This week, Dan Amrich returns to the show to talk us through something dear to his arcade historian's heart: a deep dive into pinball games based on popular video games (some of which actually play something like their digital counterparts), after which we'll take a look at your favorite Mario games ever.

The recent release of Runner3 reminded us of a strange truth: Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, has had a long and successful career outside of voicing Nintendo's favorite plumber. And with help from Alaina Yee, we'll touch on some of his more memorable, non-Nintendo roles, and then take a look at your favorite games of the year (so far)!

It's the end of June, which means it's time to sit down and take a hard look at the games that came out over the past six months, and pick our five favorites from the madding crowd. Jorge Albor of rival podcast Experience Points joins us to chat about the games that stole our hearts, plus we'll look at your favorite announcements from E3! (Oh, and uhhh Mikel's back, I guess?)

Since nobody else is doing them, and we know how starved you all must be for E3 2018 content, it’s a good thing we’re here with our annual Best of E3 show. We’re doing things a little differently this year. Matty Allen, Chris Antista, TL “TurboBison” Foster, and first-time guest Marcus “Annoyed Gamer” Beer have chosen their top 5 games of the show, but we’ve also gathered votes from YOU the fans at the Official Laser Time Facebook Community. We threw all of the results together, mixed them up a bit, sprinkled in some hot takes, and are here to present the official list of the Vidjagame Apocalypse Top 5 Games of E3 2018. Enjoy!

By the time you listen this episode, E3 2018 will have come and gone, and we’ll all know a heck of a lot more about this year’s upcoming game releases. That includes one of the biggest games of the year: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! One of this week’s most exciting reveals about the game was that it will feature every fighter ever included in Nintendo’s brawler series, which fits perfectly with the theme of this week’s show. Trav “TurboBison” Foster joins Matty Allen and Chris Antista to discuss five of the most obscure playable characters to ever appear in a Smash Bros. game.

E3 2018 is upon us, and even though the show technically doesn’t start until next week, the hype train has already left the station with a payload full of leaks and new game announcements. But not every game announced at E3 sees the light of day. On this week’s show, Matty Allen, Chris Antista, and special guest Dylan Tierney discuss five of the biggest games announced at E3 that were eventually cancelled.

What do the new God of War and the YouTube Red series Cobra Kai have in common, other than the fact that they both feature leads with anger management issues? They’re both new entries in franchises we thought we’d moved on from, yet turned out way better than we could’ve hoped -- or even asked for, for that matter. The comeback success of these two dormant franchises got us thinking about some other gaming franchises that came back seemingly from out of nowhere to re-establish themselves as heavy hitters. On this week’s show, Alaina Yee joins Matty Allen and Chris to look at the top 5 comebacks in vidjagames.

Things get technical in this week’s episode of Vidjagame Apocalypse as Chris and Matty Allen are joined by USGamer.net Editor in Chief Kat Bailey to discuss the top 5 androids in videogames. Inspired by the release of David Cage and Quantic Dream’s Detroit: Become Human, we explore the Uncanny Valley, ponder what it means to be human, and try to figure out why dudes in games seem so thirsty for any robot that displays even a hint of anything feminine.

Question of the Week:

What is your favorite pop culture android?

Surprise! We just couldn’t stay away, and while Mikel continues to enjoy his (well-deserved) sabbatical, Chris, Matty Allen, and special guest Trav “TurboBison” Foster are here with a bonus edition of Vidjagame Apocalypse. Prior to his break, Mikel suggested a topic tied to the Nintendo Labo that we couldn’t resist covering: the Weirdest Nintendo Peripherals of All Time! So stop fiddling around with that Labo piano and strap on your incredibly uncomfortable wearable gaming devices, grab your trusty light gun, and join us as we look back at the top 5 times Nintendo let its freak flag fly!

This is it, folks - VGA is going on hiatus, and we've cooked up a hell of an episode to tide you over until we come back. In addition to Chris and Mikel, we've assembled Brett Elston, Dan Amrich, Anne Lewis, and Tyler Wilde to tackle a forbidden subject from our distant pasts, one we swore we'd never do: a list of the greatest barrels ever. What dark forces will be unleashed by assembling such a strong panel for such an inane discussion? Find out, and then stick around as we look at your favorite VGA episodes and maybe pack in a surprise or two.

God of War is out this week, taking jaded Greek hipster Kratos on a spree of cultural appropriation through Scandinavia (or something like that). To celebrate the series' by-all-accounts amazing rebirth, Matthew Allen and Alaina Yee help us dedicate this week's show to five other games that draw heavy inspiration from Norse mythology, complete with one-eyed gods, Valkyries, and battles at the end of everything.

