Podcasts about gonnageek

Read transcriptAt some point in the early 2000s, someone looked at the Dragon Ball Z manga and anime, a story full of screaming men who power up for entire episodes, hair that defies physics, and villains who monologue long enough for the protagonist to reach a new power level, and said, “Yes. This. But make it a fighting game. On two, and only two, consoles.” And thus, Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 arrived on PS2 and GameCube, ready to let you spend an unreasonable amount of time unlocking characters and pretending you know what a Fusion Dance is supposed to look like in real life. This episode, we're going Super Saiyan on the whole thing. The game, the manga, the anime, the drama, the capsules, the questionable story mode decisions. All of it. And joining us to power up the conversation is Russell Moran from Kaiju ComiCast, who brings exactly the kind of kaiju-sized enthusiasm this franchise demands. So take a deep breath, squeeze out every last drop of ki you've got, and let's get into it. Your hair may or may not turn gold by the end. No promises. Learn such things as: What's worse than taking a risk and totally failing? What's keeping us from getting the epic Toriyama Universe fighting crossover event that we all want to badly? Can you really say that the roster has 50 different characters when 10 of them are different versions of the same dude? And so much more! You can find Russell on BlueSky @kaijucomiccast, Instagram @kaijucomiccast, and of course at his podcast Kaiju ComiCast. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. The next episode is going to be Justice League Heroes The Flash, so get your thoughts ready and over to me if you want to hear them in the show. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to “Fun” and Games and Anime Field Guide for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who only does things at levels of 9000. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Nineteen Sixty-Four was a huge year for cinema, especially for movie musicals. Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady went one and two at the annual box office, with the French film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night, becoming breakout hits. But for his birth year pick, Rum Daddy didn't play along with the band. He went with Bond. James Bond. Yes, the third outing for the British superspy landed in third place at the '64 box office, cementing the budding franchise's blockbuster status. Starring Sean Connery as Ian Fleming's secret agent once again, the film established many of the series' standards, including the pre-title action sequence and the "now pay attention, 007," briefing by Desmond Llewelyn's Q, followed by the introduction of many gadgets and the iconic Aston Martin DB-5. And then there's the titular villain, played by Gert Fröbe, who can't quite help explaining his entire evil plan to the hero and his silent-but-imposing henchman, Oddjob, who has invented weaponized headwear. And, of course, we must have a Bond girl, or four, toplined by Honor Blackman as the improbably named Pussy Galore. But does Rum Daddy have the Midas Touch? Is this not only the best film from the year he was born, but could it also be the best Bond movie ever? Join us as we paint the town gold with 1964's Goldfinger!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Read transcriptIf you've ever wondered what would happen if professional wrestling, superhero nonsense, and a generous helping of “did they really just do that?” collided in a PS2-era video game, congratulations you've found your people. This episode dives headfirst into Galactic Wrestling Featuring Ultimate Muscle, a game that asks the important questions, like how many absurdly named wrestlers can fit into one ring and whether flexing harder is a legitimate combat strategy (it is). Along the way, we're joined by Josh “Anoriand” Fagundes. Yes, that Anoriand from Twitch. He brings his streaming-honed wisdom and an appreciation for delightful chaos. Between the manga roots, anime flair, and a game that absolutely commits to the bit, there's plenty to grapple with here. So lace up your boots, oil up your… everything, and get ready for a match that's less about winning and more about how spectacularly weird the journey can get. Learn such things as: How do you make a sequel to a game and not have it on the same console? What happens when the humor and moral values of such different societies don't really match up? Does this game have anything surprisingly good in it, and does it even matter if it does? And so much more! You can find Anoriand on Bluesky @anoriand, TikTok @anoriand, YouTube @AnoriandGD, and Twitch @anoriand. And he was on Super Deluxe GamesCast but as this is getting published, it was announced a few days ago that they're changing the name to Maximum Hearts and I want to make sure that this horrible timing is saved for prosperity. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. The next episode is going to be Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2, so get your thoughts ready and over to me if you want to hear them in the show. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Lee Carvallo's Podding Challenge and Peace Down and Down for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who would probably have a glitch somehow as a special move. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

In 2011, director Tate Taylor adapted Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel into a feature film with an all-star cast including Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, Cicely Tyson, and Sissy Spacek all getting a piece of the pie. Set among upper-class white families in early 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, aspiring journalist Skeeter (Stone) chronicles the lives of the black maids who play pivotal roles in running households and raising children, against the backdrop of segregation and the struggle for civil rights. The film sliced off a decadent $222 million against its $25 million budget, and scored multiple Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress (Davis) and two nods for Best Supporting Actress for Chastain and Spencer, with the latter actress taking home the statue. However, the film left a bad taste in some critics' mouths, who called out "white savior" tropes and the film's playbook "awards bait" scripting. Now we're taking out our notebooks, pouring ourselves a glass of sweet tea, and washing down a second helping of dessert for The Help!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Read transcriptSomewhere in the mid-2000s, a group of developers looked at the Justice League and said, “What if we made a game where all your favorite heroes team up… and then we just kinda vibed with that idea instead of sticking to any specific comic storyline?” Which kind of works actually because they got Dwayne McDuffie to write it but that's not the point. So anyway, Justice League Heroes burst onto the scene for PS2, Xbox, PSP, and Nintendo DS like a Watchtower alarm that nobody remembers installing. This week on Play Comics, we grab our capes, charge up our vaguely canon-adjacent superpowers, and dive into a game that absolutely has Batman, Superman, and friends… ummm, friends are definitely there I promise and sometimes they have to be there because of contractual obligations. And sometimes even the best version of those friends if you're lucky and the best version of that hero had been invented already. Joining the adventure is Gavin Mevius from The Mixed Reviews and The Q Division, bringing along just the right blend of insight, chaos, and “wait, was that ever a comic plot?” energy to help us make sense of it all. So get ready for teamwork, button mashing, and a Justice League game that is just kind of meh, especially considering the story that it had to work with. Learn such things as: When you can have Justice League adventures without Batman or Superman Why you don't need a 100% comic plot line to have a good comic plot line. What the world was like before micro transactions got involved with everything And so much more! You can find Gavin on BlueSky @shhhitsgavin, Instagram @gavinmev, and of course on his podcasts The Mixed Reviews (a monthly film review show taking a deep dive into a subject, actor, director, or something else along those lines) and The Q Division (a monthly deep dive into James Bond). If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. The next episode is going to be Galactic Wrestling with Ultimate Muscle, so get your thoughts ready and over to me if you want to hear them in the show. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Gimmicks and Spawnography for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, whose super power is always knowing exactly where to find that file you're looking for. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Around the same time that cinematic universes began to dominate every multiplex, one satire landed like a live grenade tossed directly into Hollywood's lap. Co-written, directed by, and starring Ben Stiller, the movie follows the catastrophically doomed production of an over-budget Vietnam War epic whose cast of self-absorbed actors - including Stiller's fading action hero, Jack Black's substance-abusing comedy star, and Robert Downey Jr. as a thespian who goes a little too method - find themselves dropped into a real jungle conflict in a parody proudly following in the footsteps of The Three Amigos and Galaxy Quest. Along with a platoon of scene-stealers and a nearly unrecognizable Tom Cruise, the film took a proverbial machete to prestige filmmaking, Oscar bait performances, and celebrity egos with a ferocity rarely seen in big-budget studio comedies. While it's undeniable that the film was a critical and commercial success, it feels equally unbelievable that Downey's performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. But nearly twenty years later, does this savage send-up of Hollywood excess still land laughs with explosive energy, or has "cancel" culture invaded film discourse to the point that merely discussing it feels like wading into a minefield? Join us as we pop open a fresh can of Booty Sweat, crank some Ludacris, and prepare to put ourselves in the shit with Tropic Thunder!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Buckle up for a PS2 heist where Lupin III swaps manga mischief for blocky stealth antics in Treasure of the Sorcerer King, that 2004 gem channeling Monkey Punch's rogue into disguises-gone-wrong and treasure hunts that test more patience than finesse. Joining the vault-cracking crew this time is Robbie Sherman from Conversations with Robbie Sherman, dishing on how the game stacks up to the source chaos of Jigen's aim, Goemon's blade ballet, and Fujiko's inevitable backstab. So grab your best disguise and let's see if you can sneak the treasure out of this one. Either way it's going to be a blast. Learn such things as: When does homage become IP theft? Does it ever work to retcon multiple unrelated characters into a single one and act like it's not weird at all? Do you really need those side characters? Can't we just get rid of all of them and follow the main character exclusively? And so much more! You can Robbie on BlueSky @convoswrob and his podcast Conversations with Robbie Sherman. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. The next episode is going to be Justice League Heroes for the PS2, Xbox, PSP, and Nintendo DS. So get your thoughts ready and over to me if you want to hear them in the show. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Another GI Joe Podcast and Campus Comics Cast for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who might have been here the whole time without me realizing it. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.Read transcript

