Get Played - Castlevania

Episode Date: October 19, 2026

Heather, Nick and Matt discuss the Castlevania franchise from its 1986 debut to its current release Castlevania: Belmont's Curse.Check out our brand new merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayedFollow us on social media @getplayedpodMusic by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.comArt 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 Serial Experiments Lain go to patreon.com/getplayedJoin us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayedWanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] on Get Played via Gumball.fmAll 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. Gaming today isn't one thing. It moves between cozy, chaotic, and everything in between. One minute you're exploring something slow and immersive. The next, you're in a fast-paced match. And somewhere in there, you might be creating, streaming, or just seeing where the session goes. That's why alienware systems are built with the performance to handle all of it. With Nvidia-Gforce RTX, it delivers powerful graphics that bring every world

to life while optimizing battery life. So whether you're playing, creating, or jumping between both, everything runs the way it should. No interruptions, no slowing down. You don't have to adjust how you play. You just keep gaming your way. However that looks in the moment. Be more alien at alienware.com slash game your way. Gentlemen, I am so sorry to announce that the two of you will have to take on Dracula. No.

But don't worry. Though the castle is up there on the hill and it looks formidable, I will be equipping you with holy weapons. Oh, hell yeah. All right, now I'm getting on board. I'm talking about it. I didn't know, I thought it would just be going in bare hands.

Yeah, I was like, you give me some holy weapons. Count your days, drag. to fight and chance. To you, Nick Weiger, I give the cross sword, a sword that is both sword and crucifix.

Fuck, that's fucking badass. That's really cool because you're holding the part, the top part, the shorter part of the cross, and the rest of it is the fucking blade. But where I got like,

this is kind of like an upside down cross so it's kind of unholy, but then I like fucking turn it around. It's imbued with the power of Christ. To you, Matt Apodaka, I give communion wafers. Oh. Okay, oh yeah, maybe they're, maybe they're kind of like, maybe they're kind of like, you know, a shuriken and I can throw them, they're really sharp or something.

They're wafers. The body of Christ. Uh-huh. In cracker form. So I have to feed this to Dracula and it's going to hurt him so bad. And he's going to be like, ah, fuck, I'm dying because I'm poisoned. I would not get that close. It's probably dangerous.

I mean, Dracchio is going to fucking hate those, though. So you probably, I mean, that's going to help you out. It's going to be Southernman asset. Yeah. We got some more gear here, too, though. It looks like, like, like, oh, look at this. I know exactly what I'm going to do with these. I know that's a haunted castle.

There's probably some, like, big, like, big rat or something. Big, like, scary, like, mutated rat or something. Absolutely. I could set a trail of these wafers. The rat won't. The rat doesn't even want. It doesn't. All right.

Let's see what other gear we got. Oh, fuck. I'm going to take this. These fucking holy water grenades. I can throw them the fucking, like, holy fire will go burn some bad guys. Yeah, that's going to fuck up Dracula. Consecrated by the Pope himself, these holy water grenades are filled with the holiest of water. That's awesome.

This is fucking sick. I think this is one of those two, I think. Or this is just a... No, you actually have a vial of piss. It's kind of just not fair. It's just cat piss. Cat piss specifically? I'm not going to lie, that fucking sucks.

Well, I mean, look, Dracula's a bat, so maybe he, I imagine cats are like kind of an enemy, right? It's true. The pheromone sense in this cat piss will annoy and add. I don't want to touch it. I don't want to touch it. I'm not touch you want to trade. Put it on your fingertips and pass the scent around Dracula's castle. But if they smell it, don't they be like, okay, like, I know he's over there because I smell the fucking cat piss. I'm gonna get him. You lure him out with your cat piss stench and then I'll go over and hit with a crossword, the holy water grenade. Okay, but so am I supposed to just then eat the wafers? Like, what do I do with

them? You gave them to me like they were important and I'm not doing anything. Do not dip them in the cat piss. I'm not going to dip it in the cat piss. I'm just kind of like you gave them to me like you made his shit seem all important. Mine sucks. It's just the way it's going. These are randomized. I found it. These are randomized. Fuck, this for is this this for me, the vampire killer whip? This is fucking sick. Wopsh, whoopsh, take that Dracula. Built from the leather of the Roman legions that killed Christ himself before he rose again from the dead, this whip is consecrated with the Holy Spirit of God. I'm gonna guess.

I get like Frankenstein's butt plug or some shit. Absolutely not. Here, take this loose beads from a rosary that fell apart. I gotta put it back together? You gave me a craft? Well, careful, I don't just spill the caspice.

This sucks. I don't want to, I don't even want to... Get cat piss all over the rosary beads, man. I don't let Dracula bite my ass. I don't even care. It fucking sucks. I wanted to play Dracula Hunter and can't even do it.

do it. Well, good luck, gentlemen. I'm going to leave now in a car that's a gun. That car's fucking sick. I mean, that's fucking cool. What year is it? One. We toss axes at flying Medusa heads and heal up with Walmeat as we discuss Castlevania, Belmont's curse and the Castlevania franchise this week on Get Played. Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for Good Games. bad games and every game in between. It's time to get played.

I'm your host, Heatherane Campbell, along with my fellow host, Matt, Mr. Games, Abadaka. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premier video game podcast where, hey, listen to me. Listen right now. It sounds like we're missing a host, but I'm telling you. Calm down for a second. It's not going to go the way you think. Just because you hear two of the three voices you normally hear.

Doesn't mean you're not going to hear her all right, babe. It's going to be just fine. Go back to sleep. What? Go back to sleep. Don't sleep. I mean, I guess that's fine. If we're that boring, listen to go to sleep.

Don't, just call out. Everything's fine. Look, it's a busy time of year. Everybody's got commitment. Christmas time is here. Yeah, usually, here's actually the crazy thing about this episode. Usually we record episodes in the past to release in the future. this episode

we recorded on Christmas Eve this year and we're releasing it in the past It's really crazy Another person who's not here and won't be here Is our producer Rochelle Chan Ranch But we do have in her steed In her steed in her stead? Stead

In her stead? Guest engineer Sean Marr Sean how are you doing? Steed is horse I messed up I messed up I messed the word up I'm doing great Yeah I think we all got really fired up before this episode, so I'm feeling jazzed up.

We're ready to go. I'm fired up. Look, I'm wearing my Dodger Blues. It's just to date this, actually. We're not recording this in Christmas. What day is it? And when is this being released, Matt? This will be released on Monday. Oh, this Monday? This coming Monday. Scrib Dune! Scrib Dune, baby. Scrib Dune to you and yours. Fuck, yes. And in many Scrib Dunes to us all. We've recorded a few episodes out of sequence, and I'm excited.

I'm excited that this is coming out on Monday because I can finally talk about my boy. Yes, Scrib Dune. It's getting. Game 4 of the NLCS, the Dodgers, the experience that the Dodgers are having right now is that it is a 3-0 series. Awful. Awful. Doesn't feel good. No.

Right now as the game is happening, well, first of all, Otani hit his first home run since August. Very exciting. Right now it is 5-4 Brewers. I was explaining this to you earlier. Yeah. And it's probably the experience of any sports fan. Yeah. That it just has to keep the belief alive.

Yeah. It's not over until it's over. You said, if they lose this, I'm going to kill myself. I did say that before we started recording. And I didn't mean it. And I said, can I put my head against yours when you pull the trigger? I did some stuff about wanting to do the wanted bullet. I'd like one of those wanted bullets, but I want to use it for something else.

Jesus Christ. What would you be going around in that scenario? People who don't deserve it. Not for you. And for you. I have to sit here and I have to say Not knowing how this game is going to end up And it might end while we're recording

Dodgers and 7 I have to just believe You have to believe You have to believe. You have to believe. Dodgers and 7 baby It's like when you hit the wall In Star Wars Galactic Racer Yeah

And you were in first and suddenly you're in fifth Yeah And you know it's an elimination race So you have to at least finish In the top three Yeah The music kicks in And you're like

I just have to believe. Scrib Dune. Scrib Dune. Do you know what that means? I don't remember what it means. Write it down. Scrib Dune, write it down. Because what he says is I'm Biddy, I'm Biddy Blaze. Remember that name, Scrib Dune. Write it down. Write it down. Heather, I don't have any tattoos, but Scrib Dune might be on my body soon.

I did have the thought, do I secretly get a tattoo of this motherfucker? It'd be potentially one of the first guys to have it. But he's too new. I know I'm too excited about him. Yeah. I don't know how I'm going to feel about him in the year or something. I'm going to love him for the rest of my life, certainly. The voice actor who performs Biddy Blaze.

Biddy Blaze. He has put out a statement on like X and he is just the sweetest. I love it. He's a sweetest guy. I love it. He's got like this shock of red hair and he's like kind of goofy. It'd be so funny if he looked at. exactly like him.

Looks exactly like him. Big crocodile mouth. I was only got the perfect guy for this. But. But. I also wanted to talk about something else. What do you want to talk about, Matt? Well, look.

Look. We ate dinner. We did eat dinner. And it's not a food show. It's not a food show. But we talk about our love of Coco Ichabana. Coco Ichabana. Coco Ichabana.

Coco Ichabana, Coco Ichabana. And we got it tonight for dinner. I do want to say, I think it was especially good for some reason. It was. It was really good. It's always really good. But there are some times where you're sort of like, it's as good as it always is. Yep, yep.

This felt a step above for some reason. My potatoes were very tender, which implies a very nice stewing process. But if I do, if I do believe I'm correct, this was Sean's first experience with Kokobu Ichabana. It was, absolutely. Sean, what did you think of that, motherfucker? I was saying that I hadn't had like a Japanese curry since being a, in Japan. Yeah.

And it really brought me back. Really, really good, right? Sean, where in Japan did you have your curry? I studied abroad in Japan in Tokyo, in Mitaakashi. Wow. So there, yeah. But was it a, was it a chain? Was it a, you know, was it like curry Bondi?

There was actually one particular time that I remember is we went to Chizumachi or something. It was, it's a, it's a wood cutting town kind of near Tokyo. Wow. And it was kind of an exchange of sorts. So it's like our class and then like a Japanese school came together and like we spent the day together. And we all made curry together. Fuck. And ate bees, fried bees as well.

I'm sorry. Fried fried bees? Fried fries. Bumble bees. The beekeeper is going to come get you. You ate fried bees? Oh no. Yeah.

They taste kind of peanut. I've never heard of such a thing. I've never heard of it either. but peanutty kind of sounds good Aren't there stingers though? How do you eat a stinger? Either they have... Your mouth got really swollen after you.

Oh yeah, I'm allergic to peanuts and bees. Either they have the stingers removed or... It doesn't matter because they're fried. Yeah, I think maybe it just tenderizes the stinger enough. Turns it in like the crunchy crab shell. In the same way that like when you cook alcohol it takes out the, you know, the boozy.

You gotta cook the bee to take out the bee. Yeah. That's how I know I'm not an alcoholic is I just cook all my booze before I drink it. Sounds great, buddy. I just cook all the booze I want, and I just have it. I don't know that I'm not an alcoholic because ever since

I stopped drinking, I think about it all the time. That's different though. You're coming at it from a place of you, you're doing it for health. You're doing it for health. You self-selected to not do it. Yeah. So there is a sort of like, oh fuck. Right.

Damn it. It's also, I haven't. except on vacation, haven't had ice cream in three years. Yes. And I had to figure out a relationship to sweets that didn't punish me for eternity. So I did make the new rule. Still no alcohol in perpetuity. But when I'm on vacation, I'll eat a sweets.

Yeah. I did, I mean, I've been working with a nutritionist this year. And I've sort of had to, I've curbed a lot of, I don't try to classify things as like bad habits or like, like, I'm thinking of things as like healthy food and unhealthy food instead of thinking of like, oh,

this is bad or like this is like a treat meal or something. Yeah. Because like on occasion I'll still have that stuff. Right. But I've been working through it with my nutritionist and I'm just like, hey, like we have like three meals a day.

If one of them one time is like not so good, just kind of like make it up on the next. You know what I mean? I'm trying not to be so absolute. Because I do think being completely restrictive of things can be damaging in its own way. Yeah. Because you're more likely to purge.

Exactly. Binge? Binge? Yeah, yeah. And purge. Because I think, yeah, like, the cheat meal is, or the cheat, a cheat day is like what people call it. One, cheating is bad. Yeah. Two, like, it's like, people are in like, I ate a whole cake on my cheat day or something. It was like, that's not good. That's just, that's not good. So I have, if I want, you know, if I want a cheeseburger and fries, I'll have a cheeseburger and fries and then just try to be good on the next one, you know, and just kind of leave it at that. And that's been, that's been. been working out for me. I love to hear it. Yeah. But I haven't like had like, it's the Halloween season.

So like it's the Halloween season. Halloween season. And hoopty boo, a dickory dock. Look out ghost. He's running up the clock. Ghost clock is pretty good. Ghost clock. Time is dead.

Not as good as ghost train. Ghost train is good. Ghost, yeah, ghost clock, only so much you can do with it. You just don't know what time it is. Yeah. The clock was just there. Surprise. Oh, it's 4.45.

