Surprise! We're back a week early with an absolute behemoth. To celebrate hitting 1 million downloads of the show a few months ago (!!), we're proud to present our one-hundred favorite games of the decade from the years 2000 to 2009! A sincere thank you to everyone who has ever listened to, shared, or backed the show. We couldn't have done this without you, for real. We thought there was no better way to share our gratitude than by following up the fan-favorite GOTD episode we did in 2019.

And for those of you who DO back the show, make sure to head over to our Patreon to hear ANOTHER episode in which we chop the initial list down from 200+ to the 100 that made it here.

Relevant Links:
https://www.polygon.com/23779797/zelda-games-link-hairstyles
https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/798
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Find us everywhere: https://intothecast.online
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Follow Stephen Hilger: https://stephenhilgerart.com/
Follow Brendon Bigley: https://threads.net/@brendonbigley
Produced by AJ Fillari: https://bsky.app/profile/ajfillari.bsky.social
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Season 7 cover art coming soon from Scout Wilkinson: https://scoutwilkinson.myportfolio.com/
Theme song by Will LaPorte: https://instagram.com/ghostdownphoto
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Timecodes:

(00:00) - Surprise! We're here a week early!
(07:35) - 2000
(01:01:32) - 2001
(02:07:42) - 2002
(03:09:10) - 2003
(04:06:27) - 2004
(05:38:41) - 2005
(06:58:32) - 2006
(09:04:28) - 2007
(10:09:50) - 2008
(11:21:42) - 2009
(12:33:33) - Honorable Mentions
(13:50:42) - Making the Top 5
(15:12:24) - Ranking the top 5
(15:49:57) - Look at how far you've come. We are so proud of you and you should be proud of yourself.
(15:53:50) - Thanks for 1 million listens <3

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SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT FOR SOME GAMES INCLUDED IN THE LIST

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Music credits

Plains of Time (Home World) by Yasunori Mitsuda from Chrono Cross
You Were There by Michiru Oshima, Koichi Yamazaki, Mitsukuni Murayama, Steven Geraghty from Ico
National Park by Junichi Masuda from Pokémon Crystal
Creation of Art (Full Option) by Ken Ishii from Rez
Simple and Clean by Hikaru Utada from Kingdom Hearts
Dragon Roost Island by Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi, Koji Kondo from The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker
History Unfolds by Junichi Nakatsuru, Yoshihito Yano, Asuka Sakai, Rio Hamamoto, Ryuchi Takada, Junichi Takagi from Soul Calibur II
Lonely Rolling Star by Yoshihito Yano, Saki Kabata from Katamari Damacy
Mischievous Robot by Daisuke Amaya from Cave Story
Able Sisters by Kazumi Tokata from Animal Crossing
Turnabout Sisters Theme by Masakazu Sugimori from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
Lazy Afternoons by Yoko Shimomura from Kingdom Hearts 2
King and Country by Jeremy Soule from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Wii Sports by Kazumi Totaka from Wii Sports
Gusty Garden Galaxy Theme by Mahito Yokata, Koji Kondo from Super Mario Galaxy
Pursuing My True Self by Shihoko Hirata from Persona 4
Melody in an Ancient Town by Koichi Sugiyama from Dragon Quest V
Lake by Hitomi Sato, Satoshi Nohara, Junichi Masuda, GO Ichinose from Pokemon Platinum
I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 by James Silva from I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1
キミの記憶 (Your Memory) by Yumi Kawamura from Persona 3
Auld Lang Syne from THE HEART. WE LOVE YOU.

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