ax some tough questions. And by questions, I mean doors.

No! I won't leave until you rescue Download!

Show Notes

(00:45) Puttin' out fires on Mt. Chi-Chi's Dad's House. Ox-King? Why is he called that?

(01:15) He's drinking your arm!

(02:30) Pretty sure this is the Let's Play Geremy mentioned. It's pretty hilarious.

(04:30) Juri rocks!

(08:30) That X-Men game Zach mentioned might possibly be the one Tyler couldn't remember.

(10:30) Apollo Justice is pretty good, as is Azran Legacy. Also, the crossover is in the U.S. now!

(13:30) Zach's been playing Civ 5, which is pretty great.

(22:00) P.T.!

(25:20) Five Nights at Freddy's is pretty creepy.

(26:20) Damned if we own, damned if we play it.

(28:45) Run over by a segway.

(29:30) Get paid to save: Ignition Factor!

(34:00) Putting out fires and starting them... with your body!

(44:30) The penalty for losing is very annoying.

Next time on Last Time, Elevator Action!

Up and down!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Broken Controllers: Ramblin'

    We're talking about the best part of the work week. Exactly: we're talking about Payday 2. Get your mask on and follow the jump.

    Payday 2 is a first person shooter with a blend between stealthily setting up the perfect bank heist and shooting your way clear when that same heist goes south. This is a very regular event as even bumping into a guard sets off their criminal senses. This can easily be explained: bumping into them causes the assault rifle you have jammed down your suit pant to tip them off.

    The game takes place in two separate modes. The first is casing mode where you can't really do anything but walk around and see where things are. A skill will let a player pinpoint guards and cameras but without it you are left to hope to remember and not run into anybody. Once you feel as though you are ready to make your move, you put your mask on and this brings up the standard shooter fare and controls. You can sprint, jump, crouch and, most importantly, shoot.

    Gunplay in the game is fairly standard. You point at what you want dead and click the mouse, often holding it down until it stays down. It's hard to talk about a shooter given that the gameplay is generally standardized and most people know how it plays. Generally, you carry two weapons and have whatever recovering armor you brought with you. Weapons can be modified to change their characteristics: from their damage to the concealment, or how quickly you are spotted when in casing mode or just sneaking around. Heavier weaponry and armor gets you noticed faster, which, personally, causes me all sorts of grief. Your health and armor actually operate in a similar method to the first Halo game. Your armor will recharge but your health doesn't without the use of a health pack. Run out of health and you go down and have about a half minute for a teammate to reach you and help you up. Failing this, you are out of action until you can respawn after a timer runs out or can be brought back by having a teammate exchange a hostage for you. The latter option doesn't exist for single player. Get knocked down four times, excluding cloaker downs, and you are out just like if you hadn't been helped up in time.

The "stealth" mode of the game varies between sneaking into warehouses and grabbing all the loot and running fully armed into a crowded store and intimidating the customers into not calling the cops. While a successful copless run is always a good feeling (since it's fairly hard to do), when you're doing the stealth portion well, there's not a whole lot to do. Usually, you'll have a couple of drills running, or one person will be running loot out to a drop point while someone babysits the hostages. One mission involves breaking into up to 120 deposit boxes in a bank, which takes 40 minutes of holding the 'F' key if no one has upgraded lock picking. Still fun, but very time consuming.

    Next up, I want to talk about your levels and skills. As you complete missions you gain two resources: money and, more importantly, experience. Experience unlocks additional skills in whatever tree you are looking to run down. There are four trees: Mastermind, Enforcer, Technician, and Ghost. For those wondering, I'm an Enforcer and Technician. This mixing raises an interesting point: you aren't locked into any given tree and can bounce around each one and get whatever skills you want. However to get the most out of your skills, it is better to focus on one tree and get the higher level skills. For example, as a high level enforcer I can use the best armor in the game while my two accomplices, Tyler and everyone's favorite guestish host Ed, can't. Each tree has a different focus.

Ghost is all about movement and avoiding detection.

Mastermind is about controlling NPCs and assisting players.

Technicican is all about opening things that the other people don't want you to open.

Enforcer is about being the team's tank.

Given its inspiration from Left 4 dead and its sequel, there are special cops that show up and make your life difficult. This is actually a completely needed balancing system as normal cops hardly slow you down unless you are caught in the open with no armor. I can currently pull normal, no skull jobs, on the difficulty rating of 0-4 skulls, without having to even worry about going down because of how tough my armor is. So, here they are in order from least to most dangerous. Now, this is my list and other people may disagree with how I've ranked them, but let's run them down and let you choose.

