Advertise on podcast: Podouken

It's the start of the Three's Company series but instead of Jack, Janet, and Chrissy (it's an old joke, look it up) we're talking about Pimple, Rash, and Zitz who star in one of the best, but woefully undersupported, beat 'em ups to hit the arcades - the Rare and Electronics Arts collab, Battletoads. What insane decisions did Rare make to keep this game fresh? Which collects more dust: a navel or Jaz drive slot? How much profanity was removed from Battletoads prior to it hitting arcades? What was the name of that kids game show where they would run through the maze at the end and velcro games to their vest and helmet? Answers to this episode's listener questions include our arcade pick to take on a rampaging kaiju destroying our town, which arcade character has the best hat, and what the heck do we do for our day jobs. Join the Podouken Discord and ask your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content: https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716.

This episode is about a game you've definitely heard of but likely never knew was an arcade game. Lemony Vengeance joins the show to talk about his efforts to keep this Valve and Taito arcade collaboration alive. We're talking Gordon Freeman, airboats, gravity guns and headcrabs as we discuss the super rare Half-Life 2: Survivor. How did Lemony bring this Survivor back from its Street Fighter tomb? Is the GabeCube coming to save us? Will there ever be a Half-Life 3? What are some of our scariest game pickups? We also answer some deeply personal arcade collecting questions like how many storage units we own and cover the joys of operating arcade and pinball games for the public. Join the Podouken Discord and ask your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content: https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716.

Let's go! Ah, the early 90s when the perfect date night meant hopping into a sit-down arcade game based on buddy cop movies, grabbing the steering wheel with one hand, gun with the other, and having you and your passenger blast away the bad guys in gory pixelated glory. Was there anything better than Namco's unique driver/shooter Lucky & Wild? Do you believe the story that Lucky & Wild drew no inspiration from Tango & Cash? How do we like DotEmu's new Marvel Cosmic Invasion (we swear it's not a paid advertisement - unless they want it to be)? Was this entire game a thinly veiled anti-tobacco message? What exactly is that Maserati's rearview mirror attached to? Some holiday-themed questions for this episode include what gamer gifts we do want (and don't want); asking us to identify our ghosts of arcade past, present, and future; and, do we weaponize our candy canes? Join the Podouken Discord and ask your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content: https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716. Thanks to Mike aka Bizzaroaids on the Podouken Discord for the Listeners' Choice game nomination!

The late '80s were packed with pop-culture obsessions: arcades, action movies, neon aesthetics, and of course, a nationwide fascination with ninjas. Sleek, masked warriors showed up everywhere from toys to TV, shaping the era's love of fast, flashy combat. But no arcade game captured the ninja craze as perfectly as Sega's  iconic side-scrolling adventure, Shinobi. How did Shinobi perform a bait and switch on poor kids at the arcade? Is a mining engineering degree the perfect educational pursuit to get into game design? Did Pastblaster enjoy Free Play Florida 2025? What is the earliest ninja arcade game and can the hosts guess it even with one of them owning it? Listener questions include what our favorite "one then done" fighting game is and if you could have one power from an original video game character what would it be? Join the Podouken Discord and ask your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content: https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716. Thanks to Talysman on the Podouken Discord for the Listeners' Choice game nomination!

The music is fading and the lights are coming up on our Rhythm miniseries. Time for the final encore as each host picks one more game for this rhythm Arcade Obscura. The first pick is a helluva ride that features a very familiar arcade character. The next pick takes us to heaven with a development contract made in hell. Our final pick may be one of the most obscure games we've ever featured and requires you to bring a friend. We field your questions like if any arcade machine could be perfectly resurrected, what would be our choice to bring back from the dead, and which video game music would we like to hear performed by ukulele? Join the Podouken Discord and ask your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content: https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716.

It's our penultimate episode of the Rhythm miniseries (and hey, we also hit episode 150)! We return to BEMANI to explore their sub-sub-culture game that allows you to ruin good music just like real DJs, Sound Voltex (or SDVX as the cooler kids say). What is it about the Bop It nature of this game that causes some people to love it or hate it? Want to hear our spoiler-free thoughts on Tron: Ares? How embarrassed should we feel picking energetic anime girls as our avatars? Are you ready to submit your pick for our next Listeners' Choice?! We have some odd questions to answer this time: who would win in a horror battle royale between Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, Pinhead, and Michael Myers; and what spooky movie deserves an arcade game in an unconventional genre? Join the Podouken Discord and post your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content (like the inane questions from our Podouken Picks): https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716

Sega is no stranger to the arcade rhythm games but they really hit their stride with their Performai series of games. So scan your Aime card, select your song, and let's play the game that literally translates to "pre-teen kids who think they're cooler than they are playing a rhythm game" - Chunithm. What is it about Chunithm that makes it so addictive? Do you really need gloves to play? Was Adam a part of any other bands? Why does Chunithm have a penguin mascot? We teach our co-hosts about a non-arcade interest that we have (or at least talk about what it would be) and discuss which arcade character would be our podcast understudy. Join the Podouken Discord and post your own questions that could be included in a future episode so we never have to rant like this again: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content (like the inane questions from our Podouken Picks): https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716

