The Besties

Ron Funches joins us for a double header! First, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is the first new side-scrolling Castlevania in over a decade. Is it worth the wait? And second: Ace Combat 8 is the most decadent entry in the long-running series. But is this an entry point for newcomers, or has the series locked on to hardcore plane nerds? Plus, the boys saw some documentaries!

Even though we were traveling for the live show, we still made time to play new games! Echo Weaver is a Metroidvania in the style of Outer Wilds, but simplified from 3D to 2D. It’s a little rough around the edges, though not enough to tarnish its big ideas. Plus, Griffin joins Plante on the Dragon’s Dogma train with the updated Dragon Dogma’s 2: Dark Arisen. But have some of those changes led Plante to reconsider his fandom? So many mysteries! To get the answers, I suppose you’ll just have to listen!

Sure, we expected Star Wars: Galactic Racer to be good off the pitch alone. A new studio, featuring members of the Burnout team, is creating a spiritual sequel to the Nintendo 64 podracing game? Yes, please! We didn’t, however, predict the game’s creator would splice a clever story and an inspired roguelike structure into the racing genre. Our GOTY conversation just got a bit more complicated. Plus, we discuss how Galactic Racer is one part of a larger trend of delightful Star Wars games that have a fresh vision for the franchise.

Control Resonant is technically a sequel to 2019’s Control. But developer Remedy has (as they often do) opted to stretch the definition of sequel as far as possible, converting the third-person shooter series into an open-world action game. Shockingly, it works… once you get your sea-legs. Plus, we talk about how the release of Gears of War: E-DAY falls in the shadow of the brutal layoffs and changes at Xbox.

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is the biggest exclusive for the Nintendo Switch 2 — quite literally. A completionist run of the new tactics RPG could take you 200 hours. For some fans, the epic length will be a decadent pleasure. For others, like Plante, it’s a threat. To guide us through the huge adventure, longtime Fire Emblem-lovers Griffin and Frush share what works and doesn’t. Meanwhile, Plante wonders if the current list of exclusives has made the Switch 2 a worthwhile upgrade.

Most of the time, we chat about games we enjoy. So many games debut every week, and picking promising new ones is relatively easy. But every so often, a game with high expectations ends up being a colossal disappointment. Wolverine, we’re sad to say, is one of those games. And yet, we’re making lemonade from lemons. Because all of Wolverine’s flaws make for a good conversation about what we expect (and hope for) from video games. Especially ones that cost so much. Speaking of expensive stuff: Frush shares hands-on impressions with the Steam Frame.

The last time Capcom made a new Onimusha game, George W. Bush was President. But Onimusha: The Way of the Sword would have you believe the series never missed a beat. This week, Ron Funches joins the guys to talk about the ways this new entry blends Devil May Cry and Dark Souls tropes into something fresh and surprisingly welcoming!

The Blood of Dawnwalker proves the old adage, “The worse the name, the better the game.” The debut from Rebel Wolves, a studio composed in part of CD Projekt Red veterans, is a grim fantasy RPG set in the Carpathian mountains in the thick of the Black Plague. It looks and feel at first like the The Witcher series, though give it a few hours, and you’ll see this isn’t reheated leftover. It’s got vampires and time management and bears too powerful to be bitten by a bloodsucker! To talk about this gem, we’re joined by Fire Escape Cast’s Mary Kish!

Blood Dungeon is a spectacular evolution of the Vampire Survivors formula. Developer Messhof plops the auto-shooting, upgrade-building bullet-heaven genre into something a bit more strategic and conscious of your time. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the art looks, at first blush, like Spelunky by way of a child’s sketchbook. In the back half of the episode, we chat about what to call these games, and then pick some of our favorites.

Fields of Mistria has finally hit 1.0 after a couple of years in Early Access on Steam. Does the “official” release rise to the level of Stardew Valley? Or is this anime-inspired small town simulator doing something different? And is 1.0 just a new beginning? We discuss all of that and the hot new handheld!

Big Walk is the game everyone wanted during the pandemic. Not-so-coincidentally, that’s when the project began development. The multiplayer open-world adventure is developer House House’s follow-up to Untitled Goose Game. But where Goose Game hinged on you pestering NPCs to solve puzzles, Big Walk tasks you with pestering and supporting your friends. Or to put it succinctly: Big Walk is a game about communication. Though, as we explain, it’s an experience that requires some careful scheduling.

