Now Showing: Street Fighter (2026)

Y’all, I know this is a weird way to start my thoughts on the new Street Fighter movie, but hear me out: there’s a connecting thread here—I did not like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, like, at all.

That sentiment only got stronger on a rewatch, especially when I compare it to Illumination’s first pedestrian take on Nintendo’s flagship Plumber. I’m not so deluded as to discount that I may have just been a dweeby curmudgeon about DreamWorks’ production because hey, I’m not really the target audience for the movie—kids are the demographic here. So, through that lens, yeah, 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie was, at its worst, a harmless romp with a flimsy origin story, paraded with a huge production budget, and propped up by a bunch of talented voice actors and Chris Pratt.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a whole different stool of shit, though, for what I have affectionately coined to be Super Mario Brainrot ™; the movie moves at an erratic pace to mask its lack of a compelling story with nonstop spectacle of back-to-back action sequences or glamor shots that are more concerned with Easter eggs and references—and none of it is endearing—it’s just hollow and corporate.

Street Fighter (2026) brought up a lot of those same feelings, only somehow worse. Some of the references are deep-cut footnotes buried inside another Easter egg, like some weird Inception-ass nonsense where you need Joseph Gordon-Levitt to give you the kick back to reality, where things are organic and not so forced that it hurts. Street Fighter (2026) isn’t just bad fan service that’s also hollow and corporate like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is—it’s way more cringe than I had bargained for, and unlike the second Nintendo and Illumination joint, this film IS aimed at me—I AM the demographic. As such, I’m way more comfortable talking about how my overall experience with the film turned out to be a few kernels of fun sandwiched between a whole lot of poop from a butt.

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QCF: Changeable Guardian Estique

New Famicom games are always something I tend to keep an eye on, and one in particular was definitely 2024's Changeable Guardian Estique. Developed by Cat Hui Trading, and published physically for the Famicom and NES by Broke Studio, Estique was absolutely worth more than a second look, though if you missed its purchase window, getting your hands on it now is pretty pricey.

Normally we'd be conceding that perhaps a ROM might be the way to go, but oh! No worries, because the very same game was also released on Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series consoles, so you can still play it while supporting its developers, all with some neat quality-of-life improvements and meaty features.

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PPR 173

You know, it wasn’t that long ago (almost a full year ago, really) that we were talking about the advent of generative AI and the stupid bullshit it was churning out — its own slop—and it’s truly wild how much this endemic has escalated in our daily lives. Folks aren’t even pretending to cart out some bad-faith “Trolley Problem” to justify their damaging use of the quote-unquote “tool.”

Any way, we get into it plenty on this latest show of Press Pause Radio, but as has been tradition throughout the year of 2026, we brought on a friend to record the newest show with us, Jordan Andow, AKA WheelieAverage, co-owner of Analog Stick Gaming.com, Gaming & Tech Editor at The Outerhaven, Co-Founder & Host of Between Levels Podcast alongside FightinCowboy and Sarthe, to join George and Andrew on a huge discussion of the latest news, and what we’ve been spinning or inserting into our dang ol’ dang consoles.

In this episode, we gab about the state of Xbox, the Skydance Merger being overseen by everyone’s least-favorite corporate douchebag, Bobby Kottick, and all of the stuff we’ve been playing, which includes Orbitals, Onimusha: Way of the Warrior, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Marvel's Wolverine, Normal Golf Game, Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival, Kingdom Hearts [I~III] Collection, Final Fantasy XI, Forever Ago, Pokémon Champions, Control Resonant, Star Wars: Zero Company, and a whole lot more! This one is a bit of a Long Boi ™, so be sure you’re set to give this one a listen (because so help us, if we find out you generated an AI summary of this episode, we’ll give you a stiinkin’ swirlie!)

