Get Played - Sonic with Grant Pardee

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Matt, Heather and Nick are joined by host of the Sonic Weekly podcast (on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts!) Grant Pardee to talk all things Sonic! They talk about why the character resonates with people, his many friends, what they want from Sonic 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. All right, Sonic Team. Look, here's the thing. A few years ago, Disney bought the Star Wars IP and they kind of cleaned up the canon. They retconned some of it as like Star Wars legends some of the old EU stuff The Sonic franchise has gotten so out of control so expansive that I think we should do the same thing So it's not gonna be easy But I'm just gonna pitch some some characters that we could maybe cut from the Sonic Canon and say these are like Sonic legends

Characters that's that's gonna be tough, but I understand it's gonna make our lives a little easier going forward. So okay, I mean, if we have to do it, we have to do it. Okay. I just wanna say up front, all of these characters are Legends. No matter who we have to say goodbye to. You're gonna make me cry?

These guys are really, they represent different parts of us. So let's make the tough calls and let's see who goes. Okay. You know, why don't we start with some easier ones then just so we don't, you know, it's not gonna be as painful. Okay. All right, this one I think should be a pretty easy cut.

Bean the dynamite. I'm sorry. Are you starting with the ones that are easy to cut or like Bean the dynamite is like, it's like, or like, being the dynamite is like, it's like Sonic, Tails, being the dynamite. Okay, well look, we'll move on. How about this? Nicole the Holo Links.

Fuck you, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? I'm sorry, I didn't realize. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that. I just got so like, I thought you were being serious for a second. I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was this passionate of a defense of this character, I'm sorry. You didn't think anybody would want to defend Nicole?

I'm just confused about what order we're going in. Yeah, what order are you going in? Why don't you go to the bottom of whatever list you have and start there? Because you're you're naming top tiers. Well at the bottom of this list is Sonic the Hedgehog The main character of Sonic the Hedgehog is gonna stay so I mean I think we've You put Sonic at the bottom of your list? What do you want the game to be? The order I'm going in is the order of characters that I think would be easiest and cleanest to cut.

I did not realize there was a contingent as passionate about Nicole, the HoloLinks, the AI Links who appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series. Sure, it'd be really easy to cut Sonic the Hedgehog from Sonic the Hedgehog. I was using, it'd be really easy to cut Sonic the Hedgehog from Sonic the Hedgehog. I was using that as a counter example versus some of the other characters that we've said

that are perhaps a little bit more obscure. You've only named three. I know, I'll keep going. The three main ones. What about Honey the Cat? Stays. How about Fang the Hunter? I am- Fang the Hunter.

I'm gonna punch. I think I'm gonna punch. I feel like I wanna hit. You're making me wanna hit. You can't be threatening violence in the workplace. I didn't say who. That's completely unacceptable. I'm gonna, but I'm gonna hit someone. Have you played the games, watched the shows,

read the comics, eaten the tie-in food here? These are canonical characters that if you erase them, stuff won't make sense. All right, fine. Fang the Hunter can stay. What about Mighty the Armadillo? Eat shit, motherfucker, just eat shit. We don't ever get personal here. You bitch.

Again, we do not ever get personal. You should not be insulting me. I know you said we're not doing personal attacks or criticisms or anything. Yeah. You're doing a really bad job about this. Well, I mean, that's just insulting. You're doing a bad job and I'm getting really mad.

Okay, well, you know what? Why don't we hold? This conversation has made me wish the purge was real. Why don't we hold the hostility until we get this business out of the way and we decide whether or not we're gonna cut Trip the Sun Gazer. I know where you park your car. I know where you sleep at night. I know where you rest your head. These are threats. You're just threatening me

I'm not threatening anything. I just I want you to know I know where you park your car Well, the implication is pretty clear when you say I know where you park your car I know where you sleep right after I say something that displeases you I I think then the note here is stop saying stupid stuff I think then the note here is stop saying stupid stuff Stop saying stuff about cutting these characters from Sonic that we obviously like because it's obviously getting us fucking mad Stop doing it fine. Okay. Well, maybe maybe we could just bring the temperature down a little bit And then we can discuss cutting gold with the 10-rec like even here what I just said You know gold the ten-rec fan of gold the ten-rec

purpose on purpose on purpose You know you're like decided this you're like Sideshow Bob stepping on those rakes This whole thing is like a pretense so that he can call HR on us after he's antagonized us into violence That's it. He's doing that sort of, I'm not touching you, can't get mad sort of thing, wanting us, goading us into an attack. It's really upsetting.

I feel like, can I just do the next one for you? Because I know you're going to say it. Rosie the Rascal, no, fuck you, eat shit, die. No, no way we're cutting Rosie the Rascal. Actually, I think that is a good cut, but I was going to pitch vanilla the rabbit. Vanilla's a flavor, you piece of shit. What are you talking about? Vanilla's an exotic meat!

Don't you go telling me that vanilla's a flavor, alright? I know that vanilla's a flavor, but maybe Vanilla the Rabbit is a flavor we don't need among the more than 31 flavors in the Sonic the Hedgehog canon. Hey, hey, we've gotta get rid of a couple of random people on Earth. How about we start with your mom or your dad? What do you expect us to say, man? We know these people. We know, we know honey.

We know the armadillo. Notice we didn't go straight to you. We went to ancillary people in your life that are important to you. Not you first Yes, because you understand that that is more menacing This I just get this idea. I have this feeling uh-huh I have this feeling that you're gonna say teakle next and that cannot stand Isn't it to call is it to call I guess to call could go maybe if we don't know we can cut a care

We can safely know we don't know it's one of those things where I read it before I've said it before I have actually a great affinity for to call You know fuck it. This is this is going nowhere So I just want to ask a question to each of you before I wrap this meeting What are your jobs? Like what do you do with this cut at the on? Like, what do you do with this, on Sonic Team? What do you do with the company? I erase the space between his eyes

in every cell of animation. And I, I'm part of like a cell that posts the pregnant Sonic pictures. Even though we have another area within the company of Sega that takes those down. It's sort of a thing where it's like we put it up and take it down. So it kind of gains interest.

I'm sort of like the main pregnant Sonic guy. Well, I should fire both of you, except that your positions are absolutely essential. We gotta go fast and got a podcast as we talk all things Sonic the Hedgehog this week on Get Played, your one-stop show for good video games, bad video games, and all the video games in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matt Apodaca.

Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere video game podcast where we're talking about video games. I added video. That's really good, actually. To the intro. It's a little more descriptive of what the show is.

Well, look, I think that sometimes, you know, here's the thing. I've been listening to podcasts for the first time. Huh. And I was like, wow, intros are pretty important, huh? And so then I was like, if I listen to our intro, like as if I've never heard the show before,

I wanna know what kind of show this is. Right. And so I decided to add video. Yeah, cause what? Sure. The alternative, somebody who's finding the show, they might think we're talking about like Jacks or like hopscotch or something.

Sure, ball and cup, all the classics. Although I think there could be an additional bit of confusion here because Heather's saying adding video, people might be thinking this is a video podcast. It is not. It is not. It is still audio only. Audio only.

I also was like, I wish there was a way to describe attempted comedy. Cause like, it would be nice if it was, welcome to video game, your attempted comedy show for good video game. Yeah, yeah. I think it only applies to two of us. Cause you never wanna say it's a comedy podcast.

The attempt is implied when we're involved. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the idea of comedy, right? Right, yes. Yeah, you sort of get that that's when we're involved. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's the idea of comedy right? Yeah You sort of get that that's what we're trying to do like a walk through a park where comedy might be happening Yeah, but may not happen that particular day look it might be raining Like all comedy high highs and low lows and nothing in between Nothing, I would say mostly in between mostly in between and just living in between. Yeah, how. I would say mostly in between. Mostly in between.

And just living in between. Okay, how about this? It's never so bad that it sucks. Yeah, or it's so bad that it's entertaining. Welcome to Get Played, your mid podcast show. There you go, there you go. And then there's nowhere to go but up, you know? That's pretty good, actually.

I think, you know what? If video is, it's too much. Welcome to Get Played, your your one-stop show for good games bad games and every game in between it's time to get played I'm your host other. Yeah, that's better. I'm gonna keep it the old way Yeah, the cadence is a one-off the syllables good games bad games every game in between it just yet It's a little better rhythm good Don't ever games bad video games every video game in between and you know we're not talking about like connect for or you know Life or Monopoly or something like that unless there's a video game element unless there's a video game adaptation of the board game Some connect for freak just like fucking mark. This is off. Yeah mark. This is red and deleted

Unsubscribe just crossing off every podcast that doesn't mention connect for Hey speaking of serial killer named the game master, and I just all saved our lives Good they won't speak of the ill-fated game connect for Hey speaking of four and connections There's a fourth person on the podcast today Okay, I'm excited to connect with in that I am so God Okay, I'm excited to connect with and that I am so happy Oh, that's what I do you know what that resident evil merchant. It's not you Okay, you can see get just hang tight for a second. We'll go back to the green room

Do we have a green room? I don't know I think maybe the merchants a little confused because before we did start there is this sort of like black cloth Near where I'm sitting. Yeah, I do think it is a part of his clothing I think I think the Resident Evil merchant is hanging out in here And disrobing are you may is this like are you are you I mean, I'll just say are you sleeping here? Are you sleeping? Am I on? Welcome to get played

sleeping in the studio. Am I on? Welcome to Get Played. No. No. What's the question? The question was, am I sleeping here? Are you sleeping here? I would never deign to invade your space.

Okay, a non-answer. I eat here sometimes. Okay, all right, well, that's fair. There's some snacks in the kitchen. I don't want to trauma dump, Alright, well they that's fair. There's some there's some snacks in the kitchen. It's I don't want to trauma dump But it's hard. We're good. We're good I'll tell you right now. No, thanks you give me a you give me a heads up I'm gonna shoot you down every time if somebody's trying that's a lesson to everybody. I don't want to hear it

I got enough shit going on. I gotta hear your fucking problems All right, I'll be in the green room. Just give me like a wave Yeah, when it's when it's time for me to roll in Okay, yeah, we'll give you a signal. You'll know you'll know Yeah, but right now I want to bring in our guests for today's episode writer comedian and host of the sonic weekly podcast grant party Is here grant? Thanks so much for making time for us. Hey, thanks for having me. Hi, Nick, hi, Matt, hey, Heather.