Thirty-five years ago, Steven Spielberg released his updated take on the classic children's story Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. Arriving in theaters in 1991 with enormous expectations, the film was toplined by four actors at the height of their fame: Robin Williams stars as an aged-up Peter, fresh off Dead Poets Society and Awakenings - and just a year away from Aladdin and Mrs. Doubtfire; Dustin Hoffman, riding high after his Oscar win for Rain Man, as the titular Captain Hook; Julia Roberts, newly-minted as America's sweetheart after Pretty Woman, donning the wings as Tinkerbell; and Bob Hoskins as Mister Smee, following up his breakout blockbuster Who Framed Roger Rabbit. With a prime Christmas release date and a sweeping John Williams score, the film looked destined to become an instant Spielberg swashbuckling classic. Instead, a famously troubled production - marked by massive (and expensive) sets, shooting that ran 40 days over schedule, and a strained relationship between director Spielberg and ingénue Roberts - resulted in a film that critics were quick to call indulgent and uneven. Spielberg himself later admitted frustration with the project, and despite solid box‑office returns, the film was seen as a disappointment during a peak period of Spielberg's career. And yet the pixie dust of nostalgia has quietly rewritten the narrative: the film has become something of a cult favorite, embraced by fans who grew up with VHS rewatches. Now we're dropping anchor in Pirates Bay to see if Hook conjures up any happy thoughts, or if it is better off getting lost, boy!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Read transcriptSometimes a game says it's based on a comic. Sometimes a movie says it's based on a comic. And sometimes a game says it's based on that movie that says it's based on a comic, and suddenly we're three layers deep in adaptation lasagna. This week, we're cracking open Over the Hedge for the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox—a game that definitely follows the movie's lead and only politely waves at the original comic strip from across the yard. Expect sneaking, snacking, and more suburban chaos than your average HOA meeting can handle. Joining the show is Doug Fink (Walloping Web Snappers, Falling with Style, Novel Gaming, and Skreeonk) to help sort out what happens when animals, energy drinks, and licensed games collide in one very busy backyard. Grab your energy drinks and questionable life choices. I hope you don't get pinched by the exterminator. Learn such things as: Is the key to all of this the friends you bring along the way? Are humans and urban sprawl the real villains here? Do you actually need to base a game on a thing to have it be based on the thing? And so much more! You can find Doug on BlueSky @ickybooley and of course all of his wonderful shows on the Glitterjaw Queer Podcast Collective, Walloping Websnappers, Novel Gaming, Falling with Style, and Skreeonk. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. The next episode is going to be Lupin the 3rd Treasure of the Sorcerer King, so get your thoughts ready and over to me if you want to hear them in the show. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Carnival of Glee Creations and Distant Echoes for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who definitely wasn't feeding the animals yesterday and I have no idea why they keep following him around. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Chris Condon is an acclaimed comic book writer known for his gritty, atmospheric storytelling and neo-Western themes. He is currently writing major titles for Marvel and DC Comics while continuing his celebrated creator-owned work at Image Comics and Oni Press.    You may know him as the writer of: That Texas Blood & The Enfield Gang Massacre (Image Comics) Far Down Below (Mad Cave Studios); Hell is a Squared Circle (AfterShock Comics); The Goddamn Tragedy (Oni Press); News from the Fallout (Image); Green Arrow (DC Comics); The Peril of the Brutal Dark (DC's relaunched Vertigo imprint)   Chris sits down with Jonolobster to discuss how he reinvented Marvel's flagship mutant as the dark, faceless assassin known only as… The Winter Soldier, in a brand-new Ultimate Universe. We explore the influences, development, writing, and future of Ultimate Wolverine in "Ultimate Warrior: How Chris Condon Reinvented Wolverine," recorded live on Saturday, April 25, 2026, at ITHACON 49. (Please note, this was recorded in a large room, not a podcasting studio, so it is a little echoey.)   Ultimate Wolverine trailer from Marvel Comics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmuTw6SDZBY    For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

On September 13, 1979, animators Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy left the feature animation department at Walt Disney Productions to set up their own independent animation studio. Their first feature, directed by Bluth, was based on the 1971 children's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. The book had originally been rejected by their former employer as "too dark" to be a commercial success. Bluth and Co. were followed soon after by twenty other Disney animators, dubbed "The Disney Defectors" by the trade press. The House of Mouse endured a "Dark Age," with flops like 1985's The Black Cauldron, while Bluth went on to direct hits like An American Tale, The Land Before Time, and All Dogs Go to Heaven. But the film that started it all, an adaptation of that book Disney rejected, was beloved by critics - even if it may have emotionally scarred a generation of children. Join us as we uncover, at the behest of Listener Jeff, the beautiful and terrifying Secret of NIMH!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Read transcriptThere are games that make you feel like a superhero, and then there are games that make you feel like you forgot to read the instructions, lost the instructions, and maybe the instructions never existed in the first place. Uncanny X-Men on the NES proudly lives in that second category. This week, we're taking a look at a game that technically features some of our favorites from Marvel's mutants, but in a way that raises a lot of questions. Mostly “why does it work like this?” and “who thought this was a good idea?” Along the way, we'll try to connect the dots back to the comics and see what actually made the jump from page to cartridge. Joining the show are frequent guest and actual real-life friend Adam Williamson, along with Miles Stokes from Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men, bringing the kind of X-Men knowledge and patience required to make sense of a game that absolutely refuses to explain itself. So grab a friend, a pile of comfort snacks, and a security blanket because everything you've heard about this game is probably true. I hope you survive the experience. Learn such things as: Who is that silent superstar that put together the character bios for the manual? Why do doors hate the X-Men so much? How does Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men play into the origin of Play Comics? And so much more! You can find Adam on BlueSky @effectnotaffect and absolutely nowhere else except for on Play Comics where he writes comic reviews and appears on other episodes. Of particular interest to listeners of this episode are The Gimmick #1 and The Job #1. You can find Miles over at @XPlaintheXmen on BlueSky or over at the official site for Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. The next episode is going to be Lupin the 3rd Treasure of the Sorcerer King, so get your thoughts ready and over to me if you want to hear them in the show. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Spawnography and Capes on the Couch for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who's favorite X-Men character is Lockjaw. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

