Author: Justin Young

Did anyone actually play Final Fantasy XII? We answer this while tackling topics such as transphobia in Grand Theft Auto, Meta Quest’s new VR titles, do we need another Sonic collection, how much worse can it get for Activision Blizzard, and which series have traditionally turned us off from playing them. This week’s crew includes Ryan Freels, O.J. Duncan, Justin Young, and guest Jodie Salazar.

We’re past Easter and that means discounted candy–or not. There’s also some video game talk about American Idol NFTs, Sonic’s unstoppable box office, the rebirth and redeath of Club Penguin, a Minecraft movie, Switch Game Boy Advanced emulation, and more! This week’s crew includes Alicia Utecht, Ryan Freels, O.J. Duncan, and Justin Young.

Did you miss Playing for Pets 2022 live? Bummed that you didn’t get to see anyone fall out of their chair, or update a game controller mid-game? You can check out everything you missed as the entire two day event has been archived on YouTube! Check out day two via the video above, or check out the first day (with some notable audio issues early on) below. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Playing for Pets is over, so we recap the 24-hour video game marathon! We also talk Kingdom Hearts IV, new Tomb Raider, LEGO going big into video games, the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie, and which side characters deserve their own games. This week’s crew includes Alicia Utecht, Ryan Freels, O.J. Duncan, and Justin Young.

April may eventually make fools of us all, but until then we talk about three new tiers of Playstation Plus, E3’s last days, hackers robbing NFTs, a new Monkey Island, Coca-Cola Byte, and the games we most want sequels to! This week’s crew includes Alicia Utecht, Ryan Freels, O.J. Duncan, and Justin Young.

The semester might slowly be breaking us, but we have enough energy for a new episode! We talk about the disappointment of Final Fantasy Origin, Netflix and Amazon in games, EA dropping brand names, the new Halo series, why Pizza Hut is missing a cowabunga opportunity, and who would we rather fight–Kirby or Jigglypuff? This week’s crew includes Alicia Utecht, Ryan Freels, O.J. Duncan, and Justin Young.

This special episode is taken from a discussion panel that was part of the 2022 Southern Illinois University Conference on Women. The panel was titled “She Got Game: Leveling Up Inclusivity in Video Games” and was moderated by Julie Hartung and included as panelists Dr. Cassandra Bausman, Alicia Utecht, Jodie Salazar, and Justin Young. While women make up a significant portion of the video game audience, it has traditionally been a hostile environment for many both to play games and work within the industry. This discussion panel talks with women both about how other players can be more welcoming, but…

Justin takes a look at Nippon Marathon, a runner that takes a little from others in the genre, but also a whole lot from Takeshi’s Castle.

We’ve been speaking at conferences about video games and horror movies, but this week the horror is sadly in the news. We talk about the reported toxic environment at Moon Studios, coming to grips with Harry Potter as a gaming property with a less than ideal creator, the Gayming Awards, Elden Ring, Pokemon Legends, and Waluigi’s dark but far more interesting film we’d like to see. This week’s crew includes Alicia Utecht, Ryan Freels, O.J. Duncan, and Justin Young.

Justin checks out Vampire Survivors, a rougelite you play with only your joystick and no buttons, and also borrows liberally from the Castlevania franchise.