Hi, Grant. Hey. Hi. What a hoot to have you. So back in the day, and we'll talk about Sonic in a bit, but your previous iteration of your podcast, the GHC podcast, I guessed it on. Yes.

And this is like, we talk about Sonic on the podcast, but you guys really y'all really go deep because we were talking we did an episode about Jules Hedgehog, Hedgehog, who's Sonic's canonical robot father. That's right. I don't know why we're laughing. This is just a fizz about Sonic's life. It's just funny that there's so much to yeah. I just said this I think last week, the Sonic the sonic lore is good. It's the best Yeah, it is good. There's a lot of it. Yes, so I think that means quantities got equal quality at some point I think so I think it's one of those things and there's a lot of different versions of it, right? You which is equally exciting maybe I want I have a lot of sonic

We have a lot of stonic stuff to discuss from all of us and I do want to get to that But before we get there I want to start a little bit more generally like wait like what what kind of video games do you like to play if that's that's Not too broad of a question totally Yeah, I am I've come and gone with video games. I'm definitely in video game Headspace now. I mean I'm right and lately I'm in a like a retro I Decided to pick up a GameCube. Oh, okay. I've been building on my GameCube library. I've been

playing old sports games. NHL hits 2003. Wow. Wow. I've been playing the DDR version of with the Mario on GameCube but just with the controller. I don't have a dance pad. I'm a millionaire. Just the buttons is fine for me. But I like Fortnite, I like Smash Brothers, I like Rocket League, those are kind of like a daily sort of thing. And then, yeah, I like Nintendo and Sega games. Like it's sort of always been Nintendo and Sega for me, and then it stayed that way.

So when gaming went towards, say like Halo, I sort of fell off for a while. Yeah, that makes sense. I think a lot of people have also have similar experiences or similar journeys with gaming where you have periods of Like I this is really happened to me periods where you're really active in it And then person periods where you go away from it for a bit because that's such a time intensive hobby I hadn't seen this before I don't think the the DDR Mario. It's called dance dance revolution Mario mix

Oh, yeah, and Mario's on the cover and he's freaking busting to move Look at this guy. You know he could get down. Oh, yeah, this is a this is a big game for Waluigi heads Because he's the primary villain in the game. He has stolen the music notes or Actually, I think he set them free and then the toads want the music notes to be back under lock and key in the castle Oh, wow, and so Mario needs to dance his way to not exactly freedom. Yeah. I would say oppression. Mario's dancing for, yeah, for them to just be locked away.

Yeah, which is kind of a bummer. But then again, maybe maybe there's a plot twist that I haven't experienced yet. So yeah, I guess is there a proper story mode? Yes, there is. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I'd be interested to hear where that goes. Maybe the end Mario's like,

that's it, I got all of the notes, now you must license them from Nintendo. It seems like you like games that are like, just a good time. Yeah, I would say the games that I struggle to get into, like I couldn't get into Elden Ring. Sure. A lot of games that are just the new Final Fantasy,

even the old Final Fantasy, pretty much any RPG. Wow. I've completed two RPGs in my life, Super Mario RPG and Skies of Arcadia. Those are the only two. Another great game, yeah. Every other one is just fun. You play Skies of Arcadia on Dreamcast, Gamecube?

Dreamcast. Dreamcast, oh hell yeah. Wow. But yeah, I like Mario games the best. Mario games are the best. Nintendo games are the best. So I'm kind of, yeah. Kind of pointed to say that on the Sonic episode

as opposed to the Sonic weekly podcast. Yeah, maybe you wanna take that again and say Sonic as far. You know, did you guys experience that of Mario versus Sonic, Sega versus Nintendo? Because for me it was- Yes, sure. You did, because it was Nintendo NES,

and then it was Sega Genesis, and then it was Nintendo 64, and then it was Sega Dreamcast. So for me it was like they were always kind of friends, almost, like they were both in the house. That's interesting. Where it landed for me age-wise is I remember that Genesis does what Nintendo don't,

like that campaign for the Sega Genesis and the Sega Mega Drive, you know, as was known in other territories. Like that was a big, like, Sega is cool and Mario is lame, or Nintendo is lame, like that's for kids. I'm a teenager, I wanna, you know, Sonic is fast, he's cool. But so I remember some of that and but it did kind of dissipate in the Certainly the in the Saturn era just because the Saturn was less of a presence in North America

I haven't even considered like we've talked about Genesis does what nintendon't on this show. Mm-hmm, but for younger listeners We can just play that commercial on YouTube. Like there was a window of time where you couldn't, you couldn't see that commercial. But now we could play the commercial, cause it's got a pretty catchy song too. Should we, should we cue that up?

Genesis does what Nintendon't, something like that. I think Along those lines Genesis. It's like there's like a there's like a sing song. I think it was like Genesis does you can't do this on Nintendo something like that. Yeah, ranch up son of this your way Yeah, it was real. It was a real antagonistic relationship for a while and now it's Mario and Sonic At At the Olympic games. But it's not at the Olympics.

But that was a big thing when they started crossing over, because for the longest time it was just like, they're not even gonna acknowledge each other. All right, we're gonna watch this vintage commercial. Genesis does 16 bit arcade graphics. You can't do this on Nintendo. Genesis does 16 bit arcade graphics 16 yeah, you had a pretty good. This is pretty rude

All these games look like they suck ass though. Matt. How dare you? You're right I remember thinking so Joe Montana football. I don't think was very good Columns is Columns is fun. Columns is fine. Michael Jackson, Moonwalker, even the biggest Michael Jackson defenders not going to bat for Moonwalker. Yeah, we covered it in the podcast in our old format. The arcade version was cooler. The Genesis one didn't really work. But the game I was most hyped for of that, that was largely, that was more of a sports-focused

series, was Buster Douglas boxing, which is a game that was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun.

It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. that was largely, that was more of a sports focused series was Buster Douglas boxing, which was, I, cause I just was like, the guys are big and like they look

like the characters from like street fighter cause they were big. And for like a lot of that area, you just wouldn't see sprites of that size. The thing is the game didn't really play well. It kind of played like shit. And also it was one of those things where they licensed Buster Douglas during the brief window when he was champion, which I think was like less than a year. So you've just always been like this. Wow. Those are big guys. Cool. I'd like to also point out, and maybe this is a provocative take that commercial was very diverse Yeah, like it was it was not you know it There's a lot of the oh

the woke Everybody's you know got a force feed us different things now different things now I mean you could just say it myself Repeat my take back no, I just feel like that commercial was like Representative of like everything but women like it was pretty good. Yeah, sure, but then look what happened to Sega They went broke didn't they they went well early and then they went broke. I

Yeah, that was a just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding parody There there the commercials and the marketing was very aggressive Yeah, and the sake of America loves to like tell that story now like if you've seen like the console wars documentary or read The book like they like telling that tale of like yeah We nobody ever gave us a chance and then we like stuck in in the middle of the night put Genesis on the shelves And we you know they're they're like and then we make commercials They called Mario a piece of shit on TV. The FCC fined us. We didn't give a fuck.

And they're just, but I feel like the kid on the playground, it was just like, oh, you have a Super Nintendo? Oh, that rules. I don't have a Super Nintendo. Yeah. I think there, I think you would run into some of that. I don't know. I remember some factionalism, but also I think that ultimately, yes, it was just, if you had a,

my main thing is like, we were a Nintendo family. And so I had a Super Nintendo, and then my brother's friend had a Genesis, and I thought it was the fucking coolest shit, because it was the one I didn't have. And so when I could go over to their house and like, you know, play Altered Beast or whatever, I was just like, this is what gaming should be, you know?

I'm picturing you on like the playground, like b little kids kneecaps being like we're a fucking Nintendo fan I've just realized also that though I was a Sega family growing up the library I got a Super NES Later and the library I saved the most of was Super NES. Like I have Sonic and I have, you know, a lot of my, if not all of my Sega CD games, but like my Genesis games didn't have the, like I went back to Funko Land with Jurassic Park,

the video game and was like, how much can I get for this? And they were like $4 and I was like, oh my God, that's a lot of money. I've got maybe a hot take for you, because I've been playing the Genesis mini, adding on the ROMs to it, the SNES mini, kind of going back to these libraries in this retro phase I've been in. Aside from the Sonic games, the Genesis library,

like Matt said, it's not good altered beast is Weird and bad. Yeah, it's not a good not a great game to play and I don't feel like the Console Golden Axe, which is another game. I remember loving holds up all that well There's some cool stuff on there the streets of rage series streets of rage and it's strange too Also, it's like there's a lot of streets of rage games on the Genesis then they don't go into the Saturn Right the music on the Genesis, then they don't go into the Saturn. You know? The music on the Genesis though is fantastic. Incredible sound.

Almost, like almost on all the, any, like if you pick up the average Super NES game, versus the average Genesis game, the music on that average Genesis game is gonna rip harder than the average Super Nintendo music. But then you have these outliers like Donkey Kong Country, where like a single song is so iconic that it is still being played on TikTok now.

And I think that that's the difference between the two libraries is that when somebody would hit a home run on the Super NES, they'd like hit it out of the park through the roof of the pavilion, shattering the lights on the way out. And if Genesis hit a home run, it's like, yeah, that's a good jam.

All right, accept the bet. Maybe that's one of the big differences too, where like, Sega had to do a disc commercial and Nintendo in a million years Sega had to do a disc commercial, and Nintendo in a million years would never have to think to do something like that, because they have their own seal of quality. I can't think of a bad Mario game that's come out. Yeah, although the Nintendo seal of quality

was on a lot of dog shit Yeah, I will say that this was also the era of the virtual boy, so it's not like that. We're Saints. That's true That's true. I think that when Nintendo fails they bury it so fast like the Wii U We know what he thinks about the Wii U. Yeah, nobody thinks about the virtual boy, but these were such like like Nobody thinks about the Virtual Boy, but these were such like, like, catastrophic failures for Nintendo. And they were like, pull it. Fucking pull it. Like the, we learned like on the Virtual Boy episode that like the Virtual Boy was out

for like less than a year. They were like, burn it. Yeah, no, they won't, you know, they're not prisoners of sunk cost fallacy. They will move on to something else. But yeah, but I do think in that era, the Famicom and the NES were so incredibly dominant. Like they were just absolutely like, you know, that was the comb console industry.

The Mega Drive and Genesis made a legitimate dent in Nintendo's market share. And that was an actual threat to them. And then by the time the PlayStation comes around, all of a sudden they're not number one anymore. So like, you know, they've been kind of, they have not been in as much of a position of strength as I think they is maybe in their company's DNA

from those days of early wild success. The Sega Genesis Mega Drive 2 is like so striking just in its, like it's a cool black box. Yes, that was so huge. And it didn't look like a toy huge. It looks like a toy. Right yeah and then this looks it's kind of the Sony I think model is following what Sega's doing which is just like yeah we're the cooler one we're the one that you could put next to your 90s stereo system. You know. That was so huge yeah they what like it next to whatever your dad's

compact disc player something that that looks like it belongs on the home electronics wall. Nintendo's only ever made dedicated gaming consoles. You know what I mean? Sega immediately is like Sega CD. We can also play CDs. And then Nintendo, all the way up until, the Switch only plays games.

It has YouTube on it. But there's decidedly no Netflix or things like that. They don't want to be whereas PlayStation Xbox they're more word that everything we also play games yeah the goal is set top box yeah yeah it's funny to think like how people will go back to old video games and play them and think oh this is great they'll watch an old movie and be like wow they don't make them like this anymore they'll like read an old book like oh, this is great. They'll watch an old movie and be like, wow, they don't make them like this anymore. They'll like read an old book, like, oh, wow, this is such an interesting book.

But like, nobody will ever go back to using like, like a Nokia like brick cell phone. Like nobody will do that. Nobody will like be like, oh, these speakers, maybe they do and I just don't know. I think they do, honestly. They do. Do they?

That's like a huge Gen Z thing is like, going back to the flip phone and like ditching smartphones for your mental health Yeah, and so like there it's it's like that That era I went through with digital cameras where I was like, I just want to shoot on retro digital cameras Mm-hmm. I think a lot of young people are like there is something really nice about being locked into just a phone and not having to deal with all the other bullshit, like all of the other antagonism of your device.

And so, yeah, I looked up the total Super NES units sold, and it was 49.1 million, and Genesis Mega Drive was 30 million. So it was a success. Yeah. Yeah. But you're right. Like it was like 20 million. That's good competition.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We got a lot of Sonic to discuss, but before we do that, Grant, the question I will ask you and ask everyone is, what are you playing? That's my cue!

What are you playing? Sorry, I was in the bathroom. I almost didn't make it in. I don't even know what you mean. You sprinted in here. What do you mean what? You almost didn't make it into the room or you almost didn't make it into the bathroom and then you almost didn't make it into where that was supposed to go.

What do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean? I guess I guess it's better if we don't know. Kind of sucks. I think we will head gum staff. We'll find out. Yeah, I am the resident evil merchant known for asking, what are you buying? But this week I ask on Get Played, what are you paying? Ha-cha-cha-cha. Okay, I love that.

I love that. That's really, really good. That should stay. Ha-cha-cha-cha is a home run. Yeah. You just got off the vault apparatus and stuck the landing. Yeah. Yeah, you just got off the vault apparatus and stuck the landing. Yeah incredible that I'm like jealous that that's not mine. Yeah

Hot cha cha cha. That's really really good. Yeah, that's great on that one Thank you. I feel seen Grant what are you playing? Uh, I What am I playing that I didn't mention? You mentioned Fortnite. We can talk about Fortnite a little bit, because I know that's something that Heather is always playing. How do you, what modes do you like to play and do you have a skin you're using right now? Yes, I am Solid Snake.

My wife and I play pretty much every morning with our coffee. We will just sort of play duos. That rocks. And we play a round or two of Fortnite before we get annoyed by being gunned down. But sometimes we win, and that's really exciting. And then sometime in the afternoon, it's like, yeah, I can get a little smash in.

And then evening time, got to make sure Rocket League happens a little bit. And the last game that I completed, which was on GameCube, was Star Fox Assault. Star Fox 64 is similar to Sonic with me. It's short, similar loop, talking animals, love it. And also it's kind of like a score-driven game. Star Fox 64, I love it so much. Why didn't they make more? Star Fox Assault, they kind of did.

It was pretty good. So that's what I'm saying So I remember liking that game. Okay, that was with GameCube was also those Star Fox adventures. Yes Yeah, then that one didn't really click. Yeah, but but yeah that it's and Star Fox a very really frustrating franchise. You're right it's just like the the SNES one and the N64 was its peak and then yeah, they haven't really replicated the formula at the same degree. What do you play? Which Smash are you playing and who do you main there? I main Sonic and I play Smash Ultimate. Wow.

I'm mine. 1v1, final destination, no items. Wow. So I like to fight. Were you into previous iterations of Smash, like mentioning the GameCube, did you ever play Melee back in the day? I played a little bit of Melee with my younger brother, but honestly I really got into it when Sonic and Snake came in Brawl. Those were your guys? Those were my guys!

Like Snake's your guys? It was a big deal. Sonic has really been the through line through, I mean we'll get into it, but like that's been the through line through my gaming, and it's been what's driving the retro thing is there's still games that are only on that era of consoles like Sonic Heroes and Shadow of the Hedgehog. And I was like, I just want to cross some of these off my list, and then that led to being like, yeah, there's a sequel to Star Fox 64, Star Fox Assault. Is the Venn diagram, is the centerpiece of the Venn diagram that connects

Metal Gear and Sonic inscrutable lore yeah and do you also like Kingdom Hearts? Yeah where's Kingdom Hearts in there? I don't like RPGs so I've never really gotten into Kingdom Hearts. I have fortunate news for you you would probably love Kingdom Hearts. Oh no or maybe oh yes I don't know I don't I don't really I don't know what to think I thought you were to say what's in the middle of the diagram between Metal Gear Solid and Sonic that drug is I think Star Fox 64 I that probably is correct. I you know I I'm thinking about this right now I've never played a Star Fox game before and looking at Star Fox. This should be my this should be my god

Yeah, this would be great for you. Honestly that they mean that I played just play 64. Yeah 64 holds up. Look at all these guys Those are the frog with the hat. Yeah, slippy. That's me. You got Peppy hair. Yeah, you got Falco You got the titular star Fox This this girl one is real that one looks like it's drawn in and somebody's having a go Yeah, it does look a little fan already, but no there that's that's a that's a radical character. That's crystal good for Star Fox. I guess I'm gonna have to investigate because I yeah I've never played one before I was like I was just looking at these at some smash ultimate tier lists Just to see where Sonic Sonic's an s-tier character. He's a powerful a powerful Option because are you sure you're not looking at an alphabetical list?

Yeah, Pikachu is P tier. That kind of cheapens my victory. I want to know what Grant's drop is in Fortnite. Like what's your go to POI that you tend to land at? Recently, my wife and I have started adopting hot drops. Hot drops. She learned this from some tweens that she was babysitting one fateful weekend

and they were playing Fortnite together and they go and there was all sorts of Fortnite lexicon that she came home with. And she's like, we to do hot drops and hot drops Is where you just you just drop There's there's not like a planned point. Oh, wow, you just go for it You just kind of feel it you just wait a little bit you just like yeah Yeah, so then I was talking to the guy that hot drop and then you're just out that rules. Yeah, all right

Yeah, and in the previous map I liked the train station a lot sent Grand Central In the new map. I don't know if I've found a spot. What about you, Heather? Because I was listening and you've got your Fortnite squad and you're winning all the time. You're in the top percentage of Fortnite winners. So what tips should my darling wife and I, where should we be dropping? So I want to be clear that that's when or should we be dropping? So I wanna be clear that that's, we're not playing competitively, like we're not entering into the tournaments and stuff.

We just found out that our win percentage put us in a very, very high ranking. So we're not like on a leaderboard somewhere. It was just that like, hey, you guys only play together this amount of times. And of those times you have won this many times. So that's what that meant, that statistic. We drop because I am really dogmatic about getting a specific medallion with my squad.

So as of this season, I have been dictating a drop at Grimgate every single time we drop, because I feel like that medallion is extremely overpowered. Can you explain the medallion real quick for those of us who don't regularly play? So there are four gods that you can kill in this Olympus-themed chapter, and, or Olympus-themed season, and one gives you like a dash, themed chapter and season.

And one gives you like a dash. One gives you a dash and a sprint. One gives you siphon on kill. One makes your weapons more powerful. And then one gives you regenerating teleport. And that medallion is the one that I covet because you can get three teleports for yourself, drop the medallion and somebody else picks it up

on your squad and they get to recharge their teleports also. So it is the only medallion that is transferable in your squad. Whereas all the other powers, you have to be holding the medallion in order for that to be active. But yeah, we that's where we drop.

There you go. Awesome. Cool. Heather, what are you playing? Well, I made a promise. I promise that this week I wasn't going to talk about Fortnite. Now I feel like what just happened was organic, so it's okay. I've been playing Dragon's Dogma 2. Wow. Wow. And I love it. I, it is, so if, if Elden Ring is, is like bitingly intense espresso, where the experience is something you have to be kind of focused on and it leaves you jittery.

And you're like, I like, this is like a, like a, a tension that rides like waves through your entire body. Oh, fuck, I've just entered a room with a eldritch horror and it's got a name over it that says, like, you know, rabid the unbroken, and you're like, oh, I don't fucking want to fight this thing. Dogma is casual afternoon tea, elden ring. So it's still the same sort of like,

you're dropped into this medieval world with a bunch of lore that you have no idea what it is. But instead of this like terrifying, grinding meta-textual experience where like, you have to go up to an NPC and you're like, is this fucking dude gonna Merk me? Like it like is this turtle pope good or bad? Should I just start killing it before it?

No way you could even see the turtle pope and think that he's bad Dragon's dogma is what did you do? Right, so Dragon's Dogma is... What did you do to him? Why do anything? Dragon's Dogma is like, it's like snacks. It's great. And, you know, if you haven't seen gameplay online, the pivotal system, the pivotal system of the game is the pawn system where you create an NPC sidekick that stays with you through the whole game,

you give them a job, and then you assign like a personality to them. So it's like, I want somebody who's like really focused on healing me and I want them to be an archer, or I want somebody who's like really focused on healing me and I want them to be an archer Or I want somebody who's a met a mage and I want them to be curious So they're gonna go off and like get resources for me But they might not be there when I need them and then you can also hire two more pawns and those pawns are provided by

everybody in the world online. So in the way that the message and summoning system works in say Elden Ring or Dark Souls, the pawn system is I can now let my pawn go out into the world and somebody else might hire my pawn and they might send him back to me the next time I log in with gifts and with more XP. So like, if you make a, a, you know, a charming, does a charmingly designed pawn and you give them a cute name, people might hire him more often. Um, I've got a party now where I'm, of course, a warrior and I'm great sword and I'm just cleaving through enemies.

