Thumbstick Athletes
547 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 53 ratingsA do-it-yourself podcast out of Binghamton, New York, Thumbstick Athletes approaches video games from the perspective of consumers, not journalists. Host Dan is joined by his brothers, Corey and Will, and lifetime friend, Eric.
Together, they navigate the world of games, the gamers, the makers and the culture surrounding them, including all-nighters and playing hooky.
Join the Athletes weekly for spirited conversation piped across the world, all from the comfort of Dan's basement.
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Episodes
Episode 465: Paper Mario: The Origami King
July 24, 2020 03:52 - 1 hour - 65.2 MBIt's Corey and Dan for this week's episode, and Dan's newborn makes his debut during the first part of it! Not to worry though, he only grumped a little bit during the beginning before we got down to brass tacks. We talked a bit about Paper Mario and it's role a a successor to Super Mario RPG, and it's place in Nintendo's lineup...along with the game itself. During nibblebits we discussed the Xbox Games Showcase along with Halo Infinite and some of the other announcements made all while l...
Episode 464: 2020 Mid Year Recap
July 17, 2020 03:56 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MBAnd it's time yet again for our mid year recap, where I play a little excerpt from some of the bigger releases to come out this year. Keep in mind however, that we're unable to cover every release since we only cover games we buy. It's also been a fairly lean first half, with the only games being covered this episode being DBZ Kakarot, Animal Crossing: New Horizons (twice), Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Minecraft Dungeons. Slim pickings indeed!
Episode 463: The Last of Us Part 2
July 10, 2020 05:02 - 2 hours - 115 MBDan and Tito talk this week about the latest Naughty Dog release in The Last of Us 2....even though Dan hasn't played it! Not to worry though, he's watching a Let's Play on YouTube to at least experience the story. Other than that we talk about the Dr Disrespect Twitch ban, another TSA Pod family birth, and oh yeah...we played some videogames.
Episode 462: Just the News-June 2020
June 26, 2020 02:58 - 1 hour - 60.7 MBOh boy, some heavy hitting news to cover this week...like the PokeMOBA announcement we've been waiting for called Pokemon Unite, Mixer closing down and partnering with Facebook Gaming, and the purging of some predatory people in the gaming industry. We cover some other stuff, but those were the biggest and most interesting stories from the week. During "What We Played" Will talks about his first few hours of Persona 4 Golden, and yes....we talk about AC Odyssey some more. Sue me.
Episode 461: Deep Rock Galactic
June 19, 2020 04:32 - 2 hours - 72.3 MBTito joins us this week to talk about the new indie release Deep Rock Galactic...a game with drinking, mining, space faring dwarves. It's extremely well rated and rightfully so, it seems! Just watching some gameplay alone was mesmerizing. During Nibblebits we cover some of the announcements from EA Play, the New Pokemon Snap, and Cyberpunk 2077's delay. What We Played features some talk of Season 3 of Fortnite, Persona 4 Golden, Outer Wilds, and of course some Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
Episode 460: PlayStation 5 Reveal
June 12, 2020 03:10 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBThe PlayStation 5 reveal was finally held earlier today and there seems to be mixed feelings on it. Lots of cool games for sure, including the INCREDIBLE looking Horizon 2: Forbidden West. There were also some sweet-looking Indie games like Kena: Bridge of Spirits and Stray. Plus we got to see a box! We were worried for a second that we wouldn't....but no details on pricing or an actual release date. Not too much to cover outside of all that, and we gush more about Assassin's Creed Odys...
Episode 459: Ranking all the Super Mario Games
June 05, 2020 04:24 - 1 hour - 52.8 MBDan and Will sit down and hash out a ranking of the mainline Super Mario Bros. games, from the OG Super Mario Bros. to the more recent Super Mario Maker 2. Where does Mario Odyssey fit in all this? Or Super Mario 3? Where does your favorite Mario game fit? Later on in the episode we talk about the Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning announcement and Dan played a tiny bit of Valorant.
Episode 458: Minecraft Dungeons
June 02, 2020 03:42 - 51 minutes - 29.6 MBMinecraft Dungeons among other things.
Episode 457: Assassin's Creed Odyssey...FINALLY!
May 22, 2020 04:19 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBThe gang is all here for this week's episode, and we're covering a game that came out almost two years ago! In all fairness, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is quite the game...one that Will has been trying to get us to play for awhile now. With AC Valhalla on it's way shortly here we figured it would be a good time to finally give Odyssey the credit it deserves for being such a great game. Later in the episode we get to hear Corey's thoughts on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake finally and Tony Hawk...
