Get Played - Game and Tell: Super Mario RPG with Django Gold

Episode Date: July 24, 2023

Heather, Nick and Matt are joined by comedian Django Gold to discuss Super Mario RPG. They talk about the upcoming remake, how the game maps RPG conventions over the world of Mario, plus the debut of a new segment. This month's We Play, You Play: Final Fantasy XVI! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod. Check out our premium series Get Anime'd on patreon.com/getplayed or on Stitcher Premium. Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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we can save our kingdom. All right, Nick, I'm ready. I have my equipment. I have my items. Let's make it happen. The problem is we're just up against such incredible odds, and with just the two of us, we really could use a third party member for this quest. Yeah, I don't, you know,

I think we can do anything together, but it'd be a lot easier if we had just one more person. Hey, guys. I see that you want into this labyrinth. Ah, it's a monster. Ready your attacks. Yeah, ready your attacks. Or we could join forces,

and I could be on your team when we get this Chalice of Destiny. What say you, boys? All right, let's squad up. Welcome to the party. Wait, Nick, hold on, hold on, hold on. So you're more like a healer or a tank? This guy's clearly evil.

He's on our, no, this is great. We're just saying we need a third. Yeah, man. This is exactly what we need. Man, what's wrong with you? Are we sure Matt's not a bad guy? You think I'm a bad guy. Matt's not a bad guy.

He's my friend. Thank you. Yeah, I'm not a bad guy. I'm just, you know, you're sort of, you came out of the shadows. You sort of, you know, appeared out of nowhere. Where I live, I live in the realm of darkness. And it's just, you know, usually RPG party members, you know, we're sort of all kind of on the same page.

We're all, you know, sort of happy-go-lucky, positive guys. There's precedent. There's precedent. There's precedent. Yes. In Super Mario RPG, you have Bowser in the party. I believe that Sephiroth joins up for a short period of time in Final Fantasy VII.

So I... Bethaldo. It's cool that in our reality, video game systems and RPGs exist, and we played them and know about them. It is cool. First of all, it's cool because it's fun to play, and second of all, it makes this discussion easier

because we know we have context for what's going on. We have a shared understanding of what we're talking about. Yeah, yeah. So this is great. Yeah, totally. I have to say, I was a PlayStation monster myself. What were you guys? What was your mains?

We actually had, like, my dad was really cheap, so we had a PC engine, which was released as the TurboGrafx-16 in North America. Yeah, yeah. But, like, he got it as a discount at Sears. Sears? He worked there, so got it as a discount at Sears. Sears? He worked there. So, like...

Wait, which Sears? Which Sears did your dad work at? The Sears on Brockton. Again, it's great all this stuff exists in our world, where we're going to the labyrinth to find the Chalice of Destiny. I'm on your side. We have a shared goal. Enter the labyrinth.

Find the Chalice of Destiny. Drink from the labyrinth. Find the challenge of destiny. Drink from the waters of life. And become immortal. Thus granting us unlimited power. Also, I do know that seer's nick. I can't believe your dad worked there. He was a branch manager, yeah. We would have been friends in another time, I think.

Isn't that weird? Isn't that wild how that works? Yeah. Maybe we could unequip Matt in the party. You're going to take me out of the party. You and I. We can't boot Matt. He's my friend.

Okay. I'm really sorry. I'm out of breath. I ran up a lot of stairs. Oh, so you sound like that because you're just tired. I thought that was your normal voice. I live 40 floors below this. 40 floors below this place.

Well, that's lovely that you're so close. You live below the labyrinth. We traveled from a different realm. That's like way farther than 40 floors. But we rode where tigers over here. I'm giving myself a headache doing this. Doing this? Like being alive?

Do you just want to not do this? Yeah, let's just not do this. Okay, fuck the chalice then. I'm out of here. Forget the chalice. Get these were tigers. I'm going back home. Yeah, let's hit up that Sears. Let's go see your dad. I remain the undefeated boss of the labyrinth.

We party up with Bowser and throw down with Bowyer as we discuss the beloved and soon-to-be-remade Super Mario RPG this week on Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matt Apodaca. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back, Bucket.

Whoa. I had to do it. It's back. I had to do it. The long-dormant catchphrase has returned. I was on the street in Amsterdam the other day, and somebody rode by on a bike and shouted it at me. And I was like, holy shit, I gotta bring it back. Wow, that's incredible. The story seems fucking fake, but it was a thing that happened.

Fake news. Yeah, you get three Pinocchios from PolitiFact. Oh, my God. Okay. Well, boys. Here's the thing. I'll be seeing this on Snopes. Here's the thing about a catchphrase is that it can become something of an albatross.

So just be wary of deploying it too readily. What do you mean, Nick? Do you have any experience with that in particular? I don't think wow counts as a catchphrase. I think it's just a thing you say. Hey, man. Trump said in his latest press release. The world is listening. The world is listening. His press release opened with a wow, all caps, exclamation point. He was president for

four years. Good times. I'm surprised he never like got like a motherfucker out there. Like when he when he was like, like addressing the nation like what's up motherfuckers how is that possible this look this isn't a political podcast and so our comments i mean all everything is politics so by that i mean i don't mean we're not a political because that's political right but we this isn't a show where we talk about politics. We talk about three things. We talk about we talk about Rise of Skywalker. That's right. We talk about video games. Let me just add that to the questions for our guests. Sorry.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we talk about Hideo Kojima. And that's about all we do. Yeah, that's correct. Hey, we have a guest today. A writer and comedian. His new stand-up special, Bag of Tricks, is coming this fall to YouTube. Django Gold is here.

Hi, Django. Hi, everyone. Hi, gamers. Wow. Wow. Hi, gamers. Addressing the needs of gamers. It's me, Django, your new god.

We're recording over Zoom. Yes. And the first question I have for you is you have a map in the background. And I love maps. What is this map? This is Vietnam pre-U.S. involvement in the U.S. war. Wow. Not a political podcast.

No, no, no. It's truly an apolitical fascination with the country, not even the history of that, just the country itself. I used to be a big Vietnam guy, and I ordered that on Etsy. And I foolishly didn't realize it was pre-U.S. involvement, making it almost worthless for my interests. So it's all about, yeah. Django, I want to ask you, because this is a video game podcast. And Django, I want to ask you, because we're you know, this is a video game podcast. And I like are you someone who is because I know you were a big video game fan when you were younger. I know some of the games we talked about in leading up to this record are from your youth.

Are you someone who still plays video games or is that more of a lapsed hobby for you? Yeah, I'd say I'm what you would call like an intermittent gamer where half of the time i'm not playing any games and half the time i'm like devoutly really into a game such that it starts like affecting my sleep and health right yes like when the resident evil 4 reboot came out a couple months ago oh hell yeah there's like a week and a half where I was doing nothing except playing that, like staying up till like 4 a.m., waking up, like going through the motions. I'm like, today will be a normal day. Oh, I will wash the dishes for 30 minutes.

No, I will eat a delicious breakfast and then like play Resident Evil for like 12 hours straight. So I have like this addicts mindsets mindset where like you know it's like binges and purge sections but when i'm gaming baby it's binge season talking about re4 did you play it on the gamecube i assume or on ps2 back in the day no i actually only played it on the ps4 like three years ago when i got like they got like kind of a crappy port yes yes four but still very very very fun and then the reboot is obviously fantastic uh so like what are your what are some of your favorite and i know we're going to talk about a game that's important to you in a little bit but i'm curious like what

are some of your favorite uh like video game either individual titles or franchises i gotta say like as a pandemic was really getting to the heart of it, I played most of the Resident Evil games and they really did it for me. I think they're just really fun. It's kind of dumb, but the puzzles are so easy. I love an RE puzzle.

I love those. It's like, find the red key and put it in the red slot and I would solve the puzzle and I'd be like, I did it it i saw the puzzle design for a child yeah to do in 1998 i like it's like so dumb like find the wolf key and put it in the wolf medallion like yep what can i say i guess i have a gift solve this cipher and it's like c-a-t-a these letters are out of order yeah they really make it so easy and yet like yeah these games like they really like they're they are perfectly designed to tap into whatever endorphins you want so i would genuinely feel like accomplishment like by god

i've done it maybe i'm not such a failure after all i i want to like that also points to something which i think is is those have value in the in those games. And I think in games in general, I know Heather like kind of loathes shitty puzzles, but I think they're so important for just like pacing and just sort of like like breaking up the action. Like I'd rather have a good puzzle, but sometimes it's just like like just an unending string of combat in a in a game that's got a narrative. Heather's Heather's vigorously shaking her head. I've been thinking about this this week specifically because of our We Play, You Play of Final Fantasy 16. Yes.

