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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)

Wry Community Letter: We Have Forums Mike Moran | 4:09 PM on 10.01.2009 27 comments

I haven't been around the C-Blogs for the longest time or anything, but I have received a pretty warm welcome. I'm quite thankful for that and I look fondly on the community blogs as an outlet for writing; which is quickly becoming a new hobby. One of my strongest motivations for playing games these days is actually to write about them. Still, just because I'm new to the blogs does not mean I'm new to the community. I've been wasting my life way on the forums for years. I--sirs and madams--am a forum veteran with an E-Penis almost 2000 posts long. My Electronic Wang spans several Information Super Highways. By this point point I know my way around both the forums and the blogs, and I seem to be a minority. Most people seem to stick to just the blogs because of its greater popularity. As a result I often see people post content on the blogs that logistically just shouldn't be there. The forums deserve a lot more attention than they get, and if you ask me the way people treat the blogs sometimes is hurting the community. As quoted from Destructoid's own rules: "Forums are meant to foster active conversations. Forum readers do not expect you to organize or present an opinion, facts, or even cohesive paragraphs per se. This is a place to talk. Have a brief question? Want to make a quick comment on a topic to get a group discussion going? Forums are the best place to do this." I can think of one popular type of C-Blog that should immediately get thrown out the window after reading this: The game announcement blogs. Don't lie; you've all seen them. Just to avoid any misunderstandings, I'm not on a crusade. Merely trying to make things better for everyone. Let's sum up some general examples of blog posts I have in mind. Things I don't really think belong around here. See if this sounds familiar to you as you browse the blogs: "Tatsunoku vs Capcom is coming to the States! Awesome!" "New characters for Street Fighter IV!" "Here's some new screenshots of Valkyria Chronicles 2!" "I just bought a Playstation 3!" "Hey guys, I need some game recommendations!" You know what all of these boil down to? They're the sort of thing you initiate a conversation with, and conversations are a wonderful thing to take to the forums. If you're privy to any information on a game, I'd really suggest taking it to the proper avenue. Trust me when I say it's better that way. The blogs aren't where that sort of content belongs. I've covered this before, but remember that if someone spent a week on their masterpiece of an article and you spent 10 minutes making an announcement blog, there's a good chance you're pushing a very worth piece of reading slowly off the front page. Am I saying your blogs have to be epic masterpieces to be worth posting? Fuck no. Am I saying I'm going to stop you from making these sort of blogs? I don't exactly have that sort of power. All I can say is that If you have EVER put immense amounts of work into an article or any creative work, you should know how unfair that sort of scenario feels. For the news blogs in particular, you've got to keep in mind that Destructoid itself is a game news site. More than likely the exact same information is going to be on the front page. If you're doing more than just recycling information, of course that's cool in my book. BulletMagnet in particular does very nice news pieces. However when a person writes their article it only has one chance to shine. Let's be considerate and not block the sunlight for some people when you could go stand somewhere else. Destructoid's a great place, especially because there's different avenues to do different things. What the forums are great for is getting to know your community members better, being able to have a really good conversation, and being able to continue that conversation for as long as it lasts. All these game news posts that we see don't do anything productive on the blogs compared to what they would in the forums. Conversations in the forums can last for days and weeks at a time, and your news would help add fuel to that fire. Your contributions there would last much longer, and have a much greater impact. What's more you don't have to constantly monitor a forum thread. If you go to bed it's not going anywhere. If people keep on talking it'll stick around, and if you decide there's something new to add you can shoot it right back up to the very top of the front page. The forums are just great in general. Even if I weren't writing this piece on improving the blogs I'd still be telling you to go make a forum account before I kick your ass. There's tons of things to do in the forums. You can arrange meetups, you can dick around in the off-topic boards, you can trade your shit with other people, and again you can have awesome conversations and really get to know eachother. We even have gigantic threads dedicated to talking about ANYTHING in regards to games. What's more someone will probably be interested in talking to you about it. The thread is called "The Arcade." If you see it: check it out. Be a buddy to your Destructoid and help the community grow. Make a forum account. Enjoy the greatness and help make the place more active. You don't need to write articles to be a part of Destructoid's brotherhood. I've been enjoying it for years without even touching the blogs. I implore to you all that as you write a new article, ask to yourself "Is this an article or a conversation starter?" If you go make a forum account and hit the Meet and Greet section to introduce yourself, I don't think you'll regret it either way. Free Web Counter