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ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/51f1d648-0b56-44d4-bb79-24f453cbfa0e “What Happened to Hyper Magazine” at Forgotten Worlds: https://www.forgottenworlds.net/hyper-magazine-part-1 Alice Ruppert on Bluesky starting a Romance novel/Visual Novel discussion: https://bsky.app/profile/malicedafirenze.bsky.social/post/3mvac2sw6b22q Tube Cody’s “Defying Gravity” in Roller Coaster Tycoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNty2y0DQN8  Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi—we finally review an issue of the decades-long-running Australian games magazine, Hyper! Don’t judge the mag by the cover of issue 110, which featured a very young Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a Ford Escort World Rally Car, and a bunch of other stuff that’s not really video games. Hyper had art design and editorial content that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the best mags on any continent.  But Ty and Aidan were, um, more than a little surprised with the treatment the Xbox port of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind got in their review section. Our opening discussion? Why, it’s about PC/console crossover and cross-pollination—and we genuinely had one of our best opening chats ever. ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/51f1d648-0b56-44d4-bb79-24f453cbfa0e RAVNIR “VIKING MUSIC:” https://ravnirmusic.com/ TALES FROM THE BACKLOG’S QUEST 64 EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcoIOr8n8Ow TALES FROM THE BACKLOG’S “DO GAMES ‘HOLD UP’” EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WIYcO82qRA Are critical re-evaluations “overlooked hidden gems,” or revisionist history? Super Mario Sunshine got a rave review from GamePro in this issue—but the 3D Mario game almost universally remembered as the bad one got rave reviews from almost everyone else, too. Aidan and Ty start off with a discussion of how critical narratives morph over time, and how younger gamers growing up to decide the grown-ups got it wrong the first time happens, well, all the time. Then they get in to GamePro issue 170, and find several really cool interesting features amid the middling art direction (and a ludicrous amount of ads). ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

NICK’S PATREON: PandaMonium | creating a Sega Saturn documentary series. | Patreon  GREG’S PATREON: Greg Sewart | creating Generation 16 | Let's Read Videos | Retro Game Streams | Patreon  Free ULTRA Review Crew bonus episode?! That's right: Aidan and Ty had holiday and start-of-school stuff get in the way of recording last week, so we decided to re-start our content pipelines by giving everyone a taste of what our top-tier members get: An awesome deep-dive into the disastrous 1995 surprise launch of the Sega Saturn in North America. We’re joined by two *incredible* guests: Greg “Stewy” Sewart, a former editor at EGM, and Nick “PandaMonium,” perhaps the Internet’s foremost Sega Saturn documentarian. We ask all the hard questions: What went wrong? Who’s fault was it? And–perhaps most importantly–could Sonic X-Treme have saved everything? ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/28f939d8-b160-47f0-92c6-e885159b5156 THE KINGDOM HEARTS GOOGLE DOC: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQgJT19xfHJtEnIiZ-c55ClvAXn95ODUQBDYFtWF8GtPzHvTUTQhbH3brFk290zaQ/pub THE KINGDOM HEARTS PRACTICAL COMPLETE ORDER (by Jackson from Abnormal Mapping): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eQpUmDR18WWFRpzyPjh8Ivv8gAE4IzVdxY1bgbm7YgM/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.iqj61wtvro5d Kingdom Hearts! Grand Theft Auto! This episode’s issue of PSM is stuffed with incredibly topical retro games, and Aidan and Ty dig right in to a preview and review of two very different games that had very, very different expectations and receptions—but mutually enormous commercial and creative legacies. But first, they expand on last episode’s discussion about IP tie-in games, and the best ones throughout the years. Plus, as always, answer your questions in the Letters section! ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/Edge_Gaming/Edge%20Gaming%20Magazine%20113/mode/2up PIXELS & POLYGONS QUARTERLY + ANNUAL COLLECTION: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darrenhupke/pixels-and-polygons-quarterly-2026-q4-and-annual-collection?ref=3opks3 LIE OF CAELUM: SPIRIT KICKSTARTER: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lieofcaelumspirit/lie-of-caelum-spirit BEL’S FANFARE KICKSTARTER: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chibig/bels-fanfare/ RETRO GAME FORGE KICKSTARTER: https://popgeeks.com/retro-game-forge-a-potentially-all-in-one-homebrew-development-kit-launches-kickstarter/ Edge was doing it like no one else in 2002, and so we had to go longer than we ever have to talk about all of it! Before we review Edge magazine’s eyebrow-raising review of King of Fighters EX for the Game Boy Advance, we looked through all 130 pages of neutron-star-dense levels of thoughtful editorial—perhaps most notably so, an interview with Tecmo director Tomonobu Itagaki about pet project, Dead or Alive 3: Xtreme Beach Volleyball.  Edge rightfully presses Itagaki on why he didn’t include any of the male characters, how much care and consideration was given to volleyball game mechanics, how it compares to other volleyball games, etc., and Itagaki just keeps artfully rephrasing the same admission: he just really wanted to make a boobie game to look at boobies. We also brought back our Letters section, answering questions from our awesome Discord members! GET ON THE DISCORD so you can join in next time! ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at  millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/ebc34b2b-4088-4e7c-bc69-12e3a7a9f129 Stop Skeletons From Fighting’s “My 2 Year Journey to Solve the 30-Year Myth of Faceball 2000” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2AG-gAuS-U&t=6058s  Aidan’s back in the saddle, and he’s got takes about what Ty talked about with last episode’s guest-host Jess Voidburger–but not Sonic the Hedgehog, handheld games! Aidan talks about how well portable systems fit into his life as a tween and teen, and this issue of Ziff-Davis’s Pocket Games magazine shows just how deep and rich Nintendo’s handheld scene was in the spring of 2002, even while the AAA console tides had gone way, way out between Christmas 2001 and the following summer. In an issue full of reviews and previews of absolute bangers, we looked at Pocket Games’ review of Mario Kart Super Circuit–what it does well, what it doesn’t, and whether we agree.  ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/a8041ebf-095f-4bb9-b2bd-57702a22aff0 SONIC ON THE COVER OF NINTENDO POWER?? Special guest host Jess VoidBurger joins Ty to revisit Nintendo’s legendary in-house publication during its awkward tween years: still clinging to some of the looks and features of its 16-bit glory days, but starting to evolve to compete with the super-professional, grownuppy output of the Ziff-Davis and Future/IGN publications. With Sonic the Hedgehog on the cover and longtime “Publisher” (Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa) announcing his departure in the News section, Ty and Jess get whiplashed by the old-school/new-school dichotomy–and flummoxed by just how few games there are being released in spring of 2002. They discuss how it’s much like today, with AA and AAA publishers constantly scaling back release schedules and focusing on key franchises. But unlike today, reviewers back then didn’t have a robust indie scene to cover. And speaking of reviews, have Nintendo Power’s reviews gotten any more ‘independent’ or ‘unbiased’ since the last time we looked? ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/ac4194d5-23d7-46fe-b6e2-0f364600532a Super Smash Bros. Melee is Nintendo’s tightest, deepest, most technically rewarding fighting game of all time, with an active playerbase and tournament scene still uncovering its secrets. But what did reviewers make of it in 2002, when “lets put all the characters and properties we own in one game” wasn’t an obligatory and trite cash grab, but a novelty? Aidan and Ty checked it out in “GameNOW,” an unfamiliar title for what turns out to be a familiar editorial crew. We kick the whole thing off with a discussion on whether selling our old games was an obvious thing to do, or *~breaching a sacred bond between player and game~*. ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/69555def-0cd8-4b5a-b4d2-3d324c7863f4 Console exclusivity was the talk of this recent Summer Game Fest, and Aidan and Ty start off the episode with a discussion of their most badly missed-out-on exclusives from platforms they didn't have. And then, the issue: With Future Publishing/Imagine Media getting the "official" XBox magazine tag, Ziff-Davis launched an "independent" one--and they poached Simon Cox from Future/Imagine to lead it! The result was an ambitious, artistic, NEXT Generation/EDGE-looking publication that (perhaps a decade or two too early) pivoted towards a quarterly launch schedule, more original art and photography, and more rare and in-depth features and interviews--like the one anchoring their massive preview of Panzer Dragoon Orta, the capper of Aidan and Ty's discussion. And then...a review of World Series Baseball from actual-factual baseball writer of the time, Jeff Pearlman?? Of Sports Illustrated?? Who since written a ton of book and the Amazon series "Winning Time??" How would this non-games-writer do writing about games in 2002?? ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/game-informer-issue-105-january-2002 (sped-up audio was Ty's fault; it's been fixed!) FINAL. FANTASY. X. After the final PS1 release was a mechanical, graphical, and literary callback to the deepest roots of the series, the first PS2 release set the tone for what this series would look–and, to an extent, play–like for the next quarter-century of HD video and streamed digital audio. We also check out how Game Informer has continued to grow and change since we last looked–years away from it being a glorified store catalog, but also years from it being the best magazine in the business. The seeds of the final form are present in here; are there seeds of the former? Aidan and Ty kick it all off with a surprisingly timely-for-Bluesky discussion on which super-popular games they’ve disliked, why, and what it means when that happens. ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

