The Retrograde: A Video Game Podcast

We're coming back 2 Fast, D-Pads!

This week, there are too many 2's to talk about! Death Stranding 2, Switch 2, The Last of Us Season 2... and more!

We couldn't hold it in any longer, so we decided to dust off the microphones and hit record for your listening pleasure.

Join us on Twitter: @RetrogradePod, @RetrogradeAndy, @RetrogradeMikey

TikTok: @RetrogradePod

Or on Instagram: @theretrogradepodcast

Or visit our website at www.theretrogradepod.com/

Questions, Comments, and business inquiries can be sent to theretrogradepodcast@gmail.com

You haven't heard the last of us, D-Pads!

That's right, we're back with another bonus check-in to discuss how season 2 of The Last of Us has been progressing.

Plus: Blue Prince, Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, Thunderbolts, and more!

We've missed every single one of you, and can't wait to come back soon with some more exciting news!

Join us on Twitter: @RetrogradePod, @RetrogradeAndy, @RetrogradeMikey

TikTok: @RetrogradePod

Or on Instagram: @theretrogradepodcast

Questions, Comments, and business inquiries can be sent to theretrogradepodcast@gmail.com

Did you miss us, D-Pads?

Well we missed you! We couldn't wait to turn the mics back on and start shootin' the poop. It's been months since we were able to sit across a small room from one another and have our favourite para-social listeners voyeuristically consume everything we had to say.

We're well on our way to planning the next step of our content journey, but in the meantime we figured we'd bring everyone up to speed with our experiences playing games like Civilization 7, Mouthwashing, and Citizen Sleeper, PLUS our impressions of the recent...

Happy New Year, D-Pads!

We're back with one of our most highly demanded episodes ever: New Years Eve Power Hour!

Whether you're looking to drink along with us (one shot of beer per minute for 60 minutes leading up to Midnight) or just listen along as we recount some of our 2024 predictions, gaming's best moments of the year, and rattle off some new 2025 predictions, you're not going to want to miss this one.

It's always a little funny, a little informative, and inevitably a little sappy as we get closer to that countdown.

Did you miss us, D-Pads?

Well, we missed you. And we missed each other! We decided to check in JUST as we promised to give everyone a quick update on what we've been up to since changing from our old weekly schedule.

We discuss: Silent Hill 2, Return of the Golden Idol, Star Wars: Outlaws, Overwatch, Mario Party 8, and more!

Plus: Find out how the movie The Substance got Mikey in trouble with his girlfriend.

Join us on Twitter: @RetrogradePod, @RetrogradeAndy, @RetrogradeMikey

TikTok: @RetrogradePod

Or on Instagram: @theretrogradepodcast

It's time to turn a new page, D-Pads!

This is the week we usher in a new change to The Retrograde: A Video Game Podcast!

It's been an unbelievable 6 (plus) years, but we've decided to make a change to our regular weekly main feed episodes. You'll still get all the Retrograde content you love, but at non-regular intervals, and in slightly different formats.

To celebrate, this week we're doing a full retrospective on all 333 previous episodes of the podcast you've all come to know and love.

Thanks to all of our...

Time to Climb, D-Pads!

This week we made the awful decision to try to claw, jump, (and drive?) our way out of hell in Chained Together!

It's a game that's been taking the streaming world by storm, so we figured it'd be a great way to test our "friendship" (read: six year podcasting relationship).

We tackled the first 45 minutes of the game over on our YouTube channel, so make sure to check that out here: https://youtu.be/eUl1aGB2a6E

In this episode we give our full thoughts on...

This is a big one, D-Pads!

We've finally decided to tackle the list to end all lists! We've danced around it since the beginning of our podcast, but now that we're 6 years deep and just around the corner from a massive change to our release schedules, we decided to give the people what they want: our lists of the top 10 games of all time!

Is it subjective? Sure!

Does that mean you'll still get extremely upset with us for not including Final Fantasy? Also sure!

Before getting into the lists, Andrew...

Hey! Listen, D-Pads!

This week we tackle one of the most celebrated video games of all time. It's The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past!

The Super Nintendo didn't know what hit it when this game launched way back in the early 90's, and to be honest: neither did we!

Somehow neither of us played this video game back when it came out, so in spite of our growing love of Zelda, this marked our FIRST experience with what some consider to be the best video game of all time.

Listen up, D-Pads!

We're going heavy on the audio this week as we sit down to iron out our lists of top 5 Gaming Soundtracks of all time!

There's a hefty helping of subjectivity in this episode, so bear with us as we try to justify our picks with a single song off of each soundtrack to justify our love.

