291 episodes

WELCOME TO NOCLIP! We are a fortnightly, book club-styled podcast in which we attempt to go in-depth on an individual video game and figure out what makes it unique. Episodes are around an hour to an hour and a half long and primarily feature free form discussion on themes and mechanics present in each episode’s titular game. Bear in mind that we are not reviewers, so as far as we critique the games at hand, our intent is not to convince you to play any particular work. SPOILER WARNING: Given the depth at which we intend to cover the games in question, those which feature a story, plot, mechanical surprises, fun moments you may not have heard about or otherwise will be fully discussed, likely at length. Given this, it is advised that you go into each episode with the understanding that these elements will most likely be spoiled. If you are sensitive to that sort of thing, we recommend that you either play the game before listening to the podcast, or skip the episode altogether. (Though the latter option would make us all very sad!)

NOCLIP NOCLIP

    • Leisure
    • 4.4 • 13 Ratings

WELCOME TO NOCLIP! We are a fortnightly, book club-styled podcast in which we attempt to go in-depth on an individual video game and figure out what makes it unique. Episodes are around an hour to an hour and a half long and primarily feature free form discussion on themes and mechanics present in each episode’s titular game. Bear in mind that we are not reviewers, so as far as we critique the games at hand, our intent is not to convince you to play any particular work. SPOILER WARNING: Given the depth at which we intend to cover the games in question, those which feature a story, plot, mechanical surprises, fun moments you may not have heard about or otherwise will be fully discussed, likely at length. Given this, it is advised that you go into each episode with the understanding that these elements will most likely be spoiled. If you are sensitive to that sort of thing, we recommend that you either play the game before listening to the podcast, or skip the episode altogether. (Though the latter option would make us all very sad!)

    Episode 165 - Sex Henderson and the Boys - Lunacid

    Episode 165 - Sex Henderson and the Boys - Lunacid

    Banished into the depths of the Great Podcast.

    Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Lunacid, a game that is in its own words, inspired by old FROMSOFTWARE titles like King’s Field and Shadow Tower. And while you can definitely feel the influence, the game does enough to stand out on its own that it’s definitely worth playing. You play as someone cast into the Great Well, essentially an enormous dungeon, with escape being your only goal. This goal is pretty emblematic of the game, as well, as it is extremely vague and leaves the player mostly just exploring each area in hopes of finding clues to help them progress. This is a massive strength in that it preserves the mystery inherent to a lot of FROM’s catalogue while forcing the game’s exploration elements to the forefront, which the design is obviously very focused around. It also results in the game being a bit aimless, which depending on who you are can be a little frustrating, but with enough meaningful rewards to find to keep you playing. Weapons and spells are extremely plentiful, offering a lot of ways to interact with both combat and the world itself, with some specific interactions like unlocking paths as well as more player-driven things like being able to skip some obstacles and reach strange locations. Lunacid is nostalgic, thanks to its aesthetic design, but it is also a captivating world to explore that folds in more recent design trends to make something more transcendent than just a copy of its inspirations. We’re going to be talking about the games by which Lunacid’s design is influenced, the presentational choices from character designs to the music’s genre and style, and we discuss whether we were or were not in “the know.”

    Thank you for joining us again this week! This was a game I knew I wanted to do pretty much as soon as I’d heard about it, so while we aren’t exactly day and date with its release, it was one we scheduled as soon as possible. Did you play this game in early access or since it’s been out in full? Did you find it to be more or less similar to Dark Souls? Let us know in the comments below or over on our Discord! We’re sort of continuing on a trend for the next episode and we’re going to be talking about Lies of P, the Soulslike that features Pinocchio for some reason, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

    • 1 hr 53 min
    NOCLIP Pocket E95 - Become a Slammurai - Mario Hoops 3 on 3

    NOCLIP Pocket E95 - Become a Slammurai - Mario Hoops 3 on 3

    Hold down and swipe up to podcast.

