Shows / Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping is a monthly game club of Em and Jackson, talking primarily about old games with an eye to critiquing without nostalgia.
Episodes
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 191: Before the Green Moon
We do some farming and go to space in this indie game about the themes behind your average life sim and farming game. We had a good time! Good thing we can…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 190: U.N. Squadron
Emmmeline had surgery this month so I am joined by Dia for another exciting surprise episode of Abnormal Mapping. We will not miss a month, come rain or shine…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 189: OFF
We’re back with a bunch of games and gaming news, including a look back at one of the more influential entries in the RPG Maker sphere, Belgium post-modern RPG…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 188: Another World
Em is recovering from illness this month so Jackson called up Dia Lacina in order to preserve the streak. THE STREAK NEVER DIES. WE WILL NOT MISS A MONTH…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 187: Resident Evil 0
Jackson continues their Resident Evil journey as we play one of the least discussed numbered entries in the series. Is there a reason that’s the case? Turns…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 186: Echo Point Nova
Our friend Molly returns to Abnormal Mapping to run, jump, grapple, dig, climb, surf, and shoot shoot shoot our way through one of the more cool and intense…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 185: The Chrono Jotter
We’re joined by our friend Kim to talk about a visual novel of the murder game and detective kind! Ran Ibuki is a very not normal girl who finds herself stuck…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 184: Rabbids Go Home
We dig through the pile of trash that is the Wii library for one of the hidden gems of its lineup, the one Rabbids game that people remember fondly! It turns…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 183: NiGHTS Into Dreams and DOOM (PS1)
We return to a game we played near the very start of the podcast, but … in port form? Much to discuss about the place of ports as transformative work and also…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 182: Simogo Legacy Collection
We play a bunch of classic phone games and talk about an era of small games that feel like they vanished from the earth. This was a great walk down memory…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 181: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Surprise! One final Abnormal Mapping before the end of the year. Jackson is joined today by Erin to get thoughts down about the most baffling Game of the Year…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 180: Mega Man 7 & 8
This one was in the can way before the new Mega Man was announced, but I’m glad they finally listened to us and made another one of these. But we went back to…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 179: Onimusha: Warlords
This Abnormal Mapping needed an extra week to cook, but it’s finally here for you to enjoy! We talk about a bunch of arcade games, Capcom’s inability to tell a…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 178: Persona 5 Royal
After months of chipping away at it Em finally completed Persona 5 Royal, which means she invited two of her most Shin Megami Tensei-brained friends to come on…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 177: Viewfinder
Some games are just very okay to the point where you don’t have too much to say about them, but thankfully we have some other gaming to keep us going as we…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 176: Star Fox 64
We played a classic of the greatest console ever made, the Nintendo 64, this month! How did Em find returning to a game she 100%ed long ago? How did Ace Combat…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 175: Children of the Sun
A small and fascinating puzzle game gets us through a rough month this week as we talk about score chasing, the tone of indie games in aesthetics vs mechanics…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 174: Parasite Eve II
We dig into Square’s attempt at survival horror as they hand Parasite Eve over to one of the creators of Resident Evil who proceeds to make a police procedural…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 173: No Case Should Remain Unsolved
We play a small detective game and come away with a nice appreciation of adapting the mystery story into mechanics, a discussion about light investment gaming…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 172: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
We’re joined this month by Nora Blake of Export Audio to talk about her and Em’s favorite dead Konami franchise: Castlevania! We’re playing the first PS2 game…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 171: Soul Blazer
We played an old SNES game today and talk about the elemental qualities of RPGs and action games. Also, Jackson keeps gaming, and Em makes ambitious plans to…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 170: Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
We’re playing two not very classics of their respective genres today as we go back to the back half of the 90s to play an early action game and a relatively…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 169: 1000xRESIST
We tackle a newer game this month as we talk about the critically acclaimed adventure game 1000xRESIST. We found plenty to love and plenty to pick at during…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 168: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): Legacy of Solaris
We close out the year by playing one of the most infamous games we’ve ever covered, a game that has been a running joke and shorthand for bad game for nearly…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 167: Shenmue II
We’re joined by Dia Lacina once again as Ryo continues the next leg of his quest to track down Lan Di, his father’s killer. What strange challenges will he…
- Abnormal Mapping
Abnormal Mapping 166: Racing Lagoon
One of the hot new releases of … wait, 1999? That can’t be right. Oh, it’s a fan translation. One of the hot new fan translations hitting the inter-oh I’m…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 165: Mister Mosquito
Sometimes you decide to finally pick up one of those games you’ve always heard of but never got around to, the curiosities that you are pretty sure aren’t must…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 164: Final Fantasy XI
Jackson is joined today by official Final Fantasy Correspondant Austin Walker to talk about Final Fantasy XI - specifically the base game and Rise of the…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 163: The Forgotten City
Em is back from the month off to talk about the joy of a kind of cheesy mystery with a great sci-fi premise as we get to live out our Star Trek: The Original…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 162: Citizen Sleeper
