We answer an email this week that asks if we've "ruined" a game for ourselves. How its asked, its about "breaking" the game or playing it a way that otherwise ruins the experience. For example, trying to get every Shine in Super Mario Sunshine means getting a bunch of Blue Coins, which is simply not enjoyable.

A reading we don't cover is the idea that simply playing a game is enough to "ruin" the game. I'll explain.

Disaster: Day of Crisis is a horrendous game. It does almost exactly nothing well and Captain Hook would have no trouble counting the game's good ideas.

The ideal of Disaster: Day of Crisis is however an excellent experience. We joke about "fire tornadoes," and terrorists with both a mech and a weather control device, and also a bear - a bearorist. These were not jokes, excepting the bearorist. This game's contents are sublimely funny.

Playing it is abject misery. And thus, when Disaster: Day of Crisis is actually played it becomes ruined. It is in an unperceived perfection, poisoned by play.

Deadly Premonition is a strange game that feels like it should have the same issue. It is unfathomably weird - this is the strangest game on Switch, excepting "eShop developer's barely disguised fetishes." It also plays like absolute trash. Basically no systems work in ways that anyone who has ever played a game would ever expect. The game seemingly is trying to tare itself apart at all times. The physics are nonsense. Greenvale requires driving absurd distances on roads that go nowhere - to reach destinations that are inexplicably far from everything else.

The reason is the reveal at the end that the entire town's road network draws a picture of a dog. I'm serious.

Don't worry, your car can run out of gas. Can. Will. Does.

You can call the sheriff to come get you.

This all sounds like horrific gameplay, and that's without noting that you can roll over a sedan like it's the world's tallest SUV because the physics are nonsense. Trust me - it is. It's suffering.

And yet playing Deadly Premonition makes it better. You can watch a Let's Play and get a lot of it, but experiencing it yourself is special.

Its weirdness isn't just a bunch of stupid plot beats - it does have those. Its weirdness is more subtle: it's trying to find a set of keys with the right species of squirrel for a key chain. It's the entire cast taking a break from a murder investigation to discuss proper sandwich construction - setting on the cereal-laced Sinner Sandwich. It's Sherriff George Woodman, coming to give you a ride, and the loading screen includes the sound effects of screeching tires and a major car crash.

You survive Deadly Premonition. And the experience is all the better for it.

This week we have a healthy haul of New Business.

James finished the Pokédex in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, just in time for more DLC to increase the Pokémon available. I'd say the reward is unrewarding, but there isn't actually a reward to begin with.

Guillaume rented Donkey Kong Bananza, and it finally got its hooks in. Greg purchased the DK Island and Emerald Rush and is starting to get into the run-based mode. James, who has finished this mode, has some thoughts on the time-limited event that recently concluded.

Guillaume is also playing Arcade Archives GROWL - a Taito brawler where you save animals from poachers, using violence.

Greg had a run of Luigi's Mansion, now on the Nintendo Switch Online service, just in time for the end of Spooky Season.

Lastly, Jon has thoughts on streaming PS5 games to the PlayStation Portal - a new feature that makes the device actually useful.

After a break, we tackle a couple Listener Mail questions. First, we have the previously mentioned conversation on game's we've ruined for ourselves. We then explore the legacy of the recently-departed Tomonobu Itagaki. It's a checkered history, but his impact is undeniable.

You can fail to deny our impact by sending an email.

• (00:02:02) New Business - Pokemon Legends: Z-A.
• (00:14:39) Donkey Kong Bananza.
• (00:21:22) Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island and Emerald Rush.
• (00:44:38) Arcade Archives GROWL.
• (00:50:38) Luigi's Mansion.
• (00:59:31) PlayStation Portal Remote Player for PS5 console.
• (01:14:46) Listener Mail - Ways we've ruined games for ourselves.
• (01:46:08) Tomonobu Itagaki's legacy.

This episode was edited by Guillaume Veillette. The "Men of Leisure" theme song was produced exclusively for Radio Free Nintendo by Perry Burkum. Hear more at Perry's SoundCloud. The Radio Free Nintendo logo was produced by Connor Strickland. See what he's up to at his website.

This episode's ending music is " Dead Line - Boss 'Vela-Nova' ~ Digital Remakin' Trax" from Sonic Rush. Composition by Hideki Naganuma. It was selected by Greg. All rights reserved by Sega Sammy Holdings.