SMRPG opens up in a dream sequence in which the main character Marty’s girlfriend is kidnapped by Commander Hood, the leader of the Cobra spoof military organization. Marty attempts to prevent the kidnapping but is quickly outmatched. Upon realizing his inability to fight, the  Wizard, a shorts, Hawaiian shirt, and Power Glove wearing being, appears and gives Marty a notebook of power. The Notebook, which resembles the 80s and 90s student staple Trapper Keeper, grants Marty the power to use everyday objects such as laser discs, pencils, toys and scratch-n-sniff stickers to fight off Commander Hood’s minions.

This first episode of the game, further episodes are unlocked after paying for it, takes place in a spoof of the Masters of the universe world. You fight Skeliboar riding atop his pink chihuahua Taco and several other He-man spoofed characters. This episode also contains several side quests. In one, you help Gurgletail capture a bunch of Jurks so that Gurgletail can eat them. Another tasks you with stopping pirated material from being downloaded to various computers. Overall, this first episode will take you roughly 1-2 hours to complete if you take your time. But don’t let that fool you, there is a lot of enjoyment packed within.

The majority of gameplay is confined to the game’s battle system. The Notebook provides several customizations that will alter how you approach battles. The first customization is the cover picture. These interchangeable covers alter stats such as strength and defense. This is a static change that benefits you until you change it. The next is a set of five scratch-n-sniff stickers that you place on the cover. Each sticker alters a stat of either Marty or the enemy and has a rarity and a scratch difficulty attribute. These stickers are used at the beginning of battle by rubbing the Ouya’s touch pad to create a scratching effect. The more difficult a sticker is to scratch, the faster you have to rub the pad. The final customization is in the five items you carry into battle. These are your weapons and support items. Each item has a different strength and often a mini game to use.

In battle you have the options to charge up your next attack by using batteries. There are three types of charges here. One requires you to repeatedly tap the O button. Another is just a quick small power up. The final is a meter based power up. Each of these use some of your magic power to create a more devastating attack on your next turn. In order to resupply your magic power, you can successively defend an enemy attack by pressing the O button at the right time, or you can simply punch the enemy without the aid of a weapon. Speaking of which, the majority of your fighting will take place using the various everyday objects you find throughout the game. Each item has a limited number of uses per battle and cause varying degrees of damage and status effects. So plan carefully or you may find yourself punching your way out of a battle.

If you are looking for a game with a deep story or complex gameplay, this might not be for you. It’s stories are based on the same kind of campy and outlandish plots of many 80s cartoons. Its battle system, while overall fun, is simple and your strategy will be much the same from battle to battle. The customizable aspects are a great addition but change little about the game play aside from the animations and damage done.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun for both fans of RPGs and 80s cartoon shows. The developers behind it have a great sense of humor and an eye for detail. You will not go wrong with downloading this game and buying the full version.

What you get for free: The full first episode.

What you unlock for paying: The entire game, including access to new episodes.

Cost to unlock the game: $5.99

Rating: 9/10

If you missed our live broadcast (reposted above) on Saturday, we have a audio of the live show available for you to download right now. During the (over) three hour live show Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight discussed all the interesting things that came out of the Electronic Entertainment Expo last week, with an emphasis on the top three console makers – Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. They also answered questions and responded to comments from the live audience and read listener email. It was a good time had by all! You can Download Episode 56 now: SuperPAC Episode 56 (3 hours, 47 minutes) 209 MB.

As always, you can subscribe to the show on iTunes and use our RSS Feed to add the show to your favorite news reader. You can also find us on Facebook, on Twitter@SuperPACPodcast and Google +. You can send us feedback on the show by dropping a note to superpacpodcast@gmail.com.

Credits: The Super Podcast Action Committee is hosted by E. Zachary Knight and Andrew Eisen, and produced by James Fudge. Music in the show includes “Albino” by Brian Boyko and “Barroom Ballet” by Kevin MacLeod. Both are in the public domain and free to use. ECA bumper created by Andrew Eisen.

