Perry Constantine from Superhero Cinephiles and Japan on Film stops by to take a look at all that Marvel Ultimate Alliance has to offer.

This week on play comics we ask ourselves what happens if you you can't decide what you want to make a game about. Should you just give up? Should you really dig into your soul and decide what you're super passionate about? Should you look and see if there's any other related media coming out that you can tie this game into? Or should you act like you're at the end of five different boxes of sugary cereal and justice dump the mall into a single bowl and see what happens? There's certainly one thing that I made my mind up about this one, and that's how Perry Constantine from Superhero Cinephiles and Japan on Film needed to come by and help me make sure that I kept everything straight here. And it's a good thing too because with more playable character than I want to count spread out across 7 consoles upon release and a few more as back catalogs were taken advantage of it would have been really easy to miss something here. So was there an actual story for this game? Or was it just a giant excuse to squeeze in as many tidbits as they could so the other kids would think they're cool? You'll have to listen to find out!

Grab your canned vegetables and your questionable licensed tie-ins, because this week on Play Comics we’re diving headfirst into Popeye: Rush for Spinach on the Game Boy Advance—the game that looked at a classic comic strip about a gruff sailor punching his problems and said, “Actually, what if everyone just… ran a lot instead?” This is a world where the Sea Hag steals the global spinach supply, the solution is apparently time-traveling track meets, and Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, and Wimpy all agree that the best way to settle things is to sprint through history like someone off-screen yelled “last one there buys lunch.” Helping us untangle this leafy green disaster is the wonderful Ryan Estrada from the comic-making side of the internet, a man who knows exactly what it looks like when characters escape the page and do something absolutely no one asked them to do. Ryan’s here to help figure out how a comic icon who started life in newspaper strips, got famous selling spinach, and spent decades punching sea monsters somehow wound up in a handheld racing game that feels like it was brainstormed during a very strange lunch break. So power up that tiny GBA screen, flex those forearms, and get ready for an episode that’s equal parts comic history lesson, adaptation autopsy, and incredulous laughter at the phrase “Popeye racing game.”

Insane Ian moseys on over to help take a look at Lucky Luke. Does this one hold up today? Or should it go straight to the town jail?

Have you ever wanted to live the cowboy life while staying comfortably parked on your couch with a controller in hand? Well dust off that old PS1 and join us on a tumbleweed-tossed adventure into Lucky Luke, the 1998 game that lassos the comic's wild west flair and corrals it into glorious mid-poly action. This week, Insane Ian from the comedy music frontier rides into town to help Chris figure out whether this comic adaptation shoots straight or ends up misfiring into nostalgic absurdity. We're mixing comic books, cowboy clichés, and just enough slapstick to keep the saloon doors swinging. It’s part retro gaming archaeology, part cartoon chaos, and part “why did this ever happen?” Come for the shootouts, stay for the laughs, and maybe learn a thing or two about how French cartoonists conquered the Old West one pixel at a time.

Greg Sewart from the Player One Podcast stops by to give us an inside look at Robotech Invasion. After all, he did help make it.

Strap in for the mecha of your dreams, or nightmares, because this week on Play Comics we're transforming, exploding, and fighting our way through the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Robotech: Invasion, the PS2 and Xbox shooter that said, "You know what would make the Invid Invasion better? A first-person perspective and the ability to pilot a motorcycle that also becomes battle armor!" (Spoiler alert: it actually kinda worked!) This gloriously ambitious action game takes the New Generation saga of Robotech and asks the most important question: what if we gave players the chance to save Earth from alien protoplasmic parasites while somehow managing to keep their sense of humor intact? Featuring FPS combat, transforming Cyclone vehicles, and enough environmental destruction to make any resistance fighter proud, this 2004 adventure proves that sometimes the best way to fight an alien invasion is to embrace the chaos and enjoy the ride. Joining us on this mecha-piloting expedition is the phenomenally talented Greg Sewart from the Player One Podcast, a man who's been dissecting video games with the precision of a Robotech technician since before most of us even knew what a Veritech was. When Greg isn't co-hosting one of gaming's longest-running podcast institutions with fellow ex-games journalists, he's crafting the delightfully nerdy web series Generation 16 where he breaks down the games that shaped an entire generation with the kind of passion that can only come from actually living through these gaming eras. And here's the kicker, Greg has intimate knowledge of Robotech: Invasion that'll make this episode more insightful than your average "let's talk about this old game" discussion. Here's a hint, he helped make it. Together, we'll explore how this game managed to capture the desperate, war-torn atmosphere of Earth under Invid occupation, puzzle through the quirky design choices (inverted camera controls, anyone?), and debate whether transforming on the fly between Cyclone and battle armor is the best or most ridiculous gameplay mechanic ever conceived. Did this game successfully honor the Robotech universe, or did it get a little too ambitious for its own good? How does it stack up against the PS2's library of anime-inspired action games? And most importantly is the level design actually good, or are we just nostalgia-blinded? Lock and load your favorite energy weapon, adjust those camera settings immediately, and prepare yourself for an episode packed with more robotic transformation sequences than an afternoon spent watching the New Generation arc!

Scott Niswander from NerdSync and It's (Probably) Not Aliens stops by to see if Fantastic 4 Flame On is a hot pick or on the hot seat.

Picture this: it's the early 2000s, the first Fantastic Four film is about to hit theaters, and someone at a video game developer says, "You know what would be the perfect way to capitalize on this intellectual property? A side-scrolling action game on the Game Boy Advance where Reed Richards appears to have been replaced by his less scientifically-inclined brother in law (close enough, give me this one) and the Thing is made entirely of texture-mapping nightmares." Congratulations, you've just invented Fantastic Four Flame On! It's a game that managed to take four of Marvel's most iconic heroes and somehow make them feel more constipated than a chemistry lecture taught underwater. Joining us this week is the absolutely phenomenal Scott Niswander from NerdSync (the man who can explain the entire Marvel mythos while simultaneously making you question why the Human Torch doesn't just solve every problem by setting it on fire) and It's (Probably) Not Aliens (where not even Sue Storm's force fields could save Ancient Aliens from the debunking). Together we'll navigate a game so baffling in its design choices that you'll start wondering if the developers were actually aliens trying to understand human entertainment and coming up just slightly short of the mark. Will our heroes discover that the Game Boy Advance's technical limitations somehow made this game better than it had any right to be? Can Scott explain why this game exists in a way that doesn't make all of our brains feel like Alicia Masters trying to sculpt in the dark? And most importantly, does "Flame On" actually let you catch things on fire in any meaningful way, or is it just an elaborate metaphor for combusting under pressure? Strap yourself in for an episode more chaotic than trying to explain Fox's Fantastic Four continuity to anyone born after 2010.

 Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine, Chris and Karrington revisit the Rugrats episode “Fluffy vs. Spike” and uncover how a seemingly simple cat-vs-dog cartoon conflict reflects deeper social themes...

Attention, ace pilots and Peanuts enthusiasts! Buckle up your aviator goggles and prepare for some canine combat as Play Comics takes a nostalgic dive into Snoopy vs. The Red Baron, the PS2 and PSP ac...