is the Switch holding back gaming? Are Pokemon Black & White awful? Should Hyrule Warriors even exist? Today we're diving into YOUR hottest takes and seeing if they pass muster. Check the link below if you want to give some for the next edition! MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content…

With Like A Dragon: Yakuza hitting Amazon Prime yesterday, Chris and Kevin sat down to give their thoughts on the half season that's been released so far. What did two diehard Yakuza fans think of the show? Does it deserve the hate it's been getting? How faithful should we expect adaptations to be? Let us know! MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► h…

Every gamer wants to know. When is the Switch 2 coming out? What games will there be for it? Is it going to be worth getting one? We understand, which is why we asked our incredibly legitimately real sources WHAT is going on with the Switch 2. We were amazed that we got responses instead of getting blocked, and now we are sharing the news with you.…

Welcome to crub's Overrated/Underrated Quiz! Nicco polled 22 members of YOU, our audience, on a random assortment of topics to see if you felt they were overrated or underrated. Now, our esteemed crubbers must guess which way each topic leaned. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content …

We swear this episode is about spinoffs such as Like A Dragon: Yakuza Pirate in Hawaii (real name), but we also take some detours to bully the Concord Discord, and also talk about Sean's friend's mom. Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland sure is weird, huh? I don't even remember if we talked about the Patrick Star game but it's in the thumbnail on YouTube. Mayb…

It's an election year, and we figured we'd bravely step forward and tackle the REAL questions weighing our minds. Could a scandal tank Groose? Is the falling moon a hoax meant to incite panic? Is that weird cartography fish from Wind Waker a single fishue voter? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get …

What is the worst video game to play at a funeral? And nothing easy, like 'Shower With Your Dad Simulator', what is the actual worst video game to play at a funeral? Tell us. Tell us now. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crubcas…

This ep was recorded right after Gamescom, but we swear it's still timely. For years, publishers have offered buyers a way to play a game early by spending more money. Is it ever worth it though? You either leave your friends behind and they need to catch up, or suddenly obligations get in the day during those 3 days and you could have just saved $…

They killed Concord. They didn't even give it two weeks. In this episode, we pay our respect to the video game of all time, hit game Concord. Hop on Concord, fellow gamers. Hop on Concord. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crubca…

Typically, we'd urge that gameplay is king in a video game. However, things aren't always so black and white. Sometimes the gameplay is just OK, but we can't help but push through just to see where on earth the game is going. Heck, sometimes it's good, but wears out its welcome over the course of the game. We wanted to talk about said games, and ev…

In a world where we're bombarded by patch notes and minor differences when we go to play an online game, when can it become too much? What's acceptable when adjusting a single player experience and when is it too far? Should the game creator's vision be the final say on all of this? Do we have more questions to ask you? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubs…

Today we're giving our BLISTERING TAKES on 2X (or 3X) playback speed for watching media. Primarily we're focused on television series and movies in this episode, though we do touch on audiobooks, and game emulator speedup. Are we right? Are we wrong? Tell us, we have no idea. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show …

Robert Downey Jr returning to the MCU raised a lot of eyebrows. Some were hyped, some were deflated...and then there's us. We're fancying ourselves representative of the casual audience that Marvel/Disney are hoping to court favor with, so we figured we'd throw our opinion into the ring on what this news has done for us. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crub…

Gaming conventions like PAX, TooManyGames, and MAGFest have become bigger and bigger over the years. Toss in gaming-adjacent conventions like Momocon and Comic-Con, and sprinkle in ones run by the companies themselves like Blizzcon...there are so many. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but this week we wanted to talk about why we actual…

Recently over on reddit, IlmeniAVG sourced more than 100 publication's top game lists and aggregated them all into an incredibly interesting list. For funsies, we decided to go over the top 50 and see what deserves to be there and what doesn't. (RIP Bloodborne). MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get …

2024 has been one of the years of all time for games! A lot have come out, some quickly forgotten, some we're still playing. Today we figured we'd do a little midpoint check-in on our favorite games of the year so far. Also, a cameo by videogamedunkey...?! MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclus…