And then I've got an archer and a sorcerer and a thief. And so we've got like a full little squad running around in this world and you kind of, it's like red dead red dead. It's super open-worldy. Like you could go anywhere and you never really feel truly terrified the way you feel in a FromSoft game. Like you can always be like, yeah, we gotta get out of here.

And if one of your dudes gets downed, you can raise him from the dead. Like you can bring him back by like leaning over him and being like, come on, let's go. If you beat an enemy, your pawns will be like, that was very good. And give you like a high five, which is like a nice emergent animate. Like it's not like scripted. It's like, you have to like go past them. And they'll be like, excellent work.

you have to like go past them and they'll be like, excellent work. Um, and they're also kind of like constantly giving each other advice or grief. So like you'll be in like a dungeon or something. And like one of them will be like, we should be careful and conserve our resources lest we find something around a corner. And then another one will be like, yeah, but you can't be stingy with your rain sources, can you? Because then you might starve to death. Well, very good.

I guess, I guess you're right. Like it's like, it's like there's like a feeling of like weird little community in the game. That being said, I've got two clips here because the game, in order to really latch onto me, a game has to be emergently funny. And this is a difficult area that I haven't gotten to yet. And you get to see that it's like hack and slashy and a little bit overwhelming.

Like pretty immediately, the screen is full of things attacking the protagonist. Yeah, this looks like Diablo or something. It's just completely full of enemies. And they're all different. Each of the enemies is different. One of those enemies is a boss. He's being attacked, but like this is,

the game isn't difficult. Also you can be like grabbed by shit and dragged around, which is pretty great. The game isn't difficult, but you can get overwhelmed and that's fun. And then show the next clip. Which is- In that one, yeah, it looked like the player character,

like just went to the wrong part of the map Which is that one yeah, it looked like the player character like Just went to the wrong part of the map and just like yeah group of enemies It's like it's on site if we see him. It's like the shit out of them It's like vampire survivors just a swarm of enemies Yeah, and then this is like all of the environments are kind of destroyed are destroyable, too So this is a dude with three pawns and they're like on some kind of rope ladder heading to some area I haven't been to. And off in the distance you see like a Griffin, majestic,

and then it spots the party. I have seen that online and that does rock. I Have seen that online and that does rock So for people listening the Griffin They were on an elevated platform and the Griffin swooped in and completely destroyed the platform and everyone plummeted into the abyss To their death. Yeah, I think that clip just sold me on the game Yeah, it's it's really I It's hard for a game to like

Make me want to play it when fortnight is always available. Yeah, but it's really Relaxing like I play it, you know I'll play it on the big screen But I've also found it really pleasant to play on the portal. Like sitting on the couch with a cup of tea and just like running around and like talking to an NPC and the NPC is like, what am I going to do? I need apples or my father's going to push me down the stairs. And he'll be like, all right, I got you. I'll get you some apples.

But I'm I'm really loving it. Wow. Yeah. And I know that there's a lot of controversy with microtransactions for the game. And to be honest, I don't understand what you need them for. Like I don't, I know that if you wanna like redesign a character, you have to like pay money.

But that's in part because your pawn is then uploaded to these servers and stored somewhere. So I think that that's like, if you're going to be sending this like non-player character, I think that that's probably a payment that store, like it's like I pay for Google Drive, you know? Like if I'm gonna make documents, I need a place to store them. And that may be a stupid take. And then there's like a bunch of other micro,

like at the store is like money for stuff. And I'm like, but for what? Like the game is fun. I don't know what I'm lacking in the game that I would need. Like I spend a lot more money on Fortnite because it'll be like, holy shit, you can play as the Kool-Aid man if you spend $5.

And I'll be like, okay, yeah, I'm in. Wait, that's not real? That's just the thing you made up? Yeah, that's the thing I made up. aid man if you spend five dollars and I'll be like okay yeah I'm in wait that's not real that's just the thing you made up right yeah that's the thing I made up oh yeah I guess his hitboxes would be tough that's such a big body it's shattered I mean there's a glass they made Peter Griffin work it could be a boss that's true yeah buff Kool-Aid man it's a yeah go on it's great that's awesome there's a bit yeah there's a big chicken so So you're gonna. Yeah, there you go. Peter Griffin Yeah, you could be a Peter Griffin chicken. I'm glad you're having fun with it. That's me too. Matt. What are you playing?

Well, you know, I was talking last week about Deep Rock Galactic Survivors, and I played a little bit of that this weekend still and yeah, but Something happened to me. I But something happened to me. I downloaded Bellatro. Oh boy. And then before I knew it, the weekend was over. And maybe this has contributed to that sort of casino guy, like I'll have a cigarette energy that I sort of have right now because I want to be playing Balhatra but I'm not right now and I love it. It's really, really great.

Nick, you talked about it a little bit last week. Yeah, or a couple weeks ago. But yeah, it is basically like a rogue-like based around poker, loosely. Yes, and I've now become very familiar with poker hands where I'm like, should I just like go do this? You probably, I probably just make a lot of money if I want to play poker.

I probably just make a lot of money. There's no downside, I think. The thing that really is great about it is, and I'm sure you must have talked about this, but the many different jokers that you can have in the game and the way that jokers act as as buffs in this game and like they each have their there's like a bunch of them too there's like I think like over a hundred of them or something yeah and they each have their own unique

effect on the gameplay so like for example one of them will be like every every card that you play with the heart suit gets a four times multiplier, and that adds to your score, which is really great. But the ones that I've found a lot of great success with are the ones that let you complete hands without all the cards, because those are like, because sometimes you gotta play something,

but you don't have all the cards, and then you might be out of discards or something, so if you have that going that's pretty that's pretty great Now you can do like a straight with like four cards instead of five exactly or there's a good There's one that I only got one time and I was like this is the buff. This is this is a great one It's one that lets you complete hands With missing like with the next card over so like you can skip one in a series so like instead of It being a straight like 10 9 8 7

6 you can go 10 9 7 6 5 and like that still counts Which that to me is like such a great one. Yeah, but I'm just I'm just really really loving it, and it's like a great like Put a game on and lose hours of your life. It's relaxing but it does have it has like an edge to it. There's something about it that does feel a little like it's it's great it's rich it's it's so so fun. Yeah a little transient flow state you know can you kind of get in that mode. Yes and it's making me so so fun. Yeah, a little transient flow state, you know, okay, you kind of get in that mode Yes, and it's making me think about Looks like do I just now do I really like card games because that's a really great one

I'm loving Queen's Blood in Final Fantasy 7 rebirth every time there's a Queen's Blood a new player in Queen's Blood to play against I have to do it and I New player in Queens blood to play against I have to do it and I I I've ranked up. I'm a camera what it's called am I a blood demon something like that in my in my in my ranking I can't remember what they call it, but there's uh I've completed every king Queens blood quest so far Wow, and I'm now in chapter 9 by the way and our Final Fantasy 7 rebirth and it is so I This might just be one of the all-time games for me. I think I think Final fantasy 7 as a as a as a genre of video game sure as its own thing as a as an entity

I really now am like, I'm honestly thinking about starting Final Fantasy VIII as soon as I'm done with Rebirth. Hell yeah. And just going straight into VIII. Or going back to VI, I'm not sure which way I wanna go. But either way sounds like it'd be pretty good for me. VI is the better overall game, but VIII I love, and VIII I think is also like,

it's closer to the Final Fantasy VII sort of mode of like, you know, both gameplay-wise and aesthetically. Is Vivi in nine? Vivi's in nine, yeah. Hmm, maybe I'll jump to nine. Don't skip eight. I know, but I like Vivi. Yeah, Vivi's cool, but Vivi'll still be there

when you're done with eight. Okay, yeah, I think I might I because I but I also I'm like I am craving a different type of game too in the same way that like Heather was like I'll talk about something else. Yes I feel like I haven't been talking too much about Final Fantasy 7 even though I've been only playing Final Fantasy 7 games since November but I I Would like to play you know I'm missing out on rise of the Ronin I want to play that so bad that looks like it fucking rocks

But I who knows when I'll get to it I do have some other games in the in on the back burner that I'd like to get to since I'm done with rebirth But that's it. That's it for me. Also. I have to say once we were talking about the The turtle Pope Muriel the pastor of vow from Eldering. I did pull up a picture of him just like it's him again. He's so good. Man, he rocks. What a cool design.

That's a good guy. Remember how much we loved that when it came, we were like, wait, hold on, is it turtle pope? And he's just there. And he's there? He's just there. And you can go talk to him and learn what he's about. And then we're just like, yeah, we love him. Yeah, or you could be Heather and kill him or something

I didn't I didn't kill him. I didn't kill him I was saying that when I saw him I was filled with dread because I was like Is this fucking thing gonna kill me right? He's like the only good guy in here He's like he's a guy also the big pot. I love the big pot to our Alexander Yeah, Jarvis Alexander those guys him in the in Muriel the the pastor of our my guys. Yeah But that's it Nick. What are you playing? Oh Matt? Thank you so much for asking first off Just talking about a big sprawling game. I have to admit That I have fallen off of my Baldur's Gate 3 Darkurge playthrough.

Look, I think it was just too daunting of a prospect for me to replay the same 150-hour RPG three times in a row. I'm gonna come back to it, because I do love this game, but I think I just like, my brain just needs some time away from it, and I think the way I'll do it is I'll come back, I'll reroll a new Darkurge character, and I'll tackle Honor Mode But I'm doing some other things right now and one of those is speaking of card games This game was not on my radar, but I have been fully dune-pilled. I've seen dune part two Three times now. Holy shit. You've seen it a third time. Okay, so third time. So I'm an IMAX 70 millimeter Oh, well fucking incredible. I like it more each time I see it. I love the Dune franchise and I love the Denis Villeneuve aesthetic.

And so there's a card game called Dune Imperium. This is an actual physical game that was released in 2020, but there is now a digital version that just came out last month, roughly timed with the release of the movie that's developed and published by Dire Wolf. And it has not just the Dune license in the same way that like a Dune Spice Wars does, or you know, back in the day like Dune 2, RTS, it has the actual, you know, legendary Denis Villeneuve Dune license. So it looks and sounds like that, like the movies, which I love.

