Get Played - Nintendo Switch 2 Revealed + Tri-Force of Kongs

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

Matt, Heather and Nick discuss the Switch 2 reveal and speculate on it's release, talk building a pc, Balatro and Pokémon TCG pocket and build their Tri-Force of Kongs. Check out our brand new merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayed. Follow us on social media @getplayedpod. Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com. Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com. For ad-free main feed episodes, our complete back catalogue including How Did This Get Played? and our Premium DLC episodes and our exclusive show Get Anime'd go to patreon.com/getplayed. Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. Fuck, okay, guys, guys, guys, I'm in such, I'm in big, I'm in big trouble. What happened? Are you okay? I'm in huge trouble. Nintendo is really, really mad at me. Oh my god. Why, so what did you do?

What happened? I've been leaking all this stuff about the Switch 2 and they're so mad. Oh my god. Why so what did you do? What happened? I've been leaking all this stuff about the switch too, and they're so mad. Oh my god mad You're if you're leaking information that you use corporate is trying to protect it. Did you sign an NDA? You're gonna put getting a lot of trouble proprietary information, dude I know I know it's I was just so excited and I figured they're good. Everyone's gonna know about it anyway I was just so excited. I figured they're going to everyone's going to know about it anyway. Why don't I just parse out every little detail I have over months and months of speculation and then

and, you know, selling it to, you know, accessory manufacturers as well. And then leaving cryptic messages online about what it is. And the thing about it is, I feel like they're mad in a way that's not fair. OK. I mean, like, I could understand why they have these trade secrets that you're Making public that they you know communicate in confidence. They probably be upset about what what do you mean by not fair like? Are you in danger? I woke up last night uh-huh Wario was standing over me and he said

Keep your fucking mouth shut, keep your fucking mouth shut. Jesus. Keep your fucking mouth shut. I'm gonna come back here, I'm gonna break your legs and then I'm gonna win and then he left. And also he picked a booger out of his nose and he left it there. That's gross.

He does that kind of thing. He was chomping on an onion. Yeah, that's nasty. Not a particularly. They're sending goons, they're sending. Thatping on an onion. Yeah, that's nasty. Not a particularly hot, shimmy guy. They're sending coons. They're sending blackies after me. That sounds like a campaign of intimidation. I'm not saying you deserve it,

but I mean, that's what you might expect from a multi-billion dollar corporation trying to protect its IP. I got a phone call the other night. Yeah? All I heard was breathing. Mm-hmm. I was like, who is this?

Who is this? Yeah. And it was like, it this who is this yeah, and it was like is me toad uh-huh don't Tell any more of our stuff, and he farted into the phone that didn't really affect me But I heard a lot of character. It was kind of funny. I guess what what I think is you're full of shit or crazy Yeah, that's kind of where I had my head too, is either Matt's just like making all this up like he's a huge liar or he's out of his fucking mind and he needs to be institutionalized.

Either what you're saying to us is all lies and absolute bullshit or you're fucking insane. If I was lying, would I have this? This is freaking Mario's hat. Do you buy that at Universal? Cause it has the price tag on it. Wait, wait? Are you realizing something?

Why? I was gonna just say this, like it's kind of reassuring that you're just full of shit because if you'd been like, I have Mario's hat and you'd like held up like a packet of almonds. I would have been like, oh Matt's fucking crazy. Oh, that's what's going on. This is really, really distressing.

Someone at the studio door. I, yeah, you come in, you can come in. Come in, come in. Holy shit. Hey Matt, it's me, Wario. Keep your fucking mouth shut. Oh my God. They do exist. Oh my God. me Wario, keep your fucking mouth shut! They do exist!

Oh my god! Oh god, Toad! We race minecarts in inter-funky mode as we discuss the Switch 2 updates and form our 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, along with our third host, Madda Baddowka. Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere video game podcast where we're launching right ahead into the year 2025 with new content new juice New sticks and juices new the juice is new and the sticks are also new That's right. Everything is new from the juice to the sticks and everything in between is Sticks you were thinking drumsticks? Like you're on a kit? I was thinking joysticks, my friend.

Oh, joysticks. Cause we're a video game podcast. That does make more sense. Yeah. I was hoping it was drumsticks like a piece of chicken. Right, man, that'd be pretty great. I would love that. I saw a video on TikTok, Rest In Peace, that had a chicken that was cooked so, so juicily,

that when he put it into the, like the to-go box, he took a pair of like tongs and pulled the bones out like a cartoon. Wow. That, I mean. Like Heathcliff deboning a fish? Yeah, like he took the end of the drumstick Yeah

and clamped it and then just Put like a gentle pressure on the top of the drumstick and pulled it out like a like a fish And they yeah took this from us the app is gone and now we can't see stuff like that I might still be here. Yeah, it might still we don't know we have no idea. I'm doing my due diligence I deleted the app. I will not be, I will not be sitting in a jail cell for having the app on my phone. I'm ready to VPN my way to Japan and get the really good content.

What's all the Americans are off the app. Give me that good stuff. Where's that good stuff at? Once we're gone, all the secrets are gonna come out and they'll be like, thank God. Okay, I'm back on. They ruined this fucking place. I'm back on.

I've never signed up for it and I don't know what it is exactly. What the fuck? I kinda like it that way. I've never posted a video on TikTok, but boy oh boy do I love it, despite how many people on my blue sky mentions tell me I'm a fucking idiot bitch for liking it.

Okay, I just told you I was sorry about that. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. The three of us are here. We released an episode last week with our buddy Sam, but our regular producer, Rachelle, is back. Ranch, so great to have you here in 2025. I'm so happy to be back. You spent part of your break in Thailand, is that correct?

Yes, I was in Thailand for three weeks. What was that like, and where did you stay? I stayed with my mom and it was the best time ever and I'm actually very sad to be back. Ranch you gave us a gift you gave us two gifts one are these incredible keychains of Nintendo Super Nintendo Game Boy and Game Boy Advance cartridges they are like little, they look like miniatures. They're miniatures to keep on our key chain, but you also gave us, am I saying this correctly,

Poisson? Yeah, that's pretty good. It says, inhale and apply. All you told us was that it was good for smoke. So here live on the podcast, I'm gonna open up this this package and I'm going to see what all the hype is about with this mystery product that honestly looks like a firework that I'm about to put in my face.

Yeah, it's basically got kind of got the form factor of a of a tube of chapstick. Wait, do I put it up my nose? Don't put it up your nose, even though Thai people like to put up their nose, I think it's too strong, but just sniffing. Uh-huh. And so this is it working. Okay, so my first smell of it was extremely over, I was surprised.

But my second smell, it's like, what is that like? It's like, I know this smell, but I don't know it. It's menthol and a bunch of other different herbs that I am not sure. I think it's got some eucalyptus in there. Yeah, eucalyptus, that's the thing I'm smelling. It's eucalyptus. It's supposed to, now this is supposed to make me

a better driver, is that what you said? It's the thing I'm smelling, it's eucalyptus. It's supposed to, now this is supposed to make me a better driver, is that what you said? It's the limitless pill. Thank you so much, Ranch, I will be using this, oh I see it's menthol, camphor, eucalyptus, and Borneol. Yikes. Now were you in Thailand when the LA fires were happening? No, my second night here back home was when all shit went down.

But did you get these in Thailand? I got these in Thailand for you. So by coincidence, you got something that was the antidote to inhaling smoke just before this massive weather event that created us, like the smoky air that we're all inhaling. It doesn't, it's not the antidote the smoky air, but it helps mask smog Got it. So helps nausea from smog. Can I ask you a question rancher? I never thought I'd have to ask

Yes, do you have that so Raven power? What are those powers? That's a raven powers if I remember correctly from my youth, Raven would see something that was like a glimpse into the future and often what it was actually was a misunderstanding. She didn't actually have the full context of what was going on, so she'd actively work toward making that thing not happen and it would always happen and then she would actually find out the reason why it had to. I didn't realize there was any sort of magical element

to the That's So Raven franchise. It's like, she can see the future, kind of. Wow. Kind of. She's actually not that good at it because she's always wrong, actually. Yeah. And she just jumps the gun. She's enthusiastic. She's just a kid. Yeah, sure. Who can blame her?

Yeah. What was the, there was a show that was on when I was a child where it was a girl was a show that was on when I was a child where it was a a Girl who could stop time and I can't small wonder I am not small under was a robot That's right. You were a child when I dream of Jeannie was on Jim Jim not that fucking old Train coming toward the screen That scared the hell out of me. I read it on that fucking theater.

Wrote a letter to President Coolidge. What is that, a child that could stop, is that Matilda? No, it was a sci-fi show that was like, it maybe had science in the title, but I can't remember what it was called. I'll look it up. Out of This World?

Out of This World, yes, thank you. Like the video game franchise. Oh, which is? Unrelated, completely unrelated. No, Another World. Another World. Another World was the name of the show and then they had to change Another World,

the video game, to Out of This World. Interesting. Unless Out of This World is, what did you? Out of This World is an American TV series, American fantasy sitcom about a teenage girl who is half alien, which gives her unique supernatural powers. There is another TV show called Another World, which I believe

is a spin-off of the Cosby show. Oh, because I'm thinking the wrong thing. But that's why they had to. Another World is a soap opera. A different world is the Cosby show spin-off. There's too many, you know what? Too many worlds. Let's just parse this down.

One world only. Yeah, let's simplify things. Yeah. But anyway. So yeah, Another World is the game. but it was released as Out of This World. But I remember being released as Out of This World in the US. Am I wrong about that? Or was Out of This World the international title? I truly don't know.

No, North America's published as Out of This World. Another World is the title in its home territory in Europe. And I don't know why they renamed it. is the title in its home territory in Europe. And I don't know why they renamed it, but I don't know if it was related to the existence of the TV show. Look. I mean, it wouldn't make sense to try to capitalize

on the TV show that it's not related to. It wouldn't help them very much, would it? Because you'd know pretty quickly that it wasn't the same thing. It's also one of those things you look at it and you're like, they made 96 episodes of this show. The show was on for four seasons. TV is fucking wild.

TV, well, it used to be so crazy too. Cause like, think about Alf. Right. The fact that Alf was even, is real. Kind of just crazy to think about. But now I guess the equivalent is they're just, it'll be like, you know, Hillbilly Bakers. And there's like a reality show called Hillbilly Bakers.

And that show has been on for eight years. And it's like the biggest thing on like, you know, the learning channel or whatever the fuck. There are 97 episodes of Alf. A lot of Alf. This guy ate cats for 97 episodes. I don't know if he ever actually ate a cat, but he certainly talked about his desire to eat cats.

Yeah, it's weird that an alien puppet show was like such a sensation. But then again, I was a child, I was a boy, I thought it was great. I loved him. Yeah, I thought he was wonderful. I think he's so funny. Didn't he have puppets at Burger King?

Yes, I believe so. Little doll guys, little puppets? I don't remember where he had tie-ins, but there was an elf doll, I did have an elf he had tie-ins, but there was an Alf doll. I did have an Alf doll. For some reason, my grandparents had an Alf doll in the original packaging in the closet. Wow.

And they wouldn't let me play with it. And I wanted to play with it so bad. And they were like, no, that's gonna be worth money someday. And I can almost guarantee you, it was not. I was gonna say the opposite. Probably is. I was gonna say they probably were right. They're probably ahead of their time.

Those before people were collecting things like that. There's no way they, I see it Alf Plush on, I see Burger King, Alf Plush, $15 on eBay. Well that's different. Yeah. Here, let's see, Alf Doll in packaging. And we're gonna get to the main thing in the show in just a second, folks.

Alf Doll in packaging, vintage, here we go. $104. Hey, not too bad. Hey, that's not too bad. Vintage. I better call my grandparents. Vintage Alf with packaging. Another one, Coleco Vintage 86 Wisecracking Alf, $249.

Okay. This guy looks like his face is taking dump. Yeah, the thing about Alf is that no matter what, he looks like shit. He's kind of a bad looking guy. And I'm not so confident that he's even good. Like, you know. Like, morally?

I think he might be. Morally bad? Amoral, yeah. He might be an immoral being. Well I think that's always the joke though when you get any sort of alien-human culture clashes that they just have a different value system, right? Obviously, Alf would be willing to eat cats. That's his greatest desire. That's kind of foreign from our understanding of animal life.

You better keep him away from your leg, Nick. All right, here we go, now we're talking. Nick, Nick Weiger has a huge tattoo now. Yeah, I got a tiger tattoo. Yeah. I'm tiger now. Nick's tiger now, and we're the three tattooed video game hosts, video game podcast hosts,

so don't fuck with us actually, cause we'll kick your ass. That's right, the Triforce of Friendship is a basically a street gang and we'll do it as a team If you try to fuck with any one of us you're going down The three of us are kicking you like the fucking printer in office space We'll do things like one of us will like sneak behind you and then get on our knees and they want to push Push them over I will anyone of us will cry. Yeah I'll stick my fingers in my throat and vomit on your face when you're on the ground

That'd be fucking awful imagine your ass kick and someone stands over you and vomits on you What year is it? What year is it? What year is it? Oh, it's 2025? 2025 is here and Mint Mobile has a resolution for you. Skip the gym, skip the fad diets, skip the bullshit resolutions you'll forget about by next month. Instead, make a resolution to save some serious cash by making the switch to Mint Mobile. And right now you can get half off their three-month unlimited plan.

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Breaking news breaking news breaking news breaking news the switch to the president it oh no Breaking news breaking news the switch to the president it oh no As of this as of this record we have just gotten official confirmation of the name switch to the size form factor that the joy cons attach Magnetically as opposed to snapping on new u-shaped kickstand. A few details have come out via this first look trailer that Nintendo presented for the Switch successor. Also a new Mario Kart.

New Mario Kart. I guess I want to take a step back for just a second too because this is announced on this day, the 16th. Yeah, we're recording today on the 16th. Yeah, we're recording today on the 16th, which is when it got announced, and this episode is coming out on Monday. After months and months and months of leaks,

of leaks that were not addressed by Nintendo at all, leaks that were all very, very specific, and even up to showing what concepts of the hardware looked like. Uncharacteristic of Nintendo to have those leaks. Like before the Switch came out, nobody. Nobody heard about it. Before the fucking Wii controller came out,

the original Wii controller, that was blind-sighting, the entire industry. I do think that, I do remember, and maybe some of this was coming out officially, but I do feel like there was a lot of dolphin stuff you were hearing, which was the prototype for the GameCube. I feel like a lot of this was coming out officially, but I do feel like there was a lot of like dolphin stuff you were hearing, which was the prototype for the GameCube. I feel like a lot of that was coming out. And the same thing for the Ultra 64 and the N64,

but they were kind of a black box after that. They really put the clamps down. They locked that shit down. Nobody knew the Virtual Boy was coming. Nobody fucking knew that Wii was coming. Certainly nobody knew that the Wii U was coming. And then they just- Nobody knew it left either.

And then they dropped the ball. We all knew the Switch 2 was coming. By the way, I wanna be the first person on all podcasts to say, I love the name. I think it is clear, concise. I think it does away with problems that every retailer is going to have. When you go in to get an iPhone,

it's like, which iPhone do you want? The 15 or the 16? When you go in to get a Nintendo, people would be like, oh, I want a Nintendo. It'd be like, oh, which Nintendo? Ah, I want a Wii. Which Wii? The Wii or the Wii U?

What the fuck is a Wii U? With Switch, it's- Wii U is a horrible name. the Switch and the Switch 2. The Game Boy, the Game Boy Advance, the Nintendo, the Super Nintendo, I fucking love it. It's, you know, like going back to the PlayStation to PlayStation 2, it's like the cleanest, like hey, here's the next step of this existing product.

As opposed to the Nintendo Switch Series S. That's the thing, yeah, there was a chance they could have named it really stupid, but they seem to have basically made all of the simple choices here. Let's go. It's just like the Switch, it's called the Switch 2, it's a more powerful piece of hardware,

that's also like, it seems like a little larger, and yeah, but beyond that, it's just, it's backwards compatible with both physical games and digital games but beyond that it's just it's backwards compatible and with both physical games and digital games and so it's just it just does basically kind of everything that you would have hoped for as a Switch One owner. Yeah and it doesn't have to be at least for me it doesn't have to be too exciting or too new even right like it's extremely iterative of the previous thing but it's just a little bit more, which is I think all anybody wants.

Yeah, I'm in total favor of every choice that they've made except the magnets. I'm worried about playing a game in a fit of excitement and having one of those magnets snap off in my hand and the whole thing falls to the ground. I'm ready for that sumbitch to collapse when I'm like in it. Yeah, like I want to have some sort of intense I almost said heated gaming moment, but that's like a loaded thing Yeah, you mean that you have like an anger management problem?

No, it's a it's a yeah, I do worry about the structural integrity of it because my favorite version of the switch, I do have the OLED switch, I do like the OLED switch, gorgeous screen, but my favorite one is the switch light because it's got the unibody construction and I don't have to worry about it feeling like kind of janky at all when I'm playing it in a handheld mode. And so I do worry a little bit about how secure those magnets are actually gonna be.

Maybe there's some sort of locking mechanism, maybe they figured out the engineering side, but that's my one little speed bump. You know, I can't worry about something like that because we still have not ever really had a satisfying answer to magnets, how do they work? So I'm just gonna be cautiously optimistic. Excuse me?

Magnets, how the fuck do they work? How the fuck do they work? What are you talking about? Are you not familiar with the works of... Magnets? The Insane Clown Posse. What? Wait, what? You haven't heard the ICP song, Miracles?

Are you ready for your life to be... You know what's up. What the fuck are you guys talking about? Are you ready for your life to be changed, Heather? There's a song that asks life's hard questions that we don't have good answers to. I'm dimly aware of the meme, Magnets, How Do They Work? I did not know that this was A, a reference to a song,

B, that the question was unanswered, because C, it is answered. If the answer is just science, I don't know. Are you gonna play a song that says, Magnets, How Do They Work? Well, I pulled't know. Are you gonna play a song that says magnets? How do they work? Well, I pulled up the lyrics. Maybe this will, enough will clarify.

Okay. And I will say, I am not necessarily an ICP fan, but I'm a bit of an ICP apologist. They're at most extremely funny. And I also think that they are a, like I think they are a positive for their fan base. Absolutely. I think it's like a good community, and I think that they are a positive for their fan base. I think it's like a good community, and I think a lot of people have a strong connection

with that music, and I think they are a force for good in that regard. All right, here we go. Music is a lot like love, it's all a feeling, and it fills the room from the floor to the ceiling. I see miracles all around me. Stop and look around, it's all astounding. Water, fire, air fire air and dirt fucking magnets

How do they work and I don't want to talk to a scientist y'all motherfuckers lying and getting me pissed Solar eclipse and vicious weather 15,000 juggalos together, and I love my mom for giving me this time on this planet Taking nothing for granted. I see a caterpillar turned into a butterfly miracles ain't nothing to lie And so this is sort of like has me like I'm neither worried nor Hopeful about the the magnets within the switch to God the Magnus thing the bag this chunk gets yeah It's fair the Magnus chunk gets isolated because it is such a good individual line But like there's so much of the song is so fucking like look at the mountains trees and seven seas and everything chilling underwater

Please hot lava snow rain and fog long giraffes, and pet cats and dogs. And I've seen 85,000 people all in one room together as equals. Pure magic is the birth of my kids. I've seen shit that'll shock your eyelids. The sun and the moon and even Mars, the Milky Way and fucking shooting stars, UFOs or river flows, plant a little seed and nature grows. Niagara Falls and the pyramidsids everything you believed in his kids Fucking rainbows after it rains. There's enough miracles here to blow your brains So I think it's good shit Heather is typing a resignation letter

It's very good I was I was trying to remember the name of the this frontline documentary from 2001 on PBS called the Merchants of Cool, where they sort of did an overview on like how MTV in the early 2000s and late 90s had a lock on young people and where coolness was being dictated and like what it meant to sell out or not sell out. And one of their focuses in this frontline documentary was that the insane clown posse could not be co-opted.

