Get Played - "Board" Games

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

Nick and Matt talk more about Donkey Kong Bananza, The Drifter and discuss some of their favorite "Board" games (Like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4, SSX Tricky and more). Check out our brand new merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayed Follow us on social media @getplayedpodMusic 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 Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story 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. Sorry for the delay, Rochelle. Matt should be here any minute. We can get started. So just as a... Oh, it looks like he's here right now. Beak of the devil. Hey, buddy.

Sup. What's up, dude? Hi. How's it going? I'm feeling pretty radical today, if I'm being honest. Oh, hey, that's great to hear. Yeah, sorry, Ranch. I was riding in today.

I didn't have my car. I decided to hop on the old skateboard. You skated over here from your place. Yeah, I skated over here. And then I, you know, they tried to stop me. Who tried to stop you? The people that like don't like it. People that don't like, there's like a lot,

there's an anti-skateboarding sort of like bias in the community that they just think I'm too cool. I mean, this feels like a thing from an earlier era. I remember the skateboarding is not a crime, but like that felt like more of a 90s thing. So the skateboarding has been pretty mainstream since the X Games. You're saying you get harassed by the authorities

just trying to skate your way over here? I got harassed, I got harangued, I got all sorts of crazy stuff happen to me. I was trying to do some flips and this old man was like, don't do that. Just an old man saw you doing, attempting, I guess like a heel flip or a kick flip and being like, what are you doing?

Yeah, something like that, yeah, yeah. I was doing a, yeah, a heel flip. Was he just in his yard? Just like, with that, like an old guy just sitting on his porch? Yeah, he was like across the street. Uh-huh. And he was kind of like getting really mad at me.

Okay. He was like, don't do that, we don't do that here. Maybe he was worried about your safety. No, I was wearing a helmet and stuff But yeah, so like I was doing I did some of that and then I saw you know It was actually crazy part of the way over here. I grabbed onto the back of a car like Marty McFly That's fun. But I mean I could see people being like hey, that's a dangerous thing to do You're out on the open road trailing a vehicle without getting the driver's permission. Yeah, well, that's the issue, isn't it?

That is I didn't ask. If I had just asked, I probably could have, they would have allowed me to hang on. I'm not necessarily, but I'm saying like, you know, if you were like, it's okay with the driver, then I think people might give you more of a pass. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. Matt, are you lying?

What do you mean? No. I'm just saying, it just seems like your story's kind of all over the place. It seems like you're maybe just like want us to think that you skateboarded over here. And I honestly don't even see evidence of a skateboard. You mentioned a helmet.

I don't see where your helmet is. Where'd you stash that? I left it on the board. I left the boards out. It's, don't look out that window. Go grab, don't leave it outside. The studio is out on the street. Someone will take it.

No, I locked it. You locked take it. No, I locked it. You locked your skateboard. Yeah, I locked it. And you secured your helmet with a lock as well? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you lock a skateboard? Okay, now who's talking like somebody that doesn't know how to skate?

I didn't claim I can skate. I just have some knowledge of skateboarding. I didn't know anything about skateboarding. Tell me that, how do you lock a skateboard? It's actually really, really easy. Uh-huh. I guess I'm thinking you could probably take one of those U-shaped bicycle locks

and put it over the middle of the board, and maybe it would be tough to maneuver. You could just secure it to something. Maybe you can pull it past the trucks. No, I mean, I have a key fob for it. To turn it on? Yeah. You think a skateboard has an on switch?

No, no. I was testing you actually. No, no, no. Well, it's, you know what actually it's crazy? I'm actually embarrassed to actually bring this up. I broke my skateboard on the way over here. I broke it. And it broke into so many pieces that like I don't even have evidence it like shattered into like basically like dust Matt. I'm just just gonna challenge you here

Describe a skateboard Well, mine's red Okay, what about the physically like its structure? It's got wheels, uh-huh and um things Holding the wheels. It's okay, buddy. It's okay. No, it's okay, buddy It's okay. You don't have to lie to impress us. It's got me and rancher your friends No matter what you have to skateboard to impress us. We love you. The you don't escape or to try to impress everybody. It's okay, buddy It's okay, buddy, I'm peeing

Okay, you don't don't do that Hey, you're ruining a chair ruin that chair buddy. Oh wait. It's got a sticker on it What's the sticker say? Says I don't know I don't know how to skateboard We stand on planks as they travel over surfaces as we discuss Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 & 4 and other board games this week on Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. It's time to get played.

I'm Tiger Weiger along with Matt Appadaka. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Get Played, as you might have inferred from her absence from our intro Heather is out this week Once again, Heather's gone, but you know what? It's not just me flying solo this week. Matt is back I'm back. Rochelle Chen our producer ranch is back. Look at us So we you know, we go we get three out of the four ain't bad That's hey, it's not bad 75% is a solid C in any class.

And C's get degrees as far as I'm concerned. That's bad, man. Says that on my diploma. I dropped out. It is one of the funniest things to me on Earth that I do have a diploma. And I will say by the skin of my fucking teeth. Yeah, we're back.

You were traveling. I was in the desert. I was in the desert in Palm Springs, do sort of annual trip with some of my oldest friends, my brother, my wife, and we had a great time. It was great. Did you bring like a Steam Deck, a Switch 2 with you? So this is what I did. Yeah, well, so I had? So this is what I did, yeah.

Well, so I had alluded to this a couple weeks ago. I had this standing date with my boys to go pick up Donkey Kong Bonanza and get breakfast burritos, which we did do. Lot of fun. And then I immediately from there drove to the desert. I was like, I'm not doing this. I have to do this.

And- That's such a key ritual for any new AAA release. Yes, especially for a Nintendo one, we really do go. I think we've only done it, we did it for Tears of the Kingdom, we did it for Astro Boy, there might have been a couple other stray ones in there that we've done it for,

but we were like, we gotta go for Bonanza, we have to be out there. Also picked up my Bonanza Amiibo, and thought about taking it with me to the desert. So I was like, I just got it, I'm gonna leave it at home. And my wife was like, wait, I really like this. She saw it in the box, she's like, wait, this is really nice.

She was impressed by the quality of the Amiibo. And I was like, I have other of these at home. She's like, but I like this one. And I was like, okay. And so yeah, I was like I have other of these at home. She's like, but I like this one And so yeah, I took I took my switch to and I took the dock with me because That's like everybody sort of in the group They're like brings like something that they're like contributing to the weekend kind of so like some of my friends are like They like to grill so they're like we'll like bring like stuff to grill and we'll do that. I brought my freaking espresso machine.

It's like a potluck for objects. Yes, yeah, basically. I was like, I have this, and last year we went and the coffee situation was dire. It was not good. We were working off of a single Airbnb Nespresso, and I was like, this is just not doing it. Airbnbs and even verbos are so hit and miss

in terms of whether or not they actually promise on what they, you know, deliver on what they promised rather. Like, just like, you might end up with a kitchen that's like, you don't have shit here. I can't do anything. So I was making espresso for everybody in the house every day. And so I brought the Switch 2 dock and we were playing, got some Overcooked going, got some Mario Kart World going.

And then while, because I get overstimulated and get too hot when I'm outside for too long in the desert. So I would basically do like an hour outside, an hour inside playing Bonanza, an hour back outside, and try to get people, an hour inside playing Bonanza, an hour back outside, and try to get people excited about watching me play Bonanza and nobody was very interested, even though I kept being like, you could break everything if you want.

But I did that and I also took my PlayStation Portal with me to play Death Stranding 2 in case I got tired of Bonanza, but something did not happen. I think it's pretty, we'll talk about it a little bit more, I think it's pretty, we'll talk about it a little bit more. I think it's a pretty watchable game. Cause it's just like, it's so kinetic and they're,

like you were saying, there's so much, you know, essentially terraforming that you're doing. I mean, look, I kept talking about how watchable it was. I was like, guys, I think you guys might like watching me. You're missing out. Yeah. Watching me doing something. Yeah, you guys have these music videos on outside.

There's a TV outside and they had music videos on and stuff. They're having fun splashing around in the pool. It's like a big sort of like, we go and we like crush beers all weekend. It does rock. It was a lot of fun, but I'm happy to be back in the studio. Last time we were in Palm Springs,

I guess it's a new city regulation. If you're at an Airbnb, like a guy has to come in. I don't know if it's like a guy from the city or a guy from Airbnb or just a guy hired by the people who own the property and like say like, hey, these are the rules of staying in Palm Springs. Did you have an orientation from a guy? It sounds like you didn't.

We didn't have a guy. We did have a guy come and he was like cleaning the pool like the day after we got there. We were sort of just like, who's this guy? He's cleaning the pool, he's right. But there was just like, I mean they have all these like little like instruction things like everywhere. They're like, this is how this works and this is how that works or whatever.

I will say I was mad at the Airbnb because the TV, the TV that I wanted to hook the Switch 2 dock to with the HDMI cable was mounted to the wall in such a way that it wouldn't pull forward. Oh, that's a little frustrating. And the HDMI thing was in the exact middle of the TV. And I couldn't get it. And I had to then ask one of my friends with a more slender arm

to reach back and try to get it in any of the HDMI parts, which took some doing, and we did succeed. That feels like I'm just reminded of being a little kid and my dad asking me to use my little kid hands to dig something out of some crevice. Me, I was like, daddy wants to play Bonanza. I'm maybe out on Airbnbs. kid hands to dig something out of some crevice. I mean, I was like, daddy wants to play bonanza. I'm maybe out on airbnbs. I just have like, I understand that you can get something that you can't get from a hotel, but it's just like, it's so unpredictable. There's all these

fucking hidden fees. Like I just like, and like we were saying earlier about the appliances or whatever, it's just like, sometimes you're not getting what you're paying for. But like, I also just like, I kinda like hotels. And I know you can't have that big same, that same group communal, hey we're gonna be in this one environment and just kinda take it over. It's not really the same thing if you're all getting your own hotel rooms, it feels a little more atomized.

But I just kinda like being in hotels more. I like getting the fucking points. I love hotels, I see this is the thing, I'm like, as I'm getting a little older, I'm like, I have to become a points guy. You gotta be a points guy, Matt. I gotta be a points guy, cause like I love, I do love hotels,

and I love a hotel breakfast. I love like a hotel restaurant. Me too, oh my God. Man, I fucking love, there was a, on our honeymoon, we stayed at a, we stayed at like a nice place in Kauai, and they had like three great restaurants and we ate at one of them twice

because I was like, I think this is like the best food I've ever had. It was so fucking good. And it was great. And then, you know, of course then we like, for like lunches and like, and other stuff, we would like just go like find snacks like in town or whatever.

But like they had some really nice like restaurants at the hotel. And there was this guy there at the hotel who was like, I've been here since this hotel opened in the 90s. So he'd been there like 30 something years. And he was like the coolest guy ever. And I told him at one of the local places that I went to. And he was like, man, how'd you find that?