This week, we have a special treat for you, as we are joined by Legendary makeup artist Ve Neill! After being inspired by Planet of the Apes cosplayers at a sci-fi convention, Ve began her career and has worked with makeup and effects artists like Fred Phillips, John Chambers, Rick Baker, Greg Cannom, and Stan Winston. Ve has collaborated with directors like Tim Burton, Chris Columbus, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Zemeckis, and worked on famous faces like Johnny Depp, Danny DeVito, Paul Reubens, and Robin Williams. Her talents have featured extensively in blockbuster franchises including The Amazing Spider-Man, Batman, The Hunger Games, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek, and X-Men. She has won three Academy Awards, for her work on Beetlejuice, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Ed Wood, and has been nominated for eight Oscars in total. She's also won two Emmys and served as a judge on SyFy's reality TV makeup competition series Face Off. Most appropriately, Ve opened her own school, Legends Makeup Academy, in Los Angeles in 2021. Ve spills the tea on working with wonderful (and difficult!) celebs, her favorite projects, and behind-the-scenes stories from her decades in making movie magic! !   Follow Ve on Instagram: @therealve    Check out Ve's new film The Wolf and the Lamb, in theaters April 24: https://www.thewolfandthelamb.com/    Support Ve's project Haunted Hookers on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mariacollis/haunted-hookers-movie    For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Robin Williams was already a comedy and TV star based on his stand-up and starring role in Mork & Mindy. He'd also ventured into film with the films Popeye, The World According to Garp, and Moscow on the Hudson as modest successes. It wasn't until 1987 when he starred in a Vietnam War-era comedy that propelled him to mega-stardom. Based on the true-life experiences of Armed Forces Radio Service DJ Adrian Cronauer, Williams heavily improvised much of the on-and-off the air humor as he tries to cheer up the troops from his recording booth in Saigon. For the role, Williams won a Golden Globe and scored his first Oscar nomination, and the film's album won a Grammy for best Comedy Album. Now Legends Podcast waking up early - we're doing it for the troops! - to say: Good Morning, Vietnam!   ITHACON 49 is Saturday, April 25th, and Sunday, April 26th, at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY! Tickets available at ITHACON.org    For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Read transcriptSome magical girl stories are content with sparkly transformations and heartfelt speeches. This is not one of those stories. This time on Play Comics we're warping through the glitter-strewn chaos of Sailor Moon: Another Story, the Super Famicom RPG that took the 90s manga and anime vibes, mashed them with branching timelines and turn-based redemption arcs, and asked, “What if destiny needed a save state?” It's console combat where emotional baggage weighs more than your inventory, and every villain monologue comes with a friendship discount. Chris isn't battling cosmic paradoxes solo though. Cass Proffitt from Distant Echoes jumps into the senshi squad to help unpack how this game balances moon crystal lore with JRPG grind, and whether it's a radiant tribute to Sailor Moon or just the sparkliest timeline meltdown in gaming history. Together they're digging into what survived the trip from Naoko Takeuchi's pages to console controllers, complete with overdramatic plot twists and Jupiter's undefeated punch stat. Dust off your brooch, queue the theme song, and prepare for senshi squad analysis laced with villain rehab debates and moon prism power-ups that hit different on pixelated screens. Learn such things as: Why Another Story might actually be canon. Sort of. Maybe. How localization shaped the Western Sailor Moon fandom. What the point of it all is if you don't even have a cat to help guide you along the way. And so much more! You can find Cass on their podcast Distant Echoes. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. You can read the full thoughts from CountZeroOr here: Why we never got them? Well, I'd probably say it's a combination of a couple factors: First, for much of the 16-bit console generation (and the 8-bit console generation before that), there was still a very considerable anti-Japan bias in terms of marketing of console games, based on the idea that American audiences wouldn't buy anything actively presented as being Japanese, so Anime presentations were out (this is part of the reason why the first Ranma 1/2 fighting game was changed into “Street Combat”) – the Golgo 13 games were viewed as something of an outlier. While some later titles in the 90s would take chances on presenting themselves as being more anime (i.e. Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle), they were also titles for properties generally marketed to guys, as also around this time video game marketing was increasingly getting more gendered, something that would continue throughout the 90s and into the 2000s and beyond. As a property targeted for girls, Sailor Moon didn't fit in the gender essentialist marketing plans of the video game industry. The fact that, since it's a RPG, it also has a ton of text to localize and translate (versus to the Sailor Moon beat-em-ups), certainly didn't help. The next episode is going to be Uncanny X-Men. That's right, we're taking another look at the NES game. What are your experiences with this one? If they remade it today what characters would you want included that weren't in the original? If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Anime Field Guide and To the Batpoles! for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who saves every cat just in case it's magical. Especially the one that's a Red Lantern. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Director Christopher Nolan made his mark in the mid-2000s with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. But between these two blockbusters, Nolan and Bale teamed up on another project, an adaptation of Christopher Priest's 1995 epistolary novel about two rival magicians in late 1800s England, with Hugh Jackman playing Bale's frenemy. In the mix are Michael Caine, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo, and Andy Serkis, with David Bowie appearing as inventor Nikola Tesla. The modestly budgeted film successfully wowed audiences, earning over $100 million at the box office, and it scored Oscar noms for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. Now we're watching very closely to see if The Prestige still holds up twenty years later. Or, perhaps, its tricks no longer fool us… because you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Oh, no! Wrong movie! Abra-cadabra!   ITHACON 49 is Saturday, April 25th, and Sunday, April 26th, at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY! Tickets available at ITHACON.org    For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Springfield's favorite menace trades his skateboard for spandex in Bartman Meets Radioactive Man, and somehow the result ended up on both the NES and Game Gear. Whether it's justice or just pure mayhem, this is one crossover nobody asked for but we're glad to have anyway. But Chris can't do this along, so he's joined by the always enlightening Tommy Proffitt from Distant Echos and Lee Carvallo's Podding Challenge. Together they unravel what happens when cartoon superheroes meet 8-bit hardware and common sense takes a vacation. So grab your cape, your slingshot, and your best “Eat my shorts” energy, because things are about to get weird, nostalgic, and slightly irradiated. Just like Bart would've wanted. Learn such things as: How has The Simpsons secretly wormed its was into your everyday life? What happens when you have such a character driven franchise and use hardly any of them at all? Were the Radioactive Man comics just a testing ground for future characters? And so much more! You can find Tommy on Bluesky @awkwardcomma, and his podcasts Distant Echoes and Lee Carvallo's Podding Challenge. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. The next episode is going to be Sailor Moon Another Story, so get your thoughts ready and over to me if you want to hear them in the show. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to The Glitter Jaw Queer Podcast Collective and Gender Pop for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who still wears Bart Simpson underwear. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.Read transcript

