Get Played - Pretending I'm A Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Matt and Nick discuss the 2020 documentary Pretending I'm A Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story. They talk about the doc's deep dive into the development of the THPS franchise, the franchise's impact on gaming, and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod. Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com. Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com. Check out our Anime watch-along podcast Get Anime'd and our complete Get Played, How Did This Get Played? and Premium DLC back catalogue 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] 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. Hey, Matt, you showed up. And hey, you are ready to go for this Tony Hawk episode. Yes, sorry. You are wearing full pads and a helmet? What's going on there? Yeah, sorry I'm late. You know, I was just really busy shredding.

I was doing skateboarding. And I skateboard now and I'm late. You know, I was just I was really busy Shredding I was doing skateboarding and I like I skateboard now and I'm really really good Oh, wow, cuz you know, we both like the the thps franchise But you're you're way more into it than I am and so you've you've transferred from playing the games to skateboarding in real life Yeah, I decided to put the controller down and pick the skateboard up and now let's just say I'm basically I'm like Tony Hawk a junior kind of Wow, I hate I wouldn't put it past you your guy who's very enthused for it Yeah, skilled at video games so I could see how that would maybe transfer to the real world Yeah, I've been doing hard flips and you know kick flips and stuff and I did a misty flip the other day I was pretty cool, and I've been grinding on rails too, so I did uh I did a

Heel flip dark slide uh-huh right did a hurricane to I didn't nose grab tail slide I've been just basically any rail if you're a rail in the city of Los Angeles You're on notice okay, so I've been just doing a lot of stuff like that. I did like a I've been doing manuals, too Matt I'm sorry to I did I was kind of taking all this at face value. Are you are you lying? No, no, I are you like did you just are you being a fucking poser? Is that what's going on? You think I'm a poser. I don't know I mean you're coming here talking a big game And it just sounds like you're listing a bunch of tricks some of which are very difficult and very advanced for someone who just began

Skateboarding. I'm really good at it, dude. I think you're maybe just lying. You think I'm lying, you think I'm lying about doing a fucking air walk grab? I don't know, I mean like. You think I've never done a Christ Air before? Look, let me just say this, you're wearing the pads, you know, you got the at knees on, you got the helmet,

I don't see a skateboard, my dude. It's okay, well now who's the poser? Are you saying my dude over here, my dude? You know, the reason I don't have a skateboard, the fucking cops took it. Oh boy. I was doing so much good skateboarding that the cops, I had a crowd around me and they were going to arrest me for having a big crowd. They were like, skateboarding is a crime. Yeah.

And where was this big crowd at? I was at, I mean, it was kind of like outside. Outside? I was doing street skating. Uh-huh. And so that's why it was sort of like I was blocking the street. Why are you lying?

I'm not lying. What are you trying to prove? Who are you trying to impress? You should have seen me. I was like, shove it, pigs. And then I did a pop shove it on my skateboard and then they let me go and then so I was like skateboarding away. I skateboarded. You should have seen it.

It's like kind of unbelievable. But they, well you skateboarded away but they confiscated your board? No, they gave it back to me afterward. So you don't have it but you don't have it now because? Well it's because you should have seen it this like big bird came And the big bird was sort of like flying at me, uh-huh And I don't know if it was like I don't know if like the bird hates Skateboarders, but I think the bird I had a sense that like the bird was like you're a really good skateboarder

I had to take you down effect stay out of the air. That's our territory I think the bird was sort of you're a really good skateboarder, I have to take you down. In fact, stay out of the air. That's our territory, I think the bird was sort of trying to do. So a condor swooped down. No, it wasn't like a condor, it was like a different kind of bird. Okay. It was really big. Some sort of large bird of prey snatched your board

and took it back to their nest. Yeah, yeah, and they took it. But actually, so they're flying away with it, I'm holding onto it for real life. I'm holding on to it for your life I'm in the air and then actually the birds like I set you up perfectly for this and I he lets me go and I put the board back under my feet and there's a ramp right under me and I do a big flip. Uh-huh Huge, you know like the 900. Uh-huh. It was like five of those. It's like a 4,500 Yeah, something like that. Can I just I think I know what's going on here?

Did you like eat a large meal before you went to sleep last night and have like a crazy dream? Like are you describing a dream you had? Are you asking me if I fell asleep with a hot dog in my mouth? Because you know the answer and the answer is yes Yeah, so I think what happened is that you had this very vivid dream. You think because a bird talked to me and helped me out do a big skateboarding trick, you think that was a dream? Then did the bird, let me just guess, the bird like turned into your third grade teacher? Yeah, Mr. Haas.

Yeah, so okay, yeah. This was a dream, Matt. And hey, you know what? It's a fine dream to have and it sounds like perhaps it might inspire you to Maybe skateboard in real life, which is a thing that that maybe you'd Maybe you should be doing because it seems like you're pretty excited about it. Yeah, I don't know You know, I think I've already Accomplished so much in the world of skateboarding that yeah, I think I'm just gonna like not do that.

Matt, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up. What was going on? You were having like some dream like you were having a podcast or something like that. I would never do something so low. Anyway, get ready. You're up next to the X Games. Oh, shit. We Madonna tail slide and interview the guy from Goldfinger as we discuss 2020 documentary Pretending I'm a Superman, the Tony Hawk video game story this week on Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm Nick Weiger along with Matt Appadaka. Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Get Played. Heather Ann Campbell is out this week. She is in Japan Hope you're listening if you're hearing this Heather. Hope you're having a great vacation. Why would she listen to this? I don't even listen to this you got to keep up on like the lore You know she has to come back nobody's taking notes like we're not like just to know what's going on right of this So she's gonna have to know Like what we're what we're up to because we're gonna be different guys when she comes back.

We're not gonna be different guys. I'm kind of planning on being like a different guy. It's gonna be like summer, you know, it's kind of like my summertime guy. Do you have an idea for a for like what a summertime guy is? Because I would say to me, you're already kind of a summertime guy. Thank you. That's very nice. We're both from Southern California, sunny SoCal kind of

wearing shorts year round. We both have that energy, I feel like. Is this a guy? It's just like me, but I have like, you know how people have like a pencil behind their ear, or like a toothpick in their mouth? Mine is an eaten corn dog stick, and I just kind of tucked it back there.

I just ate a corn dog. Yeah, that can be a guy, a weird guy. Did he just eat a corn dog? Yeah, I couldn't find a trash can, so I'm just holding on to this right now. I like chewing on the stick. It's got a little bit of- There's a trash can in the office.

It's got a little bit of hot dog and cornbread stuff on it. Here's the problem with being corn dog stick guy, is that everyone's just gonna be like, is that, what is that? And then you'll have to explain it. I just ate a corn dog. Yeah, and then's just gonna be like, is that, what is that? And then you'll have to explain it. I just ate a corn dog. Yeah, and then they'll just be like,

didn't Matt have like a corn dog stick behind his ear? What the hell was that? And you know what, I'll be honest with you too. I don't eat a lot of corn dogs. But every time I get one, I do think it's like, it's a good food. Do you get those, now we were talking before the record, cause you just ate a chicken sandwich,

which I do wanna hear more about. But did you ever get one of those big bulky like Korean corn dogs that's the new thing I haven't had one of those two hands that's one of the chains I'm here I haven't had that because I do get like I feel like sometimes my stomach's like a little sensitive when something's like too fried it like kind of fucks me up right like but I do like I like like a like you know the the corndogs at Disneyland, I think are like too much because they're like, they're just so big. They're so fun, though. They're fun. But it's just like that's it's too much breading. And I

kind of, I'm kind of there for the dog. You know what I mean? Like I like the dog the most. And I like this. I like the shittier version better. Like I'll take a frozen corndog over a one from like a theme park. Typically. God, I can't, I just can't. I'll take a frozen corn dog over one from a theme park, typically. God, I can't. I used to have, I used to get like a 30 pack of corn dogs from Costco and keep it in the freezer. You just microwave them all the time,

be like, why am I so fat? That's like your version of smoking a pack a day. I just ate a bag of corn dogs. I like the hot dog on a stick version is maybe the ideal version. Love a hot dog on a stick version is like maybe the ideal version like the level hot dog in a stick Like that's to me the ideal corn dog the right amount of breading the right amount of dog Just just perfect. But yeah, my chicken sandwich was incredible. Yeah, what was on that bad boy? It was like a like a slaw like a type of like I don't know. I don't know what kind of it's a breaded chicken sandwich

I assume yeah. Yeah breaded chicken sandwich. It assume. Yeah, yeah, breaded chicken sandwich. It's over at the window, which is local to us over here. And I got it before the record, needed a little something to eat. And there's a sauce, and I don't know what the sauce is, but it's a really good sauce. And I just wish I had more information, but it was just like, every bite was perfect.

The chicken was very crispy and juicy on the the inside too And the bun is very soft and I just liked I like I like the way it tasted it made me feel good Hey, there you go. It's the ideal for food. Yeah, what was it was like an I was an a ee. Oh Lee What was it? Did it have like a little a little still tang to a little spice? I I have in my history real quick because I did I ordered it for pickup And I was able to you know secure that that bag and walk over right? I have this in my history real quick, because I did, I ordered it for pickup, and I was able to secure that bag and walk over. Right. And that's how I justify getting a chicken sandwich. I did walk over.

Unfortunately, it does say on here, house slaw. Got it. That's not helping me very much, but there's a photo of it, that's a gorgeous photo. Yeah, it looks quite toothsome. Yeah, really, really good. I guess I'd give it five forks. Okay. Don't know what that means. But it was delicious. And you know what? I know that we talk about food when we're hungry.