First, Cliffy B lays it straight for all us used games supporters:

You cannot have game and marketing budgets this high while also having used and rental games existing. The numbers do NOT work people.

Those of you telling me ‘then just lower game budgets’ do understand how silly you sound, right?

That’s right folks. Because game publishers spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and market their games, we the consumers must be the ones to sacrifice. Because publishers do not know how to manage their budgets properly, we must forgo whatever investment we make in the games we buy in order to prop up a dying AAA industry. Does Cliffy B realize how silly he sounds? Perhaps Miyamoto can put him into his place.

By creating the games that we create and selling those games, it enables us to then create new versions of those games.

In fact, from our perspective you want to create a game that people will want to keep and keep playing for a long time. That’s the approach that we always take and that’s the best way to avoid used games.

Oooh! Where did that come from? Miyamoto came out with an epic left hook across Cliffy B’s jaw and knocked him flat. Just take a look at these Amazon searches for the Gears of War series and the New Super Mario series. Do you notice the trend? Just look at it. New Super Mario Bros for the Wii, released in 2009, is selling for roughly the same amount as the just released this year Gears of War: Judgement. For a more apt comparison, look at Gears of War 3, released in 2011, selling for less than $6. Ouch Miyamoto. You knocked the wind out of him.

But that is the truth people. It doesn’t matter how much money you pour into game development. The truth of the matter is that if people love your games, those games will stay in demand for long after they are released. With such high demand, you will not just sell more copies, but you will also make a lot more money. That idea seems to have escaped Cliffy B. We the consumers are not the ones who need to compromise. It is the developer. They need to create games with long lasting appeal if they want to counteract the effects of used games. And to do that, they do not need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. To do so is absolutely ridiculous.

But that is not all. Used games are a valuable part of the currency we game consumers have to spend on new games as they come out. Few gamers have the resources to spend only cash on new games on a regular basis. The rest of us have to make sacrifices somewhere. Whether that sacrifice is time, as in waiting for a price drop to purchase, or if it is sacrificing other games in our collection, the truth is, money is not the only currency we spend. Removing one of those currencies will not result in more spending on new games. It will reduce it. If used games are taken off the market as a currency, what are the chances that game publishers will leave the time factor alone? They probably won’t. Most likely, new games will hold their higher price tags for much longer than they do currently.

So, Cliffy B, I hope you learned a valuable lesson from the lumps you receive.

How excited was I when Ouya announced the latest firmware update and how it made a number of changes to the UI and user experience. The biggest update, at least in my opinion, is the single click download and install. Games will now automatically install. That is a huge improvement in the user experience. Other updates include a completely redesigned Discover section. Previously, it was a series of text menus and games didn’t show until you selected a specific category. Now we have a list of categories, such as Popular and New, that include the games for that category directly under it. A very nice change.

I do have one complaint about the latest updates, not with the firmware but with the changes to the Ouya Development Kit. The latest update allows for developer controlled region restrictions. While the Ouya itself is region free, developers now have the ability to select regions to not allow their games to be sold in. I don’t think that region restrictions are a good thing for gamers and the industry as a whole. It would be better for Ouya owners to not have them at all.

Overall a great update to a great console. And with that, I plan on posting a series of reviews of games available on the Ouya. I will be writing the first ones over the coming week. Look forward to them.

Update: Looks like the ESA is not happy with the Ouya’s unconventional use of the E3 convention’s locale. First they rented adjoining spaces to the Ouya and parked semi trucks in them to block the view of the event from the street. Then they called the cops when Ouya rented the spaces outside that and placed banners all over it. ESA, what are you afraid of here? Now back to the original article.

While all the big console companies are putting on extravagant shows or large direct streams of their latest and greatest, there is one event that it taking place outside the normal E3 channels. Ouya, the little console that could rake in over $8 million at Kickstarter, is holding its very own show in a parking lot not far from all the primary E3 locales. This Ouya Park is a very open and very casual event to show off the Ouya console to anyone who wants to learn more or just show their love for it.

