Vidjagame Apocalypse

Spider-Man is out on PS4 at last, so this week we're joined by USgamer's Mike Williams, here to talk about his 4.5/5 review. We keep the theme going with a Top 5 about superhero games that weren't based on comics, talk about The Messenger and Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, and finish with the games that helped you get through your school years.

To mark the end of August and any lingering summer vacations, this week's show takes a look at five games set largely in schools (just in case you thought games were any escape). What's more, we're expanding our scope this week to talk about new releases and news, including Donut County and Gamescom impressions, and then we'll finally look at your ideal in-game tropical getaways and favorite start...

Tons of games load you down with an arsenal's worth of guns and gadgets, but sometimes, it's the one essential tool or weapon you get right from the start that turns out to be the most fun and effective thing in the game. This week, John Brandon of Square Roots Podcast drops by to chat about five of our favorite starter items, each of which would have been enough to carry us through their games if...

Summer isn't over quite yet, so the VGA boys are packing up their board shorts and Hawaiian shirts and taking a vacation to some of our favorite digital destinations -- of the tropical variety, that is. This week, Mikel, Matt, and Chris are joined by returning guest Tim Turi to talk about our favorite vidjagames that take place on and around tropical islands.

Meeting a shark in a game isn't all that uncommon - but when they're full-on bosses, you're probably in for something terrifying. This week, animal expert and LaserTime community superstar Cody "CajunCrippler" Laveau joins us to talk about five of the biggest, baddest shark bosses ever to swim the digital oceans, after which we'll take a look at your favorite in-game currencies and cheat codes.

When some new innovation helps turn a game into a big hit, it tends to spread across the industry like wildfire. Sometimes, these trends stick around to form part of the familiar patchwork of modern vidjagames. We're not talking about THOSE trends, however; this week, Trav "TurboBison" Foster joins Matt and Mikel for a chat about design ideas that were once widely mimicked, but now functionally de...

This week's show is short by our standards, but don't worry - every entry in our Top 5 is a treasure. Specifically, each one is a boss themed around treasure, and Trav "TurboBison" Foster joins Mikel, Matt, and Chris to talk about these bizarre demons that flaunt their wealth like we're not about to just take it from them. And don't worry - we'll talk about the side characters you'd want to star i...

In the past weeks, we've seen a few once-minor characters getting their own star turns, from Captain Toad to Far Cry 5's Nick Rye. Of course, side characters getting their own games is nothing new, and with help from Heidi Kemps, we'll look at five shining examples of sidekicks, villains, and supporting castmembers who got their own games.

This week, Dan Amrich returns to the show to talk us through something dear to his arcade historian's heart: a deep dive into pinball games based on popular video games (some of which actually play something like their digital counterparts), after which we'll take a look at your favorite Mario games ever.

The recent release of Runner3 reminded us of a strange truth: Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, has had a long and successful career outside of voicing Nintendo's favorite plumber. And with help from Alaina Yee, we'll touch on some of his more memorable, non-Nintendo roles, and then take a look at your favorite games of the year (so far)!

It's the end of June, which means it's time to sit down and take a hard look at the games that came out over the past six months, and pick our five favorites from the madding crowd. Jorge Albor of rival podcast Experience Points joins us to chat about the games that stole our hearts, plus we'll look at your favorite announcements from E3! (Oh, and uhhh Mikel's back, I guess?)

Since nobody else is doing them, and we know how starved you all must be for E3 2018 content, it's a good thing we're here with our annual Best of E3 show. We're doing things a little differently this year. Matty Allen, Chris Antista, TL "TurboBison" Foster, and first-time guest Marcus "Annoyed Gamer" Beer have chosen their top 5 games of the show, but we've also gathered votes from YOU the fans a...

By the time you listen this episode, E3 2018 will have come and gone, and we'll all know a heck of a lot more about this year's upcoming game releases. That includes one of the biggest games of the year: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! One of this week's most exciting reveals about the game was that it will feature every fighter ever included in Nintendo's brawler series, which fits perfectly with the...

