The first great game of 2026

The Besties

Listen to this week’s episode

MIO: Memories in Orbit is competing in one of the most crowded genres in video games: the Metroidvania. Sorry, "Search Action Game." But trust us, this one's worth pulling from the pack. It blends the aesthetics of Nier, Citizen Sleeper, and oil paintings into something surprising and beautiful. Plus, the boys return to their Animal Crossing islands for the big Switch 2 update.

Like the show? Leave a review!

Now on The Besties Bonus Patreon: On Tuesday, The Resties talk about the new indie platformer, Big Hops, and then share their video game resolutions for 2026. Been considering a subscription? The Patreon now features a back catalog of over 60 episodes!

Games discussed:

MIO: Memories in Orbit, Animal Crossing: New Horizons update, Amiga games emulation, Illusion of Gaia on SNES, Powerwash Simulator on Apple Arcade

TV discussed:

The Boyfriend Season 2 on Netflix

Bidets discussed:

This guy's bidet YouTube channel

Have questions for The Besties?

Drop them in the comments! We aren’t able to respond to every question, but we read all of them and answer some in episodes!

Subscribe to this newsletter for regular updates on shows, upcoming games, merch, and egg steam.

Thanks for reading The Besties! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Next week on The Besties:

On next week’s The Besties: Cairn

Adapting Life into a Video Game

Post Games is now available for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and RSS. Watch shorts on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Patreon subscribers get early access, weekly bonus segments, and the monthly video series Video Game Journalism 101.

Besties Merch!

Bonus links:
  • TR-49 review - Inkle does it again with an eerie hunt for answers within a mysterious archival machine (Eurogamer)

  • My 5 favorite ‘cozy’ games that don’t actually look like cozy games (PCGamer)

  • Pathologic 3 is a sickly horror story about time pretending to be an ‘easier’ game (RPS)

  • How Bandcamp became the “headquarters” for video game soundtracks (AV Club)

More description
Listen to this week’s episode

MIO: Memories in Orbit is competing in one of the most crowded genres in video games: the Metroidvania. Sorry, "Search Action Game." But trust us, this one's worth pulling from the pack. It blends the aesthetics of Nier, Citizen Sleeper, and oil paintings into something surprising and beautiful. Plus, the boys return to their Animal Crossing islands for the big Switch 2 update.

Like the show? Leave a review!

Now on The Besties Bonus Patreon: On Tuesday, The Resties talk about the new indie platformer, Big Hops, and then share their video game resolutions for 2026. Been considering a subscription? The Patreon now features a back catalog of over 60 episodes!

Games discussed:

MIO: Memories in Orbit, Animal Crossing: New Horizons update, Amiga games emulation, Illusion of Gaia on SNES, Powerwash Simulator on Apple Arcade

TV discussed:

The Boyfriend Season 2 on Netflix

Bidets discussed:

This guy's bidet YouTube channel

Have questions for The Besties?

Drop them in the comments! We aren’t able to respond to every question, but we read all of them and answer some in episodes!

Subscribe to this newsletter for regular updates on shows, upcoming games, merch, and egg steam.

Thanks for reading The Besties! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Next week on The Besties:

On next week’s The Besties: Cairn

Adapting Life into a Video Game

Post Games is now available for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and RSS. Watch shorts on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Patreon subscribers get early access, weekly bonus segments, and the monthly video series Video Game Journalism 101.

Besties Merch!

Bonus links:
  • TR-49 review - Inkle does it again with an eerie hunt for answers within a mysterious archival machine (Eurogamer)

  • My 5 favorite ‘cozy’ games that don’t actually look like cozy games (PCGamer)

  • Pathologic 3 is a sickly horror story about time pretending to be an ‘easier’ game (RPS)

  • How Bandcamp became the “headquarters” for video game soundtracks (AV Club)

2026-01-23
Listen elsewhere

Available Results

Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Transcript

No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in

Chapters

No chapters available.