This is one console that is flying under the radar thanks to the big blunders of the XBone and its massive beat down by the PS4. Even the humble Wii U is flying high above it. But don’t count this console out.

I wrote up a fairly extensive first look at the console over at Divine Knight Gaming. I must say, this console has the potential to not just supplement your gaming habit, but fulfil it as well. You know all those indie games that Sony and Nintendo were showing off? Many of those could be made for this console under far simpler and far fairer terms. In fact there are already a number of great looking indie games for it.

There is a full list of the current crop of games over at Ouya.tv. I would like to highlight a few that I have found rather fun.

Saturday Morning RPG is a great little RPG from Mighty Rabbit Studios. These guys held a successful Kickstarter and are releasing this throwback to classic 1980s tv tropes in episodic form. Battle villain spoofs from He-man, GI JOE, and Smurfs through this clever and funny game.

A Bit Of A Fist Of Awesome by I Fight Bears, takes place in a world in which the time stream has been corrupted and animals have taken over. The only person who can save the world is a lumberjack with a talking, powerful fist of awesome. This side scrolling beat ‘em up takes you back to days of playing Double Dragon or Bayou Billy. This game was also another successful Kickstarter.

Knightmare Tower by Jelly Beast Studio is a great game. You play as a knight with the mission to fly to the top of a tower, rescuing princesses and defeating monsters along the way. You start off launching in a rocket and then eject to freefall/leap to the top of the tower. You climb upwards by attacking enemies which then launches you further up the tower.

Organ Trail was created by Fun Machine and was yet another very successful Kickstarter. In this Oregan Trail parody, you aren’t trying to survive the wilds to settle the west, you are trying to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. Can you make it through without dying a horrible death by dysentery?

These are just a handful of games that are currently available. While some are not as great as others, there is plenty here to love and more are being added to the library every day.

So while Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are getting treated to wide fanfare, don’t over look this great console. You will not be disappointed in buying it.

Since Nintendo has no new hardware to reveal this year, the Direct was all about games. Mostly Nintendo brand games. Yes, we will be getting a new 3D Mario, Super Mario 3D World. This will be a four player game and features Toad and Peach as playable characters. Mario also gets a new cat power up that allows him to climb walls. Next we will be getting a new Mario Kart game. This one features more 3D racing action such as racing along walls and ceilings. If you have vertigo problems this might not be good for you. Among the other games shown is a new Donkey Kong game that features Vikings as the antagonists. This one is called Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. The Windwaker HD Remake was featured as well.

The one stand out Nintendo property to be featured is a new Smash Bros game. This one comes with two new characters in the roster, a Villager from Animal Crossing, yes the character’s name is “Villager”, and a very special character. Mega Man. Yes, Mega Man is making his Smash Bros debut and is packing plenty of boss powers. Lots of great attacks from this guy.

But what did they have outside of Nintendo properties? Not a lot. They showed more of Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2, both games we already knew about. One new property that  is from Monolith Soft, the developers of Xenoblade. It is simply called “X”. This seems based in the Xenoblade world but includes Mechs. They also had a sizzle reel of other 3rd Party games which included Assassins Creed 4, Watch Dogs, Batman Arkham Origins, and a new Deus Ex game. That whole sizzle reel lasted all of 2 minutes. There were other games in there as well, but few received any prominent placement. This poor 3rd party showing is a blow to the Wii U.

The Wii U has been out for about eight months now and has been suffering blow after blow when it comes to titles available for it. EA even went on the warpath against the Wii U complaining about its hardware and its install base. Nintendo will have a hard time trying to change that low install base if they continue with this poor showing from 3rd parties.  When the cream of the Nintendo E3 presser is Nintendo games that have late and far between release dates, only dedicated fans of Nintendo will find much here to love. That is really sad. The Wii U has a lot of great potential but is suffering to find its image.

So in the end, if you love Nintendo properties, the Wii U is the console for you. If you want a strong 3rd party line up to fill in the gaps, you may be looking elsewhere.