I'm late. Maybe it is. You know what? It's a fun here, nice catch at the very least. Ghost clock. Front-paged. One week. Dead.

It's the Halloween season. So it's a candy holiday. Yeah. And I haven't been eating a lot of candy. Nope. but I had something the other day it was good but I didn't go crazy on it usually I'll go crazy on it

like if I go to the movie or something I'll get like a candy and I'll eat the whole thing I'll eat all of it yeah Mary and I saw Digger yes and she got a bag of peanut Eminem's well yeah peanut peanut butter peanut butter Eminem oh

and uh those are different she put a single peanut butter emm in my hand you could have one and she was like you should have it Digger is a special occasion I hate it and I haven't had candy in, you know, forever. And it was the most delicious thing I'd ever eat in my life. Is this kind of why?

I was like, oh my God, this is so good. Is this why you liked the Coke Zero Oreo? Because it was a facsimile enough of something that you haven't had in a long time. But two things. One, I think I drank the Coke Zero Oreo before I gave up sugar. Oh, that's true. Yeah, you're right. And secondly, there are sugar-free Oreos. That's true.

I haven't had one, but they do exist. Because I don't want to have one because it's like, well, then what is it? Like, what could it be? This is, like, my thing when I go to the movie. Because, like, I think if I get, like, a soda, I get a Coke zero. Because at least, the very least that it has caffeine. But if I go at a certain time of day, I don't want the caffeine, so I'll get, like, Rup beer zero?

I'll get Rupier Zero. And I'm like, that's just brown. That's not anything. It's just liquid brown. There's like, I think it's a, you know, Jee. The philosopher. He's like this, he's like a very animated philosopher. He's always like, you know, the thing is that, and I can't do an impression, but I'm trying to do like a, the genre of him.

And he was like, he went on a rant once about how caffeine-free diet Coke was nothing. Like, that it was. Yeah. That it was like the lack of everything that it was. Yeah. And it's great rant. I started, I recently got, I was like, you know what? I'm going to just do this.

I got like a regular Sprite. I'm not even really trying to have anything like this. And I didn't finish it because it was so crazy to me. But I was like, at least that's something. Yep. That's something. It's just sugar, I guess. But I was like, that's better than it being brown.

Just food. I'm drinking food coloring and flavor. A root beer, a vanilla root beer zero. It's just chemicals. Yeah. It's just chemicals. I'm gonna go, which is my fear of the Oreo. It's like, okay, there's gonna be wheat.

Yeah. To make the biscuit. Yeah. Beyond that, I bet there is not a single ingredient that I recognize in the Oreo. No, not at all. And I bet the wheat isn't the first ingredient. I bet it's whatever the false sweetener is.

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We should look it up. What's that? We should look it up. We should look it up. That's the thing I've learned to use. It's funny, like, just talking with the nutritionist, the things that you learn,

and like the very basic things that then, become stuff that you know because it's like I'm like oh they should have taught me this in school and it's like they kind of do sort of glaze over it a little bit like when you learn about the food pyramid yeah but you're supposed these foods are the ones you're supposed to prioritize down here at the bottom and then the ones up here are the ones that you're not doing so good that's not enough information well it's also counterintuitive because you put the stuff that's the best at the top yes so like the food pyramid works and you're oh the biggest part is the part you're supposed to eat the most of, the pyramid should be upside down then.

I think they do have, like, they have changed it in schools and stuff where the pyramid is upside down. Well, great. So they admitted their mistake, which is that it was wrong. Yeah, but now it's an upside down pyramid and like, that doesn't make any sense. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. It's weird. Yeah.

It should be one of those floating islands from Avatar. Yeah. Do you want the ingredients list of the sugar-free Oreos? Yes, please. Yes. Okay, this will be kind of a reading comprehension test for me. Unbleached and rich flour, wheat flour. Oh, nice.

Produced iron thyamine mononitrate and riboflavin folic acid maltitol canola oil palm oil polydextrose

cornstarch cocoa we know that one yeah leavening baking soda or calcium phosphate sorbidol

salt soy lecithin chocolate artificial flavor sucrylose oof asosophame potassium

that's it so now you can make some at home if you want. Not as threatening a list as I expected. Can I ask what the difference between chocolate and cocoa is? We might have to call up RFK. Nick would know the answer to this. Nick would

know for sure. Yeah. Coco might be processed bean like the processed cocoa bean. Yeah, and then chocolate is the byproduct. And chocolate might be a mixture of things. Like chocolate might require milk. Yes. Wow.

We don't even need this guy. Yeah, we don't need that guy. what do you bring, Nick? What do you bring to the show? We figured out what chocolate is. We didn't need you. Right now, Sean's looking at Op, he's like, he's like, everything you just said is wrong and could have killed a person.

We're not a nutrition podcast. No, no, no, definitely not. I did see a meme the other day of ingredients in hot dogs in 1951 versus ingredients in hot dogs today. And it was just literally all of the things in a hot dog. And in like the 50s, it was like beef, pork, salt, pepper. It was like all recognizable things. Yeah. And then hot dogs today, it was like an arrangement of stuff that like I didn't know what any of it was.

That's horrific. Which also, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not anti hot dog person. I'm not an RFK type. No. But I do know that like when I ate sausage in Holland, I didn't feel sick instantly. No. No, of course not. No. You know, it is unfortunate that some of the worst people on Earth are right maybe one time. Yeah. Yeah. It happens. A broken clock's right twice a day, you know, as it were. But that's not what we're here to talk about.

We're not here to talk about food or cocoa Ichabana or food by products or sugar-free Oreos. No, no, no, no, no. We're here to talk. This is a video game show. It's a video game podcast. And you know what? I don't think I've said this in a while. What? Gosh, darn it. I just love the stuff. Video games are good. I love video games. They're good for you and they're good for your brain.

And that's true. That is true. They might be helping me with my thumb, actually. They might be helping you with your thumb. Sort of a lie I started telling myself. Actually, this is good for me. They help prevent dementia apparently. Yeah.

Even like any kind, action game, speed game, racing game, puzzle game. The five types. Yeah. The five types of game. We should make a food pyramid for games. Yeah, that's really good. I think... Like the games you should play the most of and the games you should play the least of.

I'm putting soul's likes in the most. Right? Because those are sort of, I feel like those are the most nutritional because there's a lot to do there and there's a lot of different things to do. So you're firing off a bunch of different neural pathways, right? So, like, I think those are going to be really, really strong.

What is the kind of game you shouldn't play? Those ones on the side of Theo Von Tick-Tox, like subway racers or whatever the fuck it is. Candy Crush? Yeah, candy crush, that type of thing. Or, like, the ones where it's like a guy, you know, shooting out a block of ice to get the gun and then shooting that, you know, that's on that type of thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's the top of the food pyramid. Yeah, that's top. Or the bottom, depending on your age. Exactly. Do we count, like, crosswords and, like, Sudoku's, like, that kind of game as... I think the problem is that,

that a crossword and a Sudoku can exist on paper and a video game can't. Yeah, and I think there is a sort of, like, people, if you saw that next to Eldon Ring, people would go fucking crazy. But I do think that there are puzzle games that can only exist in video game format. Yeah. That are adjacent to a crossword.

I mean, like, Baba is you. Yeah. Just comes to mind. That's essentially learning how to code. Yeah. And then, like, Tetris. Tetris will probably be where, like, the meat is. No fucking way.

You don't think so? Tetris is at the bottom of the pyramid. At the bottom with Eldon Ring. Yeah. Okay. You should play Tetris every day. No, you know you're absolutely right. What's the, Jack 2?

is where the meat is. Kingdom Hearts 2 is probably where the meat is. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. Guitar Hero probably lower, actually. Because you're doing something else. You're doing it in a different way. But it is maybe more adjacent to, like, the subway runners type things, too.

Because you're just watching buttons fall. You're just reacting. You're memorizing something about, well. You're memorizing the finger placement, but not necessarily the order in which they're coming. Unless you play them a lot. Right. Can I ask a question that might be divisive? Yeah.

Especially with Nick not here. Yeah. Where do you put specifically horny light novels? Because you're reading, but they're horny. You're also a little horny. I would put those probably, you know what? I keep saying that this is where the meat goes. I think that's where the meat goes.

Because you're kind of, you are reading. How many slots are there on a pyramid? Is it five slots? I think so. It's the one bad one. Right. And then... Two, two, and one.

Okay. Big one. Right. But grain is at the bottom. And I kind of feel like we're not supposed to be. eating that much grain. We should eat grain all the time. It should just be maybe we replace it with beans.

24-7 grain. Maybe the bottom one is beans now. I'll tell you there are six. There's the top one or the yeah, top one which is like the dessert, fats, oils and sweets. Below that is milk, yogurt, and cheese and then meat, poultry and fish.

Yogurt's great for you. Below that is fruits and vegetables and the below that is cereals and wheat products. It's shocking. It's shocking. Hmm. Picture this.

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let them know it was get played. Please! It's the best way to support the show. Does it feel like the later it gets in the year, the more we should be winding down? But everything seems to just get busier. So many tiny decisions a day start stacking up and even picking out what to eat for dinner

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when you order, fill out the quick survey to support this show. Enjoy responsibly and thanks to Indicloud for making room for the plans you want to keep and the evenings you want to keep for yourself. We said that we wouldn't do this podcast alone. And if you're listening, and waiting for a certain man to join us. Let me tell you. He is going to join us. He's not going to stop until he's at the mic. And when he sits down and he joins this podcast,

you will say to yourself, there he is. And you're, you know what? You probably thought we were lying to you that he was coming and that you needed to calm down. Get your fucking notes app ready, bitch, because you owe me a fucking apology. What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.

Hey, buddy. Welcome back. Are we at the Castlevania part yet? No. Okay. So it's too early. We're talking about Castlevania today. We already did all the food stuff.

Did we talk digger? We haven't talked digger. But your food is out on the table and maybe it should be put in the fridge. Because I thought you were going to sit down and eat it. I'll put in the fridge. Are you hungry? I am hungry. but I can't, we'll see the episode.

I was like, you should eat and then hop in. Well, I don't bring a food in here. Well, no, I was like, you eat out there and then come in here. Well, you still have stuff to do. Bring the food in here. Bring the food in here. I'm not going to bring the food in here. Bring the food in here.

I'll fridge it. All right. He's going to frigid it. Nick came in with more energy than you and I have ever had. That was actually nuts. Yeah. So we told you'd be here and he showed up. He showed up.

So you know what? The Triforce of Friendship has reunited. That's right. Gannendorf is going to be killed. Gannendorf. Gannendorf count your fucking days. I guess we talked Digger in that I said I had seen it and that Mary gave me a single Eminem.

Oh yeah. I saw God. I literally turned to where and I was like, that's so delicious. You don't have to say where you saw it. I think I know where you saw it. No, you don't. Oh. Because the places that we normally would go see a movie all sold out.

Wow. Digger was sold out for two days and we couldn't go see it. Okay. Which, by the time this episode airs, it will have been pulled from 2,500 theaters. Are you fucking serious? I got to go. You got to go.

And I can't say this enough. You have to see it in a theater. It is about being in the theater. It is key to the experience. I got it. My wife is... Without spoilers. Not blaming my wife on this.

She wants to see it. She's a little bit... If you can believe this, a little bit busier than me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I might have to go alone. You might have to go alone. And then maybe see it again with her.

That's an option. Yeah. My schedule's available. There you go. I'll go see it with Sean. I'll go see what Sean said to my wife. I hope you like popcorn because I share. You didn't hear this, Nick, but I saw Digger and Mary had peanut butter.

Peanut butter M&Ms. And she gave me a single M&M and it was the most delicious thing I've ever had in my life. So fucking good. No, I mean, of course that shit's addictive. I haven't stopped thinking about the Eminem. Yeah. And unfortunately now, when I'm at like the candy section here at headgum, like a little area of like snacks, I'm like, well, maybe I could have another Eminem. And that's the way that that's the way they get you.

Yeah, of course. I only have Eminem's when my wife gives me one. And that's a nice rule. That's not going to happen all the time. No, it won't. Anyone who's on social media has probably seen this and is interested in games. but Hideo Kojima posting on X, who met with Alejandro Inurito in the director of Digger in Japan.

I had been holding off on posting my thoughts until the interview was released, talking about the interview he did with Gizmodo Japan and Inuritu, a two-hander. Director Inurito's Digger is a film that all of us living in today's world should see. It is a work that remains with the audience provoking reflection and sounding alarms. As you absorb this film and carry it with you, a tool, a digger, for delving deeper into the future will surely begin to take shape within you. This is a film that will stay by your side for years to come. And if you aren't on social media, then you perhaps haven't seen that Joyce Carol Oates retweeted that.

