122 episodes

Michael likes story-driven games with lots of contemplative moral quandaries and inventory management. Adam likes action-driven FPS games with gorgeous graphics and no down-time. Together, their friendship is constantly on the verge of ruin! But you can watch it all crumble before your very ears on 1Upsmanship, the pod where two lifelong gamers run one game an episode through the crucible to determine if it belongs on the Celestial Hard Drive. GAME ON.

1Upsmanship iHeartPodcasts

    • Leisure
    • 4.8 • 152 Ratings

Michael likes story-driven games with lots of contemplative moral quandaries and inventory management. Adam likes action-driven FPS games with gorgeous graphics and no down-time. Together, their friendship is constantly on the verge of ruin! But you can watch it all crumble before your very ears on 1Upsmanship, the pod where two lifelong gamers run one game an episode through the crucible to determine if it belongs on the Celestial Hard Drive. GAME ON.

    1Upsmanship: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Feat. Cody Johnston)

    1Upsmanship: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Feat. Cody Johnston)

    Vwoom and jedi-leap your way through Respawn’s latest with Adam, Mike, and special guest Cody Johnston! Will this jedi survive to the end of the episode, or even score a spot on the Celestial Hard Drive? To find out, young padawan, you must use this zipline to go over there. This is very important. The fate of the galaxy itself may depend upon you being cool at zipline, can you do that? Use the force if you need to, just get it done.
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 1 hr 3 min
    1Upsmanship: L.A. Noire

    1Upsmanship: L.A. Noire

    Possibly Rockstar’s most divisive open world experiment, 2011’s hard-boiled noir film homage gets the once-over by your favorite creative investigation duo. But beneath the glossy paint and ground-breaking motion capture is this game actually fun? How does the storytelling hold up in the twelve years since this game’s release? Does the game handle its problematic topics like race and gender inequality well? Would we want a sequel if they ever made one? Forget about it, Shipheads, it’s Rockstar. 
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 57 min
    1Upsmanship: Legend of Zelda - A Link To The Past (Feat. Danielle Radford)

    1Upsmanship: Legend of Zelda - A Link To The Past (Feat. Danielle Radford)

    We’re back, fresh from the barren, content-less Dark World, and we’re starting this season with a bang! This week we warp into the 2D Zelda that perfected the formula, and we’re joined by our favorite Zelda Enthusiast, Danielle Radford! Some would say this is one of the greatest games ever made. Some would say this game is still being imitated to this very day. Some might even say this game remains a blast to play. But none of those people are Michael Swaim! Yeah. He goes pretty hard this episode. So pick up your hookshot, zip over the gap and join us for the new season of 1Upsmanship!
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 1 hr 10 min
    1Upsmanship: No Man’s Sky (Feat. Cody Johnston)

    1Upsmanship: No Man’s Sky (Feat. Cody Johnston)

    Host of Some More News Cody Johnston sits in with Adam and Mike as they tackle a game with ambitions as vast as a galaxy and a launch scandal to match. Has Hello Games done enough to improve NMS over the years? Will it launch onto the Celestial Hard Drive or run out of hazard protection and get eaten by a Gek? They do that, you know. Strap in and let’s go exploring.
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 1 hr 6 min
    1Upsmanship: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

    1Upsmanship: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

    Join the chorus, new one. Voices clash and clamor in the never-ending quest to recover our lost souls from the dark places they may wander. In this episode, your stalwart hosts Adam and Michael pore over a game that demands to be taken seriously, both by virtue of the topics at hand and the loving care the developers obviously put into the exercise. But does laudable handling of human suffering equate to a good game? Should it? Does it have to? There’s no doubt Senua’s is a work of art, but to make it onto the Celestial Hard Drive, we’ll have to answer those questions and more.
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 51 min
    1Upsmanship: Katamari Damacy (Feat. Starline Hodge and Hana Michels)

    1Upsmanship: Katamari Damacy (Feat. Starline Hodge and Hana Michels)

    Ship Heads, prepare yourself for maximum fun, because our illustrious host has teamed up with two stellar guests, Starline Hodge and Hana Michels to talk about a game that’s truly one of a kind! Though tough to explain, the sheer joy of rolling up all of known civilization into a junk star is an unparalleled experience that deserves unpacking (and then re-packing obvs). The squad tackles deeper issues like whether this game actually means something and what’s up with dads, man? Things get personal, zany and a little poignant as we endeavor to wrap the universe of Katamari Damacy into a small hour-sized glob. Don’t miss it!
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 55 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
152 Ratings

152 Ratings

Mehitchcock ,

Excellent

The structure of the show is really tight, but it’s free enough to allow for banter and improvisational riffing. It never gets self indulgent because of that good structure always keeping them on the subject. The show opens with a “speed run“ where the hosts take turns or allow the guests to briefly recap the game. Sometimes this means the story sometimes it gets into the world building or gameplay, but basically they do a good job, setting the necessary context to understand their next section called “rants” were they just just go off on the games most notable features to them. This is what makes the subsequent discussions great is because they’re not going through a checklist where they analyze parts of the game the same every time they’re just analyzing the most notable features positive or negative. They get deeper into that discussion in the “game on” section. And finally they have “keep or delete“ where they imagine a kind of voyager, two spacecraft or permanent computer, hard drive or whatever and they have to decide whether this game should be one of the top one or 200 that represent all games. it’s just a truly great format that allows their personalities and opinions to shine, but allows the analysis to stay center stage. I truly hope they make some more of these.

Travis in MN ,

Hands down BEST video game podcast

These guys are brilliant, hilarious, good-nature, deep thinkers who also happen to be kids at heart. Do you know how hard it is to find that combination of qualities in video game podcast hosts!? There are so many truly lame, nearly unlistenable video game podcasts out there. This one stands head and shoulders above everything else. The energy, professionalism and depth of thought they bring to each topic compels me to listen to eps on games I've never played and have no interest in. Their special guests bring (almost) always fascinating counterpoints to the discussion.

Adam and Michael, please keep making episodes! This nerdy video game fan needs more content. You guys are the best and your show makes me happy. You're clearly awesome humans, and your hard work is deeply appreciated.

IG: @travisandersonphoto

Russ1031 ,

Podcast

Podcast good

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