8-4 alumni Andy Church and Brendon Pritchard come home for the holidays to tell us all about their latest MMO adventures in Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X Version 2, but not before we talk about Zelda: ALBW (again), Puzzle & Dragons Z, Bravely Default, Electronic Super Joy, Kamen Rider belt buckles, last week's Nintendo Direct, and more. Happy Holidays!

Newcomer Roy Blakely joins the 8-4-some to talk (more) Mario, (more) Zelda, (more) Resogun, Ibb and Obb, Samurai Gunn, Bravely Default, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX, 3DS Miiverse, the VGX Awards, the life and times of Hideki Kamiya, and more.

John and JJ are back! And talking Mario, Zelda, both new next-gen systems, Mario, Persona 5, microtransactions, Zelda, Resogun, Mario, & taking sides in the console wars. Did we mention Zelda? And stick around for a special bonus segment focus(attack)ing on the Ultra Street Fighter 4 location test in Japanese arcades. Also, Mario.

No PS4s. No John. No JJ. No problem! ...well, OK, one problem with the audio near the start... BUT ANYWAY! CheapyD and Scott Popular pitch in to help go over everything we’ve seen and heard (and not played, yet) of Sony’s new system, plus Super Mario 3D World, Black Friday shopping deals, and -- perhaps most importantly -- how to pronounce “BlazBlue.”

5:28 – iPad vs WiiU for kids

14:30 – Super Mario 3D World

25:45 – Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

30:42 – Dragon’s Crown

36:10 – Monster Hunter talk

40:42 – PS4 feels

59:05 – Xbox One feels

1:08:18 – Black Friday deals and next-gen shopping

1:27:35 – Fighting game community in Japan

1:49:40 – PS4 dream games

1:57:02 – Closing comments

Resolutions and media centers and firmware, oh my! Special guest @CheapyD joins the gang / the internet in dissecting every damn detail trickling out about the next-gen systems, and why it will matter – unless it won't. Plus Battlefield 4 PTSD, Street Fighter II trivia, and war stories from the Dark Souls II beta (and not the game). Fans of podcasts, rejoice!

With Captain MacDonald of the good ship 8-4 Play off plundering the high seas in his vacation dinghy, the rest of the crew have assembled in the poop deck for a relaxed bout of hearty discussion (read: directionless rambling) on topics such as Pokemon X/Y, Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Device 6, the new Vita 2000, Supercell's billions, the Sonic cartoon, the Valve controller, Boogerman's long-awaited (?) return, and more.

Just thought we'd let everyone know that up front. What we are talking about is Monster Hunter 4, the Steambox controller, Super Mario 3D World, Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Wii U Party, Pikmin 3 DLC, the legacy of the Wii, Dragon Quest X on smartphones, and remembering Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Jeremy Parish, Matt Leone, Mike McWhertor, Griffin McElroy, Brian Silva, Jake Kazdal, and the mangod himself, Shane Bettenhausen, all join us to talk Deep Down, Dark Souls 2, Metal Gear Solid V, Vita TV, Gravity Daze...2 (?), Monster Hunter Frontier G, Yakuza Isshin, Wii Sports Club, Strider, and more, plus we all pay our respects to the late, great Nintendo president, Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Please stow your laptops and power triangles as we depart for our special 84th (!) episode, with first-blush Monster Hunter 4 and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle impressions, thoughts on Vita TV and the revamped Vita handheld, PS4's rumored virtual reality headset and virtual lack of games for Japan (or is there?), Dragon Quest X expansions, and of course, Mighty No. 9! 

We're off to PAX and a special sumthin' sumthin' -- but first, more on the Wonderful 101, Killer is Dead, Divekick, the 2DS announcement, PS4 and XBONE launch comparison, Gamescom news (and fresh rumors), and more!

Kevin Larrabee of Back in my Play (Dorito it!) and Mehdi Debbabi-Zourgani of Je Game Moi Non Plus (cherchez le sur Dorito!) join us to talk retro games, Suda 51, and the...how do you say? ESSAUNCE of The Wonderful 101, DuckTales Remastered, amazon's new console, Carmack at Oculus, Nintendo Direct, MS news, Sony news, and more.

Join us for a second helping of Pikmin 3 talk followed by first impressions of Dragon's Crown, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, and a whopping 17 seconds on Rogue Legacy. Plus: the Capcom 13 (BOF6?!), Mike Tyson vs. Glass Joe, indie updates, and plenty more.

Peer into the (near) future for in-depth, spoiler-free impressions of Pikmin 3, then dive back to the (recent) past for 73 minutes (!) of spoiler-packed The Last of Us thoughts. Plus: EVO '13, June NPDs, Strider, Ultra SF4, and more.

Come down from your post-E3 high with the 8-4 crew, who finally reunite to discuss Animal Crossing: New Leaf, every single god**n new StreetPass game for the 3DS (in detail), Ouya, Limbo iOS, Ricky Martin, Atlus's financial woes, Chibi Robo, and the effect (or lack thereof) of Xbox exec Don Mattrick's departure.

(Almost) Live from Seattle! 17-Bit's Jake Kazdal, Camouflaj's Ryan Payton, and ex-Game Informer / Nintendo World Report founder Billy Berghammer join us (well, some of us) for a first-hand recounting of the highs and lows and highs again of this year's rollercoaster E3 game expo.

We designed the new 8-4 Play so that game publishers can enable you and up to 10 family members to hear about facts, rumors, and wild speculation on the upcoming E3 trade show, including games like Dark Souls 2, MGS5, Destiny, Killer is Dead, Smash Bros., the new 3D Mario, Zelda, The Last Guardian, Xbone policies and much, much more.

The Forza 5 racing, familiar-innovative servicing, new controller Kinecting, Halo TV multi-tasking, temperature-reading, screen-sharing, sometimes / always / never-online, Quantum Breaking, rental-renting, EA-bro-fisting, interactive smoke-and-mirroring, Cheapy D'ing, Call-of-Duty fine-hair splitting, smart-glassing, Ray Barnholtin', fingernail-dirt-meets-water-cooler fueled by the infinite power of the cloud entertainment experience that is the Xbox One.

Doritos Crash Course 2, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, interns, Pandora's Tower, La Mulana, Dragon Fantasy, interns, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Monster Hunter, Sorcery, Star Command, interns, more NextBox speculation, Nintendo's E3 plans, interns, BS crowdfunding campaigns, Gran Turismo 6, and interns. Also: interns.

La Mulana, Monaco, Crimson Clover, Tomodachi Collection, Mother 4 / Earthbound 2 (3?), Robot Unicorn Attack 2, Neo-Geo collecting, Wii U firmware updates, Nintendo's E3 show no-show, Famicom trivia, and NextBox scuttlebutt ('cause hey, we DO comment on rumors and speculation).

And now for something a little different: special guests Ryan Payton (Republique) and Chris Kohler (Wired GameLife) join the gang for an epic, sprawling -- and at times heated -- discussion focusing on retro game collecting, indie game development, and the present and future of the Wii U, with pit stops on Guacamelee, Tomodachi Collection 3DS, Dark Souls II, Yoshi's Island 3DS, Monster Hunter Online, Earthbound, and Link to the Past 2. HNNNGH.

With Gaming Jesus off on a secret pilgrimage, the task falls to the few, the proud, the 8-4 interns (and the rest of us), to fill his massive void. Er... Anyway, this week it's GDC, more Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Nimble Quest, Year Walk, MGS5 and David Hayter-gate, Square Enix's recent shake-up, PSO2's delay, Skullgirls' crowdfunding success, Fire Emblem feet, and more!

Luigi's Mansion 2, Ridiculous Fishing, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Dark Souls (yes, again!), BitSummit, Dragon's Crown, Wii U troubles, Vita triumphs (and troubles), Durango rumors, Drakengard 3, Phantom Pain, Transistor, and oh-so-much more!

Dokuro, Virtue’s Last Reward, Phantasy Star Online 2, more Dark Souls, a little Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, GDC speeches, PS4 announcement aftermath, Miyamoto interviews, possible Shenmue kickstarters, Skullgirls kickstarter, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate cross-region play, Umihara Kawase, and more!

INTRO BS PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 STREAMING COOL PS4 CONTROLLER PS4 SHARING YES PS4 PS4 PS4 VITA WIIU PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 FEATURES PS4 KNACK PS4 PS4 KILLZONE PS4 PS4 WITNESS PS4 JASON! PS4 DEEP DOWN ZOMG PS4 PS4 SQUEENIX WTF PS4 DESTINY HANDS PS4 PS4 LUIGI END

Touch-panels! Valve boxes! Used-game-blocking-gamma rays and Ouyas and Apple's who-knows-whats-its! E3 isn't even a glimmer on the Hype Train horizon and yet you wouldn't know it from all the new system talk floating around – of course the 8-4 gang is above that sort of wild speculation. ...*Ahem* Anyway: Fire Emblem and Dragon Quest VII for the 3DS, DmC, and a chat with 17-bit big daddy Jake Kazdal on the release of Skulls of the Shogun.

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata brought the winter heat during this week's Nintendo Direct with the first megatons of 2013, including Wind Waker HD, MegaTen x Fire Emblem, Xeno-whatever-they're-gonna-call-it, and Wii U Virtual Console, among others. We've got a full breakdown of the event, as well as fresh PlayStation 4 (and controller) talk, a whole bunch of news (Pandora's Tower! Project X-Zone! Killer is Dead! etc!), the latest in skin-smoothing placenta technology, and plenty more.

Ake-ome-koto-yoro! (Japanese for "Happy New Year!") We're back to our typical fo-matto ("format") to talk about Level 5's latest, Fantashi Raifu ("Fantasy Life"). We also get into atsui ("heated") discussions over Steam Box, Nvidia's Shield, Nintendo stuff, Pokemon X and Y, the Neo-Geo X handheld, and all sorts of other shinjouhou ("news"). Jaa ne bye bye! ("bye bye!")