Category: Regular Episode

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Sometimes calling something a game is a rather strong use of the word. Especially when you’re looking at it through American eyes. Double especially back in the early to mid 1990s when we just didn’t really have the concept of visual novels over here.

Listen in as Nick Weaver, creator of the Thumbles comic on Webtoon, joins the show to help take a look at a portion of the gaming medium that we didn’t have much context for based on a manga that we also didn’t have much context for over on this side of the world.

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Sometimes things just have to be brought back to basics. Comics were made for kids and it’s nice to finally look at one of those again. Especially because we get to look at a witch at the height of Spooky Season. Even if the witch in question is a good little witch. 

Diego Jourdan Pereira comes on the show to help take a look at the surprisingly good game and a peek into the Harvey Comics lore that I’m surprised hasn’t shown up here more.

Also be sure to check out his new book Bizarre Bathroom Reader which can be preordered from Skyhorse Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Target.

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The early 2000s were an exciting time. X-Men had the start of a feature film franchise and I’m sure there isn’t anything that could go wrong with that at all is there….. But for real people were really starting to get the hang of this PlayStation thing. And this was right at the start of every movie having a game to go with it.

Listen in as Billy comes back to help take a look at this game that certainly isn’t a Capcom vs title, but is still nothing to sneeze at. Mostly because that’s a rude thing to do.

This Episode is brought to you in part by Pocus Hocus, a Kickstarter comic that takes a look at what happens when someone sells their soul to the devil and then decides that they want their soul back.

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Men in Black is a franchise that I don’t think will ever leave the public consciousness. Sure, we didn’t know the comic even existed when the movie came out and we were 10 years old (I’m not doing that math but the age seems right for me). And for most kids when a cartoon happens as well that’s just a goldmine waiting to happen.

Good thing Kristian Cabrera from Simping for Senpai is here to help make up for my childhood foolishness. And maybe to uncover some secret alien related government tomfoolery.

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X-Men. It’s the reason I started this podcast. It’s the comic series that people ask me about the most for coming on the show. And they just never disappoint because there are about a billion different reasons why people have gotten into them and why they love them. So what’s wrong with another look?

If you ask Kevin Newburn, nothing at all. Which is great because that would have made for a really awkward episode if he didn’t think that these mutants were worth another look.

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Well it’s been a nice run of bonus episodes, way more than I ever intended to run back to back to…. well you get the idea. So to get back to the regular episodes I feel like it’s best to go with on of my first loves, our friendly neighborhood wall crawler Spider-Man.

Good thing today’s guest David Gallaher likes Spider-Man too because otherwise this could have gotten weird. Not that it didn’t anyway but at least it’s the kind of weird that we’ve gotten used to on this show.

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It all comes back to Spider-Man doesn’t it? There’s a good reason for that, he is one of Marvel’s premier characters for a reason. We’re just going to have a Spider-Man game for every console aren’t we?

Tune in this week as Aaron Weiss from Weisscast joins the show to help break down why Spider-Man gets so much love in the gaming sphere.

This Episode is brought to you in part by the wonderful Play Comics Patreon Supporters. 

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Sometimes I just get confused when it comes to localization decisions. Why can’t we get the manga license with our games? Did they think we wouldn’t like a plane based shooter because it had a comic with it that we didn’t recognize?

Good thing that I have Steampunk Link and Emmy Zero from SNEScapades here to help straighten things up. Listen in as we try to solve this and other mysterious aspects of this early SNES Era gem.

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We’re never going to get away from Batman are we? Oh well, at least Chaos in Gotham is based on everyone’s favorite Batman animated series. And Batman might possibly have one of the best rogue galleries in comics so you’ve got to think something could be pulled off here.

Good thing we’ve got Erin from Girls Talk Comics to come help us look into the situation. So suit up, because this is a fun one.

This Episode is brought to you in part by Alex Schumacher, SLG Publishing, and Mr. Butterchips.

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I have a feeling we’re about to start hitting a bunch of manga based games. Might as well make one of the early rounds of that be a boxing game.  My ability to think of any more boxing puns is on the down for the count so let’s be serious.  Today we’re taking a look at Victorious Boxers: Ippo’s Road to Glory.

I’ve got Trevor H from Catching Up on Cinema to help guide me through this one and possibly maybe get my pronunciation a bit better.