Yeah, I'm not hungry. And here we are. But in a way, you're still hungry. In a way. Should I have gotten fries? Yeah. Did I? Of course you should have gotten fries. I didn't though. Were you trying to be good? I was trying to be good. Yeah.

And then what did I do? I ate a fucking little cheese when I got here. That's the end, you got a second, I see you've got a second cheese on deck that I know you're gonna start munching on at any point. No, that's the remnants of my previous cheese. Oh, I thought that was a second one. Okay, that was just the container.

Yeah, it's just the container. I just made a mess over here. You've got one of those wax, it's like these wax- The Baybells. Little cylinders, yeah, the Baybells that they come in and I do kind of like that waxy cheese. I do, I love it too and I don't know,

I don't know if wax is wasteful. I don't know, like it isn't- It can't be as bad as single-use plastic. It can't be, right? I love it. I love to play with it. Yeah, it's fun. That's why I have it over here so I'm not playing with it too much because I will just

start making little shapes and stuff. Look, but we don't just play with discarded food containers. We also play video games here, Matt. Yeah, despite what you may think. This is primarily a gaming podcast. It's not a news podcast. So we maybe aren't really gonna get it in a Nintendo Direct, but I will say

that Zelda game looks kinda cool. Zelda game looks pretty cool. Yeah. I'm excited about, I know Heather, if Heather was here, she'd be excited about the Marvel versus Capcom 2, collection of Marvel Capcom games. Yeah, it's cool that that collection exists.

It's got all the Marvel superheroes, X-Men Children of the Atom, you know, like all those I think coming together in one compilation. I like that that exists just from an archival slash curation standpoint. Yes. But yeah, I mean, there's some cool stuff in kind of the twilight of the Switch.

Although who knows, maybe we'll keep extending the shelf life of the switch although who knows we will keep extending this the shelf life The yeah, Metroid 4 looks Metroid Prime 4 looks cool I was kind of interested in that metal slug tactics game. I love metal slug. I don't know if it was a great It's a really those are really cool. They're all fun. We could do like a metal slug episode at some point. We really should I've been playing it I've been playing metal slug X on an emulator. Okay. And just having a fucking blast.

Those were, anytime I'd go up to like an SNK cabinet in the arcade, and they'd oftentimes have a Metal Slug in a track mode, it was like, all right, I'll put some credits in here, mess around with this thing. Always fun. Really cool, yeah. And I don't know if any of them are like, different than another one, but like, I like it.

It's just good, they don't have to really fix it all the ones. I played are pretty similar I'm sure that the the gameplay evolved some But I just I really like all the the sprite work and the animation and everything Yeah, cool looking games, and they're fun to play. I'm trying to think if there's anything Oh, well, I mean the switch light that is coming out with that Zelda game. It's fucking gorgeous So this is you showed me this and you were like, I got to get one of these. I know. And it's not even an OLED switch. It's a switch light. I know.

You don't you don't need. I don't need it, but I want it really bad. It's beautiful. I said, but I probably won't be able to justify getting it because like knowing knowing Nintendo, we're going to be able to justify getting it because like knowing Nintendo, we're gonna be hearing about, you know, their predecessor. They said that we're gonna know more about their predecessor to the Switch in 2025.

That comes out in like September. That's a little too close to the end of the year. I can't be getting a Superfluous Switch for no good reason. It's just, it's gonna be a cool thing to look at that you're not going to need or play. Now if I win the lottery or something? Well, then all bets are off, but I like, they tempt you with hardware, that's what happens.

They're always like, hey, this is some cool looking, you know, reskin or this is a cool new controller color way and if you're not careful, if you're not judicious about it, you end up with a bunch of shit that you don't need. And I think that is like the final, that'll probably be the final Switch variant if I had to guess, like of this Switch generation. Boy, we'll see.

I would not be shocked if they kept pumping them out even after the Switch 2 or whatever is out. I'm gonna tell you right now, if they put out a Metroid Switch, I will not be strong. I just won't. I just won't be able to do it. I could probably not get the Zelda one because I like Zelda games,

but Zelda's not my number one thing. I don't even think Metroid's my number one thing, but I like Metroid more than I like Zelda. I'm thinking back and I think I had a Zelda Wii U. Why did I do that? I had the Zelda 3DS. I had the Zelda... Yeah, I had the 3DS. I think I had a Zelda Wii U. Why did I do that? I had the Zelda 3DS. I had the Zelda... Yeah, I had the 3DS. I think I had a Zelda something else too. I can't

remember now what. I guess it was just a 3DS actually. But man, it's all gold. Yeah. You know who would love it? Number 45. I thought you were gonna say gold member. That's actually funnier. Goldmember would go crazy for it. We were gonna talk about the band Goldfinger in a bit in the context of the Tony Hawk doc. But I was thinking about that as I was like, okay, people don't even know that Goldfinger the band is a reference to James Bond anymore.

And then there's also people who don't realize that Goldmember is a parody of Goldfinger, the Bond villain. Yes. Like, it's just interesting what happens with this stuff. Wouldn't it be funny if it was the other way though, if like Goldmember was a parody of the band Goldfinger? And he was like, he still was like an all-Gold guy, but he also likes like ska punk.

Right, they were just all, I love Gold versions of Goldfinger's discography. You better crank that AC because things are heating up at Draftkings casino. The excitement is endless. The vibes are right. And the cash prizes could be huge. Play hundreds of games all summer long, dive into a casino classic or blast off with DraftKings exclusive Rocket. New players start by playing just five bucks to get 50 bucks in casino credits

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or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. 21 plus. Physically present in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia only. Void in Ontario. One per opted-in new customer. $5 in wagers required. Max $50 in non-withdrawable casino credits that expire in 168 hours. See casino dot draft kings dot com slash get 50 for eligibility terms and responsible gaming resources. We should mention that the Elden Ring Shadow of the Earth Tree DLC is out now as of this episode's release, but we are recording prior to its release. So we haven't played it yet, but we will have early impressions not on this week's episode, but on next week's episode.

If anyone is tuning in to hear us talk about Shadow of the Urd Tree, you know, you can find countless YouTube channels doing that very thing right now. Yeah, exactly. I'm sure we'll have something to talk about in the next What Are You Playing? But I think now we won't hear us talking about it because we haven't played it yet. Yeah, let's not get hung up on the next What Are You Playing? Let's focus on this current What Are You Playing? Rochelle, did you check that the doors are locked? They're locked. Okay, great.

They're boarded up. We don't need to worry about the resident evil merchant barging in here for once no Yeah, that's a smart move Rochelle to turn the open sign to the closed You see that you kind of don't know what to do right right right? Totally throw them off very good move Speaking of Elden Ring I'll start yes, please I had a crazy idea You know I Speaking of Elden Ring, I'll start. Yes, please. I had a crazy idea, you know. I finished Rebirth, I went straight through the Final Fantasy XVI, the Rising Tide DLC. It was fine.

It wasn't anything crazy really to me. You say this as a Final Fantasy XVI enthusiast. You really like that game. Yeah, and I thought that DLC was like like it was just it was just fine just another level with another Leviathan Or you know I can't read what they called those an icon with another icon Boss fight, and it was as like spectacular as the other ones. It was like a lot of fun I liked that but like I was ready to be done with that kind of to you okay It didn't overstay its welcome

But I you know I was ready to kind of be out of Final Fantasy mode for a little bit I'm thinking shadow the earth trees coming out. I've already beaten this fucker right well in ring you mean Oh, yeah, Elden ring is that I've already beaten Elden ring I've become the Elden I am become the Elden Lord sure what if I start a new game plus? Well a week A week before the Shadow of the Urchid tree DLC comes out. I start it and then I realize you really can't go back. Sure. Like you can't undo, you can't like reload this old save. You can if you start a second character new. Right. But you can't reload the old save from your previous run,

let's call it. From before you finish the game. Exactly. So I do this, and I instantly feel as though I've made a huge mistake. Ha ha ha. Because I, for some reason, when I was reading, who you have to beat, I was, I was confused, because you had, there's, there are requirements you have to hit to get to the DLC at all.

It's like Radon and Mogues, right? Those are the two big bosses you gotta take down. I didn't realize you had to beat Radon. And Radon is a hard boss. Yeah. Really hard boss. And then Moog is like considered one of the hardest bosses in the entire game.

Right. And I also forgot that that's who he was. And I thought it was like the first guy. I thought it was- Wait, you thought Moog was the first guy? I thought it was Margit. And I was like, this will be easy. I'll just have to beat him one time I know I could that would be a nice way to you know Re-familiarize myself with the controls right I beat the first skill check boss in the game

Now it's a small obstacle to get to the DLC, but no you have to get very very deep into it Yeah, and so I you know I've beaten this thing already Mostly without a guide so I, you know, I've beaten this thing already. Mostly without a guide. So I opened up a guide. Yeah. I was like, what's gonna be the fastest path to these guys? You kinda have to go through a lot of the bosses

to get to, you have to get through like five bosses. Right. Five main bosses at least to get to Rodan. And then there's gonna be side bosses and you know, dungeon bosses along the way. A of game but the thing about new game plus is that it's basically a fucking revenge tour you're in there and you're the fucking strongest guy alive and so like and I have the mimic tear and the mimic tear is like a summon that is basically it's just you with your same powers and stuff and same like strength level right so

mimic tears drawing aggro from the bosses and I'm behind them like fuck you fuck you and like just like killing them yeah and Like just wiping them out like nearly instantly like just like destroying them. Yeah, so I'm feeling pretty good I'm feeling confident. I'm like relearning the you you know, the attack patterns of some of these bosses and like how to dodge and how to switch between like, you know, my various flasks and things like that and switching weapons on the fly and all that type of stuff. I get to Radon and Radon's not ready. Like that, you have to hit a certain number of things. You have to have a certain number of encounters

with certain characters to have the Radon Festival start. And I was like, so I've been flying through this thing and like just missing people. And it's like skipping stuff. You gotta backtrack and converse with some MBCs. Gotta go back, but now I have, you know, the Sites of Grace so I can fast travel between those. By the way, the way you put it is very funny

that Radon's not ready. He's not ready. He's like, oh, hey, you're early, okay. He's still got his curlers in. Yeah. He's not ready, this guy's not ready. Listen, man, I'm down to have a climactic showdown, but I just need a few to get my shit together.