Episode 456: Best of the Xbox One
May 15, 2020 03:20 - 1 hour - 53.2 MBWe're coming fairly close to our "Best of X" console episode with a only a few systems left to cover. Though now that I'm thinking about it....I don't believe we're covered any handheld systems. YAY! More episode ideas! This generation more than any others had TONS of multiplatform games, and console exclusives that also made their way to PC, so we took care to mention that when applicable. In nibbllebits we cover Nintendo's surprise Paper Mario Origami King announcement and the Ghosts o...
Episode 455: Xbox 20/20 Recap
May 08, 2020 03:42 - 1 hour - 62.9 MBXbox revealed some of the games coming the Xbox Series X in a "Nintendo Direct-esque" presentation earlier today, and I've got to say...it was nice to see some new stuff there. It wasn't much X-game 3 or 4 but some new IPs like Medium and Bright Memory. (Which I just realized is on Steam) Later on Will played some Final Fantasy 7 remake, Dan played Fortnite and we discuss the Last of Us 2 leaks again.
Episode 454: SPOILERCAST...The Third Semester of Persona 5 Royal
May 01, 2020 03:06 - 1 hour - 40.2 MBWill completed Persona 5 Royal earlier this week and wanted to do a Spoilercast for this week's episode. So if you haven't played and don't want it spoiled, skip ahead to 32 minutes where we start our nibblebits segment talking about Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Later on we also talk about The Last of Us II leaks (no spoilers) and more Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Episode 453: Best of the XBOX 360
April 25, 2020 03:33 - 1 hour - 55.8 MBContinuing along in our "Best of" console games series, we hit the XBOX 360 and some of the absolute bangers on that system. Going back and seeing all the colossal franchises that got their start in this console generation was eye opening to say the least. There's some games you'd expect from us, like Mass Effect and BioShock, but we also throw in a few surprises. It's also shocking that the Thumbstick Athletes Podcast began during the XBOX 360, PS3 console generation. We've been a...
Episode 452: Final Fantasy 7 Remake
April 17, 2020 04:18 - 2 hours - 81.2 MBWe welcome Tito back to talk about the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, especially since he kind of, sort of beat it already! Fear not though, this is a spoiler free discussion of the game since Dan and Will haven't played any yet and plan to do so. Later on we talk about more Animal Crossing: New Horizons, discuss cooking, and get into some of the (limited) gaming news.
Episode 451: Animal Crossing 2.0 and TSA Podcast Olympics
April 10, 2020 04:43 - 2 hours - 83.9 MBJoining us this week to discuss some more Animal Crossing New Horizons are Eric, Corey and Tito. We get into some of the criticisms of Animal Crossing, like some of the weird online stuff that comes with most of Nintendo's games. Then we toss around some ideas for a project we've discussed in the past, which is having some sort of gaming olympics. Early stages yet, but now is the time do something like this! We also share our thoughts on the odd new PS5 controller, the DualSense, an...
Episode 450: Persona 5 Royal
April 03, 2020 03:01 - 1 hour - 43.4 MBAfter having played Persona 5 not too long ago, Will was once again ready to dive into the Royal version of Persona 5 since we're all stuck at home. In other news, The Last of Us 2 is delayed and Nintendo drops some much-needed good news. We also talk more Animal Crossing New Horizons.
Episode 449: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
March 27, 2020 03:25 - 1 hour - 48.9 MBThe new Animal Crossing game could not have possibly come out at a better time...with millions of people across the world shut in their homes for months. Dan, Will and Will's friend and roommate Evan (all newcomers to the series) talk about Animal Crossing New: Horizons...having been thoroughly drawn in by the new entry. Later in the episode we talk about the Nintendo Switch shortage, our lives in quarantine, DOOM Eternal and some Two Point Hospital!
Episode 448: Coronapocalypse Gaming Ideas
March 20, 2020 03:26 - 1 hour - 49.8 MBAs the coronavirus pandemic sets in the TSA Pod offers up some ideas for gamers to make the most of their isolation time. Not everyone has 600 Steam games they haven't played yet, so make use of the library you already have or play some new games that'll cost you next to nothing. During "What We Played" Dan and Will BOTH played some CoD Warzone!
