This week on The Free Cheese, there goes summer. We reflect on another fourth of the year passing by by diving into the biggest news stories from the quarter. We look back at PlayStation canceling...everything? And Xbox collapsing...everything? Meanwhile, Nintendo tries to revitalize the industry with Nintendo 64 remakes. We check in with the games we each played on and off the podcast over the summer, then look ahead at what's scheduled to release that we're looking forward to playing.

This week on The Free Cheese, you are now in the Forest of Confusion. We have accepted the invitation to darkness and embark on our adventure into Tecmo's Deception. Exploring and designing the game's castle, we set traps and chase down intruders to defy the irony of self-sought freedom. Reviews Joe Tecmo's Deception is a game about patience. The premise is simple, but actually setting and activating traps in the castle takes some effort.

This week on The Free Cheese, Dogs loves to wear this T-shirt. We're trapped on Dinosaur Island and are forced to uncover its secrets when Christmas vacation is significantly interrupted. As Blue Stinger joins The List, we reflect on the Dreamcast and discuss our time with one of its launch titles. Reviews Joe Blue Stinger repeatedly showed me exactly what I was expecting and introduced me to something more bizarre than I’d just encountered.

This week on The Free Cheese, how the soup is made. Ahead of selecting another season's worth of video games to play and rank, we talk about what goes into building out a schedule. Then, we share the games that we (probably) won't add to The List (probably).

This week on The Free Cheese, that is good tennis. The Nintendo 64 brought us many new adventures for Mario, but only one introduced Waluigi to the world. In this episode, we explore Mario Tennis, discuss its technical approach to simulating the sport, and celebrate our tournament wins. Reviews Joe Mario Tennis still feels great today and almost undercuts the need to buy a new version of the game instead of just playing the Nintendo 64 version…

This week on The Free Cheese, The Free Cheese's Matt Soellner in... With a series of successful mainline entries, all great media must spin-off into a new direction and Namco brought all of its unused ideas to life with Death By Degrees. Departing from the signature gameplay in Tekken, this game uses a new combat system and adopts ideas from a lot of other video games.

This week on The Free Cheese, new family Christmas picture. We're playing the one game from the makers of Gran Turismo that isn't about racing, instead seeing what a 1999 rail shooter with FMV cutscenes does that Star Fox doesn't. Reviews Joe My intrigue with Omega Boost began with the notion that the makers of Gran Turismo developed a space shooter, but within the opening minutes of the game an entirely new prism of curiosities unfolded.

This week on The Free Cheese, you spin me right round. After years trapped on the Sega Saturn, Panzer Dragoon returns on Xbox with Orta, only to stay there ever since. We discuss the gameplay options to switch between and upgrade each dragon from, how boss fights play out, and how dynamic the world design remains through the end of the story.

This week on The Free Cheese, shake to kill. We explore the inaugural world of Grasshopper Manufacture’s No More Heroes and climb to the top of the assassin’s rank. We discuss how the game compliments the Wii controls and what it brings to the greater library on the system. Reviews Joe No More Heroes takes a simple premise and fills its duration with variety and style at every chance it gets…

This week on The Free Cheese, we’re playing vol lee ball. We’ve been invited to Zack’s island to figure out why people want to go here in the first place. Reviews Joe Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet feels like it was a side-story or bonus feature to an otherwise complete entry in the core fighting game series. When I sat down to play this, I kept looking to see what I was missing and that’s just it; I don’t think there’s much more to this game than some basic casino games, volleyball, or menuing through different prompts until a 3D model takes a gift from you.

This week on The Free Cheese, I want to go on something more thrilling than Super Mario Galaxy 2. We revisit a true classic, build some theme parks, and talk about what makes up creating a timeless experience. In RollerCoaster Tycoon, we describe our respective approaches in shaping pathways, designing rides, and hiring staff. Then, we rank it on The List…

This week on The Free Cheese, there's a rare, blue flower. After Batman and Robin put Batman's film adventures on hold, the franchise took a journey through many potential futures before finding its path forward in Batman Begins and its eventual trilogy of movies. We see how its movie tie-in holds up today and reflect on a bygone era in video games.