Who doesn't like to hear a villain sing about themselves and their evil plans? It's a time-honored tradition, dating back to some really old thing or other, but it's a more recent phenomenon in video games. So this week, special guests Alaina Yee and Matthew Allen join to help us count down five - count 'em, five! - of our favorite singing bad guys.

Ready Player One is in theaters this week, and whatever you think of it, the core idea of being rewarded with actual riches for doing something in a game is a powerful one. So powerful, in fact, that it's been done several times in real life. So with help from Matthew Allen and Nathan Ortega, let's spend this short-form episode diving into five games that were sold on the promise of fantastic rewards for in-game skills.

Big news this week - VGA is going on hiatus at the end of April. But we've got plenty of shows still to go, starting with this week's, in which Heidi Kemps and Matthew Allen help us look at five Japanese games that never made it out of Japan, despite their series being popular over here. Then it's on to Sea of Thieves, Attack on Titan 2, Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered, PUBG mobile, and the games that caused controversy in your own lives.

Last week saw a return to the bad old days of video games as a whipping boy in the national debate over violent crime, and that brought some weird old memories rushing back - so many, in fact, that we decided to drag special guests Nick Suttner and Matthew Allen into an unexpectedly heavy discussion of five of the most controversial, moral panic-inducing games of the past 30 years. We also take the time to chat about Burnout Paradise Remastered, last week's Nintendo Direct, and the games you discovered thanks to monthly freebies from PlayStation Plus and others.

Plenty of games let you play as multiple heroes, but how many have you switching back and forth between heroes that seriously have it in for each other, pushing you to work against yourself as your perspective shifts? A whole bunch, as it turns out, so this week we'll look at five of our favorites, with help from Matthew Allen. Then it's on to idle chatter about Far Cry Arcade, the return of Fear Effect and Drake of the 99 Dragons, and your favorite chill-out games.

This week's big release is Moss, a VR game about a tiny mouse on a quest - so with help from Macworld editor Leif Johnson, let's take a look at five classic games in which you're a tiny creature trying to survive in a regular-sized world. Then we chat about hidden messages in Metal Gear Survive, get a little crestfallen for Chrono Trigger, and look at your favorite videogame dogs.

The Lunar New Year has declared this the Year of the Dog, so let's celebrate with a Top 5 about our favorite dog protagonists (dogtagonists?) with Matthew Allen! We then slip through a wormhole and wind up in a Metal Gear Survive discussion, consider the looming possibility of a Sonic the Hedgehog film, and talk about the songs and other media that will always be tied to certain games in your memory.

VGA's five-year anniversary was last week, so Henry Gilbert joins us for a belated Top 5 about some of the greatest fifth entries in game franchises ever. We also chat about Dynasty Warriors 9 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Kingdom Hearts 3, and your same-sex waifus and husbandos.

VGA passes its five-year anniversary with a cough-filled, Shadow of the Colossus-themed episode, in which Matthew Allen joins us to talk about five games that took clear inspiration from Sony's classic (and now re-released) giant-killer. We then move on to talking about Toad's disgusting head, PUBG's anti-cheating measures, and the games you wish you could erase from your memory and re-experience.

Happy Groundhog Day, everybody! This week, Nathan Ortega and Aziz Twaijri join us to talk about heroes stuck in recurring time loops, struggling to change events in a bid to escape their fates. We also shift our format around slightly to talk about new releases at the top of the show, then go on for too long about rumors of Microsoft buyouts before looking at your favorite fighting-game moves ever.

Of course we're gonna yell about Labo, but we've also played Dragonball Fighters Z, SOS, the new OK KO game, and special guest Bob Mackey has played over sixty hours of Monster Hunter Worlds!

Street Fighter V Arcade Edition is out this week, so our old pal Brett "Brelston" Elston returns to help us talk about it and five fighting games that had some really bizarre side modes built in. We then move on to Sims doing laundry, Gravity Rush 2's online features getting a stay of execution, and the licensed games you'd like to see make a comeback.

With Awesome Games Done Quick tearing through mesmerizing speedruns for charity this week, Matthew Allen and Bob Mackey join us to take a look at five games that you can play and beat (or "beat") in 15 minutes or less - all without any cheating, glitching, or practicing to develop any special skills whatsoever. Then we briefly look at a few meaty Switch ports, get surprised by PSN's top 2017 downloads, and find out which games you played over the holidays.