We're hitting the road with actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon (playing fictionalized versions of themselves) to the North of England. Exploring the immortal poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and ABBA, the film combines gastro-tourism, mid-life crises, impressions, song, and more impressions in a road-trip odd couple buddy comedy that somehow always keeps its foot on the laugh track. (Okay, it doesn't actually have a laugh track, but you get the joke.) Originally a 6-episode TV series, director Michael Winterbottom recut the largely improvised scenes into a movie, which hit 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and has led to further excursions to Italy, Spain, and Greece, with a fifth outing on the way. Now buckle up and unbutton your trousers for the next course as we tuck into The Trip!   ITHACON 49 is Saturday, April 25th, and Sunday, April 26th, at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY! Tickets available at ITHACON.org    For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Read transcriptThey say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but in this case, it's paved with quick‑time events and awkward platforming. Step back into 2010, when grim determination, button mashing, and a suspicious amount of artistic license gave us Dante's Inferno on the PS3 and Xbox 360, the game adaptation no one asked for but we secretly loved anyway. Joining Chris this time is Adam Williamson. You know, that guy who's somehow managed to pop up in both past and future episodes of Play Comics. It's like he's got his own metaphysical time loop going, except with fewer torturous souls and more witty banter. So grab your favorite medieval poetry anthology (or just pretend you've read it. No judgment), crank up the over‑the‑top orchestral soundtrack, and prepare to descend through nine circles of beautifully rendered weirdness. Let's find out how a centuries‑old Italian masterpiece got a glow‑up full of demons, guilt, and surprisingly good level design. Learn such things as: How many sins can you commit before hitting a loading screen? What might Dante have thought of boss battles? Was someone just really into God of War? It's the God part wasn't it? And so much more! You can find Adam absolutely nowhere except for on Play Comics where he writes comic reviews and appears on other episodes. Of particular interest to listeners of this episode are The Gimmick #1 and The Job #1. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Kaiju ComiCast and Anime Field Guide for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who was wondering the whole time why neither of us brought up X-Men Inferno at all. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Legends Podcast is heading to Korea for Netflix's most successful original release ever! Based on - holy moley - this is an original I.P.?! It's not a comic or video game? Wow! Based on an original idea by co-director Maggie Kang, this 2025 film from Sony Pictures Animation centers on an all-girl trio of K-pop superstars who also happen to be their generation's protectors from an ever-present invasion of demons from the underworld. Uniting the world in song, these K-pop demon hunters headlined the most-watched original title in Netflix history, leading to the widest release by number of theaters for a Netflix film, and the first Netflix flick to top the box office in the United States. The soundtrack was the first to have four songs in the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, and the film brought home the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature. Now we're k-ashing in on the k-phenomenon that is KPop Demon Hunters!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Read transcriptLook,  We've seen a lot of comic-based video games in my time, but when a mafia hitman gets murder powers from an eldritch shadow monster so he can take vengeance on, well, everybody, you know we've entered elite storytelling territory. The Darkness isn't here to make you feel good about humanity. It's here to make you ask if you'd trade your soul for a pair of talking demon heads who love street lamps way too much. This week, we're diving into The Darkness on PS3 and Xbox 360, that moody, gritty, and surprisingly heartfelt adaptation of the classic Top Cow comic series. And joining us for the chaos? None other than Sarah of Mars. Yes, that Mars. Because let's be real: if you're dealing with an ancient, malevolent cosmic force, you might as well bring in someone from a planet that already knows about hostile takeovers of a planetary variety. So get comfy (preferably not in the subway tunnels of New York with a swarm of writhing demons), because we're unpacking love, loss, corruption, and whatever dark surprises the game decided to throw at us just for kicks. Oh, and if your shadow starts talking back… maybe turn off the console. Learn such things as: How long did it take Chris to realize that the British band wasn't going to show up? Which band do you associate Mike Patton with, and is it the same band that makes the most sense to match with this character? Do you have to follow the source material to get a game that really feels correct? And so much more! You can find Sarah on BlueSky @sarahofmars.bsky.social, on that old blog Now I Write, and sometimes as a guest on Super Deluxe GamesCast. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Infinite Earths Guide and Gender Pop for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who really wants to hear a Mike Patton cover of Reading Rainbow. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Court is in session on this 2001 Reese Witherspoon star vehicle, based on the book by Amanda Brown, who channeled her own real-life experiences as a blonde Stanford law student into a book that sparked a studio bidding war. Reese Witherspoon faced her own struggles landing the lead role after being typecast as Tracy Flick from Election. However, with her turn as Elle Woods, a fashion-forward Harvard Law student who proves that beauty and brains can go together, Reese Witherspoon found a breakout role and theatergoers found an instant classic. It's not just Reese Witherspoon; also with her are Luke Wilson, Jennifer Coolidge, Selma Blair, Ali Larter, Holland Taylor, and Victor Garber. Opening with just a $20 million first weekend, the film directed by Robert Luketic went on to earn $142 million at the global box office as a sleeper hit. This strong precedent has led to sequel, a Broadway musical, a reality TV show about casting the musical, a direct-to-video spin-off, and now there's an Amazon prequel series, Elle, set to debut in July. Ever the arbiters of justice and good taste, our hosts will now sit in judgement of the age-old adage: blondes have more fun. It may not be fair, it may not be easy, but it is Legally Blonde! For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Read transcriptThis time on Play Comics, we're sneaking into the glittery, CGI-filled vault of early-2000s tie-in games and asking the question nobody demanded an answer to: “What if Catwoman, but make it even more 2004?” Between the leather, the eyeliner, and the wall-running, we're checking out the Catwoman movie game that clawed its way onto GameCube, Xbox, PS2, and Game Boy Advance. It's the kind of experience that feels like someone motion-captured an energy drink and then gave it a whip. To help make sense of this pixelated fever dream, Chris is joined by frequent guest Billy from his real life friend group, because if you're going to suffer through mid-2000s licensed game nonsense, you should at least do it with someone who can confirm you're not hallucinating. Together they dive into the bizarre elegance of magically convenient scaffolding, combat that thinks “pressing one button a lot” is a personality trait, and a story that remembers it's based on a movie just often enough to be legally distinct from fun. Expect more cat puns per minute than the ESRB ever intended. So dust off your flip phone, crank up your nu-metal playlist, and prepare to swing through a world where glass windows are just suggestions and gravity is more of a guideline. Is this game an underrated gem, a misunderstood experiment, or the digital equivalent of stepping on a LEGO in high heels? Tune in to find out how this cinematic catastrophe translated to four different systems, and whether any of them managed to land on their feet. Learn such things as: Can we really hold the story of this game against it (for the purposes of this podcast anyway) when it was just following the movie plot lines? Since when is the handheld version allowed to be the best one? Did we miss all of those jumps and grabs because some cat in the greater universe was pushing our character off the ledge? And so much more! You can find Billy's writing nowhere because Commandercast seems to be dead. But if it's not then someone tell me and I'll switch this up. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Pop Culture Basement and The Last Comic Shop for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who thinks that the best catwoman is Felicia from Darkstalkers. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Today on LEGENDS PODCAST, we're diving into a visually driven, dialogue-free sci-fi story set entirely to Daft Punk's Discovery. Directed by Leiji Matsumoto, it's a masterclass in music-led storytelling and stylized world-building. Quick note—our guy Lobster is out this episode, holding it down at South by Southwest. We'll carry on without him. Let's get into Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem! ONE MORE TIME!!! For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Read transcriptSome licensed games take you to fantastical worlds filled with wonder and adventure. This is not one of those games. This time on Play Comics we're trudging through the smoke-filled, demon-splattered streets of Constantine (2005), the tie-in that asked, “What if we took Keanu Reeves, a theological horror film, and the PS2's most dramatic lighting engine, and just… saw what happened?” Somehow it's a third-person action game, a movie adaptation, and a vaguely spiritual experience about regretting your rental choices all at the same time. Chris isn't wandering this half-lit hellscape alone though. Merrilee O'Neil from Fear Coded jumps into the exorcism circle to help figure out where this game lands on the spectrum from “surprisingly solid” to “should've stayed in development hell.” Together they're digging into how much of the comic DNA and film mood actually survived the trip through Bits Studios and THQ, and how often it just turns into early-2000s “shoot the demon, ask theology questions later” energy. So grab your PS2 or Xbox controller, light a metaphorical cigarette (or maybe don't, your lungs will thank you), and step into a world where holy relics share inventory space with questionable game design choices. Expect demons, exorcisms, and more snark than you can fit into one trench coat as Chris and Merrilee poke at what works, what doesn't, and why this particular slice of licensed weirdness still lingers like the smell of burnt incense in a game store bargain bin Learn such things as: Do demons care about hit points? How do the timelines of the movie vs the game development interact with each other? Did this game even have a chance when it had to pick between being true to the movie or the comic source material? And so much more! You can find Merrilee being the main driver of the Fear Coded account on BlueSky @fearcodedpod.bsky.social on her podcast Fear Coded. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Batman Knightcast and Adventures in Erylia for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, whose favorite demon is Speed Racer. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

We're dropping our first listener pick of 2026, and it comes from twenty-five years ago, courtesy of Listener Bryan. In 2001, actor-turned-director Peter Howitt released his sophomore film (following 1998's Sliding Doors), a techno-thriller with a hot young cast including Ryan Phillippe, Claire Forlani, and Rachael Leigh Cook. In the film, tech mogul Gary Winston (played by Tim Robbins) aims to revolutionize global communication, but he might be literally killing the competition to get there. The film boasts set designs by Catherine Hardwicke and a rocking score by Don Davis, but it just didn't click with audiences. So while the film itself crashed at the box office upon release in January 2001, it did set Listener Bryan on his course towards a career in tech. In an age when giant software companies still rule our lives - and spy on us - does a film about a giant software company spying on and ruling lives still ring true? Or does Antitrust belong in the Recycle Bin? LINKS FOR NEXT WEEK's Movie  https://www.reddit.com/r/DaftPunk/comments/1ho7nfk/interstella_5555_hq_1080p_2x_upscale/  https://archive.org/details/daft-punk-interstella-5555-the-5tory-of-the-5ecret-5tar-5ystem-2-k-remastered   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/    

