Learning to Smash

TV/Film: Endgame of Thrones Review – LtS Episode 2.15 Apr 29, 2019

After ten years of the MCU and Game of Thrones, how did their respective ‘Endgames’ pan out? In this TV/Film episode of Learning to Smash, Jando and John provide the FINAL word on this fiercely raging conversation.

Game of Thrones: The Battle of Winterfell Review
Avengers: Endgame Review

Games: Final Fantasy X review, Sekiro and Celeste (Jandro’s relaxing 1,2 combo!) & more – Learning to Smash 2.14 Apr 22, 2019

LtS records one video game discussion every other week. This week, a Final Fantasy noob dives into FFX on the Switch. Have you played it? Should You? John provides his feedback. Meanwhile, Jandro has died 1,000+ times in Sekiro and Celeste and is loving it. They also discuss revisiting the original Punch Out! on Nintendo Online and much, much more. All before predicting the events in the second episode of Game of Thrones final season, immediately before watching the show. We then return to briefly record our response re: just how incredible wrong we were, and lay down our (likely also wrong) predictions for the next episode!

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is done
Sekiro: Shadow’s Die Twice Review
Celeste – John and Jandro’s joint review
Punch Out! (and other NES titles) still rocks
Final Fantasy X – John’s in love, y’all!
The Thong Song
Game of Thrones Predictions
Returning to discuss how wrong our GOT just were!
Next week’s GOT predictions

TV/Film: The Game of The Game of Thrones – LtS Episode 2.13 Apr 15, 2019

Let the games begin… The LtS co-hosts put the throne on the line and try to predict exactly what will happen in each of the final episodes of Game of Thrones. To begin, we recorded our predictions before season 8, episode one. Then, after watching, we come back and recorded the rest of this episode, to see who was most right (or most wrong). The winner gets the Throne for the week. The loser gets ‘shame’ paraded all across town. Welcome to The Game of the Game of Thrones, where you lose, or you… uh… lose a bit less.

Games: A Genuine Financial Crisis (too many Switch games in April) – Learning to Smash Episode 2.12 Apr 07, 2019

Jandro is off this week for mandatory medical leave (drunk / hungover in New Orleans). In his absence, John breaks down the terrible financial crisis facing Switch owners for the second half of April 2019. He has $50 and he needs your help deciding which two games he can afford. So pray for Jandro, and give some advice to John, would ya?

Yoshi’s Crafted World – A Four year old’s review
Mario + Rabbids – John’s Late-as-heck review
April Switch Games….
Cuphead https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/cuphead-switch
Final Fantasy X & X-2 https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/final-fantasy-x-x-2-hd-remaster-switch
Final Fantasy XII- Zodiac Age https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/final-fantasy-xii-the-zodiac-age-switch
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/hellblade-senuas-sacrifice-switch
Katana Zero https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/katana-zero-switch
Mortal Kombat 11 https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/mortal-kombat-11-switch
Nintendo Labo – Virtual Reality https://labo.nintendo.com/kits/vr-kit/
Boxboy https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/boxboy-and-boxgirl-switch
Phoenix Wright https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-trilogy-switch
Steamworld: Quest https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/steamworld-quest-hand-of-gilgamech-switch

TV/Film: Love, Death & Robots’ best stories, 8th Grade, Brooklyn 99 and the underrated gem: ‘PopStar’ – Learning to Smash Episode 2.11 Apr 02, 2019

Y’all on that Love, Death & Robots train? Which story is your favorite? Jump on it with Jandro and John this week as we rank the episodes and gush over the joy of a truly great anthology. We also dissect Brooklyn 99’s surprisingly rare magic. John discusses his nerdy-as-heck journey to read and watch everything he can based off of NASA’s Apollo missions. And let’s not forget the shockingly prescient 2018 ‘Best Picture’ nominee that didn’t get nominated: Bo Burnham’s ‘8th Grade’. It’s time to SMASH!

Love, Death and Robots – Which story stands out most?
Brooklyn 99, Lonely Island, Popstar
8th Grade
Movies about NASA, the Apollo missions, and landing on the damn moon!

Games: Ranking the Smash stages, Turok 64 Switch Review, Stadia & Nindies – Learning to Smash 2.10 Mar 25, 2019

Video games are dropping out of the sky these days and Jandro and John feel attacked. Too awesome. Too many. Too much. But it’s as good a time as any to drown it all out with the wave after wave of digital noise. So this week we dive right into it.