And I think my ultimate design of a video game would be that the first encounter you have with a creature would be the combat that you did for 60 hours, and you both scaled in power and learned new moves, but it was just one encounter, and you didn't have to do anything else in the game. It's one fight.

You're fighting the same enemy repeatedly? Just, no, you never stop. You never stop it's one one ongoing fight one ongoing fight where you're both powering up and learning new abilities and like maybe there's like a flash on the screen in the corner that's like now you can press x and triangle in order to unleash your fury yeah. Your unlocked axe. Yeah, but it is a nonstop combat for 60 hours against one enemy who maybe gets bigger, fancier.

That's a cool idea. Not fancier. No fucking anything. Just one guy. You could call it the last fight. You want to play Gandalf versus the Balrog and just stars are wheeling overhead and every day is as long as the age of an earth

while you're just engaged in combat with this undefeatable foe. I kind of like that. That is cool. It can be like combat, but also the two of you might do a quick little puzzle battle at one point. See, no, I like that pitch.

No! At one point, oh God, there's three keys. Oh, no! Now, so I'm someone who can run into one of these Resident Evil 4 puzzles and be like, all right, so what do they want me to do here? What's going on? Why do they make it so impossible? Yeah, yeah. You need to have 160 IQ to play this game. There are no keys shaped like this. What do they want me to do here? What's going on? Why do they make it so impossible? Yeah.

You need to have 160 IQ to play this game. There are no keys shaped like this. This crystal is a hexagon, and this other crystal is shaped like a triangle. Where are they supposed to go? A baby's play set is what these crystals are. It's the equivalent of moving the thing along the set track to the other end of it. I have that and then a wall of red yarn just being like, what does it mean? Yeah.

It's like object permanence. Yeah. So you mentioned you're kind of a feast or famine in terms of your gaming habits. Yeah. Did that, like, you know, I imagine, and especially I think you've been in New York this whole time, you know, super affected by the COVID pandemic lockdown when that happened.

That's what a lot of people like I feel like got really, really into video games. Did that affect your habits at all? It is true. Like, like, like March, like 14th or something was when I like saw the writing on the wall. The first thing I did is I went on Craigslist. I got this used PS4. I was like, you know, this is the time to do it. I think the first thing I got, I believe, was Death Stranding, which had just come out.

Wow. Let's go. Let's go. That is an alpha move. It's one of the three. Just like immediately started hauling crates along a gray landscape. Like, yeah, the pandemic's not so bad after all. I'm essentially a gig economy worker.

Yes! That was my escapism was delivering shit. Yeah. So it was that, and then the RE4 games, and Last of Us Part 2 came out sometime around that time. So that was like a pretty solid pack of gaming. We, and I'm not sure where

it goes in your hierarchy of fandom but we here on this podcast like death stranding is a game we all like love and and gush about repeatedly i mean did you find yourself connecting with it i enjoyed it a lot i mean i thought it was just like so weird and like yeah like one of my pet peeves in games is like when they have a lot of dialogue or lore that you kind of have like i would always like uh-huh uh-huh so unfortunately that was one of those games where they're just like jam-packing with that which you know it's not my favorite thing in the world but i just i like the mechanics of it it's like so dumb how like you would get better at balancing so you can carry more gear like it's like crazy like such a strange reward system where i can of upgrading your your weapons you're becoming like better at walking oh this slope isn't a problem for me anymore you know like it's just like so crazy

like how just kind of glad you reset your expectations but i thought it was great it's like so creepy and like sad you know all the things you want yeah to be sad be alone delivering boxes and like a strange game like for the times too like i felt like playing that and then playing uh the last of us part two when it came out had a certain punch you know like just like in public when you'd go on your like daily sanity walk and be like oh like that person's not wearing a mask i better uh go over there they're gonna they're they're a clicker i gotta get out of there yeah i i feel like death stranding was like such an accurate and we've talked about this before an accurate like dilution of the loneliness of covid the the surprising side

effect of last of us part two coming out when it did was i i envied the crowd scenes. I was like, oh man, look at all those people just hanging out. Animal Crossing, same. I'd be like, hey, my friend's coming over. That's not going to happen. I mean, like, whatever. Maybe we would have figured out how to fit whatever game that came out at the time into the narrative of, like, this speaks to our reality. But it did feel like...

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like a deluge of dialogue and like a lot of Lauren stuff in, in, in games. But I also know that, that, that there, there's a, there's another type of game that you mentioned,

which is LucasArts adventure games. And those are ones that kind of like live in a lot of like dialogue and, and story and stuff and, and, and puzzle solving. But you like those games as well. Like, like,

like what are your, what, what works about those games for you? And what are some of your favorites? I mean, I think that was actually, that might have been my first real exposure to gaming. Was that in like whatever? Wow.

Whatever grade I was in, we had a PC in the classroom that we had, like, the Secret of Monkey Island uploaded to on, you know, 3.5 discs or whatever. So I think that might have been the first one. I think like, you know, as a kid, like those, they're just like funny and kind of quirky. And like the dialogue for that wasn't that bad. It was like intersp I think, like, you know, as a kid, like, they're just, like, funny and kind of quirky. And, like, the dialogue for that wasn't that bad because it was, like, interspersed with jokes, you know? So that makes it, like, a little more, like, I can latch onto a little more as opposed to, like, something where it's just, like, blocks

and blocks of text without any real, like, interruption. I get, like, I start feeling a little silly seeing a character, like, somberly explain, like, the history of their world and all that. But Monkey Island, Sam, Axel, that stuff was just kind of fun and zany in a way that appealed the history of the world and all that. But Monkey Island, Sam and Max, that was just kind of fun and zany in a way that appealed to me as a kid, I guess. Yeah, I love Sam and Max Hit the Road.

I never really messed around with the Telltale Sam and Maxes. I'm not sure if you got around to those. Is that the newer incarnation of it? Yeah, there was a newer version. The LucasArts game is the only one I ever played. But I do like yeah i i mean that those games were extremely my shit of just like secret of monkey island

in particular was my introduction to that type of game not gaming not gaming in general that type of game and then you know full throttle grim fandango uh we covered um day of the tentacle on here uh and and maniac mansion We covered both on the podcast. And yeah, like, again, games. How about Loom? Oh, yeah, Loom. Yeah, we do. Loom, the game of song.

I tell you, the thing in Loom where, so Loom, it's like you're kind of a spellcaster who uses a hooded sort of mage who uses music to do your spellcraft. But when I like learn and it's and it's a it's a trick that happens in in Ocarina of Time as well. But like the mechanic of that, you can play a song backwards to reverse. It's like, oh, you're right. It's like it's like that's such a cool thing. And it was one of those things like, oh, OK, I don't know. It's one of those moments when the concept of game design kind of clicked with me as a kid.

It's very abstract for a child to play. It's really kind of cool to assume a kid can do that. There's also an era where I would be writing down a spell, like a blind paper, so you have to call back to it. It's very much like a full project.

You don't really hold your hand at all. Did that game make you feel like an adult? Because the other ones were all kind of jokey and that one's kind of a more serious, straight-ahead tone. I was like, oh yeah, this is like a mature game. It is. It really is a little too mature. And it's not at all. Compared to Wacky Maniac Mansion,

I guess. And on that note, there was another game I know you mentioned is Missed, which is a game we actually haven't talked about much on the podcast, but that's something you latched on to? Heather is shaking her head. Stop shaking your head. I don't want to be a hater here. Yeah.

But Missed, if you'll recall it was like a smash sensation it was a huge huge game like on the cover of cd-rom newsweek style thing we're like the new game that's like shaking up the world and it isn't really that fun it just like it's like visually kind of like interesting and neat but it's like a slideshow style game you like click to go to a new destination and you're automatically transported and just like even as a kid i'm like this is like kind of lame it's like that doesn't have like a sense of humor to it it doesn't really you don't really feel like you're exploring in any real sense i never really liked it and like looking back i just don't get what what the appeal was i guess because it was like a new visual kind of language that was a huge part of the 90s but i don't think the game

itself is really that cool and i remember the puzzles being kind of frustrating and not that logical, really, in a way. They just kind of played by their own rules. I think I'm a Myst hater, I gotta say. I love that take. Choose no book. This is the best guest we've ever had, guys.

