The Insert Credit Show

Legendary podcaster and founder of Maximum Fun Jesse Thorn joins Ash and Brandon for summer speedruns, a Def Jam: Vendetta update, and the besta Bethesda. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Ash Parrish, Brandon Sheffield, and Jesse Thorn. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

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Discuss this episode in the Insert Credit Forums

SHOW NOTES:

Vampire

Diphthong

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

“Striker to the line! Leg it! Leg it!”

selectbutton podcast

Topher Florence

GameRankings.com

WatchMojo

Splitscreen

Kotaku

Retronauts

Bonk series

PC Engine

Sega Saturn

Taito

Gamasutra

GDC

Jordan, Jesse, Go!

Jordan Morris

Judge John Hodgman

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Maximum Fun

Jesse Thorn

Monk

Never Not Funny

Archive.org

1: What’s going on with speedrunning lately? (04:30)

Summer Games Done Quick

Kotaku: 8 Incredible Speedruns You Have To Watch Right Now

Balatro by adef in 1:04:49

Tetris by meme and huff 36:00

Sonic Dream Team by huds601 and Argick in 1:06:25

Hollow Knight: Silksong by mathulu in 1:42:41

Peanut Butter the Speedrunning Dog

Ken Griffey Jr. Presents MLB by Peanut Butter the Dog & JSR_ in 29:48

Mr. Bones by shmumbler and Spectral in 36:09

Ep. 423 - Explode My Bones

Gracie’s Game Gauntlet

Superman 64

Wayne’s World

Costco Connection

Gray Matter Inc.

The Crow: City of Angels

God Hand

2: How are old bad games bad differently from how new bad games are bad? (11:32)

PowerWash Simulator

Roblox

Call of Ponchy: Mahjong Warfare

3: Design a new Def Jam fighting game for 2026 (17:11)

Def Jam: Vendetta

PaRappa the Rapper

Scarface

Ludacris

WC

Jay-Z

Mankind

Stone Cold Steve Austin

Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style

Shaq Fu

Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver

Evan Narcisse

Zoe Tunnell

Carmen Electra

Lil’ Kim

Megan Thee Stallion

Bayonetta

Umamusume: Pretty Derby

Crazy Taxi series

Cappadonna

Chap hop

MC Chris

They Might Be Giants

John Hodgman

Musique concrète

Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer

Trap

Grime

Drill

King of Fighters series

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2

Snoop Dogg

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Too Short

Roxanne Shante

Yakuza series

E-40

4: Are video games artsy? (25:27)

Katamari Damacy

Walking simulator

Yume Nikki

Tactile Dome

Viewfinder

5: LeFish asks, would you rather live one year of your life with big head mode, loudly speak like a Mario, or only be able to walk like you’re tank controlled? (34:07)

Big Head Mode

Mario

Tank controls

Charles Martinet

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Yes Man

Eat Pray Love

Granada

Pop’n Tanks!

Bolo

Girls und Panzer series

Armored Core series

Cowboy Bebop

Yoko Kanno

6: What’s the best-a Bethesda? (43:27)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Starfield

Fallout series

IHRA Professional Drag Racing 2005

Mass Effect series

Ghostwire: Tokyo

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Wolfenstein 3D

Ghost of Yotei

Kumail Nanjiani

Fallout

Taskmaster

Peacemaker

Steve Agee

Paul Scheer

Suicide Squad

John Ostrander

John Economos

James Gunn

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)

Paul Rubens

Dana Gould

Gex

Dr. Zaius

Hanging With Dr. Z

Planet of the Apes series

Blaine Capatch

The Merv Griffin Show (Seinfeld)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Equip This On (56:33)

Iori Yagami

Red

Soma Cruz

Kazuma Kiryu

The Bouncer (Sion Barzahd)

Sora

Kefka

Luso Clemens

Alucard

Tingle

Recommendations and Outro (01:21:18):

Jesse: Delete Out of the Park Baseball off your work computer, The Larry Sanders Show, Vincent Price Art Museum, Vincent Price vs. Peter Lorre in Wine Tasting Contest

Ash: Unbeatable OST, Theater of Blood (1973)

Brandon: Stella Chang’s music, the films of Marc Price

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Our illustrious panel covers the end of games on discs, Marathon Steve, and how much money Ash has spent on Love and Deepspace. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

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Discuss this episode in the Insert Credit Forums

SHOW NOTES:

You Smoke Too Tough. Your Swag Too Different. Your Bitch Is Too Bad. They’ll Kill You

“You notice a dog smell.”

