0:00

Here. But it we. Were. Talking

0:02

about Mario Rpg a paper something

0:04

the thousand year door. The point

0:06

in his Mario got paper and

0:08

he got Rpg right? Yeah, yeah,

0:11

and. There. Was a time

0:13

when I felt like everybody could

0:15

get rpg. Sonic got Rpg rare,

0:17

you know, damn bit. Then it

0:19

kind of faded and we didn't

0:22

get more games that got Rpg.

0:24

So. I'll I wanted to come

0:26

to you as expert gamely few

0:28

years. Family. Feud

0:31

Rpg Yep. No.

0:33

Taught the walk I walk us through that

0:35

ross that the he just said I haven't

0:37

thought about it apart from just shouting it

0:39

out and so much are they are to

0:41

at the now yea the a party. That.

0:44

Has diverse. Knowledge.

0:46

right? That's your you need. A wizard

0:48

that knows all about sports Indiana Night

0:50

that is an expert in. I.

0:53

Don't know what will at mom's like

0:56

yeah they're making whoopee yeah you get

0:58

way about ads and and his room

1:00

and that's even to tame for the

1:03

feel like we need a a plucky

1:05

barred who's like smashing Fannies Steve like

1:07

someone who can say. When the

1:10

I say Smashing of Fannies.

1:12

Yeah, Steven. Where.

1:14

You think about like Call of Duty Rpg?

1:16

You. Were. It's like. You.

1:19

After do all the stuff you know between the

1:21

missions like go home and talk to your wife

1:23

and be like. I. Know I'll tell

1:25

you about my work. I don't wanna tell you

1:27

about my work and she's like i just need

1:29

to know little bit about it. You say it's

1:31

an office job but you keep coming back crying

1:34

at night un maybe like that. I.

1:36

Would now if my partner was secretly a

1:38

call of duty person. yeah I like to

1:41

think I think I'd figure out how I

1:43

think I would come they come home with

1:45

their balaclava still on the ah the do

1:47

shows I'm pretty sure I'll never end up

1:49

on his i didn't know was pregnant and

1:52

I didn't know my partner was a call

1:54

of duty guy of yeah because the to

1:56

shell out there Gabi on exact of the

1:58

i Go Gaga there. We've been keeping

2:00

Rachel secret all this time. I know. It's

2:03

kind of impressive. We've been working to keep Griffin in the

2:05

dark. He can't handle it, he's too tender. I

2:24

even have some Acro and I know the best game of the

2:27

week. Yup! Hey Griffin McEl

2:29

I know the best game of the

2:31

week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant

2:33

and I know the best Luigi of

2:35

the week. My name is Crust for

2:37

us, Frust for us. Wow! Holy crap

2:39

man! Sorry Crust. What's your name dude?

2:41

Frustic. It's actually Crust for this episode.

2:43

I'm sorry you said Crust and it's

2:45

Crust. I'm Crust forevermore.

2:48

And I know the best game of the week. Welcome

2:50

to the Besties. It is a video game club and

2:53

just by listening, you my friend have become a member.

2:55

Welcome to our illustrious ranks. This week we're

2:57

going to be talking about a

3:00

revamped bit of

3:03

interactive confectionery from the Wizard

3:06

Zebra Nintendo. Paper

3:08

Mario is a thousand year door but Crust Plant,

3:10

what is that? Welcome to

3:12

the lean days of the Nintendo

3:14

Switch where they say no new

3:16

games, only great remakes. That's what

3:18

we're here to deliver and we

3:21

are living for it. Super Mario

3:23

which is not what the name

3:25

of the game is, Paper Mario

3:27

is an RPG Mario game. Some

3:34

say the best RPG Mario game,

3:36

others do not. Many say a

3:38

very expensive one if you want

3:40

to play it original style. But

3:43

now you can play it cheaper

3:45

style on Nintendo Switch. And

3:47

we'll talk about how it's got

3:50

fun and laughs right after this.

3:55

Vitamins, nutrients, They're

3:57

the little guys that go in your

3:59

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4:02

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4:06

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I haven't taken ritual multi vitamins I

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4:29

nice to know. That ah I I.

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You know my diet is not the

4:33

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4:35

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these for twenty five percent off. Paper.

5:04

Mario is differ from is a

5:07

different franchise right from the search

5:09

for the seven stars right or

5:11

is as direct successor Izaguirre. I

5:14

read man as paper Mario kind

5:16

of lives in in step with

5:18

that Mario and Luigi or Rpg

5:21

games they've been like some similarities

5:23

between them but I would say

5:25

after this one is were like

5:27

the two branches really diversion and

5:30

Mario Luigi was much more traditional

5:32

rpg whereas like you know sticker.

5:34

Star in Oregon he came. Started.

5:38

To go in a direction that say i

5:40

think i they ignore you Got you got?

5:42

This is the bring in the will you

5:44

be easier The first was Mario Rpg Ledges

5:46

and it starts has been brought back for

5:48

I guess all the last year. Yep yep

5:50

now and then. There's. Paper

5:52

Mario Paper Mario Thousand Year

5:54

Door Super Paper Mario Yes

5:57

but Maria sticker Star. Color.

5:59

splash Origami King was last new

6:01

in 2020. Did

6:04

we talk about that? We did, we talked about

6:06

it. It's the long and the weird rotating circle

6:08

combat system that was not. And then there's the

6:10

Mario and Luigi series that starts in ought three

6:13

and has its own like, continent. Yeah. We can

6:15

talk about it. It feels like

6:17

there is Mario and Luigi paper jam, which

6:20

great guys, fucking excellent. Way to do it.

6:23

I think that's a crossover. Yeah, it is. Okay.

6:26

It feels like there was, yeah, a

6:28

splitting. Where basically the Mario and Luigi

6:30

games continued this trend of what started

6:32

with Super Mario RPG and we're just

6:35

straight up RPG games. And the paper

6:37

Mario games got like way more experimental

6:39

and way more kid friendly. So less

6:42

reading more like weird

6:44

gameplay mechanics and like cuteness. Less

6:46

like Mario smuggling drugs for a

6:49

Goomba and more Mario smuggling candy

6:51

for a Goomba. Well, I think

6:53

the biggest sort of difference between

6:55

those two pseudo franchises

6:57

is that like, after

7:01

Super Paper Mario on the Wii, I feel

7:03

like the paper Mario games kind of stopped

7:05

having fun with like the world of Mario.

7:08

Whereas like Mario and Luigi, like

7:10

fucking Bowser's inside story is one

7:12

of the weirdest like RPGs

7:15

I've ever played where you're platforming inside a

7:17

Bowser while he platforms around in

7:19

the real world. This game I had not

7:21

played before. I thought I was pretty familiar

7:23

with the paper Mario franchise, but I realized

7:25

how foolish that was because

7:27

this game I think sets the

7:29

precedent for what is best about

7:32

this series and

7:35

all the Mario RPGs going forward. And

7:37

that it's really weird. There's lots of

7:39

like characters. There's like, they

7:41

actually try to tell some stories in the

7:43

game, which is I think

7:45

different from, Origami King or a

7:47

lot of the more recent games. You have to

7:50

teach a computer how to love. It's like there's

7:52

so much wild shit that this game does that

7:54

I don't think that the Mario games get kind

7:56

of permission to do usually. Yeah, I think

7:58

just to take a step. I think

8:00

the kind of setting

8:03

up, weirdly setting up the story

8:05

is kind of interesting because it does relate

8:07

directly to why this game is so different

8:09

from all of the other ones. The

8:12

premise is simply enough, there's

8:14

like a thousand year door that opens and

8:17

it's got a treasure in it, Peach goes

8:19

looking for it and Peach gets kidnapped. Pretty

8:21

straightforward. What ends up

8:23

happening is that Mario goes to look

8:25

for her in a place called Rogueport,

8:28

which is essentially like, crime the city.

8:30

It's basically like, Mario's

8:32

version of Gotham City.

8:35

And so you have all these familiar

8:37

Mario characters, like, literally doing crimes, again,

8:41

smuggling drugs and doing shady

8:43

shit, beating up other people, having like, crime

8:45

dens, etc. And so the hub

8:47

of the game is that city, so you keep going back

8:50

to that city with new

8:52

powers, unlocking new areas, unlocking new events

8:54

that happen. And

8:56

so that like, quasi-search action

8:58

game unlocking element is very different

9:01

from any other Mario RPG, which

9:03

tends to be very linear and

9:05

direct. It's also,

9:07

if you liked or

9:09

enjoyed the first thousand

9:11

year door, the original on GameCube, if

9:15

you compare the footage, they did a

9:17

really amazing job of like, keeping all

9:20

of the aesthetic touchstones. Like, it

9:22

doesn't look that different.