Beast of Reincarnation is the new game from Game Freak, the studio that creates every mainline Pokémon game. But friends, this is nothing like Pokémon. The action-RPG calls to mind series like Dark Souls and Onimusha. Is it… good? Guest Ron Funches joins to help us find out.

The guys are back again to talk about the magic and wonder of Splatoon Raiders, a game that finally made us all agree that Splatoon is really kinda awesome. We've also got some reader mail to dive into and whether we can actually find someone who inverts their horizontal axis.

In the back half of this week’s episode, we chat about Halo: Campaign Evolved, a video game that has the misfortune of representing everything infuriating about the modern Xbox strategy. Fortunately, other games exist. To soothe the soul, we start with an inspired murder mystery, a surprisingly deep Spelunky-like, and the 1.0 of Palworld.

This week’s games represent two ends of the video game spectrum. On one side, we have Denshattack, an indie game about a train that performs skateboard-style tricks in a fantastical version of Japan. On the other end, we have Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, a decadent remake of a beloved but dusty Ubisoft open-world game. Guest Jeff Grubb from Giant Bomb helps us chat about these two very different delights!

Rhythm Heaven returns after an eleven-year hiatus with Rhythm Heaven Groove. It’s a fun game, but something’s changed. The series? The boys? Nintendo? We find the answer. Plus, Frushtick talks about life with the Steam Machine. It’s neat! It’s expensive! And it’s a reflection of the moment!

Griffin needed to take this week off, but our guest was more than prepared to talk about the week’s huge gaming news. Stephen Totilo, the founder of Game File and former EIC of Kotaku, explains the cause and fallout of Sony’s decision to cease physical game production in 2028. In more joyful news, Nintendo remade Starfox for the second time! And Frushtick and Plante have impressions to share!

Midway through the year, The Besties share their top contenders. However, don’t make any bets on these being our final picks for our GOTY list, because the back half of 2026 is unprecedentedly dense with new releases. To set the stage, we curate our most anticipated games. Also, The Grinch 2.

This week, we throw our own summer festival of video games by opening the grab bag! There was so much stuff to play, it took all three Besties working on different piles to separate the “Yes!” from the “Yuck!” Want a meta Sherlock Holmes mystery? How about overlooked DLC to a Besties favorite? Or maybe you want to hear about Steam running on Android emulators? Friends, we have something for everyone!

We watched all of the Summer Game Festival events and curated the upcoming releases that we think you’ll enjoy! Plus, Frushtick and Plante attended SGF Play Days in Los Angeles and went hands-on with tons of games, from the new Tomb Raider to Stranger Than Heaven. Was this episode recorded alongside Nintendo’s big announcement? Were we struggling to retain control of our brains? Yes and yes.

007 First Light is the new game from IO Interactive, the developers of the beloved stealth series Hitman. So you’d be forgiven for assuming this entry in the Bond canon would emphasize sleuthy spycraft. Instead, IOI created something akin to a season of James Bond television, spotlighting its strong story above everything else. Was that the right choice? It depends on which Besty you ask!

Mina the Hollower is a delicious 7-layer dip of beloved video games. It looks and feels like a gothic Zelda, but its influences stretch far beyond Nintendo’s action-adventure series. The Besties are joined by Jason Schreier (from Bloomberg and Triple Click) to burrow through one layer after another to uncover its many secrets. In the back half, we talk about the big news of the week: Dragon Quest 12’s development reboot and the end of Destiny 2.

Forza Horizon 6 wants you to be happy forever. It features a colossal open world that reimagines Japan, stuffed with more free cars than you’ll ever have time to drive – let alone upgrade. You can win races or lose them; either way, you’ll get rewards. Even its trees will gladly explode into tinder on contact with your vehicle, because the game would hate for a pesky forest to get in the way of chaotic car fun. All of this makes for a fun game. So why are we craving friction? The Besties try to find an answer.

Mixtape arrived alongside a flood of euphoric reviews and a variety of discourses across various social media platforms and gaming groups. With a tiny bit of distance, we talk through what does and doesn’t work about this riff on the modern musical with the help of Friends Per Second co-host Lucy James! Heads up: After the main conversation, mailbag, and honorable mentions, we’ve included a full spoiler convo on the game. We hope you enjoy it!

