The Arcade: Recent Episodes
The Arcade
Hello gang, and welcome back (finally) to an all-new episode of The Arcade! We’ve been away for the last few weeks, so we’ve got a bit of catching up to do. As always, this episode starts with the Ludicrous Leadoff, which this time has us talking about yet another Pokémon card that sold for wayyyy too much money. We keep the money talk going while also discussing a common theme so far in 2022: mergers & acquisitions. We’ll discuss the announced plans for Epic Games to acquire the website Bandcamp, as well Nintendo making an acquisition of their own, albeit, very small. Staying with Nintendo, we’ll chime in on the newest Pokémon games which were recently revealed, as well as Capcom’s announcement of the next Street Fighter game. Closing out the news portion on this episode, we discuss plans for both another Sonic the Hedgehog movie and a TV series, as well as where you can watch the Twisted Metal series. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 15th anniversary of Zack Snyder’s first big comic book movie, 300, as well as the 35th anniversary of the Mel Gibson and Danny Glover team-up movie, Lethal Weapon. Continue reading →
Hi gang, and thanks for returning to The Arcade. We start this all-new episode off two with Ludicrous Leadoffs, the first of which has us talking about a classic episode of The Simpsons! I mean, any excuse to discuss a classic episode is alright with us. Specifically, we’re talking about the “22 Short Films About Springfield” from the show’s seventh season as one segment from it has been turned into a point-and-click adventure game available to play now. In the second Ludicrous Leadoff, we spend more time talking about NFT’s, only this time they’re 50th anniversary “giftable” NFT’s from the dead-skin-mask-wearing husk that calls itself Atari. Moving into the more meat & potatoes news of the week, we recap and give our thoughts on the latest big merger & acquisition to be announced in the gaming world, that, of course, being Sony’s plan to acquire Bungie for $3.6 billion. Following that, we talk about the other big acquisition in the gaming world with Wordle being acquired by the New York Times. We also get into some updated sales figures for the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. In our Blast From The Past, we mark the 25th anniversary of Mario Kart 64 followed by the 15th anniversary of the TV series, Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. Continue reading →
Hey to all you cool cats and welcome back to The Arcade. We start this all-new episode off with the two craziest stories from the last little while in our Ludicrous Leadoffs. First up, we let you know about the newly announced biopic about “Weird Al” Yankovic that’s set to star Daniel Radcliffe. In the other Ludicrous Leadoff, (which doubles as our first meaty news story), we talk about Microsoft’s announced acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We’ll break down the details, what might happen to controversial Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, give our thoughts on the transaction, and compare this deal to some other major deals in recent memory. After all that major deal talk, we’ll discuss yet another gaming deal that was, briefly, the largest business deal in the history of video games. That would be Take-Two Interactive’s announced $12.7 billion takeover of the mobile game developer, Zynga. Once we’ve exhausted all our talk about big-money deals, we discuss some money that’s going to be a big help as we recap the most recent Games Done Quick event and share the final tally. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 15th anniversary of WarioWare: Smooth Moves, as well as the 35th anniversary of the TV series, Unsolved Mysteries. Continue reading →
Come one, come all, as we here at The Arcade return to you for the first time in 2022! We hope all of you out there managed to survive the holidays, as well as the past 12 months, and are glad that we can be back together again. On this episode, we look back at the year that was 2021 with a focus on some of its bigger stories. In a strange twist, none of the big stories actually involve video games. I guess that just shows what a strange year it was, huh? Instead, we’ll discuss the rise of GameStop’s stock, NFT’s unfortunately, becoming a thing, and the market for collectible cards and video games (seemingly) losing its goddamn mind. We’ll also touch on the ongoing legal tussle between Epic Games and Apple, as well as the supply chain issues that are currently impacting pretty much all aspects of daily life. Continue reading →
Come on in everybody, and thanks for joining us on The Arcade’s 15th annual Christmas Music Special!
The M.O. for this show is to bring you music for the season you probably haven’t heard before. And boy howdy, do we deliver on that once again this year. Kicking off this year’s show is the Ludicrous Leadoffs, which are themed around internet humor and Christmas comedy. What falls into that category, you might ask? Well, Jon Lajoie for starters, followed by Garfunkel & Oates, the band My Dick out of Ohio, as well as a holiday assortment of audio treats from Homestar Runner. Looking to keep the good times rolling and bring a bit more energy to the party, we take a trip down to the Big Easy for a New Orleans Christmas which features some jazzy tunes, some Dixieland ditties, and the great “Satchmo” himself, Louis Armstrong. If you’ve listened to any of these music shows through the years, you’ll know that Mike and Dennis enjoy music on the heavier side of the spectrum. It shouldn’t surprise you then that this year’s Christmas show has some metal music offerings. Specifically, these are metal songs covering or inspired by classic Christmas movies. That isn’t the only group of darker holiday music we have for you as we also dig into the world of music from Christmas monster movies. Yes, it’s true, Christmas monster movies are totally a thing. Tune in to learn more!
