1 Up with Casket Robbery's Troy Powell

Casket Robbery

Wisconsin has some pretty cool stuff up there. New Glarus Brewing for one...

There's also a goodly number of great metal bands and Casket Robbery is definitely one of them. 

Check out their BANDCAMP for an expanded edition of their EP, The Ascension.

Now let's talk video games!

Glacially Musical: My first system was a pong clone, the yellow and black Odessey 300. What was your first Console?

Troy: The first console I ever played was the Super Nintendo. My friends showed me Super Mario and I got hooked. But the first Console I actually owned was the original Playstation.

GM: My stepdad was certain we'd destroy the TV playing Pong so we had to play it in secret, either when he was a sleep or when he was out of the house. Did you have to jump through any hoops to play games?

Troy: Oh yeah. I spent almost my entire 7th grade year grounded. 

Unable to leave my room unless I used the bathroom. So I ran PS2 wires from the living room into my room discreetly. I didn't have a tv. 

But I had a tiny cheap karaoke machine that had a screen for lyrics. It was all black and white on a 4" screen. But at least I got to play.

GM: What about hand held games? Is that something you ever got into?

Troy: I remember the original Gameboy got me into a lot of gaming since we were on the road a lot. Only one I actually owned so far was the Gameboy color. 

Rayman was my game of choice then.

GM: The idea of not being able to play something drove me nuts, so I started playing games in their original Japanese. Did you ever get into imports?

Troy: Oh yeah. I'm a big JRPG guy. 

And of course not every Final Fantasy was released in America. I didn't import a game. But I did see a random guy selling imported ps1 games and I had to get my hands on Final Fantasy.

GM: What's your favorite sports game?

Troy: That's super tough. I'm not a big sports person. 

If you consider skateboarding a sport, I'd say any of the Tony Hawk games. I have a soft spot for American Wasteland. But not everyone does. So my alternative is "Sports Champions" on PS3. 

I loved the motion control games. And that one really got me hooked into it. Playing disc golf with my friends while its 20 below had its charm.

GM: Dragon Warrior got me hooked on turn based RPGs, something that's still happening. What's your favorite style of game and what was the first one you played?

Troy: Buckle up for some controversy. JRPGs are my favorite style of games. FFVIII and Legend of Dragoon are 2 of my favorite games of all time. 

The first turn based game I played (Like many) was Final Fantasy VII. But FFVIII is my 3rd favorite game of all time. 

For some reason I own 4 copies of it. And since it's about to finally get remastered for current gen. It's going to be 6 copies soon. 

Because it will finally get me to buy a switch to play it on the road during tours, and back home on the PS4.

GM: Favorite system?

Troy: I want to say its the PS2 or original PS3 so badly. But the fact that almost all of my favorite games are remastered or ported onto the ps4 (minus Silent Hill 4, Guitar Hero, Brutal legend, Legend of Dragoon, Twisted Metal, etc.). 

Plus with the release of the new God of War. It's the first game to replace my favorite game of all time since Kingdom Hearts 1. 

And on top of that I'm head over heels in love with PSVR. I gotta be honest with myself and say it's the PS4 Pro. PSVR alone would confirm that for me though. It really revitalized and changed gaming for me. 

Especially with how most games now days feel very cookie cutterish or buggy from having been released too early. So I'm pretty confident in that until PS5 I'm guessing.