Vidjagame Apocalypse

Whether you think of them as "full-motion video," "FMV," or "a regrettable trend in game design," cheesy interactive movies once seemed poised to take over the game industry - and with the help of MacWorld's Leif Johnson, we brave stilted dialogue (and our own audio issues) to revisit five fondly remembered FMV games from the distant '90s. Then we bite into Apple Arcade's games, get charmed by Link's Awakening, and look at the dead consoles you want to return as "classic" versions.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening makes its adorable comeback this week, so with the help of not one, but two towering guests - Chris Baker and Brett Elston - we dig into five of the best Zelda games that unfolded somewhere other than Hyrule. Then it's on to Borderlands 3, Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, Dread Nautical, and the videogame music you made up your own lyrics for.

The Dreamcast, Sega's beloved but doomed final console, just turned 20 this week! To celebrate, Heidi Kemps of gaming.moe joins us for a look at five games that made the best use of the VMU, Dreamcast's memory card/second screen/handheld device. Then it's on to River City Girls, Gears 5, Apple Arcade news, and the long-lost platform exclusives that you think deserve a second chance.

Everyone loves hippies! Right? Or at least enough to put a few of them in videogames. This week, PNB Podcast's TL Foster returns for a look at some of the ways games have depicted counterculture dropouts, after which we'll dig into Astral Chain, Blair Witch, Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, and a slew of other new releases, along with a ton of Nintendo Direct news and the games you'd like to see in hand-animated 2D.

Being a Disney animator used to mean you were among the world's best creators of hand-drawn, 2D animation - an art form that's fallen out of favor in Hollywood. Luckily, there have been a few times that Disney alums have lent their considerable skills to making 2D games, and we'll dive into five of the best. After that, we snap back to modernity with Control, Knights and Bikes, the apparent resurrection of Telltale, and your favorite bad and weird translations from videogames past.