Vidjagame Apocalypse

Any fictional feud that goes on long enough is bound, sooner or later, to be put on hold for an episode where the hero and villain team up to survive or fight a greater enemy. And this week, PNB's TL Foster joins us for a look at five games where long-established archnemeses (briefly) put aside their differences and worked together. Then we'll dive into Mario Golf: Super Rush, Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, the return of a live PAX West, and your favorite announcements from E3 2021.

E3 came back! Holy crap! And don't worry, we'll get deep in the weeds about it on this week's show, but first we welcome PNB's Brendan Hesse and take a look at our favorite episodes of Conan O'Brien's Clueless Gamer, which recently took its last gasp. Then it's on to Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, a MASSIVE spate of E3 news, and the save-related memories that defined you.

We've always been great fans of so-called trash pandas at VGA, so when this week's release of Backbone cast one as a down-on-his-luck detective, we indulged our love of raccoons with a Top 5 about games that let you play as them. Then it's on to Chivalry II, the resurfacing of Playdate, Yuji Naka leaving Square Enix, and the most valuable games in your personal collections.

This week, we stumbled onto PriceCharting.com - a huge database of videogame resale values - and thought it'd be fun to invite retro specialists Steve Guntli and Woody Ciskowski (of Wii Universe) to talk about which (non-sports, non-game show) games PriceCharting thinks are worth the least on various platforms. Then we'll shift to Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World, Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, Horizon: Forbidden West's gameplay reveal, a new cut of the old Super Mario Bros. movie, and the Japan-only games you've longed to get your hands on.

A few weeks ago, we passed the 26th anniversary of the Sega Saturn's deeply weird US launch, so as a belated celebration, Greg Moore joins us to talk about five of the best games that never made it stateside for Sega's wildly underrated 32-bit console. Then we'll jump into Biomutant, Knockout City, rumors of a Final Fantasy Soulslike, and the children's stories you think should get a bit darker.

Well, here it is, episode 420 - but we already did games that let you smoke pot 311 episodes ago! So instead, let's look at celebrities who've appeared in videogames and now have their own (legal!) cannabis brands, with help from PNB's TL Foster. Then it's on to Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, eBay banning sales of AO-rated games, and the ways our listeners are related to fame.

Resident Evil Village has its hooks firmly into the whole crew this week, so let's invite PCMag.com's Mike Williams back on to talk about it (and Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Wrath of the Druids DLC) a whole bunch more! We also keep the Resident Evil theme going this week with a look at five standout zombie games from before the first RE debuted, after which we grouse about PS5 shortages, recoil at Yoko Taro's ideas for Monster Hunter, and hear about your favorite (if not fond) Blockbuster Video memories.

Resident Evil Village is out, and the rampantly fetishized Lady Dimitrescu joins the hallowed ranks of Resident Evil's iconic, nigh-indestructible "stalker" enemies. So let's kick off this week's show with five of the most memorable pursuers from Resident Evils past, and then invite PCMag.com's Mike Williams to tell us about his experience reviewing Village. Then we'll talk Returnal, get into sordid details from the Epic v. Apple lawsuit, and hear about your dream Mortal Kombat guest characters.

We've just passed two important Mortal Kombat milestones: the 10th anniversary of the franchise-revitalizing Mortal Kombat 9, and the release of a new MK movie that doesn't suck. To celebrate, Anthony Abatte joins us for a look at five of the best guest characters to show up for recent Kombats, after which we'll look at NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139..., Star Wars Pinball VR, and the most memorable demos you've ever played.

The formerly PlayStation-exclusive MLB The Show is now on Xbox, which is... kinda weird, right? Almost as weird as finding out that developers now closely associated with (and owned by) Sony used to make games for competing platforms, which is what we're delving into this week. Find out what studios like Guerrilla, Naughty Dog, and Sucker Punch were up to before becoming PlayStation mainstays, after which we'll take a look at Immortals Fenyx Rising - The Lost Gods, Sony reversing course on closing its old stores, and unique things about your hometowns.

