VideoDestruct Podcast

Last week Nintendo had their February Nintendo Direct with lots of content announced for the Switch coming out this year. But was any of it big news or brand new? Or was it a slew of things we've seen before.

We also discuss:

• Windjammers
• Retroid Pocket 2+
• Sifu

Last time we talked about all our predictions for 2022 but this week we talk about all the things we are EXCITED FOR in 2022! What are some the games coming out this year that you are most excited for?

We also discuss:

• Rainbow Six Extraction
• Pokemon Legends: Arceus

This week is a quick, fun episode with our returning guest Patrick as we all make major predictions (some obvious and some LONG SHOTS) for the video game scene in the year 2022. We'll revisit some of these at the end of the year and see who had the most accurate predictions just to stroke or maim our egos. Enjoy!

Brandon and Hoss both watched Matrix Resurrections this past week and it made them pause and reflect on the video game media the franchise has delivered. So sit back and have a look back on Enter The Matrix, The Matrix Online, and Path of Neo with a final talk about the latest tech demo Matrix Awakens!

It's the end of the year and we have a three person team talking about the best video games as decided by the VideoDestruct crew. Will Metroid Dread take it? Maybe Forza will take another one? Sit back for this long form episode and listen to us talk about the best games of this surprising good year for gaming.

It's almost over for 2021 and we want to wrap up some game experiences we've had before we get to our Game Awards for 2021. A couple of bangers are UnMetal a weird and pretty hilarious parody of the original Metal Gear game and Xbox's big release of Halo Infinite. How did the anniversary edition of the biggest Microsoft game turn out? Tune in to find out!

This week we finish all the "What we've been playing" list during our lengthy hiatus. We cap it all off with some history of Psychonauts series, the troubles of it's production and finally the release and reception of the long awaited sequel Psychonauts 2!

We also discuss:

• Shenmue The Animation Trailer
• Castlevania Advance Collection
• Batman Return to Arkham Collection
• Aaero

We are BACK BAY BAY! And we're talking Metroid Dread! We're also discussing all the games we've been playing since our long time hiatus. But for now tune in and listen to us talk about all the stuff we've been playing. What have YOU been playing? Let us know in the comments!

We also discuss:

• Actraiser
• Assassin's Creed Valhala
• Astro's Playroom
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Days Gone

The OUYA was an attempt to take a mobile gaming approach to the console wars. During a contentious time in the Video Game landscape Android executive Julie Uhrman stepped up to try and bring an alternative way to develop for a console with a massive kickstarting success. But ultimately the OUYA failed to be a competitor. Let's discuss why that happened.

We also discuss:

• Final Fantasy XIV some more
• Prodeus
• Netflix Games

We return this week for a special Friday Movie night episode as we both watched Black Widow and are glad to report... that it was totally okay! ... We talk about that and the state of the future Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

We also discuss:

• Final Fantasy XIV some more
• Tricky Towers
• The Movies That Made Us

The new Dark Alliance D&D game is getting some harsh criticism. Hoss has played some of it so we'll see if those critiques are legit. But this week we wanted to talk about the original Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and the Baldur's Gate series in general as the D&D realm is a hot topic for video games right now.

We also discuss:

• Shantae and the Seven Sirens
• Dark Alliance
• Final Fantasy XIV

We both checked out Zack Snyder's Justice League on HBO Max and we talk about all the differences in the theatrical cut. Hoss never having seen the theatrical version relies entirely on Brandon's account for how baffling the theatrical release really is when comparing it to the HBO version. Enjoy our interim episode of the VD Podcast!

E3 has come and went for 2021 and it was... Pretty underwhelming for a lot of people it seems. There were a lot of no-shows, the third party presentations were TENTATIVE to announce much, and Gearbox dropped a massive turd. But enough of all the problems. Let's talk about all the GREAT THINGS that were announced. Let's go!

We discuss:

• Elden Ring
• STALKER 2
• Metroid Dread
• WarioWare
• And more...