Jump in, let’s discuss:

Which Smash Ultimate stage is best?
Turok 64 on Switch… game of the year?
Google Stadia and Microsoft Streaming moves
NINDIES: Cuphead on Switch, Firewatch, Ape Out & Cadence of Hyrule
Starlink: Battle for Atlas: The Final Frontier
You’re a lil bit Sekiro, I’m a lil bit DMC5

**TV/Film: Unraveling Cowboy Bebop, Captain Marvel Review and Game of Thrones Prep – LtS 2.9** Mar 17, 2019
Cowboy Bebop leads the way in this week’s TV/Film centric discussion. We unravel that perfect anime series note by note. But first, we discuss quite a bit. Including:

Captain Marvel Review / MCU Ranking
GOT Final Season Prep
Crashing HBO series review
Cowboy Bebop Series Review

At least we’ve got music

Games: Starlink w/ DLC Review, Mario 2 NES Review, Playstation Now Now, Tetris 99 and more! LtS Episode 2.8 Mar 12, 2019

Starlink: Battle for Atlas DLC has given the game a lot more to see and do than when in launched in October, 2018. Jandro didn’t plan it then, but he’s all over it now, so he brings us his review of the COMPLETE Starlink (on Switch). But that’s just the beginning of this video games episode of LtS:

The greatest Smash Ultimate match ever played
Starlink + DLC Review
Mario 2 Retro Review
Tetris 99 is ruining John’s health
Horizon Zero Dawn Review

TV/Film: The Expanse books and tv show (no spoilers) & More – LtS episode 2.7 Feb 26, 2019

On this week’s LtS, Jandro and John take a tour across time and space, discussing some of the heady sci fi storytelling they love the most. The Expanse series (both the books and the tv show) hijacks proceedings, as they lay out what’s wonderful about that series, in particular.

Curious to jump into The Expanse series? Let the LtS co-hosts convince you (without spoilers)! Already love that series? Then jump right into the discussion!

Of course, we also dive into a few other things, including:

Horizon: Zero Dawn Review
John’s final Resident Evil 2 review
Tetris 99 Review
Smash Bros: World of Light (‘final’) review!
THE EXPANSE IS THE RADDEST $?&! EVER!

Games: Selecting our Smash Mains: Who gets the Rose?! – Learning to Smash Episode 2.6 Feb 18, 2019

Jandro and John have played way too much Smash Ultimate. It wasn’t easy, but they have finally found their mains. We reveal which fighters receive their (much-sought-after) roses. But first, they discuss Fire Emblem: Hogwarts Edition, a million other upcoming Nintendo games and mainlining the sci-fi goodness of The Expanse series:

Nintendo’s expanded 2019 lineup
Fire Emblem: Three Houses as an entry into the franchise for noobs
Demos for Daemon X Machina and Yoshi
Devil May Cry 5, Bayonetta and Astral Chain
The Expanse (tv series and books – w/ no spoilers!)

Let’s Predict Nintendo’s Unpredictable 2019! – Learning to Smash Episode 2.5 Feb 09, 2019

Let’s have a drink (or 3) and try to figure out what the heck Nintendo is up to in 2019.

But first, let’s review some video games!

Soma Review
Unruly Heroes Review
Zelda 2 (NES Online Review)
Smash DLC Predictions
The ‘Switch Mini’
Mysterious and unknown 2019 Switch games, our hopes and predictions

**REmakings and retellings: When is a remake worthwhile? (+ RE2 Review) – Learning to Smash: Episode 2.4** Feb 03, 2019
Famed clinical ‘horror’ psychologist, Dr. Jandro McMurder, joins us this week to discuss Resident Evil 2 and exactly what makes tense, scary video games so compelling. This leads to our featured subject: **REMAKES**.

What makes for a truly worthwhile remake or retelling of an existing story?

That’s right folks, in this episode you can expect some chatter on the following most-important subjects:

Smash Ultimate – Items on or off? The DEFINITIVE answer
Resident Evil 2 Remake Review
The psychological draw of horror video games, from Dr. Jandro
Remake Culture – The good, the bad and the ugly sides of remaking games, movies (and stories in general)

How many retellings of Batman v. Joker have we already seen or read?

**Unruly Heroes unite to tackle horror video games – Learning to Smash Episode 2.3** Jan 24, 2019
All is well in the world of gaming. The Resident Evil 2 remake is infecting our PS4s and rad indies are sprouting up all over our Nintendo Switches. To celebrate the wealth of joys available in our hobby this week, we mostly discuss… unimaginable horror. That’s right, folks. On tap when you hit ‘play’ you can expect…

Unruly Heroes – Initial Review
The Shining… VR experience?!
The best horror Video Games
Until Dawn – Review
Resident Evil 7 – Review
Halloween (2018 film) – Review
Deadly Class (TV Pilot) – Review

Sure, looks like a great time. What could possibly go wrong!

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**From Arcade Beginnings to a Ready Player One Future – Learning to Smash Episode 2.2** Jan 21, 2019
Fun Fact: the Galaga ship is the best assist trophy in Smash Ultimate. It also happens to be the ‘ultimate’ arcade game. At least it is via one co-host’s ranking. Because this week, the LtS crew….