That there were very few bubbles left where the interests of any subgroup had not been co-opted by big business. And they pointed to the insane clown posse. And they were like, you know, this they pointed to the insane clown posse. And they were like, you know, this is like the definition of not selling out. They did another version of that documentary 20 years later,

The Merchants of Cool 2, where kids were like, wait, if you don't have a brand backing you, then you're lame. Like the entire thing had become completely flipped. And that like, if you were on Instagram and you had like ad money coming in, then you were cool. And if you didn't, if you hadn't sold out, then you were lame.

No, I remember reading about like people pretending to be influencers, kids pretending to be influencers and posting fake ads just to look like they'd been paid for, you know, like basically look to show like they've sold out just to look like they've been paid for, you know, like basically look to show like they've sold out, to pretend like they've sold out because that in and of itself is, you know, back in the day, it used to be, I'll never sell out. Now that's the, that's aspirational.

I want to sell out. I'm looking forward to sell out. It's a, yeah, it's a, capital has won. This is the total triumph of corporations over us all. And with that, we'll be right back. Yeah. Planning any exciting trips this year? I bet something you might not be planning

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Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash played. Babbel dot com slash played. Rules and restrictions may apply. I'm getting back to Nintendo. No, I think the Switch 2, look, I think that I love that the Steam Deck exists, although I'm not a Steam Deck owner. I know a lot of people really love them.

And I know that the, you know, I have friends who game primarily on Steam Deck. I know you both have enjoyed your Steam Decks. Like I like- I gave mine away. Ranch, a new Steam Deck owner. Oh yeah, Ranch has a Steam Deck. And it's like a, it's a, I love that that exists. However, the Steam Deck is kind of serving

a different market. That's serving a little bit more of an enthusiast audience. The Switch is going to be, Switch 2 is going to be a lower price point. It's not going to probably be as powerful. It's certainly not going to be as extensible or customizable, but it will be more user friendly. It will be more child friendly

and it will have Nintendo first party software. I'm glad it exists. I'm just waiting for the new Sony PSP, because I know that's going to be fucking weird, but it's also going to be cool. So I hope that actually we actually see some details on that, some more details than that in 2025. Yeah, I look, I was thinking about this on the way over here because we're out the other consoles we're not if we get anything from like PlayStation or Xbox it's auxiliary stuff we're not getting a new we're not getting a console refresh hopefully for another

you know I'm gonna say in my mind five years I feel like ten years for this generation which seems good am I wrong that like it feels like just last year maybe a little bit before but it really just kind of feels like last year You were starting to commonly see PlayStation 5 just like at any retailer Yes, so I like like they had they had the inventory problems for a long time There's no need to refresh that hardware just yet. Obviously the Pro just came out this year 2025 I'm gonna go ahead and call it the year of the switch to Wow We're gonna be hearing a lot about the switch to Wow cuz we're gonna be getting them

We're gonna buy them with our own money because we're not getting them from them They're not aware of although if Nintendo is aware of us and they want to give us switch tos We will cover them on the show and I promise you we will be honest and kind and grateful And I'll suck your dick. That goes for all of us. We'll all do it. Yeah, we'll all suck your dick. Wario, Yoshi, Waluigi. King Boo. King Boo's tough to suck his dick because he'll turn away from you.

It's tough to suck his dick because he'll turn away from you. So, here's the thing. There are also these hands-on things they're doing. I went to one of these back when they did the GameCube launch. I actually went to one of these Nintendo experiences, and I don't remember if they did these for the Wii, but they're certainly doing it for the Switch 2. And there's going to be one in LA, April 11th through 13th, so maybe we'll be able to get some hands-on experience with the Switch 2.

Remember when they did this with GameCube, God, fucking 20 years ago at this point. It was like a pop-up, and they just basically rented out a club in Hollywood, and I went there with my then roommate, and we played this thing before it was out. It was a cool sell. I think we can probably estimate the release date

if that pop-up's happening in early April. Yeah. Then they're not gonna build up that hype and then not drop the thing until late summer. Well, the last one of these hands-on things is in Seoul, and that's on June 1st. So I don't think it's coming until sometime in June. Fourth of July? June at the earliest. Fourth of July. I still could see it's coming until sometime in June or early.

Fourth of July? Fourth of July. I still could see it being a holiday launch, but who knows? Christmas? Or fall leading into holidays. No fucking way. November.

No way. No way. I could be wrong, I don't know. We'll certainly know in April. Let's put money down. Let's do it right here. Or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or. What if,

what if we all place a bet, whoever's closest, price is right rules, not going over, gets to pick a game that we have to play on the show and we all have to play it. I love that, so we'll do a we play, you play of a game of the winner's choice. Yes. I love this. That's fun.

Okay, so we're just gonna pick a date? Yeah, you just gotta pick a date. Or maybe a window. Let me look at the calendar. Okay, but... No, I think it's a date. I think we should pick a date. A date?

A date. Let me look at the calendar real quick. I'm excited, this is crazy. I can't wait for you guys to play Mother 3. Hey, if it's available on Switch 2, I'll be very excited. That's not, no, that wasn't the rule. It was any game. You said any game.

It's gotta be a Switch 2 game. What the fuck? What? No, I'm just kidding. What would be the date? What would be, I mean this thing, because I feel like Nintendo usually does their software on a Friday, but would they launch a new console on a Friday? I think they have, because I think, I think, I think, what day did the Switch One launch?

Switch One, it came out March 3rd, 2017. All right, so a little bit of reverse engineering to figure out what day of the week that was. Yeah. It was a Friday. It was a Friday. Yeah, it was Friday. So I think it might be a Friday.

We'll see, that's typically what they typically do. I am going to go ahead, and since we're looking at fall, I think I it might be a Friday. We'll see, that's typically what they typically do. I am going to go ahead and since we're looking at fall, I think I'm gonna put a marker down for September 19th. I'll go first and I'll stake that out. Nick's saying September 19th. I'm gonna write these down. And hey, that'll be just in time to get it for Chef Kevin's birthday.

You have that on your calendar? I do have it on my calendar. All right, I've got mine. Okay. June 20th. Oh, I was going to go with June 20th. That's really good. June 20th is really good. So I have to split the difference here somewhere. Or you could go later.

Or I can go later. I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with, oh my god, July 4th is a Friday. Wow. I think I'm gonna go with July 4th. I love it. All right, all right. There it is. Wow.

So again, it's closest without going over. I feel like that might screw us because there's a possibility nobody could win, right? Well yeah, so maybe it'll just be like, if it's earlier than Heather's, it'll be Heather, and if it's later than mine, then it'll be me. Okay. And then you'll get anything

that's closer to you in the middle. Okay, I think that's fair. Great. Which two prediction dates? Okay, you heard it here on the show first. This is what we're doing. We don't have to decide what our games are yet. We can decide that later.

Actually, why don't I say this? If it's after? Mine well we will do prices right rules, so if it's after mine if it's after September 19th Then no one wins and ranch gets to pick a game. We have to cover The gauntlet has been thrown down The wager has been made we will see just when the switch to is playable. But right now, we got some other games we've been playing. We're not just talking about the future, we're also living in the moment.

So the question I have to ask for everyone in studio is, what are you playing? What are you playing? Oh guys, I miss you so much. Resident Evil Merchant, I missed you too. I hope you had a nice restful break. I missed you so much. Yeah, I really missed you.

We talked to you last week. I know, it's been a long week. Yeah. It's been crazy out there. You gotta be careful. A lot of stuff's been happening. You gotta be careful. Yeah, that's one way to put it.

Fires, waters, all kinds of, like you gotta be careful. When no matter where you live, the world's changing. Yeah, it's true. I missed you guys. I missed you too. Yeah. Are you doing okay? You hanging in there? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah's true. I missed you guys. I missed you too. Yeah. So- Are you doing okay? You hanging in there?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I found out this week that I met a Badaka's friend. Oh, that's so nice. Well, I mean, I like to think that we've been your friend, but it's nice that you've at least connected with that. Yeah, but without confirmation, Nick, you should know this, it's all words. Mm, right.

Like I can say, I can ride an ostrich, but unless you see me do it, I think you should be suspicious. I believe you can ride an ostrich. I just can picture you doing that. I kind of don't think you can. I kind of think you're maybe too top heavy. What? I thought we were friends.

No, I'm just saying your legs might be too long. Why you doubt me? You know what? You can do anything. Matt, how did this happen? How did you officially declare your friendship for the Resident Evil Merchant? We talked on the phone. Wow.

He talked to me on the phone. Wow. He took my call. Yeah. And I gave him some tips and it was confusing to a couple of people. I was on a Twitch stream. I was streaming some Bellatra on Twitch and-

Doing a fundraiser. Doing a fundraiser raising money for direct relief for fire relief out here in California. And the people that were watching wanted to know what the merchant was up to and I shot a text over to the merchant I was like, hey if you're free, give me a call merchant Got on the phone to me. I had the phone and speaker and

There were some people who didn't know what was going on and were justifiably confused But the people that were in the know were very excited and very appreciative that you made the time to speak with me on the fire. Wow. Thank you very much. I was honored to be there and I'm happy that you raised money for the firefighters and the fires in Los Angeles. It was for helping with the fires, not for the fire.

Yeah, that's what that sounds like you're being counterproductive there. I want to make that completely clear. I thought you were hedging your bets. I wanna just make a statement here. I'm not playing both sides of this. I think for safety's sake, you should consider it. It's four years where you see like Mark Zuckerberg at like the fire's inauguration.

Look, gotta be, gotta to lash myself to the fire now. COVID-26 is the VP? Yeah. This sucks. So guys, I guess I wanna answer to the question, what are you playing? Nick, what are you telling them what you're playing? Wow, thanks so much, Resident Evil Merchant.

Well, I'll come at this from a different angle than normal. I built a new gaming rig over the break. Yeah, I built a new gaming PC, and I did have the moment of like, I might actually be getting too old for this shit. Just in terms of, I mean, like, I'm really glad I built this one, but I'm like, I'm just, I'm fucking old.