There is quite a bit of a learning curve to this, but an extensive tutorial. It is basically like, you know, as you might expect one of these to play, it's you have cards that represent characters and lands and territories and concepts, you know, a bunch of just flavor from the Dune universe and then you are using that to accumulate various resources and ultimately accumulate victory points to win that individual match. But the things I really like, first off,

it just has a lovely UX and sound design. It is just really well presented. Also, I like that it has the movie license. I like that there's a Beast Robin card and it looks like a Bautista. I like that. That is good. That, like, it's got cool art of, you know,

the character designs and the ship designs from the movie. And I think that is great, because I think those are just films with incredible production design and art direction. Also, you can play offline against AI, which I maybe already said, so I apologize if I repeated myself, but that's really great in terms of learning a game

like this. It's especially something that's a little bit more hardcore that is more naturally going to attract enthusiasts for these sorts of things. But the one thing that I do found, like, you know, it took me a second to wrap my head around is like lands don't work in the same way that they would like Magic the Gathering, you know, like the, like, for instance, an Arrakis card is just a card you play like you'd play like a Lady Jessica card, you know, it's it's just has it's not like it has its own sort of designated status And has its own effect on the game the game board as you might expect, you know

Atlanta normally be but that's that's a thing. You can just get a psychological hurdle You can get past pretty pretty quickly. But yeah Matt as a as a burgeoning Card game enthusiast and as a as a burgeoning card game enthusiast and as a similar dune head, you might enjoy this game. I was really impressed by it. I'm reading one of the rules here and it says, power over spice is power over all. Yeah, I think that's just like a general guideline. Okay, I see, interesting.

Okay, cool, it's good to know that you wanna go for the spice then. Yeah, you wanna, I mean, spice is good. Yeah, you want to get a spice run. Yeah for sure I Know I'm gonna I did look at a screenshot of this right now and my first thought was I'm out It is covered with iconography looks like there's so much going on it looks completely inscrutable and like I was like re- I like replayed the tutorial because it is like so... Okay, yeah. Just like honestly it's like fucking watching Dune.

It's like there's- this is so dense. There's so much information and I just can't- I don't even understand what's happening here. I do want to give it a try because I mean look, I'm a Dune head now and I guess I'm a- Dune goon. I'm a Dune goon and I'm a dune head now, and I guess I'm a car. I'm a dune goon, and I'm a freaking card bard. Look at you. We'll be right back.

All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back.

All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're back. All right, we're and part of the reason we're doing this now is because

of the IHOP Sonic tie-in. We're obsessed with this. That's why? I mean it's not the only reason, but it's also part of the reason. There is something of a news peg for this which is there's a there's a Sonic the Hedgehog I hop menu which I'm going to tell everyone I Had yesterday I went to I hop by myself and I got Sonic's blue blur special

Double the blueberries for double the speed make your order Sonic style and add a side of gold onion rings Did I add onion rings to my stack of four pancakes you're goddamn right I did Now you told us you were going yesterday And I did have a free afternoon and I thought maybe Nick wants to go by himself Was that something that maybe you want company for or were you happy to be there by yourself? I would like to add anecdotally here when Nick Nick sent the picture, my wife goes, oh, why, you would have gone with him, wouldn't you have?

And I was like, I don't know that Nick, and before I could finish, she went, oh yeah, he seems like the guy that would go to IHOP by himself. You got a chair in the kitchen for me, buddy? Well, we do also live in different parts of town. That's true. I would have assumed we wouldn't have, one of us would have had to make a hall somewhere,

but I was just sort of like, yeah, I got some time. I'll go to IHOP. Yeah. But yeah, we could have made this a joint thing, I suppose. I was the only person in the restaurant. Wow. That to me is like, I'm not going in there. That's bad vibes.

But see, that is, like, that's my life. So I'm used to this experience. And I walked in there and was basically, she basically asked me if I was there for the Sonic menu. Like, I was like, it's so obvious what my agenda was. You fucking rused the bat standing ass. Holy shit. I was extremely. I'm surprised there was like a staff there.

Like when you said you were the only person there, I kind of imagined you in like the restaurant Twilight Zone style. Yeah. Just like making the Sonic meal on your own in the back. No, they walked, Nick walked in and like, they had like nine one dialed like just. Yeah.

You should get a commemorative photo of yourself in there alone. Nick walked in and they had like nine one dialed like You should get a commemorative photo of yourself in there alone and you could put it in a book about American loneliness Well grant did you like yeah, I'm sure you've clocked the the Sonic the Hedgehog I hop crossover Is it a thing you plan to try, or have you had the chance to try it yet? You know, just before we started recording, we learned that we were neighbors. Yes, that's right. That we live in the same part of town.

And so I was like, boy, you know, maybe after this, Nick's gonna wanna go to IHOP, and, but no, you've already had it. I'd make a return trip. Well, it was- You liked it. I gotta have the knuckle sandwich cuz I just I got myself Ranch and being threatened don't tell ranch no ranch is HR I love IHOP. Yeah, I have always loved IHOP

I love diners. Yeah, you guys all love diners too. I grew up in a diner. My dad owned a small diner in Ohio. Oh, that rocks. Wow. I was washing dishes when I was 14 and saving up money to buy Sega Dreamcast games. Wow.

I've always had a strong affection for, and LA obviously did a lot of great diners, but also you still have IHOPs and Denny's around too. Yeah. So I have not yet had a chance to try out the Sonic menu, but I'm very pleased to hear that it's good, because maybe I will. I had a blast having the Blue Blur pancakes,

although I will say that I, you know, naturally it was a very heavy meal. I did not need to eat all four pancakes. I did. But the onion rings were a nice bit of salt versus all that sugar. The rest of the menu, the tail's two by two by two. It is just two eggs, any style, two pancakes, two breakfast meats, I guess. So it's more just playing on tails having two tails than actually having any sort of real novelty to it.

Dr. Eggman's Benedict, similar sort of thing, just kind of their eggs Benedict. The Knuckles Chicken Sandwich, I think, is a new sandwich. And then the Shadow's Chaos Chocolate Pancakes, which I just love the name of, but that's another one where I think it's got a little bit more extensive theming. Go ahead and be a little chaotic. A four stack filled with chocolate chips is the ultimate pancake experience. Comes with a gun.

He didn't read that. He's like, he just said it. Nick, across both of your podcasts, how many times do you think this menu has come up and will keep coming up? We talked about it last week. I heard it on Doughboys already. Now. We talked about it last week. I heard it on dough boys already. Now we're talking about it again. I'm guessing it's coming up at least two more times.

It's certainly at the forefront of my mind. It occupies all of my waking thoughts. Would you say it's the biggest thing that's happened to you? Certainly professionally. I haven't been to an IHOP in so long. I feel like of the chain diners, I have to throw out, I'm a Norms guy. Norms is great. I mean, Norms is pretty hyper local. They're not really outside of Southern California, but I love Norms. Norms is fantastic.

I think what IHOP does at a national scale is pretty good. Also, they have become the ones, and we've talked about this before, the Denny's used to do like the Hobbit menu. Like Denny's used to do like the gimmick like menu takeover, and now that's become IHOP's purview. So they did like the Addams Family menu for the animated movie.

They did the Wonka menu. They did the Horton Here's a Who menu. That was a few years back. They had a Minions crossover too, right? Yeah, a Minions crossover. And then yeah, this is the Sonic one, which I don't even know if it's tied to anything in particular. It's more just a general appreciation of Sonic. Never a bad time for the blue blur. I do think I gotta say too that like I feel like there's been a lot of there's a lot of discourse about pancakes Waffles French toast which is the best one

I'm tired of acting like pancakes ain't the goat pancakes are so fucking good Um I do love pancakes. I still I prefer French toast yeah, yeah I kind of feel you on French toast a couple of guys over here You know the watch there there is there is sort of reason, or not a reason for the Sonic IHOP thing, but there is a bonus that Nick is now I guess eligible for, which is the IHOP themed Amy Rose costume that you can use in Sonic Superstars. Wow! Yeah, she wears a blue apron instead of her usual green and yellow dress, and there's no IHOP

branding on it. But if you get enough, I believe they're called Panpoint. Yeah, they're like, wait, let me open up the IHOP app. You've got to very carefully Google this. There's an IHOP app. Of course. Amy Rose new dress. Amy Rose new dress.

Apron, I think, is the key. They're called pan coins and coins so you can trade three pan coins for three pancakes My pan coin balance unfortunately got reset because I have my I didn't realize your my points expired At the end of March which is a bummer But previously had a billion pan But... Previously had a billion panpipes, is that correct? As the only way to get this costume, this DLC for... And Sonic Superstars has had a couple of weird... Because they had a thing where you could get comic book styled skins for the characters,

but you had to get point totals at Kroger or Ralph's for out here. Which we did. And we did it twice because I double dipped on Sonic Superstars which is a pretty mid-tier Sonic game double dips for PlayStation and Switch and so then had to double dip with all the Ralphs points so you know I'm worried if if I because I don't need the retro costume for any sure it's a nice to have cool. She, I will say in the IHOP apron, she's cute as a button.

Yeah, it is cute. It's really cute. Yeah. No, yeah, you're gonna want that. Yeah. Let's talk, so let's talk about Sonic. Let's get into it. Like what is the genesis, if you will,

of your Sonic the Hedgehog fandom? How did you get into the franchise? You know, I don't, I mean, I remember when it sort of came around, why it sticks with me, why, you know, it sticks with people, it's hard to, you know, quantify, but I think there is something just about the character design and then also the way the games play.

