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This time on Play Comics, we’re sneaking into the glittery, CGI-filled vault of early-2000s tie-in games and asking the question nobody demanded an answer to: “What if Catwoman, but make it even more 2004?” Between the leather, the eyeliner, and the wall-running, we’re checking out the Catwoman movie game that clawed its way onto GameCube, Xbox, PS2, and Game Boy Advance. It’s the kind of experience that feels like someone motion-captured an energy drink and then gave it a whip.

To help make sense of this pixelated fever dream, Chris is joined by frequent guest Billy from his real life friend group, because if you’re going to suffer through mid-2000s licensed game nonsense, you should at least do it with someone who can confirm you’re not hallucinating. Together they dive into the bizarre elegance of magically convenient scaffolding, combat that thinks “pressing one button a lot” is a personality trait, and a story that remembers it’s based on a movie just often enough to be legally distinct from fun. Expect more cat puns per minute than the ESRB ever intended.

So dust off your flip phone, crank up your nu-metal playlist, and prepare to swing through a world where glass windows are just suggestions and gravity is more of a guideline. Is this game an underrated gem, a misunderstood experiment, or the digital equivalent of stepping on a LEGO in high heels? Tune in to find out how this cinematic catastrophe translated to four different systems, and whether any of them managed to land on their feet.

Learn such things as:

• Can we really hold the story of this game against it (for the purposes of this podcast anyway) when it was just following the movie plot lines?
• Since when is the handheld version allowed to be the best one?
• Did we miss all of those jumps and grabs because some cat in the greater universe was pushing our character off the ledge?
• And so much more!

You can find Billy’s writing nowhere because Commandercast seems to be dead. But if it’s not then someone tell me and I’ll switch this up.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website.

If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out.

A big thanks to Pop Culture Basement and The Last Comic Shop for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who thinks that the best catwoman is Felicia from Darkstalkers.

Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics

Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

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If you’ve ever dreamed of piloting a transforming jet while sorting through a love triangle and dodging alien laser fire, then without knowing it you’ve been living in the Robotech: The Macross Saga timeline. Chris dusts off his Game Boy Advance for this one, only to find that the same intergalactic mess has crash-landed again, this time in crisp Switch resolution. Because nothing says “future of gaming” like revisiting a handheld title from an era when batteries were a personality trait.

Helping navigate this space-time crossover is DC Dave from The Monitor Tapes, swooping in with the kind of insight only a seasoned comic podcaster can offer. Together, they dissect what happens when ’80s anime melodrama meets early 2000s portable gaming. And spoiler alert: there are missiles, misunderstood heroes, and at least one existential crisis per level. And yes, they both have Opinions™ about which version of Rick Hunter handles better.

So grab your nearest mecha (or whatever piece of furniture doubles as one), set your thrusters to “nostalgia,” and dive into a world where pixelated warfare meets the stirring strains of synth-pop destiny. Whether you’re a die-hard Robotech purist, a Switch newcomer, or just here for DC Dave’s hot takes, this episode’s got something for every flavor of space soap enthusiast.

Learn such things as:

• What does it takes to make a side-scrolling shooter feel like an interstellar soap opera?
• How did licensing rights in the ’80s created a cosmic headache that still echoes today?
• When you have giant fighting robots, do you really need to add all of the war allegory?
• And so much more!

You can find DC Dave on BlueSky @dcdavepodcast, and of course under his podcast The Monitor Tapes on BlueSky @themonitortapes.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website.

If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out.

A big thanks to Is It Jaws? and Capes on the Couch for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who refuses to acknowledge the passage of time and how what it means to any of us on a metaphysical level.

Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics

Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

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Some duels are fought with cards. Some are fought with dice. And then some… are fought with the Game Boy Advance’s eternal struggle against decent menu navigation. This week on Play Comics, we’re shuffling up and drawing into Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler and World Championship Tournament 2004, two games that take everything we love about Yu-Gi-Oh!, monsters, strategy, friendship laser beams, and cram it into a tiny cartridge that smells faintly of childhood and battery corrosion.

Joining Chris for this summoning circle of digital nostalgia is David from Anime Field Guide, who brings the kind of anime expertise that makes you question whether your life points can drop below zero if you cringe too hard at English dub dialogue. Together, they’ll explore why these particular duels feel like being trapped in a friendship-branded fever dream, complete with turn-based confusion and more “draw phase” puns than anyone asked for.

So grab your duel disk, blow into that GBA cartridge like it owes you rent, and prepare to enter a world where forbidden memories and confusing mechanics go hand-in-hand. It’s the heart of the cards… but maybe also a faint cry for a player’s guide.

Learn such things as:

• Whether the heart of the cards can survive low battery warnings.
• The surprising crossover between duel monsters and chaos theory.
• Why Destiny Board Traveler isn’t just Monopoly with a Yu-Gi-Oh skin.
• And so much more!

You can find David on BlueSky @anifieldguide.bsky.social, Threads @anifieldguide, and of course hear him over at Anime Field Guide.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website.

If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out.

A big thanks to The Monsters that Made Us and Worst Collection Ever for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who is just sitting there waiting for me to spring the traps.

Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics

Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

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Lucky Luke might be the fastest gun in the West, but nobody warned him about being jammed into a tiny Game Boy cartridge where his biggest foes are stiff platforming and whatever that enemy AI is trying to do. This episode of Play Comics moseys into the dusty frontier where classic European comics meet tiny Nintendo screens, occasionally in glorious Game Boy Color if you were lucky enough to live in the right place or know the right import guy. It is pixel dust, cowboy hats, and the eternal question of “Is this a faithful adaptation, or did someone just hear ‘cowboy’ and wing it?”

Riding into town for this one is the legendary Dr Queso de la Muerte from Chris’s real life internet friend group, bringing a big-brained breakdown of handheld nonsense and exactly the sort of opinions you get when people have spent way too much time thinking about comics, games, and what happens when you mash them together. Together, they’ll pick apart what the game borrows from the Lucky Luke comics, what it completely makes up, and how well it all survives the journey into a two-button wild west. Expect detours into cultural differences, cartridge weirdness, and at least one moment of “why did they design the level like this on purpose?”

So grab your favorite handheld, adjust your imaginary cowboy hat, and get ready for a trip to the Old West filtered through green-ish screens, tiny sprites, and the unstoppable force of licensing. This is an episode for anyone who ever rented a random game from the video store, stared at the box art, and thought, “Yeah, this is either going to be secretly amazing or the funniest mistake I make all weekend.”

Learn such things as:

• Which comic story beats make it into the game and which are left wandering the prairie?
• Do we even want to introduce Lucky Luke to a new audience?
• How far can a character travel when the mythology is based so much on a specific geographical area of time and space?
• And so much more!

You can find Dr. Queso on BlueSky @drquesodelamuerte.bsky.social and nowhere else unless you already know where to find him.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website.

If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out.

A big thanks to Deconstructing Comics and Xandar Radio for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who really wants French toast all of a sudden.

Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics

Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.

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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.”

Learn such things as:

• Were our parents lying to us about spinach all these years?
• What’s the point of dropping plot threads if you never plan on picking them up?
• Will somebody just bring me a cheeseburger already?
• And so much more!

You can find everything you could ever want to know about Ryan on RyanEstrada.com. Let’s see if anyone can pick out my favorite part. I’ll give you a hint, it’s on the home page.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website.

If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out.

A big thanks to Peace Bound and Down – A Wonder Woman Podcast and Carnival of Glee Creations for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who prefers arugula.

Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics

Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.