9:24

Like, all of the settings and everything look

9:26

just like in the GameCube, but I think

9:29

it's really doing that preservation thing that you

9:31

want of like, it's bringing it closer to

9:33

maybe what you remember. It's improving like, the

9:35

fidelity and the crispness, but like, the artistic

9:38

direction, I feel like, is all still like,

9:40

largely intact, which for a preservation standpoint is

9:42

cool, I think, when the aesthetics are such

9:44

a big selling point. Yeah,

9:46

I think the Metroid Prime remake is like,

9:49

another example. They seem to be pretty smart

9:51

about this, where they're not going totally ham

9:54

on the upgrades. They're really just bringing it into true HD.

9:56

It's very subtle. Yeah. And

9:58

yeah, very subtle. But in a... in a pretty clean

10:00

way. Because the old one looked great. If you look at the

10:02

one on GameCube from 2004, 20

10:04

years ago, it looks sick. It still looks

10:07

great. I

10:09

don't know, I was blown away by

10:12

this game. I feel like I truly

10:14

understand. I

10:16

know that there are a lot of people, I feel

10:18

like there's a lot of webcomics people who are obsessed

10:20

about this game. There's a lot of people in

10:23

the community who reference it a lot. And

10:26

I feel silly having sort of skipped it for

10:28

as long as I did. It's very like chapter

10:31

based. You go from different

10:34

sort of places

10:36

around this hub world of Rogueport,

10:38

and each one is so wildly

10:40

distinct and different. The first one

10:43

is Dragon's Castle, and then you

10:45

go to this enormous

10:47

weird techno tree, and

10:50

then you go to a city where all of a

10:52

sudden you're a pit fighter. Every

10:56

chapter offers something completely, completely

10:58

different. And I think that

11:01

the game, again, I didn't play it, so I

11:03

can't speak to how much. You didn't play it?

11:05

What are you doing here? I didn't play the

11:07

original, but I can tell you guys how much

11:09

it's changed from there. I think it definitely

11:11

has some pacing issues that are maybe

11:15

inherent to a role playing

11:17

game from 2003 or whenever the original came out. Really,

11:20

I think any of the Paper Mario games are like

11:23

50% visual novel. Yeah,

11:25

there's a lot of- It's the nature of all

11:27

of them. There's a lot of unskippable, I mean,

11:29

all of it is unskippable sort of like text,

11:32

and you really have to hang in there. I

11:34

wouldn't mind that part. And

11:37

to be clear, I really enjoyed this

11:39

game, but, and big but,

11:41

I do think the first five to

11:44

even 10 hours is slow,

11:46

like quite slow. And it is

11:48

maybe like an exponential curve, but

11:52

the first dungeon that you go to, the Dragon's thing

11:54

that you're talking about, it does feel

11:56

like Baby's first

11:58

RPG. It's the least- interesting part

12:00

of the game I've played so far. Yeah, and

12:03

I've heard that from other folks. I've like

12:05

asked around, I'm like, hey, should I keep

12:07

playing? And everybody's advice is exactly

12:09

what you said. You know, this is just

12:11

how RPGs were made at the time. It's

12:13

a slow ramp. Once you get

12:15

into it, they can have a lot more fun.

12:19

So that's more to say if you

12:21

are trying this and you're like, I

12:23

don't know, I feel like I'm pretty

12:25

deep. Why is it not clicking? The

12:27

answer seems to be that it just,

12:30

it takes a meaty bit of time.

12:32

But I'm just getting to the point where

12:35

I can really feel myself getting wrapped into

12:37

it. They, yeah, and I think that

12:39

that, again, it's like that

12:41

not updating things, not updating the gameplay

12:44

to what you might expect. Now, like

12:47

there's value in that, I think, because it's

12:49

a, from that preservation standpoint,

12:51

like you can have the experience as it was,

12:53

right? Because it doesn't need to be, I

12:56

mean, it is the game that it was

12:58

then. Right. I do think on

13:02

the pacing side, there's not really a

13:04

reason that they didn't give you the

13:06

option to speed up the dialogue. Yeah.

13:09

Like having it hit A twice to like fully fill

13:11

in the dialogue and be able to like move at

13:14

your own pace would have, I think,

13:16

really helped. Because

13:18

I know, yeah, if you're, it

13:21

definitely hinders the pace when they're doing that, like

13:24

text as speech kind of thing. And it's

13:26

someone that's like, you know,

13:29

very verbose. They actually make multiple

13:31

jokes about the robustity of this

13:33

game where you'll run into Luigi.

13:35

Holy shit. It's funny. So

13:38

that is maybe one of the all time

13:40

best executed jokes ever featured in a Mario

13:42

game, in that you will run into Luigi,

13:44

who is on his own separate adventure in

13:46

the Waffle Kingdom. When you run into him,

13:48

he will tell you a long winded story

13:50

during which you and like your partner at

13:53

the time will fall asleep during.

13:55

And he just goes on and on like, yeah, so I

13:57

went to the Waffle Kingdom, right? And I met the

13:59

queen, but she. sent me out

14:01

on this mission. I had to go fight

14:03

this big ship. And it had all these

14:05

cannons on it. So anyway, I got into

14:07

another classic Luigi Jam. And he just goes

14:09

odd and odd and odd, and you'll just

14:11

find him with a random – here's

14:14

a character that's all burnt up. Yeah, we got into a volcano.

14:17

It went a little crazy in there. Let

14:19

me tell you all about it. It is

14:21

very, very funny that there is just this

14:24

running gag throughout it. Is his story a

14:26

perfect mirror of your story? More

14:29

or less, yeah. I enjoyed that

14:31

especially. He is having

14:33

almost the same journey, and Mario

14:35

is just completely uninterested. It's also

14:37

just a parody of the Mario

14:39

format in general, of how repetitive

14:42

it can be. So

14:44

that's where I think this game soars, and

14:46

you need to kind of be

14:49

into the vibe that it's giving

14:51

out, which is having

14:53

more fun with the Mario format

14:56

than most Mario games do. There's a moment

14:58

where – even in the first dungeon –

15:00

there's a moment where you

15:02

meet another character, a Koopa, named Koopz,

15:04

and he's running through, and he's

15:07

looking for his dad, who's been missing his

15:09

dad went to explore this dungeon. And you

15:12

run into some bones, and Koopz

15:14

is like, my dad! And

15:16

reads a letter, and

15:18

he's reading the last notes of his dead

15:20

father, who's just a bunch of bones. And

15:22

then halfway through the letter, he rises. Oh,

15:24

it's just like some other guy. And

15:27

that's like weirdly fucking dark for a Mario

15:29

game. And this game kind of goes there

15:32

in cool, risky

15:34

ways. What I've heard is

15:36

a lot of

15:38

the stuff that's in this game was

15:41

in the original Japanese version of the

15:43

GameCube game, and then when

15:45

they Westernized it, they sanded off a

15:48

lot of it. There's

15:50

even a very clear-cut

15:52

trans storyline that was in the

15:54

original GameCube game that got completely

15:56

removed, Dealing with a pretty major

15:58

character. It was injected

16:01

back in for this rereleased, so

16:03

I think it is. I.

16:06

Think it's is riskier with the Ip

16:08

than they've ever really been an ever have

16:10

been since like. Most. Of these

16:12

games do not take swings just in

16:14

terms of like. Be. Edginess.

16:17

Never been named as I, it is

16:19

enough for me. For me, it is

16:21

enough to balance out. Some.

16:23

Of the pacing issues like obviously I

16:25

would be I'm enjoying this game a

16:27

lot and probably going finish at I

16:29

I. I really be backtracking that is

16:32

required is quite quite onerous and the

16:34

they made a little better but it

16:36

is still on yeah that yeah that's

16:38

I've heard they've like improve the fast

16:40

travel system but it's still like not

16:42

amazing and like things like the unstoppable

16:44

kind of slow taxed like that stuff

16:46

is made better by the fact that

16:48

like I wanna keep seeing like what

16:50

the new areas going to be and

16:52

I'm genuinely enjoy. You know that the

16:55

humor in a lot of the in a lot

16:57

of it. You know that the dialogue. Ah,

16:59

I'm. Yeah I'm like and I will

17:01

I will add do is sit moved a little bit

17:04

of do is it truck the little bit faster

17:06

but. Just. That I

17:08

know. I imagine my day Griffin, we just

17:10

made do with it. Ah whatever pace we

17:12

got and we liked it. We're just happy

17:14

to have something to distract us from dodge

17:17

ball access. The only other air to re

17:19

had as children. way to. I would have

17:21

asked any by try playing it with their

17:23

children. Because. I d s try

17:26

that and it did not kill

17:28

kid did not go great be

17:30

pacing issues were not something that

17:32

my seven year old was so

17:34

into something. This is the thing

17:36

that I love most about this

17:38

game. Arms Mosey loves watching the

17:40

Mario Rpg is on you tube

17:42

He how answers are a you

17:44

tube. Sessions. Every

17:47

couple days and he's and asking

17:49

for these games like. Just.

