First Gen Gamers

With a topic as big as gaming's most enduring, most iconic character, you know it couldn't be done in one episode! Here's part 2 of our trip through every console generation and how Mario has grown from his humble roots in Donkey Kong to Super Mario Wonder.Check out Erik's podcasts here!And follow First Gen gamers on our socials here!

There is no more enduring character in video games than Mario, the Italian who gets sucked into an alternate dimension and becomes the protector of the Mushroom Kingdom. He may have started as a humble guy trying to save his woman from a rampaging gorilla, but over the years, he's been a doctor, a sports star, a kart driver, and starred in so many different spinoff titles. On this, the first half of a two-part episode, Jed teams up with Erik Slader from Podcasters Assemble and the Super Switch Club podcasts to talk about the Evolution Of Mario, from humble beginnings to being the Mickey Mouse of video games.Listen to the Super Switch Club and Podcasters Assemble!Follow us on the socials!

Every gamer has different tastes in gaming. But there is one truth that unites every gamer: somehow, some way, we need a device to control the game. Controllers are what make a game a game, and they can either immerse you in the action by feeling like a seamless extension of you, or bury you under awkward design. On this episode of First Gen Gamers, Ash and Jed are looking at the best and worst base controllers in console history. The controllers that came with the console itself. What just melts into our hands, and what should just be melted in an incinerator? You gotta listen to find out!Follow us on social media!

Kellie from The Final Girls Podcast is the guest on this episode to talk all about women and gaming; what it's like to be a woman in the gaming sphere, representation, and some of our favorite female characters. We also talk a little about her podcast, which celebrates the final girls of horror, and get into what we've been playing recently.Check us out on social media!Check out The Final Girls Podcast!

The word "underrated" gets tossed around willy-nilly. Anything that doesn't get at least a 9/10 has someone calling it underrated. So on this episode, Jed and his special guest Jamie Smith, a Principal Game Developer with Behavior Interactive, are making their choices for truly underrated games. Those games that live in bargain bins, that are black sheep of their franchises, or games that just otherwise went overlooked.Follow us on social media!

Remakes are a touchy topic in all media. How much of the original needs to be retained to maintain the spirit? How much originality should there be so the remake doesn't feel like a retread? Should something that didn't hit the mark be remade so it has a second chance at life? Is there media that shouldn't be remade because it's too problematic? Are there games that are untouchable? On this episode of First Gen Gamers, Ashley and Jed discuss their picks for games that, for one reason or another, should never be remade. Are the games too good? Too unique? Too controversial? Only one way to find out what they picked!

Perhaps no console has such a negative reputation as the Philips CDi. Released in the early 90's, it became the poster child for the awkward first-wave FMV games and its four infamous games based on Nintendo properties. But does it deserve its reputation? Could the Philips CDi be underrated? On this special episode, Yahel from Wrestling With Gaming, a self-admitted fan of the CDi, sits down with Jed to discuss all the CDi has to offer. It's a look beyond the infamy and the memes inside a console and a library that many have overlooked.Check out Yahel's YouTube channel Wrestling With Gaming for awesome video essays on the history of gaming.Follow us on all our social medias!

Games are unlike any other media, in that new machines come out over time to replace the old, and a whole new set of media comes with. Sometimes, we're lucky and games get made available on newer machines. But sometimes, we're not so lucky. The worst case scenario is when a game only comes out once, and if you don't have that machine, you can't play it. On this episode of First Gen Gamers, that's what Ashley and Jed are talking about: those games that had one shot at glory, one console on which to find an audience, and unless you have that console, the game is forever gated out of reach.Check out our socials!

