Abnormal Mapping

Mar 27 2025 178 ep. 93 mins 1.8k

Abnormal Mapping Podcast artwork

Abnormal Mapping is a monthly game club of Em and Jackson, talking primarily about old games with an eye to critiquing without nostalgia.

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Abnormal Mapping 171: Soul Blazer

We played an old SNES game today and talk about the elemental qualities of RPGs and action games. Also, Jackson keeps gaming, and Em makes ambitious plans to tackle a too-big game.Thank you so much as always for listening, please rate and review the podcast, and tell all your friends on whatever social media you call home that they should check us out. See you next month!Send us qu

Abnormal Mapping 170: Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos

We’re playing two not very classics of their respective genres today as we go back to the back half of the 90s to play an early action game and a relatively early 3D platformer. We’re kind of split on which game we prefer along lines I expect you’d predict, but we both had a pretty good time with both games anyway! Also, before that, Jackson gives the MOTHER of all segment 1

Abnormal Mapping 169: 1000xRESIST

We tackle a newer game this month as we talk about the critically acclaimed adventure game 1000xRESIST. We found plenty to love and plenty to pick at during our time with this one, but it’s exactly the kind of messy game we tend to like around here, so we’re glad we played it and I hope you enjoy listening to us talk through it!Thank you so much as always for listening, please

Abnormal Mapping 168: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): Legacy of Solaris

We close out the year by playing one of the most infamous games we’ve ever covered, a game that has been a running joke and shorthand for bad game for nearly twenty years. And yet, do we find the judgment of history fair? Do we believe in redemption for a certain blue hedgehog and the anime princess who loves him? We’re going to try our best, as we finally play Sonic 06 (with a

Abnormal Mapping 167: Shenmue II

We’re joined by Dia Lacina once again as Ryo continues the next leg of his quest to track down Lan Di, his father’s killer. What strange challenges will he find in China? How does Yu Suzuki follow up one of the most ambitious, incredible games of all time? We find ourselves surprised at almost every turn as Shenmue II goes big and goes small and goes adventuring! Thank you so m

Abnormal Mapping 166: Racing Lagoon

One of the hot new releases of … wait, 1999? That can’t be right. Oh, it’s a fan translation. One of the hot new fan translations hitting the inter-oh I’m being informed the fan translation is from three years ago! How embarrassing. Well, we’ve been meaning to play this one for a hot minute, and when Em finally tried it they were so instantly in love with it they insisted

Abnormal Mapping 165: Mister Mosquito

Sometimes you decide to finally pick up one of those games you’ve always heard of but never got around to, the curiosities that you are pretty sure aren’t must plays, but stick in your brain anyway. Some might argue this has been the history of Abnormal Mapping at large! But this month we do one of the epitomes of this style of game as Em chose one of the big PS2 curiosities fr

Abnormal Mapping 164: Final Fantasy XI

Jackson is joined today by official Final Fantasy Correspondant Austin Walker to talk about Final Fantasy XI - specifically the base game and Rise of the Zilart. It’s been a busy MMO summer and we simply needed to get it out of our systems and into microphones somewhere. Please enjoy this three hour tribute to a game that’s still around and still good as hell.Thank you so much

Abnormal Mapping 163: The Forgotten City

Em is back from the month off to talk about the joy of a kind of cheesy mystery with a great sci-fi premise as we get to live out our Star Trek: The Original Series dreams by lecturing ancient peoples about how our modern world view is clearly the best one. This sounds like it’s selling The Forgotten City short, but I promise it isn’t, we really liked this game. Sometimes good

Abnormal Mapping 162: Citizen Sleeper

This month it’s just me, Jackson, being joined by Crystal to play Citizen Sleeper. Em is currently in Hospital after major surgery and so I’m taking over and organizing the podcasts while they recover! Please send them well wishes. It’s time to talk about RPG systems, and the strange act of critiquing leftist video games that you mostly agree with. I think this is a good disc