And she loved it. She loved it. Joyce Carroll Oates loved Gojima's talks on it and loved Digger. And also, Neil Young says it's the best film he's ever seen. Mandy Patinkin also was like, this film is incredible. Yeah, it's interesting because I've talked to a lot of. lot of people who are really thoughtful, you know, film fans who are, who have a lot of knowledge of cinema and detested the digger experience. And I can understand their perspective because, again,

without going to spoiler country, because seeing this film knowing as little as possible as how I saw and I, is the best possible experience for this film in particular, it is so abrasive. It is a thumb in your eye. I didn't feel that at all. Oh, man. I very much felt that. I felt like it's trying to push you away. Wow. And that's part of what it, that's part of its genius. That's part of its magic. I didn't feel being, I didn't, I felt at no point like I was being pushed away.

I felt like it was a film where every single inch of the frame was drawing me in where I could look at any aspect of what I was seeing from the performance to the set design, the costumes, the colors, the sound. every part of it was like here is every thought that we've had about this moment and most movies you're just doing like fucking coverage it's just like here's an over the shoulder shot here's an over the shoulder shot here's

people in a room yeah we put some stuff on the bookshelf yeah we've done some lighting here but like it feels like it felt like when I was watching it it reminded me of animation where everything has to be a choice because it is being created from scratch. And this felt like the same experience to me.

Right. We're maybe saying different things, which for me, I agree completely. It's an aesthetic marvel. It is a gorgeous film. But the content of it is so, and the tone of it are just so like, I don't want to just repeat the word abrasive,

but it's the best word I can think of. You know, it's a thing that is, making you, making me at least as a, as a viewer, uncomfortable and annoyed. Wow, nothing like that for me. And like, like, alternately like angry, you know, like, I'm having all these feelings where I'm watching it where there are times when I'm like, when I'm like, fuck this movie. Wow, no. Especially in the early going.

And then reaching a certain point and the magic trick has pulled off. I'm like, oh, okay. I see exactly why all these choices were made. Yeah. But it's also interesting that people can like like the film, dislike the film. And I've seen such a wide array of opinions on this film, again, from people who like, like, watch film critically. And none of the old alliances are holding up. Like predictably, like there used to be a time where I could predict like, oh, well, this person is going to like this movie.

This person is going to hate this movie. And like, that's just not the case with all the people I talk to the movies about. It's it's realignment. Mary and I saw it and both turned to each other at the end and we're like, that was fantastic. And I was like, thank God, this is my wife that I've married because I don't know what I would do. You know what I mean? Like it was just like, that was fantastic. And our ride home from the theater was confusion about why people didn't like it.

Yeah. It was like, she was like, I don't use this word very often, but it is so objectively good. Wow. That I don't know why it is rated the way it's rated. And she went and read some of the reviews, and she was like, I feel like these people saw a totally different movie than I saw. Yeah. I have to get out to see it.

I've, of course, just been interested in it because Tom Cruise hasn't made a, I wouldn't even call this a normal movie, but he hasn't made a non-Tom Cruise movie in a long time. Right. And he doesn't just make any old movie, you know. I wish I had the source on this post and apologies to the person who I'm not crediting, but I saw someone, a post about Digger and Kojima, a character named Digger Rockwell is the most Kojima shit that has not been by Kojima. Yeah, that's really is.

It's a real diehardman situation. Yeah, sort of like maybe like the reason he liked the movie. I know what this guy's about. Diggs rocks. You mentioned your wife, Mary, Heather, and like Kojima, another of our wisest voices out there. I have a little something that Mary sent over to the group chat. A while back, these are screen caps. A while back, we asked survival mom readers, what unusual items you all keep in your car or glove compartment that others might not.

Now, if you have a vehicle kit, you may not consider these unusual. If you don't have one, consider assembling one using the guidance in our emergency bag for your car post. There's a big list. Number 51 is 452, give or take, restaurant takeout menus. Wow, with three exclamation points. I want to say, it's number 51 on that list. But it's also 452 of them. I'm not crazy. Menus end up in people's glove box. I wish my wife cited with me.

I wish somebody in my life cited with me. I go from the podcast to my house, and I'm always the one wrong. You're just getting your ass kick. I just didn't fucking up. Dumb bitch. I didn't think that was going to come up. Seeing that in the text, which by the way, it's a rare thread. There's not a lot of action in there often.

But when it goes off. It's good. It's good. When I get a text and it's in that threat and I see that it's Mary Laws, I'm opening that motherfucker on the media. I gotta see what's going on. Where are we in the flow show? Have we talked about video games yet?

Well, that's actually an interesting thing that you bring up because this is a show about video games. It's one of the things we really like the most. I actually declared just before you got here. I didn't said this in a while, and maybe you're not aware of this. I freaking love the stuff. Yeah, I mean, you're Mr. Games. You should.

I love them, and I love talking about them. And we talk about them every week on this show. We sure do. And there's a question that gets asked each and every week. And that question is, what do you plan? What are you playing? What are you playing? How is me the resident?

And I'm here to ask my friends a question I always ask because it's my job. And that question is, what are you playing? That's what I do. I come in, I come over to the mic, I said, what are you playing? And I go back out into the night. Saxophones underscore every moment as I walk the streets of Los Angeles for a week straight. And then arrived back and had come to ask the question, what are you playing? That got very noir.

Yeah. And saxophones playing as you walk the empty streets of Los Angeles. except on TikTok when you hear the saxophones get louder and that whatever sound that is, people are like, that's bad. I don't know that. There's like a, there's like a,

you see this and then the saxophones are getting louder and they're playing this one song and like it's queued up to like when the saxophones are louder, you see something like bad or something. Oh, okay. You're kind of like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't want any of this. But I don't have a good example. No.

I mean, that does it. That's not far off though from like kind of the, I guess in noir, it's more used to, oftentimes convey like loneliness or just like the the experience of living

in a city but not too far off from what you're describing maybe less overtly horrific the mournful call of concrete right that's a good way to characterize the aching blister

of asphalt you have the soul of a poet under the heat of the sun and me what do these people want what are they thinking? Do they know the crime and lurks around every corner?

Do they know who's protecting them? Who can know? Who can ever know? Sometimes you make me really sad. Yeah, I mean, you don't seem to have an easy life. There seems to be some pain coming from deep within. Yeah, I just want to know that you're okay, man. Yeah.

I am okay You seem all right I'm fine I'm great Do you like this job more Or do you like selling weapons In the game?

Who I make a ranking That's true Hey We can like more than one thing I like this job more than I like working At a grocery store And here's the thing I like that too

Wow Do you have you seen Digger Digger The movie Yeah They won't let me know a lot of the theaters Yeah But look how you look

I wouldn't let you into the theater either Pretty suspicious I listen to it through the wall of the Chinese theater. Yeah. I couldn't tell what the fuck was going on. Yeah, not really a good way to experience it. You put a cup up to the wall and you kind of get a little sound like that.

What's that? You know how you can put a cup? People do that. Is that a thing? Yeah, I remember the cup to the wall. You put the cup to your ear. Okay. You put the base of the cup to the wall.

Okay. And you put your ear in the cup, I think. How does that work? Don't you get a lot of liquid in your ear? Well, there should be an empty cup. Yeah. Should be an empty cup. I don't know how it works.

I've never understood that. You're creating a small amplifier, kind of like the cone of a photograph. You're really smart. But that can go through, like, a hard surface. What? Like, like, that can go through a wood door. Well, it's a natural amphitheater that you're creating. I think it's just maybe a little bit believable enough.

So when you see somebody do it on a sitcom, you just don't ask any questions. You can do it for real. It was a real thing you could do. I think it's a thing only people did on sitcoms. No, you could do it. I love the It's fun to listen in, isn't it? Yeah, what's going on?

What are they talking about? What's going on over there? I don't say anything about me. Or maybe I do hope they do. Who are you listening to? I don't know. Just anyone? Anybody.

Yeah. Okay. Do you think the the Watergate tape when that was being recorded, the people were like, ooh, this is going to be good? I mean, I have to think so.

They're hoping it for it to be juicy. And then like all these There's like so the tape It's so much tape that it's just like it gets boring How many people do you think Have jerked off to the Watergate tape? What's uh? I know one for sure

I know two I love how many of those tapes are just like Nixon being drunk And like calling the governor of Ohio or whatever the fuck What's up bitch? You got any blue curacao over there brother

Well, it's time for me to head out in the night of Los Angeles. You're wearing a fedora now. Before I go and say hello to the lady of the evening, I ask my question, Nick Wager, what are you playing? Wow, Resident Evil, Merchant. Thank you so much for asking. And I'm excited to talk because I picked up an unexpected Jim that I've been hearing a lot of buzz about. It's called Dressmaker. Oh.

This is the cozy game of 2026. Wow. This game fucking rips. It's so fun. So this game was developed by a South African developer called Free Lives. And the story of this game is kind of interesting. I have a little bit of context here from a Guardian piece by Jordan Erica Weber. So Jonathan Howe Yun, who's a South African developer, is the, I believe the development lead of this.

Quote, when Jonathan Howe You wanted to make something as meaningful as the environmental strategy game, Teranil, Terranil was a previous game that involved, it was a reverse city builder, basically. Like you're turning barren wastelands into, you know, like ecosystems, you're rebuilding ecology as opposed to building infrastructure. That was the whole idea. Anyway, so as meaningful as an environmental strategy game, Teranil, which was their previous game, he turned for inspiration to his longtime partner. Sabrina Becker had worn a dress she made herself to their very first date and would have studied costume design abroad, had hypermobile Air Luz-Donlo's syndrome, don't know how to pronounce that,

a connective tissue disorder the author also has, not put those plans on hold. The pair developed a concept around the creative decisions involved in dressmaking, like trying to fit pattern pieces onto available fabric while observing the grain line, the direction of the thread, woven fabric. Other decisions followed, a 3D model on which to place garment pieces, buttons and trims with which to decorate them, clients with commissions as creative prompts, and so on. And I will just say as someone who loves fashion, but doesn't know any, I can't sew, and I don't really know anything about designing clothes or, you know, I only can appreciate fashion as an outsider. I don't have any sort of knowledge about how this shit

actually works. It really does introduce you to this, you know, this really creative field, this really creative hobby in a great bit of onboarding. And then once you're doing it, it's genuinely really, really fun to, like, take a pattern and then pick out fabric and then, like, use scissors to cut out the fabric portions that you're going to fit the, you get to, like, have levels of, like, you're trying to fulfill a customer's wants, but you also have a lot of creative liberty within that. So you're trying to fit within those parameters, but also like you're going to maybe decide

what colors you're going to use, what type of fabric we're going to use. You have a bunch of different dress designs which could potentially fulfill whatever the client is looking for. And then just also things like, this is my dumb ass and just not knowing anything. I didn't know with like a dress form that you could like you would measure somebody because they're actually like, like again, every step is represented in this. And this is part of what's great. Wow.

really gets granular. So like a client comes in, you're taking the clients like hips, waist and bust measurements, which they don't let me do in real life. So you're doing that, and then you're taking those measurements and you're applying to the dress form. And I didn't realize you physically reshaped a dress form to fit whoever you're trying to make something for. I mean, it makes sense. But I just didn't actually realize that. Then from that step, then you're picking out your fabrics, then you're, then you're designing, You're picking a design garment from a number of templates. And then you are cutting out patterns, stitching them together, and then finishing the dresses with things like, you know, like accessories.

So you can put like ribbons and buttons on these bad boys. Yeah. And again, it just has like a ton of creative freedom within it. So I don't know. I really, really like it. I'm surprised by how engaging I found it. It's gotten critical raves and the steam reviews are really, really engaged. by it.

I like this one. This is by the Mr. Jelly Bean. The Mr. Jelly Bean. Quote, I am a straight white man and this is my game of the year so far.

Absolutely incredible. Which, you know, again, I think like, the other end of the spectrum, Sleepy Kitty had the Steam Review. You have given old ladies with arthritis the gift of dressmaking again. I don't know.

It's just, it's kind of like one of those... It's one of those wholesome stories of just like someone who's like, oh, I want to develop this game that is for an audience. but also like for my partner and with my partner and you know it lets them do something that maybe they're not physically able to do again and then as such that that just going wide and everyone just being like we love this this is great more of this sort of thing so i really like it i'm gonna keep playing it and it's fucking when i'm playing something like fire emblem which is continuing to absorb my time it's such a great little side game from that which is the kind of thing i'm looking for is like oh i can just chill out with this for a little bit i can just enter a state of bliss and make some pretty dresses

I love that. That sounds great. Yeah, it's, I, I love it. And I, you know, again, I'm, I'm, I'm mildly late to the party on this one. This game came out in September. Yeah. But coming to it now, like, if anyone is interested in this type of experience and hasn't tried it yet, I mean, it's, it's fucking great. Wow.

Matt, what are you playing? Well, I'm still chipping away at Control Resonant. Wow. I'm really, really, really loving it. That's great. It is, it is fantastic. You know, because it's interesting because at the beginning of the game, I was sort of like, I did have this sort of moment where I was like,

am I going to like this? Because it is different. It's very different than the first control. You know, the first control, you're inside the oldest house in those offices and stuff. And you're going through all that stuff. And everything's kind of the same. There's like weird stuff in there to do whatever. This year in New York City.

