Vidjagame Apocalypse

Injustice 2 hit this week with more power than a locomotive - and with Sub-Zero as a DLC cast member. So to celebrate, we've invited Heidi Kemps of gaming.moe to help us count down our picks for the five best guest characters in fighting games. Then it's time to dig into Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Injustice 2 (of course), rampant speculation about Zelda on mobile, the Rap Rabbit Kickstarter, and the board games you'd like to turn into video games.

We've got a bona fide indie developer in our midst this week, as Theresa Duringer of Temple Gates Games joins us to talk about her new mobile adaptation of strategy board game Race for the Galaxy. She also helps us talk about five games that began as fan projects or unofficial mods, only to earn the eventual blessing and/or backing of the companies whose work they were celebrating. Then it's onward toward NBA Playgrounds, Strafe, Deadly Premonition becoming a board game, and your favorite experiences playing games in 3D.

With Austin Powers recently turning 20, we undertake a fan suggestion this week and look at five awful, awful games based on Mike Myers movies... with the help of our old pal Dan Amrich, who won the internet this week by co-creating the stellar Star Wars/Beatles mashup album known as Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans. Then it's time for a spirited discussion about Prey, Call of Duty: WWII, Darksiders III, the New Nintendo 2DS XL, and the series whose gameplay you'd mash together if you could.

Theme song by Matthew Joseph Payne http://matthewjosephpayne.bandcamp.com/

Break song is Dianoga by Palette-Swap Ninja http://www.paletteswapninja.com/

Haunting and beautiful New Releases Theme by David B. Cooper.

This week sees the release of not one, but two games that mash up popular franchises to create strange and wonderful new hybrids of complementary gameplay - so Henry Gilbert joins the crew to count down a list of five other games that merged existing gameplay formulas to create new crossover adventures. We then switch gears to Puyo Puyo Tetris, Dragon Quest Heroes II, What Remains of Edith Finch, Outlast 2, Night Trap, and the game characters you felt bad about killing.

Theme song by Matthew Joseph Payne. Break song is Reincarnation by Yoshiaki Fujisawa. Closing song is Slow Burn by Girls Who Care. Haunting and beautiful New Releases Theme by David B. Cooper.

Follow us on Twitter @VGApocalypse!

This week brings a storm of retro-styled games and revamped re-releases, but before we get to that, Michael Grimm joins us for a look at five games that let you choose paths of (relative) nonviolence, incapacitating and outwitting your enemies instead of straight-up killing them. Then it's time to dig into Full Throttle Remastered, Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy, the Disney Afternoon Collection, our collective disappointment over the unexpected demise of the NES Classic, and the characters you'd want to see work together.

Question of the Week: Has there ever been a game character you regretted killing?

Theme song by Matthew Joseph Payne. Break song is The Disney Afternoon Theme by The Disney Afternoon Studio Chorus. Haunting and beautiful New Releases Theme by David B. Cooper.

Follow us on Twitter @VGApocalypse!