We were touching on this a bit earlier. They're so unique. They're so different from anything else. It's just Mario, but fast with a little bit of rolling I mean it is kind of that but it is also you know it's a pinball platformer You know even the 3d games they play like roller coasters that are interactive they there's nothing quite like them the way that they play There's other characters that were knockoff. There's bubs II. There's rocky rodent sure, but they don't play like Sonic plays So the acrobat arrow the acrobat, sure, we could go down the list. So I think-

Remember Croc. It was also such a Sonic blast at the time, right? They came out hot with cartoons, two cartoons from the same production company and a comic book and a game every year. It's crazy. There's Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles in four years on the Sega Genesis. All four have different like brandings of the Sega Genesis, from the black box to like the red box with the stripe. It's a lot in a little bit of time. So, you know, I'm

just glad that I could live during the time of Sonic. I remember a little bit of what it was before. I remember when he came around and I remember what a big impact he's sort of had. What is the, like, because you're talking about Sonic Superstars, then maybe that's kind of like a mid-tier Sonic. What are your favorites? What are the ones where you're like, oh man, these are the games that really typify what's awesome about this character in this franchise? I think it's Sonic 2. I think it's Sonic 3, some people will say Sonic 3 and Knuckles,

I think that's a cheat. Sonic CD, really all the Genesis and Sega CD games are pretty top tier. Sonic Adventure is pretty near and dear to my heart. And then even though it's kind of like not so great, it's a bit rougher on the edges, but I do love Sonic Frontiers just for finally Giving you yes the opportunity to run around in a big open empty very empty space But you can run around finally and you're not just like in a linear hallway So I like that I had a blast with Sonic for tears. Oh, yeah, you also like Sonic for tears Yeah, I loved it loved it and I also I love the new Sonic game

I played it I I fell off of Mario wonder because I was enjoying the new Sonic game more. Oh, awesome. And they were bafflingly released within the same like two week period. Yeah. And I just wanna give you props for saying that Sonic 2 was the first one that came to mind. I was like, yep, that's right.

That's good. Yeah. Yeah, Sonic 3 and Knuckles tends to be like the fan answer, but I kind of, I feel like that's a cheat because it's two games sure it came in two packages They cost two fifty dollar or sixty dollar packages. They're two games. They're stacked on top of each other How many cartridges it's two two cartridges, but account them as one game Things a little unfair too too many as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, it's like when people vote on the how dare you it's like people I'm concerned. Yeah, it's like when people vote on the how dare you it's like people When they're like oh, yeah, the greatest movies of all time is Godfather 1 & 2. It's just like that's two movies Yeah, what are you doing? But what are we gonna say that when people say Dune and Dune part 2? Well, that's what that's one

cohesive narrative. That's one story. So that's of course one movie. It is true. And also two movies which are both good I will say I mean I it sounded like I was Slamming Sonic 3 which I was but I have not played it. I've not played a lot of Sonic in in my lifetime We did Sonic the all the Sonic games that we played on this show have been the weirder bad ones. Yes And you know we did you know we did shadow the hedgehog of And we did Shadow the Hedgehog, of course. We did Sonic 06. We did do Sonic Frontiers, and that was the first game I think that I've returned in like 20 years.

I sent it back. I was like, I don't like this. None of it worked for me. But, and yet I have a disc copy of Balan Wonderworld. Yeah. Well, sure. But I was like, get Sonic Frontiers out of here. Yeah.

But we did do Sonic 2 for the show also, and that's sort of where I was like, okay, I think I understand. Because this is undeniably good. This is fantastic. I can't remember if you played Sonic Mania, but I feel like that would be like- I messed a little bit with Sonic Mania.

Yeah, I feel like you would get really into that. But, and I've said this before, and it's an insane thing to say. Yeah. He's too fast for me, and I don't like it that much. This is, I think it's a hard thing to get into it's a weird It's a weird like you're going faster than you're running into obstacles like so when people say they just can't get into sonic It's like yeah, that's right. You're probably

Neurotypical you're probably just like right and like normal, but like there's yeah I put like sometimes also I'll say when like I get Mario on a good run. Yeah, sometimes like hey, whoa, whoa, whoa slow down, buddy We're not we're not doing this Sonic stuff over here. Let's just keep it keep it casual a nice languid pace Why don't you good grief? I there's there's much still to discuss but Rochelle I sent you a link I just feel like since we're talking Sonic any excuse for me to play the Sonic Underground theme. So let's just hear some of this.

["Sonic Underground Theme"] Triplets born, the throne awaits. A sea of wands of a deadly fate. Give up your children, separate. Okay, so Grant is lip syncing this song. Sonic Underground. Sonic Underground. Sonic Underground.

And this is, this is the best Sonic game. It's incredible. Let children grow, learn what's right. We can't, we can't. Leaders of the freedom fight. We gotta stop, we can't play the, so listen to the whole thing. The thing, the thing that is great, brilliant about this song, it sounds awesome, they're playing and singing the hell out of it.

Every line is new information. Yeah, it's very efficient. Yeah, it's stuff that makes you go, oh, interesting, a freedom fight, tell me more about that, I guess. Will the prophecy come true? What? There's a prophecy? What is going on?

What is going on? Yeah. That song rules. It's definitely the best song. It's great. Easily the best song about Sonic's mom. I love my children, but I have to wait. Back too soon would seal their fate.

If they made a vow, their mother would be found. Sonic underground. Yeah. It's really, really good. The Saturday morning one, also a great theme song, the fastest thing alive. Sure. Also, also great. I mean, it's really, because there have been weirder games.

I like the weirder games. I like the weirder games I like it's because Sonic 06 is like you guys have covered you talked it at length about something, but it's weird It's borderline outsider art. Yes, it's very strange because it's unfinished. It's unfinished So it's it's of course it's gonna have like these gaps in its logic But one thing that's undeniable about that game in all the games is the music the music is phenomenal It's so it from the Genesis and the funky jazz kind of fusion thing that they're doing to the rock and the butt rock

and now more of like a EDM sort of thing. They're all really interesting and really fun and cool. It's like Mega Man in that way. Heather, I know you're a fan of the Sonic from way back from its earliest iteration. Did you ever get into any of the comics or animation? I watched fairly consistently the Sonic cartoon that was voiced by Jaleel White.

Oh yes, yeah. That was all three of them. Which was not, like, if I'd had access to the anime Sonic, I probably would have preferred that. But of the two that were available in the United States, I liked the tone of the Sonic with Jaleel White, which was a little bit more serious, a little bit more like grumpy, which was me as a kid.

And then I covered that. Song for the scientifically accurate series for Fox and and filled it with horrifying details about Sonic's genitalia and also how Knuckles' genitalia worked. Sonic's genitalia and also how Knuckles genitalia worked. But yeah, I like I love I loved that as a kid. And then I think I like I wore I used to wear Sonic the Hedgehog socks when I would do sporting events in high school. Because like, I don't know.

Why not? Gotta go fast. You only get to be a kid once. Gotta go fast. Can I do an impression real quick? Yeah. Did I go fast? That's really good.

You know Jaleela White voiced, so we listened to the Sonic Underground theme. And in that, there's three children, Sonic has a brother and a sister, and there's Sonic. Jaleela White voices all three of them. That's wild. And that's the third Sonic cartoon that features Jaleela White voicing Sonic.

He did Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and then the serious one that you're talking about, Heather, the Saturday morning one with the theme song. And I feel like it would be fun to like, you know, they bring back every spider-man and every Batman Bring back little white voice on it because classic Sonic in Sonic Superstars doesn't talk. Mm-hmm If he talks, he should talk like little white. That's all I'm saying That would that that feels like a natural like Ben Schwartz meet Jaleel

White sort of thing that you could do in one of these Sonic have some sort of Sonic crossover like that like yeah, like you're saying like the Spider-Man thing, but yeah, it's, he had quite a voice work career. I guess he still does, right? Yeah. Yeah. I like the voices of some of the ones where they're a little rougher around the edges,

like you mentioned the anime Sonic, there's the Japanese OVA, the original video animation where the dub of Sonic sounds kind of like... He's just like, uh, Ah, what are you doing, Tails? I don't wanna do that. But then you get to, like, the Dreamcast, and he's more like, Ah, I'm Sonic! Let's go fast, it's cool! You know what, I put a little too much twang on that last impression.

I do declare, my name is Sonic the Hedgehog. Last impression, so clear, my name is Sonic the Hedgehog. Yeah, he's Antebellum Sonic the Hedgehog, I don't know what he is. Okay, so of the, we're talking about the cartoons, we're talking about the animation, the comics is a thing that I never got into and it seems kind of like, you know, overwhelming to me, but were there any particular runs of the comics that you really were into or that you think are generally regarded as some of the more effective ones? When I was starting to read the comic, it was very silly. There was like slapstick, it was like an extension of the Archie Comics brand as well.

It was just high jinks between Sonic and the freedom fighters characters because they were building off of those cartoons because Sonic didn't have a knuckles yet there wasn't like an extensive cast so it was Sally and rotor Antoine the freedom fighter characters that now are sort of just disappeared don't exist anymore and then the comic got kind of serious it got more like I guess sort of sh sort of shown in, you know, in its approach being that it, but in the, like a 90s way of, you know, but it was trying to like do more serious episodic storytelling.

And that starts with, I mean, the infamous writer, you probably know, Ken Penders. Right. Who does a, but I loved it at the time. I was super into it because I was like, he was writing the Knuckles series and he was like drawing out all this lore about Knuckles family, which is just Knuckles with different goatees.

Yes, it's just Knuckles with eyebrows, Knuckles with a mustache, Knuckles with, guess who, with Knuckles head. But there was something about it. It felt like a little more grown up. It felt like a little more, not even grown up, but just more lore. I mean, it was just more lore. Maybe that was the appeal of it. It's funny that there was not room for those other Sonic characters that fell to the wayside

because there are, from my estimation, a hundred Sonic characters. There's so many of them. Yeah. Well, you want Vector the Crocodile to take a back seat? Come on. He's honestly the last one I want skipped. That's my boy. My wife hates the Chaotix. She hates Espio, which is the purple chameleon with the horn on his head.

She finds his design to be very upsetting. Was he in this? I feel like I'm trying to remember who was in the murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. I feel like he was. Esp to remember who was in the the murder of Sonic the hedgehog Feature prominently yeah murder of Sonic the hedgehog. That's right No, Charmy B though right no Charmy B. It's uh vectors there I think I think it's blaze of the cat in it. I can't remember sound yeah Okay, I can't remember cream the rabbit not in it silver the hedgehog not in it big the cat big the cat is in there

I like metal sonic metal sonic is cool. Oh, do you love Sonic is great? What what is everyone's favorite non like Sonic character that isn't Sonic himself? Yeah, hmm if you have to name one and again, and you can't just name one you can name a few I mean And if you can't just name one, you can name a few. I mean, Tails is like a perfect character. Tails is great. I mean, he basically is Sonic. Like, any of the main ones are basically him, so maybe it's not a good answer.

But like, Tails is a perfect character. He's so cute, especially the classic version of the character, the original Sonic 2 version of Tails, where he's orange in his fur coloring, and he's got belts on his gloves and his shoes because they're too big, so he's gotta put belts on them so that they stay on. I really like that version of Tails a lot.