17:51

bonkers cp found him through like others all

17:54

boss videos on youtube which i don't have

17:56

any of you have been sucked into that

17:58

thing where it's like Mario

18:00

all bosses only bosses

18:04

But then we went back in and started

18:06

watching these so once he discovered that I

18:08

could play on the switch He

18:10

just like literally sat on my neck

18:13

on our couch and just chilled with

18:15

me And like I read through the

18:17

game and he was he was really

18:19

really vibing with it We

18:22

did most of that first dungeon with that

18:24

which made it honestly go by much much

18:27

much faster I think it's like

18:29

it's very silly Yeah,

18:32

it's very Can you

18:34

believe that a Mario got stepped on?

18:37

Which you know for a six year old

18:39

is real sweet spot humor Then

18:42

I and I love whenever you get that experience where

18:44

I don't know you're playing the game with the target

18:46

audience That was the thing that kept running through my

18:48

head while I was playing it. I said, you know

18:50

babies first RPG This

18:52

is an RPG for kids And

18:55

it's cool that like we as adults can

18:57

enjoy it too But it

18:59

reminds me a little bit of like the

19:01

Star Wars dilemma Sometimes we're like we approach

19:04

these things and are like why aren't

19:06

they entertaining to me in this adult way?

19:08

And the answer is like they're

19:10

made for people under the age of 15 Is

19:13

why I thought about that

19:16

apparently? Well, I thought no,

19:18

it doesn't mean we can't again. It doesn't mean we

19:20

can't like them It just means like sometimes we have

19:22

to remind ourselves Nintendo games are

19:24

made for kids I think about this with Kirby

19:26

games which I had like really fallen off of

19:28

or Yoshi games which I had fallen off of

19:30

and when I started playing them With my

19:33

son. It was like, oh, yeah the reason I

19:36

don't appreciate these is because I don't

19:38

want the same things that a six-year-old

19:40

wants from a video game I think

19:42

Why people wish for that is because

19:45

there are instances and they're very rare,

19:47

but there are instances where two Heads

19:50

can be served by that Oh A hundred

19:52

percent So Like Kirby had forgotten Tomb or

19:54

whatever that game was called is an instance

19:56

where this is a game that works both

19:58

for kids and adults. Equally.

20:01

So. I think there are people kind of

20:03

striving for that, but that is such a

20:06

rare commodity that it when it comes up

20:08

it's like kind of once every few years

20:10

kind of thing rather than every release Yes

20:12

and I and I think it is

20:14

especially tricky with something like a Mario Rpg

20:17

which would it's just by nature of it's

20:19

existence seem to be trying for both right?

20:21

Rpg we think of as a genre for.

20:24

At least. Older. Kids moderate

20:26

earnest? Yes. Just.

20:28

And there was actually one thing that I was

20:30

curious about. I know the as a game that

20:33

you latched on to last year and that game

20:35

was called. See. Stars see

20:37

if stars? thanks he has sars. Yeah,

20:39

there's definitely a line between the two.

20:41

I'd see of Stars is a more

20:43

ah probably robust you know from a

20:46

gameplay perspective because we've got a lot

20:48

of time in between their twenty some

20:50

years. But as he can de flea

20:52

see the the connective tissue between two.

20:55

Yeah. Prefer. The school.

20:57

Ah okay after the break we're

20:59

going to be taking you into

21:02

the not a three foot that

21:04

is summer games. We'd all the

21:06

latest news, all the most Explosives.

21:09

Gave Dlc reveals his all current organ

21:12

predicted all will tell you exactly You

21:14

think you know how to worry is

21:16

spelled you'd be wrong, be wrong arena

21:18

reveal all his secret for after the

21:20

break. It

21:22

starts with a C like

21:24

games as fucking perfect. Season.

21:27

Or member. Or.

21:31

I'll be on as these have gotten

21:33

increasingly difficult for me to do since

21:36

I have no longer in the game

21:38

symbolism industry and have very little clue

21:40

what is going on. Say: I love

21:43

to hear from anyone but me about

21:45

this. So

21:48

I I've heard to rumors one which I

21:50

think as like while now and one which

21:52

I doubt. The One as well

21:54

Now and is that there's a new doom

21:57

game coming? In. it's in the

21:59

middle ages that is going full

22:01

on heavy metal album

22:03

cover. Yeah, that was happening. Which

22:05

is... That sounds very good to

22:07

me. It sounds so good. It's

22:09

one of those pitches that just right away you're

22:11

like, wow, we only went up one floor on

22:13

the elevator, but I'm ready to get off and

22:15

start playing that game. That sounds

22:17

sick. The other one that I've heard

22:20

is that the new

22:22

Dragon Age game is more

22:24

God of War in nature than

22:26

it is RPG nature. Dread Worm? What

22:29

is it? Dread Wolf?

22:31

Dread Wolf, yes. And this one, again, take with

22:33

a big ass, great assault.

22:36

But if it

22:38

does go that direction and it is more

22:40

of an action game, two

22:42

things. One, who knows? Maybe it kicks ass.

22:45

Maybe that is exactly what we want. It's

22:47

not like the combat in those

22:49

games was my favorite part of those games.

22:52

But two, what a great reminder

22:55

of how video game development is just weird as

22:57

hell where you start a project six years ago

23:00

and you're like, you know what people are dying

23:02

for? Action RPG.

23:05

People don't like complicated RPGs.

23:07

Nobody would ever play a

23:09

more complicated RPG. We

23:11

gotta go action. Action, action,

23:13

action. And then Baldur's

23:16

Gate comes out a year before your game. But

23:20

I, yeah, those are my

23:22

two, I bet we see those. I

23:25

mean, I wanna know, are we gonna see all

23:29

of those Microsoft exclusives that they've

23:31

been promising forever and just keep

23:33

not faking weird? I

23:35

think weird vibe there, huh? I

23:38

feel like, yeah, it's gonna be weird

23:40

regarding those. I feel like Microsoft

23:43

especially has gotta come

23:45

out with enough

23:47

positive, I kinda feel like it's a

23:49

little bit of a make or break

23:52

for Microsoft. The way they handle this

23:54

week, I feel like it's

23:56

a real fine line to walk.

23:59

I don't know. I don't know that they

24:01

have enough like in

24:03

the tank to shift the narrative in a

24:06

way that it yeah play or

24:08

get a I think I think they think that

24:10

they have an ace in the hole I think

24:13

and I think that that is

24:15

an Xbox handheld. I think they

24:17

have years also but I I

24:20

think we see like one of two things

24:22

I think we either see an actual Xbox

24:24

handheld or we see an

24:26

Xbox layer that can go on to

24:28

all these windows handhelds one

24:30

or one or the other maybe both but

24:33

I feel Spencer I

24:35

mean even when I spoke with him a couple

24:37

months ago is like handheld. The

24:40

thing he wants to talk about and

24:43

I think in terms of

24:45

like what a console is for X-Men X moving

24:47

forward. There isn't much of

24:49

a story for them of having a traditional

24:52

video game console. They have kind of said it

24:55

would be impossible for them to catch up

24:57

with Sony and Nintendo

24:59

that the install base is

25:02

not there for them because people get locked into

25:04

their libraries. So they're

25:06

gonna go if they're gonna keep doing this

25:08

handheld seems like the route

25:10

for them again. It makes sense because

25:13

of game pass because right now even

25:15

if you have a Windows handheld getting

25:17

game pass games to run well isn't

25:20

like the easiest thing in the world like you're

25:22

still dealing with kind of clumsiness

25:25

with regards to running it you don't

25:28

have that theme OS very smooth experience.

25:30

Is there is there a Windows handheld

25:32

that people are liking? I'm the Rock

25:34

ally right? The Rock ally is terrible.

25:37

I heard people know I like it.

