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Looking at that cover art, you probably think you can guess the general tone and arc of this episode. You'd be wrong though... Instead of talking about anime tropes that make us sigh with annoyance, we take apart a game about comedy that's not funny at all, a social sim that simulates nothing, and a wasted opportunity to make a game about platonic friendship work.

Gary named this file "Wet Orcs" when he edited it, and that just about sums it up.

Bigger, dumber, more inconsistent. Hot off the heels of their biggest success ever, R.E.M. was ready to tour again. And concurrently, Bill Berry gave the band an ultimatum: no more soft acoustic jams. The result was an album that reveled in its confidence, and changed the band into an act that would fill arenas. Problem is, the risks they took didn't always pay off, leaving us with our most incons...

Kris and Kole talk about doppelgangers, diplomacy, and mystery clocks. ALSO: Kole in the future. A new Ikea. You lose time. Sing the praises of the king. A new island. A Mermaid Puzzle for Kim. Make my ear more handsome. A lost clock. Wasp nest pleasure nest.

It's as uncomfortable to type as it is to say.

James Cameron brought out sweet baby boys back to us, but they've changed.

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Stewart McGowan remember and say goodbye to Bloodborne. This is the first entry in our "Victory Lap" season, a period of two months when we look back at the Souls series and talk about what worked, what didn't, and why these games were special enough to cover for all of these years.

Super Pitfall is one of those classic kusoge games, covered by your video game nerds both angry and normal flavor. But it's also a super slight platformer that doesn't really have too much to talk about, so let's get right to the heart of the matter by discussing those frogs with the DSLs.

Time Slaughter is what happens when an outsider developer attempts to be as unpleasant and nasty as possible. The minds who brought us NESticle also made this parody of Mortal Kombat, complete with over the top violence, garish characters, and shitty, shitty voice acting. But mostly we talk about how we don't want to be cursed to shit bones.

It's a technically interesting footnote in survival horror, following Alone in the Dark's act with its own strange rendering technique. And it seems like it's made for us, because everything is an orb. You would  guess that Kole will be into it, while Gary will be turned off by the visuals. And you'd be right. But tune in anyway and hear the specifics about this weird, weird, weird thing.

Our patrons have backed us into a corner. While E.Y.E. is undoubtedly a weird, inscrutable mess, it's also pretty inspired, systemically interesting, and worth a deeper dive than we could ever give it in a half hour of talk. So what you get here is a hodgepodge of an episode where we praise the opening of Divine Cybermancy, then go on some kind of strange political tangent because you should expec...

Sometimes you're just not ready for this level of concentrated lameness. Claymation is inherently cool, so you have to try pretty hard to make it suck this bad. Shitty non-puns, lazy attempts at satire, and barely audacious attempts at outrage abound... and that's just us! The game is pretty bad, too.

What is there to say about yet another wrestling game? Almost nothing! That's why we cruise through the game itself and respond to lots of miscellaneous prompts from Twitter. It's a real change of pace, but really, what all is there to say about Sting?

Animorphs seems right on the edge of coming back as some kind of YA novel reboot, so we figured we'd get in on the ground floor by talking about this Pokémon clone. Let's dig real deep into the franchise that launched a thousand transformation fetishes. And if that's your thing, boy, have we got a buffet for you.

Heathcliff is a pale substitute for Garfield, so it's hard to know where to go with discussion about a terrible kart racer from the Wii shovelware era. That's why we veer pretty quickly into one of the darkest YouTube holes we've ever found.

This one is on loan from the Night Trap collection, an FMV adventure game that desperately wants the word "mind pirate" to become a thing. Let's watch as community theater rejects with bad Russian accents slowly grow more and more out of control, as hurtful stereotypes about people with intellectual disabilities slip in around the edges.

It's a boilerplate, mostly competent third person shooter that's obviously of its time, with lots of really neat arcade-style reward loops thrown in for good measure. But the real star here is the surreal, over the top trappings that could only come from the mind of the hubristic branding tycoon that is 50 Cent. Yes, this game has been beaten to death. But there's just so much here to talk about.

Discussion of an exuberant advergame from Japan gives way to all of the horrifying biological niches Pepsi and other colas might fill, creating a new, upsetting, and most of all REFRESHING way of life. All hail the new blood.

It's always a good time when we discuss religious games. Except for the feedback we get, that is. Captain Bible casts the forces of good as a traditional superpower, and the forces of The Liar as ultra-cool spider robots who make some very salient points. Join us as we play this flashcard game about arguing in bad faith.

Star Fox Adventures represents a confluence of several factors, any of which on their own would have made it fertile ground for the show. Rare? Check. Bastard entry in a beloved series? Check. Over-sexed anthro characters? Check. But we had no idea how bad it would get. Come with us on a journey to Dinosaur Planet, and into the depths of the depravity of the Star Fox fandom.

This is probably someone's favorite game. It's wacky and weird, and comes from a 32-bit era that people still look back upon fondly. But however much it reminds you of God Hand, it will never be God Hand.

There's a class of game that's regarded well simply because there's little else like it. Rising Zan is one of those. But repeat after us: novelty is not enough!

Join Gary and Kole as they frolic through Bearland, moralizing about how to be closer to God and not swear so damn much. Also: The disturbing origins of corn syrup, and the grizzly applications of combines in the bloody fields of Illinois.

In this episode we discuss a game where you play as a magical transforming ball and his Hamburger Helper companion. Your mission is to collect musical notes using the least intuitive control scheme possible, defeat the Dorito Wizard who threw you into acid, and uncover the secret to why this era of platformers fell short of its goals.

Buckle up, kids, because we're about to go on the oiliest, most musclebound, most smoke-machine laden ride of your lives. That's right: the American Gladiators are here to Eliminate your expectations of what an episode of Exquisite Suffering should be. One part coverage of the NES American Gladiators game, one part "Let's Watch" of an infamous special episode of the American Gladiators television...