Pixelated Playgrounds

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Bryan and Josh dive into Donkey Kong (1994) for the Game Boy, a game that begins as a nostalgic homage to the original arcade classic before quickly transforming into something far more ambitious. After briefly revisiting the familiar opening stages from the 1981 Donkey Kong, the hosts explore how the game expands into a sprawling puzzle-platformer with nearly one hundred additional stages across nine distinct worlds. What makes Donkey Kong ’94 unique is Mario’s surprisingly expansive moveset and the game’s inventive level design. From handstands and backflips to wire spins and careful key-carrying mechanics, we examine how the game encourages experimentation and player expression long before such ideas became common in platformers. Each world introduces new mechanics such as ropes, switches, wind, slippery ice, or environmental puzzles; while intermittent boss encounters with Donkey Kong echo the arcade roots of the series. Its an early expressive platformer and its emphasis on movement mastery and player creativity foreshadows later titles like Super Mario 64. So listen in as we reflect on the legacy of Donkey Kong 94 as a quietly foundational handheld title and a fantastic experience even three decades later.Three Word Reviews:Josh - Bingeable Harbinger PlatformerBryan - Expressive Platformer BlueprintShow Notes:90’s advertisement for Donkey Kong 94

In this episode Bryan and Clint dive into Astro Bot, the 2024 PlayStation 5 platformer developed by Team Asobi and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Building on the foundation of the pack-in hit Astro's Playroom, the studio expands the concept into a full-scale adventure that celebrates three decades of PlayStation history. The guys explore how the game blends inventive platforming, playful level design, and clever uses of the DualSense controller into a tightly paced quest where players rescue lost robots and rebuild their PS5 mothership so the Astro Bots can get their interstellar dance party back on track.Astro Bot balances nostalgia with accessibility, appealing to longtime gamers while remaining instantly readable for kids and newcomers. Listen in as we revisit the game’s joyful structure, colorful hub worlds, creative abilities, spectacular boss battles, and homage levels inspired by iconic PlayStation franchises like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted, and Ape Escape. Astro Bot is a rare AAA platformer bursting with wonder, a game that captures the pure joy of play and bridges generations of players through curiosity, creativity, and delight.Join for the dancing robots, stay for the testimonials from budding, young gamers (AKA Clint’s sons)!Three Word Reviews:Clint - Pure Gaming JoyBryan - Wide Eyed Wonder

On this episode Bryan and Josh drive into Promise Mascot Agency, developed by Kaizen Game Works, the team behind Paradise Killer. Released in April 2025 for Windows, Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, the game blends open-world driving, management sim mechanics, visual novel storytelling, and crime drama into an experience Bryan called his Game of the Year 2025. Set in the cursed town of Kaso-Machi, the story follows exiled yakuza lieutenant Michizane “Michi” Sugawara (voiced by Takaya Kuroda) as he attempts to repay a debt by rebuilding a failing mascot agency alongside his chaotic, foul-mouthed assistant Pink, a literal severed finger with a heart of gold. We explore how the game’s “PS2-feeling” open world, bizarre truck physics, card-battling support system, and management mechanics shouldn’t work on paper but absolutely do in practice. Buoyed by an infectious east-meets-west soundtrack from Alpha Chrome Yayo and Ryo Koike, Promise Mascot Agency delivers a potent dose of earnest absurdity.From negotiating mascot wages and launching Pinky out of a truck-mounted cannon to debating civic policy and upgrading town landmarks, every system feeds into a larger story about found family, labor, accountability, and rebuilding community. So hop into your mascot laden truck and listen in as Bryan and Josh discuss Promise Mascot Agency!Three Word Reviews:Bryan - Uplifting Offbeat SincerityJosh - A Rambling Tale

In this episode, Bryan and Clint ride off into Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Picking up directly after the first game, Warhorse Studios’ historical RPG returns us to early 15th-century Bohemia, following Henry’s journey from blacksmith’s son to reluctant man-at-arms amid political chaos, feudal power struggles, and deeply human moral choices. Along the way, we examine how KCD2’s simulation-driven design—living villages, reputation systems, punishing swordplay, and obsessive historical detail—creates a world where the player always feels like a small cog in a very large, uncaring machine.We also examine the series’ fixation on historical accuracy, immersion, and realism, and how its simulation of everyday medieval life firmly grounds the game’s themes. Bryan and Clint unpack the game’s uneasy relationship with war, its unflinching portrayals of atrocity, religion, and power, and its often uncomfortable parallels to modern politics and class structures. Through character studies of Henry, Hans Capon, Jan Žižka, Father Godwin, and a sprawling ensemble cast, the game strips away fantasy and leans into human truth. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II tells a story that doesn’t just feel real, but revealing.Three Word Reviews:Clint - Bohemian Bastard SimulatorBryan - Veritas Ex Fabula

