Get Played - A Minecraft Movie + Nintendo Switch 2 Direct

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Heather, Nick and Matt discuss their experience watching A Minecraft Movie and give their thoughts on the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct! Check out our brand new merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayed Follow us on social media @getplayedpod Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com For ad-free main feed episodes, our complete back catalogue including How Did This Get Played? and our Premium DLC episodes and our exclusive show Get Anime'd where we're currently watching Gurren Lagann go to patreon.com/getplayed Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fm All of our links can be found at linktree.com/getplayedpodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. Hey, I'm really excited to talk Switch 2 with both of you. You have no idea, I'm pumped. I'm so stoked. I've got talking points, I've got takes, I'm excited. Oh yeah, I've got a couple takes too. I actually came up with a joke about the, just from watching the Switch 2 directed. Oh, yeah, I got a couple takes too. I actually Came up with a joke. Oh about the just from watching the switch to direct it. Okay We can maybe say it on the show, but I mean I could try it out with you guys

I'm sure to hear it. Yeah, absolutely. All right Here's the joke Nintendo announced the price of the switch to in the u.s. Will be $449.99 If you're wondering why it's so expensive, it's because it comes bundled with a carton of eggs. You get it. It's kind of like about how, you know, stuff is so expensive now because of, you know, inflation and everything.

Did you get the joke? Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? Did you hear my joke? I'm Ryker! Hello? Oh. We sing about lava chicken and discover the mysteries of the C-button as we discuss a Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger.

That's me, Tiger Weiger, along with our third host, Matt Apodaca. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere of Video Game Podcast, where this week we're talking about a lot of stuff. We have kind of a weirdly newsy episode today. I guess not weirdly weirdly because the Nintendo Direct

about the Switch 2 just came up. But we're also like, we're not like the most topical podcast. You know, we're not journalists. We're not usually given the inside info, but a lot of the stuff is just kind of inescapable this week. Yeah, that changes today. Today we are your number one first stop. If you want news, if you want updates,

if you want all the takes on the latest gaming gossip, that's get played. That's right, I'm wearing one of those hats, one of those sort of flat brimmed hats with a little piece of paper sticking out of it. I'm going full journalist mode over here. A little press tab. Yeah, that's right.

Did anyone ever wear those, or is that one of those things that was like an invention of cinema? It has to be, I mean, all cinema is truth. It's all based in truth. Yeah, no, that's a good point. Like the clumps was real. That happened.

We have a big newsy episode today. Along those lines, our buddy, Distan, Sean Distan, who's been on the podcast before, was, I guess, haranguing us because we never did a reaction to the Death Stranding 2 trailer. Again, we're not like the most topical podcast, and so we just didn't have a window that came out, and it came out at a time we weren't recording,

so we didn't have a window to react, but I think we could all say that we thought it was good. We thought it was good. I had dinner with Distin the other day, and he goes, why the fuck haven't you guys talked about the Death Stranding 2 trailer? I gotta know what you guys think about it laughter

I've been waiting for a year for you guys to think about it and I said look buddy I don't know what to tell ya we loved it laughter

we think it's good laughter it looks great I like that there's like you know there's like a Guy that looks like solid snake in the trailer. There's a there's a metal gear in the trailer It's like it's crazy stuff, and yeah, he's a madman, and I can't wait to see how he pulls it off

Soon I like all the floating guys in the sky I like the floating guy favorite things is the little tiny tiny floating guys. I think that image is really iconic. Yes I like all the floating guys. I'm into floating in general Yeah, they think that wants to float. Pennywise over here this guy. Pennywise floating We're talking about Baron Harkin in from Dune. We're talking the whale from the whale I'll add all these floaters I'm into. Float floating is more threatening than flying. Yes. Wow, I agree That's a great take that I've never heard I completely agree with really really good

Does the speaking of dude? Yeah when they're like exiting that big shift and they're sort of like floating down to the sir Or is it reverse is it they're going up? Yeah, yeah going up the way they handle and and all Anti-gravity is like the technology feels so futuristic because you don't see any impact on the environment or hear anything Yes, it just I remember seeing that for the first time and being like, oh my god Yeah, just cuz of the way they were floating. Yeah, it's rad great really really really good I guess the thing that the other thing we can touch on before we get into the the meat of the show is this Just dropped as of this recording. There was a a poll that BAFTA conducted

on there was a poll that BAFTA conducted on, I guess this was just a poll of users, this was just a poll of fans that ended up ranking the top 20 most influential games of all time. The headline here is that number one, I'm sorry, most 21 influential video games of all time, according to BAFTA's poll, number one was. Why don't we go, because we've according to Baptist poll number one was why don't we go? Because we've gotten this complaint before yeah, why don't we go from the bottom up to the top you want me to list all 21?

Yeah, why not we've done 300 okay? I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna say them and then we can talk and we say whether we've played them 21 Grand Theft Auto okay one 20 Skyrim 19 Grand Theft Auto, one. 20 Skyrim, 19 Grand Theft Auto III, 18 Dark Souls, 17 Final Fantasy VII, 16 Baldur's Gate III, 15 World of Warcraft, 14 Metal Gear Solid, 13 Pong, 12 Tomb Raider, 11 Tetris, 10 The Sims,

9 Half-Life 2, 8 Super Mario 64, seven Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, a game that came out in 2025. Baffling. Listed among the most influential games ever made. Six Minecraft, five The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, four Half-Life, three Super Mario Brothers, two Doom, and number one Shenmue, Yu Suzuki's magnum opus, Shenmue listed as number one. Kind of a wild choice. I understand how people got there, but you know.

If it wasn't for the inclusion of Kingdom Come Deliverance II as an influential game, which like it can't be. Also similarly Baldur's Gate III too recent to be considered influential, even though it's my favorite game. I do think that Baldur's Gate 3 too recent to be considered influential even though it's my favorite game I do think that Baldur's Gate 3 Possibly has influenced the the development of video games moving forward. Yes for sure, right? I feel like Kingdom Come Deliverance to just like just came out Yeah, so maybe there's been a couple of meetings, but that doesn't make it an influential game. And what would your meetings be?

Hey, it's like Skyrim, but Realistic so do we want to do this and not that this indicates influence But how like has Kingdom Come deliverance to like sold gangbusters? Like is it like a huge I think it's I mean, I know it's like it's popular but like yeah But I think this is this is people self-selecting for this poll are going to be enthusiast gamers, and this is the game that they are excited about from this year.

So with that excluded from the list, I do think overall those are very influential games. With maybe Grand Theft Auto I not being that influential, I don't see a lot of people being like, Grand Theft Auto 1 is something we're emulating in this upcoming title. I do think that people have been like, I want it to be more like Zelda Ocarina of Time.

I think Shenmue at the top of this list speaks to that nobody had done something quite like it previously. And then the games that came after it, like Grand Theft Auto 3, where it was like, what if you could go inside of places and play video games or talk to anybody or whatever? I think all of that is sort of set

as a possible area for game development by Shenmue. I don't think the list is terrible in terms of everything that's on it. There's certainly some things that I don't think belong on this list. I certainly don't think you need both Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and I also don't think you need three FPS in the top 10.

No. But, you know, things like World of Warcraft and Pong should be way the fuck higher. Yeah. They're very low on the list based on their import to video games in general. A notable absence for me is Street Fighter II, which was just like, you know, again, a massively influential game in terms of the arcade scene

and then basically inventing or at least popularizing the fighting genre. And then just in terms of like what it did for multiplayer and then gaming as a community in general. The other thing I would say is I feel like this list, like fine, maybe Shenmue finds its way on here somewhere, but if you're gonna have Shenmue and then Grand Theft Auto 3, then that's like the sort of thing of like,

well, you should have Ultima Online before World of Warcraft. But that's what you're saying. What you're saying is like the one that pioneered this genre as opposed to the one that popularized it and made it mainstream is the one that we're going to acknowledge. Then I think there's some other games that you could probably toss on here. But-

Where's Pac-Man? Pac-Man, yeah, I don't know. Is Pac-Man a number 20, top 20 most influential game of all time still? Maybe it is, I don't know. Maybe not. But I do think there are probably some early PC RPGs most influential game of all time still. Maybe it is, I don't know. Maybe not.

But I do think there are probably some early PCRPGs that could be on here that certainly did a lot to, define what that genre is. The other thing I think that is maybe missing, maybe notably absent is some sort of predatory mobile game. Some sort of like thing. Like, cause honestly you look at things like, yeah, or like Farmville.

I don't know what the right pick is, but some game that just sort of like made that entire sector of gaming into the, you know, the nightmare that it is. Or PUBG. Or PUBG, yeah. Because PUBG is the one that launches the battle royale genre, which is now like an add-on for almost all of those major games.

Yeah, that's a great point There's no MOBA on here. There's no battle royale on here. Those are huge genres I mean that might also again just be who's self-selected for this these polls as might be people are a little bit elitist about Those genres, but I think that number 22 is Kingdom Hearts 2 I Would think that Kingdom Hearts 1 influenced Kingdom Hearts 2 no I would think that Kingdom Hearts 1 influenced Kingdom Hearts 2. No. No. Or the 1.

Like is Final Fantasy VII even? Great game, fantastic game. Is that more influential than say, Dragon Quest I, which basically makes JRPG this massive genre? I don't know. I think there's an argument to be made for both of them being on the list. Yeah, I think that's fair. Because I do think Seven changes the trajectory of console RPGs.

Yeah, I guess if you would think it influence in terms of also basically deciding a generation, you know, a generation's console battle, and then also like, you know, being part of how Sony ends up becoming this dominant presence in the industry. Yeah, I don't know. It's an interesting exercise.

I don't think Shenmue is number one of all time, but let me read this paragraph from the Polygon article. Quote, responding to the accolade in a statement, Suzuki said, I am deeply honored and grateful that Shenmue has been selected as the most influential video game of all time. At its inception, we set out to explore the question,

how real can a game become, aiming to portray a world and story unprecedented in scale and detail? This distinction serves as a powerful reminder that the challenge we embrace continues to resonate with and inspire so many people even today. It is truly the greatest of encouragement. What'd you read that statement as like? All right, tell you. It is truly the greatest of encouragement. Don't you read that statement? It's like, all right, let's get it used as if you want it.

That's cool. All your games are number one. We love you. Yeah. That's right. Just so sincere. Yeah, very, very nice. Gosh, I mean, I have not spent a lot of time with Shenmue.

My uncle played it. I remember being a kid and being like captivated by it for some reason, even though nothing was really happening. Just kind of just like watching this guy walk around and do stuff. I was like captivated by it for some reason, even though nothing was really happening. Just kind of just like watching this guy walk around and do stuff. I was like, this is, for some reason, I can't take my eyes off of it. Yeah, I really do.

Again, I understand why, Nick, you're like, I don't know about Shenmue being number one, but I do think that when it came out, people were like, wait, you can make an entire town and go anywhere in the town. Right. And not in a JRPG way, in like a, you can walk down a street and go into a building

and do stuff inside of that building. And that has become commonplace in games. And Shenmue is the one that, and I know that Daggerfall comes before that. I know that there are PC games where it's like, okay, you can go inside of a building. Yeah, that's another can of worms. elder scrolls belong was on here. Yeah, you know, is it Skyrim? I don't know. Where's an earlier entry? But yeah, yeah, I mean

It's it's I don't know. It's I I don't I don't like I like I think we were landing on earlier I don't think this list is quite right, but it's not terrible, right? And yeah, you know, I mean probably A big part of it is just like, do you want to argue for the thing that came first? Like, is the Legend of Zelda more consequential than Ocarina of Time? Or do both of them belong in there? Is Resident Evil, which creates an entire genre of games,

supposed to be on that list? Those Brits, I tell ya. What are you gonna tell us? They're just like, what's all this then? They make their lists all crazy like that. Yeah, nick off to cheeky Nando's. Knows what they're up to. They go get themselves a little cheeky Nando's

and have themselves a spot of tea and all the rest. Do they know how excited we are when they say, in it? Oh yeah, I mean, they, they, they, 100% know, and you know what? And they're putting it on, they don't say it that much, they don't need to say it that much. They say it because we like it. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Friend of the show, past guest, Libby Watson, we were texting once, and I don't remember what I texted exactly, but I texted her something with like a bit of British slang in response to something she said. And then her response was she gave it a thumbs down and then sent one word back, disgraceful. (*everyone laughs*)

Rochelle, we gotta talk, our producer, Rochelle Shanrich, we gotta talk about your experience you're telling us about in text. You did an IRL Big Brother? What is that? What is that? These two guys host a local game of Big Brother, not involved with the actual show,

but they just kind of put on their own version of it. Hold on, I don't know, what is that? Big Brother's like a CBS reality show, like a reality competition show where people go into a house and they're like monitored the whole time and there's like challenges throughout the show. But what is the game? Rachelle, I imagine you can maybe explain it better,

but it's kinda like one of the OG reality shows, it's kinda like Survivor in a House. It's basically, yeah, the simplest way to say it's Survivor in a House. It's basically, yeah, the simplest way is Survivor in a House. So they vote people off each week? Yes. And you play games to get immunity? Exactly.

Okay. Or you play games to be the person who gets to pick two people who are gonna be up for elimination each week. Okay, okay, got it. Survivor in a House, perfect. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, so these two guys host a game in their little apartment, and there was 15 of us. Are these friends of yours? You just find out about this on social media? I had a friend who I've played a group chat version during COVID with, who has done these a couple of times, and he's been telling me to apply and I finally did it. Wow. And how did you how did you fare in the in the game? I was voted out second. Second? Second to last or second first? Well for it I got I was voted out second first so there was someone voted out. That sucks.

