“We might make a name for ourselves after all…”In a pre-prequel, pre-Disney's Star Wars world, almost any game featuring George Lucas' galaxy-spanning space opera was greeted with fervour. So it was with Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for the N64 and PC in 1998. Leon, Chris Worthington and Jon - along with contributions from you, the listeners - suit up…

“EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG”Mark Cerny's first full project as a prodigious teen game creator (after coding a 'mushroom growing algorithm' for Millipede) was Atari's surreal and challenging Marble Madness. Leon, Brian and Chris Worthington run all six courses, albeit over considerably longer than the two odd minutes in which it's possible to beat…

“The evil hand of BASHTAR has seized the lovely MIHO.”Representing the tiny overlap in the Venn diagram of at least two niche subgenres (prehistoric jungle platformers/games with simian protagonists), Juju Densetsu (or Toki) is also a fairly pedestrian, memory-based platform/shooter. Leon, Chris Worthington, Dan and Toki-lover Michiel muse upon why…

"..."Installation artist, juggler, balloon artist and first-time game developer William Chyr told himself it would take three months to design a Portal-sized puzzle game. Seven years later, he released a 'counterfactual physics game' that captures the spirit of both M.C. Escher's mind-bending work and the Paris scene in Christopher Nolan's Inceptio…

“If you make like you’re a DeathMatch hotshot you should be able to bluff your way into the party.”After a tumultuous few years of company takeovers and platform swaps, Rare's Perfect Dark Zero landed as an Xbox 360 console exclusive launch title. Leon, Darren (former Rare), Ryan (Xbox employee) and community contributors pick the prequel apart, 19…

“If you love a character, you give them pain, ruin their lives, make them suffer.”Just ahead of the release of the fourth instalment in BioWare's fantasy RPG series, we finally get around to scrutinising the third game in the series - Dragon Age: Inquisition. Leon, Brian, Leah and Tony have quested long, scouring the plains of Thedas to explore the…

"Throw me back."What better way to spend time in the ocean than to fish while trying not to succumb to ancient malices from the deep? For this is apparently what is on offer with 2023's indie darling, Dredge. Chris O'Regan with James and Brian - along with contributions from the Cane and Rinse listenership – tell tall tales of fishes larger than a …

“Good speech. Blast him.”Marvel's relatively obscure comic book sci-fi misfits received a huge boost in recognition with their first MCU movie in 2014. Following a sequel and a Telltale series, Square Enix tasked their Eidos Montreal studio with making an action game starring the underdog antiheroes. Leon, Brian, Karl and Leah team up to celebrate …

“TWO YOUNG VAMPIRE HUNTERS SET OUT TO FULFILL THEIR DESTINY….”New protagonists for a new era. Initially, officially, considered to be a gaiden, Konami's second game entitled Vampire Killer was arguably canonised as Castlevania: Bloodlines in the USA. Leon, Leah and Sean talk whips, spears, level design and boss fights. Even the always excellent con…

“Go! Go! Go! Go-go!”It could have been Sonic 3D, but the tech wasn't ready. In fact, the game itself wasn't entirely ready when it was due to release, leading to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles coming out on separate (full-price) cartridges. Leon, Leah and Tony - along with community contributors - dash into the eventual complete title, S…

"Thank you Poe, but the vampire is in another coffin.”Vampire Survivors started off as a solo developer effort that turned into a huge indie hit. A compulsive experience that employs various slots-style visual and audio cues to give upgrades more 'juice', the game is nevertheless an incredibly generous affair with rock bottom store prices and no mi…

“HOT FIGHTING HISTORY”Yie Ar Kung-Fu marked the first appearance of many core one-on-one fighting game tenets that remain in use fully 40 years later. Join Leon, Chris O, Chris W and Jesse (as well as contributions from the listeners) to find out which parts of the rulebook Konami wrote all the way back in 1984. There's also time for talk of oppone…

“Guess what. This house has an illusion wall.”This week, we put the "cane" back in Cane and Rinse with our discussion of DuckTales on the NES and the ahem dynasty of duck games that followed. We detail the pre-interactive origins of everyone's favorite policy failure, Scrooge McDuck, and track his adventures up to 2013's WayForward remake. Ryan, Le…