25:39

It got so hot it ejected people's

25:41

SD cards. They addressed that.

25:43

I mean you guys are using Rock ally. You

25:45

guys are Rock ally. I've heard it's very good.

25:47

I've heard it's for like almost a year before

25:50

I switched back. Before it ejected its SD card.

25:52

Before I blew that through his wall. Is

25:56

there a reason to have one and not a theme deck? Moderately

26:00

more powerful and it runs Windows So there

26:02

are games like if you have a lot

26:04

of epic games store games or whatever or

26:07

destiny or it had a better screen Until

26:09

the OLED yeah, I get listen if you're

26:11

willing to be it click click a few keys Look

26:13

a few keyboards up to a few you can get

26:15

a lot of nasty stuff Give

26:19

it a little time Yeah,

26:22

I agree. I also know

26:24

that's actually a good segue because we

26:26

have a reader mail room wait wait No,

26:29

no, no, no, no, I need a crystallized

26:31

picture of this thing I

26:33

don't think that Microsoft wants to be

26:35

in the hardware business more, right? Like

26:38

I don't think they want to double down on that. I think

26:40

it makes more sense that it's a it's a standard

26:44

like like that 3do

26:47

right the possibility of where they might want to be

26:49

in the hardware business The cool

26:52

thing about handhelds right now is you can sell

26:54

a chip. That's 10 years old at An

26:57

at like a premium if it's in a

26:59

handheld So you kind of make a

27:01

decent profit off of it And

27:03

if it's super easy for people to just jump

27:05

in and play games on your platform It keeps

27:08

those people in your platform see steam OS being

27:10

like the perfect example Yeah, the example that I

27:12

think fresh is gonna give from our comments.

27:15

This is from a thread We did on patreon

27:18

is a Steve B said there's a

27:20

rumor about a handheld PlayStation that plays

27:22

ps4 games But I really think they'd

27:25

be better off making a handheld ps3 Most

27:27

of the best ps4 games are on Steam

27:29

already But middle gear solid 4 red dead

27:32

1 ratchet and clank future trilogy OG

27:34

Demon souls and more are all not

27:36

on Steam. That's an interesting point about

27:38

the ps3 I

27:41

agree don't agree I

27:43

don't I think if Sony comes out with a head

27:45

of handheld and it doesn't run ps4 games They

27:48

are dead in the water. There's no

27:50

wild. Yeah scenario where that works for

27:53

them It's really cool for like us

27:55

and if you if you sold a

27:57

handheld thing That was

27:59

like the same idea as those Atari

28:01

or even the PS mini. The

28:05

idea of doing one of those as a handheld, I

28:11

think could do really well. If you

28:13

released a handheld PS3 that

28:15

could play, like that had all the ones

28:17

that they have access to, you could buy

28:19

for like an affordable bundle, right? Maybe

28:22

40 games for the PS3 library that are just

28:24

there and you can maybe get more for

28:26

real cheap as DLC. That

28:29

could be a model that I feel like could

28:31

be really powerful because you're able to resell all

28:33

this stuff. And I would

28:35

be kind of into that. PS3 is hard to do

28:37

like that though, right? Because there's certain stuff about the

28:39

PS3 like hardware infrastructure

28:42

that is like nearly

28:44

impossible to simulate. It's why PS3

28:47

games are like put up to

28:49

emulate on the mode. Yeah,

28:51

fair. I mean also like a small PS3.

28:54

They could still do even a PS2. A

28:56

lot of these things are people, they buy them and

29:00

then they never play them and they're happy. I

29:02

mean, think about like all the handheld emulators you

29:04

all have. Come on. I play them all every

29:06

day. Yeah. Every one of them. I do want

29:08

to address the point that Justin made because I

29:10

think plants, right? As much as the like pre-installed

29:13

games thing definitely has a market. I

29:15

think the more interesting thing for Sony

29:18

is having a device that A, runs PS4

29:20

games and B, connects to the internet because

29:22

then you can have your library like you

29:24

can with SteamOS and people

29:27

feel like more ownership over their

29:29

PlayStation library and that it keeps

29:31

them in the ecosystem in the way that it does

29:34

for SteamOS. So I think

29:36

that would be my guess. Something that

29:38

is either PS4 or PS4 Pro powered

29:40

level that can run basically everything.

29:42

Is it something that's rumored or are we

29:44

just like spiraling now? I think there are

29:46

slight rumors about it. I think the fact

29:49

that Sony released that insane remote play only

29:51

handheld. I always see that they are interested

29:53

in handhelds. It's just like... They just have

29:55

no idea how to do it or what.

29:57

I think they just didn't have the supply.

30:00

For it like I think maybe the like guts of

30:02

it weren't ready or they want to wait until the

30:04

end of the ps5 Lifecycle and do this but

30:07

I definitely would be surprised as kind of feel

30:09

like alright Here's the things we can get from

30:11

China a screen and two handles. Yeah,

30:13

what can we do with that? This is what

30:15

I also I have an uncle who

30:17

works at Jeff Keeley also who said that Hollow Knight

30:19

Silksong will be at this one Oh, oh, yeah, you're

30:21

all cool. Yeah You're

30:23

not not Jeff Keeley. It's not Jeff Keeley, but

30:26

he works at Jeff Keeley. Okay, okay? JF

30:29

JEFS Jeff

30:31

Kayley That's

30:33

exciting. I'm glad that it's not canceled. That's

30:35

cool. They will be great outer world outer

30:38

worlds to probably at the Microsoft one Monster

30:41

Hunter maybe at the at the summer game fest

30:44

I think Capcom's gonna be there and then I

30:46

think there's just gonna be this big gap because

30:48

nothing that's gonna launch on Whatever

30:51

the switch is obviously not gonna be there Switch

30:54

to so I think there probably are a

30:56

lot of titles that will be held back For

30:59

that because the switch to I would imagine

31:01

will launch with other like Multi-platform

31:03

titles that they want exclusives on So

31:06

I it feels like it's gonna be a light year,

31:08

but I'd be happy to be surprised I

31:11

mean Nintendo has all of the remasters that they're

31:13

gonna just keep pulling right and they have

31:15

some that are already made They have all those Zelda

31:17

games just waiting in the way right Twilight Princess and

31:19

when waker HD Remakes are gonna

31:21

definitely fill in the blanks. I made like

31:24

like eight years. I know we've

31:26

been rooming the rooming them Ages,

31:28

I feel like just to circle back

31:30

on the Microsoft question for a second. I I think

31:33

that they The position that

31:35

is really hard for them From

31:37

a PR perspective is if they're trying to speak to

31:39

fans and I think anything like this you are I

31:41

don't feel like you're really talking to buyers as

31:44

much as you were E3 correct in

31:46

the summer games fest right you're probably not even talking to the

31:48

press as much as you were With E3

31:50

it's much more about like direct communication with fans

31:52

for the get number for the gamers for

31:55

the I I

31:57

think that they they had the hard challenge for

31:59

Microsoft is Every announcement, everything that they put

32:01

out there, they have people who

32:03

are like, well, you know what I would have liked to say to that?

32:06

If you had made another high-fi

32:08

rush, or perhaps a third arcane,

32:10

or third dishonored, or all

32:13

those people got laid off so you could pay

32:15

for X. I mean,

32:17

whatever, because that's where the conversation is at right now. I think

32:19

that it's a really awkward time

32:21

to be saying, here are

32:23

our big new investments. Anything,

32:26

right? It almost feels like they should just come

32:28

out and be like, we're figuring it out, we're

32:30

sorry. We'll talk to you next

32:33

year. Yeah. Anything feels like in bad taste. And

32:35

instead we're gonna get Call of Duty with George

32:37

Bush. Right. Which is

32:39

just absolutely bizarre. Fucking great. Have you not seen the trailer

32:41

for this? No. No. Oh

32:43

my gosh. The new Black Ops trailer, they've

32:46

released two, and one is like, what

32:48

if you were the January 6th writers?