This week on The Free Cheese, no more GUILT. We grab what every great surgeon and medical student calls their most important tool: the Nintendo DS stylus. With it in tow, we gel, slice, burn, cut, inject, extract, and stitch our way through Trauma Center: Under the Knife one patient at a time. Reviews Joe The Nintendo DS really felt like a system that encouraged developers to think differently about what types of games could be created and Trauma Center: Under the Knife is a showcase for what games can become with new hardware ideas.

This week on The Free Cheese, the year is half full. We look back over the past ninety days at the video games we've played on and off air, then discuss some video game headlines from the past quarter. We also check in with each of the major platforms and see how Nintendo Switch 2 holds up one year later.

This week on The Free Cheese, increase the population. You are in a committed relationship and wake up in bed beside another woman. Great job! Now it's time to climb blocks and navigate your social life one conversation at a time. Atlus takes a break from its established franchises to introduce Catherine and in this episode, we explore its expanded Full Body edition, ranking it on The List.

This week on The Free Cheese, reload reload reload. We went to an arcade to return to The House of the Dead for a special episode highlighting Sega and some of its arcade history. We discuss our time with the game, what it's like visiting an arcade in 2026, and where we wish the series would go from here.

This week on The Free Cheese, Mobius 1 has crashed! We take to the skies in the first PlayStation 2 entry in the Ace Combat series. We discuss the story and its presentation, how easy it is to learn to fly, and what lasted with us by the end of our time with Ace Combat 04. Reviews Joe Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies combines the melodrama of one boy’s reminiscence with 360º aerial gameplay.

This week on The Free Cheese, it's a blade master's fate. Atlus, your friends behind the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series, once made a first-person action game for the Sega Dreamcast. We play and discuss Maken X, appreciate its sound design (and question a few of the choices), and reminisce on the start to the twenty-first century. Reviews…

This week on The Free Cheese, Sly, raccoon on feet. We return to the second PlayStation to explore one of its core third-person platforming franchises, Sly Cooper. After exploring the world created by Sucker Punch Productions, we share our thoughts on what this first entry does right from the start, how much we loved the look and sound of the game, and why meaningful collectibles make the difference.

This week on The Free Cheese, welcome to Cocoon. We add our first Final Fantasy game to The List with the flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, Final Fantasy XIII. After years of hearing the global criticism of the game, we explore how much of that was echoes and what was reality. We dive deep into the combat system, discuss the characters we gravitated towards, and try really, …

This week on The Free Cheese, beginning of universe. Our exploration of the PlayStation continues this week with the grid-based puzzle game, Intelligent Qube. We appreciate its simplicity and how intense the stages can become, discuss the replayability, and then rank it on The List. Reviews Joe I've been playing Intelligent Qube on and off since narrowing down my selection of games for this season sometime last year.

This week on The Free Cheese, when was the last time they made one of those? We explore the recent notion that the release gaps of new entries in franchises are failing to build deeper connections with younger players. From there, we discuss the franchises we connected with and why we stay engaged with them, looking at how crossovers and cross-media installments have maintained our connections with dormant properties.

This week on The Free Cheese, in the bag, pig! We take control of the pink-haired, chomping Tomba to discover a PlayStation adventure that has long invited us into its world. Through our time with it, we explore the twisting, turning map and try to stop the inevitably evil pigs. Reviews Joe Tomba is a game that I really wanted to like but struggled to ever really get into it.