Down with Myst. Myst is one of those games that people would like my dad has played so few games in his life but mist was like a game he played i think because he you know he liked technology and that was a game that showed off the powers of a cd-rom drive yeah it's just like graphically was so much it like like you know had all this this these pre-rendered um tableaus uh that you know like like at the time looked cutting edge. But yes, I agree.

The puzzle is very obtuse. And then also kind of tonally, it's kind of up its own ass. It was kind of like a proto Jonathan Blow game, but like less interesting. And yeah, I just like I agree with that. Do you remember the P.I.S.T.? P.I.S.T.? There was a missed there was a missed parody game called P.I.S.T.? P-Y-S-T? There was a missed parody game called P.I.S.T. that was, like, released.

You could, like, buy it at, like, fucking CompUSA or EB Games or wherever. They would do that with, like, anything. Like, Jurassic Park would come out, and there would be a quick-to-rush, like, parody called, like, Jurassic Pork or something like that. Right, yes. Yeah, there was, like, the full- the, the, the mad, the full,

full on like mad magazine parody of something would just be released. And it was just like, it's, it's such a, it was such a different climate. Well, well, look,

I did. We can talk about these old games all day. We're gonna talk about an older game in a little bit, but I think we should step ahead to the present and Django ask you and everyone, what are you playing? Yes. Should I go first?

Yeah, go ahead. She wants to go first. No. No, Django, you go ahead. Heather did very much look like she was going to go first, though. No. I'm just saying.

I am not playing anything at the moment, but what I am doing, as I mentioned before we started taping, is I have been fanatically watching very short clips on YouTube of people beating Elden Ring bosses, particularly one-shot videos in which a player who has amassed all the upgrades they can,

many playthroughs through, has figured out the exact combination of buffs and spells and equipment they need to do to beat some of these later game bosses with one hit. And so it's a really great, satisfying thing you watch where a guy like spends like the first half of the video taking his various tonics and potions and casting his various protective spells and all that and goes in there and just lays out the boss with one hit so i've been watching those like you know for about a week it's half, I'd say. It's just like, yeah, get him! Get that fucker!

I don't know that I've ever used this descriptor on the podcast before, but those videos sound sexy to me. Oh my god, these guys are studs. They're absolute alpha males, destroying these fake goblins and such. I love that shit. i love seeing mastery that just

of any field because that's something i will never achieve and just when someone's like oh you've dedicated your life to this one thing and i honestly like the more trivial the more impressed i am like just like like like whatever yeah you did a you did a blindfolded uh sekiro no hit run like that's you know what that's fucking unbelievable what a ridiculous thing to do uh but honestly it's such a great use of your time like it's such a great thing to just like have that achievement i mean half the internet now we're not having it about a good portion of the internet it's just like watching someone be good at grilling watching someone someone be good at playing guitar. It's just so satisfying to watch someone who has it down. And like, yeah, it's like very like calming.

And you do feel like a vicarious sense of accomplishment. Like we did it. You did the work and I was supporting you. Look at this fucking dude, Dice Candelope. Jesus Christ. He's a surgeon. Yeah. It's funny to think, like i've never really thought

about the internet in the way you just described it but it used to be like like i don't know a hundred thousand years ago in your your tiny caveman tribe or your your your tiny you know your hunter gatherer tribe that there would be the guy who was good in your group, but you weren't seeing the best guy. You were only seeing the good local guy. Yeah. And it wasn't until circuses started traveling that you'd be like,

holy shit. Oh my God. I thought my, my, my guy doing. Yeah. And then television exposed juggler was good. Yeah. And then television exposed us to, like, the Olympics. I mean, if you lived near the Olympics, you could get to see the Olympians.

But, like, generally speaking, you'd be like, but now, because of the Internet, we have seen the best guy at every fucking thing. There is nothing you can think of. Like there's somebody who was really good at chopping carrots and there is a video that they've made. And if I were to look it up, I'd be like, that's the best one. That person is the best at it. And there's also so many people who are like, like, it's just like because the population is so vast and everyone has access to social media like the point zero zero one percent of like fucking anomalous genetic freaks are overrepresented and so i think that leads to like whatever i mean like the bad side of that

leads to like body dysmorphia because you see these instagram fitness models and who would like are just at a like at a level that no one could really achieve. But but it looks like that's everybody because they're overrepresented in that group. Yeah, it's fucking. Yeah, go on. Start getting insecure about your own ability to chop carrots. Yeah. Oh, man. I'll never be good enough. The thing we talked about this on the podcast before,

but there's a streamer and she beat Millennia, the Elden Ring boss, with a dance pad. She beat two Millennias, one with a dance pad and one with a controller at the same time. And it's just like, that's fucking unreal. Like, I can't believe that someone was was able to achieve that and i think i could spend a thousand hours attempting that and not be able to do that and like i don't know how much time this person spent doing that but it's just like

i i don't know like you know you know even if you're that talented and even if you're that dedicated, like like you can still like there's still so many hours of practice that have to go into it. And I guess that's what I appreciate about it. Yeah, I was watching Steph Curry jack up three pointers. Well, the question raises jack up, jack off, jack up, jack. You said jack up three pointers. I said jack up three pointers. What's jacking off a three-pointer even mean? I don't know. What does jacking up a

three-pointer mean? It's about taking a shot, man. Jacking off three times in succession, as they call that bowling turkey. Also something I was supposed to do on a bowling. But they raised the question. I was just thinking like, so let's say you can play, you beat milania with your your feet and your hands can you become a violin maestro or is this like like is it in these people's power to do that as well or is people's brains only only equipped to do like this very esoteric video game skill

right is that specialized when you say it that way it also makes me think that we that the person who beat millennia with a dance dance revolution pad is a superhero like she's like that we have i've seen footage of her yeah she's a superhero right what an incredible like i've i don't know sorry i guess i'm just geeking out for a second here about how we've all seen superheroes now because of the internet like real ones and sure their feats have become less impressive over the years but sure a superhero has gone from scaling ability to flipping a water bottle on its you know it's a it's an edge but right no i i don't know i think i kind of think that it's just like there are people with that those

that that degree of aptitude in any population it's just what you dedicate your time to it's it's it's like whatever it it it it's it i i think it's like you see the same thing in like certain athletes certain certain sports are concentrated in certain countries because those have a culture of doing that or an environment where you can practice that skill. I don't know. So I think that I would guess probably yes, but also it's kind of more interesting if the answer is no. That it's like, no, that's the one thing this person can do. It kind of makes me wonder what my thing is because there's a jillion opportunities but there must be one thing out

there that statistically speaking i'll never try that i would just like dominate at and it might be juggling it might be you know playing dance dance with you know being millennial with my feet i'll just i don't think i'll ever find out most of us never do yeah podcast on that note uh matt what are you playing okay so i have some updates last week i said i'd finish um final fantasy 3 which i did do uh and i loved it i thought it was a really great really fun game satisfying uh final boss fight really fun i started resident not resident evil i started um final fantasy 4 and like when i say i started it i like i i just like barely started it so i'm not i don't haven't played enough of it to like

really truly speak on that but that's like sort of the next thing that i'm gonna knock down i think still chipping away obviously at at 16 as well but But my major update is that I bought a used 2DS from eBay. Wow. I love it. I love it. Because my 3DS has seen better days. It's running pretty slow. And the stick, like the little analog stick, the top part of it has like come off so it like

kind of like hurts to put your thumb on it and so i was like oh the the form factor of the 2ds is is really funny uh like i have it right here uh it's pretty it's pretty nice um it actually it wasn't terribly expensive either and it also also, like, has, like, it was, like, brand new. Like, there's not a single scratch on this thing. And so I've been playing with this quite a bit. I hadn't beat Metroid Samus Returns for the 3DS, and so I started playing that a little bit. I had never held one of these before.

