Expansion Pass #134 - The 10 Scariest Games I've Ever Played

We have over 650(!) bonus podcasts in our Patreon archives at this point, so I like to toss a freebie on here now and then. We need a little time to prep for a month of scary reviews in October, so I wanted to set the tone around RTG Industries. I've never hidden the fact that I'm a wimp who doesn't like scary things, but I am started to warm up to scary video games. So on this week's episode, I'm counting down the 10 scariest games I've ever played. If you enjoy this, we have a TON more waiting for you on Patreon (ad-free, too!). You can also write into the show, join our Discord, help choose the games we cover, and more! Subscriptions start at just $3/month at Patreon.com/RememberTheGame Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame The PlayStation 2 has one of the most stacked libraries in gaming history. So when Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time beat out a bunch of games to win the PS2 Patreon Poll, I was intrigued. And after playing the game, I totally get it. Sands of Time is awesome. I love these puzzle platforming-esque games, and you can see the DNA of so many gems from today in Sands of Time. The controls can be a little irritating at times, but the action, that dope rewind function, some humorous voice acting and the reasonably tight combat kept me invested for me entire 10-ish hour playthrough. My buddy Daniel played this one back when it came out. I finished it about 5 hours before we recorded. But 2 decades doesn't change the fact that a good game is a good game. And Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a good fucking game. And before we play with sand, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks if I'm getting more concerned about game preservation as online stores on classic consoles start shutting down. Who are my video game crushes? And is "any" publicity for a game actually "good" publicity? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 of my favourite PS2 games: God of War, Twisted Metal: Black, and Bully. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame And you can check out Tyler's wheeling and dealings over at: Brimstonepictures.com Facebook.com/brimstonepictures Youtube.com/@s762official X-Men Legends is one of those games I've been wanting to cover on the show for years. I loved it back when it came out, and replaying it twenty years later, I'm happy to say it holds up in the best way. This is a must-play for superhero junkies. If you've never played it, this was the game that paved the way for the Ultimate Alliance series. You form a team of 4, choosing from over a dozen members of X-Men, and then it becomes a bad-ass dungeon crawler. Every character controls the same but plays different, and when you add in the multiplayer facets, you got yourself a hummmmm dinger. My buddy Tyler is the Nightcrawler to my Gambit, and we had a chat about why this truly is one of the best super hero games ever made. If you've never played it, I hope we convince you to take the leap. Just don't use Emma Frost. She sucks. And before we play with legends, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks if I played any classic PC games as a kid, and I put out a call to action for the hot dogs. Has a video game ever humbled me? (Yes). And do I have any plans to change up the show anytime soon? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 retro X-Men games: The Uncanny X-Men (NES), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (SNES), and X-Men (Genesis). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have over 650(!) bonus podcasts in our Patreon archives at this point, so I like to toss a freebie on here now and then. Plus we're moving this week, so I haven't had time to play anything. One of my favourite things to do on Expansion Pas are console retrospectives. We look back at the systems we grew up with and share our memories and stories while we examine a console's legacy. And for my money, they don't get any legacier than the legendary NES. If you enjoy this, we have a TON more waiting for you on Patreon (ad-free, too!). You can also write into the show, join our Discord, help choose the games we cover, and more! Subscriptions start at just $3/month at Patreon.com/RememberTheGame Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame And you can check out Andre's wheeling and dealings over at: Twitter @thatcanadaguy Instagram @thatcanadadude http://www.youtube.com/@andreandmelballwrestlingtalk www.sundaynightsmainevent.com http://www.youtube.com/@OURLOCALESTABLISHMENT http://www.twitch.tv/ourlocalestablishment Over 6 years of this podcast, I've discovered some GREAT Genesis games. But this week, we're actually covering of the rare Sega games I played as a kid. The sexy as hell shooter known as Vectorman. There were a few games on the Sega side of the console wars back in the 90's that genuinely made me jealous as a Super Nintendo kid, and Vectorman was one of them. I absolutely adored the way it looked (still do), and it was a surprisingly competent platformer/shooter as well. You play as a bot made out of orbs, and you spend the game running, gunning, an transforming as you take on other robots made of orbs. And you blow up a lot of TVs, too. It's a fairly difficult game, but one that gets pretty beatable with a little practice. I think it's a must-play game in the Genesis library. My guest this week was the guy that suffered my wrath on the Ecco the Dolphin episode, my pal Andre. We got into how good Vectorman looks, how decently it plays, he frustratingly tough it can be, and of course, we made a bunch of balls jokes. And before we talk balls, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks if I could buy one gaming studio, who would it be? What's on my Mt. Rushmore of video game collection items? And what gaming mechanic has become wayyyy too over played? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 Genesis platformers: Quackshot, Rocket Knight Adventures, and Dynamite Headdy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame The Mario & Luigi games are known for their charm, fun combat systems and semi-platforming/puzzle solving. I haven't played a game from this series in well over a decade, but I went back for Partners in Time, and y'know what? It was delightful! (Except for the boss fight at the end. Fuck.) If you haven't played this one, Mario & Luigi end up going back in time to save Princess Peach, and they run into younger versions of themselves. It not only makes Baby Mario & Luigi less annoying, it actually turns out they're pretty dope in the right situation. Add in Bowser and Baby Bowser teaming up, weird alien mushrooms, and a bean store that I couldn't FUCKING FIND, and you have yourself a pretty good little RPG. My guest Keegs has played all the Mario & Luigi games, and he quite likes this one (and the series as a whole). I don't know why I took so much time off from these games, but I won't wait another 15 years to play one after finishing Partners in Time. We had a couple minor gripes, but by and large it's a pretty solid game and we had a good time jibba jabbering about it. And before we go back in time, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks wheat I think the worst named consoles of all time are. How do I hook up all my retro consoles? And what's my stance on the crumb bums ruining online game communities with their underhanded smurfing tactics? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 of the highest rated DS games on Metacritic: GTA Chinatown Wars, Pokemon White/Black, and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame Hundreds and hundreds of you have been asking for us to talk NFL Blitz, and seeing as it won our Patreon Poll, I guess it's time. I'd never played a Blitz before, so I was stoked to fire this up and see what it's all about! I'll warn you right now. I like football. I watch it, I play Fantasy, I cheer for the Broncos (I know...). But I'm not the most knowledgeable football guy. I only got into the sport as an adult, and I have very little experience with football video games. That said, you could say the same for basketball, and I fucking LOVED NBA Jam. So I was hoping Blitz would hit me in the same way and I'd fall in love again. I'm not sure I'd go that far with Blitz, but friends with benefits is fine by me. This is a good time. My guest Brad grew up playing the OG NFL Blitz cabinet, and I've spent the past couple weeks screaming at fumbles in NFL Blitz 2000 for the PlayStation. We put our heads together and drew up a play to talk about what makes this game so fun, what irritates us about it, and why it definitely needs to be played with another person. And before a "random" fumble completely fucks us over, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks if I'd consider reviewing more bad games (intentionally). What's a better option for starting a kid out with retro gaming: Nintendo Switch Online or an NES Classic? And what CDs did we rip onto our Xbox and Xbox 360s back in the day? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 Midway sports franchises: Ready 2 Rumble, NHL Hitz, and MLB Slugfest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Game Patch is our weekly gaming news podcast over on Patreon, where I look at the biggest news in the worlds of PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and gaming in general. This week I thought I'd give everyone a free episode to help you get through your Monday. New episodes go live every Tuesday for all our Patreons, and they're 100% ad-free. Hope y'all enjoy the gaming news, and have a great week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame And you can find ye olde Bradley McCue here: Instagram: @TheGamingOdyssey Twitch.tv/VideoGameOdyssey For years, the hot dogs have been asking for a DK64 review. I fought it for as long as I could, but much like Homer revisiting New York City, it's time for me to face my demons and talk about this damned game. Donkey Kong 64 is the collectathon of all collectathons. You control 5 different Kongs and make your way through a bunch of levels looking for regular bananas, gold bananas, banana birds, coins, blueprints and more stuff I'm probably forgetting. While it's cool that each Kong plays differently and brings something unique to the table, the constant (FUCKING CONSTANT) swapping between them just leaves a sour taste in my mouth that I can't get over. I don't care for this game. My guest, Bradley McCue, isn't the world's biggest fan either. Frankly, I think he's a little harder on the game than I am. But I think we were tough but fair, showed it some love when it deserved it, and voiced our Donkey Kong 64 frustrations in a calm and reasonable manner for the most part. No Angry Adam. And before we go looking for a fucking Kong barrel to swap monkeys with, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks me to rank the 5 Zelda games I'd most like to see remade. Have I tried one of the remapped N64 controllers? And can we expect more Metroid Prime reviews before Prime 4 drops?? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 Nintendo 64 Rare games: Banjo-Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Perfect Dark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on social media? Of course you are. So follow us!  Twitter: @MemberTheGame Instagram: @MemberTheGame Twitch.tv/MemberTheGame Youtube.com/RememberTheGame Facebook.com/RememberTheGamePodcast TikTok.com/@MemberTheGame And if you want access to hundreds of bonus (ad-free) podcasts, along with multiple new shows EVERY WEEK, consider showing us some love over at Patreon. Subscriptions start at just $3/month, and 5% of our patreon income every month will be donated to our 24 hour Extra-Life charity stream at the end of the year! Patreon.com/RememberTheGame I can't think of many gaming franchises I love more than Mega Man. And when you think of the Mega-est of Mega Man games, you have to think of Mega Man 2. While I (slightly) prefer Mega Man 3's harder difficulty and sliding abilities, there's no doubt that Mega Man 2 is the game that made the Blue Bomber a star. 8 robot masters, the most powerful weapon in Mega Man history, an awesome soundtrack, and a more forgiving gameplay loop. As one of our listener's said; "Mega Man 2 is the Mega Man what Terminator 2 is to The Terminator." I'm rolling solo this week, but if there's a franchise I can talk to myself about without a problem, it's Mega Man. I actually go through my personal strategy to tackle the game this week, and along they way I sprinkle in some listener comments and get into what I like, love, and yes, hate, about MM2. And before we kick some robot ass, I put together another edition of the Infamous Intro! This week, someone asks me if my confidence behind the mic has improved over the past 6 years. What GameCube games are must owns? And so we actually miss blowing in the cartridge?? Plus we play another round of 'Play One, Remake One, Erase One', too! This one features 3 Mega Man titles: Mega Man Zero, Mega Man: Battle Network, and Mega Man Legends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices