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!

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.

The halcyon days of a development house being propped up entirely through the popularity and success of its flagship mascot are long gone, yet Yacht Club Games has managed to do it for a little over twelve years thanks to the charismatic and strong back of the spaded squire, Shovel Knight. After seven games and nearly fifty cameos later, however, Yacht Club has arguably toured the azure star around the block more than Nintendo has with its iconic plumber in that amount of time, and has now set its sights on delivering another larger-than-life world to pour its creative juices into—producing a new hero to support the Yacht Club Games’ masthead.

Following an eight-year development run funded by a million-dollar Kickstarter Campaign, Mina the Hollower is Yacht Club Games’ sophomore release, and another retro-inspired experience that’s engineered around the juxtaposition of multiple gameplay conventions. Like Shovel Knight before it, the Zelda-like, Game Boy Color-minded formula is a zesty melting pot of familiar yet fresh tastes that successfully results in Mina the Hollower delivering a signature flavor in its own right. More importantly, it already feels like the kind of follow-up that proves Yacht Club still knows how to build a standout world around a new hero.

Just because Mina the Hollower is an inventive blend of familiar concepts doesn’t mean it’s good, though, right? I mean, that line of thinking has also led to a slew of disasters like Spaghetti Tacos and whatever the hell that Magnum PI/Murder, She Wrote crossover was. Fortunately, not only does Mina the Hollower deliver a fusion that’s on par with Avacado Toast, it may just be the best damn game to have released in 2026 so far.

It’s funny how we all used to talk about the summer being the perfect reason to catch up on our backlogs, with the notable drought of marquee game releases until the winter season, when publishers and developers arguably carpet-bomb the quarter with hundreds of game releases aimed at competing for those coveted holiday dollars. Well—that’s not so much the case anymore because the summer is also reserved for some hype-level marketing and promotion towards those aforementioned holiday releases, and we’ve now arrived at the point where players can put their anticipation to the test with interactive previews in the form of public demos they can try out.

While there are sprinkles of shadow-dropped slices of games to pick out from their respective studios, Valve has taken it upon themselves to make a whole-ass spectacle called Next Fest, a limited-time event designed to court studios to publish their demos on their platform so that excitable players can, in turn, download and play them on their platform.

What makes Steam Next Fest so rad is that it helps bring eyes to games both big and small, and as such, Press Pause Radio got around to playing a giant wave of Next Fest demos, and decided “Hey, we should like, talk, about these right?”

So talk they indeed done DID. Join Andrew, George, and Sean as they talk about flavored Seltzer water, Echoes of Aincrad, Magical Blush, Pizza Kidd, the Steam Machine price reveal, ReStory Chill Electronics Repairs, Normal Golf Game, Duskfade, The United States Tick epidemic, and so much more! We've published every demo discussed on the show in our show notes, with links to their respective store pages so you can check them out. So please, go ham on that install button as we present you with another episode of Press Pause Radio!

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!

Relax, everyone, I solved the case! Troy Baker is the voice actor playing the role of the hardened, fondue-sipping war hero-turned-private-investigator protagonist of this game. I knew I had heard that voice somewhere, so it was a big surprise when I checked my search engine, er, I mean the board of clues, and came to that deduction. Spending hours of time in the world of Mouseburg in Mouse P.I. for Hire as an anthropomorphic mouse detective will make any player feel like they’ve jumped into a noir crime drama.  In the influence of games like Cuphead and the playstyle of Bioshock with big animated set pieces and exploration of a world out of a time capsule, this title has something for every player.

Like the twisted version of Santa Claus that he is, once a year, Geoff Keighley comes out of his mousehole to host a grand event in Los Angeles that lets developers and publishers show off their up-and-coming games to the public via a broadcast presentation he calls the Summer Game Fest.

So, it’s essentially LIKE Electronic Entertainment Expo in all but name, and like E3, the event engulfs the first week of June, and has already convinced other entities like Sony and Microsoft to coordinate the airings of their proprietary presentations around the showcase as well.

And we here at Press Pause Radio took it ALL in to talk about it with y’all on this latest episode of the podcast (well, everything except for the Nintendo Direct, since the Big N sort of screwed scheduling-wise on that matter.) This week’s cast sees George, Andrew, and special guest Steve, one of the main hosts for the podcast, Fine Time on Super Pod Network, get together to break down PlayStation’s State of Play, Summer Game Fest, and the Xbox Showcase with their shared impressions and anticipated releases that were teased in the respective events. The discussed games include Mighty Cuphead Adventure, Marvel’s Wolverine, Resident Evil Veronica, God of War Laufey, Final Fantasy VII Revelation, Magician: The Devil’s Deal, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Crazy Taxi: World Tour, Stranger Than Heaven, and well, a hell of a lot more. We hope y’all enjoy, and while you’re at it—check out the guys over at Fine Time and their own Summer Game Fest episode when you’re done, OH, and be sure to send them your favorite Jack in the Box menu recommendations too!

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!

One more run right?—Just one more go at it, and this time, things will be different. That’s the allure of the Roguelike genre of video games. It isn’t just one thing to jam through a level filled with beasties and hazards, you also have to improvise your approach with whatever power-ups or drawbacks you’re given, at least long enough to make it to the next area.

What was once a hardcore spin on action games has gradually permeated several other genres like Shooters, Metroidvanias, and hell, even Dating Simulators—it’s grown to a point where we’re seeing enough games lightly dabble with the formula to spawn its own subgenre, Rougelite.

Realizing just how many games we’ve played under this banner, with Hades, Absolum, Dead Cell, Returnal, and several more, we figured it was high time we took a more earnest look at the category of gameplay, and try to see what makes it tick, and whether or not it’s officially reach the mainstream!

Join Andrew and George as they discuss this, plus their thoughts and predictions for what they expect will come out of Summer Game Fest later this week!

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!

In recent years, generative AI has led a near-inescapable march through every facet of our daily lives. Whether you’re seeking service, information, production, entertainment, or even counseling, the tool has made its ghoulish presence known in just about every corner you can find, and despite the real-world ramifications its proliferation leaves behind, it’s only gaining more momentum.

In the previous decades before the advent of generative AI, however, the concept of Artificial Intelligence had a somewhat less destructive impact on daily living or the beauty of human expression in fictional storytelling, and instead mainly presented as a device to extoll the themes of playing god or asserting faith in the power of humanity. Enter Yonghee Cho of Nier Automata and Metal Gear Revengence fame, who was brought on by Capcom and their development team to approach a new angle towards AI using the Old El Paso answer to Hard Tacos or Soft Tacos—a story that would focus on both the old Sci-Fi roots of AI, and the current dangers of Generative AI, being navigated by the powers of human connection.

This imaginative effort would steadily evolve into a new IP, Pragmata, and much like the other original release from Capcom, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, the premise places a subtle, yet deceptively deep twist on an accustomed action genre. At the core of its Outré blend of logic puzzles and third-person shooting, Pragmata also manages to tell a surprisingly endearing story about a well-adjusted engineer who stumbles upon an effusive android during a recon mission that goes horribly wrong, and the wholesome bond they build along the way in a world led by AI.

Let's be real: there's a lot to loathe about 2026, what with our economic state of affairs, the increasingly robust perversion of the internet via AI slop and constantly shifting weather patterns. Hell, we can't even find solace in the little things anymore, like going down to the store and just buying a damn pack of Pokemon cards (but that's another feature for another time).

That being said, we can at least count on something: there are still plenty of stellar studios that continue to release retro-inspired classics. (And with physical copies to boot – literally!)

 Given the tumultuous curveballs we keep seeing through this already shifty year, Press Pause Radio (or myself, more specifically) is a bit late to the party on some of the early year releases from Mega Cat Studios. So join us as we dive into peeks at Plyuk and Old Towers for the NES, in addition to Super Fanger for the SNES.

The mind sure is a funny thing—one second, you can find yourself tripping over the gradually increasing existential crisis of modern-day living in 2026, and the next, you’ll find yourself thinking about dumb ways to make peeing for a dog way more fun than it should have any right to be!

On this week’s episode of Press Pause Radio, we tackle some of the news bits in gaming and our current gaming shelves in another “What’s in your console” edition of the show.

Andrew and George are joined by Hugo Award-winning writer and all-around gaming journalist sweetheart, ‪Aidan Moher, who is also ½ of one of the coolest new video game podcasts to hit the web, Fun Factor: a show that takes a retrospective look at retro game magazines that inspired them to be games writers themselves!

In this episode, the cast will go over the news of the leaked internal Xbox memo that would rapidly become the “We Are Xbox” state of the union from Microsoft, and the details of the new Steam controller from a leaked review of the device, including its $99 price tag! On the games side of things, we get real weird with it as we discuss OPUS: Prism Peak, Life is Strange, Division 2, Froggy Hates Snow, Returnal, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, Under the Island, Cobra, ZX Spectrum Next, Saros, Pragmata, Mouse: P.I. for Hire, Invincible VS, Quest: Brian's Journey, and so much more!

We hope you enjoy our busy bodies of work as we have a whole lot more to cover with y’all in the coming weeks here at Press Pause Radio, oh, and be sure to subscribe to Fun Factor, and buy Aidan’s cool ass book, Fight, Magic, Items: The History of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the Rise of Japanese...

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!

We all have a vision in our heads of something that we love doing beyond any reproach. A passion that we put on a pedestal, and fabricate this perfect version of what we aspire it to be, and when that drive reaches a fever point, no one else will ever understand your vision. Not family, not friends, and not even colleagues who share your love of the avocation at hand. Everything else starts to lose meaning—or worse yet—become a hindrance between you and the focus you need to lock the hell in for to achieve the goal at large.

Even though we’re all capable of that intense dedication to something we love, there’s a big gulf between someone striving to be the world’s best bowler and someone trying to be the first Alpinist to reach the top of the world’s only unclimbable mountain. A new survival-action title from the same folks who brought us Furi, in CAIRN, from The Game Bakers, aims to challenge the limits of human tenacity, both through the lens of Aava and the personal state of mind she finds herself in, and the symbiotic level of perseverance that players will need to guide her to the peak.

As simple as that all sounds, it’s the execution of CAIRN’s buildup and turbulent framing of Aava’s quest to surmount Mount Kami that sets it apart as an experience that’s unlike anything I’ve played before it—an experience that constantly teeters between being a tale of inspiration and a cautionary tale of self-destruction.

Certain logos instill a sense of wonder and comfort the instant they shimmer onto the screens of our games. The branding of something like the Konami bacon strips or neon-styled letters of SEGA getting shouted out through the speakers invokes a fuzzy feeling of what’s to come. One logo, in particular, carries such weight behind its presence that the moment you hear a certain jingle ringing, you know the blue-and-yellow juggernaut has arrived, accompanied by its trademark chime.

After 40 years, Capcom remains a titan in the video game industry, commanding a plethora of software that has defined the medium, with several iconic video games that have made the Japanese video game developer and publisher a veritable household name among consumers and insiders alike.

So what’s a dumb Video Game Podcast to do but to try and hash out a casual “Best of” list from Capcom across forty years' worth of hardware? Well, we can’t help but give it the ol’ college try! Longtime friend of the show, Rob Rich of Unwinnable Magazine, joins George and Andrew to do a roundtable discussion of which Capcom games are the cream of the crop for their respective platforms of the era since the company’s inception in 1984. One HUGE caveat, though—the gang was restricted from choosing any MAIN-LINE entries (meaning that spin-off titles are eligible for nomination) from the following series: Mega Man, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Ace Attorney, or Monster Hunter.

Needless to say, it made for one helluva chop-up of podcast, and the crew still found time to talk about other shit too, like the difference between saying Happy Easter or Happy Resurrection, and the Toby Fox translation drama for Undertale and Deltarune. We hope y’all enjoy this episode, as we’d love to apply this social experiment to other companies for future shows!  

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!

It’s crazy how glued we are to our phones right? Maybe we should just treat phones the way the cast of Breaking Bad treats them, and just snap them in half every time we’re done with them! Either that, or  mean mug the SHIT out of Jimmy Fallon, either plan is equally cathartic and acceptable.

We’re coming out with episode 164 of Press Pause Radio, and we’re here to talk about what we’ve all been playing as of late, along with some of  the latest news. On that front, George, Ed, Andrew, and special friend/ guest for the episode, KnittedFox of Sunken Treasures Games chew the fat over EA’s vile layoff of the Battlefield 6 team, thoughts on Nintendo Switch Online’s take on the Virtual Boy, Capcom terminating the voice actor for Mega Man over their Union contract and a few other odds and ends.

In terms of what they’ve been playing, we chat about Final Fantasy Tactics, Dogpile, Marathon, Suika, Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, Dungeons & Dragons, Resident Evil Requiem, Darius Gaiden, RumbleSlam, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magic the Gathering set, and more!

So grab a pint, put on your favorite shade of verdant apparel, and spend a few hours listening to your favorite group of chuckleheads talk about some games!

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!

HEY! LISTEN! Maybe don’t do that? Oh, you mean you want to figure it out on your own? Naaahhh, let’s pace you through an extensive explanation instead.

Tutorialization in Video Games has always been a contentious topic that dates back way before yellow paint, and it was mouthy fairy in 1998 that directed your actions. Sometimes, it came in the form of a speaker box floating around in Dinosaur Land just waiting for a certain plumber to punch it for some information—it’s always been a thing. Even though video games have always had some sort of guidance system responsible for acclimating players to the gameplay, there are different viewpoints on how involved this training should be, and whether it’s a testament to the game design itself and its ability to naturally intuit players without a ham-fisted instruction process.

Andrew, George, and Sean are going to dissect this topic for y’all in this ham-packed episode of Press Pause Radio, along with some passing thoughts on the state of Nintendo Pricing, the major corporate shakeup at Microsoft, and the big studio Sony had just laid off—it’s been an eventful time in gaming right now.

So, Press “A” to get us going, and be sure not skip around like you already have the gist of everything as we get heavy into this special topic for you in episode 163 of Press Pause Radio.

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!

The legacy of Super Mario Sunshine is such a polarizing 3D Mario game to look back it, and it isn’t an entry that’s often romanticized for its jumping physics either. At its core, Sunshine does have an admittedly solid foundation behind its snappier controls, which give the title a distinctive ebb and flow to its respective platforming mechanics, setting it apart from the other entries in the series. However, when that same series has some heavy hitters like Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario 3D World, it starts to make sense why Super Mario Sunshine is widely considered to be at the bottom of that class too.

And yet—the entry still has its fans—one of whom felt inspired to recreate many of those quirky fundamentals from the Gamecube exclusive into a new 3D platforming adventure that would take influences from other contemporary titles, and blend them together with modern sensibilities to their design to create something that’s new yet familiar.

This game is Big Hops, and it comes from the mind of Chris Wade and his studio, Luckshot Games. After breaking onto the scene with their debut, Gang Beasts-inspired party game in 2018, Wade and his team hustled onto their next project and spent six years working on their sophomore release, Big Hops.

The end result is a charming, yet flawed, outing into an expansive open-world adventure that presents an interesting take on the theme of questioning what exactly makes an adventure so magical to experience—the destination or the journey. The message is poignant in its delivery and makes for a fun time, even if it occasionally stands at odds with the gameplay from time to time, as the game is more of a jaunt than a crusade.

In an age where we can still get sequels or remakes for IPs that have been dormant for decades, like Pocky & Rocky, Joe & Mac, Snow Bros., or the anomaly that keeps coming back, Bubsy, there’s a certain Bear and Bird duo that hasn’t been active since their weird build-a-car stint that was exclusive to the Xbox 360. The furry pair have left a near-indomitable mark on the 3D Platformer genre, so much so that a big chunk of the development team that worked on the property went on to pitch a spiritual successor through the crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, and were able to successfully release an entirely new property, Yooka-Laylee.

Despite getting enough traction to release an arguably more beloved side-scrolling sequel that paid homage to another classic from their old stomping grounds, Donkey Kong Country, the response to the original Yooka-Laylee was a bit more polarized than anticipated. I, for one, enjoyed it for what it was, but also felt like it didn’t quite add up to the sum of its parts, especially when the core idea seemed to revolve around the idea that “bigger means better.” As time went on, though, every attempt to revisit the game after my first run of it gradually soured me more and more with each return to it—the juice it promised just didn’t have the shelf-life I thought it would.

Yooka-Replaylee, swings back hard on this oversight by unfolding the dense origami-like world design of the original into a more fleshed-out version that unlocks all of the expansive nooks and crannies into a more seamless, open-world experience, and that’s just one of many upgrades and improvements to be found in this revamped take of the 3D platformer throwback.

Now that 2025 has finished swirling its nasty self into the shower drain of time, we’re ready to jump into the  "Düo-Dusé" fresh! (yeah, George is still calling it that) and begin our annual “Game of the Year” feature for 2025, the Golden Zonkies! We’re not going to lie—the selection was vast this year, and there was a LOT to choose from,  especially during a year where brand new hardware dropped from Nintendo! Still, I think we came away with some choice picks, and we hope you enjoy the deliberation as we present to you, the Golden Zonkies: Class of 2025.

In case y’all don’t remember the updated flow from the last couple of years, we have changed up our format and have done away with categories!  Now, bear in mind that we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, but we’re not doing so by a respective genre or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of three.

Also, the biggest change to the process is that we will no longer limit nominations to the titles that were released that same year, but instead, games that we had the opportunity to play that year, because honestly, it gave a somewhat stressful deliberation process a much-needed shot of levity for us to play with for Golden Zonkies!

 Normally, we would have done a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year, but we decided to mention them in passing instead, along with some not-so-honorable-mentions (we also chose a few more not mentioned on the show to include in the post!) We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to the previous format, and conclude the show from there.

With that being said, thanks again for tuning into our Game of the Year special, and for just listening, watching, or reading anything done by us. We’re hoping to make 2025 a banner year for Press Pause Radio, so stick around and enjoy!

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!

As we all leave the holiday behind and officially ring in 2026, or whatever the hell George was calling it (we think it was the "Düo-Dusé"). We thought it would be neat to look at the holiday season under a lens, and think about the “comfort games” that come with the season.

Think about all of the arguments or justifications you’ve heard for whether or not a film or album is a Xmas-coded production? Like, beyond all of the Die Hard or The Thin Man shitposts, there are pieces of media that folks just associate with the holidays, even when they’re not centrally focused on the jolly time—and some choice picks that don’t even do that much.

We all assign these arbitrary associations between literature and film around yuletides and such, so why not video games too? To ensure we really get some spirit out of this topic, we’ve asked some wonderful folks to appear on the episode, and give us their thoughts on the matter, as well as the games that they associate with the season of giving. Join Andrew and George as they have the pleasure of inviting Emily and Kate of No Small Games, and Rick of Pixel Project Radio to ham it up over this silly little query on what we all like to enjoy on our screens during a heart-warming and arguably anaphylactic event every year in December.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Story-telling is such a powerful method of expression, and is something that can really make the difference in a piece of media, like a film where the production quality isn’t great, or a book where the writing is banal, or for a video game that doesn’t have the best gameplay. An immersive story can save any one of these experiences, but unlike film or literature, a video game has the strength of being designed around a well-crafted story, thanks to the ability to interact with the content diegetically.

All of those moments you found yourself yelling at the characters on screen to discover the  Machiavellian identity of someone close to them, or when you clicked with the hidden message that was woven throughout the progression of the plot—all of these micro-expressions seem to hit even stronger when you had a hand in making it happen. One specific studio has earned its Butter Brickle out of delivering those experiences at a premium, and after being out of the game for the last couple of years, the former development house,  Telltale Games, is now under a new banner, Adhoc Studio, and their reentry to the scene is accompanied by an exciting collaboration as well.

In partnership with the Tabletop gaming fanatics, Critical Role, Adhoc Studio has unveiled their debut, Dispatch, a brand new original story that takes inspiration from the cape-intensive ambience of a Superhero-centric Universe. The world of Dispatch wears its comic book inspiration proudly on its sleeve, and has embroidered that stitch in the thread of Telltale’s previous hits like The Walking Dead or The Wolves Among Us, only with a statistical twist that was built with the spirit of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign under the guise of a 911-like dispatch work simulator. Now, the juxtaposition of choice-driven comment and dice roll-fueled action may initially come off as a dissonant formula, especially when broken down to an episodic format no less, but y’all—they done did it.

The ambitious alliance between Adhoc Studio and Critical Roll proves to be more than just a dap-up for the clicks, as Dispatch arguably stands to be the best choice-driven narrative game the team has ever made.

Memories of my youth in school certainly aren’t the most pleasant times from my childhood, because, surprising no one at all, I wasn’t exactly what you’d call an academic kid—some would say I was more of the opposite. Still, aside from all of the coming-of-age crap that public school pounds into you, there was a memory I had from an art assignment our English teacher gave us to complete (weird, I know, but stick with me.)  The guy was SUPER into Ernest Hemingway, like, he just loved the way that old drunk could mentally instill a scene with his stories using just carefully woven words and nothing more. So, naturally,  he wanted us to try and draw out a specific scene from one of his books, A Farewell To Arms, where we had to do an interpretative sketch drawing of the moment the main character, Frederic, was caught in the mayhem of the Italian army’s retreat during World War I.

The classroom sheet detailed the instruction in a blurb at the top, right below the usual heading where you would write out your name and the date, with the rest of the sheet being a blank canvas for you to use for the sketch. I don’t know what came over me, but I used ALL of the real estate the paper had to offer, which included me scribbling art over the instructions and header area, using every inch of the paper I could.  I mean, I too enjoyed the work of Hemingway, so I’m sure that helped my engagement with the work, but my teacher absolutely gushed over the paper after I turned it in (I promise you this humble brag is going to go somewhere, stick with me.) My English teacher praised that my vision wasn’t limited by the concept of margins, and that I went beyond these perceptions to complete my goal with the classwork.

I haven’t really thought about this dumb little moment for years, until just recently, when I decided to pick up where I left off on a little gem of an indie game that took over my life for a few weeks in 2023, System Erasure’s Void Stranger. As much as I had enjoyed the game, I eventually succumbed to the density of its challenge, and the availability of several other new games at the time, I decided that it was time to move on to something else to boot up on my screen.

So yeah, I started playing Void Stranger again, since I thought it was a natural fit for some bedtime gaming with my new ROG Xbox Ally X, and at some point, something just clicked, and it really has sunk its teeth into me this time around. I know I’m a sucker for the usual Avant-Garde gameplay designs that actively work to subvert the very conventions they’re built with, with stuff like Tunic and FEZ, but Void Stranger is just, in a whole different class of its own.  After, ahem, falling deeper into the void with my play through, I managed to tough out the game and make it to the credits.

Something that I’ve felt immensely proud of, and yet sickeningly anxious about, because I’d soon learn that I’ve only scratched the surface of this dumb little brain worm of a game.

Grifters everywhere, all the grifters the eye can see—usually surrounded by an extra set of fingers or image diffusion to give their position away! We all miss the “halcyon” (and mind you, there are some heavyweight lifting behind those air-quotes) days of 2020 when the only bull-shitters trying to pass off a fugazi were bakers and their silly-ass cake art.

Is that a Nintendo GameCube or a Cake? Is that my neighbor’s dog? It looks a little weird, right? Then, before you could feel assured that this was in fact the pooch next door, the neighbor posted an elaborately layered confection that turned out to be, yeah, you guessed it, cake—cue Ron Howard’s narrative barb as you wallow in your poor judgment.

But yeah, wasn’t shit just simpler then? It’s a good thing we have video games to get us through the absurdity of 2025, because there’s less AI involved with them somehow. This week’s episode is another, you guessed it, What’s-in-your-console episode because 2025 has been bountiful with the waves upon waves of interaction distraction for the winter season. We have a full table this week as George, Ed, Andrew, and Sean round out the bench to talk about all of the games juicing their serotonin, and some neat hardware talk too to boot! We’re talking Animal Crossing: New Horizon, Birdcage, MegaBonk, Absolum, Ghost of Yōtei, Tech Romancer, Metroid Dread, Parasite Eve, Hades II, Arc Raiders, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Tech Romancer, Super Mariomon, Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, Final Fantasy XI, and more!

For the hardware talk, Ed goes into some incredible detail with the Supergun setup he built with the BeharBros. Hayabusa and various electrical components to house a number of arcade boards like the Capcom CPS1 boards, Taito X System boards, IGS PolyGameMaster boards, Neo•Geo MVS boards, and more! Georgie, on the other hand, has some way less cool tech to discuss as he took the plunge on the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X, and discussed the various hits and misses of the handheld with us on the show (spoiler, there were a few more misses than hits in the shared impressions.)

This episode was definitely a long-boy™, but gosh dang darn dammit, do we think it was certainly a goodie! Be sure to enjoy during one of the many long commutes ahead during these trying Holiday times we’re all surviving in!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

One might almost expect a game with the namesake of the Angry Video Game Nerd series to be horrible by design. After all, the Nerd — created and portrayed by James Rolfe — has a penchant for bringing what he calls the worst of the worst to light, sometimes sprinkling in bits of reluctant video game trivia with a sea of curse word-ridden catchphrases. In some instances, it's not entirely unwelcome to see low doses of a weird low-budget robot, cursing mutant, or some other weird shit.

An FMV intro of Rolfe as the Nerd at the beginning of Retroware's AVGN 8-bit may not inspire confidence in the ease or enjoyment of any trials ahead: "This game sucks ... just the way I like it."

Thing is, it doesn't actually suck. Dare I say it's pretty well-rounded, though not the most inventive experience in terms of level flow, gameplay mechanics, or boss battles. This game won't change your life, but you'll have some fun along the way.

It isn’t very often that the cultural zeitgeist of video games just comes together on a subject like the friggin’ Planeteers summoning Captain Planet, right? I mean, thinking back, the last few times something like that happened were the releases of Pokémon GO or Grand Theft Auto V—video game releases that surpassed the typical grand-scale spectacle for their respective audiences and had instead exploded into being these larger-than-life experiences that invaded all of the water coolers out there.

Well, it happened again with the long-awaited sequel to the 2017 sleeper hit from indie studio Team Cherry—Hollow Knight: Silksong.

What was once ranked among the vaporware meme status of Half-Life 3 or, to a lesser extent, Banjo-Threeie (can’t really do Shenmue III or Zach Snyder’s Justice League, because well, those ended up coming out), the highly anticipated follow-up finally emerged from years of silence with a surprise launch date that was showcased in the 2025 Gamescom event. The sporadic appearance of the trailer not only showed everyone watching and in attendance that the game was alive and well, but it also steadily concluded with an eye-opening launch date that was just a mere two weeks away.

No advance press copies or influencer kits—a worldwide release for everyone to experience completely sealed from behind Team Cherry’s doors until its Sept. 4 launch date. The clandestine rollout couldn’t be more thematic for Silksong, as the crux of the game teased a quest that spanned a world far bigger and more daunting than Hollow Knight’s Hallownest ever was, and after spending hours of needling my way through the troubled lands of Pharloom, I can safely say that the hype is real.

Silksong is one of the finest Metroidvanias ever made—a true peak for the sub-genre of “search-action” gaming.

The Yakuza/Like a Dragon titles are a series of video games that quickly etched their mark onto my heart, especially after I started to lose hope of whether or not the next Shenmue entry would ever happen. In spite of the action-laced criminal drama that the series is famous for, though, the B-Story styled side-quests and activities were what always hooked me for hours on end, more often to the extent that the main objectives of the games were ironically set to the side. While Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio made sure to pack plenty of flashy distractions and gripping stories, there was a certain recurring trend among the low-stakes pastimes that were included in each Yakuza title—a business-simulator-like mini-game. These side-operations didn’t just have some flimsy premise to justify their inclusion, either; these games are often sizable productions, complete with their own wacky gravitas of the “Saving the Orphanage” variety attached to the ordeal, and in some instances were just as deep as the main plot.

Thinking back, I remember spending a whole night grinding away at Ichiban Confections, and just easily lost count over how many times that I had thought to myself, “Man, this should be a whole-ass game with a full-time 40-hour campaign and everything…”

Well, it would seem that Kaizen Game Works must have heard my silly pipe dreams and did just that with Promise Mascot Agency, and even enlisted the incredible talents of Takaya Kuroda for good measure.

Beyond the parallels to the Dragon of Dojima’s outings, Promise Mascot Agency offers an engrossing story of perseverance and redemption through a massive melting pot of gameplay mechanics that have no business working together as well as they do. The end result is a fresh and weirdly addictive venture that delivers an experience that’s even better than the bizarrely solid sum of its parts.

Are beards still neat? We wonder, mainly because we’re older and less hip—plus we noticed the significant lack of facial hair upon the plastic grimace of Labubus, so shit’s been tripping us up to say the least.

Or maybe it’s all of these heavy-hitter video game releases that are stacking up in October that have got us slipping up because HOO-boy are there some blockbuster titles appearing on shelves this month, and we’re desperately trying to keep up with it all. Join Ed, George, and Andrew as they dish on the latest news of the concerning buyout of EA, Microsoft’s ludicrous price hikes across the market, and the main topic for the episode, what we’ve all been playing in yet another edition of “What’s in your Console?”

The list spans to Borderlands 4, Hollowknight: Silksong, Sonic Wings Reunion, Silent Hill f, Skate, Tokyo Jungle, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Hades II, Persona 3 Aegis, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 Royale, Lost Soul Aside, and a ton of Magic: The Gathering talk that’s filled with all of the oogling and speccing you could hope for!

Come for the unqualified cosmetology opinions, stay for the gluttony of software we’re stuffing ourselves with. Shit, we’re not even ready for Ghost of Yōtei, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Ninja Gaiden 4, or… 

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Everything’s an Ad nowadays (#notanAd) and the constant outpour of late-stage capitalism getting pumped out through our screens and on our pages has objectively reached a point of Ad nauseam (sorry, we just couldn’t resist.)

In all seriousness, though, if there’s one form of entertainment that’s fueled by marketing magic more than any other medium, it’s video games, and there are generations upon generations of material to take a look back at and examine the expansive world of Video Game advertisements via printed ads and broadcast commercials. Join George, Sean, Andrew, and special guest Peter Skerrit as they examine nearly 50 years of promotional material and discuss some of the memorable, or more accurately, psychologically impactful ads that have embedded themselves deep into the minds of these middle-aged game junkies.

From the edgy attack Ads of the 90’s to the arthouse schlock of the late aughts, we’ve got all of the deep cuts for you, as we can’t help but feel nostalgic for the shameless sales pitches of old and the levels of showmanship that Video Game advertisements used to have back then before giving up and paying Geoff Keighley a bunch of money to hock their stuff for them.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

It’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention, and in the case of the dispiriting limbo that Capcom has planted the Blue Bomber in, the iconic robot’s absence has encouraged multiple studios and visionaries to step up and deliver an experience not all too dissimilar to that of the Mega Man effect. With the rare exception of 2018’s Mega Man 11, the super fighting robot has been mainly relegated to nostalgia collections or vanity cameos, and the weight of his “pew-pew” gameplay has been carried on by a variety of indie developments or community efforts.

This new influx of games, however, has also encouraged studios to do more than a superficial spin on the trademark Run’nGun formula, with select titles really showing off the timeless potential of Mega Man-inspired side-scrolling action. One of which is Elsie, an independently developed adventure starring a larger-than-life, mascot-pilled android made by Knight Shift Games and published by Playtonic's new publishing branch, “Playtonic Friends.” As the fourth game to be supported by Playtonic’s offshoot publication label, Elsie offers many familiar dynamics that more resemble the feel of the Mega Man X series than its 8-bit counterpart, only with a Rougelike twist on the setup. While this territory isn’t exactly uncharted with 20XX and 30XX making waves in the subgenre, Elsie sinks its teeth more into the character-driven spectacle its inspiration is famous for, with a side of frenetic bullet action that blends into something like Mega Man X meets SuperGiant Games’ Hades.

I say this with my whole chest and every heavy breath huffed in—words really can’t serve justice to what Knight Shift Games has done with those mechanics—I genuinely believe that Elsie breathes a whole new sense of life into some admittedly fatigued concepts by delivering an immaculate sense of game feel and presentation that I haven’t experienced in years.

Look!—is it a bird? A plane? No! it’s the latest episode of Press Pause Radio!

In the shadow of the Man of Steel’s newest film, George, Andrew, and Sean get swept up in all of the hype of a new Superman movie, and the possible family ties between David Corenswet and Christopher McDonald, along with some of the summer concert experiences and the dreaded summer heatwave that’s being thrust upon us in this ruthless month of July.

This episode is another “What’s in your Console” special where we sit back and discuss all of the games we’ve been playing or fussing with; in this episode you’ll hear about Persona 3 Reload, Lost Winds, Clair Obscur Expedition 33, Bolatro, Fortnite, Splatoon 3, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, ZPF, Paprium, Atari 50, the Atari VCS, the PlayDate, the Atari 5200, and so much more!

Enjoy the latest episode, and be sure to remind folks Superman was always Woke and has been since he was leaping tall buildings back in 1938!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

It’s finally here! At the top of what was arguably the most chaotic week for video games in 2025, the Nintendo Switch 2 is available now, and we’re going to spend this whole episode talking about our first impressions of it.

The roundtable of chairs for the show this go-around features George, Andrew, and a very special guest, Greg Sewart, one of the Co-hosts of the esteemed Player One Podcast, and Electronic Gaming Monthly alumni, and we don’t waste any time dishing it up on Nintendo’s new thingy. From the technical performance between its handheld mode and docked mode to the ergonomic feel and system calibration, the crew tries to cover every granular detail they can about the system, the new features available, and the only real launch title released for the platform, Mario Kart World.

Is it worth the hype (or more importantly, the price?) Who knows! We’re here to gush and gripe about the damn thing and share our initial thoughts so far on the successor to a nine-year-old (yes, you read that right) platform, and the roller-coaster of emotions we’ve experienced with Nintendo’s aging hybrid console leading up to this point.

We Hope you enjoy the show, and please be sure to subscribe to the Player One Podcast if you haven’t already!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

New recording platform, who dis’? Yeah, we’re all a bit excited over some of the new tech we have to produce the show, and we’re all trying to do everything we can to enjoy it while it’s still fresh and shiny in this latest episode of Press Pause Radio.

This session is much more casual than the last few episodes as the cast tries to parse out the tumultuous news cycle that came to pass over the last two weeks.  George, Ed, and Andrew are on the cans and take the time to discuss various layoffs and terminations seen from Electronic Arts, Polygon, and Giant Bomb (luckily, one of those unfortunate deals got some of the best news ever after the episode was long recorded and sent into production.) There’s also a quick recap of Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, and some thoughts on Grand Theft Auto VI getting delayed in 2026.

Afterwards, the crew talks about the gamers they’ve been playing, like Rock Band Rivals, Clair Obscur Expedition 33, Division 2, Fantavision 202X, Promise Mascot Agency, Humanity, PSVR 2, Pokémon Brown Version 20th Anniversary Edition, Persona 3 Reload, and a shit ton more!

We hope y’all enjoy the show because we’re gearing up for a whole lot more in the coming months!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

After nearly ten years with everyone’s favorite console/handheld hybrid, Nintendo is FINALLY gracing the world with a grand-scale presentation of the Switch successor, the Nintendo Switch 2.

So, what better way to hype ourselves up for the big N’s upcoming hardware than to fantasize a bunch of our pie-in-the-sky. “what-if” wishes that we want to see out of the new console, along with some educated guesses and predictions to throw around amongst ourselves. Joining Ed, George, and Sean this time around is Hayes Madsen, a games journalist currently penning words at inverse.com, who worked at over a dozen other outlets, and has graciously accepted the invite to discuss a slew of topics for this week’s episode!

On the cast, the crew will weigh in on their shared impressions of this year’s GDC, the state of indie games, Game Informer’s return, and everything Nintendo leading up to the Switch 2 Direct! Also, a bit of warning; we unfortunately ran into some recording hiccups that slightly affected the audio quality of this episode, but rest assured PPR-gonauts, the latest show is VERY MUCH still listenable, so please, enjoy all while we collectively salivate at the promise of consistent frame-rates and 4K resolution from Nintendo of all things!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Well, we should have guessed that it wouldn’t be a Golden Zonkies episode without a troubled production to delay the release! Some traditions really do die hard! Anyway—our sincerest apologies for the delay, the Golden Zonkie class of 2024 is officially here!

Unfortunately, 2024 saw more of the same crap that permeated 2023. The games industry layoffs didn’t slow down, unionization efforts have a long way to go, technical shortcomings have handily proven that we’re not ready for the all-digital landscape the industry is barreling towards, and in the best Oscar Isaac impression we can do—somehow Gamergate has returned….

Still—there were plenty of games to get excited about, and developments to look forward to, so without further ado, here’s the lowdown on Press Pause Radio’s Golden Zonkies special.

In case y’all don’t remember the updated flow from the last couple of years, we have changed up our format and have done away with categories!  Now, bear in mind, that we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, only, we’re not doing so by a respective genre, or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of five (we just happened to have played more killer games in 2023 than usual.)

Also, the biggest change to the process is that we will no longer limit nominations to the titles that were released that same year but instead, games that we had the opportunity to play that year, because honestly—it gave a somewhat stressful deliberation process a much-needed shot of levity for us to play with for Golden Zonkies!

 Normally we would have done a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year, but we decided to mention them in passing instead, along with some not-so-honorable-mentions (we also chose a few more not mentioned on the show to include in the post!) We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to the previous format, and conclude the show from there.

With that being said, thanks again for tuning into our Game of the Year special, and for just listening, watching, or reading anything done by us. We’re hoping to make 2025 a banner year for Press Pause Radio, so stick around, and enjoy!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

New year, same tardy nonsense—we recorded a few weeks ago, but life and technical issues got in the way of the production process, and for that, we sincerely apologize to y’all.

Before we get into the Golden Zonkies’ class of 2024, however, we wanted to have an old-school “PPR-ass PPR” round robin on a featured topic, and what better subject than the art and science behind video game box art?

Join George, Ed, and Andrew as they discuss the history, culture, and legacy of box art, such as the ever-changing motifs of design and the artists who famously brought them to life on shelves like George Opperman, Greg Martin, Bob Wakelin, Yoshitaka Amano, Tom DuBois, Ken Sugimori, Yoji Shinkawa, and more. Hell, have you ever thought about what the box of your favorite video game may have looked like in a different country? Raccoon Mario soaring against a yellow backdrop may be a Mount Rushmore type of pastiche here, but in Japan, the giant ensemble piece of characters against a teal palate is what tickles the nostalgia bone in that corner of the world, and that’s so weirdly fascinating don’t you think?