    Welcome back to the podcast! For our last episode in Fanbruary, well into March at this point, we’re going to be talking about Mario Hoops 3 on 3. MHTOT (lol) is a bit of an anomaly in the Mario sports game pantheon, as it is a DS game that makes heavy use of the touch screen in its control scheme. This seemed like a pretty innocuous suggestion when we got it, but playing this game is a whole experience. It is without a doubt the most complicated basketball game I’ve ever played, and it is really interesting, but I’m not sure where this would even fall on the good game-bad game scale. The overall content is pretty limited, but that is partly made up for by just how difficult it is to get a handle on the controls. There isn’t too much preamble for this one, honestly, it’s just mad swiping on a DS for a few hours. We’re going to be talking about the insane control scheme, the insanely lengthy tutorial, and how this game is exactly like The World Ends With You.

    Thank you for joining us again this week! This episode was requested multiple times and honestly I’m so glad we finally got to it. It’s such a bizarre time capsule for when new hardware brought innovations, some of which were good and others which were Mario Hoops 3 on 3. Was this a game you had heard about, or enjoyed when it came out? Did you actually play it with other people, and if so how was that experience? Let us know in the Discord or down in the comment section. Next time, we’re going to be playing Pseudoregalia as part of our souls-like themed month we’re trying to do, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

    • 39 min
    Episode 164 - Vietnam Pro Skater - Valheim

    Episode 164 - Vietnam Pro Skater - Valheim

    You could pod another cast.

    Welcome back to the podcast! Today, for our second bite at the Fanbruary apple on the main cast, we’re going to be talking about Valheim. Valheim is a survival game that largely captured the audience for this type of game when it released in early access with it’s Norse theming, boss laddering and robust base building mechanics. Since those halcyon days, the updates to the game have slowed down a bit and the player base has dwindled some, but it still remains one of the most popular survival games. Now, we are not the most avid survival game players. You might say that we all but never play these games. But, we gave this the old college try despite being very unfamiliar with the conventions of the genre, and for the most part managed to get by. Valheim is a game about very slow resource accretion with helpfully well defined goals, those being to build a shelter, improve your equipment, find a way to navigate to each boss, and defeat them for powerups, and then proceed down the line. It is compelling to have an extrinsic goal in a game like this, but there are also myriad decisions that place it squarely within its genre and make it lack some appeal outside that audience. We’re going to be talking about chopping down trees, mining copper, and chopping down trees.

    Thank you for joining us again this week! Following our stated objective of playing games we wouldn’t normally during Fanbruary, this is squarely outside of our usual comfort zone. That said, the game has its merits and I hope we were able to identify them successfully. And if not? Why, you can let us know down in the comments or over on the discord, from whence this suggestion came! Next time, we’re taking a look at Lunacid, a King’s Field inspired title, so we hope you’ll join us then!

    • 1 hr 18 min
    NOCLIP Pocket E94 - I Don't Mean the KY - Wet

    NOCLIP Pocket E94 - I Don't Mean the KY - Wet

    We are not enemies, but we are a podcast.

    Welcome back to Fanbruary! For our second game of the month (don’t look at the calendar, please), we’re going to be talking about Wet, a third person shooter that iterates on the mechanical innovations of games like Prince of Persia and Max Payne, and takes its title both from a shortened version of the term “wetwork” and also people who are bad at naming things. Wet is honestly a fascinating game just in the sheer difference between its relative obscurity compared to other games from the era and the amount of effort that was clearly put into it. The mechanics are fleshed out, if not always polished, the visuals hold up pretty well for its period, the soundtrack features over a dozen guest artists and that’s not to mention the insane voice cast (and I mean that literally, we entirely forget to mention it in the episode). And yet, if you’re like anyone I’ve talked to about the game, you’ve probably never heard of it. While we may not know exactly what caused this game to fall into obscurity, we can look at it now and see what it brings to the table. We’re going to be talking about the game’s exploitation film theming and aesthetic, how the mechanics come so close to realizing their potential, and the impossibility of asking your parents for a game called Wet.

    Thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket! We are slowly getting our wheels spinning again after taking most of January off, but Fanbruary is underway with five whole days left in the month! We like to do games we would most likely not do outside of the fan-suggested month, and while Wet fell more into the “we would have never thought about it” category more than the “we would never play that” one, we still wanted to give it a chance because of cool it looked. Was Wet a game you had played, or even heard about? Let us know down in the comments or over on Discord! We’ll be back next time to talk about Mario Hoops 3-on-3, so we hope you’ll join us then.