I gotta clean up. Yeah. This place is a fucking mess. Yeah, I wasn't expecting, you know, it said 430. I was thinking people get here around six, you know. Right, yeah. You could help me put some, the extra leaves in this table, I guess.

Yeah, you wanna, yeah, if you wanna help set up a little bit, but you know, I was kind of more hoping for people to come and stay late in the back end. That's why I put a 6 p.m. until question mark. Yeah. I've been, one time I went to a, That's why I put a 6 p.m. until question mark. Yeah. I've been, one time I went to a, like, when I was younger and, like, more interested in comedy than I was, like, actively, like, doing it.

I went to a stand-up show and I somehow got there an hour and a half early and I helped them put chairs out. Wow. That's nice. It was very nice. Yeah. I'm a really nice guy. And so I had to go do this other stuff to get Radon started and I, you know, I meet the Jar of Alexander,

I meet Blade and I think that's all I had to do actually. Like just like have, but there's those quests were a little more. Blade's the sexy wolf, right? Am I remembering that right? Dude, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Jar of Alexander, nothing to shake us. He's no slouch either. Yeah, sure. But I do that battle and we take him down. I'm dying a couple of times because I don't,

I can't get to the summon areas fast enough because like in that fight, have you done this? Yeah, you gotta get all the guys. You gotta like, it's like the fallen heroes right or whatever I'm trying to make exactly yeah and so like you there's like summon things on the ground where you can summon the jar of Alexander blade and a couple other people too and yeah and they help you in battle and then you fucking rock it's a great battle it's a great great battle but once we start you

know once we we're all out there together we all start cooking and take this fucker down. I'm like okay. I'm ready to just jump straight to mug so I go to I go talk to I think his name is Vare in the in the opening area in in limb grave, okay, and He tells me to go to the roundtable hold and then meet me at the Rose Church. So I go to the Rose Church, he's out there and he gives me these fucking fingers to infiltrate other people's worlds. Right, sure.

You have to do that three times. He gives you a cloth and then you have to find a maiden to soak the cloth in blood and then you make an oath to Moog and that's how you get entry to there So I'm looking for this fucking yeah dead lady right that took forever And then so I do that I get to Moog. I'm making I'm making my way to him no problems at all I get to them, and I'm feeling really good because I'm like I'm just I'm just going through this like it's an easy game Yes, and then Moog. He's still got hands He's still fucking hard right he's so hard

And then I do finally take him down just me and my mimic tier and I'm so I'm ready for the DLC It took me what took me probably 90 hours, you know however long it took to get to that point because when I started my new game plus I had 180-something hours in the game Took me like two play sessions over a weekend, which was like I'm feeling pretty good All these articles come out about the shadow of the earth tree gene Park says my characters Level 700 and I'm getting my ass kicked. Yeah fucked. I'm so fucked with this Well, I think this is a situation where of my understanding is that there's there's just level scaling and DLC So just whatever level you're at the characters are going the enemies are going to basically match it

So there's there's really no prep you can do to be you know, I Assume they designed it that way after playtesting it and sort of being like, well, we don't want people just to come in here completely OP and just to blaze through this thing. Yeah. So I don't think there's any particular prep you can do to be more ready than anyone else. I think you're just going to go in and everyone's kind of be, you know, kind of get their asses handed to them for a little bit.

I'm very ready to be humbled. But all that to say, Elden Ring is an incredible video game. It is so fucking good. But that's all I'm playing. I did start playing the Case of the Golden Idol. Hey, there you go. And I love it. Little nod to maybe what we're going to get into next week.

Case of the Golden Idol has come to Netflix. So we're planning on talking about that next week if anyone hasn't played the game and wants to be prepped for that. Matt, I want to talk about another famously difficult game that I've been playing, Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. This is a remaster that came out earlier this year of a 1981 PC RPG that is really like a trailblazing game. It was like the first of these party-based role-playing experiences. It was presented first-person as a lot of these games were for some time, partly because

of this. The company Digital Eclipse is behind this. Digital Eclipse previously did the remaster of the Atari 50 collection. They did the Karateka game, which is kind of like another one of the sort of museum pieces about Jordan Mechner's first game. And then they also did the Jeff Mintner collection. So this is kind of like their lane where they take care of these sorts of games, they put together these sorts of collections, these archival works. And I got this thing

and there's part of me that I was like, I don't know why I bought this thing. But then I'm also like, I think I do know why I bought this thing is because I just appreciate what they're doing from an archival standpoint. And I kind of just like, want these things to be continued to be made. Because it's just, you know, it's just important work to be done from the standpoint of keeping these early games alive and keeping them in a somewhat playable and approachable state for contemporary consumers. Now all that said, I was expecting this to be maybe a little bit more of what we're getting in the Atari 50, where there's a lot of like, hey, here's a lot of historical context for what's going on.

This is a lot of how this works and this is a lot of you know, what this represented this time it's not really that it's more kind of baldly presented as Here's a it's kind of more like the Tony Hawk's remaster. Yeah, where it's like, hey, here's the version of this game But just with a new fresh coat of paint and some UX updates and and some new fresh coat of paint and some UX updates and some quality of life improvements. But the thing about this game is that it is punishingly difficult and it is from like an RNG standpoint largely. Ranged number generator?

It is like the ranch number generator that we use for get animated for Animahem. It is very much like you will just get like killed randomly and it'sem, it is very much like, you will just get killed randomly and it's the sort of thing where it's like, even if you were planning for it, there's really nothing you can do, you know? And the kind of the expectation is that you're going to fail a lot, you're going to die a lot, your entire party is going to be wiped

and you'll have to bring up a new party to retrieve their corpses. So it's just a thing that I think you kind of, like I don't know how much time I'm actually going to put into this thing, but I just kind of like, I'm glad to have it and I'm glad that it exists. And it is also, I don't know, it's interesting because Wizardry was not a franchise I was as into as a kid. I was more into the, you know, of kind of the big like totemic of PC RPG

franchises. I was more into Might and Magic and Ultima and then The Bard's Tale, which is another one that's kind of really gone by the wayside. But Wizardry was always like a franchise I was aware of and I played like Wizardry V, Bayonet of the Cosmic Forge and was that Wizardry V or was that Wizardry VI? Whatever it was, 5, 6, 7, that's when I kind of got into the franchise. It's kind of amazing that these big franchises have kind of laid dormant for so long and no one is making new ones. But like, it was a very influential game. My understanding, I mean, obviously among PC RPGs and Western RPGs in general, but the

Wizardry franchise specifically had a lot of popularity in Japan, and a lot of JRPGs were influenced by the early Wizardry games. So it's important from that standpoint. But yeah, it's cool that Digital Eclipse keeps making packages like this. I love those types of things.

And earlier when I was talking about the Marvel Capcom one that's coming out I'm remembering to that the There's a Street Fighter one like there's a Street Fighter like anniversary collection that has like a bunch of Street Fighters up to three In it and the museum I like games with museum features right where you can just read about the history of the games That's just good. I just think that's great. I love that. Yeah, it's cool that that stuff exists And it's always that those always the sort of thing of, I mean, there's some rebalancing you could do

with a game like this. And I kind of almost like wonder, like, would this, they did some of that. Like they added like a, you know, a hide and ambush thing that was like a feature that got implemented in, you know, like a later console port, but was not in the original game, that's in this.

They did a few things, but I kind of almost wish it to be such an enormous overhaul. It's so much work that it's an easy thing to casually say, and you get why it's not there. I kind of wish there was a rebalanced mode or something like that, or there was some new, like, hey, here's a modern difficulty sort of mode where everything is kind of updated to be a little bit more approachable, not just from a UI standpoint.