Taekwondo

Cleveland Dragon Boat Association

Aikido

Bouldering Grades

Bouldering

Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

Rock climbing

1: Can we address Sony? (06:20)

Kotaku: Sony Ending Discs For All New PlayStation Games Starting In 2028

Eurogamer: Sony announces an end to the PS3 and Vita digital stores

Kotaku: PlayStation Is Deleting 551 Movies From Customers’ Accounts

E3 2013: Xbox One

Star Fox

Resident Evil 4

GameCube

GameStop

Kotaku: Xbox Is Reportedly Testing A Way To Digitize Your Physical Games

Funko Pop

Kingdom Hearts series

Tomb Raider series

Bloodborne

Limited Run

FanGamer

Strictly Limited

Statement from VGHF director Frank Cifaldi on the discontinuation of physical PlayStation media, and the closure of the PS3 and PSP digital storefronts.

2: What’s the longest you’ve played a game before realizing you were playing it the wrong way? (12:50)

Aftermath: I Believe In The Idea Of ‘Marathon Steve’

Marathon

Pokemon series

Pidgey

Rattata

Sonic the Hedgehog series

MMO

Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes II

PC Engine

Final Fantasy XIV

Infinity Nikki

3: What are the most inventive ways the camera has been used in a video game? (17:56)

Fatal Frame

Nintendo 3DS

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Love and Deepspace

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Silent Hill

Silent Hill (2006)

Pac-Man

Karateka

Apple II

Jordan Mechner

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

Alfred Hitchcock

Square Enix

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VIII

4: What should Jaffe do about the fan response to his popular romance game? (24:21)

Kotaku: Love And Deepspace Devs Decide To Cancel New Werewolf Love Interest After Fans Reportedly Send Them Cow Shit

Mass Effect 3 ending controversy

BTS

Metroid series

5: spencergifs asks, how long should it take to make a game? (34:15)

This month’s monthly bonus episode

Riddler

Star Citizen

Blue Prince

Sos Sosowski

Lazy Kickers

Claude

Grand Theft Auto VI

Sega Genesis

Zoop

6: On which non-video game subjects does most or all of your knowledge on them come from video games? (40:35)

Assembly language

Golf

Baseball

R.B.I. Baseball

Volleyball

Haikyu!!

Rock Band series

La Li Lu Le Lo

Templars

Cooking Mama

Nintendo 3DS Guide Louvre

Animal Crossing series

Jiangshi

Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego?

Devils Lake

Persona series

Koryo Tours: Pyongyang Racer

Roger Maris

7: What is The Godfather Part III (1990) of video games? (46:07)

Kingdom Hearts III

Sofia Coppola

Shenmue III

Final Fantasy III

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Dino Crisis 3

Fallout series

Atari

Atari Recharged series

Masters of the Universe (2026)

Bubsy series

Sonic the Hedgehog 4

Sonic Mania

Toy Story series

LIGHTNING ROUND: The Price is Sprite (52:04)

Recommendations and Outro (01:04:59):

Frank:

matttt - comic & manga history

Brandon:

The Amstrad GX4000: A VERY Underrated Console | Kim Justice

I Love Boosters (2026)

Quadrophonia - Cozmic Jam

Blu-Ray.com

Auntie Ash’s Self-Care Corner:

Take your shirt off

Write shit down

This week’s Insert Credit Show is brought to you by patrons like you. Thank you.

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Frank, Ash, and Brandon answer questions about episodic games, the ever-changing “average gamer,” and full-frontal Mario.

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:

Video Game History Foundation

Sonic Sez

Punky Brewster

“I’m brave, I’m hairy, and your dad loves me.”

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - The Lost Woods Theme

Alarmo

Jay

John Mayer - Waiting on the World to Change

Evanesence - Bring Me to Life

Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

1: When should a game be released in chapters as opposed to all at once? (04:28)

Deltarune

Esper’s bluesky post

Sam & Max series

Toby Fox

Poppy Playtime

Dispatch

Telltale Games

AdHoc Studio

Dreamcast

Grauen no Torikago Kapitel 3: Kansei

GameTap

American McGee’s Grimm

Katamari Damacy

Tim Burton

Temu

2: How old should a game be before it gets a remake? (09:54)

The Last of Us series

Resident Evil series

Silent Hill series

Final Fantasy VII: Remake

Metal Gear Solid series

MindsEye

Star Fox

Disney’s Robin Hood

Five Nights at Freddy’s series

3: What would you consider the worst timed video game releases in history? (15:18)