32:51

It's like, it's all these people are like,

32:53

the truth is actually a lie. We're gonna

32:55

hang up blindfolds over

32:57

Mount Rushmore, bro. And

33:00

then the newer new one. I gotta say,

33:02

on that topic in particular, logistically speaking, that's

33:04

pretty impressive. Oh, it is. And definitely just

33:07

looks like a bad photo shot, even though

33:09

it's somehow real life. Hey,

33:12

can I ask, what the fuck do you want from Black

33:14

Ops? Oh no. Of course

33:16

it's gonna be that no matter what. It's gonna be

33:18

that, but there's also a rumor

33:20

that they might be putting a certain terrorist attack

33:22

in this game. Oh god. Yeah, it's Call

33:25

of Duty Black Ops, guys. Yeah,

33:27

but. I

33:29

didn't say where it was. So like, legal,

33:32

best use legal department, you don't need to

33:34

reject me. I'm just saying, they

33:37

started out with a trailer with George

33:39

Bush in it, and like, all the

33:41

political figures of the 90s, and

33:43

they're like, where are we gonna go from here? Where

33:46

are we going? And it's, oh, Activision, you

33:48

are, you are ready. You've got that Microsoft

33:51

protection now, you are ready to get in

33:53

the news. It'll be tasteful no matter what.

33:55

Yeah, and especially during an election year, I

33:57

think it's gonna be chill. I think every-

34:00

Everybody's gonna be really you know I

34:02

I I think that what they

34:04

need to do is the call of duty guys need

34:06

to show up late for a

34:08

terrorist attack and then blinks comes

34:10

out and he's like looks like you all

34:12

could use some time sweeping and Microsoft's like

34:14

welcome to the X. You know what I

34:16

mean like yes, this is how we do

34:19

it Could you guys use some

34:21

help from a brute squad?

34:25

That would be can I say that would

34:28

be enough for me I could I could

34:30

I could I could forgive I could forgive

34:33

if soap is like Oh, no,

34:35

thank we brought our sons boys And then

34:37

you hear from behind him like what

34:39

you're gonna need a big gun

34:41

from space and fucking don't believe

34:44

Can you imagine guys the fight finally?

34:46

Yeah, fucking I came to earth the

34:48

flood came to earth and I need

34:50

all my college you guys have ever

34:52

been alive Yeah, come back

34:54

to life. Yeah, and we all have

34:57

to fight them together Yeah, and it's

34:59

the flood and And

35:02

you can floss the other guys who are the

35:04

other guys we hate the combine Covenant

35:10

the covenant yeah, they're there they're up with the

35:12

flood Thank you sticky

35:14

grenades and the tape and so

35:16

to recap the teams are

35:18

the call duty guys Master Chief

35:20

and blinks the time sweeper Versus the flood

35:23

the Covenant and the terrorists and brutal and

35:25

brute force brute forces in there also yeah,

35:27

yeah cool Yeah, not brute squad. I said

35:29

brute squad brute force Yeah, and they also

35:31

own the rights the battle toad so we're

35:34

pretty much covered Yeah, well and the good

35:36

thing is after they do commit all these

35:38

war crimes They all get

35:40

back together and they play a game of

35:42

outlaw golf. Yeah, okay guys

35:46

What do you think about that? We're being mean It's

35:49

just needlessly mean what do you all think

35:51

about this it's called? Macrohard

35:53

brawlers, and it's all the

35:56

Microsoft guys yeah, and they

35:58

all are in a battle royale again against each

36:00

other, first person shooter style. So

36:02

you got all of the different

36:04

Microsoft people and they're all shooting

36:06

each other. Yes, right by the

36:08

Ghoulies. They're all

36:11

in there, you're having all your favorites.

36:13

Banjo. Banjo. Who's got

36:15

a better pull? Who's got a more obscure Microsoft

36:17

pull? I already went, he was gonna show up

36:19

but he was having a bad Fur Day. There

36:22

we go, that's a good one. The

36:24

great mighty poo, you got to all team up against

36:26

the great mighty poo. We

36:28

should tell people some more games. So they're

36:30

gonna be like, Tony Hawk did it all,

36:33

he over-terrorized us. Ha ha ha ha ha

36:35

ha ha. Gears

36:38

of War is gonna be there? We

36:41

feel pretty certain about that. Which one

36:43

is I gotta play that other Gears of War game

36:45

that came out of that way, man? It was pretty

36:47

good. Five, right? Y'all, they

36:49

will announce it, here's my prediction. They will

36:51

announce a new Gears of War and it

36:54

is gonna go over like a fart in

36:56

church. Fuckin' nobody cares, dude. Nobody,

36:58

there is a die-hard, I admit,

37:00

die-hard Gears of War fan base but in

37:03

terms of like, I

37:05

don't know when the last one was, nobody

37:07

does, nobody talks about it. I

37:09

don't know how big of a swing they'd need to

37:11

take to get people excited about Gears of War. They

37:14

can barely get people excited about Halo and that was

37:16

the one everybody really, really liked. I think it'd be

37:18

really hard to get people excited about Gears of War

37:20

right now. I am happy for the fans though. Like

37:22

all the people who have Gears of War tattoos who

37:24

are continuing to get in this game, happy

37:27

for them. Do you have to

37:29

say with every game, do we need

37:31

to say we're happy for the people that like it?

37:34

Is that a necessity? Let

37:36

me go back retroactively and say with everything

37:38

we've said, if you like it, we're happy

37:41

that you like it. I'm happy for them

37:43

uniquely because can you imagine how

37:45

great you would feel? Imagine me,

37:47

I've only gotten one Nier Automata, technically

37:49

a new Dragon Guard but I don't

37:51

get the game I want all the

37:54

time so I say this more out

37:56

of kind of like a passive aggressive. I'm

37:58

happy for you, must be nice. You're having a Viva

38:02

Pinata dancer over here dying of thirst in

38:04

the desert. That might be the thing. That

38:06

might be the thing. That might

38:08

be the thing. That might be the thing.

38:10

We brought them all over here, psych. We

38:12

didn't lay off anybody. We brought them in-house,

38:14

deeper in-house, deeper to work on a secret

38:16

Viva Pinata. We have a new studio. They're

38:18

only making Viva Pinata and 1,700 people work

38:20

there. We're

38:23

going to have a new one every three months. And

38:25

the way they debut it is they have just a

38:27

giant pinata and they break it open and all the

38:29

people come out. Kidding aside though,

38:31

there is an alternate reality

38:33

where Microsoft didn't fuck up

38:35

Viva Pinata and it became

38:37

incredibly profitable for them. There

38:39

is so much money on the table. No, I'm not. I'm

38:42

not. I don't know. I

38:44

agree with you. In an open world connected

38:46

group of Pinata. Like an animal crossing. Yes,

38:48

exactly. Bonkers, Mongea. Okay, take that phrase, rip

38:50

out Viva Pinata and now

38:53

put in Crackdown, put in

38:55

Perfect Dark, put in

38:57

Conqueror. Yeah. No, I mean it's a

38:59

great point that if they had kept making good games

39:01

in the series, it would continue to

39:03

be a good series. It's almost as well observed

39:05

as we're very happy for the people

39:07

that like the things. We're all bringing

39:09

a lot of heat to it today, plant. You're right. Now,

39:13

I might be down, if they did a

39:15

Gears with a

39:17

battle royale structure, more

39:20

rail grinding. No, I'm

39:22

serious. Just mobility. You're talking about mobility. A

39:24

hundred Gears of War guys. And

39:26

a hundred of the bad guys. You wouldn't play that. I'd

39:29

be happy for the people that liked it. The

39:34

problem is it would still feel like a Gears

39:36

game, right? It's got to be faster. They got

39:38

to increase speed 300%. Take

39:40

some of that armor off. You don't need all

39:43

that armor. That's very true. Maybe that's what they'll

39:45

do. Maybe they'll finally make it fun to get

39:47

around. Asymmetrical multiplayer could

39:49

be cool. If they really went,

39:51

they have. My asymmetrical,

39:53

you mean like for us to play and you don't have

39:55

to and then we can talk about how this is. I'm

39:57

sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

40:00

Hey, we got a few more a few

40:02

more guesses from folks. Um, so

40:04

this one's interesting I don't know why

40:06

you there they would be interested in

40:08

this mek repair guy Says

40:10

I thought that was the

40:13

game that was being predicted was mek repair

40:15

guy. Fuck. That's good Yeah, mek repair guys

40:17

prediction is Titanfall 3 with a rocking campaign

40:19

in a PvE mode Can't

40:21

imagine why mek repair guy would be invested in

40:24

that. Yeah, right I like how the prediction is

40:26

like this thing I want and also it's got

40:28

two both of the parts of it are there

40:30

and Very good. Yes Daniel

40:34

Daniel Nielsen said I honestly don't know what

40:36

I want something new at least I'm so

40:38

tired of sequels and remasters of games that

40:40

I have played multiple times. Gosh, man I

40:42

mean, I there's so

40:44

much happening at summer game fest We have focused

40:47

so much on just Microsoft, but that is sort

40:49

of where I am That's

40:51

where I'm thinking about just because of the

40:53

news from them lately. I How

40:57

many games how many

40:59

new games have they announced that

41:02

never? Okay, I mean that's what's hard

41:04

about it. I feel like From

41:06

Microsoft especially and maybe the others to do

41:08

it to a certain extent But like I

41:11

feel like at this point if you're announcing something new,

41:13

I'm not convinced it's gonna come

41:15

out Right, I'm not I and I think in

41:17

this current climate if you're expecting a lot of

41:19

like wild swings I think

41:21

we'll see a lot more safe bet. It's like

41:23

a Kickstarter launch at this point like it might

41:25

happen Counterpoint exactly

41:27

I guarantee you 50

41:32

new games brand new games never

41:34

been played are going to

41:36

be shown. Oh god. Oh, you have a 50s finally

41:39

Oh 50 Get

41:43

ahead of our I think about UFO 50

41:45

once a week. No shit. I'll go look

41:47

at the page You'd be like whatever happened

41:50

with UFO 50. I'll go. I am going

41:52

to be playing UFO 50 in Like

41:55

a week and a half. It doesn't mean it's coming out Can

41:57

we even what UFO 50 is? for

42:00

people like me who had to do a little one.

