PPR Presents Golden Zonkies: Class of 2025

ow 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 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 Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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PPR 161

rifters 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 Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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PPR 160

re 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 Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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