The Sniper: Big shock: he snipes and does lots of damage. He's not that dangerous because you are usually in a covered and, therefore, safe area.
The Taser: A close range threat, his purpose is to immobilize you. He can be dangerous, but since you are usually looking at him and still shooting spasmodically, he can be killed while tasing you.
The Shield: There are ways to make this guy really simple (penetrating rifles or explosive shotgun rounds), but he can be dangerous if he holds up in a choke point.
The Bulldozer: Now here's where things are personal. These guys are really slow and have more health than anything else in the game. Therefore, they usually have to be killed with headshots. They are extremely dangerous, but not able to deal a one hit kill outside of 4 skulls.
The Cloaker, or to use its official name, the @%&ing Cloaker: This guy is a one hit down if he connects, and he usually does. If spotted at range he can be taken out easily, but if he closes you are in trouble. Given that his usual M.O. is to wait around a corner or under a car while you're lugging a bag, that happens fairly often. While both me and Tyler have gone on Podcast and stated how much we hate this guy, I think we both actually kinda like having this guy running around. He is a serious danger even to fully equipped crews and he makes the team aspect of going loud much more apparent.

    While I have to say the game is great just to sit down and play because its combat system is well honed, it just lacks something without at least one other human player. For reference, see every single episode of the podcast where we've played a multiplayer game. I haven't played with random scrubs online, but I'm antisocial and this is a game that takes a lot of inherent teamwork. I've had fun with Tyler in this game, being my fully loaded self sitting on a bunch of cameras while he ninjas a place. This is because we each know what we are good at. I lack the patience and the skills to pull the sneaky stuff and the more people you have trying to sneak around the more likely someone is going to get caught. So I instead run my armor and heavy equipment in case Tyler gets caught. That said, the game is structured that even should you be caught you have a chance to fight your way to completion. Often, you'll have low armor (for the low detection risk) but you still have your main gun which lets you actually fight back against the hordes of cops. That is why I think the game did its thing perfectly: pulling a mission without the cops getting called is a great feeling, but should they be brought in you still have a chance.

    The missions, unfortunately, don't have a whole lot of variation. There are experience modifiers that build up by not playing a given mission for a while and encourage replaying them while similar negative modifiers make sure you don't spam the same level over and over again. That said, the missions do suffer from the AI. Without a teammate you are the only one who can even interact with the objectives as the AI can't even be ordered to carry bags. This is a small quibble but can occasionally be frustrating as can the AI's occasional moments of their brain falling out and watching them dither on the top floor of a building because they don't know how to navigate the map properly while a Cloaker takes you out of the game and negates all your hard work till that point. The last thing that drives me kind of nuts about the game is the only way to gain unlocks for your equipment you have to get lucky and pull the correct card at the draw and the end of the level and hope you got the right weapon mod.

    The problems with the game do not outweigh the good parts. And while I am probably not the perfect person to say this, since I got my copy from Ed for free, I would say the game is more than worth the money and it just gets better when you play with friends to share in the pain and the success of each heist.

    All right ramblers lets get rambling!

                                    Zach out.

Monday, September 8, 2014

LTOVG and the Mystery of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

This moment of amusement brought to you by Edgar Diamond, Alex Tift (on camera), and our dedicated water pourers, Ryan LaCount and Daniel Noland. Thanks, kids!

Friday, September 5, 2014

Minecraft Reboot!

With the advent of 1.8, the LTOVG Minecraft server has been restarted. It's currently a vanilla server, hosted at home.lasttimeonvideogames.com on the default port. I have thus far only built a somewhat hidden hut, so feel free to level the continent.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Episode 78: Anime Minus The Anime [Renegade]

Sometimes, you have to fight the power. Sometimes, the power is other people fighting the power. Sometimes, you can't handle the power... or the motorcycle segments. Sadly, you don't have a buster sword, because it would really help there. Anyway, get ready to beat 'em up. Beat all of them up!

Our download has a unique dialogue sequence.

Show Notes

(01:45) Biz Markie, not to be confused with Otto von Bismark.

(06:00) Zach's possibly going to be going up in League rank.

(07:30) Physics cries when you play Street Fighter IV.

(09:10) Man At Arms, defiler of watermelons.

(14:20) Kingdom of Loathing now has slightly slicker sticks. Yup.

(19:00) The DM's plight: getting characters to take bosses seriously.

(21:30) Shottagan!

(24:30) Controls are similar to Double Dragon.

(29:20) Screen transition health replenishment!

Next time on Last Time, The Ignition Factor!

You can douse our fires at

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Episode 77: Puzzle WIZARDS [Solomon's Key]

The best wizards use fireballs, and Dana's definitely got those. Mostly, though, he can defy the precept of conservation of matter to create and destroy blocks! It's surprisingly useful. Too bad there are SO MANY ENEMIES. That, and the fairies aren't nearly as useful as they are in Zelda.

Our download's no fairy, but it is ethereal

Show Notes

(01:00) Payday games!

(08:00) Fire Emblem hard pansy mode vs. hard real mode.

(13:30) All the character archetypes! Just... go spend an hour on TV Tropes.