I was like, I did a little dig. He was impressed with my find. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. was like, I did a little dig, he was impressed with my find. There you go. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, this is a thing. Can talk about points all day, but get yourself into a hotel ecosystem,

one of the big chain hotels, and then just like orient your trips towards staying on their properties, you'll accumulate more points, you'll get more status. Whether you get like a co-branded credit card for that particular chain, or if you have a card like an Amex Platinum that is kind of like an umbrella card that applies to different chains

and gets you different statuses, like that's a helpful thing you can use there too. You're kind of double dipping, you're paying for stays with their branded card, you get additional points. When you say umbrella card It's not for the umbrella corporation. You can get the umbrella corporation visa. It's actually great you might you might get La Plaga you might get La Plaga, but It's worth it for that 30,000 points sign up bonus, and then you get a golden egg under your pillow every that's a lot of fun

I But yeah, there's room service under your pillow every night. That's a lot of fun. I, but yeah, there's- Do you like room service? You get room service. I remember when I was a teenager, I went on a cruise with my family for like-

I thought we were still talking about Umbrella Corporation. Oh. So I was gonna say, yeah, but the problem is the nemesis shows up, but sorry. Mr. X chases you down the hall. Here's the thing, I would do that bit for 10 more minutes. It's really fun. We gotta move on.

Yeah, we gotta move on. But you know what? I was staying at this hotel one time with my umbrella points and I came home one day, ate a long shot this bell and I couldn't go to sleep. Oh man, that's rough stuff. It was just ringing and ringing. Yeah, yeah.

I remember, so- I had a situation, I was staying. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah. I was staying in an Umbrella Corporation property. Yeah, yeah. And they are nice. They're very nice.

We thought we were in an elevator. And the room is closing in on us. No fucking way. I was almost at Wiger Sandwich. Oh my God, that sort of also reminds me of something that happened to me at an Umbrella Corporation property. So I got lost. Yeah. And I was sort of also reminds me of something that happened to me at an umbrella corporation property I so I got lost yeah, and I was like sort of walked. I sort of like walking this like sort of like back area of Of the hotel and it happened to walk by

This open window much of dogs jumped through and tried to kill me god. That's scary Yeah, but the bartender at that particular hotel was El Higante. He makes a mean espresso martini. Yeah, I've heard this about him. He's really good at it. He sings me espresso. Right. A lot of fun. He's fun.

He's fun. Salazar was there. He was doing the worm. Was he really? He was doing the worm. You're really? He was doing the worm, and you're sort of like, I haven't seen somebody do the worm really well in a long time.

Yes. He was doing it like, he crawled in the fucking dirt. He was like really committed to it. That's wild. Yeah. I haven't mentioned this at the podcast before, but like my college girlfriend

was the president's daughter, Ashley Graham. Oh my God. That's sick. We went on, well, with those guys was the president's daughter, Ashley Graham. Oh my God. That's sick. And we went on, well, you know, with those guys, I wish her well, you know, we kind of went our separate ways. We went to an umbrella corporation, like one of their properties in Spain. She got kidnapped. No.

I had to call the White House. They sent over Leon Kennedy to rescue her. It was a whole thing That's in there with my thumb up my ass to the pro tell by myself all weekend. Yeah, no, that's that's horrible Yeah, I was rough, but it worked out all right at least we were on vacation. It's true It's beautiful over there kind of sucks when something bad happens in general But like if you're on vacation and kind of lessons of the blow it's true. You're sort of like at least on vacation I'm at home if this happened at my house. Oh my god. Yeah, forget about it

I was on a del bro corporation property once There was this big lady walking around and I was sort of like okay making eyes at her Wow And I don't kiss and tell her nothing, but these are a little crazy Which property was this? making eyes at her. Wow. And I don't kiss and tell her nothing, but things got a little crazy. Which property was this? Because I think I'm making a trip. I think I'm going to use the remainder of my points, my dear, back to my cruise anecdote. Yeah, yeah.

And just to be clear, this was not an umbrella cruise. It actually was But it was cool because I Pride myself I pack light yeah, and so like when I'm packing when I was packing my suitcase I was like everything fits in I have a grid in my suitcase Oh, that's nice So I kind of spin you know I have my socks in one section of it that takes up one piece of the grid and then I had the rest of my pants kind of took up a big

Portion of this is that my issue with my grid suitcase is it's a really can be like it is convenient I kind of drive myself nuts trying to pack everything in there yeah yeah yeah look with my flashlight moving my grenades yeah yeah yeah yeah you're red and green herb but yeah exactly if you just combine them I always forget to do that you guys just combined them and so I like I'm leaving behind my toothbrush cuz I'm leaving behind my toothbrush, because I'm like, well, I gotta have these herbs in case I have some sort of wound.

Then I'm landing at the airport and binding a $6 toothbrush in the terminal. So I actually had to file a complaint on the umbrella corporation crews, because I kept losing all these blue medallions. Oh boy. And they kept acting like they weren't in the lost-and-found Yeah, it's just kind of interesting is all but I would find these pieces

Kind of scattered around and it had appeared to be shot We're yeah, I don't know what was going on somebody was going around shooting blue medallion. Yeah anyway by real cruise anecdotes It's really weird when You're like, cause you know sometimes you're just sort of like at killing times, like I'll go down to the, let's see what's over in the ballroom level. Yeah, I love a show. I love a show, you go over there

and then there's like a portrait and it's got like slots for three different gems. And then if you're just looking around, you'll find like a red gem, a blue gem, a green gem, you can kind of slot them some bitches in there. And then all of a sudden it opens, you got this whole different passageway to explore. I'm like, who is this for?

Like, whatever happened to a doorknob? Yeah, whatever happened to a doorknob, and also I did find this crown. It had no gems in it. And then I got to find gems and put the gems in the crown. That. It had no gems in it. And then I got to put, I got to find gems and put the gems in the crown. That's what I'm talking about. So all the time it's just like all these loose gems

that are just scattered about that seems to be like, you know, like I don't know who put this here or why. I don't know if someone just forgot about this. Yes, there's all these gems everywhere. I kind of thought maybe Adam Sandler was gonna turn the corner, but he wouldn't never be anywhere near the place. When I was a teenager and I actually went on a cruise.

Hube Halloween might be. Hube. You know, over the weekend when I was in Palm Springs, I threatened to put it on. Because I did it last year and it was a fucking hit. I was like, look, I know it's not Halloween. I think we gotta watch Hie Halloween, I think. Reg, did you say Hubie Halloween was Mark's favorite movie?

Is that correct? It is Mark's number one favorite movie of all time. Hey, he might have a new favorite movie coming out because we're recording on the eve of Happy Gilmore 2. It's possible. When I was a teenager on a cruise, I was just blown away by the all-day buffet. Yes, sure my brothers You know is like me and my three brothers, so we were going crazy. Just eating all day. Just going nuts And then like we had dinner like you know you do like the captain's dinner or whatever so like okay We're very cool off we go we had our own room because it was like the the four of us boys and like our parents

We're like let's just like they put us like in our own cabin cabin and we got to our cabin we were like let's order room service and we all ordered turkey sandwiches it was it was great and then we went to dinner and we still ate full dinner and one of the nights I ate two dinners Wow because you can get whatever you want I've never been on a cruise I don't think I could handle it you would hate it just the idea of I know you don't like to be feel like you're enclosed yes anyway The whole vessel is one place saying you're stuck at right But it becomes like it's big enough that it does sort of feel like you're in like a small

the worst city on Earth But it's they are fun, but I haven't been on one now in, gosh, like over a decade at this point and have no desire to go back on one. Too many things go wrong on them these days. I heard all about this poop cruise. That's pretty dire. Well, when Mr. X is the captain of the ship, he's throwing his hat around.

I didn't want that to happen. No, no, no happen no no no no anyway And you're like who's the captain now and then? God if oh my god. Can you imagine? Captain Phillips is there just trying to enjoy himself. He's like not again We run SD on that yeah Heather would have been upset. A new era of power has arrived with the Alienware Area 51 gaming laptops, intentionally engineered to push more power to the CPU and GPU for maximum performance.

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Discover Area 51 today at Alienware.com! You won't believe these deals! Okay, so often when we do these commercials, we'll get sent product or whatever and we'll eat it for a week or a month and then we'll be able to talk about it and say, hey, you know, I did this and that's part of the advertisement. For this next ad, they want me to talk about why I use NordVPN, and I lit up because that's literally the company that I use as my VPN.

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plan. There's no risk with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee. Click the link in the podcast episode description box. Rancho, you ever been on a cruise? No, the thought terrifies me. Yeah, me too. Is it for you, is it like just being adrift or is it more like the kind of claustrophobia of it? Or maybe a little from column A, a little from column B.

Yeah, both. Definitely being in the middle ocean, just for a prolonged amount of time. And also I've seen the rooms on cruises. I think I would have panic attack. They can be pretty small. And depending on where you are in the ship, I remember this one trip that I was thinking of. Our room was in the middle of the ship,

so it had no window. Oh no. That's rough. I'm also, the other factor for me, as I already mentioned, Puker, is I'm like a hygiene slash sanitary sort of, I would say I'm like a germaphobe, but I like things to be clean,

and it's one reason I'm not crazy about camping, or the outdoors in general, though I like nature. And so I'm just like, it feels like a very unhygienic environment. Yeah, they're, cause you can only be as clean as you are. Yes. But then you open up a place like that

to the rest of humanity and everybody else is fucking disgusting. It's real, yeah, it's true. It's tough. I will say, I have two funny memories real quick too. One of which was that my youngest brother had never seen a buffet before, like a breakfast buffet. And he was so excited, because he was truly

a little, little kid at this point. And we were like, well, just go get whatever you want. And he comes back with a mountain of bacon on his plate, and that was it. It was so funny. We were like, you can't eat this much bacon. You actually can't do that. And he was very upset about it

And then one of the things on the one of the days because they kind of change out the stations every day Yeah, they had a sort of like build your own sort of like Like walk like sort of situations And I remember me my brothers like got like three bowls each because we were like this fucking rules We were just like you get that you you get the raw ingredients and stuff, and then you give it to them, and they stir fry it in the wok. And I was like, I gotta get another one.

That was so good. The novelty of that at a buffet. I remember the first time I was like, oh, there's an omelet bar, and this guy will make a fucking omelet for me. That is really something. I think hotel omelet is honestly one of my favorite foods. Wow.

I love that. Hotel omelet. I feel like my favorite foods. Wow. I love that. Hotel omelet. I feel like they can be hit and miss. When the cheese ain't melting all the way, when they're doing it too fast, eggs a little burnt but the cheese ain't melted. It's also like, I'm also thinking of like, cause there's sometimes, you mentioned hotel restaurants

and sometimes you get like the half-assed sort of hotel restaurant. Or sometimes you just get like, they just have that, just the breakfast buffet, and they've just got like, their version of omelets is some pre-made stuff that's sitting in a chafing dish, and that's not ideal, but.

And don't hit me with this, sometimes they say omelet, but they actually mean scramble. They got the big thing of scrambled eggs and like some cheese you can melt on there, you know? It's not really the same thing. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I wanna move off of this just yet. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Don't move on, don't move on just yet. Don't move on. Um, vamp for a second. Fuck. Oh, God. Uh, uh, hold on, hold on, hold on! Um, you know... You know who made me an omelet one time? Who's that? Albert Wesker. Worth it? You know who made me an omelet one time? Who's that? Albert Wesker.

Worth it. Rochelle, we got some new ranch lore. I know not new to some of your audience who checks out your Twitch stream over at twitch.tv slash yard underscore underscore sard. Not to the ranch stands. Not to the ranch stands. Not to the ranch stands. I was unaware that you and your friend Joanna have your own podcast. We do have a podcast.

