Popzara Podcast

It’s Popzara’s Movie Time! Podcast!, where our own movie nerds Ethan Brehm and Nate Evans take you on an unscripted journey yakking and chatting about some of their favorite movie moments and cinematic scenes, from past and present, presented without snark and snobbery for your listening pleasure.

Is a double-dose of Nintendo nostalgia as the guys revisit the original – and infamous – live-action Super Mario Bros. (1993) starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper. A notorious box-office disaster, audiences weren’t ready for its bizarre mix of Max Mad, Blade Runner, and fetish dancing in a film that was “Mario” in name only.

The same can’t be said of the new animated blockbuster The Super Mario Bros Movie (2023) from Illumination Studios starring Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Jack Black, which has broken box-office records and could signal Hollywood’s next obsession. It’s truly a love letter to Brooklyn’s favorite brothers (and Nintendo).

There was a time once when game discussion revolved around, well, games. We're talking about gameplay, controls, that sort of thing; it's a little more rare these days, since the focus tends to be on whatever cultural monomania has gripped the Internet that week.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has arrived, and I’ve finally spent some time getting acquainted with the GPU that was originally supposed to be the "RTX 4080 12GB". This little tidbit of its’ “unlaunching” meant a couple things for this rereleased GPUs: this card comes with a $100 MSRP discount to better align in the model hierarchy, and for unknown reasons—NVIDIA themselves skipped out on making a Founders Edition variant.

Ever since I saw the trailers for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, I could see how Illumination worked closely with Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo to bring the famed game series to the big screen, as there was fun and adventure from the games popping up in every frame.

The onslaught of freshly-translated works from Junji Ito continues! It’ll never end! The legendary Japanese horror manga maestro’s popularity has exploded in recent years thanks to (what feels like) an endless influx of new and older titles making their way to Western audiences thanks to his absurdly stacked back catalogue and other appearances. Maybe you caught the Netflix anthology Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre? Or enjoyed last year's digitally created The Liminal Zone? Perhaps you spotted him hamming it up with Guillermo del Toro in Death Stranding? Regardless of how you got here, Tombs: Junji Ito Story Collection includes nine short tales from an earlier period in Ito’s career (between 1994 - 1997), some of which have been animated in that above-mentioned Netflix anthology.

The 1980s were chock full of Cold War pop flicks like Red Dawn, Rocky IV, and WarGames. There was no sympathy to be had for the other side, only paranoia.

Leave it to Creative to keep making a variety of awesome audio accessories for PC, consoles, TVs and more that fit whatever consumers need them for. This most certainly goes for their latest device, the Creative Stage SE that’s the perfect sized soundbar for PC gamer desks and their monitors, but can also be used for anything you can think of.

It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.

The Biggest Games of March 2023

The biggest games of the month include: Resident Evil 4 Remake, Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, The Last of Us Part 1 (PC), Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure, Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

Other notables include: Sifu (Xbox), Remnant: From the Ashes (Switch), Have a Nice Death, Tchia, and Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania.

Circana (Formerly NPD): February 2023

New name, same Mat Piscatella! NPD is now Circana – and remains the gaming industry’s best snapshot of what’s moving and shaking up both physical and digital retail shelves across the country. All estimates are for entertainment purposes only. Total sales of new gaming hardware and software topped $4.6 billion, a 6 percent increase over last year.

On the software charts Warner Bros’ Hogwarts Legacy unseats Activison’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remake for the top spot, while EA’s Dead Space remake stays cozy in third. Sony’s The Last of Us: Part 1 returns in sixth, EA’s Wild Hearts debuts high in eighth, Sega’s Like a Dragon: Ishin! enters the list at ninth, while Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler II sneaks in at tenth.

Elsewhere on the list Nintendo’s Kirby’s Return to Dream Land debuts at fifteenth, Sega’s Company of Heroes 3 lands in sixteenth, Sony’s The Last of Us: Part II returns in eighteenth, and Square Enix’s Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line rounds out the list in twentieth.

Everything Else

But there’s more! E3, formerly the biggest gaming event in the world, has been canceled yet again. Maybe this time for keeps? Sony’s The Last of Us renaissance continues with the release of The Last of Us: Part I on PC…but was it worth the wait? Warner Bros’ Smash Bros. ripoff homage MultiVersus is set to be shut down this summer – but will it return? Word on the street Sony’s PSVR2 isn’t selling that hot – but Cory still loved it anyway!

Will 2023 be the year that game movies finally take off? Apple TV’s Tetris and Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game provide some biographical references for game/movie fans everywhere – all from the comfort of home. Check out our interview with the Pinball directors when you’re done listening to this!

Watching yourself die and living to tell the tale isn’t something anyone on this Earth could ever relate to. And yet that’s what Brandon Cronenberg’s latest film Infinity Pool concerns itself with.

Raising a pet is pretty hard work. Kids? Kids are cute, so they can be forgiven for their misdeeds.

There's a lot to be said for fans. Sure, it's fashionable these days to discard their views - such as when they say bad movies like the Star Wars sequels are bad, and don't @ me - but they also do a lot to keep their favorite franchises going even when nobody else will.

I thought the whole “gaming with toys” genre was gone, but it seems to have picked back up recently and soared to new heights with titles such as 2020’s Mario Kart Live by Velan Studios that was perfect for people stuck inside during the "dark time" that year was known for. Now the studio is back with Hot Wheels: Rift Rally that’s mixed-reality fun anyone will want to buckle up and race into.

Data will always be a demanding concern for console gamers, and what often seems like an afterthought for manufacturers. Current-generation Xbox Series X|S owners know the struggle all too well as both models opt for a more ‘curated’ approach that keeps their architecture proficient, reliable, and protected for optimization.

During this year’s Oscars ceremony, Elizabeth Banks did a skit with a person in a bear costume, pointing to the bear as proof for how bad her movie, Cocaine Bear, would have looked if she hadn’t opted for a computer-generated version of the titular animal instead. I immediately recalled the obscure 1988 comedy State Park (featuring Ted Nugent!), which featured an unintentionally creepy, and definitely fake, grizzly bear.

I love games that have a premise that’s both really silly and also really unique. I think a good example of this is 2022’s breakout hit Trombone Champ, a truly unique take on the rhythm genre with an instrument you typically don’t see in rhythm games with a healthy helping of baboons scattered throughout to give it extra personality.