Kotaku: Konami Is Suing To Unmask Whoever’s Responsible For The Major Metal Gear Solid 2 Source Code Leak

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp

Propeller Arena

Grand Theft Auto VI

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Doom Eternal

Barbenheimer

Hades

Battleborn

Overwatch

The Outer Worlds

Outer Wilds

Duke Nukem Forever

4: What is an uncle game? (20:06)

The Guardian: Long live the ‘unc game’

AAVE

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

World of WarCraft

Madden series

FIFA series

Wordle

Spelling Bee

Roblox

Mecca Chameleon

Mina the Hollower

Friendslop

Grand Theft Auto V

NCAA Football series

NBA 2K series

NBA Jam series

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Tiger Woods PGA series

Street Fighter II

Sonic the Hedgehog

Guilty Gear series

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series

Def Jam: Fight for NY

Tony Hawk skateboarding series

Lode Runner

Duke Nukem series

Atari

Coleco

Intellivision

Sega Genesis

Mortal Kombat

5: Room Check! (29:39)

youtube.com/insertcreditshow

Soundsheets

Darius

Space Harrier

Quartet

Fantasy Zone

Master System

Osamu Murata

Casette tape

KQED

Forum

Sega

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

City Year Cleveland

Jesse Owens

V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta (2005)

Scarabaeidae

Dung beetle

6: SuperDQP asks, which game franchise should get a “the movie the game” treatment? (38:45)

Street Fighter the Movie the Game

Super Mario Bros. (1993)

Super Mario series

CD-i

Midway Games

Mortal Kombat series

NARC

Cyberpunk 2077

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003)

Naughty Dog

Crystal Dynamics

Java

JavaScript

Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)

Paul W. S. Anderson

Wii

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

Jim Carrey

The Riddler

Sonic and the Black Knight

007: First Light

King of Fighters (2009)

Tekken (2009)

Need for Speed (2014)

Gran Turismo (2023)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Pride or Die (46:12)

Recommendations and Outro (57:50):

Brandon:

not any of the Jaws sequels

Nirvana X-Rom - Wired Into Your Brain

Priscilla Page’s Predator and Prey essays

Karaoke Videos - 99% Invisible

InnerSpiral’s I Built This Body To Hold Yours

Jim Wilson’s Center Core Never More

seiji oda - LAST SUMMER

Ash: Road to Empress II or maybe not because it has a lot of Gen AI

Jaffe: give us money! Or leave a review

This week’s Insert Credit Show is brought to you by patrons like you. Thank you.

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The panel you know and love discusses the video game industry crash, Grand Theft Auto VI expectations, and the human body’s fun port. 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:

“Come and see me if you’re interested in being homeless.”

Batman

Digital Eclipse

Kotaco

Scrub

1: Are we in a video game industry crash? (06:47)

Gabe Newell Just Bought A $70 Million Mansion In Florida

Devil’s Crush

Time Cruise

Bandicoot

Xbox

2: Is there any scenario where Grand Theft Auto VI is a flop? (11:18)

Grand Theft Auto VI

Rockstar Games

Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

3: What are the biggest tells that a once ambitious game developer is beginning to rest on their laurels? (15:22)

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake

NBA 2K22 - Jake From State Farm

Flappy Bird

iBeer

Angry Birds

Splitting the G: The Guinness Beer Challenge, Explained

Age of Empires II: HD Edition

4: What QA notes do you have for the developers of reality? (21:33)

The Elder Scrols IV: Oblivion

MMO

Spider-Man

5: Dillson asks years ago, who will the next developer or publisher or voice actor to announce an NFT project? (27:35)

NFT

Ubisoft

Snoop Dogg

RGG Studios

Square-Enix

Tencent

Love and Deepspace

Tim Sweeney

All My Apes Gone

New Coke

Rare

Donkey Kong series

Battletoads series

Yooka-Laylee series

Amiga

Simulmondo

6: On a personal level, what video games most engage your imagiation? (34:16)

Archive Of Our Own

Love and Deepspace

Dragon Age series

Baldur’s Gate III

Any Austin

Indika

Crow Country

7: What are the best games to have on your phone when kids ask if you have games on your phone? (39:47)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Call of Duty series

FIFA series

Michael Brough

Void Pyramid

Ramble Planet

Ash’s bluesky post about phone games for kids

Alto’s Odyssey

Tiny Wings

Holedown

Slice & Dice

Zaga-33

Threes!

