So Very Wrong About Games

Pickaxe

A podcast about all manner of hobby games by Mike Walker and Mark Bigney. Bad games don't go easy on you, so we don't go easy on them. Thorough analysis via reviews, news, and discussion of topics in gaming. We take context seriously, we value your time, and we're not into hype. Just because games are fun doesn't mean we can't take them seriously, and just because we take them seriously doesn't mean we can't have fun.

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421 episodes
Updated July 21

Episodes421

Newest first

Mar 23, 2021 · 1 hr 6 min
#161: Faiyum
Don't you know who I am Remember my name Faiyum I'm gonna live for ever I'm gonna learn how to fly -clearly some song about ancient Pharaohs Games Played Last Week: 00:51 -Aquatica (Ivan Tuzovsky, Cosmodrome Games, 2019) 05:06 -Dungeon Petz (Vlaada...
Mar 16, 2021 · 1 hr 3 min
#160: Best Foot Forward
CASSIUS: Did SVWAG say any thing? CASCA: Ay, they spoke Geek. CASSIUS: To what effect? CASCA: Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face again: but those that understood them smiled at one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own...
Mar 9, 2021 · 1 hr 16 min
#159: Anachrony: Fractures of Time
Round structure of Anachrony: I. Jump to the left phase. II. Step to the right phase. III. Bring your knees in tight phase. IV. Pelvic thrust phase. V. Drives you insane phase. Let's play Anachrony again! It's just... Games Played Last Week: 01:25...
Mar 2, 2021 · 1 hr 13 min
#158: Video Game Adaptations
The kids these days, what with their pokemons and their video games. The bleeping and the blooping. Personally I think civilization's gone downhill since Pong. It's all the colours! Pong had one too many colours if you ask me. What with the violence...
Feb 23, 2021 · 57 min
#157: Trick Shot
Wheel, snipe, celly boys. Crushin' sandos. Superstar power poses? Pfft. I could run a clinic on this, boys. The flow, and the snow. That's it, tarps off boys! You looking for a tilly, buddy? It's time for a donnybrook! Ferda. Games Played Last Week:...
Feb 16, 2021 · 1 hr 24 min
#156: Dead Collectible Games
So. Many. Games. Could two humans play so many games in a mere week? Well, certainly no humans that aren't preternaturally devoted to their dear listeners. But we are devoted, and your mere idlest of wishes is our most sacrosanct of commands; and so,...
Feb 9, 2021 · 1 hr 5 min
#155: Hallertau
One portentious day, Uwe Rosenberg will design a worker-placement game where polyomino sheep breed by being sown into fields that are also special power cards, and the Great Cycle will be complete. No one knows what happens then, and quite frankly we...
Feb 2, 2021 · 1 hr 9 min
#154: Gatekeeping
"My defense, Your Honour, was that I was specifically mandated by the rulebook issued by M. Xavier Georges and Quined Games to violate the lockdown restrictions issued by the Province of Ontario. I would put to you that it is unjust for the government...
Jan 26, 2021 · 1 hr 7 min
#153: Tungaru
Board Game Arena gets more and more of our gaming time, what with its snappy interface and minimal system requirements. The sound effects, though, are controversial. The community seems divided on whether the whooshes are pleasing or distracting, and...
Jan 19, 2021 · 1 hr 7 min
#152: Death of the Rule Book
If you've been following board games social media recently, you might have noticed that it's been a rough couple of weeks. Incidents like these, albeit difficult, allow us a chance to define our community and underscore our values. Silence can imply...
Jan 12, 2021 · 1 hr 2 min
#151: Dogs of War
Too much news! So much news, in fact, that we had to cut some news. Some news, though news-y, will keep until next week. The key is to wrap the roots of the news in damp paper towel, put the news in a plastic bag, and put the bag in the fridge. The...
Jan 5, 2021 · 1 hr 36 min
#150: 2020 Year in Review
In honour of our big, blowout, end-of-year extravaganza spectacular, no expense was spared. Mark put on pants. Walker wore his t-shirt with the fewest holes. The sheep freshly sheared. The palanquin carriers were freshly oiled. Come, thrill to the...
Dec 22, 2020 · 1 hr 5 min
#149: Empyreal: Spells & Steam
All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious episode of SVWAG! A day with So Very Wrong About Games is like a day on the farm. Every word's a banquet! Every sentence a fortune! Every review a soliloquy! I love...
Dec 15, 2020 · 1 hr 24 min
#148: Combat Systems
"I hit you!" "Nuh-uh, you missed!" "I totally hit you!" "I dodged it!" "I have special homing missiles you can't dodge!" "I have a shield that redirects all your shots back to you!" "I have an invincibility field!" "I can shoot through invincibility!"...
Dec 8, 2020 · 1 hr 14 min
#147: Beyond the Sun
Mark has occasion to quote three different movies in this episode, and miraculously none of them are Pulp Fiction, The Lion in Winter, or even Aliens--despite the latter being related to a game discussed! Perhaps his echolalia is abating, or perhaps...
Dec 1, 2020 · 1 hr 7 min
#146: Dungeon Crawlers
One is reminded of those memes that plot definitions on two axes, asking to what degree the reader is a purist or a rebel--the setting purist and the mechanical purist would say "Descent is a dungeon crawler." Perhaps the setting purist and mechanical...
Nov 24, 2020 · 1 hr 8 min
#145: Tidal Blades
It is the nature of the Walker who cries wolf that if he repeats the claim often and consistently enough, it might come true eventually. Despite the unrelenting constancy of Chinese New Year, some games do actually get produced--just only after they...
Nov 17, 2020 · 1 hr 19 min
#144: Boxes
Clearly the hosts secretly wanted to have a movie podcast, or perhaps just a podcast devoted to the movie Aliens. To their credit, they at least did not devolve into merely parroting quotes from the film, which is a behaviour as obnoxious and it is...
Nov 10, 2020 · 1 hr
#143: The Castles of Tuscany
We have an unwritten constitution here at SVWAG, which we know causes some people from jurisdictions with written constitutions to get a little mystified and/or twitchy. Trust us, it works! We get to claim a rich constitutional history all the way...
Nov 3, 2020 · 1 hr 2 min
#142: Lifetime Games
It's the daylight savings, it's got to be. You give us an extra hour in the week--through the magic of time travel--and we'll take it to play eleventy new games. The geniuses (Canadians, for what it's worth) who invented standard time probably didn't...