Get Played - Now That's What I Call Video Game Music: Ice Stage Music

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

Nick and Matt get nice and chilly to discuss their favorite songs from ice levels in games. They also talk about winter, their favorite kind of ice, and more.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod.Check out our Anime watchalong podcast Get Anime'd only on 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] 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.

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Yeah, but, um, can I ask you something real quick? Yeah. Are you cold? I'm pretty cold. You're cold? I'm pretty cold. You're cold? I'm pretty cold. I'm pretty cold, too. Do you think that's going to maybe impact how we do the show?

No, I think it'll be, you know, we're talking about ice stage music this week. I think it'll get us in the right mindset to be cold. Okay, I just, you know, if my teeth chatter anymore, they're all going to fall out. Yeah, I feel like, you know what? Here, have a little bit of the Slurpee. That'll help you out. Matt, we're supposed to be cold. If we're not cold, we're not going to have the right mindset.

You're right, you're right. I'm going to take a bite of this Chipwich. Oh, it's so cold. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, how about some iceberg lettuce? Just hearing iceberg lettuce makes me even colder, which is good. That's what we want. Here, let's watch this.

This is the only scene from the Titanic that features people being cold. The end. All right. I think this is good. I think this is a good energy to do the show. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely easier to do than the normal show.

I froze solid. Oh, no. I froze solid. I got too cold. We went too far. I froze solid. Somebody get us out of the ice blocks. Somebody help me.

Help me. Michelle, can you turn up the heat? Michelle, can you actually just leave the studio as is and we'll just thaw out? I'll just be here. Actually, I think I want to stay. I want to be frozen. Yeah, this is actually easier, good for me. Maybe just tell Conover that we're just going to be in here, I guess.

Tell Conover we'll be in here while he's doing factually. I'll just be frozen solid. And it might actually help. It might help us. I think it'll help us. At least I'm frozen be frozen solid. And it might actually, like, it might help. It might help us. I think it'll help us. At least I'm frozen by my friend. Finish him. Oh, shit.

Sub-zero. Oh, no. We feel cold and lonely, but also feel warm and cozy as we discuss ice stage music for the wintry season this week on Get Played. Wow, it's Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm Nick Weiger, along with Matt Apodaca. Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Get Played. Wow. Wow. Wow. Heather is out this week, as you can probably infer. She's still recovering. Hopefully have her back real soon. That's right.

And so it's just us boys today. Boys night! That's enough of that. I immediately didn't like it. That's not our energy. We're not boys night guys. We're men day. We're men day.

What's really being manly is acknowledging that it's Mende. Yeah. It's not boys night anymore. It's Mende. Time you grow up and have it be Mende. Yeah. Wake up.

Here in Mende, we talk about video games. That's right. Talk about games that we love, games that we've played in the past, and we talk about all sorts of stuff. I actually wanted to start a little bit more generally because we're talking about ice stage music today, which we'll get to. Brr. Brr, indeed. I wanted to talk about winter, because you and I are both from Southern California,

and Rochelle, our producer, is also from California, but up from NorCal. I have not experienced much cold in my life, and when I've experienced cold or winter, it has been like I'm a place that I don't live. And so it's been like I was in Saskatoon, Canada in January, and I was like, this is impossibly cold. I cannot imagine living like this. Yeah, yeah. I've spent some time in Oregon. I have family in Oregon, and I visited them quite a bit and have seen the snow there, been up to Washington, been up to Mount St. Helens.

You know about these dormant volcanoes in schools. So I was like, I'd like to go see that. So we went and went to go see it. Matt, that one's not dormant. It went off. What? Mount St. Helens went off in the 80s, didn't it? Oh, it's dormant now.

Well, that's what you say until the next eruption. This thing's dormant. Then you're fucking showered with lava. So this is an interesting new data point for me. Nick living in constant fear of volcanoes. Doesn't matter what you say about them. He's like, it could go off any time. Look, I saw this documentary with Tommy Lee Jones.

Thing might be right beneath our feet. But I remember being there and being like, well, this is boring. But the snow is like like it's so novel and also you know being from here i've been up to big bear quite a bit in in my time and i've seen snow up there yes but i've it's been a very rare instance where i've seen snow fall like actually falling from the sky and a couple years ago i was in chicago in january wow and it started to snow there. And I was like, I knew that it was going to be a possibility that it was going to happen.

And so on this trip to Chicago, I was like preparing myself and sort of being like, wow, this is going to be so idyllic and so like beautiful. I was ready to like be kind of sweat, like I was romanticizing this snow. And it sucked actually like a lot it was like really bad it didn't snow that much but it snowed just enough where i wasn't wearing like any eye protection it was just getting my eyes constantly and i hated it yeah that's the thing because i always you know i know a lot of east coasters and people from the midwest who you know romanticize

and canadians who romanticize snow and think of like that. So I have such fond associations with it. But for me, it's like and we should say, you know, despite living in California, at least my entire life, it's like California has the the video game world map, like diversity in terms of of biomes. Like you can like you there's the desert, there's the ocean, but you can go up to the mountains, like you were saying. You can go up to Big Bear, or you can go up to Mammoth, where I've been, and experience snow. There's the Sierra Nevada mountains here. It's all there.

I have experienced snow, but it's always been a distant, exotic thing. I've also never much cared for it. Forget the Saudi. I don't need this stuff. Snow's mid. I'd go less than mid. I'd say it's sub-mid. Do you think it's cringe? Do you think snow is cringe?

I think snow is a little bit cringe. I think snow is cringe. Yeah, that's... I don't need it. But I do sort of get jealous when I see, like, all my comedy friends going back home to their East Coast wealthy families for the holidays. Yeah, you're right, you're right.

That's a different aspect when you find out your friends are rich. Yeah, well, I like to go see, I like to see the photos. They're like, oh, I'm posing with, you know, these fall leaves. And we get fall leaves here, but I feel like we don't get fall leaves like that. Right, yeah. They're either, they turn a little bit of a color or they just completely fall off. Lovely fall leaves on the yard in front of my guest house. Like, okay.

You're a guy who does improv? Snow activities. Throwing a snowball, making a snowman, doing a snow angel. Who cares? Go inside. You think making a snowball is going to be the funnest thing because you see it like, for me, I always like cartoons and comics.

I was like, this looks so cool. And then you actually do it. It's like, oh, my hand is cold. And also, it doesn't pack really well. Yeah, it's got a lot of mud in it. And you get hit with that, and it hurts. It hurts worse than a paintball. It's like, oh, this sucks.

Yeah, it's... There's nothing fun about this. No, and then shoveling a driveway? Yeah. Missed me with that, dog. I don't want to do that. I'm not doing that. Yeah, I feel like any time I've built a snowman, it's been gray. It's just a driveway. Yeah. Miss me with that, dog. I don't want to do that. I'm not doing that. Yeah, I feel like any time I've built a snowman,

it's been gray. It's just like all muddy. Yeah. It's like, this is disgusting. You made a yellow one one time too, right? All right. But what I do like about winter

is being cozy. Ooh. I'm into being cozy. What's everybody's favorite hot drink of choice? Mine's hot chocolate. Well, hot chocolate's a good answer.

I mean, if I'm not saying coffee, that's not the context. Coffee's off the table. Coffee's not. It's not like, you know, that's an every morning or, in this case, like an afternoon drink for me. I know. Nick's flying off the walls right now. Gotta have my Java. Gotta have my decaf oat latte.

And you know what he said, too, when he came in? Yeah. He put his finger up in front of my face and said, don't talk to me before I've even taken a sip. Yeah, well, good for your sake you took the note. Yeah, I think I would have got my fucking head chewed off by this guy over here. He was so mad. I think I like a, boy, I like a hot toddy. Oh.

That's a fun thing to mess around with. And it's also like that's so, to me, like seasonal, you know? But I don't know rochelle you got an answer something hot you like um a honey vanilla chamomile tea from a celestial seasoning wow okay the specificity that that sounds good that sounds nice and cozy yeah that's the bear yeah it's the bear that sleepy little bear i guess there aren't that many hot drinks it's not like we couldn't have done that all day. I think we named all of them.