(16:30) I am Groot.

(17:30) You know how Mana Khemia is awesome? The sequel sucks. Don't play it.

(19:30) Conversely, Grandia II is pretty good.

(24:00) Space vandals!

(25:00) Inducing panic in players. We discuss audio cues and countdown timers.

(30:00) Turns out there's no Link between these games. Tyler got the name wrong.

(34:00) Replaying puzzle games.

(36:00) Beating/starting levels is a bit disappointing. The music's pretty good, though.

(41:00) Speaking of constantly repeated puzzles... By the way, Resident Evil, collecting a key and opening a door with it is not a puzzle.

Next time on Last Time, it's Renegade!

Be the strongest at school with us at

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Episode 76: "Tactics" [Gain Ground]

Some tactical training robots whose purpose is to get people to fight and reinvigorate their fighting spirit... or something... just want to watch the world burn. Thankfully, vikings are awesome! Also, there are a lot of fireballs, and that's always cool.

You must escort our download to the exit.

Show Notes

(01:45) Tyler's final thoughts upon beating Mega Man 3.

(05:15) Flay's pretty much. Nothing can stop his drill!

(06:00) Don't play Mana Khemia 2. Ulrika is soooo annoying. Pepperoni's awesome, though.

(09:30) Payday 2 tales and the horrors of carrying bags. While fun, the game suffers from a lack of things to do if your heist is going well silently. Maybe some mini-game things to move things along?

(15:40) Geremy's latest Fire Emblem run.

(20:00) JesuOtaku's got some pretty good reviews on Attack on Titan.

(21:00) Minecraft adventures!

(25:00) Gain Ground is a giant evil computer controller robots and people need to fight the computer.

(29:20) It's like Broforce, but from the 80s!

Next time on Last Time, Solomon's Key!

Come free some fairies with us at

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Episode 75: Actual Hell [Kid Icarus]

Apparently goddesses need rescuing, and Pit's the only cherub man enough to do it. Unfortunately, he hasn't been taking his vitamins, so he gets beaten up really easily. Also, he can't fly. Also, Death is trying to kill him, sometimes from multiple bodies at once. At least you centurion friends are only locked up in minimum security.

Turns out you can just walk across the other side of the screen to find the download.

Show Notes

(05:30) Upcoming (bad) superhero TV shows.

(11:30) We talk about Payday 2 for a bit. Moral: it's a really fun co-op game.

(14:30) Fire Emblem Awakening continues to be good, but could have been better. Awesome leveling may cause the end game to be too easy.

(23:15) Ice Climbers: It's kinda boring!

(24:30) Palutena's intro is borderline creepy. That's, alright, though, because Robin's awesome.

(29:00) This game has a super high difficulty cliff, but an equally steep downslope.

(32:00) You can totally Pac Man your way to the other side of the screen in this.

(39:00) Fortresses are actually pretty fun. And nutritious.

(40:20) Thieves. They suck.

Next time on Last Time, join us for "tactical" action in Gain Ground!

Boomerangs!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Episode 74: Why Did It Have To Be Snake Man? [Mega Man 3]

What's better than Mega Man? Sequels! Maybe! We're kinda split on that. Find out whether we can just slide through this, or if it just needles us too much.

Our download has no weakness!

Show Notes

(03:00) Mana Khemia is great. Also, Payday 2.

(04:45) Geremy's take on Nintendo's E3.

(07:50) X: A lot of monster combat for a mech game.

(08:50) Legend of Korra game!

(11:00) Mario Party 10 is a game where Bowser wins.

(12:30) Geremy's final thoughts on A Link Between Worlds.

(14:00) Some thoughts on Ocarina of Time.

(15:00) Zach finally beat the Elite 4.

(16:45) Zach finally played DOTA 2 and his comparison to League of Legends is not favorable for the former.

(23:00) Lackluster title screens.

(28:00) This game has no logical weaknesses, and 2 DIFFERENT CHAINS! Seriously, boss weakness designers, you had one job!

(30:00) The introduction of Castlevania harems.

(31:20) The stages are a step up from MM2 in terms of theme.

(33:15) A new staple for the series: sliding!

(35:00) Proto Man, a testament to Dr. Light's creative names!

(38:30) The Doc Robot, your worst nightmare.

(43:00) Final thoughts: generally negative; it's got hardware problems, and isn't super consistent.

Next time on Last Time, join us on adventures with flightless angels in Kid Icarus!

If you've got a bow, we've got arrows at

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Episode 73: Maze Munchies [Pac-Man & Dig Dug]

Travel with us back to the magical land of the early 1980s. Gaze upon the flocks of people standing at arcade machines. See there! A yellow disc is consuming small white pellets while being pursued by specters. And there! A... smurf? Is inflating dragons until they explode? I don't even... Well, at least one of these was an arcade classic; we'll let you decided which.