My number one ally. The fuck? I was like, I was voted out second. Why? Why would they vote you off? My guess is that because I was kind of, I seemed close to this first person, which was Ryan Elder. Got it.

Right. That they didn't like, but also- We should know Ryan Elder, an extremely talented composer who some of us have worked with. My real friend, Karen, was actually playing that day too, and she put me on the block to be eliminated. Wow.

So I went home on her reign, on her head of household. But I was able to battle back into the competition. Oh, so there's like a last chance kitchen sort of thing. Exactly. So I won, I got to come back, and all bets were off. I was like, I don't care about any of these people. They voted me out. How many people are left at this point

when you get back in? There's still 13 people left. Okay. And I clawed my way up to second place. Wow! That's wild. From second to second. Second to second.

You said this in the chat, and now I think having heard the story a little bit, I have to agree, ranch is terrifying. That's wild. How long did the game, how long is the, how much of your day is the game? Like is that a long day?

72 hours. It felt like that, but it was 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Oh my God! Oh, Jesus. No, I was kidding. Did you put in, was there like a pool or anything? Did anyone win a prize? You win $100 if you want. Okay. Yeah. Jesus. No, I was kidding. Did you put in, was there like a pool or anything? Did anyone win a prize?

You win $100 if you want. Okay. Yeah. And like is food being ordered? Pizza was ordered, there were snacks, and there was also a round taking place at Albertson's. And there's 15 people and it's once, so, so there's a vote every, how often?

It's one every hour? Around every hour. Man, you could really fuck up that game by showing up with a stack of hundreds and being like, the money doesn't matter to me, the winning does, and each round that you don't vote me off, I will give $100 to each person at this table if you let me continue. That's really funny. I'm gonna try that next time. I will give $100 to each person at this table

if you let me continue. That's really funny. I'm gonna try that next time. It's a lot of money though. I'm gonna have to off to pick your brain because I'm gonna, my friends, I'm gonna go on like a group trip in the summer and my friends want to play a game of Traders like in the house.

Oh man. Yes. So I'm gonna have to learn a little bit how you play. I fucking love traitors so much. The TV show itself, the UK show, I don't watch the other ones yet, and also the game, the game proper. The game's good.

Fucking love it. It's really good. I will say I played a game of Survivor on a group trip of like my real friends, close friends, and the fallout was bad. Yeah. What? When they pitched it to me, I said,

look, I'm ready for a new group of friends. I don't need this, I don't need this. Yep. Congratulations. Yes, thank you. And your life is insane. Yes. I'm.

I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. Your life is insane. Hahaha! Plus, new players can get their losses back up to $1,000 in casino credits on their first day! Just sign up with code GETPLAYED and start playing to get up to $1,000 in casino credits back with a minimum $5 net loss only on DraftKings casino the crown is yours gambling problem call 1-800 gambler in Connecticut help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. 21 plus, physically present in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia only. Void in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply, new customers only. Lost back for 24

hours, up to $1,000 in non-withdrawable casino credits that expire in 168 hours. Terms at casino.draftkings.com slash promos. What sort of promises have you made for yourself this year? Getting in better shape? Eating healthier? Saving more money? Traveling somewhere new? What about discovering a new culture by learning a new language?

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And because conversing is the key to really understanding each other in new languages, Babbel is designed using practical, real-world conversations. Spending months with private teachers is the old way of learning languages and nothing screams tourist like holding a phone translation app to your face all day. Uh, I don't understand the language. I didn't do any learning before I got here. That's not gonna be you. That's some other person that doesn't do Babbel. You're good actually if you do it. Babbel's tips and tools are inspired by real-life stuff you actually need when communicating.

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Okay, look, I'll confess something to you, all right? I'll just listen between you and me, the listener. I went to Italy, and guess what? I had a really hard time. Turns out, if you don't speak Italian, some things are gonna be a little challenging for you. Changing where you wanna go mid-taxi ride, difficult, high level of difficulty to do

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at Babbel.com slash played. Get up to 60% off at Babbel.com slash played. Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash played. Babbel.com slash played. Rules and restrictions may apply. Hey, let's talk about some video games right now. It's time for What Are You Playing? What are you playing? Hey, it's me the Rev. of the New World War II, and I want to ask my friends what they're playing. Hit that chat, we wanna hear from you. We don't have a live chat. We're not live streaming. We're not live streaming. But that's how the camera's rolling. I thought we were live streaming.

Yeah, I noticed your little camera shy. I mean, you don't need to worry about that. We're not gonna put you on blast here. We're not gonna put your image up online. So you don't need to worry about that. But yes, no, it's not a live stream. This is just video recorded for later release. How do you get an audience to sign a waiver?

I guess you'd probably have to do it as they were entering the venue. No, I mean, like if you post a clip online of me, you need to have the audience to sign a waiver to watch. To see you. Yeah, I don't, that sounds like a logistical headache. I'm sure it could get sorted through some sort of web form or whatever, but that might just be more trouble for you.

Yeah, easier for us to not put the video of you up. Yeah. Do you think I would be voted off first? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say this person would be voted off immediately. But if there was a savvy player in the group, I would sort of make an argument to keep you because you are the obvious first vote. That makes sense to get you out of there based on how you behave and how you look and the rest. But I think it would be good to sort of keep you

as like a sheep for the slaughter later. So Matt, can we form an alliance? Yeah, we'll form an alliance. Absolutely. Hey, my boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Matt, can I ask you, what are you playing? Well, Resident Evil Merchant, I think

we could open the floor to all of us, all three of us here. What is everybody playing? We all had a little experience. We had a shared experience just before our record. So recording this the day this film opened nationwide, we went to the earliest screening we could find and came straight from the theater to the studio to discuss a Minecraft movie directed by Jared Hess

of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre most famously and Jason Momoa, Jack Black. I'm looking through my text. I have no record of being invited to this. Yeah, I guess it was just, I mean, it was me and Matt. Everybody went. We invited Rochelle and Rochelle couldn't make it,

but yeah, it was just kind of the whole crew. I'd wait, so you even had an extra ticket? I guess when you put it that way, yes, we did have a ticket that we got for Rochelle and then Rochelle couldn't make it. So yes, there was an empty seat next to me that you could have occupied. All right, I forgive the oversight, but next time, next time I want to know where you're going and when. I mean, in all fairness, you would have been sitting next to me and then next to a small

girl. And I don't know if she would have enjoyed your presence I didn't know I'll protect her with my life! and another thing just for future reference because I've I've been in a movie theater with you yeah you can't talk back to the movie. The movie can't hear you. Right. All right, just tell me which one it is. Which movie? No, whether it's the ones that listen.

No, it's typically not. None of them do. Just in general, good behavior in a movie theater is just to sit quietly. I know, I've seen a movie where they react when you talk. No, that's a play. Oh. That different?

That's different. Oh, the movie's the flat one. The movie's the one. You know what Oh the movie's the flat one! You know what, the movie is the flat one unless you've got glasses on and then it's a 3D movie. What?! Unless you're seeing a 3D thing. Just don't worry about it. Alright, so that's gonna be confusing. Yeah, just for now don't...

Some are 3D and you can't hear them. Some are 3D, they can't hear you, and then some are flat. Well, if they can hear you, again, there's live actors doing a theater. But when 100% of the flat ones can't hear you. Yes, Craig, if it's flat. So it's 50-50 on the other kind. I would not say 50-50.

I would say it's whether you're in a movie theater or whether you're in a theater, a playhouse. All right, let's just grab a play. A play is where you're sitting in a, in like a, an audience. A play is like a boring movie. A what? Like a boring movie. No, no, no, no, no, I'm a connoisseur of theater.

I'm just kidding. I love theater as well. In all its forms. I like a movie play. Yeah. Teleplay. Mm-hmm. I like a flat play and the 3D play.

You are a connoisseur. That's all the kinds. I would just say generally They don't like you talking. They don't like you talking in any of these. Yeah, don't don't you just don't talk at any Performance experience and yeah, okay Alright, well next time I'll go and I will not talk. Okay. Can anyone accept that little girl? No, no, no, no. Tell her no, she's safe! Okay, okay. Okay.

Okay. So here's what I'll say. This movie is, this is an interesting thing to talk about. Yeah. This movie has been in development for a while and there are six credited writers on this movie, which is not a good sign generally.

I mean, it's usually a sign that they got too many cooks or that this thing has been in development for so long that they keep throwing new bodies at it to try and figure it out. And so you end up with what this movie feels like, which is very messy and cobbled together, like a script that's been assembled from a bunch of previous drafts.

What I will say is it starts off in a way where I was like, wait, am I gonna like this movie? Because it has such a rapid opening. Where I was like, okay, of course they're going to start this in the real world, and then it's going to, you know, then we're gonna go to the Minecraft reality like that's just how all of these do the Super Mario Brothers movies like that Sonic a little bit different

they come to our reality but there's always like some insistence that the that we can't just occupy that video game reality we have to have the real world have a presence as well yeah I like to think of the reality that Sonic is in now as our reality Weird because in Super Mario Brothers the movie there is no real reason to have Mario who looks like Mario yes pre-exist outside of the Mushroom Kingdom Where he also looks like Mario? It's not like oh, it's it's it's Bob Hoskins and when he crosses the threshold he turns into CG Mario Yeah, like it's it's Mario on both sides of the plane Yeah, it's the it's illumination to look all the way through the only reason to do that is just again. They've sort of

The the inertia of of what Hollywood already does of that existing formula of them being like, okay, well, we can't just have a thing that takes place in the mushroom kingdom, even though that would probably be, you know, and maybe just a more efficient, more interesting movie. Okay. That's what the second one will be. Okay.

Because they don't have to do any of the motion they did in the first one. I have a great idea for a movie. I have a great idea for a movie. Okay. Oh no, this has already been done. God damn it. Is it Mrs. Doubtfire again?

No, I was gonna pitch somebody who comes to our reality and treats it like one of these video game movies Or they're like what is happening like to everything, but that's enchanted isn't it? Oh, yeah Or last action hero its last action hero The first act of the Thor movie action hero, it's like the first act of the Kenneth Branagh Thor movie. Oh well, whatever. It's fun. Yeah, it's fun. You do it with a video game version.

E.T. is effectively that movie too. It's also like E.T. yeah. If you're an alien, if you're one of the E.T. aliens watching E.T. and you like that. So you know, the way this movie starts there, but it is like basically like a five minute montage with narration from Jack Black that just kind of is like a speed run from our reality into the Minecraft reality into the overworld and it's just like, oh, okay. Hey, we're just here.

Now we're just, we skipped all that bullshit. And then we have the title card, we have the main credits and then we go back and meet a whole slate of new characters and then spend another 20 to 30 minutes just in our reality or just something akin to Earth reality before we go back into Minecraft. Let me tell you when I thought we were in trouble. In this montage that opens the movie where he's explaining how he gets into the Minecraft area and what the what the stakes are.

There's this orb that he's like that he finds that sort of creates a portal from his world to the Minecraft world, which I also, I don't know of a better way to get into the movie, but I did not like that. Then this evil person gets hold of the orb, and then in the same montage, he just steals it back. And I was like, okay, so like, this is just, none of this mattered, you're just telling us

that this happened. It was, but when that happened, and again, we're not in spoiler country This is the first five minutes of the film when that happened. I laughed out loud oh, yes, I was like, oh is the tone of this movie like like making jokes about the structure of these kind of films because he's like So then I had the orb and this lady stole it, but I got it back. What the fuck?

Yeah, I thought that played as a joke. I liked it. I guess I didn't hear it as a joke. I was just sort of like, but then what if they steal it? Well, it might not have been. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it might not have been.

It might have been just like, hey, we're, fuck, we got a bunch of exposition. We got this huge lore dump. We just gotta get out as fast as possible. I think I threw my arms up a little bit. I was listening to you, and now you told me it was a lie? There's, the other thing, so anyway, so then we go back and then we meet a bunch I think I threw my arms up a little bit. I was listening to you, and now you told me it was a lie? There's, the other thing, so anyway,

so then we go back and then we meet a bunch of other characters, and then it's just like, it kind of gets bogged down, and there's just too much going on. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Because you say bogged down for what is arguably the funniest part of the whole film. Well, here's the thing I was going to say. So Jared has, again, the director, Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre. There are moments where it feels like his sort of aesthetic,

his sort of tone, his sensibility gets to creep through. And one of those is, so there's two kids in the movie, and one of the kids goes- One of them has a job at a potato chip factory. She looks 11, yeah. She has a job at a potato chip factory, drives a 11. She has a job at a potato chip factory, drives a car, and the other of them is at middle school. And the middle school is, for lack of better terms,

a wacky middle school. And I'm watching this and I'm like, I just want to see the movie about this wacky middle school. The wacky middle school movie would have been preferable, I think, because it was not like anything else in the movie. No. Yeah, and this isn't us being like, I think because it was it was not like anything else in the movie. No This isn't us being like, oh wow, I really enjoyed this part more than the other parts This was there are like five minutes of just excellent written comedy In the middle of the fucking minecraft movie like the opening third of the minecraft movie like hard laughs

We have that we have to shout out a moment the word not of the Minecraft movie, like hard laughs. We have to shout out a moment where not just the three of us, but like a lot of the theater was laughing like audibly, like the hardest like serious consistent laughs of this movie, which is Hiram Garcia is the actor as the character Mr. Gunshe, who's the art teacher slash like coach of one of the teams and has like a lengthy monologue

where he just explains his dire financial situation. So earnestly, it's so funny. And I watched it and I was like, man, this is great. I'd love to see more of this. It was just kind of a one-off thing. The delivery was a master class. It was the funniest fucking thing I've ever heard. It was so funny.