Tea. Tea, hot chocolate. Hot chocolate, hot alcohol. That's it. I guess you could have a hot cider, like a hot apple cider. Oh, like a mule wine for the holidays is actually pretty nice. I like that quite a bit, but I'm not going to do that. If it's somewhere, I'll have it, but I'm not going to go do that myself.

Generally, though, I will say that winter is one of my least favorite seasons. But in the context of a video game, I do like ice and snow. Oh, yeah. I do like, and kind of like, oh, okay, this is the snow level or whatever. Like, any time, like, that's fine. I'm generally into that. You know, the one exception a lot of times with platformers, and we experienced this recently with Super Mario Bros. 3 and the ice level,

is just like the gimmick of it is that there's no friction, and so it affects your mobility quite a bit. And that a lot of times is just like I find a little bit annoying and frustrating if the physics aren't tuned up. But generally speaking, I do like encountering some snow in a video game. I find a little bit annoying and frustrating if the physics aren't tuned up. But generally speaking, I do like encountering some snow in a video game. Can I speak to that no friction? Yeah.

I kind of like that part. You like being able to slide or slip and slide a little bit. I like slipping and sliding because it's just a fun way to make traversal just a little bit more of a challenge. Yeah, sure. And it's like, so it's learning to navigate into account for how much you're going to slide is kind of a fun exercise, I think. I think it's pretty fun. It can be cool if done well, but there are times when it gets annoying.

Oh, yeah. Where it's just sort of like, you know, it's like water levels or whatever. How do you like ice? And so this is why Weiger will forever be in Mount Podmore in the hallowed hallways of the best of the best. I can just hear Ira Glass and Marc Maron being like, how do you like ice? They all get to this question at a certain point.

I do like it. And it's actually kind of a problem actually yeah do you chew it i'm an ice chewer big time and my dentist is always like hate that they here's 10 hacks dentists absolutely hate they do hate you chewing they don't like it at all and they tell me all the time that i i do need to stop they also like know you do it too which is another thing it was they went to an ice haven't you, Ben? They love, dentists love to make you look like the biggest asshole on earth. Yeah.

Because they're like, oh, have you been flossing? And you'll lie. And you'll be like, yeah. And they're like, okay, really? You definitely haven't. Yeah. But they actually can't catch me with that one now because I have been flossing a lot. There you go.

It's like a detective with a polygraph. It's just like they're ready to bust you. Yeah. Or like Columbo at the beginning of the episode, even though he knows everything already. Just one minute. One more question. Do you like ice?

That's good. I do like ice, and everybody has their preferences. I do like that sonic pellet ice. Yeah, I love that kind of ice. It's a home run. If I'm going to chew it, that's actually kind of not the worst one to be chewing on. It's pretty soft, actually. I have heard that this is an American thing, that in a lot of the world, they don't love ice like we do.

That it's just like it'll be like, especially in Europe, is just like the of like getting a glass of ice water or a soda with ice in it is so foreign. Well, everything sucks over there. Makes sense. No, shout out to all my favorite Europeans out there. We love you here on the show. Even though your drinks are often room temp. I like one Big Cube. And I've said this before, and people are like, come on, the One Big Cube thing, really?

But I was like, I love that One Big Cube. I like it from an artistic standpoint. Yes, yeah. It makes the drink really pop. It's very interesting to look at. And you're not going to really try to chew on that, are you? And you're not going to chug it. That's the other thing, because it's kind of like, you know,

it's a little bit of a tooth stopper. Yeah. So you get like a craft cocktail with that one big cube in there and then it slowly melts over time. It's sort of like, you know, you're parceling out your alcohol a little bit. But that's the only context

that you're gonna get the big ice cube in the cocktail. You're not gonna put a... Yeah, not like a Pib Extra with one big cube. What the fuck am I doing here? You're not gonna do that, but... You're gonna get Sprite Zero. a Pib Extra with one big cube. What the fuck am I doing here? You're not going to do that. You're going to write Sprite Zero. Can you get that with one big cube? It sounds good.

Actually, it sounds kind of fun. Interesting that you went Pib Extra. Just a lot to unpack with you today here. Rochelle, how about you? I'm trying to enter these hallways as well. How do you feel about ice? He'll get there. Maybe I don't belong in the hallway because I have no preference for what kind of ice I get.

When you say no preference, you mean what type of ice or do you mean ice or no ice? What type of ice does not affect me? I will say sometimes ice is too much. Wow. Sometimes I do want a room temperature water. Okay. So water is one thing where, because I've actually got, I always have, this is a little peek behind the pod here.

I always have two beverages. Yeah. That's just my thing. I got two drinks so I can spill both of them all over the place. But I have like a decaf coffee. I got a hot one right now. And then I've got a room temp water. Because actually when it comes to flat water, I do prefer it room temp generally.

Unless it's like really hot out. It just chills my teeth too much. Does this track for anybody else? Absolutely. I know what I'm about to say doesn't make any sense. Yeah. When water is too cold, it tastes different. Yeah, I think that's true.

I don't know what it is. Yeah. But it tastes a little different to me. No. I don't really like it that way. I'm with you. Yeah, no, I don't want that to be too cold. But there's certain drinks I do like ice cold.

Yeah. Oh, like a frosty cold one, for example. But I don't want ice in a cold one. Oh, no, you don't. I don't want ice in a BrewDog. A beer with ice? I might think you're Mork from Ork or something doing something that strange. I will say that, you know, Natalie took- Do people know Mork and Ork or something doing something that strange. I will say that

Natalie took... Do people know Mork and Mindy on this? Yeah, most of our audience was born in 1965. Natalie took me to a Vietnamese restaurant once where, and it was like a largely Vietnamese-American clientele and I was surprised that they like, people were drinking Heineken

with ice in it. Oh, wow. And it's I guess that's like a I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's if it's just a thing specific to that country or it was just a thing at this restaurant. But it felt like a thing that was just like, oh, this is an interesting cultural preference. I just thought of a different type of ice that I also really like. It's often the ice that you get in like a Thai iced tea where it's like really crushed up. Yeah, that's super crushed ice.

That's a blast. That's my shit right there. Should we switch topics? Should we do a different format? Just do ice? Yeah. The drink dudes. Heather comes back.

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Let's get on topic, actually. Let's talk about what are you playing? Wow. And Nick, for this one, because we're banking this ahead. Yes. We were going to talk about like ice games, like snow games, right? Winter. I thought that was a thing we could get into.

Yeah, we could just sort of talk generally about that. Although if you do have anything else, feel free to shout out. I was going to shout out, um, Bob Mackey's book, which has been out for a couple months now, but I'm just getting around to reading.

Um, congrats to friend of the show, a host of the great, uh, uh, talking Simpsons podcast along with Henry Gilbert, uh, Bob Mackey,

uh, on his new boss fight books, uh, a version of day of the tentacle, um, which you can buy from bossfightbooks.com. Can you order it from there? I believe so.

And it is just an oral history of Day of the Tentacle, a game that we've covered on the podcast. Some of it is stuff that was previously published, I think, on US Gamer, but a lot of it is new and is greatly expanded. It is very cohesive, and it's just like a really engaging read. And it's just really cool to have a text that's about something so specific and about a game that I have a lot of fondness for from somebody that I know. So check out that Day of the Tentacle book by Bob Mackie. Wow, hell yeah.

Yeah. You should read it. You'd like it. I'll hand it over to you. Oh, great. I'll buy you a copy so we support our friend. These books run for a very reasonable price. I can source my own.

I'll get this myself because that does seem like a fun read. In thinking about this, obviously there are ice levels in games, but I feel like there are very few games that almost take place entirely in the snow. Yes, that's the thing. This is going to be an ice-focused game. I did think the ice level is a different discussion. Yes. think the the ice level is like a different discussion yes but i think as far as an ice game goes i always think first and foremost of the ssx franchise and i know there are some people who are snowboard kids fans and i just you know i wasn't on board with snowboard kids i didn't play the snowboard kids i know some people love the snowboard kids um if you look if you respect the

snowboard kids i'm not disrespecting the snowboard kids we love the snowboard kids, I'm not disrespecting the snowboard kids. We love the snowboard kids. We absolutely love them. But just what I played was SSX. Yes. And I think the SSX games, particularly SSX Tricky when they really got the format. It was basically one of the only worthwhile launch titles for the PlayStation 2. I recently played SSX Tricky at a friend's house. Yeah.