We're back and ready to take on a new year, as community member and industry veteran Matthew Allen joins us to look ahead and count down five of the games we're looking forward to the most in 2018. Then it's on to talk about the first registered N-Gage speedrun, Microsoft discontinuing the Kinect adapter, and your own most-awaited games due (hopefully) in the next 12 months.

It's time at last for our fifth annual countdown of our favorite games of the year, and this one's a whopper. Clocking in at nearly 3 1/2 hours, this episode's rotating cast of guest hosts includes Tim Turi, Brett Elston, Bob Mackey, Henry Gilbert, and Matthew Jay, who drop in to give their own two cents on our picks until we finally close it out with a look at some of your GOTYs.

This is our second-to-last show of 2017, which means it's our last chance to do something holiday-themed - so as the legendary Tim Turi joins us, let's take a look at five of the angriest, most threatening takes on Santa to ever appear in video games. Then we chat about the (re)return of Okami, news from the Game Awards, and the game-inspired cereals of your dreams.

As 2017 and its new releases begin to wind down, Henry Gilbert rejoins us to start this week's show with a topic that we somehow didn't think to do until a listener suggested it: video games that your character can play within larger video games. (We went for original ones, too, so don't be disappointed if your Yakuzas or Animal Crossings don't make an appearance.) We then flop over to the Mega Man 11 reveal, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle's Versus mode, Mario's new cereal, and the exclusive games you'd want Nintendo to steal for the Switch.

Mikel isn't here this week, and it's probably because he's playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on iOS. To commemorate that, we recount the five most important Nintendo franchises that came to other platforms with the help of special guests Matthew Jay and Wes Green. After that, we discuss a dearth of game deals, a bit of PUBG news, Battle Chef Brigade, your best bargains, and our pie-in-the-sky Switch ports!

Happy Black Friday, everybody! Since we just moved past Thanksgiving, we're focusing this week on the last thing you probably want to think about right now: more food, this time in the form of our favorite food-themed levels. Joining us once again is PCWorld Reviews Editor Alaina Yee, who also brought a ton of Black Friday deals to this week's game-deals segment, and we also touch on Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, which console won the fall sales race, and your favorite Wii U games.

The Wii U turns 5 this week, about a year after Nintendo first moved to pull the plug on its short-lived system. Oh, but what a short life it was! To celebrate it, we're joined once again by Bob Mackey as we count down a list of our five favorite Wii U games. Then, we talk about Star Wars Battlefront 2, the mysterious reappearance of L.A. Noire, loot boxes, Ninja Turtles in Injustice 2, and the games in which you'd love to create a character.

With Sonic Forces fulfilling countless [Your Name] the Hedgehog fantasies with its character creator this week, erstwhile host Henry Gilbert helps us focus our Top 5 on five other games that let you squeeze a version of yourself into an established universe and battle alongside - or against - its heroes. Then it's time to shift gears and talk about Call of Duty: WWII, Sonic Forces, Horizon: Zero Dawn - The Frozen Wilds, the Xbox One X launch, Sony's Trophy-based discounts, awful Bubsy puns, and the forgotten mascots you'd drag back from oblivion.

Microsoft ended production of Kinect last week, dealing a final blow to the ill-fated camera peripheral, so we're dedicating today's Top 5 to a look back at five of its best games, with help from PCWorld Reviews Editor Alaina Yee. We then tear into a long list of new releases including Super Mario Odyssey, Assassin's Creed Origins, Wolfenstein II, Dead Hungry, and Bubsy (which sharp-eared listeners can win a code for), after which we look at Sony's Paris Games Week and the video game characters you'd dress as for Halloween.

This is the biggest release week of the year - big enough, in fact, to hold two separate games that feature Egyptian mummies as plot points. So with help from Matthew Jay, we round out our month of macabre Top 5s with a look at our favorite shambling, wrapping-covered monsters. Then we dig into Assassin's Creed Origins, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Super Mario Odyssey, The Mummy Demastered, and much more before looking at the defunct game studios you'd resurrect from the dead.

This week, we switch gears from more generalized spooky topics to a spooky series, as Henry Gilbert rejoins to help us rank our five favorite installments of the legendary Resident Evil franchise. We'll then suit up for South Park: The Fractured But Whole, lament the demise of Visceral Games, and look at the horror movies you'd want to turn into horror games.