We decided to spin a wheel, a wheel that would add modifiers to existing games. Then we hashed out how these would play out in real life. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: The Musical, Illumination's Elden Ring, Rock Band as a found footage horror movie, and more. Please enjoy. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early an…

Sometimes a game just has too much game. When it's trying to tell a story it can completely disrupt the flow of the narrative. And even for games that aren't trying to tell an involved story, or a story at all, sometimes the amount of content can be overwhelming. Today, we're putting some of those games on blast. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ►…

Crowdfunded games still happen, but there was a surge of them in the 2010's. For better or worse, many, many notable games were enthusiastically funded by fans. Yooka-Laylee, Shovel Knight, Shenmue 3, Star Citizen. We wanted to look back and remember that turbulent time of high hopes and occasional unmet expectations. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscr…

TCGs have been taking over Crub bit by bit over the last couple of years, especially for Pokemon TCG for Nicco and Justin. This week we wanted to tackle what makes them fun, what keeps them relevant, how to deal with the ebbs and flows of expansion, and how digital TCGs like Magic's games, Hearthstone, and Marvel Snap bring their own twist to the t…

This week we wanted to have an easy going talk about difficulty in games. What makes it great, what makes it difficult to design and plan around for, and some cases where it's just a necessary part of a game's core identity. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► htt…

Who doesn't love a good meme? Even gaming is no stranger to the meme infiltration, today we wanted to discuss games designed to be a meme (for better or worse), games that rose in popularity due to memes about them, and...the Sony hack. Not that one, the other one. And then also the one you forgot about. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://…

Genres in gaming have become incredibly fluid over time. Is Super Mario Sunshine a collectathon? What about Metroidvanias? Are Metroidvanias even a good name for that genre? When a game is a collectathon, what makes it great? Please answer. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at o…

Justin made us guess the eBay prices of games, medical equipment, and limited-edition Taylor Swift records this week. If you get that last one right, you get one crub cookie. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crubcasts are record…

Week by week there seems to be worse news in the gaming industry. Layoffs, greed, and worse ends of the deal for consumers pile on as games take longer to make and cost even more to make all the while. Then, digging deeper into the core communities themselves, toxicity and harassment seem to float to the top of what's visible. Does gaming have a PR…

We're not afraid to say it. E3 had its pros, but given some space since its demise we've begun to feel that it may have been a net positive for Gamer Week to go away. Do you miss E3? Perhaps you miss the idea of E3? Let us know! MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ►…

What makes good or bad pacing in a video game? Is there a reliable "just right" zone or is it just chance when it happens? We gathered 4 people who have never shipped a video game to discuss this. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Ou…

Every day there are at least 90 new games that friends, reviews, and content creators are telling you that you HAVE to buy and play. How on earth are you supposed to juggle the hottest new Video Games alongside making time for said friends, family, work commitments, personal goals, the gym, grocery shopping, and occasionally breathing? We don't hav…

Welcome to the second video game mascot draft! Each of our 4 hosts will pick from a (terrible) list of game mascots to round out their team, in addition to one wild card pick each, to see who has the best shot at winning randomly selected categories. Could Nathan Drake really be a good interior designer? Does Donkey Kong know chess? MORE PLACES TO …

What makes good side content? Bad side content? What makes the difference between welcome variety and bloat in a game? Should you have to bathe when you're a cowboy? All this and more tackled on today's episode of the Crubcast. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► …

There's something magical about the feeling of finally "getting" a game. Not just purchasing it and getting it, but playing it and really GETTING it. To see the praise everyone else has given it, or to pierce the veil and appreciate it in your own unique way. This week we wanted to talk about games that are that for us, as well as Kingdom Hearts. M…

On this week's show we talk about what happens NEXT in stories with cataclysmic events. How do you come back from the Thanos snap? What's the point of living in a zombified world? Is...is Spyro the Dragon a war criminal? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https:/…

We love our good friend Justin. Perhaps a little too much. So, we put on a dating game show with 3 contestants to earn his undying love (or to at least earn a call back). We didn't expect it to go well, but we didn't expect it to go this badly. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content …