You can view the full Nintendo Direct below:

• Play used games without restriction
• Allow lending and renting
• No online requirement
• No online authorizations
• Region-free
• Comes with a $399 price tag

Just watch this instructional video for sharing games on the PS4:

• Final Fantasy 15
• Kingdom Hearts 3
• Infamous Second Son
• Destiny
• And tons and tons of indie game.

Speaking of indie games. That is another thing that Sony does that Microsoft doesn’t. Sony allows indies to self publish their games to PSN. Microsoft requires indies to find a publishing partner in order to sell their games. Looks like indies will be frequenting Sony a bit more often now. In fact, Sony has already wooed over Supergiant Games, the makers of Bastion and the upcoming Transistor.

If I was to find fault with Sony, I would have to fall on this. The console design seems rather uninspired, but unique. Additionally, the controller was redesigned and no longer has that iconic Dualshock design. Not sure if I like that. Also, you will have to be PS+ subscriber to get access to online multiplayer now. That is a big change and one some gamers not be too happy about. But with all the other positives, those seems rather small.

I may just have to get one of these PS4s.

When I saw images of these posters pop up all over the web, I thought to myself, “That’s some clever marketing for Plants Vs Zombies 2.” It was cute and to my mind, it laid out clearly the direction the games industry has been going for a number of years. The PvZ game has always had a different take on what makes a game fun, engaging and eternal. In fact, it is one game that my entire family loves and plays regularly. You can possibly imagine how disappointed I was to learn that this was not a clever marketing ploy for PvZ2 but a horrible new 3rd person shooter based on a classic franchise.

Just watch this E3 trailer for the game:

How can any self respecting game designer look at something as clever and beloved as PvZ and say to themselves, “You know what this game needs? Epic gun battles.” I am reminded of a comic I saw once, but can’t remember where to find it, that showed the life of a game. It starts out with a great idea. Then guns are added to it. That is basically what happened here.

This is not Plants vs Zombies. This is Battlefield with a Plants vs Zombies skin applied. This is a huge step backward for the games industry. An industry still trying to shake off its violent image in the wake of such tragedies as Sandy Hook. What good does it do for us as an industry to take family friendly entertainment and turn it into the very thing people complain about? I am sorry, but this is a huge step backward for this industry.

Microsoft had their big E3 press event and showed off a ton of neat looking games for its upcoming console. But there was one announcement that knocked everyone off their feet. The price. This console will cost you a grand total of $500, or 500 of your European currency of choice. That is right. Microsoft has entered Sony PS3 pricing territory. This price will most likely knock the XBox One off most gamers’ shopping lists.

But that is not all of it. Not only are you shelling out $500 out of the gate for this console, you will also have to spend $5 a month on XBox Live to access any of the features. To add further insult to injury, Microsoft has also announced that game publishers will have the ability to lock out or tax used game sales. That means if you want to sell off your games, there will be a tax involved for the person buying them. There are all kinds of crazy restrictions on this thing. These restrictions have pretty much killed the rental industry and will most likely kill off used sales for it.

You will also be required to check in every 24 hours in order to keep playing your games. If you don’t have an internet connection or your ISP or even Microsoft has downtime longer than that, you can forget playing games. They will not work at all if the One cannot call home.

So there you have it. $500 and your freedom and a $5 a month surcharge for this lovely promise of bigger and better gaming. Are you worth it?

As always, you can subscribe to the show on iTunes and use our RSS Feed to add the show to your favorite news reader. You can also find us on Facebook, on Twitter@SuperPACPodcast and Google +. You can send us feedback on the show by dropping a note to superpacpodcast@gmail.com.

Credits: The Super Podcast Action Committee is hosted by E. Zachary Knight and Andrew Eisen, and produced by James Fudge. Music in the show includes “Albino” by Brian Boyko and “Barroom Ballet” by Kevin MacLeod. Both are in the public domain and free to use. ECA bumper created by Andrew Eisen.