Our last adventure with Samus for this year as we travel back to 2004 for the GameCube sequel, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Leon, Brian, Leah and Rich - along with contributors from the Patreon and forum - revisit Retro Studios' divisive dark middle chapter of their first-person 3D trilogy. For some, this instalment is one of their least fondly remembered Metroid experiences - frustrating and unfriendly, For others it is their favourite - a moody, challenging masterpiece. Where do you fall? And...

When we scheduled this show, it had been over 18 years since the most recent release of a new F-Zero game. Then Nintendo threw us for a loop with the shadow-drop of the free-to-play battle royale F-Zero 99! Nevertheless, as planned, Leon, Karl and Michiel - along with contribution s from Our Ryan and the wider community - come together to celebrate and analyse this long-dormant future racer franchise, featuring a detailed look at the Super Famicom/SNES, N64 and GameCube 'big console' trilogy,...

We all know that Mario and Luigi have been on RPG adventures before, but in their first adventure on the GBA, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, it’s a whole new quest with new friends, new enemies, and all new abilities to help them save the day! Join Chris, Ryan, and Leah as they travel to the Beanbean Kingdom in our latest issue.

Few would pick a game, based on a Theme Park experience based on a movie, to be a standout launch title for PSVR2, but is that what we got?  Join Chris Worthington, Karl, James and Chris O’Regan as we look at whether ILM Immersive managed to capture some of that Star Wars magic.

Back on board the spooky train with the beloved action platform series, as we arrive in the 16-bit era and Super Castlevania IV. Leon, Leah, Michiel and community correspondents weigh in on this remake/'requel' of the original Akumajo Dracula. There's a lot of love for the soundtrack (except for prog/jazz hating Leah) and Simon's all-new eight-way wiggly whip.

From the arcades of 1993, through the console generations, we drift through every single iteration of Ridge Racer. OK, we haven't played every mobile version and pachi-slot, but Leon, Chris Worthington, Tony and community contributors have hundreds of hours of sideways thrills under their drive belts, and can't wait to reminisce. The aesthetics, the music and the feelings, whether its Revolution, Rage, Rave or R4. Go go go!

A riveting tale of aerial derring-do is our focus in this podcast, as we revisit Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, twenty years on. Leon, Brian, Chis Worthington and Tony are your swashbuckling sky pirates, as we dogfight about how elegantly this one has aged since its 2003 launch on the OG Xbox. As usual, insightful and heartfelt community contributions round out the dashing discourse.

The Chinese Room had a difficult path ahead of them when they were tasked with creating a follow-up to Frictional Games’ massively successful - and massively scary - Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Does 2013’s Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs rise to the challenge? Join Leah, Jon, Sean, and Chris to find out whether they were just as spooked this time around.

Our third Sonic the Hedgehog show comes on a shiny silver plastic platter, as we alight upon Sonic CD. Leon, Tony, returning guest Dan Clark and community correspondents attempt to decipher SEGA's time warp mechanics, 3D special stages and races with the sinister Metal Sonic (not Mecha Sonic who is a very different thing). Plus of course, we join in the 30 year old music debate as we muse upon the merits of both the Japanese and North American OSTs...

Fore! Ryan, Jon, Sean, and Jesse tee up for a bunker chipping, birdie flopping, caddyshacking conversation about Australian indie darling Golf Story. Does this game land cleanly on the green, or is it a bogey? This conversation will go a fairway toward answering that question.

After 30 years, we release Chris, James, Jesse and Jon from their exile in D’ni. As they step, blinking and nervous, into the light, they find themselves on a strange island. This wonderful place is a gateway to puzzling worlds of history, influence, and mystery. Join us for a walk around the first of Cyan’s signature franchise: join us on Myst.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was marketed as an opportunity for players to live out their ultimate (Dark) Jedi power fantasies. Did the game succeed? Well, it certainly did commercially, leading to a sequel just two years later. Leon, Brian, Jon and community contributors polish their holocrons in a bid to convey what was successful and what wasn't about LucasArts' brace of stormtrooper-flinging lightsaber-fests.

Colt and Juliana go head to head, life or death, day after and day and for what? Leon, Tom, Tony and Jay relive Arkane Lyon's recursive immersive sim and, with some broadly rather negative community correspondence, attempt to explain where they feel that the ambitions of "DEATHLOOP" were met, and also where they fell short of flourishing to full fruition.