Plus: we explain how ghosts are real, and Mikey tries Sifu.

Join us on Twitter: @RetrogradePod, @RetrogradeAndy, @RetrogradeMikey

TikTok: @RetrogradePod

Or on Instagram: @theretrogradepodcast

Or visit ou...

Earmuffs, D-Pads!

This week you might not want to hear some of what we have to say.

Back by popular demand, we decided to sit down and rattle off some of our biggest gripes and hottest takes from the world of gaming.

Which game franchise fumbled the ball the worst?

Does we need achievements in games?

What game mechanics need to GO?

Plus, we give some impressions on Deadpool & Wolverine, and get a bit farther in Alan Wake 2!

Join us on Twitter: @RetrogradePod, @RetrogradeAndy, @RetrogradeMikey

Bring in the behemoths, D-Pads!

This week we're digging into some of the greatest franchises in gaming!

But it wouldn't be enough for us to praise them endlessly, would it? Instead we've challenged ourselves to crown the Best, Worst, and Most Underrated of each franchise.

We all love Metal Gear, but even in a franchise full of bangers one of them has to be crowned the "worst!"

Feel free to let us know where we got it wrong (we know you will).

Join us on Twitter: @RetrogradePod, @RetrogradeAndy, @RetrogradeMikey

Skip this one, D-Pads!

Sorry to be the bearers of bad news, but this week we played through all that this year's Olympics video game had to offer, and we regret to inform you it MIGHT NOT be worth playing.

Olympics Go! Paris 2024 may sound like a confusing title (and that's because it is) but that's not where the pain ends.

Join us this week as we break down our entire experience playing the game, and try to come up with some positive things to say about it.

Make sure to...

Games Wide Open, D-Pads!

(That's the motto for this year's Olympics, for some reason!)

This week we get into the Olympic Spirit to celebrate everyone's favourite "once every four years" event!

While the world's greatest athletes descent upon Paris to test themselves against one another, we descend upon our podcast studio and sit on our butts to discuss which video game characters we think would be best suited to bring home medals of their own!

Can Luigi jump higher than Mario?

Would Kratos outbox Arthur Morgan?

Is...

Y2K is real, D-Pads!

This week we celebrate surviving the turn of the new millennium with a look back at what many consider to be one of the greatest years in video game history: 2000!

Every time we do a deep dive on one of the great years in gaming it feels like we further complicate the debate as to which year was the best, and this time it's no different.

Join us as we each draft a team of 6 games to represent the best of what this year had to offer.

Time to make some decisions, D-Pads!

This week we decided to have a little fun by posing some of the most difficult, quirky, and downright nonsensical Would You Rather questions we could think of.

Would you rather always be star powered, or always be mini?

Would you rather spend your life in a Poke Ball, or inside Kirby's body?

Would you rather cure your ailments by eating hearts or rotisserie chickens?

All of these, and more!

Plus: Andrew got a PS5!

Send us your Would...

Order up, D-Pads!

This week we decided to take some advice from the prolific game designer Jonathan Blow and try out what he described as one of the greatest puzzle games of all time: Stephen's Sausage Roll!

Back in 2016 it was more of a critical darling, but should this game have had more mass appeal? Or is it too hard to hold the attention of a casual gamer?

Make sure to catch the gameplay segment where we nearly have our brains broken: https://youtu.be/zCcjdRtOM74

Join us on Twitter: @RetrogradePod, @R...

Look here, D-Pads!

Whether you got your start with old PC games like Duke Nukem 3D, or huddled around a CRT screen with 3 of your buddies playing Goldeneye, First Person Shooters make up some of the most iconic and highly appreciated games of all time.

As games began the shift from 2D to 3D, icons of the industry like Doom and Wolfenstein appeared to be the front-runners in the ever evolving landscape of gaming perspectives.

This week we sat down to draft a team of our most highly appreciated First Person Shooters of...

Let's go back in time, D-Pads!

But this time, it's not JUST to look at a retro game. It's to look at a now-sixteen-year-old game with rewind mechanics at its core.

Braid first hit the scene in 2008 as a darling of the Indie Game community, and set Xbox Live Arcade up for a run which would change console gaming forever.

However, we didn't ALL get a chance to play it, so this week in celebration of the recent release of Braid, Anniversary Edition, Mikey guides Andrew through Jonathan Blow's masterpiece for the very...

It's that time of year, D-Pads!

The summer is upon us and that means one thing: new game announcements!

