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About Me

Episode 07: Duke Nukem 3D - PC
Episode 06: Resident Evil 2 - PS1
Episode 05: Deus Ex - PC
Episode 04: Mega Man Legends - PS1
Episode 03: Jet Grind Radio - Dreamcast
Episode 02: Mega Man 4-6 - NES
Episode 01: The Neo Geo Pocket Color - NGPC

Nostaljourney is a retro gaming podcast that features an new cast every episode. Each episode is based on discussing a particular game or series, then finding people who are nostalgic for it and people who have never played it before. If need be we go so far as to donate all the necessary gaming hardware to the newcomers. We compare the experiences of the two groups to find out how well a game has really aged as well as discuss its history.

For younger community members it may be a chance to learn what gaming was like in the past. For older community members it may be a chance to discover what games are truly classic and what games are not. In general the show exists to evaluate and discuss the nature of nostalgia and for everyone in the community to get to know each other better. Because the show involves giving out free games, it only records once every couple of months.

Recent changes to the game plan will hopefully entail the show recording every 2 weeks.


Shadows of the Damned - Multiplatform
Alice: Madness Returns - Multiplatform
Dead Rising 2 - Multiplatform
Radiant Historia - Nintendo DS
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - Nintendo DS
Ace Attorney Investigations - Nintendo DS

Wryviews are my personal review series where I try to do things different from the norm by asking myself how well the game achieved its goal, instead of if I liked the game or not. Wryviews are a personal challenge to stay objective and identify who would enjoy a certain game, rather than complain about who wouldn't. I feel that being a good reviewer entails being able to identify each game's audience.


Mega Man and Bass - Gameboy Advance
Maken X - Dreamcast

Gemnalysis is a series where I hunt down lesser known or neglected games and make a case for playing them despite the fact that they're older. Instead of flat out reviewing these games I look at them from the perspective of a collector and go over the game's history, and special trivia it may have.


Boss Battle - Mark of the Wolves
Boss Battle + Final Match - King of Fighters 98

Fatal Impact is a series of community tournaments revolving around SNK fighters; rather, it was. I happen to host the tournaments, but only once in a blue moon when I have the free time. I accept any and all callers, though I am not an entrant. Instead I am a trainer who organizes my entrants and helps to improve their game while introducing them to new and lesser appreciated fighting games.

The Fatal Impact tournaments will likely not continue until SNK releases games with better netcode. With recent promises from Atlus, King of Fighters XIII is likely to become the next big Fatal Impact game.


King of Fighters 94
King of Fighters 95
King of Fighters 96
King of Fighters 97

The King of Fighters Love Letter is a series dedicated to the storyline and history of SNK fighting games. Many people don't know anything about SNK in general, and with King of Fighters XIII on its way I'm going to bring everyone up to speed on the story in the series thus far.

Now that King of Fighters XIII has an actual release date this series may continue beyond the first story arc (Orochi Saga), but it's difficult to find solid information on the series' backstory.





Podsumaki Episode 09: Mortal Kombat Special
Podsumaki is a fighting game podcast that I hosted on and organized. There was a lot of random smack talk but it was a fun show. Currently it's on hold and none of the hosts are sure if it will ever come back. Our last episode was our highlight, where we spoke with three of the best Mortal Kombat players in the US and discussed the Mortal Kombat community and the upcoming game. If you were to listen to any one episode of Podsumaki, I'd recommend it be this.

The Top Three Things "Gamers" Should Care About Less
Somebody on Call of Duty: Black Ops screamed at me for not being good enough at the game, even though I wasn't on his team. Thanks to that I decided to write an article on some of the biggest problems with the gaming community, mostly their inability to care about things that actually matter.

Tainted Beauty: The Death and Rebirth of a Genre
What we have here is an article revolving around the 2D fighting game genre, the path one must go through to become good at the games, and all the obstacles in the way of this that I feel eventually led to the temporary death of the genre prior to the release of games like Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue.

Wry Guides: Goozex Training Manual
Wry Guides are a series where I try to educate the people of the community by writing about something that I in particular know a lot about. More than anything else though, it's just me unleashing a bad pun upon the world.

Top 11 Dreamcast Games You Probably Didn't Play
In this article I recap my experience as a guy who loved the Dreamcast, because he grew up with it as one of his primary forms of entertainment. The games listed aren't the popular and trendy choices so much as the lesser played B-list and C-list games that only true Dreamcast veterans touched.

Hey, I liked it: Mega Man VII
Hey, I liked it was a series where I reflected on games that I'm fond of that weren't appreciated by many people. As opposed to Wryviews which are meant to be impartial, this was a much more personal series. This series might continue some day but I could really not think of a bigger black sheep game than Mega Man VII.

Wry's Dreamcast Homebrew Guide: Pre-Brewed
There was a time when I was extremely, extremely into my Dreamcast. I didn't just play tons of regular games that I found on sale, I also researched the wealth of bootleg Dreamcast programs. These days I'm a collector and I'm not concerned with unofficial software. I'm too busy playing games I actually own. Still I created a quick guide to some of the easiest and best programs available for the Dreamcast that can be used with no hassle.