Every year that passes is another year closer to a fully digital media landscape, and while that can have huge ramifications on the preservation of software, something as innocuous as box art can sometimes be the little dumb thing that makes physical media truly that much more special. We hope you enjoy the latest episode of Press Pause Radio—and don’t forget to check out the next one, because we’ll be doing the Golden Zonkies for 2024 next!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Life has been pretty hectic for all of us, and even when we have in some time to play some games in between the bustle and hustle of day-to-day life, it’s been a little harder to find time in the day to talk about what we’ve been playing amongst ourselves…

So for that, we’re really sorry about the delay with this week’s episode, but hey, we’re pretty excited to say it was a real doozy to chat it up for the show because we brought a good friend to record with us!

This week’s episode of Press Pause Radio, we asked Game journo luminary and current editor-in-chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Mollie L. Patterson to join the cast of Ed, George, and Sean for another edition of What’s-in-Your-Console and a bit of news impressions on the side!

In Episode 153 of Press Pause Radio, the gang discusses Nintendo Alarmo, Taito Arcade Kits, PlayStation 5 Pro, Eliminate Down, Elsie, Metaphor: ReFantazio, UFO 50, Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland, Tutankham, El Viento, Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Magic: The Gathering, Actraiser, UN Squadron, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the state of the United States Healthcare system, and a whole lot more!

So mail in your ballots, gear up for winter flood of holiday releases, and get ready to jot down your game-of-the-year candidates because the Golden Zonkies are coming up super soon!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

As real as Bobby Braddock’s melodic soliloquy "Time Marches On" gets, we are now on the other side of another digital sunset as Microsoft closes down the Xbox 360 Marketplace. The term "sunset" may not be the right choice here, though with all of Microsoft’s confusing cross-pollination between the last couple of Xbox generations, this “sunset” comes off more like a hasty “sweep under the rug” where front-end accessibility to the iconic storefront can still be accessed through weird exploits that are reminiscent of a secret-menu at your local drive-thru.

The latest episode of Press Pause Radio is a full round-table of PPR pundits as George, Andrew, Ed, and Sean pour their hearts out on a post-mortem look at the Xbox 360 Marketplace and the ups and downs of what the service did in its prime and the legacy it holds into this weird twilight-esque second life on the Xbox One/Series era of Xbox Live. We also wax nostalgic on all the choice cuts the store had to offer, whether it was a delisted Konami Arcade port, a SEGA gem, or the HD re-release of the only decent thing that Doug TenNapel has ever done with his miserable existence—we get heavy into the gems that players could only find on the Xbox 360 Marketplace, and explore how these games helped shape Xbox into the household name that it is today.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

The ever-growing presence of video games in pop culture meant that it was only inevitable for it to be a hacky trope in television melodramas and sitcoms. And dammit all if the interpretation of gaming on the silver screen isn’t just some of the cringiest shit any time they’re presented, or in some bizarre instances, how people play them (Tony Soprano playing Mario Kart 64 with one-hand lives rent-free in my head.) Why the random contrast though you ask? Well, one of the more frequent genres used for the trope is the fantasy RPG, often for an MMO sort of deal that’s supposed to espouse some sort of moral about teamwork or the dangers of game addiction. It’s common to see the settings for these fictional games that’s used for the TV show plots have some of the most superficial presentations or gameplay mechanics ever seen in games, and I won’t make any bones about it—Dragon’s Dogma II from Capcom looks and plays like one of the most egregious parodies of this concept…

I mean, the notion isn’t entirely a negative thing—there are instances of moment-to-moment gameplay in which Dragon’s Dogma II delivers this sort of absurdity that you’d either hear from another kid spouting off tall tales on the playground from your youth or see in a TGIF sitcom with the most slapdash workshop of combat mechanics. The naked truth of Dragon’s Dogma II being an unabashed remake trying to disguise itself as a full-fledged sequel aside, the potential chaos that you can derive from the surprisingly deep combat and vocation system is where the game really shines, even if it is a glorified “do-over.”

It’s just too bad the game has no real-world or personality to compliment the kind of excitement the action offers. Aside from a few novel twists on the tired medieval setup, Dragon’s Dogma II delivers fewer peaks than valleys, made all the more worse by the world-building in between. Just because Skyrim isn’t crowding it’s release window, doesn’t mean there haven’t been several other titles in recent memory like Final Fantasy XVI or Elden Ring that have done the premise significantly better.

You know—some trends just don’t live past their 15 minutes of fame; Zombies? Played out, Vampires? Done to death, & Superheroes? We’re approaching terminal velocity on that can of worms soon, just give it some time. There are, however, some exceptions in Pop Culture that’ll just never NOT be rad as all hell, and one of those things is giant mech-suit robots.

Where mainstays of the genre like Gundam, Macross, and to some loose extent, Transformers have populated the public headspace in the genre, one particular property has commanded an underground yet dedicated peak of fandom in Video Games like no other IP specifically has—Armored Core.

Riding on the wave of new fandom that Dark Souls and Elden Ring have afforded them, FromSoftware unveiled the next entry in their long-dormant series that hasn’t seen a release in well over a decade with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon and they’re giving it the red-carpet treatment to boot. This new release does ask an interesting question though; where its demanding twitchy-trigger gunplay carved out a modest niche of dedicated fans much like that of the “Soulsborne” series of games, those titles were able to steadily evolve and refine their gameplay hallmarks with the sort of resources that Armored Core has never had the privilege of receiving.

How exactly does Fires of Rubicon close such a long gap between releases without compromising the ardent quirks of its combat and difficulty? Well, it turns out that the answer is a lot easier than you’d think—Fires of Rubicon takes everything Armored Core V did and doubles down on it with all the technical performance the ninth generation of gaming hardware could afford the long-awaited sequel.

It’s raining diss tracks y’all, and ain’t nobody safe from the rhyming raids of character assault up in this BEE-yotch that we call LYFE…

Alright, that’s enough cringe—with all of the harrowing news we’ve seen out of 2024, we’ve decided to try our hand at some levity with a brainstorm-fueled feature topic that we think can bring out the sort of trademark fun the video games are iconic for. In the same vein of fantasy booking your favorite sport, we’ve decided to come together and choose one intellectual property to revive for a modern-day release from twelve different companies who have either dabbled in publishing or development for that property and make a case for why that given franchise is worthy of a new game over any other dormant franchises that have also been left in the gaming past.

It’s the type of “think-tank” discussion that we haven’t had on the show in some time! Join Andrew, George, and special guest, Joie of Super RPG Friends and Cerulean Skies as we wax nostalgia in the future tense as we plead the importance of a ninth-generation rally for dozens of cult-classic properties for y’all in episode 151 of Press Pause Radio!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Hey everyone, apologies for sitting on the production of the episode for as long as we did—a combination of schedule changes within our daily routines coupled with the rare moments of poop-socking that were granted for us to dump giant loads into new releases with near endless maws of content really fucked up our usual operational turn-around times. Nevertheless, that’s all over and done with as we’re here to catch up with 2024 and plug away at another new year of gaming (and the sad sad shit that’s unfortunately stuck on to it like childhood baggage it would seem.

Rest assured though, with the little money this outfit has ever seen in its fifteen year run so far, we’ve come nowhere NEAR the volume of corporate glut that was the Corporate budget for Milk from VICE management—holy shit is it wild y’all. Anyway, in this episode of Press Pause Radio, Ed, George, Andrew, and Sean all gather together to discuss the details of their precious screentime in another edition of “What’s in your Console “ and we get deep in our time with sharing with the class in this session of water cooler talk.

On docket for the show, you’ll hear about the Commodore 64 Mini, Lazy Jones, Scramble, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, Tatsujin, GameBoy mod work, Hori Fighting sticks, Helldivers II, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Splatoon 3: Side Order, Mario VS Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy VII: Remake Intergrade, Contra: Operation Galuga, Palworld. Unicorn Overlord, the WiiU and so much more!

So be sure to get  your intake of Vitamin R and soak nearly 3 hours of ear candy from one of the oldest video game podcasts still kicking in the game—here’s episode 150 of Press Pause Radio!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Not to get too sidetracked but did y’all know that American Dad has aired for 13 seasons now? Shit’s kind of wild when you think about it. Anyway, better late than ever, here’s our annual Golden Zonkey Podcast special for the year 2023! We were able to fit a bunch of new games into our lineup, and of course, a bunch of old-ass ones too! Like, sure I guess it isn’t all that weird that George rolled a Texas Instruments Ti99/4a and Epoch Super CassetteVision into his lineup, but can y’all believe that Ed got a PS5 AND an Xbox One?! Andrew also picked up a friggin’ PlayDate—we are certainly wildn’ right meow y’all.

Despite all of the layoffs and chaotic mergers leaving behind more Valleys than Peaks in the Games Industry last year, there were still some genuinely massive achievements that deserve their flowers. Here’s to doing what we can to give back to the medium that brings our lives so much joy.

In case y’all don’t remember the updated flow from the last couple of years, we have changed up our format and have done away with categories!  Now, bear in mind, we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, only, we’re not doing by a respective genre, or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of five (we just happened to have played more killer games in 2023 than usual.)

Also, the biggest change to the process is that we will no longer limit nominations to the titles that were released that same year but instead, games that we had the opportunity to play that year, because honestly—it gave a somewhat stressful deliberation process a much-needed shot of levity for us to play with for Golden Zonkies!

 Normally we would have done a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year, but we decided to mention them in passing instead, along with some not-so-honorable-mentions (we also chose a few more not mentioned on the show to include in the post!) We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to the previous format, and conclude the show from there.

Thanks again for listening to us gab on about our favorite time-wasters from last year. May we do what we can to capture both your ears AND eyes this on Press Pause Radio with all the neat shit we have in store—love ya!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

There’s one thing to lose a job (it still sucks, there’s no denying that) but it’s a whole other level of despair when you lose a dream job—something you’re proud to call a career. In the year 2023 alone, there has been a reported 6,000 layoffs in the Games Industry since October of this year, and that’s not even accounting for some of the new figures that were announced the last two weeks either.

Mind you, this is also happening in a year where profits are supposedly reaching record-breaking highs, but what kind of success can that really account for when it’s done at the expense of disposed talent—this shit straight sucks.

So join Andrew and George as they discuss the harsh reality of the industry and the growing instability for job security across multiples professions in the industry, and what measures, steps, and activism we can accomplish from both the outside, and the inside of the industry (take a shot every time we say “unionize” it’ll be a hoot!)

Prior to that, we also talk about some of the games we’ve been playing like Bluey: The Video Game, Robocop, Void Stranger, and more—lots to unpack before we head into the Holiday! Enjoy the episode everyone.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Imagine if Space Harrier was revamped into an absurdly stylized Rock Opera that cranked the dial on the Surrealistic fantasy themes to psychedelic levels of absurdity over its Sci-Fi roots for current gaming platforms. Well, don't strain yourself too hard because YS Net, the studio started by legendary developer Yu Suzuki, has taken all the guesswork out of the matter with their latest release, Air Twister. Where Team Reptile's Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was a modernized Love Letter to an iconic SEGA property, Air Twister is being presented as the quintessential sequel to the Arcade Classic in nearly everything but name, and the next big release from Yu Suzuki following the studio's crowdfunded debut with Shenmue III. Originally released as an Apple Arcade exclusive in the summer of 2022, the mobile exclusive has now been greenlit as a multiplatform release for digital storefronts on both Console and PC.

The twists (shitty pun intended) don't stop there, as Air Twister offers various flourishes on the shooter's foundation that set it apart from its source material—honestly, to a degree where it more often resembles a Hidden Caravan Level Mode from Panzer Dragoon than anything related to Space Harrier. Despite the inconsistent traces of Harrier DNA though, Air Twister still manages to deliver that trademark Popcorn Shooting frenzy that Suzuki had earned his pedigree on, albeit in a somewhat stunted execution that just manages to breathe a scant new gasp of life into the Arcade classic.

Air Twister is…well, intriguing, to say the very least.

I find it pretty funny that I’m writing this review mere weeks after the Dreamcast’s 24th Anniversary; I mean, not just that in that granular humor from a well-timed coincidence sort of way, but in that I’m still seeing one of my favorite consoles live on through a legacy that dwarfs its flash-in-the-pan lifespan. Even though it was released two years into the 128-Bit Machine’s reign, Jet Grind Radio left quite the impact in 2000, as it quickly became a must-have exclusive for the platform and yet another reason to attract anyone over to SEGA hardware instead of Nintendo’s or Sony’s offering.

After an underwhelming sequel and years of Fan-service cameos, SEGA’s frenetic Graffiti-racer has mostly lived on as a garnish for the repeated servings of nostalgia surrounding the Japanese brands’ peak years. Given that the property has undoubtedly had more of an impact than SEGA had accounted for, it was only inevitable that one studio would set out to tag the spot Jet Grind Radio had left untouched for twenty years.

Netherlands studio, Team Reptile, answered the call, & endeavored to produce a spiritual successor to the Dreamcast Cult favorite with Bomb Rush Cyber Funk, an improved open-world take over the middling attempt we saw out of Jet Set Radio Future, with a freestyle approach to progression. The end result isn’t just a fresh approach to a familiar classic but a practical reinvention that improves upon its source material in nearly every single way.

A tale as old as time, with a verse that has no clever rhyme—George really hates everything about flying.

Miserable flights aside though, PPR’s Bearded Beast is back from the Nihon, and regales us with stories of his travels, the sights who he took in, and the retro games he stumbled upon in his 10 day trip in Tokyo. Adding on to the conversation, this week’s cast of George, Andrew, and Sean get together to share their thoughts on the latest news, and games that have been inhabiting their consoles.

Sit back as we gab about the Atari 2600+, Nintendo Live, the SG-1000, Starfield, Atari’s purchase of AtariAge, Sony’s price hike on PS+ Plans, Baldur’s Gate 3, Final Fantasy XIV, Action 52, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, PSVR2, WrestleQuest, and a whole lot more.

We have a bunch of reviews coming down the pipeline for Press Pause Radio, and hopefully the final bend for the final steps for the new studio George has been working on the last couple of years. We’re almost there y’all—GET HYPE

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Isn't it weird how, like Video Games, Pro-Wrestling has had its ups and downs within the Pop Culture Zeitgeist? It's just one of those deals where varying degrees of social stigmas through different generations had just held it back from reaching actual relevance within the mainstream consciousness like it's arguably achieved in today's entertainment climate, and that's because it's so much more than just a "sport" to enjoy. Imagine, for example, a Quarterback running a standard play in a Football game, and the moment they shouted "Hike," they suddenly ran backward toward their own endzone, spiked the ball down to the turf, and then viciously ripped their jersey off only to reveal the other team's jersey underneath it—this is the kind of energy you can expect out of Professional Wrestling. There's no other athletic competition out there like it.

It's a spectacle that's translated very well into the Video Game format, so much so that Wrestling Games are their own little subgenre to play from. Still, it's nearly always a case where developers adapt the rules and conventions of Pro Wrestling into a video game instead of it being the other way around.

Developer Mega Cat Studios pondered that challenge with a JRPG-inspired Turn-based Adventure named WrestleQuest, a colorful fantasy take on the world of Toys and their dreams to make it big in the squared circle. At the core of the concept, any premise can be made into a 16 Bit styled RPG if you have the right systems in place, but WrestleQuest doesn't settle for that and instead delivers one of the finest examples of Ludonarrative Consistency that I have ever experienced. I'm not kidding when I say it's easily one of the best Pro Wrestling games ever released in generations. 

It sure has been a while now hasn’t it? Well, we made sure to make it count with this new episode as we brought along John Unterseher from Super RPG Friends to round out this week’s table of chuckleheads!

In an effort to talk shop on all of the recent announcements that took place while also trying to keep things Water Cooler with what we’ve been  playing, we mixed it up a bit for this episode. John joins Andrew and George as they discuss which announcements made the most notable impression on us from Summer Gamefest block of announcements they’ve affectionately dubbed to be “Not E3” and then decide to steamroll right into what’s been in their consoles with 2023’s packed release schedule. Announcements of games to come along with games here and now ranging in Super Mario RPG, XDefiant, Project Octopath Traveler 2 , Persona 3 Reload, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Pikmin 4, Super Mario Wonder, Sonic Superstars, Sand Land, Nicholas Cage, Mortal Kombat 1, AEW Fight Forever, and so much more.

So sit down and clean that off-lavender shake off your lip as we bring you Press Pause Radio Episode 147, also—you don’t look so hot, just how much of that shake did you wolf down?

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

There are some events that we’ve come expect with the certainty of a season change. Whether it’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, The Super Bowl, or The Oscars—these annual institutions have operated for most of our natural-born lives, and won’t go anywhere anytime soon. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 for short, used to be one of those long-standing institutions, but has recently seen come rough days the couple of years, and has decidedly skipped out on 2023 altogether.

While writing has been on the wall, the language that E3’s parent company, ESA, has used over the future of the showcase is a little too ambiguous for comfort, and it’s likely that we may not see the event come back in the near future, or ever. Despite it going out with more of a whimper than a bang, there have been a ton of memorable years in Video Gaming where the event hosted some truly historical announcements, cementing moments that still occupy our headspaces to this very day, and we’re going to spend this episode talking about that, and so much more.

Join Andrew and George as they take you on a Post-Mortem of what George called the “Met Gala” of the Video Games Industry as they discuss the up’s and down’s of the yearly trade-show, and all of the notable footnotes it’s had in its run, bizarre pageantry and all.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

CANADA INVENTED FOOTBALL! That’s just one of the many things you’ll learn in this new episode of Press Pause Radio—aside from the fact that George also got a Vasectomy, that’s a thing too we guess.

We keep it pretty casual off the heels of the Golden Zonkies and just talk about the latest stuff we’ve all been playing. On tap for this session is Ed, Andrew, and George as they gab on about games like Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, Tetris Effect, Moss, Baby Pac-Man, Wanted: Dead, Horizon Dawn: Forbidden West, Forespoken, Atari 50, Ninja Golf, Blood & Truth, Yggdra Union, and so much more.

So kick up a chair, grab some pretzels, and decompress from a long afternoon of socializing over Sports Ball as we share some thoughts and words over fast-paced start to our 2023 here at Press Pause Radio!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

I have fond memories of not only playing but also selling what was referred to as a “B” game from my time as a game store employee during the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 era. This type of game, normally an action game would be from a smaller developer and publisher, with a limited budget but always offered entertainment and combat for a lower cost. It was an easy sell for someone looking to play something but didn’t want the larger scope and price of a triple A title. Just some fun games like Stranglehold, Shadows of the Damned and Wet, just to reference a few from the past. For better or worse, Wanted:Dead from Soleil and 110 Industries harkens back to this time in gaming, offering sword-clashing and gun-blazing combat with some corny voice acting and glaring issues in level design and difficulty that might need more than nostalgia to win over most players.

o matter how many times I’ve seen it, I still think it’s BUCK wild to see a brand new game for the NES get commercially released over 30 years past the system’s prime. The Homebrew scene for these legacy platforms are further bolstered by the flexibility of the Digital Marketplace hosted by every notable name you can think of, like Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Valve, or hell, even Atari.