And thought I'd have that muscle memory back. Did not. No. Did not have it back. Not in the same way that I took a long break away from Tony Hawk but got back into Tony Hawk when the new one came out and all that muscle memory was still there. SSX Tricky felt hard to me,

but I was also playing it on GameCube, which I was not used to at my buddy Connor's house. But I loved SSX Tricky so much, and I loved SSX 3 quite a bit as well. So Tricky is where I fell off with the franchise. So I don't know SSX 3 at all. Do you remember anything with sx3 specifically it was just like ssx tricky is more of like they're both pretty arcadey but like tricky

is crazy taxi yeah and uh ssx3 is maybe like forza horizon or something where it's like it's a little closer to the real thing but still fun uh let more of a sim but still pretty like pretty crazy uh like there's nobody doing the worm on there um right on their snowboard as a trick but i i liked that that one quite a bit and also because i think it was i think ssx3 like really pushed the the 2. It looked really, really nice at the time to me. And I was like, I can't believe that this is on the PlayStation 2 because it looked real. So snow is one of those things like water that it's just, you know,

when it gets rendered visually effectively, it's like, oh, wow, that really feels spectacular that feel that really feels spectacular um and uh i don't know i mean maybe maybe because just especially in the the when environments were a little bit more low poly and like just doing like a big vast smooth section of terrain yeah like it like maybe you could get away with that a little bit more maybe this was like a way that like it justified that so um i don't really know what i'm saying here i'm just kind of saying like i wonder if that that part of why these games look so good is because they're able to take their the technical limitations of the age and like you know turn them

into an advantage i'm seeing here on the ssx3 wikipedia yeah uh the reception there's like a chart here or you know a grid that has all the all the outlets that reviewed it for each console. Yeah. And it has unanimous praise. Mostly critical reception. The one that I'm interested in right here 3100% across the board for the

Xbox, Playstation 2 and the GameCube versions of this game from Playboy Magazine. Wow. Playboy magazine. Wow. Playboy was reviewing video games for a time. Do you think, is it a different Playboy, you think? No, I think it's that. I mean, no, I don't think it's like a video game publication. I'm hovering over the definitely not purple link.

Yeah, definitely not purple link for the Wikipedia for Playboy. Yeah, I really like to only read the articles. But it's, yeah, I wonder what the calculation was there. They're like, we're not selling enough of these magazines. We have to have video game reviews in them. Honestly, I think that probably was a thing of just like they saw that their audience was getting older and older. And we're just like, yeah, let's try to be fucking Maxim.

Let's try to be FHM. And then, of course,'t uh don't exist anymore no and it's so many magazines have shut their doors we got to bring magazines back i guess they're not good for the environment i like magazines i do like a magazine i like a magazine i was thinking the other day that i it sucks that nintendo power isn't a magazine anymore or exists at all. I would love a Nintendo Power magazine to come back. I'd love to just be flipping through a magazine and be like, what's Mario up to? It is amazing also that they were just so ahead of the curve in terms of – because that's now every company kind of handles their own media, right?

They all have their own PR organizations. And Nintendo was just like, you know, we're just going to pull out a full-on propaganda rag. We're just going to have a fucking, our own version of Pravda is just going to come out under the Nintendo Power Label. We're just going to send it to kids, and we're going to tell them every game is good. Yeah, but that's like, that's what you want in a magazine. You're like, wow,

this is good. I can't wait to get this. But I'm thinking of recent snow games for me, and a big one... By the way, just before we got away from SSX, I was looking at it, because similar to you, I was looking for info through this as we were talking, and I was like,

what the hell happened with this franchise? And it was just like, oh yeah, EA. It's just a fucking EA franchise, and like everything, they eventually bleed it dry and then kill it. It's a bummer. Such a shame. Yeah, I feel like that's due then kill it. It's a bummer. Such a shame. Yeah, I feel like that's due for a proper reboot,

but we'll see, or requel. There's so many of these games that I think look fine enough that I would take a port of just SSX Tricky and have it on Switch. I'm fine with that. They don't have to make it too much nicer. Maybe the Tony Hawk 1 and 2 treatment is in the works. Who knows?

In the same way, I've said this probably a million times too, I just want a port of NBA Street Volume 2. I don't need the first one, I don't need the third one. Two only. But what they would do is they would just have lost the license for everybody, so it would be a bunch of generic sounding characters.

As long as they have that sweet, sweet music in there, I'd be happy to hear it. A big snow game came out just last year, Nick. What's that? God of War Ragnarok. Wow, great pull. Takes place in Fimbulwinter, my dear.

That's a snow game. That's a big time snow game. A lot of snow. You get your fucking ass handed to you by Thor in the snow. It's really, really good, too. Not all of it is snow. But a good majority of it is that at least the very intro is in the snow. And then you get back into the snow a little later once you're coming back to some of the places you've been before.

But you've got to traverse a lot of snow, a lot of ice, actually. But that's probably the biggest snow game in recent memory. That's a good one. The other one I was thinking of in recent times was Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. Oh, yes. Which I loved. I loved that fucking game. I never finished it, but I put some time into it and was like, this is as good as Donkey Kong Country can be.

This is fantastic. Just turn on the fucking funky mode and blaze through it. You get to play funky Kong and you can't fail. I live my life in funky mode, baby. I it. You get to play Funky Kong and you can't fail. I live my life in Funky Kong, baby. I just put on sunglasses. I will. Wow, he actually did it for the bit. I've gone funky mode.

I don't know if we can handle Funky Matt. We'll try. I can't really see. I love a visual bit for the podcast. That's good. People like that. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, I thought, was a lot of fun and also just like a good way of what we were talking about. I think it did have a good balance of using what can sometimes be a liability

or can feel kind of clunky to play. It ends up being, I thought it was well executed, the ice physics in that game. But the one I was going to talk about just a little bit, just real briefly, is Icewind Dale. There were a couple of these that they made back in the day. These were around the era of Baldur's Gate. Oh. And they were developed by Black Isle and they had a uh they released a a sequel as well

um i never got around to playing the sequel but i did play the the first game and the expansion and um it basically was like you know kind of the same sort of thing at balder's gate um but in the way that planescape torment took the balder's Gate, you know, sort of the engine and sort of the structure of it, but like made it much more plot focused and much more about the story and much less about the combat. This went in the opposite direction. And it basically was like so focused on combat. You created your entire party. You didn't just create a player character. Wow. And so like that in and of itself took a lot of time um the score was by jeremy soul and i actually thought about picking a track from this one for

the my ice stage music but as i was going through i just like i as much as i like it i feel like i had some other stuff that was kind of similar so i'm i'm not pulling from that but it was a really fun uh and really intense uh pcrpg back in the day it came came out in like 2000 and another franchise that's kind of dormant but I feel like in this when we're seeing like Baldur's Gate 3 having such a you know such this amazing reception right now I wouldn't be surprised if someone tries to

resurrect the Icewind Dale franchise knowing that a lot of those fans you know also exist. Not unlike the aforementioned volcano Mount St. Helens not actually dormant maybe. Maybe we'll see it St. Helens. Not actually dormant, maybe. Maybe we'll see it return. Maybe, yeah. Is that why the word dormant is in my head? I think so. Just thinking about dormant volcanoes that aren't actually dormant all day. Yeah, just living in fear constantly. It's like, it's happening.

Ice Wind Dale's my pick. Should we talk a little bit of music? Let's talk tunes, my man. Let's talk tunes, my man. Hey, everyone. You know, you want to eat healthy. You want to eat well. But you don't want it to be a pain to prepare. Well, let me tell you. Eating better is easy with Factor's delicious ready-to-eat meals.

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Metal Gear Solid is a big one. Oh, yes. And then Uncharted 2 has some great ice venturing. Love the ice sections of that game. I got to play through those. I had not. I'd played Uncharted, but I'd not played Uncharted 2 and 3 until a few years ago. I think I played I played through them in quarantine and talked about it on the podcast.