This week's episode is broadly about linear vs open world game design, but also touches on a lot of other topics along the way (as you'll see in the show notes). Let us know your thoughts on these topics, and on which Sonic characters we each are. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive conte…

Gaming really loves its sequels. As soon as a game comes out we're often inclined to start imagining what it's successor will be like. In some cases, however, sometimes they should have left well enough alone. This week we discuss some of those instances, and what they did to earn this designation. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly…

Nicco takes the game show host seat this week with Steam reviews in tow. The objective is simple, read the review and the others have to guess the Steam game with no other context. Please play along, you just might win. We promise. (We don't.) MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content a…

We're watching EVERY non-filter episode of the main Pokémon anime and talking about it on our new Patreon exclusive podcast, Podcastémon! This first episode is free to give you a taste of the show, and if you want to listen to us immediately lose our sanity doing this you can join our $10 tier at https://www.patreon.com/crub to listen to more episo…

Is it possible to build actual bonds, long-lasting and meaningful friendships and relationships through video games? We think so, and this week we wanted to talk about the opportunities and enriching friendships games have granted us. Also. Is karaoke a video game? Let us know in the comments. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crub…

For as long as there have been games, there have been terrible and heartbreaking rumors made by their players. Today we wanted to talk about some of our favorites, from unlocking Sonic in Melee, to finding Mew under the truck, and even to Star Fox Zero fans existing. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and…

Today on the Crubcast, Kevin hosts a 32-restaurant fast food tournament, debated and voted on by Trav and special guests SomecallmeJohnny and AntDude - with a twist: Every head-to-head in this tourney changes the criteria that our Crubbers are debating, from a randomly-selected list of options created by the rest of Crub. Would McDonald's or Nando'…

It's something we've heard a lot in reviews and critical assessments over the years, that "bad" is better than "boring", but do we agree with that? Or did it just sound good and we took to saying it over time? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreo…

With Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival, Fortnite revived two dead gaming genres at once in an interesting way. Naturally, this made us sit down and wonder what other dead genres would be a good (terrible) fit to put in next. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► h…

When it comes to #gamers, a lot of us collect things. It just goes hand in hand, you collect things in games, so naturally you may be compelled to in real life. Whether these be the games themselves, art pieces, stamps, hats, sneakers, Pokemon/Magic cards, or anything. Today we wanted to talk about why we collect things, when does it just become ju…

Effectively a subgenre of the "Are video games art?' question, "Is video game music real music?" has often been a question asked. We'll cut to the chase here like we do in the episode, yes, of course it is. However, there's a lot of interesting discussion around the question that we decided to delve into today. Do you think video game music is real…

We challenged ourselves to do a bracket of the worst *hypothetical* game sequels, ones made to be bad on purpose, to figure out which would be the absolute WORST. Prepare for the ups and downs of Jaiden in Assassin's Creed: Chicago, Roller Coaster Tycoon VR, and more. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early an…

2023 is in the books, and we celebrate its demise the only way we know how. With a quiz about the year! With our host Nicco, we'll see how Justin, Moriarty, and Chris fare in remembering the biggest events of 2023. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.p…

2024. A year that will be filled with ups and downs. Fortunately, we are crubvoyant and can see the future. A presidential Fortnite skin, game delays, deaths, rebirths, we're here to tell you what to expect from 2024 so you won't be surprised when everything we say inevitably happens. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get …

It's easy to look at a game and make a snap judgment on it, and it's even easier to do so when everybody is talking about the game constantly. In this episode, we wanted to take a look at some games we finally gave a chance to and were wrong about. In the back half, we get into a good discussion about the ups and downs of developing your critical l…

Family Guy. Super Mario Sunshine. Shovel Knight. Fall Out Boy. What do all of these things have in common? Not much. However, they are all comforting things to our crub boys. This week, let them tell you why, while also bringing up crippling debt, sword swings in bars, and insulting Sean for owning a Keyblade. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► ht…

This week on the Crubcast we created our ideal 'Crub Direct'...with a catch. Each member brought their dream game, but also a way to ruin the others' game. Then we voted to result in the worst game showcase possible. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www…