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Josh Galecki and Bryan Skursha tackle Baby Steps, the 2025 overly literal walking simulator developed by Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, and Bennett Foddy and published by Devolver Digital. Known for games that turn basic movement into existential comedy (QWOP, Getting Over It, etc.), the team delivers another strange, hilarious experiment in control and patience. We embody Nate, a 35-year-old basement-dwelling failson, who is dropped into a vast mountain wilderness and must literally learn how to walk using deliberately awkward controls which turn every footstep into a small triumph or a catastrophic pratfall. Along the way we dig into the open-ended world design, the absence of a map, the optional “gamer bullshit” challenges like hats and dares, and why Baby Steps is less about rage and more about embracing failure, exploration, and weird little stories that only happen because you fell down a hill the wrong way. So listen in as we learn about patience, humility, and how sometimes the only way forward is face-planting, laughing, and taking one more careful step on the path.Three Word Reviews:Bryan - Victory in DefeatJosh - Enjoying the Journey

Happy New Year! To kick things off in 2026 we recorded a quick episode on our individual Top 5 Games of the Year for 2025! So listen in as the guys discuss the top 5 games they enjoyed in 2025 among others, take a look forward to 2026, and just generally chill out and reminisce on a year of gaming!Here’s what we talked about:Look back at 2025The Top 5’s5’s4’s3’s2’s1’sHonorable MentionsGames you missed in 2025 and still want to playThings you’re looking forward to in 2026/Games we have our eyes on to coverTake Care and Keep on Gaming in 2026!!!— — — Spoiler Wall — — —..................The 5’sJosh Game #5 - Slay the PrincessClint Game #5 - Battlefield 6Bryan Game #5 - and RogerThe 4’sJosh Game #4 - CYPHER ZEROClint Game #4 - Hollow Knight SilksongBryan Game #4 - Hollow Knight SilksongThe 3’s Josh Game #3 - Blue PrinceClint Game #3  - The First Berzerker: KhazanBryan Game #3 - Kingdom Come Deliverance 2The 2’s Josh Game #2 - Baby StepsClint Game #2 - ARC RaidersBryan Game #2 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33The 1’s Josh Game #1 - Hollow Knight SilksongClint Game #1- Kingdom Come Deliverance 2Bryan Game #1 - Promise Mascot Agency

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Bryan, Josh, and Clint finally arrive in Pharloom and dive deep into Hollow Knight: Silksong. We all fell in love with Hollow Knight when it launched in 2017 and even covered it on the show back in 2019, making Silksong a long-anticipated return. Team Cherry—Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and Jack Vine—have come a long way since the original Kickstarter, and Silksong’s journey from planned DLC to full sequel reflects a uniquely protracted and unconventional development cycle. Just as notable is the team’s decision to remain intentionally small, preserving creative control, efficiency, and passion while collaborating with key contributors like composer Christopher Larkin to elevate the experience.Silksong represents a major shift from its predecessor, most notably through Hornet, a fully voiced and evolving protagonist whose presence reshapes both narrative and gameplay. The game emphasizes speed, verticality, and tool-driven combat, with Pharloom’s design flipping Hollow Knight’s downward descent into a constant upward climb. We dig into the game’s layered storytelling—Hornet’s personal arc, the history of Pharloom and its people, and the larger cosmic forces at play—alongside its thematic focus on song, memory, and organized religion. Along the way, we debate difficulty, movement quirks, crest builds, boss design, and the shard system for tools. We also discuss Silksong’s ambitious three-act structure, multiple endings, and whether it not only lives up to the original Hollow Knight. So join us as we close out the year exploring Team Cherry’s world of bugs, beasts, beauty, and bosses.Three Word Reviews:Bryan - Smooth as SilkJosh - Flight in FightClint - Solid Send Off