And I was like, like, do I, I don't know if I need an entire like world map like for this. Right. And there's different sections that you go to and stuff. And they're all different. They're interesting enough. And then Jesse in the first game, I think, is a great, great video game protagonist because she just has like a no-nonsense attitude. She takes everything she sees that's insane in pretty good stride. And it's just like, I'm here to get shit done. I'm done fucking around. Dylan was kidnapped by, or, you know, captured by the FBC when he was a child. And he was a child and has been in a coma for the last seven years. He's an adult man now. But, you know, he's been also taken over by the hiss in the first game and stuff. And so they've experimented on

him. So he's a little bit stunted. And he's a little bit whiny at least at the start. And I was reading that the developers looked to Shinji and Evangelion for inspiration. And so I I was like, oh, like, he's Shinji-coded. I love Shinji. Do I want to play a Shinji in a video game? You know? I don't know. But I will say you do sort of make strides in your personality later on,

and you start, like, maybe like lightly standing up for yourself here and there. The abilities you get are really great. There's, like, a full, like, skill tree that you can have, where, like, you have the weapon, the aberrant, and that takes, three different forms and you can have a secondary form of that too and then finishing moves that there's like a lot of that too so you're always trying to increase your aberrant power um the melee is great like I was saying uh last week uh just really nice and fluid and like not every boss battle is like a souls like battle but some of them are souls like he like there was one that I was

playing this last week where I was like this feels like a resident evil boss battle kind of because it's like here's a big guy and then once the big guy is down these sort of like glowing like postules appear and you then attack those to take more of the health down that feels very resident evil to me for some reason

the story is really great the stuff that they can do with the physics in the game is insane like I was explaining the inception ability that you have basically where you can shift reality and like

not everywhere you go because it is one of those mechanics that you're like if you could do that everywhere the game would just be broken like you wouldn't need any of the other abilities but the places where you can do it it's really cool and then like there's platforming with it that you can do

that's extremely fun and I just there's like great songs in the game you find music and stuff that's it's really really great my favorite thing that I've done so far there's mold there's mold in the first one too

but there's mold in this one yuck yeah I don't care for the mold well everyone's telling you not to eat the mold don't eat it whatever you do don't eat it don't eat it you get a quest where you're kind of like

I think I'm gonna eat the mold and then you become kind of for at least the length of the quest obsessed with eating more of the mold and it's very funny but you're kind of like to what end is like what's gonna happen to him you get a mold power

wow there you go You can't control the mold, but you can now traverse. It's like a gated area thing that they don't want you doing early in the game. So now there's places that are blocked by mold that you can go through and stuff. And it's really, really cool. I'm having an absolute blast with it. Tough to say if it's going to, my top games this year are Mina the Hollower and Resident Evil Requiem. We'll see where this one ends up.

But it's, you know, it's close. I'm really, really, really digging it. I hope that it sticks the landing. Also, I read today that it sold a million copies, which feels like a lot, but maybe is not that much. But, like, I feel like for a game like this, a couple weeks out, that's pretty significant. I mean, that's 300,000 more units than the virtual boy sold, I believe, in its entirety. It's honestly the thing I don't really have a sense of anymore of, like, what is a success? Because, like, for a remedy game, obviously remedy keeps make, keeps cranking.

them out. They're doing something right. But what are their expectations for a new entry in the control franchise? Yeah. You know, it's, I have no idea. Like, Alan Wake 2 must have sold well enough for, like, but I, again, I have no sense of what the expectations are for something like that. I feel like I remember reading the Allen Wake sales figure, and it wasn't as big as I thought either. Like, they're always, it kind of feels like studios like this are always kind of skating by on the skin and their teeth kind of. There's always like, I hope this one is a big hit. I hope a million means something

still. That used to be one of the biggest numbers you could get to. Yeah. Remember when being a millionaire was like a whole thing? Yeah. I mean, I'd love to be a millionaire now. I love it. There was a whole game show where it's like, who wants to do that? Yeah, I know, who wants it? And that wasn't that long ago. No. But still, like, now the idea of like, if I had a million dollars, it wouldn't be like,

well, all my problems are solved. I got one million dollars. Sort of be considered poor. I could almost buy a house. Not even. Actually, no, I couldn't. I actually could not. I'll just buy as much avocado toast as I could ever want. You could put a down payment of a house if you had a million dollars.

Yeah, and I hope you can still work. Yeah. But that's what I'm playing. I really, really love it. I remember my grandpa, sorry, but just on that, I remember my grandpa saying when I was a kid, like, when he was a kid, if you had a million dollars, it would be like, like, you'd have, You think it was more money that you could ever spend in your life. Yeah. Which is just inconceivable, the less scale.

It's like having a trillion dollars. How does it cost $16,000? We live in fucking hell. It's horrible. I do want to finish the game at some point. Obviously, I'm going to finish this thing. Because I know that you didn't really love the first control, Heather, but I kind of, there's something about this one that I'm like,

I think Heather could do this one. Okay. Because the combat is so you-coded. Well, look, I... Again, I played all the way to the final boss of the last one. Yeah. And I was like, this is fine. It's fine.

Like, it's, I think there are just things that resonate with us. Yeah. And at no point did I ever say this game is bad. No. Like, I thought it was a good game. Just didn't speak to you. I just didn't speak to me. Has Mary played Allen Lake 2?

No. I think Mary would really love Alan Wake 2. Okay. I think she would like it more than you would like it. All above the text thread. Okay. The One more thing I meant to say about two more things I meant to say about dressmaker

Yeah One, the actual process of sewing of using a sewing machine Has like this mixture of like precision and like tension Because you're trying to get the stitching right Yeah, and you can change the speed of the sewing machine But also your patterns don't all involve just straight lines Some of them have curves And so you're like trying to use you know my case my

I'm trying to use my mouse to like you know like arc this this a, you know, the shoulder area of a dress to make sure it's the correct form. And it's like, it's really satisfying when you do it right. But then it's also like a little bit of like, well, shit, I don't want to fuck this up. I only have so much fabric. That's, that's really engaging and that made me want to like so in real life, which I always feel like is the sort of thing of like anytime this game, anytime these games that are abstraction is a reality makes me want to do the real thing. I feel like it's really succeeding. But the other thing is, and I'm a PC gamer. I have a rig at home, but I use a MacBook for work. And so that's usually the computer I

have on me if I'm out of the house. This game is on MacOS, which is not all a steam releases, especially when they're brand new or are on Mac. So for a casual game like this, it's nice that it's basically operating system neutral. One of the most fantastic things that could ever happen on this show, I think, is if in like a couple of months, Wiger comes in, is like, this is the dress that I made. Like, because he was so inspired to do it that he actually made it. I should make a dress. Yeah, you could be like the Phantom Thread.

God, man, that would be awesome. Great movie. It's no Digger. I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, yeah. I haven't even seen it. I know that. All the movies I like such shit compared to Digger. I haven't seen the damn thing.

I shouldn't say that about Phantom Threat. Heather, what are you playing? Well, I've had a busy week, but I will say that I got to play. three rounds of Fortnite. Oh. And every other available video game moment and minute that I had was dumped into Star Wars Galactic Racer. Let's go. I have yet to beat the next section of the story.

In part because when you walk away from that game. So when I got through the first two sections of the game, I was in like flow state. Like I was connected to my my fucking vehicle. I knew exactly how it felt to take these corners. I knew how much lead time I had to give to drifting. Like I was part, like I was in flow state with the car. You step away from Star Wars Galactic Racer and you come back to it and it's like you've never driven ever before in your life. I would constantly crash.

I'd constantly forget what buttons did what. I'd be colliding with shit, bursting into flames, exploding. Then you find your pattern. You get back into it. You find your rhythm. And you're like, oh, I got it. I got it. I got it.

But I still couldn't get a run going that was good enough where I was able to beat the dude at the final round of this, of this next section. So I was like, maybe I'm not supposed to be using this vehicle. Maybe I'm supposed to be using one of the other two. But I hadn't upgraded the other two because I was so singularly focused on mastering this first vehicle. So I switched to a different vehicle and played that for a while. But it was taking so long to level up that vehicle is capped at like level 15. And I'd capped the first one at 15, right? So I level it up.

I level it up. I get to like level eight on this new vehicle. And I was like, fuck, I don't have enough time to do this. I have to just beat this. So I went back to my first vehicle. And again, because I'd been playing with a different vehicle, I couldn't drive that car again. I just crash all over the place. Nothing is funnier than crashing in that game and hearing one of those little guys go,

It's so good. It's so good. It's so good. I think about it. I want to be able to play it. I want to have time to play it. It's totally got its claws in me. I've abandoned everything else that I'd been playing.

Because I'd, you know, starting this new persona run. That was going well. Chrono trigger, nope. I haven't put any time into that. Wow. I haven't put any time into God of War. I haven't put any time in, like none of them. Yeah.

All of them pushed away by Biddy Blaze. Scrib Dune. Biddy Bers! I mean, he's goaded. Wait, what? He's goaded. He's goaded. One of the best moments in my marriage is Mary's working in the other room.

She's working really hard. And I'm cooking dinner. And it's late. She's going really late at work. And she finally finishes. And I've just been in the kitchen basically doing Scrib Dune by myself as I'm cooking. Like, M-R-R-Scrib Dune. So she finishes her meal

And I shout At the, or not her meal, her work, she finishes her work. And in order to call her into the kitchen, I shout at the top of my lungs. Ding dong, pokey, ding dong! And from the other room, she goes, What the fuck was that? And I go, that's my new little guy. And she goes, what is that?

And I'm like, he's from the racing game. And I explain. And she goes, he is not in our marriage. Then about 45 minutes goes by. And the thing about why he's memetic is the way he speaks in the words he say, get in your brain like earworms. And we're eating dinner. And she just goes, ding dong pooky, ding dong. And she's like, it is fun to say, isn't it?

And I'm like, yeah, it is. And she's like, I hate it. And I'm like, yeah, it's good, though. And I showed her a video and she's like, I hate the way he looks. And I'm like, I know he's ugly. He really scratches his particular itch for me, though, where every time I see him, I'm the happiest I've ever been. Yeah.

He's an absolute delight. I love it. But now, ding dong, puky, ding dong is part of our marriage. Yeah, of course. And it will be until she's like, okay, that's enough of this. She'll hear it one more time, maybe. The delight of me shouting it from the other room, you just hear, what the fuck was that? I have to close a loop that I started earlier.

Uh-oh, okay, great. The Dodgers will not be going to the World Series. Sorry about that, Matt. It's okay. I was declaring Dodgers in seven. Yeah, get a, yeah, whatever. One, two dead holes in a row, you know. Matt, I'm sorry.

But I am sorry about that. It's okay. Sex when your favorite team gets eliminated. Man, I'm really sorry. What thing you do? That's the journey of the sport out. I've only put all my money into the team, but it's whatever. I did hear that they were throwing it on purpose.

No, they can't do that. They wouldn't do that. They wouldn't do it. Sean, are you a Star Wars guy at all? I was actually born on May 4th, which is National Star Wars. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Christmas time. But it's one of those things that went over my head until very recent. Honestly, I watched the first one and I realized oh wait, this is like an actual movie. This is not just a bunch of lines shellacked together by like Peter Griffin saying to it's like I've seen so many parodies. Yeah. And pastiches of Star Wars that I watched the movie and I was like, oh right, this is a movie.

And so I think because of that because I didn't like grow up with it, it never really glommed on to my soul. Right. There's definitely, I mean like they, for my generation. I feel like it was like you'd learn about references through The Simpsons, you know? And it'd just like, it'd be like, oh, okay, I don't, I don't know what the fuck Citizen Kane is, but I'm seeing this Rosebud reference for the first time. I'm curious about like, like, have you messed around with Star Wars Galactic Racer? No, I don't know if I have a system that can reliably play it.

I have a Steam deck. Is it on Steam Deck? I don't know if it's Steam Deck compatible. I think it is on Steam Deck. But I don't know if I don't know how playable it is on there. Okay. But if you have an Amazon Prime account, you can play it on Amazon Luna. Maybe. Maybe I do.

I hate plugging the service. Yeah. It's available. It's there. Racing games are, I assume, not really your thing. You're not really as much of a Twitch gamer. Well, okay, I said I'm not much of a fast Twitch gamer. It's more in terms of what I, the vibe of game that I, or I guess, when I'm sitting down

to play a game, it is usually like, it's at the end of the day. I've taken one fourth of an edible because that's all I can handle. And I put on like a YouTube video and I'm. playing something. So I say I'm not a fast-switch gamer, but I played Hades 2 hundreds of hours. Hell yeah.

It's more so just like I'm not a person who can devote their attention to, I don't want to say, that's a limiting belief. But you know what I mean? That makes sense.

I get exactly what you're saying. At least with Hades 2, too, that's a game you can easily put down and pick back up. Exactly. Whereas like maybe something like Eldon Ring or something is maybe, well, didn't you play Eldon Ring?