Saros is the continuation of decades of bullet-dodging action games from Housemarque. But it has most in common with the team’s previous game, Returnal. Is this game welcoming enough to bring newcomers into the pseudo-series? We find out! Plus, a humongous collection of other stuff we’re playing and watching, including a Korean reality TV series that pits different types of spirit mediums against one another! Look, we’re just as surprised, confused, and delighted as you are.

This is a big week of change at The Besties. But before we get to the news, we all want to chat about one of the strangest spinoffs in indie games. Vampire Crawlers adapts the iconic Vampire Survivors into a dungeon crawling, roguelike deckbuilder. And... it mostly works? Stick around until the end of the show, when we chat about a big change for the future of The Besties.

This week we're diving into Nintendo's bizarre life sim, Tomodatchi Life: Living the Dream, which allows a bunch of Miis to eat cigarettes for breakfast. Griffin also regales us on his experience visiting Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios, and we explore the total nonsense going on with handhelds these days.

Announced in 2020, Pragamata has finally arrived. Capcom’s new third-person shooter puts you in the boots of a space marine-type who must overcome evil robots on a moon covered in 3D-printed skyscrapers. Which comically sounds like a pretty standard video game premise. But this isn’t your standard shooter. You must solve puzzles in the middle of combat, team up with an adorable robo-kid, and navigate some classic 3D platforming in low-gravity. Kinda Funny’s Andy Cortez joins us to discuss this odd delight!

How do you talk about a film as strange as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie? You call in backup. Get Played’s Matt Apodaca joins us to talk about the blockbuster sequel. Does a film need a story? What’s the worst sin in adapting a video game? And which voice actor stole the show? Plus, Raccoin!

This week, the Besties chat about two relatively low-priced games that have won over huge audiences: Creature Kitchen and Scritchy Scratchy. In the back half, we talk through the recent PlayStation price hikes and consider what alternatives gamers have as the hobby gets more and more expensive.

Frushtick and Griffin were Destiny dudes, and yet it's Plante who has fallen in love with Bungie's new extraction shooter. What's so appealing about Marathon? Is the extraction genre's difficulty a dealbreaker? Who is this game even for?

Welcome to The Besties March grab bag. There are simply too many new games, so to cover as much as possible, we split up the workload. Griffin talks about the surprisingly complete Early Access release of Slay the Spire 2. Plante, of all people, explains how to get into Marathon. And Frushtick . . . well, he found a big hole. To avoid Resident Evil 9 spoilers, skip to ~20 minutes after the return from ad break.

Plenty of companies have torched their fortunes trying to smelt together a collection of hit games and genres, hoping to recreate others’ success. Understandably, many folks (ourselves included) approached Pokopia with a cold skepticism. A Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Minecraft, and Viva Piñata combination? It sounded too good to be true. Friends… they did it. Pokopia isn’t just a collection of great ideas; it’s also a wholly interesting and original thing. We can’t wait to tell you about this wonderful game. Plus, we look at Nintendo’s peculiar plan for the rest of 2026.

Scott Pilgrim EX is a spiritual sequel to a Netflix animated series from 2024, a Scott Pilgrim movie tie-in game from 15 years ago, and an underrated beat ‘em up series that debuted on the NES. Or to put it another way: Scott Pilgrim EX is deeply nostalgic, not for one moment, but for the breadth of the millennial gamer experience. Is that… fun? It will depend on your love of Scott Pilgrim, Rivert City Ransom, and the ongoing renaissance of a long-dormant genre.

Resident Evil Requiem has the misfortune of following Resident Evil: Village, one of our favorite games of all time. How does a game live up to that high bar? It becomes more than just one game. This week, to avoid major spoilers, we talk about the first act of Requiem, roughly the first 5-7 hours set in a classic Resident Evil-style location. We also chat about the top-level shifts in tone and pacing. In the coming weeks, we’ll do a “full spoilers” segment digging into the unusual, lore-soaked places the game goes in its second and third acts. I suppose you could say it’s like a book club, but for video games.

16 years ago, Limbo launched on Xbox Live. It wasn’t the first puzzle-platformer, but its molasses-thick layer of fairy tale horror inspired a generation of grim, mostly wordless contemporaries. Arguably, the most successful of the bunch has been the Little Nightmare series, created by Tarsier Studios. Today’s game is the latest evolution of this sub-genre. With Reanimal, the Tarsier team adds co-op to the mix. Is playing with friends (or a computer companion) a clever addition or does it undermine the horror of being alone in a cruel, dark world? We have conflicting answers! Plus, The Besties pick through Sony’s recent State of Play and share their favorite announcements.