Episode 447: Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo
March 12, 2020 03:35 - 1 hour - 56.9 MBSorry again about missing an episode last week, but we explain why in the "Our Weeks" segment. This week we cover the Final Fantasy 7 Remake demo like we had initially planned to, along with our progress for More in March. Which leads to some discussion about Ori and the Blind Forest and the newly released Ori and The Will of the Wisps. After the outro we talk about the Golder Deer storyline from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
Episode 2020 Predictions
February 28, 2020 05:04 - 1 hour - 55.4 MBYes, February is almost over, but it's not too late to get in our predictions for the REST of 2020. It's ALWAYS fun to speculate what Nintendo might or might not do and unfortunately the coronavirus will have an impact on gaming this year. But stay positive, there's bound to be some surprise announcements, and we're pretty positive about 2020's outlook!
Episode 445: More in March Selection
February 21, 2020 05:53 - 59 minutes - 34.1 MBSince 4 in February has been a contentious staple for the Thumbstick Athletes Podcast, and we forgot about it this year...we decided we would make March the month where we tackle backlog games. Luckily Will was prepared with a few titles so only Dan had to scour his backlog for games to play. We also discuss some of the announcement for Animal Crossing New Horizons and Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 2!
Episode 444: GRIS and Other Artistic Games
February 14, 2020 05:32 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBDan played GRIS finally and it inspired a discussion on some of the better examples of artistic games out there. It's a topic that's very important to us, as we've been on team "Games are art" since the very beginning of this podcast. Also GRIS was spectacular! Later on we talk about the new Fire Emblem DLC Cindered Shadows.
Episode 443: Temtem Early Impressions
February 07, 2020 04:42 - 1 hour - 41 MBThat Pokemon-esque MMORPG Temtem finally hit Steam Early Access and Dan was all over it. While there are certainly some similarities, the differences are what make it shine and help differentiate it from Pokemon. Temtem up!
Episode 442: What Makes a Great Videogame?
January 31, 2020 04:25 - 1 hour - 36.9 MBOn the request of Tito, Dan and Eric (and Corey through the power of email) discuss elements of great videogames. Is it graphics, gameplay, difficulty? All of them? Later on Eric talks about seeing Joker and 1917 and Dan played some Temtem.
Episode 441: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
January 24, 2020 05:24 - 1 hour - 54.3 MBSo yeah, a new Dragon Ball Z game has come out and...it's pretty good. If you're a DBZ fan of course, though some reviews say it holds up pretty well on it own. Either way, Will...a big Dragon Ball fan played a pretty good amount over the past week and offers up his thoughts. In other news Stardew Valley has sold 10 million copies, Dan beat Pokemon Sword, and Will is playing a buttload of WoW.
Episode 440: Cyberpunk 2077 Delayed...and Other News
January 17, 2020 14:07 - 1 hour - 49.9 MBIt was a big week for game news, with some colossal game delays, surprise PC releases, and Pokemon and Smash news...so Will and I scrap our original episode idea and cover some these stories like true gaming pundits! An early entry for the "Most Surprising Podcast Development" Thumbie award...Will has been playing World of Warcraft!?
Episode 439: 2020 Games Preview
January 10, 2020 05:13 - 1 hour - 60.3 MBAnother annual episode for the TSA Pod....we do our 2020 Games Preview here talking about some of the big releases coming soon, including Cyberpunk 2077, The Last of Us 2, and Animal Crossing New Horizons. This was also a "My Week" and "What I Played" heavy episode!
Episode 438: 2019 Second Half Recap
January 03, 2020 03:41 - 1 hour - 36.1 MBIt's time for our semi-annual recap, where I play some clips for episodes of some the bigger game releases that we cover for episodes. At the end of the year, of course we cover the second half releases, meaning anything from July on...like Fire Emblem: Three Houses, WoW Classic, and Borderlands 3 among others.
Episode 437: 2019 Thumbies Awards
December 19, 2019 07:20 - 2 hours - 96.7 MBIt's time for the annual, end of the year celebration of games...where we nominate some games, and tear down others. We have some outlandish categories, like "Best Ambassador Game" and "Best Rainy Day Game." We also fuel the fires of the console wars with "Most Valuable Console." Then we have some more run-of-the-mill awards like "Best Indie Game" and GOTY.
Episode 436: Game of the Decade (2010-2019)
December 12, 2019 04:52 - 1 hour - 47.7 MBThe 20-teens are almost and it's time to decide on the Thumbstick Athletes Podcast's game of the decade. We've been doing this since summer of 2011, so we've also been a Pod for most of the games we're talking about here. First we go through and name our individual GotD, and use that as a starter for the ultimate TSA Podcast GotD.
