The Free Cheese

This week on The Free Cheese, no more GUILT. We grab what every great surgeon and medical student calls their most important tool: the Nintendo DS stylus. With it in tow, we gel, slice, burn, cut, inject, extract, and stitch our way through Trauma Center: Under the Knife one patient at a time.

This week on The Free Cheese, the year is half full. We look back over the past ninety days at the video games we've played on and off air, then discuss some video game headlines from the past quarter. We also check in with each of the major platforms and see how Nintendo Switch 2 holds up one year later.

This week on The Free Cheese, increase the population. You are in a committed relationship and wake up in bed beside another woman. Great job! Now it's time to climb blocks and navigate your social life one conversation at a time. Atlus takes a break from its established franchises to introduce Catherine and in this episode, we explore its expanded Full Body edition, ranking it on The List.

This week on The Free Cheese, reload reload reload. We went to an arcade to return to The House of the Dead for a special episode highlighting Sega and some of its arcade history. We discuss our time with the game, what it's like visiting an arcade in 2026, and where we wish the series would go from here.

This week on The Free Cheese, Mobius 1 has crashed! We take to the skies in the first PlayStation 2 entry in the Ace Combat series. We discuss the story and its presentation, how easy it is to learn to fly, and what lasted with us by the end of our time with Ace Combat 04.

This week on The Free Cheese, it's a blade master's fate. Atlus, your friends behind the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series, once made a first-person action game for the Sega Dreamcast. We play and discuss Maken X, appreciate its sound design (and question a few of the choices), and reminisce on the start to the twenty-first century.

This week on The Free Cheese, Sly, raccoon on feet. We return to the second PlayStation to explore one of its core third-person platforming franchises, Sly Cooper. After exploring the world created by Sucker Punch Productions, we share our thoughts on what this first entry does right from the start, how much we loved the look and sound of the game, and why meaningful collectibles make the differen...

This week on The Free Cheese, welcome to Cocoon. We add our first Final Fantasy game to The List with the flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, Final Fantasy XIII. After years of hearing the global criticism of the game, we explore how much of that was echoes and what was reality. We dive deep into the combat system, discuss the characters we gravitated towards, and try really, real...

This week on The Free Cheese, beginning of universe. Our exploration of the PlayStation continues this week with the grid-based puzzle game, Intelligent Qube. We appreciate its simplicity and how intense the stages can become, discuss the replayability, and then rank it on The List.

This week on The Free Cheese, when was the last time they made one of those? We explore the recent notion that the release gaps of new entries in franchises are failing to build deeper connections with younger players. From there, we discuss the franchises we connected with and why we stay engaged with them, looking at how crossovers and cross-media installments have maintained our connections wit...

This week on The Free Cheese, in the bag, pig! We take control of the pink-haired, chomping Tomba to discover a PlayStation adventure that has long invited us into its world. Through our time with it, we explore the twisting, turning map and try to stop the inevitably evil pigs.

This week on The Free Cheese, now we're running the show. As the WWE series makes its debut on the next generation (in 2006), we see what's different and what this era in simulation wrestling has to offer. We each take on the role of GM and work through a season of broadcast to find a new champion.

This week on The Free Cheese, sorry, but we're not on the menu. We set a new record for release time to ranking with Resident Evil Requiem, adding it to The List just over a month since its release. We discuss what makes Requiem different while still maintaining the series, how it drives the story forward, and share our favorite one-liners from Uncle Leon.

This week on The Free Cheese, let's push blocks against the current. We finally explore the depths of the ocean, taking control of Ecco the Dolphin in his titular adventure. We struggle with the game's difficulty but find ourselves continually enamored with its narrative and ambition. Matt finds the one change that could fix the game and we check in on the latest in clear-colored sodas.

This week on The Free Cheese, pretend it's season 9. We take a break from the weekly ranking of video games to reflect on the first quarter of the year. We discuss the games we've played for fun that we haven't talked about on the show, some of the news stories that have made an impact in 2026 so far, and then we reflect on the games we've added to The List.

This week on The Free Cheese, there's no movie? Just in time for the delayed release of the latest 007 video game, we wander back to the early 2000s to explore Agent Under Fire. We discuss the various mission types, how gadgets play into gameplay, and what makes a good James Bond video game. Then, we rank this entry on The List.

This week on The Free Cheese, I'm gonna make these cigarettes disappear. We take control of Sam and find out what happens when Shinji Mikami directs PlatinumGames' Bayonetta reimagined with some Gears of War. If that sounds like a lot of things happening at once, you haven't played Vanquish.

This week on The Free Cheese, it's kind of like F-Zero but not in zero gravity. We're traveling back to a peculiar video game entry in the F1 series of video games, where its main developer Codemasters merged the world of F1 with kart racing. Just in time for the start of the season, we take a tour around the world of F1 Race Stars and then rank it on The List.

This week on The Free Cheese, I'm only here for the bumper sticker. Just ahead of the launch of a long-awaited successor, we check out Bungie's Marathon from 1994 for an introduction to the series and what would inspire not only the upcoming extraction shooter, but what led to the world of Halo. We discuss our time with the game and reflect on other first-person shooters on The List .

This week on The Free Cheese, how high can you get? A true PlayStation classic joins The List this week as we discover Jumping Flash for our 650th episode. We discuss its release contextually against its contemporaries, share our time spent with the game, and talk about how it embodies the spirit of PlayStation.

This week on The Free Cheese, if you build it, will they come? How does the simulation genre stack up when things go vertical? Can we succeed in building and managing a resort in Hawaii or a business complex in Tokyo? Find out as Yoot Tower joins The List in this episode.

This week on The Free Cheese, we came out and played. What happens when a developer with newfound fame and respect gets to make a prequel to one of its favorite movies from 25 years earlier? We find out when we add another Rockstar game to The List and see what The Warriors was bringing to PlayStation 2 in the midst of Grand Theft Auto's rise.

This week on The Free Cheese, just like mama taught you. We wield the stylus to guide us through every recipe we can as we explore a Nintendo DS staple, Cooking Mama. Is this the perfect DS companion or just another bargain bin select? Grab your apron and find out!

This week on The Free Cheese, na na na na na na na. We're rolling everything up this week as Katamari Damacy joins The List. We discuss our favorite stages, how a video game can maintain engagement with a simple mechanic, and the importance of a great control scheme.

This week on The Free Cheese, Matt wants a game to be more like Mario Party. We work dilligently through a series of mini games to help the Tanamatsuri family get home for grandmother's birthday. As part of our deeper exploration of the PlayStation library this year, Incredible Crisis brings a series of unique gameplay challenges and ska to the platform.