Imgur link: https://imgur.com/a/8O43LUA

There are cultural touchstones we can all count on as nerds who grew up in the 90's. A closet full of Nintendo Power issues that we suckered our parents/grandparents into paying for is certainly one of them. Whether it was the monthly letters to the editor, or the deep dives into that month's featured game, Nintendo Power's impact on getting kids to read is second only to the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! program.

Join for today's FLAVOR TEXT as Andrew and Kyle blast us right in our faces with a monthly paper 'zine subscription amount of nostalgia. Come for the walk down memory lane, stick around for the weird viral, Donkey Kong-themed marketing that Rare went all in on.

Special thanks to "BaconBitBehemoth" for reminding us some of us of the last time we actually read for pleasure. Want to learn how to comission your own Flavor Text? Find out at patreon.com/debatethiscast!

Have you seen our Twitter? twitter.com/debatethiscast
Have you seen our Instagram? instagram.com/debatethiscast
Want to send us an email? debatethiscast@gmail.com

Music for Debate This! is provided by composer Ozzed under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of their 8-bit bops at www.ozzed.net!

In the earliest days of 2017, a new gaming style swept the nation as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds introduced the world to the Battle Royale. It wasn't long before every 10 year old had downloaded PUBG on their parents iPads and joined the hunt for that illusive winner winner chicken dinner. Battle Royale games pit 100 (or some other arbitrary number) players against each other to see who is the very best likeno one ever was. UNRELATED: A new Pokemon game just came out! Sure would be weird to combine those two ideas, right? Sure would be weird to ask the debaters to create the best possible Pokemon Battle Royale gam, right?

Matt strugles this week to determine the difference between day and night. Todd is the middleman this week as he answers the exact question that he was asked. Andrew makes a mistake, and the rest of the crew call him on it.

The title of this week's episode was selected by our Patrons in our Discord Community! If you want to help us choose the next one, join our discord, and/or get some bonus content, become part of #ButtThwompNation at patreon.com/debatethiscast

Have you seen our Twitter? twitter.com/debatethiscast

Have you seen our Instagram? instagram.com/debatethiscast

Want to send us an email? debatethiscast@gmail.com

Hey you! Are you listening to this podcast on Spotify? Our analytics say it's likely that you are and we're definitely not watching from inside your home... Well if you haven't heard, Spotify is now allowing listeners to rate podcasts! If you have a spare second, consider leaving us a 5-star rating on this new validation platform. Or don't. I'm not your daddy.

Properties we talked about this week: PUBG, Fortnite, H1Z1, Friday the 13th, Dead by Daylight, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and also Legends Arceus, Apex Legends, Tetris 99

Music for Debate This! is provided by composer Ozzed under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of their 8-bit bops at www.ozzed.net!

Image Source: Artist Yoon chul Choi via Artstation.

Every character has an origin story. May they have fallen into a vat of radioactive eels, fallen into a pit of radioactive sand, fallen into a vat of mind-twisting chemicals, fallen into a mess of hazardous materials, or fallen into a lightning bolt that struck a bunnch of chemicals and somehow created the speedforce, every character has an origin story.

Today's FLAVOR TEXT takes time to dive into the nerdy origin story of each co-host of Debate This! Come along with us as we discuss the games that made us, the nerd franchises that critically impacted our personalities well into our adult years, and how none of our origins involve falling into anything unless you count falling into the depression caused by the post-2008 job market.

Special thanks to the only blood relative of this podcast who supports the fruits of our efforts and also isn't Matt's mom, "Dr. Garlicbutter," for commissioning this introspective dive into our own nerdy backstories.

Have you seen our Twitter? twitter.com/debatethiscast
Have you seen our Instagram? instagram.com/debatethiscast
Want to send us an email? debatethiscast@gmail.com

Music for Debate This! is provided by composer Ozzed under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of their 8-bit bops at www.ozzed.net!