Read transcriptIf you've ever dreamed of piloting a transforming jet while sorting through a love triangle and dodging alien laser fire, then without knowing it you've been living in the Robotech: The Macross Saga timeline. Chris dusts off his Game Boy Advance for this one, only to find that the same intergalactic mess has crash-landed again, this time in crisp Switch resolution. Because nothing says “future of gaming” like revisiting a handheld title from an era when batteries were a personality trait. Helping navigate this space-time crossover is DC Dave from The Monitor Tapes, swooping in with the kind of insight only a seasoned comic podcaster can offer. Together, they dissect what happens when '80s anime melodrama meets early 2000s portable gaming. And spoiler alert: there are missiles, misunderstood heroes, and at least one existential crisis per level. And yes, they both have Opinions™ about which version of Rick Hunter handles better. So grab your nearest mecha (or whatever piece of furniture doubles as one), set your thrusters to “nostalgia,” and dive into a world where pixelated warfare meets the stirring strains of synth-pop destiny. Whether you're a die-hard Robotech purist, a Switch newcomer, or just here for DC Dave's hot takes, this episode's got something for every flavor of space soap enthusiast. Learn such things as: What does it takes to make a side-scrolling shooter feel like an interstellar soap opera? How did licensing rights in the '80s created a cosmic headache that still echoes today? When you have giant fighting robots, do you really need to add all of the war allegory? And so much more! You can find DC Dave on BlueSky @dcdavepodcast, and of course under his podcast The Monitor Tapes on BlueSky @themonitortapes. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Is It Jaws? and Capes on the Couch for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who refuses to acknowledge the passage of time and how what it means to any of us on a metaphysical level. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Aspiring screenwriter Max Frye wrote a spec script in film school about a straitlaced yuppie's "best worst night ever," which his agent later told him would be perfect for either Martin Scorsese or Jonathan Demme to direct. Since Scorsese was busy on another "yuppie's best worst night ever" movie, After Hours, Demme ended up getting the nod. Demme cast Jeff Daniels as the yuppie Charlie Driggs, with Melanie Griffith as the proto-Manic Pixie Dream Girl Lulu, who sweeps him up for a weekend that starts with sex and ends in terror at the hands of her jealous ex, played by Ray Liotta. This sex-comedy/thriller mashup boasts a fantastic soundtrack and character actor cameos galore, but is the fun worth the hangover? Join us as we get outside our comfort zones with Something Wild!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Read transcriptSome duels are fought with cards. Some are fought with dice. And then some… are fought with the Game Boy Advance's eternal struggle against decent menu navigation. This week on Play Comics, we're shuffling up and drawing into Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler and World Championship Tournament 2004, two games that take everything we love about Yu-Gi-Oh!, monsters, strategy, friendship laser beams, and cram it into a tiny cartridge that smells faintly of childhood and battery corrosion. Joining Chris for this summoning circle of digital nostalgia is David from Anime Field Guide, who brings the kind of anime expertise that makes you question whether your life points can drop below zero if you cringe too hard at English dub dialogue. Together, they'll explore why these particular duels feel like being trapped in a friendship-branded fever dream, complete with turn-based confusion and more “draw phase” puns than anyone asked for. So grab your duel disk, blow into that GBA cartridge like it owes you rent, and prepare to enter a world where forbidden memories and confusing mechanics go hand-in-hand. It's the heart of the cards… but maybe also a faint cry for a player's guide. Learn such things as: Whether the heart of the cards can survive low battery warnings. The surprising crossover between duel monsters and chaos theory. Why Destiny Board Traveler isn't just Monopoly with a Yu-Gi-Oh skin. And so much more! You can find David on BlueSky @anifieldguide.bsky.social, Threads @anifieldguide, and of course hear him over at Anime Field Guide. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to The Monsters that Made Us and Worst Collection Ever for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who is just sitting there waiting for me to spring the traps. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Nineteen Seventy-Six. America's bicentennial was a great year for cinema, with films like A Star is Born, King Kong, All the President's Men, Carrie, and The Omen heating up the box office, and instant classics Rocky and Network earning the most accolades. After a six-decade career in the director's chair, Alfred Hitchcock released his last film, Family Plot, around the same time that an up-and-coming young director by the name of Martin Scorsese released his breakout hit, the fifth film of his budding career. Centered on a disillusioned New York cabbie played by Robert De Niro, this rain-and-neon-soaked meditation on summer in the city proved to be a defining outing by both actor and director. With a cast including Cybill Shephard, Albert Brooks, Peter Boyle, Harvey Keitel, and a very young Jodie Foster, the film racked up awards, including the Palme d'Or at Cannes and four nominations at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for De Niro, and Best Supporting Actress for Foster. Despite controversies over its content, the film was hailed as a hit. Now, fifty years later, we're catching a ride with Taxi Driver and talking to you about it!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Read transcriptLucky Luke might be the fastest gun in the West, but nobody warned him about being jammed into a tiny Game Boy cartridge where his biggest foes are stiff platforming and whatever that enemy AI is trying to do. This episode of Play Comics moseys into the dusty frontier where classic European comics meet tiny Nintendo screens, occasionally in glorious Game Boy Color if you were lucky enough to live in the right place or know the right import guy. It is pixel dust, cowboy hats, and the eternal question of “Is this a faithful adaptation, or did someone just hear ‘cowboy' and wing it?” Riding into town for this one is the legendary Dr Queso de la Muerte from Chris's real life internet friend group, bringing a big-brained breakdown of handheld nonsense and exactly the sort of opinions you get when people have spent way too much time thinking about comics, games, and what happens when you mash them together. Together, they'll pick apart what the game borrows from the Lucky Luke comics, what it completely makes up, and how well it all survives the journey into a two-button wild west. Expect detours into cultural differences, cartridge weirdness, and at least one moment of “why did they design the level like this on purpose?” So grab your favorite handheld, adjust your imaginary cowboy hat, and get ready for a trip to the Old West filtered through green-ish screens, tiny sprites, and the unstoppable force of licensing. This is an episode for anyone who ever rented a random game from the video store, stared at the box art, and thought, “Yeah, this is either going to be secretly amazing or the funniest mistake I make all weekend.” Learn such things as: Which comic story beats make it into the game and which are left wandering the prairie? Do we even want to introduce Lucky Luke to a new audience? How far can a character travel when the mythology is based so much on a specific geographical area of time and space? And so much more! You can find Dr. Queso on BlueSky @drquesodelamuerte.bsky.social and nowhere else unless you already know where to find him. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Deconstructing Comics and Xandar Radio for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who really wants French toast all of a sudden. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

