Our longtime friend Dan Amrich (of Palette-Swap Ninja and Critical Path) joins us this week, and we repay him by making him suffer through counting down five of the loudest, chattiest, most obnoxious cartoon characters ever to headline a platformer. Then there's some excitement over the return of Broken Age; a lot of chat about recent Konami, Valve, Hatred, Black Ops III, and Just Cause 3 news; and a fond look at your favorite Star Wars games.

It's the week of 4/20, which means you probably spent most of Monday massaging your temples in anguish as the Internet brayed endless weed jokes and used the word "ganja" unironically. Well, tough, because it's not over yet —we're late to the party and we're getting our smoke on. Or, well, the protagonists in this week's Top 5 are, as we count down a selection of games in which you can watch your avatar get high. Then there's some chat about Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China (during which we somehow fail to make any "chronic" puns) and Killing Floor 2, as well as a whole lot of talk about the weekend's two big Star Wars trailers: The Force Awakens, and EA's Battlefront.

Do you often find yourself rooting for the bad guys, sometimes even when they're not snappier dressers than the heroes? You're not alone, and a lot of games cater to your dark impulses with the option to play as their Big Bads and put the sappy good guys in their place. Along with special guest Heidi Kemps of gaming.moe, we explore five of our favorite villain experiences this week, followed by a spirited discussion of Mortal Kombat X, Westerado: Double Barreled, Grand Theft Auto V on PC, and your last memories of being in an arcade.

With David Lynch dropping out (at least temporarily) of the Twin Peaks resurrection over the weekend, the time was ripe for an idea that's been sitting on our back burner for a while: games that borrowed heavily from the landmark '90s show, forging their own uniquely weird identities in the process. Some of them may even surprise you. There's also some light talk about Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, excitement over Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and ranting over Amiibos, and a look at your favorite April Fool's gags of 2015.

San Francisco seems to get destroyed a lot more often than most other cities in fiction, and that includes games - so this week, we take a look at five games that wreaked the most destruction on VGA's hometown. Then there's some extended Bloodborne chat with Michael Grimm, a bit of excitement over Axiom Verge, and a look at the games you said made purchasing a new console or video card worthwhile.