Happy Friday the 13th! Our monthlong Halloween theme continues this week, as Matthew Jay joins us for an exploration of horror games based on horror movies, some of which might actually surprise you. We also dig into Middle-earth: Shadow of War, The Evil Within 2, hacking the SNES Classic, loot boxes, and the unwanted games you got as gifts.

It's the first week of October, which means it's time to gather around the campfire and listen to an increasingly spooky month of Top 5s. We'll start off easy, as Heidi Kemps joins us to talk about the spectral protagonists of five games that let you play as ghosts. Then it's on to a lot of talk about the SNES Classic, Cuphead, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, Red Dead Redemption 2, and the games you'd add to the SNES Classic.

The SNES Classic is here at last! Will you be able to find one? Only one thing is certain at this point: lots of wishful thinking from fans who aren't getting exactly what they wanted. We're no exception, so this week, Henry Gilbert joins us to talk about our Top 5 SNES games that aren't getting a second life on Nintendo's newest micro console. Then it's on to Danganronpa V3, Cuphead, Fortnite's battle with PUBG, and your favorite Metroidvanias.

The first Metroid game in seven years hit last Friday with Samus Returns, so let's celebrate by taking a look back at our top 5 Metroid games, with help from Brett Elston and Nathan Ortega (who's here to plug his just-announced game, Slipstream Scalawags). We then turn our attention to Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Toys 'R' Us going bankrupt, and the games you developed your own headcanon for.

This week's guest is an especially special one: Walt Williams, co-writer of Star Wars Battlefront II, lead writer of Spec Ops: The Line, and author of games-industry memoir Significant Zero (out Sept. 19!). Inspired by Walt's stories of youthful thievery, we focus this week's Top 5 on thieves who decided to work together and became like family in the process. (Fair warning, it takes us about an hour and 17 minutes to get there.) Then we get real chatty about Metroid: Samus Returns, new iPhones, SNES Classic reassurances, and your most memorable game-launch stories.

Thanks to absent pun aficionado Dave Rudden, we're dedicating Episode 230 (tooth hurty, hurr hurr) to gaming's often-overlooked and frequently vicious dentists, with help from Bob Mackey and Matthew Jay. Then it's time to pivot and chat about Destiny 2, Knack 2, the surprise reveal of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, and the genres you'd like to see Mario invade.

Between this week's release of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Kart, this was a very Mario week - so to celebrate the latter, let's rank our five favorite Mario Karts, with help from returning guest Matthew Jay. Then it's on to Rabbids, Yakuza Kiwami, the end of Miiverse, the games you'd like to see add a story mode, and more!

Remember earlier this week, when it seemed like the whole world was consumed with eclipse mania? That was enough to inspire this week's topic, in which VGA vet Henry Gilbert and first-timer Matthew Jay join us to discuss five video games that used eclipses as major plot points. We then move on to Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Madden NFL 18, the blink-and-you-missed-them SNES Classic pre-orders, and your favorite Sonic the Hedgehog games.

With Sonic Mania restoring Sega's mascot to critical success this week, we invite Heidi Kemps (who reviewed Mania for IGN) to join us for a look at our five favorite Sonic spinoff games. Then it's on to (what else?) Sonic Mania, Agents of Mayhem, Okami HD coming to PS4, a new Swery65 game, and the gritty games you'd like to see get cute sequels.

Nathan "@kenjisalk" Ortega joins us this week for a dive into five cute and/or silly series that suddenly veered into shooty-shooty-brood-brood-murder territory, for better or worse. Then stay tuned for chat about Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Lawbreakers, the return of the Nintendo World Championships, and the portable games you wish you could play on a console.

This week, we delve into five games that made time travel and manipulation central parts of their gameplay - and with co-host Chris Antista out, we've got double guests with Henry Gilbert and Vincent Ingenito to help us sort through them. Then it's on to Tacoma, SNES Classic pre-orders, Dragon Quest XI, and your favorite comic-book games.

With Miitopia and a new 2DS coming this week, this week's Top 5 is devoted to Nintendo's Miis (which have been around for nearly 11 years now) and to the games that let you actually play as them. Then it's on to an earnest discussion of Fortnite, (more) Splatoon 2, Sonic and Archie parting ways, new Telltale seasons, and your favorite moments from Metal Gear.

Metal Gear turned 30 last week, so we're devoting the first half of this week's show to ranking our favorite Metal Gear Solid games, with special help from Henry "hEnereyG" Gilbert. With that out of the way, we move on to Splatoon 2, Toy Story in Kingdom Hearts 3, and the musicians you'd want to perform songs in video game sequels.

