I'd go with Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom for the GameCube. Buuuut maybe that's just because I was 12 at the time. I remember it being a weird mix of real time strategy and RPG elements that came together to be really fun. AND IT CAME WITH PHYSICAL YU-GI-OH! CARDS! Looking at reviews now, it looks like I might be the only one who liked it.

I remember ridiculously long games of Sins of a Solar Empire. Even tiny maps could take 8+ hours. It just felt so epic. Past a certain tipping point in the game it felt kind of like a tedious cleanup. But it was still so satisfying to dismantle everyone you'd spent hours trying to beat.

My pick for a game that was way better than I expected is Celeste. I'm not great at platformers, but everything about Celeste kept me going until the end. The art and music are a perfect match. The level design is masterful. Each world shakes things up enough to keep it fresh, but not too much to where it becomes confusing. I don't actually finish many games nowadays, but I definitely finished Celeste.

My favorite glitches are all of the things you could do in the Halo series, namely Halo 3. From sword cancelling to launching tanks across the map, all of the bonkers things you could do were so fun. Even in free for all matches where you can kill anyone people still worked together to make these glitches happen. This week I share the best answers the internet gave me.

What is your greatest gaming accomplishment? Mine is definitely my high scores in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. Most notably, I've 5-starred Through The Fire And Flames on expert difficulty in Guitar Hero 3. It took me an insane number of tries, but after mastering each section I was able to surpass a 5-star score by quite a bit. What gaming accomplishment are you most proud of?

What game could you just not finish? For me it was Fallout 4. I had never played a Fallout game before, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Once it came out, I planned a bunch of different character builds. But then after a few hours I set it down and just couldn't pick it back up. I think we've all had a game like that.

What games do you like watching more than playing? For me it's high-skill or high-RNG games. I used to play Starcraft 2. The more I tried to get better and climb the ladder, the more stressful it felt to play. Ladder anxiety hit me super hard. I realized that I much preferred playing casual 3v3 or 4v4, and watching 1v1 instead of playing it myself. I also find that with high-RNG games I'd rather watch highlights of crazy plays than grinding it out myself.

What Game Made You a Gamer? For me it was Pokemon Red. I had played other games before it, but something about the combination of collecting, battling, training, and working my way through Kanto made me want to be a gamer for life. It came out in the U.S. when I was 8, and I couldn't put my Game Boy down.

This week we chat with Miranda of Vertical Slice. We talk games media, how to start and run a passion project, content creation, and more.

Introducing the newly renamed Big Shiny Coin podcast! For the first episode under our new moniker we chat with Twitch partner and full time streamer Ezilii. We chat about her journey and what it takes to devote yourself to doing what you love full time.