So like, you know what I mean? I'm just old as shit. And so it's like things like, I'm just, I'm fucking old. So like, you know what I mean? I'm just old as shit. And so it's like things like, you know, like I have like a low grade tremor. So like, like sometimes working with screw, with little screws and shit and like, it's just kind of like a little bit cumbersome. It's a little, it's a little bit difficult for me,

just physically. But I, but that said, I enjoyed this process. I may have said on here before, I don't remember if I said specifically, I like building PCs, however, the last PC, my most recent gaming PC was a pre-build that I bought. And the reason was because of, it was a mid-stay, when I was gonna upgrade,

it was a mid-stay GPU shortage. Everyone was fucking buying them to mine Ethereum. And so it was actually about the same price for me just to buy a pre-built PC as opposed to buying a GPU on the secondary market. But even though it's usually much, much cheaper to build, but this time it was more, you know, it made more financial sense to build and it's also more fun and also you get to like customize it and not end up with some janky components I know I'm sure everyone who builds PCs knows about PC part picker

but it is just such an invaluable resource and it's one of those things where the internet mostly sucks, but there are some pockets of the internet that represent like the ideal of Community that we were promised, you know and PC part pickersakers, I'm sure there's maybe some weird monetization that's going on there, but for the most part, it kind of feels like this was created as a resource for people who are knowledgeable to help people who maybe need some assistance in a particular niche. And so just having a resource where like,

hey, these are all the parts you can use to get this particular type of build, and this is what's compatible with whatever. This is how much power you're gonna need. Just having an interface like that is so, so, so helpful. And I did lean on that pretty heavily. So the thing I will say about assembling a PC, which I think both of you would love doing

because I know you both love building things, it is pretty straightforward and it's pretty, usually pretty easy, but there are always moments that come up where you have to use a little bit more force than you'd expect. And that's always the thing of just like, I am, you know, I am seating my GPU and you know what, I've just got to put a little bit more pressure into this to get this into the PCIe slot than I would, you know, I would want for the thing that I'm holding that costs more than a

PlayStation 5 you know what I mean yeah like it's it's just there there are just like a few times when you're kind of just On one ass cheek just like okay. I'm seating the CPU I don't want to fuck this up because this cost a lot of money and if I drop this I could I could Dent a pin or whatever you know so like like There there is a little bit of anxiety with making something, which again goes back to me being feeling, just feeling a little too old for it, but it's very gratifying when you finally post for the first time, post the acronym Power On Self Test.

Mine didn't post the first time I had it all assembled, and I was like, fuck. I was like, what, I fucked something up, and this is just fucking- Was it wet? It wasn't wet, Resident Evil Merchant. Actually, it was as simple as I was just like, you know what, DVI cables can be finicky.

I swapped out my DVI cable for an HDMI cable, and that was it, and after that it booted up and worked fine. So it was really just a cable thing. And as far as components go, I won't talk about this in too much detail. Maybe I'll put the full list of components in the Discord for if anyone was curious, but I did get a fractal design North case,

which is a thing I'd been eyeing. This is just like a, I think they're a Swedish company and it's just a really pleasant aesthetic. It's kind of understated. I feel like a lot of, my last rig had a bunch of RGB shit and I just felt like it was very busy and it's kind of the dominant aesthetic

with PC for whatever reason. So I was just like, I just want less. I just want way less RGB. And this case is part of that because this case is like kind of understated. It's very functional. It's really easy to work with. It's a nice piece of design.

Plenty of operating space inside of it. It's super duper quiet. The case fans are really, really don't generate much noise. And it's got this walnut wood paneling in front, which is, I think, just again, just very visually appealing. As far as actual horsepower, I got an AMD Ryzen 7, and I got a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super, which is kind of like the sweet spot for price and performance

right now. The thing is, obviously PCs are almost all of them are towers. And so your GPU is mounted and this sum bitch is so heavy that it's like sagging. Like it's like putting pressure on the slot and it's physically falling down just from all like, you know, how much like physical weight is on the car. So these things come with a support bracket. But you know, the motherboard that I had was not fully compatible with the support bracket, so I kind of had a jerry-rigget where I've got it like kind of, it's supposed

to go into one of the mounting screws in the motherboard, but it didn't exactly fit, so I had to like just, I'm just using a zip tie to like hold it up. It's one of those things where it's just like, this is like a computer that I spent more than a thousand dollars on and holding it together is just a little piece of plastic. Whatever it's working. And you know it's a little bit of an adjustment to get to Windows 11. My old rig was Windows 10 which I never upgraded and Windows 11 is is nice, but it's got some some little quirks they got to get used to. But Matt, for you, the first game I installed

outside of Stardew Valley, was Alan Wake 2. Let's wake. Because this thing is like, this machine's a bit of a beast. I tried to future-proof it a little bit. You may have heard the graphics card. It's pretty powerful, it's pretty potent. And I found a list of the most resource-intensive PC games

and Alan Wake 2 was number one. So I was like, you know what, let's just go. Let's see what this baby can do. And I'm gonna talk about Alan Wake 2, but first, next week I gotta talk about the end game of Metaphor Rifantazio, which I will get to. But yeah, building that new rig, super, super satisfying, and I'm glad I used a good chunk of my gaming time to-

Look at this guy go, man. To get into that. Hold on, first of all, couple things. My man's built a PC over here. That's right. He installed Alan Wake 2, then he's buried the lead. He finished Metaphor Rifantazio. Fucking go.

This guy's a freaking beast over here. I mean, I- He talked about his computer being a beast. The beast, he's sitting right here. Hey, I'm Tiger now. Oh my god, I guess he's fucking built different. I also, this makes me sad because I'm on the opposite journey, which is that I've decided that I have to sell

my PC. Oh man. I never use it. It's the full Gundam build of the PC. And as much as I would love to like, just keep it to look at it, I am moving soon. And the place I'm moving to has less room. And this thing is so big, you know, it's like mid-thigh. I just don't have any physical space for it

in my new setup and it breaks my heart a little bit. It stinks. I mean, it's one of the things like, I love living in a city, but yeah, you are space limited. And it would be nice if you're someone who has a hobby to have a little bit more space for things, but yeah, you have to make tough choices. I remember to get rid of shit all the time.

Yeah. It's a bummer. Yeah. That Casey have is really cool. It's the full, I mean, it's the Gundam graphics card, the Gundam monitor, the Gundam everything. I didn't know about this website, PC part picker. So of all the things that you said,

that is like the thing that is now printed on me. I'm gonna be now looking at this for the better part of this year. Yeah. Like just looking at it and then seeing what I can do. I am totally open to someone telling me there's something wrong with it, but it doesn't seem like it to me.

It seems like it's a pretty wholesome environment to them to have good advice But you know if there is any criticism that exists you know let's say hey, I'm sure you'll let me know I'm sure everything is above board with people who are interested in building PCs for gaming Yeah, everything's everything's hunky-dory with a PC master race demographic No, I do think most of the PC gaming community is really supportive and really eager to share their knowledge base. And so, yeah, that community is part of what makes

building a rig so approachable. I was scared about putting an additional SSD in my PS5. Because I'm just not used to opening up a gaming console So it's kind of like a jarring experience, and then you do you have to like jam it You have to like jam it in you have to crank it Yeah, and that little thing cost like a hundred like 120 bucks or whatever like yeah So you're like am I breaking this thing by putting it into the slot? Yeah, and you hear like a chunk and you're like is that good or bad? Yeah then you hear like a kachunk and you're like, is that good or bad? Yeah, and then it works and you're like, okay.

But like, I personally would not, if I was the guy making this stuff, I would make it a different way so you didn't have to do it like that. Because that's really scary and I know that people are doing it are really scared. And I just don't want you to feel that way when you're doing it.

I bought a PC part over the holidays that is a little bit more niche, which is an adapter that allows me to plug the original Macintosh mouse into an iPad. Here we go. So that on my fake Macintosh, which is the old Macintosh chassis with an iPad mini, which happens to be almost identical sized screen,

a 3D printed laser cut mounting bracket on the inside of the Macintosh. Then I got an adapter that allows me to hook up the original Macintosh keyboard, but the gap in this simulated like little workstation, because it's also such a good, like it's got a handle built in you can put it anywhere it looks pretty on a on a table This the gap was the mouse because there was no way to use a mouse on the iPad Yeah, unless you're using a trackpad

so I Printed a skin for my trackpad that matched the aesthetic of the Macintosh, but it always bothered me that I wasn't using the actual original mouse. Finally, somebody cracked it and they made an adapter, and now I can use the original Macintosh mouse and original Macintosh keyboard on an iPad that is housed inside of a Macintosh. That's cool as hell. It's fun to write. A series of things that are the most

Heather Ann Campbell thing I've ever heard. It's fun to write on, man. Fun to write on. I love it. Get that nice satisfying like, kachung, kachung, kachung, kachung. That's so, so good. There's a new coffee shop, a new cafe here in Los Angeles

that is called File Systems of Coffee that is all original Macintosh aesthetic. Wow, I've never heard of this place. And they have multiple Macs that have been retrofitted to have like modern day monitors and screensavers and probably iPads built inside of them. I was hoping it would be a little bit denser an experience. It is sort of a superficial aesthetic.

And I also wish that it had had more 1980s Mac furniture. For example, over the holidays, I became enamored with this original Macintosh desk called the Mac Desk, which I didn't know existed. And it was a Danish company that made a table specifically for Macintoshes and it's gorgeous and I'm thinking about maybe getting one as my actual desk Yeah, cuz they're not that expensive when they pop up because nobody fucking wants that thing

Heather, what are you playing? Oh, what am I playing? Let me tell you what I'm playing I'm playing the Pokemon TCG Pocket game. Wow. I'm not just fucking playing this game. I'm fucking dominating this game. Let me tell you about my decks. Let me tell you about my Celebi EX deck. That's a standard deck.