It's called The D-Files. I listened to an episode, I really enjoyed it. I thought you two have such a great chemistry, but it's about a good, good, good, good ghosts. It's like a lot of paranormal stuff you dig into. Yeah, me and Joanna, we are friends from high school in Thailand. Wow! And actually she's also an audio engineer at Team Coco and just happened to also work

with Matt. Yeah, we worked in the same office back in my serious exam days. And let me tell you something, if you think ranch is interesting, Joe's very interesting. I say affectionately, Joe's the best. Yeah, but we had a paranormal encounter together in high school. Wow. And ever since then, we've just been very fascinated

by these things and ghosts, and Joanna has experienced a lot of things. Right. And I've experienced a few things myself. Wow. We say that we're like believers who don't wanna believe. Yeah. Right. And opposite molders.

Would you say that that experience you guys had together made you closer friends or were you guys already friends before that? We were already very close before that. We did have a third girl in our little trio and she thought we were full of shit. Wow. You cut her loose. I thought you were going to say she was a ghost. Yeah, she lived in this well and she was always wet.

Megan died 20 years ago. My god. You see Megan too? I didn't. Really underwhelming. Yeah, I like Superman. Do you like that Superman? Man, I loved Superman.

A lot of fun. Sort of a reverse Megan too. Can we tie, speaking of Joanna, the episode I listened to, I don't know if you wanna really get this here. She told a story about having what sounded like a legitimate addiction to eating quesadillas,

and then getting this fixed by going to a hypnotherapist. It had me yelping both quesadillas and then getting this fixed by going to a hypnotherapist. It had me yelping both quesadillas and hypnotherapists because it was so compelling. Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, yeah. I hear those things like do work. Like I feel like I've heard several people be like, yeah, I saw a hypnotherapist and I haven't like smoked cigarettes in like 30 years. Like yeah. Kat Kerlin It 100% worked for her.

She stopped eating quesadillas. 30 years. Right. Yeah. It 100% worked for her. That's wild. She stopped eating quesadillas. But didn't it, wait, hold on. Didn't it take two tries? It actually took one try, but she had a Groupon for two sessions. I see, I see, I see. But it did work immediately for her.

So wild. God. I will say, just from listening to the episode, people should check it out. People should check out the defiles, wherever you get podcasts. But I was like, quesadilla addiction. And then you hear her describing the details of this and is like, oh, it sounds like this was legitimately disrupting your life. Yeah.

Yeah. But also, like, I hear quesadilla addiction and I'm just thinking about how often I eat quesadillas. Right. It's like, I'm borderline. I call that my diet. Yeah. Gosh, if I could see a hypnotherapist and tell him that I can't have sugar anymore, I would just be a completely different guy.

I might do it. I might see what a hypnotherapist can do for old wags. Yeah. Yeah. Man, I think probably a lot. I scare them straight. They get out of the industry. What would you like help with today?

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Oh, hey, hey, everybody. How you doing? Oh, wow. It looks like it's Joel from The Last of Us. It's me, Joel Miller. And oh, wait, I'm sitting on something kind of crinkly. Ah, oh hey, it's one of them damn comic books Ellie likes. Oh yeah, Ellie, she does collect those comic books.

Yeah, she's always collecting these comic books. And I guess also the comic cards later on. The cards that correspond with the book. Yeah, you wouldn't, I mean, you wouldn't know about that. Oh wait, maybe, honestly, I've said too much, honestly. No, I know all about all kinds of ephemera. Mm, sure. Joel, I imagine that you've probably been dealing, or reeling, I should say, from the shakeups

that have happened over at the TV adaptation of, I guess, your life? I hate seeing my parents fight. Yeah, boy. It's brutal out there, but you know what? Hats off to both. I love both guys deeply. They're both great guys and I respect them in their work.

But you know what? Nothing's gonna ever take me away from my sweet Ellie and my, and finding comic books for her, you know? Yeah, I mean, speaking of which, I thought this was a napkin, but you might be interested in this. Hey, it's, yeah, it's one of them comic books I realize. But I do want to speak on something real quick, if you don't mind. Yeah, please, over here. want to speak on something real quick if you don't mind. Yeah, please.

The Resident Evil 4 merchant actually called me in. I'm temping for him today. Oh, that's great. Yeah, obviously the merchant isn't here. We had some Resident Evil talk by coincidence in advance of where the merchant would usually make their appearance. Not available today, but we're great to have you in his stand.

I'm always happy to be here. You know, I'm always just one phone call away from, from the RE4 merchant. We go way back. We're good. We're good, good friends. It's nice to know, like, I get you, even though you're not exactly the same generation that the two of you have formed a bond based on your iconography. You know, it was, I actually got started in this business before him,

but he sort of took off and he blew up in this really fantastic, significant way. And I was just waiting for my shot to get called up to the big leagues. And now here we are. Yeah, I guess if we account for that 20 year time jump, you would have gotten started before, right? Yeah.

If I'm tracking the chronology correctly, you've got the cold open of again, your life. And we did that boyhood style. That's right. Oh yeah, you shot that in real time. We shot that in real time. So, and that did happen. So, you know, my poor sweet Sarah.

Yeah, my condolences. Those Fedra agents. Yeah, boy, up to no good. Always up to no good. But anyway, I could talk all day about federal overreach. And how great it is and we love it. Um, wait, Joel, I don't want to hear about your politics. Actually, I don't want to hear this rural Texas man's politics in 2025.

What do you mean? I'm just a 60 year old man. I'm just some 60 year old white guy that has seen horrors upon horrors, loves guns. I just love guns. And any excuse to fire one off right through the skull of somebody that's standing in my way. Anyway, the merchant told me I had to ask a particular question.

What are you playing? Wow, well delivered. I keep wanting to sing the song from A Star is Born, but that's a different guy. Yeah, it's a different guy. It's a different guy. Kind of a similar guy though, if you think about it. Wait, hold on, what? I thought you were wearing like a bib,

that's not a bib at all. What is, huh, huh, interesting. It's one of them comic books that he likes. I will throw the question. I gotta go. Thank you, Joel. I will throw the question over to gotta go. Thank you, Joel. I will throw the question over to Matt. Matt, what are you playing?

I think I can answer that with two very simple words. Yes. Oh, banana. Oh, banana. I was texting this to you literally today. I don't know how we're not gonna just say oh banana for the rest of the episode Because the first couple of times I heard it I was like that's gonna get that's gonna maybe become grading at a certain point

And then it happens 50 more times and you're sort of like actually this is the only thing I got going for me It's so gratifying. I love this game. And so okay, so I already talked about getting the game. Yeah, about it with my boys Patrick Connor and Jeremy had a nice time Took it to Palm Springs. I'm playing it and immediately. I'm sort of just like oh, no This is Maybe I don't know the greatest game. I've ever played. It's so fun. It's so great, and it's like You know the the Odyssey It's so great and it's like, you know the the Odyssey

The Mario Odyssey bones are there and like you sort of do feel that influence a lot because it's the same team But the thing I didn't talk about last week when I was giving my impressions but yeah, it is it is the the Odyssey team with a little bit of change of personnel, so it's like the The probably the closest will get to an Odyssey sequel, because I would imagine they'll go in a completely different direction. Who could say at this point, gosh, when are we gonna get a 3D Mario? Anyway, I would love it for the Switch too.

It'll happen. I'm playing this thing, I'm loving it. Because also, so I just think this is interesting. In this game, well in Tears of the Kingdom, in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, the big new mechanic was you can build stuff Yeah, and like go ahead and just build a bunch of crazy stuff in this game It's like what if you could just break everything and I think that's just very interesting It's two sides of the different the same point, but it's also the like I do think that this is I think we're seeing

Like roblox and Minecraft's influence now get into these types of games. Or sure, yeah. Because I feel like, obviously you have stuff like the Hulk game that we've talked about, what's it called? I think it was Ultimate Destruction. Ultimate Destruction, man, Ultimate Destruction.

Him with a picture of a naked lady. Look over there. She's like sneaking around doing stuff. But I think it's so fun and like, I also just love Donkey Kong. I think Donkey Kong is just like one of the great characters of our time. And I'm loving the redesign. I think it's great. I thought I was gonna be annoyed by Pauline singing.

And I'm just not- Oh no, it's great. Ooh, wah, I love it. It's better than that, certainly. But I love it. And I love that it's just like, you could do it. You could do this game just straight down the path it wants you to follow.

Yes. Or you could just spend a lot of time. Like what I'm doing is just like, I'm just going to try to see how much of the stuff I can break. And just break stuff. And then that often will help you find like bananas and stuff. But I'm also really liking like the little challenge levels that you find as well.

100%. They're so amazing. They're so well-crafted and so well-done. And the ones that are like in the 2d or you know I guess the the side scrolling style are a lot of fun also And I just think it's like, you know, obviously it didn't launch Launch with the switch to but this is like I don't know It's just like this was like this is a great reason to get a switch to if you don't have one

I think it's and I may talk about this again when we get to our main topic, but So much was made about the PlayStation 2 launch and as the switch to launched we even on this podcast Yeah, compared to the PlayStation 2 launch and it's a dearth of quality titles this alone Makes it better than the PlayStation 2. Oh, yeah Because there was no game on this level that was available within the first like than the PlayStation 2, because there was no game on this level that was available within the first year plus of the PlayStation 2's existence. And this game is kind of also in some ways reminding me

of even Astro Bot, like where I feel like when we were playing Astro Bot, we were like, this game is sort of reminding me of like good Mario. Yes. And now I was sort of like, does Nintendo even got it like that still? And of course they got it like that still, it's Nintendo. This is like the main thing that they're good at,

this type of game. And I just think, I can't wait to see, how many levels deep are you at this point? I'm a decent way in, but it made less progress the last time that it would have liked. But like, I've gotten through some different biomes. I've descended to a certain depth. I like that they keep talking about this president

that I don't know anything about yet. I think that's just kind of funny. I'm curious what kind of closure we're going to get on all the lore. Stuff kind of gets trickled out. But yes, I feel like we're going to learn what that is at some point. And I do think it's interesting that Donkey Kong has been

redesigned, Paul has been redesigned. Pauline obviously redesigned to be a little kid. And completely retconned in terms of her relationship with Donkey Kong, unless we're going to get some explanation at some point. Maybe the president explains everything that's been happening. My biggest hope is that it is a human man. And we get a Kojima length cut scene explaining all the protocols that led to Pauline being cloned and her descendant being befriending Donkey Kong in order to get to Donkey Kong's

descendant so that that new Donkey Kong and her can forge a bond. So I do want to bring out Cranky Kong. Yeah. Because he has a presence in the game do want to bring out Cranky Kong. Yeah. Because he has a presence in the game. You can meet him. Not redesigned. He looks like exactly the same as I remember. I mean, yeah.

I mean, like, I not, it's less overt than what's been done to say DK, the titular DK. It's just like, there's stuff you can look at that's really tangible and is like, oh, I can see how they've evolved and updated this character design. Cranky Kong looks more like the Cranky Kong you remember, sure. But I'm sure there are tweaks to it.

I'm sure if you side by side the character models, you'd see some differences. Aaron Ross Powell You have to get into the real... You have to hack the game. You're like, wait, they gave him a huge hop. No wonder he's hunched over like this. Can't stand up straight. And put the hot coffee mod into Donkey Kong Bonanza to see that fucking rig. Man, we should do an episode about mods.