42:02

No, it's all you fresh. This is your baby. OK,

42:05

so Derek Yu, creator of Spelunky, and

42:08

a bunch of other names, including the creator of Downwell

42:10

and other names from

42:12

Mind Blanking On, basically united to make

42:15

one game that has 50 games in it. And

42:17

each of the games. Yeah, it was a concept

42:19

that this is a forgotten console. Right.

42:22

It's kind of like a Pico 8 mentality

42:24

behind it. And so

42:27

it's 50 games in there, and the games

42:29

they've described as not quite the

42:31

size of a, quote, AAA

42:33

NES era game, but pretty close to

42:35

that. And there are 50 of them,

42:38

which just from a sheer

42:40

design accomplishment is, well,

42:43

explains why the game has been delayed for 10 years. When

42:46

it was first premiered at the bottom of the trailer,

42:48

it said coming in 2018. No,

42:50

wow. Sheesh, man. So

42:53

I'm skeptical that it'll actually happen. But at

42:55

this point, I mean, Derek, as

42:58

far as I'm aware, hasn't been working on

43:00

anything apart from this after Spelunky 2 launched.

43:02

So it seems like it could happen. And

43:05

I'd be really excited. Yeah,

43:08

that'd be wild. That

43:10

is cool. One

43:13

last thing, because I want to inspire

43:15

some Sony ideas here. Oh, yeah. Sony,

43:17

I don't think that they have any

43:19

big stuff for this year. I

43:21

feel like Sony's slate is pretty clear

43:24

for the next two or

43:26

three years, right? If I'm Sony, I kind

43:29

of feel like keep a firm hand

43:31

on the rudder and just let Microsoft

43:33

kind of get themselves out of

43:35

the ground, man. Microsoft's

43:37

doing a really good job of messing

43:41

up their own business without Sony trying

43:44

to play too much offense. That's fine.

43:46

But after Final Fantasy VII

43:49

Rebirth, I don't know what the next

43:51

PS5 game that's coming out that I'm

43:53

pretty stoked for is. I

43:57

think that Wolverine game will be good, but that's probably two

43:59

years out. We are in I

44:01

feel like we are very much and this has

44:03

probably been observed other other by

44:05

other people but rather than this but I

44:08

feel like right now we are in

44:10

the COVID slump. I

44:12

feel like right now is

44:14

where it has just caught up

44:16

right that that that gap that several

44:18

months gap where nothing was happening. I

44:21

feel like we're now like in

44:23

I feel like we're feeling the after effects from

44:25

that at this point. The

44:28

hardest I don't know I think it's also

44:30

we're in this slump of these are the

44:32

games there was a lot of games that were

44:34

greenlit. When fortnight hit it

44:36

big and now we're

44:38

past those games and a lot of

44:40

those studios close because they can't compete

44:43

in these post post fortnight world yeah

44:45

and so now there's kind of I

44:47

mean we're relying on like very great

44:49

small developed titles like the block of

44:51

the world right. And

44:54

we will never go back to a

44:56

period where there will be a ton

44:58

of AAA games because in this world

45:00

where people just play one game for

45:02

the entire year yeah there's no room

45:04

for it. We're also feeling it especially

45:06

acutely because like Sony slate is is

45:08

pretty pretty empty Microsoft has

45:11

I mean shit the bed entirely and

45:13

Nintendo is kind of like in this sort

45:16

of holding pattern until the switch

45:18

to gets announced like when all

45:20

the major platform heads are

45:22

are have trickled to a stop

45:24

like it really it really drives

45:27

home the the the famine that

45:29

we are experiencing. I

45:31

mean I can't say that because this year I feel like

45:33

has been pretty good in terms of like a lot of

45:35

great stuff has come out this year but

45:37

yeah looking at the dark

45:40

horse stuff stuff that we didn't see coming which I

45:42

think will continue through the rest of the year and

45:44

will make like game awards really interesting because I

45:47

think like you could see three

45:49

or four indies in game awards

45:51

like absolutely. Year but

45:53

but yeah it's weird it's like I

45:56

if E3 was still around and I guess

45:58

this is like the analog for each. like

46:01

I don't know that that I went to a

46:03

couple e3s where it felt like okay everybody's just

46:06

kind of waiting for next year

46:08

right when we're gonna announce the Xbox

46:10

Series X and the PS5 like we're all just

46:12

kind of we're all agreed that we're all just

46:14

kind of waiting until next year it does feel

46:16

like that yes yeah Sega might come out with

46:19

a but didn't Sega last summer game

46:21

sessions and that when they were like hey by

46:23

the way we're remaking all our old shit like

46:25

we're doing a new crazy taxi we're doing a

46:27

reason yeah we're doing a new like it would

46:29

be cool to see them come through with some

46:31

of that stuff because frankly weirdly

46:34

Sega has become one of the most

46:36

exciting like publishers out there and Capcom

46:38

are like the two yeah I might

46:40

constantly really plugged into and we have

46:43

metaphor refontazio coming out yeah not like

46:45

you know the

46:47

switch has anything this

46:50

year I mean other than there's a Nintendo Direct

46:52

that's coming yeah hey really really

46:54

quick to wrap up the Sony part of

46:56

this Julia in our

46:59

comments said dream announcement is blood-borne going

47:01

to PC and I feel like all

47:03

of us would be pretty happy with

47:05

I had that thought today of like

47:08

I wanted to play a Dark Souls game on my Steam

47:11

deck and I was like what was the one that had

47:13

that really cool part and I was like oh shit that

47:15

was blood-borne which is

47:17

yeah only on ps4 still that

47:19

would be nice yeah but yeah Nintendo

47:21

I it's gonna it's gonna be a

47:23

breather year right it's gotta be a

47:25

breeder I mean they've got Luigi's Mansion

47:27

to the remake and and as plant

47:29

alluded to they'll probably have a couple

47:31

more remakes coming this

47:34

year and going to be the

47:36

worst year of Nintendo

47:38

games I mean

47:41

I never played Luigi's Mansion 2 so I'm

47:43

fucking psyched for that game also once they

47:45

announce arm no play it go get a

47:47

3df lying

47:50

around go get one if you

47:52

like it so much I

47:54

don't know if I like it I'm excited are

47:56

you are you disagreeing with the point are you

47:58

like I'm excited for this thing because I didn't

48:00

play I'm disagreeing with it personally because there

48:02

are a few Nintendo Classics that came out

48:04

like the Wii U or 3ds era that

48:06

I just never played and so if I

48:08

can play them now I'm happy with it,

48:10

but I think for most people you're right.