While we're still a bit upset about the passing of E3, Summer Game Fest and its satellite showcases have done a great job picking up where it left off.

This week we sit down to discuss all of our favourite trailers and announcements from Summer Game Fest, Xbox Games Showcase, Sony's State of Play, Devolver Direct, and more!

Let us know which trailers we missed, and which games you're most excited about!<...

Time for confession, D-Pads!

This week we sit down to discuss our biggest "Gamer Shames."

Sure, we've played a lot of games over our lives, but every so often we find ourselves ashamed of our own habits. Whether it's a franchise we've never actually played, a game we hate which others seem to love, or a lie we've told others to make ourselves feel better: we're here to unleash it all on you!

We also took some responses from the community and the results were... unnerving.

Join us on Twitter: @RetrogradePod, @R...

Pencils down, D-Pads!

We've received your questions and comments and have built up a backlog rivaling that of our unplayed video games. We figured we'd take a week to plow through some of the unanswered listener questions which we've been sitting on!

Will we be gaming as old folks? Do we have any peripherals or games we REALLY regret selling? Which games made us go from hating them to loving them, or vice versa?

Plus: Mikey restarted Sekiro, and Andrew might be getting over Fortnite!

If you have questions you want...

Hut hut, D-Pads!

Today we take to the gridiron... and the rink... and the court... all from the comfort of our gaming chairs as we discuss the current state of Sports Video Games!

As two lifelong gamers with a heavy appreciation of their sporting counterparts, we wanted to check in on where the industry is at. Are games like MLB: The Show, NHL, NBA 2K, and Madden better now than they were 10 years ago?

If not, where did they go wrong?

Join us on Twitter: @RetrogradePod, @RetrogradeAndy, @RetrogradeMikey

TikTok: @R...

Time travel back to 1990, D-Pads!

This week we tried out the game that's taking PS1 era survival horror fans by storm: Crow Country!

While it only came out recently, this game feels like it was pulled directly from the 1990s. It's a loving homage to the likes of Silent Hill and Resident Evil, but given the improvements we've made in mechanics and graphics since then, is there really room in our libraries for a game like this?

Join us as we discuss our impressions of the game based on the demo.

...

TV Never Changes, D-Pads!

This week we wrap up our conversation about Fallout on Prime by recapping the final 4 episodes, and giving our thoughts on whether or not the show ultimately stuck the landing.

Is the Fallout TV Show worth preserving in a cold-war era vault? Or is it just a mutated version of the video game?

Make sure you've listened to our first Fallout TV episode where we recap the first 4 episodes and give some initial impressions.

Watch our gameplay segments and full video episodes over on our YouTube channel...

Seatbelts fastened, D-Pads!

This week we take to the skies (and more often than not, plummet to the earth) as we look back at one of gaming's most iconic flight simulation games: Pilot Wings for the Super Nintendo!

Neither of us played this one back in the day, so this week was our first time giving it a shot. With a fresh set of eyes, does this game deserve the cult praise it's gotten?

Make sure to check out our full gameplay segment over on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/DMoygvjXxSQ<...

Let there be light, D-Pads!

This week we pay homage to one of the most iconic retro consoles of all time: The Sega Genesis!

Known as the Mega Drive outside of North America, this sleek looking powerhouse of the 1990s stunned the home console market by directly competing against the behemoth that was (and still is) Nintendo.

We all know Sega eventually lost ground and bowed out of the home console market, but for a time it looked like they may have taken hold of our hearts, and our wallets.

Join...

Lock in, D-Pads!

This week we're venturing out into the wasteland of Prime Video to salvage what we can from arguably the most talked about TV Show out there at the moment: It's Fallout on Prime!

Conveniently, one of us is a lifelong fan of the gaming franchise Fallout, while the other has only admired it from afar.

We aim to sit down to discuss how successful the show is, and whether it works better for fans of the franchise, or those who haven't yet dipped their irradiated toe into the deserts of...

Ante up, D-Pads!

This week we can't resist the call of what might be the hottest game on the market right now: Balatro!

We've taken some time to learn the ropes and really get a sense of what this Poker Inspired Deck Building Roguelike is all about.

Is Balatro really as great as everyone says? Or is it just a band-aid as we wait for Slay the Spire 2?

Check out our full gameplay segment on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/b2DX8eLZBDc

Watch our gameplay

segments...

It's time for an add-on to our episode about add-ons, D-Pads!

This week we're wrapping up our look at some of the most iconic gaming peripherals of all time. Sure, no one should set foot on a Tony Hawk Ride skateboard, but that doesn't mean we should toss out every hunk of plastic we've hooked up to our consoles.