One of the latest releases for the most popular 8-Bit machine is an homage to Mega Man by developer Gradual Games named Trophy, and it’s not only been made available on Cartridge for its original hardware, it’s also available on Switch eShop and Xbox Marketplace via a proprietary NEW Emulator to boot. The technical chops on display are nothing of impressive, as the game seemingly uses every MMC Mapper to push the most out of the system to run it, but the core design of the game hardly does anything to impress beyond the sheer novelty of it being a new Action Shooter you can grab for the NES.

Tophy is certainly no Mega Man, but it isn’t even a Darkwing Duck, or a Krion Conquest, or hell even a Whomp ‘Em—it’s just a another retro game with some bizarrely outdated design by comparison.

orgive the clichéd sentiment, but even after 31 years of blazing across all manner of screens, SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog does show any sign of slowing down. Riding the hype train of the recent film’s success at the Box-Office in the same year the little guy turns 31, the folks at SEGA and Sonic Team in collaboration with the talented folks at HeadCannon took to the task of releasing yet another Classic Sonic Collection, Sonic Origins. The collection features Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic CD, and the first re-release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles in over a decade; each one optimized with the same Retro Engine Sonic Mania ran on, enhancing these cult-favorite titles with a sizable HD upgrade for the current generation of gaming.

Despite the number of times some of these titles have been re-released, Sonic Team and company have boasted that this new arrangement will come loaded with more passion and fandom than we’ve seen from the likes of Sonic Jam or Sonic Mega Collection. While some of those claims are founded, I can’t quite help but feel like Sonic Origins struggles to live up to the potential it had, let alone the hype going into the whole thing.

hen most think of the NES, they'll likely imagine platformers, side-scrollers and turn-based RPGs. Nintendo's premier console did, after all, introduce us to the very roots of these genres as we know them today while also restoring our faith in video games as a whole after the 1980s game crash.

Some titles, however, were more experimental than others – more specifically, those of the point-and-click genre. Two that immediately come to mine are the console ports of King's Quest V and Shadowgate, in addition to Manic Mansion from Lucasfilm Games.

One could consider NEScape! a faithful ode to any of these titles now available in the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Live libraries, albeit with a much more docile feel. In short, it truly is an "escape room" for the NES.

Now that we’ve torn all of the pages off of our 2022 Bluey licensed Calendars, we’ve jumped ahead into a whole new January filled with work, fatigue, and the occasional video game or two set the vibe to 2023 with. While we’ve definitely had some negative things to say about the last couple of years—we took a few steps to help steady ourselves against the increase chaos in our civilian lives, and in the process, those small sabbaticals we did take as a team have really did a lot to refresh both our minds, and our souls.

We finally took a big step forward with some of the equipment we were able to obtain, and we’re hoping to bring y’all that promised regular video content that we’ve been teasing the last couple of years. In the meantime, a new year means a new class of Golden Zonkies to pass out, including the Press Pause Radio Golden Zonkey for Game of the Year! So without further ado, let’s get into the unofficial rules of our official awards:

In case y’all don’t remember the updated flow from the last couple of years, we have changed up our format and have done away with categories!  Now, bear in mind, we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, only, we’re not doing by a respective genre, or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of three.

 Normally we would have done a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year, but we decided to mention them in passing instead, along with some not-so-honorable-mentions (we also chose a few more not mentioned on the show to include in the post!) We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to the previous format, and conclude the show from there.

Thanks again for listening to us gab on about our favorite time-wasters from last year. May we do what we can to capture both your ears AND eyes this on Press Pause Radio with all the neat shit we have in store—love ya! 

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Instead of going all of those clichéd “Remember when you could drink water from the Garden Hose” sayings, we’re just going to stick with something way less hacky, and far more direct—everything is WAY too fucking expensive right now…

ESPECIALLY Video Games, like, who fucking needs to spend $100 on Marvel’s War of the Gems for SNES right now?!

Luckily, with life hacks like working over 60 hours a week at our Day Job without dying, creating  Professional-grade Arcade Stick controllers out of used Pizza boxes, and checking games out from your local Library for the low, low price of free, the Press Pause Radio staff have been able to weather the cruel wrath of inflation with some bangers.

Join Andrew, Ed, and George as they discuss everything they’ve been playing for this week’s episode of Press Pause Radio, with some choice titles like Splatoon 3, Spider-Man Miles Morales, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss, Mega Man 5, Saints Row, Trouble Witches Neo, Super Mario World: A Plumber For All Seasons, Multiversus, and more!

So enjoy the show and pay those credit cards, because soon you’ll need to start marking down those Holiday releases—Winter is about to hit us HARD with some big-time releases!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Hey all—it’s certainly…been a while since we released an episode, and for that we truly apologize. The Press Pause Radio staff has been contending with a “Life comes at you fast” sort of deal the last two months and well, we went on an unplanned hiatus. The good news is that we’re back, and not only are we back but some of the new production equipment we’ve been teasing over the past year is here!

Aside from a few remaining parts and software, we’re finally ready to start regularly producing video content again, and we couldn’t be happier. Speaking of budgeting for the future, in this episode we gather around with wallets in hand to talk about current subscription-based pricing models for the online features offered from the big three console platforms—the PlayStation Plus series, The Xbox GamesPass selection, and Nintendo Switch Online/Expansion Pass.

Join Andrew, George, and Sean as they debate the advantages and disadvantages of each service while clutching at our Savings Account, and try to land on which service gives you the most bang for your space bucks here on Press Pause Radio episode 143!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Right before Geoff Keighly kicked off his Summer Throat Stroke™, we all scrambled to gather some of our thoughts on what we’ve been playing while we can because unlike the droughts we’ve seen in the years before 2022, we’re in for a flood of titles dropping onto shelves this summer.

Setting aside the real-life struggles of Covid-19 recovery and Car purchases, George and Andrew took the time to go over their thoughts on Sony’s latest State of lay, and all of the neat stuff they’ve been playing. This episode features talk about the Playdate, Trek to Yomi, Nintendo 3DS eShop sunset, Steam Deck, Crimson Shroud, Nintendo Switch Sports, Overcooked, Donut Dodo, Tempest 2000, Pokémon GO, Street Fighter VI impressions, and so much more!

Make sure you’ve got your suntan lotion and your mask handy while you enjoy Episode 142 of Press Pause Radio in the smoldering-ass sun!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

So we've been away for a bit, sorry about that everyone. But just like George's favorite wrestler Dean Malenko in that match against Jericho, we have returned! This is a catch-up episode where we just try to touch base on everything that has happened over the last several months, including Cody Rhodes going back to WWE, that recent MJF promo and Kingston trying to commit a gasoline-fueled crime on PPV. Hope everyone is doing well and hope to be back with more regular episodes soon!

sn’t it just wild what a simple addition or twist can do for a recognized formula? Just look at what tossing in a splash of Lime or Vanilla to a can of Pepsi does for the drink—the same cola base is there, only now it offers a whole new perspective to its taste, and they did this all without completely reinventing the wheel either. It took Pepsi forty years to come up with the idea, while the brilliant minds of the Video Game industry came up with their “Pepsi Lime” moment in thirty-seven with the 2.5D Platformer.

Even though some Video Games that are so good that you just want to play them over and over again, you can’t help but wish for them to get some tinkering under the hood to supe’ them up with the times. Luckily, there are plenty of titles getting new life again for the High Definition screen and a slew of other improvements for audiences both old and new, especially for some of those “Deep Cuts” that didn’t get their fair shake the first time around like Klonoa Phantasy Reverie or Pocky & Rocky Reshrined.

Still, there are a ton of other titles that could use the Remaster treatment, and we each have our own little personal wish list of software that we want to get a fresh coat of paint to share with y’all here on the latest episode of Press Pause Radio. Join Ed, Ren, and George as they go over a rundown of some cult-classics and sleeper-hits primed for the Ninth Generation of gaming!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

eing a Spin-Off from a popular series is hard because you’re either as beloved as Family Matters, or as forgettable as The Cleveland Show—the reception to these ventures is rarely in-between.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s first foray into the Yakuza Universe outside of Kiryu’s story continuity, Judgment, fringes between both ends of that measuring stick. The crux of this weakness fell upon its failure to carve a meaningful identity of its own from the rich source material it pulls from, well, aside from a fickle protagonist who was charming one second and irritatingly cringe-worthy the next at the very least.

Inconsistent delivery aside though, the premise of an Ex-Lawyer turned Private Eye in the world of Kamurcho still carries plenty of merits to re-visit in its own right, especially with mainline Yakuza series shifting into the Turn-Based RPG Genre for the indefinite future. This is where the follow-up sequel to Takayuki Yagami crime-solving caper, Lost Judgement, comes into the grand picture.

The Private Eye’s latest case leads him to the rough streets of Ijincho, and the setting isn’t the only thing that’s new as Lost Judgment is a sequel that boldly builds upon its formula instead of trying to deliver a familiar formula with some forced twists, making for an immensely better experience this time around.

It’s pretty wild to see how many Video Game properties have been adapted for viewing over playing the last year or so. As James Marsden and Company ride the Box Office Success of “Rachel Adventure” (or Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for you Layman’s out there) we here at Press Pause Radio have been getting utterly swamped with our collective pile of games to play, and when we mean collective pile of games, we mainly mean whatever we can squeeze in between sessions of Elden Ring and Tunic.

While Elden Ring and Tunic DID command a lot of the conversation in this episode—George, Sean, and Andrew still had plenty of other games and news to talk about. In this episode of Press Pause Radio, we discussed the 2022 cancellation of E3, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Fish Plays Twitch, that thing that happened at the Oscars (sigh), Exile “Un-Worked Designs” Hack, Super Mario Sunburn, Miner 2049er, NORCO, Montezuma’s Revenge, Pac-Man, Kirby & The Forgotten Land, Ghostwire Tokyo, and so much more!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Now more than ever, Online Multiplayer has established itself into a bonafide standard in the Modern Gaming Climate with dedicated servers that operate on a scale that gets bigger by the year, making the term “Massive” a bit redundant in the process.

Even as you read this, there are thousands of players scrambling through the Online landscapes of Elden Ring and Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, titles that are packed with all of the Cooperative and Competitive ventures you can shake a sword or gun at—and yet neither of them fall under the category of MMO.

As we see the “Games as a Service” Model getting used more frequently, we stop to ask the question as to whether or not the genre of Massive Multiplayer Online games is steadily becoming a thing of the past. Granted, the immensely wild success of Final Fantasy XIV certainly says otherwise, and even contemporaries like Elder Scrolls Online and World of Warcraft are still operating at an impressive capacity despite Endwalker’s dominating performance—it’s still enough to make you wonder just how far these titles can go?

Join George Sean, and Andrew as they pore over the timeline of MMORPG’s, covering everything from their humble beginning, to their boom, and soft crash in the late ‘aughts, and so much more. Be sure to brush up on your HIPPA laws, because we’re going to punch down deep for Episode 139 of Press Pause Radio.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

ack in the day I used to attend several conventions a year, where all forms of gaming, anime and related avenues of fandom would occupy a weekend inside the meeting rooms of an unsuspecting hotel. In those game rooms of my past, I recall seeing Phantom Breaker tournaments and casual play amongst the other 2D fighters. Now over a decade later, Rocket Panda Games has teamed up with MAGES to release an updated and streamlined version of the title for the first time in the West. Does Phantom Breaker: Omnia earn a place in today’s crowded field of fighting games? I think to certain groups of players it very well may have a spot.

Technical issues be damned because Press Pause Radio is stronger than any defective update or worn-out Graphics Card broken that’s crappy enough to try and stop us this late in the GAME.

This week, we decided to keep it chill, and catch everyone up with what we’ve been playing since our Golden Zonkies Special for 2021, along with throwing in our thoughts on the latest Nintendo Direct, and the subsequent Shutdown announcement for the Wii U/3DS eShop to cap it off.

Chairs for the week were Ed, Sean, and George as they gabbed on about Metroid Dread, Tatsujin, PC Denjin, Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker, Animal Crossing New Horizon, Arcade Archives, Phantom Gear, Grapple Dog, Darius Extra Version, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and so much more.

Next Week, we’re going to discuss the current climate of Massive Multiplayer Online Games, their history, and the blurred line between them and the burgeoning “Games as a Service” trend we’ve been seeing in this current generation—see you then!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

As of this recording, pretty much all of the wrestling internet has seen Danhausen's debut in AEW and those fans that have followed his career are through the roof! However, there may be some (Toast included) that may need a Cliff Notes version of his milestones up to this point. We discuss what exactly Danhausen is, as well as his place in the wrestling landscape today. Thank you for listening, hope you enjoy and we will be back with another episode soon!

We’ve wrapped up the second year of the Pterodactyl, Panini, Pizza Party, or whatever the hell else you prefer to call it and are now slugging into the Junior Year of Covid-19: Omicron Edition. It’s been another tough year for everyone, and the cast of Press Pause Radio is far from excluded to that sentiment; despite the extra hours we’ve all put into our day jobs that have inevitably taken away from some of the Content output we’ve usually put out for PPR, we’re still picking up plenty of steam for all of the fun stuff we have planned for 2022. The studio project George has undertaken a few years ago is nearing completion, which will definitely spell for some fun times for commitment for more Video Content in the near future.

But before we get into that, we’re here to kick-off the New Year with our Annual Golden Zonkies Show to commemorate our favorite titles released in 2021, including our Game of the Year!

In case y’all don’t remember the updated flow from the last couple of years, we have changed up our format and have done away with categories!  Now, bear in mind, we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, only, we’re not doing by a respective genre, or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of five. Normally we would have done a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year, but we decided to mention them in passing instead, along with some not-so-honorable-mentions (we also chose a few more not mentioned on the show to include in the post!) We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to the previous format, and conclude the show from there.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

f the mid-Nineties were anything, they were certainly busy; R&B took over the radio, Pro-Wrestling was finding its edge, and Video Games were transitioning to the third dimension—everything was changing. Even if you grew up at that time, there’s was so much going on that it was easy to get lost in all the noise—and nothing was more overlooked at the time than Sega’s 32-Bit Curio, the Sega Saturn. The system went from Champion to Martyr in just three short years, but has still played host to a handful of genre-defining classics that have garnered a legacy in their own right. The Saturn is currently enjoying a bit of a cult following in its afterlife with spectators and enthusiasts alike—steadily driving its secondhand market into high-dollar territory as a result.

Luckily, you don’t have to have deep-pockets to appreciate the Saturn anymore as this newfound interest in the machine has also inspired a wave of new advancements and peripherals from the Retro Game Community, making the process of hooking the Arcade Powerhouse up into your Modern-day setup an absolute cinch. So much so that we here at Press Pause Radio thought that a buying guide should be in order to commemorate all of these new products for the system!

 I honestly could not think of a better time to Publish a buying guide for the Saturn then the Holiday Season that the console is synonymous for. Aside from launching in the pivotal Holiday month December in Japan, the console has also received a special Christmas-themed System Bundle exclusively in Japan, with one of the most iconic Holiday-themed Video Games in existence, Christmas NiGHTS, a demo of the title with a heavy Yuletide Spin in its presentation. Here are some essential accessories and peripherals to start your journey into the “Real World” of the Sega Saturn.

’d say leading up to this review I felt a bit out of my element. For one, I think it’s safe to say that George would be our resident Westone fan with their legacy of games including the Wonder Boy series. And that in the early 1990’s I did not own any consoles, let alone was going to the arcades. However, I do have an appreciation for the arcade genre and its history which is why the release of Clockwork Aquario is such a milestone. For a game that was in limbo for thirty years to finally have a console release is worth all the accolades. And although this may not be a game for everyone, it showcases the expert design and gorgeous artwork that made this developer such a legend in the industry even to this day.

ith a city on fire in the background, a young firefighter desperately tries to save anyone that may be still inside the collapsing building. With little breath left in her body and even less water to fight the blaze, she continues to push forward in desperate hopes of making a difference. All this, on her very first night with the fire department. Okay, maybe it’s not that serious, but it sets the stage for an epic experience. In Firegirl: Hack 'N Splash Rescue the noir themes and roguelite gameplay elements blend very well in an experience that is difficult to master but equally hard to put down.

Happy December Y'all! Hopefully you enjoyed whatever you could out of Colonizer Day and all of the proceeding sales that came afterward. We spent our time toiling away so that we can prepare for some end of the year coverage before we get into the GOTY Season of the year with the Golden Zonkies!

In between all of our Thrift Store Shopping and shenanigans at the Trader Joe's, we got settled into a bunch of games after our Autumn Dinner Feast! Stuff like Kyukyoku Tiger, PlayStation Classic, Mega SD, Terra Cresta II, Moon Cresta, Shin Megami Tensei V, Halo Infinite Multiplayer, Forza Horizons 5, Inscryption, Lost Judgment, Hot Wheels Unleashed , Sable, and so much more!

Join Ed, George, and Andrew as they do their best to navigate another holiday season during the pandemic with Episode 137 of Press Pause Radio!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

We are about a week removed from the biggest AEW event of the year, and it's still all good vibes and happy feelings over here! George and Toast speak about the results of Full Gear, the payoff of two years of storytelling and what it means for the landscape of wrestling going forward. We appreciate everyone checking us out, stay tuned for an end of the year recap episode where we discuss the best matches of 2021. Thank you for listening and talk to you soon!

ver time the Nintendo property lineup has operated as a stable of derby horses and their respective console launch being a race circuit for them to compete in. As the crowds pour in to back these figurative stallions with their money, there’s always been one Dark Horse in the stable that has straddled the line between stardom and obscurity—Metroid; a property that’s inspired droves of games, and yet has lied dormant for more than a decade between releases.

After the mild success of Samus Returns for the 3DS, Nintendo enlisted the studio MercurySteam once more for another 2D side-scrolling entry for the series, Metroid Dread, resurrecting the project for the Nintendo Switch years after its sordid past of setbacks and letdowns. Despite the baggage that the name comes with, however, this may be one of the best collaborations that Nintendo has ever achieved with another studio as Metroid Dread is not only one of the best games to have released this year—it stands to be the best entry of the 35-year-old franchise.

efore games had these rich worlds where players could invest countless hours into game theory videos on YouTube and subsequent dollars on merchandise, Video Games were mostly button-mashing contests of skills with some surface-level premises to hold your attention beyond all of the action. Where some placed you in the role of a frog trying to cross the road, or a Cattle Rancher trying to herd your livestock, a majority of retro video games was shooters, and one of the most iconic among them was Atari’s Centipede.

Most of the software from this era was very limited with what they could do for their presentation, often placing the burden of personality majorly upon the player’s fortitude of imagination, filling the blanks that crude pixels and chiptunes couldn’t do on their own. Centipede was unique in how little it left to the imagination of its players though, unfolding a distinctive world of mutated fungus and humid fauna, teeming with monstrous insects who’re ready to destroy anyone crazy enough to disturb their putrid land. The charismatic shooter’s premise and addictive gameplay has granted it a legacy that’s now spanned decades across the medium, and in an effort to revitalize the title for a modern audience, Atari has called on the folks behind the brilliant Mission Command Recharged, Adamvision Studios, to release the second entry into the “Recharged” lineup, Centipede: Recharged.