One of the breakout hits of 2016 was this based-on-a-true-story tale of the first manned missions to outer space. Focusing on the black women at NASA - mathematicians, engineers, and computers - who made these early spaceflights a reality through sheer brainpower while often going unrecognized for their contributions, Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe star in this adaptation of Margot Lee Shetterly's book. Director Theodore Melfi chose Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali, Aldis Hodge, and Glen Powell to round out the cast in this Best Picture Oscar nominee. But does too much melodrama subtract from the sum of this inspirational biopic? In honor of Black History Month, we're doing the math to see if all the accolades tallied by Hidden Figures still add up ten years after release.   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Read transcriptSet sail, button-mashers, because this time Play Comics is diving face-first into One Piece: Grand Battle! that PS2 and GameCube special where early Water 7-era drama gets smooshed into a chaos-filled arena and told to play nice. Expect stretchy punches, loud special attacks, and exactly the kind of character balance you'd expect from a game that assumes “pirate” and “fair” don't belong in the same sentence. We're talking Straw Hats, shipyards, and the eternal question: “Is this actually good, or do I just really like yelling ‘Gum-Gum' every five seconds?” Joining Chris on this voyage is Janine Juliette from D'ohmance Dawn, here to bring big-brain One Piece insight and just the right amount of gremlin energy to keep things interesting. Janine's got thoughts on how this slice of the anime translates into a brawler, where the game nails the Straw Hats' personalities, and where it feels like someone skimmed the wiki five minutes before coding a super move. If you've ever wondered what happens when a deeply thoughtful One Piece fan is forced to reckon with PS2-era anime jank, this is absolutely your kind of chaos. So grab your controller, your favorite questionable snack, and maybe a backup controller for when Luffy's rubber nonsense finally pushes you over the edge. We're digging into how far the game actually gets into the story, why some characters feel terrifying and others feel like they snuck in as a joke, and whether this one belongs on your “must-play” shelf or your “fondly mock from a distance” list. Treasure, friendship, and highly unsafe maritime workplace practices await. Let's see if Grand Battle! can keep its ship together. Learn such things as: Which Straw Hat shines in an arena brawler and which one feels like they forgot to finish the move set? Is this game might secretly be more fun as a chaotic couch brawler than as a serious competitive fighter? How would the internet have broken if people could have known what was to come for these characters? And so much more! You can find Janine on BlueSky @janinejuliet.bsky.social and of course her podcasts D'ohMance Dawn and Wrestle Girlies. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to I am Your Target Demographic and Longbox Review for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who probably has a stuffed Chopper. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Nineteen Eighty-Three was a great year for cinema. Scarface. The Big Chill. The Outsiders. Risky Business. The Right Stuff. Videodrome. Return of the Jedi. And to represent the year he was born, Lobster picked… this movie. Based on their breakout characters from the sketch comedy show SCTV, Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis star as Canadian brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie in this take (off, eh?) on Hamlet. Something is rotten in Ontario at the Elsinore Brewery, and it isn't just about live mice in the bottles - there's also the nefarious plans of Max Von Sydow's Brewmeister Smith. Bob and Doug try to get to the bottom of the issue, and to the bottoms of many, many bottles of beer in this cult classic, which The Globe and Mail named as one of the best Canadian comedy films ever made. Now us hoseheads are taking off to the Great White North to sample Strange Brew! Beauty, eh?   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Read transcriptThis week on play comics we ask ourselves what happens if you you can't decide what you want to make a game about. Should you just give up? Should you really dig into your soul and decide what you're super passionate about? Should you look and see if there's any other related media coming out that you can tie this game into? Or should you act like you're at the end of five different boxes of sugary cereal and justice dump the mall into a single bowl and see what happens? There's certainly one thing that I made my mind up about this one, and that's how Perry Constantine from Superhero Cinephiles and Japan on Film needed to come by and help me make sure that I kept everything straight here. And it's a good thing too because with more playable character than I want to count spread out across 7 consoles upon release and a few more as back catalogs were taken advantage of it would have been really easy to miss something here. So was there an actual story for this game? Or was it just a giant excuse to squeeze in as many tidbits as they could so the other kids would think they're cool? You'll have to listen to find out! Learn such things as: Is it possible to have too many characters to pick from? What happens when there's an actually good original story? Are there any deep cuts that didn't make it into this one? And so much more! You can find Perry on Bluesky @percivalconstantine.com, Threads @perconstantine,  catch some of his writing on Sub Stack or Patreon, or his own podcasts Superhero Cinephiles and Japan on Film, If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads,  @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Coffee and Comics and Once Upon a Geek for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who spent forever trying to make the Ninja Turtles show up. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Director Guillermo del Toro has been making movies about monsters his entire career, from Mimic to Hellboy to Pan's Labyrinth to The Shape of Water. His most recent film, an adaptation of Mary Shelley's ultimate monster story from 1818, is the culmination of del Toro's long-held dream to breathe new life into his favorite novel and film subject. Drawing inspiration from John Milton, Bernie Wrightson's classic designs, and the Hammer Horror films, del Toro was ready to throw the switch on the project with Universal Pictures, until the studio's "Dark Universe" project proved dead on arrival. Now, at Netflix, del Toro's creature feature is alive… ALIVE!... once more. Starring Oscar Issac as the doctor and Jacob Elordi as the creature, the film includes Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Charles Dance, and Lars Mikkelsen, and it was recently nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. But does this reanimated cinematic assemblage deserve to walk the halls of streaming entertainment? Or is it more "ponderous" than "pondersome," leaving us reaching for the Off switch on the remote? Join us as we meet Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Read transcriptGrab your canned vegetables and your questionable licensed tie-ins, because this week on Play Comics we're diving headfirst into Popeye: Rush for Spinach on the Game Boy Advance—the game that looked at a classic comic strip about a gruff sailor punching his problems and said, “Actually, what if everyone just… ran a lot instead?” This is a world where the Sea Hag steals the global spinach supply, the solution is apparently time-traveling track meets, and Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, and Wimpy all agree that the best way to settle things is to sprint through history like someone off-screen yelled “last one there buys lunch.” Helping us untangle this leafy green disaster is the wonderful Ryan Estrada from the comic-making side of the internet, a man who knows exactly what it looks like when characters escape the page and do something absolutely no one asked them to do. Ryan's here to help figure out how a comic icon who started life in newspaper strips, got famous selling spinach, and spent decades punching sea monsters somehow wound up in a handheld racing game that feels like it was brainstormed during a very strange lunch break. So power up that tiny GBA screen, flex those forearms, and get ready for an episode that's equal parts comic history lesson, adaptation autopsy, and incredulous laughter at the phrase “Popeye racing game.” Learn such things as: Were our parents lying to us about spinach all these years? What's the point of dropping plot threads if you never plan on picking them up? Will somebody just bring me a cheeseburger already? And so much more! You can find everything you could ever want to know about Ryan on RyanEstrada.com. Let's see if anyone can pick out my favorite part. I'll give you a hint, it's on the home page. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Peace Bound and Down – A Wonder Woman Podcast and Carnival of Glee Creations for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who prefers arugula. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

In 2017, Hugh Jackman led an ensemble cast in a musical based on the life of circus ringmaster P.T. Barnum, which proved to be a smash hit at the box office. Co-starring Zac Effron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Paul Sparks, and including Zendaya, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Keala Settle, Sam Humphrey, Eric Anderson, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo as members of Barnum's freakshow, with songs by Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, this film directed by Michael Gracey earned multiple awards and nominations, including a Grammy for its soundtrack. However, critics were mixed, praising its music and production, but roasting the film's historical revisionism and melodramatic approach. With a stage musical coming to the West End later this year, will our hosts decide that the greatest show on Earth is The Greatest Showman? Or would we rather run away to join the circus than have to watch it again?   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Read transcriptHave you ever wanted to live the cowboy life while staying comfortably parked on your couch with a controller in hand? Well dust off that old PS1 and join us on a tumbleweed-tossed adventure into Lucky Luke, the 1998 game that lassos the comic's wild west flair and corrals it into glorious mid-poly action. This week, Insane Ian from the comedy music frontier rides into town to help Chris figure out whether this comic adaptation shoots straight or ends up misfiring into nostalgic absurdity. We're mixing comic books, cowboy clichés, and just enough slapstick to keep the saloon doors swinging. It's part retro gaming archaeology, part cartoon chaos, and part “why did this ever happen?” Come for the shootouts, stay for the laughs, and maybe learn a thing or two about how French cartoonists conquered the Old West one pixel at a time. Learn such things as: How does Lucky Luke's cheerful swagger hides a deep existential dread about polygon counts? Is Jolly Jumper one of the few horses that Chris isn't afraid of? Can readers today look past the very of the time racial attitudes of the Luck Luke comics? And so much more! You can find Insane Ian on BlyeSky @insaneian, his music on the Insane Ian Bandcamp page, his videos on the Insane Ian YouTube page (where you can hear if he's played FF VII), and check out the Funny Music Project that he sometimes contributes to. Also give Ian the appropriate amount of crap for not having enough videos on that new channel, Insane Ian Comics Gaming,  yet. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads,  @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Gender Pop and The Last Comic Shop for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who probably needs a hug. It's been a long year already. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Legends Podcast starts the year with another Jim Carrey-led picture. This time, instead of stealing Christmas, Carrey plays Truman Burbank, the most famous actor in the world, and star of his own 24/7 television show, watched and beloved by millions. He just doesn't know it. Directed by Christoff (Ed Harris), this show has been on the air since Truman was born, with a whole cast of characters,  from his wife (Laura Linney) to his best friend (Noah Emmerich), supporting the charade. But when Truman begins to suspect the ruse, will he learn the truth and reunite with his lost love? Or will Peter Weir's 1998 film prove to be a cautionary tale about reality television? Or both? Join us was we tune in to The Truman Show!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com   WE HAVE 4 NEW EMAILS! Thank You All For Playing Along! We All Appreciate It!! You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Read transcriptStrap in for the mecha of your dreams, or nightmares, because this week on Play Comics we're transforming, exploding, and fighting our way through the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Robotech: Invasion, the PS2 and Xbox shooter that said, “You know what would make the Invid Invasion better? A first-person perspective and the ability to pilot a motorcycle that also becomes battle armor!” (Spoiler alert: it actually kinda worked!) This gloriously ambitious action game takes the New Generation saga of Robotech and asks the most important question: what if we gave players the chance to save Earth from alien protoplasmic parasites while somehow managing to keep their sense of humor intact? Featuring FPS combat, transforming Cyclone vehicles, and enough environmental destruction to make any resistance fighter proud, this 2004 adventure proves that sometimes the best way to fight an alien invasion is to embrace the chaos and enjoy the ride. Joining us on this mecha-piloting expedition is the phenomenally talented Greg Sewart from the Player One Podcast, a man who's been dissecting video games with the precision of a Robotech technician since before most of us even knew what a Veritech was. When Greg isn't co-hosting one of gaming's longest-running podcast institutions with fellow ex-games journalists, he's crafting the delightfully nerdy web series Generation 16 where he breaks down the games that shaped an entire generation with the kind of passion that can only come from actually living through these gaming eras. And here's the kicker, Greg has intimate knowledge of Robotech: Invasion that'll make this episode more insightful than your average “let's talk about this old game” discussion. Here's a hint, he helped make it. Together, we'll explore how this game managed to capture the desperate, war-torn atmosphere of Earth under Invid occupation, puzzle through the quirky design choices (inverted camera controls, anyone?), and debate whether transforming on the fly between Cyclone and battle armor is the best or most ridiculous gameplay mechanic ever conceived. Did this game successfully honor the Robotech universe, or did it get a little too ambitious for its own good? How does it stack up against the PS2's library of anime-inspired action games? And most importantly is the level design actually good, or are we just nostalgia-blinded? Lock and load your favorite energy weapon, adjust those camera settings immediately, and prepare yourself for an episode packed with more robotic transformation sequences than an afternoon spent watching the New Generation arc! Learn such things as: Can a transforming vehicle system be both mechanically interesting AND narratively meaningful to the story? How does working within PS2 hardware limitations affect game design ambitions? Does it get awkward to ask someone how something that they helped create could be better? And so much more! You can find Greg on BlueSky @sewart.bsky.social, Threads @gregsewart, his YouTube Channel @sewart (where Generation 16 is on different playlists for different seasons so I'm linking to the main page), and of course the Player One Podcast. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Escape the Mojoverse and Invasion of the Remake for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who just wants to find a cute mech to cuddle up with. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