Yeah, I've thought about that. I've thought about how to do it. I've definitely had some segments in mind with mods, but yeah, an all mods episode would be interesting. It's such a sprawling topic. I know there's some people like, the only thing I play is like modded Minecraft or modded Stardew Valley. Just like Some of these games have such extensive modding communities that you can just

play these things endlessly. I mean, certainly big naturals. Right. I mean, an iconic mod. But also the I feel like also randomizers could be an episode in of itself because that's a big part of the modding community. And you like was the Pokemon mod you were playing was that a randomizer? Or was that more just like a that was like a ROM hack so that was like it's own thing it's like a fan made game yes in the engine of Like fire red or so right Gosh, I should get back to that actually that's the thing. We'll just never finish all the games We want but I won't even finish all the games. I want to from this calendar year No, it's already I've given up. I'm just like it's fucking joys

I'm just gonna do it. It sucks. I'm so every year I started like hey have a clean slate Like maybe I can't go through my whole backlog, but the new games that are coming out You know I can knock these out I can focus on the ones that I want to pay attention to and dedicate my gaming hours to and you just you know There's enough fucking time in a year. I am prioritizing this. Because I don't think it's going to take me like, 100 hours to finish this thing. Although I do, I will say I checked out the How Long to Beat on a DK Bonanza and it is a little bit meatier than I

anticipate. Yeah, let me bring it up right now. Is it? Do you think it's sub 30? This one has okay, so with a few more reviews, there are a few more reports logged since the last time I checked it. This has main plus side quests at 24 hours. So to me, like with my play time and I feel like the people who self-report,

self-select for how long to beat are usually a little faster at games than me. I think that probably puts me at about 30 hours of DK But that's that's still a good chunk of time Yeah, and I'm about gosh at this point in my Death Stranding to playthrough somewhere north of 60 hours, I think right not halfway done with yet

But those are the two games that I'm prioritizing, but yeah, I think I mean I would like to I But those are two games that I'm prioritizing, but yeah, I think I mean I would like to I Think maybe when we're done with bonanza at some point Do like an episode about it because like I think there's just more to say about it And there will be more to say about it as we play more of it. Yes I just think it's like it's it's an astounding achievement. I think I've been reading about voxels Astounding achievement, I think I've been reading about voxels I've been reading about just like all the little I haven't even touched the art maker

Thing yet and that seems cool that people are just like making stuff with the which seems dangerous People might be making crude stuff with the with the little clay that they can make stuff with in the game I mean, I'm sure yeah that everyone's first thought but since stuff yeah sure Nasty, I shouldn't be I think I think we there all there's all this talk about oh Nintendo Oh Nintendo bricked my console because I hacked it no I think if you make something rude in the Donkey Kong bonanza Art-maker you should get your console bricked and they should be allowed to do it. Don't do that Not to our boy Donkey Kong bricks for dicks We'll be right back All right, we're back. I Like I've also been playing Bonanza I am going to sit on my thoughts because Matt I had the same I had like ideas you is that I think we should probably

Or I think not probably I bet we'd be obviously have to loop in Heather But I know Heather's playing it too, but I feel like we could do an episode about Donkey Kong Bonanza and talk about all of our play experience in length, at length rather, when we were all further into the game, but yeah, it's rad and for what I expected to be like a, I don't know, maybe Nintendo's equivalent of a double A game, you know what I mean? It's like, hey, know maybe Nintendo's equivalent of a double-a game

You know what I mean? It's like it's like hey, this is a this is a game It's not their main thing, but it's like this is like a hey It's like a new mainline Kirby game. I really like the last Kirby game for the switch But you know what I mean, I thought it was more gonna be on that level Well, that's actually an interesting point because because of how much I love that Kirby game I should have known this was gonna be a fucking banger Like I was like excited for this game. I was already known this was gonna be a fucking banger. Because I was like excited for this game. I was already like, this is gonna be great.

I'm just excited for new Donkey Kong. Like honestly, I was probably, I was expecting like maybe like an eight out of 10 or something. And like, this is great. Yes, I was expecting, like for me, I thought the ceiling on this might be like an eight, eight and a half out of 10. And it's like, oh, which is like, hey, that's great.

I would love to have a cool new Nintendo first party game that I can have some fun with. But then I'm just like, oh wait, no, this is like, hey, that's great. I would love to have a cool new Nintendo first party game that I can have some fun with. But then I'm just like, oh wait, no, this is like, this is a triumph? This is like maybe a masterpiece? It's so good. Yeah, it's great. I'll save my thoughts on that.

I wanted to have something else to talk about because I've also been playing Bellatro and no one wants to hear me drone on about Bellatro again, but I will, I have been- Incorrect, I'm curious. I have been doing daily, but my Bellatro diet is I just do one run a day. And I find like that's like a fair amount of time.

And it's like, but it keeps me from like getting sucked in too deep. And- Weaning yourself down to one pack a day. One run a day on days when I play video games, which is not every day. So, you know, but I mean like that's a decent chunk of time. I'm getting through runs faster

because I just know how to make decisions a little bit more quickly. And it also like feels like slow progress towards my ultimate goal for whatever dumb fucking reason. On Game Pass, I'm now working towards the achievement where you get gold stakes on every deck. So it's just, you just gotta knock out a bunch of a bunch of wins. But another game I've been playing that I'm really, really enjoying and will highly recommend to anyone who is a fan of this genre. The Drifter was released on July 17 of this year. This is a

graphic adventure game with pixel art developed and published by Australia based small team power hoof and directed by Dave Lloyd It is this grim dark You know horror feel to it It reminds me of the to go back to the 90s the Gabriel Knight games I'm particularly the first Gabriel Knights game which all Gabriel Knight game Which also had this a pixel art look as opposed to the second game, which was FMV and the third game, which was 3D. But unlike the Gabriel Knight games, it has puzzles that are straight ahead and make sense, do not require moon logic.

And I find the story really engaging, like it's an incredibly high quality of writing and really expert voice acting, which I was not expecting. Sometimes with indie games, it's like maybe that's a thing that's perhaps a little bit more rough around the edges, but no, both those things are absolutely, completely on point.

And the story in particular is, starts off, you're in a train, you know I'm on board. Two two. You're on the two two. But it's a, you know, you're a a train, you know I'm on board. Two two. You're on the two two. But it's a, you know, you're a titular drifter. You are a, an a house guy who is riding the rails to try to for, you know, bum a ride to go to your mom's funeral. And through a series of events,

basically some mysterious interlopers end up attacking your train car with guns. You bail out and then you're on your way to an adventure that quickly spirals from there. But one thing I really like about it is it's really digging in on homelessness, which is a thing you don't really see in games. Or honestly, even in media all that much.

It's like, I really liked the movie, Eddington. I think that movie, I thought it was great, but there's an unhoused character in that movie who's kind of like typical of what you'll see that depiction being in art, which is like, he's just like kind of like a babbling guy who's got some sort of mental illness. Here it's like, hey, this guy is, you know,

a guy who works, but a guy who doesn't have a place to live and a guy who's, you know, like, he doesn't like being condescended to, there's a reporter character who's kind of like doing a profile on homelessness, who's like, he doing a profile on on homelessness who's like he has some A very early game sort of confrontation with but it's like it's like oh this is he's depicted as a whole person Yeah, and and I and just also for that to be a player character

it's the kind of thing of like this is the kind of thing that in interactive and entertainment can channel feelings in you that you can't get from something that you're just passively observing. And so I like, that's part of it. But also it's like, I think it's basically, it's immersed in that world and showing like, kind of like what a, how much society is stacked up against people who are experiencing this,

but just amplifying like the violence that is happening. And so there's some really horrific violence that happened in this game that seems to be perhaps science fiction, perhaps supernatural, perhaps these things are being interpreted as science fiction or supernatural because of, you know, just the way they're being, because there's also possibly a real world thing that's happening. But there is an element of – that is clearly supernatural, which is that your character experiences death and then can relive those moments.

And so there's kind of like a minor time loop element to this. One of the scenes that happened very early on that involves your character drowning just like made me gasp with how horrifically it was depicted and then this widening out reveal of what was actually happening that I was just like, holy shit, this is a nightmare world. Great aesthetics, I mentioned the pixel art,

a great like fantastic lighting in this game, really good soundtrack. It's super Australian, which I like. Just as an American who has like, has had a lifelong fascination with Australia, just to hear all the strong Aussie accents and Australian specifics, to hear the hood of a car called a bonnet,

things like that. It's all a lot of fun. And then the other thing this game has, and this ties in with how horrific it is, there is genuine tension to the experience of, which is really hard to do in a point-and-click adventure game. It's not a sort of genre that lends itself well

to feeling like you're legitimately in peril, but this game accomplishes it, It's not a sort of genre that lends itself well to feeling like you're legitimately in peril, but this game accomplishes it through its tone and through its audio-video cues. I really like the Drifter. It is, as of now, on Steam, on sale through July 31st. It's kind of like a release Windows thing so like if you are again someone who likes graphic adventures I definitely think it's something to check out also I will say a lot of the adventure games I've responded to in

recent years and I'll lump blueprints in this because even though I have mixed feelings about blueprints but it is the sort of thing of like it fits the template of what I'm going to say which is that they're games that kind of deviate from the classic graphic adventure formula of a character who's on screen as your avatar moving around from a location. And then you've got a bunch of series of verbs or, or, you know, you can mouse over things and interact with them in different ways. They've been games like case of the gold and idol where it's like, well, this is like a different way of presenting essentially this core gameplay, but it's, it's, it's, you know, not the way that you're, you would do it.

You would play it in like a, you know, a King's quest or a secret of monkey Island or, you know, return to the over din, a similar sort of thing. You know what I mean? Like, like, like, these are games that kind of like have found new ways to present these, these game play concepts built around emergent storytelling and lateral thinking puzzles. This one feels more like, again, like a classic Sierra or LucasArts adventure game. So that's a big part.

But feels contemporary in the way it's presented. There's a great archive of various clues that you can look through. And as far as like the sort of hunt the pixel aspects of this genre, it's kind of muted. Your cursor automatically changes to whatever actions you can take. And again, all the puzzle solutions are relatively intuitive. So it's really working for me on those levels.

Again, it's just kind of feeling like a modern, but also throwback game at the same time. But that's The Drifter, and that's what I've been playing. I'm going to have to check that out. It sounds awesome. Yeah, it sounds awesome. Yeah, it sounds like an interesting experience. It's very much a wider game. I think you would like it

just because I think the storytelling is so strong and the atmosphere is top notch, but you have to like, because it's all puzzles. And so it's all puzzles and dialogue, so just keep that in mind. Let's talk about board games, in quotes. Do what we did there. We tricked you.

Got ya. We tricked you, didn't we? We thought we were talking about some Yahtzee or trouble. Quote unquote board games. You suckers They thought we're gonna talk about fucking some settlers of Catan or some shit. Guess what bitch that ain't it We're talking about games where you're on a board and let's start with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 which was released on July 11th of this year

Matt you were absent when recording in its release window, but you've been playing this game originally developed by Neversoft and the remaster developed by Iron Galaxy. Yeah, I've been playing this a lot. I've been playing it on my Switch 2. Wow. And which it runs great. It runs 60 frames. It's great.

