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From Twilight Princess to Gears of War, travel back to the dawn of HD gaming in our 2006-themed retrospective podcast. Matthew and Samuel both count down their top 10 games from that year, and recall the biggest news headlines, from Peter Moore’s ludicrous GTA 4 tattoo to the PS3’s pricing disaster. Get ready for a comfy 2.5 hours of nostalgia (hopefully not in an unbearable way).

This week’s music comes from the Bully soundtrack by Shawn Lee, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess soundtrack by Toru Minegishi, Asuka Ohta and Koji Kondo, and the Rhythm Tengoku soundtrack by Tsunku and Masami Yone.

Picks

Samuel

  1. Gears of War
  2. Kingdom Hearts 2
  3. Loco Roco
  4. Tetris DS
  5. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
  6. Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition
  7. Animal Crossing: Wild World
  8. Canis Canem Edit
  9. Shadow of the Colossus
  10. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

Matthew

  1. Guitar Hero 2
  2. Tomb Raider Legend
  3. Psychonauts
  4. Wii Sports
  5. Trauma Centre: Second Opinion
  6. Canis Canem Edit
  7. Hitman: Blood Money
  8. Rhythm Tengoku
  9. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
  10. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

XL 24 Revisions

Samuel

  • ❌ Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence - a cheat, a special edition of a 2005 game?
  • Gears of War - head not heart
  • Kingdom Hearts 2 - heart not head
  • ✅ Hitman: Blood Money - between Kingdom Hearts and Loco Roco
  • ⬆️？ Animal Crossing: Wild World - to number 1?

Matthew

  • ✅？ Shadow of the Colossus - Was it anti-Ueda schtick? Laying out the stall for Brand Castle?
  • ❌？ Hitman: Blood Money - didn’t hold up on recent replay
  • ❌？ Tomb Raider Legend - not as good as Underworld or Tomb Raider: Anniversary
  • ❌？ Guitar Hero 2 - mainly for Surrender by Cheap Trick
  • ✅？ Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition

Timestamps

  • 0:03:12 - What Matthew was doing in 2006. End of Uni, job in NGamer. Lots of eating ice cream and Smallville in between the two.
  • 0:07:31 - Matthew playing COD 2 on Xbox 360 instead of revising.
  • 0:12:07 - What Samuel was doing in 2006. Just finished A levels. Didn’t do well, Dynasty Warriors is to blame. Also watched Smallville.
  • 0:15:40 - 7 headlines in 2006. Big E3; PS4 and Wii launched, GTAIV exclusive bits to Xbox.
  • 0:19:12 - Second announcement, Huge PS3 price announced. Lads talk about the consoles they had at the time. Matthew got a PS3 when the slim version came out. Samuel got a 360 early on.
  • 0:23:11 - Nintendo at E3 - Miyamoto on stage being a conductor.
  • 0:25:27 - DS Lite came out this year. Matthew bought one as soon as he got his job at NGamer.
  • 0:27:17 - Big year for Final Fantasy. XIII revealed 2006, comes out 2009/2010. Versus XIII was revealed in 2006, becoming Final Fantasy XV a decade later. Type-0 on PSP revealed, comes out 2010.
  • 0:29:20 - Capcom close Clover studio. Made God Hand and Okami.
  • 0:40:08 - Matthew not being much of a rock fan, ended up liking a lot of the music in Guitar Hero 2. Bought a best of Cheap Trick after playing.
  • 0:50:03 - Matthew asked for Tomb Raider on PC for his birthday, but couldn’t finish the first level due to controls.
  • 1:02:26 - First mention of Matthew’s PSP being stolen.
  • 1:08:31 - The generic Mii character in Wii Sports Boxing looks like Justin Lee Collins, lots of mentions of that in NGamer at the time.
  • 1:21:17 - “3D Mario or bust”
  • 1:25:50 - 3rd Trauma Center game promotional T-shirt which Matthew liked so much the print came off.
  • 1:28:58 - What’s Dante’s business?
  • 1:39:39 - Eurogamer’s top 50 games of 2006, laddish tone in print/site.
  • 1:42:37 - Samuel played Animal Crossing in real time all day.
  • 2:02:53 - Matthew played Twilight Princess whilst house sitting, whilst looking after rats. House full of mysteries, how was there rat poop in the middle of the room?
  • 2:08:42 - “Do you think they’ll start putting the Colossus in Fortnite?”
  • 2:19:47 - Samuel didn’t play games for about a year and a half, blames Final Fantasy X-2.