As always, we encourage you to follow the links below to add these songs to your collection. We hope you enjoy this show, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Everything and Happy New Year! Continue reading →
Hi gang, and thanks for joining us once again after an unplanned week away. We start this week’s episode off with two Ludicrous Leadoffs that are both video game-related! Truly, a strange occurrence. In the first Ludicrous Leadoff, we attempt to understand why a new game is being released for the Wii U eShop, (because that’s a thing that’s happening), followed by learning about a mod for Skyrim VR which lets users cast spells using only their minds. The gaming news portion of the show starts with informing you about Ubisoft jumping into the NFT pool with both feet through the launch of their “Quartz” platform. After that, we discuss Kickstarter’s recently announced plan to develop their own blockchain platform, followed by an update in the ongoing legal drama between Epic Games and Apple. Spoiler Alert: you’ll still have to use Apple’s in-app payment system for the foreseeable future. We also go over some of the winners from this year’s edition of The Game Awards, let you know when PUBG: Battlegrounds is going free-to-play, as well as when you can pre-order the Analogue Pocket. In our Blast From The Past segment, we honor the 15th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Nintendo Gamecube, and the 20th anniversary of one of Wes Anderson’s early works, The Royal Tennenbaums. Continue reading →
Hello world, and thanks for plugging us into your earholes! We start this episode, as always, with the Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first story, we let you know how you can make a cool $200,000 simply by letting a robot walk around wearing your face. In the second Ludicrous Leadoff, we discuss what sure sounds to us like a scam with news of a company selling a virtual tract of land for over $2 million. Speaking of things that sound to use like a scam, we move out of the Ludicrous Leadoffs with an update on the funding campaign for Star Citizen as it surpasses $400 million raised. Staying on the dollars and cents train, we give our thoughts on Epic Games announcing their acquisition of music-game maker, Harmonix. As we mentioned previously, the original Xbox turns 20 years old this year and we’ll share with you some ways that Microsoft is trying to commemorate that milestone. In our Blast From The Past segment, there are two old items that we think deserve discussion. Both of them are movies, and both of them are a surprising number of years old! First up, we mark the 10th anniversary of the Muppets relaunch movie, simply called The Muppets, followed by marking the 30th anniversary of The Addams Family film adaptation. Continue reading →
Hey party people, thanks for tuning in for more Arcade goodness! This week, we open the show with fraud-centric Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we have a chuckle about a man who is now being charged in the USA for using his emergency business loan to buy a Pokémon card. In the second Ludicrous Leadoff, we talk about a software developer from Australia who has scrapped together a whole bunch of NFT’s and made them available for download on something called The NFT Bay. Moving on from the scammy-scams and into more legitimate gaming news, we let you know about a new kind of Dragon Ball game from Bandai Namco that doesn’t feature any of your favourite fighters. After that, we cover some of the categories and nominees announced for this year’s edition of The Game Awards, followed by giving our thoughts on Warner Bros.'s newly announced multi-franchise fighting game, MultiVersus. Rounding out the news discussion is word that Nintendo will finally start allowing officially sanctioned Smash Bros. tournaments starting in 2022. In our Blast From The Past section, we celebrate milestone anniversaries for some pretty significant contributors to the last two decades of gaming; Minecraft, the Nintendo Wii, and the Nintendo GameCube. Continue reading →
Hey gang, and welcome back to The Arcade for our first episode in the month of November! On the episode this week, we feature a rundown of mostly business-related gaming news items. First up is our Ludicrous Leadoff where we discuss recently announced plans for the FaZe Clan e-Sports gaming team to become a publicly-traded entity on the New York Stock Exchange. After that, we discuss a very big acquisition from the company behind the Unity engine as they’re acquiring the Weta visual effects company before discussing Apple’s attempt to deny developers’ ability to cut Apple out of transactions on the App Store being swatted down by a US federal judge. From there, we catch up on the latest facts & figures from Nintendo’s recent financial report regarding sales of the Nintendo Switch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, as well as Metroid Dread. We’ll also discuss the global supply chain issues as they are impacting the video gaming world with production issues announced by Sony for the PS5, Valve for the Steam Deck, and Panic for the Playdate. In our Blast From The Past segment, we have four items to talk about, and all of them are video game-related! This week, we fete milestone anniversaries for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the Microsoft Xbox console, as well as Halo: Combat Evolved. Continue reading →
Come one, come all and listen if you dare, to our Halloween show that will give you a scare. The plan this year is to make Halloween killer, with songs aplenty that give you a chiller. We play tunes about people who like to kill, all to give you people a great big thrill. There’s music about psychos and songs with horns. There’s even a song about that dreaded candy corn. So open your ears and let the sound flow in between as we bring you this show for Halloween. Continue reading →
Hey gang, and thanks for joining us once again. On this all-new episode of The Arcade, we start things off with two Ludicrous Leadoffs. First up, we cover already traveled ground as once again, somebody on a message board has leaked classified military documents to try and win an argument on the internet. In the second Ludicrous Leadoffs, we discuss being able to buy games for the Intellivision Amico, even though the system itself isn’t even close to being released. With the opening ludicrousness out of the way, we move into the more meaty news, which has us talking about Nintendo. To start, we discuss Nintendo’s plans for a paid DLC pack for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, followed by the newly announced plans and prices for the Switch Online +Expansion Pass. In other Nintendo news from afar, we let you in on which other franchise has been announced as joining Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Japan. Elsewhere in the gaming world, we touch on System Shock being turned into a TV series, and when you’ll be able to order an Xbox Series X mini-fridge. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 10th anniversary of Skylander’s: Spyro’s Adventure, as well as the 40th anniversary of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell's horror movie, The Evil Dead. Continue reading →