    • 54 min
    Episode 163 - I'll Stop Killing Humans - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

    Episode 163 - I'll Stop Killing Humans - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

    You did not survive the podcast, Raziel.

    Welcome to Fanbruary! As we have for the last three years, this month we’re going to be looking at games suggested by members of our community and we’re starting today with Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver! This is an action/adventure Metroidvania title from 1999 and, especially considering the era in which this released, it has a lot going on. The game has full voice acting for all characters, a not insignificant world to explore and a large amount of side content for the player to stumble onto. Over the course of the game you will pick up a few traversal abilities, health and mana upgrades, spells, and an upgrade to your weapon by exploring the world. That said, this game shows its age pretty significantly and has a number of features and design decisions that maybe don’t hold up so well playing them in a modern context. Whether that be controls, enemy design or the mechanics of puzzles and combat, there is always something off about most systems that really put a hinderance on your enjoyment of the game. What are these? Well, tune in to hear us discuss the exploration-focused world that the game presents, the different things the game tries in the Metroidvania genre, and to hear us say what every 90s kid would about water levels and swimming.

    Thank you for joining us again this week! We got a lot of great suggestions from you all for this month and it has been genuinely hard to narrow down which games best meet our criteria for great Fanbruary titles, and Soul Reaver felt like a good pick to start us off because it’s fairly well-known, but not one we would likely go back to had it not been suggested. After playing it, it’s fair to say that we understand why the series has the reputation it does, though it’s also a pretty powerful reminder of the effect nostalgia can have on our perception of something. Were we too harsh on the game? Are you a long time fan who is upset we only played this game and skipped Blood Omen? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Valheim, which will be our first episode on a survival game, so we hope you’ll join us then!

    • 1 hr 22 min
    Episode 162 - Tingly Brain Feelings - Cocoon

    Episode 162 - Tingly Brain Feelings - Cocoon

    A podcast inside a podcast inside a podcast…

    Welcome back to the podcast! For our January episode, which we kind of did so you didn’t forget we exist before Fanbruary begins, we’re going to be talking about Cocoon. Cocoon is a puzzle game developed by Geometric Interactive, a studio formed by members of the developer Playdead, and while this game is something else entirely than Limbo or Inside, the style they bring is definitely present. Cocoon is not a horror game, yet it creates a sense of eerie foreboding all while being saturated with color and without the threat of death to the player hanging over their head. It’s an intriguing world to exist in, and that’s not even getting into the actual puzzle mechanics. These involve ducking in and out of different playable areas which you can physically carry with you and eventually imbue you with additional abilities. It’s almost hard to explain in a way that impresses upon you what makes it interesting, but it’s a great set of mechanics to center the puzzles on, which get progressively more complicated in the ways you might expect and in some ways that you definitely won’t. It’s a very satisfying, but not overly difficult experience and one that is well worth giving a shot. We’re going to be talking about the puzzles that really had an effect on us and the way we see the game, how the sound and visuals work together to create an incredible atmosphere, and we use the word Kafkaesque in what seems like a safe scenario but probably still use it wrong.

    Thank you for joining us! Cocoon was a game that we were both excited for given its pedigree and one that feels thematically appropriate as the first of a new year. What was your experience with Cocoon? Did you find the puzzles as satisfying as we did? Were you able to create a more satisfying interpretation of the themes? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re heading into Fanbruary, the month where you the listener chooses what games we play. We’ve gotten some great suggestions so far, but it’s still open for the next couple weeks if you want to give us any further games to consider. Our first full episode is going to be on The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

    • 1 hr 11 min

Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5
13 Ratings

13 Ratings

ColinColinColinColinColin ,

A Podcast about Games that feels real

The fine folks over at NOCLIP made a podcast where you feel like your talking to your friends about game design and mechanics. There's also jokes and it feels very genuine.

jacndabox189 ,

Pure enjoyment

Have to say this podcast series is a blast to listen to even though I probably have played only half of the games in this series. Just want to say keep up the good work 🤙

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