Ben and Hank talk about what serves a competitive play environment for a game versus what makes it fun to watch. They talk about Trackmania, StarCraft, Fighting games, and Magic: The Gathering.

This podcast was recorded before Keits put out his video "Game Balance Isn't Real" which is a move informed technical breakdown of some of some things that underline stuff talked about in this episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCPQGncOx-Q

(The language around tuning vs balance would have been very useful)

The "upcoming" season of StarCraft Hank mentions is done and dusted at this point and it was indeed a banger. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLo2fPnM8EiQwtydNCqsj5p3XAJSooJwdd

Next Time: Blocks Will Not Save You

Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: saltcirclepod.bsky.social

Hank's Bluesky: @comicpanels.bsky.social

The Burning Barrel Discord: discord.gg/jBDGW5j

Theme Song: topianmusic.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: youtube.com/@saltcircle

Hank's Youtube: youtube.com/@Iam3DHomer

Ben's Youtube: youtube.com/@Dratheus

Ben and Hank continue with Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008). For this fourth part they watched episodes 41-52 , which is the second half of season 2.

Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: saltcirclepod.bsky.social

Hank's Bluesky: @comicpanels.bsky.social

The Burning Barrel Discord: discord.gg/jBDGW5j

Theme Song: topianmusic.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: youtube.com/@saltcircle

Hank's Youtube: youtube.com/@Iam3DHomer

Ben's Youtube: youtube.com/@Dratheus

Ben and Hank reminisce over the stuff they covered on the podcast in 2025 such as Fighting Games, Urusei Yatsura, Animated Star Wars, Teen Titans, Magic the Gathering, and Solo Podcasting.

Then they talk some about stuff they might cover in future episodes.

They also go on a long Pokémon tangent.

"It'll be June when this posts" - Oh you naive fool.

Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: saltcirclepod.bsky.social

Hank's Bluesky: @comicpanels.bsky.social

The Burning Barrel Discord: discord.gg/jBDGW5j

Theme Song: topianmusic.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: youtube.com/@saltcircle

Hank's Youtube: youtube.com/@Iam3DHomer

Ben's Youtube: youtube.com/@Dratheus

Hot off the presses, Ben and Hank jump the queue to bring you a newly recorded podcast on the new Supergirl movie (Directed by Craig Gillespie; Written by Ana Nogueira) and talk about it in relation to the comic it's based on: Supergirl 2021L Woman of Tomorrow (Written by Tom King; Art by Bilquis Evely).

It's a best of both worlds as they get to gush about something good (The Comic) as well as go over a litany of criticism and complaints and just generally laugh at something that is not great (The Movie).

Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: saltcirclepod.bsky.social

Hank's Bluesky: @comicpanels.bsky.social

The Burning Barrel Discord: discord.gg/jBDGW5j

Theme Song: topianmusic.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: youtube.com/@saltcircle

Hank's Youtube: youtube.com/@Iam3DHomer

Ben's Youtube: youtube.com/@Dratheus

Ben and Hank yap about Physical Media, Pokémon Pokopia, old video games, Youtube, Spider-Man, Slay the Spire 2, and shuffling playing cards among other things.

Note: This episode was recorded well before Sony announced they were ending physical game sales.

Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: saltcirclepod.bsky.social

Hank's Bluesky: @comicpanels.bsky.social

The Burning Barrel Discord: discord.gg/jBDGW5j

Theme Song: topianmusic.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: youtube.com/@saltcircle

Hank's Youtube: youtube.com/@Iam3DHomer

Ben's Youtube: youtube.com/@Dratheus

Ben and Hank continue with Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008). For this third part they watched episodes 27-40 , which is the first half of season 2.

Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: saltcirclepod.bsky.social

Hank's Bluesky: @comicpanels.bsky.social

The Burning Barrel Discord: discord.gg/jBDGW5j

Theme Song: topianmusic.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: youtube.com/@saltcircle

Hank's Youtube: youtube.com/@Iam3DHomer

Ben's Youtube: youtube.com/@Dratheus

Ben and Hank talk about how a character being into another character is good.

Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: saltcirclepod.bsky.social

Hank's Bluesky: @comicpanels.bsky.social

The Burning Barrel Discord: discord.gg/jBDGW5j

Theme Song: topianmusic.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: youtube.com/@saltcircle

Hank's Youtube: youtube.com/@Iam3DHomer

Ben's Youtube: youtube.com/@Dratheus

Ben and Hank return to the Sailor Moon Manga. This time they are covering Acts 29-49, Chibi Usa's Picture Diary Chapter 3:Beware of Caveties!, and The Entrance Exam Wars Chapter 1-3; the part of the story adapted into Sailor Moon SuperS in the anime.

Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: saltcirclepod.bsky.social

Hank's Bluesky: @comicpanels.bsky.social

The Burning Barrel Discord: discord.gg/jBDGW5j

Theme Song: topianmusic.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: youtube.com/@saltcircle

Hank's Youtube: youtube.com/@Iam3DHomer

Ben's Youtube: youtube.com/@Dratheus

Ben and Hank yap about Steam.

Note: This podcast was recorded before the recent Steam Deck price increase.

Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: saltcirclepod.bsky.social

Hank's Bluesky: @comicpanels.bsky.social

The Burning Barrel Discord: discord.gg/jBDGW5j

Theme Song: topianmusic.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: youtube.com/@saltcircle

Hank's Youtube: youtube.com/@Iam3DHomer

Ben's Youtube: youtube.com/@Dratheus

Ben and Hank talk about volume 3 of Spider-Man: Octo-Girl written by Hideyuki Furuhashi and art by Betten Court.

(They talked about volumes 1 and 2 on Salt Pile Episode 16)

Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: saltcirclepod.bsky.social

Hank's Bluesky: @comicpanels.bsky.social

The Burning Barrel Discord: discord.gg/jBDGW5j

Theme Song: topianmusic.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: youtube.com/@saltcircle

Hank's Youtube: youtube.com/@Iam3DHomer

Ben's Youtube: youtube.com/@Dratheus