Scandalous Games

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends, but we like to take it easy during the summer months for Scandalous Games Summer, where we offer a syncable audio commentary track of a video game related movie. This month, in light of the recent (as of the recording) passing of Double Dragon creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto (https://www.ign.com/articles/yoshihisa-k...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends, but this time it's special because it is the fifth birthday of Scandalous Games! In honor of five years of wild advertising campaigns, colorful characters, and panics of all shapes and sizes, we go back to the well of the Clown Prince of Anti-Simulated Crime...Mr. Jack Thompson. Join Kevin as he performs a...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Ryan Weaver, and special guest Jay Brandstetter from the internet history podcast I'm From the Internet . We bring you the thrilling conclusion of our look at Jack Thompson's personal war against Rockstar and Take-Two and, subsequently, his legal career. This time, the publishers of Grand T...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Ryan Weaver, and special guest Jay Brandstetter from the internet history podcast I'm From the Internet .  This time around, as we await the long-anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI , we go back to the well of stories about infamous anti-video game lawyer Jack Thompson and take a closer l...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Phil Thomas. We wrap up our look back at the year in controversies that was 2025 with a deep dive into the gaming exploits of everyone's favorite (?) 4chan-pilled, billionaire oligarch/1337 gamer: Elon Musk. We dissect Musk's claims that he is a high-level player in several competitive g...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friend/partner, Kate Lynch. We interrupt our regularly-scheduled second episode on 2025 in controversies to take one more look back at the anti-woke paid award show The Real Game Awards, which, against all odds, aired a new edition on February 23, 2026. Join Kate and Kevin as we review the awards and their (lack of) impa...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friend, Andy Hunter. We take a look back at a controversy from the previous year, examining how the announcement of a remastered version of Halo: Combat Evolved inspired an AI-generated meme-off between GameStop and the Trump Administration. We also keep ourselves sane by sharing our favorite games of 2025. Topics discus...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. Just in time for the latest installment of the Real Game Awards, we finish our look back at the first installment of the anti-woke game awards show made by gamers courageous enough to give Stuttering Craig Skistimas money. This time, we wade into the role of Warhammer 40,000 and the R...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. For our first-ever fully in-person recording, we continue our look at The Real Game Awards, the paid game awards show targeted at folks in the anti-woke gaming community. This time around, we tackle their fears over the alleged "uglification" of female characters in video ga...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. We continue our look at The Real Game Awards, the alternative gaming awards show/business venture of former Screw Attack co-founder Craig "Stuttering Craig" Skistimas. This time around, we take a closer look at their "Worst Game Journalist" category and the moral p...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. We start 2026 with a closer look at the Real Game Awards, the alternative awards show/moneymaking scheme to Geoff Keighley's Game Awards created by former Screw Attack founder turned anti-woke gaming commentator Craig "Stuttering Craig" Skistimas.  Topics discussed incl...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Ryan Weaver. In our thrilling conclusion to our remastered version of our 2022 episode on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas "Hot Coffee" mod, we examine the fallout and the lasting legacy behind arguably the most infamous mod in the history of video games.  Topics disc...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Ryan Weaver. We're taking December off for the holiday, so to help you through the season (and hopefully soften the blow of the recent news that Grand Theft Auto VI won't be coming out until November 2026), here's part one of a remastered edition of our Pulitzer P...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Matt Shoemaker, whose new book, Gathering of Gamers: Dungeons & Dragons and Other Games Through Gen Con, is available now through Play Story Press (https://playstorypress.org/books/gathering-of-gamers/). If you're interested in the history of North America's largest gaming convention...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Phil Thomas, and Matt Shoemaker, whose new book, Gathering of Gamers: Dungeons & Dragons and Other Games Through Gen Con , is available now through Play Story Press (https://playstorypress.org/books/gathering-of-gamers/).  We continue our deep dive into anti- Dungeons & Dragons moral activist...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Andy Hunter, and recently-published author Matt Shoemaker, whose new book, Gathering of Gamers: Dungeons & Dragons and Other Games Through Gen Con , is available now through Play Story Press (https://playstorypress.org/books/gathering-of-gamers/).  We continue our look at moral panics over Dungeo...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Andy Hunter, and Phil Thomas. We are also joined by a special guest: Matt Shoemaker, who is a game designer, librarian, game historian, and author of the new book Gathering of Gamers: Dungeons & Dragons and Other Games Through Gen Con , which is available now through Play Story Press (https://pla...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. We finally wrap up our look at legendary (?) video game movie director Uwe Boll's attempt to make a sequel to his 2007 adaptation of Postal we his ill-advised, ill-conceived 2024 Indiegogo campaign to finance Postal 2 .  Topics discussed include: Uwe Boll vs. Alex Jones: the Figh...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. Having learned about Uwe Boll's 2007 adaptation of Postal , we pivot into his attempts to make a film sequel to Running with Scissors' flagship/only game franchise, starting with Uwe's 2013 Kickstarter campaign to finance Postal 2 . Topics discussed include: how Veronic...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. We wrap up our discussion of Uwe Boll's 2007 film Postal by examining the film's critical and audience reception at the time of its release. This will help set the stage for Uwe's multiple attempts to make a sequel to the video game movie audiences didn't seem to h...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. For our first episode coming off Scandalous Games Summer, we stick around the world of movies and take a closer look at Uwe Boll's 2007 film Postal , Uwe's raunchy, satirical comedy adaptation of Running with Scissors' only franchise. This time, we look at its developme...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri usually shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends. However, we're taking a few months off for the second annual Scandalous Games Summer, where we offer syncable audio commentaries for video game related movies.  This time around Join Kevin, Andy Hunter, Phil Thomas, Lauren, and Kate Lynch as we trust the fungus and talk over the 1993 debut of licens...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri usually shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends. However, we're taking a few months off for the second annual Scandalous Games Summer, where we offer syncable audio commentaries for video game related movies.  Join Kevin, Andy Hunter, and Kate Lynch as they talk over the 1989 coming of age tale/100-minute Nintendo commercial The Wizard (https://ww...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. We bring you the thrilling conclusion of our look at John DeCamp, the disgraced former politician/conspiracy monger who sued the games industry following the Columbine shooting. We look at John's associations with some very fine people and how he tried to get to the bottom of a b...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Phil Thomas. As a new wrongful death lawsuit levied against a video game company looms, we take a closer look at Sanders v. Acclaim , the 2001 lawsuit filed against the video game industry alleging games like DOOM , Redneck Rampage , and Final Fantasy (?!?) trained the Columbine High School shoote...