With War for the Planet of the Apes hitting theaters this week, it seemed like as good a time as any to rope in Heidi Kemps of gaming.moe and launch our own exploration of the simian perspective with five games that let us play as hulking, violent apes instead of puny humans. We then move on to talking about Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Gorn, Hoobastank's frontman singing Sonic Forces' theme song, and games you've finished, but wish you'd spent more time with anyway.

Plenty of games like to litter their worlds with hidden items and secrets for you to ferret out, but how many of those actually come with their own self-contained storylines? Quite a few, it turns out - but with the help of former IGN editor Vincent Ingenito, we'll go through five of our favorites this week. Then it's on to Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Pac-Man Vs. coming to Switch, and movies you'd like to see get their own janky adaptations. (Thanks to John Spezzano for this week's Top 5 suggestion!)

It's the last day of June, so let's look back on a frankly stellar six months of game releases and pick five of our favorites. (Remember that these are just our opinions, which of course means they now have to be YOUR opinions, too.) Once you're done fantasizing about slapping the smug grins right off our dumb faces, why not listen to us talk about Valkyria Revolution, the SNES Classic, Nintendo Badge Arcade's final update, and your favorite games of 2017?

It's not unusual for comedians to star in games, but there was a time when games could sell entirely on the strength of a comedian's personal star power. Heidi Kemps of gaming.moe joins us this week to walk through five times when comedians played themselves in games, after which we dig into ARMS, Cave Story+, Friday the 13th's new apology content, and the games you wanted to see at E3, but didn't.

E3 2017 is in the books, and the usual duo of Chris and Dave are joined by Talking Simpsons on Patreon's Henry Gilbert and Bob Mackey as each dude delivers their top five games of E3!

We're on the eve of yet another E3, so now seems like a good time to get Hank "Henry" Gilbert back in the studio to help us talk about some of the most memorable celebrities to have graced the show with brief cameos. Then it's time to move on to Tekken 7, Hover: Revolt of Gamers, Pokémon news, and your favorite experiences with in-game chat.

Creepy, quasi-religious cults seem to be all the rage in games this year, with heavy hitters like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and now Far Cry 5 using them as major plot points - so this week, erstwhile hosts Brett Elston and Henry Gilbert rejoin the show for a look at five of gaming's most unsettling and influential cults. Then it's time to dive into Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Friday the 13th, Danger Zone, Sonic Mania, and the arcade games you wish had gotten a home release.

This week, we finally give recurring guest Bob Mackey a topic fit for his <a href="http://www.retronauts.com/" target="_blank">Retronauts</a> chops: ancient arcade games that were "ported" to consoles, but became completely different games in the process. Then it's time to go aggressively modern with Rime, Friday the 13th, Far Cry 5, Red Dead Redemption 2's delay, and the characters you'd love to shove into fighting games.

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 <a href="http://gaming.moe/">gaming.moe</a> 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!

It's always fun when someone appears on VGA for the first time, and this week, longtime community member and Anime Streaming Showcase creator Curtis "zabu_san" Stone joins us for a very serious discussion of mascots who habitually carry their partners around on their backs, operating in a state of perpetual symbiosis that you probably thought was totally normal for animals or elves or whatever. The topic was, of course, inspired by this week's release of Yooka-Laylee, which headlines our new releases chat along with Mr. Shifty. It's all we can do to squeeze in some quick Scorpio talk, after which we look at a few dreams you've had about games.

Question of the Week:
Which two game mascots would you like to see work together?

Theme song by Matthew Joseph Payne. Break song is You've Got A Friend as performed by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Haunting and beautiful New Releases Theme by David B. Cooper.

Follow us on Twitter @VGApocalypse!

Persona 5 is here at last, and given that the series has always relied heavily on concepts and symbolism from Jungian psychology (among other things), we thought it'd be fun to dig into five games that deliberately used Carl Jung's ideas to create vibrant, dreamlike stories filled with sinister Shadows. Things then get less esoteric as we look at Persona 5 itself (with help from host emeritus Henry Gilbert), Parappa the Rapper Remastered, Destiny 2's release date, Mad Catz's demise, and your experiences trading in games.

With at least two of last year's biggest games getting big-time DLC this week, it seemed like as good a time as any to take a look - with the help of Telltale's Nathan Ortega - at some of our favorite DLC expansions of all time. More than downloadable extras, these added new stories to amazing games and sometimes even improved the overall experience - and once we're done getting nostalgic about them, it's time to talk about Kingdom Hearts, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, Rain World, Narcosis, the Destiny 2 reveal, and your favorite game trilogies of all time.