Or even in the, maybe you don't want this, but in the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, they have, you could put up how many, there's multipliers for g Gil and experience points and stuff. So yeah, that to me makes it a little more fun because it's like, you're not slogging through this like, hard ass like, like, you know, old clunky RPG, you're kind of just flying through it. Well, yeah, experience an old game like that. And there's also the

standpoint of like, look, it's's 1981, there just weren't a lot of games. And if you bought a game, you were committing a lot more money relative to the value of a dollar. Cause it's not like new games back then cost like $4. You know what I mean? Like they were still like 50 bucks. Just 50 bucks was a lot more money. Though again, you probably had a better paying job

because the economy was whatever. We don't need to open this larger discussion. No, but you know what? All I got to say about that is thanks, Biden. I remember my dad, he got me and my brother for Christmas one year, Zelda 2, the adventures of Link. And that game at the time was $70. And I looked it up once, how much it like $70 was in like 1988 or whatever year that game came out. And it was like the equivalent of like $190 today. It was so much money. That's like, so my dad like worked like an entire like day, like that was like a day of his life was like going to teach at a community college to get enough money so he could buy his son's a new Nintendo game for Christmas and then we played it a little bit like this is boring

Zelda game that like nobody really likes that much that really that really sucks I know I remembering like being a kid and being like man I have 25 bucks I'm gonna have the best two weeks of my life Yeah, like it again now. It's like you know you could buy a sandwich here, Los Angeles for most of that Yeah, maybe a fucking fancy chicken sandwich with I think you know on it It was eight bucks eight bucks eight bucks, and I tipped 20% so I got out of there about like a little over less than ten bucks Wow for nice chicken sandwich But I am still hungry and so I'll go back after this. I'm not gonna go back. Why not the humiliation? Hi, I'm back. I didn't get enough food. I did that once at a McDonald's

I went through and I or I got my whole order and nothing was wrong with the order. I just like I'm still hung I like I want more and so I went back again, and it's like go in no I didn't even go in I just looped back again And it was like so humiliating because she was like I guess you're hungry. Yeah, it's like yeah I ate it all from the second window to the fucking curb Do you have more to say about this game because I know that somebody else in this room has something to say about what they're Playing wait really ranch. What are you playing? I'm playing Resident Evil 2 Wow I love this I want to play Resident Evil 4 because I wanted to meet the merchant yeah sure We have PlayStation Plus, so I wasn't able to download that so I was like I'll just start from the earliest game

That's on here. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's really scary and I wish I wasn't playing alone somehow. Because it doesn't seem like Mark's down for that. No, Mark hates scary things. Wow. How are you, have you played other scary games before? I haven't played myself, but sometimes I've watched other friends or streamers play scary games.

And I like just the horror genre. And I like getting scared and stuff. But it's a little bit too much when it's you. Yes. But I actually have a lot of familiarity with the police department because of this game called Dead by Daylight. OK, sure.

So that's a map in Dead by Daylight. So it was kind of fun to see the origin of that. Ranch said, not all cops. Okay, I'm familiar with the police department. Yeah, we've seen the flag on the bumper of your car. Now it's all starting to add up. I'm just kidding. Okay, so you like horror in general.

Like you like like a scary movie, scary TV shows, that sort of thing. But just actually immersing yourself at being an interactive experience. Because that's the thing with me is I can watch a scary movie and I won't freak out, but scary games very often, I'm just like, I'm out on this. Yeah, and I'll often want to do it. But I feel like more often than not, I push through.

I finished All in Lake 2, and that game was really scary to me Resident Evil 4 I think is maybe one of my favorite video games even though it is a scary game. Yeah And I'm so more also kind of an action game as much as anything it's yeah, it is a bit of a power fantasy like Leon is just like he's Insane like he's just like he's just a good Like he's just like, he's just a good, like he's good at what he does. But Leon is in the second one, I believe. He's like a rookie cop, and I have not played Resident Evil 2 remake,

but everybody says it's a great version of it to play. You're having fun with it, other than the scare side of it. Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun. The panic I feel in this game though is like, it's very scary and I'm really bad at resource management. I thought there would be more ammo around. So I've been trying to, I'm trying to figure out

the best way to deal with the zombies. Cause also the knife goes away after a certain point. Have you encountered, I believe his name is Mr. X, is that who it is? Oh right, yes. No, not yet. Okay, let us know when you encounter Mr. X. He's a scary guy from what I hear.

Yeah. So far, while you're playing the game, are you more scared playing the game or interacting with anybody from Hollywood Handbook? The latter. I'm glad you're playing a new game that, you know, a new game relative to you. That's really cool.

I kind of mess around too. Everybody I know says that two is the one. The two remaster. Yeah. I played the original. I played Resident Evil 2 on PlayStation 1 Wow, but the but all the re remasters. Yeah, it's like They did three they did they've done a bunch of them I just think the remake of four is is so fucking good

We did a whole episode on it, but... A lot of fun. That game is just perfect. Yeah, it's a great game. It's a capital V video game. If you ever get a chance to play it, it's an unbelievable experience. It's really, really fun. ["Superman Theme"] Well, there you go. Let's talk about Pretending I'm a Superman, the Tony Hawk video game story.

This is a documentary that was released on August 18th of 2020. It is crowdfunded, as is my understanding, and it is a quick watch. It's about 70 minutes long. It's like a pretty short feature film. Yeah, it's like you could watch this 10 times or you could watch Oppenheimer once. Well said. It was produced by Ralph DeMotto,

who was a producer at Neversoft and worked on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise. He recruited a YouTube THPS content creator to direct the doc. That director is Ludwig Gur, who I believe is Swedish. And this is staggering. He was born in 1997. So he was 18 when they pitched this documentary and he was 23 when the film released.

Young man. Young man, I'd say talented documentarian. That's what you kind of want like I don't know that should be Maybe it shouldn't be the goal necessarily But like when people are making stuff and they're making YouTube videos Yeah This is kind of like the best case scenario somebody that sees Somebody who worked on the thing that you're making content about sees the thing is like I have this thing

I want to do with you come come do this and they're like it's a cool opportunity I think that's that's super cool. It's it's rad and it's a cool opportunity. I think that's super cool. It's rad and it's a kind of thing where it's like, you kind of, there's so much in traditional film production with a studio system and everything. It's like, there's so many gatekeeping that a lot of times someone isn't getting their first film made until they're like in their 40s.

You know what I mean? It's like, it's so it's like cool for someone who's very young to be able to have the opportunity to make something like this. Yeah. Do you see Ambulance? The Michael Bay movie Ambulance? I did see Ambulance, yeah.

Michael Bay like found the guy that does the drones in that movie like on Instagram. It's kind of just like another example. Oh wow, I didn't know that. He's just like this like Instagram drone guy. He's like, I like this guy's drone stuff. He's like I like this guy's drone stuff This guy's gonna fucking shoot the drone stuff for my movie. That's awesome. Yeah, so I don't know it's not impossible So what I'm saying is people that make stuff online follow your dreams. Yeah, so hey, that's what we're doing I'm really hoping that I mean that like somebody's gonna hear this and be like hey Jimmy Fallon's out the three of you guys are in

So here's what I'll say I had not seen this documentary before but I've been wanting to watch it I've been looking for a reason to watch it and you and I yeah, you know Heather I don't think ever really got into the Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise. You looked at that chair like she was sitting there Yeah, we left an empty chair for Heather Heather, I don't think ever really got into the Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise. You looked at that chair like she was sitting there. Yeah, we left an empty chair for Heather. Kind of as a symbol of her absence. Yeah. That mic, her mic is live still.

So the thing is, but the two of us were really into the Tony Hawk Pro Skater game. But for me in particular, it was THPS one and two, like those first couple of games. You stuck with a franchise and you played through the thug games, the Tony Hawk Underground. Yes, and I'll say too, I had seen this, I saw this documentary like when it came out. Okay.

I was very interested in this doc. So I revisited it again, I watched it this morning before we recorded. Right. And. Then you got a chicken sandwich. So I revisited it again. I watched it this morning before You know we recorded right and then you got a chicken sandwich. I've had that did you basically know my entire day? Recording on the earlier side. I haven't had that much of a day so far sure I did wake up at 7. Hey there You go, so that now you're caught up. Yeah, I did stick with the franchise I I played all the way through Tony Hawk's project 8 actually oh yeah, okay, and then from there I sort of like fell off And then I don't think any of the other I did I did get Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 on the PlayStation 4

It's not good. Yeah, it is a very bad game and I did play they had an HD remake of 1 and 2 with DLC for 3 on the PlayStation Store, like on PlayStation 3, before this 1 and 2 remaster came out. And I messed around with that. I was like, this just feels off. I think it's made in a similar engine that 5 is made in,

and it's just not Just not what it is. But I I would say they mean this documentary covers a lot of ground it covers like the Inception of the very first game and then touches on the success of the franchise and then the dip is In in sales in the franchise is interesting I stayed through basically all that and was very excited because this came out around the time that the remasters came out.

Yes. The one and two remaster came out. And so I still get in the one and two remaster like pretty regularly. Interesting. I like, that to me is like, you know when you go to like a concert and like the roadies come out and like they test the equipment Yeah, just like start doing scales on a guitar

That's like all like all like crush the warehouse level right Tony Hawk's pro skater one to Remaster before I like play a bigger game like just to be like, let's just get let's just get these buttons We're warmed up. Yeah, let's get a little warmed up But I do people I guess I guess, Tony Hawk's Underground and American Wasteland didn't sell as well, but those are some of my favorite ones. I really loved those games quite a bit. Yeah, I think I maybe messed around

with the first Tony Hawk's Underground. I mean, that was around when I was working, when those games were coming out, was around when I was working at Activision. So maybe Thug 2 was in development. Anyway, what I was gonna say is, this is one thing I like about this dock is beyond its duration, like it does not overstay its welcome.

It's pretty comprehensive and it's a short runtime. One-tenth of an Oppenheimer, for example. Yeah, as Matt pointed out. I'm expecting hagiography. I'm expecting this is gonna be like, oh, we're gonna venerate this thing and talk about how great Tony Hawk is, and he is awesome, but like talk about how great Tony Hawk is now amazing this game is or whatever.