I did play Alden Ring. We talked about this before. I can't come up an example that fits your thing but I understand what you mean though But if your question No I'm not a racer

Got it I've never been good at racing games My friend has He has like a full rig And he's sat me down in it A couple times And I've tried And I'm just really bad at it

Is there a thing Like just just so we can understand The difference split here Is there like a game That you like maybe Have purposefully excluded Or decided like that's not for me Because it doesn't fit your

Gaming criteria Any first person shooter Okay okay That helps me understand. I grew up with a Wii and so I was never good at any kind of Halo, any Call of Duty, anything like that. Got it. It's interesting you mentioned the driving rig because our friend, past guest, Garek Bernard, I was talking to him this morning. Yeah.

And Garrick is like loves racing games but also like legitimately races cars. Like he's like a gearhead. And he's been loving Galactic Racer. And what was interesting hearing from his perspective is a big part of what he liked was is the arc of having a starting with a shitty car and then gradually upgrading it piece by piece and figuring out how to drive it, figuring out to like it. Because he's like that's what the real experience is, unless you're someone like Kistar Bull, who's like this NEPO guy comes from this rich family who has just gifted this. Kestaboo. Yeah, who's just gifted this like, you know, fancy pants landspeed or whatever the fuck. Like, you're just like trying to make do with whatever gear you can get your hands on.

I was like, oh, that's really interesting because it is part of the fun as well. Look, I said it last week and it seemed a little crazy. We're talking about it again. This game is a game of the year contender. No, I think it's up there. I already know my ranking is Pocopio at one and Galactic Racer at 2. Yeah. The question is, is Grand Theft Auto going to be number three?

Right, yeah. Because I've never I've never really Really Nick Sorry keep going I've never really loved a brand theft auto And I'm pretty sure this won't be the one that I love Because when I look at it

I'm not excited about it I'm just like I'm nervous Oh man this is a lot of shit Yeah And also it seems like It seems like you can't just go out Like you can't just start the game and kill somebody anymore It feels like that shit's going to haunt you

You. Not to plug another podcast, but the great triple-click podcast had a really interesting, in-depth episode because Jason went to, like, the Rockstar office and interviewed a lot of people and stuff. They were talking about some of the design choices and concessions they had to make a lot of long way. Really, really, really interesting. You can't just go up and shoot random people in Red Dead. Yeah. Why would they make Grand Theft Auto any different? You can, and you can't unfortunately kill your car like you can kill your horse. So there's not a. even like a I get a good withhold saying as anything substantial and I actually play this bad boy but in general,

Grand Theft Auto games have been games I've appreciated but I've accepted that they're not really for me. Yeah, same. So I'm guessing that by the sheer tonnage of work on display, it'll probably be my third

best game of the year, but Galactic Racer beat it out already. The only way Grand Theft Auto 6 stands a chance with me is if you can make a pretty, pretty dress. The thing is, you might be able to. You might be able to. ScribDune might be in it.

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We're talking Castlevania this week. The reason we're talking Castlevania is the release, as of this recording today, of Castlevania, Belmont's curse. It will have been out for a weekend when you listen to this episode, if you're listening to it on its first day of availability. It was developed by, you know, an evil empire with a help from motion twin. Motion Twin, or do I have those backwards? Whichever studio did, yeah, no, evil, you know, it's, it's a motion, yes, that's what it is. Evil Empire made post-launch content for dead cells and Motion Twin created dead cells. So Motion Twin is working in concert with Evil Empire on this game.

And there was a Dead Cells Castlevania expansion, which obviously explains this lineage as well. it is a 2D Metroidvania and we got rose Belmont in of the Belmont clan I have not gotten a chance to play this yet I was I was hoping I would have had some some some time but unfortunately that's not how my schedule worked out today Matt you you got to mess around with this game a little bit I messed around a little bit with the demo I will be picking up the the full release because I strangely have never played a full Castlevania game before even though I would say say one of my favorite genres of games is Metroidvania's. I love them. They're really fun,

but I've only played the Metroid side of it. I've played quite a few Metroid games, but have not ever dabbled with Castlevania. I had not dabbled is not true. I've like definitely started a bunch of different like Castlevania runs in like the Game Boy Advance era on, you know, various emulators and things like that. And I actually do I think I own every available Castlevania game on Switch. So they have the original collection that comes with like eight games,

the advanced collection that has four, and the Dominus collection, which is the DS games, which also has four games in it. So not counting the, or if you include the new one, that's 17 available Castlevania games on Switch that I could play at my leisure whenever I want.

And I think that's most of them. Yeah. What you're basically saying is you've never actually, you've never finished a castle meeting. I've never put much serious time into it. I've like always maybe done the intro stuff that you do in some of these games. I did play the demo. I didn't finish the demo, but I started it and I was messing around with it a little bit.

It feels so good. It's just exactly what you want in a game like this where like you, I felt kind of not overpowered, but I felt capable already. I like the way it looks. there seems to be like a card like almost like a tarot sort of thing going on with your magic ability that you have

and it's just good vibes I really really like it I like the movement and the the combat feels good and the traversal feels great and I'm excited to see what else the game has to offer but I was really enjoying the opening minutes of that

also a beautiful animated intro cutscene. It's like one of the nicest like cutscenes I've ever seen. It was like a, it looked gorgeous. Wow. It was just unbelievable. Wow. Castlevania is an interesting franchise.

Yeah. Because, and I say this as someone who's played most Castlevania as, uh, finished a number of them. I really love this. I really love some of these, some Castlevania games. But it's, there is a real schism in the franchise, but yet these things kind of coexist. In a similar way, it's interesting, the Metroid side of Metroidvania. Also, as a portmanteau, Metroid gets all of Metroid, Castlevania, just gets the vania? It reminds me of

one of my favorite Norm MacDonald jokes where he says, like, the abbreviation ID, the D's doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I stands for I. D stands for dentification. Good joke. RIP. RIP. So there's a classic vania. which are the, you know, like Castlevania 1 and basically everything up until Castlevania Symphony of the Night. But those are those are just like linear games with like like levels and, you know, usually like left to right movement and like intensely difficult combat and platforming and versus the Metroidvania's, which happened after Castlevania Symphony the Night. And those are, you know, like we know what this genre is now. There's so many games that are in this mold. But it was a huge swing for Symphony Night to make that alteration.

And it's interesting that like, like Metroid, this is where I was going earlier, like Metroid where you have both 2D Metroids and 3D first person Metroids that peacefully coexist and fans of the series like both. Castlevania is kind of the same sort of thing. People like one more than the other. But there's, I feel like there's less of like fuck those game. Fuck the, fuck the Metroidvania's. Give me the classic climate of Castlevania's.

You know, I feel like everyone just kind of appreciates all of it. But what's interesting, too, is that in naming those collections, I did realize, actually, that Symphony of the Night is not on any of those collections, and it's not available on Switch at all for some reason. Yeah, it's interesting. Symphony the Night for a long time was, and I guess we could get into it now, Symphony Night was the second or third game I bought for my PlayStation when I got one. and I was one of those games where I was like, I saw it got good reviews and I was like,

I like Castlevania's and oh, this one's kind of like Metro. Okay, let me see what it's like. And then I play it and I'm like, this is fucking incredible. Yeah. I played the shit out of the game, you know,

finished shit, it got in the high 100 percentages. I forget exactly what the completion completion percentages of that game. Things like the castle, the whole castle turning upside down are just such like staggering, it's such a staggering moment. when you're experiencing it for the first time and you're not expecting it. It's just a fucking, it's a triumph.

It's a masterpiece. It's an all-timer. And I wish we could play music on this show. Unfortunately, you know, it's harder and harder to get to get away with that without your episodes being demonetized. But the soundtrack for Castlevania Symphony Night is like one of the best soundtracks ever. The score is so fucking good. It's incredible. Yeah.

Also, there was a Saturn port that had additional content. What? Port? Yeah, the original version was on PlayStation. Then it goes to Saturn, right? Or was the Saturn version first? I thought they were released simultaneously in Japan. Maybe they're simultaneous.

What, is Sonic in the Sega one? No, no. I got to know. I got to know. Because I played it on Saturn. It was on both, basically. And you're playing as Alucard, who's, you know, a Dracula's son. I love that out of course

is just Dracula backwards. I'm gonna name my firstborn Tam. Yeah, the future's looking bright for Tam. Yeah, Tam's gonna be all right. Tam's gonna be doing good. Like, so you take the, it starts with the Rondo of Blood opening. I'm sorry, the Rondo of Blood ending is the opening of this game, which also is like just a real cool.

That is really, really cool. I had not played Rondo of Blood when I played this for the first time, but learning that later, I was like, oh, this is fucking awesome. You're playing the Richter, Belmont, Dracula, fight. And then you come back as Dracula, and then you're just exploring the castle trying to get all your shit back. In a way, you kind of beat it. You did kind of beat the robin. In a way, you kind of beat it.

Yeah. So you can kind of say, hey, I did beat it actually. Because you do do it. It's also, and I know this is such a trope. And I'm sure someone can point out an earlier instance of this. But it's the first time I can remember a game starting with a convention of like, I'm beginning overpowered. I'm walking in. I'm just absolutely fucking shredding everybody.

And then, whoops, all your stuff's gone. Now you're back to square one. you're not going to get back to that level till the end game. God of War II, you start with like all your shit and then you get your shit rocked. But when you have all your stuff, it's like, man, this is fucking...

What if the whole game was just... This is fucking crazy. How do you build on this? Like, you know it's become of cliches now it's even feel stale, but it felt fresh in 1997. Yeah, for sure. It's like, oh, the fuck, this is something new, at least to me.

My first experience with Castlevania Symphony of the Night was that, when I worked at a video game store, when I was a child, so crazy that you're allowed to do that. I don't think you are anymore. What? I don't think kids,

do kids work still? Yeah, they're making it like they're lowering the ages. Is that true? I'm not paying attention. Wait, let me look up when the, what this happened,

because I remember there was specifically Sarah Huckabee, the fucking god-awful governor of, you know, Arkansas or wherever the fuck. she like she signed legislation that like lowered the age of the age

that I like repealed child labor laws Jesus let me see what exactly what it was but sorry keep going but when I worked at the video game store one of the perks of it at electronics boutique was that you got to open a game

take the game home play it and then you would put it back in the packaging and re shrink wrap it which now given now that video game sealed copy is such a like, you know, grail for so many people.

It's funny to know that a lot of these copies back in the 90s were being open and then re-srunk wrapped. Yeah, that's interesting. That being said, I played Symphony of the Night because somebody in the store had to know what it was like. And neither of the other employees was interested. And I went home and put it in my PlayStation and I was like, oh, my God, this is great. What the fuck is happening?

This is so good. And then, like, would come back and put it back in the case and bring it back to work and reseal it. And then I'd be like, yeah, it came as. It was just amazing. What a scam. And they'd be like, why is this child telling me? You're like, your glasses are too big and you have to keep adjusting them. The law, which was passed in 2023, signed by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, removed the requirement that they had to verify the ages of children, It's called the Youth Hiring Act of 2023.

Man, I got to start paying attention to the news. What else is going on? Children under 16 don't have to get the Division of Labor's permission to be employed. The state also no longer has to verify the age of those under 16 before they can take a job. But that's what makes America work. But you sing, you sing Electronics B boutique, I miss E.B. Games. Walking into an E.B. Games was like, what a store that was. I liked it a lot more than I like GameStop.

Yeah, I mean, like. Better vibe. Like, hey, I'm glad GameStop at least exist in some form, although it's going to go completely away, I'm sure, when games are fully digital. It's just going to become a fucking trading card company. That's what it seems like it is right now. Fungo Pops. Yeah, fungo pops. Yeah, exactly.

But, like, man, I used to love the feeling of going into a fucking game store. Yeah. There were a bunch of them. There was Babbage's what you worked at? No, I worked at Electronics Petit. I actually worked at a variant, which was in the high end. It was like the fancy mall electronics boutique. It was called EBX.

Okay. So it had like oak wood and like teal instead of like whatever the colors. Like it had a different aesthetic that was not Apple Store, but certainly in the tone in the direction of Apple Store. Yeah. There was specifically in I think in Cerritos, Cerritos, California, there was a there was like just a PC software store. And you go in, it was just boxes of PC software, and they had a huge game section. I remember going on there as a kid

and just like looking around all the fucking boxes. Because also back then it was like box art was part of like, how are we going to take up shelf space? How are we going to track eyeballs? Because like people were finding out about games by going into a store and being like, what's that? So it was like such a different experience. Well, now you go into one.

It's like you're lucky if there are any games there. Like it's crazy. Yeah. Anyway, that nostalgia side. Or while we're talking nostalgia, I guess let's step all the way back to the original Castlevania, which starts on the Famicom Disc System in Japan. It starts as, I have the title here and the translation. I believe it's Akamajou Dracula, which translates as Demon Castle Dracula is what it's called in Japan.