It's Mass Effect week, so we honor its legacy by starting off with a list of some of the biggest, most important trilogies in gaming - ones that told overarching, three-part stories that stuck in our minds for years afterward. Then it's time to finally dig into Mass Effect: Andromeda, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, the unexpected return of the Floigan Bros., and your favorite Mass Effect romances.

Blaster Master Zero's recent arrival on Switch revived a classic tale of a boy and his frog, so this week we let nostalgia be our guide and put together a list of five of gaming's greatest green amphibians. We then move on to Danganronpa 1-2 Reload, Switch sales, the upcoming Steven Universe RPG, and the sleeper games you've either recently discovered, or wish others would.

Following the surprise of 2010's Nier getting a sequel with this week's release of NieR: Automata, Heidi Kemps rejoins us to talk about five games that were largely ignored at release, only to find an audience years later and come surging back to popularity. Then it's on to extended Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Switch discussion, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Disc Jam, Oculus Rift's price drop, and your favorite launch games of all time.

The Switch is finally a thing you can conceivably buy in a store, and erstwhile host Henry Gilbert returns this week to tell us about his experience playing Nintendo's new console for Fandom.com - but first, we start off with a highly contentious list of five of the best non-Mario/Zelda launch games from Nintendo's past. Then we dig into Horizon: Zero Dawn, River City Ransom: Underground, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the secret lyrics to Mario's theme song, and your oldest consoles that still work.

The release of Halo Wars 2 this week set us a-ponderin' about other huge franchises that have wandered outside their comfortable genres, usually in strange and beautiful ways — so we begin this week by focusing on five of the strangest departures ever to come out of a major game series. Then it's on to Halo Wars 2 and Night in the Woods, after which we talk about Switch download sizes, Fallout 4 in VR, and the game characters you think should like each other... THAT WAY.

This episode was recorded in the aftermath of another Valentine's Day, which we mark the only way we know how: by being miserable bastards and getting spoilery about gaming's most tragically disastrous romances. With that out of the way, we dig into For Honor and Sniper Elite 4, talk about E3 getting bigger and earlier, and (finally!) take a stroll through your favorite games of all time.

We've finally made it to 200 episodes of Vidjagame Apocalypse! Join us as we celebrate by throwing out our usual format and instead try to debate, cajole, and vote our way to a highly subjective list of the 20 best games of all time, starting from the 10 respective favorites of Mikel Reparaz, Chris Antista, Dave Rudden, and Brett Elston, and ending with a vague sense that democracy is just the worst.

The release of the throwback-y Double Dragon IV this week pushes us to look back at games that also looked back, despite being modern and not really having an excuse. With TechRadar's Nick Pino in attendance, we dive into five deliberately retro sequels before snickering at the swinging dicks of Conan Exiles, getting excited for Fire Emblem Heroes, mourning the passing of Namco's founder, and talking about the games you'd like to see get a total overhaul.

This is the first really big week of 2017 for new releases, with Resident Evil VII hitting like a proverbial chainsaw to the POV - but before we get to those, Yakuza 0 inspires us to talk about our top 5 crime lords, with help from Michael Grimm. Then Brett Elston joins us (briefly) to talk RE7 from an insider's perspective, after which there's excited chatter about Kingdom Hearts 2.8, Nefarious, Mass Effect Andromeda getting a 10-hour trial via EA Access, and your reactions to the Nintendo Switch.

This week is full of Nintendo Switch news, as Fandom's Bob Mackey joins us to share his hands-on impression of Nintendo's newest console and its games - but first, one of this week's new (re-)releases inspires a Top 5 about games that featured stealing the bodies of your enemies as their main gameplay hook. Then it's on to Gravity Rush 2 (which Bob also reviewed), tons and tons of Switch talk, and the games you're most excited for in 2017.

We’re back in full for a new year, as Fandom’s Henry Gilbert joins us to look ahead to the games slated to come out in 2017 that we’re most excited for. With that out of the way, we move on to Scalebound’s cancellation, some idle speculation and excitement from before the Switch press conference happened, and (finally!) your favorite games of 2016.

2016 has been a shit year. We won't miss it. But it's nevertheless given us some amazing games, some of which we've been waiting on for years. After a couple of rounds of intense voting, we've come up with our 10 favorites, and assembled an all-star cast of hosts to talk about them, including Bob Mackey, Henry Gilbert, Nathan Ortega, Michael Grimm, and Brett Elston in addition to the regular crew. It's a long'un, so strap in and find out if your favorites made the cut while we lumber toward 2017 and a (hopefully) happier New Year.