Let's wait on that bad boy. Yeah, because I don't think I've ever held one either. It's not very heavy. It's, like, I mean, it's boy yeah because i don't think i've ever held one either uh it's not very heavy it's like i mean it's like i don't know i i'm so bad with stuff like that you asked me an impossible question um i is that compared to a jersey mike sub i mean this is like the last bite oh wow okay it's like it's free it's pretty light i don't know it's probably like maybe there's like two or three bytes left uh it's you know it's gonna depend on the sub uh the contents of the sub you know uh right what do you put on that bad boy yeah uh it is soaked it is i

did get it mike's way yeah uh but it's also like i i had read a lot about some of the 3DS, 2DS models, and I ultimately landed on the flat one because everyone was like, that one is so sturdy. It's built like a fucking truck. Because this one was designed for kids, for young kids, because it doesn't have any hinges. So the weakest point in the system has been eliminated so it is just like a piece of bread form factor we're kids we're kids snapping those earlier ones i think they're like yeah maybe a little rough with it or like you know if you drop it like that's like a sort of like a weak point

in sure in in the hinge but like since you could i'm not try, but I think you could drop this thing and sort of be alright unless it fell on the screen side, of course. But I'm having a blast with it. It also feels very comfortable in the hand. Very comfortable in the hand. Very seductively you said that. It's so comfortable in the hand.

It's like a velvet glove. Matt, the screens are different sizes, right? Yeah. Yeah, the top screen's bigger. The bottom screen's a little smaller. I think it's kind of like that in all of them. They're different aspect ratios, yeah.

Yeah, I know that's how it is on the actual unit, like the 3DS unit. I do wish that the, just for the aesthetic, I wish that the screen surface area on the bottom screen matched the surface area of the screen on the top screen, but only the portion that was required lit up. You just mean aesthetically? Yeah, aesthetically. See, I'm going to want the whole thing filled in.

Aesthetically. Yeah, aesthetically. I see. I'm going to want the whole thing filled in. I can't with the widescreen bars or something on the sides. I don't want it in 4.3. You know? I would want it to match and be full, too. would want it to be i would want it to match and be full too but also they have the 3ds xl models and those have bigger screens and that's honestly like probably what i should have got because let

me tell you you guys know this yes it's not getting on you know as time goes on let's say okay your eyes start to hurt a lot like not hurt but like they just are things are getting harder to see sometimes so like a smaller screen i'm really like i'm getting in there you know i'm wearing glasses when i'm playing at nighttime that's just like that's just the reality now so does the switch not have that problem i don't have a switch i'm curious the switch screen is like is like eight inches so it's like basically like a full jersey mic sub uh but it is um it's the screen's bigger and like the text is usually bigger this is like i mean this is smaller than a phone screen you know so like this is sometimes i'm like what does that even say it's's also a lower resolution. But yeah, I think the...

Yeah, I mean, even the Switch screen, though, I don't want to stare at it for too long. No, no. I usually play docked if I'm playing, unless I'm playing at night, obviously. But if I have my druthers, I'm playing on the TV so I could not be like, you know, what's that say? That's it for me.

Heather, what are you playing? Well, I've been preoccupied playing this week's game for this podcast, as well as our We Play, You Play for the end of the month, which I have dedicated hours every day, which has saddened me a little bit because I like, you know, enjoying Final Fantasy games like a fancy meal. Like they don't come around very often. You really want to experience it. And I feel like I'm pushing through a little bit faster than I normally would. But that brings me to a point about the soundtrack for Final Fantasy 16, which is, I guess, what I've been playing this week.

The soundtrack was released on CD, and I've thought about buying it on CD because it is eight discs. Whoa. It's an eight-disc soundtrack. And I think back to the soundtracks for Final Fantasy 7, 8. They'd be like three discs discs and you'd be like,

holy shit. So many discs. What an, what an enormous amount of music. Eight discs. That's a lot of discs. Yeah. Also comes with a great sticker of Torgl.

One sticker, eight discs. One sticker, eight discs. Terrible ratio. What the hell are they trying to scam you out of? It should be one-to-one. I also, I realized because I was emulating Super Mario RPG,

I never think of the computer that I have as a game system. I only think of it as a writing system or a Photoshop system. And playing Super Mario RPG, I was like, I might cozy up with some retro games this week. Oh. I might play a little. Yeah, you have that in your power. A little something something. A little nice type.

So, yeah. something. A little nice type. So yeah. I've just been fixated on the Final Fantasy soundtrack and that 8-disc collection. I wish they would release it on vinyl. I wish you would have to buy 40 pounds

of vinyl. The warmth. The grooves. It's 199 songs. That's a lot of music. I feel like I hear three songs when I play the grooves. It's 199 songs. That's a lot of music. I feel like I hear three songs when I play the game. Jeez. But that's what I've been playing.

Wow. That's it. Well, it falls to me. Wow. No one's going to tee me up. I think we're done. What are your plans all over the place? Yeah, I think we got enough. We're good. What am I going to tee me up. I think we're done. What are your plans all over the place? Yeah, I think we got enough.

We're good. What am I playing? Someone might ask. Hey, Nick. Yeah. What are you playing? Thanks, Matt. So I've been playing Final Fantasy XVI,

but I've also been finding things to play other than Final Fantasy XVI, which maybe speaks to my overall assessment of the game, which we'll talk about next week on We Play, You Play. But one of those games is the case of the Golden Idol released some DLC, Golden Idol Mysteries, the Spider of Lanka in June. And I finally got around to playing it. It was on Steam sale. I picked it up. This was developed by Color Gray Games. And I finished two of the three scenarios

that are in the DLC, and I'm eager to dig into the third. So just a refresher for anyone who maybe heard me talk about this game at length last year, it's sort of like Case of the Golden Isles, one of my favorite games of 2022. It is basically, you know, we're talking about LucasArts Adventures earlier. It's not exactly that, but it is the same sort of thing of you have, rather than a scenario where a player character is interacting, you are viewing a tableau. You are viewing like a moment in time with a bunch of different characters and objects in a location or locations. location or locations, and you can examine each of them. And it basically comes down to a sort of a lateral thinking puzzles of figuring out what exactly is happening in this scenario. So for instance, in the first one in the DLC, you are at some sort of card game, and there are just a bunch of dead bodies everywhere, and two or three people have

survived, and you're just trying to figure out what happened and the puzzle is first off one of the rules of this invented card game and then also who murdered who in each order and you just sort of deduce that from all of the clues that are present in all of the scattered objects a character will have like a business card or a letter that's on their person that you can examine and that will give additional context. There'll be a sign on the wall and there'll also be like bloodied murder weapons and so on. So it is a lot of deduction. It is a lot of lateral thinking and it's really, really fun and really, really satisfying when you finally solve one of these puzzles. Also, it does a great job of like

dispensing just enough red herrings where what you think is the obvious solution to one part of the puzzle later on this has happened to me with with both of the scenarios that i finished and i i i suspect this is not specific to me what you think is like oh well that's obviously that i'll i'll take care of that and i'll set that out uh for later set that aside for later. Then, like, eventually got tripped up. I was like, why is this not all syncing? Why is this not all adding up? Why am I not getting the satisfactory sting that I solved this thing? It's like, oh, wait, that one thing that I thought was correct, was obvious, was actually had another layer to it that is hidden in all the depths of detail that are present here.

It's so that the gameplay is super duper satisfying. If you like puzzles, AKA not Heather. It also has like this, this, just the world of it is so fun. It's like this invented world. That's akin to like an 18th century earth.

It's, you know, colonialism is a big theme. And I think by virtue of having an invented reality, they are able to just, you know, not get married to Earth specifics and invent a bunch of other stuff like a fucking poisonous blue cricket and that sort of shit. And then also like the art style, which I talked about when and people have. I think it's a it's a it's a thing that that some people find repulsive. It is disgusting, but I really like it.

Like, it looks like it's kind of like a VGA sort of 256 color palette. It feels like it's looking first, like it looks kind of an older pixelated point and click PC game aesthetic. And then the character designs are they all look like just like nasty people. They're just like kind of all like, you know, they have weird expressions on their faces. They're all kind of intentionally repulsive. I mean, it's clearly a choice, but I really dig it. And I think it fits with kind of the nastiness of the reality that they're establishing. Also, the soundtrack, too. It's kind of like dissonant and, you know, unharmonious. It's like that's kind of jarring in its own way.