That's right. Old format. And I think they absolutely hold up. You play it about it on the podcast in an old format, and I think they absolutely hold up. You play the re-releases. Alright, how do we want to do this, Matt? Do you want to start? We've just basically each picked out some high-stage music that we like, and we're gonna

alternate. Yeah, I'll start. You know, I don't even know where to begin really, because I feel like I know where to begin. You know where to begin? Yeah. For me? Or for you? No, for me. I'm just saying, feel like... I know where to begin. You know where to begin? Yeah. For me? Or for you? No, for me. But I'm just saying, if you don't know where to begin, I have a place to begin.

You begin. Okay, I'll begin. Because this is the intro of a game, and this is an intro of one of the greatest JRPGs ever made. This is the intro for Final Fantasy VI. This is by Nobuo Uematsu. And there's some run-up up to this point, but there's a point, and I think in the video I sent you, Matt, you can watch the visuals of it. It's a point where Terra, who is effectively the protagonist of this game, and two other soldiers walk in their mechs through an endless blizzard, through an endless Iceland.

And while that is playing, this track kicks in. Are you watching it? Doesn't it look cool? It does look really cool. They're just kind of walking, but they're big. Yeah. The lonely dirge of marching to battle.

And so in the pixel remaster of this, they removed the credits. Wow. So it's just them silently walking with nothing going on. I wonder why they did that. No idea. It's weird. Anyway, this is, this track's an all-timer.

And I just have such like a vivid memory of just experiencing that for the first time. So this one always says ice to me. That is, that did say ice. Yeah. That was, that was simply, that was, that was frigid, my dog. I'll go, i'll start here wait so you mentioned the pixel remasters so i know you're playing through the final fantasies remind me if you

played you played six i did not get to six i am somewhere in like in the middle of four i did fall off of that that playthrough and uh there's an ambitious project to play through all the final fantasies i and we're we're talking uh or or will be talking, I forget which order this is coming out, about Final Fantasy VII. And, you know, I think if you go with this project, you'll want to actually play through Final Fantasy VII once you get there. I think I'd like to do it,

because that just seems like something I should have done already. I should have just done this before. But, you know, we don't have to belabor the point of there's just no time and infinite amount of games to play. This first song for me is from one of my all-time favorite games, a game we covered on this show, Pokemon Gold.

And, you know, in the first Pokemon games, red, blue, and yellow, each gym has a type, right? You got your fire, you got water, grass, electric, normal. In the heyday of BuzzFeed quizzes, was there ever like a which Pokemon type are you? That feels like something that would have been said. I'm sure there had to have been, and now there's like...

There's too many types. There's too many types. But they added some new types to Pokemon Gold and Silver, one of them being Ice. There is a BuzzFeed quiz. Let's find out which of the 18 Pokemon types you are. Oh, my God. How long is the quiz?

We can't do this. Why can't we do this? Because you're scrolling and it hasn't stopped. This is way too long. This is so long. I cannot believe how long this is. I'm sure a lot of it- They really want to keep you engaged with this page.

Yeah, yeah. So you don't get fed all their ads. Yeah, it looked like it was mostly ads. But this is from a section of the game that is very challenging. And it's this part. It's called the Ice Path. And so you're in. We talked about this lack of friction.

Yes. So you're in a cave where there is a bunch of ice everywhere and you have to navigate the cave. The caves are like puzzles. And so you have to figure out how to skate across each of the ice plains basically to land in front of or

have a boulder stop you so you can get to this ladder that you can't just walk over to. You have to go a very specific direction. And this is the music from the Ice Path from Pokemon Gold and Silver. Ah, this rips.

I know this track. It's kind of aggressive Because like It's a hard part of the game But this part right here That sounds like ice Yeah Yeah that crunchy bass line

Yeah I mean it just feels like It would be in like a rap song Yeah, that crunchy bass line. Yeah. I mean, it just feels like it would be in a rap song. It's really, really good. But I did bring in, for a point of comparison, because the game was remade for the DS under Pokemon HeartGold. And so here's that very same track from the ds version i like that i thought about pulling in one of the orchestral scorings um of the final fantasy six track because sometimes i like those

rearrangements and other times i'm like, I don't know about this. I like the original. This is good. This is a good arrangement. This is really, really good. I mean, HeartGold is like a perfect execution of that type of thing, of the remake that improves upon the original.

It's so good. But there's something that you're just getting from that of just how much the character of the instrumentation affects the mood of it and it affects how it comes across because like that second one sounds a lot more even though it sounds like mysterious it sounds less threatening than the first one the first one feels like someone's gonna stomp on your throat equally as cold though yeah they're both cold i'm like i'm getting kind of cold you're getting cold from here listening i think i think i i feel like jack nicholson at the end of The Shining right now hearing that one. Oh, Matt, warm yourself up.

Okay. Did I talk about the book The Shining on this pod? I can't remember. I don't know. I read the book The Shining. Shout out to the Just King Things podcast, which reads through all of Stephen King's books in chronological order. And I've been reading all of his books and listening to that pod as a companion.

It's a great show and a great motivator to get through it. But, you know, a while back at this point, I read the shining book, the book, the shining. And I,

I mean, I think like it and the movie are, are basically equally good. The book is certainly like a, perhaps a little bit more problematic, has some stuff that hasn't aged as well. But I think it adds such interesting detail and depth to it. And it also, I think, really is a great psychological portrait of both addiction and also gradually losing your mind.

It's just sort of stuff you don't really... Just because it's a different medium, it doesn't communicate as well on film. although it's really effectively portrayed by Kubrick, obviously, and Nicholson. Anyway, the big difference or one of the big differences is how it ends. So the first thing is our new favorite thing that we do. Yeah. You tell me something insane of an ending that I haven't somehow been spoiled. Of the movie, obviously he frees to death, like you referenced. The ending of the book is the caretaker, the groundskeeper, rather, who arrives, who also has the shining, I can't think of the character's name right now, played by Scatman Crothers. He arrives to rescue the family.

In the movie, he's basically immediately killed, despite traveling all the way across the country. And in the book, he succeeds. They didn't take that into consideration, really. It's like actually really rude to the killer. It's kind of rude to this guy. Just get an ax to the back as soon as he shows up. Just got here. You know how expensive it is to book a last minute flight from Miami to rural Colorado? And then that drive.

During the Christmas season? Yeah, and then that drive. They had to get in the snowmobile. That was that was there's no way that drive was like sub three hours. Yeah. There's no way.

Anyway so like he in the book he doesn't fail. In fact he succeeds at rescuing the family and there's this thing about the boiler that's going in the whole in the book the whole time.

So the ending of the book is him like driving away with the family on a snowmobile uh as the hotel behind them explodes and it's just like man that is so the hell completely different it works in the book but it's like so completely dissident versus what you know from the movie that's because like the ending is so it's like a michael bay ending yeah like yeah they had to like make it an action movie like oh this book wasn't exciting enough. Let's blow up the hotel. Yeah, I know.

It's like the opposite of what would happen. But instead, they make a much more, like, kind of subdued sort of ending in the movie. I got a, is it a thickie? It's a big boy. Ugh, that's not what I wanted to hear. I feel like it's a pretty substantial read. I'd like to read the novelization of the movie then. Instead, that would make it a little bit shorter, maybe.

Start with the Bob Mackie book. Work your way. Okay, okay, yeah. Sort of get a taste for reading. Nick, you're up. That's a good pick. My pick is from the Banjo-Kazooie franchise. And I thought just, you know,

we had these first ones are perhaps a little bit more melancholy or even upsetting this one is just pure winter wonderland this is Freeze Easy Peak by Grant Kirkhope Horns back me up on this

because I think you'll agree with me Horns? Back me up on this, because I think you'll agree with me. Horns is winter. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. We're not hearing them now, but... But, I mean, it just sort of announced the arrival of winter, and we're just kind of living in this sort of, you know, this percussive sort of sleigh bell thing that's going on.