It's almost Christmas, so this week, Telltale Games Community Manager Nathan Ortega and Michael Grimm join us to talk about... games where you play as a dad and protect a kid? Really? OK, fine. We then move on to talking about The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, Overwatch's surprisingly divisive character development, Nintendo Switch tech specs, and the Nintendo franchises you'd like to see come to phones.

Dead Rising 4 inspires yet another episode theme, as special guests Henry "Fandom Dot Com" Gilbert and Wes Green joins us to focus on five playable journalists who keep little more than a camera lens between themselves and danger. Then it's on to Telltale's fifth Batman episode, Super Mario Run, Hitman and Overwatch adding holiday content, and the game-character holiday ornaments you'd be proud to display.

It's our first show of December, which means the holidays are nearly upon us. More to the point, Dead Rising 4's Christmasy zombie uprising gives us the perfect excuse to - along with Fandom editor Bob Mackey - look at games in which the annual gift-giving holiday is not only threatened, but totes wrecked. We then talk about THe Last Guardian, Dead Rising 4, The Last of Us Part 2, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, and your favorite Final Fantasies.

Final Fantasy XV is out after a 10-year wait, and we're celebrating the only way we know how: by looking back at our five favorite games from the series' 29-year run. Once we've finished enraging fans with our wrong opinions, we shift our focus to Final Fantasy XV, Steep, Nintendo showing up at Universal Studios, and the games you played over the long weekend.

It's Black Friday here in the US, which means that at least some of you are probably already enduring a retail mosh pit to get a few bucks off a new TV. With that heady whiff of capitalism in the air, we shift our focus this week to some of the most noteworthy merchants in video games, some of whom risk life and limb to sell you stuff in combat zones. We then shift gears to talk about Pokémon Sun and Moon, Monster Hunter as a "cinematic universe," and which games you think would make perfect real-life escape rooms.

The Wii turns 10 in North America this week, pushing us to revisit a strange era of dominance built entirely on first-party games - or was it? In spite of its reputation, the Wii had a whole mess of fantastic third-party exclusives that have never been seen again, and this week we'll talk about five of our favorites with the help of Hank "Henry" Gilbert. Then it's on to talk about important stuff that matters, like the PS4 Pro, Watch Dogs 2, the NES Classic Edition, Nintendo Switch news, and the game characters you'd like to see as president.

We're just days away from the 2016 election as of this posting, and "tensions are high" doesn't seem as appropriate an assessment of the general mood as "chaos reigns." Still, we try to keep it celebratory, as Henry Gilbert rejoins the show for a look at five US presidents we can all agree on, if only because their insane policies are confined to the games they inhabit. We then move on to Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Titanfall 2, Owlboy, and the games that you think would be a good fit for Nintendo Switch.

Happy Halloweek, everybody! We're... actually cutting our Halloween theme short a week early, because we only get one Episode 187, and we'd never forgive ourselves if we didn't seize the opportunity to reference an ancient Dre/Snoop song by focusing on characters who went into deep cover to investigate crime syndicates. We then move on to Battlefield 1, Civilization VI, and World of Final Fantasy before talking at length about the Nintendo Switch, Red Dead Redemption 2, and the creepiest things that happened to you while playing games.

As our month of spookiness continues, Heidi Kemps joins us to tackle one of our most bizarre subjects yet: SHMUPs (or shoot-'em-ups, or arcade-style shooting games) that ventured beyond familiar sci-fi trappings to confront something much darker than aliens and enemy fleets. We then touch on Eagle Flight and Return to Arkham, get speculative about Red Dead Redemption 2, mourn the loss of United Front Games, and look at the horror movies you'd like to see get turned into games.

Our monthlong spooky theme continues with some of the most understated scares games have given us over the years: mysterious, often unexplained whispers. Sometimes they're part of the ambient sound, other times they seem to target us directly - but they're always creepy. Then it's time for a look at the week's crowd of new releases, including Mafia III, Dragon Quest Builders, and Gears of War 4; excitement at Red Dead Revolver hitting PS4; and a look at some of the times games scared the hell out of you.

It's the first week of October, which means we're kicking off a month of supernatural- and horror-themed Top 5s, beginning with a look at immortal, superpowered bloodsuckers who starred in their own games. We then talk about the early releases of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered and Gears of War 4, delve into why Danganronpa on PS4 is exciting news, and look at the N64 games you want to play, but still haven't.

