Get Played - Licensed Video Games

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

Heather, Nick and Matt discuss Licensed video games, what makes them good, what makes them bad, and which are their favorites! This month's We Play, You Play: GoldenEye 007! 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.

This episode is sponsored by Blue Chew. Let's talk about sex. Guys, remember the days when you were always ready to go? Now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence in bed. Listen up. BlueChew.com. Blue Chew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra, but in chewable tablets and at a fraction of the cost. You can take them anytime, day or night,

so you can plan ahead or be ready whenever an opportunity arises. The process is simple. Sign up at BlueChew.com, consult with one of their licensed medical providers, and once you're approved, you'll receive your prescription within days. The best part? It's all done online. So no visits to the doctor's office, no awkward conversations, and no waiting in line at the pharmacy. BlueChew's tablets are made in the USA and prepared and shipped direct to your door in a discreet package. Does it work? Don't think you need it? Try it free for a month and see. You could be missing out on the best sex of your life,

and they say there's nothing sexier than confidence, and Blue Chew can help give you confidence where it counts. Blue Chew wants to help you have better sex. Discover your options at bluechew.com. Chew it and do it. And we've got a special deal for our listeners. Try Blue Chew free when you use our promo code GETPLAY to check out. Just pay $5 shipping. That's bluechew.com, promo code GETPLAY to receive your first month free. Visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Blue Chew for sponsoring the podcast. All right, team, this is so exciting. We have the Top Gun Maverick license, and every element of this is set up for this to be a home run.

Joseph Kaczynski, the director, is going to be involved. Tom Cruise has never done a voice in a video game. He is going to voice Maverick in this game. And also, we've licensed the engine from Namco for ACE combat. So we're going to have a flying engine ready to go. Uh, this game is going to be an absolute fucking home run blockbuster. Let's just figure out how we can make it as good as it,

as, as the license deserves. Yeah. You know, I think it's important to, to, to honor the legacy of this franchise and, you know,

you really need to feel like you're Maverick when you're in the cockpit. So we have to just get every detail of that 100% correct. I've already scouted the aircraft. And I've taken sample photos and things like that so we can go and just really, really just honor these machines. Oh, great. Jay, if you want to put those in the Dropbox, we can put them up on the big screen. Take a look. Speaking of Dropbox, I've been doing some rendering work on the side to make sure that Maverick is authentic to the movie and the world that we love.

authentic to the movie and the world that we love and uh so you know the bar scene where maverick goes into the bar and she she's like you gotta get you gotta have shots for everybody you know that bar yes right with jennifer connelly's yeah jennifer jennifer crannily uh so i have been working on that bar space because I think it should be like a hub world. Specifically the bathroom. I took it upon myself. I put in about 2,000 man hours into rendering this bathroom because I think we want to know where Maverick goes to the bathroom. And what kind of, you you know like what's in that bathroom what is the bathroom of a top gun bar like so i've got some slides here uh real quick

can i can i just interject and this is an open question because i don't personally know but we don't see the bathroom in the movie, right? So that's why I, I went to the bar in, I, I, I company expense to flight economy class. Uh, and I went to the bar where they shot it.

And, Oh, wow. I like that initiative. And I, I took some poops and I, in the bar. Okay.

And I, I, I took photos of those so that we could get the rendering and the lighting right. I've mocked up. I'm using the Lumina engine in only the bathroom, which I personally licensed from Square Enix. You took photos of your own shit in a toilet? In a bar? No, in Maverickick that's what you're

saying maverick so i ate what i thought maverick ate over the course of a week and then would continue to go back to that bathroom and i'm pooping those toilets and take a photo i wore a flight jacket while i was doing it uh and i think here up on the screen you'll see these are some of the please don't take that. Please take it off the screen. Of that bar. Can we just kill the monitor, please? Can we kill the big screen? There's a few shots here.

And then, yeah. So anyway, the bathroom is done. Let's just take it. I think let's just take like 15, everyone. Let's just take like a break. 15 what? We'll just sort of... 15 minutes. Let's just go take. I think let's just take like 15. Everyone, let's just take like a break. We'll just sort of 15 minutes. Let's just go take 15 minutes. Just sort of stretch our legs and reconvene and maybe just clear headed.

We'll have a better vision of what this game is going to be because I don't think we're getting anywhere here at this point. Not to single anyone out, but... Is it alright if I release what I've designed as a mobile standalone called Maverick's Bathroom? No, you will certainly be sued if you do that. Cannot do that. Cannot release a top-end game called Maverick's Bathroom. I'll get it off the store then, because again, I took the initiative. Jesus Christ.

It says here it's the top-selling game in the App Store. Oh, fuck. Shows what I know. We web-swing through skyscrapers and man the controls of X-Wings as we discuss the highs and lows of licensed games this week on Get Played. Thanks for watching! 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, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me, Nick Weiger.

And hey, I'm here with our third host, Matt Apodaca. Ooh, what is up? Hello, everyone. What on earth? Hello, everyone. DJ Khaled! You're in this professional studio, and it turned you into Don Imus.

Yeah, that's right. We're going live to the callers. Dump that bitch or whatever he says. Well, wow. Great to be back with everybody. Immediately exhausted. Great to be back with you. Yeah, I know.

Pace yourself. You got a lot of pod to do. As I take a sip of coffee, we're going to start things off by reminding everyone that this month's We Play, You Play is Goldeneye, which is coming Monday, February 27th.

One of the best licensed games of all time, which ties in with the topic, which we'll get to in a little bit. But yeah, we're going to talk through GoldenEye, if you played it back in the day or if you're playing the new re-releases that are available, I believe, on Switch and Game Pass, but Xbox only. I don't think it's on PC Game Pass. I think that's right. Yeah. and Game Pass, but Xbox only. I don't think it's on PC Game Pass. I think that's right. I think, yeah. There must have been some licensing hoops that they had to jump through, because what strange platforms?

Yeah, I mean, it's got to have to do something with Rare's contract with Microsoft. I'm sure that's got to be part of it. And then I would guess when something's not on PC, there may be worried about, you know, mods or something or, or it,

you know, I, I just, I could see, I don't know how easy it is to mod it. Something that's on game pass. I mean, imagine it's as simple as modding something that's on,

on steam, but I don't know. God forbid somebody make it better or make it nude. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I first gave AG1 a try because I was tired of taking so many supplements every day and wanted a single solution that supports my entire body by filling in nutrient gaps daily. I need energy. I wanted to simplify my morning routine with easy habits.

Since drinking AG1, I've felt energized, strong, and nourished. Not only does AG1 deliver my daily dose of vitamins, minerals, pre and probiotics, and more, but it's a powerful, healthy habit that's also powerfully simple. It's just one scoop mixed in water once a day, every day. I've definitely tried a lot of supplements over the years, but taking multiple supplements and mixing and matching pills and powders every day isn't all that efficient and not always effective. This is why AG1 is a game changer. Just one daily scoop of AG1 covers my nutrient gaps and supports my mental and physical health in just 60 seconds every morning.

I noticed I needed more nutrient support than I used to, especially when I was running out of energy in the middle of the day. But AG1 covers my bases with high quality ingredients in pre and probiotics, adaptogens, antioxidants, and whole food source nutrients. I know with AG1, I'm giving my body high quality nutrition. Every batch of AG1 goes through a rigorous testing process, so you know it's safe. And AG1 ingredients are sourced for absorption, potency, and nutrient density. AG1 is a supplement I trust to provide the support my body needs daily, and that's why I'm excited to welcome Hey everyone, you know you want to eat healthy, exclusively at drinkag1.com slash getplayed. That's drinkag1.com slash getplayed. Check it out. Hey, everyone.

You know, you want to eat healthy. You want to eat well, but you don't want it to be a pain to prepare. Well, let me tell you, eating better is easy with Factor's delicious, ready-to-eat meals. Every fresh, never-frozen meal is chef-crafted, dietician-approved, and ready to go in just two minutes.

You'll have over 35 different options to choose from every week, including Calorie Smart, Protein Plus, and Keto. Also, there are more than 60 add-ons to help you stay fueled up and feeling good all day long. Fuel up fast with Factor's restaurant quality meals that are ready to heat and eat wherever you are. No prep, no mess meals, so there's no prepping, cooking, or cleanup needed. Get as much or as little as you need by choosing your meals every week. Plus, you can pause or reschedule your deliveries anytime. We've done the math. Factor is less expensive than takeout, and every meal is dietitian-approved to be nutritious and delicious. What are you waiting for? Head to factormeals.com slash getplayed50 and use code getplayed50 to get 50% off. That's code

getplayed50 at factormeals.com slash getplayed50 to get 50% off. That's code getplayed50 at factormeals.com slash getplayed50 to get 50% off. Well, we're talking licensed games today, so let's hold off on that golden eye conversation because then we won't have anything to talk about at the end of the month. Yeah, we're fucking shooting our wad this episode or two episodes away from the main event so let's let's pace ourselves you're right either let's talk a little bit about this nintendo direct that just

happened as of this record i haven't watched it i don't know what they said except that uh breath of the wild 2 is gonna cost 70 yes breath of the wild kid the sequel tears of the Wild 2 is going to cost $70. Yes, Breath of the Wild the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom will be out on May 12th, 2023 will cost $70 which is a lot for a game that's coming out on effectively last gen hardware. Talk about more like Tears

of my freaking wallet. Good grief. I know that that seems like a lot of money, but in the 90s chrono trigger cost 69 dollars no it's like yes it's there's there's earthbound i think cost 69 dollars i think donkey kong country cost 69 dollars these were this is a price point which used to be because of inflation effectively a lot more expensive. I'm kind of shocked that it's taken so long.

That is absolutely true, Heather. However, what we're dealing with nowadays is digital distribution or the cost of pressing something to a disk, which is minuscule in comparison to cart manufacturing. Cart manufacturing was so much more expensive. But yes, I do remember that because, and because I remember my dad complaining about it, my very thrifty but very loving father who would treat his kids on the holidays,

and he got me Zelda II The Adventures of Link for Christmas, but still was like, that was this game cost 70 like it's like it's absurd and that's 70 in like 1988 money which is i should do a little inflation calculator 275 in today's in today's money actually i bet it's pretty close. How much is it? I'm looking it up right now. Do an inflation counter calculator right here, live. $190. I wasn't that far off. You're not that far off. So imagine paying $190 for a video game.

Yeah, that's what people were doing. That's what largely parents were doing in those days. days i was gonna say the it's it's still a lot of money considering we've kind of settled around this you know 59 49 price point for switch games but you know whatever i'll i'll fucking my my feeling about nintendo and this is throughout this presentation the nintendo direct and also about what i'm going to talk about and what are you playing. Take it easy. Take it easy. We're not there yet.

I heard my cue. You jumped the gun. Pay attention to context. Don't just hear the words. I'm on my phone. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. What is your connection? You're so spotty.

Your video is like you're on a Game Boy camera. I'm getting in shape. Oh, you're at the gym i'm in the gym what what like what does it you're getting in shape i'm getting in shape you lose your job you got two pads the the rope the the road forks and and you choose either the you either you hit the gym, you lawyer up, or you let yourself fall apart. I tried that first pass last year. Now I'm doing it the other way. Why don't you continue talking about whatever it is you were talking about? I'll come back.

I think I was just going to say Resident Evil Merchant, who introduces our regular segment for people who are listening for the first time. You should get some workout clothes because I don't think the trench coat loaded with supplies and ammunition is particularly conducive to doing a hit party. It's a sauna suit. It's a sauna suit. You know, I'm sweating through it. Unfortunately, I don't have a change of clothes. That's you know what? Get your own house in order first.

Before you get the gym membership, maybe buy some more clothes. You want to see this body in shorts? Is that what you're saying? I'm not saying I want to see your body in anything. I'm just sort of talking about your own personal well-being. I know that on Jersey Shore, they stress gym tan laundry.

But I think for you, you're going to have to change some of those letters around and work on one of those other ones first. Laundry first, perhaps. If I wash my clothes before I wear them to the gym? No, they get ruined. No, you should wash them afterwards. You are washing them afterwards, right? I guess get more laundry. I hit the showers right after in full clothes okay yeah you're probably yeah you might get your membership revoked if you keep doing that uh we'll check in with you again

in a bit resident evil merchant but i was just thinking is did resident evil 4 come out like the same year as jersey shore are those were those like contemporary i bet jersey shore was a few years afterward but like it's a while. That's the same general time frame. Anyway, the Nintendo Direct happened. This will be old news as of this episode's release, but just to speed through it real quick, pick big announcements. Pikmin 4.

Pikmin 4 had some nice looking art direction. I haven't played a Pikmin since Pikmin 1 on the GameCube, and I'll just sort of say like it's this is one where I was watching. I was like, oh, this looks pretty good. I guess this is probably like an alpha, you know, just looking at the graphical quality. Not again, not criticizing the art direction, but just talking about just like the. You know, just how the graphics look compared to other games that are coming out this year. And it's like, no, this game's coming out in like three months.

I was like, oh, so this is almost done done it's just the switch is really showing its age yeah um i noticed that a lot throughout a lot of the presentation i was 100 kind of looks bad kind of it looks like a console that came an underpowered console that released in 2017 which is what it is six years ago. The, the, yeah. But I want to say that I believe this week, the switch has now outsold the game boy, which, you know, the game boy is a 20 year old 30 Jesus, 40 year old system.

I don't fucking know. And it was, it was so pervasive that Game Boys were everywhere. It was everybody had a Game Boy. Yes. And that's also the system that launched Pokemon, which is such a titanic achievement that it's launched. I mean, like, it's the best-selling IP in the world.

So if you can imagine that that was the system that launched Pokemon and that the Switch has outsold that system, that's a big... That's a big... I mean, like, I think Nintendo said something this week about we're in uncharted console territory now, because

they aren't price-dropping. They just keep selling the Switch. Yeah. You don't seem very... No, I'm just saying... It's 122 million sales, which also means it outsold the PS4. Like, that's...

The Wii U by a large margin. Well, yeah, the Wii U is, yeah. I've bought more trash bags than they sold copies of the fucking Wii U. No, yeah, the Wii U is, yeah. I've bought more trash bags than they sold copies of the fucking Wii U. No, I get everything you're saying, Heather. It's un...

Like, who am I to second guess them? It's a fucking enormous success. It's just a little frustrating as somebody who would have liked a hardware update by this point

in the console's lifespan. But whatever. They keep selling because you can play it on fucking the yeah go on the third best selling system of all time is the nintendo switch only behind the nintendo ds and the playstation 2 yeah and so despite like all everything that all the quibbles we have with it, you know, with it's with Nintendo's idiosyncratic tendencies, it doesn't fucking matter because they have these huge IPs and they were smart enough to have this be like, OK, this will be this a lot about the functionality of a tablet with a controller attached and a home console that you can hook up to a TV. And that that hybrid design hook up to a TV. And that, that hybrid design was just so forward thinking anyway. So the,

the other things that talked about the Bayonetta prequel, I think like looks kind of cool. I don't really play, you know, not really into that franchise or haven't really played those games, but I just say like, it has a design where the player character themselves cannot attack. They have a familiar,

their accompanying who does all the attacking. And so what you're doing mechanically is just immobilizing enemies or having enemies, like drawing aggro, having enemies target you and using every non-combat resource to be able to let your NPC companion actually take out bad guys.

That just seems kind of cool. I know Heather would hate that. I'm going to get the Amiibo. Cool looking Amiibo. I'm going to get it. Dead Cells Castlevania DLC. Look cool. I mean, like probably

the best Castlevania game that will come out in a while. Looks pretty fucking cool. I'm a huge Advance Wars fan back in the day, so I'm glad they finally have a date for reboot camp yeah and the war in ukraine will be over on this yes yeah i understand why they delayed it at the time they delayed it but at a certain point i think come on and then but then fire emblem came out which is also a

tactics game so i don't think they wanted to on the market. Oh, they didn't want to step on it. That makes sense. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

I'm okay. Hold on. Yeah. Hold on. I'm looking at the list of the shit that was just announced yesterday, which I should have done before the podcast. I should have done it, but you're,

you're really burying the fucking lead here. I'm getting to it. I'm working my way through. There are, there are two pretty big announcements. One. I'm getting to it. I'm working my way through this. There are two pretty big announcements, one of which really appeals to me and one of which is like a bombshell. Uh-huh. There's a Professor Layton.

I'm not sure if that's what you're thinking of. No, that's not what I'm thinking of. You don't like Professor Layton, the puzzle game series? Ugh. I did. I've never played one and I don't have any context for the professor,

but when I saw him in his little hat, I did say out loud, he's back. Professor Layton would very much be Matt's shit, and not Heather's at all. Here's maybe what you're thinking of, is the Metroid Prime Remaster. Holy shit! Matt is pumping his fists. I can't wait to play this. Yeah, and they just did a stealth drop they're just

it's out Metroid Prime Remaster you can download it today I still don't even know who developed it I don't know if it was a retro internal thing or if they got a remastering

one of those remastering studios I still don't have context for that but it's amazing I did not play Prime back in the day didn't play it never really a huge

Metroid person right yeah but i am so excited for people who love this because the people who love this really fucking love it and when i hear like a drop like this i'm i know that there are people out there who are like yes yes although i also know that a lot of those same people have probably already done like upscale re-res you know texture pack steam deck versions of this game which have been out for a chunky bit of time yeah i was trying to install it on my steam deck and was just like well i'll just buy this that's the thing yeah when are we getting to the thing

i'm excited about i don't know but i just i was just gonna finish my finish my thought on this real quick uh i spotted a metroid prime trilogy you know we boxed used box version at a used game store in like carson a few months ago and i i think it had a price on it that was like 60 bucks i was like holy shit i took it up for it was like like this is like like i couldn't believe it i was like oh you're selling this and the guy like scanned it he's like oh no sorry this is 250 it's mislabeled because it's one of those ones that had a limited for some reason and this is again speaks to nintendo's idiosyncrasy what is the term for that idiosyncrasies yeah idiosyncrasies speaks to nintendo's idiosyncrasies that they're just like a game like they have this they they put together this trilogy collection of this beloved series

and then they do a limited printing of it and then it's just not available for like like this is the thing that that it's it's yet heather yes that that they fight they've made this available on their hardware again to uh people who are fans of this franchise is great um anyway i i don't know if this is what you're gonna actually i might not have listed what you're excited about because my next thing is tears of the kingdom so what was your what was your thing heather game boy and game boy advance on nintendo switch online yeah i'm just thinking about whether or not Final Fantasy Tactics Advance will be finally released for Nintendo Switch. And I can start all over again one more time. Trying to beat this fucking game.