This "Behind the Music" is an 8-part retrospective of the biggest rhythm game franchise to ever hit the States (and the reason so many of us still have plastic guitars stashed in our hall closets). Featuring opening acts Harmonix and Red Octane, and headliner trio that gave us Guitar Hero Arcade - Activision, Konami, and Raw Thrills What is the musical instrument-based peripheral you never got but always wanted in a Guitar Hero or Rock Band game? Could we see a reunion tour of Geriatric Drive-by in our lifetimes? Why is Rob fed up with FedEx? How are fan-created games like Clone Hero and YARG keeping the home rock star experience alive? In lieu of answering listener questions we just go into a long rant about the Nintendo Direct. Well, some of us do. Join the Podouken Discord and post your own questions that could be included in a future episode so we never have to rant like this again: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content (like if we put our socks on sock-sock-shoe-shoe or sock-shoe-sock-shoe style): https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716

Namco set out to create a super popular rhythm game and accidentally created the most popular mascots since Pac-Man. Don-chan and Katsu-chan are unavoidable as we talk about the extremely popular in the East but largely ignored in the West drum game, Taiko No Tatsujin! Why was this game never released in the U.S. until now? How did an instrument mishap lead to the most embarrassing moment of young Rob's life? Is every arcade game released after the year 2000 just a Playstation in disguise? How did Donkey Kong steal this game's popularity? We answer your questions like what arcade game did we initial hate but grew to love over time (#RedemptionArc), what our favorite non-video game arcade attraction (excluding pinball), and what IP we predict will be the next new beat 'em up announced. Join the Podouken Discord and post your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content (like our third favorite cheese): https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716

Finally a rhythm game that is unlikely to give you a cardiac arrest. We explore the often mispronounced (hint: the "j" is silent) BEMANI hit that is DDR for your fingers, jubeat! What is the magic behind this geometric anomaly of an arcade game? Is Scatman or Y.M.C.A. the most beloved of all western songs by Japanese game developers? How hard is it to get a jubeat in the States? Does everyone want a Dance 86.4 Funky Radio Station now? This episode we answer questions about what hobbies we'd pursue if we weren't always fixing arcade games and who are our favorite real-life people in arcade or pinball games. Join the Podouken Discord and post your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content (like our third favorite cheese): https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716

This miniseries is all about rhythm - rhythm games, that is. We recognize that three middle-aged white guys may not be the best option to talk about this episode's game so we asked local (and international) legends Chris Austin and Leon Brunson to give us an insight into the strategy, gameplay, and tournament scene of Konami's Dance Dance Revolution. What kind of hardware do Leon and Chris (literally) bring to the table? How many times have we moved Adam's DDR? What ever happened to Toshiba? Did we identify the perfect footwear for home DDR play? Questions this episode include what arcade game perfectly captures the spirit of Florida and what was our first arcade and pinball fix. Join the Podouken Discord and post your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content (like our third favorite cheese): https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716

It's the end of the Light Gun miniseries and we're down to our last remaining bullets. Now it's time for each host to shoot their shot on their pick of an obscure or underrated Light Gun arcade game. Did it finally happen? Did we pick the same game?! Adam brings the cinematic rage with his choice. Jarrod channels familiar territory with a game made by familiar people from a familiar company. Rob goes rogue with a controversial game that may or may not break all the rules (we'll let you decide). The listener questions in this episode include our favorite of the light gun games, how we define toys versus action figures, and our least favorite game from our favorite arcade company. Join the Podouken Discord and ask your own questions that could be included in a future episode or tell us why we're wrong to rank your favorite Capcom beat 'em up dead last: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content: https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716

It's the last featured episode of the Light Gun series! The portal to carnage opens again as we dig up arguably Sega's best light gun series - and arguably the best game in the series - with The House of the Dead 2. When will G-nome Theory be touring next? How did the AM1 team's demand for more time to work on the sequel lead to a hardware upgrade? Will you suffer like G did with some of the rabbit holes we go down in this episode? Do you remember where you were on 9/9/99? Want to know about arcade cabinet hygiene and our first arcade game memories? Tune in! Want to ask something yourself? Join the Podouken Discord and post your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content (like our third favorite cheese): https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716

Lights go dim, the tokens drop, the carousel spins - it'll never stop. From haunted houses to freakish feats, the bosses roar and shotgun greets. So pump that gun and don't delay, the Midway's mad and here to stay. This ain't no game for hearts too civil… It's the podcast ode to CarnEvil! Why do we know so much about the local "insane asylum" called Sunland? Do jiggle physics apply to ghostly apparitions? Has Rob taken Halloween decorating too far? Did CarnEvil give us the first video game version of Krampus? The listener questions answered in this episode include what insane occupation an arcade game has trained us for and, in a Saw scenario, what arcade attract mode would we least want to be trapped with? Join the Podouken Discord and ask your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content: https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716

Woo-wee! There's no avoiding it any longer. While these games don't rank highly on our personal lists, we must talk about one of the most influential and long-lasting series in light gun arcade games, Big Buck Hunter. Do we represent the snobby gaming community? How did appealing to the "Bubba factor" make this popular game series thrive? What is the connection between the hosts, Big Buck Hunter, and the Florida State University football team? Who's that I hear… is it… could it be… Sound Boy?! Our listener questions in this episode ask us to forecast what arcade game will have the largest legacy 50 years from now, what's a question a first-time arcade buyer should ask, and our favorite twist or innovation in a light gun game. Join the Podouken Discord and ask your own questions that could be included in a future episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we post our listener question segments and additional content: https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716