Ahoi hoi, friends, and thanks for joining us on another new episode of The Arcade. We start this week’s show, as usual, with our Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we share what name you cannot use for your character in Amazon’s recently released MMO, and, in the second, we discuss the newly announced voice cast for the Super Mario movie. After that, we continue by giving our thoughts on the most recent Nintendo Direct video, giving our thoughts on the N64 and Sega games coming to Switch online, and the open-world Kirby game. We also discuss Nintendo’s announcement of a Donkey Kong area coming to their theme park in Japan, as well as a report of plans for 4K graphics in the Switch OLED edition. Following all the Nintendo talk, we provide an update on plans for this year’s edition of The Game Awards, and the big EVO event in Las Vegas being canceled. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 25th anniversary of the Nintendo 64, as well as the 30th anniversary of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Continue reading →
Welcome one and welcome all to another new episode of The Arcade. We start this week’s show off with two news items about gaming-themed collectibles going for some pretty healthy prices, followed by the announcement from Razer about their plans to make finger condoms for mobile gamers. With the Ludicrous Leadoffs out of the way, we move on to discuss the new stage of the lawsuit between Apple and Epic Games; that being Epic Games filing to appeal the judge’s ruling handed down last week. After that, we let you know which big actor from the Marvel Cinematic Universe has signed on to star in the Twisted Metal TV series. Speaking of TV series, Ubisoft recently announced plans to bring one of their franchises to the small screen, so we’ll discuss that as well. In our Blast From The Past segment, it’s all 90’s all the time as we celebrate Home Improvement, Beast Wars: Transformers, as well as Use Your Illusion I & II by Guns N’ Roses. Continue reading →
Hey all you cool peoples, thanks for joining us on an unintentionally super-sized episode of The Arcade! We start the show off with two Ludicrous Leadoffs that are, once again, focused on NFTs. In the first, we share news of what may, (or may not), have been a fake Banksy NFT that sold for a six-figure sum, while in the second, we try and wrap our heads around the $24 million price paid for a collection of bored ape NFTs. Somehow, we manage to squeeze in an additional Ludicrous Leadoff, this time focused on Star Citizen as we discuss its developer, Cloud Imperium Games, getting their knuckles wrapped for some misleading advertising. From there, we take time and go over the ruling recently handed down in the trial between Apple and Epic Games, and what we think it might mean for the mobile gaming space going forward. As if that wasn’t enough, we’ll review the big announcements from Sony’s PlayStation Showcase, which included the next Spider-Man game, a Marvel Wolverine game, and a release date for Gran Turismo 7. In our Blast From The Past, we fete the debuts of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, ProStars, and The Real Ghostbusters. Continue reading →
Hey y’all, and thanks for joining us here for more Arcade audio goodness! On the show this week, we start off with two Ludicrous Leadoffs focused on really expensive collectible items. In the first story, we discuss the record price that was recently set from the sale of a Honus Wagner baseball card and, in the second story, we share how much an unopened box of Legend of Zelda for the NES was auctioned off for the Goodwill in America. In our news portion of the show, we relay the story of EA actually doing a bit of good for society by opening up five of their patents related to accessibility in gaming. Speaking of doing good, Epic Games is trying to do a bit of good by adding an educational experience about Martin Luther King Jr. into Fortnite, so we’ll talk about that as well as how Stardew Valley is now an e-Sport. Meanwhile, over in Poland, Netflix released the first batch of free mobile games to its subscribers, so we’ll chime in on that as well. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 15th anniversary of Sanits Row for the Xbox 360, as well as the 25th anniversary of the TV series, Rescue 911. Continue reading →
Hey y’all, it’s good to be back with you after a brief absence last week. On this new episode, we start off, as always, with two Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we’re talking once again about NFT’s as there’s quite possibly a new low for what useless piece of digital art people will now buy. And, in our second Ludicrous Leadoff, we have a Science Goes Crazy story for you as scientists have now been able to grow small brains in a lab that have developed very basic eyeballs. With all the lunacy of the Ludicrous Leadoffs out of the way, we dig into some real gaming news, which this week starts off with a new mode being added into Fortnite that looks like a direct rip-off of the game, Among Us. The first details for this year’s Call of Duty game were announced, so we’ll discuss that as well as details of a Skyrim 10th Anniversary Edition, and three GTA games reportedly being remastered by Rockstar. In our Blast From The Past this week, we mark the 15th anniversary of the movie Snakes on a Plane, as well as the 30th anniversary of Nintendo’s second major home console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Continue reading →
Hey gang, it’s good to be back with you after a few weeks away. We kick this episode off with two Ludicrous Leadoffs centered around Super Mario Bros. From the NES. In the first, we share news of a ridiculous new speedrun record that was set in the game, blindfolded. In the second, we fill you in on the sale of a classic copy of Super Mario Bros. setting a record for the highest price paid to date for a classic video game. After all the Super Mario Bros. news, we stay on the Nintendo train by discussing the latest Switch sales figures and where it now ranks for all-time sales. From Nintendo we mover over to Netflix and discuss the streaming giant’s plans for a Pokémon live-action series, as well as their plans for offering mobile games to their subscribers. Elsewhere, we tell you how little time it took for the Playdate to sell out of its supply for this year. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 15th anniversary of the animated series Metalocalypse, as well as the 55th anniversary of The Beatles album, Revolver. Continue reading →
Hey gang, let’s dive into some new Arcade audio goodness! Kicking off the show this week is our two Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we discuss the extent that one military game fan went to in order to win an argument online. In the second Ludicrous Leadoff, we recap some of the ridiculous prices paid for some classic games last week at Heritage Auctions. In the news portion of this episode, we start with the story that so made plenty of headlines, the news of Valve releasing their own portable gaming system, the Steam Deck! After we have our say on that, we move on and give our thoughts on the surprise announcement of a new game that’s a Nickelodeon version of Super Smash Bros. Elsewhere in the gaming world, we catch up on the amount raised from Summer Games Done Quick 2021. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the anniversaries of Clerks II, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and Black Sabbath’s third album, Master of Reality. Continue reading →