NICK’S PATREON: PandaMonium | creating a Sega Saturn documentary series. | Patreon  GREG’S PATREON: Greg Sewart | creating Generation 16 | Let's Read Videos | Retro Game Streams | Patreon  Please enjoy this snippet of our first Season Two ULTRA Review Crew bonus episode, where we're throwing it back to, um, the disastrous 1995 surprise launch of the Sega Saturn in North America?? That’s right–thanks to a production whoopsie by someone very silly (Ty), we very nearly lost this amazing bonus episode. But thanks to a crucial save from our guests, a little bit of elbow grease, and a couple of months of Season Two launch stuff coming first, we managed to get this incredible conversation cleaned up and in your ears. We’re joined by two *incredible* guests: Greg “Stewy” Sewart, a former editor at EGM, and Nick “PandaMonium,” perhaps the Internet’s foremost Sega Saturn documentarian. We ask all the hard questions: What went wrong? Who’s fault was it? And–perhaps most importantly–could Sonic X-Treme have saved everything? ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://www.retromags.com/magazines/usa/official-xbox-magazine/official-xbox-magazine-issue-2/ XBOX OFFICIAL MAGAZINE: MAGAZINES EVOLVED. We had to stay in January 2002 for one more episode this season, because we just couldn’t overlook XBox Offical Magazine’s massive walkthrough for Halo: Combat Evolved. We also couldn’t overlook the fact that Imagine Media/Future U.S. Publishing launched this magazine at the same time they were sunsetting NextGen–and there was plenty of overlap between the two staffs. Goodbye to think-y features for (real and aspiring) grown-ups, hello to world-exclusive previews, reviews, and digital assets obtained via first-party licensing. For everything XBox Official Magazine did well, though, we were rubbed very much the wrong way by its unholy union of Ultra Game Players’s 100-point review scale and NextGen’s five-star rubric. Even still, we came away (mostly) very impressed with eventual editor-in-chief Francesca Reyes’s review of the idiosyncratic Munch’s Oddysee. ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/electronic-gaming-monthly-issue-150-january-2002/mode/2up January 2002 was all killer, no filler! EGM kicked off the new year by revisiting their Top 100 games of all time, and we take a look at the changes since their last attempt (which we covered last season)! But EGM also ranked their worst 20 games of all time, thanks to freelancer Seanbaby, and we start the episode with a discussion of the worst games we ever bought. We go back to the best-of-the-best with the review, though, as three EGM editors do a fantastic job with Metal Gear Solid 2–and as an extra-special surprise, the previews editor of the magazine at the time (and FunFactor ULTRA member) Greg Sewart jumped in mid-episode to share some incredible behind-the-scenes stories of how the MGS2 review came together! And, as always, we streamed this recording session live to FunFactor ULTRA members–so if you’d like to get in on the fun, just sign up at https://funfactorpod.com/! We'll see you on the Discord, and you’ll see us when we next go live! ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: NextGen issue 85 at the Internet Archive SEASON TWO: RISE OF THE CORPOS has arrived! We've skipped forward in time to the dawn of a new era - where the dorky world leader in business software, Microsoft, has dropped a massive black-and-neon-green bomb on a gaming industry. Likewise, the games media's shift to both an older target audience and parallel online coverage means a lot of beloved magazines are dead or dying--including "NextGen," as it's been called for a couple of years. Blake Fischer takes over as the magazine's second, and final, top editor for its 85th--and final (!)--issue. But while this issue of NextGen reviews all 26 XBOX launch titles, Nintendo has also just launched the Gamecube; and our reviewed review is of its iconically iconoclastic launch title: Pikmin. And, as always, we streamed this recording session live to FunFactor ULTRA members–so if you’d like to get in on the fun, just sign up at https://funfactorpod.com/! We'll see you on the Discord, and you’ll see us when we next go live! ——— Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

Four people, five rounds, and all the best video games of 1995-1997!  Coury and Try from My Life in Gaming join us to snake-draft our way through the Generation Gap--building four 'teams' of five games each released across all game systems and regions during our first-season time period. The competition was friendly but fierce, with plenty of you-took-my-picks and even more surprise curveballs! We all walked away with at least one new must-play game for our backlogs. And, as always, we streamed this recording session live to FunFactor ULTRA members–so if you’d like to get in on the fun, just sign up at https://funfactorpod.com/! See you on the Discord, and you’ll see us when we next go live! ----- Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!