Vidjagame Apocalypse

Madden’s out this week, but it’s been a big week for games about made-up sports as well, what with Rollerdrome and Rumbleverse busting onto the scene with their improbable competitions. So let’s take a look at five other games entirely about sports that would be difficult if not impossible to re-create in real life, after which we’ll get into Cult of the Lamb, NFL Blitz getting a censored Arcade1Up release, and the games you’ve restarted the most without ever finishing.

Light-gun games have all but disappeared from relevance, but there was a time when they were everywhere — and in those days, it was possible for some real gems to be overlooked. Dan Amrich joins us for a look back at five light-gun shooters that deserve another, closer look, after which we'll get into Pac-Man live-action movie news, EVO 2022 announcements, Splatoon 3 reveals, and your all-time favorite videogame weapons.

With this week's release of Frogun and its titular talking weapon, we welcome back Tony Wilson of Framework for a chat about five of our other favorite talking implements of destruction. Then it's on to Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Hooked on You: A Dead By Daylight Dating Sim, Grand Theft Auto 6 rumors, and your favorite videogame villains to play as.

Bringing an enemy around to your way of thinking can be a powerful thing - and in games, adding a former nemesis to your ranks can be a lot cooler than offing them. TL Foster joins us to talk about five of our favorite examples, after which we'll dig into Live A Live, highlights from the Annapurna Interactive Showcase, and the games you wanted badly enough to import.

Live A Live's launch this week is a reminder that even if a Japanese game doesn't come to the US for decades, it doesn't mean it never will. With localization expert Greg Moore in the guest-host chair, we chat about five games that took ages to get English releases, after which we sharpen our claws on Stray and MultiVersus, speculate about John Romero's new shooter, and get into the weeds with your childhood anecdotes that kids today just wouldn't understand.

"1980s kids in peril" has been pretty thoroughly mined as a concept by now, and yet relatively few games have tried to recapture the (heavily idealized and romanticized) experience of being a kid in that strange decade - so let's grab Leif Johnson and talk about five of them! Then we'll get into Monster Hunter Rise's Sunbreak expansion, Last Call BBS, Robocop's new game announcement, and your earliest memories of being wowed by games.

We're pretty big suckers for Super NES nostalgia, to the point where we decided it'd be a good idea to grab Greg Moore and talk in a non-visual medium about five games that made incredible use of the 16-bit console's most striking visual effect. Then we'll talk more about Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course, the Skull and Bones reveal, and your favorite games of 2022 so far.

We're at the halfway point of another year, which means it's time to look back and anoint our five favorite games of 2022's first six months, with help from TL Foster! Then we'll get into the Capcom Fighting Collection, Cuphead's Delicious Last Course, more Neon White discourse, Nintendo Direct news, and your favorite videogame dinosaur moments!

One of humanity's greatest regrets is that we never existed at the same time as dinosaurs, and therefore never got to fight them in a planetwide Thunderdome for control of existence. So instead, we imagine the conflict over and over in videogames. This week, Chris picks out five of the best games to feature human-on-dinosaur violence, after which we'll get into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Neon White, news about Final Fantasy VII Remake and Dragon's Dogma sequels, and your favorite multi-version games.

Videogames aren't always the most welcoming medium for newcomers, and one way they can confuse is through their titles; some series are easy enough to decipher, while others are Byzantine jumbles of numbers and subtitles. With game-industry legend Chris Baker on board, we look at five series with nonsensical titles, after which we'll dig into Summer Games Fest, the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, Capcom's reveals, and the announcements from the above that you're most excited for.

If they were to happen in real life, the events of a lot of videogames could leave a person seriously messed up - and yet, videogame protagonists always seem to effortlessly bounce back in time for a new adventure. Every so often, though, the events of one game will leave a hero at their breaking point in the next, and this week we invite Tony Wilson of Framework for a chat about five standout examples of heroes who had a hard time coping with the things they'd seen and done. Then we'll get into The Quarry, Sony's State of Play, and the movie characters you think more games should shamelessly rip off.

Back in the '80s, Rambo (along with a lot of other action and sci-fi movie franchises) had a huge influence on game developers, and there was a point when the standard uniform for serious arcade action heroes was just a pair of pants and a headband. This week, TL Foster joins us for a celebration of five of gaming's most memorable John Rambo clones, after which we'll dig into Sniper Elite 5, Diablo Immortal, PlayStation's TV and movie plans, and the fad toys that disappointed you the most as kids.

Roller Champions is out this week, so to mark the occasion, we decided it'd be as good a time as any to look at five action games starring rough-and-tumble badasses who are strapped into a pair of roller skates the entire time for some reason. Then we'll talk about Microsoft Flight Simulator's Top Gun expansion, Pac Man Museum+, EA acquisition rumors, and your favorite games based on kids' cartoons.

This week was sandwiched between an elaborate MultiVersus Trailer and the new Rescue Rangers movie, so naturally our thoughts gravitated toward children's TV animation — specifically, five of our favorite games based on it — and we invited Jeremy King of the Film Heat podcast on to help us talk about it. Then it's on to Sony's latest PS+ announcements, rumors of new Silent Hills, and the EA games you'd like to see get a remake.

With this week's release of Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising — a side-scrolling prequel to the upcoming JRPG Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes — we've invited Anthony Abatte on for a look at five other times big games gave players a little taste with all-too-brief (non-demo) prequel games before launch. Then we'll slash our way through Trek to Yomi and Salt and Sacrifice, revisit Rogue Legacy 2, speculate about EA's upcoming projects, and hear about the pack-in games you spent the most time with.

Some (mostly older) game consoles launched with generation-defining games packed into the box; others found them a little later down the line. This week, we'll take a look at five of the best games ever to be added as a bonus after their native consoles had already been around for a little while, after which we'll get into Nintendo Switch Sports, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, Square Enix selling off its western studios, and the books you think would make the best games.

Dune: Spice Wars hit early access on PC this week, and its based-on-the-movie-based-more-closely-on-the-book status inspired us to invite Ryan Harig of Conspiracy Therapy on for a chat about five games that directly adapted novels and short stories. Then  we'll get into Norco, Sony's game-preservation efforts, the Mario movie getting delayed, and your favorite "lesser" versions of more prominent games.

With The Batman hitting streaming this week, our dormant interest in The Caped Crusader has been rekindled, and we've invited Dan Amrich on for a chat about five of the best (non-Arkham) Batman games. Then we'll get into the Ghostbusters VR reveal, Sega's alleged Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio reboots, and the properties you'd like to see folded, inevitably, into the Kingdom Hearts universe.

Even the best games aren’t flawless; in fact, some even have moments that can (almost) derail the whole experience. PNB’s TL Foster joins us this week for a look at five of the most glaring examples, after which we’ll get into Chinatown Detective Agency, the Kingdom Hearts 4 reveal, Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s box-office success, and the creators you’d like to see return to the game industry.

Not only did this week's launch of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga pleasantly surprise us — it inspired us to invite Greg Moore on for  a Top 5 about lightsabers in non-Star Wars games. Then we'll mourn E3's cancellation, revisit Tunic, and hear your thoughts about Sony's PS+ plans.