A lot of the subreddit on the TCG pocket is, you know, that's a high ranking deck. So is the, the Gyarados deck. That's a fine, that's a fine deck. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit. And I also of course have my Mewtwo deck. And let me tell you, when I want to draw cards,

I let my wife do it because she has the luck of God. Yeah, Mary's so cool. Yeah, she's the coolest. And also, we already know she's lucky because she's married to you. Aw. Aw. What a nice thing to say.

I said it before. Oh, that's really sweet. Aw, thank you. But let me talk to you about my meta decks, because this is where I feel like the game really shines, is because by the time you've built these three big decks, the Celebi, the Gyarados, and the Mewtwo deck, which are standard decks,

maybe you swap out a card here or there. So I'm sorry, how many cards are in a deck? 20. 20, okay. 20 on the pocket. I think it's more in the actual game. I think it might be 40 in the actual game. So it's a little bit, wait, I think, I believe Hearthstone, or is Hearthstone 30 or 20?

I think Hearthstone is 30, but Marvel Snap is 12. So it's kind of in the middle of those two. So once you know these, the top three decks, which are also the decks being played in the tournaments, because I'm telling you, I've gone fucking all in on this game. Like micromanaging decks, like pulling for specific cards, telling my wife I need an Electros,

and she's like on it, spins the fucking like thing all around, picks a deck, opens it up, and there's the card. This woman in less than 500 cards pulled two gold Charizards, which is impossible. But anyway, once everybody's got their decks, and you know the most likely three decks that you're going to see are either Gyarados

or Celebi or Mewtwo, then you have to start countering those specific decks by building decks that are specifically weird to counter those decks. So my three specific weird decks, Dragonite Meta, not that weird, everybody knows a Dragonite, you gotta build him up in your bench before you unleash him because he can attack

both the bench and the front line card. Meltan is a good meta deck, it's a slow build, like a lot of decks aren't prepared for the evolved version of Meltan, whose name escapes me off the top of my head. But it's a heavy hitter, 120 damage, and also has a 20 damage protective coat on the card itself. But my favorite meta deck that I'm playing right now is something I'm calling Weeping Hill. Great. Which is based on a deck I saw on Reddit that is a Weeping Bell meta. Weeping Bell has the ability to pull a card from the bench

up to the front line so that you can attack that card. And no matter how many times you pull the card back to the bench, Weeping Bell can pull it back into your active place. Wait, so from the opponent's hand? So yeah, so the opponent has their bench and then their main attacker. And is their bench, these are cards in play that are not,

okay, and then they also have their main attacker. And is their bench, these are cards in play that are not, okay, and then they also have their piles. Typically, typically you can damage the bench of a deck using specific cards, but generally speaking, those cards can't be damaged. You have to focus on your active opposing Pokemon. Weeping Bell can pull any card that is a basic Pokemon from the bench up to the front line and then do 60 damage to it.

You combine this with the Pokemon Flute, typically the most unused garbage card in the entire deck. Wow. Pokemon Flute can only do one thing, which is pull a deceased, basic Pokemon out of the opponent's, like, expired discard pile, right? Essentially their graveyard. Yeah, their graveyard.

So let's say you're playing against somebody who's got a Gyarados deck, right? You build all the way up to Weepin' Bell before they can manage to turn a Magic Carp into a Gyarados. You pull that Magic Carp to Weepin' Bell before they can manage to turn a Magikarp into a Gyarados. You pull that Magikarp using Weepin' Bell into the primary spot and kill it. And then on the next turn, use the Pokemon Flute,

bring the Magikarp back to life, pull it up to the front and kill it again. So you can just execute the same Pokemon over and over and over again. Jesus Christ. Drag it back from hell. It is so fun. just execute the same Pokemon over and over and over again. Jesus Christ. Drag it back from hell. It is so fun.

It is, I would not say that I have a higher than 50% win ratio with this deck. Sure. But of all the decks, it is the most fun because I've never seen, I've never encountered anybody else playing with it. Shout out to whoever it was on the Reddit, TCG Pocket, who was like, you guys should try this deck.

And it was in a comments. It wasn't even like the main thing. Wow. Because it is a absolute delight to play. That's one thing I do like about card games is that when you, there are some decks that, like you were saying, that like are not optimized. They're not like S tier, A tier decks.

They're maybe even not even really competitive, but they're so fun that they're just like, you get it in there and like, yeah, you're gonna lose most of the time, but when you do win, it's kind of in a way that even like sometimes even your opponent is like kind of having fun with it. Like I remember playing, I got into,

I was playing more Hearthstone, I was doing it in the mill decks, which is basically like, you're milling your opponent's deck, you're making them burn all their cards, you're making them draw too many cards that their hand can handle, so they're just eventually gonna run out of cards. And again, it's like not an efficient way to play,

but it's a super fun way to play. It's like if you're in a Street Fighter tournament and you're maining somebody like Dan. Yes, right. Like it's not likely that you're going to win, but when you do, it is so satisfying and playful and fun. There's also in the Pokemon Pocket game, the ability to concede.

Like you don't have to allow the game to play all the way out. If you can game out every step that's going to happen, it's like, okay, there's nothing I can do here. I'm definitely gonna lose. And you wanna save time, you's nothing I can do here. I'm definitely gonna lose. And you wanna save time, you can press the concede button. My favorite thing with my Weepin' Hell

is when I Pokemon Flute and Magikarp goes back in the bench and they concede immediately. I feel like, oh, fuck, I know what's gonna happen. But that is, I haven't just been playing it. I've been, guys, I haven't played the game that shall not be named for more than a week. Wow. Wow. Because every free moment I get,

I'm playing Pokemon against other people on the pocket. I love it, I love it. Thank you for introducing me to it on this podcast. It's so fun that sometimes I'll even sweat a little bit. Wow. Because it's like such an intense, awesome match. Matt, what are you playing? Well, I'll keep it brief.

Oh, because I went too long? No, no, no, no, no. Because I went too long. No, no, no, no, no. You both went too long. What the fuck? All right. We've almost been on this show for an hour. No, no, no, no, we're having fun. You both went too long

No, no, we're having fun and I honestly I think one of the best parts of doing this show is having like very spirited Conversations, so this is like really really great, but I don't have that much to say really I've been playing I've been bouncing around a lot of games right now for some reason I can't really put my finger on why I Started playing Animal Crossing on my 3DS. It's certainly not to pacify me during a time of severe stress. The 3DS, it's called... You can't go outside. You need to have a sense of community. You have to wear a mask if you go outside. You can't go outside. You can't go outside. Need to have a sense of community. Have to wear a mask if you go outside. You have to have air filters on inside. Definitely not something I'm gonna be unpacking

with somebody that's medically able to do so. Oh my god. I definitely didn't get a flyer that said more debris has been released into Los Angeles by a factor of 10 than during 9-11 in Manhattan. Very chill, very tight time. Awesome. I love it.

Super zoomed out. I'm chill. I'm looking at everything from a distance. I'm relaxed. I'm chill. I know last week we were chill. I'm like chill right now. Yeah, I'm super chill.

I'm super chill. Don't have air filters going 24-7, I have a constant barrage of white noise going currently. But over the, I didn't get to say what I was playing really over the break, because we had recorded that one in advance. I finished the Astrobot DLC, so that game is... Hell yeah, this is the Christmas DLC. The Christmas DLC is...

I am playing it, how is it? It's fucking awesome. Ah, fuck, I gotta play it. I wanted to play it before it was Christmas anymore, but it's a great Christmas level, it's. Ah, fuck, I gotta play it. I wanted to play it before it wasn't Christmas anymore. But it's a great Christmas level, it's really, really fun. But I also did some of the speed run levels because there are new characters added for that as well. So that game is now sitting at 100% again.

Hell yeah. Did that, started Indiana Jones, bounced off of it, would like to get back to it. How many hours did you put into it you think um? You get you get through to kind of like that you got through the tutorial got into the main game I got through the tutorial I got through like the first area okay the first Destination I got it all it But was like really enjoying it and thought it like was very cool

And I guess also forgot how much I like Indiana Jones I kind of don't think about him as a franchise that I like that much because I don't like the movies. Yeah. Because most of the movies are not very good. Oh, there you are. There's, we don't have to litigate this, there's one good one.

One? The first three are pretty good. But the first one is- The first one is an all-timer. Is an all-timer. Yes. The second are good But over the break to I played through almost all of Prince of Persia the sands of time of my skin

And it's fucking great still such a fun fun game But I I think I have maybe like two hours left to go back in there and finish it I got stellar blade. I've been loving stellar blade. It's great. It's fucking awesome and my wife makes fun of me You should you should get a gaming system that's separate from your wife. Yeah. Yeah, I mean she's honestly she shouldn't be seeing Humiliating especially now that the boobies mash together. It's- Thanks for the update, the mashing update. It's a real problem. Yeah, they got my letters.

Also, I wanted to shout out, I didn't get to shout them out when we were in the Switch 2 conversation. There was a thread that was born in our Discord because people were complaining about the amount of Switch 2 rumors being shared in a general channel So we were siloed off into a thread so shout out Anthony shout out six wire Foxy the kids Eegs fake JSF and whoever else if they aren't forgetting anybody we were a

Small but mighty community who were just going and just believe we didn't stop believing. Wait, you were part of the problem? Oh no, I wasn't part of the problem. You got exiled to a separate thread? I didn't get exiled. I joined the exilers because I saw their plight and I didn't think they did anything wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah, fair. But I joined in there because I was also,

you know, I'm very excited about Switch 2 and I wanted to see what was everybody talking about. We were all exchanging memes and stuff. We were also just like, it was a smaller channel. So we were having interesting, fun conversations. It was nice to talk to some internet pals. It was great. It's a nice community.

Nice community in there. Discord.gd.getplayed. I will say the thing that is really taking over in a way that I think I described in our group chat as I have bilateral sickness Is bilateral yeah? And I just have I have bilateral sickness. Yeah, I can't stop playing it. I own it on multiple platforms I Am just constantly trying to play it any chance that I get and I'm not good at it I've been winning, but I'm not I'm not a master it. I've been winning but I'm not a master by any means. I just enjoy it quite a bit and I had about 10 hours in

it on Steam before the winter break. During the winter break, I quadrupled my hour. I love this. And just became obsessed with it. And I, my favorite sound currently, of all sounds I can hear, are the chip sounds when you win. Yeah, it's so satisfying. Look, it's a, Bellaccio is a phenomenal design. I think we kind of, when we did our Games of the Year,

you know, awards, I think we maybe kind of didn't give Bellaccio enough of a highlight. We all really like the game. We all really appreciate it. It's a genius design. But it is the kind of thing I'm looking back at. It's like, man, should I have squeezed Bellaccio into my personal top five? I feel like with the amount of time you're putting into it now retroactively, it might be a top five game for you. It's a top five game. It might be a top five game of all time. It like, I have Bellatro sickness.

Yeah. So I looked this up because I wanted to find the text. You did text us, I have Bellatro sickness. But I found another text that I forgot about from my friend. So Bellatro I think is getting like, it's kind of gotten into the larger culture now,

like a non-gamers, casual gamers, I think they're like, hey, playing it on their phones, or like, hey, what's Bellatro? I feel like I've encountered more of that. Maybe it was part of it was all the game of the year buzz. But a friend of mine who I won't dox, who texted me, I've played an insane amount of hours of Bellatro. I'm ignoring my children. It's a real problem.

That was Bill Clinton. Ignoring his adult children. He's ignoring Chelsea. But that's what I've been playing. Just a roundup of games. Excited to hunker down and actually play one game to completion. Start the list. We've been playing just a roundup of games, excited to hunker down and actually play one game to completion.

Start the list of 2025. All right, let's talk Kongs. We're doing the Triforce of Kongs. Of course, there's a Donkey Kong redesigned in the new Switch 2 Mario Kart footage. Plus, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD released this past week. Kong is in the zeitgeist. He's back.

On the way, Kong never left us. No, Kong is always near and dear. He's one of my favorite guys. Kong is eternal. We love Kong. We love Kong. Also, we love Kongs. Kongs.

That's what we're doing here. This exercise is applying to the multitude of Kongs. I love it. We were just going to pick three of them. I love it. We did think about doing a Kongs tier list, but it feels like we covered the DK games when we did the rare tier list.

I know we didn't do all of them. But like, you know, the Donkey Kong countries were on there. We discussed the retro games. I, it felt like a little too similar. So Triforce of Kongs it is. And of course the Triforces of Courage, Power, and Wisdom, we will each name one for each category. Who would like to start?

I'll go first. Okay, great. All right. I'm gonna go with Power. Great. Great place to start. I think it's a good place to start with Kong, because we associate Kong with Power. power. Great. Great place to start. I think it's a good place to start with Kong

because we associate Kong with power. And so from my spot on the Triforce of Kongs in the power slot created by American filmmaker Marion C. Cooper, King Kong was one of the archetypical giant Kongs ever to grace our shores cinematically. In the film, an American film crew led by Carl Denham captures Kong and brings him to New York City to be exhibited as the eighth wonder of the world.

I can think of no more powerful Kong than King Kong himself, a monkey that has starred in video games. Yeah. King Kong the video game. Kong versus Godzilla. He's even a skin in Fortnite. Yeah. And the King of the Monsters game.

The movie tie-in game for Peter Jackson's King Kong film is very good Yeah, it's excellent. Is that the one where the title is like King Kong the movie the game I think so really cumbersome title the I mean the or Kong obviously there are no other Kongs without King Kong It's kind of like the the ultimate pick so for the Triforce of Power. It makes a whole lot of sense King Kong of course it would be cited in the famous court case So for the Triforce of Power, it makes a whole lot of sense. King Kong, of course, it would be cited in the famous court case where Nintendo was sued by the movie studio, I forget which one, the movie studio that owns King Kong, and Nintendo won the court case because they were able to establish that it was meant as a Donkey

Kong, meant as a parody. And that case was litigated by the late John Kirby, the namesake of the inspiration of Kirby the character. So there you go. Yeah. King Kong inextricable from video game history. Kirby defending Kong? Kirby defending Donkey Kong, yeah.

Pretty crazy stuff. Against King Kong. The actual title of the King Kong movie tie-in video game is Peter Jackson's King Kong, the official game of the movie. That sucks. That's fucking bad. The official game. It's a game that would never be ported

because it wouldn't make sense to port it. It is a very good game. I remember it being fun. I loved it. A great first pick, Heather. Great first pick. Thank you so much. All right, Matt.

You want me to go? Well, I can go if you want. No, I wanna go because I'm scared that you're gonna take mine. Okay, great. Staying in power, you know, power can present itself in many forms. Strength, obviously, is the main attribute of power,

wouldn't you say? Sure. But you know what's cooler? What? Or you know what's more powerful than strength? Being cool. My pick for the power triforce, Funky Kong. Fuck.

So Funky Kong looks exactly like Donkey Kong in almost every single way, except he has a couple of accessories, a bandana, sunglasses, what I believe is now called an A-frame shirt, and cut-off jean shorts. He fucking rules, and he rides on a surfboard. Funky Kong.

Funky Kong. Funky Kong is great, look. He's one of the great characters of fiction. I think the thing with Funky Kong is it is powerful, his, like, to have that look. The aura. To embrace that look. Yes, that aura, that aura is it is powerful his like to have that look to embrace that look yes that or that aura of cool is powerful and also you could argue in Donkey Kong tropical freeze when they did the remaster they added funky Kong

they added new funky mode yeah and funky Kong was more powerful than the default player character yeah he's you know he's quite he's naturally OP or at least has OP charisma. He's got Riz. He does have Riz. And I love him. I think he's such a funny character. He is a very funny character. Inarguable. He's my choice for the Triforce of Power, Funky Kong. Look, Funky Kong was on my list, but he's claimed by you. Look funky Kong was on my list, but he's claimed by you So but but I have actually a diet think still my first choice available for the the triforce of power here I see Matt's showing me an image an image of funky Kong doing the T-pose

Yeah, he's T-posed and his proportions are very Like he's got a lot of arm Can really tell his wingspan there. I think Nintendo characters should never be T-Pose because it looks insane. Yeah. His proportions are bananas. It looks like they're dead. Yes.

Yes. My choice for the Triforce of Power, you know, King Kong is the Kong who started it all, but there's a video game Kong who started it all and started a franchise and also built a company. I'm talking about OG Donkey Kong who is canonically also Cranky Kong. Original Donkey Kong from the first Donkey Kong game slash Cranky Kong is my choice for the Triforce of Power. Powerful figure, a bruising brute in his initial depiction. He's powerful enough to render steel beams askew and to heave heavy barrels on an endless loop.

He is a titan. He's a Goliath. And then Cranky Kong maintains that power and dignity in a different way by being cranky and telling you exactly how he feels. And you know what? Telling it like it is, is pretty powerful. Being true to yourself is pretty powerful. Nick's always like, I'm just saying.

I'm just saying. I'm just asking questions. Yeah, and then- That's a powerful guy. Of course, there he goes again too, talking about steel beams. Yeah. OG Donkey Kong and Cranky Kong,'s my triforce so that means Cranky Kong's off the table. It's the same guy

This is a devious picnic and I salute you it's canonically the same character. I know donkey is cranky I know cranky is donkey and I know that donkey is cranky. Yeah, donkey is cranky. Yeah, put it on a shirt and I know that donkey is cranky. Yeah. Donkey is cranky. Put it on a shirt. Yeah. So I think moving on to the next piece, and Heather, it's back at you.

All right. You can pick which piece we're going at. I'm gonna go with courage. Okay. I'm gonna go with courage. You see, after being seemingly killed by UH-1 Iroquois helicopters atop the, atop the World Trade Center in 1976,

King Kong was actually taken to the Atlantic Institute and kept alive in a coma for 10 years. Dr. Amy Franklin set out to save Kong's life by giving him a computer-monitored artificial heart. However, Kong was alone. And that's why courageously, another Kong had to step in and provide companionship.

I'm talking about the one, the only, from the 1986 film King Kong Lives, Lady Kong. Wow. Lady Kong, now you showed me a picture of Funky Kong, T-posing, I'm gonna show you a picture of Lady Kong, specifically her large breasts. Oh my God. Hell yeah. of Funky Kong T-posing. I'm gonna show you a picture of Lady Kong, specifically her large breasts. Oh my God.

Hell yeah. So Lady Kong in the 1986 film known as King Kong 2 or Kong Lives is put into confinement with King Kong who eventually falls in love with her and Mates with her and then frees her. Yeah, but as he is fighting fighting for their safety he he gets attacked by the army who's cornered him and fills him full of bullets and his mechanical heart fails

and King Kong dies but not before Lady Kong can give birth to baby Kong. So there's not a Mr. Lady Kong is what I'm hearing. Well, someone fathered that Kong. Yeah, King Kong fathered. Oh, I'm not trying to step on any toes. Here's baby Kong, in case you guys are unfamiliar with the 70s and 80s King Kong films.

I'm always, it's always fun discovering the things that you know, and then you sharing them with us. I like to know the things that you know. Well, I like, you know, you took a shot at steel beams earlier. I wasn't taking a shot at steel beams. I will leave any steel beam where it stands.

Well, you brought them up. Okay, yes. In terms of what Weigert may or may not believe. Yeah. What we did learn in the 1976 King Kong film is that not even King Kong can destroy the World Trade Center. No, that thing was still there after Kong was around.

You need to do a little better than a Kaiju to knock down that tower. Yeah, you're gonna have to do a little bit better than that, sweetie, okay? Come up with a new plan. Send the big ape up there ain't gonna work. Yeah, guess what? Send it back to Skull Island, babe. It's not gonna work. Man, I love Skull Island. Skull Island's cool.

I wish I could live there. Yeah. Oh my god I don't know if I want to live there. I'd do fine Skull Island has one of the funniest moments in a film Is it the it's when the guy steps forward with a with a with? Grenades in his hand Shay wig them right to to call forth the Kaiju ravaging Skull Island, assuming that it is going to bite him and then he'll blow himself up inside of it.

