Pod 'em Up! - The Video Game "Book Club" Podcast

We look back fondly on the days where a company could release a fun arcade racer with a cool gimmick, without it being a boring racing sim that's bogged down with licensing agreements - it's Split/Second (aka Split/Second Velocity) in the book club, for PS3, 360 and Steam!Meanwhile, Tibbs becomes embroiled in the latest argument to grip the Sonic community, and Ollie gets similarly angry at one of Nintendo's recently announced products. Plus more Metroid Prime 4, Dome Keeper, Bzzzt, musical rollercoasters and we reveal a new feature on Pod 'em Up; Gardening Corner!... Yes, really.If you would like one of Tibbs' growing collection of spider plants, please get in touch. Also get in touch if you know how to look after a chilli plant, thanks.Incoming Indie: Big Hops - https://www.luckshotgames.com/big-hopspodemup.live | podemup@gmail.com | @PodEmUp

On this final episode of 2025, we look back at Future Cop: L.A.P.D. for the PS1 - the entry in the Strike series that was never to be. Still a great game though, but how will it fare in our annual Pod 'em Up Awards, which of course is also happening in this very episode!Also in this bumper end-of-year episode, we're skirting around some sensitive issues in our analysis of those other game awards that usually happen to coincide with our own - though for some reason we also bundle into this our reviews of Animals of Farthing Wood and Babe: Pig in the City. Plus, Metroid Prime 4, Journey to the Savage Planet, Parking Garage Rally Circuit, and the surprising reveal of quite possibly the catchiest theme tune to a cartoon based on a video game of all time.@PodEmUp | podemup@gmail.com | podemup.com

Just how strange is life, anyway? Very, apparently, if you're playing 2015's excellent time travelling, episodic, narrative-driven adventure game, Life is Strange.I'll be honest, our anti-spoiler policy means that we can't fully delve into some of the more interesting aspects of this beautiful game during the normal discussion of this on the podcast. So for anyone who has already played the game in full, we've released a bonus chat, covering some of the plot twists and heart-breaking moments that we could only carefully hint at on the show. Please see this link for all the SPOILERS:https://soundcloud.com/user-557762286/life-is-strange-extra-discussion-spoilersWe've got lots more lighter content too though, including a general discussion about the GTA series, Sonic Racing Crossworlds, Donkey Kong Bananza and Yooka-Replaylee. Plus, Tibbs brings us the Incoming Indie this month because Ollie is too busy ranting about skill trees again.Goodnight, God bless, see you in the morning.Incoming Indie: Carpark Capital - https://www.microprose.com/games/car-park-capital/podemup.com | PodEmUp | podemup@gmail.com

This month we're playing one of our most obscure games yet, as Tibbs reaches down deep into his pile of childhood Amiga disks, and pulls out the rarely discussed Universal Warrior - a top down shoot 'em up with an interesting robot-building slant!This episode is also packed with other trinkets to enjoy - including but not limited to: Nintendo Direct, Virtual Boy, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Halo Reach and Mario Kart World! Plus, roll some cheese, dodge some sofas and find out what happens when a Clockwork Orange meets Space Jam!!Incoming Indie: Denshattack! - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2524850/Denshattack/@PodEmUp | mail@podemup.live | podemup.com

Tails is going on an Adventure in the book club this month, and he's bringing all his (game) gear with him! Find out more about this curious and rarely discussed foray into the metroidvania genre, where no other Sonic the Hedgehog game has been before, or since.Plus, we do our usual Pod 'em Up appraisal of Gamescom (i.e. mostly just listing some boring new games that we're not that interested in), and we discuss Bombrush Cyberfunk, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance and Overcooked. If that weren't enough for you though, you're sure to enjoy Tibbs' cherry-loving mouse, Ollie's gaming game changer, and an online pun generator provides us with what is unquestionably the funniest tangent we have ever done on this podcast.Incoming Indie: TANUKI: Pon's Summer - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3218570/TANUKI_Pons_Summer/podemup.com | mail@podemup.live | @PodEmUp

It's another double whammy book club this month, as we discuss both the Mega Drive and arcade versions of the title that cemented Sega's love affair with the king of pop - Michael Jackson's Moonwalker!We continue the movie theme, as Tibbs plays RoboCop: Rogue City, Ollie takes a trip to the cinema to see Jurassic World: Rebirth (not a game, granted, but still worth talking about), there's more Switch 2 shenanigans in the news, Tibbs makes some squash and Ollie pulls another Chrono Trigger on us.Incoming Indie: Platypus Reclayed (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2912430/Platypus_Reclayed/)BONUS! Listen to our full discussion about the ending to Cassette Beasts (spoilers included) on SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/dhYDWQLcyKkSJhutsOpodemup.com | mail@podemup.live | @PodEmUp