Hey gang, and thanks for listening to another episode of The Arcade! We start this week’s show with three ridiculous Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we pass along a news story about a businessman in the tech world who wants to launch a worldwide universal basic income. Sounds good, right? Maybe it sounds almost too good to be true? Well, it probably is because all the guy wants is to scan your retinas in exchange for a crypto UBI. Staying on the topic of money, we have two Ludicrous Leadoffs about classic games selling for way too much! In the first, we discuss what was, for a very brief period of time, the record paid for a classic video game with the $870k paid for a rare copy of Legend of Zelda for the NES. Immediately after that, we share the new record price paid for a collectible video game in the form of the $1.5 million paid for a still sealed copy of Super Mario 64. After all that, we discuss Nintendo’s reveal of a new model of the Switch, simply called the “OLED Model”. We have a few thoughts to share on that topic, mostly questioning Nintendo’s decision making. In our Blast From The Past segment, we fete the anniversaries of the movies Escape from New York and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, as well as the debut solo album from David Lee Roth, Eat’Em and Smile. Continue reading →
Hello all, and welcome to our last episode for this month of June. We start this show with two Ludicrous Leadoffs, both of which focus on money. In the first, we share the story of a rare Atari 2600 game being found in a bit by Goodwill and eventually selling at auction for a good chunk of change. In the second Ludicrous Leadoff, we fill you in on how much the recent charitable bundle from Itch.Io raised for Palestinian relief efforts. In the meat & potatoes gaming news of the show, we start off with the return of an old face that hasn't been heard from much these days... Cyberpunk 2077! Yes, the much-maligned game is returning for sale on the PlayStation Store. After that, we'll have our say on Facebook's recent announcement of ads being placed in games on the Oculus, which has already seen one developer pull their game from the program. Keeping on the tech discussion, we'll discuss Microsoft's plan to use their new console to extend the life of their old console. In our Blast From The Past segment, we fete milestone anniversaries for some fantastic summer blockbuster movies in Independence Day, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Continue reading →
Hey all, and thanks for joining us for our E3 2021 recap show! Before diving into the big news and notes from this year's event, we start with the rarest of all things... an E3-themed Ludicrous Leadoff! Yes, Microsoft took time during their event to announce they'd start releasing an Xbox branded mini-fridge, so you just know we have to have our say about that. From there, we dig into the Nintendo E3 Direct video with its reveals and announcements of a new 2D Metroid game, a new WarioWare game, and much more. After Nintendo, we'll recap what Microsoft had to present, which starts off with Bethesda showing off more of their next big game, Starfield. We'll also touch on other Microsoft showings, such as Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, The Outer Worlds 2, and others. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 30th anniversary of Sega releasing Sonic the Hedgehog, and the 45th anniversary of Mel Brooks releasing his comedy, Silent Movie. Continue reading →
Hey all, and welcome for more Arcade goodness after an unplanned week away. This episode is a bit of hodge-podge, but starts the same way as every other episode, with the Ludicrous Leadoffs! In the first Ludicrous Leadoff, we discuss the odd-shaped Chicken McNugget that sold for wayyyy too much on eBay, while in the second, we share details of the $200 million lawsuit that was recently presented to Roblox. After the Ludicrous Leadoffs, it's time for a bit of hardware talk as we have the release plans for the Atari VCS, as well as first details on when you'll finally be able to pre-order the unique, little handheld that is the Playdate. From there, we have a bit of E3 talk as we give our thoughts on Ubisoft announcing Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, as well as Rocksmith+. Our Blast From The Past is all over the place this week as we celebrate three different items, those being the Game Boy Advance, Duke Nukem Forever, and the classic Mel Brooks comedy, History of the World: Part 1. Continue reading →
Hey gang, thanks for joining us on this all-new episode! We start things off with not one, but two NFT-themed Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we share news of Dan Harmon and Fox working together on a blockchain-centric animated series, while in the second, we have another example of NFT's jumping the shark. In the regular gaming news portion of the show, we discuss Valve reportedly building a Switch-like handheld device of their very own. After that, we talk about Nintendo's Switch with news coming out of when an announcement of the Switch Pro model could happen. Sticking with Nintendo, we pass along dates for two of Nintendo's big game releases this fall, those being the remakes of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl. From Nintendo, we move over to Microsoft who will reportedly keep a big upcoming Bethesda property as a platform exclusive. Elsewhere in the gaming world, we'll let you know when the next BlizzCon event will take place because it sure isn't happening this year. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark milestone anniversaries for the movie Cobra, as well as the TV shows Star Trek: Voyager and The Muppet Show. Continue reading →
Howdy, y'all, and welcome back for more Arcade audio goodness. As a special treat, we've got a super-sized episode for you this week! We start off with two Ludicrous Leadoffs which has us discussing Flappy Bird being reincarnated as a MacOS notification, followed by having a chuckle over how the Apple vs. Epic Games trial got started. Speaking of that Apple vs. Epic Games trial, we discuss one of the bigger revelations to come from it so far, that being the reveal that Fortnite has made over $9 billion in revenue so far. Continuing on with gaming legal affairs, we discuss Sony possibly looking at a class-action lawsuit over its own digital game sale practices as well as the company announcing it has invested in Discord and will integrate the chat platform to the PlayStation Network in 2022. From there, we get around to some Nintendo news that revealed a new way to get people into programming and game development with their Game Builder Garage software coming in June, as well as their announcement of an American citizen being brought on board in a high-ranking position. We round out the news of the week with a discussion of the latest games being inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. In our Blast From the Past segment, we mark anniversaries for the movie Twister, and the kids cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Continue reading →