Yeah, in the same way that, like... The horn's backing out, doing this little lead here. You can't hear, like, that type of bell without thinking Christmas. Oh! Anyway, this is very, like, kind of, you know, Tim Burton-adjacent, I would say. Like, this would not be out of place

in, like, The Nightmare Before Christmas. But, you know, a really good ice level in this game, and I think the soundtrack is a nice pairing for it you like them Banjo Kazooies I was just about to say

I've never played it I think one is the only one that's really worth playing I think Tooie is just a bloated mess and Nuts and Bolts is like

it has it's defenders but it's kind of whatever I just I didn't have the Nintendo 64 yeah that's a big yeah so I just, I didn't have the Nintendo 64. Yeah, that's a big, yeah.

So I just like never, I just never got around to it but I feel like had I played it, I probably would have liked it. Yeah, well the thing is like I did have a Nintendo 64.

The Nintendo 64 had like eight games total that were worth playing. Like, and some very, very high highs but the thing was like when Banjo-Kazooie

would come out. Lower your pitchforks everybody. Yeah, it'd be like an oasis in a desert.'s like oh man here we go yeah here's a fucking uh uh you know triple a rare game i like their i like their vibe i like guys banjo and kazooie i like them a lot yeah they're a good duo yeah that that's fun that they're they're so you know in the same way that i like any of those like instagram posts are like these animals that shouldn't be getting along are best friends yeah i love that it definitely like any of those Instagram posts that are like, these animals that shouldn't be getting along are best friends.

Yeah. I love that. It definitely is one of those situations, you know? Yeah. Oh, man. If Banjo-Kazooie was on Instagram, they'd be the biggest thing on Instagram. People would love this bear with a bird in his backpack. The fact that he – yeah, this bipedal bear that has clothes and a backpack is friends with a horse.

Not a horse. A bird. Yeah. My brain's going a little fast from this Coke Zero. Slow down, Turbo. Put those sunglasses back on. Oh yeah, I gotta get back into funky mode real quick. Michelle, did you ever play a Banjo-Kazooie?

No, I never played it. What systems did you have when you were younger? I had PlayStation and a Game Boy Color. What were some of your favorites from that era? There was American Ashley game. Okay, yes. Love that. Do you remember which one?

I think it's called Sweet 16, and it basically was almost like Life the Game Board, but as a Mary-Kate and Ashley, and there was like mini games. So was this Sweet 16 License to Drive? Yes. Oh my God. So it looks like this was basically

like a Mario Party, but with Mary-Kate and Ashley. Yeah, it was like Mario Party. Wow, that rocks. I'd never even heard of this game. This is the type of stuff that when my fiance asks what we cover on the show,

she's often asking, why haven't you covered Mary-Kate and Ashley's Sweet 16? That rocks. Yeah, well, hey, Banjo-Kazooie had kind of a Mary-Kate and Ashley sort of synergy to the two of them. I guess they did. Collaborated on some bangers.

You mentioned just a second ago, Nick, that if that was in a Tim Burton Nightmare Before Christmas movie, it wouldn't stand out. It wouldn't be out of place. I don't think this one would either, as a matter of fact. My next pick is from Kingdom Hearts 2, Christmastown, from the Nightmare Before Christmas area. Wow. Here we go.

I didn't know this was coming. I didn't know this was coming. And so what this does, very effectively, I think, is blend the Tim Burton, like, or the, you know, I guess the Danny Elfman score. Yes. Yeah, I said Tim Burton. I meant Danny Elfman. I said the wrong thing.

The Nightmare Before Christmas score with this... Is he canceled now, by the way? I think so. All right, well, I feel less bad about it. But he, like... The game... The score does a good job of blending that style of music with the music of Kingdom Hearts,

and I think this is just a great track from a great game with a lot of great songs. Wow. That's a great pick. I think the other thing it does is that it says Christmas without quoting a specific like Silent Night or Jingle Bells. Yeah. Just sort of evoking that sort of mood and sensibility. Yeah.

Like if this was playing at a Christmas parade, no one's going to be like, what the fuck is this? What is this? What the hell? They're dropping new Christmas bangers and they're not telling anybody about it?

Like We Three Kings or something, I know. Yeah. Joy to the World. There's a lot of them with joy. The First Noel, perhaps. Did you play this

Mary-Kate and Ashley game for the Game Boy Advance? Is that what you're playing it on or you're playing it on PlayStation? PlayStation 2, I think. Got it. Yeah, because there's a couple

of versions here. I won't just be buried in this, I promise. The soundtrack is very good. Okay, well, if you want to queue up a track, we'll get it going later. But it's not icy. It's very beachy. We'll have that as a palette cleanser at the end, then. If you want to pick one out, we'll queue that up.

We'll stay in Ice Town right now. In fact'll stay in an ice town uh this is the the town that you get to in act five of the diablo 2 lord of destruction expansion the track is called fortress by matt yulman and i played this on the podcast before but i had to bring it back. Horns, baby. A little wintry horn. A different sort of horn. Either an English horn or an oboe. I think it's an oboe. This also kind of sounds like The Nightmare Before Christmas kind of.

Yeah, it all kind of seems to be saying in the same sort of tonality. I mean, what I like about this track, first off, is that I just, I've heard it so many times and I never get tired of it, but also it was just like, this is to me is one of the best expansions slash, you know, DLC before DLC when these things were sold at retail. Yeah. Ever made. And the music was so good in Vanilla Diablo 2 that they were able to have all these new tracks in an expansion that basically entirely lives in an ice biome.

It's all like in this wintry sort ofintry sort of north of the wall sort of area. And I think the music absolutely lives up to the base game. But this track to me says so much about isolation and kind of just trying to be, you know, having to hold strong amidst the desperate circumstances you find yourself in up in this stronghold of barbarians bestieged by Diablo's minions in the wintry north. You're hearing this, and then Deckard Cain says, stay a while and listen. And you're like, I think I will. Yeah, I want to go out there.

Yeah, it's too cold. You're fucking killed by Bale? listen, and you're like, I think I will. Yeah, I want to go out there. Yeah, it's too cold. You're fucking killed by bail? No, thank you. I'm thinking I'm bringing something to the show right now that we haven't really talked about a lot on the show at all. I don't think we've ever really talked about Crash Bandicoot. Yeah, considering how long the podcast has been going, a real dearth of Crash Bandicoot content.

I was a big Crash head when I was a kid. I loved Crash. My first Crash was actually Crash 2. You know, I'm remembering the one thing we did have Alex Berg on the podcast who played Crash Bandicoot in some commercials. That's right. Yeah. But that was basically the time we spent talking about Crash, I think.

That was probably the extent of it. Yeah, and I think our pal Jordan Morris wrote some jokes for the newest Crash. That's right, yes. So that's the only capacity he's come up. I was probably the extent of it. Yeah. And I think our pal Jordan Morris wrote some jokes for the newest crash. That's right. Yes. Uh, so that's the only capacities come up. I was a big crash to head the,

uh, it's called cortex strikes back is the subtitle. Um, that was my very first crash. There's some snow levels in, in crash too. And so I brought the music from crash too. That is in those snow levels.

There's no levels being snow, go snow biz and cold, hard crash. And this is the music that is in those snow levels. The snow levels being Snow Go, Snow Biz, and Cold Hard Crash. And this is the music that plays in those levels. Cold Hard Crash is a great pun. It's really, really good. Different energy than we've had so far. Yeah. It's more up-tempo.

Different energy than what we've had so far. Yeah. More up-tempo. What I like about it is it sounds like all the other Crash music, but it just has, like, jingle bells on it. The music in those games are really, really fun, and I spent a little bit of time with the Insane Trilogy, the remasters of those games games and they're all so fun so good yeah i love crash a little bit of xylophone there or whatever mallet instrument that is really

nice i think crash 2 was the like that one i, because I know Crash 1 I rented, I never owned. But I feel like, was Crash 2 a two-disker, weirdly? I don't believe so. Maybe I'm misremembering it, or maybe it was a different Crash. It's possible they sold Crash 2 and 3 together at some point, I think. I definitely played 2. 3 is also really, really good. Those are my Crash games. I didn't play. Three is also really, really good. Those are my crash games.