Where the previous efforts from the developer were certainly impressive, the lengths they’ve pushed the Centipede formula is nothing short of spectacular—Centipede: Recharged is one of the best modern arcade titles we’ve seen since the likes of Geometry Wars.

Sweet Baby Ray’s be damned because not even its thick and zesty power could mask the insect-like veneer of Jesse Esienberg’s most villainous character role. As the dust settles over Facebook’s transition to a Buzzword, there have been a certifiable crap-load of games to that we’ve been playing that we would love to share with all of you.

George, Andrew, and Sean are reporting in for this week to talk about Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, Rikki & Vikki, Quake Remastered, Back 4 Blood, Far Cry 6, Sable, Rider’s Republic, Halo Infinite Multiplayer Beta, Metroid Dread, and more! So grab your headphone, put on your trendy Halloween threads (we’re betting 9 to 1 that your costume’s based on Squid Game), and remember to keep six feet apart while listening to the latest episode of Press Pause Radio on your Trick-or-Treat Excursion!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

We have returned with a new episode of House Show, with a new flow and new direction moving forward. This episode we take a look at the career and influence of the "Murder Grandpa" himself, Minoru Suzuki. With a career spanning over thirty years and an impact on not only wrestling but mixed martial arts as well, we go over his classic matches and his current run in the United States. If there are any wrestlers you would like to have featured on a future episode, or maybe a specific topic feel free to reach out and let us know. Thank you for listening!

Featuring the following: 

• 5 Like R-Type (Various)
• Blaster Master Zero 1 & 2 (Switch)
• Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton Reboot! (Switch)
• UN Squadron/Area 88 Master Guide (SNES/SFC)
• Ketsui ~Kizuna Jigoku Tachi~ DX (Switch)

Featuring the following:

• Ibara (PS2)
• Ginga Force (PS4)
• Crimzon Clover World EXplosion (Switch)
• Guns of Mercy Rangers Edition (Switch)
• Ketsui ~Kizuna Jigoku Tachi~ Deathtiny (PS4)

Featuring the following:

• Harmful Park (PSX)
• Rapid-Fire Revisits Vol.2 (Claldrius Blaze, Pawarumi, Raiden V DC, and Sine Mora EX on Switch)
• Armed 7 (Dremcast)
• Remote Life (WINPC)
• Tiger-Heli (FC/NES)

Y’all remember that scene from Grosse Pointe Blank where the Convenience store Clerk plays an Arcade port of Doom II throughout the film despite the fact that there is no such thing as a Doom II Arcade—isn’t it weird just how bad Hollywood is with Video games?

Like forget Video Game Adaptions for a second, when was the last time you saw an accurate depiction of a Video Game in a TV Show or Movie where it didn’t have the wrong controller or music used, or the character playing it swaying back and forth like a palm tree smacked with a dab of Ecstasy? It’s pretty hard right—why is that? The medium of Video Games is over forty years old and yet contemporary media still seems to have a flimsy grasp on even the most basic of elements to one of the most popular forms of entertainment, and we here to discuss why that is, and whether or not this shit has gotten any better in current media.

Before we has all that out though, we also get into our impressions of the latest PlayStation State of Play Direct, and our thoughts on the conclusion of Epic’s Legal Suit against Apple. Get ready to lounge with George, Ed, Andrew, and Sean as they get into the weird history of Video Game representation in TV Programs and Film in Episode 135 of Press Pause Radio! Also, before any of you get on your high horse to tell us we’re being a bunch of “Gatekeepy-Nerds” to record on such a topic, ask yourself one question: When’s the last time you saw a character read a book upside down in a TV Programs and Film without it being some intentional plot point?

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

CM Punk made his long awaited return to wrestling recently, and the build up to AEW All Out could not be more anticipated. There has also been plenty of wrestling lately, such as the NWA Empower event and a major title change at NWA 73. George and Toast discuss this plus the new wrestling drama Heels on Starz, going to an indie show for the first time in years and our predictions for this Sunday's PPV event. Thanks for checking us out and stay tuned to see if we get any predictions right, and who may show up at All Out.

here are so many forgotten classics that somehow still get overlooked after all of this time, and are honestly just ripe for the remake treatment. I mean, sure there are a few classic titles that undoubtedly deserve a new coat of paint, but personally, I get all the more excited over the obscure games with sleeper followings that get chosen for an HD resurrection.

SEGA’s abandoned Simian Martial-Artist, Alex Kidd, is one such prime candidate, as the forgotten mascot has only managed the occasional cameo or two over the past thirty years, and has only now been granted the opportunity to be relevant again with a remake of his very first outing, Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX. Now the Master System exclusive wasn’t a mechanical marvel by any means, exuding just enough charm to offset its finicky physics and platforming flaws—making the concept of a remake that could improve upon its issues all the more exciting.

In some unfortunate twist of fate, however, the folks behind the remake, Merge Games and Jankenteam, have somehow produced a version of the game that’s genetically inferior to the 1986 original—and I couldn’t have been more disappointed in my experience with it as a result.

2021 is a good reminder that even if you’re welcomed to the JAM that you don’t have to go and SLAM, especially when it’s something that’s more of a diluted paste of tacky cameos than a Jam. Getting to the topic at hand, This week covers the biggest news stories of late, and man oh MAN is the current scene of the Games Industry is one that’s ripe for a reckoning, and rightfully so. The reveal of the State of California’s lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard that was two years in the making reveals a litany of gruesome details regarding the Corporation’s toxic “frat-boy” culture, and we do our best discuss the situation while also doing our best to highlight all of the voices of the Women and POC who need to be heard at this time.

We also share our impressions of Valve’s new hardware, the Steam Deck, which may just be the closest thing to a “Nintendo Switch Pro” we’re going to get. We also get into what’s been in our Consoles, which includes Gameboy Interface, Metroid Fusion, Marvel’s Avenger’s, Pokémon Unite, Cotton Reboot, Blaster Master Zero 1-3, Dariusburst Another Chronicle, Sakuna of Rice and Ruin, Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, BioMutant, The Xbox Series X, and so much more.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

he last decade of gaming has been a veritable smorgasbord of titles to choose from, with a steadily growing hustle of developers working hard to release their big AAA software, and players scrambling to play them. An unfortunate side-effect of that never-ending hamster wheel of cycle is that with so many options, some games are just doomed to be overlooked, and sometimes at no fault of their own either.

Which brings us to Experiment 101’s debut release, BioMutant; a quirky Open-World Action-Adventure title that tries to do way too many things at once in hopes of appealing to a broader base of players. The premise of its Post-Apocalyptic Kung Fu critter tale is certainly one of the more unique games of its kind, sure, but unfortunately, the exotic blend of Fallout meets Planet of the Apes meets Enter the Dragon makes for a bloated melting pot that fails to deliver a consistent flavor in its own right.

Yo it's been awhile since we recorded, anything crazy happen while we were gone? I'm checking my notes here and it seems that The Forbidden Door has splintered, shattered and was used for a table spot. Yeah so wrestling is crazy nowadays and Toast is here with Georgie to discuss the recent events of AEW Fyter Fest Nights One and Two, as well as Money In The Bank and live shows returning. And of course we get hyped for Nick Gage and his scheduled matchup with Chris Jericho and the impact it will have on deathmatch wrestling and independent wrestling in general. Hope you check it out and stay tuned for more episodes!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

fter first loading up Within The Blade on my Switch I was not sure what I was getting myself into. The title formally known on PC as Pixel Shinobi from indie developer Ametist Studio has a reputation for being a difficult but deep stealth action platformer with RPG elements since its initial release in 2019. My initial playing brought back some memories of playing fast paced indie platformers such as Super Meat Boy and Shovel Knight, with a Souls style combat and timing all wrapped in a ninja world and story. Now with time and experience to better form an opinion, I can say this game is hard, but fun to play and even with some lack of polish dulling its blade does not take away the overall feel and accomplishments it provides.

ith Blaster Master Zero 3 currently available for preorder on Limited Run Games for both Switch and Playstation 4, and what appears to be the kind of quality we found in the Blaster Master 1 & 2 Collectors Edition being put into the trilogy's conclusion, you know we're going to be on it, 100%.

And that's weird to say, since we hadn't played neither Blaster Master Zero 1 nor 2 through to completion. Unlike the NES Original, which was finally conquered in Bullet Heaven #302 after a period of over 25 years, Blaster Master Zero has always been more approachable generally speaking, so it was finally time to hunker down and marathon both, back to back.

he 1970’s were famous for a lot of things: the birth of whole entire music genres that ranged from Disco to Punk Rock, the Watergate scandal, and a certain living room pastime that would go on to change the entertainment medium forever—Video Games. It wasn’t long before these interactive television media programs made their way from the arcades to households across the country in the latter half of the Seventies, all thanks in part to a certain company that would help pioneer the blooming industry, Atari.

Years removed though, the Atari brand is seen as nothing more than a relic after its rise, and gradual fall—clinging on to nothing more than nostalgia for the remaining players who remember those early generations in their prime and get excited at the mention of the name. While the Atari line has enjoyed a second life in the aftermarket with a booming homebrew market and enthusiast media scene that’s fostered on by platforms like AtariAge and AtariMania, the company itself has gone mostly dormant through a series of mergers and extensions before quietly filing for bankruptcy in 2013.

Since then, the remnants of Atari, now named Atari SA have carried on with splintered releases of the remaining IPs in their possession like RollerCoaster Tycoon and Lunar Lander for the PC and mobile markets. The output was modest, as R&D worked on various projects while the company continued to earn royalties from its licensing deal with AtGames and their Flashback line of plug-in consoles. Sometime in 2017, however, a new management recruit by the name of Feargal Mac Conuladh was able to greenlight plans for a new Console-PC hybrid with an exclusive digital storefront codenamed the Atari Box. After years of sparse communication on the project and questionable crowdfunding campaigns to finish the production of the console, the Atari VCS has now officially launched to the public.

The question remains as to whether or not Atari can deliver on a product that can offer more than a fleeting sense of nostalgia that’s arguably just too dated to enjoy again. From my time spent with the machine, my answer isn’t as cut and dry as I would have ideally liked it to have been. I think the potential for the Atari VCS to deliver a different gaming experience is certainly there, especially when comparing it to contemporary upstarts that came before it like the Ouya and GameStick, who both originally promised something very similar and ultimately failed to live up to that promise. A number of shortcomings in the unit’s overall performance, however, unfortunately holds that potential, back and Atari’s subsequent management of the platform leave a sizable bit more to be desired. The VCS has too much running against it in the face of its low-end price point of $299.99 for just the base console without controllers, and the higher $399 asking price for the system and controller bundle—with the low-end being the same retail cost of a Nintendo Switch.

Well, against many odds, E3 came and managed to show off what’s in store for the next-generation of video games while contending with the ongoing challenges of a pandemic that’s still wreaking havoc on our everyday lives.

While it’s easy to dismiss what may have arguably been one of the more humble presentations we’ve had in years, especially with it being the first year of new Next-Generation hardware, the fact  that we got as much as we did with Covid-19 being a present danger is a blessing in and of itself.  Anyway, if there was one thing, this E3 did have a ton of; it was chock loaded with C H A O S.

Anyway, we here at Press Pause Radio got together to record our impressions of the show and see which of our predictions came true as we broke down most of the presentations by order of appearance of the week to discuss a number of the games that were shown. The games we showed off were Strangers of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Rainbow Six Extraction, Forza Horizons 5, Breath of the Wild 2, Metal Slug Tactics, Lake, Spirit Swap, Mushihimesama for Switch, Metroid Dread, Warioware Get it Together, Elden Ring, Starfield, Halo Infinite, and so much more.

Sit back, download the show, and get ready to blame Chaos for everything bad that has ever happened, like ever.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

hings certainly weren't easy for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, a short-lived handheld that had to compete with the likes of the classic Game Boy Color and newly released Game Boy Advance shortly after. Still, there's something sweet and neat about recollecting a portable version of one of the most expensive consoles in history.

(Recollecting — see what I did there? I, well uh, never mind.)

That being said, SNK is at it again with the retro party pack full of nostalgia. This time, we've got a fully portable 10-pack of favorites from decades ago through its Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1 on the Nintendo Switch.

So is this a home run for even the newest takers or an acquired taste that only diehard fans need apply for? A little bit of both, honestly.

It’s nice to feel like 2021 is on the road to normal, but the trip there is still a long haul—which means we’ll be looking at another digital-only E3 presentation as we continue to shelter-in-place. With one more week to go before everything officially gets underway, we here at Press Pause Radio decided to get into the speculation game with some good ol’ fashioned E3 2021 predictions!

Join George, Ed, Andrew, and Sean as they cover their obligatory thoughts towards the rumored Nintendo Switch Pro, Starfield, Elden Ring, Metroid Prime 4 Breath of the Wild 2, and what kind of game Final Fantasy XVI may end up being, if it’s even shown, and a ton off more gesticulation over the games that they KNOW will be there.

So be sure to check the batteries in your CO2 Detectors and Smoke Alarms then go download the new episode and roll around in the scuttlebutt with us!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

ell, this is embarrassing; I had planned to publish this entry much sooner than now, given that it’s been a little over a year since I last published the premier piece to this editorial series, but I suppose it’s appropriate since we’ve now arrived at the anniversary of SEGA’s polarizing 32-bit powerhouse once more.

When we last left off, we looked at the pre-launch hype of the Saturn and SEGA’s internal dissension over the mechanical complexity of the hardware, with technical specs that were arguably geared more at enhancing the present climate of gaming than preparing for the next dimension of gameplay the medium had been building to. The corporate disconnection only grew from there as SEGA of Japan hedged all their bets on the console with one fateful announcement during their 1995 Electronic Entertainment Expo presentation—the Sega Saturn was available now, retailing at $399 MSRP with the inclusion of Virtua Fighter to the surprise of everyone, including major retailers.

It was with this first big step that the Sega Saturn had begun its perpetual tumble towards commercial failure, as we look back at one of the most infamously mismanaged console launches in Video Game History.

t one point in the medium of Video Games, Fighting games were on top of the world, overtaking screens across Living rooms and Arcades across the world. It didn’t take long for everyone to come for that piece of pugilistic pie, and while there were many who tried, a few found success, and even fewer redefined what the genre was—one of those releases was SEGA’s Virtua Fighter.

Aside from pioneering the concept of three-dimensional fighting, the series has steadily earned the reputation for being one of the most technical-minded brawlers on the market and has remained a staple where competitors measure their skill of the genre within the fighting game community. Admittedly, the series has struggled to find mainstream success outside of the dedicated niche of players that have kept up with each new installment, but the series has recently found new life in another popular SEGA franchise—Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Yakuza.

The inclusion of SEGA’s historic fighting series may have been a fun Easter Egg at first, but players quickly took notice of the excellent handling of emulation and coding of the series by RGGS, gradually drawing in new interest for the property once more. Striking while the iron is hot, the wild minds at SEGA have paired the talented folks of AM2 and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio together for a new iteration of Virtua Fighter 5, VF5 Ultimate Showdown

Even though Viruta Fighter 5 has waned on for 14 years in its “Street Fighter II” rut of incremental additions and improvement, the super-group effort from RGGS and AM2 goes on to prove that not only is there still plenty of mileage left in the Polygonal Puncher, but they also deliver the definitive version of the game in the process.

egardless of how obscure it may be in the milieu of video gaming, Oddworld has always been a name that’s commanded a dedicated following, with titles that strive to deliver a unique gameplay experience under a presentation that’s teeming with a special kind of cinematic spectacle that plays out like a Steven Spielberg meets Jim Henson passion project.

Where Oddworld Inhabitants have remained consistent with this goal, their last remake, Oddworld: New ‘n Tasty, managed to improve everything good about the original it remakes while introducing a slew of other upgrades to the overall experience, and proved that there was plenty of potential left for Abe’s adventure in the modern era of gaming.

Stepping a few feet away from the familiar absurdity of its fart-fueled roots this time around, Oddworld: SoulStorm leans a little heavier into the real themes the series had previously broached like capitalism, civil rights, racism, gentrification, and predestination.

The end-result makes for one of the most memorable titles this generation has seen in recent memory.

he written word: society lives by it, people relax with it and students learn to grow from it. As the saying goes, the pen truly is mightier than the sword.

Many of us will never forget some of the first words that taught us the beauty (and flaws) of all that language has to offer. For me, it all started with three fondly remembered words that spark joy for many classic JRPG fans:

"You Spoony Bard!" 

This blatant mistranslation made for a hilarious conversation starter that's still worthy of many Final Fantasy IV references to this day.

Books, novels, and magazines serve as a gateway to learning how to read and write over the years. And hell, we had some great reads in the classroom over the years compared to several other generations. I have fond memories of getting into titles such as Bunnicula, the Goosebumps series, and, eventually, George Orwell's 1984 (even if it's a bit real at times now). Not to mention that it would be criminal to forget anything by Beverly Cleary, who recently passed on at the age of 104.

Still, there's another outlet that I don't credit often enough for leading to my own expanded interests in the academic world: video games.

Well this is embarrassing, but honestly, we couldn’t be happier about the news. This episode of PPR is focused on what ending PSN support for legacy PlayStation hardware would mean for owners who still have their old Sony machines on deck. We shared our thoughts on the event, and what selection of games we recommended for download before the plug would be pulled, but then something happened only a day after recording…

Maybe there was enough serendipity from developers and players alike to reach Sony’s senses because it would seem that cooler heads have prevailed and the slated PSN Sunset for the PS3, PSP, and PS Vita has been shifted squarely on to the PSP for now.

Even if the concern is currently moot, we felt there were a lot of good points raised on the show like what the limited life of the CMOS Battery for the PS3 and PS4 means, along with some resources and tactics that can be used to get the most of these old PSN access points before they’re eventually closed down. Even then, the gang also took the time to talk about all the games they had been playing like Metal Slug XX, Hades, Final Fantasy X/X-2, the Atari VCS, Oddworld: SoulStorm, the Amiga CD32, Outriders, Fantasian, Blaster Master Zero Collection, and so much more.

Kick up a seat and boot up PSN on your screens as we present you episode 131 of Press Pause Radio!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

We are right back at it with another episode of House Show, this time around Toast and George discuss the aftermath of Wrestlemania week and the talent that was released by the WWE. We also go into some of the highlights of NXT and The Collective, as well as why we are AEW marks. Hope you all enjoyed the last few weeks of wrestling, and we especially hope the talent that was let go bounce back and find better opportunities. Thanks for listening and let us know if there are any topics you would like for us to discuss!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

here are developers out there who hold some of the highest prestige in the industry from their work on a few, or even just iconic game—some of these developers have gone on to do great things in the current day scene, and then there are some who are just stuck in the past.

Yuji Naka’s Balan WonderWorld is an indictment of the latter because the new release from Arzest and the Balan Company is seemingly engineered to compete with platformer games released back in 2003 more than anything else. At its core, Balan Wonderworld plays like a pale imitation of the Super Mario Odyssey formula dressed up in a bad NiGHTs into Dreams aesthetic…

I know I started marching my steps strong and heavy with the Poo Poo Parade real early into this review but I honestly can’t help it; for every neat idea the game seems to have, it comes back with three more flaws or design choices that put a big sour on any fun to be found.

he Western and Eastern history video games have always had their place in the main zeitgeist of video game culture, but what about the other, other West? The one that ran their television displays at 50HZ PAL output had a crap-load of gradient color schemes, and an obsession with hurting players with falling water drops—yeah, I’m talking about the European slice of gaming.