And instead it looks at him, hits him with its tail. He flies so far. The man is dead in the air for sure. But his corpse flies, I would say, 30 blocks before hitting the side of a mountain and exploding like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It's extremely good. It is one of the, I mean, I'll laugh in a comedy,

but the hardest I think I've ever laughed in a movie may have been at that moment in Skull Island. It's great. Your heroic moment of self-sacrifice backfiring, and then you having enough time to process it is very funny. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck.

Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. All right, Matt, you're up. Okay, courage, bravery, keeping your wits about you. These are all tough for anybody, maybe a little bit easier for an adult perhaps, but these are maybe qualities that some little baby ass kid don't have so much. My choice for courage, Diddy Kong. Wow.

Ooh. Cause yeah, he's sort of like a willing participant in Donkey Kong's little adventures, but you gotta remember, he's just a kid. He doesn't notice that he's getting himself into half the time. How old is Diddy Kong? It looks like you have Diddy Kong age

already filled in in your Google search. It was Diddy age, but. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha more of a, like he may look diminutive more because he's a different species as opposed to him being a kid. Different type of monkey. Yeah, because I think he's more like just Donkey Kong's friend. Yeah. But yeah, I guess his age is unknown, so he could be a kid.

And you know what, I will say he is very courageous. You can't knock Diddy for not being courageous. When there is a mission that needs to be accomplished, he will volunteer. He will be there. He'll be there. And you know what? He's also a bit of a daredevil, isn't he, with his racing? I guess I still pick him for courage.

I think he's a great pick. It does say his age is unknown, but he is Donkey Kong's sidekick and best friend. So if Donkey Kong's a full-ass adult, it would be weird if his best friend was a little kid. Yeah, that would be a little strange. But they're monkeys. It's a different world. That's true. We don't know what the rules are. They have a different sense of adulthood and what have you.

Yeah, but I still pick Diddy Kong. I think it's a good pick. I like him. And you know what? As a hat wearing guy, he's one of my guys. He's got a great hat and it's a great look for him and he's fully committed to it. I love him. Staying on Diddy Kong, my Triforce of Courage pick. Donkey Kong Country 2 begins with this text. Ha-ar, we have got the big monkey. If you want him back, you scurvy dogs,

you'll have to hand over the banana hoard. K-rule. Now that means that Donkey Kong, their hero and protector, has himself been kidnapped and incapacitated. And someone's gonna have to step up in his stead. And yeah, Diddy Kong's there, but he needs a new ally because he can't do it alone. That ally comes in the form of the very embodiment of courage.

Dixie Kong. Wow. That's right. Dixie Kong is my choice for the Triforce of Courage. A great pick, a very fun character too. Yes. And of course, it's Diddy's Kong quest. That's right.

But then Dixie becomes a title character of her own right. That's right, in Donkey Kong 3. Yes. And then that's where, then Baby Kong becomes part of it. Baby Kong becomes part of it, but yes, Diddy Kong Country 3, Dixie Kong's double trouble. And so, you know, it's another game where Dixie Kong, who, you know, heretofore previously unheralded, has to step up and has to take care of business

for the betterment of all Kongs. I haven't seen any of these sequels. My knowledge stops with King Kong Lives in 1986. You gotta catch up on the full canon. I know Baby Kong is born in King Kong Lives, but it sounds to me like you guys have seen a lot more of these films. The baby Kong in...

It's Tiny Kong, right? Kitty Kong. Oh, it's Kitty Kong. Tiny Kong is in Donkey Kong 64. Diddy and Kitty? Yeah. Uh-oh. Oh, it's Kitty Kong. Tiny Kong is in Donkey Kong 64. Diddy and Kitty? Yeah. Uh-oh. Oh no.

All right, let's get to her final Triforce piece. We're each going to pick a Triforce of wisdom. Well, I covered a lot of the Kongs in the films, but there is a third film, which is not canonically King Kong 3, but instead is called The King of Kong. And what could be a more wise addition to our Triforce of Kongs

than the man who is the King of Kong, Steve Weeby? Wow. Steve Weeby was born in 1969 and he's an American two-time world champion of the video game Donkey Kong Holding the title from September 20th 2010 to January 10th 2011 with a high score of 1,000,000 64,000 and 500 points Weeby was the first person to achieve over a million points on the game Donkey Kong on July 4th

2004 Wow, so he's a real to achieve over a million points on the game Donkey Kong on July 4th, 2004. Wow. So he's a real American hero. 21 years before the Switch 2 releases. It's so crazy. That is wild to think about. From 1996 to 1999, Steve Weebie worked at Boeing as a testing and analysis engineer before becoming a teacher.

In 2009, he released a contemporary Christian album, The King of Song. Mm, I bet that's good. I bet, you know what? That's going into my Spotify rap this year, because I know that it's gonna be good. He could have gone with The Sing of Kong. There's a lot of ways to play it.

Yeah, and either way you slice it, it's all good. I think the issue I would say with the King of Song, even though it does evoke the King of Kong, it doesn't evoke Kong specifically. Yeah. King of Song, like that sounds like that could just be like an old Dean Martin album or something. Bing Crosby had the King of Song, you know,

back in the 50s. I would be shocked if listeners to our podcast had not watched the film King of Song, you know, back in the 50s. I would be shocked if listeners to our podcast had not watched the film King of Kong. But if you haven't, please look it up. It's a documentary that's almost 20 years old now. Have we covered it on the podcast? Oh, no. We should do an episode.

That would be an interesting one to revisit. I saw King of Kong in theaters. Wow, I actually don't think I've ever seen it. Holy shit, Matt. I've seen clips of it, and I'm aware that it's about a maniac, but I think it could be, I actually don't think I've ever seen it. Holy shit, Matt! I've seen like clips of it, and I'm aware that it's about a maniac, but I think it could be, I'm interested. Pretty fascinating, Doc.

My wife and I trade movie night, like who gets to choose the movie, and I asked her if she'd ever seen King of Kong, and she said no, and so literally three weeks ago. So someone as cool as Mary is just like me? Yeah. That's pretty cool. We watched the King of Kong, and the climax made her cry.

Oh, wow. It's an excellent film and that, and it takes a lot of wisdom to be so good at the game, which is why Steve Weeby is my wisdom of Kong. Wow. In the Triforce of Kongs. Great choice. All right, Matt, you're up.

So wisdom, there's like a type of person I think about Wow. And the Triforce of Kongs. Great choice. All right, Matt, you're up. So, wisdom. There's like a type of person I think about when I think of who is wise, and there's a phrase that sort of rings in my ear, listen to your elders. Okay. And you know, sometimes you have to think about the things that are said of your elders who are around,

you gotta hear what they're talking about, but also maybe some of them have passed away. I'm already getting mad. My choice for wisdom is the deceased wife of Cranking Kong, Wrinkly Kong. I'm furious. She's dead? Wrinkly Kong, I know, died in game.

Died between games. Yeah. Started as a live, I know, died in game. Died between games. Yeah. Started as a live Kong. Yeah, was alive. And then became a corpse. I believe between Donkey Kong Country 3 and Donkey Kong 64, yes. Not unlike the conclusion of King Kong Returns,

King Kong Lives, King Kong 2. Look, why is Cranky Kong so cranky? Maybe because his wife died with no explanation. Yeah, and it's not because he cranks off a lot? No, that wouldn't make anyone cranky. No. I'm saying that they call him that because he does that. He jerks off?

It doesn't matter. I picked Winkley Kong this guy's dead wife I'm fucking I'm so mad. That was gonna be my pick. She's the mother of Donkey Kong jr. And grandmother of Donkey Kong the third He separated my guy cranky calling from his wife Winkley Kong on my on my triforce on your own triforce How awesome would it be if because it's such a trope that the dead wife motivates the male protagonist, if the next Kong game that came out was Cranky Kong seeking revenge.

Like it was a full God of War style reboot. Every level is one hit. I would love to play as Cranky Kong in a Donkey Kong Country style game, why not? I think you should get all the, they should do it like Wonder, Super Mario Brothers Wonder, where you can play with a bunch of characters. He's playable in one of the games, which one is it? Is it just Donkey Kong Country Returns? Oh, you know, I guess he is in Tropical Freeze, you're right.

Tropical Freeze, it's in Tropical Freeze, okay. Yeah, but yeah, you can mess around with him a little bit. Yeah, but I took her away from you, from your... Yeah, you've taken two of my three picks. You took Funky Kong, you took Winkley Kong. I guess we're kind of not so different, you and I, huh? Yeah, no we're not, but I don't... Nobody's mad at me.

I didn't pick anybody else's picks? No, I didn't have... I don't have one on me. Not even close. Okay. Heather, can I see that pick of Lady Kong again? Do you have that up? Cranky Kong's at it again. Sure, I can pull up the image of Lady Kong.

Okay, great. Why do you need it? I just want it for reference real quick. I think it may just help inspire where my pick is gonna go. This is Lady Kong. Yeah, so Lady Kong, an ape's face, an ape's body, but a tig ol' biddy's.

Very asynchronous. A human's tits, yeah. asynchronous. Very asynchronous on that character. Orange hair. Orange hair. And you know, I kind of got a pivot here. And maybe I'm outside of the Kong canon, but in terms of wisdom, who is wiser than Withers in Baldur's Gate 3? Wait, what? And you know what? Withers has a Big Naturals mod to give him a body type as jarring as Lady Kong. So my Triforce of Wisdom here is going to be withers with big naturals. So the criteria for being on this triforce is you have to be a Kong or have big naturals? I think we have a little bit of leeway in terms of choosing who is actually a Kong.

Hey, you know, he's an eternal character. He's a god or demi-god. He's clearly meant to be, you know, an elder sort of eternal force. There's heavy implication in the lore there that he is in fact the god of death. I think I am going to, I think he's the kind of guy who if he wanted to take form as a Kong, he could. And so I think for that reason, Big Naturals Withers is gonna be my pick for the Triforce of Wisdom. Wow, an excellent pick.

I'm, you were mad a second ago. Yeah, I was furious. I'm furious. Is that character a monkey or? He's more of like a desiccated skeleton. Yeah. But I think he looks kinda ape-like. Oh, he's the river guy?