The trick to getting the download is to wait until the last second to inflate the power pellet.

(00:45) Abusing editorial powers.

(01:15) Payday 2 is a fun game.

(05:30) The Elite Four and a Spiritomb.

(08:00) Yomi, the fighting game card game.

(11:00) League news.

(14:00) Geremy's learning things at Smogon.

(20:25) Playing games for score. Stairfax!

(27:00) Gluttony: the game.

(30:30) Ghost behaviors.

(36:00) Dig Dug's a game about digging. And Dugging.

(38:00) Pac-Man as tag.

Next time on Last Time, Mega Man 3!

Come get fooled by Wily with us!

Friday, July 25, 2014

Fantasy Gridiron!

Better a shade late than Never right?

Following the link should lead into the Join page and the password in is LTOVG

http://fantasy.nfl.com/registration/privateleaguejoin?leagueId=2333144

Come Quick as the limited spots will vanish fast.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Episode 72: Beating Up Wizards For Lunch Money [Final Fantasy II]

Hark, and listen, for I shall tall ye a fantastic tale. You see, long ago, in the land of Baron, the king was a dick. Also, there was this guy who commanded their sweet airship force who was less of a dick, then redeemed himself. There were some other people, too, who could throw fireballs and stuff, but it's mostly about airship dude. He had great hair!

Our download might cost all your MP... and your life.

(01:00) Pretty Guardian Iron Man.

(02:00) Payday 2!

(07:30) League tales.

(12:30) Pretty Guardian Sailor... Those eyes...

(15:30) Final Fantasy: subtitles.

(18:40) Now you, too, can watch text walls!

(23:00) The intro isn't super interesting, largely due to lack of variety in combat.

(30:00) Rydia!

(31:00) Interesting mechanics: ranged weapon ammunition, hand preference, row assignments.

(33:00) As a side note, the DS intro makes this game look much better.

(36:00) The Antlion. This thing. Signposting problems.

(39:00) Lack of descriptions on items and rotation characters make progress somewhat lackluster. Not to mention there's some overlap between characters.

Next time on Last Time, Pac Dug!

Wakka wakka!

Monday, July 21, 2014

SSvPR "Scary Riddle Time" AND "Stand!! DaiZyuJin" vs. "A Pressing Engagement"

It's time yet again for me to take a look at Zyuranger and Power Rangers and through very advanced mathmatics, determine which is better. When we last left the series the score was

Power Rangers Zyuranger

2 5

Power Rangers had just taken a bit of a wallop, with Zyuranger creating a well paced two part adventure and Power Rangers... throwing a bunch of morals at the wall to see what stuck. For the second week in a row, Power Rangers decided to take two episodes of Zyuranger and jam them into one, so hit the jump and see if they were more successful this time.

First of all, the titles. While Power Rangers started this category strong, Zyuranger has been taking night classes. Once more it could probably win on Scary Riddle Time alone. Stand!! DaiZyuJin is a little confusing with its proper noun, but gets solid points for use of exclamation points and DaiZyuJin roughly translates to GreatBeastGod which is pretty good. Meanwhile Power Rangers comes to the table with A Pressing Engagement. Not only is that strictly amateur hour, but there is no pressing engagement in the episode. Come on, Power Rangers, get back in the game!

Power Rangers Zyuranger
2 6

Normally I'd let Power Rangers start the recap to try and regain some ground, but as we have two episodes of Zyuranger to get through again, we'll start there. We start off, once again, with some random kid separating himself from his friends, but before you can say "here we go again" this delightful gentleman pops up.

He introduces himself with a laugh that is so delightful I cannot represent it phonetically, but for your benefit, dear readers, I will try. "Hoo hoo hoo!" Then he immediately asks the kid "If a horse is facing right, which way his his tail facing?" Before he can ask "WTF who are you? STRANGER DANGER!" the kid is overwhelmed by smug satisfaction and reveals that "A horse's tail always faces down." "Bingo," responds the delightful gentlemen, now with a visual aid of a horse. The only reason that this man hasn't earned Zyuranger 5 points for sheer delightfulness is that I feel sorry for Power Rangers.
The man repeats his delightful laugh and says the boy is correct and clearly fond of riddles. Then he yells fanfare and... this happens.

Must... resist... urge... to declare Zyuranger the winner right now. The man says the kid is now a contestant on "Ultra Riddle Fun Time" and that if he gets all the riddles correct, he'll win a trip around the world. But he only has 10 seconds to answer each one or he loses. The kid is pretty smart and gets two great pun based riddles right away. However, when he's asked literally the easiest riddle ever "What walks on four legs than two than three" he answers a ghost. Maybe it's a cultural riddle?
The man makes a buzzing sound, and suddenly goes from absolutely delightful to "Failures like you don't deserve to walk the Earth," transforming into the deadly DoraSphinx! The kid screams, but DoraSphinx flaps his wings and the kid goes flying away, causing the new monster to cackle evilly. We then see him doing the same to a few other kids. We all know Power Rangers can't possibly live up to this intro, but lets see what's going on over there just to be sporting.
We open on - where else? - the GymJuiceYouthCenterBarAndGrill and I promise to stop using that joke. We hear Ernie, the establishment's owner, counting. "989, 990, 991" and we reveal Jason is... bench pressing. Wait 991 bench presses that..... Look. I am a nerd. Not just that. I am fat and have been to Disney Land more days than I've been to a gym, but... but I am pretty sure that is not how bench pressing works. I'm pretty sure that at some point you increase the weight you're lifting and lower the reps. But nevermind because we cut to Kimberlee wearing this skin tight little number.

Who needs panty shots when we... wait I've just been handed a note from my editor. I guess I'm not allowed to post unedited pictures of teenage girls in tight outfits, even if they're actually 20-something girls pretending to be teenage girls in skin tight outfits. Let me just leave it at this readers: mmmmmm daddy like.
Anyway Jason bench pressing... somehow even though... that is right next to him. Ernie reaches 1000 and tells Jason he just needs 10 more and he breaks the record! Ok, so that makes a little more sense, a quick Google search reveals most bench pressing records are actually set by weight rather than number of reps, but they didn't have Google in 1993 so I'll cut them some slack. Will he break the record? It's not very exciting, so let's cut to Zyuranger to build suspense shall we?
Dan and Boi are out on the town, wearing their ceremonial robe things... but no one pays any attention to them. Must be Comi-Con this week. Dan wants to flirt with some girls, finding their modern fashion attractive, but Boi stops him because the others are expecting them. Dan wants to live a little since they've been sleeping for 170 million years and so far have mostly beaten Bandora. Speaking of sleeping, Geki is having a dream! He walks through a desert waste, sweating and struggling until he falls down, begging for some one to help him. Mei wakes him up, and he reveals he's had this dream every night when he goes to sleep. Mei thinks he's just worried about Bandora.

Speak of the Devil, Goushi reveals that children have been disappearing and witnesses saw a monster blowing them away with its wings. Cut to the moon where...

Bandora, her cronies and the new monster are dancing together, and it is so beyond delightful. Can this monster please stay around forever? "Children just can't resist riddles," exclaims Bandora with glee. "So we'll destroy them with riddles!" she declares with even further glee... this would seem like a terrible plan if we hadn't already seen how awesome it is and how well it seems to be working. Bandora orders a stop to the music, and declares to Great Satan that she renews her pledge to destroy all of Earth's children. Adults are never more upset than when their children are in peril and without children, the future of humanity is doomed.
First and foremost, my editor tells me that I have to tell you that Last Time on Video Games does not condone summoning, fiddle battling, or bargaining with Satans, Greater or Lesser. With that out of the way, let's talk about her pledge. We've seen how she hates children before, but this actually gives Bandora a nice flavor. When her minions ask why she hates children here, she silences them, which hints at a deeper personal reason which is cool. Also, witches traditionally get their powers from Satan, so this is a cool call to mythology, in addition to making her a lot more interesting than her counterpart Rita, even if Power Rangers couldn't use Satan for obvious reasons. It's not quite worth a point, since the Power Rangers are still more fleshed out and have better personalities than the Zyurangers themselves, but its very nice to see Zyuranger finally throwing some characterization into the mix.

Anyway, back to the Power Rangers. Ernie asks Jason what number they're on, and an exasperated Jason tells him. Jeeze, Ernie, you have one job! Kimberlee finishes on the balance beam and comes over to watch. She tells Jason he's awesome and going to do it. Unfortunately, this encouragement makes Ernie forget what number Jason was on, and for some reason this means he has to start over again.

Cut to Rita: "He's not so tough when he's on his own." The dude just did over a thousand bench presses! It was only because Kimberlee came over that he failed to break the record; this is not a guy you want to mess with! However, she comes up with the plan of dividing and conquering by getting Jason alone, killing him, and then finishing the Rangers off without a leader. It's... not the worst plan, but Jason isn't a great leader and he can do 1000 bench presses. As we're about to see, he can do this twice in a row, so maybe he's not the guy you try to take out first?

With both evil plans established, back to Zyuranger. Dan and Boi are staking out a park, hoping that the monster will show up... well, I guess it's a plan at least. Dan wants to leave, though, because he has a date, and he abandons Boi to the stake out by himself. Of course, as soon as he leaves, DoraSphinx shows up and asks Boi a riddle. Boi refuses to answer, trying to attack the creature, but each time he strikes, the Sphinx disappears!

