Sunset Overdrive (2014)

On this week's Emotive Pixels podcast, we nitpick a production of next-gen pure joy! Sunset Overdrive is an Insomniac-produced Xbox One exclusive that arrived with a splash on a system that at the time was in need of a fun fix. Sunset Overdrive is an over-the-top third person action/adventure platformer & shooter that revels in breaking the fourth wall. It enjoys lampooning LARPers and any other stereotype you can conjure up even peripherally related to gaming, and shattering your expectations of what Insomniac can produce as a studio, especially in the wake of their overwhelmingly morbid Resistance series. We hit upon the concepts of interface frustration, hitting the first 80%, traversal issues and delights, uncooperative co-op, and the pros and cons of a game even bothering to pretend to take itself seriously. Does a game have to top the charts in one category to truly be recommend-able?