And it all kind of works for this unsettling, violent reality that you're trying to get to the bottom of. I want to know one other thing here. As I read about this, there is a switch port available for this game. I've been playing it on Steam. But, you know, for those of you out there who just are on who are on Switch or don't have, you know, don't have access to a gaming PC. You can check it out that way. And I think we'll be very, very playable on Switch because, again, it really is

just a point and click mechanics and really is just just examining a tableau. So I love this game and I really, really am enjoying the DLC. I think it does a great job of heightening what's already

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You know, it's another great game. Super Mario RPG. This is our game intel format. And Django, when you emailed me via mutual friend, you sort of introduced yourself. And I think we knew of each other and we worked on some of the same things, but never really crossed paths. But in your introductory email asking about like, you know, hey, maybe coming on the podcast. Yeah. You asked, quote, can we talk about Super Mario RPG?

So this was clearly kind of at the top of your of of your mind. What is it about this game that has connected with you so profoundly? I think it might be the best SNES game. Wow. And that's a great console that has a lot of classic games on that really stand the test of time. The Super Mario RPG, and I'm not even a huge RPG guy. It's just so much fun and there's just something about that game when it came out like it was just so different

and like silly and weird but also the mechanics of it are really tight and there's a really strong sense of exploration where you're like a lot of like kind of disparate world zones that feel genuinely like fun and like kind of you're excited to explore. And so I think it's just, it's a combination of the exploration and the humor. And I think the gaming games are also very fun. And that really just like kind of makes it for me. Yeah.

It's a game I played when I was younger as well. And I, you know, I did not have as as strong of a reaction to it as as you do. But I did like really, really like it. And I do think it's a really cool game. And I love what it led to, which is, you know, the Paper Mario franchise, the Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga games, you know, non square developed, but so clearly inspired by the success of this one. The game was released in 1996 for Super Famicom and Super NES, pointedly not released in PAL,

which is one of those weird like Nintendo quirks of the era of they're just like, if I get Europe doesn't get this one developed by Square and published by Nintendo and kind of their symbolic final collaboration, I guess you'd say. I mean, the next year, Final Fantasy seven releases for PlayStation one. So it's kind of the end of the,

I guess you call it the second party era of Square as a developing for Nintendo consoles exclusively. And Shigeru Miyamoto was somewhat involved, was heavily involved as producing this project. And right now, of course, Nintendo being Nintendo, even though there is a remake on about to come out, it is currently unavailable. You have to play it on emulation. Django, have you revisited this game in recent years at all?

Not recently. I think like 10 years ago, I got a ROM hack, and I played it then, and I found it really, really held up. Last night, in preparation for this, I went back and watched a few videos. I was looking through the bestiary, which is like 700 or so monsters, or something like that. last night in preparation for this i went back like watched a few videos i was like looking through the bestiary which is like 700 or so monsters or something like that so i was really really i was i was really kind of taking taking my toe back in the waters and when you're just

talking about now about when this came out it just occurred to me i completely forgot about this which is that when i first as a kid dropped 70 bucks for this game and brought it home for the first time at first I was like, what the fuck is this? Yes, right. I thought I was getting a Mario game, which is two-degree side-scrolling, power-ups, all that. And the game, as it opens, is just so weird and different.

Like, Bowser is immediately side-cast. Like, you know, out the door you have this other weird kind of industrial-era villain. It was just so, so different and strange but i'm glad i stick with it because it really was like a great experience as a kid and you know 10 years ago i i had the same sort of experience and i'm curious about heather encountering this game because i i don't heather i don't think you played this game before no i i i had not played the game before because when I saw the previews for it, I was like, that's not Mario. And also, I'm, you know, Sega forward. So to go to Blockbuster and rent the console in order to try this Mario game was such a huge barrier of entry that I was like, eh, I don't think that's going to happen. And when I did eventually get a Super NES and, like,

started building my library, it wasn't one of my priorities because it felt like this strange stepchild of Final Fantasy and Super Mario. Yeah. It does. Yeah, for sure. When you put it in that, like, turn, it does kind of feel like a strange, like like Mario knockoff

of the Final Fantasy series. Also imagine the slap in the face for Nintendo to give Square their main dude to be like, hey, you guys make great games. Make a fucking RPG. And Squaresoft's like, you got it. And they make Super Mario RPG and Squaresoft's like, you got it, and they make Super Mario RPG, beloved by all,

like fantastic game from what I've played of it this week. And then immediately they turn around and make Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation. Sure. Oof. It's rough.

Yeah. The, yeah, it's a, you talked to like not not tracking it down when you're building your retro collection i think this is one of those get those carts that became oddly or not oddly but became just like super expensive like i think it was like kind of a even though it was a was a relatively successful game in north america i think it was pretty pricey to track down in the secondary market. Well, also I mean, Super NES games, we talk a lot about how expensive games are getting now,

but Super NES games were regularly $70. Like, Mortal Kombat, when it came out for Super Nintendo, was $69.99. And if you lived in Canada, those prices were $69.99. And if you lived in Canada, those prices were $89.99.

Like, it was not an inexpensive bargain system. So the cartridge itself probably also, if you went to Electronics Boutique or however you got your games in the 90s, what was the other one? Babbage's? Babbage's, oh yeah. If you went to Babbage's, like, you ask your mom, like, hey, can you buy me one game or your dad? Can you buy me one game? And how many kids were going to be like, I want the Mario that's that's not a Mario. One of the challenges, my expectations.

Yeah, I'm going to like I'm I know it's going to cost you $70 with tax, dad. But the game I want is the Mario where you can't control his jump in real time. I want a time delayed jump. Huge learning curve. Yeah, we and also being, you know, like isometric, like everything about it was a little disorientorienting at first if you didn't have the expectation that this was going to be an rpg i mean i'd played some it sounds like jango this this was not a genre you're as as into but like i played some other rpgs and other square rpgs on uh on nintendo super nintendo when i encountered this game for the first time so i kind of knew more what i was in for. But the things that I think were refreshing for it were,

by the way, I always love doing this because, you know, you talked about games, how expensive games used to be. I just, I brought up an inflation calculator and a $70 game in 1996 is, would it be like $130 today? That's absurd. It is weird how video games are still $70.

Like they haven't changed that. Why is that? Is that just like a number that people associate with the game they also went down in price they went down a little bit during during the cd era it was so much less expensive to produce a game like to physically produce it that the price has dropped and now they're back up there uh the the thing that that really connected that connected with me is another thing that it shares in common with Chrono Trigger is there are no random encounters. And that's the thing I always found so fucking annoying in RPGs is just going around the map and then just randomly. I mean, Matt, you're encountering this right now playing those old school Final Fantasy. Yeah, like you just like like you're just trying to explore a map or a dungeon and then you randomly get pulled into a combat situation here. You see enemies on the in the world map and that's how you encounter them.

Yeah. Like I this I had never I had never played this before. And when I saw that they're just on the map and you can avoid them if you want. I tried doing that a little bit. uh they're just on the map and you can avoid them if you want i tried doing that a little bit but then you know like any rpg there is like uh you know a leveling system right so yeah i was like oh like you can't avoid all of them like you have to like do some so you can get experience and then you know upgrade your health or upgrade your attack or something uh or upgrade your uh your flower which is uh mana in this game or whatever uh and i was like i was because i was trying to avoid them because i don't like i don't like the combat in our intern based rpgs usually uh but once i started

getting into um like you know when i get a new party member, for example, or like started actually leveling up, I was like, okay, like there is like, there's rhyme and reason to this. It is like fun. I was enjoying it. Yeah. I mean, I like JRPG combat. I assume Heather's the same, but like, I actually think this combat is really kinetic and fun and active.

And it's meant to be, and it's meant to be like, you know, hey, here's a, here's an introduction to how these sort of this sort of combat can play to someone who's like less familiar with the genre. It also was a system that in some ways Square ends up using in Final Fantasy eight. Right. The as soon as you're about to land an attack, press the button again to add bonus damage stuff. Like that's that becomes like a square thing for a short while. And then also Mother does the same thing. The Mother games are like, click it on the beat and your attack is more powerful. And that feels a little bit more like actual combat. Yes.

Like just giving me the button twice. I'm like, OK, OK, there's a little bit of something here. I got it. I got to time this a little bit better. Mm hmm. Yeah. And, you know, obviously we're chained for Paper Mario and Superstar Saga as well. It's like they all sort of like, OK, this is how a Mario RPG is supposed to play.