I didn't play Crash 1 until way later somehow. Somehow I missed it. In the same way that Austin Powers 2 was my first Austin Powers. Insane. Yeah. You get it. You get it, but also, come on. I think the first one came out and I was just a little too young to go see it.

But by the time two came out, also, 1 flopped. 1 was not like a big hit. Yeah. But then it did really well on DVD, I think. Yes. And then 2 comes out, and 2 is like the number one at the box office in the year that the fucking same year as Phantom Menace. It was like a huge hit.

We used to have it all. Star Wars in the box office and Austin Powers. Austin Powers is so funny. They got to bring Austin Powers back. Austin Powers. Austin Powers is so funny. They gotta bring Austin Powers back. And I think they can bring Austin Powers back because his whole, like, he's not, like, it's not bad.

No. He's always asking for enthusiastic consent and then just, like, drops it if he doesn't get it. Yes. And he's like, I'm done with this. Well, and also his whole thing is that he's just like, oh, this is, everyone's telling me this is inappropriate behavior because the time.

Yeah. Like, it absolutely he's not fucking Duke Nukem. No, or Pepe Le Pew, for that matter. But I think he could exist in a modern world, and maybe he goes to the future. I don't know how, this is the thing, is like, Mike Myers would not want anyone else

to play it, but I think the way is you'd have to get someone to do, like, a young Austin, that'd be the only way to go with it. Am I looking at him? I think you're looking at him, baby. I'll do all the parts. I'll do Dr. Evil.

I guess they'll simply call him Bastard is the one edit I'd make. But I'll be Goldmember. There you go. And you know what? I'll take the Love Guru for member there you go and you know what I'll take the love guru for a spin too just kidding

I'll do that keep the love guru out of there alright let's see that was your pick that was my pick that means it's my turn which means

a game we covered this year was the Metroid Prime Remaster this is a great one some great great snow music from this game Kenji Yamamoto was the principal on the Primary Master. This is a great one. Some great, great snow music from this game. Kenji Yamamoto was the principal on the score

for this one. This track is Vendrana Drifts. So this one does a good job already of communicating not only snow,

but also space. Yes. It somehow says both ice and future. Yes. Winter, but science fiction. Yeah. It's able to communicate that all with music. Man, this game is so fucking good. It's really good.

I wish they would get those other two out on the Switch before the Switch 2 comes out. Yeah, I don't know what's going to happen with the other Metroid Primes. I feel like they're probably not going to get proper remasters. Nintendo's so fucking weird. This one sat on the shelf forever, too. Yeah, they had it finished for two years. Then again, maybe they're just done, and they'll just be released randomly.

Yeah. You know what's going to happen? Yeah. They're going to put them out on December 26th. That's the kind of thing they do. They come out on Boxing Day. Yeah, they're crazy. How many more you got, Matt?

I think I just have but one more. Okay, then I'll narrow my picks because I've got a couple others. I'm just going to pick one. My final pick is from one of the big games of this year, The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. Wow. And, you know, there is actually a lot of snow in this year. The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. Wow! And, you know, there is

actually a lot of snow in this game. There's a whole area where there's snow. There's mountains galore. The higher you go up, the colder it gets. That's just kind of how mountains work. And this is from the Frozen Rito Village. You get to the

Rito Village, the top of this mountain. It used to be bustling. No, this was one of the sequences I played. I fell off this game when I got here. And people walking around, hanging out. But now you get up there and it's desolate, covered in snow. Where is everybody? Hello? Hello? Hello?

Hello? Is anyone out there? Those are the vibes right now. If Link could talk, that's what he would say. And it's not that he doesn't talk, he can't. He can't. But you see all these little Rito children running around, and they're like, we gotta figure out what the fuck's going on.

So you're working with these kids? Yeah. It's a great sequence of the game, of a game with many great sequences. And this music also rips and communicates cold really well. It does communicate cold. I almost brought in both cold and magic. I almost brought in both cold and magic. Yeah, we got to kind of go back and say what the other ones do too.

I almost brought in the sound from when you start to freeze a little bit because there's like a specific sort of like, not like a ping, but a sort of like, I don't know, like an audio vibration kind of that plays when you're freezing in that game. That's a great pick. I've got one more. And my final one, I'll say both that I was going to say, and I'm just going to pick the one. The one that I also had on my list that I won't play because I played a different winter track. But there's like three tracks for each season in Stardew Valley.

And so the one I picked was, you know, by Concerned Ape, a.k.a. Eric Barone, Nocturne of Ice. I was going to play that winter track. But instead, I'm going to opt for a track from a game that we don't talk about as much on the podcast. We did dedicate an episode to it. They're pals at Koyama. Yes, that's right. And I know there are a lot of people who have a lot of fondness for this game it's really impactful for them and you know for me i think this is my big takeaway is just how good the score is um and so there are a few different snow tracks from this one um but i went with snowy by toby fox from Undertale.

What a fucking chord progression. I know I said that horns is winter, but piano is also winter too. Yeah, a little tinkly piano that's very wintry. Charlie Brown. Mm, yeah. Vince Guaraldi trio. Mmm. Come on.

This is one you just want to sit in for a while. Toby Fox and Concerned Eight both like solo devs to some degree. Toby had assistance on Undertale, Concerned Eight made Stardew Valley all on its own. But also who do the music for those games, which to me is just like another thing. It was like that skill alone is enough. You don't have to do all the other stuff. It's hard to hear stuff like that because we can barely do this. But it is really impressive that both things are good.

You would expect one to not be as good as the other thing, but they they both stand on their own as like good pieces of work. Yeah. I feel like, you know, when you, a lot of times everyone has, and it's with, you know, with a solo dev is like, you've got, they've got their superpower, be that like art or composition or, you know, the tech side of things as a coder, but just the ability to do everything to proficiency on a scale from proficiency to excellence is just like that, that sort of all around skill is really, really amazing. Do you have one more, Matt? That was it for me. Oh, you played all of yours.

How did I start and then I also went last? Because you have the extra one, too. No, but I didn't play the extra one. Oh. I didn't skip one. I played one, two, three, four, five tracks. Oh, you know what? Two of mine were back-to-back because they were both from Pokemon Gold.

Oh, okay, okay. Got it, got it, got it. Yeah. So I had Final Fantasy VI Intro, Banjo-Kazooie, Freeze Easy Peak, Diablo II Lord of Destruction Fortress, Metroid Prime, Fandrona Drifts, and Undertale Snowy. Yeah. And I had from Pokemon Gold, the Ice Path music. I had from Crash Bandicoot 2, Cortex Strikes Back, Snow Go, Snow Biz, Cold Hard Crash.

I had from the Kingdom Hearts 2 final mix, Christmastown. And from the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, I had Frozen Rito Village. And now we're going to hear as a palate cleanser from Mary-Kate and Ashley's Sweet 16 License to Drive. Rochelle, which track do we have here? Sweet 16 License to Drive. Rochelle, which track do we have here? This is called I'm Gonna Like You Here by Lisa Carrera. All of the songs on this seem like they were just taken off of Bandcamp because there's barely any info on all these artists.

I'm embarrassed now. No, it's okay. This is so funny. The whole premise of this game is you're racing to get your driver's license against three of your other friends. Very relatable for a teen. What felt more important back then?

Absolutely nothing. Nothing. This is going to be the first episode that my fiance listens to because she legitimately sings this song every day. She loves this song. Really? Yeah. Wow, that's unbelievable. And she knows it because of this song. Really? Yeah. Wow, that's unbelievable. And she knows it because of this game. Because I'm in love.

And I think I'm going to like it here. Wow. I did not think anyone has ever heard of this song before. That rocks. That's so funny. I'm very glad we listened to that. Yeah. What a peek behind the curtain. Truly. I'm very glad we listened to that. Yeah, what a peek behind the curtain, truly.

I love her. All right, it's time for the question block. Ding! And these are from our Discord, discord.gg slash getplayed. Join the Discord, get in on the fun. Everybody has a nice time in there. What are you doing? Toil some place.

Hop on in. Hop on in. This first one is from Modest Ghost, and Modest Ghost writes, I love the fun. Everybody has a nice time in there. What are you doing? Hop on in. This first one is from Modest Ghost. And Modest Ghost writes, I love the podcast. I was wondering, do you listen to older episodes you have done to see how much has changed as a person and content?