Akumajo Dracula, yes. And what basically happens is that somebody at Konami and or Nintendo, is like we can't have Demon Castle Dracula as a game that we release in the United States of America so it becomes Castlevania. It's one of those things

where localization it doesn't always happen, but sometimes, you know, rock man becoming Mega Man in the U.S. is like, I don't know, that's kind of better. And I kind of like, like, I do like the title,

Acumajou Dracula, and I do like that the games are just called Dracula over there, the franchise. That's cool. But, like, Castlevania is kind of cool, right? Yeah, do you think, Do you think Rockman was about Digger?

Matt, that's a great question. I mean, it might as well be. Now it is. Now it is. Well, what's interesting about Rockman as a concept is, you know, when it's Cutman and Windman and everything, it implies that Mega Man's power is rocks. Yes. That's what it makes you think of, but I believe it's meant to be more like rock and roll.

Like, I'm the rock man because that explains the role as well as, you know, is his buddy. Can I shout out, oh, we were. You were about to talk about original NES Castlevania. I was going to say that the Game Boy advanced Castlevenias are fucking great. They're fucking great. And those are in the Metroidvania mold. And, you know, those are awesome. I mean, Circle the Moon.

I remember fondly. I played one, like, I had one of the other ones at the time. Ari of sorrow. I think it was Ari of Sorrow, and then I think I missed. Harmony of Dissonance. No, I had Harmony of Dissonance and then I missed Ari of Sorrow. Circle of the Moon? Yeah, Circle the Moon was the first one.

The Circle the Moon is awesome. But they're all great. Anyway, so the Castlevania One comes out. It's very much like the linear sort of, you know, like mold of the classicvania. I mean, it's like establishing what the franchise is. Interestingly, the sequel, which is Castlevania II, Simon's Quest, is a much more sprawling, like, kind of like open world game. I had this as a kid, and it's kind of confounding. It's much, much easier than Castlevania One in terms of actual, like, gameplay, in terms of

combat, but it has things like a day night cycle. Wow. It has like kind of, it has puzzles in it, like, like, like actual like, like, oh, I have to, honestly kind of like dark soulsy. Like, like, like, like, I have to read this thing. You know, I have to read this, read something somewhere. I have to get this clue from this villager and then I have to have this specific item in my inventory, you know, and then I have to do this specific thing.

There's a puzzle that involves like kneeling at a certain spot that I think I probably just read how to do in like a Nintendo, like, strategy guide or whatever. whatever the fuck. But that was a game I didn't finish Castlevania 1 as a kid, but I did finish Castlevania 2 as a kid. And then Castlevania 3, I also finished Castlevania 1. I didn't finish that game until much later on amulators because it was just so fucking hard.

Yeah. Yeah, go on. Is, I mean, is Symphony of the Night like the one? Yeah, it's the best one. That's the one. That's the totemic as Castlevania. That's like the most important game in the franchise. And it's beautiful.

It's gorgeous. But Castlevania 3 is awesome. Castlevania 3 is like you have multiple player characters. So you start off as a Belmont. I think you're Trevor Belmont in that one. And then Aloucard actually makes his first appearance in the franchise in Castlevania 3. There's also like a thief you can crawl walls and then a mage, who I believe becomes a character who reappears in the series. I will say that some of the reviews of this new Castlevania, like GameSpot has said it's crazy that in 2026 we've now added.

a second great Castlevania game and that it ranks with Symphony of the Night. Wow. I hope that's the case. I've downloaded it last night and have been playing it and it absolutely rips. That's great. It's so good.

Are you a fan of Castlevania as a series? Metroidvania is by far my favorite genre, Holland is my favorite game of all time. Wow. I had never played a Metroid or a Castlevania until last night. Wow. That's amazing. Because I think the genre is good.

And we've been eating recently, because the Prince of Persian one is great. The Ori and the Will of the Whisp or in the Blind Forest also great. There's plenty of great modern ones that take those conventions and apply them to new exciting games. Well, I know it's slightly orthogonal, but, you know, I mean to the hollow are coming out this week. This year is certainly very much owes some of its DNA to Castlevania. Yeah. So, did Castlevania, you know, there's a bunch of NES ones that I never played. There's some arcade Castlevania's too

that you don't have different reputations. Have any of us played the Kojima Castlevania? I have not. Neither of I. That one, fuck, what is it called? It's 2010. Yeah. And he produced it.

I don't think he didn't much else, but he was a named producer on the game. Yeah. Castlevania Lords of Shadow. Lords of Shadow. You know what? Good title. Great title. That's really good.

Yeah, I don't know how that one was received. I mean, this is the whole thing. My biggest gap in terms of Castlevania is once they go 3D. Because I played Castlevania for N64, Castlevania is 64. And I was just like, I'm out. I don't like how this feels. I don't like how this controls. That's why it seems like Castlevania to me.

I'm out. Yeah. And then they made a bunch of them. They made some for PS2. They made some for PS3. And the franchise is just dormant for a while. But I don't know. I just never felt like those really captured the spirit of the 2D games.

Yeah, I mean, the look of these games is, like, just so great. Because, like, I think they're sort of, like, they're not scary, but they lean a little spooky kind of, like, they're Gothic. They're got, like, and everybody is, like, all the characters are sort of, like, androgynous and beautiful. Yeah. And they're just like, it's, the powers are great, like, or, you know, the, the weapons you get and stuff is good. I like the way Heather You should at least download the demo

Of this new one It's really great But I'm thinking of picking up A physical copy of this bad boy Because I think it's awful I got racing to do Well I forgot Scrib Dune to you and yours

I got a Scrib Dune Yeah It's crazy how long The Castlevania timeline is If you investigate it It begins in 1094 And it ends in 2036 In our future

In the future yeah You know what? I love shit like that. I think it's fucking great. That rocks. No, I think that's awesome. Super Castlevania 4, remember fondly, for the Super Nintendo. The Game Boy ones I mentioned, I never got around to playing.

And it wasn't until years later because it was a PC engine exclusive, I believe, that I got around to playing Rondo of Blood, which is a very cool game. Heather, do you ever mess around with Rondo of Blood? I did not play Rondo of Blood. I like the word Rondo of Blood. Rondo. Rondo is a, it's a musical form. Oh, yeah. Rondo, oh.

Don't want to hear that note of blood, you say? Get that out of my, get that out of my arrangement. I did have a point that I was trying to get to and I don't remember not what it was. Oh, the great thing about some of these collections that have all the games, they usually include a game that has never been released in English before. for some reason. And so on the one that is like all the original ones, they have Kid Dracula, which was never released in the States. Which is kind of funny.

It's like they're making their own like, you know, cartoon version of their own game. Yeah, they have that. And then there's a couple on the advanced one and on the Dominus one, there's ones that were also never released. And I think that's just really cool. Good way to get those out there. I think these, I mean, I just, you know,

we've talked about collections before. I'm a sucker for a collection because I think it's the best way to preserve these things. Because if there's not a... That's why I want Symphony of the Night on there because I'm like, then I'll have all... I'll have all the ones worth playing. It'd be great. Yeah. Rondo of Blood basically is like kind of like the perfection of like the classic Castlevania.

Yeah. Like linear sort of format. I've never finished Rondo of Blood, but I've messed around with it. And I thought it was a very cool, really... And it's got some... What was it's re-released? God, I should have this in my notes. I'm doing a bad job.

Anyway, the Rendo Blood, pretty significant game. Heather, did you play Bloodlines for the Genesis? That was, I think, the one Genesis exclusive. I did play it, but it did not. I didn't take to it. And I remember the music being good, but I don't. The truth is that my Castlevania experience over the course of my life has never been that of. what I would call a fan, but I've owned the games.

I've played the games. I've played a lot of hours of the games. Right. But I've never, I would never be like, oh, I can't wait till the next Castlevania comes out, but I do appreciate them. Does that make sense? It makes total sense. So I may think you know that answer to this one. Did you ever play Castlevania Resurrection for the Sega Dreamcast?

No, I didn't. No. Yeah. In fact, no one did because it was canceled due to the failure of the Dreamcast. You didn't have to do that, Nick. How did I end up in a place where when I was young, I was bullied for liking video games, and now I'm on a video game podcast and I'm still being bullied? What is happening?

Look, I bought a Dreamcast at launch. That's a cell phone as well. But, yeah, that was a game that was like planned and was canceled. I think it was supposed to be... It was on the box, I think. No, yeah, for sure. Like, it was like, it was very much, like, hyped for a while. It was heavily hyped and then never actually released.

What is the future of... At this flashpoint in history, if they're like, you know what? We're digging in. We're gonna... This thing didn't... Is it not doing it? It's not selling the way we want it to, but we're standing strong on this thing. Yeah.

And then they do get a game out like that. Maybe people like it. And then they... advise them some goodwill and they still keep going. It's interesting to think about. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if there's even a playable build anywhere that's ever been leaked, but, you know, it was never commercially released for sure. Heather, you mentioned the Game Boy Advance one.

So basically, you know, yeah, Simony Night comes out, like, is an absolute triumph. Weirdly, like, doesn't sell very well at the time, even though it has this long tale of influence and everyone's just like it's so critically revered. But when it comes out, it's just kind of like, it's kind of a whiff. I think part of that is that it's the era where we're kind of pivoting from 2D to 3D. And so it feels like kind of like, you know what? It's kind of like the Street Fighter 3 sort of thing of like this is like a perfected version of like 2D gaming. But it comes out so late in the life cycle of 2D gaming that it takes a long time for people to come around to it.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know there's a perfect comparison. But it feels like that was happening in this era. It was before. So there was this idea when three. 3D gaming was happening that this was the next, that this was the evolution of gaming and that 2D gaming was a, was something we had gone beyond.

Yeah. Right? We don't need it anymore. And now we finally come to a place where it's like, no, 2D gaming is a kind of gaming. Yes. And at the time there was this like defensiveness. It's like, oh, you're playing a 2D game. Oh, the Saturn can do 2D games.

Yeah. Like, don't you want 3D games? Well, it's the same of like, people who look to. down on animation for some reason. Like, when you're watching an animated movie, that's for kids. Right. You're watching a cartoon. And like, actually, I'm watching one of the greatest movies ever made.

Shrek to. Idiot. A game I got that I remember enjoying was Castlevania Chronicles for the PlayStation 1. And what that was was a, so Acumajo Dracula got re-released in 1993 for the Sharp X-68,000 home computer that I think was only released in Japan. And so then they just they just ported that thing that was like never available obviously in North America in any form. And it's basically just like, you know, again, like an enhanced version of the original Castlevania. But also in this era we're starting to see, yeah, we have Castlevania for the N64 that people are like pretty

split on. I certainly didn't care for it. And then, you know, we have the Game Boy advanced ones, which a lot are just kind of iterating on simply the night, but it was some of the very best Game Boy Advance games. Yeah. I mean, they had a, some of them were like, like, I remember they released a collection of them later,

and it had like this, it was like a cool collection, but it had absolutely hideous box art. Let's see if I can dig it up. Well, while you're looking for that, I was remembering that over on my pals of the besties show, they talked about the genre

Metroidvania's at one point, and that in Japan, The genre is called search action. Oh. Search action. Because you're often, you're looking around. And you're doing action? You're doing action.

I just think it's kind of interesting. I don't know, but it doesn't have a nice... Metroidvania is more fun to say. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. But search action is a little more to the point. Search action is pretty good. Search action.

Search action. Search action. Yeah, you're right. Pretty interesting. Why can't I find... Now the box art I'm finding it looks cool. Oh, okay, this is what I was looking for. Yes.

Oh, yeah, that sucks. This one sucks so fucking bad. What is it? Can I see? So this was the only way you could play Harmony of Dissonance and Air Ari of Sorrow or buy them for like less than $100 a piece for a time. What? Was the cast-

No, no, on Game Boy advanced, they were like the cartridges were scarce. So you like, like, yeah, you can, like after they met out for a few years, they became really hard to find. And then they re-released the Castlevania double pack. Look at this fucking box. fucking box art. It says Castlevania

double pack in like a sort of word art font and it has the... That's the worst thing I've ever seen. It's like two rectangles with the images for each game on it. And it's also funny because the art for these games is so notoriously beautiful that to reduce them into like postage stamps

in the middle of a box. And I do want to point out, it does say, like I said, it says Castlevania double pack on it but then also at the bottom of the box It says two games in one pack. What the fuck do you think double pack means? I didn't know that those were rare games. I got those games and the boxes still in my hole.

There was a hole here, now it's gone. Also, pack is misspelled. Yeah, they fucked up big time. They fucked up. I think that was like a thing. That was a convention for the time. They were doing pack as P-A-K. Lose the C, it's cleaner.

Exactly. That was their thinking. That's what they said. Poor Pac-Man's like, What am I now? What am I? What am I? He's Pa-Man.

What have I become? My sweetest friend. All right. Do we like... How do you feel about whips? I love it. I think I like whips. Whip it good, I say.

I like wips, but I'm also like, do I only like wips in Castlevania? Because I'm drinking where I'll say, like a whip. I didn't know that. That could be my answer. I think I do only like them in Cassavadia. Indiana Jones got it. That's cool.