I also, I want to express that it's a good game. It's great yeah I'm just I I've never ah I gotta do it yeah starting a good game never finishing it and wouldn't be me yeah couldn't be me simply couldn't let's get to what are you playing yeah okay so are you still on the phone what are you a merchant or are you in the midst of a set what's going on here are you taking a class and touch breathe in are you teaching a class what is happening? And release. All right, bring your hands up on top of your heads.

Stretch out that spine. Breathe in. I'm sorry. Are you teaching a yoga class? What happened? What happened in the past 10 minutes? And release. All right.

Thank you all for coming. Shavasana. Have a good day. Remember to breathe. And find good day. Remember to breathe and find your focus. Find your center. This has been Resident Evil Merchant Yoga Glass.

Sorry, guys. Caught me in the middle of a little program I'm running here. I mean, I'm impressed you've climbed the ranks so quickly from member of the gym to apparently trainer slash teacher in a matter of minutes.

I just, so full disclosure, I was taking the class. Okay. And the sort of coach of the class, I don't know what you call that, looked concerned and left the room in a hurry to get somebody. And I was like, well, when you see an open door, you walk through it. Got it.

So you just kind of took the reins and decided to take the class. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got a towel off. You probably want me to say the thing, huh? Yeah, I mean, that's kind of why you're on the payroll. You know? Breathe in.

You want us to do this? Ask yourself, what are you playing? Wow. Wow. There it is and release i like this new tranquil energy from the resident evil merchant uh matt what are you playing okay um so because i'm really enjoying the last of us show, and we just replayed part one.

I haven't gone back to play part one again, but I did pick up where I left off in my New Game Plus of part two. Wow. From after when we finished part one, when we covered it on the show. It's still just so good. It is so good. It's so fucking good. Gorgeous game. Gorgeous game.

Gorgeous game. Great. We talked about this when we covered it on the show. It's just such a prime example of polish. It's so good. It's like everything works. It looks great. It plays great.

I'm loving it. It's a fantastic experience i'm in the abby section right now and i sometimes i guess i forgot that abby is goals yeah abby very much as goals she's so fucking shredded i love it it's so that physique it's it's it's it's incredible i just love it it's just uh So I'm playing that. I want to pick Jak and Daxter back up. I took a week off from that. But then I also, from the announcement last night of the Metroid Prime remaster, I was like, I better get back into Metroid Fusion.

So I was playing that on my analog pocket last night and got to a boss that made me mad and then I turned it off. It's like, you fucking kidding me with this guy? He's hard. Which boss is it? It's like the first one. And he's like, so I'm having a rough go. He's like a...

Yeah, describe it. I'm sorry. He's sort of like a snake dragon kind of. He kind of zips around at you and then you shoot him in his glowing head and then his whole body glows and he just gets you. He's fucking tough, this guy. Are you...

You got this. You'll figure it out. Are you playing this on the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy Advance or are you playing this on... I'm playing it on the Pocket. On the Pocket.

It's not on the Game Boy Advance yet, I don't think. Fucking Nintendo... This is what they do. Why not throw out the entire fucking library? No, they gotta, like, just morsel it out over time.

Yes, and at a certain point, I assume it will be there. I think they showed it among the future titles coming. But Metroid is, like, a new thing to me, and I'm very into it. I love it. I know we're complaining about the way they release these games, but they have a chokehold

for like 50 fucking years. Nintendo has just been like, we know what we're doing. Yes, I know. I know. It's maddening. To finish my thought from earlier, my feeling about Nintendo is like that Trump tweet about Coca-Cola where he's like he's basically

like it's okay i'll keep drinking their garbage like that's how i feel like yeah like yeah like what am i gonna do yeah i'm gonna stop playing nintendo games no i'll be frustrated with them i'll be pissed off trump's tweets lately glad he's back. Did you see him, like, praising Joe Biden after the State of the Union? Yeah. Baffling.

I think he got bonked. Anytime that dude says something, it's shocking. Yeah. Like, you can't, he somehow manages to constantly turn the dial

in a new direction. Just when you think he's going to zig, he zags. Yeah. Hate him. Horrible man. Horrible.

You know, my New Year's resolution is to cut back on sugar and add more protein to my diet and stay on track with my fitness goals. And Magic Spoon makes that easier and more delicious than ever. Growing up, cereal is one of the best parts of being a kid. But as I got older, I had to watch out for sugar and empty carbs. And boy, let me tell you, I love cereal. So Magic Spoon has the amazing flavors you love, but high protein and less sugar. I've been drinking protein shakes and powder for years, but finally found a delicious way to get my protein before and after workouts. With Magic Spoon, you can get a variety pack of four flavors, and they are cocoa, fruity,

frosted, and peanut butter. And something I like to do, folks, I like to mix them and match them. So I'm getting cocoa in my peanut butter, I'm getting fruity in my frosted. I'm going crazy over there with the Magic Spoon. And these packs have zero grams of sugar, 13 to 14 grams of protein, and four to 5 grams of net carbs. It's only 140 calories per serving, folks. It's high protein, has zero sugar, keto-friendly, gluten-free, grain-free, and soy-free. Like I said before, I love cereal. That combination of chocolate and peanut butter is incredible.

I highly recommend mixing them up because you're going to have a blast. Go to magicspoon.com slash getplayed to grab a variety pack and try it today. And be sure to use our promo code getplayed, that's G-E-T-P-L-A-Y-E-D, at checkout to save $5 off your order. And Magic Spoon is so confident in their product, it's backed with 100% happiness guarantee. So if you don't like it for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember, start the new year off right with a delicious bowl of high protein cereal at magicspoon.com slash get played and use code get played to save five dollars off thank you magic spoon for sponsoring this episode heather how about you what are you playing what am i playing that's i mean i guess i why i don't know why the Resident Evil would say,

what am I playing? That was weird. Really weird. Who knows with this fucking guy? Yeah. This guy's crazy. Yes, I am. What are you playing, Heather?

What are you playing? Yeah, you're not over playing games at my house you fucking weirdo maybe he is and you don't know he is we've been having plumbing problems maybe maybe that's why what am i playing um it's been it's been a short week for games for me. I've been playing this little game called Fortnite. I got legitimately tricked. Look, I don't have a lot of time to play video games that aren't for the show and so like if i have if i have a half hour i'm playing fucking fortnite um lots of new quests uh the guy from the witcher is in fortnite which made me wonder is fortnite a licensed game what is it we'll talk

about it but that was one i was thinking. Because it certainly has a lot of licensed properties. Yeah. I did a bunch of like quests for Geralt. Is that his name? The hard G. Geralt? Yeah. Geralt.

That sounds like an improv name. That's fucking ridiculous yeah hi i'm professor gub yeah it's 100 so uh so yeah i did all those quests and got that skin uh but really just equipped all of his heat because his weapons are an equippable thing on other characters so my sarah connor is now like got 50 swords and i'm like that feels right a bunch of swords and guns that's that's sarah connor um this new update really borked her there's two skins available for one that's not i'm going to kill miles dyson and one that is i'm going to go kill miles dyson and one that is i'm going to go kill

miles dyson and i always choose i'm gonna go kill miles dyson because i think that's her at her most threatening god i just hate when somebody gets porked but but something in the update fucked up the um architecture on her face oh no so now her lips are like lower than her chin. And when she emotes, they like droop like a loose boob onto her chest. And I can't play as that.

Like that, nobody's going to be threatened or take that seriously. Right. She's got like a camel face. And I can't, I also can't believe that there have been

multiple updates where they haven't fixed it. If you're a Fortnite dev and you're listening to this show, hi, but also get, make, give me money, but also fix Sarah Connor.

So I've been playing as her other skin, not as threatening, not as threatening, no black baseball cap, black sunglasses, like a woman who, a woman who's going to murder a father. I can't believe it's a skin in Fortnite.

It's great. Sarah Conrad, her darkest. But yeah, playing with listeners. I announced, I think, last week on the show that if you were a listener just go ahead and let's play uh and i've got a ton of friends that i have to accept i'm scared to accept them because i also don't know if they're just like angry rick and morty people which sometimes i'll accept and party up with and then they'll be like hey do you write for Rick and Morty?

And I'm like, delete, delete. Yeah, right, yeah. But yeah, it's- You can call us just Rick and Morty people. Loving fans. Yeah. There's really a line. They just love sauce.