Hey everybody! It's a brand-new episode for a brand-new month here at The Arcade. This week, we start off two more Ludicrous Leadoffs focused on large sums of money. In the first, we have the details on yet another Pokémon card selling for a six-figure sum, while in the second, we let you in on how much a very limited edition is selling for on eBay. From there, we have more money-related gaming stories beginning with Sega recently announcing a deal to wade into the NFT waters later this summer, while Microsoft announced plans to reduce their cut of PC game sales. Elsewhere in the gaming news sphere, Capcom will soon let players pay $1 for infinite invincibility, and LEGO finally showed off a LEGO Luigi set. In our Blast From The Past this week, we pay homage to the movie that was Barb Wire. Continue reading →
Ahoy hoy world, and welcome back for more audio-based good times here on The Arcade! This week, we start the show off with two very different Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we discuss what video game franchise is being turned into Mister Men and Little Miss books, while in the second, we share the incredible news of NASA being able to create oxygen on Mars. Turning to the video game news, we give our thoughts on the International Olympic Committee announcing their own eSports event ahead of this year's Tokyo summer games. After that, we update you on Sony reversing plans to discontinue some older storefronts, as well as launching a test of a streaming video service in Poland. And finally, from Sony, we move to Microsoft who earlier this week finally took down the paywall for free-to-play games. Our Blast From The Past segment this week is being used to honor three great Canadian contributions to the television landscape; Are You Afraid of the Dark, Undergrads, and Trailer Park Boys. Continue reading →
Well hi there world, and thanks for coming back. On this episode of The Arcade, we start things off with two Ludicrous Leadoffs centered around everybody's favorite new buzzworthy tech acronym, NFT's. First, we share news of an Edward Snowden portrait NFT going for over 2,200 Ether before moving on to discuss the shameless attempt at a cash grab NFT being done by the duo behind the song “Pac-Man Fever” from the 1980s. After the NFT talk, we move on to discussing real dollars and cents with word this week that Epic Games completed another round of funding and raised another $1 billion. After that, it's a bit of new product talk as we give our thoughts on Microsoft's new, premium wireless headphones, then we share news of the delay of the Analogue Pocket. In our Blast From The Past this week, we mark the 10th anniversaries of two entirely opposite, yet equally great titles in Game of Thrones and Portal 2. Continue reading →
Welcome one and welcome all to our first show for the month of April! We start this show with several stories in our Ludicrous Leadoffs. First up, we discuss the shell of Atari getting in on the NFT craze by selling a bunch of Centipede-themed pieces before moving on to share some crazy, just stupid, six-figure prices that were paid for a Pokémon card and a rare, early copy of Super Mario Bros. for the NES. Following the talk of large sums of money, we share news of Sony shutting down the digital storefronts for the PS3, PSP, and PS Vita, as well as the announcement of a new Battle Royale game coming to Nintendo Switch Online. We also cover the first details of what the Pikmin mobile AR game from Niantic will be like, as well as a note on how the shell of Atari has reorganized itself as a company. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 25th anniversary of the first, (and only), Kids in the Hall movie, Brain Candy. Continue reading →
Howdy, gang, and welcome back for yet more Arcade fun and excitement! On this episode, we start things off with two Ludicrous Leadoffs centered around unusual branding partnerships with video game characters. In the first, we tell you how Pokémon are being used to try and protect you from the sun, while in the second, we talk about Pringles inventing a new flavor of chip based on a bird from the Halo franchise. After the opening funny business, we discuss a huge release of prototypes and early versions from over 700 PS2 games making their way online as part of a game preservation effort. After that, we share the news of Pokémon GO developer Niantic working on a Pikmin mobile AR game, and Minecraft Dungeons being translated into an arcade game experience. Elsewhere in the gaming world, we talk about the opening of Super Nintendo World in Orlando being pushed back to 2025, Apple and Epic Games going to trial on May 3, and E3 2021 officially canceling its in-person component. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 10th anniversaries of the Nintendo 3DS, as well as the little Canadian movie that could, Hobo with a Shotgun. Continue reading →
Hey gang, and welcome back for more audio adventures! We start this week's show with two Ludicrous Leadoffs pulled from the increasingly popular world of cryptocurrency. In the first, we discuss Atari's plans to launch a cryptocurrency casino and, in the second we give our thoughts on the digital art piece that sold at auction for a whopping $69 million. Speaking of big-money deals, that leads nicely into our first “regular” news item, which is Microsoft closing the deal to officially acquire ZeniMax Media. Not wanting to be left out of the acquisition dance, Sony recently made a move of their own by acquiring the Evo fighting game series. And speaking of high dollar amounts, we'll fill you in on what crazy milestone Star Citizen has now surpassed in crowdfunding. While we're on the topic of business news, we discuss Google's recent announcement of the reduction in fees they'll be taking come this summer. Business talk aside, we go back in time a bit with the news of an all-new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat-'em-up game being announced. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 15th anniversary of Elder Scrolls IV: Morrowind, followed by the 30th anniversary of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. Continue reading →
Howdy, y'all! Thanks for tuning in to this new episode of The Arcade. We start the show this week with a pair of Ludicrous Leadoffs centered around super-sized books. First up is the news of a jumbo-sized collection of some Attack on Titan manga, while the ludicrous book is the recently announced picture book coming from Wu-Tang Clan. Books aside, we have a game-related Ludicrous Leadoff as we discuss the recently discovered patent from Sony that looks to turn non-controller objects into usable controllers. With the opening fun out of the way, we talk about the most recent reports of Nintendo planning a new Switch model for this holiday season. In semi-related Nintendo news, we also share the latest way in which The Pokémon Company has found to celebrate the franchise's 25th anniversary. From there, we share the news of how Epic Games is spending their sweet, sweet Fornite cash now, as well as what Sony is planning to remove from the PlayStation Store. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark milestone anniversaries for Metallica's “Master of Puppets” album, David Gilmour's “On An Island” album, in addition to the classic oddity from a different time that is Conker's Bad Fur Day from the N64. Continue reading →