Indiana Jones got it. I didn't play the Indiana Jones game, but... I played a little bit of it. How was a whipping? Whippin good. Okay, all right. So maybe in certain contexts. I don't like whips.

Not even in Castlevania. I don't really like them in Castlevania. I mean, my favorite Castlevania is don't have whips. What about the construction of a whip? Like the way they're made. I think they're interesting. I think they're interesting. I think outside of Indiana Jones, I don't like them.

They're dangerous. They're like a kind of weapon. When you use a sword, there's no chance that the tip of the sword's going to come back at you all of a sudden. Yeah, not the way you're doing it. What? I'm willy-nilly with these damn things.

But a whip, a whip feels like, okay, I'm using it and I'm trying to get it over there. Yeah. But there is an option for the whip to come back and get me. I do like the noise it makes. Oh, great noise. I love that. Yeah, I do like the noise it makes.

We're also talking, like, you know, because, yes, Ilocard is more of a blade guy, but you get like... So is Blade. So is Blade. And they're both half vampire. Makes you think. A lot of commonalities.

There's a... That's a free idea, by the way. Yeah, that's a free idea. A Blade game that is just... It's just Blade but Castlevania. Sounds fun. I'd play it. I'd do it. I'd do it.

Why not? Sure. As far as the... Unless he's got a whip. There you go. Well, if you give him a whip, I don't want it. Get out of there. Call it whip then for all I care.

The subweapons... Yeah, Blade should be called whip. if he's got a whip. The subweapons, you got the boomerang, which is shaped like a cross. I do love how, like, how, like, Christian these games are. It's part of the fun.

You're throwing holy water. I like how much vampire survivors was like, we're just doing that. No, that's great. That's our stuff. It's fucking awesome. So you get that, you've got the,

you got the axe that you throw in an arc. You got the dagger you throw straight away. I don't know, a lot of cool weapons of the franchise. It's really good stuff. You're using Hart's currency. See? And of course we got to talk about wall meat. Wall meat's pretty good. Wall meat. Wall meat. You break open a chunk of wall and there's a meal in there.

It's meat. And it heals you. I mean, I love every part of that. Would you, if you were doing something to your house, right? Yeah. You break down some drywall and you saw inside the wall a glistening, healthy looking, full turkey like doesn't look rotted

no looks like it's hot to the touch was just cooked yeah but it was inside your wall is there anything that could get you to take a bite of that turkey I think I would

I think I would I think you would I think I would I think I would have too much awareness to know that something's happening to me that I'm something's wrong you know

I might think I might first thought am I in a coma You know, like, Yeah, I'd be like, no, I'm having a very interesting stroke. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, when I snap out of it, I'm eating fucking fiberglass. A key figure in the Castlevania franchise who comes around in, I believe Symphony

of the Night is her first game of involvement, is a different Kojima, Iami Kojima. and just like kind of defines the look of the series from that point on I mean look at this fucking art Look at how gorgeous it is I got a few tabs up of Of a looking at the collar on that

On that coat though Right right I know it's so But it's so great It's so maximalist The use of color You would see at the Lucas Museum It really is it's absolutely gorgeous Look at this fucking shit

This is like I think You know what that frame is I love the gothic aesthetic for some reason I mean, not for some reason. It's beautiful. But every time I see it, I'm like, things could just look like this. Yeah, they could. Like, that was one of my favorite parts of Guillermo D'Otoro's Frankenstein movie.

I was like, this movie, everything looks incredible. It's fucking awesome. I should hang this in my home. Yeah, absolutely. You should be the first thing you see when you walk in. I'll put it over my bed. Natalie takes it in a stride. Like, okay, here we go.

You know what? Fine. That's fine. It's your bed, so you do what you want. So I'm over a race car. And the wife's a ghost. Scrib tune. There's also a, you know, the, so the, it's, there's an inch, the, the first, like, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, there's, like, there's, there's, there's no real record.

is kind of like was kind of like a recluse or was like elusive like it's like there's there's no real record of him after he like works on the original um castlvania like creates the franchise and makes the first few uh famicom games and i don't know it's just like it's it's we think of like other you think of other like like these huge franchises usually whoever made it is kind of a little bit more forefront it's interesting this guy is just like a little bit more elusive yeah yeah because like we should just Who are you? If you're listening

and you made Castlevania show yourself But I don't know I mean like He's a vampire He might be a Dracula And he lives in a house of mirrors We can't see the guy

That would make sense Oh the worst place For a Dracula to be Do everyone play the Wii game? No No I didn't either He was supposed to be Fucking horrible right

Yeah Well Many Wii games were I was I thought to say Yeah you got For every Super Mario Galaxy Which is like

You're like How is this A miracle. How is this? Yeah. You get like a, oh, this is a first-person shooter except you can barely control it. And you have to like waggle to shoot. You can play Mario Kart and you can put the controller in a wheel.

Great, thanks. There also was an arcade, a light gun game, which is truly, truly strange. That doesn't feel right. That's wrong. Light whip. Maybe I'm interested. Whippin thing at the monitor? We should touch on the DS games, Don of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin.

I had Don of Sorrow. I never played Portrait of Ruin. A lot of these titles go extremely hard. Portrait of Ruin is good. It's a great title. Dono Soror, I like that, is just a DS in a subtle way. Yeah. That's fun.

But they like, the franchise is like from so many of these games are basically just, again, just remixing or reshaping the Cassavitia or the Symphony of the Night formula and never really exceeding it. But they're all like good games. It's interesting. I mean, just even knowing now that the Metroid, like, Like the Castlevania, Metroidvania version starts with Symphony of the Night. Makes the older games a little bit more of a curiosity to me. Because I'm like, okay, well, like, what happens here?

Like, what are these things then? So I kind of want to check those out a little more. Because I know what in Metroidvania is. I remember Castlevania that the stair climbing was like, it was like some programming miracle or something, wasn't it? I don't remember. I feel like, you know, apocryphal information in my brain is that that going up and downstairs in Castlevania was hard to program.

I mean, I wouldn't doubt it. Back on the NES. Let me look at this up real good. But maybe I'm remembering a dream that I had. Maybe you'd think it's hard to go up and downstairs? While I was driving right now, I'm in a car. Beep, beep. Heather, wake up.

Heather, wake up. Heather, wake up. It's me, your car. You have a Knight Rider car. Yeah. Okay, so here's what it is. Basically, they didn't have, the physics of the engine did not support slopes. So pretty much what's happening is that the character is effectively climbing a ladder,

but a diagonal ladder and then using their walk cycle. That's crazy. So it's, yeah, it was a little bit of a cluge to get. them to work, but, you know, it's, it works. Yeah. Huh, interesting olfactorid. Okay, I pulled up the Castlevania arcade game. Why is that in my brain?

What did it, why is it there? Get out of there. I pulled up. I think it's good that it's there. Let me, let me remember my cat that I had when I was a kid. Get my cat back in my head and get rid of that I knew that there was something interesting about the way that the stairs in Castlevania were programmed. I don't need that.

Hey, it was helpful here right now. I'm sure I had a good food once that I haven't, I can't remember. You don't remember all the food. What kind of hot dog was it? I don't know. Oh, those hot dog you should remember. Oh, God, Chicago Dog. Okay, so I pulled up a cabinet of the Castlevania arcade game.

And so it was basically like the gameplay was similar to, to a light gun game, but you actually had like a whip controller. Oh, cool. Yeah, I don't know. I imagine it didn't work very well. No, but I like the idea. Yeah, it's very much like kind of in the wee, of like you're doing a little bit of waggling to interact.

I'd put $2 into that and look like an idiot in front of everybody who can play? Why not? I think as a franchise, maybe it's an uneven franchise, but I like that it's back, and I like that maybe we'll have more. Yeah, I think more so than being uneven, it's just like it's had a fallow period. It's been kind of dormant. I mean, basically, like, I don't know. Again, I can't really speak to the 3D ones, but I don't know if there's been a Castlevania game worth playing since the Nintendo DS really.

Wow. Outside of like the collections outside of the remakes, you know, that's like I don't know if any of these are considered essential by the fandom. What are games, if not Castlevania, persevering? Wow. How about that? Heather, I'm going to cry. I am glad I am glad that it's back I'm glad that it's back

And I'm gonna play this fucking game Yeah I mean I already have it I'm just like I'm excited to get some time into Yeah I think I'm just gonna be annoyed Because like it's not it's the thing is I want to play this on Switch Good Switch game

It's only available as a Switch 1 game Which is maybe fine But if in a couple months they're like The Switch 2 version is available And it's not a free upgrade I'm gonna be mad Yeah of course Right

Of course They can't do that but they do. But I'm excited to play this new one. So the only anime adaptation I watched was the original Castlevania. I did not watch Castlevania Nocturn, but I found Castlevania the anime pretty engaging. It was a big success. Yeah.

I do, I haven't seen all of it. I think I've seen maybe the first episode of the first one and liked it. And I'm interested in watching it. And now maybe because we talked about it, like the first. franchise, I'm a little more interested in starting it up. I wanted to watch it and you couldn't watch it in Japanese and I was like, what am I doing? And then I stopped watching it. Yeah, that's a bummer.

That, like, give me every language. Let me choose. Yeah. I know it exists because if I VPN, with NordVPN, if I VPN, I can watch the fucking thing in, in the language that I want to watch it. Yeah. I would really recommend watching Nocturn. Oh, interesting.

I think it being said in the French Revolution really added a lot of nuance to the story. Ooh. Okay. Go up. And it's got Richter and Maria from the Simpity Night Time line. Oh, okay. I didn't, oh, Seifah, who from the Castlevania anime, is the playable mage character from Castlevania 3 that I mentioned earlier. So yeah, that is a character that gets long established.

Anyway, yeah, Castlevania, cool franchise. We're glad it's back. We're glad it's back. We love you, Castlevania. We love you, Castlevania. We love you, Castlevania. And we love Simon Belmont and Captain End, the Game Master. And Kid Dracula, we love the whole game.

Come on. With all that, I think it's time for the question block. These are, of course, from our Discord. Discord.org.g. slash get played. Here we go. This one, this first one, is from another unlucky one. Oh, hello. Another unlucky one. Shouldn't they right?

How are you discovering smaller games? It takes some doing these days, you know? It's not like they're just like knocking at your door. Yeah, it's a good question. How am I discovering smaller games? I mean, I do use, whatever. I mean, Steam's algorithm has its flaws, but I do have some success finding things on Steam itself.

Yeah. But also a big part of it is, like you mentioned triple click earlier. Like I will just listen to or read or follow people who know more about games than I do. And oftentimes, like, them shouting something out, especially, you know, their taste aligns with mine. I'll be like, oh, okay, I'll mess around with this. Like, if Gene Park has, like, shouts a game out, I'm like, well, yeah, I'll make sure that that's on my radar. You know what Gene Park likes. Digger?

Digger. Hell yeah. Of course he does. Do you know. Gene's fucking goaded. Are you fucking talking about it? Do you know who retweeted it? Kojima?

Yep. Wow. Yeah. Man, oh, fuck yes. I'm going to go see this tomorrow. Here's a small game that I played this week was, so Matt and I both have a play date. Yes. And we received.

The console. We don't have a standing hangout where we're playing games together. No, no, no. Although that'd be great. That sounds fun. It would be great. Maybe we'll do it in the future. But we both have the console, the play date, and there was a mandatory update that was

required this weekend or you would lose access to the, the play. Playdate store in perpetuity. So I dug mine out. Yeah. Charged it up. You sounded the alarm in the text rate and I did it immediately. Yeah. Updated the system and then I was like, huh, what's going on on this?

I haven't played this in a while. Click through a few games. Picked up, I think it was called executive golf. Which I was like, I kind of want to, I want to use a little crank to play a golf game. Yeah. But instead it was a golf game where I was golfing up a skyscraper. Wow Like it starts on like a

Like a floor Like an office floor Yeah And there's no instructions Because none of these games Are so complicated That you need instructions And there's like a little cursor

And you kind of like angle the cursor And then there's like a little Power meter And I was like okay I don't know how And he golf all the way Across the office floor And then there's a vent

And you have to like Knock the ball Up the vent onto the next floor And I was just like Oh I'm golfing up this guy Scraper. That's so crazy. I love it.

But I think that there are also, one of the ways to discover small games is small platforms. Yeah. No, totally. I find a lot of games similarly. Like, if they,

you know, shout it out on triple click or any gaming podcast that I'm listening to, like, the besties or anything on kind of funny, I'll check that out. But oftentimes, too, when I'm playing,

like, If I'm looking for like, it'll be, it'll be platform specific. So I'll be like, oh, gosh, I want to play a game on my Steam Deck, but all the games that I have in my Steam Library, I don't want to play those. I want to play something new, something different. And I'll look at like what people are playing on Steam Deck, and I'll be like, oh, this is, what's this? Or like, I'll look at YouTube. And they'll be like, these are the greatest games to play on Steam Deck right now. And it'll sometimes, you know, have something like how many dudes in it or whatever.

and then I'll play that. So that's like that's, you know, I'm just always engaging with, uh, another form of media to get the recommendation. This next one is from LaMant. Sorry. I was like,

I was like, the, looking for, for games, like, how do you find smaller games led me to like, oh, I should check out itch.io.