It's not necessarily all that. Like it does dwell on the fall of the franchise and the declining sales. And Tony himself is very candid about it. Just sort of talking about how they lost what was cool about it. There's never soft developers who are like, yeah, we made it too arcadey

and then we tried to over-correct. They talk about, they get into Tony Hawk's ride, the peripheral, which was a skateboard that you stood on that sucked and didn't work. Watching him try to sell that to a crowd is so fucking funny. Because he's trying very earnestly to talk it up, but you can even just tell in the presentation he doesn't really believe in it. No, no. He's a very earnest, I don't know, I love Tony Hawk as a guy.

Yeah, he's a great guy. I think he seems like a good dude, and like maybe intense, but like, is like a super, like, I don't know, he's like the guy that does that. Like, I don't know, he's incredible to me. He's maybe like one of the greatest living Americans. I've said this on the podcast before, but I will retell it,

because it's a fair time to do so. I wore his clothes once. What? So I, I've told you this before. I know the story, but you phrased it in a way that was insane. I wore his clothes. It wasn't actually his clothes,

it was a duplicate of his clothes, it was a duplicate of his wardrobe, but it was for a bit where I was like Tony Hawk. You were hoping that it was his though. Hey man. I hope it's his undies. I hope I was like Tony. You're like you were hoping that it was his though. Hey, man I hope it's his undies. I hope I can wear Tony's undies. There's only one changing room. I think they want us to wear it together He was first off

So this was on the comedy bang bang TV show on IFC which I was writing for and there was a bit for it and I was writing for, and there was a bit for it. And I was the writer who was the closest physical match to Tony Hawk, as like the same height, a similar build at the time, though I've plumped up a little bit. And so the bit was he was going to come clean and say, look, I'm actually, I don't do my own stunts. I have a stunt guy.

And I was a stunt guy. And so I just came out wearing his clothes. That was basically the whole bit. And then I think there was a part where it revealed that I was actually sitting in the interview, and he was talking through my voice or whatever. I don't remember exactly what that was. But anyway, he was like, what I will say from the experience

is that first off, he was super generous for this time that day. He was very funny, but also in a way where he's like, look, I, you guys know what to do. I'll do, I'll follow your lead. You know, like very much like just understood how something was, uh, I understood how like TV was made and also had an understanding of like what the best way to use his own celebrity and talents and, and so it like, I was just like everything about the experience was super duper positive. I love this guy.

Like other athletes that are funny. They're just like I'm funny. I know what I know how to be funny. It's just like, okay, yeah, but like right. This is going to come across a little bit different in this context. Yeah, it's cool that like he was like that. He's down to clown. Yeah, he's down to clown and he's a very talented and very gracious man. It was one of the sorts of things, you know his public persona

and then to actually interact with him is like, oh, I like this guy even more than I already did. I think if I met him, I'd cry. Yeah. Like, I... Imagine if you wore his clothes. Oh my God. Yeah, I'd probably fucking bust a nut.

But he seems like such an amazing dude and I always love seeing that like, he's like a meme now kind of, where like people come up to him all the time and he's like, are you Tony Hawk? And then he's like, no. That's fun, I like that. Very wholesome man and I think that,

his wholesomeness back when skateboarding, this documentary gets into it, was like kind of this outlaw culture, which was a big part of the pre-THPS era. Like that was part of why he became such a great ambassador for the game. You were saying something a little bit ago too about how it's not all just praise. Even some of the skateboarders,

like Jamie Thomas in this documentary is like, I wasn't super stoked about doing this game. I didn't think it was that good of an idea, but I didn't want to be the one guy that's not in it. I don't want to be left out. Yeah. And then he's like, and I still don't think it's that great. I was like, honestly, this kind of, to have something like that in this, it would be very easy to be like, To have something like that in this, it would be very easy to give the rose-colored glasses version of the story. It's cool that there's dissenting takes in it. I think that's what makes it a good documentary.

Aaron Powell We're so accustomed, I think, to the modern doc, which is like, hey, Activision has a heavy hand in it and that you need Activision's approval to use all this material. So yeah, they're going to excise all that. It is all just going to be stuff that makes the company look good and makes the IP look good. So it is nice that there's some, again, there's just people just being honest about this and what it meant.

It speeds through so sort of like the, in the first part, the history of skating, talks about the division between vert skating and street skating versus skating, basically skating on a big ramp versus like just skating in your neighborhood or whatever. And kind of where that, that we ended up being kind of a class division and also had to do with a bunch of communities dissembling their skate parks

and putting out these skateboarding bands that you think modern people, like modern kids, just have no idea that this was a whole thing in the 80s and 90s. Yeah. Were ever in a skateboarding? I did skateboard a little bit I had a skateboard and I would like try to I would just like go up and down my street I was not like doing like tricks or anything like that, but I would hang out that we went to like a day camp That was like at like a skate park like near a skate park and we would go like I watch like the bigger kids like skate And just be like these are like this is so cool even when I walk past a skate park now

I'll stop and like watch because it's like I know I'm just so impressed by it It's it's it's like it's just amazing to me you have a you have a twin brother, but you have like an older brother I forget whether you're so I have an I have a person that it's I'm the oldest actually So my brother's had nobody to look to look up to right I'm the oldest actually. So my brother's had nobody to look up to. But it's me and my twin and then I have a younger brother and then a younger step brother. But you kind of have a cool like older uncle.

Who's like nine years older than me. So my thing is that I have an alpha older brother, Nate, and he was a skateboarder. And so like he also had like Thrasher magazine and stuff like which is taught touched on in the documentary, the big the iconic skateboarding magazine. So like a lot of my exposure to skate culture was through him and his group of friends and thinking that they were really, really cool. And, and so I always thought skateboarding was was cool and was super intrigued by it. And some of these early skateboarding video

games at the dock talks about skater die 720 you know I remember I'm trying to think what else oh T there was a TNC surf designs I don't know if you remember that company but they had an NES game that had skateboarding and surfing yeah the skateboarding was was fun in that I was very familiar with the the arcade cabinet one yes so this is the Sega one fuck it in write the name down do you remember what it's called no this is the say one, fuck it, I didn't write the name down. Do you remember what it's called? No. This is the, I'll look it up in a second,

but this is the Sega arcade cabinet where you could stand on it, which I didn't realize that was as much of an influence on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater specifically, but I guess all the Neversoft guys were like, yeah, this is what we're kind of going for. Top skater. Top skater. We're gonna make this,

but we're gonna make this controllable with a PlayStation controller. I also feel like the Twin Galaxies guy who shows up. Is he just in every video game doc? I feel like I always see this guy. He's just like ready to talk He's like I got my referee shirt. I'm ready to rock. I got my own lav mic. Here we go He's an interesting guy. He's an interesting guy and he's he contributes to this doc. I mean, I like I like his presence I didn't realize it makes sense that thps was like a big competitive game You know in that era, so I I

Would I put me in put me in now like I I think I don't know if I'm like that good at the game I think Tony Hawk's pro skater is one of the games that I am Best at of the games that I play mm I play to the point where I was just talking shit about this to Ify Wadiwe recently. And I'll say it publicly here on the podcast. He was in this like Buzzfeed video or something. It was like something like that many years ago when the remaster was coming out and it was like him and a couple other streamers playing the game and Tony Hawk was like on

zoom with them, like in the, you know, told one of them which one was the best one or so, you know, award them champion and they were all bad. And I was like, I am so much better at this game than all of them. I would have fucking smoked them and Tony Hawk would have been my best friend. Yeah.

But anyway. I love that you're bitter about this. I'm pissed. But they didn't even get anybody good to play the game. Yeah. And then if he challenged me to it pretty recently and I was like, I'm busy, I can pissed. But they didn't get anybody good to play the game. And then if he challenged me to it pretty recently and I was like, I'm busy, I can't. Wait a minute. It makes you look bad.

Here's one thing I do. All the Tony Hawk stuff when they're actually talking with him is really interesting. I love him. I mean, I don't love that he endured it, but it's really interesting to hear him talk about his financial woes in the 90s. And did he say, like, he was freelance video editing for money? Is that what he was saying? He was editing, like, video game commercials and stuff, too. Because he just had his own editing rig. And so he needed money and his skateboarding sponsors sponsorship's kinda dried up. It's wild to think that, I mean,

cause I guess it makes sense, skateboarding is not a very transferable skill. Yeah. Right, so if your whole thing is vert skating and then street skating becomes the main thing, not to say that he can't do that, but he's not known for that, and there's probably less money in street skating

than there was for vert skating competitions. He's also just an older athlete relative to his, and this is a, in any athletic endeavor, it's like young people end up dominating, so he probably reached a certain point where he aged out of it a little bit. I heard him tell this story on a podcast one time where he was like, I broke my pelvis.

Jesus. And they were like, how old were you? He was like, I was like 39. I was like, that broke my pelvis. Jesus. And they were like, how old were you? He was like, I was like 39. I was like, that's fucked. That is insane. So like, it's a bad injury either way. But if you were younger, you're sort of like, yeah, I probably like dusted that off.