While the folks “across the pond” were able to get their own localizations of household brands like Nintendo and SEGA, there was one other name synonymous with the European gaming scene & that was Commodore Amiga.

Even though there isn’t a lot of love for the Amiga legacy outside of those who group on it, there’s been one common denominator that has seamlessly harmonized across all three regions—Turrican.

Factor 5’s Sci-Fi Run ‘n Gun has been hosted across numerous platforms, but none more celebrated than the titles that have graced the Amiga 1200, Super NES, and even the Sega Genesis, and now with the help of Ratalaika Games, Factor 5 has released an upgraded collection of the four best titles in the franchise with Turrican Flashback. Looking beyond the appeal of collecting these overlooked classics into one convenient collection, the labor of love that went into optimizing these games, and fleshing out every little quality of life enhancement and nuance imaginable is what really sets this title apart from nostalgia packages. Turrican Flashback may be one of the finest curations of a retro game set ever to be programmed.

t first glance of Say No! More, I immediately had memories of an arcade game I used to play at anime conventions called Cho Chabudai Gaeshi. It was a table-flipping game where you would pound on the table to charge up the attack in various settings such as a wedding and an office, before unleashing your attack and flipping the table for maximum destruction. I was happy to find out that Say No! More may be close to that goofy experience that I enjoyed years ago, with plenty of humor and no-stress gameplay. The game does not deliver on challenge or depth but presents an important message in what is described as a linguistic arcade comedy.

On this episode of House Show, friend of the site BoogNites checks in as we discuss all the wrestling happening during Wrestlemania week. Highlights of NXT and The Collective as well as predictions of the two-night Wrestlemania weekend are all on topic for this show. It's seriously too much wrestling but we hope to check out as much as we can, and hope that everyone enjoys their particular brand or style of professional wrestling. Thanks for checking us out and stay tuned for more coverage and discussion in the future.

sn’t it mind-blowing how big and expansive games can be today? Just think about all the releases that have hit the market in the last ten five years that expand beyond 40 gameplay hours or more on average for completion. The real test of modern gaming has now drifted more into finding the time to play the title than the inherent challenge of the game itself—but that wasn’t the case thirty years ago.

In order to stand tall against the even most grizzled players, Video Games extended their mileage on the market by commanding difficulty curves that could immobilize even the most dedicated weekend rental. One series, in particular, made a name for itself when it came to hard-as-nails action, the masochistically macabre hop ‘n bop that is Capcom’s Ghosts ‘n Goblins franchise.

With some niche efforts by teams like From Software and other indie game studios to keep that old-school adrenaline of difficult gameplay alive notwithstanding, it’s a little bizarre to see a new mainline entry to the Ghosts ‘n Goblins in the year 2021. Thankfully, Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection is a fleshed-out package that strives for a balance that’s accessible enough for anyone looking to celebrate its legacy, yet just as desirable in getting the most out of the crushing experience it has to offer.

It's been a while since we last had a House Show recording, and originally I thought we would record prior to AEW Revolution to hype up the upcoming event. I'm glad George suggested we record afterwards as a recap, because MAN! That ending and everything else AEW will be discussed in this episode as well as the recent news of the WWE Network moving to Peacock. Thanks for tuning in, hope everyone is doing well!

f there’s only one video game platform from the past that has to lead an everlasting brain trust spread throughout all walks of life, it’s the Nintendo Entertainment System. There are a bevy of other 8-bit machines that have their fans sure, but the NES has defined what people consider the 8-bit generation to be, establishing a style that still permeates a majority of the throwback indie titles that’s seen in the market today.

Drawing inspiration from the system’s aesthetics is one thing, but capturing the gameplay of that era is an entirely different beast, especially when it comes to channeling the essence of the challenge it’s famous for in an age of Save States and unlimited continues. Enter Mechanical Head Studio’s Cyber Shadow, a new title published by Yacht Club that chases the old ghosts of NES classics like Ninja Gaiden, Power Blade, Shatterhand, Shadow of the Ninja, and so much more—complete with a modern touch that aims to balance the scale of difficulty and fairness on the tightest of ropes.

There’s a lot to enjoy here for those who cut their teeth on the action genre during the days of the rectangular controller, but on that same token, arguably much of the beauty behind that generation is the “less is more” philosophy behind those games—something that Cyber Shadow is remiss to forget in its occasionally clumsy ambition.

Climate Change and Stonks be damned because we out here recording another fresh episode of Press Pause Radio for y’all, and we even brought back Sean for it too!

In this episode we talk some thought up on the Resident Evil Village demo that released, the Mass Effect Legendary Edition announcement, the bullshit of Six Days in Fallujah, and our shared impressions of the latest Nintendo Direct. We also dive in to what’s been in our consoles, covering a wide range of games that include Vitamin Connection, Capcom Arcade Stadium, Cyber Shadow, World of Warcraft Shadowlands, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Hades, Project Starship XX, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Turrican Flashback, and so much more.

Be warned though, somehow George’s Mic straight up shit the bed during recording, so his audio quality is nowhere near the quality standard we strive for in our podcast production at Press Pause Radio. The episode is more than listenable. but it’s certainly not at the audible fidelity we would’ve liked it to be, even after salvaging what we could post production (major thanks again to Stark and Sterlz Sound Design for their assistance in the matter!)

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

lthough I have often heard the name of Baba Yaga in various media such as movies and television, I must admit I am not familiar at all about its origins or the impact that the Slavic folklore has had over time. Playing through the latest indie release from Versus Evil and developer Breadcrumbs Interactive shows just how much this tale is revered in culture and to storytellers across the world. I appreciate that Yaga presents an interesting hybrid of hack and slash, choose your own adventure and crafting all into a game that is only hindered by repetitive combat, clunky menus and an overabundance of mechanics. And even with that the game still allows the player to become enchanted with the storybook presentation and branching paths that are prime for replaying and finding all the possible outcomes.

ow that the character is over 24 years old, Crash Bandicoot has amassed a generation of fans that look at him with the same reverence as Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog—he’s a household name among Generation Z. On that token though, beyond the remastered releases and cameos, just how relevant is the property today’s gaming climate? Ironically enough, one of the biggest attractions the marsupial had over its competition was its sense of exclusivity, both in terms of gameplay difficulty and the platform brand the property wore heartily on its sleeve.

Interestingly, the Crash Bandicoot property made its bread and butter on appealing to the public as the coolest outlier on the market with the PlayStation, but as the years have passed, the marsupial mascot has evolved into a far more accessible franchise. That sentiment couldn’t be more apparent than the latest entry from developer Toys for BoB, and publisher Activision, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.

With the success of the remastered trilogy, the developer was tasked with releasing a new sequel that would invoke the initial spirit of Bandicoot’s PlayStation outings, and thankfully, Toys For BoB answered that call with a game that successfully caters to everyone like no other entry before it, and is easily the best Crash game to date.

t isn’t too often that you see a brand new Gameboy game released, let alone in the same year that we see next-generation hardware launch but that just goes to show just how powerful the how well Nintendo’s trademark handheld still holds up.

Despite the strength of the Game Boy’s legacy though, some novel ideas, as unique as they may be, can still find a way to disappoint even the most open-minded of players—that’s Spacebot Interactive’s Dragonborne.

While this new top-down RPG adventure does an admirable job of paying tribute to the Game  Boy classics that came before it, Dragonborne’s individual spin on these familiar tropes ends up being nothing short of tedious at best, and just plain boring at worst.

here Names like Nintendo, Atari, and SEGA respectively boast a large zenith of the home console market between themselves the past thirty years, no brand commanded a foothold in the coin-operated world of Arcade gaming quite like SEGA did. Beyond the global hits like Golden Axe, Space Harrier, and Virtua Fighter, the Japanese Gaming giant spanned a wide array of genres and gimmicks that redefined the arcade scene with Astro City line of Arcade cabinets. The horsepower behind their intricate PCB boards made way for unique experiences that deployed a wide array of technical marvels that set them apart from their upright peers like super scaling graphics, over-the-top, and JAMMA quality stereo sound.

As the preservation for Arcade software gets harder with each passing year, SEGA took to celebrating its 60th anniversary with a bang with the release of the Astro City Cab Mini—a scaled-down take of their signature 1993 arcade cabinet that’s packed with 37 games that shaped SEGA’s storied legacy of its quarter-fueled library. While it’s a shame that the retro gaming wizards at M2 weren’t programmers for this nifty little machine, the unit’s nostalgic design and collection of titles more than make up for its above-average emulation.

espite all of the social and technological advancements we’ve made over the last century, there’s an old saying that still gets thrown in the face of anything progressive to this very day—the tired phrase of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 

There are merits to the sentiment though—it isn’t often that an open-world action-adventure dynamic like that of the Yakuza series is able to work as well as it has for the last fifteen years, as each entry only worked to improve upon the foundation of the 2006 PS2 original. Fortunately, that isn’t the case here, far from it; Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Yakuza Like A Dragon is a revival, unlike anything we’ve seen from a legacy franchise before it, taking the series to a new generation of players while successfully carrying it to new heights for longtime fans all the same.

We don’t know about you guys, but I think we’re getting pretty tired of shitting on the every year into the next, and while no year deserves to get shit on more than 2020, I think it’s time we right into the new year with a “cool bois” vibe. Democracy has done its part to purge the orange scourge, and mass distribution of the vaccine is gradually making progress, as little as it may be—things are looking up! 2021 has so much potential for games too, both Bog, indie, and retro-alike, so while we prepare to venture safely into the new year, let’s take a look at the best games from last year with Press Pause Radio’s Golden Zonkies: Class Of 2020.

In case y’all don’t remember the updated flow from last couple of years, we have changed up our format and have done away with categories!  Now, bear in mind, we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, only, we’re not doing by a respective genre, or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of five. Normally we would have done a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year, but we decided to mention them in passing instead, along with some not-so-honorable-mentions (we also chose a few more not mentioned on the show to include in the pos!) We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to the previous format, and conclude the show from there.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

ith the closing of the original Telltale Games in 2018 leaving many fans of adventure games sad and unsure of the genre’s future, many assumed something like Sam & Max may never be seen again. And although the name of Telltale and many of its properties have new ownership, the members of the Freelance Police will have their escapades retold by the original developers in Sam & Max Save the World Remastered. For new fans and old, this collection of the six-episode first season first released in 2006 is a time capsule to what adventure games were, and what fans still crave today.

Is anyone looking forward to Survivor Series tonight, or is this the annual pay-per-view event that WWE should send into retirement along with The Phenom? Toast and George will discuss the show's ups and downs through the last three decades as well as the impact of several debuts at the fall showcase. We also get pumped about the upcoming AEW video game, take care of our aging canine and Toast predicts that Sting will show up in the ring tonight for the showdown fans never got. All this and more on the latest episode of House Show!

Man, Daylight Savings time sure is weird—while everyone here at Press Pause radio can appreciate the gift of an extra hour being added during the weekend of all times, it’s still enough to make you queasy…

Still, it’s given us time to catch up on everything we’ve playing before the wave of next generation hardware hits us in a couple of weeks,  and even then, there’s no shortage of stuff to get through. This week we talk about Microsoft announcement of 100% Backwards compatibility of their older software libraries for the Xbox One and Series X, Commuter Bicycles retailing for over thirteen-thousand dollars, Sony offering free hardware to retro-fit the PSVR headset onto the PlayStation 5, Hades, Ginga Force, the Sony 1945MD, Way of the Warrior, The Yakuza Collection, Cyberpunk 2077 delays, the Colecovision Super Game Module, and so much more.

Unwrap whatever candy you’ve grabbed over the  holiday, as you plug in for a jam-packed episode of Press Pause Radio before heading into the GOTY season—also, if you haven’t already, be sure to vote this election however which way you can! Also, wear a fucking mask when you go outside—it help save your life, and the lives of those around you!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Never judge a book by its cover; in this case never judge an RPG by its visual novel elements. I initially did not think I would play through this release from Sekai Games and Mr. Tired Media due to the bland and uninspired spin on breaking the fourth wall and using anime tropes with negative results.  However, after grinding out multiple hours of Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ on the Switch and surpassing all the brutal objectives laid out in the zombie apocalypse I can say that the combat and challenging gameplay shows enough promise to make the title something worth checking into.

6 years is a long time ago—hell, I bet some of you reading this aren’t even 26 years old yourselves, and couldn’t have possibly imagined what the vibe was back then. Well, there was one thing that dominated the scene that time in contrast to the occasional sighting at your local laundromat, and that’s over-the-top Arcade games.

 Among all of the Final Fight’s and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle clones, however, was Rare’s last hurrah for their infamous Battletoads series with a coin-op gem that wouldn’t get a proper console port until 2015 with Rare Replay, a compilation that included it along with the original title for NES. Needless to say, it made an impression with players; between the success of their inclusion onto that collection, and the various cameos the characters have made on other popular titles like Killer Instinct and Shovel Knight, the fever for more toads had grown. Unable to ignore the interest for it any longer, Microsoft and Rare decided to formally bring them out of retirement with a brand new title for the Xbox One.

 Partnering with Dlala Studios after working with them on Sea of Thieves, the latest entry to the franchise is a reboot that’s starkly different from anything the Amphibians have ever done before—and thankfully it’s a step in the right direction, albeit a undeniabley clumsy one.

aito was doing crazy things with multi-screened arcades games in the late 80's. Already having released the three-screen-wide Darius to arcades in 1987, they would release a double monitored brawler known as The Ninja Warriors the same year, which would get a sequel on the Super NES in 1994. It's this game that Taito and ININ Games have released to the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as The Ninja Saviors- Return of the Warriors.

Ninjas are cool, but cybernetic ones are even cooler, and the same team that brought us the revamped Wild Arms Reloaded definitely knows what’s up when bringing classic (and impossibly expensive) titles from the 16-bit era to the modern stage. As a side-scrolling brawler, Return of the Warriors is definitely an engaging title, one that's more involved than many of the brawlers we've played in the past. Taking place over eight lengthy stages, players into this specific game time are in for a real good time.

ou all should know by now that we love a good fighting game here on Press Pause Radio and SNK is a mainstay that is responsible for some of our favorites over the years. Games like King of Fighters '98 (and its fantastic Dreamcast update, Dream Match 1999), Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Shin Samurai Spirits (Samurai Showdown II) and so many more. It’s hard to discount SNK after all of these years, and their work will always have a space on our shelf and hard drives with each new port in the future. So, when SNK announced a new fighting game for the Nintendo Switch featuring an all-female roster of fighters from across SNK's history, I knew I needed to check it out at some point.

 Developed by SNK (The Future is Now!) and published by NIS America, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is a versus fighting game that, at first glance, seems to be a fan-service-y re-skin of the typical SNK fighting game formula. Players start the game with a primary attacker and a secondary supporting character. However, simply diving into the game with this expectation will only lead to confusion and frustrate the player, as there is actually a completely unique system under the hood that needs quite a bit more understanding if players want to make any kind of progress.

Yo, George and Toast are back with another episode of PPR's wrestling podcast where it is revealed to Toast that Adam Rose is still around and he got HUGE. Besides that revelation, we also discuss the outstanding Parking Lot Brawl from AEW a few weeks back and the opening rounds of the Pure Title Tournament in Ring of Honor. We go over a brief history of the title and predict the rounds to come in determining a champion. Hope you enjoy the show, and if there are any suggestions for a specific topic we are always open to any ideas and suggestions. Thanks!

 know it may sound a bit silly, especially when you think about the importance of roles like Fire Fighters and Surgeons but, it can be argued that Video Game Developers are among some of the biggest heroes of modern society (this can honestly be said about all creatives, but stick with me, I’m going somewhere with this.)

The worlds they can weave, with designs that are teeming with a sense of wonder that bewilders and empower anyone looking for an experience to escape to; Game Developers offer an invaluable service, and for one aspiring designer-in-the-making, it’s the one gift he can give to an ailing little brother.

In a story where your passion can be someone’s entire world, enter Takeshi & Hiroshi; an interactive novel from Oink Games that’s packed with a lot of heart, a surprising amount of gameplay depth, and the regrettable snag of ending way too soon.

hen I first viewed Volta-X, I was drawn in by the art style; a blending of giant robot battles mashed together with Japanese monster movies and Saturday morning cartoons. But once I started playing the release from GungHo Online Entertainment America, I felt that the game was difficult to understand, and even harder to define. After my twenty plus hour initial playthrough of the game I can say that I still can’t quite define what it is, and unfortunately with a lack of community to battle and a UI that leaves plenty to desire, that may keep other players away from what could be a fantastic, albeit grindy RTS / RPG hybrid.

On this episode of House Show Toast welcomes his good friend Pristell onto the show as they discuss the most recent PPV from AEW, All Out. Love for the promo, as well as Mr. Kingston may be common throughout the show, but they also get into the matches and some of the show stealing performances from MJF and Thunder Rosa. Was the event as good as it's predecessors, or has the current climate of wrestling taken some shine from it's prestige? We hope to answer these questions and more. Thanks for checking out the show, and make sure to give a special thank you to our guest on Twitter.

It’s about to get real come November; the long-awaited arrivals of the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and Series S will finally launch to the public. Sony and Microsoft have finally unveiled the major details for their next generation hardware after months of speculation and brevity, and well, the hole killer pandemic thing that’s still going on (wear a fucking mask y’all.)

Color us unprepared too because not only is George too broke to steadily invest into both; Andrew STILL doesn’t have a 4K, and Ser is laughing at us in 720p—that doesn’t mean that  don’t have some words to share though!

Join us as we break down prices, specs, launch titles, controller designs, overall value, and more here on this short-but-sweet episode of Press Pause Radio.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

So it's official, Press Pause Radio has a wrestling podcast. It may have taken several years to get around to it, but what better time to discuss all things professional wrestling when hardly any shows are happening due to the ongoing pandemic. Fear not, we still have plenty of topics to go over such as the Thunderdome, Custody Ladder Matches, why Bart Gunn should debut on RAW Underground and recent AEW happenings. Thanks for checking out the show, and stay tuned for more to come in the future.

After months upon months of rumors about their existence, Nintendo finally put the scuttlebutt to rest, and officially revealed the Super Mario 3D Collection, a compilation of Mario’s iconic three-dimensional outings spanning three generations of hardware, all packed into one convenient title.

 Aside from the glaring omission of Super Mario Galaxy 2 though, something else has been really bothering me; it’s something that seems to have been overlooked by a majority of the community, myself included, and only really came to me after a certain title was coincidentally teased in the last Nintendo direct prior to this Mario-centric one…

 Why aren’t there any special curative efforts for the Plumber’s classic Game Boy stints? — Where has all of the love gone for Mario’s portable adventures?

 While there may have been an argument over just how much love these titles may have fostered from the Mario fandom, the hype over the recent output of portable tributes mobile device has left a lasting impact. Tributes like the Analogue Pocket, the Mega Man Zero Collection, and the soon-to-be-launched Collection of SaGa has proven that the library of software on Nintendo’s signature on the go device is still very much revered. Among these titles, are some of the finest Mario titles developed by the Big N, and if the 35th anniversary of the Nintendo’s Italian Stallion is any indication, there’s no better time than now to capitalize on re-releasing his Black-&-White classics onto their Console-Portable hybrid while the iron is still hot for the little thing.