We all love to quote famous lines from movies and TV shows in our conversations. Video games have plenty of memorable lines, too, and not always from the main character. Sometimes, an NPC drops a line that is unforgettable, whether it's due to being genuinely well-written, a poor translation from another language, or downright weird. On this episode, Ashley and Jed talk about some of their favorite NPC one-liners.Follow us on social media here: https://linktr.ee/firstgengamerspodcast

Nintendo is the oldest player in the video game console market, and one of the most beloved and consistent developers, with an unparalleled treasure trove of iconic characters and franchises. But that doesn't make them above reproach. They've made mistakes. They've made some bad business decisions. And they've positioned themselves as the villain on more than on occasion. On this episode of First Gen Gamers, Ashley and Jed deliver the sequel to their Best Of Nintendo episode by looking at the other side: the worst games, their dumbest decisions, and their bad business practices.Check out Jed, Ashley, and the show on social media!

There's nothing fancy about this episode. Ashley and Jed are pulling no punches, venting their spleens about some games they flat out hate. Games that let them down, games that ruined beloved franchises, games that refuse to be the best version of themselves ... it's all about getting out some venom.\Want to get in touch with us on the socials? Here's how!

Sometimes, the odds are stacked against a video game right from the start. A bad release window, a flawed concept, a rushed design, trying to get in on a dying fad, or questionable source material can lead to a game being dead on arrival. On this episode of First Gen Gamers, Ashley and Jed talk about games that never stood a chance.Check out our social media!

Once video games proved they weren't a fad, it was inevitable they'd cross into movies and TV. But the average show couldn't just show footage of Super Mario or Sonic without paying rights fees. That's where fake video games come in. You've seen them, from comedy to horror, on TV and in the theater. And today, Ashley and Jed are talking about the most memorable fake games in pop culture. What are they and where do they come from? You gotta listen to find out!Follow the show and the co-hosts here!Find Journey To The Center Of Hawkthorne here!

Nintendo is the oldest console manufacturer in video games, and one of the longest running developers and publishers of games alongside Activision. They are the house of gaming franchises that even non-gamers know about. With the recent official unveiling of the Switch 2, we thought it would be a good time to give Nintendo flowers for all they've done over the years. So this episode, Ash and Jed celebrate the very best of Nintendo; the best games, their contributions to gaming, and their savviest business moves. Check us out on social media: https://linktr.ee/firstgengamerspodcast

Ashley and Jed are having a little fun this episode, if making each other uncomfortable with difficult questions they have to answer is fun. Listen as they trade hand-crafted "Would You Rather" questions about gaming to each other, with only one rule: they have to pick one of the two options. Play along and let us know what you picked on social media!Links to our socials: https://linktr.ee/firstgengamerspodcast

Making a good product is only half the battle. It also has to be marketed. The best thing in the world can languish on the shelf if nobody knows it exists. Worse yet, sometimes the marketing does the product dirty; it misrepresents the product, or obscures it entirely with a stupid stunt. On this episode of First Gen Gamers, Ash and Jed take a look at when video game companies blow it with the marketing. Lies, PR disasters, poor timing, or overly ambitious campaigns that bring the wrong kind of attention to the product.Follow us on the socials: https://linktr.ee/firstgengamerspodcastShare us with your friends and on your socials, and leave us a review on your platform of choice!

While the gaming community can rally and close ranks when it is accosted by outsiders, it is remarkably quick to devour itself over the dumbest perceived slights. Within the game, on social media, on YouTube, or in real life, gamers can get exceptionally petty when they want to. On this episode, Ashley and Jed look at some examples of when gamers get petty; some are hilarious, some are ridiculous, and some are controversial and life-threatening. Listen and find out what happens when gamers forget video games are meant to be fun and not a life or death situation.LinkTree to our socials: https://linktr.ee/firstgengamerspodcast

What happens when Ashley is out sick for recording, but there's a schedule to keep? A guest host! Laceya Finley from Super Mega Crash Beyond steps into the cohost #2 slot, and since she's a lover of FMV games, that's the topic we explore. Where it all started with Dragon's Lair, the awkward 90's games that didn't know what to do, and how the genre has changed in modern day. It's a genre a lot of gamers have forgotten about or even think died off, but we're here to show it's alive and well!