He's like, I was like in physical therapy for like a year and a half or something. It was brutal. And he recently broke his like femur or something too. Cause he's still at it. So, but he's like like it's interesting to hear him just talk through about that It's kind of just weird to think I know that whatever like it's it's just but it is kind of weird Just think about Tony Hawk as Tony Hawk. It's like iconic guys. It's like oh is a certain point where he's just like yeah, man I need a job, you know, yeah

but anyway the The other thing is I when he gets involved in the development, like he seems to have real insight and I think this is part of the game's success and part of why he's such a great figure in terms of using his license is that he's really conscious of the game being approachable and not too difficult. Like he's talking about he was brought in for other games and like they were kind of like, hey, do you want wanna be a part of this? And he'd play through their prototype

and be like, this is just too difficult. This is just difficult as learning to skateboard and this actually needs to be a thing that anyone can pick up and play. Like it's like, oh, that's really smart that he just kind of perceived that. Cause I think a lot of people would be like, yeah, sure, slap my name on it, give me a payday.

I don't care. You know? Yeah, like Bill Lamb beer or whatever right bill and beers combat basketball Yeah, I think him sucks But like it is it's really cool cuz like he talked about this a little bit too that he was like a you know I don't think he would call himself a gamer necessarily, but he's a kid that grew up in the 80s He's played video games. He knows like yeah There's like footage of him playing of a younger him playing 720 the arcade cabinet in the documentary That's also wild too that like I it's just so cool that there's so much footage of him like yeah, just being

He's been Tony Hawk for so long. I know it's like it's really really it's really crazy to just think about I do wish they because there's a point where because I don't know if you remember the Bruce Willis game Apocalypse, but this was like one of the early like, hey, we're going to get a big celebrity involved. Yeah. And the game came out and kind of like wasn't great, but never softs big thing is they kind of did a salvage job on it. Yeah.

But it was originally, I think Bruce Willis was supposed to voice like your sidekick. And then they reached a certain point where they're like, oh, we're just making the main character. We got Bruce Willis in it. We need to put in more Bruce. But like the origin was them making this Bruce Willis game Apocalypse, them being like, hey, we want to make this skateboarding game influenced by Top Skater. And so that they made it that part of how they wooed him was with a tech demo that had

Bruce Willis' character model with a big gun riding a skateboard around. I do wish they had that footage. It probably just doesn't exist anymore, but that would have been an awesome thing to see in this. I would love to see that. And to your point, yeah, if you have Bruce Willis, let's just get him in. He's the second guy? That doesn't make any sense.

You understand it from the standpoint of though, like how a lot of games work where it's like oh well the end an NPC is probably gonna be talking to you more than the main character yeah I think that certain plan just but the it was interesting too that he like I wasn't certain that they were doing mocap at that time mm-hmm but like to see him in the ping-pong balls like going up and down a ramp and doing tricks and like, you talked about how like embarrassing that was. And like how it hurt really bad. I'm in this skin tight suit.

Yeah, and then there also, it's like super dangerous because he doesn't have all the padding he normally has. Yeah, all that was super interesting. Also that he was offered a $500,000 buyout for his backend. He was like, nah, I think I'll give the backend. And this has been like the Made a billion dollars from it or whatever because these games which then they go on to say Through Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. I'm not jumping ahead too much here. You're doing great

Remain in the top selling games like every every yeah after every new one still there's like the games like every every yeah after every new one still there's like the when four comes out one two and three are still in the top sales two is like one of the highest like rated and selling games for the playstation one in general it's reminding me how like just important these games in this franchise was in terms of expanding gaming's, you know, general awareness and there was a time when video games were for fucking losers and not, instead of for everybody, you know, and just like making them into a more mainstream product. But it also, it like also did the same thing

to skateboarding, which it helped make skateboarding mainstream, so it's like, it helped both sides of it. One of the most amazing things about the story of this game though comes closer to the end of the dock when Tony lands the 900. Yes. He lands the 900 at the X Games, which I've been to the X Games before.

I went a couple of years in a row when I was a teenager. That's cool. It fucking rocks. It was really, really fun. He lands a 900, something he hadn't done before Yeah, this was a big news story like this was like this this broke into main mainstream like sports news Which at the time action sports didn't really the game is shipping in three months. Yeah He calls the he calls never soft up and was like can we put a 900 in the game?

Which is a genius call to me? Yes, I did it come from him or was it did it come from them with whichever way it was he called and he called He said we're already on it Cuz like yeah, I made the news like if something like that happens you have to put that in the game and then the other great thing that they highlight in this documentary is They don't highlight it too much, but they highlight the soundtracks Yeah, so this is this I really like. They have some interviews with some band members, like the guy from Goldfinger, the guitarist from Primus, the bassist from Bad Religion.

And it's funny that the Primus guy in particular, they're like, we want to license your music for a video game. And he's like, what? Well, huh? Why are you talking? I don't understand. What are you talking about? I know video game music.

It does not, it's not like they don't put songs in video games. Like he had this context of just like hearing, you know, chip tunes on cartridges and, but also at the time this was not a common thing. It wasn't until CDs that you had like recorded music that you had like even the possibility of a song with lyrics being on a game so it was a pretty novel thing yeah and then the guy from

Goldfinger is just like fuck yeah yeah then he talks about to how like nobody really gave a shit about that about Goldfinger like when they were touring or whatever and then they play that song everybody goes fucking crazy yeah specifically he's talking about a show in Europe where people lost their minds for the First Superman the song which was on the soundtrack and yeah, Jerry Jerry was a race car driver for Primus Which has got such heavy play in that game the the bad religion bassist who's just like Like yeah, you use whatever like you just see like they all they all seemed again It was smart of them to go to like the punk side and like these kind of yes this this this this art this like a sport that was kind of

You know pushed to the side kind of marginalized to also go to this sort of like Counterculture a music genre that was like associated with it and all those guys were like, yeah sure fucking whatever And you know, whatever they were putting in this big one is it being this multi-billion dollar media franchise or whatever. But at the time, it was kind of renegade what they were doing. I also like to, some of the skateboarders talked about the notion of selling out.

Because on the one hand, you have to do something to propel the sport forward. And so it's not just like an activity or like a hobby to get like sports, you know, the sports world to treat it with some seriousness. That seems so much of like Tony Hawk's agenda in particular. Yes, cause like now it's in the Olympics. He got it into the Olympics.

But then there's also the other side of just like, you're in some ways like shilling for like a brand and like That is like that's a tough thing to to reckon with like especially for like skateboarders who like consider themselves like Not even just athletes but like artists to in a way which I think is like something that is like I don't know I think about skateboarding like that in like that's kind of like the appeal of it to me

Is that it is? Like an art form too. Yeah, it's a really creative enterprise, but then you have people like I Like there's all those guys that are in the documentary I could have heard them talk for like an hour because like those are some of my favorite like skateboarders specifically because they're from the game Which is the thing they talk about but like Rodney Mullen is like the chillest dude on earth Yes, and I was like I could listen to this guy talk for two hours like he's this guy's amazing because everything he had to say to is so good and that he was just like so thankful and so like

I don't know he's just very like aware of like the the trends and like I don't know, he's just very aware of the trends in skateboarding and also just very aware of himself. It was very, I don't know, he seemed like a really introspective, interesting guy. Yeah, I liked all that. I liked hearing from, you know, there's a young black skater, a young woman skater

who were talking about how Kareem Campbell and Alyssa Steamer being in the game is part of how they were like, oh, came to terms like, oh, I could be a skater. These are pro skaters now who were like inspired by the presence of these figures in the game. I was hoping for interviews with Kareem Gamble and Alyssa Steamer.

And then they're not there and they're kind of like, I didn't investigate, maybe they're, hopefully they're still alive, but I do, you know. I believe they're still with us. But that's the kind of thing of like, you think of all the skaters that are in the original game, you kind of wish you'd been able to hear from all of them. Yes, because they got almost everybody else.

They got almost everybody, yeah. And you know, the thing that I think this doc does very, very well is mirrors the rise and fall of skateboarding in real life with like the rise and fall of skateboarding in real life with the rise and fall of the sales of the video game. Because it just happens. It comes in waves. They were unstoppable in those first four games.

They could do no wrong. They got a little sillier, but then with four, they brought it back down to earth a little bit. Like they got a little sillier, but then with four they like brought it back down to earth a little bit right and then they go in this direction of Tony Hawk's underground and that doesn't sell that great But it's like pretty well received people like that game and that in and in the subsequent games, too but it's just like a year after year the sort of starting to like fall off a cliff because It's just one of those things to or like does the previous Madden sell as much as the one

before? Like, I mean, probably probably a bad example. Yeah, I think I think those sports games those year those annual sports games are kind of their own thing. Yeah, but it was Activision attempted to apply the same model to a thps. Yes. And they did that until the well ran dry and they they didn't iterate on them enough or they tinkered with the formula too much. It was kind of almost a thing where it was just sort of like, it was not really sustainable

to do basically yearly additions of this franchise. And then they kind of the franchise ran out of the THPS franchise kind of ran out of gas and then they made Neversoft who they'd acquired to make Guitar Hero and Call of Duty sequels to other franchises that they were just milking for all they were worth. And then they closed the studio forever in 2014. It's just like a depressing sort of this is what publishers, especially Activision and EA, keep doing to developers. It's such a bummer too because as far as title cards in video games go, I think Neversoft had a great one.

Always had a fun one. The Eye is good. Eye is good. The Eye is really good. And the fun thing about those games too, and especially in those early ones, they stopped doing, ah, they did it up into Underground 2, I think.