E3 2018 is upon us, and even though the show technically doesn't start until next week, the hype train has already left the station with a payload full of leaks and new game announcements. But not every game announced at E3 sees the light of day. On this week's show, Matty Allen, Chris Antista, and special guest Dylan Tierney discuss five of the biggest games announced at E3 that were eventually c...

What do the new God of War and the YouTube Red series Cobra Kai have in common, other than the fact that they both feature leads with anger management issues? They're both new entries in franchises we thought we'd moved on from, yet turned out way better than we could've hoped -- or even asked for, for that matter. The comeback success of these two dormant franchises got us thinking about some oth...

Things get technical in this week's episode of Vidjagame Apocalypse as Chris and Matty Allen are joined by USGamer.net Editor in Chief Kat Bailey to discuss the top 5 androids in videogames. Inspired by the release of David Cage and Quantic Dream's Detroit: Become Human , we explore the Uncanny Valley, ponder what it means to be human, and try to figure out why dudes in games seem so thirsty for a...

Surprise! We just couldn't stay away, and while Mikel continues to enjoy his (well-deserved) sabbatical, Chris, Matty Allen, and special guest Trav "TurboBison" Foster are here with a bonus edition of Vidjagame Apocalypse. Prior to his break, Mikel suggested a topic tied to the Nintendo Labo that we couldn't resist covering: the Weirdest Nintendo Peripherals of All Time! So stop fiddling around wi...

This is it, folks - VGA is going on hiatus, and we've cooked up a hell of an episode to tide you over until we come back. In addition to Chris and Mikel, we've assembled Brett Elston, Dan Amrich, Anne Lewis, and Tyler Wilde to tackle a forbidden subject from our distant pasts, one we swore we'd never do: a list of the greatest barrels ever. What dark forces will be unleashed by assembling such a s...

God of War is out this week, taking jaded Greek hipster Kratos on a spree of cultural appropriation through Scandinavia (or something like that). To celebrate the series' by-all-accounts amazing rebirth, Matthew Allen and Alaina Yee help us dedicate this week's show to five other games that draw heavy inspiration from Norse mythology, complete with one-eyed gods, Valkyries, and battles at the end...

Who doesn't like to hear a villain sing about themselves and their evil plans? It's a time-honored tradition, dating back to some really old thing or other, but it's a more recent phenomenon in video games. So this week, special guests Alaina Yee and Matthew Allen join to help us count down five - count 'em, five! - of our favorite singing bad guys.

Ready Player One is in theaters this week, and whatever you think of it, the core idea of being rewarded with actual riches for doing something in a game is a powerful one. So powerful, in fact, that it's been done several times in real life. So with help from Matthew Allen and Nathan Ortega, let's spend this short-form episode diving into five games that were sold on the promise of fantastic rewa...

Big news this week - VGA is going on hiatus at the end of April. But we've got plenty of shows still to go, starting with this week's, in which Heidi Kemps and Matthew Allen help us look at five Japanese games that never made it out of Japan, despite their series being popular over here. Then it's on to Sea of Thieves, Attack on Titan 2, Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered, PUBG mobile, and the game...

Last week saw a return to the bad old days of video games as a whipping boy in the national debate over violent crime, and that brought some weird old memories rushing back - so many, in fact, that we decided to drag special guests Nick Suttner and Matthew Allen into an unexpectedly heavy discussion of five of the most controversial, moral panic-inducing games of the past 30 years. We also take th...

Plenty of games let you play as multiple heroes, but how many have you switching back and forth between heroes that seriously have it in for each other, pushing you to work against yourself as your perspective shifts? A whole bunch, as it turns out, so this week we'll look at five of our favorites, with help from Matthew Allen. Then it's on to idle chatter about Far Cry Arcade, the return of Fear...