The Midnight Release

This week, we’re diving headfirst into one of gaming’s broadest — and most confusing — genres. We break down the difference between Action, Action-Adventure, Action RPGs, and RPGs with action elements, and ask the simplest question we can: Does what YOU do matter more, or does what YOUR CHARACTER can do matter more?

From Mortal Kombat, Doom, Sonic, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, GoldenEye, Metal Gear Solid, and Ocarina of Time in the '90s to GTA III, Halo, Devil May Cry, God of War, Resident Evil 4, Gears of War, and Batman: Arkham Asylum in the 2000s, we trace how the action genre evolved.

Then things get REALLY blurry.

Dark Souls, The Last of Us, GTA V, Doom, God of War, Sekiro, Ghost of Tsushima, Hades, Elden Ring, Sifu, Stellar Blade, Astro Bot, Ghost of Yotei, and Crimson Desert all fit somewhere under the enormous “action” umbrella — but how much do they actually have in common?

Plus, we break down where games like Elden Ring, Kingdom Hearts, Diablo, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Mass Effect, Fallout, Starfield, and Dragon Age fit on the spectrum.

And, of course, we're bringing back the usual side quests:

🎮 Loadout: Build your ultimate action hero with a melee weapon, ranged weapon, special ability, vehicle, and action-game ally.

🕹️ Split Screen: Then vs. now — comparing action games of the '90s to the games we play today.

So grab your controller, sharpen your reflexes, and prepare for a genre classification crisis.

Because some memories are worth lining up for.

For generations, Disney has been more than movies. It’s been songs, characters, video games, VHS tapes, toys, theme parks, and memories that somehow stick with us long after the credits roll.

This week on The Midnight Release, Chase and Austin take a trip through the world of Disney and revisit the films that helped shape generations of fans. From Snow White, Cinderella, and The Jungle Book to the Disney Renaissance classics like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan, and Tarzan, we look at the movies, characters, songs, and cultural moments that made Disney such a lasting part of childhood.

Then we move into the 2000s and beyond with movies like Lilo & Stitch, The Emperor’s New Groove, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Moana, Encanto, and more—including the Pixar films that became just as important to our childhood memories.

We also take a look at the Disney empire itself, from Pixar and Marvel to Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox, while keeping our focus where it belongs: the Disney memories that brought us here.

And of course, we can't talk about Disney without talking about the games. From The Lion King and Aladdin to Kingdom Hearts, Disney Infinity, and Disney Dreamlight Valley, we revisit the games that let us step inside these worlds ourselves.

Then it's time for Now Loading, where we put our favorite Disney movies head-to-head in a bracket challenge, before diving into our Disney gaming memories with Disc of the Day.

No Marvel. No Star Wars. Just Disney.

Because some memories are worth lining up for.

The Console Wars never really ended — they just got a whole lot more complicated.

This week on The Midnight Release, Chase and Austin leave the nostalgia behind and look at the modern Console Wars. PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC gaming, handheld PCs, PlayStation Portal, and the ever-growing world of portable gaming all enter the battlefield.

We break down what actually makes a platform worth owning today, from performance and frame rates to price, accessibility, exclusives, ecosystems, portability, and the increasingly blurry line between consoles and PC. We also dive into the infamous “PC Master Race” briefly to debate and ask what the next generation of gaming hardware could even look like.

Then, in Loadout, we build the ultimate modern night-in setup — from the game we're playing to the food and drink we'd pair with it. And in Patch Notes, we look ahead at what's coming to The Midnight Release, including our upcoming Disney-focused episode, Game Awards coverage, Louisville nostalgia, Naruto, action games, anime, Star Wars, Fast & Furious, and more.

War has changed. The question is: what does “winning” the Console Wars even mean anymore?

Because some memories are worth lining up for.

Remember when the weekend actually felt like an event?

Before smartphones, constant notifications, streaming, and social media followed us everywhere, weekends had a different kind of freedom. You disappeared for hours, met up with friends, wandered around town, played games until sunrise, and somehow always found something to do.

In this episode of The Midnight Release, Chase and Austin take a more personal trip down memory lane, talking about the weekends that shaped their childhood, friendships, and young adulthood.

From mall memories, Halo 2 LAN parties, skateboarding and late-night adventures to big-screen gaming, board game nights, Derby weekends, house parties, gaming tournaments, work weekends, Blockbuster runs, school events, and the simple freedom of growing up before everyone had a phone in their pocket.

We'll also look at some of the things that made weekends feel special—and how much of that has changed.

Then it's time for Now Loading, where we settle one of childhood's great television battles: Nickelodeon vs. Disney Channel vs. Cartoon Network.

Sometimes the best memories weren't the big events.

They were just weekends.

Press Start.

Dragon Ball didn't just become something we watched — for a lot of us, it became part of who we were.

In this episode of The Midnight Release, we're going all in on Dragon Ball — from discovering Dragon Ball Z on Toonami and the legendary Bruce Faulconer soundtrack to fan websites, early internet culture, video games, card games, movies, and the memories that followed us into adulthood.

We talk about how Dragon Ball grew from something we watched after school into a massive part of gaming and pop culture, and where the franchise could go next.

Then we put our Dragon Ball knowledge to the test with a blind ranking of the greatest Dragon Ball fights, before looking toward the future of the franchise.

Whether you grew up waiting for the next episode of DBZ, spent hours playing Budokai, collected cards, or simply remember hearing that iconic music when Toonami came on — this one's for you.

Press Start.

 From Opening Weekend to Opening Night — The Movies That Owned Our Summers.