Did anybody else catch that video game documentary on Netflix, High Score? We personally forgot to finish it with all of the EXCITEMENT that was coming out of Gamescom 2020! Oh well, I guess we’ll have to talk about the weird omission of Dragon Quest in the RPG episode some other time…

Anyway, with pandemic still being a major threat, this year’s iconic trade show took a remote approach, featuring a showcase that brief lineup of upcoming next generation games appearing on next generation hardware that we STILL don’t know the release dates, or more importantly, the retail cost for.

These games include Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, Marvel’s Avengers, Proto Corgi, The next Dragon Age, Fall Guys Season 2 and more. We also talk about the new PlayStation ODE, the X-Station, the latest wave of games announced for the Sega Astro City Mini, GameTap, the 25^th anniversary of the Sega Saturn, Bon Appétit, 8K Display technology, Doritos Flamin’ Hot Limón Chips, the confusion of Wii U marketing along with a whole mess of other topics.

With that being said, enjoy the show, and wear a fucking mask when you go outside…Thanks!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

uring the Feudal era of Japan, the land of the rising sun saw many conflicts, ranging from invading forces to civil unrest within its regions, balancing out into an age of strife and prosperity. To maintain order and peace through the land, the Shogun appointed Samurai, soldiers who adhere to a strict code of honor, to oversee the safety of its people, and protect the sanctity of their laws.

But what happens of the sanctity of your honor means nothing to an enemy that threatens everything you hold dear? What do you place your faith in more to uphold your Samurai code?

In the last three generations of PlayStation hardware, the developer Suckerpunch has pumped out some hard hitters in the Stealth and Open-World genres with titles like Sly Cooper and inFamous, but this time, they’re aiming to combine dynamics of both gameplay styles into one unforgettable experience with the Ghost of Tsushima. While there are some valid arguments against a western studio being able to do justice towards delivering an authentic-feeling Samurai tale, the Sony studio spared no expense in ensuring that Ghost of Tsushima conveys the mysticism of the Japanese warrior, in a world that’s beautiful beyond compare, if not a bit too familiar all the same.

The word hassle is a good way to describe what Bjørn Hammerparty has to overcome; a pacifist Viking that refuses to die in battle and go to Valhalla, only to accidentally die in battle and go to Valhalla. Now after centuries of not quite fitting in, Bjørn has the chance to gain a permanent spot in the peaceful underworld of Helheim. All he needs to do is help an inexplicable but laid-back skeleton named Pesto retrieve a magical item for their master and survive a multitude of puzzles constructed by undisciplined goblin cobblers.  But maybe the real hassle was the friends they made along the way. Hmm, that last part doesn’t really land like I thought it would. Anyways the game was fun, but not without its frustrations. Sort of like this intro. Okay, moving on then.  

f I were to liken Ryu ga Gotoku Studio’s Yakuza series to a mixed drink, I would compare it to the sweet, yet effectively potent combination of Rum and Coke. It has all the thrills, and action you could ever want, while maintaining an accessible sense of pacing that can synchronize with just about anyone’s rhythm.

I can’t say the same thing out of the studio’s newest release, however; Judgment is more like Whiskey and Coke—a mixture that commands time and patience the moment you press your lips to the glass. Toting itself as a spiritual successor to Yakuza, Judgement throws a twist on the crime-drama formula from Toshihiro Nagoshi that empathizes new Detective-focused dynamics, encouraging observational skills and deduction from players instead of relying on the trademark brute-force that the world of Kamurcho is famous for offering.

While the novelty of the concept is admittedly hampered by strict pacing that drags on the early hours of Judgment through an annoying slog, the game eventually opens up into one of the most fulfilling experiences from the developer yet, consistently rewarding the commitment it demands a slower-than-usual pace that Ryu ga Gotoku design is known for.

Shit is scary right now y’all, so believe us when we express just how grateful we are that our director of creative content, Serraxor is alive and well among his Press Pause Radio family!

We have plenty of catching up to do with our friend, along with a butt-load of vidjya games to hash out & talk about in this quick get-together of “what’s in your console?” The conversation covers a bunch of different topics ranging from the giant Nintendo leak that was covered by Kotaku and other outlets the last two weeks, George discovering the sheer depth of the MSX library, and everyone contemplating on whether or not they should sign back up for Final Fantasy XIV with the huge trial Square-Enix is putting on for the game right now.

Other topics include Fantasy Zone for the NES, Airgrave, Sessions, Skater XL, Desperate Housewives ASMR, Ghost of Tsushima, Maneater, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Encore, Paper Mario: The Origami King, Trials of Mana, SD Snatcher, and more! Be sure to keep six feet apart from one another as tune in and give us a couple of hours of your day here on episode 126 of Press Pause Radio.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Here at Press Pause Radio, we make it a point to ask the hard-hitting questions that no one else will, like if there were only 3 food trucks in the world, and they were operated by the Seraphites, Washington Liberation Front, or the Fireflies, which one would risk life-and-limb to eat burritos from?

It’s been over four years since we’ve done a Games Club episode on the cast, which has honestly been four years too long; Naughty Dog has finally released the epic sequel to their 2013 masterpiece, The Last of Us Part II, and it was an experience that was begging for a Games Club to be done.

The conversation at hand is no easy one to be had though, so we invited our friends Liana and Matt Ruppert of Don’t Feed the Gamers and Prima Games to join the episode as we talk about what we bare it all on this emotional roller coaster of a game.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Pandemic be damned, Team PPR is here to make sure that we can cover the latest news in video games with that hard-hitting flavor y’all know and love…

Man, who’re we kidding, we’re late as hell to the party because this “new normal” is, unfortunately, hitting us harder than we would care to admit (seriously you guys, goo pay Ser some love whenever you get a chance because God Dammit does he especially deserve it right meow.)

Before we set to record our upcoming Games Club special on The Last of Us Part II, we took it upon ourselves to cover the some of the bombshell announcements that happened over the last month in this “news” centric episode that will strangely be the closest thing to our “E3” episode of 2020; the news, of course, includes our thoughts on the official reveal of the Sony PlayStation 5, and the teased launch lineup for its release later this Fall, the Woozle Consolizer mods for the Neo Geo Pocket Color and Nintendo DS, The Sega Astro City Cab Mini and Game Gear Micro, and how everything seems to bee made out of cake now for some reason…

This one is a bit of a shorty but man, oh man is it a goodie—see y’all next time when we talk about The Last of Us Part II and get real sad together and stuff.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

or all the times you heard the arguments on the school playground of who did it better, there was always that weird kid who managed to sneak an underdog into the conversation. Pepsi versus Coke-Cola had RC Cola, DC Comics versus Marvel Comics had Image, and The Super NES versus the Sega Genesis had the unassuming TurboGrafx-16; an upstart machine with a unique design and library that was unlike anything else available on the market in the early nineties.

Nowadays the console has earned a cult following that’s elevated the resale value of the hardware and games into the upper hundreds, but in doing so, the platform had deterred any interest from the casual retro gaming spectator market that has ballooned over the past decade. Nevertheless, thanks to the growing popularity of miniaturized versions past gaming platforms running on modern emulation technology, the trend has motivated Konami to join the tiny ranks with the release of the TurboGrafx-16 Mini.

Developed in part by the luminary studio of Japanese retro gaming, M2, The Pachinko giant has commissioned the production of three different models for the line that are respectively based on the console’s regional runs; the PC Engine Mini, PC Engine CORE Mini, and the TurboGrafx-16 Mini. This review will focus solely on the TurboGrafx-16 Mini, as to center the assessment on the experience it promises within the context of the 16-bit generation from an American perspective—specifically in terms how made the system a brand in the west, along with the choice of imports included to cater to the sensibilities of the western market, and more.

With that being said, the TurboGrafx-16 Mini hits the road impressively hard to catch up with likes of the SNES Classic and Sega Genesis Mini, but fumbles the landing from a slew of shortcomings that ultimately keep it from reaching beyond the same crowd that’s been cheering it on the machine from the start.

The older I get, the more I miss my D&D group. I have so many great memories of our various adventures, some that were recorded here on Press Pause Radio for a podcast called Critical Fail. I had to stop playing on a regular basis once I started having children, and nowadays I look back on those days and realize how important that group and those antics were for me at the time. The same can be said for the group of students that make up the Tactics Club in Wintermoor Tactics Club. However, the difference for this organization at the fictional Wintermoor Academy in 1981 is that their bond and abilities may save the world while participating in a snowball tournament dubbed “The War of Clubs”. 

ut of all the rituals that you’d expect a seven-year-old to have in the early nineties, feverishly running to the supermarket newsstand for the latest video game magazine isn’t one that I’d imagine topping a Family Feud chart anytime soon. Yet there I was, a twinkle-eyed sap who cared for nothing more than to drool over the latest news and gossip of the one brand that ruled my kid life: SEGA.

The year 1994 was a particularly lucid period, because of the gaming hype for releases like Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, and Sonic & Knuckles, nothing was more exciting to me than Sega’s 32-bit project, the Sega Saturn. I couldn’t tell you how many times I read the August issue that year of Electronic Gaming Monthly, and the preview coverage they gave to the specifications of the system, and games that were going to be able to run on it like Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter, and Virtua Cop.

May 11th, 2020 marked the 25th anniversary of the polarizing console—even to this day, the same fevered school ground arguments over the Saturn have transcended into keyboard wars across online forums and social networks because unlike anything else like in the medium. The Sega Saturn is a complex story that peels back like an onion; so I figured what better way to way to reminisce on my favorite game machine than with an editorial series on it.

In this chapter, we’re going back to where it all began, as the system’s origin is one that’s born through a gradual divorce between the East and West divisions of SEGA, with the Saturn being the child that was caught in the middle of it all.

How is everyone doing? Like, how’re are you guys, gals, and Nonbinary folk really doing...honestly, we’re all a bit scared, and tired, and nothing is normal at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t hope, right?

So, on with the show we must go  then, and while we’ve all been really overwhelmed here at Pres Pause Radio, we’ve still managed to keep busy with some games that we would like to discuss in this quarantine special of What’s in Your Console. Just to name a few, we’ve been getting down on Final Fantasy VII Remake, Gaieres, The Turbo Grafx 16/PC Engine Mini, Stadia, Valfaris, Destiny 2, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Bravely Default 2 Demo, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Animal Crosssing: New Horizons, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, Rune Factory 4, some handheld Tiger Electronic bullshit, and a slew of other things.

There might not be a commute blat a podcast on at the moment, but we hope you can squeeze some time in for our humble little gaming podcast, with Press Pause Radio Episode 124.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

t can be difficult to find something new and interesting in the genre of adventure games, a form of media that has existed for over forty years. In The Procession To Calvary, it’s creator Joe Richardson is able to create an unapologetic and humorous entry into the market utilizing free use artwork from the Renaissance and public domain music that is a refreshing ode to the cutout hilarity of Monty Python. And although the mechanics of the game are also laughable, it does not take away the fact that it has a sense of humor that was exactly on my level of gross and stupid.

Greetings, this is the pilot episode for House Show we recorded after Wrestlemania. We at Press Pause Radio have discussed for awhile about doing a wrestling podcast and now that there are dozens upon dozens of wrestling podcasts already in the space we figured we might as well give it a shot. Toast and his co-host Bull talk about the events of Mania and what's to come in the future. Check it out and be sure to tune into the show with new episodes coming soon. 

t the time of this review, many have found video games to be a way to escape the uncertainty and harshness of an ever-changing structure in society. What has surprised me, however, is how video games and sharing that passion to those that may not have had any interest in the past can take our minds off that stress and uneasiness, if even for just a little bit. I have a bit of familiarity with the protagonists of Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, mostly from the spin-off Puzzle Bobble but I did not spend too much time with the Taito titles from decades ago. This current iteration published by ININ Games does a great service to fans of those original entries while introducing the series to a new audience, myself and various members of my family included. Although there are some features and additions to the gameplay that are lacking, I am glad that this title and the cooperative nature it promotes is available to enjoy while we adjust to finding entertainment in the comfort of our homes.

Man, I don’t know about you guys but it feels like it we post this annual special of ours even later than the last one, year by year—we’re really sorry about that. Rest assured, just as reliable as the groundhog, and its shadow, so too is our Game-of-the-year feature, The Golden Zonkies! (well, at least until Climate change fucks it all up for everyone anyway.)

In case y’all don’t remember the updated flow from last year’s show, we have changed up our format for the special mega cast—we’re doing away with categories!  Now, bear in mind, we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, only, we’re not doing by a respective genre, or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of five, and before we even get into that, we’ll also do a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year. We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to previous format, and conclude the show from there.

We’re also planning another Golden Zonkey Special, a top ten best of list for the past decade! Keep an eye out for it because we’ll be dropping that one real soon!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

hen deciding to review Broken Lines I was unsure why I was so interested in playing it. I am not good at all at strategy games of any kind, and I have very little interest in war themed entertainment. Then I realized what it was that drew me to the Steam digital game released by Super! Publishing. I thought back to other games that tackled turned based strategy in an alternate timeline of war in the twentieth century, and I was eager to see how the developer PortaPlay would approach this hybrid of RPG and tactics. I was happy to find out that Broken Lines takes influence from strategy games from the current generation and the recent development of mental state mechanics of newer independent role-playing games to create a solid entry into the genre. A story that sometimes misfires and AI that can frustrate does not take too much away from a challenging and satisfying experience.

We have been using Antlion Audio's Mod Mics for some time now; the quality of our livestreams has been top notch, thanks to the quality of the microphones that Antlion produces. So naturally, we were quite excited to check out their latest gear: The ModMic USB and ModMic Wireless!

For those not in the know, the ModMic line can turn any pair of headphones into a kickass headset. All ModMics simply adhere to the side of a pair of headphones with a magnetic anchor and voila: a custom gaming headset that sounds great for both the speaker and the listener. Thanks to the strength of the magnets in the modmic's sockets, they'll stay in firmly in place, but players can also simply remove the mic from their headphones when not in use.

We have always used AudioTechnica headphones for as long as we've made content, so being able to stream with an excellent mic without losing the sound quality we've gotten used to is fantastic.

The new line of ModMics are even more plug and play than before; with the ModMic USB, players simply plug the mic into any USB port and that's it. The included cable clasps hold the ModMic's cabling right alongside the player's headphones'.

But the ModMic Wireless is even simpler; plug in the included USB dongle, hold both buttons until the Blue LED flashes rapidly and they'll sync. That's it. No wires to mess about with, making for a clean, easy setup. Bonus points if using wireless headphones!

Both the USB and Wireless have a switch in the mic capsule that allows users to select omnidirectional capture for a more general recording field and a unidirectiondal setting for a more directional, focused field. But how do they sound? We find out in the latest Random Play.

So far in my brief experience with the Nintendo Switch, I have enjoyed several beat-em-ups and action games. However, I seem to struggle with the titles that rely heavily on combo-driven combat and precise controls. Something like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry would be a struggle for not only a novice such as myself, but for playing on a Switch that is never hooked up to a television or using a controller. Thankfully the fine individuals at Vertex Pop have made a name for themselves releasing approachable and stylish indie games that do not compromise on the action. Their latest release, Super Crush KO is a colorful and stylish hybrid of the above-mentioned genre and run ‘n gun that although is short to complete and possibly less of a challenge for experienced players, nonetheless is a worthwhile addition to the platform.

Holidays are rough but boy-howdy are they really just the Gosh-dammed best!

Hey y’all, we took a bit of an impromptu break from Press Pause Radio for a few weeks because among the many preparations that the holiday asks of us, we also needed some time to refresh, and actually sit down with some of the games that we picked up o that we could properly talk about them.

The Golden Zonkies for the year of 219 is right around the corner, until then, this episode is a jam-packed what’s in your console, where we’ll be discussing ALL the damn games we’ve been plugging away at since we last recorded. Those games include Radirgy, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Tatsujin Ō, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, Galaxy Force II, Shenmuee III, Death Smiles XX, Death Stranding, Control, Pokémon Sword/Shield, and so much more.

So strap in folks, because we’ve got enough 5 Minute Craft tips, box cakes, and third-party Taki impersonators to blow your mind with in this week’s jamboree of an episode.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

October is the new November!

Hey y’all, in this latest episode, we cover some recent news, heavy quotes on “recent” because some of the info we covered is slightly dated by today, which we totally apologize for. George has been ill for the last week or so, effecting the production of the episode a result. We appreciate your patience nonetheless, and hope you’ll enjoy us chewing the fat of the latest happenings in video games!

Join Andrew, George, and Ser as they talk shop over the Blitzchung controversy with Blizzard, some Nintendo Direct rumors and leaks, and a shit load of Peppa Pig Live commentary (seriously) in this bite-sized episode that’s leading up to our Hideo Kojima special!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Yo we don’t give a darn what y’all say, Peppa Pig for Smash, or get the EFF-OUT!

In an effort to deliver better content, at a more consistent pace, we'll be continuing the format we introduced last episode, and it's one that’s going to be different from the one we’ve done for the last ten years. Instead of catching up on all the news and games that have happened between shows before the chosen featured topic, we have decided to release each of these segments as a dedicated episode in their own right, including the featured topic, with a projected weekly schedule in mind—so this week, it’s all about what’s been in our consoles!

We sit down to discuss a ton of games AND mini consoles like Summer Carnival ’92 Alzadick, The C64 Mini, Untitled Goose Game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Summer Carnival '93: Nexzr Special, Paanzer Dragoon Orta, Astral Chain, Xbox Games Pass, Gears 5, the Sega Genesis Mini, and so much friggin’ more! This episode may be a bit longer than what we were shooting for in the new format, but we kept pretty busy with our games this week, and wanted to make sure we covered everything that we booted since we last graced the mic—hope y’all enjoy this week’s show!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Get the Dreamcast RGB SCART "God Cable" here!

Behind all of the larger-than-life voices, brands, streams, and memes, the video game industry is made of people—it seems more folks in high places are forgetting that.

In an effort to deliver better content, at a more consistent pace, we'll be continuing the format we introduced last episode, and it's one that’s going to be different from the one we’ve done for the last ten years. Instead of catching up on all the news and games that have happened between shows before the chosen featured topic, we have decided to release each of these segments as a dedicated episode in their own right, including the featured topic, with a projected weekly schedule in mind—so this week, it’s a featured topic.

One that we felt was important to discuss—the ever-growing toxicity of the game industry in terms of its operation, and the harmful culture that’s been unavoidably seeping from it as a result. Between Jason Schreier’s recent coverage of the work environment of Nicalis behind the scenes, to the Nathalie Lawhead’s harrowing account of her time with Smoking Gun Interactive, and the traumatizing experience of working with Jeremy Soule—the industry has just been so shitty lately…

We share our thoughts and ideas for what kind of solutions that we, as a community, and a force (however humble) in the industry can serve to fight back against the ugliness shown this past months or so in video games. Just a heads up; we get pro-union real quick, and could give a shit less if you disagree, so save that energy for something more productive than a stupid comment yeah? Oh, and also, on a lighter note, if you were hypothetically involved in a tragic accident that mutilated your genitals in attendance to a TV broadcast of a game show, how much of a settlement would the studio need to pay out to you to resolve the whole thing?