It's a great outing on the switch to I had the ridge I had one plus two on switch one and it didn't run as great, but it ran fine enough for a portable You know version of it But this is a great game honestly. I think Tony Hawk's pros Tony Hawk's Pro skater one I think is my canonical favorite of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 I think is my canonical favorite of Like when I've mentioned it in the I guess of the Pro Skater 1 I have a great affection for some of the games later on in the series Tony Hawk's Underground 1 & 2 in particular I really love and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, but

3 is Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is probably one of my most played PlayStation 2 games ever just because I would just play that game like two player with my brothers right all day We just go nuts, and we unlocked all these cheats for it and stuff. We're like So what I remember one of the cheats was like like no gravity or something So like when you'd go up a ramp you would just go so high up in the air and then like we would take that Opportunity to be like just just like string together like the biggest combo we could before we landed and that was always so much fun to us And so like our like that was really great

But I think the remake package here is is extremely well done I think it's it plays great like it plays because that was the worry the one-plus- 2 package was made by a different... Vicarious Visions made the first one, the first remake. And that was, but Vicarious Visions was subsequently acquired by Blizzard. It is now Blizzard Albany, so they work in Blizzard projects now. Although it's also like an Activision Blizzard. It's like, I just, but whatever.

They're willing to get in their corporate structure. Regardless, it got handed off to Iron Galaxy. Iron Galaxy had previously made Rumble first. They also worked on the Metroid Prime remaster and the PC ports of the Last of Us games. So, you know, this is the kind of thing that they have a lot of experience with. And it sounds like they did a great job on this.

They did a great job. There was concern, because like the thing, there's a particular feeling you want when when you're playing these games and like there are games that they've put out Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD which is like a remake of or you know a remaster of one two and three that was like a place it was like a digital only yeah game on like the PlayStation 3 in that era rather and And they're games that don't play well. They don't have the feeling, the correct,

it just doesn't feel right when you're playing it. Yeah, it's such a tough balance because you kind of just want a modern skin atop of the original bones, but that's not as easy as it sounds, especially if we're talking about, when you start dealing with that, with animation frames, you need that level of precision for the moves to feel the same as they, as you remember.

Yes. And, but it feels, it, they nailed it. Like there was a, I was saying, like concern of a new studio taking on that task, because it's just like a pain in the ass. But they, they nailed it. It's a lot of fun. The biggest change to the package is that in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4,

it was more of an open, the levels were more of an open world sort of like design. It'd be like each place was its own place, but you could tackle any of the goals just sort of like whenever Whereas like it used to be like a two-minute timer or whatever or whatever and that's present Now but they've they've changed the way that the goals work in this where there's not like NPCs or like skaters you go up to to To get the goals they're just sort of like in the world now. Was that present in four?

Because I got it. Three and four is where my, like I stopped playing Tony Hawk games. I messed around a little bit with Tony Hawk's Underground, but my memory is that Tony Hawk's Underground is when the NBC's started to become the quest givers, but that happened in four. That's like their first dance with it. It became like, I think more refined in the later ones But like they had just like it was like pretty basic It was just like people kind of like scattered around kind of just like standing very still right and then you go

You know you Rodney Mullins like standing somewhere and be like do a kickflip down this rail and Alcatraz or whatever Like that's a bad that sounds like I've never played the game before do a kickflip down a rail Like that's a bad that sounds like I've never played the game before do a kickflip down a rail What's wrong with me I Mean you wouldn't have landed that trick is the thing no would have fucking fallen on my ass But gosh and oh my algorithm right now is skate is a lot of skateboarding stuff. Yeah, I Thinking about getting the board and trying and learning some tricks. Have you skated in the past in the past? I have like not with any ever any like I never have done any like tricks Yeah, I was just able to like kind of stay on a skateboard and like ride it around

But I've never done a kickflip wouldn't it be cool if I could do a kickflip? I Mean it would be cool But I'm gonna be lowered in the ground without ever having done a kickflip wouldn't it be cool if I could do a kickflip? I mean it would be cool But I'm gonna be lowered in the ground without ever having done a kickflip Be cool if I could do a tomahawk slam dunk too, I don't know if it's gonna fucking happen But see like you might be okay with that I don't know that I am like I kind of want to die having done a kickflip before even if it's the thing that causes My very death yeah, I want to have done it you could you absolutely could I bet if you put your mind to it,

you could learn how to do a K-pop in like a year. Yeah, I think, honestly, I do think if I give myself a year, I could do it. I just am now worried that, I know I don't seem old, but let's face it, I'm not as young as I once was. No, it's true. Father time comes for us all,

and there's a certain point where it's just like, oh, jumping is just so much harder on my knees and back than it used to be. I just like, I can't do that anymore, you know? Yeah, I like. Even running, which I used to do a lot, I still run some, but it's just like, man, it's such a pounding on the old joints.

I had batting practice last night on my baseball team, which is also a thing that could fucking wreck me for the rest of my life. Right. And like, the way I'm, my swing is bad and I'm learning to fix my swing. And the reason I know my swing is bad is that when I'm doing it, it hurts. And it shouldn't.

So I'm swinging the wrong thing. I'm swinging with my upper body and you're actually not supposed to do that. It's from the lower body. And I'm trying to reorient the way that I'm doing it. And it's actually very hard. Cause if you're used to doing something wrong for a long time, you'll continue to reorient the way that I'm doing it. And it's actually very hard. Because if you're used to doing something wrong for a long time, you'll continue to do it that way

until you just, I guess, magically start doing it correctly. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to change it. This happens all the time in the NBA. A player will have what is called like a broken jump shot. They'll have to learn, like completely relearn the mechanics and it's tough because they've been athletic enough and skilled enough to get to the NBA. They've been that good at everything else, but actually their shooting is such a bottleneck for them to be able to send to the next level that they've got to just completely remake

their form at a relatively late stage in their career. It's got to be so, I mean, it's so tough mechanically to do something different than you've been doing your whole life. It would be like trying to, at this point in my life, learn to write left-handed. Yes, right. Because it's something that you technically could do, I guess.

Yeah. But it's just not intuitive at all. Matt, you should just come skate with me and work. Oh, I would, Ranch, I would love it. Wow. I would love, that's honestly, please, let's set it up, because I need people who are gonna be nice to me and help me.

Rochelle, can you do a kick flip? No. How long have you skated? I started when I met Mark. Oh, wow. So I was also 29 when I started. An adult skateboarding learner. I did get hurt a lot.

And I saw Mark's arm come out of his socket. Oh my God. But the... Yeah, I think I'm going to go with somebody else. But it can be done. It can be done. It can be done. Because I mean, the thing is, like, my algorithm is like old guys like us doing it.

I'm sort of like, I think it could do it. Like, it seems like a thing that you could just learn to do. But all that aside, I will say, I haven't really gotten into the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater IV in this package, I'm still kinda messing around in three. And three is really, really fun. I remember really liking three. It's great, I wish that some of the secret characters

from those days were in it, like Darth Maul and stuff, but that's a licensing nightmare, I'm sure. And the other licensing issue I saw is that a whole bunch of the original music tracks are missing in this game, which is a little bit of a bummer. Yes, they could not secure the rights to, I think, the most expensive song to license, which is ACDC's Thunderstruck. Right. They couldn't make it happen this time.

A miracle they had it the first time But I they added some new songs to the to the soundtracks was great one of my favorite artists Jeff Rosenstock Has a song from his album hell mode called Head in the game, and it's great. I love that song and I Think overall as a package. It's's great and it might even exceed how I feel about the one plus two remake because I think that's a home run and I I'm having a blast with this one and I'm just looking forward to more to just

playing it a little bit more and playing and getting into the force of the four of it all because four I didn't spend that much time with honestly I like skipped over for because You mean when you were younger? Yeah when I was younger I had skipped over it because I was just kind of like oh Like I made me honestly, maybe I just couldn't you know buy it. I was a sure kid Yeah, and like my parents probably were not gonna buy me another one if they had just gotten me one two The fourth entry is also probably where you're starting people are sure to get burned out on the car Yeah to some degree, but then like you do Tony Hawk's underground

That seems like so completely different in you that then I'm like okay. I'm back in on this and then Underground 2 comes out and you're like okay now this has Jackass stuff, and that's my favorite shit on earth And so in that stuff I'm sure has Aged in an interesting way We didn't watch jackass 2 over the weekend in Palm Springs And you know my friends are just laughing our fucking ass. I was so good

But there's a I mean there's so many different types of boards in games Nick But there's a lot, I mean, there's so many different types of boards in games, Nick. Matt, it's true. Do you know there was a Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer game that I played? Yeah. As a teenager as well. I remember Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, which I never got into. And I remember that was meant to be the counterpart of kind of like, hey, we got Tony Hawk's Pro Skater movie to Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer will be the next big thing.

I didn't really take off,ly because just from a gameplay standpoint, surfing is a little bit harder to, you know, to make it to give us as many diverse sort of gameplay, sort of experiences to have as many mechanics as you can skateboarding because it's just a little bit more extensible. But yeah, sharks out there, they began to look out for the sharks. How do you want to do Plus there's a bunch of sharks out there. Then we gotta look out for the sharks. How do you wanna do this? Do you wanna just sort of bounce back and forth?

Should we kinda talk through things chronologically? Because I got some entries too I wanna talk about. Let's get some of the, I guess, let's bounce back and forth. Going back in time, a game I remember. Yeah, feel free to make the Wayne's World doodly-doos if it helps you.

Unless we can't use it, unless we can't secure the rights Spotify takes down the episode The season's assist from Mike Myers and Dana Carvey the Game I remember as a kid was an arcade game developed by Atari called 720 and it had a little degree symbol, but I always remember just being called 720 I remember it as being a game you play with a trackball, but I always remember just being called 720. I remember it as being a game you play with a trackball, but I guess it was a stick. Maybe there was a different game you play arcade

cabinet, skateboarding arcade cabinet you play with a trackball, but whatever it was, I couldn't track it down and it was not 720. But 720 was a cool sort of like very early on attempt at making sort of like very early on attempt at making again an 80s sort of version of Skateboarding which was much less aerial Recreated in video game form. I've got a little footage here Matt Which I can show you yeah, just so you can kind of see the sort of the what this looked like in the era But yeah, this is kind of like an open skate sort of vibe There's a bunch of different like types There's like a half pipe, which

you can see there. And actually think that I mean that that's like art and animation is pretty damn good for 1986. Yeah. And then, Wow, you won $50 in that. Yeah. And then you've had these ones, which are more of like a free skate, sort of a freestyle park that you can kind of go through. I don't know if they still do this in any competitive skating, if they still do like slaloms or downhill or whatever, but it feels like kind of archaic to have this represented, but there were versions of this as well

in some of the game's various modes. But I remember it being very cool to play and also it just feeling, at a time when skateboarding was such a new concept, and I'm very little. I'm like single digits age. I'm like a little boy. Just remembering this being like a cabinet

that you could go up and look at. Holding a big lollipop. Yeah, exactly. Retained as my signature to this day. Yeah. Yeah. Let me see if we can take down a big lollipop in this day and age.

I'd get sick. It'd be bad I get really sick to my stomach. I barely want like a normal size lollipop. Yes being honest I got throw away a stick look at this cabinet. Isn't that rad? That is really like colored with the kind of the checkerboard to yeah, the colors are really nice Yeah, and honestly like like just to even just go back to the the art of that, that does look legitimately really cool still. If that came out as a throwback indie game, you'd be like, this is amazing. I'll roll from this right back into another game

of that era that I remember more vividly, because I actually had this game on my dad's Commodore 64 and played a much better version on my friend's Atari Lynx a few years later. 1987 game from Apex called California Games. You know, you and I are lifelong SoCal surfer dudes. That's right. California is a big part of our identity.

This is like a mini game collection that had a skateboarding game on a half pipe, also had a surfing game. So it had both, but also had a bunch of like other games like Haki Sack and Frisbee. I remember really liking the the hacky sack game That is like seem good what a fucking dumb thing to simulate But it was just there was just something about being able to you know kick a little bag in the air a bunch So we know yeah keeping like something in the air. Yeah, it's just it's a timeless game But again, this was this was the one this was a relatively you know like this was a cruder representation of skateboarding And it was just part of the collection. But yeah, there was the half pipe going up and back and doing tricks.