Movie licensed games are notoriously bad. Big cash in properties for companies to turn around in quick fashion. Ridiculously tight deadlines from movie studios. And any number things that are contrary to making a good game play a factor in these types of games. However, these 10 games have beaten all the odds and turned out to be some really cool, original and just plain fun experiences for players. Let's check out 10 Movie Licensed Games that DON'T SUCK!

We also discuss

• Necromundo
• Knockout City
• PS4 Backward Compatible Games in 2022?

Resident Evil 8 is out and there might be a few parallels with the highly maligned Resident Evil 6 from 2012. A swan song of the old Action Adventure and corny action movie departure the Survival Horror franchise dips into Resident Evil 6 dove head first into a bunch of different types of game play and came out a bad Frankenstein's monster that satisfied no long term fans of the past games. Does Resident Evil 8 The Village do a better job with this balancing act? Let's have a look.

We also discuss:

• Death Stranding
• RTX 3080
• X-Box Series X

VideoDestruct is back this week and we're celebrating the release of the new Mortal Kombat movie by talking about Mortal Kombat 4 and how it was a landmark shift in direction in the franchise. Including all those great cinematic endings! Also Quan Chi sucks. Let's go!

We also discuss:

• Rain on Your Parade
• Balan Wonder World
• Second Extinction

The PSP has been a long standing piece of hardware for SONY and the rumor is that the stores for the PS3 the PS Vita and the PSP are shutting down in the near future. Hoss and Brandon discuss this, the history of the PSP and implications of virtual game libraries in the the future.

We also Discuss:

• Activision Layoffs
• FPS Boost
• Doom Eternal
• Rad
• Sega Astrocity Mini Arcade

Hoss and I played a little CyberShadow and it got us thinking about Contra. The original classic NES Contra. But were there any other good Contra games in the franchise? Let's give it a talk and see if Contra, as a franchise, is any good and worth coming back since Konami is coming back into the market.

We Also Discuss:

• IKEA
• Moonknight
• CyberShadow

STADIA lasted from launch to end of service a total of 15 months. The hype for Google's cloud based gaming service was pretty big for a year or two prior. Was it a good idea that failed to live up to expectations or was it a business model that just didn't have legs to start with? Let's talk about it this week!

We Also Discuss:

• AEW Revolution
• WandaVision

This week we discuss the Nintendo Direct announcements from 2/17/21 including the announcements for No More Heroes 3 on the Switch. Which leads us to our topic of the day discussing the game No More Heroes!

We Also Discuss:

• Monster Hunter Rise
• Skyward Sword
• Project Triangle Strategy

Red Dead Redemption 2 is still in everyone's minds and if the player base has anything to say it's still one of the most popular games on the planet. So Hoss thought it might be good to go back and check out Red Dead Redemption the FIRST. A game he never got to finish. He highlights his reasons as to why the game turned him off. And why he feels he was wrong to judge it so. It's time for a Red Dead Retrospective!

The year is over and that means it's time to wrap it in plastic and throw it in a river! But before we do that we are gonna hand out our 2020 awards. Wondering what the best looking game was? Or maybe the biggest surprise or biggest disappointment? And don't forget our TOP TEN games of they year! Let's GO!

It's the holiday season and we're back to talk about the year end wrap up of video games including the much anticipated Cyberpunk 2077. How was Hoss' experience with the latest Triple A darling? It's fair to say it has it's fair share of glitches. We also preview our best of 2020 episode coming after the holiday season!

We also discuss:

• Yakuza: Like a Dragon
• Bugsnax
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
• Watch Dogs: Legion
• Call of the Sea

Def Jam Vendetta is a weird game and a microcosm of it's time. Gangster Rap and Hip Hop was at a real high end and EVERYONE was watching wrestling. So what better way to capitalize on it than to have a bunch of Def Jam rappers fighting in a wrestling ring! Let's take a look at Def Jam Vendetta this week on Videodestruct.

We also discuss:

• Assassin's Creed Valhalla
• Tetris Effect Connected
• Xbox Series X
• Playstation 5

The late season of 2020 and early 2021 seems to have a lot of Open World/Sandbox games coming out so we thought we'd take a look back to the years following GTA3 and the glut of Open World games that came out from that revolutionary idea. What good ideas came from all this and what franchises deserve another look?

