That guy's a Maniac...

Bump in the night! Ooooh a skellington with a spiderweb pumpkin. Scary stuff. This week the maniacs talk about video game fears IN THE REAL WORLD. Find out what fears grips the maniacs in the wee hours. Where is it not safe to save?

It's been... how shall we say? A hot minute since I last gave an update on my mission to empty out all of the legendary pokémon, special pokémon available from in game trades from NPCs and events and get all these guys with as many ribbons as possible from the Pokémon games going all the way back to 2002's Pokémon Sapphire all the way through to Pokémon Violet. The rules of the challenge are here  and progress to date from Pokémon Fire Red , Pokémon Colosseum , Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness , Third generation spinoffs and lastly Pokémon Sapphire can be found in the respective hyperlinks. Or for convenience you can find the whole series here . Corners have been cut. Sanity has been tested. I've spent the last eight months sort of and sort of not trying to evacuate the hell out of my copy of Pokémon Diamond , the first mainline pokémon game on the Nintendo DS. Why has it taken so long? What's the hold up? What state did I leave the game in first time around? Listen on to

  This week the maniacs continue their tirade of coming up with foolproof ways to remember all the type match ups from Pokémon. This weeks contenders are Ice, Fighting and Poison types… and these ones have a lot of unpacking to do.

This week the maniacs have a hot shot Character, Item, Level and then revel, in coming up with fool proof ways to remember all the type match ups from Pokémon. Is your Dad normal type? Familiarise yourself with the elemental triangle (and grass). And does thinking about bugs filled with dry grass really help? Listen to find out all this and morelull.

One of the four elemental forces (arguably the worst one), this week we’re talking wind in video games. What is wind? We discuss wind as a force, farting in games, games where you play as the wind and a lot of talk about Pilotwings which may or may not have wind in it actually. Oh! We didn’t talk about Windwaker. I’ve only just remembered. Damn.

In this week’s podcast, the maniacs take on the challenge of defining Retro Games. What is a retro game? Are there handy definitions that can be pinched from fashion,music or wider culture? Is it a console generation thing? Can it be defined technologically? Chronologically? They also pick the Definitive Top 3 Retro Games of All Time. May be some dog chat too.

The maniacs are in class this week. RE:Class. You know, religious education classes? No? Okay, well we talk religion in video games sort of and cover the thrilling topic of reclassing. Very exciting. There may also be some dog talking.

  We'RE:Back for the first episode of the fifth season of the TGAM Podcast! Will this be the season the maniacs don't neglect the blog despite directing everyone to it every episode? Well just between you and me listeners I'm already an episode behind! As ever we've got SEASON GIMMICKS including a bit that we're not sure if it works or not THE WHOLE SEASON. Just like old times (remember the office skit? Like that but worse!). We also debut new game Character, Item, Level to the world. 

You thought the season was done but we've squeezed out a bonus episode for you. It's ALL BREAK TIME, ALL THE TIME. Hear Richie and Cunzy struggle to answer questions about any game released after 2001 from the Ultimate? Video Game Trivia card quiz. 

In this episode the 'maniacs' talk about if the Koopalings are Bowser's children or not for too long and then eventually talk about board games which are video games and video games which are board games but not 'board games'. Are they good are they bad?  

We're hoovering up all the unique pokémon in the main series games going all the way back to Pokémon Sapphire . Here's the introduction to the series , clearing out Pokémon Fire Red , Pokémon Colosseum , Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness and most recently a quick pit stop review of the Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald grab-bag spinoff games with pokémon unlockable for the main games. 

With the dust all but settled on Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet (just SV from here on) now that the second part of the DLC has come out and been thoroughly explored we'd thought we'd take the time before the epilogue drops to see how rock types were served in the latest mainline Pokémon video games. We've already reviewed how rock types, the greatest pokémon typing, were added to in Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield  so let's see what's new and what's returning for rock types in the newest pair of games and the DLC.  SPOILER WARNING: If, unlike us, you're not several hundred hours into these relatively new games and their expanded content then there may be a few spoilers within.