And I don't know if I, you know what, I've never, like I did skateboard briefly as a child. I never got to go on a half pipe. You ever been on a half pipe? No, that's very scary to me. Ranch, you ever been on a half pipe? Yeah, I can drop in. You can drop in? Yeah. Wow. What was it? What's it like? in. What? You can drop in? Yeah.

Wow, what's it like? It's scary. It seems scary, but cool. It's always scary. Yeah, but as a kid, I always thought it would be like the coolest fucking thing to get a bunch of momentum and then go up the other side and like flip around and come back down.

Would you say- I haven't been on like a big one. Yeah, sure. Like a small one. How long did it take you to learn to drop in? Probably a month. A month, okay. And so from that month onward,

would you say your success rate for dropping in and not like eating shit is gone? Like, can you successfully drop in every time and be like, okay, I'm like on? Or like, are you doing it sometimes and you're like falling on accident? I would say once you know how to drop in, it's usually close to 100% success. That's huge. Okay, great

Okay. Yeah, okay once you drop in you won't drop out Nick do you want to come skateboarding with me or answer Mark? Hi fellow skaters, I'm Weiger. Your head falls clean off your head falls clean off. I got a couple. Yeah. Cause we're talking a lot of skateboards and I actually mentioned the surfboard earlier. There's a lot of snowboarding games too.

There are a lot of snowboarding games and I do have some on my list, but it's interesting. I feel like again, going back to what I was saying earlier, there's something about skateboarding that I think that just, it's a little bit easier to make free roaming. Snowboarding, it's gotta be downhill surfing.

You gotta, you're kind of set on a wave. There's not a lot, the ton you can do. Where skateboarding just has a little bit more, more possibilities in terms of gameplay. Well, to speak on skateboarding then real quick, cause like there's like, there are competitors to the Tony Hawk franchise, right? So you have, the main competitor being the skate franchise,

which is coming back. Yeah. I've never played the skate games, and I've never played Session, which is, I guess, the super hardcore sim skateboard game. Yes. Session is supposed to be like, I mean, I was going to say like the most accurate,

but it's also you're doing it with a video controller. It's like it's the most I guess meticulous with how you like can control the Like the players feet in the board and stuff right and so and so that seems interesting me I have not messed with that I have messed with skate. I've messed with skate actually very recently Wow like downloaded skate 3 off of game pass and was playing it on my Xbox for a little while. And there's a fun tutorial with Jason Lee

playing a fun character. He's a great skateboarder also, which is always just kind of funny to learn. That he started as a skateboarder and then became an actor? Yeah. And then there's other people. Tim Robinson's a great skateboarder,

which is like just funny information. And, but it's so, so, so skate is like less arcade-y, but also has ridiculous stuff in it too. Like I feel like a lot, I see a lot of videos of people launching their character like into like ravines and like doing like as many flips as they can just like Falling and it's just like that's all I see of it It's so funny, but you can do like crazy stuff in that too

But it's that one I think sort of prides itself on being a little bit more realistic than the arcade II Tony Hawk games, but I like I like it to be a little more silly and fun Yeah for sure like there's like moves moves in the Tony Hawk games where like, in the newest one, you can unlock the Doom guy, right? You can unlock the Doom Slayer, and he has his own movesets. He has a chainsaw thing that he does, and a grappling hook thing that he pulls

somebody's intestines in or whatever. And that's just good, that's just good fun. And obviously it's not real at all. I hope that's not real. I don't think it's real. I don't think they get away with making that real I don't hope I hope not yeah someone tell us if it is real if it's real I mean Michael Angelo's in the game, but that makes sense because he's a party dude right So those ones are more realistic there is a game that I've messed around with a little bit Have you are you familiar with the Olly Olly franchise at all? I've just heard of it.

I've never played any of them. It kind of reminds me a little bit of what you were showing me in 720, where it's kind of like a side scrolling, at least my experience, my memory of it is this, that it's like you're on a skateboard and it's like a sort of digital, not digital, it's all digital, but a pixelated character that you're sort of going through and doing like little flips and tricks and stuff like that. Did you ever mess around with the Simpsons skateboarding?

Since we're the two Simpsons guys? Let me tell you something. It sucks. It's not good, it's very bad. There are some great Simpsons games of course, but none of them involve them doing something else Yeah, it's always like, uh, you know, like the Simpsons beat-em-up arcade game Of course, the Simpsons hit-and-run and Simpsons road rage are all great

But Simpsons wrestling Simpsons doing anything else usually not good, right? But I mean like like most licensed games, but yes, there's a lot of bad Simpsons games out there There is a pretty good one. There is a good licensed skateboarding game. I don't know if it's like, I remember renting it when I was a little kid and enjoying it because it had songs that I was used to listening to and stuff, and this is Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure.

And it's basically a Tony Hawk's Pro, it's exactly like the same mechanics as Tony Hawk's Pro skaters. Yes. But in like a Disney environment, you can be like Woody. That sounds fun. You can like be Woody like skating like in Andy's room. Yeah.

That's just good shit. That's a lot. You can be Tarzan, young Tarzan. I love that. He's practically skateboarding. He's practically skateboarding, isn't he? And one of my favorite, I have an arcade cabinet to mention, Top Skater. Yes, Top Skater, this was a 1997 Sega arcade game built on Model 2 hardware and you sit

on a skateboard to control it, directed by Kenji Kano who would later make Crazy Taxi. And also this little factoid from its Wikipedia page, while developing the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, the Neversoft development team spent lunch breaks at a bowling alley near the studio where they would play and study from Top Skater in the arcade. It's a really fun game. Yeah.

I really, I liked, I sunk a lot of quarters into that. I think they had one at the Chuck E. Cheese's I went to for a long time. Yeah, this is a guy doing, getting with an S rank run on this that we're watching in studio. Wow. Just like it's for to describe it for people who have not seen this cabinet or to jog your memory if you have there was basically a skates a mounted skateboard with a little bit of

give that you would stand on and that you could manipulate to do like aerial maneuvers, but of course you're not actually doing them. And then you could also lean to, you know, affect your direction. But then of course there's these, the dance dance revolution, you know, guide bars that you can hold onto for dear life so you don't lose your balance as you go. But it was a very, like just a very cool experience. And one of those things, it's just like, oh, this is why we go to arcades.

This is something I can't do at home. Yeah, something now that I can't imagine ever touching with my bare hands ever again. But I had great enjoyment with that game. That one is, yeah, very, a lot of fun memories on that thing for sure. And also, I remember being a kid and not having any quarters and kind of standing on it and pretending

I'm doing it anyway, you know? Well, that's the thing, it's like, that was like, or like a, you know, you'd have a game like Afterburner with a big joystick or any of those ones that you could sit in, any of the driving sims you could sit in, where it's just like, oh, I can just be in this thing. And I could just, I don't even have's just like, oh, I can just be in this thing. And I could just like, I don't even have to put any tokens in.

I can just like mess around with it. It's like a big toy. Yeah, that was a, Top Skater was cool. And it's interesting they haven't really, I don't know if anyone's ever really made anything on that same level. I mean, certainly that the Tony Hawk game that had a- Tony Hawk's ride?

Tony Hawk's ride, didn't really accomplish that at home But it feels like that's like a natural sort of thing that should just be at Dave and Buster's the equivalent of like a modern top I remember it was like at like an e3 or something like that where he was like debuting the board Yes, and there's a I Kind of feel like in the clip. He's like such a wholesome guy and like I love him I I love yeah, and I'm such a fan of his you can almost tell a little bit that he's kind of like yeah Because he's presenting it almost like Steve Jobs presenting an iPhone Yeah, and he's like yeah, you can like right you can like write this at home Like it kind of feels like he's kind of like I don't really know about this

Okay, we can't mention Tony Hawk without me once again telling the story of me getting to meet him when he guested on the Comedy Bang Bang TV show, and there was a bit where he had a stunt double for his talk show-related stunts. Yeah. And that was played by me because I was the closest to his physical proportions,

and so I got to wear duplicates of Tony Hawk's clothes. To be a stunt guy. He was a lovely man, he was an absolute prince. This is all I hear about him, and all I can say is, please come on our show. That's so fun. Did you like the clothes?

I mean, it felt cool. It looked like Tony Ahn. There's always like, in a situation like that in particular too, where you're sort of like, being dressed by like a costumer or something, right? You're like, these are not clothes that I'm going to wear normally. So you kind of get to be like a different guy for a second.

That's always so fun. A lot of fun. Going back in time a little bit, this is not a game that I... Do do do was multi-platform in the 80s. And this is again like sort of a mini game collection with a bunch of different skate events. But the one thing I remember is that there was a guy in this game who was like kind of their mascot,

a man with a purple mohawk, whose name I guess was Rodney Recluse, who'd say quips between rounds. You remember this guy? I've never seen him before before but I'll die for him He's old as shit He's got a tattoo. He's got a purple mohawk, and I guess his face is modeled off of Rodney Dangerfield Which is why he looks like this. I tell you my skateboards get no respect everyone gets mad at me. I push Mongo

He says quit your yakking and go practice here I just had we just have a bunch of shit that he would say But the one that I spent a lot more time with and actually owned was a game called TNC surf designs Wood and water rage now Matt as a so okay, you're maybe too young for this But you may remember the TNC surf company Like you're familiar to me. They had a cast of characters called the boys I mean That sounds familiar to me. They had a cast of characters called Da Boys. I'm in.

Who are this array of various archetypes. There's a cool guy called Joe Cool. There's a tiki guy called Tiki Man. There's a cat called Cool Cat. And then my favorite, the cool gorilla, Thrilla Gorilla. That's really good. Yeah, the cool gorilla, Thrilla Gorilla. That's really good. Yeah, the original surfing gorilla. And I guess they were actually a surfboard brand originally,

but I just knew the t-shirts, and I just loved the t-shirts when I was a little boy in elementary school. I thought they were so cool. And they made a game of that that had a skateboarding game where you could control either Joe Cool or Tiki Man and a surfing game where you could pick either cool cat or Thrilla gorilla. Now though again I love Thrilla gorilla the surfing game just had a lot less to it than the skateboarding game so I spent a lot more time playing as Tiki man in the skateboarding game which was more of just like a side scroller akin to like an endless runner though I think there

were discrete levels but it's just like how long can you go without dying, and you're jumping over obstacles, and ducking over, and weaving between them. And it was, it was like, I remember being super fun. That sounds awesome, but the t-shirt thing is reminding me of the Big Dog t-shirts. Oh yeah. And I'm sort of thinking, should we get some? We should, and also that guy should have a game.

Why didn't that happen? What about a body, sort of like adult animated cartoon? That sounds like fun. We kind of like, not like BoJack Horseman, but like kind of like that. Maybe not when he's like all sad, maybe he's just like a party guy. He likes to hang out.

I guess a TNC surf design still exists. Oh cool. Here's a cast, here's a shot of the boys you can maybe see. There's Thriller Gorilla right there. Tiki Man. Honestly, the big dogs out, Thriller Gorilla gets his own show.

Straight to series. Thriller Gorilla's amazing. He's fucking awesome. Okay, should we talk to, you're gonna do it early. Should we talk about snowboarding a bit? Yes, there is a surfing game I do wanna go back to real quick.