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Josh and Bryan dive into a Roguelite Roundup double feature with Loop Hero (2021) and Ball x Pit (2025), exploring how each game twists genre conventions in its own eccentric way. They start with Loop Hero, the 2021 auto-battling, world-rebuilding oddity from Four Quarters, unpacking its eerie DOS-inspired aesthetic, its “zero-player” design origins, and its signature loop structure that blurs the line between dungeon-master and adventurer. Bryan and Josh break down the tension between player strategy and character automation, how tile placement shapes risk and reward, and why the game’s intentionally opaque systems are both fascinating and frustrating.Next we turn to Ball x Pit, the recently released brick-breaker–meets–city-builder from Kenny Sun and Friends. We discuss the game’s gleefully chaotic blend of chunky 3D constructions and crisp pixel effects, its two intertwined gameplay loops, and its ever-expanding roster of characters, buildings, and more than sixty ball types. The conversation digs into the fusion, fission, and evolution mechanics that make every volley unpredictable, the strategic timing involved in choosing upgrades, and the playful experimentation the design encourages. With its brisk metaprogression, flexible buildcrafting, and constant sense of discovery, Ball x Pit feels tightly crafted and refreshingly energetic.Three Word Reviews:Loop Hero:Bryan - Around in CirclesJosh - Loops Within LoopsBall X Pit:Bryan - Not the PitsJosh - Leans Too Far

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Bryan and Josh dive into and Roger, a short but emotionally powerful experience from developer TearyHand Studio. Initially framed as a horror story, the game follows a girl who wakes to find a stranger in her home, with disorienting minigames and high-contrast visuals amplifying her fear and confusion. They discuss the game’s unusual narrative delivery, its WarioWare-like micro-interactions, minimal text, and evocative sound design. What begins as a tense mystery gradually reveals deeper questions about the protagonist, hinting at something more intimate than danger.Later on they explore how the game’s story revelations transforms earlier gameplay into poignant commentary through mechanics rather than exposition. Its notable that while the game concludes with a Bible verse, its message remains universal, human, and deeply felt. And Roger is a memorable, compassionate experience less about fun and more about understanding, which showcases how interactive storytelling can reframe emotions in a remarkable way.Notes: FlorenceOne of 2025's Best Games, And Roger, Is About God, Love, and Loss (Patrick Klepek, Remap)Three Word Reviews:Bryan - Revelation and ReframingJosh - Confusion and Uncertainty

In this episode, Bryan and Josh dive deep into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the 2025 dark fantasy RPG from French studio Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive. This is the first outing of director Guillaume Broche, formerly of Ubisoft, featuring a powerhouse voice cast including Jennifer English, Ben Starr, and Charlie Cox, and a wildly eclectic soundtrack by Lorien Testard and Alice Duport-Percier that spans classical to dubstep. If that wasn’t enough to draw you in the premise of the game alone is one of the more intriguing in recent memory: For the last 67 years, the island of Lumière has endured the “Gommage,” a ritual in which an ethereal being known as the Paintress erases everyone older than a mysteriously dwindling number. Expedition 33 sets out to confront the paintress, them embark on an exploration of how art, death, and memory intertwine within the game’s Belle Époque-inspired world.Bryan and Josh also unpack the game’s richly layered writing and worldbuilding, noting how the prologue perfectly sets the tone and how the setting pulses with French cultural flair, even down to battling a mime in the opening minutes. Clair Obscur features a truly memorable cast, contributing to a story that’s equal parts tragic and hopeful, and while the combat system’s balance of dodge, parry, and unique “Pictos” and “Luminas” mechanics met the challenge of keeping combat snappy and engaging. However, at the end of it all, Clair Obscur’s core themes of death and grief give it both its weight and its beauty, cementing its place as one of 2025’s standout video game experiences.Notes: The impossible (true) stories behind the making of Clair Obscur Expedition 33The Ones Who Walk Away from OmelasClair Obscur: Expedition 33 | LumièreThree Word Reviews:Bryan - What Comes AfterJosh - Overcaffeinated, Moving, Obscure

In this episode Josh and Bryan are talking about Pyre developed by Supergiant Games and released in 2017 for PC, Mac, Linux, and PlayStation 4. Pyre is considered by some to be Supergiant’s most experimental and heartfelt title, a mystical mix of visual novel and ritualistic sport. From the creators of Bastion, Transistor, and Hades, Pyre stands apart for its boldness a “mournful revolution” where victory means saying goodbye to a beloved comrade, and every loss fuels the greater cause of rebellion. With lush art by Jen Zee, music and sound by Darren Korb and Ashley Barrett, and the powerful writing of Greg Kasavin, Pyre delivers a story of loss and revolution. Join us as we resurrect this lost episode of Pixelated Playgrounds to discuss literacy as rebellion, the beauty of bittersweet freedom, and why even in defeat, there’s purpose in pressing onward. Show Notes:Gamedeveloper.com - How Supergiant Games aggressively prototyped its way into PyreDarren Korb going hard as usual (Never to Return, Supergiant In Concert)Three Word Reviews:Bryan - Rites, Remorse, RevolutionJosh - Single Player Sport