Did you? sort of like, okay, this is how a Mario RPG is supposed to play. I'm curious, Jango, like, okay, so you don't play this type of game generally. You were kind of more expecting a Mario game. Like, how do you start to, like, really have a connection with it? Like, at what point are you like, oh, wow, this is really working for me as a kid? Yeah, I would say probably, like, I mean, this honestly might have been my first ever RPG. Wow.

Which is kind of a momentous occasion in a young boy's life, honestly. Your first baseball glove and your first kiss and all that. But, yeah, I think it probably was, like, once I started, like, developing, like, the idea in my head, like, oh, as you progress, you can boost your stats. And that's, like the part of my my brain that was like oh yeah that's the good stuff like you're giving me any numbers that can go up and making myself more powerful that that is what gets me so i think that was probably what it was like realizing oh i'm getting better i'm improving you know i think that sense of accomplishment is kind of what tends to hook me on these games and i think that's also why a lot of these like you know basically every like action game now has this type of system where like you can upgrade your weapons you can upgrade your stats and all that that is like a very like important like mental part of these games i think uh yeah i

totally agree and i i think also the like i mean that's the thing I love about RPGs. I love numbers going up. But also, I think the I think the the other thing that that that in terms of like stuff that I kind of blew my mind about this game is that Bowser can be in your party. Yeah. Like Bowser eventually being like like that is like a crazy thing for a kid to wrap their head around. And and he also reveals that he's putting on a performance yeah like you're when you first encounter him and he's outside of that tower

he's like he's like um ah man i really miss the good old days when it was like fucking mario's like there and then he sees mario and he's like oh i've got to i've got to be confident i gotta put on the facade they give him an inner life which is an astonishing thing three three-dimensional characters like lost lost in their heart and such yeah i didn't see the um mario movie yet uh but i wonder if that sort of becomes the canonical take on bowser is that like the dude is a little bit like he's pushing a little bit with his whole persona well yeah i mean i think that's definitely an element in the super mario movie uh i think there's there but you you know, again, I'm going to mention these games repeatedly, obviously, but, like, you know, like in Paper

Mario, it's like, that's 100% an element that's retained, is him being, like, a semi tragic figure, and I think that there's a part where you're playing as Peach in one of the, I think the GameCube Paper Mario, and, like, you find Bowser's diary

and it's got all these like. That's right. It's like it's like I don't know. I think I think it's a really fun take. And I'm glad that element's been retained. Yeah, I guess this is this did establish like a lot of like kind of Mario canon in a way or just like Mario conventions, if nothing else. Or just like Mario conventions, if nothing else. While we're talking about NPCs and while we're talking about party members, you get Mallow early on, or Mello, however you want to say it.

And I think he's your first party member. And then as the game progresses, there's another party member who I feel like we just kind of have to mention because i think super mario rpg enthusiasts are are going to expect it uh and because i know he's like a fan favorite from this franchise from this particular game which is geno uh geno the uh the the the marionette come to life uh did jango did you connect with with geno at all if i recall geno's like the badass right geno's like the really like he's like the most powerful warrior in your party. So like, yeah, I think I must have connected with him. So like Mario is like your basic character. Malo is like kind of like a healer, magician type.

Gino was a badass. Bowser was like a brutish badass. And then Peach, I guess, maybe Peach was a healer and Malo was the magician. Is that, Malo's the mage? Does that sound right to you guys? They both have magical, like, I didn't revisit it for this particular discussion, but, like, they both have, like, yeah, they're both magic users.

And, yeah, Gino's more like, yeah, DPS, just like a heavy hitter, like you were saying. What's DPS stand for? Damage per second. Very cool. Yeah, that's cool. We're all per second. Very cool. Yeah, that's cool. We're all like, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah, Gino's cool.

I'm not sure if Heather and Matt, if you got far enough to encounter Gino yet. I've not met Gino, but I'm excited to meet him because that was kind of the fun thing about visiting this game for the first time. Visiting. I wanted to say revisiting, but I never played it before.

But visiting doesn't sound right on its own. I think you can say that. I think you're fine. I'm visiting the game. I was playing it on my analog pocket, and I was like, oh, this is a perfect pocket game. It's so fun. I was playing it on my analog pocket and I was like oh this is a perfect pocket game like it's like it's so fun and like the thing that really struck me about it was that like I I because I heard about this game I just didn't know I just didn't know like what it was like and to see

RPG conventions mapped under Mario and it all works I was was like, oh, this is unbelievable. I can't believe that this game actually exists. The fact that there are magic users and that there could be a healer within the party and then just like, I don't know, all the other RPG elements of it all, it really works. I loved it.

It's such an interesting game i i kind of like what i what i appreciate about the game is is again it was like you were saying it was a bold gambit for the time um it it looks great which we haven't really uh yeah and um and it you know it kind of set the template for how Super Mario RPG-style games might play. And if anything, it kind of bums me out when you look at this game and you look at the first couple Paper Marios, and then you look at where that franchise ended up going, and it got so far away from the more conventional sort of... Yeah. The Mario'd up, and with some action elements, but pretty conventional RPG approach that I think works so well for this game.

I think one of the best parts of this game is the lack of tutorial and the simplicity of telling you what you're supposed to do with the buttons. Like the first your first encounter is it just shows the buttons that you can press above Mario. And you press them once, and it tells you what it does. And that's, like, that's such an excellent system. Instead of bringing up a full menu at the bottom of the screen, that you then cycle through each of the things, select that, then select it again, then select it again to enable it and i know that there are eventually with super mario rpg there are eventually multiple menu presses

within your we'll call it a crucifix grid uh yeah that's that sounds right. Yeah. But it was, I was like, when I started, I was like, did I skip something? Because it just brings you into that first encounter and expects you to be like, all right, cool. Press some stuff, figure it out. Which is also what Mario games do. Like instinctively, the first, you know, creature walks at you and you have to do something because he's walking at you and that's how it teaches you the game so it really i i i was i was mildly impressed i thought it was a good i think it's a good game guys and that's not a surprise for anyone i also i had to look up when the game was uh when the game was developed and uh the initial development of super mario rpg began in 1994 right final fantasy 7 also begins

its initial talks in 1994 now we all know that they thought they were going to produce final fantasy 7 for the n64 disc attachment like the the drive the hard drive but that it wasn't feasible and so they start shifting in 1995 the development of the game, to PlayStation. So this game, like, they know they're they've got a mistress. And they're still looking Nintendo in the face while these two things are happening.

Yeah, I mean, it's great that this game is so good because they very well could have just taken every cool idea from it and just given it to Final Fantasy and turned it into some kind of slop. But based on that background, it's kind of cool that it turned out to be this good, this different than Final Fantasy VII too. The flavor is very, very Nintendo-y.

Yeah. It's also the weird kind of timing of the era. Because this is like one of the the last gen or the the end of the of a console generation this is towards the end of the life cycle of of uh of the super nintendo super famicom i mean i just look it up this came out in march in japan and may in in the u.s in 1996 and the suit nintendo 64 comes out in june of 1996 so it's like, you know, this was really kind of the dying of the light for that era. I guess, though, that happens a lot. Like, I think if we, like, probably look back and we're like, we're just talking about The

Last of Us Part Two, it's like, well, that came out at the very end of the PlayStation 4 life cycle. So, you know, that should happen sometimes. Two things that I want to say before i forget one is that gustavo santo santo yaya santo yaya santo gustavo there you go thank you uh may have leaked a um last of us part two remastered for the ps5 which makes sense because then you know you can play it and play and watch the hbo show which will come out in like eight years uh and then also we talked earlier about the graphics on this game

the um the the the look of super mario rpg and there is this uh modern tradition to make pixel remasters and pixel graphics as the way that an emulator looks while playing a old 8-bit or 16-bit game and that that wasn't the way they would look on CRTs. And if you play this game on an emulator without using scanlines, it is fucking ugly as shit it is just a mushy color garbage like you can't like differentiate between anything that's happening on the screen but the moment you drop on those scan lines it's gorgeous and i wasn't a huge fan of this pseudo 3d look in the late Super NES life, like the Donkey Kong Country, the Super Mario RPG, that plastic play action figure look. But I do think it's extremely well implemented

and the remaster of this game that is coming out has gone back to those original assets and redone them. And those assets look amazing yeah it was the uh the kind of the silicon graphics era of like they'd use those workstations to pre-render stuff and that was the big donkey kong country thing and i assume the same process was used for super mario rpg they you know certainly they look like the same sort of models but i think it's it would

again it was the end of the kind of the 2D gaming era of dominance, and they were just like, what else can we do to make things look interesting? Yeah. Yeah, I have a couple other things I want to talk about. One is, and I think this is another

character you probably, Heather and Matt, haven't encountered, but Django, you may remember Boshi. Yes. This dude, let me see if haven't encountered, but Django, you may remember Boshi. Yes. This dude, let me see if I can just share this. Oh, yeah. Here we go. Boshi.