There was always like fun, like guest characters. Sure. Like Wolverine or like Darth Maul or something or Shrek. Yeah. I kind of just like, I kind of wish that was still a thing. It's not really in the new one. You can't, like, you can get like a police officer guy, Jack Black, and that is pretty good. But I want Shrek back, I guess is what I'm saying. Yeah, it's, look, every game could benefit from the presence of Shrek. I think this is a really well-crafted documentary and I think it gives a lot of context

to what it was like to play those games and I felt like there was real insight into the development behind this and the reception of them. I think if there's anything, I just like, I kind of, like you were saying, I kind of wish we'd heard from more, heard more from the people that are within it and hear from some other people that aren't present in the documentary. But overall it is, I really do, it did enjoy watching it. I guess the only other thing I'd say is that, and I understand why this

hat, why they did this, but it seems like a lot of the game footage is pulled from either a PC port or the remaster itself. It's a lot of what's captured has a higher resolution and texture filtering, texture smoothing, and I kind of wish we were seeing more of the jagged alias blocky textured PS2 One version that everyone played. Just so it's kind of like, hey, this is what this game actually was, but instead we're alias, you know, blocky textured PS to one version that everyone played. Yeah. Just so it's kind of like, hey, this is what this game actually was. But instead we're kind of more seeing like this is what you remember the game looking like, you know, I so I do play the remaster a lot recently.

So I knew we were doing this. And also I just wanted to see if I still got it. I had been playing the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater one. Yeah, that's the one I'm nostalgic for. I know everybody likes 2 the best. But for some reason I didn't get 2. I just missed 2 completely and went straight to 3. But I-

Who said 2 introduced the manual? Yes. And that's like, in the end, they do Reverts 2. I think Reverts was later. But they do say that two is the game that they wish they could have made with one. Yeah, sure. So I booted up, I've been playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1

on an emulator, and I still got it. I know I can get that secret tape. I'm getting the high score. I'm clearing that right run It I think I could do it in one two-minute session if I like just practiced it. I think I could do it Yeah, but it took me like two like but I did do it and it's It's still it's still it's still a fun game to play even though it's like, you know old and like, you know It looks bad now by modern standards, but the original version is still good. And I think that's

very interesting. Yeah, I mean, look, it's going back to to wizardry, which is predates this game by 20 years. But it's like, there was an era where it's like, it's just kind of a fucking miracle that this thing even runs. You know what I mean? Like, how did anyone make this thing in an era when you didn't have an off-the-shelf engine, you didn't have a bunch of libraries and a bunch of middleware? You were kind of basically building everything from scratch. How was this even doable? Your tools were so much cruder.

You didn't have like so much of what you had that lets you quickly iterate on things and add content was just not present. Your tool set was just so much more limited. But then you also, when you end up with something like this, this is still a fun game. This still fundamentally, the gameplay here is so good, is so well-tuned. The thing they talk about, the one developer,

when he talks about how like people were, like guys, gamers were playing it, and it was the first time you heard people say tight. But that's how it feels, like it's a very tight game. Like that's a big part of what, is just the feel of the control is so precise. And it feels like you're doing what you, the character is doing what you're trying to make it do.

But also some of the discoveries that they made along the way too are so interesting because like they, it just seems like they really like, they really listened to feedback like early on and like in development. So like they initially developed a level that was like the top skater type thing where it's like, you know,

going down to basically the warehouse level. Like it's a downhill slope going into the warehouse where there's a pool or whatever. And then the guys like, everybody got down to the pool in the warehouse and was like, this is the, would spend like a half hour there instead of doing any of the stuff downhill. So they were like, this is the game.

And like, I think a lot more of the, in an, there's another world where Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is, cause there is a level, there's the downhill jam in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater that is a downhill level. There's another world where all the levels are like downhill. Yeah, they're trying to make like,

basically like SSX or snowboard kids or something. But the fact that they, you know they made it a normal plane is, I think, to your point, it's a miracle that it works. I don't know how do you code a kick flip? How do they do any of this? It's crazy. Yeah, I think what you were just talking about is, that I think is what happens with a lot of like

really good games is that they just had a period of prototyping and they approached it not with like, hey, this is what we're going to do, but more of like a little bit more of a like, oh, we've got an open-minded approach of like, wait, now we've cracked what's actually fun about this formula. We can sort of reorient our design to, you know, focus in on this. And yeah, I liked all the design insight.

I could have taken even more of it. I would have loved to hear how they came up with things like, you know, skate and the tapes and everything, and how they settled on the timer, and hearing all that, who developed the scoring system and who came up with the insight that when you repeat a trick combo, you get a smaller multiplier to encourage people trying a bunch of different things, which is a huge part of why that game is so endlessly playable. Because you can't just find your one super combo and then you're set. No, no It is cool that there is this dock now that like I don't know I do I I

Obviously love these games. I It's cool that there's a dock that like gives like these games like I don't know Their flowers because I do think there's some of the more important, it's like an important franchise. I think he's like, and not just the Tony Hawk of it all, Tony Hawk's like, Tony Hawk's gonna be remembered for the rest of time probably. In the same way that Shaq is too.

He's like Shaq to me. We're like, I don't know, he's like one of these guys that is like, he's, I don't know. He's like one of these guys that like is like he's I don't know I just known for a thing that he does I guess Shaq's known for a lot more and like probably will his memory will out will pass will surpass Tony Hawks at some point I don't know. I love that how often Shaq comes up on this pod I think Tony Hawk and Shaq are like my two favorite guys. I love them. The ideal man Yeah, you may not like it, but this is peak male performance I think Tony Hawk and Shaq are like my two favorite guys. I love them. The ideal man.

Yeah. You may not like it, but this is peak male performance. This tweet was circulating as of this record. Once again, thinking about the time Phil Jackson, who was the coach of the Lakers, once again thinking about the time Phil Jackson made Shaq read Aristotle so he could internalize the idea that success is a habit and improve his free throw shooting. But Shaq just started calling himself Big Aristotle and had the worst free throw season of his career that's he he's amazing yeah he's amazing that's so funny and I you know I think

it's cool that like because like you said earlier Tony Hawk could have put his name on any game in the same way that like you know there's a there's a Kelly Slater's pro surfing there was a Dave Meara BMX game. Which all came from this game's success. Exactly, and they're not as good. They're not as good as that, as Tony Hawk, but like he actually got in there and was like, let's make this as good as it can be,

and like, let's figure out how it's good. And I don't know how much you can like credit or blame as Kelly Slater or Dave Meara, because I think those were more just like, hey, these are, this one thing was was successful let's get the biggest guy from these other action sports to be the face of these next franchises it makes sense why they did it but it did not have like kind of the again because THPS was the first it had such a seismic effect on gaming.

But also just that they completely nailed it is so impressive. I don't know, I really, really enjoyed it. Maybe I'm biased because of my fandom for the games, but I do, and maybe if you're watching this cold just as like, what is this video game? Maybe it's, but I think it would still work on that level, honestly, I think it gives you enough context for

what the culture on skateboarding was like, what the culture on video gaming was like of the time. And I actually think it does do a good job of that, but I'd be interested to hear from somebody who maybe wasn't as familiar with these games. Cause yeah, I mean, I think it's got all the makings of like a good doc it has like, it has an interesting story. There's interesting like background information.

There's like nitty gritty, like details for making the video game. That's something you might not know. They explain like vert versus street, right? But then there's also like, I don't know, that moment where he gets it, like where they're building to him doing the 900, that's a cool doc.

I don't know, it's sort of like mic drop. Yes. That's a, that's a cool dock, I don't know, sort of like mic drop part of it. That's a, it's a very impressive thing. I think anybody would be excited to see that. Ranchu and Mark watched this bad boy, is that correct? We did. What did you think? First of all, it's very funny to watch this dock

with a skater. Oh, because he skates, that's right. So the commentary was very funny and a lot of insight on the skaters who were in it. But yeah, I thought it was really fun. I downloaded Tony Hawk Pro Skater a few years ago when I started skating because I thought it would make me better. But I was just really bad at it.

I'm still bad at skating. You're like, where's the square button? I'm like, Melon 360 only. But I enjoyed it because I didn't know much about Tony Hawk at all. And he just seems so sweet. Yeah, he is. There's another doc about him that's not about the games that is more like a like, it's like a very balanced doc.

Like it obviously like it shines on his accomplishments, but he's also like this guy who is like a workaholic and like that puts a strain on his like relationships like with his family and stuff. And like, and that's like, you know, that's intense stuff. So like not to say that he's like this like perfect guy but I do think he like, he rules. And I know that he knows that he's like tough in that way too. But I think this was like a great package of if you,

especially if you love these games and you're interested in like Going the story a little bit more It's streaming for free on to be you can watch it on to yeah It's on to be which I think is now the number one streaming service Which is crazy to think about well, it's either to be or Pluto, but the but yeah, it's on it's on to be It's also on prime video if people haven't checked it out and want to watch. I definitely recommend it. Hey, that was pretending I'm a Superman the Tony Hawk video game story. It's time for the question block. But ding! Here we go. This first one from our discord, discord.gg slash get played from HexyVulpix.

Could you realistically survive 24 hours in your favorite video game? I'm thinking about my top three. Kingdom Hearts 2, Pokemon Gold, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. I think I'm doing fine. I think I'm surviving. I don't think the Heartless are gonna get to me. I don't think I'm gonna get taken down by a rogue Charizard,

and I don't think Tony Hawk's gonna beat me over the head with a skateboard. I think I'm gonna be okay. Baldur's Gate 3, my favorite game of all time. I would be dead in minutes. Because I just think about how easy it is to die in that game how fragile you are at the at the early levels particularly the higher? Difficulties and then I'm also like I'm not like a fucking sorcerer. You know I'm just a guy So I'm going in there. You're not a sorcerer. I'm not a sorcerer

Maybe I could be a bard. I guess that's the closest to some sort of D&D classic and maybe have an approximation of, I guess, a fighter, depending on how big I am relatively to the average guy. Yeah, you bust out the let me be Frank song and everyone's gonna go nuts. Again, I don't know what your reference is. Yeah, I feel like I'd just be like, just absolutely killed, like just murdered by a harpy.