Now I'll say this. I've listened to a lot of these. Because I listen nowadays, I listen back for notes and I give if any to Rochelle. But in the old days, I would get in the – I'd get my hands dirty and I'd get in the mix and I'd hear all these episodes a lot. Yeah, right. Sometimes several times if I was, like, doing several passes or whatever.

So I've heard a lot of these, but I haven't heard – the most recently that I've heard an older episode was when we re-released the Super Mario Brothers movie one that we did on the DLC. But that wasn't even that old in the run. It was kind of somewhere in the... To be clear, this is the Bob Hoskins Super Mario Brothers movie. Yes, correct. The live action one.

The live action one. But I'm gonna guess that Nick has heard none yeah no i've never listened to the podcast uh i don't i can't i don't want to hear myself talk um i don't understand why anyone yeah uh does yeah but it's worked out for me yeah um but yeah i can't i don't want to hear my own voice and so i i've never heard an episode a full episode of the podcast. It is something that if I didn't have to do it because it was my job previously, I probably wouldn't. But I do podcasts when I don't listen to the episode after having done it. No, if I guest on a show I like, I'm always a little bummed because I'm like, oh, well, there's an episode I can't listen to.

Exactly. So I don't go back and listen to that. But you have to become very – you become aware of how you sound, all the things that you say that are like, I'm doing it now. Just the vocal things that you do that you – The tics you have. Yes. Anytime you hesitate or stammer or repeat yourself. A vocal pause, these types of things. I'm just hyper aware of that kind of stuff.

Yeah. And it's a prison. It's an absolute prison. But thank you for the question, Modest Ghost. This next one is from Life is an Internet Superhighway, and they write, Like Scrooge had his three ghosts of Christmas, who are your three ghosts of gaming?

Hmm. King Boo probably, number one. Oh, this is what we're naming famous ghosts from video games. I don't know. Maybe it could be ghosts of games we didn't finish. Hmm. It could be our favorite ghosts. Yeah, I guess it's pretty open-ended.

I mean, you gotta throw a Pac-Man ghost, right? A Pac-Man ghost is in there, yeah. Inky. Maybe you throw all three of them. Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and ClydeMan ghost, right? A Pac-Man ghost is in there, yeah. Inky. Maybe you throw all three of them, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. Yeah, they're all in there. King Boo, I think, is a good one. King Boo's a good one, just as a representative of the boos. Yeah, why not?

And then what about that horrific lady from PT? I could also say you could get the big lady from Resident Evil Village. Oh, Lady Dimitrescu. Yeah. Is she a ghost, though? I never played it. I didn't play it either. She's a vampire.

She's more of a vampire than a ghost. Did you play it? No, but I watched a playthrough of it. Is that something that you'll do often, like watch a playthrough? Yeah, I watch a lot of horror playthroughs. I really like them, but I'm too scared to play them myself. that's a good way to approach it because you know matt and i are cowards i gotta play seven and eight i've like i that's just of the resident evils those are just

like ah fuck i should i had that feeling when we played the four remaster i was like i should just finally fucking i heard seven is good i'm a little bit more interested in eight and it's not because of the big lady i yeah i just think it seems more cool. Big lady doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt, but she could be a normal-sized lady. Not the sole motivating factor is me seeing this big lady. No, yeah.

It's barely part of it. Not even the whole thing. I guess the Luigi's Mansion ghosts are kind of adjacent to... We've already got a Mario Cannon ghost, so maybe we don't need any of those. But maybe Luigi's there with the Gust Buster. Maybe Gooigi too. Gooigi's pretty good. I don't

know if he is a ghost, but he is ghastly. Yeah. But I guess if that's how we're answering the question, with ghosts, then those are good answers. If it's the other thing where it's like, ghosts of our back catalog, we'll be here all day.

Yeah. I'm going to say let's go with King Boo. Yeah. Let's go with the Pac-Man ghost, and then let's do a Call of Duty colon ghost. Okay. Yeah. Just to get that in there because I know we don't talk about Call of Duty that much. Yeah.

That'll be the one time we talk about Call of Duty this year. Yeah. Yeah. This next one is from Cody of Duty that much. Yeah, that'll be the one time we talk about Call of Duty this year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This next one is from Cody. Hi, Cody. Hi, Cody. And Cody writes, what Christmas movie would make the best game and what genre would it be? And so in reading this question, piggybacking off the Scrooge question, I think, what is that story called?

It's not called A Christmas Story. A Christmas Carol? question uh-huh i think what is that story called a christmas it's not called a christmas story a christmas carol christmas carol would make an excellent like hades like roguelike interesting where the ghosts are giving you tasks and you have to go through it and you know you can um it can even be scrooge mcduck for all i care but you're just kind of like reliving the same experience the same night over and over again you're reliving the same night over and over again. You're reliving the same night, and then you have to, in this, you have to sort of do a series of things to correct the night or something. It's very, what was I going to say? That's very, you know, Bill Murray was in Scrooged,

and also Groundhog Day. It's kind of a Groundhog Day Scrooged mashup. 12 Minutes meets Hades. I like that. That's a fun pitch. I was going to say my immediate reaction was Elf, just because I feel like Elf is just kind of like an adventure. Yeah.

You could play that as like a, you could do that as kind of like an interaction focused, or a dialogue focusedfocused RPG or something or an adventure game, a point-and-click graphic adventure. But then as I was looking through the list of Christmas movies, I mean, Nightmare Before Christmas, if you got something that captured that aesthetic and it just already feels like a video game world,

I feel like a Nightmare world yeah i feel like a nightmare before christmas um uh you know platformer with that sort of that same sort of you know uh frame rate feel to it like it it felt like like uh it felt like stop motion animation i mean that that feels like that would be the kind of thing that would be visually dazzling also something like an edward scissorhands or gremlins that has some fantastical character at the root of it feels like it would be a natural candidate for a character action game? There is a Nightmare Before Christmas video game

that takes place one year after the events of the movie and it's called Oogie's Revenge. And I did play this when I was a teenager. What did it come out for? It came out for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It was released at the same time as Nightmare Before Christmas, The Pumpkin King for the Game Boy Advance, which is a prequel to the movie.

And so simultaneously they released a prequel to the movie and a sequel to the movie, both video games. And I remember thinking that the PlayStation 2 game was not good. that the PlayStation 2 game was not good. And it is worse because there are original songs in it that build off of the songs from the movie, and they're all pretty bad. But it kind of plays like Devil May Cry, kind of. It's sort of like an action-focused game where you're Jack Skellington and you have...

It should have been a home run, because Jack Skellington and you have, it should have been a home run because Jack Skellington is such a cool character. I'm looking at some footage of it now and this looks like, it actually looks pretty decent for what it is. It looked cool.

Like, because then you can have, you can become the Pumpkin King. Like visually it looks decent, yeah. You can be Jack Skellington regular, you can be Pumpkin King Jack and you can be Santa Jack.

And they all have sort of like slightly different movesets and like powers. But you always want to be, I feel like Pumpkin King Jack is like the coolest looking Jack. Yeah. There was a of course, I mean, look, I'm not

going to be the Die Hard is a Christmas movie guy. But there were the Die Hard, was there Die Hard Arc there was also diehard trilogy oh yeah there were some diehard games that came out um but that feels like a thing where they could just like make an absolute banger of a game if they they wanted oh yeah this next one is from is from our old pal drop king what's up drop king and drop king, a franchise you love is now getting a tower defense game only available on phones. What is it?

My first thought is God of War for some reason. I can see a God of War tower defense game. We're defending, like, you know, Mount Olympus or whatever. My first thought is, like, come on, man. Don't make my game I like into a fucking tower defense mobile game with a bunch of microtransactions. They're going to do it. I know.

Come on. Leave Kirby alone. Kirby doesn't need to be in a fucking tower defense game. I do think. Load it up with a bunch of different currencies that you can exchange real money for so you can buy new sweaters. I've been thinking about Kirby a lot recently. Kirby rocks. This is the year that I really decided that I like Kirby.