Episode 435: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
December 06, 2019 05:30 - 1 hour - 57.3 MBUp this week, a game from EA that's not a sports game or shooter....and it happens to be a Star Wars game. Typically this spells disaster, but Fallen Order appears to be a bit of a victory for EA. (Thank you Respawn!) Eric and Corey play the first Star Wars game from EA that doesn't stink and relate their experiences with it. Later in the episode we cover The Game Awards nominees, Halo Reach on PC, more Pokemon Sword and Shield, and LOTS of other things!
Episode 434: Pokemon Sword and Shield
November 30, 2019 14:02 - 56 minutes - 32.5 MBThe first mainline Pokemon entry has finally reached the Nintendo Switch, so find out our thoughts on some of the additions (and subtractions) to the series. Will is the resident Pokemon expert and played a TON over the past two weeks, so he has some good perspective on the new games. Later on in the episode Dan talks a little about his vacation and GOG Galaxy 2.0 beta.
Episode 433: Luigi's Mansion 3
November 15, 2019 14:11 - 1 hour - 38.1 MBThe Luigi's Mansion series is back, after what seems like a really long time, with Luigi's Mansion 3. Our reluctant hero Luigi is tasked with saving his friends from the clutches of the The Last Resort hotel. Dan is the only one that has played it to this point, so you hear his thoughts on the matter! As for the rest of the episode, we talk about some of the XO19 announcements, The Outer Worlds, and Hearthstone Battlegrounds.
Episode 432: The Outer Worlds
November 08, 2019 05:42 - 1 hour - 51.2 MBFor clarification purposes, this episode is about The Outer Worlds, developed by Obsidian and is a Fallout, Borderlands, and Mass Effect-esque RPG. It's defined by it's interesting characters and entertaining dialogue and quest options, which mostly outshine some of the game's negatives. Yes, Outer Worlds...not Outer Wilds. Later in the episode we discuss our Extra Life stream, (you can still donate by the way) the Pokemon leaks and Luigi's Mansion 3
Episode 431: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
October 31, 2019 04:23 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBIn addition to talking about the full release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare we also talk about the mobile version of the game, Call of Duty Mobile, which is quite good. For Modern Warfare, you pretty much know what you're getting...a polished shooter with a huge playerbase and excellent competitive online. Plus it seems the campaign is quite good also! We also briefly touch on The Outer Worlds, the Borderlands/Fallout New Vegas-esque game from Obsidian that also rather excellent!
Episode 430: Fallout 1st (and other subscription services)
October 25, 2019 03:46 - 1 hour - 40.2 MBYikes...Bethesda has really stepped in it again with the announcement of Fallout 1st, a subscription to a game you already have to buy that's kind of expensive and doesn't seem to get you that much. At least that's our take, but we use it as an opportunity to talk about some of the other great videogame subscription services like GamePass, Uplay+ and PS Now. In other news, The Last of Us 2 was delayed, Shroud leaves Twitch for Mixer, Will played a lot of Persona 5 and Dan played a lot...
Episode 429: Fortnite Chapter 2
October 18, 2019 04:15 - 1 hour - 38.5 MBThis episode is somewhat out of character for us, as we're all getting old and not keeping up with what the kids are playing nowadays...but something about the way Fortnite was taken down for a few days sucked us right in.
Episode 428: Thumbstick Athletes Podcast
October 11, 2019 03:51 - 1 hour - 55.4 MBWe have our annual fall games preview for this week's episode...a few weeks later than usual. At least with recording it this late, we have fewer games to cover, and there seems to be fewer releases in general this fall. We have some heavy hitters like Call of Duty and Pokemon Sword and Shield, but other than that it more minor stuff and ports or remasters. Our wallets will thank us! Other than that, we talked about our return to Extra Life this year, Persona 5, Link's Awakening, Un...
Episode 427: 50 Gaming Questions
October 04, 2019 04:10 - 2 hours - 69 MBThanks to Idaho Jake for this suggestion a few weeks ago, where we (and members of the chat) answer 50 gaming related questions. Some examples are: If you had to marry the last videogame character, who would it be? Has a game's storyline ever made you cry? What's your favorite game series of all time? There's 47 other good questions there and we got tons of good answers from the chat! Thanks to everyone who pitched in! Since that was most of the episode, we onl...
Episode 426: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
September 27, 2019 03:16 - 1 hour - 44.7 MBThis week's episode brings us back to the old days, as the remake of Link's Awakening brings up some surprisingly powerful memories. Nintendo did such a great job of balancing the classic feel of the game while modernizing it, a tricky task for such a beloved game! Later in the episode Corey talks about seeing Doug Stanhope perform stand up comedy, and Dan played Untitled Goose Game and Mario Kart Tour for his week.