I haven't looked at the, for a while. Um, and it brought up a game called, uh, I can smell you from here. The premise is, is you're an in-cell going on his first ever date

with his first ever match from a dating app. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, I mean, that's insane. I did just get a new game. I'm trying to figure out what it's called at the moment. Apparently people like it. It's, fuck, what's it called? And the reason I got it was because Remedy had reposted it

because it was bundled with Alan Wake 1 on Steam. And I was like, I have Alan Wake 1. So usually on a bundle, for a game you already have, you're still getting the other game in the bundle at a discount. Right. And I was like, it's called Silver Pines. And it is also a Metroidvania, but it is like a Silent Hill or Resident Evil slash Metroidvania,

a 2D game. And I haven't started it yet. But I picked that. It was like the most recent smaller game that I picked up because a studio that I like shared it.

This next one is from La Mant and they write excited for new Eddrunners hell yeah. Yes. Yes, yeah. Absolutely.

The answer is yes. Sean, you're an Edroner's guy, right? Love it, yeah. Yeah, season one is a perfect season of television. Yeah. I'm so excited about it that I haven't seen the, was it a trailer that dropped

recently or something? I'm trying to avoid all of this show. I won't know anything. I won't touch it. I don't touch them. I don't go in like Digger. I don't fucking need it. I just like, I'm like, I know this is good. This is going to be good. And you know that whatever person you get introduced to in the trailer, they'll be

pink mist by the end of the season. So you don't need to get attached. Yeah, they can't. Yeah, they can't do that to me. How are they going to be horrifically murked? Yeah. In what way is this going to make me sadder than I've ever been? Are they going to be punished in a way they don't. Don't deserve.

Yeah, yeah. One of our mods, Ted Cord writes, What's up Ted Cord? Who's your starter going to be in Pokemon Wind Waves? Now, I know, Nick, you're probably not going to pick this thing up. I'll look at what the starter Pokemon is. You can look at the starters pick up. I'll tell you their names right now.

We have Brout, who is a grass owl. We have Pombon, who is a Fire Pomeranian, and we have Gekwa, who is a water gecko. I'm doing the Pomeranian. I know you're doing the Pomeranian. I got to have the Pomeranian. And this is the thing I usually lean

I lean fire type or water type More water type recently if I'm being honest Except in In violet or Scarlet and Violet I did pick Fouacoco the The crocodile Because I loved how stupid he looked

I'm doing something I maybe have never done before Wow you're doing grass type I think I might be leaning brout because He's got eyebrows He's got eyebrows and I love him. He's great. He's really, really cute. Yeah, I'm looking at these right now. The Pokemon Wins and Waves starters, Brout, the grass type bean chick, bean chick. Pombon, the fire type puppy Pokemon and Gecko the water type, water gecko Pokemon. I just, I mean, I like, look,

Pombon is cute as fuck. Yeah. But I think I'm also going Brout. Brout's good. Brout's good. And I like that he's a bean chick. I think Gequa. is a weak design. Yeah. I kind of feel like I've seen it already. You know what I mean? Like it's not really. Also, I mean, we got on over and over this.

The design language of these things has changed over the years. I don't like it. They're no longer angry. No, no, no. But Gekwa's, or not Gekua, Browt is close because they got this eyebrow. Brow's got eyebrows. I just know that I'm abandoning any of these motherfuckers

the moment I find if I can find, because sometimes they aren't there. Trubbish on the fucking game map I mean you can get ditto probably I've got the IGN has a pull up Which wins and waves starter Pokemon Are you choosing? Pomba number one

Gekwa number two Wow Pombon 40.2% Gekwa 36.8% Brout bringing up the rear with a mere 23%. Wow! I feel like grass types are not usually The like

Yeah. You're not like the first gyms are usually not weak to grass Yeah for the most part So you kind of have a a harder time in the beginning of the game when you pick a grass starter. But I like those eyebrows. Sean, you're looking at these things and do you have an opinion? Yeah, what's your take?

Yeah, I was looking and it's hard to decide. I think I would go with Brout too. I'm usually a water starter guy, but I am not entranced by Gekwa. Gekwa is, I mean, I just don't know what they're going. I mean, I like geckos, but I'm not really rocking with this one. So three brouts and one pombon That's our answer This next one is from Ryuska the Mad

Hi Raynuska The Mad They're right Spaghetti or meatballs Spaghetti What a weird binary I only get one of the two You only get one or the other

Fucking spaghetti You say spaghetti Spaghetti I don't know It's perturbed by the question But I like respect it It's a thoughtful question. Spaghetti?

Or meatballs. Spaghetti. I would never think of changing the and spaghetti and meatballs to an or. It's almost combative. Yeah, that simple act changes a lot. Cheese or burger. Right. That's fucking, yeah, why?

Because here's a thing. I'm going burger. I'm going cheese. That's interesting. One thing I like about this is just a linguistics thing. Cheeseburger is an example of re-bracketing because hamburger is like the, you know, The root of that is Hamburg. And then a hamburger is that it's, you know, what it comes from.

Cheeseburger turns burger into its own thing. You know what I mean? Like because they're replacing the ham part of hamburger. So you're losing the essence of the original word. It's been rebranded. That is fascinating. It's like Labradoodle is another one. It's a portmanteau of Labrador and poodle.

But then it births the term doodle. And so you end up with things like, you know, like Sheepa-Doodle or whatever. Or a penis and weanus. Or golden doodle. where it's just like now we don't even have the poodle party. I don't think that's exactly the same. It is the same thing. No, it's absolutely this great example.

It's going to be my third one. Cheezness. Spaghetti or Meatball. Is Genius part of this? Genius is part of it, yeah. Spaghetti or Meatball. I'm going meatball. Wow.

I think I would be going meatball too because meatball, you can have different kinds of meatball that aren't just spaghetti. I'm just thinking of IKEA. You go to IKEA, you get a meatball play. I'm thinking of like the ones that you get in like fah. Yeah, you can get those too. Those fucking, those are great. I grew up on Swedish food. I had fucking Swedish meatballs all the fucking time.

And let me tell you, I'm throwing that shit in the garbage in order to get my hands on spaghetti. Abondigos? Abondigos, I had no slouch. It's good soup. Sean, where do you stand? Meatballs up is excellent sandwich. Yeah, you're right. Too bad.

I'm having spaghetti. You're having spaghetti bread. I think it can go two ways because meatballs are something that's like, well, you need spaghetti for them unless they're a Swedish meatball. Yeah. But spaghetti is also just one pasta shape. So I think for me I'd let them kind of

duke it out gladatorial style and then I'll kind of thumbs up, thumbs down like the emperor depending on who won. It's a smart approach. I like where you're thinking though because you're headed towards loophole country which is like I'm having linguine and meatballs. Yeah, exactly. That's true. I'm having bow tie and meatballs.

Ew. You can do that. It's fucking gross. It's fucking disgusting. Why is it disgusting it is? I want cooked lasagna noodles not arranged in lasagna and we bought a long flat one. And finally, hyperform rights. I'm a mailman in rural Ohio and someone on my route

has an active Gamefly subscription like they receive and send out discs. Is there anything in gaming that would surprise us that is still a thing? This is, I think, chiefly one of them. What incredible Boots on the Ground reporting. First off, thank you for your service. It's a mail carrier.

Awesome. An incredible thing you're doing. Thank you. Borda-dur-dur-do-do. I tried to do it. Yeah, I'm Sam. I'm Sam. Gamefly is, apparently, I'm looking.

I've got it open now. Get started now. Yeah, you can just get games through the mail still. That's fucking crazy. I have no idea. Do we just backdoor ourselves into an episode? Like, do we get Gamefly for a month and see how we're rocking with it? It's kind of funny to get Game Fly.

It might be interesting. Yep. All right, let's do it. Let's sign up for Gamefly. Let's get a few games and let's play some shit. Yeah. Yeah, they have movies too, I guess. Okay, they're stepping into too much.

Yeah, you can switch two games. That's interesting. Yeah. I'm going to look into this further. What's the subscription on Gamefly right now? $300 a month? I got to know who this is. guy in rural Ohio is.

I mean, things that exist in gaming that are still the case, I mean... Well, I'm surprised. I was surprised that Playdate is being updated. Yeah. I was like, huh. A third season of games. I'm shocked that this thing is still chugging along. So that. I'm also

surprised that there are home brews still happening for old consoles. Like, it's wild to me that a Game Boy Advance game still comes out. It's wild to me that Dreamcast games are still coming out. Like, people are still making games for old systems, and that always is a shock to me.

Yeah, I mean, I think I saw this week like a Kickstarter campaign or something for a game that is intending to release on a Game Boy cartridge. And I was like, that's incredible to me. I love it. I bought a brand new Game Boy cartridge not too long ago. Oh, yeah, no, I did too. I also bought the, or not bought, but downloaded the disco release. Game Boy D-Make. Oh, that's right.

Yeah. It's a good question. First off, the two rentals at a time membership of Gamefly, which is their best value, according to them, is 2795 per month. So it's not nothing. Not nothing. It's a little steep. But two games? Mm.

You kind of, like, if you got game pass, you kind of have a lot of games. Yeah. Or PlayStation Plus, you kind of get a lot. Yeah. That too. Yeah. It's digital. Yeah.

But then, hey, I like the idea of getting mail. Yeah, getting mail is fun. I love getting mail. And once again, thank you for doing that. Because if nobody's bringing me in my mail, I don't get any. I have an answer for this. My answer is Star Citizen. Star Citizen is the crowdsourced game from Chris Roberts,

who made the Wing Commander series. Isn't it more than a billion dollars has gone into that fucking thing now? The amount that's been raised, Let's see if I can get the actual figure. 600 million is my guess. Yeah, it's, it's, it's a staggering amount of money has been raised for this game that is still in early access since 2017. Yes, this is on Wikipedia, which I'll look at their sourcing.

But as of May 2026, combined crowdfunding and early access sales had passed $1 billion, making Star Citizen one of the most expensive video games to develop and one of the most expensive single pieces of entertainment ever produced. that this is that there are enough people still passionate about this that it's been going for so long that there are people who are just like i don't know i feel like like at a certain point aren't you like all right this thing's been being crowdfunded for 14 fucking years when's this ever going to come out yet people are still pumping money into it like i don't really understand and i don't understand why this game in particular

is such a fixation of a certain segment of game or culture, but Star Citizen is still thriving, and I just don't quite understand it. And I really thought it was a game that was going to like, all right, this, like five years ago I was like, the Star Citizen, it's not going to stick

around forever, right? No, it's going to keep going. It might be an early access in 2030 still. Like, who fucking knows? God God bless. If you're one of the few who are playing, Star Citizen, let us know. I'm interested.

I got to know what's going on. I'm interested, too. I mean, that might be an episode, too. We just backed ourselves in, too. I don't have the machine to play Star Citizen. You can do it. Let's see if they have anything on a purported release date. You have no idea when the retail release is going to come out.

Yeah, there's no way. When the 1.0 is, okay, this is at CitizenCon, 24. at a con. This has to stop. He can't, this can't happen. A release of 2026 was suggested. Then in August 2026,

Roberts announced the game's release window was delayed to Q2, 2027. I mean, come on. Q2? He's never coming out. Q2 is for some reason a way more obvious lie than

like Q3 for some reason. You're what I mean? Like Q2 is wrong. That's not happening. There's no way. Anyway, that's my answer. Um, and those are our questions. Thanks so much for writing in.

And that was this week's episode. Yeah, that's this week's Get Played. Our producers, Rochelle Chen, ranch, twitch.tv. TV slash yard underscore underscore Sard. Our music is by Ben Pruddy. Ben Pruddymuse.com. And our art is by Duck Brigade. Design duck brigade.com.

We got merch at kinshipgoods.com. And there is ad-free episodes as well as a bonus episode every Wednesday over on our Patreon, get played, DLC. Matt, what's going on this week? It's Axtila, baby. and you know what that means. We're watching Godzilla. We, uh,

all Godzilla movies all month long. Yeah, we just did, we just talked about, uh, the return of Godzilla from 1984. So you have time to watch that this week. Pop it on. It gets crazy.

Check out return of Godzilla. Check out the episode over at patreon.com slash get played. Uh, special thanks to Sean Marr, our guest engineer for sitting in. Yeah, yeah, good to have you in the Get Played family, Sean. It was a pleasure.

Anything you would like to plug? You can follow me at Sean Too Far on Instagram if you like two comedy videos. The perfect amount. Yeah, I got two of them. And then I do a monthly live show at UCB in L.A. called Tabletop Tunes, the Improvised Musical RPG. It's role-playing games mixed with musical improv. So if you like that and want to come, great.

It should be happening. Or you can get a live in L.A. There you go. Check all that out. And this week, Dracula, you piece of shit, you got played. Whoa. Vampire killer whip. Oh, hell, fuck.

Ding-gong, pokey! That was a headgum podcast.