Mommy's Best Games

For those of you who've (still) been paying attention, a great little game called Weapon of Choice hit the Xbox 360's Indie Games area a while ago, and quickly became one of my favorites on the system. It should be one of your favorites, too—it was great stuff, and well-done. Following such an energetic title can't have been easy, but developer Mommy's Best Games and its mastermind Nathan Fouts have come up with not one, but two projects.

We welcome back two of our favorite guests, Nathan Fouts of Mommy's Best Games, and Bryan Jury of Epicenter Studios. They bring us up to speed on what's been happening since their last appearances and talk about their new games, Shoot 1UP and Rock of the Dead. These guys are funny, candid, and filled with pie. With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim "Bob Costas" Spaeth.

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Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

Spent last night and part of today playing (surprise!) Mass Effect 2 on the Xbox 360. So far it's been a wonderful to return to a universe that I fell so hard for the first time around, and at the same time, I felt a bit of dismay over some of the changes. I'm still extremely early in the adventure so I'm not going to shoot my mouth off just yet (plenty of time for that later) but I will say that the game isn't be the "insta-10" that some readers might have assumed I'd peg it as.

I finally got around to downloading my first title direct-to-PSP. Considering how smoothly it went, I'd have to say that Sony was completely smoking drugs when they decided to come up with the Go. Although I performed the process on one of the original UMD-compatible models, if it's even remotely analogous, then their new download-only handheld is sunk before it's even started.

Our guest this week is developer Nathan Fouts of Mommy's Best Games. He's the creator of the Xbox Community Game Weapon of Choice, which we covered several episodes ago--and yes, he calls us out on many of our criticisms. He also talks candidly about the freedom and frustration of Community Games development, what inspired Weapon of Choice, and somehow it culminates into a Devil May Cry 3 rant that must not be missed. Our thanks to Nathan for participating! Be sure to visit his website at www.mommysbestgames.com.

Download: Right click here and select "Save Target As..."
Subscribe: iTunes | Zune | RSS

Please send mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

For those of you who've been paying attention, a great little game called Weapon of Choice hit the Xbox 360’s Community area, and it's been on fire ever since. After spending time with it and doing the research on where it came from, I was a little surprised to discover that this title was essentially the work of one man—Nathan Fouts, formerly of dev studios Running with Scissors and Insomniac. Having worked on games such as Postal, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, and Resistance: Fall of Man, I had to know more.

What's the story behind being a part of Running With Scissors and Insomniac, and then going solo with Mommy's Best Games?

Downloadable games seemed like they could sustain a small company. I started Mommy’s Best Games to make the weirdest, funnerest games that I could squeeze past the censors. The best part is that on Community Games, while they do have ratings, there is no overbearing, money-hoarding publisher trying to rain on your game design parade. Consequently, no one stopped me when I started adding udders to the Teat Walker or various strands of drool to Pitcher Mouth.

Do you like to shoot things? We do! This week the crew engages in vigorous debate over two new run-and-gun games: Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ and Weapon of Choice. Find out if 2D shooters still have a place in a 3D world.

Plus, the premiere of our new segment "What Do You Think?" (complete with swanky echo effect) where YOU tell US what you think of Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage, and that...unique...control scheme in the Resident Evil 5 demo.

Download: Right click here and select "Save Target As..."
Subscribe: iTunes | Zune | RSS

Please send mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

Revitalizing a genre, one bullet at a time

HIGH Setting the tone perfectly, the first character's weapon is a jet engine.

LOW The character named Homunculus is worthless.

WTF All the bulbous sacks and juicy udders on the aliens are... unsettling.