What made a summer movie feel like an event?

Before streaming, before movies could hit digital platforms weeks after theaters, there was something special about going to the theater in the summer. Trailers, posters, packed theaters, midnight premieres, opening weekends and the feeling that everyone was talking about the same movie.

This week on The Midnight Release, Chase and Austin take a trip through the Summer Blockbuster era, from the late '90s through today.

Starting with 1998, we revisit the movies that dominated our summers — Armageddon, The Matrix, Spider-Man, The Dark Knight, The Avengers, Jurassic World, Avengers: Endgame, Top Gun: Maverick, Barbie, Oppenheimer and plenty more.

Along the way, we talk about the theater experience, the eras that defined summer movies, and why some years simply felt bigger than others.

Plus, we check in on this year's biggest releases and talk about what the modern blockbuster looks like now.  We also do a quick pivot to talk about some recent GamesCom announcements in our Next Gen Side quest.

Because sometimes the movie wasn't just something you watched. It was something you had to be there for.

The Midnight Release is back with another episode — and this time, we're downloading everything from D23 2026 in a surprise pivot episode with all this news!

Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Kingdom Hearts, Disney Parks and plenty more brought a ridiculous amount of announcements, trailers, reveals and surprises.

Chase and Austin break down the biggest news from the weekend, including Frozen 3, Hexed, Zootopia 3, Incredibles 3, Coco 2, Marvel's X-Men, Avengers: Doomsday, Ahsoka Season 2, Star Wars: Starfighter, Kingdom Hearts, and a whole lot more.

Then we head into the parks for some of the biggest Disney Parks announcements and wrap things up by ranking our Top 10 D23 announcements.

It's a little different from our regularly scheduled programming — but when Disney drops this much stuff at once, you have to hit pause and talk about it.

Press Start.

Midnight Reflections returns with a quieter conversation about something many of us are taught to hide: pain.

Some of us become so good at pushing through, minimizing what hurts, and telling everyone “I’m fine” that we forget we don’t have to carry everything alone.

This reflection is about resilience, vulnerability, fear, and the courage it takes to let the people who love us share a little of the weight.

Because strength isn't always about how much pain we can tolerate.

Sometimes, strength is having the courage to reach out your hand and trust someone enough to take it.

The backlog never sleeps.

There is always another game to play, another game on sale, another game we swear we're going to get to, and somehow another dozen games waiting around the corner.

This week on The Midnight Release, we're putting nostalgia aside for a bit and taking a look at the ever-growing backlog—what we're currently playing, what we've finished, what we've been meaning to start, and the games we're already looking ahead to.

From Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Pokémon, God of War, Tomb Raider, Halo, Assassin's Creed, Spider-Man, and GTA to a growing list of upcoming releases, we're talking about the games competing for our limited time.

Because sometimes the hardest part of gaming isn't finding something to play.

It's deciding what to play next.

🎮 In This Episode

The Backlog

•  Games we've been meaning to play 
•  Games we're currently playing 
•  Recently completed games 
•  Replays and revisits 
•  The games we're desperately trying to find time for 

Upcoming Goodness

•  Star Wars 
•  Metal Gear Solid 
•  Wolverine 
•  Ace Combat 
•  Control 
•  Onimusha 
•  Gears 
•  Kingdom Hearts 
•  Final Fantasy 
•  Call of Duty 
•  GTA 
•  Zelda 
•  And plenty more 

🎒 Side Quests

Loadout — If our entire game library disappeared tomorrow, which five games would we save?

Disc of the Day — A trip back to Halo, one of gaming's defining franchises.

And as always, we're talking about the games we're actually playing, the ones sitting patiently in the backlog, and the ones already threatening to make that backlog even worse.

Some arguments never truly end.

This week on Midnight Release, we're revisiting the legendary debates that defined our childhoods, school lunch tables, online forums, gaming communities, and friend groups. Whether it was Nintendo vs. Sega, PlayStation vs. Xbox, Dragon Ball vs. Naruto, Coke vs. Pepsi, or Cartoon Network vs. Nickelodeon, these were the discussions that somehow became life-or-death battles for an entire generation.

We're not necessarily picking winners during the main discussion—we're diving into the memories, rivalries, cultural impact, and nostalgia behind the debates that shaped gaming, anime, movies, television, music, food, and the early internet.

From console wars and anime rivalries to AIM vs. MSN Messenger and Blockbuster vs. Netflix, we're taking a look back at the arguments that followed us from childhood all the way into adulthood.

Featured Debates

🎮 Gaming
 Nintendo vs. Sega • PlayStation vs. Xbox • Halo vs. Call of Duty • Sonic vs. Mario

📺 Anime & Pop Culture
 Dragon Ball vs. Naruto • Pokémon vs. Digimon • Dub vs. Sub • Goku vs. Superman

📼 Nostalgia Media
 Cartoon Network vs. Nickelodeon • Toonami vs. Saturday Morning Cartoons • TMNT vs. Power Rangers • Batman vs. Superman • Star Wars vs. Star Trek

🍔 Food & Drink
 Coke vs. Pepsi • McDonald's vs. Burger King • Mountain Dew vs. Baja Blast vs. Game Fuel • Doritos vs. Cheetos

🎵 Music
 Eminem vs. Everyone • Backstreet Boys vs. NSYNC • Britney Spears vs. Christina Aguilera • Linkin Park vs. Limp Bizkit

💻 Internet Era
 AIM vs. MSN Messenger • MySpace vs. Facebook • Napster vs. LimeWire • Blockbuster vs. Netflix • DVD vs. Streaming