Just like within minutes. I feel like an illithid parasite would, me eating one or ingesting one would kill me. Like it's just, there's just no way. I know I'd get along great with the illithid parasite. We'd be fast friends. Warm in my brain, hell yeah. Yeah, RFK style.

This next one's from Travis. Hi Travis. Travis writes, this week, so last week on the pod, there was a discussion about what the NBA could learn from video games to fix their issue with teams relying on three point shots. That's right. What are some lessons or learn from video games to fix their issue with teams relying on three-point shots. That's right. What are some lessons in or innovations from video games you think could be implemented in the real world?

Interesting. First thing that comes to mind for some reason, if you're not in the cone of vision, you can't be seen. Yeah, I mean that would certainly make like a prison break a lot easier. Just gotta make sure the guards are looking in one direction. Interesting that that's the first place you go. What do you know? Do you know something?

You know, it would be an incredible reform for our healthcare system if you could eat a whole like rotisserie chicken and just be healed. Yeah. so that would be that I would love for that to be implemented in the real world for food to have Not just nourishing qualities, but just the ability to close up wounds and mend bones And what about this treasure behind waterfalls treasure behind waterfalls would be great. Sometimes I think there is I think there is one of those things We're so maybe they're just is maybe That's one of those things where some, maybe there just is. Maybe that's a thing that video games just took

from the real world. You may actually be checking behind more waterfalls. I'm not going to that many waterfalls. And I'm not a treasure hunter myself. But if I went behind a waterfall and there was treasure, I'd be like, of course there is. Here's the thing that gets taken for granted in games. And they're all just like, oh, this is, yeah, of course,

you can do this. And then sometimes it's not in the game, it's like, why can't I do this? But it has no connection to the physical reality of our world. Double jumping, what a dumb fucking thing. And he's like, you can jump and then you can jump again with an air, of course.

And you can use the air to prepare yourself, propel yourself higher. Yeah, that's how it should be, that's how it should work. But can you imagine if that was in our reality? First off, that would be awesome. Back in the Box would be more interesting, yeah. Yeah, that would how it that's how it should be. That's how it should work. Yeah, but can you imagine if that was in our reality? Yeah, it'd be really cool. Oh skateboarding. Oh, yeah, forget about well that was one of my favorite things in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 in particular Cheat codes are just also gone. There's like no cheat codes Yeah, right anymore, but you could turn off like gravity in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and just go fucking flying and in those games

That's really really fun. Yeah, gosh. What's another video game thing? I'd like to see in the real world Just tutorial prompts maybe yeah, and I mean leave them on yeah I gotta wash my hands I'll sing the alphabet or whatever I'm supposed to do. Or happy birthday. I feel like that's a good question. I'm also thinking about, I like, and I know we talk about this in like the future of VR. If I don't know you that well,

maybe your name's on top of your head. That would be very handy. We'd become reliant on it and all of a sudden you'd be like, are you looking at my name? My face is down here. I think that would definitely, I also just, this would just be pretty big for how the world works. I think if you die, you should get to redo your day.

Yeah, that's really good. That would be nice, because then it's not a huge setback. It's just like, it's a little bit of an obstacle, but it's not like, oh, fuck, I'm dead. It only goes, does it go back just a day or does it go back to how far, like, let's say you died. Yeah.

And you were like, it was like not that far into your life, let's say. I'll put it that way so it's not sad. Right. And then you start over and maybe it's like your day that time, but then the next time you die, it's been like years. Yeah.

Do you just start the day over or does it like go back to when you last saved? Or you're gonna die? In my mind, we're working with the day night cycle and you're getting an auto save at the start of each day. I think that's just a cleaner way to think of it. Hey, I think a day night cycle would be good. Yeah, Matt, we have that.

We got that and Treasure Behind Waterfalls. Huh? This next one's from Organic Grass Fed. Hi Organ organic grass fed. I've been in a bit of a gaming rut lately. I'll start a game and play for a couple of nights then I'm just not feeling it and don't go back until weeks or months later even though I objectively enjoyed playing it. How have you gotten yourself out of gaming ruts in the past? I know the feeling. I would say it's fine. Like it's not like a crisis to be in a gaming rut You know, it's like maybe I would obviously say kind of like just like listen to your brain

Yeah, and be like, you know Maybe gaming isn't serving me right now and maybe I'm gonna do something else with my time and next time I feel like hey I want to play a video game. I'm gonna get back to it. It doesn't have to be a Hobby, I don't think should feel like an obligation. Now it's another thing if you're like, hey, I want to make sure that I'm exercising all the time and I just never get it. If that's the sort of thing where it's like, hey, this is some sort of benefit for your life that you want to get into this healthy regular practice, that's a different story.

And that I always feel like it's easier to stick to a schedule than to wait for inspiration, right? Yeah, but but again We're just talking about like playing games It's not like an important thing you have to be doing unless you're like us and it is like part of your job Yeah, I've been in ruts in the past too where what I'll do is I'll just like put a game down and just be like I'm not doing this right now I'm gonna just like yeah, just focus on something else that I like like so like in a gaming rut I might watch like more movies or something or like read more books. Yeah Maybe not so many books, but like I'll start reading a book and be like this sucks. Let me get back to a video game

Yeah, maybe that's it. Can you pick up a book? Yeah, pick up a book That's just good advice in general. It's also like a perfect slam. I'll read a book Read a book you'll be reminded that reading sucks. You know I play video games again but sometimes I found myself to like I watch a lot of I've been watching a little more like gaming like YouTube like yeah stuff like not so much playing games But like I'll watch like a video game like review or like essay like video or something and then like I watch a lot of like tech like reviews to right it'll be somebody reviewing something that I'm like do I buy this and then I

Will get it and then be like well. I have this now What do I do with this and then back to, it's always gaming adjacent is all my YouTube stuff. Yeah, maybe, I mean, watching, like, watching streamers, watching YouTubers, I mean, that can be an, that can be a way of just like, oh, okay, maybe I'm not actively gaming, but I'm passively absorbing gaming,

and maybe it'll go, that alone will inspire you to play some more. But I'd also say maybe play some other stuff. I watched a I watched a YouTuber talk about a technique for going through your backlog, which I imagine if you're anyone who games regularly, you have a bunch of games that you've acquired that you've never got around to playing. But I thought this could maybe be an approach for this situation Which was just like pick something at random from your back catalog that you've never played and

from your you know from your your your to-do queue and Play it for like an hour and if you like it there you go you got a new game to play and if you don't like It there you go. It's out of your backlog. You don't need to worry about anymore So hopefully that that helps you. And finally, this last one is from Tossie. Hi Tossie. And Tossie writes, what button layout do you prefer? Microsoft X, Y, A, B, Nintendo's Y, X, B, A,

or Sony's square triangle X circle? I would say the Sony square triangle X circle, but the thing is then they made it where X is now is now confirmed instead of cancel and like that kind of drives me nuts because I associate the circle button with confirmation and they've kind of standardized it in a weird way where the iconography doesn't match as much anymore. But here's my main thing. Can we just standardize this? Like this is the kind of thing that the, you know the EU made it where they were like, hey, we, the iPhones now have to have USB-C.

And like that was government regulation, but you know what? It was to everyone's benefit. Cause now I don't have to worry about a fucking lightning cable. And I've read some proprietary shit. The EU or whatever governing body, someone get in there and say, hey, you know what?

All consoles have to have the same button layout. So if you're playing something on a on Nintendo, on on Sony on on Xbox, or if you get a fucking mad cats controller, whatever it is, it's got to be standardized, it's got to have the same connectivity. It's got to be cross platform and's gotta have the same button layout, so you don't have to get caught up in how these things, you don't have to remember where the X button is,

because it's in three different places, depending on what console you're using. Wow, I hadn't even really thought about that. Honestly, why your 2024? I'm running. And you know what, my brainworm's alive. That's this week's Get Played. Our producers are Chels Chen, Ranch, Yard, underscore, underscore, Sard.

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 free episodes and our Patreon exclusive show, Get Animated, Matt, where we're taking a little break from Gundam this week. That's right. We're taking a break from Gundam

and we're watching The Contestant, which is available on Hulu. It's a documentary and it is crazy. We're in, we're in a fully in the world of docs right now. I didn't realize this. Oh, wait. We're doxing ourselves. It's doc week on- It's doc week on Get Played and Get Animated.

That's right. We're talking to The Contestant's dock week on- It's dock week on Get Played and Get Animated. That's right. We're talking to the contestant. This is about a Japanese reality show where a man was stuck in a studio apartment for upwards of a year and was forced to live naked off of winnings from prizes from contest he entered. Yeah. So it's a fascinating dock and we're gonna talk about it over on the Get Animated feed. from prizes from contests he entered.

So it's a fascinating doc and we're going to talk about it over on the GetAnimated feed. Patreon.com slash get played for all of that. You know who got played? Who's that Matt? Us for not being able to see the Bruce Willis demo of Tony Hawk. Yeah boy what a bummer. In a perfect world we'd have Bruce Willis' pro skater. Yeah well you know we got played I guess. That was a hate gum podcast.