Ep. 417 - Large Mangle

Frank, Ash, and Brandon hang out and talk about Steam’s censorship, friendslop, and the Never Gonna Give You Up of video games. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman. Watch episodes with full video on YouTube Discuss this episode in the Insert Credit Forums SHOW NOTES: “I may be damp, but I have a cheerful character!” Tootsie Roll Half Price Books Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth Fireball Cinnamon Whisky Jeppson’s Malört Carly Rae Jepsen New car smell Autoeroticism 1: How, if at all, should video game distribution services be screening submissions of video games? (05:15) Game Developer: Santa Ragione co-founder Pietro Righi Riva on Horses, Steam, and possible closure of the studio Horses Steam South Park: The Stick of Truth Hyperdimension Neptunia ESRB Epic Games Store itch.io 2: Where is the line between inspiration and plagarism? (11:40) Critter Crunch Money Idol Exchanger AstroPop Magical Drop ChatGPT Steve Engelhart Batman: the Animated Series Green Lantern Batman: Dark Detective The Dark Knight (2008) Guy Gardner Superman (2025) Legends of the DC Universe 3: What are the best video game tiles? (16:43) Chaos Engine Vid Grid News Tower Loop Hero Mahjong Lucky That Way by Brad Fregger 4: What is the newest kind of video game? (22:36) Extraction shooter Friendslop Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Second Life Ultima Habitat Habbo Hotel Demon’s Souls Soulslike Rogue Roguelike Metroidvania Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Metroid Castlevania God Hand Bushido Blade Battle royale PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Minecraft DayZ Motoroader MC Battle Royale The Hunger Games Tommy Tallarico A Statement from Frank Cifaldi (30:01) Rolls-Royce Motor Cars 5: Esper Quinn asks, who is the best game developer in literature? (32:33) Ready Player One Diamond Age Gandalf Dragon Quest series Akira Toriyama Yuji Horii Shigesato Itoi Black Mirror: Bandersnatch The Riddler Mary Shelley Death Stranding Hideo Kojima Frankenstein The Adventures of Batman & Robin Batman licensees Macaw45 Batman (1989) The Bat Signal lights up the sky. It must be… Bat-Octoberfest. 6: Should every roleplaying game have romance options? (39:56) Fire Emblem series Fable The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth 7: What is the Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up of video games? (45:44) Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up Bugs Bunny Among Us Call of Duty series Fortnite 9gag Bored Panda Ebaumsworld Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Dizzy series Grand Theft Auto series Akira slide Cloud Strife Legend of Zelda series Chris Person Aftermath Indiana Jones the image Frank shared in chat (53:30) National Treasure series Nicholas Cage LIGHTNING ROUND: Jaffe didn’t come up with a name for this one but he’s asking the panel to name games from a specific year and they’re knocked out if they can’t (54:12) Recommendations and Outro (01:19:29): Brandon: Please review Demonschool on Steam if you’ve bought it, Doritos has three levels of spiciness now Ash: News Tower Frank: Lucky That Way by Brad Fregger This week’s Insert Credit Show is brought to you by patrons like you. Thank you. This week’s horrible buzzer was sent in by selib. Thanks! To submit your own horrible buzzer, send an original recording no longer than two seconds in mp3 or wav format to [email protected], and maybe we’ll use it on the show! Subscribe: RSS, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more!