Boi runs out of time and DoraSphinx reveals the answer and his true form, blowing Boi away with his wings. Dan returns just in time to see Boi being flung away, so I guess that date didn't go very well. He reports Boi's capture back to the Zyurangers, brooding about it all being his fault. Barzza explains the myth of the sphinx. It's kind of cool how so far all of Bandora's monsters have come from Greek mythology: a titan, minotaur, and now a sphinx. It doesn't quite gel with the Great Satan/witches thing I mentioned earlier and I'm not sure if it will keep up, but it's a cool touch.

Dan runs off, planning to get a riddle wrong so that he can find out where DoraSphinx is sending everyone, but the other Zyurangers point out that's kind of a stupid plan. He says since he made it wrong he has to make it right, and Goushi says that they're no team. Geki starts running after him, but passes out, only to have the dream about the desert again.

Back with the Power Rangers, Jason has started doing bench presses again, and with Kimberlee's encouragement is up to 1007 again! Kimberlee chewing gum starts blowing a bubble and we also see... Zach is... for some reason skateboarding in the Gym... It's already an arcade, juice bar, gym and youth center; it doesn't need to be a skate park, too. Just as Jason is up to 1009, Zach crashes into Kimberlee, causing her bubble to pop all over, and distracting Jason so he drops the weights, and has to start over again.

Cut to the moon "He can't do anything right today! This is going to be too easy." Dude has done over 2000 bench presses. I'm pretty sure Spider-Man calls that a good day, even the version of Spider-Man who doesn't have a giant robot to call down. Don't mess with him! They repeat their plan, even though they just came up with it five minutes ago, and Finster suggests he use King Sphinx to blow the others away. It's a perfect plan! Well it's better than Dan's anyway.

Speaking of Dan, the Zyurangers are out looking for him on their sweet motorcycles. Since Dan's has the pink side car, Mei is in the yellow one, which, after years of watching Power Rangers and seeing their absolute devotion to keeping the colors right, seems... wrong. They see Dan flying through the sky and chase him to a forest. They start yelling his name, and start hearing screams for help. Geki puts his ear up to a tree, and realizes that's where they're coming from. Dan, Boi and the kids have been turned into trees!

DoraSphinx shows up and begins to reveal his plan, and like everything about this character, it's absolutely fantastic. The forest is about to be cleared out in order to make a golf course. The adults who don't care about making children places to play, and instead are building a place for their own amusement, will kill them while deforesting the place in a bout of irony. It's dark and twisted and delightful all at once. The Rangers try to attack him, but he pulls the disappearing trick again, then yells "Fanfare!" using a wipe cut to transport them to a game show stage.

Golems begin attacking them - and I realize that Golems are Jewish, not Greek - and the Zyurangers transform. DoraSphinx echoes Goushi's earlier statements that they aren't much of a team, so I guess that's going to be the theme again this episode. As Mei is distracted with the fight, the monster asks her "What bird is twice as big inside?" She doesn't know, and while fighting the golems desperately answers "An eagle?" Only to be told its an owl, because of the double-u in the middle. Like the others, she's blown away and turned into a tree.

Meanwhile, on Power Rangers, Zach is buying Jason and Kimberlee milkshakes to apologize for skateboarding in the gym and... man, I'm starting to think all the no skateboarding signs that were around in the 90s might have actually had a point. Jason says he's sort of bummed about the bench press thing because he doesn't want to be known as a quitter. Before the others can tell him that no one would ever call some one who did 2000 bench presses in one day a quitter, Bulk comes up and tells Jason that he's a quitter who will never beat his bench press record.

Wait... Bulk set the bench press record? 1010? Look, I love the kingpin from Marvel comics, and the idea of a character who looks fat but is super strong is cool, but... Bulk? Why does he even have to be in this episode? Luckily, Jason tickles him until his pants rip...

Wait, did I say luckily? I meant "uggghhhhhhh why are these characters still here?" This humiliation isn't sufficient to defeat them though; that requires Bulk's pants falling down as he tries to pull them together, and then tripping over them. Just as the rangers leave, their communicators beep and they run off to ask Zordon what's up. Zordon tells them to teleport to the children's theater in the park, because Rita is at it again. "She's sent down a team of putties and an unknown monster in an attempt to gain control of the park." I love the idea that the park is somehow a tactically important location in Angel Grove and that by occupying it Rita will be poised to strike... somewhere. The three Rangers teleport into the sentai footage... and apparently forgot they have two other friends who are Power Rangers with communicators.

Sadly, the riddles have been cut completely out of the Power Rangers version, which is a crime. King Sphinx just blows Kimberlee away... back onto the balance beam on the gym.

DoraSphinx challenges Goushi next, asking him what you can shake without using your hands. He successfully answers "Your head!" His next question is "What is useless on top, but useful underneath?" He answers "Carbon Paper" unfortunately, just after time runs out, and he, too, is turned into a tree. Zach, unfortunately, is just blown away like Kim, since DoraSphinx is in his human form in this scene when he's not using his wings.