Hop into the Way Back Machine and take a tour of their all-time favorite arcade games!
Then they spring forward to review Ready Player One (the movie)
Discuss VR and the future communal gaming.
But could any video game future be as immersive as our ever-lovin’ arcade nostalgia?!

Special shout out to the musical stylings of Mr. Panu Talus, whose soundtrack from The Way Remastered fuels this episode. Check out the tracks yourself here: https://panutalus.bandcamp.com

“Did you know that the original name for Pac-Man was Puck-Man? You’d think it was because he looks like a hockey puck but it actually comes from the Japanese phrase ‘Paku-Paku,’ which means to flap one’s mouth open and closed. They changed it because they thought Puck-Man would be too easy to vandalize, you know, like people could just scratch off the P and turn it into an F or whatever.” – SP

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**LtS 2.0, Travis Strikes Again, The Way Remastered, Deadly Class & More – Learning to Smash Episode 2.1** Jan 13, 2019
Welcome to Learning to Smash 2.1!

To launch the all new LtS, Jandro and John are hepped up on all sorts of indie (and nostalgia fueled) games. In fact, we’re going all the way back to the arcades with our next episode. But first:

Deadly Class Vol. 1 (A brief ‘LTS Book Report’)
Introducing the new show format
Finding our Smash Ultimate Main – the saga continues!
The Way Remastered Review
Travis Strikes again and Indies on Switch
Octopath Traveler (the Soundtrack) Review
Preparing for a trip through the Way Back Machine… to the The Arcade!

Buy this overlooked indie. It’s cheeeeeeap

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**2019 Hype (Fire Emblem Three Houses & Resident Evil 2, say what?!) – Learning to Smash 22** Jan 06, 2019
Recorded just before the new year, it’s Learning to Smash’s (inebriated) celebration of all things 2019!

Avengers Endgame is consuming our dreams. Game of Thrones is nearing it’s epic finale. And the Switch is poised to own the console landscape this year. But with rumors of a new Switch model looming and details likely to be revealed for the next Xbox and Playstation ‘consoles’, the video game landscape for 2019 is already fascinating. It all starts with Resident Evil 2 remake in late January. But first…

Finding Our Smash Ultimate Main… the saga continues!
Speculation re: cloud-based moves for Xbox
Rolling through the impressive releases ALREADY confirmed for Switch this year
Avengers: Endgame Hype

A stacked deck is coming together here…

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**Smash Bros: The Donkey Kong Chapter – Learning to Smash 21** Dec 30, 2018
DK is a true king of video game history and, in the opinion of the LtS podcast co-hosts, one of Nintendo’s ‘Holy Trinity’. So, in honor of the king, Jandro and John are excited to share the surprisingly eventful history of the DK video game franchise, all set to the backdrop of some of the best music in all of gaming.

It’s on like Donkey Kong, y’all!

DK Jr. Was the best DK game of the 80’s. Don’t @ me, bro!

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Spider-Man Won 2018 – And the Best of Everything Else – Learning to Smash 20 Dec 23, 2018

It’s time to declare our ‘best video games of 2018’ (that we played). Also, our ‘best of everything else media in 2018’, while we’re at it.. But first, the Learning to Smash co-hosts share their update in the most-important (and ever-so-stressful) task of finding a ‘main’.

Finding Your Main: Part 2
Best Video Games of 2018 (OTHER than Smash, okay?!)
Best Movies of 2018
Best TV Shows of 2018
Best…. other stuff of 2018
And much, much more!

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**Finding Your Main: The Smash Ultimate Dating Show – Learning to Smash 19** Dec 17, 2018
We’ve played the field. We’ve wined and dined ’em. But now it’s time to settle down. Yep. It’s time we ditch the scrubs and answer that vital question:

Who will be Jandro and John’s Smash Bros Ultimate Main?!

Join us through the holidays as we middle down our contestants to one perfect soul fighter. It all begins here, folks. The competition is on!

“Will you be my main?”

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**Playing Smash Bros Ultimate Online – Learning to Smash 18** Dec 12, 2018
As discussed on the Oct 30th episode, the launch of Smash Bros Ultimate’s online experience has been… an interesting experience. Fortunately, patches are coming. But more importantly, the LtS crew is planning to vote fighters off the island as we discover the one special ‘MAIN’ fighter to give our rose. In this mini-ep, John:

Answers listener questions
Almost drops a curse word when discussing his experience with Smash Ultimate Online
Shares the results of the first Jandro v. John Ultimate Invitational
Lays out the plan for the LtS dating show: “Finding Your Main”

“I present this rose to you, my beautiful Main!”

