In episode 15.5 of The Blockade Runner podcast, we revisit a recording Ryan and John did last year discussing the Nintendo Gamecube game Rogue Squadron III. If you’re a listener of our other podcast, Nintendo Fun Club, you may have heard this conversation there, but if not, we spend about 30 minutes discussing one of our favorite Star Wars games (with a brief Blockade Runner update beforehand).
The Blockade Runner is launching a new video series today called “The Blockade Runner Plays” with our first installment featuring Star Wars for Nintendo’s Famicom console. Those of you familiar with my other podcast won’t be too surprised to see our interest in Star Wars and games intersecting here again (we also recorded a few episodes of our Nintendo Fun Club show covering various Star Wars games on Nintendo systems), but hopefully you’ll give it a look regardless of whether or not you’re as enamored with games as we are around here.
I thought the Famicom version of Star Wars would be a good place to start as it’s relatively unknown in the US, takes generous liberties with source material, and features the 8-bit aesthetic that is so well-loved by fans around my age. I’ve had a lot of fun with the game, but it’s pretty tough, so this isn’t an edit-free run through the game. I chose to focus on just showing off the game and its qualities rather than providing a completely accurate recreation of my time with the game. That approach makes for a shorter video and less redundancy (sometimes I died PRETTY often); I’m also splitting the game up into two (or more) videos in the hopes that they’ll be a bit more digestible that way.
Let us know what you thought in the comments here, on YouTube, or through email. I’m looking forward to playing more games for the series going forward, and I’ll probably lean more toward classic and under-appreciated games, but I’d love to hear suggestions for what you may be interested in seeing us play for future “Blockade Runner Plays” videos.
Dan, Ryan, and John discuss the newest Rogue One trailer just a few minutes after it launches. We share our initial reactions to the trailer, our favorite shots, and how best to handle marketing Vader until the movie releases. This one is a bit shorter than our usual output, but we’re laser-focused on Rogue One all the way through (though I somehow neglected to lament the lack of Bistan in this newest preview of the movie).
Ryan, Dan, and John spend this episode analyzing the character reveals and images from Anthony Breznican’s newest Rogue One story for Entertainment Weekly. The issue is full of compelling photographs and information straight from Kathleen Kennedy and Gareth Edwards, so we had a lot of fun digging into it.
Ryan and John chronicle the Rogue One reshoots saga before discussing The Star Wars Show, those insanely cool but super expensive Ultimate Studio Edition Collectibles, The Force Awakens soundtrack, and why John is happy for “Chewbacca Mom” and Ryan “feels nothing.”
My son Owen (the star of most of the above photos) and I were lucky enough to attend Joliet, Illinois’s 7th Annual Star Wars Day yesterday. The event, hosted by the Joliet Public Library, featured the 501st Legion and the Rebel Legion alongside a slew of exhibitors, artists, and vendors (including John Jackson Miller and a live Rebel Force Radio podcast). The event spanned two floors of Joliet’s downtown library, but there were also games, food vendors, and live music on the blocked-off surrounding streets outside the building. Joliet Star Wars Day is free and a wonderful opportunity to enjoy a micro Star Wars Celebration style event, so if you live in the Chicago area or within a reasonable driving distance, I would definitely recommend checking out the event next year.
The Phantom Menace turns 17 this month and we took the opportunity to discuss our favorite things about the movie (there’s lots) in this episode of The Blockade Runner! We start with the promotional tie-ins and marketing leading up to TPM‘s release before jumping into the film itself. Join us to remember why you loved The Phantom Menace in 1999 even if you’ve forgotten along the way why you did!
This Blockade Runner Podcast episode features Ryan and John catching up on the Star Wars news from the past few weeks. We cover Celebration Orlando 2017, Respawn’s upcoming Star Wars game, the George Lucas Museum debacle, the upcoming Making of The Force Awakens book, and more.
Abrams ComicsArt released the excellent Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Card Series late last year (which I wrote about here). Author Greg Garani has followed up that first book with collections covering the Topps cards for The Empire Strikes Back as well as the Star Wars Galaxy series from the 90s.
Both books include an introductory essay from Garani chronicling the production of each series as well as hundreds of pages of images that faithfully every card from both. Like the first volume, the production quality of these books is excellent; they feature hardcover binding and thoughtfully crafted dust jackets (Galaxy’s is a shiny foil-style while Empire‘s emulates the waxy paper associated with trading card bubble gum) that result in a classy and collectible product. The included images of each card are often paired with captions from Garani that share trivia or anecdotes about the thought process behind design and marketing choices, and the books are just a joy to flip through in no small part due to the author’s obvious enthusiasm for the subject matter.
I haven’t seen much chatter about these books in the fan community (which is a shame as they are exactly the type of archival collections I’d love to see more of from Lucasfilm and its partners). If you didn’t own or collect any of these trading cards in the past, these books act as an excellent method of affordably experiencing the sets without tracking down and storing the originals. Even if you do have some or all of the cards, these volumes are lovingly produced tributes to the series and act as great collectibles and convenient ways for experiencing the series all over again.
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