This week on The Free Cheese, now we're running the show. As the WWE series makes its debut on the next generation (in 2006), we see what's different and what this era in simulation wrestling has to offer. We each take on the role of GM and work through a season of broadcast to find a new champion. Reviews Joe…

This week on The Free Cheese, sorry, but we're not on the menu. We set a new record for release time to ranking with Resident Evil Requiem, adding it to The List just over a month since its release. We discuss what makes Requiem different while still maintaining the series, how it drives the story forward, and share our favorite one-liners from Uncle Leon.

This week on The Free Cheese, let's push blocks against the current. We finally explore the depths of the ocean, taking control of Ecco the Dolphin in his titular adventure. We struggle with the game's difficulty but find ourselves continually enamored with its narrative and ambition. Matt finds the one change that could fix the game and we check in on the latest in clear-colored sodas.

This week on The Free Cheese, pretend it's season 9. We take a break from the weekly ranking of video games to reflect on the first quarter of the year. We discuss the games we've played for fun that we haven't talked about on the show, some of the news stories that have made an impact in 2026 so far, and then we reflect on the games we've added to The List.

This week on The Free Cheese, there's no movie? Just in time for the delayed release of the latest 007 video game, we wander back to the early 2000s to explore Agent Under Fire. We discuss the various mission types, how gadgets play into gameplay, and what makes a good James Bond video game. Then, we rank this entry on The List.

This week on The Free Cheese, I'm gonna make these cigarettes disappear. We take control of Sam and find out what happens when Shinji Mikami directs PlatinumGames' Bayonetta reimagined with some Gears of War. If that sounds like a lot of things happening at once, you haven't played Vanquish. Reviews Joe I picked up Vanquish a long time ago and never finished it, so I was excited when Matt added it to The List this season.

This week on The Free Cheese, it's kind of like F-Zero but not in zero gravity. We're traveling back to a peculiar video game entry in the F1 series of video games, where its main developer Codemasters merged the world of F1 with kart racing. Just in time for the start of the season, we take a tour around the world of F1 Race Stars and then rank it on The List.

This week on The Free Cheese, I'm only here for the bumper sticker. Just ahead of the launch of a long-awaited successor, we check out Bungie's Marathon from 1994 for an introduction to the series and what would inspire not only the upcoming extraction shooter, but what led to the world of Halo. We discuss our time with the game and reflect on other first-person shooters on…

This week on The Free Cheese, how high can you get? A true PlayStation classic joins The List this week as we discover Jumping Flash for our 650th episode. We discuss its release contextually against its contemporaries, share our time spent with the game, and talk about how it embodies the spirit of PlayStation. Reviews Joe Jumping Flash feels like a game that was ahead of its time, yet still arrived right when it needed to…

This week on The Free Cheese, if you build it, will they come? How does the simulation genre stack up when things go vertical? Can we succeed in building and managing a resort in Hawaii or a business complex in Tokyo? Find out as Yoot Tower joins The List in this episode. Reviews Joe I like Yoot Tower. I wish Yoot Tower were easier to play.

This week on The Free Cheese, we came out and played. What happens when a developer with newfound fame and respect gets to make a prequel to one of its favorite movies from 25 years earlier? We find out when we add another Rockstar game to The List and see what The Warriors was bringing to PlayStation 2 in the midst of Grand Theft Auto's rise.

This week on The Free Cheese, just like mama taught you. We wield the stylus to guide us through every recipe we can as we explore a Nintendo DS staple, Cooking Mama. Is this the perfect DS companion or just another bargain bin select? Grab your apron and find out! Reviews Joe Cooking Mama is a great evolution of what I loved in Flash games, this time on a handheld device with a novel way of interaction.

This week on The Free Cheese, na na na na na na na. We're rolling everything up this week as Katamari Damacy joins The List. We discuss our favorite stages, how a video game can maintain engagement with a simple mechanic, and the importance of a great control scheme. Reviews Joe Katamari Damacy is a game I wish I’d known at its initial release.

This week on The Free Cheese, Matt wants a game to be more like Mario Party. We work dilligently through a series of mini games to help the Tanamatsuri family get home for grandmother's birthday. As part of our deeper exploration of the PlayStation library this year, Incredible Crisis brings a series of unique gameplay challenges and ska to the platform.