And like, I wanna do it it. I couldn't do it just So also at that point I was like, oh fuck is the minecraft movie gonna be like a Massive mega hit. Yeah, because I was like if this at this point in the film Even though I know that there's like minecraft story stuff like if this is the tone of this entire film I will have no problem one one, seeing it again, two, telling people, like, flat out, you have to fucking see the Minecraft movie. Unfortunately, it feels like that tone was either vestigial

from a different script, or that that sequence worked so well that they just never changed it, because it is not similar to the rest of the film. I have no idea what the actual, internal process of this was. My, again, just completely unfounded speculation is that was a little bit of Jared has getting, and his team getting to be,

get a little bit of his stuff in there in what could have just been a bit of exposition. But also it's like every character in that whole sequence says like two insane things for a person. There's like two kids, so the main kid, Henry, I believe is the character's name, as I said, is like drawings, you know, like he's drawing art.

And there's two kids who are bullying him, but the kids who are bullying him are saying like insane, like funny stuff. They're bullying him in an insane way. Yeah. And they're extremely specific details. Like the kinds of things that's like, and this is like an example of the structure of this kind of joke,

not an actual joke from the Minecraft movie. It's like a bully being like, you're gonna wake up and I'm gonna put a bat in your backpack. Like it's just like, it's like very weird, crunchy specifics that are said and acted so well. And it's really weird that the rest of the movie doesn't have that tone.

Yeah, I guess the only other thing that kind of has that is the Jennifer Coolidge sea story, but that also like, since that keeps the way they, when they cut back to that, which is taking place in the real world, we need to get into exactly what it is. But that's like since that keeps the way they, you know, when they cut back to that which is taking place in the real world, we need to get into exactly what it is. But that's like a Minecraft character getting in the real world that's interacting with Jennifer Coolidge

who's still in the real world, who's the vice principal of the middle school. That's the stuff that maybe starts to feel like that a little bit, but that also is like, because that's interrupting the momentum of the main story, it doesn't quite hit the same way. I wonder if there was a draft of this script where it wasn't they go into Minecraft,

but rather Minecraft comes into our world. It almost feels like, Heather, I think that's a good theory that at some point, like 17 drafts ago, there was a version of the movie that was that, and they just kept the stuff they liked from it. There's parts, how just insane this town is are the elements that feel like that kind of setup.

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Get 20% off your first order plus free shipping on order $75 or more at me undies comm slash get played enter promo code get played That's me undies comm slash get played code get played for 20% off me undies comfort from the outside in I expressed the theory to Heather that there's no way, I mean, I don't know if this is possible. I sort of think the original draft and maybe the draft that Jack Black signed on for was animated. I think it was going to be fully animated. My only reason for thinking this is that they did not change his look at all and he just looks how Jack Black looks all the time,

which is a great look, it's a strong look, but it's not what Steve looks like. And so I think that he's been doing a lot of animated, his last like four movies, maybe five movies have all been animated stuff. He has not really been in a live action movie in some time really. Yeah, even Borderlands, which was live action,

and by the way, I really did not like Borderlands, a Minecraft, Borderlands makes a Minecraft movieaction and by the way. I really did not like Borderlands a Minecraft Borderlands makes a Minecraft movie look like Ratatouille like these are these are on different planets in terms of like I didn't think I Don't think Minecraft movie really works, but it's not as unwatchable as borderline says borderlines That's another one where he's another video game adaptation where he's just all voice He's voice in in Mario and there's a couple other ones too where he's just like not on camera He's a voice the most recent come through panda movie just come out So I think he signed on maybe under the impression that it was going to be a fully animated movie or that he would be Animated and then it got too late in the stage of the contract where he couldn't like not do it

So he's like, I'm just not changing my look and then that's what we're stuck with interesting. I I don't know But I mean, I guess that's what we're stuck with here. Interesting. I don't know, but I mean, I guess that's a possibility. I just also kind of wonder, because Jason Momoa is credited first, at what point, I'm sure this is something that can be looked up, at what point did each of them come on board? Interesting.

Because they're kind of competing for who's the lead, we never really center on who's the lead. And Momoa is a producer too. I think this film is going to be a success. And obviously everyone who hears this podcast will know on Monday whether or not it did well, right? Because they listen to this podcast and read the trades at the same time.

No, but I mean like every, like when a- Waffle be over. When a film is a flop though, it like hits regular news. I think this is going to be a success. I think that people, I think there's so much fan service in it for people who like Minecraft that I can't see it failing. Because like, if you're like, oh, I wanna see my guys but real,

this is a film where it's your guys but real. Yeah. I mean like, yes, but from a fan service standpoint like I Mean it feels like with all the building is front-loaded and then we keep going and there's like some crafting But it's just also like that's what I think of as minecraft is building crazy shit And it feels like there could have they're like like that's an element I would have liked to see more of instead we have kind of some set pieces that don't really seem to be even based around

Necessarily, you know like to see more of, instead we have kind of some set pieces that don't really seem to be even based around necessarily, you know, they don't necessarily seem to be anchored in Minecraft. At a certain point, they just have stuff. Like they just like have like weapons and things like that. I do think this movie probably will be big only because of what I've seen on TikTok. People have just been memeing like Jack Black-isms to death that are in the movie,

like where he's like chicken jockey and, you know, I'm Steve and all that, and all his little lines, lava chicken's going crazy online right now, it's going nuts. The one thing I wonder, other thing I want to remark on is just in terms of the movie's content. So like in terms of capturing the look of it, they kind of went with,

we're gonna have like pigs that are blocky, but they also have like a fleshy texture covered with some fur. You know, like the villagers are obviously have this uncanny valley aspect to them where they like blocky, you know, humanoid features. And again, just like that weird sort of artificial flesh over them. And I don't know, obviously, yeah, whatever, maybe

it will succeed financially either way. But just purely from like a visual standpoint, I was like, I almost wonder if if they just committed to just like, hey, let's just have real actors interact with these sort of blocky, know texture lists sort of my like like in an act basically stuff that looks like it's inside the Minecraft engine because some of the stuff I just feel like man this just looks like almost like Cronenberg it's like yeah I didn't really there were a couple things like when they were there was a part where the mean you know know, the evil, the villain of the movie. Evil pig lady.

The evil pig lady, whose name I don't remember. It's just gone. Is it like Malouche? It's something like that. But she like stabs one of the pigs and I audibly reacted cause to me it was disgusting for some reason. She just like stabbed a pig in the chest and it becomes like a piece of meat

Yes, and because it looks a little bit more alive It's just like wait now that seems a lot more violent than it is yeah with the game. I think it should have been Maybe it's too similar to Jumanji I Think I mean, but this doesn't happen in Jumanji You know they the kids from the Jumanji from the newer Jumanji movies go into the video game Jumanji And then they're the avatars from the video game, but they're They're human people. They're Jack Black the Rock Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan. I Love those. They do they're great

But in this I think it should have been they somehow get not into the game of Minecraft They can keep the portal or whatever, but I think they go into the portal and they they are Minecraft They're blocky. It's a blocky Steve We're seeing it's a blocky those kids in any it could have even been in the same Cronenberg style where it's like skin Style, but I think they should have been blocky skin style I think it was a mistake to have them be human and just be away, you know, if we didn't know how movies are made, I was just very aware that they showed up to a green room and, you know, danced around all day. It's certainly sort of an awkward coexistence,

but I also think just, you know, knowing how Hollywood works, they were probably like, hey, we pay for Jason Momoa, we're gonna see Jason Momoa. I guess, yeah. Anyway, I don't regret seeing it. Yeah, I think this- Interesting experience. It was certainly a lot different than I expected going in Yeah, I think this- Interesting experience.

It was certainly a lot different than I expected going in. I do think this movie, although it's not for me, is definitely for people. Right. And I think those people are really gonna connect with it. It's not a movie for me.

I will say, just to circle back to the time that I think the three of us all laughed the hardest we've ever laughed together. All laugh. Certainly worse than anything I've ever said. All laugh. That one, just that one line and that one monologue, just the outstanding, we were laughing for well after,

and then they had gone by two scenes, we were still laughing. Talking about it afterwards, yeah. But also it's like, it's, because you weren't expecting that scene to be in this film, it was like you went to the zoo and heard the best joke that you've ever heard. Like it's just a very strange context for that sequence.

Yeah, it's like the sort of thing you would expect in that movie for it to be like a stern teacher being like, Henry, are you paying attention? You'd expect something like that, not to be like, here's this weird character actor who's gonna come out and tell you his life is falling apart. And be a fucking freak, yeah. It was really, really crazy. Really loved it.

Let's, hey, Ranch, can we bring up our video game movies tier list? We did a few weeks back. When the hell did we do that? You know what? We could have done that 18 months ago, and I would be like, I don't fucking know. It was certainly before last week.

I have no idea. It was before the 300th episode. Okay, was it this year? It was this year, yes. And I have to like I don't fucking it was certainly or last week. I've no it was before the 300th episode Okay, was it this year? It was this year? Okay? Yes, and I have to just clarify real quick I just one of the last things I said while discussing the Minecraft movie was I loved it. I loved that scene I did not love the movie in fact. I did not like the movie Where does this rank among art where would we put this on the tier list okay? so now I so look let, looking at some of these.

So, in the, for instance, the C tier, we've got the Super Mario Brothers movie, not the animated one, the illumination one, the OG one with Bob Hoskins and John Leguizan with the live action one. We've got Need for Speed. It's higher than C. It's better than any of those C tier movies.

You think so? You'd think they'd put that higher than C? I's better than any of those C tier movies. You think so? You'd think they'd put that higher than C? I don't know if I would. I think I like Super Mario Brothers movie. I think that I like that one as a weird object more than I like Minecraft. Oh man, I think- I definitely like Uncharted more than I like Minecraft.

I think that there are, there's like three sequences in this film that I actually legitimately, without irony, enjoyed. And that is higher than Uncharted, Monster Hunter, Warcraft, Need for Speed. Like none of those films have anything in them that I enjoyed. I mean, Advent Children and Super Mario Brothers,

the movie are separate things which shouldn't be in C tier. But, that, with both of be in C tier. But, that, with both of those in C tier still, I think Minecraft is a B movie. I like to work craft more than I like a Minecraft movie. Okay, okay, okay. If we're talking crafts.

I think I would argue for this in D tier, although I probably. Holy shit. I mean, like, I don't know, isn't it kind of like, it's got a couple things that I like, but it's also, so much of it is so boring It's so cluttered and it has harder than we've ever laughed as a group and you want to put this in D tier I did laugh. I do think put that sequence alone in C tier I want to take Silent Hill that would that you all insist to put it we put indeed here

I want to put that up at a tear Here's the thing to say to say what we were saying about that one scene, just to belabor this point, that scene, that sequence, that joke was funny. I don't think it was the movie's fault. I think it was like, that was an anomaly. That performance could not be contained by the movie. Because there's also a thing that the villain says

at the end that made me laugh so fucking hard. Oh, that was funny. Like, it's not an isolated joke. There's like serious hard jokes through the whole script that are from some writer. And you can't say that there are serious hard jokes, like there's not even serious hard action sequences in Uncharted that compare to the comedy structure,

like authenticity of some of the jokes in Minecraft. I can't believe I'm arguing this point. My thing I would say is, is a reductionist thing that I've said before, movies are something you look at and listen to. I thought that this could have had much more of a Minecraft-esque soundtrack. I don't think the score for this movie really honors the IP. And I really don't like the visual look of this movie.

And you spend 90% of it inside the Minecraft reality. And I'd much rather look at the bizarre, you know, City of Lost Children, sort of like neo-noir slash cyberpunk aesthetic of the Super Mario Brothers movie, or just the action of Uncharted than it would this movie. I certainly like Mortal Kombat and then the new Tomb Raider, which we have in B-tier. I would take both of those over in Minecraft. I don't think I could put this up in B.

No, you guys can't go in B at all. If you wanna argue for it being in C, I will reluctantly agree to that, but I think this belongs in D. All right, I put it in C. I think it goes in C, because I think I would rather watch this again than the spirits within or final, or Silent Hill.

But that Mortal Kombat movie now, the whole, now I feel like this, putting Minecraft in C has me wanting to recontextualize the entire tier list, which we don't have time for and we don't have the capability to do so. But I'm happy with it in C. Well, okay, and let's just, like, it doesn't belong lower than D at minimum.

Because if we look down at F, we've got Double Dragon, we've got the Street Fighter movie, we've got Wing Commander, we've got Doom. These are movies that are unwatchable. These are just like absolutely wretched, like non-movies. A Minecraft movie has a few things that kind of work for it. All right, C tier it is.

I'm shocked, but this is the curve of the video game movie tier list. If this was a movie tier list, it couldn't touch C with a 20 mile pole. There's no way. No. And a reminder, we have, all Sonic movies are in S tier. That's right.