Oh please, please. Trying to find the name of it real quick. Oh, please, please. Trying to find the name of it real quick. Oh, of course it's called. For my little playdate, which is the handheld little device that I have with the crank developed by Panic, there's a game called White Water Wipeout. It's a little surfing game there. And you use the crank to manipulate this the surfboard and I think

for my money a Better surfing game than Kelly Slater's pro surfer because it's sort of the movement sort of somehow makes more sense sure yeah It's a that game is a lot of fun, but snowboarding. Let's stop Let's stop talking about water. Yeah, They're talking about frozen water, snow. Yeah. Well done. We've talked about it before here, but the games that we, I think we,

you and I really connected with were SSX and SSX Tricky. SSX was pretty much the only title worth playing at PlayStation 2 launch. Part of the EA Sports big label. Big. I wish they, I of the EA Sports big label. Big. I like the EA Sports big, gets back to what we were saying about these games, sometimes part of the fun of them is them feeling arcadey.

Yes. And for some reason that sort of arcadey element seems to have been muted there. Let my man do the worm on a fucking snowboard, please. Let me play as a Yeti in NBA Street. Yes, absolutely. These games have such a great fun, Please let me play as a Yeti in an NBA Street. Yes. Anyway These games have such a great fun. They were so colorful They did great soundtracks and those were the skate the snowboarding games that hit good sense of speed to really really fun

SSX 3 sort of was like what if we Went a little more like serious kind of like it's not as fun as Tricky, because Tricky is like, let's get crazy with this. Yeah, I didn't play past Tricky. Three, I think, is a good game, and it's a little more technically, like it looks nicer, so there's a little more under the hood there,

but at the expense of silly characters doing silly things, and certainly no run DMC. Which is just, which is kind of interesting to think about too because that's the only song in the game if my memory serves. And it's on a loop like the entire time you're playing it and you don't really get sick of it. It's a good song.

It's kind of the ooh banana of its era. But also because it's SSX tricky and the song is tricky It's like well. Yeah, there you go. You got it. Reminding me the game. I'm playing What is this game called? Oh, yeah. Thanks Rev run. I really like those SSX games the other game I remember playing of this era but spending any time like a like a decent amount of time with and I didn't own this game But my friend had it for Nintendo 64 1080 snow snowboarding. And 1080 snowboarding was fun. All the racing games on Nintendo 64 suffered to some degree because there was just like,

it felt like an upper limit on frame rate due to the hardware and just like, the sense of speed is such a part of a racer. I guess there was, I guess like, at F-Zero and episode one racer kind of like worked past that a little bit, but episode one racer also required like a memory pack expansion to even, you know, hit that frame, right? So, but I like, I did like 1080 snowboarding.

I just was more connected with SSX, which comes out a little bit later. Yeah, I liked SSX a lot. I didn't do 1080. Cause I didn't have a Nintendo 64. We were a PlayStation house. So I was Cool Borders. That's the thing.

So there was the Cool Borders team and there was also the Snowboard Kids faction. The Snowboard Kids people are pretty vocal. They're like, hey Snowboard Kids, that's where it was at. It's like, okay, fucking calm down. I believe you. Snowboard Kids relax. I loved Cool Borders, but it's kind of just like,

I feel like you play Cool Borders until something like SSX comes out, and then SSX just completely eats its lunch. Yeah, for sure. Also, when I was a kid, when SSX was out, you could kind of get away with saying sex. Yeah, I mean, if you wanted to be bad if you go well, yeah You're not gonna say first of all don't say it in front of somebody's gonna get you in trouble

Well, you were talking to your friends like oops. I said sex. Yeah, I'm going right to the principal. I'm over here in that My earlobes getting stretched out on the way over there. I'll tell you that cuz I'm getting pulled down the halls man used to be a little the way over there I'll tell you that cuz I'm getting pulled down the halls man these two real teachers just like hit you like your adults not here they're not here to hit you I guess I have to hit you there's so like as far as like games with dedicated boards, I'm sort of tapped out here, but I have two games to talk about here that aren't necessarily board games,

but games where you can write a board. Okay, I have a couple too. I have a feeling we might have some overlap. One that I thought about, which we covered in our old format, Battletoads, which of course has the space board sections where you're kind of like, you know, it's the continuous scrolling.

Yeah, that's right. And I also remembered there being hover boards in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade, but, or Turtles in Time, but I was looking it up because I couldn't find a specific instance of that. They are in Shredder's Revenge, but I was like, but that's not what I was remembering I think it may be Mandela affected because of Battletoads. Yeah, but yeah

Zits pimple and rash of course are are right in those those those boards and those levels are Punishingly difficult game those levels like the the cycling levels are particularly difficult. Yes, tough. Gosh, their names are so nasty. It's disgusting. Is that correct? Is it Zitz, Pimple and Rash? I think so. Yeah, yeah. One of them is like eczema. It's like it's just it's unfortunate. I just I'm remembering in the Simpsons arcade game,

you technically have a move where you're Bart and you do like a skateboard trick at an enemy. That's right Yes is one of your attacks, which is really fun You know what I'm realizing there must have been been fantastic four just came out there must have been a silver surfer Playable silver surfer in some game there must be Perhaps in a Marvel Ultimate Alliance or something like that maybe? Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. Yeah.

Or maybe in like one of the Marvel Capcoms. Yeah. Silver Surfer's a really cool character. It looks cool. Yeah, and they're on a board, so it's pertinent to the discussion actually. Yeah. Yeah. In the game, in the video game, Jack 2, Yeah, and they're on a board so it's pertinent to the discussion actually Yeah Hahaha

Um In the game, in the video game Jack 2, you do get a hoverboard That you can sort of just like deploy Oh right, yes, yeah It's called a jet board I guess Yeah Um, but you can have one and you can sort of ride around on that And that's actually pretty cool

Cause that was like a You know, in the same way that the second Prince of Persia is like, this one's for fucking cool teenagers now. Jack 2 is sort of like, this one's also like, cool, actually. Which I kind of wish they had done more in the Jack and Daxter style. Tanner Iskra Right. Jonathan Fass I like Jack 2. I love Jack 2 and I love Jack 3. I love jack-two and I love jack-three. I think jack-two probably my favorite yeah, but I wish that they would do maybe even like a reboot or like a side story before getting from jack to

Where there's spend more time in that sort of colorful world because I really like that right because they quickly pivoted being kind of edge Lord same the same sort of thing that Prince of Persia did with War Within. Yeah. And then they're like in a dirty like city. Yeah, sure. And there's like cars and flying cars. But you got a jet board in there and that's really cool. And I was like scratching, really scratching my head, Nick, being like, what other games can you ride aboard that it's like not the main thing? Yeah.

And it's kind of rare. I'm sure there's other ones that I'm not thinking of. No, that's the thing. And I'm sure listeners will hit us up in the Discord if there's anywhere we're emitting, but I was like, yeah, I was like, oh yeah, there's a bunch. And then I was like, ah, kind of going through my mental archives and was having, I have trouble with memory recall these days

as I'm old as shit, but I still could not, I was like, I don't know, I guess I can't place a lot of these as Specifically as I thought but one I do have is Of course the legend of Zelda breath of the wild where you can shield sir. Oh, yes. Yes, and well first of all Yeah, yeah, congratulations for remembering that You just looked proud of yourself you're like you can you can do that It's very fun. We're missing a big one from a game we're both currently playing.

You can like ground surf in Donkey Kong Bonanza. You can pick up a piece of the ground. Yes. And instead of throwing it, you can ride it around. That's right, yes. And it's really cool. Yeah. And then while we're in Nintendo Town,

this coming out, like of course in Super Mario 64, you can surf on the turtle shells. Yes, that's right. Yeah. And this is not really a board. Man, why isn't there a board in Mario Kart? That'd be really cool. You can already grind on rails and stuff. One of the characters had a board you could ride.

Yeah, they should have a board. Like, Funky Kong. That'd be fun. Funky Kong on a board instead of a car. Pretty cool. And then I think people might be talking about, hey, what about Jet Set Radio, Jet Set Radio Future? There's no, you're not on boards, you're on roller blades.

Those are skates, you idiot. Those are two separate things. A skateboard is one long thing. What the fuck are you talking about? You think we wanna talk about inline skating? You wanna talk about fucking rollerblading? No, not at all. So mad at this fucking made up guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, they didn't talk about Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX. It's a fucking bike. Do you not get it? Do you not know what that is? Our bike sports? No, what I was gonna ask is, are inline skates bikes?

Are they closer to bikes or skateboards? I think they're more like bikes. You can do stuff on them like skateboards, but it doesn't feel like a skateboard to me. Ranch, I need help. I'm scared, I think Nick's sick. I think they're bikes. You think skates are bikes?

I think skates are closer to bikes than skateboards. Can we be done? Our bikes, our skates bikes, we know that they're not boards. They're not boards. Both are not boards. Both are not boards. So in that way, they are kind of the same thing

because they're both not this one thing. Yes, yeah. But they're also attached to your body in a way a bike isn't. Yeah, that's true. I don't think they're bikes. They're a third category. They're their own thing.

Yeah, I think sort of, okay, so here's what it is. Boards are boards, bikes are bikes, and skates, here's the thing, skates are kind of shoes. Skates are more like shoes. Skates are actually more like shoes. They're actually nothing like bikes, and they're actually very close to shoes. They're more like shoes.

So much so that they have those shoes with the little wheel in them, heelies. That's true. Okay, so skates are shoes. Skates are shoes, actually. Ice skates, also shoes. Thoseelys. That's true. Okay, so skates or shoes? Skates or shoes. Ice skates, also shoes? Those are bikes. Should we do a segment? I have one more to mention real quick. In Death Stranding 2, you get a coffin board. There's like a coffin that you get and then at one point Tar Man's like, yeah, we made it a fucking board or some shit I don't know the rocks you can just write it or it's not very practical

But it is sure cool, and it takes up a lot of space in the truck actually It's actually it takes up too much space I've ditched so many thinking you know what maybe I won't I'll have the I'll have it in the truck and then when I want to stop and I'll like park the truck I have a closer one, like a closer delivery, I'll just ride the board. And it's never worth it, I always end up recycling the board.

I love it when a game includes something that's intentionally cumbersome and inefficient, but it's just there because it's cool. It's like, you can do it if you want. I will say too, it barely makes sense. And this is a Kojima game? I would go as far to say it's almost a bit of a stretch. All right, let's do a segment. It's our video game, Would You Rather, Would You Blathers, Ape Edition.

That's right, I'll read an either or involving games that involve apes in honor of Donkey Kong Bonanza. You tell me your choice. And Rachelle, feel free to chime in as well. First up, Would You Blathers, assuming you're large in size, have the ironic nickname Kitty, like Kitty Kong, or the unironic nickname Chunky, like Chunky Kong? You're a big person.

Yeah. You're big. Yeah. You're big. You're big. Do you want to be called Kitty or Chunky? Would you blathers? Those are both pretty tough.

Yeah. For almost like the same reason. Cause like, I feel, well, it stings a little less to be called Kitty, I guess. Right. You don't want to be like infantilized as like an adult. No. And I guess.