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to 2/3 of the VGA crew (along with a big chunk of the games industry), and it's been re-created in a handful of games over the years - so now that our episode count matches our area code, let's grab Tony Wilson of Framework and look at the five games we think did it best. Then we'll shift to Nintendo Indie World announcements, The Last of Us remake drama, and how closely you like your game movies to stick to the script.

Thankfully, we're well past the point where any unforgiving game gets compared to Dark Souls. What we're talking about this week, with special guest Leif Johnson, are our favorite Souls-likes - that is, games that consciously borrow parts of Dark Souls' formula (but aren't made by From Software). Then it's on to Outriders, Pac-Man 99, Borderlands movie news, and your favorite memories of the 3DS.

The 3DS turned 10 this week, so let's grab friend of the show Micah Seff and celebrate the revolutionary, unassailable, beloved powerhouse of a handheld... by looking back at five ways it nearly dropped the ball in its first few rocky, uncertain months. Then we'll get deep into Monster Hunter Rise, Magic Legends, Ghost of Tsushima movie news, and your favorite un-emulatable games.

There's something about the arcade experience that's just tough to capture at home - especially for games that involve ridiculously bespoke hardware that would be impractical to set up in a living room. This week, we welcome back Dan Amrich for a look at five of our favorite arcade games that just don't translate to a home setting, after which we'll touch on Balan Wonderworld, Immortals Fenyx Rising - Myths of the Eastern Realm, PlayStation Store axing three platforms (sort of), and the OG Xbox games or series you think are due for a comeback.

This week marks one year since the first shelter-in-place orders went into effect in the US. To mark this dubious occasion, we invited PNB's TL Foster on to talk about five of the best games ever to take place within a single house. Then it's on to the return of Stubbs the Zombie, the even-more-zombielike sort-of return of Toys 'R' Us, and your fondest Mario memories.

They may be gray and a little saggy, but there's a certain kind of elderly man who, like a lobster, only ever seems to grow bigger and tougher with age. This week, we invite Greg Moore to help us pay tribute to the old game characters who could still kick our asses, after which we'll dig into Loop Hero, the Bethesda-Microsoft merger, TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, and the things from vidjagames you'd love to try in real life, but probably shouldn't.

If you haven't commandeered a car by jumping to it from your own speeding whip, can you really be said to have commandeered it at all? This week, we celebrate five games that let us accomplish the impossibly awesome feat of launching from one high-speed car to another, fluidly booting out the driver, and taking control. Then it's on to Ghosts 'n' Goblins Resurrection, Switch Pro rumors, Sony's State of Play, and the games that helped you through a year of lockdowns.

Everyone loves a good revenge story, so this week we're joined by Mike Williams of PCMag to take a look at five of the most gripping stories of single-minded, systematic payback produced by videogames. Then we'll explore Bravely Default 2, get lost in Persona 5 Strikers and Valheim, look at the news from BlizzCon, and hear your thoughts on series that should switch genre.

With Persona 5 Strikers - the Dynasty Warriors-flavored sequel to the original P5 RPG - out this week, we're joined by special guest Emmett Watkins of VGU.TV for a look at five sequels that switched to a new genre, forever changing the trajectory of their series. Then we'll dig into to Bowser's Fury, get stomped in Valheim, go through the Nintendo Direct news with a fine-toothed comb, and discuss the characters you'd want to see turn evil.

Abrupt heel-turns are always fun, especially in fighting games where a goody-two-shoes hero gives in to the Dark Power within and becomes a corrupted, evil version of themselves (usually with cooler moves). This week, we welcome Anthony Abatte to help us take a look at five fallen heroes of fighting games, after which we'll talk about Little Nightmares 2, casting HBO's The Last of Us, listen to some reconstructed Mario tunes, and hear about your parents' attitudes toward your gaming.