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**Learning How to Play Smash Bros Ultimate – Learning to Smash 17** Dec 10, 2018
Jandro and John have (finally) set out on their Ultimate journeys. To begin, we’re focusing exclusively on the most noob-friendly single player content. In this episode we take you through:

A small sampling of the rad little details we came across in our early play: Specifically, Classic Mode, Practice Mode & World of Light
Our first steps towards becoming respectably okay Smash fighters
A few modest goals to improve our play over the next week
Our online plans for the next episode (dropping very soon!)

And finally, we share the deets for meeting up and playing online with the LtS community!

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**Smash Bros DLC & some Joker from Persona – Learning to Smash 16** Dec 07, 2018
As Smash Ultimate is finally unleashed, the Game Awards went ahead and dropped some bombshells on the gaming world. In this episode of Learning to Smash, we lay out what you can expect from our next two ‘hands-on’ episodes, as Jandro and John finally dive into SMASH BROS ULTIMATE. You can expect our initial Smash impressions in the next episode, as well as details for how and when to play with us online. But before all that, as promised, let’s….

React to all of the Game Announcements
Discuss Ultimate Alliance 3 (A Switch exclusive?!)
SMASH DLC: Pack One – Joker / Persona in SMASH?!

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**‘Twas the Night Before SMASHmas – Learning to Smash 15** Dec 05, 2018
With one day to go ’till Smash Ultimate drops, Learning to Smash performs a dramatic reading of the perennial holiday classic: “‘Twas the Night Before SMASHmas.”

You’re welcome.

Oh, and we also take a look at IGN’s “Top 25 SMASH Fighters” list.

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**Smash Bros: The Zelda Chapter – Learning to Smash 14** Dec 03, 2018
In our longest episode yet, the Learning to Smash co-hosts have too much and more to say about The Legend of Zelda franchise. In this episode Jandro and John:

Rank our all-time favorite Zelda games

Break down the 6 playable fighters from Zelda in Smash Bros Ultimate

Discuss exactly what makes the Zelda franchise both unique and enduring

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**Jumping into Smash Bros Ultimate (for noobs and non-competitive players) – Learning to Smash 13** Dec 02, 2018
AKA: How we Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Smash Bros Ultimate…

**“First of all, turn ‘items’ on and keep ’em on.” — John**

In this episode the Learning to Smash co-hosts reveal some ‘keys to the game’ for having a blast with multiplayer / online modes, regardless of skill level. It’s unfortunate that Smash Bros can seem intimidating for noobs. Heck, it can seem intimidating for long-time fans at times. But don’t let the hardcore Smash crowd fool you. Smash Bros is an extremely accessible game. Jandro and John are happy to share a few tricks to make sure all players can have themselves a time.

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**The Ultimate Smash Release Day Plan – Learning to Smash 12** Nov 29, 2018

It’s about to be our first day of Smash Ultimate School! What are you going to do first when you load up Smash Ultimate for the first time?

It’s just John this episode, as he takes us through his Ultimate Game Day plan. Cuz you GOTTA have a plan, folks. Also:

Will Nintendo’s Servers explode on Smash Release Day?

The Game Awards Predictions (Metroid. Metroid! METROID!!!)

Smash’s Day One Patch possibilities

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**Smash Bros: The Bayonetta Chapter – Learning to Smash 11** Nov 27, 2018
With Smash just around the corner, Bayonetta is this episode’s featured fighter, before the Ultimate ‘Climax’ next week. In this episode, Jandro and John:

Review Bayonetta 2

Discuss Devil May Cry and Castlevania (Netflix)

And go over some of the most ridiculous / hilarious ‘hardcore’ Smash lingo…… NERF!!

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Smash Bros: The Pokémon Chapter – Learning to Smash 10 Nov 20, 2018

Pikachu? Jigglypuff? Pichu? Mewtwo? Pokémon Trainer? Lucario? Greninja? Incineroar? By the end of this episode, you will know the answer to the question we’ve all been asking:

‘Which of these Pokémon is the most ridiculously good looking!?’

So… what is a Pokémon? Jandro and John have no idea, honestly. But, with 8 playable characters, Pokémon is the most represented franchise in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. The franchise deserves our attention. So, in this episode we do the sensible thing and rank Smash Ultimate’s playable Poké-characters based solely on which one looks coolest.

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Stan Lee & Shared Universe Storytelling – Learning to Smash 009 Nov 18, 2018

Smash Bros…. ASSEMBLE!!!

This week the Learning to Smash co-hosts pay tribute to the late Stan Lee, specifically his brilliant use of shared universe storytelling. We then consider the respective legacy of Miyamoto and Nintendo’s own form of franchise cross-pollination. Finally, Jandro and John pitch their ‘ultimate’ version of a Legend of Zelda tv series!

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Metroid Review (1986): NES Online – Learning to Smash 008 Nov 14, 2018

It’s a bonus round episode!

Metroid (1986) just dropped on the Nintendo Switch via NES Online. John finally dove into the original entry of his all-time favorite game franchise and was surprised what he found down there!

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