And Sonic 3 specifically is in S+++. Along with Detective Pikachu, my personal favorite. Oh yeah, really, really good. You know what we could do at some point? We could do another one of these that was not video game adaptations, but movies that had video games as a central element. Things like, we're talking like Last Starfighter

or The Wizard. Rain Over Me. Yeah, Rain Over Me. Honestly. Honestly. Would you put war games in there perhaps? Yeah, I think war games would be good. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tron. Yeah, okay. Oh man, all right. Tron's getting up to it. You know what, Nick? That's a good idea. Seeing a Minecraft movie was worth it to get to that idea. That's really good.

We also, we, Rochelle was going to come. Rochelle was not able to make it. That's really good. We also, we, Rachelle was going to come, Rachelle was not able to make it. You texted Rachelle, wait, what did you say? I'll read it verbatim. Okay. And I'll read it as flatly as I text it. Here we go. Ranch, the movie was really good.

And then I replied. We got pinks too. You believe both of these things? I did. Also, I feel like I have to point this out before we move on to the next thing. I bought a t-shirt. You did buy a t-shirt that you're wearing.

I'm wearing it right now. It's a Minecraft movie t-shirt and it looks like complete shit. If this wasn't made with AI, then that artist should find a new one. You bought it before we saw the film, which was bold. Well, I bought it because I was like, no matter what, this is gonna be really funny to have.

And then when the movie ended, I wish I hadn't done it. Well, it doesn't look like, okay, so it's from a sequence in the film involving Jason Momoa and Jack Black, but on the shirt, they are not wearing the outfits they are wearing in that sequence. No, it's like the scene was described to the artist over the phone, and they didn't have any context for, they didn't have any stills or an animatic or whatever

or some footage to see what they were actually wearing because the wardrobe is Completely off, but it's also funny because knowing what the sequence is it's funny that they were like now This is the big this is we kind of put this on a fucking shirt. It's a it's a moment where You know Bamo is is flying and Jack Black is writing him like a mount Well, I want't wanna spoil it. They fucking 69 each other in this movie. It's played for like a big, like big laugh. Yeah, less funny than that teacher talking about

his financial situation. I'll say just on the balance, less funny than that. We've also set up that sequence as the funniest thing that has ever happened. I think it is extremely funny, but it's mostly that it was inside of the Minecraft movie that shocked us and set it, like, we were like, we were in a virginal state for comedy.

And so like any joke was going to hit harder, like when you're breathing in pure oxygen on an airplane. So like, I wonder if it was as funny as we thought it was or if it was just that we had sat through 20 minutes of Minecraft movie and then suddenly there were really good jokes. I think that is part of it and I think if people are gonna watch this movie anticipating that scene,

it probably won't hit his heart. Yeah, yeah. It just kind of hit us out of nowhere. But I will say, I'd like to see this guy and more stuff cuz I thought he really brought it He had a hit an interesting look. I was like this guy's a good. He's a good actor before we move on Heather He got a pizza and I From the AMC. I also got there earlier at the Grove a shopping center here in LA a lovely Rick Crusoe property We love Rick I

Got a I went to the Cheesecake Factory and I got Renee's Special, which is on their lunch menu, but it's the same, like some of the lunch menu portions are smaller for a smaller price, so you pay less, you get less. The Renee's Special, you get the same amount of food you would on the normal menu, it's just discounted. So you get a salad, a soup and a half sandwich. And I was in heaven by forks, it was great.

And you said that you didn't get dessert, but what dessert would you have gotten if you were like, let's be bad? Vanilla bean cheesecake. Oh my dog, hell yeah. That's a good one. Amazing. Yeah, vanilla's better.

I had the pizza at the movie theater. It was, without exaggeration, the worst pizza I have eaten in my entire life. I opened the box and it had been, like the cheese, I showed it to Matt, the cheese was black from being burnt. And then they had over the top of it, taken a Parmesan shaker and

Shaken a huge amount of parmesan to cover up the fact That the cheese was black yes, um it had the ultra processed quality of like a dog cracker And I was so hungry that I ate the entire thing and every bite I was like, I need to stop eating this. I am miserable. But that's what I had. Wow.

Matt, did you eat anything? I did, I ate Wendy's in the car on my way there. Fucking hell. Yeah, it was really, really good. What did you get? Spicy chicken sandwich, of course. Okay, going wrong, Did you get fries? I did get fries, yes.

What do you think of the fries right now? I haven't liked them in previous rounds, but I thought today they were actually pretty good. Sometimes they're hitting, they did a refresh of their fries a few years back, and I don't like their fries, but I always do chili or baked potato at Wendy's anyway. I almost never want the, I mean,

a baked potato would have been an absolute debacle as I was driving the car. You can't do that in the car, no. But oftentimes I kind of don't even want the fries. I kind of just want the chicken sandwich, you know? Yeah. But then I don't think to, I'm like, I'm gonna get a drink.

I might as well just get the convo. You know, it's like a whole, it's a whole thing. Wait, that reminds me of something else that happened during the movie. So Jennifer Coolidge's stay like the kind of She goes to so she goes like there's a villager gets out of the port goes through the portal comes the real world She like like is like ooh a new man or whatever takes him out to a restaurant I guess she's horny or whatever like I don't know whether what exactly that is going on

I mean, she's recently she's recently divorced so the idea is that she's like, oh, I'm gonna date this guy. She takes him out to a restaurant, and during the restaurant scene, the waiter is bringing over a plate of food and offering it to Jennifer Coolidge's character, and she says, oh, no, thank you. And Matt, you go, that's not how restaurants work. I think I first said, what?

Which got Heather. And then I said, yeah, that's not how restaurants work, which got you. But it was a joke. It wasn't like some strange. It was a choice made as a joke that they brought up food. And she went, no, thank you. I guess for me, what I was experiencing was

what you experienced with us all the time which is like I didn't understand why they were joking this way. Well I think again just in the like it because it the movie kind of just feels anarchy you can't quite get your bearings so those moments of like absurdism that kind of like are meant to be presented to comedy sometimes they they they hit and sometimes they don't. I will say, you know, even in this movie, I'm always thankful for Jennifer Coolidge. Always just happy to see her. I want, what I want is a movie written by whoever wrote

the whole school sequence, directed by this director that is just a standard 80s kids adventure, but with all of that tone. Like that would be an awesome film. I mean, gosh, because I'm just thinking about, I'm thinking about seeing Napoleon Dynamite in the movie theaters. I'm not aware of like directors or writers really.

I'm just like, I gotta go see this movie, everyone's talking about it. For a long time, that was like the hardest I've ever laughed and the most laughter I've ever heard in my life. There's like people going crazy watching this movie because they've never seen anything like it before. And I sort of do think that like, whatever that was in this movie,

that's just maybe the Jared Hest touch and like he could just do that. Like that, I feel like that character could have easily been in the Napoleon Dynamite that yeah He understands whatever that unique tone is yeah, and they maybe the studio was like okay Look we got you on this that little tone you do we can't do that cuz like we don't do that This is a huge. It's gonna be a huge movie I'm sure this was an impossible movie to make with all the

the hands that were involved with you know, how much meddling there must have been from from top brass. But yeah, by me, Napoleon Dynamite would where that comes from is like, them making an independent movie that is without all of those interference without all that interference and without those guardrails, where it's just like, hey, these are creative people getting to make their own vision.

And yeah, it's a bummer to kind of see that gets smothered by the studio system, but it's nice that some of that got to emerge, at least in this. All right, so we talk about the Nintendo Switch 2. Let's do it. Wild, because that's supposed to be the topic of this episode. I knew it was gonna be hard to contain all of our thoughts about the Minecraft,

a Minecraft movie, a baffling title to me. They're hoping they have more. They're gonna do another one. A Minecraft, well there is a post-credits tease. A Minecraft movie and a working man are in cineplexes at the same time, how about that? Articles are back. They really are.

They really are. Nintendo Switch 2, which I'm still amazed they didn't seem to mess it up because Nintendo tends to just go in wild directions with their next generation. But they're just like, we're just going to do a better version of Switch and we're just even going to call it the Switch 2. It's very uncharacteristic of this company historically. Yeah. Typically, it's like you get the Wii gangbusters. Then you go Wii U, not so great.

Then you go Switch gangbusters. Then you would probably get something like the play cactus. And you'd be like, what the fuck is the play cactus? Oh, it's Nintendo's new, their new thing. It's shaped like a cactus. And you play it by twisting it. You're like, what? Okay, but it has the best Zelda ever Which is also playing one game on it Gameboy great

Virtual boy colossal failure. Yeah. Yeah, Nintendo DS great, right? Yeah, well that's even like like gameboy a Gameboy advance goes into even a Nintendo DS Nintendo Yes, obviously ends up being a wild success, like I think the best selling portable hardware ever still. But like even going from the, but that even was a weird decision. It was like they got two screens, they got a stylus with touch screens,

like what exactly is going on here when they could have just made a more powerful Game Boy Advance. Then they go to the 3DS, which is an even other thing of just like the core gimmick of the 3DS, the 3D, you know, projection other thing of just like the core gimmick of the 3ds the 3d You know projection without glasses actually worked surprisingly well, but it was never really like a selling point for that The system the system succeeded despite that anyway. They didn't do that with this they made the switch to they're making just a more powerful slicker switch and

As mentioned earlier it it cost four hundred $449 in the US. It launches on June 5th, 2025 worldwide and pre-orders are on April 9th. Which means? Which means, Heather, you have won our bet. Which means? Which means, so just- Which means?

So to recap for anyone who hasn't heard this before, we did a bet on when the Switch was going to launch. Heather came closest and the prize for getting the Switch 2 date correct was you get to pick a game that we're all going to launch. Heather came closest and the prize for getting the Switch 2 date correct was you get to pick a game that we're all going to play. Holy fucking shit, guys. And Heather selected. Oh my God, we are going to be covering Mother 3.

Yeah, that's right. We're gonna do a We Play, You Play of Mother 3 later this year. Holy fucking shit. Still only available in a fan translation. Never localized by Nintendo. Sure, never localized by translation. It is readily available online.

You can also purchase cartridges with the fan translation, preloaded into them, which is what I got you guys as a gift. That's right. Mother 3 is an extraordinary game. I think, here's why I'm excited for you guys to play it. I think from everything I've learned of what you guys like in the last, however, five, six years,

I think that this is going to be a treasure for you. I'm certain I'm going to love this game and I like being compelled to finally play it. So I'm very excited. Do we want to set what month that is? Because it is, you you know it's an RPG Yeah, we'll figure that out but but I

Right the same month death stranding So again speed of games for the switch to Mario Kart world was the headline, will be a launch title, it will have an open world approach where you drive between courses, and there's a dedicated Nintendo Direct on that game specifically coming in mid-April. But Mario Kart World, I mean,

what do you think of this bad boy? It's Forza Mario. It's just Forza Mario. You can fucking grind on rails and like do little jumps on walls and stuff. Looks tight as hell. It does, like, it look, I'm not the biggest Mario Kart guy.

I buy every single Mario Kart. And I, just cause like, you know, I do like the games. I'm just, it's not a genre that I'm necessarily crazy about. It's a thing I enjoyed more when I was younger. I don't really play them as much anymore. But it looks like a really interesting evolution for the franchise. And I don't know. I mean, it's just kind of crazy that we're getting

such a consequential game for the next generation like right away. Like this is like, I believe Mario Kart 8 was Nintendo's best selling game on the Switch. I could be wrong, but I think that they sold the most units on the Switch. So they're just like, we're not fucking around here. And I feel like that's kind of my overall take,

a takeaway of this is like, it feels like they're not fucking around and they're just sort of like kind of going for it in terms of taking this generation. Am I insane or did Mario Kart 8 come out for the Wii U? It did, it did come out for the Wii U and then the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the one that we have for the Switch. But, but it's still like it's a huge huge game

So I think that what it represents is that at some point they were like, okay We've got an incredible Mario Kart game here that nobody played because it was on the Wii U So we'll re-release it for the switch at the same time They're doing their internal development of the next Mario Kart game and I think they were just like let's just hold it for the Switch. At the same time, they're doing their internal development of the next Mario Kart game. And I think they were just like, let's just hold it for launch. Oh, that makes sense, yeah. Because there wasn't a proper Mario Kart game

for the Switch that was a brand new experience. They had like expansions with more tracks and stuff, but they never really added like, you know, new features to the game. Just like more characters and more tracks. The hypest thing, according to the social media that I've read over the last couple of days, in Mario Kart World is cow. The cow is really good.

Everybody wants to be cow. You can be the Mario cow. I like that you can be the cow. I like that you can be the cow too. I'm indifferent to cow. I like that you can be the cow. I like that you can be the cow too. I'm indifferent to cow. I like it. I think the cow is good. Ranch out even by the cow. What?

LAUGHS The thing about Mario Kart World that I know a lot of people are... It's stuck in their craw and I think for good reason is that it costs $80. $80! $80. $80! $80 for Mario Kart. Isn't it 70 for digital, 80 for physical?

You know, I actually don't know. I know that they are talking about doing sort of like experimenting with different prices, digitally and physically. But in the bundle, the launch bundle that comes with Mario Kart is $500, making the game $50. I am old enough to remember that when Chrono Trigger came out for the Super NES, it was $69.