Untapped potential: Stop breaking my balls
I suck at games: But not forever
My Expertise: The Grand Jackass of Obscurity
Nothing is sacred: Sequels
Groundhog Day: Can you feel the sunshine, Sonic?
I started writing about games roughly a year and a half ago, and since then my viewpoints and my writing style have changed. Destructoid's Monthly Musings were a good way for me to get started when I didn't have many article ideas. These are all the ones I wrote that were promoted to the front page. I'm not super proud of them anymore, but if you want to see my writings evolve a little bit you can compare these to my more recent articles.

Gamer Profile

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Gamertag: WryGuy1987

Following (31)

The Stale Sequel Story Mike Moran | 4:51 AM on 08.24.2009 5 comments

On my vacation I watched a LOT of movies. I was never that big on film because I always had something else going on. I'd always be that guy. The one where you try bringing up a classic movie, then I just stare at you, then you look at me with contempt and I cry myself to sleep. Obviously I'm not a cinema expert. It's a common saying that movie sequels are never good and I always thought that was an oversimplification. I thought to myself, "Surely there are plenty of films that surpass their prequels." After cramming about 100 movies in a month, I now say to myself "... mebbe nawt." Recent experience goes to tell me that you're lucky if the first sequel is close to the same level of quality as the original, and it's a rare miracle if the second sequel isn't awful. I'm still hardly a movie connoisseur and could well be ignorant in this, but it got me thinking about gaming sequels. Whether it's games or movies, sequels are all heavily driven by cash-flow. If something makes a lot of money, it's going to see sequels. I find it interesting because games themselves are far more sequel driven than movies ever hoped to be. While it may not be uncommon for movies to become trilogies, game series can easily expand into double digits over time. Activision is the current hot topic company when it comes to sequels, but pretty much everyone does it. The parallels aren't perfect, especially keeping in mind that game sequels are typically known to be better than their predecessors. Games continue to outdate their forefathers on a regular basis and continue to become bigger and better. Many people might read that and think optimistically about it, but working at a GameStop I actually have a very jaded outlook on this fact. Two points contribute to this jaded outlook: I am a collector and thus have a constantly updating knowledge on games that are valuable in at least some way, thus I have a good eye for generally collectible games. You know, the kind of games that if you randomly found you might say "SCORE!" out loud like a fucking jackass. Next up--thanks to the occasional need to clean and reorganize my store--I'm practically in an intimate relationship with my damned store's bargain bin. Thanks to these two things when I look at a bargain bin, mentally I see a sign hanging over it that says "The crap nobody wants anymore." Based on sheer size, if my store's PS2 bargain bin got into a fight with all the other PS2 games it'd be like watching a Soccer Mom trying to kidnap Mike Haggar's daughter. Nobody's willing to pay more than chump change for the games in that bargain bin. The majority of the PS2's library--the library of the former console wars king--is considered outdated and worthless. What's more, there's tons of sequels in there. Honestly, it's not as though those games don't deserve to be there. It occurred to me that jumping from movies to games, the sequels may be improved but they are decidedly less distinct. They're often similar enough that there's no real reason to so much as hold a preference for one over the other beyond minor details. Even despite improvements, these frequently occurring sequels are so similar that the customers I sell them to will often come back to me in a few days ready for something else. Using one of the most famous sequel driven series out there as an example, there's actually a common rule amongst Madden players. "Buy Madden, wait three years before buying another." Now obviously they say this because it's generally acknowledged that jumping from one year to the next, the game is practically the same thing beyond the details. The fact that this rule even exists should imply that sequels aren't automatically worth money, and yet at the same time implications don't mean a thing. Numerous people buy every Madden every year without even caring about the relative lack of change. Likewise this sort of thing rings through the whole industry. How gaming has been able to sustain itself this way is a testament to how enjoyable they can be. Even as a diehard Mega Man fan I realize that though each and every game in the classic series is fun, they still feel the same. Likewise I'm sure everyone has a sequel driven series they're fond of. You probably understand this feeling I'm talking about. What're you're playing has not fundamentally changed, but you're still enjoying yourself. Objectively there is a point where we have to stop and realize that fun aside, the number of new ideas in our sequels can be scarce. Personally I think it doesn't need to be that way, but realistically I'm just dreaming. Clearly I can't tell game developers how to do their jobs, but games in general would have more individual value if more time was allowed between entries. I'm not even necessarily talking about actual development time. I'm just talking about the natural flow of time required in order to accumulate new ideas, even if it's just between projects. Something truly significant needs to be infused into each game in order to give them individual value. Somewhere there's a combination of unique story, setting, characters, and gameplay mechanics that will make your game feel like more than just a continuation. The one thing I think needs to be dispelled between sequels is a gut feeling. The simple instinct you have as a player where as you play a game, you realize it feels familiar. Let's face it. Games can be remarkably similar between competitors as is. It's not as though we need an even stronger sense of familiarity within the series themselves.