This week on The Free Cheese, the year of the vampire. For the first game in Season 14, we explore the early 2000s by way of its vampire assassin, female lead character action hack-and-slash genre. Or as you might call it, Bloodrayne. We take Rayne on a journey around the world, one button at a time. Reviews Joe I had fun with Bloodrayne and it kicked off my Year of the Vampire for 2026.

We begin this year like all others by looking ahead at the year and casting our hopes for what may befall us from the world of video games. With so many anniversaries to celebrate this year, it was difficult to truly limit ourselves to just a few predictions each. Below you'll see a series of group predictions we made, followed by our individual predictions and most anticipated games of 2026.

This week on The Free Cheese, 2026 begins! It is time for our favorite episode of the year, a look ahead at the year to come. We reflect on predictions made one year ago, then set our sights on the months ahead as hope is not yet dead. 2026 invites us to celebrate a number of anniversaries in video games, but which ones will make our dreams come true?

This week on The Free Cheese, 2025 is over. We talk about everything we didn't talk about during the podcast this year. We each share the games we played that weren't covered on the show, the obsessions we found ourselves sliding into, and how certain themes layered our year. Then, we look at some of the news highlights from 2025 and check in with each of the platforms.

This week on The Free Cheese, this is the end of right now but there is more to come! In the first half of our two-part Season 13 finale, we're looking back at the episodes from this year and the games we played. We take a look at The List in different formats, ranking it individually and by review scores.

This week on The Free Cheese, can't someone else do it? We celebrate the end of the quarter century and the return of Game Informer by reading its 92nd issue from December 2000. We explore its cover story, read through its letters, previews, and reviews. Then, we have a scavenger hunt through the magazine to discover some of what has been lost to time.

This week on The Free Cheese, did you know that cars blow up after just six punches? When Eidos set out to create a new Streets of Rage, Sega passed and instead we got Fighting Force. We play through its campaign, discuss how cool it is to pick up anything in the environment, and see how well this brawler holds up almost three decades after its release.

This week on The Free Cheese, we're going to China. We join up and play through the campaign of Resident Evil 6 cooperatively to see why this entry was so divisive at the time of its release. We discuss each of the campaigns in the game, what Capcom got right, and where we think the series started to drift too far away from its origins.

This week on The Free Cheese, we escape the demands of a raccoon tyrant. As our year of Animal Crossing comes to a close, we start by looking back at the game's changes and updates for the fall season. We share thoughts around the staying power of a living game like this and reflect on a full year of playing. Finally, we close out by ranking Animal Crossing on The List.

This week on The Free Cheese, don't drink the tea on Mt. Tigerwolf. We wander the world of Suikoden to collect the 108 Stars of Destiny and save the world. After years of hearing the fan adoration of the series, we finally see what Konami's exploration into the role-playing game has to offer. We discuss the little things that make Suikoden great, like its snappy menus and combat, as well as how much story is packed into just 20 hours of gameplay.

This week on The Free Cheese, there's always a... wait. We explore Citadel Station in Nightdive Studios' remake of the seminal System Shock. We discuss the game's presentation and its reliance on your active participation as a player, as well as what that means in the long run. Reviews Joe Objectively, I think System Shock is an incredibly influential game that is left wholly intact by its 2023 remake.

This week on The Free Cheese, the Guild authorizes you to engage with this podcast. Monster Hunter Wilds launched near the beginning of this year and we jumped in together right away. In this episode, we cover our time with the campaign, what it's like to finally have crossplay and an open world in Monster Hunter, and how Monster Hunter Wilds handles teaching the game to new players.

This week on The Free Cheese, what ever happened to Y2K? After ranking it our number one console a few years ago, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the PlayStation 2 by sharing our favorite games, the best features of the console, and what its legacy is today.