The SML Podcast

I am officially now 45 years old and we celebrate by having a few friends on to hang out!

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano and Aki on hand to welcome a plethora of guests to the show tonight including Big Adam Chase, Ian “Doc Havok” Griffin, and Pernell Vaughan pops in when he learns that our very special guest for the night was none other than Brooke Poole making her long awaited return to SML to hang out and chat! It’s a bunch of hanging out and news talk including Game Pass additions, NVIDIA DLSS 5 contro...

The wonderful David Ventura of Ichigoichie joins the show once again to chat about his newest project Tactichord!

The show kicks off with a wonderful birthday intro from George Nowik before we get into things (eventually) with Pernell Vaughan and Aki welcoming David Ventura of Ichigoichie back to the show, with a Chris Taylor joining a little bit in! We chat about David’s newest project Tactichord: Glam Strategy, differences between this more tactical game compared to Backbeat’s more puzzle like approach, the music inspirations and performers involved, and tons more! Always a pleasure when David join...

News and a patch of reviews are on the docket for this episode, so let’s get this baby rolling!

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano and Aki on hand to chat about how thangs are going and where Jacob Garner is because he’s going to be like 20 minutes late again. Then we cover tons of news like the Project Helix talk from GDC, rumors of some form of backward compatibility program returning but in ways we don’t know of, the PS Plus Game Catalog update for March, Ball Squad news, and tons more! Plus J...

This episode we welcome Ryan Chodera, creator of the independent XboxGamePreservation.com backward compatibility fan vote site.

The show kicks off with Aki on hand to welcome Ryan Chodera to the show to chat all about his XGP website! We chat about what led to the creation of the site, whether we believe Microsoft’s claims that they “exhausted the limits of what they could do” in the program (I don’t and never will), the comments and feedback he’s gotten on the site, if he’s heard from anybody at Xbox about the program, and tons more. P...

I have the flu, skipped the Tuesday show, was GOING to skip this one, decided to do a quickie. Turns out when I’m sick we do normal sized shows…

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano and Aki on hand to celebrate the fact that Ashley gave me the flu and I feel like trash. So let’s get to news. Xbox’s new console Codename Helix was officially announced as happening, new additions and departures to Xbox Game Pass, Pokémon news, NSO updates, and the glorious flameout that was HighGuard. Plus reviews!

0:00 – Intro/News<...

We’ve got two of the team behind Rightfully, Beary Arms from Daylight Basement Studio joining the show, so let’s start!

The show kicks off with Jacob Garner & Bri Galgano on hand to welcome Christopher Bischke and Garrett Rose of Daylight Basement Studio to the show to chat all about their game Rightfully, Beary Arms a bullet hell, space roguelite with an adorable bear named Beary. We discuss the crew behind the game, future plans for the game and the studio, that graphical filter, Petunia stinking up my room, and whether we’ll see Beary on more p...

No interview this episode (next one) but we’ve got a bunch of friends swinging by to chime in on some games, so let’s go!

The show kicks off with Aki, Bri Galgano, Tim Ekkebus, and Andy Sperry on hand to hang out and chat about a wide variety of topics including once again covering the latest shakeups in the leadership at Xbox. We give more of our highly qualified and meant-to-be-taken-seriously opinions regarding the subject including how much I REALLY want to see them bring the damn Backwards Compatibility program back. Come on. We know some...

What started as a simple Mazedude interview episode evolved into a Monstrous news packed episode of weirdness. Let’s go!

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano, Aki, and a Grant “Stemage” Henry substituting for Jacob Garner as we welcome Christopher “Mazedude” Getman to the show to chat about his brand musical project Words and Verses: Foundation! We chat about the origins and inspirations behind the project, how he feels being in a world where religion and faith are hot button issues, and best of all, George “norg” Nowik showed up to surprise us all so there were some supe...

We’ve got JRod Gingerich of Fresh Brewed Games on the show this week to chat about the physical games business, so let’s go!

The show kicks off with Pernell Vaughan and Aki on hand to welcome JRod Gingerich of Fresh Brewed Games to the show to chat about what it’s like being a startup boutique physical publisher in the industry these days. Between dealing with artwork and production materials to the ease of use and headache-free dealings with the ESRB to make everything a smooth and frictionless process. Oh wait, it’s not? Huh. Probably...

Acclaimed musician, playwright, and developer Brent “brentalfloss” Black is back, so let’s use some words!

The show kicks off with Jacob Garner, Bri Galgano, and Aki on hand to welcome Brent “brentalfloss” Black to the show to chat about his new game Use Your Words 2 alongside another friend and party game enthusiast Glenn “Glenn Case” Case! We chat about the history behind Use Your Words 2, the path to bringing it to console, how funny is made in the video game, plus Glenn asks some great questions about development! A super fun hour long chat!

After Brent an...

Eleven eleven! Wow we have a ton of episodes… Let’s go!