“Good morning.”Covering all the main games from thirty years of Iron Fisting, we relive the mad, bad Mishima saga and recall its many combatants. Leon, Michiel, Rich and Sean wax lyrical of 10-hit strings, mighty juggle combos and multipart, limb-breaking holds.As usual, we have some great, nostalgic memories from the Cane and Rinse listenership to…

“Why not pay the tavern a visit first?”From oaks to acorns. The Fable series began life as O.G. Xbox exclusive, released under the weight of some big talk of tantalising concepts in 2004. Leon, James, Tony and a returning Darren Gargette - along with contributions from the Cane and Rinse listenership - relive the legend of the first Fable, and repl…

“Oh no!”All-but abandoned after just two critically successful entries, Capcom's Power Stone is a series that - until a recent announcement - lived on only in the hearts of those who played it quarter of a century ago. Leon, Karl, Michiel and Ryan - along with contributors from the listening community - bash out what made Power Stone such a blast, …

"Honk!"Terror most fowl or anserine champion? James, Brian and Leah are going to find out if House House’s goose is cooked or whether they laid the golden egg with 2019’s Untitled Goose Game.There sure are a lot of goose idioms, huh?http://media.blubrry.com/caneandrinse/caneandrinse.com/podcast/cane_and_rinse_issue_630.mp3 Music featured in this is…

“Any objections, Lady?”The infamous odd-one out. Nintendo SPD collaborated with Tecmo's Team Ninja for the Wii-exclusive follow-up to the Prime trilogy, with results that weren't greeted entirely enthusiastically by press or punters alike. Leon, Chris Worthington, Leah, Rich and community correspondents get to grips with Metroid: Other M - its quir…

“The fighting in this area is ferocious.”Two shoot 'em ups with two names each, from Capcom's arcade heyday of the late 80s/early 90s. Leon, Chris Worthington, Michiel and expert guest Ed Tremblay equip formidable loadouts and launch into the skies of Area 88 / U.N. Squadron and U.S. Navy / Carrier Air Wing.http://media.blubrry.com/caneandrinse/can…

“You were my friend, the very best I could have asked for.”That game with the cat. Actually - as we briefly discuss in this podcast - there are loads of games with cats. But we're talking about this one: Stray. Leon, Jay, Tom, Tony and community contributors chime in on BlueTwelve Studio's underground feline hopepunk adventure, and its furmidable p…

“BUT THE PEACE DID NOT CAME.”A trio of games, but not a trilogy, make up our The Ninja Warriors series podcast. Leon, Chris Worthington, Michiel and guest Bog Hog stomp and slice their way through the arcade original, the Super Famicom/SNES ground-up reimagining and the contemporary remake of that. The Ninja Warriors, The Ninja Warriors Again and T…

"We still have a long way to go yet, we can talk, if you'd like?"We return to Hideo Kojima's back catalogue in the 1994 Japan-only title Policenauts. Rich, Chris Worthington and Leah look into the mind of Kojima before he took the world by storm with Metal Gear Solid. Borrowing heavily from 1980s cinema, blending visual novel and point-and-click, a…

“Alas, this twilit world is too full of pain and contradiction, too full of broken dreams.”It's the newest game we've ever covered on Cane and Rinse. Probably. But also, it's 20 years old. What gives? Leon, Brian, Leah and Ryan - along with contributions from the listenership - jump right back into Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, hyphen and al…

“YOU CREATED A TWO MILE CRATER”A double game 'twofer' show, as we look back at the start of the so-called 'Golden Age' of arcade games and two titles depicting similar concepts with wildly different approaches. Leon, Brian, Chris Worthington and Tony touch down with Atari's 1979 Lunar Lander, a vector graphics-based sim of sorts. Then the crew turn…

“Are you quite finished?”It's Elden Ring. In the lead-up to the long-awaited Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Leon, Brian, Jay and Thomas summon collaborators and take on the daunting quest of podcasting about a game with just so much to it. With a collective play time of 750 hours or so - thousands if you include our community contributors - we attempt …