Following two delays (one long, one short), we can finally bring you our in-depth discussion of Final Fantasy Tactics (and The War of the Lions). Leon, Leah, Rich - and a returning Josh Garrity - have all completed this lengthy, daunting, and at times downright cruel game - and are ready to share their findings with you all. We also have a slate of valuable community contributions giving us jumping-off points from which we talk strategy, status effects, job systems, red Chocobos and brutal...

Our fourth Shinobi series podcast sees Joe Musashi come to the end of his 16-bit era with - after a faltering start - what some consider to be the franchise's coup de grace. Leon, Chris Worthington, Jon and returning guest Dan Clark  - along with community contributors - tangle with NEO ZEED's even more mighty and evil forces in this all-action Mega Drive/Genesis joint

Should we fear death or should we embrace it?  Join Brian, Jon, Rich and Tom as they explore the existential meaning of Spiritfarer, the death-centric management sim by Thunderlotus. Do the management sim aspects of this game bolster or hinder the end of life message the developers attempt to convey?  Join them on this journey into the great beyond.

In our latest Castlevania show we land At Konami's second attempt at bringing the full-fat horror platformer experience to handheld in Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge. Leon, Brian, Jon, Leah and listener contributors find a slightly yet significantly upgraded protagonist - and one who can now even use axes and holy water - in this assault on Dracula's real estate portfolio. Special praise is doled out for a remarkable 8-bit soundtrack, though significant ire is reserved for an especially...

For brothers Sean and Daniel Diaz, the bond they share might be the only thing they can really count on when a terrible accident changes their lives forever. Join Brian, Jon, Leah, and Tony as they follow the brothers’ trail all the way down the west coast of the US, and explore all the people they meet and circumstances they must navigate along the way. In Dontnod’s 2018 episodic adventure Life Is Strange 2, many challenges await the pair, and how they turn out depends on the choices you...

Treasure's 10th release was also its first out-and-out shmup, and what an impact it made. A niche title made in small numbers on an unpopular machine (in the West at least) that became a legendary game. Leon, Chris Worthington, James and Michiel each have a different history with Radiant Silvergun from 'back in the day' 25 years ago right up to recent encounters via the Xbox and Switch versions. Along with community contributions we dive deep into the design of this storied STG-cum-RPG.

Flicky, Agony, Alfred Chicken, Dynamite Dux, Untitled Goose Game. These are just some of the titles we think of when we try to recall videogames with avian protagonists. Manchester studio Acid Nerve added another feathered hero in 2021 with the release of its Zelda-esque Death's Door. Leon, Chris O'Regan, Sean and Tony - along with Cane and Rinse community contributors - dodge roll their way through this flightless corvid's musing on the impermanence of all things.

Star Wars plus BioWare RPG sounded like manna from heaven to many of us when it was announced in 2001. Happily, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - created by a number of the same folks who had worked on the likes of Baldur's Gate II and Neverwinter Nights, was greeted rapturously. Leon, Brian, Leah and Rich (who nominated this one as his personal selection for the year's podcasts) party up to save the galaxy from the Sith menace and their deadly Star Forge. As usual we also share your...

You have died from dysentery. Well, not really, but one of your party members probably did. In this installment we cover the edutainment game The Oregon Trail. Join Brian, Jesse, Rich and Ryan as they head west on a wagon train and discuss what makes this game effective enough to warrant a 50 year history with over 25 different entries. Does this simulation of westward, colonial expansion hold up to the test of time? Listen in to find out.

The Cane and Rinse ninjas shimmy their way across Japan and the USA taking down IP-infringing baddies (Spider-Man, Batman, Rambo, The Terminator and even Godzilla) in their third Shinobi series podcast. Leon, Chris Worthington, Michiel and returning guest Ben Cartlidge (Video Wizards, One Credit Classics), run the gauntlet of SEGA's first 'designed for the home' entry into its 80s slide 'n dice franchise. Along with community contributors, the panel gets to grips with this groovy great,...

Forty years ago our eyes were blown from their sockets as they witnessed what appeared to be Disney cartoon quality graphics arrive in the arcades. Of course, we soon found out that the reality of actually playing these LaserDisc games wasn't perhaps what we initially dreamed, yet still Rick Dyer and Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair (and to a lesser extent, sci-fi sequel Space Ace) would become legends in their own right. Leon, Chris Worthington and Jesse join Dirk and Dexter on their animated...

Not such a long time after the sequel hit stores, we got the crew together to review Respawn's first movie franchise license game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Leon, Brian, James and Karl have all wanted to be Jedis (or possibly Sith) to some extent, so did this game allow them to live out their space fantasies? As you'd hope for such a recent and successful game, we also have plenty of posts from padawans strewn around the Cane and Rinse galaxy.