Well, he's not doing himself any favors with his like rattle and diaper and pacifier Whatever the fuck he's got in dog. There's something else going on with Kitty Kong, and that's okay Chunky Kong if somebody somebody somebody could call you chunky in a in a way that doesn't feel nice Yeah, sure right, but there's also this sort of like There is like a sweetness to it to or like if somebody close to you is like It's a little bit chunky. It's kind of like yeah, I'm a little chunky. It's okay I think I would pick chunky if I'm being honest. Oh, Rochelle. What do you think kitty? You're chunky

For some reason kitty feels meaner Yeah, right and chunky is kind of a cute name actually. Yeah, chunky is kind of cute It makes me think a chunky hunky which I hey, I'd love to hear in that. Yeah. No problems there I think I'd also go chunky Kong. Yeah, I don't want to be kitty Kong I don't want to be kitty Kong. You're talking about me being kitty. Like hey, I'm kitty. There's something yeah It's it's it's it just kind of feels like there's something else going on I don't like it. Alright next up would you bl, and now we're going from being large in size to old in age.

You're old, would you blathers have the nickname Cranky like Cranky Kong or the nickname Wrenkly like his dead wife Wrenkly Kong? This is like, I do think Wreninkly is so rude that is it's really mean so mean and to add insult to injury she's fucking dead unexplained yeah dies between entries cranky Kong never gets closure I have a theory that it was just because they figured out how to like animate a ghost, and they just wanted to do it. Yeah.

I gotta pick Cranky because sometimes I am a little cranky. Yeah, you sure are. The hell? We'll talk about it later. What the, okay. Interesting, I'd like to present you with a mirror good sir. Ha ha ha. Rochelle, Cranky or Winkly?

Same as Matt, Winkly because you already are cranky. All right. Hold on. No, I think if someone's like, oh, here comes cranky, I'm gonna take wrinkly because I'm gonna take wrinkly because I'm gonna take wrinkly because I'm gonna take wrinkly because I'm gonna take wrinkly because I'm gonna take wrinkly because I'm gonna take wrinkly because You pretty are cranky. All right, hold on. No, I think if someone's like, oh, here comes cranky, people are like set up for uh-oh, this guy. They're kind of preparing for the worst and you're kind of going in on... You're already in debt when you're going to this conference.

You're already in the hole for a little bit. You've got to win people over and prove that you're not that cranky. Or you just lean into it and you're just an asshole and no one wants to be around you. I think if someone's like, hey, here comes Winkley, then you show up and their expectations are like, this person's gonna be Winkley as fuck. Yeah.

And I'll just be, and hopefully they'll see me and be like, you're not that Winkley. Not that Winkley, why do you call him that? Yeah, exactly. So that's why I take Winkly Kong in this case. All right, that's fair. Next up, would you blathers have to catch a bunch of normal sized monkeys on the loose using gadgets

like an ape escape or have to battle one Kaiju size gorilla like in Peter Jackson's King Kong, the official game of the movie? A bunch of small monkeys or one big ape? Here's the thing. Yeah. I love the apescape monkeys. Yeah.

They're gonna make me look like a fucking idiot. They're gonna make me look so stupid. Running around with little sirens on their head, you're trying to catch them with a net. And they're like spanking their ass at me. Yeah, yeah. I'll be humiliated. At least if I pick King Kong,

I'm gonna die with dignity. I'm not gonna look like some fucking fool, you know what I mean? And also maybe it'll fall in love with me and hold me in its big hand. That's the dream. Yeah. So I think I'm gonna pick King Kong.

Rachelle, normal size monkeys like an ape escape or giant gorilla like in Peter Jackson's King Kong, the official game of the movie. Are they trying to hurt me? They're just trying to get away. Just think about this, they're gonna make you look so stupid. Yeah, but you're like,

if you don't catch them, you're in trouble. Yeah, you do have to get them for some reason. And I have gadgets. You have gadgets, yeah. That's kind of cool, I'll do that. You're picking that one? Yeah. Gadgets are pretty cool. I think I'm also gonna go after the ape escape monkeys

because it seems fun. I have never gotten to wield a big net and I think I'd be pretty good at it. Yeah, I think you would. Yeah. But also, I don't think I'm dying. No. I think I'm up against King Kong.

Even if I've got the military backing me, and they're blasting them with rocket-propelled grenades. You do have the military at your back, Paul. I think I'm in trouble. I just like King Kong. I also have a great affection for that game. I love the game. And one of the all-time titles.

Peter Jackson's King Kong colon the official game of the movie. Next up, would you blathers have a gorilla body but superhuman intelligence like Winston in Overwatch or have a human body but a dumb feral ape brain like Tomba in Tomba. This is because here's the thing I've played I played Tomba back in the day. Me too on PlayStation 1. I've not played the remaster. And this is what I gotta say about Tomba. Yeah.

I kind of don't like the way he looks. I don't like him. I like the game enough. Yeah. But as a character I don't like him. I like the game enough. Yeah But as a character, I don't like him that much. Yeah, and I think he's I Think he's a little too dumb to want to be him I do think it'd be fun to be a smart gorilla don't get to wear like glasses. Yeah, you do Winston has glasses What's got glasses?

That's pretty funny It's just kind of funny to think about cuz like like, what, the ape go to regular doctor? It's a good question. I'm not sure if ape go to regular doctor. Does he wear clothes? Yeah, he's got a whole lot of it. I've never seen this Winston before. Let me bring up a shot of Winston.

Also, I think the name Winston is a good name. It's a great name. And I remember him from the reveal trailer and being like, oh, this is cool. What's this guy's whole deal? And then I never played Overwatch. That's not the kind of game I like. That's such a blind spot to me.

I have no idea what's going on in there at all. Here's a shot of Winston in his power armor. You can sort of get a sense of his whole deal. There you go. Yeah, 100%. How could I not pick being Winston? He looks awesome. Yeah.

And also like being a big gorilla seems kinda cool. You would certainly have gorilla strength combined with human smarts and that would be a powerful combo. Rochelle, what do you think? Do you wanna be a smart ape or an ape-brained human? I think that the dumber you are, the happier you are. Yeah.

So, ape brain. I have the same rationale, and that's why I'm going with Tomba. I feel like Winston would be dealing with the existential angst of I'm the only one of my kind. I do not exist in either the human world or the ape world. I am attracted to gorillas, but none of them can relate to me on an emotional level,

you know, but my biology is driving me to mate with dumb gorillas. Yeah. And so, and then like, you know, human beings, I don't feel like I fit in there either. I'm a curiosity, you know what I mean? Like I'm not treated like an individual. I'm treated like the Elephant Man or something.

So I think I would probably go with Thoma. And in this world, the Elephant Man is an elephant, actually. Next up, would you blathers. In the prehistoric fighting game Primal Rage, fight against Blizzard, the virtuous ape god who uses freezing breath and icy attacks, or fight against Chaos, the destructive ape god who uses gross out moves moves including fart and vomit attacks

so you got to go up against ice ape or Shit and puke ape this is so hard actually Because I hate being cold so much cold like too cold I want to be exactly as cold as I want to be right I was hey chilling in the AC That's great by the way at a hotel. I'm cranking the AC because it's not fucking mine I'm frigid in a hotel room My wife hates it. She gets so mad. I always turn it down to like like 65 Yeah, you got to find a compromise with your partner. Yeah, you're on different temperatures I like to be snuggled up in a blanket. Oh, I get that

I get that feeling and yeah, you're not paying for the electricity. Yeah, go nuts Yeah, you ever they're just gonna go back to the Airbnb thing sometimes. They'll put like a fucking thing over the thermostat Yeah, just it oh you know who's That's such a I stayed at a I stayed at an Airbnb once near an umbrella corporation property and they had all the thermostats locked up. I found a bunch of keys and none of them fit.

I did put it in one and I got to unlock it. It did unlock it and I got to change the thing, but then the key snapped in half. Oh boy. And I had to find another one when I wanted to unlock it again. Kind of cool you pulled it off though, you're kind of the master of unlocking. I'm kind of the master of unlocking. What do you think, ice ape or puke ape?

I guess the ice ape because that seems more tolerable. I'd rather be, I guess, covered in a bunch of snow than like shit and puke and stuff. I'd hate that. It's very funny, but I wouldn't like it. Rachelle, what do you think? Which ape do you wanna take on? Definitely, I see him.

I'm gonna go against the gross ape because he's a bad guy, so I know I'm on the right side. Oh, and we're fighting a benevolent god. Yeah, you're fighting a virtuous ape god. The god of good. And also, I just hate being cold. And I think that guy's gonna fucking freeze me to death. I think I'm gonna die, like, you know, just like,

I'm gonna be like a frozen block. Yeah. Whereas I'm against chaos, I was like, oh, that's like, this guy puked on me, it's fucking disgusting, I just smell his fucking fart, but I feel like I could maybe kick his ass. I just feel like at some point after being covered in what I'm guessing would be a large amount of like puke and shit, you're gonna have just more problems after that.

Like you're gonna become very sick. Yeah, you might get some sort of infection. Would you blathers share a name with music producer accused of sex trafficking Diddy like Diddy Kong or Share a name with music producer accused of murder Phil Spector like Spector from ape escape Diddy or Spector? God, it's unfortunate that I think one of these is worse And you might be surprised with no, I guess if I have my druthers, I'd rather, and this is maybe me being a hero, I guess I'd rather be Spectre from Ape Escape,

but that's just me. Rachele, what do you think? You have to have an association with Diddy or Phil Spectre? Unfortunately, I think Diddy is a cute name. And yeah, you could like take it back. Yeah, it's true. I would also go with Spectre just because I feel like people's first thought would not be Phil Spectre.

Whereas I feel like if you're Diddy like Diddy Kong, we were like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like that's the first thing they're thinking of. You might get the only Diddy's that exist. You might get, oh, the fourth James Bond movie from the Daniel Craig part of the franchise. From Spectre. Yes, of course. The title of that. Finally, would you blathers be the OG cool sunglasses wearing surfing gorilla like Thrilla gorilla from TNC surf designs or be the modern

reboot of the sunglasses wearing surfing gorilla funkyunky Kong from Donkey Kong Country. Thrilla Gorilla or Funky Kong? I mean, I know you have great affection for Thrilla Gorilla and I did say he was awesome. I'd be lying if I wasn't trying to live my life like I'm Funky Kong. I have to pick Funky Kong. Yeah. Rachelle, what do you think?

Funky Kong is cool. Look, I do love Thrilla Gorilla. I'd like, he blazed a trail. Yes, we don't get to Funky Kong without cool. Look, I do love Thrilla Gorilla. I've got, like, he blazed a trail. Yes, we don't get to Funky Kong without Thrilla Gorilla. He is a legend. There's no way it's not Funky Kong. No way. Are you fucking kidding me? Also, like, Funky is so cool.

It's so cool, and he's got Funky mode? And like, I kind of feel like nobody really describes things as funky in, like, a good way anymore. And I think funky is, is like one of the cooler Things you could be described as like oh that guy's funky This fucking guy yeah, yeah, oh me. I'm funky Low-key kind of hot yeah Don't get me started

Hey, that's this week's get played our producer is producer is Richelle Chen. Ranch yard underscore underscore sard, twitch.tv slash yard underscore underscore sard. And of course, the D files wherever you listen to podcasts. Our music is by Ben Prunty, benpruntymusic.com. Our art is by Duck Brigade Design, duckbrigade.com. Get played merch at kinshipgoods.com. And also check out Get Animated, our sister show over on Patreon. Matt, what are we watching this week? We're watching Birdie Wing Golf Girl's Story.

And I'm gonna say, it's getting kind of interesting. It's been interesting in the get-go as far as I'm concerned. Check that out over at patreon.com slash get played. And until then, you got played. Ho. That was a hate gum podcast.