Swellow

Is your daily gaming routine starting to feel like a second job? In Episode 5 ("Doom"), we dive into the endless grind of modern gaming dailies. From pitching a 14-hour performance art piece titled "My Perfect Pokémon Day" to auditing our Pokémon Sleep boxes live on air, we break down what makes mobile maintenance loops so addictive—and so exhausting. Plus, we cover Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, retro Warlock updates in Diablo 2, and the crushing reality of 100% achievement hunting.

🎃 Happy Halloween! In this spooky Season 7 entry, Richie and Cunzy build the ultimate alternative Halloween playlist—ditching "Monster Mash" for 60s psychedelic tracks, Italian electro-horror, and gothic post-punk! Plus, we dive into recent gaming highlights, including the weird mimes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the visceral BDSM dungeons of the Hellraiser revival, and the domestic Scottish dread of Silent Hill: Townfall. Finally, we launch our status effect series with CURSED—exploring its mechanics across Pokémon, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy X!

What damage type would you be invulnerable to in real life? On this episode of That Guy's A Maniac, the boys pull "Invulnerability" from Richie's master list of 27 status elements—but not before standard conversational chaos takes over.Richie breaks down his highly stressful train ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh where he attempted to read a distinctly non-PG Alasdair Gray book in front of a teenager, leading to a deep dive into the legendary Scottish poet Ivor Cutler, government pigeon conspiracies, and why 80s 12-inch extended mixes are superior (even if you end up singing the hi-hat beat in your sleep).Plus, we talk about weeping at the end of Hamnet, defending the Super Mario Bros. Movie against grumpy critics, and the pure structural nightmare of a £40 plastic Yoshi popcorn holder. Finally, we talk gaming with our current late-night addictions, the open-world freedom of Mario Kart World, and the surprisingly wild metas forming in Pokémon Champions.Timestamps are a myth, just dive in!

What happens when you sit down to plan Season 7 and end up in a two-hour spiral about Pokémon, SSX Tricky, and human pheromones? In this bonus brainstorming episode, the boys workshop a potential new season theme around RPG Status Effects—starting with "Charm". From D&D spell saves and Final Fantasy VII party betrayals to designing beer-themed German Pokémon and debating whether human smell is just "air taste," no topic is left unturned. Press play for game mechanics, concert mishaps, and classic podcast banter!

 We are back for Season 7! After looking over our listener stats and surviving the break, we're bringing actual structure to the pod this season, starting with our brand-new overarching theme: Status Effects in Video Games.In this premiere episode, we dissect how status mechanics like poison, silence, haste, and sleep mess with combat action economy in RPGs and survival horror games. But before we get technical, we tackle the big gaming questions of our era:Can you complete a Pokémon Nuzlocke in Kanto with literally zero Pokémon?What is the official Donkey Kong family tree canon (DK Jr., Cranky Kong, and Pauline in New Donk City)?Why did Patrick Stewart's hair keep glitching in Oblivion Remastered?Is NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 AI tech revolutionary or just photorealistic slop?Plus, we rant about Sims 2 pre-DLC expansions, $100 Dead or Alive swimsuit packs, and why game preservation on the upcoming Metal Slug collection is a win for gaming history.

It’s the season 6 finale and in order to celebrate the pokemon season we’ve got a DOUBLE KILL WHO WANTS THAT GUY TO BE A MASTERMIND double bill. Richie takes on Dunsparce. Cunzy takes on Omastar. May or may not include a far too long talk about the going rate for handy men. That Guy’s A Maniac. Why’d He Bite Me?

This week the maniacs talk about how World of Warcraft is not very interesting to look at, the frog/salamander/whale Pokémon Heatran and the top Volcanoes in games (the only Volcanoes they could remember).

Initially this episode was about one of our fave pokemon, Oricorio. But then we go hard into talking about every forms, modes, formes, shapes, variants, varieties, and all that…

Despite both claiming to have done research before this episode, the maniacs discover live, the inspiration behind the Grubbin line of Pokemon. It isn’t a bus, it isn’t a plane, it’s Grubbin! Despite this they do still talk about modes of transport in games (thrilling stuff) plus everyone’s favourite monarch, Queen Slug for A Butt. 

Join us for this week’s episode sponsored by the Pokemon Swellow and brought to you by the concept: vore. We talk realistic Yoshi game, Kiwis and Whales, Kirby and C’thun as well as Love and Deepspace (the game, not the concept)...