It's finally time! The Legends Movie Draft is back! We're picking an all-new slate of films to review this year, including classics and new releases, and we're upping the difficulty by adding new categories. We'll be making picks for fan-favorites like Aug-Heist, Legends of Halloween, and Chronovember, along with Movie Mash-Ups and movies from the year our hosts were born. But Legends aren't born, they're drafted, so get out your Big Board and follow along at home. It's the Legends 2026 Movie Draft!   ******* Next week: we stare at Jim Carrey through hidden cameras with THE TRUMAN SHOW!  ********** For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Read transcriptPicture this: it's the early 2000s, the first Fantastic Four film is about to hit theaters, and someone at a video game developer says, “You know what would be the perfect way to capitalize on this intellectual property? A side-scrolling action game on the Game Boy Advance where Reed Richards appears to have been replaced by his less scientifically-inclined brother in law (close enough, give me this one) and the Thing is made entirely of texture-mapping nightmares.” Congratulations, you've just invented Fantastic Four Flame On! It's a game that managed to take four of Marvel's most iconic heroes and somehow make them feel more constipated than a chemistry lecture taught underwater. Joining us this week is the absolutely phenomenal Scott Niswander from NerdSync (the man who can explain the entire Marvel mythos while simultaneously making you question why the Human Torch doesn't just solve every problem by setting it on fire) and It's (Probably) Not Aliens (where not even Sue Storm's force fields could save Ancient Aliens from the debunking). Together we'll navigate a game so baffling in its design choices that you'll start wondering if the developers were actually aliens trying to understand human entertainment and coming up just slightly short of the mark. Will our heroes discover that the Game Boy Advance's technical limitations somehow made this game better than it had any right to be? Can Scott explain why this game exists in a way that doesn't make all of our brains feel like Alicia Masters trying to sculpt in the dark? And most importantly, does “Flame On” actually let you catch things on fire in any meaningful way, or is it just an elaborate metaphor for combusting under pressure? Strap yourself in for an episode more chaotic than trying to explain Fox's Fantastic Four continuity to anyone born after 2010. Learn such things as: How do you make the Human Torch work in a side-scroller without just turning it into a horizontal beam-spam simulator? Did Fox's movie curse extend all the way down to the humble Game Boy Advance? How did Johnny Storm have time to do all this stuff considering the timeline of the movie? And so much more! You can find Scott at The NerdSync YouTube channel, on Twitter @NerdSync or on the NerdSync Patreon page. Also check out It's (Probably) Not Aliens to hear Scott and Tristan Johnson debunk Ancient Aliens. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads ,@playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Gender Pop and Distant Echos for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who would make Jiffy Pop with just his hands if he had fire powers.Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Happy New Year! Rum Daddy is on Injured Reserve this week, so we're stalling the 2026 Movie Draft until next week. Get those picks in! Meanwhile, Rita, Beef, and Lobster recap the 2025 Draft, talk winners and losers, and name the MVP - Most Valuable Pick! We also catch up on listener emails and discuss what we're looking forward to in 2026! Finally, we preview next week's draft and set the pick order! What more could you want?   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/   

Read transcriptAttention, ace pilots and Peanuts enthusiasts! Buckle up your aviator goggles and prepare for some canine combat as Play Comics takes a nostalgic dive into Snoopy vs. The Red Baron, the PS2 and PSP action extravaganza where Charles M. Schulz's beloved dog finally got his chance to translate his doghouse fever dreams into actual gameplay. That's right, somewhere out there a development team sat down and thought “You know what the world needs? Snoopy piloting an actual Sopwith Camel and engaging in legitimate aerial dogfights with the Red Baron, the nemesis who has haunted a beagle's imagination since comic strips were still printed on actual paper.” This episode is guaranteed to be more unpredictable than Snoopy's victory dance moves and absolutely loaded with more nostalgia than Lucy's psychiatric booth could ever handle. Joining us for this World War I aviation adventure is the incomparable Phil Theobald from the Player One Podcast, a man who knows retro gaming inside and out and whose encyclopedic knowledge of everything from the Peanuts universe to PS2-era gameplay mechanics makes him the perfect co-pilot for this particular mission. Together, we'll soar through the skies, investigate how faithfully this game captured Snoopy's long-running fantasy sequences, and determine whether this particular adaptation is more “Happy Dance” and less “Charlie Brown Disappointment.” Will you discover that this game is a hidden gem that deserved more recognition, or will you find yourself grounded faster than a teenager who borrowed the car keys without permission? There's only one way to find out! Learn such things as: Why does the Red Baron make for a surprisingly compelling video game antagonist despite being a fictional nemesis? Did the PS2 version feel significantly different from its PSP handheld counterpart, or are they basically the same dog in different houses? Did we really just get an entire Peanuts experience without trombones? And so much more! If you were looking at the post on the website, you'd see the ad for that baseball game that never came out right here. But you're not, so you don't. But you could be, so maybe go look at that. You can find Phil on BlueSky @whimsicalphil and of course the Player One Podcast. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Anime Field Guide and What's Shakin with Shaner for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who was definitely twitching in the bed but I have no idea why. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

Read transcriptListen up, mutation enthusiasts and multi-platform adventurers, because this week on Play Comics we're strapping on our Kevlar suits and diving straight into the bewildering, beast-infested, cross-console chaos of X-Men: The Official Game! We're talking about the 2006 game that launched on practically every system known to mankind (GBA, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. Seriously, did they forget a platform?), which based the story nominally on the third X-Men film from Fox. You know, the one that showed us what happens when Professor Xavier and Magneto finally decided to outsource their beef settlement to a video game developer. This particular romp through Marvel's merry mutant universe was brought to you by the folks who looked at a film featuring Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Iceman and thought, “What if we made this game SLIGHTLY different on each platform?” It's like they were challenged to see just how elastic the definition of ‘the same game' could be, and frankly, the results are beautifully inconsistent. The story was co-written by Chris Claremont (yes, THAT Chris Claremont) and Zak Penn, and it featured voice acting from the actual film cast, which means you got Hugh Jackman's growl in your living room, your handheld, and probably also your neighbors' living rooms at 2 AM. Joining us to make sense of this portable and stationary pandemonium is none other than Alex Zalben from Comic Book Club, a weekly live talk show about comics that's been running since 2006, performed at every major comic convention you can think of, written up in the New York Times more than once, and hosted literally hundreds of guests with more swagger than most podcasts muster in a lifetime. Alex is a writer, editor, and podcaster who knows his way around both four-color storytelling and video game adaptations, making him the perfect guide to help us determine whether this cross-generational, cross-console adventure managed to capture what makes the X-Men actually work, or if it just made us wish we could teleport away from our screens. So sync up your Danger Room protocols, pick your favorite handheld or home console, and get ready for an episode that's guaranteed to be more chaotic than a Sentinel factory explosion and infinitely more confusing than trying to figure out why THIS game exists on THAT console! Learn such things as: Who thought it was a good idea to put this on so many consoles? Is it possible to get that team feeling when you're playing solo? Is it better to look at this game as a sequel to the 2nd movie, or a prequel to the 3rd movie? And so much more! You can find Alex on YouTube @ComicBookClub and of course Comic Book Club Live. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Nerd Best Friends and Escape the Mojoverse for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who has not stopped the face palm from this one yet. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

In 1977, Jim Henson, having found success with The Muppet Show, began experimenting with new technology and storytelling styles in the hopes of developing a feature film. Adapting a children's book by Russell Hoban and Lillian Hoban, itself an adaptation of the classic O. Henry short story "The Gift of Magi," Henson and his production team created a one-hour Christmas special that premiered in Canada on CBC and aired the following year on the then-new HBO channel. Featuring several original songs written by frequent Henson collaborator Paul Williams, subsequent airings on ABC and Nickelodeon, along with home video releases, cemented the quirky special's popularity. Now we're going down to the river to take in the sights and sounds of Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas! And stick around for news and trailers, along with how we plan to spend our Christmas vacations. See you in 2026!   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com    You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Read transcriptAttention, galaxy defenders and neuralyzer-dodging citizens! This week on Play Comics, we're suiting up to tackle Men in Black II: Alien Escape, a title that hit the PS2 and GameCube with all the grace of a cockroach climbing out of a dumpster. We are looking at a game that saw the plot of the second movie, shrugged, and decided that what the franchise really needed was a run-and-gun shooter where Agent K looks less like a grizzled veteran and more like an Elvis impersonator midway through a bad Vegas residency. Joining us to figure out why the Class 7 Ozone Demogrifier sounds like a vacuum cleaner you'd buy from a 3 AM infomercial is the omnipresent Doug Fink. You know him, you love him, and you can hear him on Walloping Websnappers, Novel Gaming, Falling with Style, and Skreeonk, all of which are on the Glitterjaw Podcast Collective. Together, we're diving deep into a game that proves you don't actually need the likeness rights to your main characters to ship a product, provided you have enough aliens to splatter across a corridor that looks exactly like the last five corridors you just ran through. So put on your Ray-Bans, check your memories at the door, and prepare for an episode that makes about as much sense as putting a Ballchinian in a post office. Learn such things as: Is it possible to base a game on a movie while simultaneously ignoring 90% of the things that happened in said movie? How many times can you fight the same boss with a slightly different color palette before you start rooting for the destruction of Earth? Can you even compare this to the comics or should you just compare it to the movies? And so much more! You can find Doug on BlueSky @ickybooley and of course all of his wonderful shows on the Glitterjaw Queer Podcast Collective, Walloping Websnappers, Novel Gaming, Falling with Style, and Skreeonk. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads,  @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children's media and how crazy it is that we're supposed to just forget about that now that we're adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Comic Book Club News and The Monitor Tapes for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who probably had things to add to this episode, but forgot. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

In the year 2000, the estate of children's author Theodor Geisel, better known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, sold the live-action movie rights to one of the writer's most beloved works. Decades earlier, an animated television special brought to life, via the voice of Boris Karloff and the talents of Chuck Jones, the cranky green curmudgeon known simply as The Grinch. With a plot to steal Christmas from the irrepressibly cheerful Whos of Whoville, the Grinch and his dog Max discover the true meaning of the holiday in this perennial holiday viewing favorite. After a rocky production, director Ron Howard reimagined the cartoon in living color with Jim Carrey donning yellow contact lenses and a dyed-green yak fur suit as The Grinch. The movie, despite mixed reviews, was box office gold, becoming the highest-grossing film of the year and taking home an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. But will our hosts' hearts grow three sizes today? Or will we be the mean ones to say that the How the Grinch Stole Christmas ruined Christmas? WHO CAN SAY?   For more geeky podcasts visit GonnaGeek.com   Special Thanks To Rita - For the pic! You can find us on iTunes under ''Legends Podcast''. Please subscribe and give us a positive review. You can also follow us on Twitter @LegendsPodcast or even better, send us an e-mail: LegendsPodcastS@gmail.com    You can write to Rum Daddy directly: rumdaddylegends@gmail.com    You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.legendspodcast.com, www.legendspodcast.libsyn.com    Show Music:Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Read transcriptGrab your custom jutsu hand seals and prepare to feel a crushing sense of inadequacy when comparing your reaction time to a ninja's because we're diving shadow clone deep into the first Naruto Ultimate Ninja game on PlayStation 2! This week we're channeling our inner shinobi to explore how Bandai Namco took Masashi Kishimoto's legendary manga about a determined orange-suited underdog and transformed it into a frantic button-mashing tournament fighter that somehow convinced an entire generation of fans that they could recreate iconic Naruto moments if they just hit the attack button fast enough and screamed at their TV harder than Naruto himself. Released during the golden age of anime-to-console adaptations, the Naruto Ultimate Ninja games became the de facto way fans could live out their ninja fantasies—assuming your ninja fantasy involves janky camera angles, occasionally unresponsive inputs, and the kind of special effect visual soup that makes you wonder if you're actually watching a jutsu or if your PS2 is just having a mild aneurysm. With fighters pulled straight from the Hidden Leaf Village and beyond, these games proved that sometimes the best way to honor a beloved manga is to give players the chance to make Naruto fight characters he had absolutely no reason to fight (looking at you, random filler villains). This episode, we're absolutely stoked to welcome Cory Byrd from Byrds Eye View Comics—a fellow enthusiast of all things sequential art and gaming who can probably explain why Naruto's popularity transcended manga, anime, AND video games with the kind of clarity that makes marketing departments weep with envy. Together, we'll investigate whether these games managed to capture the heart, humor, and hyperkinetic energy of Kishimoto's creation, or if they just left us face-first in the dirt like Naruto at the beginning of the series. So synchronize your chakra, practice your most devastating combo, and prepare for an episode that's guaranteed to be more chaotic than a Sand Village invasion and infinitely more entertaining than watching filler arcs about onigiri eating contests. Learn such things as: Can a game truly capture the experience of having ninjas solve political problems through friendship when there's no friendship stat on the screen? How many ninja village headbands would it take to actually run an economy, or is that question unanswerable because the series never bothered explaining it? Is it more important for characters in a fighter to be balanced or accurate? And so much more! You can find Cory on Instagram @ByrdsEyeOfficial, the Byrds Eye View Comics Facebook page, and of course his website Byrds Eyes View Comics. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you're interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads,  @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. A big thanks to Gender Pop and the Glitterjaw Queer Podcast Collective for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who did something really cool but nobody saw it. You know, because of the whole being a ninja thing. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.