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 42-GAMEZAP-4 (424-263-9274)‬, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on our Twitch page and BlueSky, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group! This episode has been brought to you by our new friends at the SuperPod Network, be sure to check out all the other rad podcasts they host for Video Games and more! Finally, this episode was also brought to you by our new sponser, Dubby, a new, jitterless, friendlier energy drink made from a formula that contains a slew of vitamins, amino acids and nootropics including their patented NeuroFactor®. Click on the link listed or enter "PRESSPAUSERADIO" and get 10% off of your order right meow!

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PPR 172

It’s really easy to fall into this rut with Video Games right now. Every podcast episode this year has brought in this frivolous bout of yoga where we try not to take y’all TOO deep into Bummertown™, lest we risk forever remaining within its shitty doom-dome and get gypsy-cursed to forever scroll through Grummz’s feed on Twitter, A Clockwork Orange-style, or some shit.

This is why we have found ourselves championing the phrase “Video Games can still be fun, and all you have to do is to keep looking” lately—so much so that we decided to put our money where our mouth is and do a nice little episode where we give our own shotgun course towards Retro Video Games—specifically what games to check out and various methods to check them out.

The cast this week is Ed, George, and our special guest, Ten, who is an indie game and indie book reviewer for The Cosmic Circus, and co-host of the Hold On, Let Me Save podcast, where they’ll discuss the various equipment, displays, emulators, and uhhh, games that folks should still boot up to play from the last forty years or so of video games.  So grab your Anbernics and your Steam Decks, and get ready to add a bunch of HAMSTER releases to your wishlist as we do a fun little show to remind everyone that yes, video games rule. No amount of Generative AI and brain-dead corporate greed can ever take that away from any of you—enjoy the show!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 42-GAMEZAP-4 (424-263-9274)‬, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on our Twitch page and BlueSky, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group! This episode has been brought to you by our new friends at the SuperPod Network, be sure to check out all the other rad podcasts they host for Video Games and more! Finally, this episode was also brought to you by our new sponser, Dubby, a new, jitterless, friendlier energy drink made from a formula that contains a slew of vitamins, amino acids and nootropics including their patented NeuroFactor®. Click on the link listed or enter "PRESSPAUSERADIO" and get 10% off of your order right meow!

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Press Pause Preview: HYPERYuki: Snowboard Syndicate

If you're a fan of games such as SSX, Jet Set Radio, or Cool Boarders, you've likely heard the buzz around HYPERyuki, an extremely vibrant and stylized ode to these platformers and boarding gems from the late 90s and early 2000s.

You might have also heard about additional excitement in late spring and early summer, when Acclaim shared a new trailer and offered previews of the work in progress. The release date (as of now) is still in the "Coming Soon" category on Steam. And, honestly, it's probably for the best that we're still waiting to get this just right.

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PPR 171

Many of us here at Press Pause Radio are old enough to remember edgy video game marketing that threw around slogans like, “Gameplay so REAL that it HURTS,” and, like, I think we’ve arrived at a point where maybe we should pump the brakes on raising the bar for realism and sim-like mechanics in video games…

Some exceptions are in order, of course; like, we would be remiss to think about a world where there aren’t any piss mechanics in Video Games, right? Anyway…hey everyone! We’re back after an impromptu break to finish out the summer.

We’re here to dish on some of the latest in the world of “vidjya games,” with some thoughts on the Grand Theft Auto VI leaks, Gamescom Opening Night Live impression, and a buttload of entries for our “What’s in your Console” section for this episode of PPR.

George and Andrew are joined by a new friend to the show, Josh, from the Still Loading Podcast, who tagged their way into our recording booth after hosting George and an incredible panel of other cool folks on their annual Final Fantasy Draft special for 2026. The roundtable for this cast got together to drop a smorgasbord of games to have a keke™ on, with games like Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, Splatoon Raiders, RIFTSTORM, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, NieR:Replicant, The Duskbloods Network Test, Actraiser, Beast of Reincarnation, Max Payne, Dragon Hopper, Terranigma, Final Fantasy XI, Sonic Mania for the Sega Dreamcast, and so much more!

