It’s a jam-packed ‘Monthly Stuff’ episode for June as we give our first impressions of the Nintendo Switch 2 at launch and react to the latest season of Doctor Who. First, Sean gives us his review of Doom: The Dark Ages, while Jonathan talks about watching the classic Takahata Isao anime Heidi, Girl of the Alps. Then we go through some not-E3 2025 news, including the announcement of a Persona 4 remake and Xbox’s first branded handheld, before diving into all things Nintendo Switch 2. Jonathan had the system for about 3 days before recording, and played a ton of games, from brand new experiences like Mario Kart World to upgraded classics like Breath of the Wild. There’s a lot to like here, and a lot to talk about. And finally, we break down what the hell happened with this year’s Doctor Who episodes, as the series fully melted down on its way to a surprise regeneration and desperate last-minute twist.

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:05:22

Doom: The Dark Ages: 0:05:22 – 0:19:58

Heidi, Girl of the Alps: 0:19:58 – 0:40:53

Not-E3 2025 News: 0:40:53 – 1:20:36

Nintendo Switch 2 Impressions: 1:20:36 – 2:24:14

Doctor Who Season 2: 2:24:14 – 3:32:18

Monthly Ten: 3:32:18 – 3:55:24

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

Purely Academic continues its new format, with our second episode for May focusing on the month’s topic: In this case, we’re celebrating the release of DOOM: The Dark Ages with a retrospective on the original PC DOOM games from the 1990s. Over 30 years later, we still find the original DOOM and DOOM II utterly captivating, and we wanted to finally devote a podcast to discussing why they remain such great, singular staples of the first-person shooter genre. And if that wasn’t enough, we also decided to torture ourselves by watching the DOOM movie from 2005, starring Karl Urban and The Rock, which mostly has nothing to do with DOOM, but has one kinda-sorta interesting first-person sequence. It’s bad. But DOOM itself – the real DOOM – is anything but.

Enjoy!

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

Purely Academic has a new format starting this month, where we’ll be releasing two episodes a month: One focused on a specific topic, and the other featuring all the other up-to-date variety of News, ‘Show n’ Tell,’ the Monthly Ten, and more! The latter, which we’re nostalgically calling ‘The Monthly Stuff,’ is what you’re listening to today, and it’s a busy one! There was some big video game news with Nintendo Switch 2 preorders and enormous Xbox price hikes; Sean has been playing some big PS5 games in Monster Hunter Wilds and Assassin’s Creed Shadows; and Jonathan is in charge of May’s ‘Monthly Ten,’ sharing with us 10 increasingly ridiculous ideas for Nintendo Switch 2 accessories that probably won’t happen, but would be very funny if they did.

Enjoy, and join us again in 2 weeks for May’s topic, which is all about the classic DOOM games from the 1990s!

Time Chart:

Intro & Housekeeping: 0:00:00 – 0:17:40

News: 0:17:40 – 1:15:02

Thunderbolts: 1:15:02 – 1:28:37

Monster Hunter Wilds: 1:28:37 – 1:49:25

Forza Horizon 5 on PS5: 1:49:25 – 1:58:20

Assassin’s Creed Shadows: 1:58:20 – 2:35:15

The Monthly Ten: 2:35:15 – 3:00:59

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman