As I’ve mentioned before, I listen to a lot of podcasts. Through The Nerdist Podcast, I learned about the stellar Legacy Music Hour, a podcast dedicated to 8- and 16-bit era music… and yet again, I have The Nerdist Podcast to thank for another new video game show to listen to.
Nerdist Industries' newest podcast about video games.
Over the last several months, The Nerdist Podcast has grown into Nerdist Industries, a podcast collective. The latest to debut under this umbrella is the appropriately named “The Indoor Kids“, Nerdist Industries’ first video game podcast. Hosted by comedian Kumail Nanjiani and X-Play intern and game enthusiast Ali Baker, the podcast takes a very casual approach to video game discussion. From what I’ve listened to so far, it’s akin to having an hour long discussion with your friends about the games you’re playing and are interested in. The style is a bit spontaneous; while not completely random, topics jump from one to the next (example: a Wii U discussion about its supposedly disappointing debut switches to an excited discussion of new games like Catherine and Shadows of the Damned). Game humor pops up as well – talking about the ridiculousness of the classic Sega game Golden Axe and its antagonist at one point: “Death Adder? Really? Like the Adder family went and had a kid and named it DEATH.”
The focus is (so far) largely on current-gen games, with some retro dips like the aforementioned Golden Axe here and there (as of writing, I haven’t listened to the latest episode, which supposedly dives into nostalgia with discussion about the first consoles ever purchased, first game ever completed, etc). There are some spoilers here and there, but they’re outlined in the episode description so as to give the listener a heads up if they want to skip over that section. There’s a fair amount of NSFW language involved, but it comes with the territory (discussing foul-mouthed little kids on Xbox Live or frustrating aspects of certain games, for example), so listen with headphones if you’re in the work cubicle. What I like about the podcast’s overall style is the casual talk: as I said before, it’s like talking with your friends about games, but it’s a nice and welcome contrast to reading professional reviews and news from sites like Kotaku and Joystiq.
Like most podcasts starting out, The Indoor Kids is a little rough around the edges, but it will most likely find its rhythm really soon. As of now, the podcast has four episodes. I really enjoyed the first episode with actor/comedian Steve Agee, and the second featuring actor Justin Roiland had some interesting discussions and moments (dude hates Ocarina of Time. Seriously???). The third episode opens with the interesting topic of “couples gaming”, with Nanjiani’s wife Emily Gordon humorously discussing Kumail’s gaming habits: “If I die or make a mistake, he’ll go… ‘what are you DOING?‘” (I admit, I’m guilty of this myself sometimes).
The Indoor Kids has joined my iTunes repository of podcasts, and I look forward to future episodes!
