Vidjagame Apocalypse

We've officially entered the final weeks of 2024, which means we get to start on our year-end best lists and tell you about all the stuff we liked the most this year! Let's kick this off with Tony Wilson of Framework and a look at our five favorite DLC expansions, after which we'll talk about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, AntonBlast, PS5 getting 30th-anniversary themes, and your favorite spinoffs of established series.

Question of the Week: What's your favorite DLC of 2024?

Break song is Night Springs by Keira from Alan Wake II. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

Once a game series reaches a certain level of success, spinoffs are inevitable; some of them spawn their own franchises, like Mega Man X, while others rapidly fizzle into obscurity, like Mega Man Soccer. This week, merritt k and TL Foster join us to celebrate five of the latter category, after which we'll get into Trombone Champ: Unflattened, Loco Motive, the Xbox Avatar app disappearing, and the games you felt the least fulfilled after beating.

Please help support this week's guest by wishlisting merritt k's awesome soon-to-be-released game, Fledgling Manor: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3238510/Fledgling_Manor/

Question of the Week: What's your favorite spinoff (the more obscure, the better) from an established series?

Break song is Nowhere Fast by Fire Inc. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

Nov. 27 would be Bruce Lee's 84th birthday, and that's as good an excuse as any to get Anthony Abatte on for a howl-filled discussion of our favorite unauthorized Bruce Lee knockoffs in fighting games. Then we'll talk about STALKER 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Great God Grove, The Game Awards 2024 nominations, and the songs you associate with specific videogames (that didn't include them).

Question of the Week: What's the least fulfilled you've ever felt after finishing a game?

Break song is Be Like Water by RZA. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

As much as videogames tend to be about wreaking havoc and wrecking stuff, there are relatively few that actually let you tear through and collapse the buildings that dot their landscapes. We're not sure why it took us 601 episodes to reach the topic of games where you can wreck buildings, but here we are, and after that we'll get into Tetris Forever, Rise of the Golden Idol, Slitterhead, Super Nintendo World news, and the game characters you wouldn't want to have over for Thanksgiving.

Question of the Week: Is there a song you associate strongly with a specific videogame - whether because of its themes or a specific memory of playing them together - even thought it isn't actually connected to that game?

Break song is Turn Down For What by DJ Snake and Lil Jon. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

We've somehow made it to 600 shows! To celebrate, TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us for a laugh-filled Top 5 about previous Top 5s, and it's so big, it's a TOP 6! After that trip down memory lane, we'll talk more about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania, Nintendo confirming backwards compatibility for the Switch successor, and your favorite moments from our 599 previous shows.

Question of the Week: Who's a videogame character you'd hate to have Thanksgiving dinner with? (If outside the US, substitute any extremely stressful family holiday dinner of your choice.)

Break song is Top That by Larry Weir and the cast of Teen Witch. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

It's the day after Halloween, but we've got one last spooky show in us - this time about wandering ghosts you can find off the beaten path in games that aren't even about horror. With Tony Wilson of Framework along for the ride, we'll also talk about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Clock Tower: Rewind, an Oregon Trail movie, and the games you wish other games would rip off more.

Question of the Week: In honor of our 600th episode next week, what's a favorite moment of yours from our show?

Break song is Ghostfire by Tiger Army. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

The early Resident Evil games were once popular enough to spawn a whole horde of zombie-killing imitators with fixed camera angles and tank controls, and erstwhile host Dave Rudden rejoins us this week to laugh at five of the more obscure ones. Then we'll get into Sonic X Shadow Generations, Mechwarrior 5: Clans, news from the Xbox Partner Preview, and your most favoritest zombie games.

Question of the Week: What's a game franchise you wish more competitors would rip off?

Break song is David Duchovny, Why Won't You Love Me? (The Reboot) by Bree Sharp. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

We're deep into spooky season, so let's take a look back at the strange wave of profane, silly, borderline sleazy zombie games the industry pumped out in the late-'00s/early-'10s, with help from TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing! Then we'll talk more about Metaphor: ReFantazio, Europa, the Game Freak data breach, and your most irrational habits when playing games.

Question of the Week: What's your favorite zombie game?

Break song is The Middle - Jimmy Eat World by Skatune Network. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

Expecting a movie to be an entertaining adaptation of a videogame and be scary seems like asking too much, but gosh darn it if the horror-game movies we talk about in this week's Top 5 with Steve Guntli (of CinemArcade and Puppet Masters/Castle Freaks) didn't try. Then we'll talk about the Silent HIll 2 remake, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO, Nintendo's timely new announcement, and your favorite mind-blowing twists in videogames.

Question of the Week: What's your most irrational habit when it comes to playing games?

Break song is The Sticky Sweethearts - Lost in the Corn Maze by Obscurest Vinyl. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

With spooky season upon us at last, TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us for a Top 5 on games that gradually reveal themselves to be haunted traps set by malevolent entities lurking deep within the code (ample spoiler warnings and timestamps here, so keep those fast-forward fingers ready). Then we'll get into The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Mortal Komba 1: Khaos Reigns, Katsuhiro Harada trying to get Colonel Sanders into Tekken, and the unexpected settings you'd like to see your favorite game characters in.

Question of the Week: Tell us about an unexpected twist in a game's story that kinda blew your mind.

Break song is Your Reality (Credits) by Dan Salvato. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.