Ready, Jet Set, Go...

What do you get if you mix Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS2), Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast) and Dave Mirra BMX Challenge (PSP) together?

You get THE BEST ranked, 4TH BEST ranked and... 2ND WORST ranked games on their respective platforms according to Metacritic.com.

It feels like a game reaaaalllly has to go some to be rated one of the worst games on Sony's PSP so we get Dave Mirra's 2005 handheld effort out of the way quickly. Like super quick...

Almost as quick as a gang of graffiti-tagging inline skaters blasting around Tokyo causing havoc (Jet Set Radio, Dreamcast). Rich is in charge of describing how rolling around at speed on tiny wheels is totally radical...

Almost as radical as rolling around at speed on a board with tiny wheels in one of the most hotly anticipated remakes of this console generation (THPS 3+4, Game Pass). Fazz is tasked with getting to grips with the button mashing mayhem of his teenage past.

Enjoy the pod.

Which games should you review on your retro gaming podcast to coincide with the release week of a tent pole summer blockbuster movie starring Superman? The much maligned 'Nintendo Superman 64' or perhaps the bang average 'Superman: Shadow of Apokolips' from 2002?

No, what you do is you play Batman games! Obviously. Metropolis will have to wait, Gotham has thrown up the bat signal...

After a quick discussion about best/worst animal superhero combinations, Rich takes the batmobile for a spin through time to 1990 (it has a flux capacitor right?!) to visit Batman on the Sega Mega Drive which was inspired by the 1989 movie starring Michael Keaton. Michael Keaton looks great 35 years later but how does his video game moniker hold up?

Batclawing his way back to more recent times, Fazz finds himself inside Arkham Asylum (where he probably belongs frankly) taking on Rocksteady's 2009 critical darling. Does it still hit as hard as one of Bane's fists in 2025? And does it even matter if Fazz has decided he just isn't Batman's biggest Batfan?!

All these riddles and more to solve on this week's Living La Vita Loca podcast...

"Always make sure the DEUCE is worth the squeeze". That's the idiom that we assume tennis players must live and die by. We'll LET you mull that one over as you listen to this week's podcast SERVING. Okay, sorry, we'll stop now.

We are joined once again by our friend Haikers who is a marathon runner and 'Monroe Bagger' so he must know all about tennis right?! Probably. He's opted to tell us all about New Star Tennis (2010, PC) which is part of the intriguing indie New Star sport series.

What about the rest of us? Fazz goes on an exciting voyage with his tennis coach around the globe in Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour (2012, PS Vita) although he's not sure he won't end up in jail in a far flung land.

Meanwhile Rich has opted for Gaelco's Squash (1992, Evercade) because, well, why not? You hit a ball with a stick in competition with another player. It's the exact same sport right? Oh, quiet down all of you tennis players out there, stop making a RAQUET...

We're not even sorry. Enjoy the pod.