So be sure to fill up your card on whatever it runs on before you plug us into the AUX, because y’all are in for another jam-packed episode of Press Pause Radio for the ride!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 42-GAMEZAP-4 (424-263-9274)‬, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on our Twitch page and BlueSky, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group! This episode has been brought to you by our new friends at the SuperPod Network, be sure to check out all the other rad podcasts they host for Video Games and more! Finally, this episode was also brought to you by our new sponser, Dubby, a new, jitterless, friendlier energy drink made from a formula that contains a slew of vitamins, amino acids and nootropics including their patented NeuroFactor®. Click on the link listed or enter "PRESSPAUSERADIO" and get 10% off of your order right meow!

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PPR 170

How’s everyone holding up? You know, with uhhh, all the recent news pouring in from Sony regarding their upcoming departure from physical media and Microsoft’s uhhh, well, departure from reality after slaughtering over 1,600 jobs, with more to cut  on the way, in the same week they shared the goal to service over a billion players…

Shit sucks, yeah, but there’s still hope to take stock in, like the steadily growing unionization across various game development and media jobs in the industry, and the rapid progression that indie games are making across the video game marketplace, large and small—there really are things to still take joy in! Aside from that, George, Ed, and new friend and guest on this week’s episode, Jake of the Press B to Cancel Podcast, also share their own coping mechanisms to the current state of games, like the never-ending journey to tackle their giant libraries of video games, and the thousands of more retro games they have yet to play thanks to the new translation and emulation efforts being fostered by the gaming enthusiast community at large!

So, aside from the news, the panel for this episode of Press Pause Radio have also played an ass-load of games that they want to talk about, like Star Fox (2026), Star Fox 64, Magic: The Gathering-Foundations, 007 First Light, Forza Horizons 6, The Adventure of Little Ralph, Pokémon GO Fest 2026, Mina the Hollower, Mega Man 2, Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle, and much more!

So gird your bits and grab your favorite guilty pleasure as Press Pause Radio leads you on a 2-hour-ish journey built with some hope, cope, and a little (or a lot) of edibles to champion you on this hot summer day!

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Play Has Limits: What The End of Physical Media Really Means

Deep down, most of us knew that game companies would eventually double down on their attempts to do away with physical media. Still, seeing such an announcement like the one PlayStation made and knowing what awaits us doesn't make it any easier.

It feels like we've heard the same pro-digital, anti-physical pitches from major video game companies since the early 2010s. PlayStation's boldest announcement on the topic came early Wednesday, when it announced that it plans to completely halt the release of physical video games by 2028. In doing so, the company cites the all-too-famous "response in shifting trends" scapegoat that seeks to appease any would-be business daddy suitors who continue to drive us all closer to an AI-riddled, slop-infested digital rights apocalypse.

The short-short version given to readers on PlayStation's official blog? We all wanted this. Did we, though?

It is true that more recent Sony sales records point toward an abundance of digital sales rather than physical, though the numbers don't differentiate between AAA games, indie titles, or whether something just merely didn't have the option of a physical release to begin with. There are circumstances that either warrant digital-only releases entirely or in which a developer simply cannot afford to publish physical copies like a larger studio can (hence how options such as Fangamer, Limited Run, and Lost In Cult came to be).

Regardless of the circumstances, shuffling through the thousands of comments on the PlayStation announcement blog returns clarity to reality: people still largely hate this move. Meanwhile, scrolling through the otherwise bot-infested trenches of social media paints a similar picture, with droves of folks sharing everything from justifiably critical memes about the ill-conceived move to posting photos of their own collections, possibly in hopes of giving Sony executives some sort of consumer rights jumpscare.

So where we go from here is honestly anyone's guess. It doesn't look great, though, as we continue to have our consumer rights stripped away via the digital marketplace hellscape (the "own nothing, be happy" mantra, as one politician coined in recent years). Between the prices of retro games climbing since the pandemic years and companies sticking with subscriber-based model preferences, actually holding onto what we've got has never felt so good.

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