It was $70 in the 1990s. I know that people have argued that the difference between something costing $70 in the 1990s. I know that people have argued that the difference between something costing $70 in the 90s, which adjusted for inflation is like almost $200 fucking, and $70 in the year 2025 is that wages stayed stagnant and everything else got more expensive. So it's not that a $70 Mario Kart game is insane, especially given that we can remember in the last 30 years games costing that much. It's that eggs cost $17. So it's

hard to be like, Oh God, I have to absorb an additional $10 of expense or $20 of expense just to play a video game. That is brutal for people. It is. And I saw a lot of comments to that effect of people being like, you know what, I might skip this generation entirely. Like they're like, they feel like they're being, you know, price gouged out of their fandom kind of. I've looked through a few sources

and it seems like the $80 is the price for digital and it will be a premium80 is the price for digital. And it will be a premium on top of that for physical. Holy shit. One thing I do suspect because of the existence of the bundle is they're just trying to get people to buy the $500 bundle. By having like there'd be a substantial discount

for buying it together. Oh my God. But yeah, it's $500 for a bundle of the console plus Mario Kart versus 449, you know9 plus the separate $80 for them separately. I know this is not a news podcast. I know we are not games journalists. But I do think it's important to point out right now that there is a Japanese-only version of the Switch 2

which is being released, which will not service any other languages. Every menu, across the board, it has to be in Japanese. Region locked is back. It is a region locked, you can still, I think, use the games from any region in the Japanese only Switch, but they will be locked to Japanese language and Japanese menus.

That version of the Switch is $100 cheaper. So the question is, is this price reflective of a certain political moment that's happening and trying to price in international trade wars and for local gamers in Japan, it's like, well, we don't have to import the fucking Switch. So we'll just have it be the actual price. Because it's a huge price difference.

They're gonna break it down once the tariffs hit. So the other thing is that the Joy-Con 2, the Joy-Con 2 has a C button, and people are like, what the hell is a C button? The C button opens Game Chat, which does require Nintendo online membership, a paid membership. There will be like a trial period, but whatever you have to pay for for online chat. And there also is the switch to camera, which is basically like a way where you can like effectively FaceTime while you're playing games, which my understanding is, Heather,

I don't know that you do this with any of your your groups that you play with, but my understanding is that younger people, a lot of them will just have FaceTime open while they're gaming. Like in a little discord or whatever, they're just playing with fucking FaceTime. All of my gaming is done over, or group gaming is done over PS5, and it's just audio chat. Like we aren't fucking staring at each other because the game we're playing is too intense to look at anything else I thought this was weird that one it takes up a certain amount of visual real estate like the game chat mode Right you can shrink it or expand it

But the fact that like opening up game chat while playing Mario Kart puts colored squares at the bottom of your screen with little blinking sort of puts colored squares at the bottom of your screen with little blinking sort of Star Fox icons of your friends. I was like, I don't need to see that. Like that's strange. I also don't need to see like someone's dick and balls, which maybe they'll have some sort of like

algorithmic filter to keep you from seeing that. But I remember like the days of Uno on Xbox One, on Xbox Live Arcade, when someone will just like show their fucking hog. Or like, what was the PlayStation one where they like day days of Uno on Xbox One, on Xbox Live Arcade when someone would just like show their fucking hog. Or like what was the PlayStation one where they like day one of it, like I was like railing his wife on like a life thing.

This is like the most depraved shit is going to happen immediately. With the eye toy or whatever, yeah. Yeah. But like the, like, I feel like people aren't gonna do that. I hope. I, for sure they are.

They 100% are. The question is, will they have any, because Nintendo is usually so locked down from the parental control standpoint. Like, are they going to have some sort of way of, you know, automatically, you know, nipping that in the butt? Or maybe you'll only be able to do that with your friends, like in your friends list.

Not just like, yeah, you open it up to random strangers, you're gonna see somebody's asshole. Like you're just going to. But if you do it with your friends, you'll maybe just see your friend's asshole. I find that, no, I do bet you're right, Matt. I bet it's that you can't have camera chat unless you're friends,

which is going to create an entirely new form of grifting, where you are befriending somebody over a course of weeks. But there's a time limit, because it's gonna be like, oh, I just played Mario Kart World with this guy, I'll add him as a friend. I bet you have to be friends with that person for several weeks and have a certain hourage of playtime before you're allowed to turn on the camera. And I bet the first thing that somebody does is show you the tip. several weeks and have a certain hourage of playtime

before you're allowed to turn on the camera. And I bet the first thing that somebody does is show you the tip. So the Switch to camera is $50, I believe, is the retail price they gave us the US. It's interesting. And there are some games that integrate with it. We'll see how much those become a thing,

or if they're just novelties. My big thing is I just wonder if this is gonna to be because of there's a little bit of a point of friction because it doesn't come bundled with the console. Are people not going to go to the trouble of buying this and then just face still FaceTime with their phone? I think probably, right? Yeah, I mean, there's like things. I mean, it's probably just seems easier to just do that.

Like or even just like open discord chat with your friends like there. I don't know if there needs to be a proprietary camera. That being said, the Hori Piranha Plant camera certainly feels like a good purchase. That looks rad. I'm buying it the second it's available. Yeah. I'm going all in on stupid bullshit for the Switch 2.

Wait, can you just describe, I'm not sure if all of our listeners saw the switch to wait. Can you just describe excited? I'm not sure if all of our listeners saw that all right So the Nintendo switch camera looks like a webcam like it's just like a Ball on top of a pole with us with a plate at the bottom and you just like have it on your tabletop There is a hoary licensed Piranha plant camera which is the Piranha Plant from Mario Brothers, with the camera inside of its mouth,

and then for privacy, the mouth will close to hide the camera. Yeah, that's pretty good. Fuckin' let's go. I think it's a really slick design. Did you hear, or, I didn't hear this in the Nintendo Direct directly, how they are handling the

the bots And and reserving a system so yeah, I did excited I reserved so what you can do is you can go on like you're my Nintendo or whatever and you can you can Register your interest in ordering one of the switch bundles. Yes, I wrote down the One of the switch bundles. Yes, I wrote down the I wrote down the copy because I did this myself. Hold up. What the fuck? I I quote signed in with my Nintendo account and registered my interest in purchasing a Nintendo switch to system and select accessories from the official my Nintendo store Yes, and then you get a thing that says we'll be in touch with an invitation email once. It's your turn

Is it Nintendo switch online? How do I do this? Why didn't I fucking know about this? It's via Nintendo Online. I'm not sure, I imagine it'll be randomized. I don't think it's gonna be first come first serve. I thought it was based on the number of hours you've played your Switch. So yeah, it's based on- That's part of it in terms of eligibility. Yeah, for eligibility, you need to have had

Nintendo Switch Online for over a year. You need to have had at least 50 logged hours of game time and- Over the course of what, how long? I've had at least 50 logged hours of game time and... Over the course of what, how long? Up until the day of the direct, on the second. But is that on, like, is that using online or is that just any sort of gaming on your phone? I don't know, it told me, like, you know,

like when you do the... I'm in a fucking panic. It'll tell you, like, at the end of the year, your game time. Look, I'm Blasting past 50 hours. I just I just wonder cuz like I've used my switch much less in recent years Yes, they there have been a lot fewer games And then so I don't know if it's like over the lifespan of my console

Yeah, fine if it's oh if it's 50 hours of Nintendo switch online within the past year or something like that Then yeah, who knows either way it let me fucking do it. So I assume I'm okay Yeah But you're also that's not the only way you're gonna be able to get one like that then yeah, who knows either way let me fucking do it So I assume I'm okay Yeah But you're also that's not the only way you're gonna be able to get one like that's like if you want to buy one directly from Nintendo the pre-orders for you know all major retailers are You know the ninth this week as of release right? So you'll be able to get it from any of the stores that you prefer to if you can Beat the if you can beat the if you can beat

The scalpers in yeah, I just registered as we're recording. I'm never gonna get this No, you can be fine cuz I bet I better be randomized and also you'll just get it from Best Buy Yeah, we should wait we we we we talk about when it happened this years ago at this point I don't know if all our listeners, maybe some of our newer listeners don't realize, Heather Ann Campbell got me a PlayStation 5. That's right. While they were scarce, you tracked one down,

and I mean, I paid you for it, but like you found one for me. Yeah. You did that for a few people, I think. That's such a gracious thing to do. I don't remember this. I think you did it for at least one other person. Okay, great, okay, cool.

Was that you? No, it wasn't me. I got mine on my own. He just blew it on his finger guns. That's what that sound was. Blowing on finger guns. Maybe you saw the clip. No, no, no. Come on.

The clip happened already? What the fuck? Look, the clip's long in the past at this point. The thing that I want to talk about with the Switch 2 are the magnets. Okay, okay. I want to talk about the mouse, so why don't you go first? I know that we sort of talked about the magnets when we heard about the magnets. I like the magnets. They showed how strong looks, they showed how strong it is. It's a tough magnet it looks like. I watched video of them, you know,

at some press event trying to get the thing out. You gotta really kind of work to get that thing off the magnet. I like the magnets. My only concern is I'm looking at it and I'm like, how the fuck do these work? Nick, you know I love it. You know I love it. We have done this Except I did it last

Yeah, you explained what it was to me, cause I didn't even know what it was. And that didn't make it funny this time. I enjoyed it both times, especially when I said it. Yeah, it was better when you said it. I liked it more too, cause I got to experience it. It wasn't one of my toxic thoughts that I had to get out, expel.

So the Joy-Con, the Joy-Con 2s, which we can talk about in general, they don't snap on anymore, which is always a little cumbersome. And if you like, God forbid, you like try to put it in the wrong way or whatever, the fuck, you know, it'll get messed up. So like, it attaches with magnets now. I hope they are secure.

I imagine they figured that out from an engineering standpoint. I always worry about something that isn't actually physically anchored in place. I imagine they figured that out from an engineering standpoint. I always worry about something that isn't actually physically anchored in place. I worry about that over time, but it is kind of, I don't know, it seems pretty sleek. It seems pretty cool. I like, I mean, I know it's not that different looking. I like the look of the Switch 2. I like, it looks a little sleeker to me. It's all black. It looks a little more round somehow.

They closed this little weird round somehow. Yeah. They closed this little weird gap at the top. Yes. There's this Joy-Con gap in the current one that there's a tiny, tiny little gap at the attach point. That's not there with this, cause it's magnets now. You like the mouse mode.

I like the mouse mode. Here's why. I really liked Mario Paint back in the day. Yeah, of course. And I am hoping for a Mario Paint redo now that you have a mouse bundled with your system too. My biggest point of friction between picking up mouse aiming

as a first person shooter or third person shooter gamer is that I don't like keyboard play on my left hand. What I want is a joystick in my left hand, mouse control in my right hand. And I think they've already showed that as an option for the style of play. And I was like, that's a fucking, that's huge for me. So you got one Joy-Con that you're holding as a,

as a, you know, a Joy-Con, the other one you're rubbing on a surface. Yeah, I mean, I, like, I learned to play first person shooters, you know, on, on PC. So like, I'm, I'm, even though I'm not, I'm not good at them, but I'm like, I, I know the, you know, KBM control, like I understand, but like, it takes some time for it to get in your bones if you're not used to it.

I had the opposite problem, which for the longest time, I could not play time I could not play Caught I cannot play FPS with controllers. It just felt so weird. Yeah now I just sort of managed the thing I wanted to say is bigger analog sticks Yes Hopefully sturdier and hopefully they fixed any of that drift because as the I'd like I feel like everyone experienced analog stick strict drift at some point Yeah, switch one. I don't like you know, I know that we liked I just said that I liked the all-black look. I hope we get some fun colors for the joy 100% gonna get fun colors or 100% gonna get it hardware refresh because it's a it's an LCD screen

Yeah, and which I was hoping for OLED, but of course, they're gonna make you buy an LCD and then later an OLED Yeah, and they're definitely going to release after the OLED a Zelda OLED right? You'll want more than the original OLED Yeah, but the screen is bigger. It's a it's a it's a it's a girthy 7.9 inches Up from the 6.2 inches on the base switch So it is a it's a big boy and it is a 1080p 120 Hertz screen which was you know, it was like a 720p and I think it was at 60 Hertz I don't I have no idea what the with the this was a fresh rate was on the original display

This was one of the more shocking parts of the direct to me Yeah to hear Nintendo saying words like hurts and and like refresh rate and things like that cuz that's okay Yeah, that's stuff that they don't say. I think they were, again, I think they're not fucking around. I think they're going for enthusiast gamers. I think they're trying to be like, Hey, you who either has a PlayStation 5

or is still waffling on whether you wanna get a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series X, or a Steam Deck, we've actually got a proper piece of hardware now that's going to be able to play all of these, you know, all these games that are available on other platforms, which, you know, we'll get into in all their third party stuff, but. Yeah, I mean, and also there's a better stand,

let's all say, ain't nothing. That stand. Sometimes use the stand. The stand looks cool, and I like the stand because I take it to the park when my friends are playing basketball, and then I play Switch with some other friends while my other friends are playing basketball. Or I'll go to a rooftop party or something,

and I'll bust it out there, and people are conversing at the rooftop party, but then I'm using the stand on my Switch. This was from the commercials. Everybody did this. From the original Switch. Everybody did this stuff all the time. Yeah, no, I've done this all the time.

Yeah, I'm gonna bend mine all the time. I've done this all the time. Yeah, I'm gonna bend mine all the way down. You sick fuck. I'm gonna take that stand, and I'm gonna take it right from where it's resting flat against the back of the Switch, and I'm gonna bend it all the way down. I do kinda like, there are circumstances

where I will use the stand, and so I like having a sturdier stand. Well you play a lot of your games like Ethan Hunt dangling down from the ceiling, right? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I realized that somehow over the last few years, I've gone from loving Nintendo characters and being an enthusiast for Nintendo first party characters to being an enthusiast for Sony first party characters.