Yeah. Yeah, he's like kind of your character who, you know, you can talk to him, he gives advice, he lets you respect your characters. But also he can have big naturals now. He can have big naturals with a mod that is officially supported. Wait, like, it's bones with titties?

Okay, I guess Heather hasn't been, Heather's been skimming the group chat, I guess. Yeah, he said this in the group chat immediately. There you go. Ah. Hahahaha. You showing that was about as bad as me typing what I just typed right now. Withers with big natty.

Hahahaha. Do you want to run down our picks again real quick? I'll say that for power I picked Funky Kong, for courage I picked Diddy Kong, and for wisdom I picked Winkley Kong. For power I picked King Kong, for courage I picked Lady Kong, and for wisdom I picked Steve Weeby. For power I picked OG Donkey Kong who of course is also Cranky Kong. For courage I picked Dixie Kong and for my Triforce of Wisdom in the Triforce of Kongs I went with Withers with Big Naturals.

I almost chose Bink. You almost chose Bink? Yeah, I almost chose Bink. You almost chose Bink? Yeah, I almost chose Bink. What do you... The skeleton Kong from the Game Boy Advance game. Oh, I'm not familiar with Bink. He's very, very, very little canonical information about Bink. Oh.

And... Bink would have been good. Yeah, I thought about it. But I thought, you know, when it comes to Kongs, these are my Kongs. Yeah, you're right. King Kong, Lady Kong, and Steve Weeby. Yeah, Bink is different. Bink's like a different thing.

Alright, let's do a segment. I've got some dudes and we're gonna see if our producer, Ranch, can identify them. It's time for another edition of Dude Ranch and this time we're talking Donkey Kong non-Kongs. That's right, these are characters from the Donkey Kong franchise who are not themselves Kongs. So these are non-apes.

Okay. Okay. From the DK and DKC franchises. All right, so the rules are, I will read the name of a character, Heather, Matt, you will both guess whether or not Rochelle knows who it is and then Rochelle will let us know. Great. We'll operate on the honor system here. First up, Pauline. I'm going to say no.

Heather says no I guess I have to say yes to To see if I can even just get a point, but I well you don't have to because you could tie it up Okay, I guess you're right now. I'm gonna say no okay. You're also gonna say no Ranch who is Pauline? Pauline of course is the damsel in distress, originally just called Lady from the first Donkey Kong. She later was promoted to the mayor of New Donk City in Super Mario Odyssey. So yes, she is the character who Mario is trying to rescue

in the first Donkey Kong game. I wonder if they were worried about losing that lawsuit because there already is a Lady Kong. So they had to change her name from lady to probably Oh, yeah, that's probably what happened. They're like we got to give this nameless woman an identity All right next up King K. Rule No, I'm gonna say yes Matt says yes ranch. Do you know who King K. Rule is? I know the singer King K. Rule. I don't know who that is Rance is that is a reference to King K.rule. I don't know who that is. France.

Is that a reference to King Krule? I don't think so. King Krule is the main antagonist of the Donkey Kong Country franchise. He's a big fat crocodile. Kremling is the Donkey Kong species with a crown and a cape. I just want to... Yeah, do you have info on King Krule, the singer? King Krule, born August 24th, 1994,

is an English singer, songwriter, musician, rapper, and record producer. He began recording music in 2010 under the moniker Zoo Kid. And it seems like he has a lot of albums now. So if he's born in 94, does he come? No, he's born before Donkey Kong Country comes out. Yes. And he's named King Krule? No, he takes born before Donkey Kong Country comes out. Yes. And he's named King Krule, no, he takes the name after,

nobody would name their baby King Krule. Someone might. Given name is Archie Ivan Marshall. All right, next up. Up, up, up, up, up. Contrary to some reports, his stage name is not inspired by the character King K. Rool from the Donkey Kong Country video game series, but rather the Elvis Presley film King Kree-ole. I'm glad we have clarity there. I wonder if King K. Rool is also inspired by King Kree-ole.

It has to be. I bet it's wordplay. That's the journey, absolutely. That makes sense. Okay. They both mutual invention from the same source. And he is a gator. All right, That's the journey, absolutely. That makes sense. Okay. They both mutual invention from the same source. And he is a gator. All right. Let's not get into it.

Potentially from down in the bayou. All right. Next up, Rambi. No. Heather says no. I'm going to say yes. Matt says yes. So far, Heather has two points.

Matt has one. Matt, yes so far Heather has two points Matt has one Matt's we're split decision here again. Rochelle. Do you know who Rambi is? Rambi's a rat Rambi is not a rat. No, Rambi Is a rhinoceros who's a writable mount in the Donkey Kong Country games? Alright, so Heather has three points Matt has one next. Next up. Gonna send an email to Anya, this is ridiculous. This is... Conquer the Squirrel. Wait, hold on though.

I don't understand. How would one answer this question? Does Rachelle know who Conquer the Squirrel is? It's kind of like the other questions. Yeah, they're all the same thing. Right, but this is saying what it is. It's kind of like the other questions. Yeah, they're all the same thing. Right, but this is saying what it is. Well, it doesn't specify beyond that.

The question is, does Ranch know who it is? Beyond what I've said, beyond the details that I've added. If I say King K. Rool and your answer is he's a king, then that's not gonna get it. If I say conquer the squirrel, then and your answer is he's a king then that's not gonna Conquer the squirrel. Yeah, he's a squirrel. That's the last one. It was like oh, it's a it's a Rat, Rambi doesn't have any characteristics beyond just being a rhinoceros. Okay, conquer the squirrel has some more Okay, Rambi is all yeah. So then my answer is no. Okay, Heather's going with no. I

I'm fucking up, but I have faith in Ranch. And that's not a bad thing. I think it's good. I believe in Ranch. I'm gonna send this one to her via our psychic link that we have. Well, that's cheating if you have a psychic link. I'm gonna say yes.

Ranch, who is Conker the Squirrel? Conker the Squirrel is Funky Kong's pet. Not Funky Kong's pet. Not Funky Kong's pet. No, good guess. Conker is the player character in Conker's Bad Fur Day, but he is part of the Donkey Kong universe because he debuted in the Donkey Kong kart racer Diddy Kong Racing. That was his first appearance. And yes, he's a foul mouth squirrel.

He's like a bad dude squirrel. All right, next up, Banjo. No. Heather says no. It's working great for Heather so far, has four points to one for Matt. For some reason, this one feels like a yes, and I think Heather's wrong.

Wow. All right, Banjo. Rochelle, who is Banjo? Banjo's from Banjo and Kazooie. He is, Matt is going to get a point. I'll give it to you. Wow! Yes, and Banjo from Banjo Kazooie also made his debut in Diddy Kong Racing as part of the Donkey Kong universe.

More games should do that. I love it. Just introduce a guy and then be like, you know what? He has his own game now. He's a kart racer, yeah. There's like four characters in Diddy Kong Racing you just like end up being part of other games. All right, next up, Stanley. No.

Heather says no. I'm also gonna say no because I don't think I know who Stanley is. Maybe Rochelle does. Ranch, who is Stanley? Stanley is also a squirrel. Stanley is not a squirrel. Stanley of course is the player character

who's an exterminator, Stanley the Bugman in the arcade game Donkey Kong 3, one of the fucking weirdest sequels ever made. You both get a point there. Heather's got five, Matt has three. Okay, next up. Lord Frederick the Snow snow mad king. No.

Yeah, I mean, there's just, I know that I was saying earlier that I believe in ranch. There's no fucking way. There's no way. I don't even, I don't have no idea who this is. Ranch, please tell us who Lord Frederick the Snowmad King is. King Cruel's nemesis. You're adjacent.

He is a new antagonist in Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, so I'm sure him and King K. Rool, although they have a mutual enemy, would ultimately turn on each other. He is a Viking walrus, of course. That game has fun character designs. It each other. He is a Viking walrus, of course. That game has fun character designs. All right, you just get a point there. Yeah, I had a lot of fun with it. All right, it is- I got this Pauline tab open still.

Brrr. It is seven to four. Heather has gotten, oh wait, no, it's only six to four. Heather got Banjo wrong. Finally, Mario. Yes. You're both going to say yes. Ranch, who's Mario? The guy with the red hat.

I'll give it to you. Mario, formerly known as Jumpman, is the protagonist of Donkey Kong and the antagonist of Donkey Kong Jr. Hey, like Diddy Kong Racing, Mario originally introduced via a Donkey Kong game and ends up having his own franchises. You each get a point. Heather's going to win here. Well played, Heather. Really good game. Well played and well done, Ranch. Well done, Ranch. You did a really good job.

Yeah. Even though you fucked me on every answer. Kind of crazy that, I mean, this is not a new observation, but kind of crazy that Mario is the Nintendo guy Yeah, and he wasn't even the first thought no like he was like I mean he's a hero Yeah, he's a player character. All right. Yeah, he's like he wasn't like that that game is called Donkey Kong. It's centered on the monkey Yeah They weren't necessarily thinking of miss starring in his own game

And then he ends up making Mario Brothers and then Super Mario Brothers and the rest is history Hey, that's this week's Get Played. Our producer is Rachelle Chen. Ranch, yard underscore, underscore, sard. Ranch, have you been doing any streaming lately? No, but I will be. But you do have a Twitch channel. You do have a Twitch channel you can shout out.

Channel is also yard underscore underscore sard. Awesome, check that out. Our music is by Ben Prunty, benpruntymusic.com. Our art is by Duck Brigade Design, duckbrigade.com. And hey, check out our Patreon, patreon.com slash get played, where you can find our entire pre headgum back catalog plus ad free main feed episodes and also our Patreon exclusive show, Get Animated.

Matt, what are we up to this week? This week, we've read your comments, we've answered your letters. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun fun to, it's super fun to watch and we've had a lot of fun talking about it. Check that out over at patreon.com slash get played.

And you know what? What's that, man? What's going to get played someday? The freaking switch too. Wow. That was a HeadGum podcast. Hi guys, I'm Ago Wodim. Check out my new show, Thanks Dad, now on HeadGum. I was raised by

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