This Week on Post Games:

Act 1: Game Freak's Thirty Years of Brilliant False Starts

Act 2: Beast of Reincarnation Won’t Be Ignored

Patreon Bonus: Game Freak’s Top 5 Games (That Aren’t Pokémon)

Act 3: A New Game Magazine? In This Economy?!

Guests:

Robert Sephazon: game designer, producer, historian, and curator

Ryan Rigney: Editor-in-chief, Chisel

Act 1: Game Freaks Thirty Years of Brilliant False Starts

The Pokémon origin story (Post Games)

Fans treat Nintendo differently (Post Games)

Pokémon Red And Blue: The Kotaku Retro Review (Kotaku)

Pocket Card Jockey (Wiki)

HarmoKnight (Wiki)

The Ultimate Game Freak (Time)

Act 2: Beast of Reincarnation Won’t Be Ignored

Beast of Reincarnation (Steam)

Game Freak ‘prioritising’ original game projects (VGC)

Drill Dozer – 2005 Developer Interview (shmuplations)

The Plucky Squire (Steam)

James Turner (Bulbapedia)

Beast of Reincarnation Game Director Answers All Our Burning Questions About the Pokemon Developer's Upcoming Action Game (IGN)

Beast of Reincarnation: Parrying Helps Your Dog (Game Informer)

Patreon Bonus: Game Freak’s Top 5 Games (That Aren’t Pokemon)

5. Pocket Card Jockey (Wiki)

Umamusume: Pretty Derby (Wiki)

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! review – saddle up for eccentricity (The Guardian)

4. HarmoKnight (Wiki)

HarmoKnight Review - BNGR! (Balrog/YouTube)

3. Mario & Wario (Wiki)

Mario & Wario (SNES) Playthrough (NintendoComplete/YouTube)

2. Pulseman (Wiki)

Pulseman playthrough Longplay (FCPlaythroughs/YouTube)

1. Drill Dozer (Wiki)

Drill Dozer Review (IGN)

Act 3: A New Game Magazine? In This Economy?!

Chisel (ChiselMag.com)

The Historian of Speed: A YouTuber began telling the stories behind video game world records, and discovered an audience of millions (Chisel)

Objects of Power: Two recent books imagine strange institutions filled with spooky artifacts (Chisel)

Game File (gamefile.news)

Mothership (Mothership.blog)

Push to Talk (pushtotalk.gg)

This Week in Video Game Links

The best games of 2026 so far, picked by NPR's staff (NPR)

Revisit E3 Like You've Never Seen it Before (The Video Game History Foundation/YouTube)

In An Era Of AI Slop, Meccha Chameleon Embraces Human-Crafted Chaos (GameSpot)

How much AI do players want in their games? (The GameDiscoverCo Show)

The Women Who Kill Are the Ones That Saved Me (Stop Caring)

Red Kiss – guiding vampires through a blood-soaked cold war Berlin (The Guardian)

The PS6 sure sounds like a handheld (The Verge)

How Videogames Feed the War Machine (ArtReview)

Best Of Both Worlds: Capcom is in the midst of a Golden Age, and we spoke with producer Masachika Kawata about how the publisher / developer has managed this during an era of extreme industry volatility (Game Informer)

The Addams Family pinball: An oral history (Design Room)

Free Game of the Week: MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls open beta

This open beta runs from now until Sunday at 11:59pm PT.

I'll be real. I've never "gotten good" at a fighting game. But every couple of years, I convince myself I finally will make the time for some new fighters that looks totally sick. This year, Marvel Tokon is said game. From the Steam summary: "Assemble your team of legendary Marvel characters in the ultimate 4v4 tag team fighter." (Steam)

What Else I’m Enjoying

The Breeders - Five songs - 1993 MTV Studios (YouTube)

Broke: Pack the Supreme Court. Woke: Pack ALL of the Courts (Jamelle Bouie/YouTube)

Comic Shops Set Records in 2025. This Year has Left it in the Dust. (SKTCHD)