Hello, world. You asked for more Arcade and so we bring you more Arcade! On this episode, we start off with an unprecedented four Ludicrous Leadoffs, and all of them are TV-related. We start off with two items related to cartoons from the '90s receiving revivals in these modern times, while two more items are about TV adaptations of games that you didn't think would be translated into a TV series. After the TV business is taken care of, we have a pair of stories that continue another trend from this year, that being gaming companies getting sued. In the first story, we discuss Google, Bungie, and id Software now facing a class-action lawsuit over Stadia's failed 4K promises. In the second story, we share how the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Epic Games has grown and now roped in Valve. With all that aside, we pay a bit of attention to Pokémon which had some new game announcements this week. There are three cartoons in our Blast From The Past segment this week; Biker Mice from Mars, The Head, and Toxic Crusaders. Continue reading →
Oh hello, world, and welcome back for another episode! We start this week off with two Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we share the recently announced details about the reboot of Clone High. In the second, we give our thoughts on the hysteria that's going on in Americaland over Pokémon cards available at McDonald's locations. In the more substantive news portion of the show, we discuss the new way in which CD Projekt Red had a bad day... with a cyber attack on their internal systems and the source code for some of their games reportedly being pilfered. From there, we talk about the reported plans for how an E3 event might look this year before moving on to the news of EA acquiring a mobile game developer for the princely sum of $2 billion. Rounding out the news portion of the show was the surprising, and rather out of left field announcement of which popular musical artist will be headlining the Pokémon Day concert later this month. Our Blast From The Past segment this week holds a special surprise for all of you. Continue reading →
Hey gang, thanks for joining us again here at The Arcade. On this week's show, we start with two Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we talk about Razer introducing a facemask that is loaded with a ridiculous amount of tech. In the second, we discuss that the United Nations, of all groups, announced they will be making a video game about trying to save the Ozone layer. As we move on from the opening silly and fun, we share our thoughts on the news that Google is moving on from making games for their Stadia service. It's a bit of Nintendo news after that as we pass along some impressive sales milestones the Switch has recently achieved. After that, it's time for some Sonic talk as we pass along the news of Lego planning to release a Sonic the Hedgehog set later this year, and Netflix announcing a new Sonic animated series set to debut in 2022. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 20th anniversary of Paper Mario for the N64, as well as the 25th anniversary of the movie Black Sheep. Continue reading →
Hey gang, and welcome back! We start this edition of The Arcade with a story that's also a bit of a continuation from our Ludicrous Leadoffs last week. Only this time, instead of Pokémon cards selling for way too much money, we discuss a rare Magic The Gathering card selling for an even crazier amount of money. After that, we let you know that yes, KFC's entry into the gaming console space is real and that the KFConsole does exist. From there, we get into more gaming business news as we discuss Nintendo now potentially facing a class-action lawsuit in Canada over the problem of Joy-Con drift. We then piggyback on that with other Nintendo news by talking about the EU possibly launching an investigation of their own into Joy-Con drift. Keeping with the gaming news coming from Europe, we inform you that CD Projekt Red is possibly staring down some penalties in their home country of Poland over the botched launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Elsewhere in the gaming world, we chat about Microsoft walking about Xbox Live price hikes, Codemasters getting a lot of money from EA, and the opening of Super Nintendo World in Japan being delayed. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark milestones for Duke Nukem 3D and Inspector Gadget. Continue reading →
Hello gang, and welcome to our first “business as usual” program of 2021. This week, our Ludicrous Leadoffs are all Pokémon, all the time! First up, we share how you can participate in the playing of Pokémon Red through Twitter. After that, let you know the ridiculous sums of money that were paid for an unopened booster pack of Pokémon cards, as well as a Blastoise card. From there, we discuss Epic Games opening up a new front in their war against Apple and Google, (but mostly Apple). We also discuss the news from Disney/ Lucasfilm of a new Star Wars game from Ubisoft, as well as a new Indiana Jones game coming from Bethesda. Then, we return to the Pokémon talk by sharing the release date for New Pokémon Snap, as well as naming the first big musical artist to sign up for the Pokémon 25th anniversary celebration. Following that, we give the grand total raised from the Awesome Games Done Quick speedrunning telethon from earlier this month. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 10th anniversary of Portlandia debuting on TV, as well as the 20th anniversary of Snatch debuting on screens in North America. Continue reading →
Friends, this week The Arcade continues its look back on the past year with part two of our 2020 Year In Review. In this episode, we'll focus our attention on some of the other stories that you may have forgotten about, and that we've yet to have our say on. Included in this is Atari continuing to do some strange things, Amazon failing in its first attempt at a game, Microsoft buying Bethesda, Sony buying into Epic Games, and Hasbro bringing back some old Tiger Electronics handheld games just to name a few. Continue reading →
Greetings friends, and welcome to the future that is 2021! Hopefully, all of you out there managed to survive the past 12 months, while we here at The Arcade are glad to be getting back into the swing of things after our holiday break. This week, we'll take a look back at some of the bigger stories that played out last year for part one of our 2020 Year In Review. Notably, this includes us talking about the impact of the Coronavirus on the games industry, people and companies in the gaming sector stepping up and doing some good, CD Projekt Red shitting the bed, Epic Games picking a fight with Apple, and a new round of consoles being released by Sony and Microsoft. Continue reading →
Welcome one and welcome all to our 14th annual Christmas Music Special! Holiday traditions might be looking a bit different this year, but this is one that forges ahead.
As always, we here at The Arcade endeavor to bring you some Christmas music selections that you've probably never heard before, and this year is no different. We start this show with not one, not two, but three unique twists on the old Chipmunk song, Christmas Don't Be Late. After that, we share a selection of songs that attempt to accurately capture the Christmas mood as it exists in 2020, this the year of the endless dumpster fire. That is to say, it's Christmas music for when you're just not feeling Christmas this year! If that brings you down a bit, don't worry, because we'll try and lift your spirits with some songs from across the pond in the UK. To close out this year's show, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of a truly timeless Christmas movie, Home Alone. We'll share a selection of songs composed by John Williams from some of the movie's most memorable moments.