Episode 425: Borderlands 3
September 19, 2019 03:37 - 1 hour - 50 MBBorderlands 3 is finally out after what seems like forever...and also all the Thumbstick Athletes are all on the same episode after what seems like forever. Corey and Eric played some Borderlands 3, and even together! The good news is that it's more Borderlands, so you can kind of guess what that means, but they also threw in a few neat new modes for players to try. Now it just needs to make it's way to Steam so Dan can be happy again. Later on in the episode, Eric talks about his e...
Episode 424: Gears 5 First Impressions
September 13, 2019 03:26 - 1 hour - 40.1 MBDan and Corey invite Shane and Brian onto the show this week to talk some Gears 5. We say early impressions because we all mostly dabbled in the various modes Gears 5 has, since there's quite a few and it really is a complete package. And to think we all played it mostly for free on Gamepass. During "What We Played" Shane and Brian talk about Remnant: From the Ashes and Greedfall, while Dan talks a little more about Astral Chain.
Episode 423: WoW Classic
September 04, 2019 02:55 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBDan, Corey and Eric (Rephyr) played a fair amount of WoW Classic last week and discuss what the draw is for a game as antiquated as Vanilla WoW is at this point. What's the draw? Why is it so popular? During "What We Played" Dan played a couple of new games in Astral Chain and Pokemon Masters.
Episode 422: Black Eagles Spoilercast
August 26, 2019 03:46 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBSince this is a spoiler filled episode, where we discuss some of the significant happenings in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, we moved the main segment to the end of the episode....so feel free to listen up until I give the warning towards the end! Other than Black Eagles spoilers, we discuss some Gamescom news, Gears POP! and and at the VERY end of the episode, our plans for WoW Classic!
Episode 421: Can't Miss Games of This Fall and Making a Schedule
August 15, 2019 03:04 - 1 hour - 43.4 MBWith a last minute change of plans, we decide to cover the games we're most likely getting this fall, Like Pokemon Sword and Shield, the new Call of Duty and The Outer Wilds. We also took the opportunity to make a rough schedule on when we'll be doing an episode on the games we're getting, all the way through the end of November. During "What We Played" we of course talked more Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Dan played Pokemon Uranium.
Episode 420: Drug Use in Video Games
August 09, 2019 03:10 - 1 hour - 45.7 MBIt's episode #420...so yeah, we cover the use of drugs in games. From the burning of the marijuana fields in Far Cry 3 to downing some skooma in Skyrim, we talk about the surpisingly few games that have actual drug use in them. Later on we of course cover Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Corey relates his experiences with Cultist Simulator and SteamWorld Dig 2.
Episode 419: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
August 01, 2019 03:40 - 1 hour - 59.4 MBThe newest Fire Emblem, Three Houses is FINALLY out and it does not disappoint! It's seriously oozing with content, and all really excellent content, making for a much deeper and more connected experience than we've had in awhile. Outside of that we talked a little more Super Mario Maker 2 and Dr. Mario World during what we played!
Episode 418: Favorite Strategy RPGs
July 25, 2019 02:42 - 1 hour - 36.8 MBWith Fire Emblem: Three Houses just a night away, we decided it was a good time to revisit our favorite titles from this underutilized genre. Yes....we do have Final Fantasy Tactics on the list. Shut up about it, there are other games on the list too!
Episode 417: The News
July 18, 2019 02:48 - 57 minutes - 32.9 MBSince last week's episode was a semi-annual recap of the year's most important games, we didn't get a chance to cover some of the important news in gaming like we usually do. We made up for it this week with an entire main segment devoted to the most breaking gaming headlines...like the Switch Lite, Fire Emblem and Pokemon Sword and Shield news, and Ubisoft's new UPlay+ service. During "What We Played" there is some more Super Mario Maker 2 talk, as well as first impressions of Dr. Ma...
Episode 416: 2019 Mid Year Recap
July 11, 2019 03:20 - 50 minutes - 29 MBTime for the annual Mid year recap...a refresher for some of the games we've covered earlier in the year. This year we have excerpts from our episodes on Wargroove, Kingdom Hearts 3, Devil May Cry 5, Sekiro, and Fell Seal. No nibblebits, feedback or "What We Played" for this week...but we'll get caught up on all that when we return to live episodes next week!