Wow. And the thing that made me realize that was watching this direct and being like, I wish it was Astro Bot. I wish it was Astro Bot going through these worlds and all of the worlds were Sony worlds, but it was still a fucking handheld. And I was like, I would audibly gasp to myself

if I was that kind of person having that realization. Yeah. Hold on. Are you saying that you'd prefer Astro's Playroom to the Nintendo Switch 2 equivalent, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour? That costs $10? Yeah, that's not free. Yeah, I would prefer it, but also Sony has done such great brand management over the last five specific five years, I think.

Where they have started to encourage an emotional connection with their IP in a way that they hadn't done before. Like Crash Bandicoot's on the fucking screen, but they're not saying he's your friend. Yeah. You know? Like they've done that so much in the last five years that I was like, oh, but Kratos is my guy. The last of us people are my guys. Fucking Astro's my guy. Like I was, I was kind of shocked.

Astro's Astro's a guy, as we talked about Astro's like kind of their guy now. A lot of this, I think that this nostalgia is, yeah, it's just, it's just that enough time has passed since the PlayStation one, PlayStation 2, heyday. But I think also the Astro franchise specifically, Astro's Playroom and Astro Bot has so much nostalgia in it that does make you be, again, you know,

we talked about when we did our Astro Bot episode of just being like, I'm just seeing Spyro the Dragon. I'm like, oh, I didn't realize how much I love Spyro the Dragon. Yeah, I think it was an incredible piece of marketing and a great game. And I was like, I feel more about Astro's guys, like not just Astro the character,

but all the guys he showed me again, than I did seeing Yoshi Mario Luigi again. Yeah, well- I wouldn't go that far for me, but I love that for you. For me. Yeah, I think, I mean, know it was it was a patch direct It was an hour long. There's a lot of information in there a lot of third parties but I mean I feel like the almost the focus was

Sort of wider third party support than previous iterations because the hardware couldn't previously handle it So like it was light on proprietary characters. I was expecting a 3D Mario, because it's been eight years since Odyssey. I do think it's a little soon for a new take on Zelda, which is why they probably did the enhanced versions of Breath of the Wild and tears of the kingdom Yeah, I'm watching this thing and the thing I wrote in my notes is am I gonna double dip on both these fucking games the answer

Is yes, I'm gonna read by breath of the wild and tears of the king. I mean I'll buy them upgrades Just to see what's going on which I would not be shocked if they cost like $30 Yeah, I mean $40 even like I would not be surprised if they're good the gout is a little bit I guess I wouldn't I'd be less inclined to do it if there was that much only because on PlayStation the upgrade path for PlayStation 4 games is is pretty Typically $10 like they're like if you own the last of us 2 or death stranding or any of this other stuff you know Horizon right it's a ps4 version even if you own the disk the upgrade is $10 And then you just have to download the whole game, and then it runs off the disk is a key basically right

But I mean like has Nintendo had I don't if maybe this maybe this has happened I don't know if they've had to upgrade paths, you know, from a Wii to a Wii U version, or a Wii U to a Switch version in the past. I just think they have a tendency with their first party stuff to put a premium on it. So I wouldn't be surprised if it's, again, in the wake of Mario Kart World costing $80, I wouldn't be surprised if these were more expensive upgrade.

And I'm not some saint. I'm where we're used to. I'm weak-willed. I will also do it. Do you know what the most exciting part of this direct was for me? What's that? And it wasn't FromSoft.

Yes, which we should talk about. Yeah, we'll talk about. It was that I can finally fucking play Wind Waker again. Yeah. So here's what I was going to ask. So the GameCube is coming to Nintendo Switch Online. And I'm like, hey, pretty exciting. And then they have this fucking dedicated GameCube controller

with a C button that I'm absolutely for 100% gonna get. I'm buying that. The games they featured, and I imagine there will be more at launch, are Zelda Wind Waker, of course, absolute beloved classic at this point, although a bit polarizing at its release.

Soul Calibur II and F-Zero GX. Wind Waker HD, that is only on Wii U, right? Yes. That's bound to Wii U. So are we only gonna get the fucking GameCube version of Wind Waker? Probably. I sort of think for now, yes.

And that's stupid and fucked up It was also for three yeah, and I think Wind Waker HD is widescreen because but the only thing that I think that maybe we could eventually get the HD one is that There is a Mario Sunshine release For the Nintendo switch you could there was a time where you could get it in that bundle. And that is coming to GameCube via Nintendo Switch Online later on. So there's precedent for them having

the Nintendo Switch Online version and then also the newer version of it or whatever. Do you want another take? Yeah, please. Here's another take. The reason they're not doing Wind Waker HD release is because it was ugly as fuck. Hmm, interesting. Like they fucked up the cell shading

and they fucked up the hard lines on the cell shading. And I think that it is not as good looking as the original GameCube release of Wind Waker. And I bet they are either toggling it or totally redoing it. They did say there were some some of the GameCube games were available in a higher resolution so who knows exactly what that means but yeah maybe it will be maybe this will actually be the best version of Wind Waker.

I'm excited for Soul Calibur 2 one of the top games of all time. Yep. Here's what I would say. Here's what I would say. I think Soul Calibur still was ranked higher. Was Soul Calibur higher? Yeah, the first one. If we're talking games we're excited about

and sticking first party, Donkey Kong Bonanza. I mean, come on. Bonanza. We have a full fledged 3D platformer with Donkey Kong running around when Pants and Suspenders and like a geode cappy just like busting shit up. It looks fun. Bonanza is really, really good.

Bonanza is a wonderful portmanteau. I love it. And it also, it made me realize that what I want to be able to do in a Mario game is punch. Yeah, punch the ground. Because I was like, oh shit, he just like punched through stuff? Yes.

That's going to be more exciting for me. The full sale environmental destruction looks really fun. There haven't been a ton of games that have like that much you know, I like I know who knows how extensive it's going to be actually be from what I've read from people who have had a hands on impressions there you actually can bust up a ton of the world there. There's a lot of just like like busting through shit which evokes a game that I've heard other people my buddy van Robichow was comparing this to The Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction. Still one of the best in terms of being a pure power fantasy superhero games, where you can just run around

and bust shit up as Hulk. Really, really cool game. The one of the first party games that they announced toward the end, not to get too far ahead, and not necessarily going in any order. I know that there's a lot of affection for curvy air riders. I'm not I'm not an enemy stand down Okay, stand down now and stand by stand by and stand down and roll over

fucking dogs Here's the thing that I think is crazy. That is a racing game They started the presentation with a like a family-friendly mascot racing game. Yeah, they ended the presentation with a family-friendly mascot racing game. They ended the presentation with a family-friendly mascot racing game, but it's directed by the mascot. Masahiro Sakurai, yeah. So that has me interested. That's sort of like, okay, well, wait, what's going on here? This could be good. It's also been 20 years since Kirby air ride. Yeah, and I know that there's a lot of affection for it. Stand down.

I'm just like this was an interesting one to hear about. Kirby air ride being 20 years old just maybe type in my notes. Jesus Christ. I don't have I don't like you know, I didn't have like a strong connection to that game. Yeah. But obviously, you know, who knows, maybe Sakurai reinvents it. And here's the thing, I love Kirby. I love Kirby. I love Kirby. I'm getting that expansion for Forgotten World. That's the thing, the Forgotten,

the new Forgotten World content is pretty great, and that was unexpected, and I'm excited to see how that one looks in 4K. The, because I mean, like, there's so much stuff that was announced. So many of these were third party games that are going to be multi-platform. I guess we should touch on things like Metroid Prime 4

Beyond, which will be a cross-generational title that will be on Switch and also Switch 2. You can use mouse controls on Switch 2. This was a thing you were talking about earlier, Heather. I really wonder how that will feel. Maybe it will be great. I don't know. Yeah.

Somebody's got to solve the problem of me sitting'll be great, I don't know. Yeah. I wanna, somebody's gotta solve the problem of me sitting on my couch wanting to use mouse controls. Yeah. Because I, like if I'm, I wanna play on the big screen, I don't wanna sit at a table, but I somehow need to be able to move the mouse. Yeah, you don't wanna, and you don't want a big lap board necessarily.

Yeah, that's weird. That might also not be ergonomic. Yeah, I don't know. I'm planning on just going like this. On my coffee table, just leaning forward really hard. Yeah, he's leaning forward in an awkward way. You're hurting my back. It hurt now to do it. I like the move to do silent space work on a podcast.

Yes. And that's not the clip. It can't be the clip. So this is one of those games where they announced that it will offer both a 4K 60 FPS mode and a 1080p 120 FPS mode. I just say, I have 120 hertz monitor. This is maybe just old eyes.

There's a point in my life where I just sort of reached those like, I think 60 FPS is enough for me. So you're saying 120 Hertz No, I'm not Hrts, I'm so happy you finally got him Finally fucking got him. I'm not saying finally. I'm not saying No, I'm not saying that. Give me, I'm shaking my ass now. Don't shake on that. I'm shaking my ass now.

You didn't get me. Because he fucking got him. You didn't get me. I saw his pain was my pain. Yeah. But it was in his face. Can I be honest? It hurt to do it.

I didn't want to hurt my friend this way. It didn't, like, I don't think 120 hurts to address your theory. Because it's more so that like once we pass the 60 FPS threshold, I'm not necessarily saying, and again, I'm not complying competitive multiplayer FPS, so like whatever, but I'm also like a fucking old man. And I feel like once we hit 60 FPS,

it's smooth enough for me. But I don't know, I mean, we'll see. Maybe I'll notice a difference. In competitive gaming, I play at 120 and I fucking love it. So I'm really excited about this. Yeah, I'm never really paying attention to that and like oftentimes, even on games that offer like quality or performance mode,

I'll toggle between them to see which one I like and sometimes I don't know. Like I just don't know. I think that that, so quality versus performance mode for me comes down to whether or not it's an environmental game or an action game. Like I'll do performance mode if it's an action game, but if it's like fucking Star Wars Outlaws or something

where I'm just like looking at shit, then it's quality mode. I played Alan Wake 2 on PC this year and I just cranked everything the fuck up. And my framework was great, but it was a sort of thing of just like, again, it was just like the atmosphere and the environment was so engaging

that I kind of almost just like, yeah, that's what I was prioritizing, is just like overall visual fidelity as opposed to everything being as smooth as possible. I do think that my eyes are not as good as they used to be, so sometimes when I'm toggling in between the two modes, I'm like, I don't know. Yeah, it's getting old.

It fucking sucks. It's coming for us all. Yeah. Speaking of something that's coming for us all, Pokemon Legends ZA, is that what it's called? Yes. We're also gonna have a Switch 2 edition. Matt, how are you feeling about this?

It's interesting because on the one hand, I'm excited about the prospect of a Pokemon game that looks good. Right. On the one hand, I'm excited about the prospect of a Pokemon game that looks good. Right. On the other hand, I know that a higher frame rate doesn't necessarily mean that they're gonna have good textures or backgrounds or anything like that. So.

It's been a run of disappointing Pokemon games. Yes. Wait, is there, I'm sorry, like you're basically our Pokemon guy, I only peripherally follow the franchise. Again, old man here. There isn't a version of Pokemon Legends ZA out yet, right? That's an upcoming game. This is an upcoming game.

And so, and like the big thing with, I know from a Pokemon enthusiast is, like the gameplay's felt a little bit stagnant or? Yes, this one is going more in the direction of Pokemon Legends Arceus, which is a game that I really liked. Yeah, you loved Arceus. But I don't think looks that good.

Right. It has sort of like, it to me kind of looked like Breath of the Wild, but also like Breath of the Wild doesn't look that good on the base switch in handheld either right like it has more of art direction and then like it sort of has a cozier vibe but it had that sort of look to me with this one it's sort of going in that zone a little bit more but in a modern setting and it's I think in place of like a two, you know, a two color version where it's like with the last one being Scarlet and Violet, which is getting a free graphical update

for Switch 2, which I think is cool. We should address that for a second though too. But with this one, I'm excited about it because yeah, it's gonna it's more of what I liked in the Legends Arceus game, just a little more polished. And it's cool that it's gonna be on Switch and Switch 2, which I think is, you know, they say about this, about the current gen, the Xbox Series S holding back what the Xbox Series X games can do, right? Cause like they have to sort of develop for both

and it has to play on both. Yeah, and I mean, and for Because they have to sort of develop for both, and it has to play on both. Yeah, and I mean, and for, it seems to kind of be progressing for that, but at least for the first couple years, basically, of the PlayStation 5, basically every single PlayStation 5 game was coming out on PlayStation 4. Yes, and so with this, with the dual release,

I'm happy that it's gonna be available for everybody that's gonna want to play it, and maybe won't be making the upgrade. But I do, I, I'm not confident that it's going to be the most gorgeous Pokemon game ever. It might be by default, but it's not going to be because it earned it, I think. But I'm happy to be wrong. I'll be there day one when that game comes out for sure. A couple more of the Nintendo exclusives that were announced. One is Drag Drive, it's Drag X Drive,

but I imagine the, I don't know if the X is vocalized, but this is a murder ball game. This is one of the wheelchair basketball sim that uses mouse controls with both Joy-Cons 2s, and then there's also Hyrule Warriors age of imprisonment, which is another one of these you know, Dynasty Warrior style Musou games. I yeah, neither of these are probably for me. I mean, I may be drag drive ends up being super fun. It also kind of feels

like it's maybe going to be the new arms where it's like a gimmicky thing and mess around with a little bit. Yeah, right. I that one sort of looked plain to me kind of like it just didn't have a lot of personality which I thought is weird for like an Union ten note they're having a generic feel to it visually yes But I'd be interested in you know trying it out at going back in time giving a switch to to my cousin and then going to Their house and playing it there, but I I think I'll give it a try. Like I do like, like, I don't know. Rocket League is cars and soccer. Wheels and ball is good.