Desert Golfing

LIGHTNING ROUND: Game Namers (44:20)

Recommendations and Outro (01:04:48):

Ash: Duppy Detective Tashia, thank a black person in your life, thank a queer person in your life

Brandon: Submit your game to the Game Industry Hardship Fund, Zdzisława Sośnicka, Japanese instrumental Jazz Fusion and Light Jazz playlist for Ash

This week’s Insert Credit Show is brought to you by patrons like you. Thank you.

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Your Insert Credit panel covers the rest of the news from Summer Game Fest, where games come from, and Mortal Kombat fetishism.

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:

Watch episodes with full video on YouTube

“My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish, my Christian Dior, Kingdom Hearts IV.”

Kingdom Hearts IV

Midtown Comics

007: First Light

GoldenEye 007

Pokemon series

Phantasy Star II

Ys: Books I & II

PC Engine

GameFAQs

1: Anything interesting at the other summer game events we didn’t cover last time? (05:36)

Summer Game Fest

PlayStation State of Play

Xbox Showcase

Nintendo Direct

Gears Of War: E-Day Is An Xbox Console Exclusive, And Is Not Coming To PS5

Kingdom Hearts fans cry foul over AI-generated artwork claims

God of War Laufey

Ocarina of Time Remake

Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

Legend of Zelda movie

Spyro: A Realm Beyond

Toys For Bob Goes Indie

Amiibo

Mike Fahey

Tupac Appears in New RGG Studios Game

Snoop Dogg

Yakuza series

Movement To Remove Voice Actor Who Has Admitted To Sexual Assault Has Yakuza Fans At Breaking Point

Shaq

Kurt Cobain and Johnny Cash sing YMCA in “Band Hero”

Marilyn Monroe

Zombie

gen Atlas

Day of the Devs

Tim Schafer

2: What are we going to do when every triple-A new game has AI? (19:37)

Ys series

3: What other Final Fantasy characters should be distributed to fighting games? (21:14)

Cloud Strife

Sephiroth

Super Smash Bros. series

Clive Rosfield

Tekken series

Tifa Lockhart

Street Fighter series

Guilty Gear series

Kimahri Ronso

Noctis Lucis Caelum

Sol Badguy

Vaan

Final Fantasy XII

Vincent Valentine

Jack Garland

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

SoulCalibur series

Mortal Kombat series

Squall Leonhart

Samurai Shodown series

Auron

Cyan Garamonde

Final Fantasy VI

Cait Sith

Bloody Roar series

Altered Beast

3-D WorldRunner

Dark Presence

Galloping Ghost

Aerith Gainsborough

Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring

Rumble Roses series

Dead or Alive series

Final Fantasy X-2

Yuna

Rikku

Paine

Spice Girls

Sporty Spice

Baby Spice

Skullgirls series

Yuffie Kisaragi

Lulu

ONLINE MULTIPLAYER: What do YOU think the John Waters’ Pink Flamingos (1972) of video games is? (29:48)

4: Connrr asks, where do video games come from? (32:28)

Shigeru Miyamoto

Cronus

Rhea

Nintendogs

Taekwondo

Beijing Opera

Jackie Chan

Sammo Hung

Yuen Biao

Rampage 2: Universal Tour

5: If you were programming a video game orchestral concert, what obscure track would you drop in there? (38:45)

Sunset Park (Act 3) - Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble

Sonic 2 Music: Chemical Plant Zone

Knuckles Chaotix - Seascape

The Terminator

Tommy Tallarico

Sylvan Tale - Intro

Panzer Dragoon series

Final Fantasy XIV

Flow

Answers

Footfalls

Intellivision Lives - My Intellivision

Infogrames Rocks My World

Sonic Spinball - Toxic Caves

X-Men

Taz-Mania

That One Song From Resident Evil Directors Cut

6: What is the One Piece of video games? (45:15)

One Piece

Star Citizen

“Clowns farting”: The wild story behind Resident Evil’s worst soundtrack

Luffy

Pokemon series

Metal Gear series

Touhou series

Halo series

LIGHTNING ROUND: Name Design - AFI’s Top 100 Film Quotes (50:47)

AFI’s 100 YEARS…100 MOVIE QUOTES

Recommendations and Outro (01:07:12):

Brandon: Hey, Sexuality by Lorelei and the Ghost, The Great Silence (1968), ****Shopping (1994), Game Industry Hardship Fund, ElFamosoDemon

Frank: Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Ash: Kotaku, Casiopea

Jaffe: BIG BOOL

This week’s Insert Credit Show is brought to you by patrons like you. Thank you.

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