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano, Grant Henry, and Aki all on hand to chat! Pernell isn’t here yet since he has board game night, so the rest of us just putz around and banter before going into a batch of reviews! That’s right, I’m already mentioning reviews. I’m not typing anything else here, just listen to the show!

0:00 – Intro/Banter
28:05 – Carmageddon: Rogue Shift – 34BigThings (Grant, Bri, Aki)
44:36 – PREVIEW: Black Zen White – 24m² Studio (Aki & Bri)
56:53 – Lovish –...

The new year of SML kicks off strong with a Carmageddon interview alongside some friends!

The show kicks off with Jacob Garner, Bri Galgano, Grant Henry, and Aki all on hand to welcome Guiseppe Franchi, co-founder of 34BigThings and lead designer of Carmageddon: Rogue Shift, to the show to chat all about the new entry in the long running Carmageddon franchise! We chat about the origins of the project, how they got the IP to do this project, lessons learned from previous games coming into this one, potential future plans for the game, and…pasta talk? Yeah, it...

You only turn 13 once, and this is the episode where The SML Podcast hits 13 years old. My god what have I done with my life.

After a brand new special theme song from The Arkadian, the show kicks off with Chris Taylor, Bri Galgano, Jacob Garner, Aki, Andy Sperry, and Ryan Niemiller all joining with Pernell Vaughan also jumping in a little bit later on! We chat about some of our favorite memories on the show, Ryan and Jacob flirt a lot, we discuss some of the worst reviews and experiences we had to go through, and...

Another MAGFest has come and gone and it’s time to revisit our favorite moments and memories with a ton of friends!

The show kicks off with Aki on hand with me to welcome a whole bunch of friends who drop by through the evening! Grant “Stemage” Henry talked about the bands he played with and organizing his shows. Jon “The Arkadian” O’neal talked about being a main stage performer and enjoying his second MAGFest. Doug “sgtrama” Arley talked about how insane the music lineup was this year compared to a few previous years. Tony “PuD” Dickinson discussed...

Hey everybody, let’s take a Tuesday off since we don’t have much to do. Good? Set? Alright. Wait. Surprise interview? D’OH!

The show kicks off with me welcoming the one and only Matthew “Maffew” Gregg to the show, creator of the long running internet video series mixing wrestling “botches” and video game music, BOTCHAMANIA! We chat about our recent time spent together hanging out at MAGFest, some of the acts he got to see, the room parties, and tons more. We also dabble a bit with what Botchamania is, thoughts on current wrestling, and why it’s a gre...

We’ve got a massive show with a month of news, reviews, and a Super Farming Boy interview, so let’s get started!

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano and Aki on hand to welcome Nando Sarmiento from LemonChili Games to the show to chat about the recent Xbox release of Super Farming Boy, a super addictive blend of farming and puzzle combo action! We chat about the origins of the game as well as the inspirations behind it, challenges devs face when it comes to reviews and the sea of game releases, and tons more!

Is it mid to late January already? Crud. Guess we’re back to this! Cue up the special intros, stay a while, and listen…

The show kicks off with Pernell Vaughan, Chris Taylor, Jacob Garner, and Aki all on hand to chat about the past month of our lives. Aki built gunplay, Jacob played Disney Dreamlight, Chris streamed and worked, and Pernell bought board games.
That literally wraps everything up. That’s it. That’s our lives. Shout out to George “norg” Nowik & David “Dave” Autovino for the intros! REVIEWS!

0:00 – Intro/Banter
17:53 – Away From Home – SquishY...

This is it! The end of The SML Podcast for 2025. One last chance to banter and cover some games, so let’s go!

The show kicks off with Chris Taylor, Bri Galgano, Jacob Garner, Aki, and Horror Acolyte on hand to chat one more time about some of our highlights for the year in gaming 2025. We also discuss how The SML Podcast proudly runs without any intentional advertising, although we can’t help when Twitch and YouTube force them, so if you’re hearing or seeing them, they aren’t ours. Unless they’re about Joe Cam’s House of P...

We’ve got ourselves two of the team members behind the transformation of Super Animal Royale to Super Animal World, so let’s find out what’s going down!

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano, Jacob Garner, Aki, and Lloyd Berry all on hand to welcome Pixile Studios co-founder Michael Silverwood, as well as Ruben Grijalva, story and lore master of Super Animal Royale, to the show to chat all about Super Animal Royale and the recent life sim addition of Super Animal World! We talk about shifting from a battle royale to adding RPG elements, bug ca...

One last PartyCast for the year goes down as we reflect on the past dozen months and review a dozen games!

The show kicks off with Pernell Vaughan, Chris Taylor, Aki, Grant Henry, Tim Ekkebus, and Adam Stark all on hand to hang out and chat about some of our gaming highlights over the past year. From the heavy hitters like Clair Obscur: Expedition 233 and Donkey Kong Bananza, we nail some of the biggest bright spots video games over 2025. We cover smaller games like Clover Pit and BallxPit and we also give away a few copies of...