As always, we encourage you to follow the links below to add these songs to your collection. We hope you enjoy this show, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Continue reading →
After a slight delay, it's a glorious day, for there's a new episode of The Arcade for you! We start this show with one Ludicrous Leadoff which has us discussing yet another 90's cartoon coming back in a new incarnation. In the main body of the show, we cover a wide range of recent gaming news. We share some of the winner's from this week's The Game Awards, as well as a few of the more notable surprise reveals from the event. We also discuss the crazy number of Switch units that sold in the month of November, plus when the Nintendo theme park will open in Japan. Elsewhere, we let you know about the Internet Archive doing their part to preserve Flash content beyond this year, when Halo Infinite has been delayed to now, and Atari's attempt to sell you a nostalgic handheld device this Christmas. There are two comedies in our Blast From The Past segment this week; the teenage stoner comedy Dude, Where's My Car?, as well as The Producers, the film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the original Mel Brooks movie. Continue reading →
Hey, Paisanos! It's finally time for another new episode of The Arcade! This week is a very “business of gaming” heavy week. We start things off by discussing the eye-popping amount of money that a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES recently sold for, and follow that up with talk of Apple's recently announced plan to reduce their royalty from transactions on their App Store. We move on from there to share the completely bold and entirely unsubstantiated claims made by both Microsoft and Sony in terms of the sales success enjoyed by their respective new consoles, while Ubisoft made similar boastful claims about the launch success of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Wanting to round out the big three, we share some numbers from Nintendo's most recent financial report that shows the new record for Switch sales in a month, as well as how close Animal Crossing: New Horizons is to becoming the best-selling Switch title ever. Round out the “business of gaming” talk is news that Take-Two Interactive plans to acquire Codemasters for almost $1 billion. In our Blast From The Past this week, we celebrate the 35th anniversary of the cheesy, but enjoyable boxing epic that is Rocky IV, as well as the 50th anniversary of George Harrison's masterpiece triple-album, All Things Must Pass. Continue reading →
Hey gang, and welcome back for a very special edition of The Arcade. As you might have heard, this is a big week in the world of video games as not one, but TWO new consoles are released! With that in mind, we use this episode to give you a rundown of what to expect if you're in the market for a PlayStation 5, an Xbox Series X, or both. We discuss the important numbers of the sizes and specs for each machine, plus what games you'll be able to play at launch, as well as how Sony and Microsoft are trying to beef up their online game offerings. Once our little new console buyer's guide is done with, we turn our attention to things from yesteryear in this week's Blast From Past. There's two items in our final segment as we mark the 20th anniversary of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, The 6th Day, followed by celebrating the 30th anniversary of a classic Christmas movie Home Alone. Continue reading →
Hey, all! It's back to “business as usual” on the show this week, which means we start things off with two Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we tell you about a very unusual prize that was given out at a recent gaming competition in Japan, and in the second, we share the awesome news of Tiny Toons Adventures coming back! Getting into the “meat & potatoes” portion of the gaming news, we give our thoughts on the recent delay of Cyberpunk 2077 by a few weeks to a new December release date. After that, we share the news that EA is facing a class-action lawsuit in Canada for using loot boxes in their games and follow that up with the announcement that Sony is planning to buy Crunchyroll for just under $1 billion. Our Blast From The Past segment this week holds two items this week. First up is the Kinect motion-control accessory for the Xbox 360 from back in 2010, and next is the game that launched a thousand plastic instruments; Guitar Hero from 2005. Continue reading →
Hello, world. Given the roller-coaster ride everyone and everything has been on the last several months, at least we have a small bit of normalcy return with our annual Halloween Music Special! As always, we strive to present a selection of seasonally appropriate ditties that you've never heard before. Sorry, friends, but you won't be hearing the Monster Mash, Thriller, or the Ghostbusters theme here. We start this year's show with a group of songs themed around the idea of “Halloween in the Old West”, which brings us songs from Sir Christopher Lee, country singer Buck Owens, and the game Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. After the Old West, we take a trip back in time with a handful of selections from when the music industry was an actual industry and cranked out Halloween novelty songs like clockwork. Returning for another appearance is the Obligatory Metal Group, which this year is themed around cannibals and features choice cuts from Cannibal Corpse, Heaven & Hell, and a pre-Type O Negative song from Peter Steele. Rounding out this year's program is a group of songs that honors the many appearances of the world's foremost bio-exorcist, Beetlejuice! We'll be honoring the character with some selections from the Beetlejuice soundtrack, the animated series, some of his video game appearances, as well as from the recent big-budget Broadway musical. So sit back, relax, and enjoy some haunting sounds during these spooky times. Continue reading →
Hello world, and welcome back to an all-new episode of The Arcade! After being away for the last two weeks, we're playing a bit of catch-up on this week's show, which starts with our Ludicrous Leadoff telling what techno-babble word salad Atari is planning now for the Atari VCS. After that, we spend some time talking about what a trio of big tech companies are doing in the gaming world. First up on that front is Amazon who just recently announced the cancellation of their battle royale game, Crucible. While on the topic of Amazon, we'll also finally have our say on the announcement of Amazon's game-streaming service, Luna. From there, we discuss another one of the biggest tech companies in Apple with an update on the legal proceedings between Epic Games and Apple. After Apple, we move over to Microsoft to talk about what's reportedly a unique workaround they might have for bringing Xbox Game Pass to the iOS platform. With all the big tech talk out of the way, we turn our attention back to games themselves and share our thoughts on Rambo joining Mortal Kombat 11 as a DLC character. In the Blast From The Past, we have three items worth celebrating; The Colbert Report, Mad TV, and Dr. Mario from the NES. Continue reading →