I think that's a fun, that's just good. I like that. Y'all ever seen Murderball? I have not. Man, it's a fucking incredible documentary. It's really good. I'll watch it. Oh wow, it's a documentary called Murderball?

It's a documentary about competitive wheelchair basketball players in the Paralympics. And it is like one of the most emotional sports movies I've ever seen. These guys, like they care so much, but they're also so competitive. It's fucking rad. I'll check it out.

It's awesome. Anyway, they had a huge list of third-party games. And again, you were talking about the tech specs they're getting into. Again, all the third-party shit is not necessarily a thing Nintendo would lean on as much, but this is the thing you touched on earlier. Like EA Sports, for instance, did not release, to my knowledge, Madden NFL, NHL or NBA live for Switch.

They just completely ignored the generation as they've ignored some previous Nintendo generations. They're bringing EA Sports FC, which is now what they call FIFA because of some stupid fucking licensing reason. It's so much brand equity in FIFA. And I think both FIFA bringing EA Sports FC, which is now what they call FIFA because of some stupid fucking licensing reason. Yeah. It's so much brand equity in FIFA and I think both FIFA and EA Sports just completely like, you know, messed up their relationship. Now they have EA Sports FC. No one knows what the fuck that is.

And Madden NFL are both coming to Switch 2. Again, games probably not for any of the three of us, but games that are huge for the general public. Yeah. And also they like really gave a lot of attention to Elden Ring, Hades to Street Fighter six. Yeah, Borderlands for Civilization seven Delta rune into the gungeon to cyberpunk 2077 fantasy seven remake, like a lot of this stuff feels like it's targeted not just at Sony and at Microsoft, but at the Steam Deck.

Because if you're like, like where, like if you want to play Elden Ring on the go, right now your option if you're not going to be some psycho who buys a PlayStation Portal like the two of you, like, like, take that back, you son of a bitch? You've basically, the Steam Deck is your only option, right? Yes. So it's like, so I don't know, this feels like, I don't know how worried they actually are internally, but it does feel like they're at least addressing it. And it's also, you know, the main target being

exclusively Nintendo players that don't have like PC or anything like that. They're like, oh, maybe you heard about cyberpunk and you didn't play it before. Now you can play it and maybe it's a worse version of it. Who knows? I'd be interested in checking it out. The reason that it's okay. I'm excited about these third party ones, particularly Elden Ring and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4, which I's Pro Skater 3 and 4,

which I've just decided I'm going to immediately double-dip on and have it on everything. But with this, with Cyberpunk and Elden Ring, I could play those on Switch, or not on Switch, on Steam Deck if I wanted to double-dip and buy them again, have them on Steam Deck, and have it on something that probably runs it a little bit better if I wanted to. Or I could play it on over Wi-Fi

with my PlayStation Portal. I could do that if I wanted to. That's what the use cases are. I know you have the option. I could be on Wi-Fi with my PlayStation Portal and I could play it and it would look as good. Probably the best version of it actually. Yeah.

If you want to sit at your dining table instead of at your house. I'm going to kill you. Imagine how good, because there's performance upgrades with the PlayStation Pro, the 5 Pro. So imagine how good it would look on the portal with the 5 Pro. It's an interesting thing to consider.

The reason I'm excited about having, the idea of having these games on Switch, to me, is that I could have it portably, which of course is an option available to me currently if I wanted to, but I could have it on the same device that I could play Donkey Kong Bonanza on. I could have all of my stuff in one device instead of bringing a bunch of different niche devices

with me, I could have the Switch 2, maybe run a worse version of it maybe. But the other thing I want to point out Some of these bigger games coming like Street Fighter 6 is good. They're getting physical releases also Yeah, which people don't like the box art for some of these new games. I'm agnostic to it I don't particularly care about how the boxes look The carts are red and they're the same shape and my big hope was that they were gonna be the same shape for some reason I really wanted them to be the same shape and my big hope was that they were gonna be the same shape for some reason I really wanted them to be the same shape, and I got my wish

I was very happy, and then I said ooh, they're red, but the thing that's very char as noble of you Make them red Some of the games some of the bigger games coming aren't they don't all fit on the actual cartridges Which is not new that's the case on a lot of you know PlayStation games a lot of Xbox's games You're buying the disk and downloading the game and then running the disk to play the downloaded game And that happens on switch also the metal gear collection is not all on the switch cartridge. It's a doubt It's an additional download. There's always been additional downloads

They've updated the language on this which I think is good It's gonna help inform decisions for me. Okay going forward They're calling the cartridges like game key cards So what that means is that there's an additional download and that you'll have to you can use this key this Cartridge as the key to play the downloaded game And to me that means I'm buying that game digitally. I'm not messing with, I'm not doing any of that. Cause what's the difference. But Cyberpunk fits completely on a cartridge.

And I think it would be really funny to have it on a little cartridge. So I'm going to get it. That's really funny to me. That is funny. I had this thought about Cyberpunk. Will this be the first game that's ever been on Nintendo hardware where you can see hog? Interesting.

Has there ever been hog on any Nintendo system in the past? I don't think there. I can't think of one. I don't think so. But maybe there's some Japanese only dragon ball game that was never released, so you see Goku's a little dick or something, but I don't know.

But I think you customizing your character and deciding penis one, penis two, or off, I think is maybe going to be the first instance where you can see a big swinging dick on a Nintendo system. So the file size for Cyberpunk in general, it's around 100 gigabytes. Yeah. The cartridge for the Nintendo Switch 2 is 64 gigabytes. I don't know what they've done, what they've compressed,

what they've taken out. What if they took out the hog slider? It's possible. What if they took out like 56 gigs just on the hog slider? Ha ha ha ha. I wonder if, so do you guys think that it is less power, I haven't read any of the stats. Is it less powerful than the base PlayStation 4 or base PlayStation 5?

I heard it's comparable to the PlayStation 5 Pro, but TripleClick was just talking about this, where think, where they were saying that it's like, that was what the report was, that it was gonna be closer to those specs, but it's newer hardware, so it's a little bit better than that. So, is Grand Theft Auto VI going to come out on the Switch 2?

I suspect it will. Holy shit. I know, which is crazy to think about, but I suspect it probably will, because that sort of like, you know, is in keeping with their strategy of just putting that game as many places as possible, and getting as many people in the ecosystem,

and playing Grand Theft Auto Online. God damn. So yeah, I kind of suspect that. My big thing I'm wondering is, over the course of their lifespans, I wonder if it will probably be GTA 6, but could Mario Kart World give it a run for the money for its money like in terms of sales? I don't know. I don't base on Switch 2 if it comes to Switch 2, but the people that really want it are gonna be getting it elsewhere. Like if you add all three, you're not getting it for Switch 2.

But if it's more powerful than a PS5 Pro, why wouldn't you get it on Switch? No, a PS4 Pro, not PS5 Pro. You said PS5 Pro. I meant to say PS4 Pro. Okay, I was like, holy shit. No, no, no, no, no, big mistake. Wow. Absolutely not. No, it's no, no, no, big mistake. Wow.

No, it's not more powerful than a PS5 Pro. Okay. Meaning it's less powerful than a base PS5. Then I am less, I think it is less likely that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be on the Switch 2. I think they'll probably try to figure it out. I think the user base will be so big. Yeah.

Here's my thing I will say. As a PC gamer, I have been holding out about getting a Steam Deck. I still have my OLED switch, which I use for portable gaming, although I use it less and less these days. This, or like all the outlay of everything that's going to be happening with a Switch 2,

even though I know a Steam deck will still be more powerful I like Nintendo's first party games enough where I'm just like if I have my gaming PC and I get a switch to I'll Probably be good. Yeah, I think that'll just like cover everything that I need I think I'll be able to play everything except for you know, I guess Sony first party exclusives that they don't port to PC later. Yeah, which is I think one currently. It's like Demon's Souls, right? Yeah. Yeah.

So it is less powerful than the old Steam Deck? I just know, I mean, there will be, I have no idea where the Steam Deck is in terms of specs these days. I would imagine the most expensive Steam Deck now is more powerful than the Switch 2. I have no idea where the Steam Deck is in terms of specs these days. I would imagine that the most expensive Steam Deck now is more powerful than a Switch 2. I have no idea. But I certainly, if you wait a little bit,

there will definitely be a Steam Deck that outstrips this for sure. So Steam Decks get upgraded? Yeah, I think they've done some refreshes. They've iterated, not like Steam Deck 2 or whatever, but they've done a, there's an OLED model now and there's like a- Ah, didn't know.

I guess I'm not a games journalist after all. We gotta talk about Duskbloods. This is the exclusive FromSoft game that is coming in 2026. There is an interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki that's going up on Nintendo's website after we record this so there'll probably be some original context I will say even though this is multiplayer, and I know that has kind of gotten some people a little bit You know less hyped about this. I

saw that there was a train and I was in and I also feel like like like this multiplayer Elden Ring Elden Ring Night Reign I also feel like this multiplayer Elden Ring, Elden Ring, Night Reign, depending on how that goes, will definitely inform my enthusiasm for this. Because I will say, what I've seen of people playing Night Reign, it looks pretty fun. I have not seen a second of that yet. I don't know why I've avoided it.

I am very interested in Elden Ring. I just moved some stuff around and I was like, I bought these three big books bought these like three big books These Elden Ring books that have all the like information like art books They're like art books, but they have like, you know, there's information about like Renala And there's information about like how to there's a bunch of lore inside. Yes, and there's like and then it's also like it's I guess like a sort of bound like There's like strategy things to like and like there's like strategy things too,

like for your builds and things like that. And I was looking at these and I was like, wait, I forgot, I love Elden Ring. I love Elden Ring, I was obsessed with Elden Ring. So I should check into Night Rain. Duskbloods, when I saw that there was a robot guy, I was like, I gotta see what's going on with this. That was cool.

I didn't. Yeah, listening to a little Victorian, a little steampunky, a little people, as I've said before in the podcast, I've never played Bloodborne, huge blind spot for me. I intend to get to it at some point. I did beat Sekiro, but I like, a lot of people are saying that it evokes Bloodborne very much.

Yeah. I think it does. I was kind of cool on it. Cool on it. You didn't like the frog with huge tits? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I- You mean my lock screen? Yeah. I mean, I know I'm gonna get it and I know that like a month into it, I'm gonna be like, I fucking love this game. Yeah. It's so incredible.

But I was like, I'm a little tired of the, of being this depressed while playing a game. And I was like, I don't know that I wanna feel this feeling of like, sick to my stomach while also moving forward in a world. They should make one that's fun. Well, they're all fun, but it's just like, when it was like, you know, sad fucking dude

with a mask on and like a lady hand touching his hand and her being like, oh, for all the worlds unbounded, let us yet again sing forth the praises of blood or whatever, and I was like, oh, it's these guys again. And I felt a little bit like, ah. I do think it's going to be hard to say the Duskbloods. I don't really like the Duskbloods. The Duskbloods.

It doesn't really roll to me. Well, I think they were, it's blood. They want to put blood in the title. For sure. If it was called Elden, the Elden King, you'd be like, oh, it's an Elden Ring thing. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what the fix is. I like the Duskbloods. The Duskbloods. The Duskbloods.

It feels like early 2000s indie band. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like a slur for vampires. Oh! I can say that. I was overall pretty like, I came away pretty encouraged from this. Again, I just feel like they're not fucking around with this. It feels like they are correctly just enhancing the formula that works so well for them, the prior generation.

And there's a couple of games, including, I will say for myself, Dustbloods, I'm pretty excited about Donkey Kong Bonanza, even though it's as little as we do. Donkey Kong Bonanza looks fucking great. I love platformers and I, of course getting a Switch 2, but that game alone would be a system seller for me a new a new You know first party Donkey Kong. That's just like a straight-up mascot platformer me, too. I'm really excited about that

I'm super pumped in general. I know that the price point It's a sticking point for a lot of people I feel lucky to be able to participate When I'll get the chance to. I'm just pumped. I'm always just pumped for new games. This is exciting because there hasn't been a first party Nintendo game in a little bit where I'm like, I can't wait to play this. What was the last one? Was it Kirby? It might have been Kirby.

And that was like three years ago? Yeah. There's something we're forgetting. I'm sure there's yeah that we talked about and maybe did an episode about yeah I spent two hours discussing you could remember getting about but I'm just super pumped and I can't wait to Hopefully be able to get my hands on one at launch. Yeah, I'm pumped. Yep Any other thoughts? No, I think it's time for a segment. Let's do a segment. Alright, it's time for a segment.

We've got some video game related food and we're going to find out if it powers us up or lowers our HP. It's game gruel. And today, we've got McDonald's, a Minecraft movie, Nether Flame Sauce. Let me read the copy here. Like the lava falls of the fiery dimension, this exclusive spicy nether flame sauce will singe even the feistiest of mobs.

