Stray – Cane and Rinse No.627

Keyblades, nobodies, heartless, and drama. The Four Pillars of Kingdom Hearts. Join Brian, Chris, Leah, and Ryan as they navigate one of the handheld games in the series, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, a game with a story as convoluted as the title. Listen in to see if they can untangle the knot known as Kingdom Hearts to find the fun within.

The alluring combo of super-powered, hyper-skilled parkouring pilot and giant machine of heavily-armed destruction. Following the heavily multiplayer and Xbox-centric original, Respawn kicked on with a sequel that offered a focused single-player campaign - and an appearance on PlayStation. Leon, Chris O'Regan and Tom - along with contributions from the listenership - reacquaint themselves with Jack and BT's biomechanical bromance.

Remember a time when the most lavishly produced videogames were full motion video comedy adventure games? Chris Worthington, Brian, Chris O’Regan and James do! In this issue they have a long look at Access Software's cult hit, Under A Killing Moon, to find out whether all that investment would guarantee a game that still shines 30 years later.

This week, Ryan, Leah and Tony take a road trip to the town of Haven Springs, Colorado for a look at 2021's Life Is Strange: True Colors. From foosball matches to mineshaft crashes, the crew digs into the emotional depths of this supernatural adventure.

Sam Barlow's interactive cinematic puzzle IMMORTALITY gets dissected in this issue of the Cane and Rinse podcast. Leon, Ryan, Tom and community contributors scrub through the celluloid of three unreleased movies to trace Marissa Marcel's fate and the mysteries beneath.

The descendant of Erdrick has arrived. Brian, Chris Worthington, Jon and Leah examine the first entry in the legendary Dragon Quest series. Join them as they discuss the history and impact of the JRPG that birthed an entire genre.

Leon chats with Andrew Elmore about his video deep dive into Namco's long-running Museum series of retro re-releases, from mid-90s PlayStation origins through the generations to more recent standalone plug 'n' play devices and beyond. From Gee Bee to Tank Force via every Pac-Man and Galaxian inbetween, it's a lot of fun. Enjoy!

Vanillaware's mission to make a game in each genre continues with tactical RPG Unicorn Overlord. Leon, Chris O'Regan, Leah and Michiel (whose pick this was for the podcast), embroil themselves in the quest to liberate another Europesque land from the tyranny of a possessed expansionist despot. As usual - along with input from the listeners - we get into the audio-visual presentation, the nitty gritty of interface and the myriad strategic options afforded by this systems-rich epic fantasy.

It's rare for us to review a 10 year-old game that's still in active development, but here we are. Much has already been said about the majestic comeback story that is No Man's Sky - and we do touch upon that here - but we mainly wanted to discuss what we did and didn't enjoy about playing the game in its 2026 form. Leon, James, Rich and Patreon posters do just that, telling tales of adventure in this practically infinite possibility space.

As the industry (and us) gets older, the anniversaries get larger. Konami's famous Frogger celebrates its 45th birthday, so we celebrate with the hydrophobic hopper. Leon, Brian, Jesse and Sean - along with some arcade memories from the community - discuss the apocryphal legend of this simple single-screen action game, try to understand why it endures, and even the mating habits of amphibians - in this especially silly podcast.