We also discuss:

• Doom Eternal
• Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part One
• Cyberpunk and Far Cary 6 delayed

The next horror game we cover on our October run through scary games is one propped up by a flurry of gimmicks that all sort of worked out in Silicon Knights' favor. The right console at the right time with the right type of coverage gave birth to a gaming classic in Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. One of the few shining gems in the Gamecube library.

• NBA 2K21
• Phasmophobia
• Genshin Impact

It's October which means we're covering spooky horror games this month on VideoDestruct and we've got a lot to say about Clock Tower on the SNES. A first real delve into survival horror formula before it was made huge by the Resident Evil series and the Playstation era. We also cover a spiritual successor to the Clock Tower series in a little known game called Haunting Ground. Let's get spooky!

• Mario 35
• Among Us
• Walking Dead World Beyond

Final week of Mario Month is upon us and we're gonna cover the RPG games, the Paper Mario games and even hit up the Mario & Luigi series on the hand held systems. It's been an enlightening week for Hoss and Brandon as revisiting the Mario library has brought to the forefront how influential all the Mario series have been to our personal experiences in video games and just how good the plumbers catalog of games really is!

• EVG Step-Up Program
• Playstation 5 Demon Soul's
• Microsoft buys Bethesda

Mario 3D Allstars has hit the Switch this past week and we take a dive into that port and how it holds up to the old experiences of the first three Mario 3D games. We also dive further into the 3D library with Mario 3D Land and 3D World. And we take a look back on Mario Odyssey and revise our initial impression on that games lasting impression on the both of us.

• Nvidia TRX 3080
• Playstation 5 Price and Announcements

Back to Mario Month in September and this week we're jumping into SPORTS! Mario Kart games gave way to a whole wave of off-shoot sports and party games that diverge heavily from classic Mario platforming game-play. Mario Kart jumps into party easy to pick-up racing games, Strikers takes on super charged Soccer and the Tennis series has it's own long running history as well as introducing the world to Walugi! Get ready or MORE MARIO MONTH!

• X Box Series X and Series S
• Tony Hawk 1+2
• Scott Pilgrim Game Return

It's the start of Mario Month! Mario is 35 this year and with some Nintendo announcements we decided to take a all of September to talk about Mario Games. This week we break down Mario in his most base form, 2D Platforming. Get ready to reminisce about Super Mario Bros, Mario 2, Mario 3 and Super Mario Bros!

We also discuss:

• Nintendo Mario 35 Direct
• New NVIDIA Announcements

A lot of people have positive memories of the NES game Battletoads. Especially in the wake of the brand new 2020 sequel game release. But is this love well deserved? The game has a massive amount of variety but does it love it's ideas enough to stand on them in the games pacing and design? I think that's a question to be answered this week on VideoDestruct. 

We also discuss:

• DC Fandome
• Gotham Knights
• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

VideoDestruct is back and we're here to talk about the line-up for the Xbox Series X and just how light this console might be on original games. I know they SAY they have 4000 episode at day one launch. But those are games people already own. With Halo delayed until next year... what is out there to get people to by this new console?

We also discuss:

• Comic Books
• Carion
• Panzer Paladin
• Alix

The VideoDestruct is back this week and Hoss was in a comic book mood. He's been collecting some things so we decided we wanted to talk about the old days of Marvel slightly before they were a billion dollar movie franchise. A humble party game called Marvel Ultimate Alliance!

We also discuss:

• The Last of Us Part 2
• Animal Crossing
• Arizona Sunshine
• Alix
• Trackmania

Crash Bandicoot for the Playstation, NiGHTS for the Sega Saturn and good ol' Mario for the N64. The Playstation generation was a race to find and hold onto the new hot platforming mascot for each companies respective new console. The market was open to new franchises to take over or fall from grace. 

We also discuss:

• The Last of Us Part 2
• The End of Mixer
• Cyberpunk Live Stream
• Oculus Quest

Lots of gaming announcements this past week from Sony's PS5 Reveal event announcing a new Ratchet and Clank game, EA seems to have Star Wars back on track with Squadrons announced at EA Play Live and Pokemon SNAP making a triumphant return at Nintendo's Pokemon Presents event. Let's talk about all this stuff this week our deep dives into all the gaming news.

It's our first week with Hoss in his new house but not to worry our remote recording allows for zero delay in content. Our weekly video game podcast marches on as we talk about what we've been playing in the last week! These games include: Game Gear Micro, Later Alligator, Jurassic Park Evolution, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Mafia II and III Remastered, Command and conquer Remastered. And more!

This week Hoss and Brandon relive the launch and lifespan of the Xbox 360. A very interesting time in the console wars as Microsoft took their first real step into full on competition with Playstation and Nintendo. An amount of good will was built up during this time between Microsoft and the consumer because of the quick response to the dreaded Red Ring of Death overheating problem but was ultimately squandered with their subsequent console release, the Xbox One. 

We also discuss

• Shantaea and Seven Sirens
• Serious Sam 4
• Blaster Master
• Minecraft Dungeons
• Snowrunner

The Splinter Cell series is a classic but recently absent franchise in the Ubisoft library and wasn't necessarily a revolution in stealth game play but did help to incorporate elements of many stealth games and over time become a staple in the realm of stealth games in general. Gus joins us again this week as this is one of his favorite series and we all predict it's inevitable return.

We also discuss

• Final Fantasy 9
• Game Pass vs PlayStation Now vs Stadia
• Thumper

This week we have a long time listener, guest and all around friend of the show, GUS returning for our 150th episode of the VideoDrestruct Podcast! And this week we are talking about Video Game Remakes! There's a large number of them coming out recently with the newly update Resident Evil games so let's take a look back at the good, bad and ugly remakes in the industry!

This week we talk about the start of an old favorite crime sandbox franchise Saints Row. Riding the coat tails of GTA: San Andreas the first Saints Row was a much more humble tail of a crime and gang warfare before it escalated into outrageous humor and alien domination plots. Let's talk about his week on the VD Podcast!

An atrocious movie even for the early 90's! Super Mario Bros was a crude, ugly, mean spirited mess of a film with nothing but bad vibes surrounding it's entire production. So let's talk about it today on the VideoDestruct Podcast. 

We also discuss:

• Streets of Rage 4
• Retrowave

Resident Evil 4 is a prolific game not only in the Resident Evil franchise but in the timeline of video games entirely. The format where game play and camera positioning commingled almost flawlessly gave way to a slew of third-person action adventure style games spanning across multiple franchises. Let's talk about Resident Evil 4!

We also discuss

• Puzzle Quest
• Baba is You
• XCOM Chimera Squad
• Turok 2
• Gris
• Hellraiser Series

We also discuss

Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter was an interesting hit on the N64 coming off a hot Valiant Comics property and spawning a multi-media franchise. What was this game like, was it a good first-person-shooter and how does the newly released PC version stack up.

• Resident Evil 3
• Last of Us 2 Delayed
• QuakeCon 2020 Cancelled

Hoss and Brandon almost talk about Commander Keen but decide to shift gears and talk about Hoss' experience with the latest in the Doom franchise, Doom Eternal. Does it hold up to Doom 2016 or the rest of the franchise itself? Give us a listen and find out!

We also discuss

• GameStop Closings
• Tiger King
• McMillions
  

The new Animal Crossing is coming out today so we talked about the franchise and it's phenomenal rise to popularity is a time of Social Simulator games. Now a mainstay Nintendo Property what was it that catapulted this little animal town full of butterflies to the status it is today?

We also Discuss:

• GameStop
• Resident Evil 3: Remake
• Halo Combat Evolved
• State of Decay 2

We have another top ten list 3 months into the new year! It’s our Best Games of the Decade list according to US! That’s right all those other lists are now obsolete because the VideoDestruct Best List is here and it’s here to stay! Let’s go!