Grind my Metal Gears

We have one last gear to grind before we enter our hibernation phase, and that gear is Metal Gear Ghost Babel! We had a great time getting to play one final 2D Metal Gear game, and were surprised by how solid (haha) it is! Stick around to the end as we chat about the rest of the Master Collection Vol. 2, and try to put a cap on the last few years of GMMG.We'll see everyone again in November fo...

We're going outside and getting some sun (metaphorically) with the 2003 Kojima produced GBA game Boktai! This might be the most 5th grader-coded game ever made which means we did not appreciate it as much as we would have 20 years ago playing on the school bus, but alas... Also one of us ended up getting the "you can't play the game for the next 5 days" disease, RIP.Episode 92: R...

It is with a heavy heart that we must reckon with the fact that Zone of the Enders 2 kinda sucks out loud. For better or for worse (who are we kidding, mostly for worse) the sequel has even more of everything from the first game: more tedious boss fights, more awful writing and voice acting, and hell, there's even more misogyny if you can believe it! Everyone hop in their life-support orbital...

It's time for some video games again as we dive into the Kojima produced PS2 classic Zone of the Enders. What it lacks in story (and oh boy does it lack) it more than makes up in vibes and gameplay. Come for the sick Yoji Shinkawa designs, stay for the acid techno music. Stick around until the end as we rate all of the games we've played up to this point (https://bckl.gg/vHrk), and dip bac...

Time to wrap up our discussions on the Death Stranding Novelizations (at least until October when the first volume of the DS2 novels releases). We honestly had such a great time with these books. Not only were they a great way to revisit and reconsider Death Stranding, but there was quite a lot specific to the novel worth discussing! Join us for that after Danny puts Austin's knowledge of the fina...

We're returning once again to the world of books with the first volume of the Death Stranding Novelization. What could've just been a basic tie-in product to the main game actually turned out to be a thoughtful adaptation of the games world, characters, and themes to the written word. But most importantly, we get more than we could've ever asked for about Sam's Feet. Episode 88: Sa...

We're going back to the very beginning of our journey and revisiting MGS1 with it's Gamecube remake, Twin Snakes. As one would expect, we had a great time overall especially thanks to Ryuhei Kitamura's ridiculous cutscenes. And Speaking of Kitamura, we also watched his 2000 film, Versus which love it or hate it, there's nothing else like it. Episode 87: Notacon

After we had a way better than expected time with MGS1's VR missions, it's only fitting that we find ourselves a little let down by MGS2's VR missions. There may be more missions, but there is way less variety, and not as much of the unique missions that MGS1 had to offer. But don't worry, we make up for the lacking VR missions by getting sidetracked on various topics such as: God...

We said we were going to cover both MGS1 and MGS2's VR missions this time, but it turns out we had way too much fun and way too much to say about MGS1's VR Missions, so we stuck with that. We've got quite a lot to talk through like giant soldiers, murder mysteries, puzzles, and more! Episode 85: JAV Flashbang (Alleged)

It seems like forever ago that we promised to cover the Ape Escape/MGS3 mini-games. Well we're finally making good on that promise by playing Snake VS Monkey and Mesal Gear Solid (we love a pun that makes no sense in English). Join us as we get up to some monkey business, talk movie references, eulogize the mini-game, and... get excited about the new Lego Batman game? All of that plus we talk...

All good things must come to an end, and so too must Policenauts, an absolutely banger from the halcyon days of early Kojima. Time for Jonathan and Ed to put an end to the corruption on Beyond and get our girl Karen the bone marrow she needs. Then stick around as we throw our favorite Kojima characters into the worlds of mini-golf and Resident Evil, and once and for all put an answer to the questi...