This time on the book club, we're playing a game that definitely puts comedy above all else as we take a trip to the North, with 2024's hilarious indie gem, Thank Goodness You're Here! In this surreal British sitcom of a game, we'll be meeting such characters as greengrocer Rog with his massive head, Brigadier Bean Tin, and the mysterious man who passes raw sausages through holes in garden fences!We also spend a little time doing our usual incredibly thorough job of looking at the games announced at Summer Games Fest, all of which we have definitely heard of, and care about. That's for sure.Perhaps this episode is more like one of Tiny's Tom's tiny pies in terms of its length, but it's packed with laughs!podemup.com | @PodEmUp | mail@podemup.live

Let's find out if this obscure Japanese Dreamcast release gets any love from Ollie and Tibbs.. we're playing L.O.L. Lack of Love - the life simulation game set on an alien planet in the midst of a human terraforming operation.Elsewhere in the ep, we are of course chatting about the Switch 2 and its game announcements.. and we might touch just a little on those eye-watering prices too! Plus, Tibbs reviews Croc: Legend of the Gobbos Remastered, and why aren't Spotify very happy with us at the moment?Get your designated urination buttons at the ready, and queue up for your free monthly retirement game.. it's time for Pod 'em Up 68!Incoming Indie:The Karters 2: Turbo Charged - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2269950/The_Karters_2_Turbo_Charged/@PodEmUp | mail@podemup.live | podemup.live

In this episode, we celebrate one of the most standout, wacky and hilarious platformers of the 16-bit era, as we take on the original Earthworm Jim for the Mega Drive!In addition, we discuss the very impressive fan-made static recompilation of Sonic Unleashed for the PC, Tomb Raider 4, 5 and 6 Remastered, some promising demos from Steam Next Fest, and more!Incoming Indies:Rad Venture's second kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/radventure/rad-venture-campaign-2Elusive:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/abraham-cozar/elusive?ref=bmeaeipodemup.live | @PodEmUp | mail@podemup.live

In this episode, we take a look at 2023 indie gem Cassette Beasts, an RPG that has you recording monsters onto cassettes and using them to battle rangers and archangels on your quest to escape the mysterious island you now call home. Better then Pokemon? Let's find out!We also touch on what little we currently know of the recently announced Switch 2 and kill some time with a little video game movie chat.Ok, so we're a little light in terms of variety of content this month, but the Cassette Beasts discussion is well worth your time!UPDATE: During the recording of episode 70, we discussed the game's ending, which we have chopped out and offered to you in this bonus clip, which of course is SPOILERIFIC!: https://on.soundcloud.com/dhYDWQLcyKkSJhutsOpodemup.live | @PodEmUp | mail@podemup.live

Our end of year special is upon us nice and early this year! NiGHTS Into Dreams on the Sega Saturn is being played in a particularly lengthy book club segment this time, as we go fairly indepth on all aspects of the Sonic Team classic - we also touch on Christmas NiGHTS and the Wii sequel too. Plus, the highlight of the Pod 'em Up year - our 2024 book club awards, in which we rank the games we've been playing all year, via our patented and ever complicated points system! Oh and we give a few minutes to that other, less exciting Game Awards too. Apologies for very short notice, but Ollie will be doing some streaming on Friday 20th December at around 6pm GMT over on http://twitch.tv/podemup! Please pop in if you can, as he'll be playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary this year, and will also be chatting about his old website, Zone: 0 - celebrating 20 years since starting that project. If you missed it, it'll also be uploaded to: https://www.youtube.com/@PodEmUp podemup.live | mail@podemup.live | @PodEmUp

We're celebrating our 64th episode with not one, not two, but THREE (count 'em) games in this bumper edition of the book club this month, across the Commodore 64 and Nintendo 64 systems! Mayhem in Monsterland reveals what the C64 is truly capable of, and Spacestation Silicon Valley provides some great puzzles and silliness. 1985's quaint British platformer Monty on the Run, however, brings us the highlight of the show, in which Tibbs attempts to explain to Ollie what's so great about the game's Game Over screen. As if that weren't enough, Sega is as inconsistent as ever this episode, as we praise Sonic X Shadow Generations, but bemoan their upcoming, and unexplained Steam delistings. We also ponder Nintendo's plans for backwards compatibility in the next gen, and smell something fishy about that SuperSega FPGA console.. Plus, look out for Vampire Survivors, Buckshot Roulette, and we discover some weird WWE crossovers and tie-ins! podemup.live | @PodEmUp | mail@podemup.live You can (and should) now get follow us on Bluesky! podemup.bsky.social