Tails and Sonic have some funny business together in the in the movie yes like when they're at the that like Slavic bar In the second movie they come in wearing little coats and goggles I was like this is this is the cutest thing I've ever seen this is really good They have the thing of tails using his tails to cover Sonic as a blanket really everybody odd. Yeah, like simultaneously It's sweet. It's perfect. So it's also it's it's you know Cuz he saw it like how many me wasn't a part of the Austin Powers franchise until Austin Powers a spy who shagged me

Tails has become so like Sonic and Tails are thought of as one thing But saw he was there was a time when only Sonic existed Yeah or thought of as one thing, but there was a time when only Sonic existed. And I remember when Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was being hyped and that there was a new character, Tails, and how mind-blowing the idea of this new creation was. Also, that he did stuff on screen. That he did stuff. Yeah.

Like, Yoshi can't fucking do shit, but seeing a commercial where Tails would jump on somebody and kill them for you Yeah, yeah wild right because you were used to like Mario and Luigi where it's like take turns Who's playing the level but Sonic and Tails on screen together? Yeah, and that clearly obviously influences like Donkey Kong Country was you talked about early Heather do you have a do you have a? You partial any particular Sonic the Hedgehog character outside of Sonic? Probably Shits the Goat.

You joke, but that's one of the guys. He had a great arc, honestly. In the Japanese manga, they did a really interesting thing. The freedom fight doesn't succeed without shit's the go. Yeah. No, but I think, I really didn't like any of the additional characters

after Tales. I liked Sonic and Tails and that was enough for me. But once Big the Cat happened, I was like, okay, I guess you've come all the way around the world and won me over again. Because it's name, like Knuckles is a name, Tails is a name, or Miles is a name. You know, like they're names.

Big is not a name. No. It's almost a title. Yeah. Yeah, Big the Cat. And then he's like in Frontiers, he's like, hey, you want a fish? Yeah.

He sucks, he's great. It should be said that Dr. Eggman, Dr. Robotnik is also really good. Yes, that was going to be the character I was just about to shout out as well. I think Eggman, Robotnik is super fun in every form. The Jim Carrey version is great, the version from Adventures of Sonic where it's like the rolling, ah, Robotnik, and then the, like, I guess the evil one in Saturday Morning is kind of okay, but you know, either way, the games is always a fun, fun character.

What a fun idea for a villain. And you know, it's sort of annoying when like, when Crash Bandicoot came around and it did the exact same thing. Right, yeah, another villainous scientist. I was like, this is too many. We can have Dr. Wily and then Dr. Eggman. By the way, do you guys prefer Eggman or Robotnik? Do you have like a preference there?

I see, because I heard Robotnik first, so I always stick with Robotnik, but I like how they've kind of just made them both work. It's like Eggman and Robotnik kind of both. I think you can have two titles. Like being both the, you know, Paul Atreides and Lisan Al-Ghaib. You can be both things. And the Moudib. Of course, yeah. Exactly. And the Mahdi.

And Usul, of course. There's a thing that they actually don't really mention in the Dune movies, actually. Paul loves nicknames. It's kind of his whole thing. They got a lot of them. You mentioned Dr. Evil a little bit ago. Yeah.

Dr. Robotnik, Dr. Evil, they're kind of the same guy. Yeah, they're similar sort of archetypes. They wanna do their bad thing and their bad thing only, and they're bad at it. My answer for Sonic character would have been a cop-out, but a fun thing that I remember doing from like 15 years ago on the internet is just search your name blank the hedgehog.

We've talked about this and there's invariably some fan art and this is one that I have a lot of affection for. This is Nick the hedgehog. It's a very crude drawing. Tell me I'm pretty. Tell me I'm pretty. Well, I hate it to see that. There's more fun, quote unquote fun Sonic trivia for you.

Nicky is the name of the, of Sonic's Peter Parker alter ego in the Sonic manga in, in from the nineties in Japan. So he was like, he's a, he's a dorky kid named Nicky with glasses and then he turns into Sonic and then he like turns back into Nicky. Wow. And can that happen like in real life? I think so. Okay, cool.

Yeah, you have to eat enough chili dogs to get the power. I'm the tasty freeze. What, okay, here's a question I have for you, because I think because the Sonic canon, the Sonic lore is so sprawling, and at times, you know, just, I think, baffling to even to fans.

Is there like an isolated, most controversial moment in Sonic lore? Or is there something that fans fixate on as like this was kind of the jump the shark moment, or this was a bridge too far? Yeah, I think it's it's oh six right like yeah sure that which I I have a affection for it I sort of love it I think people at the time you know they were really upset with how there's very long loading times but now it's like I just checked my phone just a little phone break right not a big deal

right not a big deal and the breaks or when he kisses a human woman. Yes, when the human woman kisses him to bring him back to life because Mephalese the Dark has invoked the god of Solaris to come back because Elise has shed a tear and now Elise has to kiss her true love, which is Sankt, the Hedgehog, which obviously no one is questioning.

Then that brings him back to life with the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Itedgehog, which obviously no one is questioning. Then that brings him back to life with the power of the Chaos Emeralds. It's beautiful, Matt. It is really sweet. I just have to let our listeners know, Grant has no notes. No.

This is all coming from his brain. Yeah, this is all, yeah, that's true. That's all tattooed on your back, though, right? Yes. Yes, well, I'm curious about, you guys have kind of given me some hints with your answers along the way of just like your perception of Sonic. Because Nick, I always thought that you were into Sonic or curious about Sonic. You and Heather both seemed to like post or talk about Sonic in ways that made me think, oh, you guys have liked or had like a real

affection for him at some point. Yeah. I mean, I still like Sonic. I like the character a lot. I'm always rooting for the franchise. Like I mentioned earlier, Sonic was until I... I never had a Sega console until I got a Sega Dreamcast. And Sega Dreamcast was...

I love the Sonic Adventures games, but I always like via either playing on my friend systems or later playing on emulators, love the Genesis era Sonic games as well, you know. And so I've always, but I also just have, especially because the fandom is so, like, just passionate and then some of it is depraved that, like, I'm just like, I'm fascinated by that aspect of Sonic. I do love the fan art. I do love the fanfic.

I love, like, people getting mad about Sonic. Like, it's like, and I love how some of the decisions they've made, you know, all the Sonic and his shitty friend stuff where it's just like, there have been times where it's's like, and I love how some of the decisions they've made, you know, all the Sonic and his shitty friends stuff where it's just like, there've been times where it's just like, I don't know why they're making a game where Sonic is friends with the Knights of the Round Table, but you know, like that's the thing they did.

Yeah, that's a game that I have not played through, but that is a game I guess that, I guess I wanna say it's the more Gen Z fans are like really really going to bat for interesting which is one that I was like oh that's one of the obviously stupid ones I something that's Sonic in the Black Knight or something is for the Wii yeah right but but Sonic this is the same question for you or I'm Sonic I called Heather Sonic happen sometime Heather same also grants question was to both of us. I'll give you a chance to answer I Unironically like Sonic the Hedgehog. I

I think I've said on this show that I own Sonic 2 more than any other Game like I have it on Every time I get a new platform, I'm like, well, can you buy Sonic 2 on it? Like I have it on Apple TV. I don't think I've ever played it on Apple TV, but I have it. Because there's, you know, who plays anyway?

The point is, and as I said, you know, I dropped off Mario Wonder and then played that new Sonic game, which the name I don't even remember. Sonic. Sonic Superstars, right? Yeah. Superstars, yeah.

So yeah, I unironically love Sonic. I would love it though, if somebody made an undeniably great Sonic game again, because Superstars feels cheap. It feels like not finished in the way that Mario Wonder feels completely finished. Totally. I just, it would be so amazing if,

and I don't know what that game looks like either, because I don't, I'm not sure I think that the 3D Sonic games work very well. But I thought that Sonic Frontiers came really fucking close because I was like, okay, the thing that you need to be able to do in the game is have huge wide open spaces where you can run super fucking fast. That was just pleasant to do.

And maybe it needs to be a game that is as wide as Sonic Frontiers, but also have more loops that you control, because part of it also is like, once you're on those rails, I'm like, I don't want my game to play itself. Like I wanna play the game. Yeah, it's just a quick time event a little bit. I wonder if the,

because you mentioned Mario Wonder and I feel like what we're hoping for is a Sonic game that looks and feels with the level of polish, the level of graphic fidelity of like a Mario Wonder. Because Sonic Mania was awesome. Yeah, it was. But that's like a retro sort of aesthetic and a game that looked and felt fully modern

but played like the Sonic we loves. I think that's what the fandom is really hoping for. Maybe we'll get it at some point. Yeah, I think also it's about Sonic fans dialing their expectations back and just sort of accepting that Sonic is a mid-tier franchise. Sure. Sonic is a seven out of 10 franchise.

Oh, oh, my heart. I say it as someone that loves it. At the time, in the very beginning, you could say it was like a triple whatever a, I guess, for like two years. Right. But then, but even now, I mean, like Matt, you're saying like, I can't really get into these games.

And it's like, I can't blame you because because they are there is a fundamental thing that does not work in its conception Which is you're going fast and there's obstacles. Yeah, they're not compatible There's a reason why you don't see a lot of games do it But Sonic is able to thread that needle and once you get into that yeah rhythm with it. It is really really great So it's really about I think adjusting calibrating your own Really, really great. So it's really about, I think, adjusting, calibrating your own expectations for what these, because I just don't, I'm not holding my breath

for a very polished Sonic game. Even Sonic Mania, when it came out, needed a couple of updates from the developers to iron out a couple of bugs. And I just think that Nintendo is so, I just think there's a big gap between Nintendo and everybody else Or Nintendo and Sega in this case in terms of their ability to produce a product with with such polish and refinement

Right and Sonic frontiers to their credit to say his credit had I think some of the most polished polished Gameplay that they've had in a while in part because we also know that they were doing a lot of play testing Which I guess they had not done as much previously. I will say, back to Sonic 2, I remember when we talked about that game, we talked about in particular the Casino Night Zone area. Oh sure. I remember, when I think about Sonic, I think about Casino Night Zone, as like, I was like, this is game design,

this is a level, this is like really, really something. They snapped on this one, this is like, this is unbelievable. It's like the apex of 16-bit gameplay, basically. It feels like it shouldn't be allowed, it feels like it shouldn't work. That is, to me, an amazing experience. Also very unique. Just to say something positive about Sonic very unique to Sonic to write like casinos are not really a thing you I guess

there is gambling and kind of things in Mario, there's like the the Toad houses sure but not so called out like like not called casinos right like it is true Gambling and these are games for children it is sort of unique to that experience But I just remember seeing that and I remember I'm looking at it right now now kids just get to gamble via loot box gamble Via loot boxes and they get to fucking blast their their jewels their fucking Their their vapes and all that these kids have it so easy I remember looking at the the full map or the full layout of one of the

Zone zero mate. I was the one I'm looking at right here It is looking at how big it is and how much there is to do and how there's so many different ways To to get to the end is Unbelievable to me the routes yes the different routes you can take through a level in Sonic is also a huge thing that sets it apart because in Mario there's one route. There's sometimes hidden routes, but there's one main pathway.