This is the question that we leave with you for the nest show…enjoy the show!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Missed an episode? 
Bullet Heaven 244: Psyvariar Delta
Bullet Heaven 245: Vasara Collection
Bullet Heaven 236: Pacific Wings

You've seen it all up in your mobile phone marketplaces and now it's available on your Switch. This time for money! So how does Pacific Wings hold up? Is it worth $5 when it's still free on Mobile? And just how *does* it stack up?

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Bullet Heaven 243: Tatsujin DLC (Game Tengoku Crusin' Mix Special)
Bullet Heaven 244: Psyvariar Delta
Bullet Heaven 245 - Vasara Collection

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Bullet Heaven 242: Rapid-Fire Revisits Vol.1
Bullet Heaven 243: Tatsujin DLC (Game Tengoku Crusin' Mix Special)
Bullet Heaven 244: Psyvariar Delta

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Bullet Heaven 241: "_____"
Bullet Heaven 242: Rapid-Fire Revisits Vol.1
Bullet Heaven 243: Tatsujin DLC (Game Tengoku Crusin' Mix Special)

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Bullet Heaven 240: Gradius III
Bullet Heaven 241: "_____"
Bullet Heaven 242: Rapid-Fire Revisits Vol.1

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Bullet Heaven 239: Super Tank Warfare: Adventia
Bullet Heaven 240: Gradius III
Bullet Heaven 241: "_____"

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Bullet Heaven 238: 70's Robot Anime Geppy-X
Bullet Heaven 239: Super Tank Warfare: Adventia
Bullet Heaven 240: Gradius III

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Bullet Heaven 237: Stahlfeder
Bullet Heaven 238: 70's Robot Anime Geppy-X
Bullet Heaven 239: Super Tank Warfare: Adventia

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Bullet Heaven CCXXXVII: Einhander Taikenban
Bullet Heaven 237: Stahlfeder
Bullet Heaven 238: 70's Robot Anime Geppy-X

In the Credits:
Bullet Heaven 236: Rym 9000
Bullet Heaven CCXXXVII Einhander Taikenban
Bullet Heaven 237: Stahlfeder

In an effort to bring you all even more content without YouTube "forgetting" to let you all know, we've re-branded Mudprints Unboxes into the all-new but still-the-same Bullet Heaven Unboxes! More shmups, more content, more macro, all great! 

Earth Atlantis may not have been as engaging as wewould have liked and the revaltion of its licensed music is a bit of a bummer, but the Playstation 4 Limited Edition from EastAsiaSoft has something fantastic that adds all kinds of eye-opening extras that give it way more personality. So what's inside?

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Bullet Heaven 232: Horizon Shift '81
Bullet Heaven 233: Star Fox
Bullet Heaven 233.5: Star Fox Secrets!

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Bullet Heaven 231: Gundemoniums
Bullet Heaven 232: Horizon Shift '81
Bullet Heaven 233: Star Fox

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Bullet Heaven TX1: Shmups Top-X 2018
Bullet Heaven 231: Gundemoniums
Bullet Heaven 232: Horizon Shift '81

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Bullet Heaven 230: Rival Megagun
Bullet Heaven TX1: Shmups Top-X 2018
Bullet Heaven 231: Gundemoniums

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Bullet Heaven 229: Game Tengoku Cruisin' Mix Special
Bullet Heaven 230: Rival Megagun
Bullet Heaven TX1: Shmups Top-X 2018

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Bullet Heaven 228: Black Bird
Bullet Heaven 229: Game Tengoku Cruisin' Mix Special
Bullet Heaven 230: Rival Megagun

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Bullet Heaven 227: REDACTED
Bullet Heaven 228: Black Bird
Bullet Heaven 229: Game Tengoku Cruisin' Mix Special

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Bullet Heaven 225: Velocity 2X
Bullet Heaven 226: Zero Ranger
Bullet Heaven 227: REDACTED

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Bullet Heaven 223: Shikhondo Soul Eater
Bullet Heaven 224: Battle City
Bullet Heaven 225: Velocity 2X

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Bullet Heaven 222: Debris Infinity
Bullet Heaven 223: Shikhondo Soul Eater
Bullet Heaven 224: Battle City

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Bullet Heaven 221: Galaxy Frontier
Bullet Heaven 222: Debris Infinity
Bullet Heaven 223: Shikhondo Soul Eater

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Bullet Heaven 220: Rolling Gunner
Bullet Heaven 221: Galaxy Frontier
Bullet Heaven 222: Debris Infinity

Now it’s time to talk about all the stupid Vidya Games that we’ve been playing, AKA, the one with all of the snack talk, and Japanese PlayStation 2’s.

In an effort to deliver better content, at a more consistent pace, we'll be continuing the format we introduced last episode, and it's one that’s going to be different from the one we’ve done for the last ten years. Instead of catching up on all the news and games that have happened between shows before the chosen featured topic, we have decided to release each of these segments as a dedicated episode in their own right, including the featured topic, with a projected weekly schedule in mind—so this week, it’s all about what’s been in our consoles!

Ser, Andrew, and George pick apart all of the nitty-gritties in their playing habits this week, with talks covering Espagaluda 2, Destiny: Solstice of Heroes, Judgement, Collection of Mana, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, Pokémon GO, Dreamcast GDEMU, Border Down, Tail Concerto, PlayStation PSiO, and so much more!

So plug in some headphones, or connect to your Bluetooth because this is going to be another bite-sized cast from us until we put another episode for y’all later this week!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Change is good, right?—it’s scary sure, but if we don’t give the chance to try something different, then how can we really say that we’ve grown?

In this episode of Press Pause Radio, we’ll be debuting a new format that’s going to be different from the one we’ve done the last ten years. Instead of catching up on all the news and games that have happened between shows before the chosen featured topic, we have decided to release each of these segments as a dedicated episode in their own right, including the featured topic, with a projected weekly schedule in mind.

This new direction will not only cut down the average length of a Press Pause Radio episode from 2-3 hours down to a little over an hour at most, but it’ll also allow us to produce more content for you guys more seamlessly. We hope that this change will allow us to be the best version of what we aspire to be, because as it stands now, publishing episodes in the giant clusters that we have the last few years or so hasn’t done us, or you guys any favors.

So to start off, we’re starting Episode 118 with the news; we’ll be discussing the Super Mario Sunshine rumors, PS5 Patent reveals, various gameplay reveals at this past Gamescom, Bathwater Pyramid schemes, and a whole lot more.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

 bought my first Game Boy when I was eight years old…I guess labor laws weren't what they used to be, because I was on the payroll for a paper route with the Barrie Advance in the third grade. Anyway, I loved my Game Boy back then more than I like some of my family today, and the old black on the green screen will always invoke a certain nostalgia for days long past. 30 years is a long-ass time.

However, as it turns out, Nicalis' Save Me Mr. Tako! instantly brings me back to my childhood as no other game has in a long time. It has the look–It has–the sound–it has the gameplay, and best of all, it's on a portable system.—kind of.

he futuristic racer is a subgenre that has quite a few different series, each one featuring a signature spin or twist on the category in an attempt to separate them from the others. Wipeout is certainly the first series to come to mind, as does F-Zero and others such as Jet Moto and Extreme-G Racing. Of course, many others have joined the fray in recent years with one of the most recent, Redout, doing an admirable job of both providing an adequate racing experience as well as a decent host of features.

oguelike games in various genres are a fixture in the gaming landscape more now than ever before. It's no surprise that a lot of these games have made their way to the Nintendo Switch, given that the platform allows for these kinds of games to be played anywhere and Roguelikes, in general, have a very pick up and play quality to them, to begin with.

Nicalis is one of the latest publishers to make a Roguelike happen on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4; developed by Pixelore, and Remimory, Remilore: Girl Lost in the Lands of Lore is a lighter version of this punishing subgenre –known affectionately as a “Roguelite”, which is much more approachable than many other hardcore titles available in the Roguelike subset. So what makes this a game to check out? Let's take a closer look.

n the short time since its release, the Nintendo Switch has obtained a fantastic selection of third-party games for almost every genre, but only Nicalis has really striven to have at least one quality game from every genre on the platform. Crystal Crisis is their recent entry in the Puzzle arena, and boy, does it do a good job of filling that niche.

Now that E3 2019 has come and gone, it's time to see just how close our predictions were for the thing—spoilers, we were way fucking off this year.

Nonetheless, we breakdown everything from EA’s bafflingly underwhelming appearance there, to the sweet surprises that Nintendo, Microsoft, and shockingly Konami brought with them to the conference this year. Oh yeah, and we can’t help but contemplate if Todd Howard is a full-on masochist after gritting his teeth through all of those smiles on stage he had to display on what almost seemed like a showcase of damage control for Bethesda this year.

We also breakdown our thoughts on everyone getting into the Streaming game as Andrew reveals his interest in the Stadia, George calls out the haters on the wasted energy that’s thrown at Epic Store exclusives, and Ser can’t stop drooling over the reveal of the TurboGrafx16 Mini. We’ve got another full show on our hands this year, y’all should give it a listen!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

2019 sure is weird—we all knew that E3’s role in the industry has been dwindling by the year, but I don’t think any of us would have imagined how different the content was going to be now that both Sony, and Nintendo have bowed out of the expo this year.

Still, there’s plenty of scuttlebutt to get excited for, & we’ve got some predictions/news here in this episode for you guys to get excited over. While some of those rumors have already been confirmed during the production of this episode, there are plenty of other bits to discuss, like a new DarkStalkers, some Stadia exclusives, a Switch hardware revision, some proper Nintendo VR, additional details on the new Playdate console unveiled in late May, and so much more.

Join us as we take the chance to talk about E3 predictions, Canada’s exclusive television and cuisine, and many other details here in the latest episode of Press Pause Radio!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Being told that you’re not good enough to do something sucks; there’s no “if’s”, “and’s”, or “but’s” about it—it’s an incredibly damaging thing to hear, and an even shittier thing to say.

Yet, even though it’s a topic that’s been discussed ad nauseam, it’s still a conversation that the industry and culture of Video Games is struggles with in terms of a mutual resolution that could benefit all parties. To be clear; scaling the difficulty of a game’s challenge in the interest of accessibility has not, and never will, dilute the appeal of game’s charm, or the intended experience—at least when it comes to example of what a GOOD game is anyway.

So why is it that developers like From Software feel the need to clutch at their pearls, and dismiss any discourse surrounding the inclusion of “easy mode” as a misunderstanding of their design fundamentals? Why is it that in the year 2019 that Microsoft is the only leading force behind a customizable controller that can be configured to accommodate a large number of physical impairments for the differently abled? Bizarrely enough, why we still seeing developers throw up flashing epilepsy warnings for their title as it were some sort of backhanded slap to those who’re affected by this debilitating condition?

Join us Press Pause Radio for this important episode as we talk at length about the state of accessibility for player difficulty, and why the demographic for video games can’t just be aimed at the kid who can snipe posers with 360°-No-Scope action. We talk about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, The Division 2, Geppy X, Yoshi’s Crafted World, the Next-Generation Sony console, the NEC Super-Grafx console, Astroneers, Mortal Kombat 11, Raiden, the frightening concept of the Easter Bunny, and more!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

As far as years for Video Games go, 2018 wasn’t that bad. For starters, the distribution landscape received a culture shock with the innovative premise of Xbox Gamespass, Sony landed some truly blockbuster exclusives for the PlayStation 4, and Nintendo managed to plant a Switch in over 22.86 Million households since its launch.

2018 wasn’t the best year for a God awful lot of reasons, but we can all take solace in the fact that at least in terms of video games, it did pretty OK, and  we would love to celebrate that that.

And what better way to do that by bringing you our trademark Game of the Year podcast, The Golden Zonkies! This year also marks the first time that we have changed up our format for the special mega cast—we’re doing away with categories!  Now, bear in mind, we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, only, we’re not doing by a respective genre, or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of five, and before we even get into that, we’ll also do a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year. We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to previous format, and conclude the show from there.

There you have it; welcome to the latest class of the Golden Zonkies, we hope you kick back and enjoy the show!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

ne of the most challenging aspects of a Superhero-driven Video Game is to emulate what it would be like for players to assume the role of said Superhero authentically. The wall-crawling teenager of comic book fame, Spider-Man, has had a storied, and admittedly mixed history of accomplishments in the gaming space, and it many of the Web-Head’s more recent titles had left the impression that he had finally peaked in terms of gaming.

But then Insomniac came along with an open-world approach that borrowed heavily from RockSteady’s Batman Arkham series—one that emphasizes frenetic movement that relies on all of the character flourishes that Spider-Man offered them, packed into a story-driven narrative that would push the character-action genre to the next level.

Marvel’s Spider-Man isn’t just a must-play for PlayStation 4 owners—it’s one of the most important games of this generation.

fter The success of both Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life on the PlayStation 4, it was no surprise that SEGA had announced to Weekly Famitsu Magazine that it was planning to re-release the entire series of the mega-hit property onto the PlayStation 4. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is the latest entry to spear-head the effort shortly after the release of Yakuza 6, an update to the second entry of the franchise, and the last one to have released on the PlayStation 2 before Yakuza had made the transition to the PlayStation 3 years later.

In what may arguably be the strangest title of the lineup in contrast to the spin-offs and seventh-generation entries, SEGA didn’t pull any punches in ensuring that Yakuza Kiwami 2 captured all of the wacky narratives and tongue-in-cheek writing of the original game. This PlayStation 4 remaster brings it all together with the new Dragon game engine that was introduced in Yakuza 6, and an assortment of other enhancements that make the trip back to the Kamurocho the best one yet.

fter multiple showcases at conventions, and a buzzworthy trailer debut during Microsoft’s keynote at E3 that was soon followed by a number of delays, We Happy Few has finally out on store shelves. Not only did the latest first-person narrative adventure from Compulsion Games have some lofty expectations to live up to, but it also had to stand out within a year that had so many high-pedigree releases like God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and so many more.

Regardless of the imposing odds that lay before it though, We Happy Few, unfortunately, falls under the weight of its own ambitions, and quickly devolves into one of the worst releases seen in 2018.

n somewhat of an ironic twist, one of the fondest memories I have with video games from my childhood isn’t a video game that I played on my television, but a show that I watched on my television about video games. As the 16-bit boom kicked off the nineties, Nickelodeon debuted Nick Arcade—a new game show that embraced the gimmickry of its video aesthetic with the grace of cat walking along a floor made of bubble-wrap.

While the show has only gotten hokier with age, it was vital for a Challenge segment that showcased some of the hottest new games in action on my television screen, something no issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly or GamePro could ever do, and one of those games was Toki: Going Ape Spit.

In a climate that was undeniably overwhelmed with action-platformers, Toki managed to stand out from all of the other classics that were lined up for the show with its bizarrely unattractive, yet colorfully sharp visuals, and surprisingly delicate balance of action and strategy for an arcade shooter. Decades later, the lumbering primate has suddenly slouched his way back into 2018 with a remastered remake of the arcade classic that mostly considered to be vaporware at this point, until the development of it was taken over, and then released by a French developer and publisher Microïds.

'm disappointed in all of you. every, single, one, of, you. None of y'all thought I'd like to know Earth Defense Force 5 was even coming out in North America? Like, really?—I mean, really?! Well, I hustled and this review is damn well happening because... EDF! EDF! EDF!!

You may remember the last time we took a look an EDF game here on PPR. I was at the helm of that one as well: the PS3's EDF 2025 (EDF 4 in Japan.) As far as North American releases go, I have them all. There's never one I miss. You might say I'm a fan. After all, I notoriously jump at the chance to play any new EDF stuff, and it turns out, Earth Defense Force 5 is no exception. So how is it? Let's (wing-)dive in!

Let it be known that in this episode, George admits that Ninja Theory is alright. I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that before we get into anything else. In this episode of Press Pause Radio, our crew discusses all the news and information from the month of November, such as the passing of Stan Lee, the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Detective Pikachu. The group also finds out about the difference between vacation and holiday according to Peppa Pig before going into our featured topic which is the state of E3. With more and more companies leaving to put on their own showcase, does the gaming industry need something like the Electronic Entertainment Expo? We weigh in on this topic and much more. Please let us know what you think about E3 and what we can expect from the industry next year. We appreciate everyone taking the time to check out the show and encourage you all to stay tuned for more!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

et’s begin with the obvious point right out of the gate, this game looks like Ghosts ‘n Goblins. Actually no, that’s wrong. I know I will get corrected by retro gamers far more knowledgeable of the genre so I already did an internet search and discovered that its aesthetic is more like Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. I never played those games, mostly because of the reputation the titles have earned as some of the most difficult games ever made. Fortunately, Battle Princess Madelyn allows fans both old and new to experience action platforming with superior gameplay and a challenging Arcade mode. Sadly, these attempts are muddled and obscured with a literal lack of direction, and a vague Story mode that seems like more of an afterthought than a priority.

 believe that I may have spent more time thinking about writing the review for Nairi: Tower of Shirin than I had played the actual game itself. Not that the game is easy, at least in my opinion; its puzzles had me scratching my head on several occasions. However, the reason for the delay in writing this review is that although I genuinely like this title and its blending of point and click adventure and visual novel, glaring issues in controls, game design and it’s anti-climactic wrap-up has me thinking twice about recommending it to Switch owners.

Man, did you hear what the Quarter-Man said about the Neo Geo BFT?! That's going to be so much hype right? How many times have we as the gaming community seen this scenario play out? Hype being controlled by the developers and publishers is nothing new, however nowadays it seems like the slow drip of information long before a title is to be announced can be damaging to a games momentum. The crew discuss the culture and marketing behind industry leaks, as well as random things in the sky that frighten us and current controversies such as crunch in game development and NERF guns at the resurrected Toys 'R Us.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, 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 Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

e love ZeroDiv over here at Studio Mudprints. They have pretty much single-handedly made the Switch the best place for arcade shooting game action with a slew of digital and retail releases for a number of high profile mid-to-late nineties Psikyo arcade shmups. So it was kind of interesting to see something entirely different from ZeroDiv and Psikyo surface on the Nintendo eShop. After all, shooting games aren't the only titles Psikyo has done. One such game is Hot Gimmick: Cosplay Jong for Nintendo Switch (heretofore known simply as Hot Gimmick 'cause who has time to write all that?) a 1997 arcade Mahjong game with a decidedly Psikyo Twist.

ighting games are a staple here at PPR. Capcom, SNK Playmore and Arc System Works still reign supreme in the genre, there's no denying that, but it sure would be nice to have a decent fighting game from a completely different studio—something with high-res sprites, decent backgrounds, maybe a crossover of some kind. Like, if there was a game that took a bunch of obscure but cool characters from a slew of cult classics and indies and threw them into a super-Japanese story involving a bunch of computers and a super-strong deity. It would be cool if it were created by Studio Sai Zen Sen, the creators of Code of Princess EX, and published by Nicalis too.

Eh? Whazzat? This exact thing exists, in the form of Blade Strangers on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4? Oh, neat. And, as it turns out, it's a pretty fun versus fighting game, too? Well, sign me up!

Want to get great picture from your Dreamcast too? Get the BBS Toro, BBS Gekko and more at the Behar Bros. website! 

Get Galaxy Frontier here

Get the Hyper Sentinel USB Cassette here

Get Rolling Gunner (and its soundtrack!) with worldwide shipping here