Simulator games started humbly. Run a city. Run an airport. Run a theme park. Somewhere along the way, they became something more. You can be a bee. A forklift operator. A goat. A gas station owner. A rock. The possibilities have become endless. In this episode, Ashley and Jed take a look at simulation games. Games they've played, the way the genre has exploded in recent times, and the disturbing, dark (but silly) corridors the genre has gone down as gaming has become more popular. Want to get in touch with us? Check out our socials on this handy-dandy LinkTree!

Gaming is full of licensed games. You might not think of Madden or WWE or Marvel's Spider-Man as licensed games, but they are. Licensed games have been around since the beginning, which means there's plenty of good ones, and plenty of bad ones. But it's way too easy to identify those. What about the weird ones? The ones that make no sense as a game? The games that don't seem to know what the original source material was? The licenses that don't seem to have enough behind them to be a game? That's what Ashley and Jed look at on this episode: the weirdest licensed games in gaming history. Want to get in contact with us? All our socials can be found in this here LinkTree!

2024 has been a heck of a year. It's been a bit since we dropped an episode. Where's First Gen Gamers this holiday season? What's the show got in store for 2025? Jed drops a quick catch-up to tease what's going on and what's in store.

What makes a fictional character scary? It's hard to say. Dracula is often portrayed as intelligent, sophisticated, even sexy, while Frankenstein's monster is hulking and brutish, but Dracula is somehow scarier. The AI-driven robot version of Chucky from 2019's Child's Play remake isn't scary, but when that doll is possessed by a desperate serial killer stalking a six year old, that's scary. It's hard to pin down what makes one character scary and the other laughable, but you know it when you see it. On this episode of First Gen Gamers, Jed and special guest-host Stephen White of Super Mega Crash Beyond will be celebrating the spooky season with a look at the scariest characters in gaming history. From the unimaginable monsters to regular human beings and more, find out who made the cut.

Ashley and Jed had so much fun talking about boss fights last time around, they figured why not do it again? But this time, they're coming at it from the other side: the worst boss fights. Damage sponges, disappointments, pushovers, unreasonable difficulty, it's all here. Ashley and Jed are going Stone Cold Steve Austin on these bad bosses, and the only way to find out which crappy bosses get the smackdown is to listen!

Who doesn't love their boss? Okay, some of us don't. Okay, a lot of us don't. Most of us would love to go Stone Cold Steve Austin and beat up our boss. Instead, we have to settle for beating bosses in video games, and when it's done right, it can be the best part of a video game. Testing the culmination of your skills and abilities, the narrative building to a point and then the cathartic release … or maybe the boss is just really big and cool-looking. Over 40-plus years, there's been a lot of memorable boss fights. But what do Ashley and Jed consider to be the best boss fights from each console generation? There's only one way to find out: listen to the next episode of First Gen Gamers!

It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But when it comes to video game art, sometimes, objectivity goes right out the window if the character looks like they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. On this episode of First Gen Gamers, Ashley and Jed are talking bad video game character design. The grotesque, the broken, the stupid, the confusing, and the controversial. Who made the list? Only one way to find out!

Kids today don't know what it was like back in the day to play a game with a friend and have them be in the same room. On this episode of First Gen Gamers, Jed and Ashley are celebrating the magic of hanging with your buds and chillin' on the couch, playing games together. They're looking for that one game in each console generation that best symbolizes the joy of couch co-op gameplay. What games did they pick? Listen and find out.

Games inspire all sorts of emotions: fear, sadness, determination, longing. That's not what Jed and Ashley are exploring, though. On this episode, we're going through the console generations and talking about the games that inspired rage. The overly difficult, the tedious mechanics, the games that didn't follow up properly on previous chapters ... there's all sorts of reasons to be mad at a game. Jed and Ashley nominating our picks for the ones that inspired the most rage!

First Gen Gamers is back! We've done a soft reboot. New intro, and new co-host Ashley! On this return episode, Jed and Ash kick it off with a double-header topic; games we love that most people hate, and games we hate that most people love. We're roasting some sacred cows and being the voice for the voiceless. It's a hell of a first episode for Ash and a hell of a return episode for the show!