Okay. Feel the heat of the nether with crushed red pepper and flaming cayenne. Crafted with fiery flavor, this hot sauce gives hints of savory garlic and subtle sweetness. So we have some McDonald's that we ordered here today. And then I also have some extra nether sauces

that I procured on a separate McDonald's visit earlier this week. Because I didn't know, a lot of times with these promotional sauces, they run out real fast. And we live in the long shadow of the very dark McDonald's Mulan Szechuan sauce incident from Rick and Morty.

No, it was fine. Everything was fine. So I was just like, I want to make sure I get there early. So the first day that this was available, I went basically right when they started serving lunch, I was on my absolute best behavior because we don't want any sort of incident here. We don't need a video on the internet

of me crying in a McDonald's. But I had heard about how you were behaving and they were like this was actually that was worse actually I'm a good boy. Can I get my sauce? So you can only get another flame sauce with the a Minecraft meal ten piece McNuggets So it's the only way they'll give it to you. I'd like I I was just you know through the app You can make some things the franchisees won't necessarily honor you can like Just ask you can ask for the sauce a la carte But they're like we can't do that you can only get it with a meal which is fine

So I had to get two meals to get four sauces I had to get two meals. Oh, no. I got you. I did do you can't believe it I had 20 McNuggets and two medium fries. What the fuck am I gonna do with all this stuff? Just put this in my body? I know that you've done the McNugget power hour before. You've eaten quite a few nuggets in a single sitting. What do you think is the max comfort level of nuggets to eat? I think probably wings, I would say,

in the 12 to 16 range. Once you go past that, you're really indulging, and you're gonna feel bloated. I agree with you, yeah. But also, you know, YMMV, depends on the size of the individual and your appetite. So anyway, but I had to get two meals to get four sauces

because I wasn't sure where we were gonna get them. And then Heather ordered this additional meal here. So all in, I think we are north of $40 for the sake. Yeah, oh, for sure. It cost how much to get it delivered here, Heather? So all in, I think we are north of $40 for the sake of it. Oh, for sure. It cost how much to get it delivered here, Heather? $27. OK, great.

So we're over $50. And the closest McDonald's to us is very close. Yeah, we could have gotten it on the way in, but we didn't really have a plan. It was kind of, anytime McDonald's is delivered, I feel like I'm at the bottom of the dystopia or the top of capitalism. And this was kind of magical to open up,

to pull out a golden, extra-sized Happy Meal box with a basic Minecraft skin on the box and a Minecraft version of the McDonald's logo. So far we actually, we don't know if the Minecraft, we have the extra Minecraft sauce. We don't know if the Nether sauce is actually inside. Let's open this sum bitch up and let's see what's in there. Ranch, do you like yourself a McNugget?

Hell yeah. What's your favorite, what's your go-to dipping sauce? Sweet and sour. Oh, okay, okay. That's a good sauce. Sweet and sour's a good sauce. But starting with McDonald's sweet and sour, we got a 10 piece McNugs here that we're gonna share.

It's just 30 apple pies. You guys, we got the sauce. We got the sauce. We have two additional sauces, all right. Two additional sauces. I do like the branding of the Minecraft art on the chicken McNugget box. That's also really good. Yeah, I like the box.

It's basically like an adult sized happy meal. And that box. Yes, and the McNuggets box itself, you're right. And then we actually got, Matt's sneaking surprise. I snuck some fries. We actually also got the toy this time, which when I got my two meals on We actually also got the toy this time, which when I got my two meals

on the first day of the promotion, neither of them included the toy. You didn't get the toy? It's fine. It's fine, I'm not gonna cause a fuss. Well, I sort of made a big fuss before we started. I said, when we get to have a meal, I get the toy. There's no discussion about it. The toys are Grimace Egg, Birdie, Zombie Hamburglar,

McPotion, Big Mac Crystal, and Fry Helmet. Would I have liked a Zombie Hamburglar? Sure, but honestly, like Matt, I think you should have the toy. Well, here's the thing. I only want it if it's Grimace. So you'll get the burglar. Okay.

You'll get Grimace. What are the other options? Grimace, Egg, Birdie, Zombie Hamburglar, McPotion, Big Mac Crystal, Fry Helmet. Jesus Christ, that's so many. So Fry Helmet? Yeah. That couldotion, Big Mac Crystal, Fry Helmet. Jesus Christ, that's so many. So Fry Helmet, that could be Ranch. Do you want Fry Helmet? What do you want?

I don't want any of it. Okay. Heather, which one do you want? Again, let's figure out everybody else's position first. So we've got Fry Helmet for you. Zombie Hamburglar. Because we're gonna have to double up. No, Zombie Hamburglar, Grimace Egg,

I think you call one and then the other option is trash. God, what is it? What is the other options? Birdie, McPotion, Big Mac Crystal, Fry Helmet. Potion. Okay, potion. Okay, McPotion goes to Heather. God, I hope it just looks like a potion.

Otherwise, I think the option is we put this on Anya's desk here. Right? What the fucking receipt. We gotta eat these McNuggets before they get great. We gotta eat them, yeah. I'm just gonna tear the box open. All right, Matt's opening the box.

It is a... I'm having a fry. Oh my God. It is a, it's gotta be a fry helmet. What else would it be? It's the fry helmet. It's the fry helmet. But honestly, I am gonna keep it.

Okay. No argument here. I do like it. I'm gonna try to put it on my kitten. That's sweet. It's not gonna fit, she'll be mad. All right, so I'm opening the sauce, which does have, you know, I've-

Mad you with sauce? I do. I've given up sugar a few years ago, and it does have sugar as the third ingredient, so I am going to indulge for the sake of the pod in the water vinegar sugar, chili peppers, cayenne red pepper, et cetera sauce. It came with a clear card. I'm not sure how visible the sauce is on camera.

It stinks. It's got a little, yeah. Oh my God, it stinks. It smells like kind of like a chili garlic. Ugh, it smells like, it smells like a dumpster. And I see some sort of like peppers in here. Oh my God, it stinks. There's something visible.

The crushed red pepper, that's what's visible here. Oh God, it stinks. It smells like cat food. Oh, wait. That card's really cool though. The card's really cool. I like the card. The card is what comes with the The mick toy the Minecraft toy the card is nice. Yeah, okay getting I'm getting a single nugget

Did you get a nugget not yet get a nugget? I'll steal one Other take one and then we'll offer it up to ranch. I'm gonna have two nuggets because I'm hungry okay Yeah, you know what there's ten wait hold on. I'm gonna have to also just by the doing some math here. We each get at least two right we get at least Okay, great. There's three left you go and whoever is the best and does really really good gets an additional nugget. Well, that's good at what I Guess not this Ranch is putting the box on her desk, and I think we're all too lazy to go get it. So I think she gets the third nugget.

You get the rest of the nugget. I'm taking dip in this bad boy. I got a nice healthy dip here. I'm putting it into the stink. Now look, I'm a bit of a heat seeker. I'm used to tasting the purportedly hot fast food spices and sauces and being like, this is nothing. This one does have a little bit of a noticeable burn to it. It's not nothing. I think the cayenne is doing a lot of work. This is the best McDonald's sauce I've ever had.

Wow! Wow! It's really good. It's the best one I've ever had. Wow. Wow. It's really good. It's the best one I've ever had. It is quite good. Cause we had a different, didn't we do this once before? Yeah. We had the Jujutsu Kaisen sauce.

That was disgusting to me. I have- You also had, you had COVID and it didn't have your, you didn't have your taste buds back yet. Oh, is that right? Yes, that's right. I have no memory of what I said about the Jujutsu Kaisen special-grade garlic sauce

But I know we had it on the podcast so This is amazing. This is really good lives up to the eye. Oh, maybe it's cuz I haven't had sugar Do you think but it's not particularly sweet Yeah, some of it just went down the wrong way. Do you think this is what lava chicken tastes like? Hmm, interesting. Can I have some french fries? Yeah. I'm gonna dip them in this nether sauce.

Fries are being distributed. What I will say is that you mentioned the sugar. This is not particularly sweet though. This isn't like a sweet heat. Yeah, but if you haven't had sugar in a long time and then you have sugar, like there have been some accidental sugars that I've had in the last couple of years.

And every time I think it's the most delicious food I've ever eaten, I think it's just like wired into our brain. I did a version of the keto diet many years ago, lost a ton away, and it was like six months in, we were at Disneyland, and I had not had any sugar for, you know, again, half a year. We're there, and I'm just like, you know what, fuck it.

I'm gonna get a cookie. I got a chocolate chip cookie. Yeah. You know, one of those like really indulgent ones from some Disney bakery. Yeah. I bit into it and it was like biting into like a coaster of a coaster size sugar cube, basically.

It was like pure sugar. It was so sweet. I thought it was disgusting. And disgusting and I was just like oh so we just numb our tolerance for salt and sugar To the point where yeah We're eating this processed food all the time and we just when we have actual food when we eat how we're supposed to You know, we we can't handle it anymore It's a it's a it's a crying shame Yeah, like I there's so much stuff, it just has sugar in it, and you can't just like,

I mean, this sauce, there's no reason for there to be really any sugar in there probably, but it, man, the sauce is good. This should be a sauce that they just keep. God damn it, I love this sauce. It's really good. It smelled so bad though before I had it. It smells pretty pungent, but that's part of what works in its favor

Richelle what do you think over there? I think it's good. You like me or a bit of a heat seeker I know you like a like a spicy food. I like a song is this is this fit with your spice tolerance Are you feeling any burn from this? It's like it's a nice little tinge. Just a little singe. Yeah It's spicier than I thought it was gonna be. Yeah 100% again from something from McDonald's Yeah, cuz I mean you know holy shit. That's so good. They have wow that's no more fries. Oh Yeah, I do Man we should say that so Heather is eats the healthiest of the three of us Yeah, can't speak for a shell, but fuck you have a

You had the McDonald's app on your phone already, Matt and I were shocked. No, it was because of the Pokemon. Yes. Because I needed the hourglasses for Pokemon Pocket. This made it make sense when you said it was not because of the food, it was to get Pokemon Pocket bonuses, they got it.

But this sauce is amazing, I can't fucking believe it. I'm remembering that when we did this for the jujitsu kaisen sauce, I had said that it was fine on the nuggets, but I think that that sauce in particular would have gone pretty far on some wings. Imagine this sauce on a fucking flat. This would be a banger.

This is a straight up wing sauce basically, yeah. This is like what they call like the spicy garlic at B-Dub's. Yeah. Do not put this clip, don't put this on the internet. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. I have signed no waiver.

Ha ha ha ha. It's so, I mean gosh. This is the best thing I've ever eaten in my life. It's great, here's the thing, we just like this food. We like the nuggets. That's true. We like the nuggets. The nuggets are always gonna hit.

I don't know if I've ever gotten the nuggets where I was like, they didn't do it today. Here's a question. Worth watching the Minecraft movie to taste the sauce? I say yes. If that was a prerequisite, it was like, hey, you gotta watch the Minecraft movie and then you can taste the whole thing.

God, the sauce is kind of the best thing about the movie. I agree. It's my favorite part So yeah, I guess if I had to the only way to get the sauce was to watch the movie Yeah, I guess I would have to watch the movie, but I wish I had never seen the movie I'm a I'm a huge. I'm a huge sucker for anything licensed. Like if there's a cereal based on something, I love any promotion, I love special shaped dishes. You know, like when a cereal used to come with like a special spoon.

So I would be less likely to see the Minecraft movie without the sauce at the end. Right. Yes. But if they were like, you have to watch the movie to get the sauce, I would be there day one to get the sauce. Are there fries left? Yes, there are.

Can I have some fries? There should have been a Mickey 17 sauce. Natural tie in with McDonald's. That movie's a lot about sauce too. It's a sauce movie. It's a sauce movie and not very many movies you could say are sauce movies. No, you can you can authentically say that that's a sauce movie. Like one of the main things in the movie is sauce. Yeah, that's a hey that that game gruel is a winner.

This was good. I like that we did this and we should find other things to eat that aren't just nuggets. We do it with nuggets. Here's the thing, it could be the nuggets segment. I love nuggets. Well, definitely nuggets will continue to be an element of Game Gruel, but we will find other game related things to taste test. And hey, if you have any suggestions, pop them over on our Discord. That's right. I mean, there's tons of energy drinks with video game themes. There are so many. I'm more nervous about putting that in my body than nuggets. Yeah

I don't I would never have an energy drink this late in the day anyway No, but I mean if you put Sonic the Hedgehog on an energy drink and give it to me at 7 a.m. I'll drink it. Yeah, sure. Why not? I would try that blue Sonic curry that that gets Floated around as a meme every now and then hundred percent. I would why not? Hey, that's this week's get played our producers for shell Chan ranch yard underscore underscore start our music is by Ben Prunty Ben Prunty music comm art is by duck brigade design duck brigade comm You can find our merch including apparel pins stickers and more at kinshipgoods.com link in the show description

Also, check out our patreon patreon comm slash get played We're gonna find our entire pre head gum back catalog plus ad free main feed episodes and our patreon exclusive show get animated lives There as well Matt. What's up this week? We're back on Gurren Lagann, baby We're we're taking our drills and we're piercing the heavens and we're having a fucking blast show reps patreon comm slash get played and you guys guys, you know what? What? I think I actually got...

I got freaking Steve'd. Oh no. Steve got my ass. You got Steve'd? I got Steve'd! Did he fuck you? All I'm saying is, I got Steve. That was a HeadGum Podcast.

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