Badass Yoshi. Bad Yoshi. Oh. Nice. He's a bad blue Yoshi with sunglasses. Well, as much attitude as I'm liking. A spike collar. Yeah. How is this the first time I'm learning about Boshi?

Boshi is great. You really seem to'm learning about Boshi? Boshi. Boshi's great. You really seem to catch on. Boshi's a Chad. Yeah. Boshi should be in every game, in every Mario game. What do they do? Oh, that's right.

You have to beat him in a race. He's like the hot dog, like fucking, like that badass Yoshi in town. Oh, God. He's Mario Sonic. Right. Yeah. like the hot dog like fucking like that badass yoshi in town oh god he's mario sonic wow i wonder if that was kind of the inspiration that would totally track yeah uh and then and the other thing and i i'm curious if you have any any thoughts on the score uh jango because like the scores by uh yoko shimomura who we've talked about the podcast but you know very prolific video game composer the kingdom hearts uh franchise um street fighter 2 uh live alive which came out which the remaster came out recently uh and i have a couple tracks i set you matt it's hard to distill the soundtrack just down to a few things but i i picked just well

let's just play this horse this first one. Fight against a somewhat stronger monster. That's the title of it? Yeah, it's one of the battle themes. Great title. She's also the composer in Final Fantasy XV. Just want to give it a little bit. Hell yeah. Yeah. So, you know, put a little stank on it, but also if you want to get a little ethereal, a little mystical,

you can play a track like, listen to something like Beware the Forest Mushrooms. Such Traverse Town vibes on this song. Such Traverse Town vibes on this song. Yeah. Like this, you can really hear her Kingdom Hearts work. More jaunty than ethereal, at least in the beginning, but you get what I mean. They should have...

You know how there are Final Fantasy characters in Kingdom Hearts? Yeah. They should have put Boshi in Kingdom Hearts. It's a licensing nightmare to make that happen, but I totally agree. They should throw Boshi in more things. That first song is a banger, man. That really took me back.

I forgot about those huge drums it's like very very you know percussive and then they have the fucking the shitty like 1990s dj scratch like like keyboard preset sound every so often as like an accent that's so funny that track absolutely rocks and yeah that second one was awesome too very very uh renaissancey i guess i would say uh do you have jingo is there anything i did i feel like we kind of been all over the place in terms of of of adding our own thoughts but i'm curious is there anything we we've missed anything you want to talk about this game that we haven't touched on uh one thing that took me brought me back to was looking at looking at last night was just the overall sense of humor it has.

Oh, yeah. It's a very silly game with lots of funny little moments to it, and a lot of it is made possible through some really great physical comedy with Mario who never talks. So because he never talks, it gives you a little bit of an obstacle when he has to communicate with other characters. So oftentimes it's like, Mario, explain what happened. And he has to mime through it,

which can be done either by motions, but then he'll imitate another character and transform into it and then show what happened with that. So it's just a lot of small touches like that that make the game very funny, which I really appreciate. There's not a lot like...

Mario is always a very funny franchise because it's all very silly and you're in a giant boot, et cetera, boot etc etc but this game really hits the sense of humor in a way that i really enjoy the time and it's frankly kind of make me want to go back and play again i might buy one of those little snes rom rom things they released recently oh yeah well you saw the switch remake is coming i did see that remaster i mean is that is that going to persuade you to get a switch god i i really want to play the zelda games and so that might put me over the top i just the problem with this is i know any any game like this is just like bam 100 hours of my life gone

so like it's really hard like like i have so much shit to do like can i can i really stand playing mario rpg a third time maybe yeah. Yeah. That is the exact quandary we face every single week on this show. Yeah. I did take two screenshots in the game that made me laugh. They were early on, but you're talking to, or Toad is talking to you, and he's like, oh, this bad guy went that way. I'd go do it myself, but I can't because I forgot my bazooka at home. He has a bazooka.

A military grade weapon that he just has. Yeah, they wisely do not have guns in this game. And then in this other one, just a little further along, I was talking to this little kid character that was like running around it's like a little the same thing that malo is uh running around and uh it says mario let's say you and i get hitched in a few years okay i was like what stop running around you need a good woman yeah yeah mario's a catch yes uh um yeah it's a it's a it's a really cool game i mean i'm glad we got to talk about it i i think it's like you talked about the sense of humor i think that's a really

great thing to drill down because again that's that those are trained in in a lot of these in these mario all these mario rpgs that came from nintendo but i also think like you know i suspect i don't know if he's probably fucking talked about it in an interview but i suspect uh undertale was partly inspired by the tonally by this game because it's the same sort of thing and i i you know i know that that the the games that have been cited are like like the Mother series, like Earthbound. And this is kind of in that same sort of world, so I assume this one also

drew a squiggly line to that game. So yeah, it's really cool. Heather, Matt, any other thoughts? I'm very excited for the remake. Me too. Would like to press on with this but just the reality of uh what i have in front of me right now i probably like won't spend that much more time with the original but when the remake comes along i'm all in i'm ready yeah the

remake like just watching the trailer for the remake again, having played the limited amount of it that I've played now, I'm like, oh, wow, it's it's the same cut scenes, but they have new camera angles. I also love the look of the characters being ported over that same design sensibility of that little squat a little squat mario the little guy yeah yes no longer the svelte sexy mario that we identify now i mean the dude's been in like a bathing suit recently don't even talk about it i'm gonna get too horny i want to hear it yeah does he have a belly button and nipples or is is he one of those? He does. Okay. And like a single, he has like three hairs or something, too. Oh, he has like all triple Italian, yeah. Yeah, Homer Simpson amount of chest hair.

All right, hey, let's do a segment. Okay. This is a new segment. I'll explain what it is after I say what the title is okay the uh the oh god i'm so nervous um okay here we go then then this new segment yeah also there's a just just for everyone listening to this matt the only context matt gave us is that he has a new segment and he's unsure about it so we don't know anything else about what's about to happen no um but i think it's gonna be i think it's gonna be good i did sort of uh in a panic uh prepare this last night so here here we go this segment is called what's their age again

now it's time to say the age to me Are they 19? Are they 23? Is it canon? Is it just a thought? Then magic research? Probably not Can our contestants guess their age? What's their age again? What's their age again? Wow So I have some video game characters ages

so good man yeah and you have to tell me what Nick is frozen in laughter he's enjoying himself so I know that this is like a thing that Nick does that's why I was like extra nervous about it and I just really wanted to make him proud

that's all Matt I'm beaming I'll never have a son but you can have me as someone that's like eight years younger than you okay so here we go the

premise of this segment is I have some video game characters ages and you guys have to tell me what you think their age is and then i'll tell you if you're right or not okay so they all they all have canonical ages they all have canonical ages and i will say some of them are looser than others but this is what they've they've said we'll start with an easy one sonic how old is sonic wiker i know this he's 15 all right that's a point for nick sonic is 15 he's always been based on the image of an edgy teenager with attitude and his wikipedia entry lists his age at 15 and it's also noted on the japanese sega website so that's one point for nick. 15 is also when your body's exploding with hormones,

covered in acne. Sonic is having wet dreams every night. It doesn't feel like it. Yeah, he has shame about jacking off. Yeah, I don't think he's that confident. But anyway. It's a little too young. One point for Nick.

Yeah. I would say 18 would be a better age, but nonetheless. Yeah, he should be yeah he should maybe you whatever you want to know that you can make him 17 but like yeah like 15 is too young he's always pregnant so that like that's kind of like a layer too that's like kind of that's another thing that's weird that becomes dark when he's 15 yeah yeah yeah uh and he's pregnant with shrek's baby yeah here's a here's a the next character just recently discussed mario how old is mario heather heather i believe he's the age of the christ 33 heather that is incorrect

i was gonna say yeah, something like that. Okay. Did Jango also incorrect? Nick? I think he's younger. I think he's in his 20s. I want to say he's 27. Just over, Nick.