How do we celebrate a new release from one of the most acclaimed indie game designers of all time? With Ron Funches, of course! The fifth Besty joins us to chat about Mewgenics, a tactics-RPG about cats, breeding, hoarding, and well… eugenics. Plus, Ron shares what it was like to approach his time on Traitors as a gamer.

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined makes one of the longest, most ambitious RPGs into something more manageable: a swashbuckling sprint through a book of fractured fairy tales. Whether or not you like that change of temp likely depends on your history with the series. Meanwhile, Nioh 3’s first boss is the skill check from hell. Why would game designers build a wall between the player and the fun?

Climbing games have become a trend over the past few years, ranging from the AAA mountains of Death Stranding to the indie polygonal crags of Peak. But no climbing game has been as loyal to the actual physical experience of ascending cold, hard rock as Cairn. The guys report on their time on the cliffs. Plus, Plante shares his feelings about the brilliant adventure game, Perfect Tides: Station to Station. You can hear more about that game in Plante’s recent interview with its creator, Meredith Gran.

MIO: Memories in Orbit is competing in one of the most crowded genres in video games: the Metroidvania. Sorry, "Search Action Game." But trust us, this one's worth pulling from the pack. It blends the aesthetics of Nier, Citizen Sleeper, and oil paintings into something surprising and beautiful. Plus, the boys return to their Animal Crossing islands for the big Switch 2 update.

At first, we thought Terminator 2D: No Fate looked and felt like a flawless recreation of the movie tie-ins for the SNES. Then we watched gameplay of the actual Terminator 2 SNES game. Time does not favor the cash grabs. In hindsight, developers Bitmap Bureau performed a modest miracle, perfectly recreating how we remember trashy retro games — without actually becoming one of them. This is the game that Terminator fans should remember We talk about this side-scrolling confection, our fading memories of movie-to-game adaptations, and more!

2026 may be the year of Grand Theft Auto 6, but we’re partial to the nearly 20 other games on our most anticipated list. You like RPGs? Prefer point-and-click adventures? Crave some tactics, life simulators, or deckbuilders? Whatever your interests, we have you covered!

A holiday bonus, it's our most voted-on episode from the Patreon feed. Everybody needs a little video game break now and then. Amidst the chaos of modern life, the most reliable, universal sanctuary is the humble bathroom. So, with today's bracket, we want to help you make the most of your precious toilet time. Because when it comes to #2, you deserve #1.

The continued discussion, the grand finale. The Besties crown the GOTY of 2025!

How do you pick the best video game of the year when over ten thousand games have been released since January? You bring together the world’s best friends, hand them a bracket, and hope for the best. Yes, friends, it’s time for the Besties to pick the Game of the Year, or as we prefer to call it, The Besties Besty. Will The Game Awards champion Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 claim the most coveted prize in all of gaming? Or does another game have what it takes to battle for the crown?

Metroid Prime 4 is actually here! After a long development, including years of silence, the first-person Metroid series returns in the form of the Nintendo Switch 2’s big holiday release. But does it feel like a game from 2025 or 2015? Plus, Plante finally played the pseudo-metroidvania Ooo and can’t wait to tell you about this short, but sweet treat.

Some of The Besties were skeptical of Dispatch, the spiritual follow-up to Telltale titles like The Walking Dead. But this new, TV-like superhero series won us over with each new episode. Plus, we share our predictions for winners and announcements at The Game Awards.

Most people will tell you Kirby Air Riders is a racing game. But on today’s Besties, one brave soul dares to speak the truth. Plus, Sektori is the best Geometry Wars game since the original. We explain why you should make time for this modern-retro masterpiece in the busiest season of the year.

The Besties chat about the games of 2025, advocating for their GOTY darkhorses that they fear will go overlooked. There’s no clear favorite to take home the Besties top spot. Hell, we’re not even sure what will make the bracket. And more great games are still being released every week.

Fortnite’s new Simpsons update reimagines the entire experience through the decades-old cartoon. You can select from Homer, Lisa, Flanders, Moe, and other playable characters, then skydive into a faithful recreation of Springfield. The detail is absurd, down to the operable trap door button in Mr. Burns’ office. It feels like the culmination of Epic Games’ efforts to be the black hole that pulls in every corner of mainstream pop culture. Fortnite has become so big and so appealing that it raises the uncomfortable question floating around the rise of similar Forever Games: are most people motivated to play anything else?