Announcement - December 2023

Announcement - December 2023

Author: Franchise Festival December 2, 2023 Duration: 1:55
Hello listeners, this is your Franchise Festival host Chris. We just wanted to provide a few quick announcements: (1) There is no new episode on the public feed this month, as we’re taking a short break between seasons to recuperate and enjoy the holidays with our family and friends. (2) Patrons will get our annual Game of the Year podcast on or around December 15th. If you’d like to hear it, please subscribe to at patreon.com/franchisefestival for as little as $3/month. You’ll also get access to the full back catalog of bonus shows, including some very strange Resident Evil spinoff episodes and a bunch of indie game coverage from Season 3. (3) We’ll be shutting down our website in 2024. It’s pretty expensive to maintain, and the data indicates that most of you listen either through podcast apps or our Patreon page. Consequently, the Patreon will become our new home on the web. Public feed episodes are still posted there for free listening, so you don’t need to be a member to enjoy it. (4) Finally, our fourth season starts on January 1, 2024. In case you missed it, our plan is to cover Capcom’s Mega Man series from start to finish over the course of eleven shows. We’ll also be releasing patron-exclusive bonus shows on remakes, spinoffs, adaptations, and spiritual successors. We appreciate your interest in the show and look forward to joining you all again next year. We’d also like to express a very special thank you to our patrons: Cheatachu, Celeste, Ed, Loren, Quinley Thorne, Cedric the Owl, Jarathen, and Jasper - you bring joy to our hearts and inspire us to make the best content we can. Thanks for listening, everybody! Goodbye.

Franchise Festival digs into the stories behind the video game series that shaped a medium. Each season is a deep, chronological exploration of a single franchise, tracing its creative and technical evolution from often-humble 1980s origins through to its latest installments. You’ll hear about the design breakthroughs, the business decisions that changed course, and the cultural moments that turned pixels into lasting legends. This isn’t just a review show; it’s about understanding how these interconnected worlds were built, year by year and sometimes crisis by crisis. The podcast favors depth over breadth, spending multiple episodes to fully unpack the development history of noteworthy series like Castlevania, SimCity, or Mega Man. The narrative focuses on the people and processes behind the games-the how and why, not just the what. It’s for anyone who’s ever wondered about the connective tissue between their favorite sequels or the forgotten prototypes that paved the way. Tune in for a thoughtfully researched and structured audio documentary experience, one franchise at a time.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Franchise Festival
Podcast Episodes
Season 4 Episode 9 - Mega Man Battle Network (Part 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:03
Hamilton and Chris conclude their coverage of Capcom's Mega Man Battle Network (2001) with a close look at the game's plot. Even as the level design grows tedious and the story meanders, boss fights remain a highlight.
Season 4 Episode 8 - Mega Man Battle Network (Part 1) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:01
Chris and Hamilton tackle the development, gameplay, and early hours of Mega Man Battle Network (2001). Along the way, they lavish praise on the deckbuilder format and uncover the startling commonality between Capcom's a…
Season 4 Episode 7 - Mega Man X4 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:42:52
Chris, Hamilton, and Spencer discuss Mega Man X4 (1997), the first Mega Man X game developed from the ground-up for 32-bit consoles. Are the updates worthwhile, or do they just over-complicate a classic formula? Developm…
Season 4 Episode 6 - Mega Man Legends [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:53:11
Chris and Spencer discuss the development, gameplay, and plot of 1997's Mega Man Legends (Nintendo loyalists may know it as Mega Man 64). If our show piques your interest, don't miss the great development team interviews…
Season 4 Episode 5 - Mega Man 8 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:26:17
Hamilton and Chris go in-depth with Capcom's first 32-bit Mega Man game: Mega Man 8! Along the way, your hosts give a primer on the series' extended sidekick roster, offer their thoughts on the (in)famous auto-scroll sta…
Season 4 Episode 4 - Mega Man X [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:30:04
Chris and Hamilton are joined by special guest Nadia Oxford, author of the Maverick Hunter's Field Guide, to talk about Mega Man X (1993). Along the way, they learn about Capcom's difficulty growing Mega Man past its 8-b…
Season 4 Episode 3 - Mega Man 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:14:27
Chris, Hamilton, and Spencer talk about the first Mega Man game developed after the departure of creator Akira Kitamura: Mega Man 3! Along the way, your hosts discuss yet another troubled development period, a bewilderin…
Season 4 Episode 2 - Mega Man 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:35:53
Chris, Hamilton, Spencer and special guest Eddie V (@thatretrocode) discuss the development, gameplay, and stage design of Capcom's Mega Man 2. Don't miss Eddie's work over on The Boss Rush Network!
Season 4 Episode 1 - Mega Man 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:18
Chris, Hamilton, and Spencer embark on a new season covering Capcom's 11 classic Mega Man side-scrollers. Unfortunately, in order to appreciate the heights which the series would later reach, this requires taking a criti…
Season 3 Bonus Episode - Resident Evil: Death Island [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:24
Hosts Chris, Spencer, and Hamilton got into the eggnog and decided to cover the Resident Evil: Death Island CG movie as a Christmas bonus show. It may not have been a great film, but we all had a great time talking about…