There's a wonderful, you go all the way to a I suppose it's that way with any property like if I wrote on Star Wars people would be like really great up until a line

and then beyond that line it would be terrifying for what I understand about Star Wars they keep their mouth shut about things they don't like I think I don't really chill fan base

yeah same with Last of Us. Man, can you imagine working on a game that is so good that it becomes a prestige HBO series and still having to put up with like constant hate? Well, Last of Us Part 2, I think it did completely divided the fan base. That was before the adaptation even. Yeah. completely divided the fan base that was before the the adaptation even yeah well anyway i've been playing fortnight uh partying up with uh i don't know her real name biggs your listener thank you so much i think we got we we took down a boss wow ed uh we we've got a couple crowns

uh and then my regular squad of people who i don't know in real life, but we all apparently work in the industry. Great game. Great fun. Lots of Kamehameha. And that's been my week in games. Nick, what are you playing? Real quick, while we're shouting out listeners, I told this told this to you, Matt, but I met a I met a listener, Carlos, who said that he helped you out of fighting Moog the Omen in Elden Ring. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for your help. That was a very dark time. And I loved I loved receiving help from from listeners and from Heather in Elden Ring.

Nick, you'll get to Moog someday. Yeah, it's on the list. Carlos, Carlos, lovely man. Anyway, so, okay. Again, I'm talking Nintendo because I'm mad at myself. But I was at Costco, and I impulse bought an OLED Switch. Wow!

We didn't even know this. I'm so proud of you. I have it right here. It is so gorgeous. It is absolutely... I hate it. We were talking so much shit about the Switch earlier, dude. I hate how gorgeous it is.

I hate how sleek it is. Well, you know what it was? I watched that Nintendo Direct, and then I had to go to costco and i was there and they had all that so she's like they're not gonna give a fucking hardware update till they're never gonna announce a hardware update till next year at earliest and my my switch light is a little long in the tooth and fuck it i'll just fucking get this thing the it's it's not just that it's that the the hardware itself is thing. It's not just that the hardware itself is so sleek, it's just also the screen is gorgeous,

and it's larger, like significantly larger. It's got more heft to it, but in a good way. It's not heavy, it just feels more substantial for handheld playing. And that brings me to the games I've been messing around with. I downloaded the Metroid Prime remaster, which I got super fast because the fucking dock has a wired Ethernet port,

and this is, again, just like what Nintendo fucking does. They make you excited for something that's been standard for 10 years. Everyone fucking has it. When they added Bluetooth, it's like, oh, my God god there's bluetooth on the switch yeah fucking everything has bluetooth like you should have had bluetooth out of the box why did this have to be an update why did we need two hardware revisions before we

have a fucking ethernet port that said it's great i love it i was able to plug this thing in um downloaded really quick and uh played a bit of it so the thing thing about Metroid Prime is that it had a, God, I'm going to say idiosyncratic again, whatever. When it was on the GameCube, its control scheme was quirky and unique. It worked, but it was basically like, I think Nintendo at the time was not sold on, or maybe this came from retro, you know, like twin stick controls for first person games so what that the way the

control worked is that your movement was all with the left stick if memory serves and then you would hold a button you would hold a lock button to look around so like one of the shoulder buttons would let you look around uh with that same stick and then you could lock onto a target and then when you locked onto a target, you could strafe around it, kind of like third-person combat in a game when you lock onto an enemy, and then you can kind of circle strafe around them. So that feels very clunky with how console first-person games control these days. And even at the time, it was a little clunky, it worked so they had just have like new control schemes now and you can just control it like a a

twin stick shooter you can control it like a you know like you just just walk or move with your left stick and look around with your right stick and it works pretty well i would imagine it might even skew the balance a little bit because now you can move and aim freely and that probably makes sections of the games a little bit easier uh but i but it does look really really nice i was like man they fucking they really went to they really did not phone this in it feels like a true uh you know a true modern remaster wow um i also messed around with the the sea of stars demo this is one of the games that was announced in the nintendo direct uh this is like a throwback jrpg that i was surprised by i didn't i didn't i hadn't heard it was in development isometric it's it's got this

great pixel art and animation uh your movement on the world map is really fluid you could just run around you can climb and jump and and swim and like that it just feels a lot more platformy uh without minus any sort of challenge than than a typical you know map movement in a jrpg and then the the combat has like an active element where it's kind of like you know i think it was final fantasy 8 where you could tie off a timed button press for the gun blade to add some extra you know it's optional but you can add some extra impact to your attack and they're kind of different for each character in terms of holds and timed presses. And that's fun, and that just makes the turn-based combat a little bit more... It gives a little bit more energy to it.

It's also got a good sense of fun and silliness. It doesn't take itself too seriously. It feels like it's kind of like making fun of games of that generation. It's very self-aware. And here's the thing that I was very excited about the reason i downloaded this demo they they fucking got me uh it has guest music from yasunori mitsuda uh the composer of chrono trigger and chrono cross and uh let me play a little bit of this track this is there's a there's a track from him from mitsuda-san uh coral cascades that's in the demo.

Alright, so you're sitting in it, and you're like, I know where this is going. That's nice. Oh, wait. Oh, okay. Similar sort of vibes, but we're settled in here. Oh, wait a second. Wow. This is good. I was interested in that good as hell uh you get the sense of it music's great uh i would i was just gonna say we need to standardize fishing controls in games because this one is wild it's like you aim you have control of where your rod is with the analog stick

like you you press one button to cast right we're all used to that system you press another button for where you when you want the the the the fucking hook to land and so you have like that's a different element and then you have control of the analog stick to reel something in but it's not just like positioning a gauge it's like positioning where your line is in the uh in the play space and it's just i don't know it's it's like you can adapt to it but it's just like a like divergent from how fishing works in many other games that i played and i don't know that just feels like a thing we let's just figure it out just have a have a summit and say like this is how fishing it works in video games and we're done i don't i don't do it i just

don't do it i get it i didn't do any fishing in persona because i was like i don't I don't do it I just don't do it I get it I didn't do any fishing in Persona cause I was like I don't want to spend any of my precious social time at the fucking fishing pond yeah I'm supposed to be with Lady Ann or uh Futaba or whoever bro out with fucking Ryuji and his no more

rules t-shirt um anyway the OLED switch is is dazzling um and it pisses me off because i don't like spending money on this shit all right anyway uh let's talk about today's topic licensed games uh obviously hogwarts legacy just got released we're not gonna be talking about that but it does kind of put licensed games on the brain and also you know we're talking about the golden eye re-release which uh we're gonna be talking about that at the end of the month. But we thought we'd just sort of like go through some of our favorite licensed games because this is a sector of gaming that has vastly improved over the time I've had this as a hobby.

Like it used to be just like these were like licensed games were universally garbage and there'd be like one outlier you'd be like oh wow this one's actually pretty good even though it's a licensed games and now it's kind of gotten to the point where they're like okay you know what these ip are so valuable that we should really put some resources behind the development of these games and uh you know try to make sure they aren't just cash-ins. Those cash-ins still exist, but, you know, by and large, there's a lot more care and craft

put into these licensed games. I kind of want to start the discussion here, which is like, what do you think, and this is an open question, makes a good licensed game? Like, why are some of them good? Why are some of them better than others what why yeah i don't know i don't have i don't have a clear game is good like you can slap like you can slap a license on a you know if i'm not gonna play pixar's cars the

game but if it was a fucking awesome racing game, I might play it. I would play that. I think it just is like the license is secondary to the quality of the game itself, but then if the game takes the source material

and really dips into it and combines that with good gameplay, then it's a great licensed game. Yeah, the same thing doesn't make any game good. Yeah. You're saying. That's at its core. Yeah.

I feel like you were asking, what is a good game? Well, no, but I mean, I think there are specific parameters to a licensed game because it also, you know, you want to honor that world. You want to make you you know if it's a if it's a fantasy of being a particular character like batman or spider-man you know you want to make it feel like oh this is fun to be this character and if it's a an alternate reality uh you want to make it feel like you're inhabiting that reality so you know you want to like like

what people already know about the license is baked in about the ip is baked in so you want to make sure you like you ideally want to honor that like like because because what you're saying like yeah like home improvement power tool pursuit which we talked about on the podcast is not doesn't play terribly as a Super Nintendo action platformer. It's like, yeah, it's like, OK, but it just has absolutely not like fuck all to do with home improvement. Right. So you're just so it's just kind of a baffling gameplay experience.

Matt, I don't know. What are your thoughts? Well, because there are a couple of different kinds of licensed games, right? Like there's like your batman arkham series like that's uh obviously the batman license but it's not necessarily an adaptation of a particular batman story it's an adaptation of the of the batman oeuvre i guess right yes um uh but there is like a type of video game that i feel like no longer exists anymore which is like a movie adaptation video game which is just like they take the movie and then they adapt it into a game it's

the movie on rails basically where you yeah where you play the through the story of the game and maybe there are added elements to the video game um And I always like when they add stuff because it's like you're, at least something's a surprise a little bit. A game, I'll just throw this one out here to start. The Spider-Man 2 video game. The Spider-Man 2 movie video game, I should say. For the PlayStation 2.

And this is for PlayStation 1, right? Or was it PS2? This was PS2. Um, okay. There is a Spider-Man two video game, but it's a different thing. Um,

but the, Oh, I see the one you're talking about. Yeah. The Spider-Man two movie adaptation game is really, really good. Like way better than it had to be because it adapts the movie, which I think we can all agree.

Fucking rips. It's really maybe one of the best superhero movies ever. It's great. So it adapts the story. All the voice actors from all the actors from the game or from the movie are in the game. And there's added elements like you'll run into other characters that aren't in the movie because it would be weird if there was an entire Spider-Man game and he only fought one guy. You know, Dr. Octopus. I think that's the only guy in the movie, yeah. But it's just so great.

And then on top of this, they made it an open world. It's an open New York game. It's the first Spider-Man game to do this you can crawl on buildings you can swing throughout the city they improved upon this in the new spider-man games for uh insomniac spider-man game but like this was the first game to do it and when you played this game you were like i'm fucking spider-man it's unreal it's it's unreal how good of a job they did with that um and then you know it has like little side missions and stuff and like you know you got to deliver the pizza you can't do too many flips as

spider-man or else the pizza gets ruined right that's like a good mechanic that's great um but that's like that's one that i really, really loved when I was young because I just replayed it so often. And it was just a really well-made... They cared too much about how good the game was. It fucking worked. It was great. Yeah, I think a lot of it, you know, a lot of it, too, is just like giving getting the leeway, you know, from the from the license holder, getting the, you know, getting enough resources from the publisher and also, you know, getting information because that's that's the other thing. And I can speak to this a little bit because, you know, much of my game development career was working on bad licensed games.

And I worked on a couple of games that were comic book franchises that were basically, hey, this is the game adaptation of the movie. Right. Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer. I worked on both of those games. And in both of those situations, it was like, you know, everyone is trying the best they could to try to make this happen. But I can speak to the original Fantastic Four games development was the studio got the license for the comic IP. And that was before Marvel comic book IPs were this huge thing. It's before they were all under one umbrella. It was, you know, Sony had some of them.

huge thing it's before they were all under one umbrella it was you know sony had some of them um uh you know what other studios had had other parts of it uh this was before the the mcu as we know it and so like then i believe fox got the rights to make a fantastic four movie so the game that was already in development as like a Fantastic Four beat-em-up got sort of like retconned mid-development into being an adaptation of the movie, which was like a complete like, okay, we have this engine that's kind of built around, you know, making sort of a classic beat-em-up that now they want to make into a third-person adventure action platformer, which was, you know, the engine was fine, but was not really equipped to do that so that was part of it and then it was also just like the timeline was rushed and there weren't enough

resources to execute you know what the licensor and what activision wanted so this sounds like making you know excuses for what ultimately came out but it's it's just it's just the reality of it i feel like for a long time they were just based like with these games was basically like hey this has to be out for this movie's release date or this has to be out for the holidays because all of our sales are going to come from you know people who are excited for the movie and then buy the game or all or you know parents buying this game for their kids who like the movie yes uh and very little was attention was paid to just like how much game does this game how much time does this game need to be good.

There was... I just remembered this. I didn't have this written down, but I remember the Star Wars Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith game came out before the movie. I think with a significant

lead, with a couple of weeks of the movie being released. So if you played through the entire game, you know how the movie ends. So like some people were spoiled from the movie, which like you can sort of infer what the end of the movie is going to be if you're following the story of these characters

that you already know. Yeah. Right? But if you've, I guess guess only seen the prequels and you're like i'm gonna play this video game the whole thing was spoiled for you which now they would never do but it's yeah spoiler culture is a relatively recent thing yeah i had the soundtrack for the phantom menace before the movie out. And I remember a friend saying like, hey, don't read the track listing.

This was on CD. I was like, okay. And then when you read the track, when I read the track listing later, because I had another friend who read it and it was like, he was bummed out. Like one of the tracks is called Qui-Gon's Noble End. So they spoiled on the soundtrack soundtrack like on the back of

the cd yeah they spoiled the ending of the movie and it was you know it's just a time when not that not as much attention was paid to that yeah i i you know the episode three game i have never played it but i do think doesn't that want to have a weird fucking thing where at the end you can either be anakin or obi-wan yeah and you can like you can have like a bad ending if you win with anakin yeah you can get a bad ending and then it is um like instead of obviously getting burned up in the in the the lava of mustafar um you um you're just like anakin and then you're just like with the the fucking the emperor

and he's like good job Anakin so that completely changes the canon of the trilogy that follows it's so funny there's no Darth Vader in that reality well there is Darth Vader but there's no Darth Vader as we know it there is also a good

there's a mode that's not part of the main game. It's just, like, in the menu. It's a versus mode, and it's a lightsaber fighting game. And it's, like, you can just pick any character from the franchise, basically. And, you know, one versus one, you know, them in a lightsaber duel. And it's fucking awesome. The game is good. I remember liking the game quite a bit.

But, oh, I wanted to share, I was praising the voice actors from, or the actors from Spider-Man are in the game, and I guess I do need to share Tobey Maguire's performance in this game game because I feel like it's at a time where voice acting in games wasn't quite there yet. Like, it was still, like, it was not new, but it was, like, you know, early. People were still just sort of figuring out what you can do with video games. Here's a sample of some characters speaking.

Parker, the delivery deadline is coming and you are only just now arriving? Get these pizzas to the customers right now. No problem. You can count on me. That looks like a good place to make my first delivery. Just like Reddit wants. it once um i i had a uh like i i i had a i know somebody worked on a big license game actually one of the the development lead on a game i worked on had worked on another big license game and there was a huge movie star who they were like hey we got the voice of this

the of we got the star of the movie to do voices in this game they booked him for one four hour session um he showed up two and a half hours late so they had him for 90 minutes to try to get through the entire game script and they just had to like on the fly pick what they absolutely needed and as a as such they had to just like cobble together retroactively from the lines that they got from him uh a way to make the story make sense and you know you end up making those sort of compromises when you're beholden to like some fucking uh ego-driven uh you know maniac who is the the the face of this ip i'll tell you guys who it is off pod oh i can't wait that's yeah my favorite kind of gossip gossip that's just for us heather uh do you have a favorite favorite

just anything i guess no uh favorite um licensed game and you can't say fortnite yeah licensed game oh no no you can say fortnite uh so i've actually got a few picks here right um and i i kind of want to rattle off a couple Please. One of them is Alien 3 for the Super NES, which was not based on the movie. In the movie, it was sort of like, imagine like a dreamscape that combined a bunch of different alien movies into one video game. So it has music elements from aliens like converted into super nes tracks and then it also has um uh guns which were not in alien 3 so it's a little bit like like yeah like if you kind of didn't remember what happened in alien 3 this would be a perfect licensed game of the film. But it also has bald Ripley. And I think the score is pretty good

for a Super NES game. So I've got a couple tracks here to share. The first is just your intro track. Like... It's not quite Alien 3's music. Mm-hmm. I think this is based off of Aliens. That's cool. I think this is based off of Aliens.

It's cool. And then the next track is just straight up from Aliens. This is the song playing when Ripley is driving the tank and like saving people. You get the idea. It's a good action sound for a Super NES. That's one of the ones that I thought was a good licensed game. I think the best licensed game of all time, in my might be star wars squadrons which is the especially in vr if it wasn't for the fact that playing a game in vr is such a fucking barrier to entry i think people would be raving about squadrons still and i've got a a clip to show you

because i i don't know if we've ever like actually watched i've played it a bunch but i don't know if you guys have actually watched how fucking good it is now fire all boost thrusters like it's you're inside of star wars yeah we're in a cockpit here going through a battle with a bunch of star destroyers. Wow. I don't know what this rock formation is here, and this is a giant

Death Star-like structure. I think it's just asteroids. It's like a mining colony. But like your cockpit has a physical presence in your space that is hard to see in clips. Right. But you feel like you're in a fucking cockpit.

And then the depth of space extends way, way, way, way out in front of you. It's, it's so fucking good. And you switch back and forth between TIE fighters and X wings. It's,

it's stunning. This would make me throw up. Yeah, this is really gorgeous. It is a little nausea-inducing. But you know what? I kind of have Star Wars listed as a category because there are clearly some bad Star Wars games, you know, that weird K'nex Star Wars game,

the Yoda stories, right? We've covered that on the podcast. There's some bad ones, but I think by and large, I think because there's like... Find my sock, you must. Because there's flying and there's fighting, Because there's flying and there's fighting, you know, and and also because George Lucas himself which are kind of the precursor. Those games are fucking rad, and they are kind of the precursor to Squadrons, which we're seeing now.

I also want to give a shout out to another not Star Wars game, another licensed game. I don't know if this is how we're supposed to be doing this, but it's how I'm doing it. This is great. So on the Xbox 360, there was a licensed naruto game developed by ubisoft called uh naruto rise of a ninja and i think it was the first naruto

like licensed game outside of japan uh it had a full english track for voices and a full Japanese track for voices. So you could play it in like whichever, whether you're subs or dubs, you could play it that way. It also had the music from Naruto, which sometimes you'll get the license to the show, but you won't get the license to the music. Oftentimes in Star Wars, you'll be playing Star Wars games that don't have John Williams scores. And you're like, this kind of doesn't feel like Star Wars because of it. I've got a clip that I sent in

and it's showing its age because it's Xbox 360. But one of the things that was incredible about this game is that the entire village that Naruto started in was in the game a la Grand Theft Auto. So you could run around from rooftop to rooftop. You could do all of his fucking little

powers and shit. And you could figure out where locations were based on your memory of the anime. So you could start in his house and be like, I think the ramen shop is over there. And you could hop from rooftop to rooftop like he does. And it was accurate to both the manga and the anime. Here's a clip.