It’s The Game Awards and we kept the show under three hours? Must not have been a crazy year…

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano and Aki on hand to chat a little bit and dive into The Game Awards discussion, where Jacob Garner pops up mid-Pre Show and proceeds to not pay attention to literally every trailer I ask him about. From Divinity to Orbitals to LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, we discuss, and Jacob somehow ignores, them all! We also tackle the latest PlayStation Plus Game Catalog additions, three new games hitt...

It’s our 100th Episode, after our 1000th Episode! Sounds better than 1100th Episode? We have a skater on the show!

The show kicks off with Chris Taylor and Aki on hand to welcome our dear friend and world famous non-figure skater Adam Rippon to the show to chat all about what he’s been up to in the past few years! From his work on No More Heroes III and Street Fighter 30th Anniversary, we spend mere seconds on his game history before we talk about the fact that he ported Final Fantasy I to Game Boy...

Did you fill out your 1099 yet? If not, hoo boy are you in trouble. That was months ago, dude… Schildmaid MX interview time, let’s do this!

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano, Jacob Garner, and Aki on hand to chat about the news of the week including the Xbox Game Pass additions and departures, the latest beta for Helldivers II which sees a massive improvement in file size, Avowed’s fall update getting delayed, a rumored Hollywood based Dead Rising return, Three Fields Entertainment being in trouble after Wreckfest’s launch, and a ton more! Plus rev...

December is here and we’re getting ready to close up for a few weeks, but we still have some shows to go, so let’s start!

The show kicks off with Pernell Vaughan, Chris Taylor, Aki, Andy Sperry, and Horror Acolyte on hand to hang out and chat about our Thanksgivings and Black Fridays. Eating turkey, watching football, playing video games, and buying crap we don’t need, the true spirit of America all the way. Plus did you know our show does interviews sometimes? We got one coming up. Listen for details! Or just tune in nex...

It’s Black Friday on recording night and we’ve bad backs and turkey hangovers, so let’s get through this.

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano and Aki on hand to chat about the news and how Thanksgiving went for us. News topics this go around include the latest massive and awesome Monthly Game lineup for PlayStation Plus with Sony giving out FIVE games for the month of December. We also talk new NSO additions and Nintendo’s new studios, Yakuza Remaster upgrade pricing, and Ubisoft somewhat giving up on Assassin’s Creed Shadows already?? Plus revie...

After I had to skip last Tuesdays’ recording, it’s catch up time this week with a big ol’ PartyCast!

The show kicks off with Pernell Vaughan, Chris Taylor, Aki, and Horror Acolyte on hand to oh hey wait Andy Sperry just joined too. Great timing! Anyway, we chat about Pernell going to PAX U and buying a ton of board games and talking about how heavy they are, we discuss Monopoly and UNO, Chris talks about his Analogue3D console which is basically a high def N64 that is NOT emulation, and I talk about how my bac...

It’s another packed show with news, reviews, and chat with the team behind The Lonesome Guild, so let’s go!

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano and Aki on hand to welcome Simone Pellegrini and Luca Cafasso of Tiny Bull Studios to the show to chat about their newest release, The Lonesome Guild! We chat about the origins and inspirations for the game, the diverse cast of characters you meet throughout the game, battle mechanics, story, artwork, working with DON’T NOD, and tons more! Aki also asks about their preview work, such as their VR tit...

News and reviews are the distractions of the day as Joe tires to not cry over a lost kitty while giving away a ton of Outright Games titles on Xbox!

The show kicks off with Jacob Garner, Bri Galgano, and Aki on hand to hear the sad news that Cocoa, one of the backyard kitties at Joe’s, has said goodbye after three years. She, and her beautiful face, will be missed very much. We also cover the PlayStation State of Play Showcase, PS Plus Game Catalog additions, Stellar Blade rumors, Red Dead Redemption going for another ri...

It’s not the Tuesday lineup you’re used to, but it’s a fun show anyway, so come stay a while and listen!

The show kicks off with Aki, Bri Galgano, Tim Ekkebus, and Grant Henry hanging out and chatting about how things are going including Grant’s trip to Super Mario World at Universal Studio, Tim and Grant chat about their time spent (not together) at RetroGameCon, Name that Tune and my horrible experience with it, and Bri having to smack people on the ass in their tutu to make sure they could perform. Plus Pernell...

Oh we’ve got another monster episode here with news, reviews, and a chat with Gary Doireau of Incube8 Games!

The show kicks off with Aki & Chris Taylor on hand to welcome Gary Doireau of Incube8 Games to the show to chat all about their upcoming release Infinity, launching this December on… Game Boy Color?? That’s right, Incube8 is a company that specializes in bringing homebrew retro titles to physical platforms. We learn the long history of Infinity from it’s 2002 cancellation to the impending release after over 20 years. We also discuss what goes into bringing these ga...