As the conspiracy at the heart of Policenauts starts to unravel we find ourselves getting set up and arrested, learning about illegal organ farming, and going to the moon! All this an more as we hit the three quarters point of Policenauts. Oh, and stick around as we contemplate what foods the various Kojima-verse characters are eating. Episode 82: Women Can't Commit Crimes

We're on to Act 2 of Policenauts which means the big conspiracy on Beyond is slowly starting to unravel. We're forced to question our allies, escape elaborate traps, hack computers, and disarm bombs as we dive further into the mystery. Oh, and don't worry: Jonathan's still out here being creepy to every woman he meets. Episode 81: I Hope They Have Hamburgers in Heaven

With Snatcher under our belts, it's time to play Kojima's other major pre-MGS game, Policenauts! It's a lot like Snatcher, but with a lot of improvements. However, one thing that was not improved is our new main character Jonathan Ingram, who unfortunately shares one too many traits with Gillian Seed. Episode 80: Hideo, It's a Restaurant

We finished Snatcher! It's time to find out the secrets of Gillian's past and save Neo-Kobe City. But mostly we're just here to appreciate our boys Metal Gear Mk II and Random Hajile. They both have a guaranteed place in the blunt rotation. Episode 79: The Secret of the Skin

Now that we've watched Blade Runner it's time to play Kojima's rip-of—— uh, I mean homage to Blade Runner: Snatcher! For a 30+ year old game, it holds up, or at least if you can overlook some of the writing around its women... but if you can do that, it's a good time! Join us as we play through the first half of this surprisingly charming adventure game from the earlier days of Koj...

Last time we took a diversion to talk about Blade Runner after Kojima talked it up in the Creative Gene, so of course it'd be foolish of us to not talk about it's surprisingly great, years later sequel: Blade Runner 2049. And we have so much to say about it, from it's many great performances (and one notable bad one), it's amazing production, our various feelings about the ending,...

Inspired by Kojima's essay on it in The Creative Gene, we're talking about Blade Runner! Ridley Scott's massively influential science fiction classic. When were not gushing over how good the film is and how much Rutger Hauer's performance makes us want to cry, we try to dissect the film for its most "Metal Gear" like elements. Episode 76: You Ever See a Man and Want to Cr...

We did it. We survived Metal Gear Survive. We talk about the story (what little there is), the repetitiveness of the gameplay, and the overall sauceless-ness of it all. Oh, and we also talk extensively about the cast of Zoolander for reasons. Episode 75: World of Tanks Creature Design

It's finally time for us to play the infamously poorly received Metal Gear Survive, so you know what that means: we spend some time reminiscing about Metal Gear AC!D 2, looking up Digimon on the villains fandom wiki, and also talking about the ups and (mostly) downs of our first few hours with this middling survival game. Episode 74: Pre-Wegmans Venus

Now that we've wrapped up DS2, it's time return to the world of books as we dig into The Creative Gene: A collection of essays by Kojima about his favorite books, movies, and various other things. We gain a lot of insight into his thematic inspirations, where many of the ideas for Death Stranding came from, some biographical info about the man, and his thoughts about life and the connectio...

It's not the journey, it's the strands we made along the way... We finished Death Stranding 2! Time to bask in it's final moments as we face off against a giant crab, enter the tokusatsu zone, and guitar battle our gay rival. We also confirm some long standing theories of ours. All I'll say is Tomorrow is in your hands... Episode 72: Bigger Lou Theory

We're coming up real close to the end of DS2 which means we've got lots to talk about in this episode. We've got more Higgs and more Neil, the return of two old friends, the Patriots, and... Tomie? All this and more as we wrap our heads around this penultimate section of DS2. Episode 71: These Three Girls Can Kill God

Death Stranding 2 is the game that keeps on giving. First we've got Mamoru Oshii dishing out pizzas and teaching us Pizza-Do Karate, then there's Usada Pekora, and then there's one of the sickest cutscenes we've ever seen in a Kojima game where a jokerfied guitar wielding Higgs fights a giant samurai mech man who may or may not be our baby? God, this game rules. Episode 70: This To...

It's time for us to get to know our newest member aboard the DHV Magellan, and come to the realization that women have never been thriving more in a Kojima game then our main trio is in this game. Also, Heartman is back! And he's receiving emails from himself???Episode 69: Girls Rock