Image Credit: This awesome picture of the four DT! hosts taken at PRGE 2022 by a GameBoy Camera provided by the Video Game History Foundation

As children of the 90s and 2000s, millenials are intimately familiar with the concept of "Edutainment." In an attempt to meet the kids where they were, educators tried their hardest to develop games where the real plot was the lessons we learned along the way. Weirdly, around the same time, video games got real gray and gritty. Wouldn't it be wild if you smashed those two concepts together? Wouldn't it?

Andrew unlocked the vault of controversial video games and pulled Postal 2 from its depths. Todd checks the Sonic box and makes sure we all know what our hedgehog personas look like. Kyle makes us all very uncomfortable as we explore religious trauma together. What more could you possibly want when we ask, "What gritty game would make the best Edutainment game?"

The title of this week's episode was selected by our Patrons in our Discord Community! If you want to help us choose the next one, join our discord, and/or get some bonus content, become part of #ButtThwompNation at patreon.com/debatethiscast

Have you seen our Twitter? twitter.com/debatethiscast

Have you seen our Instagram? instagram.com/debatethiscast

Want to send us an email? debatethiscast@gmail.com

You called us on our bluff and gave us more than 20 new reviews during Spooktacular Season! That means we're forcing Todd to stream Doki Doki Literature Club on our Twitch. Come watch the mad/sadness November 29th and 30th, 7pm EST, twitch.tv/debatethiscast.

Properties we talked about this week: Postal 2, Death Stranding, Devil May Cry, Sonic, Shadow the Hedgehog Call of Duty, The No Child Left Behind Act, Schoolhouse Rock

Music for Debate This! is provided by composer Ozzed under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of their 8-bit bops at www.ozzed.net!

Image Credit: I stole it from this New York Times article…

"I think I can! I think I can! I think I can!" said the Spooktacular Express as we willed it deeper into November for one more stop! We're wrapping up our Halloween-themed journey with a fan-favorite tradition, Creepypasta Story Time.

If this is your first time seeing one of our Creepypasta episodes in your feed, please allow me to explain. Creepypastas are spooky internet stories. Some are good, some are bad, some are just absolutely bananas. Every scary season, the DT! guys sit around a digital zoom campfire and tell each other these stories, for better or for worse! This year, Andrew tells us the horrors of retro tech, Todd gives us a cult warning, and Matt talks about comics. Keep scrolling to find links to these stories near the bottom of the shownotes!

Because we have extended the Spooktacular Express, so too have we extended the Spooktacular Bonus! You have until November 15th to slap the roof of these sweet deals!

Spooktacular Review-a-thon:

• Step 1: Review the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, Goodpods, or anywhere else you can write reviews!

• Step 2: Take a screenshot of your review, post it to social media, and tag us @debatethiscast

• Step 3: We'll read your review in a spooky voice during the October ad breaks!

• If we get 20 new reviews this month, we'll make Todd play Doki Doki Literature Club live on Twitch!

Spooktacular Patreon Bonus:

• Everyone who joins our Patreon at patreon.com/debatethiscast will score a free Halloween-themed, Debate This! chotchkey!

Recommended Reading:

• The Haunted Gameboy Camera: https://www.creepypasta.com/the-haunted-game-boy-camera/

• The Bethesda Cult: https://www.creepypasta.com/the-bethesda-cult/

• The Comic: https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/The_Comic

• I Hate You: https://superepicfailpedia.fandom.com/wiki/I_HATE_YOU_(Bad_Creepypasta)/story

Have you seen our Twitter? twitter.com/debatethiscast

Have you seen our Instagram? instagram.com/debatethiscast

Want to send us an email? debatethiscast@gmail.com

Music for Debate This! is provided by composer Ozzed under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of their 8-bit bops at www.ozzed.net!

Image credit: It’s from the “I Hate You” Creepypasta

Happy Halloween if you're to the left of the Eastern Time Zone and happy November first to the rest of you! This is typically the last stop on the Spooktacular Express, but as you'll hear in this episode, we're exteding the spookems for a few extra weeks.

Last Halloween we recorded a very special DnD one-shot episode that transported us to Minnesota to fight through a zombie apocalypse! That spooky adventure has been locked behind our Patreon paywall for a year, but much like an infectious zombie virus, it escaped! Even if you're not an avid listener of our actual-play show The Office Drones, or actual-play podcasts in general, we promise this episode will be worth the listen just to hear how the DT! guys handle the end of the world.