From the Nintendo Zapper and the Playstation Multitap to the Wii Fit Balance board and the Xbox Kinect, we try to find a tiered slot for a whole new slew of items.

Watch our...

Time to get a little bit more, D-Pads!

What's better than your favourite game? The peripherals which make your favourite game EVEN better!

We've all held a giant chunk of plastic in our hands and either felt self conscious, or felt like gaming couldn't get any better.

This week we sit down to rank the most iconic Gaming Peripherals of all time!

Is the NES Zapper truly S-Tier even though most of us only used it for one game?

Is the N64 Rumble Pack worth holding on to when...

Do the Mario, D-Pads!

This week we took a trip back to the Mushroom Kingdom to check out one of the most infamous Super Mario properties of all time: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

It only aired for one season and featured the likes of "Captain" Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi, but in that short time it amassed a cult following and contributed to countless memes.

But after so much time removed from the original airing, is it even possible to watch it with fresh eyes?

...

May your blades chip and shatter, D-Pads!

This week we ride the hype train all the way to Arrakis as we look back at the game that laid the groundwork for all Real Time Strategy games to come: Dune 2 Battle for Arrakis! It's also known as Dune 2: The Building of a Dynasty, but we're here to find out if it's still just as revolutionary as the day it was released.

Check out our full gameplay segment here before jumping into the episde: https://youtu.be/wdpJeJTmrI8

Before we dig into our thoughts and...

Turn off those consoles, D-Pads.

We've been spending too long talking about "the best," and "our favourites." It's about time we grind things to a halt and talk about our least favourite video games of all time.

Are these the worst video games of all time? Not necessarily. In fact: more often than not, not at all!

Instead, these are the games which for one reason or another really bothered us. Maybe they didn't live up to a promise? Maybe they ruined our favourite franchise? Maybe everyone else loved them and we simply...

Find a partner and mash your medallions together, D-Pads!

You asked, and we watched: this week we finally take a look at the heavily requested film adaptation of Double Dragon (1994) featuring the likes of Scott Wolf, Robert Patrick, and... Alyssa Milano's brother?

With all the conversation surrounding the success of video game adaptations, from 2023's Super Mario Bros. and The Last of Us, to 2024's announcement of Borderlands, and season 2 of Halo, we figured we'd revisit the roots of these vague remakes!

This was truly one of the most baffling films we've ever...

Call your dads, D-Pads!

It's time to boot up that old grey PC in your basement, click on over to Start - Program Files - Games, and see what you've got!

If you were lucky enough to be born 30 or so years ago, you'll know what this is all about, and you'll likely have some opinions on what were some of the best Windows Based and Microsoft Entertainment Pack games!

Is Solitaire better than Minesweeper?

Does Jezzball deserve to be higher than B tier?

What even is Jezzball?

Time for a pit-stop, D-Pads!

As gamers we're still early enough into the lifecycle of our favourite medium to have been blessed with more fantastic years than bad ones. After the gaming crash of the 1980s, it looked like the sky was the limit!

That is, until 1995.

While no year is without a few stand-out games, some years brought more misery than excitement. Join us as we draft some of the best AND worst games from 1995.

Does the glory of Earthbound outweigh the shame of Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors? <...

Time to dust off that Blockbuster card, D-Pads!

This week we sit down side by side on a sofa built for two to discuss a style of gaming which just doesn't seem to exist anymore.

While the introduction of online multiplayer games felt promising, the unforeseen casualty was the tried and true practice of couch co-op!

We wanted to relive some of our best memories playing videogames side by side with our buddies by drafting a team of 6 of our favourites!

Whether it's a strict co-op game, split screen multiplayer, or...

We've been feeling the love since our 300th episode, so we wanted to give back to the listeners!

This week we decided to open up the mail bag again and answer some of your burning questions.

Why isn't there more sex in video games?

What are our least favourite peripherals of all time?

What makes a mediocre game worth playing?

And more!

Plus, we break down some of the biggest moments from last week's Sony State of Play, and catch up on our recent gaming habits like...

It's our 300th Episode, D-Pads!

When we first started this podcast roughly 6 years ago, the world had no idea what it was in for: a few weeks of poorly produced banter before the feed went silent? A forgotten corner of the internet where two friends catch one another up about their gaming habits? Mikey's ultimate manifesto?

Regardless, we've made it to 300 episodes and we couldn't have done it without the massive support of our listeners (and the modest YouTube viewership).

To celebrate where we are, we wanted to look back on where it...