The Nintendo 64's North American debut happened 20 years ago this week. Because any list of its best games would be dominated by Nintendo titles (and would be utterly predictable), let's take a slightly less well-trod road and count down five of the console's best third-party exclusives. We then dig into a bustling week of new releases that includes Forza Horizon 3 and XCOM 2 on consoles, discuss our face-on impressions of Battlezone on PlayStation VR, and talk about your favorite videogame foods.

With the legendary Okami turning 10 in North America this week, Michael Grimm joins us for a look at five cel-shaded games that - partly because of their graphics, and partly because of their forward-thinking design - still hold up alongside modern games. We then speak with special guest Arthur Parsons of TT Games about the second year of LEGO Dimensions, touch lightly on the Digital Homicide debacle, and look at the classic games you'd like to see turned into crazy neon caricatures of themselves.

This is a big week for current-gen remasters of last-gen games, with Bioshock and Dead Rising re-releasing on PS4 and Xbox One, so let's start with a look at five of the best, most feature-rich remasters to hit current-gen consoles. We then move on to ReCore and Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, argue loudly about PS4 Pro and iPhone 7, and hear about the games that you went from loving to hating (or vice versa).

In honor of this week's episode number, our erstwhile co-host Henry Gilbert (now of Fandom) rejoins the show to talk about games that did a 180 in the minds of the gaming public - that is, games that went from being widely considered classics to being widely considered classic turds, or vice versa. Then there's extensive news from PAX West, a look at Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice and Mother Russia Bleeds, and a rundown of the PlayStation games you've always been curious about, but never touched.

After all the recent furor over Metal Gear Survive and Metroid Prime Federation Force, we for some reason decided it'd be a good idea to delve into five other games that turned traditionally single-player series into four-player co-op-fests, sometimes with amazing results. After that, we shift our focus to Attack on Titan, a new ToeJam & Earl, and the Super NES games you never got around to despite everyone saying they're great.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System celebrated its 25th anniversary this week, so Heidi Kemps of gaming.moe joins the regulars this week to talk about key moments that created huge shockwaves not just for the SNES and Nintendo, but for the industry at large. Then it's on to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, King of Fighters XIV, Metal Gear Survive, PlayStation Plus coming to PC, and the Wii games that you'd like to see get a second chance.

This week, we enlist Retronauts host Bob Mackey to help us navigate an ancient landscape of games that were based on movies, TV shows, and cartoon characters... until they came to the US, at which point that was all stripped out. We then switch gears to talk about Bound, Metroid Prime Federation Force, Final Fantasy XV's latest delay, and the classic licensed games you'd love to see make a comeback.

We've got spaceflight on the brain this week with the release of No Man's Sky, so before we start in on the game everyone's talking about, Brett Elston joins us to look back at five of the most iconic spaceships video games have produced. Then it's on to (of course) No Man's Sky, Brut@l, Another Metroid 2 Remake, classic Disney games being granted new life, and the games that have been helping you pull through summer.

Who wouldn't want to experience dangerous situations as a soft, helpless infant? Inspired by their recent playthrough of Baby's Day Out, the VGA crew invite Michael Grimm to join this week for a look at games that let you play as babies. After tearing through that discussion, it's on to talk about Abzu, Batman: The Telltale Series, controversies over Pokémon Go updates and No Man's Sky, and the Achievements that made you proud.

Erstwhile host Henry Gilbert rejoins the show this week, just in time to help us talk about multi-platform games that. for a variety of reasons, were completely different experiences on old-gen consoles. With that out of the way, we move on to Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Headlander, Quadrilateral Cowboy, Comic-Con, the latest Nintendo NX rumors, and the games you'd love to see become esports.

Heidi Kemps of gaming.moe joins us fresh off last week's EVO championships - and with fighting games on everyone's minds, we take a look at some of the weirdest guest characters ever to grace games about people hitting each other on the head with fists. Then it's on to I Am Setsuna, Nintendo's tiny NES Classic Edition, and your favorite video-game ghosts.

Friend of the show Bob Mackey (of <a href="http://www.retronauts.com/" target="_blank">Retronauts</a> and <a href="http://www.usgamer.net/" target="_blank">USGamer</a>) joins us this week to count down five games that took clear inspiration from an established series, but recaptured what made the originals great instead of being pale imitations. Then it's on to Pokémon Go (of course!), Monster Hunter Generations, Evolve going free-to-play, and the game-hero childhoods you'd most like to see.