Imgur Album of all the incredibly-specific pictures of Baudette, MN and surrounding areas: https://imgur.com/a/JMrcy6Z

A very special thanks to Bella of The Stephen Queens Podcast for lending her voice talents to us in this episode! The Stephen Queens Podcast is a very rad show on a journey to find female-approved horror films. If you're a fan of horror like Matt is, he recommends this show personally!

Check out The Stephen Queens Podcast HERE https://campsite.bio/thestephenqueenspodcast

Check out The Stephen Queens on Instagram HERE https://www.instagram.com/thestephenqueens/?hl=en

Check out The Stephen Queens on Twitter HERE https://twitter.com/stephen_queens

Because the Spooktacular Express is still going, so are these cool things!

Spooktacular Review-a-thon:

• Step 1: Review the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, Goodpods, or anywhere else you can write reviews!

• Step 2: Take a screenshot of your review, post it to social media, and tag us @debatethiscast

• Step 3: We'll read your review in a spooky voice during the October ad breaks!

• If we get 20 new reviews this month, we'll make Todd play Doki Doki Literature Club live on Twitch!

Spooktacular Patreon Bonus:

• Everyone who joins our Patreon at patreon.com/debatethiscast will score a free Halloween-themed, Debate This! chotchkey!

Have you seen our Twitter? twitter.com/debatethiscast

Have you seen our Instagram? instagram.com/debatethiscast

Want to send us an email? debatethiscast@gmail.com

Music for Debate This! is provided by composer Ozzed under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of their 8-bit bops at www.ozzed.net!

*Insert train whistle here* It's Spooktacular Express week 3 and we're getting High Concept. There aren't many better (betterier?) ways to celebrate spooky season than curling up with your boo for a scary slasher flick. We've produced plenty of movies here at DT!HQ but none of them have been slashers. Opportunity knocked and we answered with web-based, stick figure-centric, flash game-inspired pitches to decide which flash game would make the best kitschy slasher movie!

Todd comes in strong but it doesn't take long for him to pizza himself into a bad time. Matt has a bone to pick with 2001's Donnie Darko. Kyle sets a new record for longest walk on shortest pier which, on this show, is honestly the most impressive thing.

We made a lot of new friends this weekend at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo! If you're one of those new friends, welcome! Also, the show notes keep going, keep scrolling.

Spooktacular Review-a-thon:

• Step 1: Review the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, Goodpods, or anywhere else you can write reviews!

• Step 2: Take a screenshot of your review, post it to social media, and tag us @debatethiscast

• Step 3: We'll read your review in a spooky voice during the October ad breaks!

If we get 20 new reviews this month, we'll make Todd play Doki Doki Literature Club live on Twitch!

Spooktacular Patreon Bonus:

• Everyone who joins our Patreon at patreon.com/debatethiscast will score a free Halloween-themed, Debate This! chotchkey!

The title of this week's episode was selected by our Patrons in our Discord Community! If you want to help us choose the next one, join our discord, and/or get some bonus content, become part of #ButtThwompNation at patreon.com/debatethiscast

Have you seen our Twitter? twitter.com/debatethiscast

Have you seen our Instagram? instagram.com/debatethiscast

Want to send us an email? debatethiscast@gmail.com

Hey you! Are you listening to this podcast on Spotify? Our analytics say it's likely that you are and we're definitely not watching from inside your home... Well if you haven't heard, Spotify is now allowing listeners to rate podcasts! If you have a spare second, consider leaving us a 5-star rating on this new validation platform. Or don't. I'm not your dad.

Properties we talked about this week: Ski Free, Line Rider, QWOP, Donnie Darko, Sublime, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I know What You Did Last Summer, Friday the 13th

Music for Debate This! is provided by composer Ozzed under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of their 8-bit bops at www.ozzed.net!

Image Source: Filmmaker Andrew McMurray from his Real Life SkiFree short via Bloody Disgusting