Hey hey, everybody, and welcome back for another sizzling edition of The Arcade! We start this week's show with a Ludicrous Leadoff that's also a primer for the next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles as we share the exact sizes and dimensions for these (quite large) machines. Speaking of big numbers, Microsoft made news this week with a big number of their own when they announced a deal to purchase Bethesda for $7.5 billion, so you just know we have a lot to say on that. From there, it's yet more talk about new machines as we divulge some of what the PS5 can do for backwards compatibility, followed by Facebook announcing a new version of the Oculus Quest VR headset. Elsewhere from the gaming world, we discuss Michel Ancel, (the creator of Rayman), recently retiring from the gaming business altogether to start an animal sanctuary in France. In our Blast From The Past this week, we go from the stone age to the future and everywhere in-between as we fete the movie Serenity, as well as classic TV shows Thunderbirds and The Flintstones. Continue reading →
Howdy, y'all! It's time for another new episode of The Arcade. We start this week's proceedings with a Ludicrous Leadoff about one handy home hacker who managed to turn the LEGO Super Mario figure into a controller for Super Mario Bros. With the opening fun out of the way, we dig into the meat & potatoes of gaming news from this week; Sony finally revealing launch details for the PlayStation 5! We'll get into the release date, how much it costs, how much some of the games will cost, as well as give our thoughts on some of the games that were shown off during the digital event. After all that Sony talk, we finally catch up on the most recent happenings in the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Epic Games. To close out the show, there's a cavalcade of cartoon creations in the Blast From The Past as we celebrate the anniversaries of the Care Bears, Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Continue reading →
Hey all, and welcome back for another new episode of The Arcade! We're playing a bit of catch-up after being away for Labor Day last week, but that just gives us yet more to talk about. We start the show with two Ludicrous Leadoffs, the first of which focuses on how Animal Cross: New Horizons is being used in the current US presidential campaign, while the second is of a home hacker finding yet another bizarre device that can run Doom. After that, we did into the meaty gaming news from the past several days, with Microsoft out in front with the reveal of their Xbox Series X, as well as finally giving a firm release date and prices for their next-gen systems. From Microsoft, we move onto another major company that recently detailed their big plans for the fall... Nintendo. The house of Mario recently announced the way they're celebrating Mario's 35th anniversary with new games over the next few months, a new Game & Watch, and a really cool looking Mario Kart RC car. Also, Nintendo did a surprise reveal of a new Hyrule Warriors game coming this fall, so we'll share our thoughts on that as well. Our Blast From The Past segment is home to a trio of cartoons this week as we fete TaleSpin, Freakazoid!, and Earthworm Jim. Continue reading →
Hey all, and welcome to our last show for the month of August! Somehow, it's now the end of August. We start this show off with a very different pair of Ludicrous Leadoffs. In the first, we tell you of a way to punch the Nazis from Wolfenstein 3D in real life and, in the second, we let you know which major retailer recently recreated their catalog in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. From there, we get to the major news of the week, which is the latest developments in the Epic Games/ Apple feud with news of Microsoft lending a supportive word to Epic Games. After that, we tell a tale of money going good with a recap of last week's Summer Games Done Quick event. From there, we give an update on when you can play Airplane Mode, the ridiculous idea for a game that simulates a trans-Atlantic flight in real-time. In this Blast From The Past segment, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Mario Tennis for the N64, as well two movies from Robert Rodriguez; Desperado, and Machete. Continue reading →
Hey Paisanos! It’s the newest episode of The Arcade! We kick off this week's show with the Ludicrous Leadoff, which also happens to be the big news in the gaming world over the last week: Epic Games getting into a catfight with Apple! And also Google. But mostly Apple. After that round of fun, we dig into the news this week of Oculus further reminding people that they're owned by Facebook. From there, we deliver the bummer news that the very promising-looking Analogue Pocket handheld has been delayed until 2021. Speaking of 2021, we'll let you know which two popular indie games are getting deluxe editions next year as well. In our Blast From The Past segment, we mark the 25th anniversary of the first Mortal Kombat movie, followed by the 20th anniversary of the original BattleBots series. Continue reading →
Hey, friends, and welcome to this brand-new episode of The Arcade! We're getting figuring out how to get back into the swing of things this week after having an unplanned two-week hiatus. That might explain why we spent quite a bit of time discussing Ren & Stimpy as our first Ludicrous Leadoff story. We followed that up with the final dollar amount that Niantic plans to donate to Black Lives Matter related charities and causes before talking about the news this week that Halo Infinite is no longer a launch title for the Xbox Series X after being pushed back to a 2021 release. We then opined about Riot Games planning to hold the League of Legends World Championships in Shanghai this fall, Spider-Man being an exclusive character to the PlayStation for the Marvel's Avenger's game, as well as when you'll finally be able to play Microsoft's new Battletoads game. In our Blast From The Past segment, we have two movies celebrating their 10-year anniversaries for they were released on the exact same day back in 2010, those movies being The Expendables, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Continue reading →
Ludicrous Leadoffs: Physical Copy Of Flight Simulator Coming On 10 Discs In Europe Expensive Pokémon Card Sold For New Record Amount News of the Week: Rocket League Becoming Free-To-Play This Summer Untitled Goose Game Getting A Physical Version (watch the … Continue reading →
Hey, everybody! We're back from a short summer break and ready to get back on the proverbial horse on this all-new episode. This week, we start things off as we always do, with the Ludicrous Leadoffs. Our first story that's “an extra special kind of special” is of a brand-new game that's being released on disc for both the Wii and the Wii U. After that, we discuss the record amount that was recently paid for a still sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. for the NES. Staying with Nintendo, we share our thoughts on the scale replica LEGO NES set that was revealed this week, which will cost a pretty penny. Speaking of pretty pennies, Sony paid quite a few of them to get a stake in Epic Games, so we'll give details on that before talking about Amazon pulling their first game back from wide release. In this week's Blast From The Past segment, we honor one of the first, big, Marvel movies in X-Men, as well as the rarity that is the Eddie Murphy music album from 1985. Continue reading →