It's just got a great run there yeah great run cycle like he can run up buildings he can hop from rooftop to rooftop he's got like

an enormous jump because he's a ninja and you also build up relationships with all the NPCs because in the anime

Naruto starts as like a piece of shit. Like he's a real, he's not a very good guy. So you're running around with all of these NPCs and they all have like frowny faces over their heads because they hate you. But as you take on missions and do quests, the town starts being nice to you.

The art style here, the characters are cel-shaded and vibrant, and then the world itself is a little bit more of a grounded look to it, but it all sits in nicely.

This looks great. It was really good. I covered it back when I was a game journalist and went up to Canada to do a story. And when they showed me the game, I was like, oh my God, what? Wow. This is so fucking good.

And when I went to find clips on YouTube it's like naruto rise of a ninja most of the top youtube clips were like how can naruto rise of a ninja be so good and it's like people covering it and being like everyone slept on this game and it's amazing wow and then and then finally ninja turtlestles Arcade. Oh, Ninja Turtles Arcade is a good one. And also on my list related to that is another Konami beat him up of that era. X-Men, the arcade game. Oh, yeah. X, which had eight players.

And it's just also like that one is you feel like the X-Men in the beat him up context. Yeah. Again, that's what Fantastic Four was going to be. You'd think it would could be fun, but you know, that would be great. I love the fantastic forest as characters. I think they,

they're owed their time in the sun. I think they think they're, they, they deserve their time to shine. They want the platform or with hacking mini games. What are you going to do? Anyway, so the,

the, the, that, that brings me to some of my picks. Yeah. And I had that one that, that I wanted to shout out X--Men the Arcade Game real quick. Also, I'll shout out a couple of NES games that I think were really good licensed ones.

One of them got remastered. One of them has kind of been forgotten. But DuckTales. Yes. The Capcom game was fucking great. It didn't, in a sense, it didn't really honor the property. It didn't in a sense, it didn't really honor the property. It was kind of like, why are you Scrooge going around doing golf swings to hit rocks and, you know, pogo sticking around on your cane? But it is just like a really satisfying platformer.

And, you know, it just just just has a great feel to it. The art is really good. The art for the for, you know, the NES, it like it looks like all the DuckTales characters. And then Goonies 2 is the other one of that era. I think it was a Konami game. It could have been Capcom. I think it was Konami that did Goonies 2. But that's a weird one where it's like, this game is the sequel to the movie The Goonies, but it's like a Metroidvania where you go around and you play as the the i guess i think

mikey is the character's name the lead goonie plays mikey yeah and you have a yo-yo and then you get more weapons as you go and your quest is to uh like release a mermaid i forget exactly what the story is but that game was very was very playable and very fun um uh the game that i i think is probably like my favorite licensed game there's a lot of good candidates here but i think uh i think i picked the telltale walking dead games oh yes i think they're just so they're so well realized as storytelling i think they're better than the tv show the they're really like the apex of the of the telltale formula where it feels like your decisions matter and because so often they're like life or death so often they're like hey this kid is gonna die or this this uh or his mom is gonna

die yeah exactly like who are you who's gonna but sometimes it'll be like oftentimes it's it's it's like uh two characters you like both of them they are both your friends and one of them is going to be left to be killed in a convenience store by a horde of zombies and the other one is going to survive and be forever traumatized uh so like like i i think just like the the art's really good. The music's great. The voice acting is outstanding. And they're really well written. Well put together games.

Real quick. While I'm talking about this. I'll talk about The Sopranos Road to Respect. Which is a game that I have an additional design credit on. What do you hear? What do you say? um this game i you know i only i i barely worked on this game i worked on this game for just a couple months and then i had to or then i asked to be taken off of the project uh but the way that one began is the idea was for it to be like kind of like a soprano's telltale style

game like that was the pitch and if you think of it from be like kind of like a Sopranos telltale style game. Like that was the pitch. And if you think of it from that standpoint, it's like, okay, yeah, when you just hear Sopranos video games, like what the fuck are you doing? But you're like, wait, like a narrative driven, dialogue driven game with a few action sequences that has the, you know, the cast of the Sopranos and, you know, hopefully writing that can at least semi live up to the stellar writing of the best TV show ever made. It makes a little bit more sense.

And it starts to, you know, like kind of like, OK, that sounds like a game that could work. Then the publisher, THQ, Rest in Power, decides to decides they want grand theft auto sopranos and again this game is using the same engine as the fantastic four game so not built to accomplish that can't really do open world shit at all so it ends up being kind of like a levelly based design uh that's that's you know kind of just like a lot lot of fighting sequences and then a handful of these, you know, QTA dialogue

driven, you know, sequences. There's a little bit of some dialogue stuff that's left in that was, you know, widely justly ridiculed because it was basically your interaction was limited to choosing tough or smooth

in terms of your responses. But it's like the thing of just like, I'm sure this happens with a lot of licensed games that fail. It's like it starts off and it kind of makes sense on paper. And then for a variety of reasons whether you know some within your control a lot of them outside of your control uh it ends up just turning into a big fat pile of shit grand theft auto sopranos is like a i think like a fundamental a fundamental misunderstanding of what the sopranosranos is, too. Because I don't think of that show as, like, Goodfellas or something, right? That's like, or even, like, Scarface.

It is more about talking. They talk more on that show than they do, like, action stuff. It should have been a dating sim, but instead of dating, it's relationships. Yeah. Yeah. Again, I think you are both correct. And that was where the you know, the original design document, which are the original pitch, which I was not involved with, but that was where that was headed. That's why it was sort of like there was some

optimism, like, oh, this could kind of turn into something. And, you know, obviously not great creative division from the publisher, partly because they're just like, hey, we spent this much money on this license and we want this game to sell, baby. And if it's going to sell, it's got to have, you know, punching and shooting. Yeah. So, you know, what are you going to fucking do? Anyway, it was a different it was a different era in licensed games. And I feel like you could probably make something like that these days.

There are a lot more. It does feel like, you know, what a licensed game could be has expanded quite a bit i want to share a couple more from that era or or shortly after that era uh batman arkham asylum obviously the arkham games but i do feel like arkham asylum it just that contained version of it was just so well everyone fucking knows this but but rocksteady's batman was like a revelation in terms of licensed games like oh wow you really feel like batman both in terms of uh how he fights and then the detective aspect they kind of like nail both of those and it's got a it's got a pretty good story good voice acting and another game of that era is the incredible hulk ultimate destruction yes which was the the hulk game where you can run around it's's open world, you can run up buildings, which is just like one of the coolest

things that's ever been in a game. And, yeah, you just feel like the fucking Hulk. You can bust shit up. That's the pinnacle of what the experience should be, right? You should be able to, I'm Spider-Man,

I'm Batman, I'm the Hulk, this is awesome. Those are all so good. Those are great selections. So I feel like there's a license we haven't, I mean, there's so many licenses we haven't talked about, but like the Simpsons is like a pretty good video game license. Like they have a lot of bad,

they have a lot of bad Simpsons games, but there are some really, really great ones. Like the Simpsons arcade game is really fantastic. The Simpsons Road Rage, which is, wait, no, Simpsons Hit and Run. There was Hit and Run and Road Rage. I think Hit and Run was the Grand Theft Auto clone. And Road Rage was the crazy taxi clone, but they were both pretty good. Those are both great.

I think, unless I got them backwards. You're right. You're correct. Both of those games I really, really loved. unless I got a back you're right you're correct both those games I really really loved um but there's one game that I feel like I've talked about a little bit that I nobody talks about because it's like not I don't think anybody was like excited for this game but then it came out and I think it is like I think it was like well received but I don't think it was like a huge like game Peter Jackson's King Kong the the video oh yeah i didn't play this

but i remember you so i have two clips i'd like to share and they're both very different here's just a little sample of what the general gameplay is okay matt is showing us a youtube video and uh we're right here It's a very cinematic. This is enormous. I don't know. It's some kind of monster, but we got away, but he's still around here. People are scared. It's a first-person survival adventure game. Now they're fighting a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Yeah. You're shooting at a dinosaur on Skull Island. It's first-person. It's first person. It's maybe the first first person game I've ever played. Peter Jackson's King Kong. Also, sometimes I'll look at PS2 games and I'll be like, God damn. Yeah. Still looks pretty good.

Not bad. Art direction goes a long fucking way, man. And this game. Was this PS2? This game was on. I played it on ps2 but it was um developed for like xbox 360 and um i think ps3 even at the time but i got the ps2 version because i had ps2 maybe not ps3 that can't be correct but that's one element of the

game ammunition is scarce you can get yourself into some real trouble when you're playing the Adrian Brody character from this game. I don't remember what his name is. But then there's another type of gameplay in this game where you get to be Kong. And it's fucking awesome. That's cool. I was just in the second clip. So he put the lady down, and now you're just punching a fucking dinosaur as Kong. It rules. There's the lady.

Kong is just bodying a T-Rex. That's fucking badass. It's so much fun. It just becomes a brawler, a third-person brawler, where then you're King Kong, and you're fighting dinosaurs, and that's just on Skull Island. You know, there's more to the story. He off right oh island he does not like it um but that game was such a surprise to me i remember

getting it for christmas from my aunt and um i i thought at the time why did she get me this this is such a like aunt gift you know what i mean here's a video game oh yeah no that that was that's so much of the i'd like just an interject real quick that's so much of the market for licensed games is like hey here's a parent or a or a relative by like oh he likes king kong oh he likes star wars let's get him this game yeah and i liked the movie i don't know if I was like, I don't know if it's like something I wouldn't stop talking about. Right.

Matt loves King Kong. I don't know if anybody would say that. But that game is so good. It's great. I wish there was a way to play it on modern hardware. I guess I can get it running on my Steam Deck probably. But it was really, really fantastic.

And, just such an odd success and odd, like a game you would expect to be bad, but they did a really good job with it. Those are my favorites. Yeah. Uh, the,

the one, one of the legendary ones in that category. And I have not played this game, but they made two X versus Sever first-person shooters for the Game Boy Advance. Wow, what? And the X versus Sever, you know, that movie, it's like the Lucy Liu.

Antonio Banderas. Antonio Banderas. And it's like famously like this, this is one of the worst movies ever made. But apparently the games are like pretty impressive. Wow. I heard the Riddick games are good too. And like Vin Diesel is like- Oh yeah, Chronicles of like riddick escape from butcher butcher bay is on my list i think that one also is like vin

diesel is a gamer and kind of you know i i like when a star uses their powers for good yes and that seems like sort of like he kind of threw his his his figuratively muscle though he is muscly uh literally as well he threw his figurative muscle behind uh like like making sure this game had this game that had the resources it needed to succeed and yeah that's a that's a really good xbox or xbox 360 era i think it's original xbox era first person shooter um yeah really really, really fun. Really cool. Honors the license. Another one I have on my list is a point and click adventure game. This one comes from LucasArts, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Oh, and this game is a, you know, it's a point and click adventure.

It's very much of its era, but, you know, it plays like a Monkey Island or a or a day of the tentacle uh maniac mansion it it plays like one of those except you are indiana jones and it really feels like an indiana jones adventure like you start in the real world uh you traverse when you go to different cities we have the little the map with the red lines drawn on it charting his course uh you know you you go from the u.s to europe um to uh you're on a fucking u-boat in disguise as a nazi officer uh and then you uh you end up in atlantis and you're like that's like the the third act is like you're actually there so it very much follows like kind of the hey it's the nathan drake arc they they borrowed when when they did the uncharted games of like starting in reality against

human combatants and ending up in some sort of fantastical scenario by the end as Indiana Jones movies work and that one's just it's really well done it's got like a they have a Harrison Ford sound alike voicing

Indy just some grump grumpy guy but he does a really good job I forget what the the voice actor's name is uh and it yeah it feels like an Indiana Jones movie that you're playing I that was always one where I'm just like when they're making like fucking Dial of Destiny or whatever or what was the other one was the one that came before this I don't know Crystal Skull um King king of the crystal skull i've always just like they should just adapt fate of atlantis it's it's such a cool story uh one thing i'll say though it does have some some like it has like some action stuff that that doesn't play great because you

know you're controlling with mouse and keyboard has some like little brawling things you can largely skip you can choose how you want to play the game and and you can choose not to brawl less uh to use more of your wits but there is is a puzzle I remember in particular, which is when you're on the U-boat. One way you can get past a Nazi guard is by making a sandwich and the guard is like, hmm, that sandwich looks good. I think I'll go make one. And then he leaves. And it makes sense as an adventure game puzzle.

But thinking of that in an Indiana Jones movie. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum,

bum, put the tomato. But like that, that was like, ah, in, in like D and D parlance, Indiana Jones has like high decks,

high charisma. Yeah. He, if you see, if I saw Harrison Ford making a fucking sandwich, I'd be like, God damn,

I gotta get me one of those. He just has to make a good looking sandwich. Yeah, 100%. No, he knows what he's doing. That makes me, you know, I wasn't even thinking about this,

but you mentioned Dungeons and Dragons. I don't know if you think of that quite as a license, but if you do, I mean, there's some probably been some really good, some really good AD&D games. And not just like the RPGs, not just the Baldur's Gates of the world, but also like the Dungeons and Dragons Capcom beat-em-ups. Oh, interesting. Were pretty fucking fun. Let's see if we can remember what the name of any of those were. Any other licensed games I'm forgetting?

Any other ones you guys want to shout out? I mean, Marvel versus Capcom, obviously. The PlayStation Spider-Man games I remember really being great. A lot from the PS2 era, because I feel like early PS2 era, I was just at the right age where if there was a video game based off of a movie i was like the right age for it like i remember i remember liking the shrek 2 game i don't know if it's actually good but i remember being because that was sort of like a beat-em-up where you could change characters

like mid um fight two like there's like four characters on screen at any given time you can just like press you know one of the direction buttons and you're one of the new you're one of the characters. I remember that being good. Yeah, I don't know. There's so many that people are going to be like, why didn't you say this? Or why didn't you say that?

And it's like, you know what? You could have said it. There are a ton of great licensed games. And I was shocked because when this topic was pitched, I was like, ugh. Oh, I'm more of a purist. And then when I really started thinking about games, I was like,

man, there's a lot of fucking good licensed games. Tons. Yeah. I mean, the current Spider-Man game is really fantastic. Miles Morales is still fucking good. Yeah. I'm really looking forward to the new Jedi, whatever the fuck it's called

fallen order yeah in order to yeah that's gonna be great i'm excited man i hope they make it even harder oh i hope uh they at least went back out to the drawing board on the map at least just a little bit i'd love a new map i hope i hope there's a sequence where it's like, bum, ba-da-dum, ba-da-da-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-bum, bum, making a sandwich, making a sandwich. Oh, the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games were really great, too. I liked those games quite a bit. Oh, yeah.

I liked the most recent entry on the Switch. It's Switch exclusive. That was a really good one. By that similar token, the X-men legends games are also really great uh but yeah those i mean they're all it's it's you mentioned one and there's like there's 40 x-men games or whatever you know and i guess it's worth mentioning that there is a current one out the Hogwarts Legacy game. Yeah, we touched on that earlier.

I'll tell you what the fucking Legacy is. Yeah, fucking doo-doo. It's a, you know, I feel, I think we talked about this in our text a little bit. I feel so much empathy for those developers because I like, I just, I not on a property that large but I've certainly been in this situation where it's just like everyone on the project kind of knows like, ah, fuck, this is, this sucks.

This is annoying. We're kind of just, we got to try to make the best of it because this is our job and it's either do this or resign and try to find another job. You know, it's, it's just, it's just it's it's gotta gotta have felt like a real slog to work on that thing it also is i think there's a sort of hopelessness uh you know yeah without without drawing too many parallels when behavior becomes visible to uh parent companies and there are ways to exorcise uh the um the bad actors and the studio or network or whatever takes those steps it it really um helps the people involved with the product who feel who have felt trapped by by like being blindsided by something right and i feel like the different the the the problem with hogwarts legacy is that

you can't remove jk rowling from harry potter yeah like you she's she whatever contracts she's negotiating, it's like, not only is she like the octopus at the top of the media empire with her tendrils and everything, but nobody's ever going to be able to wrench Potter away from her. No. And it's one of these things too where she just, she keeps doing it because people keep telling her it's bad.

So it is just like it's fucking awful what she what she does and what she says and what she gives her money to. And so I understand people. This is what we were talking about the other day, like trying to apply nuance to this is impossible because there are people who are going to play it no matter what and there are people who are going to play it and you know do think badly of her and so but like then there are people who are not playing it who are are correct also but then there are also people who are not playing it and then bullying people who are playing it it's like okay well like what the fuck do we do what the fuck is the right thing to do? I think that it's heartbreaking.

Like, the reason that it is a difficult thing is that this world meant so much to a full generation of people when they were kids. It reinvigorated reading across the planet. Yeah. It's, it's, it is. I waited in line for a book. Yeah.

It's not some niche. Fucking nerd. Series. It like, it's the, in the top 20 bestselling books of all time, all of the Potter books are in that fucking list, which is nuts.

It's like, when you consider that some of these books have been around for like 300 years or some shit like it's it's it was so pervasive and to like find out that this this space that you belong to this like environment that gave that has so much nostalgia for you yeah it's toxic and hurting people. Like that's, it's like a breakup with somebody that, that you started a good relationship with and then realized that they were bad. And it's like, I loved the person that you were, but boy, oh boy, I can't love the person that you are. And that's, that's a heartbreak.

And the other, here's the thing thing too is that there are people that are just like her probably who keep her their fucking mouth shut and don't say anything and still get to you know uh keep their keep their bag and keep their uh keep their legacy intact because they just because they realize that shutting the fuck up is free and you can you can you can do that whenever the fuck you want yeah yeah that's the real lesson she's she like her takes are so fucking bad and even extending like the empathy of like okay something happened to you lady and you are taking it out on a group of people who had nothing to do with that thing like yeah even that you, you're like, no, man.

Like, it's so horrible. It's so fucking horrible. And it's so sad. And like, yeah, do I wish that I could like go to, what is it, Hogsmeade? And like rummage around? I don't know the franchise at all. Good for you, Nick.

That makes me proud of you. Well, look, that's not any sort of ethical saying. No, you're a hero. Yeah, I am a hero. You're a fucking hero. We had the whole Harry Potter collection in paperback. And I remember whenever JK went on one of her... She was kind of at her...

She'd been kind of dancing around it like kind of like favoriting some tweets and then at a certain point she just went full like transphobe and the day that happened I remember I watched my wife Natalie walk over to our bookshelf pick up the entire collection with two hands

and then carry it over and dump it directly in the trash and I said we can at least give that to the library or something. And she said, I don't want anyone reading that shit. That's kind of like what I did with my Yeezys. I was like, well, bye, guys. And we fucking threw that shit in the garbage.

I will say that, look'm i'm kind of ethically neutral on on playing it i understand the arguments against it i understand the arguments against giving money for this thing i think this is one where you know if you can find a way to pirate it it's a shame that these the games have become so tough to pirate but if you find a way to pirate it there's a good one to pirate but like whatever this this franchise is meaningful to you and you want to play the game i i'm i'm i'm like personally that just speaking for myself i'm ethically neutral on that i think the reason there are such vigorous calls for like boycott and you know don't play it and say that you're not playing it and make a stance of all i will never play it is because we just are all so powerless yeah in this system of global capitalism where you know

those who are at the top are just they're they're just cloistered in a way where you cannot touch them they just like they can do whatever they want with no consequence and all you can hope to do is try to retreat uh what you're talking about is the best-selling individual best-selling books of all time heather this list is this list does make me laugh uh this is something, this is just from Wikipedia, but number one, Don Quixote. Who the fuck has read that? A Tale of Two Seasons. I read Don Quixote.

Yeah, me too. I am my Don Quixote, the man of La Mancha, making a sandwich for you. making a sandwich for you. Don Quixote published in 1605 and 1615 originally. Number two, A Tale of Two Cities. Number three, The Little Prince. Great book. And number four, Harry Potter and the Philosophers.

That's so fucking funny. All these old ass books can I do as a palette cleanser can I show you guys some of this Dungeons and Dragons game this was shed over Mystara and they released this one as a they released this one in a compilation a few years back so you can play it on love Dungeons and Dragons let's see it

but this is one of those ones where just like aesthetically I fucking this is so my shit this is this is one of those late I can't wait to see it. But this is one of those ones where just like aesthetically, I fucking, this is so my shit. This is one of those late. I can't wait to see it. Boobs. Late period arcade platformers. Well, yeah, there's some.

Oh, I remember this game. Ooh. This game fucking ruled. This is a player. This game was so fucking good. You dare rise against us? Come at us, warriors. Yeah, this is like a

arcade hardware, you know, like the height of 2D art and animation. Beat them up. And we've got like a thief character fighting a war machine with a bunch of goblins. But yeah,

every element of this is just so fantastic. I remember this. It was so like, also it's one of those games when, when you saw it at the arcade, you were like, fuck, that looks incredible.

It looks like a cartoon. It looks so much better than yes, it looks so much better than what you had at home and home hardware. Yeah. Those dedicated, I don't know what board that was on. What that have been like the ops3 what the fuck was the capcom board at the time um anyway i was gonna say that uh yeah really a really cool game hey let's do a segment how about that i got another edition of pixel chart our video game chart

segment another edition of pixel chart our video game chart segment and this one is related to licensed games by the way i'm realizing we didn't talk about lord of the rings games at all but that's that's another franchise it's all so many of those lord of the rings games are so fucking good there's good there's good it's good plenty of good licensed games out there uh this is the top rated star wars games on metacritic this is the top five uh this is not including mobile games or pinball uh angry bird star wars shockingly well reviewed maybe it's good i know i haven't played it but yeah these are well maybe you would have gotten it this is the top rated star wars games uh on home consoles.

Also, quick shout-out to the Mad Max video game. It's also fucking great. I'm going to say... Did you say not including Lego? No, I didn't say that. I said not including mobile or... I'm going to say Lego Star Wars. Not including mobile or pinball. I'll give it to you.

Do you want to get more specific? I'm going to say it's going to be the one that is not the most recent one but the the collection it's like whatever it's called the skywalker saga or whatever it is that's a new it's not that one but i'll close enough it's lego star wars 2 the original trilogy number five on the list this is the one that came out in 2006 uh sitting at 86 on Metacritic. By the way, the system is, I called it the OPS3. I was off. It's the CPS2.

It was the arcade board that Capcom was using in that era, all those good-looking 2D games. I got two. I should not have gotten into Bing to try to figure that out. I apologize. I should have been focused on the podcast. Okay, you got one of five uh the the four more on the board these are a little tricky but i think you guys can get it star wars episode one racer nope it's not on this list um there are there's no n64 games on this list that's also a dreamcast game there's no dreamcast games on this list. This list is,

I'll say, that there are three PC games, and there is one GameCube game. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2. Not two. One? One. KOTOR 1 is number one on this list with a 94% consent that's also released

for Xbox back in the day, and now you can play it on anything. Star Wars Rogue Squadron. Rogue Squadron. Yes. On GameCube. Rogue Leader was the proper title. It was part of the Rogue Squadron franchise. Yes, that one is number three on the list.

Star Wars Jedi 2. I mean, here's the thing. I don't know if you just made that up. No, I think that's what it's called. You're not quite there, but you almost are. Do you want to get more specific there? Star Wars Jedi Knight 2. That's right.

Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast, which came out for PC in 2002. That's number four on the list. There's one left. I bought Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 when they ported it to Switch and I played it for like five minutes and was like, people say this is good, but I just

I didn't see it, but maybe I didn't play it enough. I don't know how the ports were. They were very much designed for play on PC, so it could have been a controller thing. There's one more. I mean, you can figure it out. A franchise that was already mentioned. Another mean you can figure it out a franchise that was already

mentioned another pc game huh franchise that was only mentioned star wars tie fighter not tie fighter you just said it oh star wars star wars battlefront two no it's not it's not battle who said you just said you just said it you just said what the franchise was. Me? You said... Who? Star Wars Jedi Knight 1? That's it, yes. Star Wars Jedi Knight 1 is number two on the list. Star Wars Jedi Knight, I love this subtitle. Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2,

because it was the sequel to Star Wars Dark Forces. Yeah. And then they took the player character and were like, ah, what if he's a Jedi Knight now? By the way, Dark Forces, I'm something of a defender of that was basically just a reskinned doom. But going around with a blaster shooting Gamma Ray and guards was pretty satisfying. Star Wars Battlefront two ain't nothing to sneeze at, though. That's a that's a fucking game right there.

Tell it to the consensus at Metacritic. I'm just going off of the numbers. Yeah. So that that list that list Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars Jedi Knight, Dark Forces 2, Star Wars Rogue Leader Rogue Squadron 2, Star Wars Jedi Knight 2, Jedi Outcast, and Lego Star Wars 2, the original trilogy. I don't know how you would give squadrons less than 100. If you play it in VR, it is 100% the thing. Like, you can't, like, there's no place to level criticism. It's like, are you in the cockpit? Yes.

Does it sound like the world? Yes. Do you fly a mission? Yes. Can you do multi? Can you do multiplayer VR dogfights in squad? Yes. It's it's fucking perfect.

It's insane. Should be the number one on the list. People, you got to play this game. You got to get a whole setup, a whole rig. Have either of you played it? Great, you're going to come over and you're going to play it. I've played it, but not in VR. You have to play it in VR.

It's fucking insane. I'll do it. Have a bucket ready. Yeah, I'll do it. Don't talk me into it. The 79 on Metacritic for star wars squad what what i don't have to tell you metacritic seems to say that the real star wars vr experience is star wars pinball vr which is an 81 on metacritic so maybe we should check that out unless you're the ball i'm not interested uh that's this week's get played links to our social media are in the episode description you Maybe we should check that out. Unless you're the ball, I'm not interested.

That's this week's Get Played. Links to our social media are in the episode description. You can join us in our Discord and let us know licensed games that we forgot or licensed games that you love in particular. Our engineering is by Jordan Duffy, Jordan K. Duffy on Instagram. And check out our premium show, Get Animated. Heather, this week we are talking about junji ito maniac correct yes we are and not because of the fortnite crossover we actually recorded the episode before there was a fortnite crossover so don't don't think i'm i'm shoving this content down our throats this is a nick weiger he's like hey i want to get creepy. I want to get creepy. And I was like, okay.

All right, we'll get creepy. And he's like, yeah, and I want to play Junji Ito. I want to watch it. And I was like, all right. All right, Nick. Go back under your blanket. I'm cold. That was the exact transcript of our.

Yeah. Yeah, I was chewing on rusty nails and hiding between walls. Oh, yeah. Junji Ito Maniac is streaming on Netflix if you want to watch along and you can listen to Get Animated at patreon.com slash getplayed.

Also, we are covering the entire show in one episode of Get Animated. It's not going to be an ongoing series. And then after that, we're covering Blue Lock so you can get on board

with Blue Lock and watch some anime with us. I fucking love anime so much and I love video games and I like my co-hosts. Wow. Wow. Look at us.

For once, Matt, we didn't get played. No. It feels nice. But you know who we did? You. Me? Fuck!