48:12

It is a very light year for Nintendo

48:14

But it's been like that for the last

48:16

like two or three years. It's

48:18

been pretty light Yeah, also we know we know the

48:21

game last year, right? Was there a new? Like

48:24

oh yeah, they did okay. It'd

48:26

be like a game. Yeah. Yeah,

48:29

sorry to clarify I think our

48:31

game that is one of the best

48:33

games ever made would actually be better

48:35

than no games as they did

48:38

now other than the busted broken-down joint runs is

48:40

so excited about I gotta check the chalkboard and

48:42

see if that math works out You know gets

48:44

factored a corner at the end of the life

48:47

cycle is also when it releases just weird ass

48:49

shit and the virtual Console at the end of

48:51

the Wii that was golden era It

48:53

was really really like hey you want to play Sin and

48:55

Punishment that game we never brought over Japan Here

48:58

it is so when the mother our grandeur is there

49:00

is a new Star Wars game coming exclusively

49:03

to all wars out laws Star

49:05

Wars hunters. Oh that is

49:07

a MOBA that is only coming to switch

49:09

and Android and

49:12

iOS hi on those

49:14

three platform Star

49:16

Wars I

49:18

am most excited to hear about the switch to which

49:20

is not going to happen in June

49:23

They have basically come out and said like you're not

49:25

gonna hear about it during that Nintendo direct That's

49:28

the thing that like I don't know

49:30

man I am so fucking stoked to

49:33

find out what what that console

49:35

is going to be Yeah, that's probably a January

49:37

if I had to guess yeah, January about this.

49:39

Oh, there's a new super monkey ball guys coming

49:41

out in June banana

49:44

rumble That's

49:46

gonna be a good year could be good we got

49:49

anybody got honorable mentions I Can

49:53

do one I really didn't think he thought that

49:56

Absolute silence Was going

49:58

to. Ah,

50:00

Henry has gotten. Out.

50:03

of seemingly out of nowhere very

50:05

in to pick him in just

50:07

the idea. Of. Them Just

50:09

these little plant guys. Ah, I did

50:11

not love Pittman for when I played.

50:13

I've never really clicked with this franchise.

50:15

ah but we have been playing Pokemon

50:17

for together. As good as which it's

50:19

great. It's a really they genuinely very

50:21

gets I. It's not the kind of

50:23

thing that like. I. Find is

50:25

especially compelling that I want to sit down

50:28

and like go around and collect a bunch

50:30

of. Garbage.

50:32

Since you're like take back to my year when

50:34

a gameboy us t I don't want a guy

50:36

boy s p that up once a slow ass

50:38

little seed. men are going to like carry around

50:41

but like. Ah, He is very

50:43

very into attacking. Also has a co op

50:45

mode. That. Is kind of brilliant

50:47

because pick men like the core sort

50:49

of formula going around and and finding

50:51

pick men and than like you know

50:53

solving puzzles and managing them in this

50:55

very light weights real time strategy to

50:57

my like way is just like a

50:59

little bit too complicated for where he

51:02

he is an arm but he likes

51:04

to be the pebble pitcher which is

51:06

there a lot mode is you just

51:08

have a radical, you aim at the

51:10

screen and you can throw rocks and

51:12

enemies to kill them or throw rocks

51:14

at Pigman to make the move faster.

51:17

Ah, and we ever, really really

51:19

really been enjoying playing, playing this

51:21

game together and it's It's exciting

51:23

for me because. I'm

51:26

I don't know. This is like the one

51:28

Nintendo franchise that I just never clicked with

51:30

even a little bit at all. and and

51:32

now I feel like I'm I'm finally getting

51:34

it's to their mind of a child's eyes.

51:36

I think this is really the only one

51:38

for my if you've never clicked with it

51:40

this is the one to play cause it.

51:42

With. The rest of them are like. A

51:45

new you just get increasingly more player hostile

51:47

as you go to the earlier games death

51:49

and they just made much more parts of

51:51

the time travel mechanic. In this is. The.

51:54

best like most sailed friendly feature

51:56

the ever where we have that

51:58

innocent boss fights were like all

52:00

of the art pigment get just

52:02

devoured or burnt. And he

52:04

gets like upset because he really likes these little

52:06

guys. And then it's like, oh, well don't, we'll

52:08

just time travel one minute into the past and

52:11

everything will be okay. And we can just try

52:13

it again. Like they get their souls back. They

52:15

get their souls back. There's so much really, really

52:17

brilliant stuff here that I feel like it's so,

52:19

so, so kid friendly. And it makes me feel

52:22

silly for like, I don't know, not giving this game, it's

52:24

fair shakes. Agreed. I

52:27

wanted to recommend, I watched a four

52:29

hour long YouTube video this week. Hell

52:31

yeah. I'm gonna recommend it. One four

52:34

hour long YouTube video this week. Might

52:36

I recommend Jenny Nicholson's, the

52:38

spectacular failure of the Star Wars

52:41

hotel. It is four hours long,

52:43

but you're gonna

52:45

enjoy the whole thing, I guarantee. Jenny Nicholson,

52:47

if you don't know, is a cultural critic.

52:49

I think that that's probably the best descriptor,

52:52

but she is so sort

52:55

of like kind and

52:57

that kind is not the word. Fair and

52:59

open-minded and reasonable, I would say,

53:02

that when she takes you

53:04

through the Star Wars hotel and this

53:06

was originally gonna be a sort of

53:08

review of her experience in the Galactic

53:10

Star Cruiser and then in the process

53:13

of that, it got shuttered. This two

53:15

day Star Wars themed sort of

53:17

like land cruise, basically, this is just an

53:19

immersive two day thing. I missed out on doing

53:21

it and a lot of people did, but

53:23

I had heard incredible

53:25

stuff about it. So this video

53:27

sort of became a eulogy

53:30

or maybe even like a historical

53:33

document of what the thing absolutely

53:35

was. It's all the stuff that I had avoided seeing because

53:38

I thought I'd do it at some point. And

53:41

watching her go through step by

53:43

step as

53:45

to like what her experience was and what

53:47

other people's experience was, what it could have

53:49

been. And it's all

53:52

so well-documented and supported with

53:54

like so much

53:56

evidence from her experience and just like her own

53:58

sort of take on it. Even though it is a

54:02

really long video, I think that it

54:05

allows her to talk about it with

54:08

fairness and kindness. And

54:10

by the end of it, it's like

54:14

she's built the perfect enclosure for the

54:16

thing. You step back and be like,

54:18

that is the most devastating

54:20

– it's like she's walked up to

54:22

the experience and just started taking bricks

54:24

out. And by the time she's done

54:27

with the four hours, it's just a

54:29

big pile of bricks. It's like, oh

54:31

yeah, it's completely dismantled. It's

54:33

like the last scene of The Lincoln

54:35

Lawyer. Exactly like that, Russ. Did

54:39

you guys watch some of this? I watched all of

54:41

it. It's the perfect thing to

54:43

watch in like 20-minute chunks, basically. What

54:45

comes to me out about

54:47

these interactive spaces is they're so

54:50

difficult to preserve, right? And

54:53

this is maybe the closest

54:55

we will get to an act

54:57

of preservation for this extremely

55:00

expensive borderline boondoggle

55:03

that will impact the history of

55:05

Star Wars. It will impact the

55:07

decisions at Disney. It will impact

55:10

how popular LARP can get. It

55:14

has so much of an impact

55:16

across all these different spheres of

55:18

media, and yet there was no

55:21

way for people – one, literally, even

55:23

if you had the money to go experience it now, but

55:25

even if you did go

55:27

in the past, it's just lost. So as

55:30

an act of preservation, I really like this, and I

55:32

think – I

55:34

wish we saw more of these

55:36

for MMOs or other kind of

55:39

experiences like this where you

55:42

can't really recreate the experience,

55:44

but you can recapture it in

55:46

some way. Does she go into or do we know

55:48

anything about like what Disney is going to do with

55:51

that? She does discuss it for a

55:53

bit. She discusses it. Disney hasn't said anything. Josh

55:55

Tamara, who's in charge of the parks, says that

55:57

it was a good idea to go through the process. will

56:00

be used for something. I

56:03

mean, just a resort, right? They

56:05

can bring, but it really doesn't work for

56:07

that because it's behind the back lot. Griffin, watch the video.

56:09

There's 20 minutes on why it can't

56:11

be anything else. Yeah, it's surprisingly difficult to turn

56:14

it into that. By the way, if you watched

56:16

this one and loved it, her last video, which

56:18

was a year ago, was

56:21

ever more the theme park that wasn't, which

56:23

is three hours and 45 minutes long, about

56:25

an immersive LARP botanical garden

56:29

in Utah that

56:33

she went to and a very thorough history

56:35

of that. She does

56:37

fantastic stuff. Her video about the

56:39

church place in the Mac universe

56:41

is fantastic. You gotta check it out.