That leaves only Jason/Geki since... apparently Zach and Kimberlee don't decide to just teleport back right away. Geki finds the monster's first three riddles easy, exciting DoraSphinx. He asks a fourth and final riddle: "Is there anything eternal in this world?" which gives Geki pause. He waits until the last second to answer "Justice is eternal! Justice always triumphs!" Using a visual aid, DoraSphinx says he's wrong because, obviously, "Evil is eternal!"

Geki protests that the answer must be justice, and DoraSphinx transforms, saying they'll find out the answer in battle. I think this just passed "I'm the Doctor and you're in the biggest library in the universe; look me up." as my favorite moment in all of fiction. They fight, as do Jason and King Sphinx and, as always, it's a good scene and the red ranger's new sword gets a chance to be showcased. They're teleported to a quarry in case the fight location was too interesting.

On Power Rangers, Alpha is freaking the [removed by editorial] out yelling that Jason's isolated and in trouble. Thanks, Alpha, helpful as always. Here's where the two diverge a bit though, as Bandora makes DoraSphinx grow giant, and he goes after Geki. Geki calls on Tyranozaurus for help, and jumps to get into the cockpit, but is shot by his guardian's eye lasers and goes flying, demorphing, and landing in... the desert from his dreams! To be continued!

Except for, two weeks in a row now, Power Rangers elected to burn through an interesting two parter as quickly as possible, so let's continue with the next episode of Zyuranger: Stand!! DaiZyuJin. Geki wonders why instead of helping him fight a giant sphinx, his sweet dinosaur robot god sent him here.

Off in the distance, he sees Tokyo Tower and realizes to his horror that everything under his feet is rubble from buildings. He falls down the hill, and sees the corpses of the other Zyurangers, rotted down to skeletons but still wearing their distinctive clothes. The guardian beasts appear on the horizon and tell him if he doesn't bring unity to his team than this future will become real. They seem to have been pretty united thus far, but teamwork is an important lesson for the kids I guess. He sees an impression of a giant robot and asks what it is. The guardian beasts respond that it's their combined form, DaiZyuJin. However, if the team can't learn to work together, the guardian beasts will never combine. It seems like it would have been easier for them to tell him this in his dream before DoraSphinx showed up, but whatever.

The Guardian Beasts laser him back to the forest, so that he can swear to the other Zyurangers he'll become a better leader. Unfortunately he doesn't know how to free them or form DaiZyuJin and he asks for someone to tell him what to do. Luckily, Barzza just happens to be standing around and tells him that in order to form DaiZyuJin he needs the five dinocrystals. Unfortunately, Barzza doesn't know where they are, and DoraSphinx shows up yelling "SNEAK ATTACK!"

Grifforzer shows up too and Geki transforms. We get some good two on one fight footage that Power Rangers sadly elected not to use, probably because they thought randomly teleporting to the forest and then back was a little too much. We're quickly back in the quarry and Grifforzer shoots his laser sword at Geki, which is where Power Rangers picks up. Goldar's appearance seems a little out of nowhere, but Rita did say she was going to send him earlier, so whatever. Rita/Bandora make the two monsters grow, and Jason wishes that the other Power Rangers were around. If only they had teleportation technology they used all the time! Or the writers had bothered to throw in a line about King Sphinx teleporting Jason to the quarry so the others wouldn't be able to locate him to teleport to. It would only take one line!

Speaking of the other rangers, they're here in Billy's...

Lab? Garage? Room? Hell, I'm not even sure it's Billy's, we just get an establishing shot of a house. Zach and Kimberlee tell Billy and Trini that Jason's in trouble and "may need his friends way more than he knows." The dude is fighting two giant monsters and screaming about wanting help from his friends!! We get it, team work is important, you're lucky the message is just as hamfisted in Zyuranger. In fact...

Power Rangers Zyuranger

1 5

I feel remotely better now. Trini remembers they have wrist communicators and tries to get Jason on the line, but no dice. They teleport to the command center, which is something at least. Alpha and Zordon instantly locate Jason on the viewing globe, so I guess not being able to find him isn't actually a problem, but they still can't just teleport to him because... reasons. Have I used that one before? 4 columns in and I'm already running low on ways to explain the logic of Power Rangers.

Trini says it seems hopeless, and Zordon says it would be if they couldn't just telepor... I mean if not for their hitherto unmentioned power crystals. "The crystals contain the essence of [their] morphing power." The plan is for Zordon to send them to Jason and then they can teleport there.. again, I don't know why they can't just do that now.

Meanwhile on Zyuranger, Geki swears to find the dinocrystals and reunite his team. Unfortunately he doesn't know where they are and there are two giant monsters he has to fight. His sword starts to glow, shooting out blue lightning blowing up a nearby rock.

Inside the rock is a pouch containing the dinocrystals. That... may be the biggest deus ex machina I've ever seen. I mean... one random rock in the middle of a random quarry. It's especially disappointing after they just went on a big quest to get their weapons that the thing that makes their giant robots combine just sort of falls into their lap. Sure, the sword that found them is established as being sapientish but...

Power Rangers Zyuranger

1 4

The plan on Power Rangers is just as stupid but it's the sort of stupid I expect from it at least. Jason finds the power crystals in a rock nearby where Zordon teleported them and the other Rangers can finally come help him. They summon their Zords right away and it seems like Jason should have done that already, but they're fighting giant monsters so it makes sense at least. On Zyuranger the dinocrystals have the added bonus of un-treeing the Zyurangers, which is convenient.

We of course, get the full MegaZord/DaiZyuJin transformation sequence here, the first time for Zyurangers, and they're identical footage-wise. The main difference is that all the Zyurangers shout "unite" as they jump in their robots, where as the rangers have their normal lines. Except Kimberlee who gets "Let's Jinx this Sphinx."

Power Rangers Zyuranger

2 4

If Kimberlee makes a rhyme or pun every time they form the MegaZord from now on, it may just make up for what she said in the first episode. Both versions have the crystals being inserted into the cockpits and used as joysticks for the combination process, which is cool in Zyuranger, but brings up a continuity error for Power Rangers, since its clear they had the crystals last time they formed the MegaZord. I'm tempted to take points away from Power Rangers, but this entire scene is the same one they used in the first episode. It just had King Sphinx completely edited out, and watching the original footage now, I'm genuinely impressed with their editing.

Power Rangers Zyuranger

3 4

Power Rangers is on a roll! The Zyuranagers get a little dialog about working as a team from now on in the cockpit, and both teams start to fight. The Tank Mode of the MegaZord/DaiZyuJin has some pretty cool gunfire effects, and some pretty lame beam effects, but after a few projectile volleys between them and Goldar/Grifforzer's sword, they change forms.

As always, the suit battle looks really, really good. There is one sort of silly moment, though, where to duck an attack DaiZyuJin turns back into tank mode, then uppercuts Grifforzor as he turns back into battle mode. It might sound like a good idea, but they really don't have the effects to pull it off, and the Power Rangers play it off as a malfunction for a second, forcing them to switch to tank mode for a moment. It doesn't work in either show, and Power Rangers probably should have just cut it out entirely.

The Zyurangers still have some plot to deal with though, as they notice that the forest with the kids in it is starting to be cut down! DoraSphinx shrinks back down, and challenges them to another riddle game. Grifforzer keeps fighting for a moment, but DoraSphinx gets that villain pride and makes him stop. The Zyurangers together are able to answer his riddles, but he's just stalling for time while the trees are cut down. Geki comes up with a plan though, saying that the sphinx's riddles are too easy and he should ask a challenging one. One they couldn't possibly know, like what his weak point is.

They don't know it, so he confidently makes it the next riddle. They guess his heart, but he responds that it's not even close. It's the snake on his head. Before he can turn them into trees, they call forth "Dinosword God Horn" and use the Legendary Thunderslash on the snake, destroying him and freeing all the children.

The Power Rangers end their fight simply by calling the "Mega Power Sword" which got a new adjective since it was last used. They don't give the beam slash a name, so it just looks like they were trying to cut down the violence. Goldar bitches out again. Grifforzer does too, but this is the second time Goldar has done this under the exact same circumstances, so he comes off as the lame one.

Power Rangers ends back at the Gym, with Jason beating that bench pressing record. That's what we all cared about right? But Kimberlee is back in her... outfit so that's nice. Ernie went ahead and made Jason a celebratory cake, but Bulk falls into it and ruins the confection. For some reason, the rangers call this a victory. Even though he ruined the cake. Yay!?

Zyuranger ends the only way it can: with the team swearing an oath, this time to DaiZyuJin to work as a team.

Final Thoughts
DoraSphinx is my new favorite villain of all time, and I am devastated knowing he never shows up again. Other than that though, both episodes were a little rough. After that great quest last time, I can see why Zyuranger didn't want another one, but maybe they should have put off introducing DaiZyuJin instead of introducing the dinocrystals in such a half ass way.

It's still way better than Power Rangers though. They took out every riddle, the entire idea of it, and the episode feels really unfocused, with way too much Bulk and Skull and a tacked on moral that's forgotten by the end. I'd take a shot every time the Power Rangers or Zyurangers learned a lesson about team work, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't survive.

Still, DoraSphinx, man. His first two minutes alone win the battle for Zyuranger.

Power Rangers Zyuranger

3 5

Power Rangers is starting to catch up, though. And the Zyurangers have introduced everything for a while, so we'll see if they can keep it up in two weeks when I See You, I See You takes on Different Drum. Only one episode of each next time, thankfully.

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