This month it’s just me, Jackson, being joined by Crystal to play Citizen Sleeper. Em is currently in Hospital after major surgery and so I’m taking over and…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 161: Cassette Beasts
We enjoy one of the major modern attempts at making a Pokemon-style monster collecting and battling RPG with Cassette Beasts. We talk about surprising scope of…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 160: Myst III: Exile
We find ourselves doing grunt work for Atrus once more as our favorite self-published author and god of his own realms begins reaping what he’s sown over the…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 159: Dynamite Headdy and Beyond Oasis
We leap back in time to the Mega Drive to talk about two action classics back when action games meant jumping and avoiding and not perfect parries. Not exactly…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 158: Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
We finish our long Final Fantasy adventure by playing Square’s largest single player Final Fantasy yet. But does size equal quality? Does it equal ambition? We…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 157: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
We’re joined by Molly for the return of one of the classics, a guy who just needs to jump over every spike in all the world, conveniently located in a…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 156: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII
We interrupt your regularly scheduled coverage with a special announcement: Jackson has played the Final Fantasy XIII games, at last. Despite the frankly…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 155: 007: Everything or Nothing
We’re going back to the heady days of licensed multi-platform games in the early 00s this month as we play 007: Everything or Nothing and talk about the era of…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 154: Final Fantasy XV
We close out the year with a podcast years in the making, as Molly joins us and we take a road trip with the king to be and his homies and play the much…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 153: Grab Bag 2023
We keep gaming as we tackle a bunch of small games in a classic grab bag and talk through a whole mess of games that are interesting and worthwhile but often…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 152: The Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask
It’s Jackson here with a surprise episode of Abnormal Mapping! This was meant to be a bonus anniversary surprise but scheduling woes got it pushed back a week…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 151: Shenmue
We’ve been doing this for ten years! Damn, that’s a long time to be doing a monthly game club. But we’ll keep trucking into our second decade as we start a…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 150: Demon Turf
We celebrate a century and a half of excellence this month as we talk about 3D platforming as we take a thorough look at Demon Turf and talk about platforming…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 149: Mega Man Legends
We’re back with one of the obvious classics of all time, a game neither of us had played before this month but came like a lighting strike into our lives with…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 148: Muv Luv Trilogy
Em is joined by anime gaming expert Olivia today to talk about a classic of Visual Novels, the Muv Luv trilogy of games! We have a brief RPG checkin first…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 147: Final Fantasy XVI
We’re joined by post-gamer and friend of the show Austin Walker to talk about the latest and greatest in the long running Final Fantasy series. That’s right…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 146: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
We’re joined by blogger of the year and adventure game maestra Dia Lacina to talk about one of the most iconic games of the LucasArts era, Monkey Island 2!…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 145: Chrono Cross
We’re joined by special guest Niamh to talk about one of the classics of video game, infamously one of only two games we bailed on playing in history, and one…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 144: Grab Bag (lots of Resident Evil talk)
Em’s been so busy gaming we had to break out segment 1 into its own podcast to spare our Chrono Cross episode the world’s most topheavy structure, but we ended…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 143: Potion Craft
We’re back to talk about a small game about chilling out and brewing potions and what it says for the act of gaming itself to engage in a relaxing sort of…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 142: Mutazione
We’re back with a normal episode of Abnormal Mapping as we dig into our backlog a bit and then talk about a very low key narrative adventure game and have a…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 141: Phantasy Star 1-4
On this very special episode Em is joined by Dia Lacina and Emrys to talk about Sega’s iconic JRPG franchise Phantasy Star. We talk about the banging…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 140: Resident Evil
We’re joined by Dia Lacina to talk about foundational survival horror classic Resident Evil, and mostly talk about genre and the strange legacy of having a…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 139: Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights
We’re joined by Ember to talk about a game at the intersection of those two most contentious genres: soulslikes and Metroidvanias. This intersection itself is…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 138: Spark the Electric Jester 3 (and friends!)
We end out the year by going hard on going fast through 3D spaces as we talk more about where 3D Sonic is at, and also about the array of interesting 3D time…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 137: Snatcher
It's nearly Christmas time and thus we settle in for that most famous of Christmas games, Hideo Kojima's sci-fi detective classic SNATCHER! No, really, this is…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 136: Norco
We ring in our ninth anniversary with a new-ish game, the dystopian magical realism adventure game Norco! There’s plenty of navel gazing about life, podcasts…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 135: Yume Nikki and Ib
We have another huge haul of games as we talk about seemingly everything under the sun but also two games for the lengthening nights as we do a sort of horror…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 134: Riven: The Sequel to Myst
It’s gaming season as we dip into a sequel to one of the most classic games of the 90s and find that maybe lighting truly does strike twice. On top of that, a…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 133: Survival Kids
We try to beat the heat by playing a game about the sweltering jungle and the fight for survival, but y’know … it’s cute! Also, we declare an early end to our…
Abnormal MappingAbnormal Mapping 132: Fate/hollow ataraxia
I’m joined once again by my friend and fate-bestower Kim as we cover the only sequel to Fate/stay night, Hollow Ataraxia! We talk about where my fate-pilling…