Kirby's great. That new one was really, really good. Kirby delivers. We loved Kirby. I guess my answer is God of War, and Nick's answer is, come on, man. This next one is from Vox the Devil, and Vox the Devil writes, I recently just picked up an analog pocket Pocket and I'm playing through Mother 3. Do you have any suggestions on what to play next on it?

Any hidden handheld gems? Now look, I have an Analog Pocket. I've finished some Pokemon games on Analog Pocket. Those are obviously go-tos if you haven't done those, which I can't imagine you wouldn't have. I played through Metroid Zero Mission on the Analog Pocket, and if you have not played Metroid Zero Mission, I feel like that's a safer

recommendation for a game maybe somebody missed because I certainly missed that. Zero Mission fucking rocks. It is so good. Yeah, it's a good game. It's really good.

I'd say check that out and I've actually been pretty interested in, I've been getting a lot of referrals for some Pokemon ROM hacks. Have you ever messed with a ROM hack before?

It's not really my thing, but I know some people who are really into it in terms of extending the shelf life of a game and getting a bunch of new content out of a structure that you like. There are these ones that I've been hearing about. I think there's one called Pokemon Prism or something.

It has a quest log and things that other modern RPGs have that Pokemon has yet to implement. And so people seem to really like that as like a, oh, in a different dimension, these Pokemon games became a little more serious and a little

more tailored toward modern audiences. I mean, you're the one with the analog pocket, so I think you're going to have the better answer for this. But in terms of what, because I also am not super sure what it's capable of, what it can emulate. Although I imagine you mentioned Zero Mission, so I think

I'd imagine all those Game Boy Advance games are on the table. Oh, what's that Astro Boy game? That's what I was just going to say. Astro Boy feels like, I can't remember the subtitle. Omega Factor. Yeah, Astro Boy Omega F's what I was just going to say. Astro Boy feels like, I can't remember the subtitle. Omega Factor. Yeah, Astro Boy Omega Factor is a real gem,

and you don't have to know anything about the anime. I certainly didn't to enjoy that game. I don't know how a WarioWare Twisted or something would emulate. I feel like it, I don't know if they'd be able to do that effectively. So I don't know if I'd say that, but I would say like, you know, Advance Wars is one I loved on the Game Boy Advance. I messed with that a little bit. They did port it

to Switch, but they redid the art style, which is completely understandable, but it's just not really as charming. I guess the original WarioWare. Oh yeah, those are all... I don't know, this is one of those things where the question is like, it's very open-ended, so it's kind of like, I don't know what you've played

and haven't played, and I'm assuming something about your taste from having played Mother 3, then maybe I'd also steer you towards Golden Sun, because there were a bunch of ports of Square RPGs to Game Boy Advance, but Golden

Sun was an original, and that was a really cool game. You might be able to find a, you know, a modded version of Boktai 2, which we covered on this show, that usually has the requirement that you have to have the special cartridge to get UV light in it to charge up your attacks.

God, what a pain in the ass that shit was. I know, what a nightmare. But a cool, interesting game, nonetheless. And finally, this next one is- Oh, the fucking Castlevanias. Oh, the Castlevania Advance games, yes. Those are all supposed to be pretty good. Yeah, I played them.

Circle of the Moon, what were the other ones? Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow. I mean, Symphony of the Moon. What were the other ones? Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow. I mean, Symphony of the Night is the, is the, is the game, but as far as the Game Boy Advance, the, the Metroidvania Castlevanias on Game Boy Advance were,

were all good, all worth playing. And finally, this last one is from X Red Gambit from our Discord. And they write, what do you eat during this holiday season? What video game food would you insert into your rotation? I think I gotta get those

fruits from Crash Bandicoot. Oh, a wampa fruit? Yeah, a wampa fruit would be really good. Give me a wampa fruit cobbler. You know those are juicy as hell. They look juicy as shit. Have I said this to you before about James and the Giant Peach? I always wanted to eat the big peach.

The peach looks good. I think that's part of what, I think that the movie does a good job of making. Rochelle and I are like the same age, so I think we have a lot of the same. No, I think the movie does a good job of making the peach look toothsome. It looks really good. Because you understand why a kid would want to burrow his way in there. And so in the same way that I've always wanted to eat the big peach, I've always wanted to eat a wampa fruit.

I've said this. I don't remember if I said it on the pod. Past guest, Chiraco Dunlap. That's right. Is in, as a child actor, is in James and the Giant Peach and has a line where like, because he rolls into New York City and she's like, that boy's in a peach. That's Chiraco. That's so good.

And the second Henry Selick picture to be mentioned on the show today. Wow. We got Henry Selick on the brain. Yeah, how about that? I wonder if she got to taste the big peach. I don't think that's how it works. No, I wonder if she got to try it. Well, they had it on set.

Maybe she got to try it. But this holiday season, a big thing for one side of my family is that we'll be eating tamales. We'll be eating pozole. That's like my favorite time of year because I'm just eating that stuff nonstop. And I'll probably put away a bunch of tamales this year. What's your favorite protein in a tamale? Ooh, you know, it's going to be – in recent years, I've been a green chili and cheese guy. Oh, hell yeah. That's like a really great one, green chili chicken recent years, I've been a green chili and cheese guy. Oh, hell yeah.

That's like a really great one, green chili chicken and cheese, I should say. But I like a – we do like a slow roasted sort of like beef, like a roast, like with red chili. And that's like – that's a home – that's always so good to me too. What a hoot. Yeah, yeah. I'll eat a lot of those. It's because my grandpa makes them, and he learned how to make them from my great-grandmother, and she learned to make them during the Great Depression. So they're very small, so you'll eat like eight of them and be like, this is, what do we do here? This is nuts. So they're small by design, but they're very, very good. I like that, though. It's like sometimes the fun of sliders.

Like I get to feel like a giant for a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'll be eating a lot of that. But what video game food would I want to insert into the rotation? You don't really eat a lot in a lot of video games. I mean, it depends on the game. Obviously, hey, those Breath of the Wild Tears of the Kingdom Zeldas, you're eating all the time.

Some of those meals look really good. Yeah. Like the spicy fish on a stick or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Some of the stews. Yeah.

I don't want the dubious food. No, you definitely don't want dubious food. Get that shit away from me. I'm going to stick with the Wampa fruit. Well, then, if you're going to go

with Wampa fruit, I'm going to go with the random floor food that you can find in a Castlevania or something. A big plate of spaghetti or whatever it is. Wall chicken? Wall chicken. I'll have wall chicken. That's going to be good. And that's going to do it for the question block, and that's going to do it for this week's Get Played.

Big plate of spaghetti. It's very funny to think about that Castlevania. I mean, fucking Dracula would hate that shit. It's loaded with garlic. Get it out of here. That's true. That's true. But then- Only Italian food in my castle. That to me then is, I'm thinking that that chicken is probably very plain tasting.

Probably is, yeah. It doesn't have a lot of seasoning on it. That's why when I was playing Vampire Survivors and there's four chicken in Vampire Survivors, it's your health item. But I was like, you know what? If you're in that kind of, if you're in this sort of gothic setting,

if you're in like the fucking, you know, 16th century or whatever, that a big roasted unseasoned chicken is still like the most delicious thing you could possibly eat. Oh, yeah. There's nothing that exists that is like everything else you're eating is like fucking, you know, dried or like, you know, just a fucking loaf of bread. You know, you just just have it. You're never experiencing any flavor. When do you think in history was the first time that like food was good? Maybe in our lifetimes.

I kind of think so. When did Doritos come on the scene? Yeah, I think it wasn't until Dorito when people were like, we fucking did it. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's this week's Get Played. Our producer is Rochelle Chen. Check out our paywalled show, Get Animated, where every week we cover a different

series or movie. That's over at patreon.com slash getplayed. And guys, that'll do it. I'll see you next time. And you know what got played this week? That track from Mary-Kate and Ashley, License to Drive. Let's hear it again. In your heart, I think I'm gonna like it here. Heart to heart, there's no place I'd rather be.

Side by side, just you and me to get the bait. No doubts, no fears. Cause I'm in love. And I think I'm gonna like it here. That was a HateGum Podcast.