So no points awarded here. Mario is about 24 or 25 years old, according to Shu shigeru miyamoto that's that's a that's a depression era 24 yeah that's like yeah back when you had like five kids at age 20 when life expectancy was 37 yeah yeah god damn so nick still had one point how's this good this is like fun right this is funny yeah we're having fun okay here we go this one's maybe a little trickier okay solid snake in metal gear solid 2 heather heather 24 heather is incorrect jenga you play the metal Gear solids at all? I have not played them at all, so I'm just guessing purely off the

poster art. If you like Death Stranding, you might want to try a Metal Gear solid. They're absolutely worth revisiting. The HD remasters are coming out of the originals in October. Maybe wait until then so they're

on more modern platforms, but very playable. My guess on the poster is 38. Okay, interesting. Interesting, but no verdict. Interesting or correct? I want to hear

what Nick says. I think he is a little older in Metal Gear Solid 2. I think the chronology... I'll guess the over there, and I'm just going to say he's, I don't think they would do this, but I'm just going to say he was 40. That is incorrect. Jango is closest, but there's actually two answers. Oh, God.

Love this. But there's actually two answers. Oh, God. Love this. Because there's a large swath of time that is covered in Metal Gear Solid 2. Right, there's the prelude that you play, the tanker mission. So he's 35 when the tanker sinks, but then he's 37 when the big shell incident occurs. So I'm going to give Jango the point for being closest. Okay.

38. Well, we're getting points for getting closest i feel like i should have gotten you were but like that was like two but you were like two over okay one overall sort of like okay yeah it's like the rules are kind of changing on the fly yeah it is are we still having fun is that sort of like that's okay i'm a little less fun now but go on okay kratos in god of war ragnarok how old is kratos weiger heather i heard 19 19 nick okay so now you're having your own fun kratos is the dad kratos is the dad kratos is the dad heather 35 35 that's a great guess it is incorrect god damn you have to think about

Ragnarok is the most recent installment right Ragnarok is the most recent installment but you also have to think he's oh shit he's like a demigod right he's in

the Greek mythology and now he's in the Greek mythology. And now he's in the Norse mythology. God damn it. I think he's probably in his 50s at least. I played the game before that. Part of it is kind of breaking down a little bit. So I got to say 55 maybe. Okay.

You'd be correct if you added 1,000 years. Well. if you added 1,000 years. He's somewhere between 1,047 and 1,055 based on the context within the games and what people have been able to figure out. So it's tied up, one apiece. Nick and Django. Heather, you can still get on the board.

Heather, you technically still could win, actually. There's a couple more here. Wow. I don't think it's going to happen. How old is Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 4? I'm a white girl. I'll buzz in. I'm going to guess 26. Okay. I'm going to hold.

We are holding. Heather. Heather. 24 and 27. Is there a flashback in that game? No, but Heather, the game takes place over like, it's like two days. Yeah. It's a long weekend. Yeah.

I think 24 might be right. Someone says 25. Okay, Nick is closest. Leon is 27. He's 21 in Resident Evil 2 when he's a rookie, but then six years later in Resident Evil 4, he's 27. Hmm. Didn't Heather say 24 and 27?

Yeah. Wait, did you say 27 also? Yes. Okay, then Heather gets the point. Yes! Wait, she gets two guesses and she gets it because one of them was right? In that case, I have a range of guesses to populate the board with. Don't poke holes in my little game.

It's all tied up. Okay, it's all tied up and that's actually lucky because this next one is worth two points. Wow, great. How old are joel and ellie in the last of us two you have to get both right exactly this is just i think this is just established in the i'll let someone else go first but i think this is just established in the game i mean i think i think this one you there is like a very clear answer to or at least based off of what's established in the game. I think this one, there is a very clear answer to.

Or at least based off of what's established in part one. I think Ellie's probably like 19 and Joel's like 51. I'm going to let everybody guess. Okay, so Joel start of Last of Us part one has a teenage daughter

20 year time gap and then another 5 plus years between that end of that game and Last of Us Part 2 I'm gonna say 56 and 17

Heather Joel I'm going to say 56 and 17. Heather? Joel is 53. Ellie is 18. Okay. So we have to get both right. So it's possible that none of us gets a point here. It's very possible. Yeah.

None of you got it both right okay but this this this one is worth two points so I could award one point for a half point does that make sense I mean yeah if you just want to keep

changing the rules as you go I guess it makes perfect sense to the bonus round whatever it's fucking anarchy Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us 2 are 56 and 19. Wow. So Nick gets a point and Django gets a point, which leaves our game still at a tie. You know what?

Tie goes to the guest. Tie goes to the guest. Django wins. Is this the first? For what's his age again? What's their age again? This is the first time I've played it. The inaugural what's his age again winner, Django Gold.

I didn't prepare a speech. This is huge. Congratulations. Thanks to all of you. Thanks to all the fictional characters for being the age I thought they might be. Django, before we wrap up, I have one more question that I wanted to ask you earlier, and I'm just curious, like, when you play a game where you can customize

your name, having the name Jango, do you play as Jango? Very seldom. Really? I want to escape my current reality when I play video games. So I give him a cool name, like Thrasher or Wiz. But Jango is a cool name,

is the thing. It is. For some reason, yeah, I want to escape. I want to be someone else. I want to be a different character. So I always either stick to the default like a normal or I just pick some random silly game. I, however, am

very against names that are too silly. I'll never, I, however, am very against names that are too silly. Like, I'll never just call my character like ass man. That's like, that's a sin.

Yeah, that destroys the reality. I'm with you there. well, hey, that's this week's Get Played. Our engineering is by

Alex Gonzalez, Dead Air Alex G on Twitter and Instagram. Also, we have Get Animated. Uh, Heather, what are we talking

about this week? We're talking about the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2, which we are continuing our watch down in broadcast order,

beginning with Episodes 8 and 12 on Crunchyroll, which are Episodes 1 and 2 of the second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. You can check that out on patreon.com slash getplayed for new episodes of Get Animated

and old episodes of Get Animated as well. So check it out. It's us talking about anime. And it's now, you know, Stitcher Premium's demise. It's now the only place you can get that, patreon.com slash getplayed. That's right. So check it out.

And there will be more on that soon. I feel like people have been asking and have wanted an official answer about what's going on with the with the back catalog and other things that are on such a premium we still don't know so don't know that's our official answer at the moment as soon as we know a better official

answer soon exactly yeah Django Gold our guest Django thank you so much for joining us what an absolute delight the specialist bag of tricks it's coming in the fall. I want to give you a chance. I've been doing this with guests right now. But first off, if you want to share any thoughts on the WGA SAG Afterstrikes, because I know

this is a big thing a lot of people are dealing with. If you have any personal experience you want to share on that. And then also, yeah, plug the special and anything else, social media, anything else you want to talk about. Sure. I can get that out of the way real quick. Just follow me on the various social apps at Django Industries, one word. And yeah, the special Bag of Tricks will hopefully be out in September.

There is a joke about video games in it, listeners. So if you want to watch the whole thing front to back to get that one joke about video games, I think you should. And share it with friends to see if they can find the joke about video games. The special will be very good. It's my first special after 12 years of doing stand-up. I gotta say, it's looking very, very funny and interesting and different, so please watch it. As for the SAG after

WGA strike, it's just really weird to be in a situation where the villains are so cartoonishly evil. It's just really weird to be in a situation where the villains are so cartoonishly evil it's just like odd it's like you could like in most conflicts in life you can see the point the other person has like you can try to find common ground but the studios and like specifically like the few dozen people at the top they studios have been acting so maliciously and unfair and bring such little value to the table. It's just bizarre to be in a conflict like this

where you're fighting an incompetent Darth Vader who's looking to privatize the Death Star or sell it off for parts. It's just so shitty and bad. They're just doing such a bad job at messaging. So we have the morale, we have the righteousness. Hopefully, we'll come out of this with a way that people can actually support themselves

creating the things that people like, that people want. On the other side, these people just do nothing except harvest and deplete that which people like. It's an ugly foe to be going up against. I'm confident a few more months of this,

we should be hopefully in a better position. Awesome. Love that. Yeah, love it. Jango, Jago, congrats on Bag of Tricks. Thanks for having me, guys. And AMPTP, this week you got played. Oh, shit.

And that was the turning point. I was going to say, if we find out next week that this is all over, it was because we did it. Yeah, that's right, too.