February means Valentine's Day, the season of love. Gaming is full of love stories and romance, whether it's dating sims or Commander Shepard sleeping his way through half the galaxy in Mass Effect. But it's way too easy to list off good couples. How about BAD ones? That's right, Mike and Jed are celebrating Valentine's Day the opposite way, by going through gaming history and digging up the worst relationships video games have to offer. Gaslighting, manipulation, power imbalances ... and that's not even close to the worst of it! Get in touch with the show! https://linktr.ee/firstgengamers

It's been said there's no such thing as bad publicity. But what about if the publicity is more like notoriety, and it's undeserved? We're talking about controversy. Video games and controversy are no strangers. They've been stuck with each other practically since the beginning. Sometimes, a game's controversy makes sense. But sometimes, the actual content of the game doesn't really rise to the level of outrage. Sometimes, a controversial game earns a notoriety it didn't deserve. That's what this episode is all about: Mike and Jed discussing games that were considered controversial, and really shouldn't have been. Violence, sexual content, lawsuits, gamer outrage, even manufactured by the developer ... all sorts of so-called controversies that were overblown, puffed-up, and otherwise ridiculous, one by one through the generations What are the best examples they could find? Only one way to find out -- listen! Got an opinion about what we talked about? Want your voice heard? Here's how to reach us! https://linktr.ee/firstgengamers

Yeah, we know, the holidays were weeks ago. Listen, we got kids, which means we get sick. But we're here now, looking at the best games that remind us of or celebrate the holiday season! Leaves falling, snow on the ground, family dinners, and all that, but in game form. Yes, you really can find this in video games, and Jed and Mike are going generation by generation, picking the games that give them the warm, holiday fuzzies!

Finally! After a bit of an unscheduled hiatus (having kids means colds and lots of them), we finally get to the final episode of our trilogy! Mike and Jed go through the remaining generations, starting with the final console of the 6th generation, the mighty PlayStation 2, and then cap off the 7th and 8th generations, and Mike even sneaks in a couple handheld consoles in there. It's a super-sized episode, so set aside some time, as we cap off this discussion of our personal gaming histories. Want to get in touch? Check out our old content? We got a Linktree for that!

Thanksgiving may be behind us, but the entire holiday season is about being thankful, so Mike & Jed are continuing that feeling. That, and they're long-winded and couldn't squeeze all their thankful gaming memories into one episode. The OG PlayStation, the Dreamcast, the GameCube, Mike even sneaks in some Game Boy Advance, and we preview our memories for the PlayStation 2, all in this second part of the Thanksgiving trilogy! Wanna get in touch with us on the socials? Check out the LinkTree!

It's Thanksgiving time in the United States, a time when you look back reflect on what you're thankful for. For Mike and Jed and the First Gen Gamers podcast, that means what we're thankful for in our own personal gaming lives. The consoles, the games, the memories around those games, all of it. Our memories got so big, we ended up having to split up this bad boy in three parts! In this episode, we cover from our start in gaming through the fourth generation, with just a tease of what's to come in the next episode. Our LinkTree, so you can follow us on the socials! First Gen Gamers Podcast | Twitter | Linktree Jed guested on the I'd Give That 10 Minutes podcast. Go check out the episode! I'd Give That 10 Minutes! | Instagram, Facebook, TikTok | Linktree Happy holidays, folks!

Every console generation has games that stand head and shoulders above the rest. Games that define the console, games that create a genre, games that change the industry for better or worse. What are these games? Co-hosts Michael Peterson and Jed Shaffer go through each console generation, from the Atari 2600 to the PlayStation 4, picking out their nominees for The Most Important Games Of Each Generation and debating who makes the better pick.

It's spooky season, and we're launching First Gen Gamers by talking about horror games! Jed Shaffer and Michael Peterson go through each console generation, and sometimes every console within the generation, and make their individual picks for the best horror games. NES, Sega Saturn, 3DO, Wii U, from the 2nd generation to the last generation, we cover it all! Want to tell us we're wrong, tell us your nominees are better, or just want to harass us on social media? Here's how! First Gen Gamers Podcast | Twitter | Linktree