The 16-bit era, honestly. So many good times. Good times that we’re both reviving and ruining on this episode of the Waypoint UK Podcast by putting Sega’s Mega Drive—Genesis, if we must—against the Super Nintendo in a points-based battle to the death. Only nothing actually dies. Save, perhaps, for the respect any listeners had for the people assembled to do this.

Why we’re doing this: because the SNES Mini is a thing, and it’s out in September at the same time as the Sega Genesis Flashback, another diminutive system pre-loaded with a bunch of games (the differences being the Flashback has a slot to play original cartridges, and the SNES line-up out of the box is so, so much better). It’s war, again! Sort of. Look, it’s enough for us to talk about punching bins to get roast chickens.

On the podcast alongside senior ed Mike (hi) are Ian Dransfield and Steve Burns, two former games journalists with plenty of opinions on Sega and Nintendo’s machines of the early 1990s (and before, and beyond). Warning: there will be mention of Altered Beast. Just the worst. There is also some bad language other than Altered Beast. Sorry.

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No messing about, straight to business. This episode of the Waypoint UK Podcast finds Mike (me, hi) chatting about some of the best games of 2017 so far in the company of two marvellous guests—VideoGamer.com’s content editor Colm Ahern and Fandom gaming editor Sam Loveridge. They’ve played a bunch of games. I’ve played a bunch of games. Let’s talk a bunch of games.

And we do.

Up for discussion: a range of titles both massive, bona-fide blockbuster of proportion, and a handful of strange and small affairs that might qualify as hidden gems. Among them: Detention, Horizon Zero Dawn, What Remains of Edith Finch, Night In the Woods, ARMS, Breath of the Wild, Monument Valley 2, Injustice 2, Prey and more. From point and click to point and shoot, we cover several bases (in conversational butteriness). Like and subscribe, yo! Am I doing this right?

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Growing up. We all do it. And the games industry is doing it, too. Kids who lived and breathed games in the 1980s and ‘90s are now 30- and 40-somethings, perhaps with kids of their own. The time they once had to enjoy video games has been compromised, irreversibly altered. So: how do you, how do we, deal with that? And just what is the best way to nurture a future Mario Kart champion? Answers, people. We have some of them here.

Waypoint’s senior editor Mike, himself a father of two, is joined for this episode by Ellie Gibson (Dara O Briain’s Go 8 Bit, The Guardian, Eurogamer, Scummy Mummies) and Gareth Dutton (Making Games Is Fun, Chat Very Good), both of whom also have two children. They’ve also both contributed to Waypoint/VICE in the past, too, with words, photographs and presenting skills, so it’s a treat to have them on the podcast.

Discussed: what games are good to share with kids, and which should we shield them from; how our time with games changed once these small people came into our lives; how the industry has evolved to better appreciate the parent gamer; the increasing attraction of so-called casual games; and a whole lot more.

It’s an hour, thereabouts, of terrific chat, with just an occasional swear so, probably, don’t actually play this within earshot of an impressionable minor.

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