We're pointing and clicking once again this month, this time with Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror, for PS1 and PC! Plus, we discuss the ridiculous price tag of the PS5 Pro, the Plucky Squire, Rugrats, wrestling, tabletop dishwashing and slippery knives! Incoming Indie: Fading Skies - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/distantbluegames/fading-skies mail@podemup.live | podemup.live | @podemup

We're earning some serious kudos (...) with our latest book club pick - the Dreamcast's stylish racing masterpiece that's not afraid to throw some cheesy tunes at you - it's Metropolis Street Racer! Plus, we answer the following questions: - How can Europeans stop killing games? - Will Mad Max ever understand the meaning of friendship? - What is the correct way to fuss a cat? Find out in episode 62 of Pod 'em Up! Links: - EU petition to save games from obsolescence: https://www.stopkillinggames.com/ - koROBO: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tinywonderstudio/korobo/ - Rad Venture: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/radventure/rad-venture podemup.live | @PodEmUp | mail@podemup.live

This month our friend Rik is back - this time as guest co-host - to discuss classic point-and-click adventure (and head-scratch 'em-up) Discworld II: Missing Presumed..!? for PC, PlayStation and Saturn. Also found elsewhere in this show, Dave the Diver, Forza Horizon 4 and AstroBot! mail@podemup.live | @PodEmUp | podemup.live

Celebrating both our 60th episode and our 6th birthday, this edition of the podcast hosts Corn Kidz 64 in the book club - a recent PC/Switch 3D collect-a-thon platformer that harks back to the N64 era in a highly convincing manner. Other games that we touch on include Hi-fi Rush, Penny's Big Breakaway, Samba de Amigo: Party Central and Super Star Path. Plus Ollie weighs in on the Knuckles TV series. podemup.live | @PodEmUp | mail@podemup.live We're now on Youtube Podcasts! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnSPu4iz27jyAuI02w5-0n5OxfQkishqf

In the book club, we play Ape Escape - the PS1 game that showed 1999 that it needed to invest in that shiny new DualShock controller, after all. Or maybe not, let's see. Plus, Nintendo goes head to head with Yuzu and.. wins, almost immediately, and Tibbs tells us about the recent Tomb Raider remastered games. We'll level with you - due to various reasons, it's not exactly our best episode, this one. But hopefully our self deprecating humour about the whole thing turns it into an enjoyable car crash. If it's possible to enjoy a car crash. Which it isn't. Look, it's late, and I'm tired. Incoming Indie: Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom - https://thoseawesomeguys.com/games/yellow-taxi-goes-vroom/ podemup.live | @PodEmUp | podemup@gmail.com

Little known Nintendo platforming hero, Starfy the starfish gets his turn in the spotlight at last this month, as we feature his underwater platforming antics in the book club - we're discussing The Legendary Starfy, for Nintendo DS. Elsewhere, Tibbs has finally given the Zelda games a proper go, having immersed himself in not one, but two of the most well known entries in the franchise! He's had a great time, apparently.. well, that's what he claims anyway. His list of issues suggest otherwise though. Of course all of that pales in comparison to the highlight of the show, which is our in depth discussion about "Jerry Rice and Nitus' Dog Football" for the Wii. Fully endorsed, of course, by the Pet Sport League. That's right. podemup.live | podemup@gmail.com | @PodEmUp

It's our (slightly belated) end of year show, and we're taking The Simpsons: Hit & Run for a spin in the book club, for GameCube, Xbox and PS2! The perfect excuse to load the show up full of Simpsons chat, quotes, clips and songs! And of course it wouldn't be an end of year show without the Pod 'em Up awards, where we hand out points to our favourite games from the book club throughout 2023 and find a winner of the coveted Pod 'em Up book club game of the year! Now with automated vote counting! @PodEmUp | podemup@gmail.com | podemup.live

Time for a little Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in the book club? You'll hear no objections from us! Listen to what we had to say about the original DS game that lead to the popular courtroom franchise! Elsewhere, we've an extra chunky review of Sonic Superstars, and we also dip into the likes of Super Mario Wonder, WWE 2K23 and Alien Hominid Invasion. All this whilst trying to evade the highly litigious "Bodger and Badger Corporation LLC", and figuring out Tibbs' cryptic note about a steering wheel. Incoming Indie: Promenade (https://www.redartgames.com/games/607-promenade-nintendo-switch.html) podemup.live | @PodEmUp | podemup@gmail.com