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We all know KISS the band, right? Those makeup wearing rock dudes who just want to rock and party and put on a good show. Well, did you know that they’ve had comics stretching back to the early days of their career? Or that there’s a game based on one of the runs? I didn’t. Well, I knew there was the KISS game but only that it existed.

Good thing I have Scarlett O’Dell from Gatecrashers here to help straighten everything out. Listen in as I get taught a few lessons but also potentially release a monster out into the world.

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The world of comics and games, as evidenced by the existence of this podcast, have a decent amount of crossover. But a game where you introduce a whole new team to an already established universe? And have a tie in comic? That’s got to be pretty rare, right?

Listen in as Robert Secundus from Comics XF comes on the show to help take a look at Marvel Nemesis Rise of the Imperfects.

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These days when a series is based all around fighting and punching people in the face it’s a surprise when there isn’t a fighting game to go along with it. But did you know that there was a time when Street Fighter II hadn’t come out yet? And that people were making fighting games before it?

Listen in as Andrew Mecha Davis from Popanimecomics joins the show to help take a look at Fist of the North Star 10 Big Brawls for the King of the Universe to help solve the mystery of why this anime hasn’t been bigger in the US. And possibly set a new record for longest Play Comics episode title. I’m too lazy to actually go check on that one though, it just feels right.

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No matter what you want to think, the Ang Lee Hulk film exists. And there’s a game to go with it. Yup, it’s a movie tie in game and we all know how those were back in the day.

Or do we? Listen in as Josh Sutton from Panels to Pixels takes a stab at convincing you that not only is this a good movie to go watch, but it’s also not a horrible game to go with it.

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Ninjas are cool. Aliens are cool. So why not make a ninja that’s also an alien? And also has a team of rag tag environment saving sidekicks to help him out? Saving the environment via something aimed at kids and hoping they’ll pressure their adult overlords into following suit is still cool right?

Enter Steve Honeycutt from Ray Can’t Sleep to help us take a look at this alien life form that inexplicably wants to save the Earth.

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Post apocalyptic mayhem. New societies and population groups popping up and insisting that they are living the right way. The power struggle between might and right. Giant weaponized vehicles storming across the desert sands. OK, maybe not that last one, but what do I know?

Good thing I have Jordan Forbes from Shonen Flop to help me out with a look at Fist of the North Star on NES. Listen in as we look at yet another game that should have been featured earlier in the run of the show but I just didn’t know it was based on a comic so we’re making up for it now.

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Everyone that I know who knows who The Addams family is knows them from the 1960s TV show or the 90s movies. A few people from this game. But basically nobody that I know knew that The Addams Family was a comic. For real, do you know anybody who knew that? I sure didn’t.

Neither did this week’s guest Michael Bivens from Silent Journeys. But he very much did know about the old TV show. I’m really glad I had someone for this episode that grew up with the show a lot more than I did.

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How do you follow up what is possibly the greatest comic book video game of all time? Or at least was probably holding that spot when it came out. Easy, you just pick the story up right there and start going again. Enter Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro. More like Enter Awesomeness.

Enter Anthony Gramuglia to help break down this not as iconic but equally as good in its own special way sequel, Spider-Man’s place in pop culture, and the Spider-Man comics that were coming out at the time.

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This has got to be one of the shortest comic runs I’ve seen to get a game. 13 issues on the initial run, 4 issues on the relaunch that tied into the game. And it shows, I never hear anyone talking about Armorines. I can’t imagine why. So why try to make a game out of this one?

Acclaim is at it again trying to recapture some of that Turok magic, and Luke Herr from Exiled, Multiversal Q, John Wiki, The Luke Herr Podcast Project, Established Property Playhouse, and RPG Pals Club (Did I miss anything there?)  comes on the show to help explain what’s going on with this crazy comic. Mostly because he’s literally the only person I know who’s read this thing. Plus he made notes. Really good notes.

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How easy should it be to make a Hulk game? Put things in front of Hulk. Let Hulk smash. It’s not a hard concept really. Especially when you kind of have a story already made for you. You’d think anyone could do it.

Enter Diego Rivera from the Behold The Sack YouTube channel. He likes Hulk. He likes games. It’s a match made in heaven really. If only everything could work out this nicely………