56:45

It's been up for 10 days and six million people have

56:47

watched it and it's a four hour long YouTube video. I

56:49

will also say, by the way, what

56:51

I found is that, and Russ, I'll be

56:53

curious if you've found the same thing. YouTube

56:55

is a surprisingly good platform for watching something

56:57

that long. It is a bajillion times easier

56:59

to get back into a two hour or

57:01

four hour long YouTube video than a movie

57:05

or anything of any length. Well, it

57:07

also helps. She structures it in, again,

57:09

10 to 20 minute chapters that allows

57:12

you to have a breaking off point

57:14

and you're obviously saving your progress every time

57:17

you leave. So, yeah, no, it's like the

57:19

perfect I'm eating lunch, leave

57:21

it on, listen to it kind of thing. Long drive, you just

57:23

pop it up in front of you. Can I? Okay,

57:25

great. I would also like to bring up because

57:27

I think it is only timely now and

57:30

I'm excited to talk to Juice and

57:32

whoever else maybe watched it. This season

57:34

of Survivor, we have mentioned on the

57:36

show before, is the- I think

57:38

it's all time. Yeah, maybe not

57:40

in terms of like gameplay, like maybe one

57:43

of the worst seasons of gameplay.

57:45

Oh, yeah, terrible. But

57:48

the wildest, wildest

57:50

sort of character

57:53

and ending and just the

57:55

vibe was so fucking peculiar. A

58:01

man named Q at

58:05

one point breaks

58:07

Survivor. He

58:10

does something in a tribal council

58:12

that fundamentally breaks Survivor so bad

58:14

that I don't think it recovers for the rest of the season.

58:17

I think that he does something

58:20

I've never seen anyone do and it

58:23

breaks the entire game. And the rest of

58:25

it, it feels a little bit like Pirendela

58:28

6 characters in search of an author

58:30

because it's so fundamentally weird

58:32

from that moment on. It is like

58:34

no – especially if you've

58:36

been a long-term fan, you watch the

58:39

wheels come off of this motherfucker and

58:41

Jeff is living for it. Jeff is

58:43

having a great time this season. There's

58:45

also a man named Banu who curses

58:47

God for putting him on Survivor. For

58:49

putting him on Survivor. There's a woman

58:51

named Liz who has a thermonuclear

58:53

meltdown, the likes of which I've maybe

58:56

never seen on reality TV before because

58:58

she doesn't get to go to Applebee's. All

59:03

Liz wants is the bourbon mushroom burger

59:05

from Applebee's. By the way, PS, this

59:07

woman bragged on the first day about

59:09

being a multi-millionaire who does not need

59:11

to win. I've never seen anyone do

59:13

that either. It's wild. Definitely not. I

59:15

think that was all strategy because near

59:18

the end she's like, yeah, I guess

59:20

I didn't need to win because I'm

59:22

a millionaire. My

59:26

favorite meal, Applebee's. She

59:28

wants that bourbon mushroom

59:30

burger. The producers

59:33

do an amazing thing which she does not

59:35

get the burger. Other people

59:37

get the Applebee's meal and they fill

59:40

these people up with every ounce

59:42

of Applebee's food they can possibly

59:44

find. They give them the fries.

59:47

They give them the apps. They give them

59:49

everything. And then

59:51

at the end they bring out

59:53

that burger and they're like, I

59:55

can't eat the burger. We need

59:57

to throw away Liz's favorite

59:59

burger. Then they come back and

1:00:01

they tell Liz the story of

1:00:03

how it happened, of how they watched people

1:00:05

throw those burgers, probably not in the trash.

1:00:08

I bet out on an island it is

1:00:10

not too hard to find someone who will

1:00:12

eat their hamburger, absolutely no problem. It's fucking,

1:00:15

it's unbelievable. I would not recommend, if you

1:00:17

have not watched Survivor in a while, I

1:00:19

actually wouldn't start with this season. I would

1:00:21

watch one of the maybe

1:00:23

more solid throughout new era seasons of

1:00:26

Survivor, but once you have a little

1:00:28

bit of context, this season of Survivor

1:00:30

is, I will never forget some of

1:00:32

the shit that happened on it. They

1:00:35

are also in the new era, which

1:00:37

is, people have been using that. It

1:00:39

feels like a fan thing that kind of became a show thing. It's

1:00:43

everything after COVID, basically. Like everything after COVID.

1:00:47

They're taking a lot more chances with the editing and the production

1:00:49

of the show to inject it

1:00:52

with some more fun. You see a lot more

1:00:54

like slice of life goofy stuff. Like

1:00:56

there's a great sequence early on where

1:00:59

one of the guys on one of the teams

1:01:01

is a huge Taylor Swift fan and the other

1:01:03

is like a... A Metallica fan. A Metallica

1:01:05

fan, a rock fan in general, but like they go

1:01:07

back and forth naming songs as a way of like

1:01:09

to see who can name the most songs, the other

1:01:12

artists, and it goes on for hours because they have

1:01:14

nothing else to do. And everybody else on the beach

1:01:16

is like, this fucking sucks. But by the time they

1:01:18

hit like 80 songs each, everyone's

1:01:20

like, come on, Ben, come on, Ben, you

1:01:22

got this. It's the most entertaining thing happening

1:01:24

there. They play hide and seek at one

1:01:26

point just for fun. Yeah, right. It

1:01:29

is a great TV. Yeah.

1:01:33

Cool. I think we did it. I wanted to

1:01:35

thank the following people for being patrons of the

1:01:37

Besties. We have Wei

1:01:39

Zae. We have Justin Meerkat, Rum

1:01:41

Ham, and Svelte Kumquat. Thank you for being

1:01:44

patrons of the Besties and making it all

1:01:46

happen. What we got going on next

1:01:48

week? You're asking

1:01:51

me? What? Oh, we got... We

1:01:53

got a lot of fun. So, Friends of the Persia

1:01:55

is back. Like, guys, what? Okay,

1:01:58

listen. I'm so excited. I'm excited

1:02:00

because I got a message

1:02:03

from Frushstick and he's like, hey,

1:02:05

here's code for Rogue Prince of

1:02:07

Persia, Prince

1:02:09

of Persia Rogue? It's called Rogue Prince of

1:02:12

Persia, yes. What is that? The Rogue

1:02:14

Prince of Persia. It's a Rogue Prince of Persia.

1:02:16

They just did a Prince of Persia game. That

1:02:18

was a search action Prince of Persia. This is

1:02:21

a Rogue Prince of Persia. Guess who made this

1:02:23

one? Me? The people

1:02:25

who made dead cells. Oh, not

1:02:27

me at all. They have a

1:02:29

straight up dead cells Prince of Persia game

1:02:31

over there. Why did they do two of

1:02:33

these games in two months? It's the question

1:02:35

of the year. Why did they do another

1:02:37

one of these? Like right away. It's different.

1:02:40

Sorry. I know, I'm not complaining.

1:02:43

It's good, it's good. I

1:02:46

can't get a fable, I get two Prince of Persians in a week.

1:02:48

Maybe that's what Microsoft's gonna do. You're

1:02:51

not getting one blink, so you're getting two blink. Two. Oh,

1:02:54

and we're also doing a Prince of Persia. Everybody

1:02:57

gets, I feel like they went

1:02:59

to two different teams, right? That had to

1:03:01

be it. They went to two different teams. It

1:03:03

is literally two different teams. I know, but

1:03:06

like they thought one wasn't gonna

1:03:08

happen. Right, right. He went

1:03:10

through to one of these. I wonder

1:03:12

if one took a lot longer than

1:03:14

it was supposed to. This just, is

1:03:16

it synonically? Is it narratively the same? No.

1:03:19

I mean, does any of the Prince of Persia

1:03:21

like have a canonical? I mean, when they're released

1:03:23

within weeks of each other. One hopes. This

1:03:26

does look a lot like Dead Cells, which I

1:03:28

am. Yeah, I'm not complaining. Very

1:03:31

cool. What if people wanna hear additional

1:03:33

episodes? Is there a place that they

1:03:35

could hear on Patreon maybe? Is there a-

1:03:38

Yeah, that's like a guy on patreon.com/the

1:03:40

besties. Yeah. I don't

1:03:42

wanna do. And they could hear about some new indie games.

1:03:45

I think Fresh and I talked about 11 of them, including

1:03:49

one where you can fry

1:03:51

eggs for people in Antarctica. And

1:03:53

let me tell ya, delight. Sounds

1:03:55

great. Sounds great. Not since Mech

1:03:57

Repair Guy. Not since Mech Repair Sammy.

1:04:00

later 2024. I'm

1:04:02

saying guys, there's some air. It's a good game.

1:04:04

Someone could make it. It's free. Be

1:04:06

sure to join us again next week for the besties because

1:04:09

should the world's best friends pick the world's best game?