With Sonic there's different skill routes. If you're able to navigate the platforming, you'll get to go the fastest through the level at the top tier. If you're kind of clumsy, you go through and then there's more obstacles on the bottom tier. Thinking about it with all of this Nick going back to your earlier question about what it is about Sonic in general I think the key thing is that he's a hedgehog. Yes, and he's blue. There's a great color, but here's here's the fucking kicker This is like okay, so first of all it's like a hedgehog. Yeah, that's an unusual character

There's an unusual thing to do very much though. Then you say it's blue Yeah, okay, but then he's in sneakers He's in power sneakers, and he's running through the city and he's going to casinos that is something Mario cannot do it's true And that's something no bugs bunny doesn't wear shoes Mickey Mouse does wear shoes, but he's not going to casinos. Yeah That's a allowed They like said that he can't go anymore Heather said something about Sonic that I'll never forget

And it's that she thinks that his eyes would stink Just like one big area, but it's two eyes right and I've that's never been far from my thoughts Right and I've that's never been far from my thoughts Rochelle did you ever have any experience with the sonic franchise no I want to get at anyone's and any closing thoughts any anyone's Final observations anything they wanted to say hit on something really important right now I think it we can't forget that he's blue. It is really cool. It is blue It's the same color as the company logo. Yeah, it's just awesome. It's really good It's a really good moment of synergy there and like I do think I think if he was another color

You wouldn't give a shit about him. And there are other characters that are different colors in the game. Like obviously Knuckles is red, Tails is orange, you know, Shadow is black and like, but Sonic being blue, if he was green, you wouldn't give two shits about Sonic. Yeah, I think that's true. I think that's right.

Well said. I, my, my final thought is that I wish I had known I think that's right. Well said. My final thought is that I wish I had known and purchased a box of Sonic the Hedgehog cereal. Which came out, it was a General Mills cereal, it came out during Sonic 2, and it was a limited edition cereal, and it was rings and blue marshmallows,

and boy oh boy. What a pleasant, I bet that would have been a pleasant breakfast experience. So I wish I'd had a bowl of Sonic the Hedgehog cereal. That's my final thought. Wow. If there was a shadow of the hedgehog skin in Fortnite, that would be fun, right?

That'd be awesome. Yes, that would be fun. that is awesome yes I mean he fun put any of the Sonic put big the cat in there but reduce the bat put whoever else but anyone you got in there but it's a backpack shadow because he already wields a firearm well that's a natural fit yeah and he would be no scoping motherfuckers out there grant any't he? Grant, any final thoughts? You know, just hey, thanks for having me it was great to talk about Sonic I think the, yeah

I think I've said everything I can say about Sonic but You absolutely have not said everything you can say about Sonic I know your podcast Boy, I feel like I yeah, okay, yeah. Okay, well, my big points are

Sonic is a 7 out of 10 franchise, he's blue and he wears shoes, and there's no games like him. Okay, I think we hit those three points. There you go. Maybe it's important to note too that we don't know a lot of characters' favorite foods, and that the fact that we know that he loves chili dogs

does also make him a cooler guy. I love that he loves chili dogs and it's such a great character detail. I like chili dogs I do wish and maybe this I hop thing can become part of his canonical foods that he likes Because it would if there's like a sonic event. It's always like there's like there's the cafes of they're like well We got to serve chili dogs, but that's a heavy food. It is heavy. Yeah, it would be nice if it was like maybe grapes Grape right salad, you know? Honestly, everything on the IHOP menu is pretty heavy as well, so yeah, a lighter option. I think compared to the pancakes, two chili dogs might be a little bit better for you

on the whole. I think I would have rather eaten two chili dogs on your rings instead of four pancakes on your rings instead of four pancakes. And I'll just say as much for my final thoughts, I will just on this note, once again, say that I like that you can be having a conversation about Sonic and have it be go on for a few beats before it's clear, whether you're talking about the hedgehog or Sonic driving-In.

Yeah. Because she could say, like, oh, man, Sonic and Chili Dogs, right? Like, oh, yeah, I know it's a drive-in. And don't forget the rings, of course. Like, oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, what a great fast food restaurant. Like, oh, I thought you were talking about Hedgehog. That's a lot of fun.

That is really, really fun. And I wish there was... Gotta go fast, right? They're like skates. Oh, yeah, the incredible service, yeah. We can get that blue, that ocean water drink to be part of him too somehow. Yeah, we'll figure that out. We'll work on that.

That night will work on that. All right, let's get to some questions. Let's open up the question block. All right, this first one is from Nemesis, and Nemesis writes, evening gaming, lights off or on? I gotta do lights on. Because if it's something intense, I'm gonna get scared if the lights are off.

And then if it's something a little bit more chill, like a blotcher, I'll just fall asleep in my chair. And I don't wanna be, I wanna fall asleep in my bed, I don't wanna fall asleep at my desk. Yeah, yeah. Grant, what about you, What do you think lights off hundred percent lights off? Yeah, that's pretty that's I see I splurge. I sort of split the difference I have these like smart bulbs that I'll turn to a slightly dimmer hue if It's nighttime just kind of in general. I'll be watching TV or whatever

Maybe I'll turn them purple or something kind of get like a fun little like where am I that is fun? And then that's a little dimmer. I don't need I never have the big light on the big light If I had light like this in the house You wouldn't be caught I wouldn't be caught dead under it. That's pointing up at our studio lights Which do shine really bright. Now if it was like a purple dimmer light, catch me with a blanket and a cup of tea, tell you what.

What about you, Heather? I rarely game in the evenings, which is kind of a reveal to myself as I'm thinking about it. I don't often game at night because night is when I get to see my wife. And so we will, like, she'll be home from work and I'll be home from work and we'll like,

watch a movie or a TV show or read books with one another. But like video gaming is so like me or me in a squad or like it's such a alienating experience that I tend not to do it in the evenings. Interesting. I also really love to cook and so cooking is also what I do at night. Rachelle, a nighttime gaming session, lights on, lights off.

Lights on because when lights are off the screen is too bright. Yeah, right But I will wear sunglasses to watch TV at night. Oh, I'll do that in that same move. Yeah Yeah, no that's a that's a I actually would I've had sleep problems for years and it is a sleep therapist Tell me that I use blue light blocking glasses these days But I used to use regular old sunglasses an hour before bed, so yeah, I'll do that when I'm looking at screens I just saw an eye doctor. I'm getting a new pair of glasses for the first time in a few years, which is Admittedly too long since the last time I got my eyes checked and I'm getting some blue light glasses that I have to basically wear all the time now. So that'll be in my rotation. Henceforth coming pretty soon.

And I might be sporting a new look. Do you mean wearing glasses more? Who's this guy that can see all good This next one's from wax a million Pegasus and wax a million Pegasus writes if you could have one video game antagonist as an in-law Who would it be and this is tough because I feel like I mean I like my in-laws I don't like to think of them as an antagonist, you know Yeah, that's an interesting framing for it. I guess it's someone that has to be a part of my family. It's like, who is someone that I could actually

have a conversation with? I would like a schemer. I would like someone like Dr. Wiley, because my father-in-law already would like someone like Dr. Wiley, because my father-in-law already looks kind of like Dr. Wiley. And I think that I would be able to follow our conversations better, because in real life, he's like a mathematician, college professor.

But Dr. Wiley is just talking about the city and the robot masters taking revenge. And I feel like I could just like yes and through that, you know, I could yeah. Oh, that's great And then you'll probably go to the bank or whatever. I just built a quick man. He shoots boomerangs like oh cool That's cool. Good for you. Exactly. Hey, what about a I don't know. What about a pipe man? I'm just spitballing here The first thing I thought of for some reason was it is it pronounced King DDD yeah from from Kirby because he's wearing this kind of like robe And that's kind of like in-law clothes to me kind of right That's fun. Yeah, I mean I I'm I'm think I'm just like I

Feel like I might take Ketherick Thorne from Baldur's Gate 3. Um, because I feel like he probably just has the politics already of my actual uncle, so. I could just slide him right in. Like, okay, we heard what you said about the goblins. Yeah. Chill, dude. I would take take blue slime? Oh?

That's good That's good. I like that a lot. I want blue slime as a as an in-law This next one's from blazing scourge and blazing scourge rights What's the snack of choice at the moment now? I have an answer I have one right off the dome And I shouldn't be eating these all the time. They're becoming a fucking problem in the house there are these Peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets from Trader Joe's that don't last very long in the house And you're not supposed to eat that many of them. No those are those are very good

I know so fucking good. They have an almond butter variant. Those suck ass. They're so bad. Wow, interesting. The thing about the peanut butter one is that the pretzel and the peanut butter are both kind of salty.

So it's kind of just like a nice, good salt bite each time. Something about the almond butter one, sucks. Wow, that's interesting. I'm looking up the name of this brand because there's a few different companies that are doing like a cheese crisp. And that's a thing I've really been liking lately. It's not as heavy as a cracker,

has a little bit more protein, but it's also not going to give you the rumblies like something that's full-fledged dairy. And I think the one that I think really works for me is moon cheese. That's the one where they're kind of like a little bit more, you know, they're more like bites versus like the wisps, which are like a crisp. But those are also fun. I like all of them. But yeah, I would say my snack at the moment, this is like a non-video game question, just a general question.

Just a general question. I think I'd probably say like cheese crisps. I've never even heard of this. That looks great. Should try them out. Yeah, they're great. They probably have them at Trader Joe's or some version of them. I like cheese crisps and I like polenta crisps

are pretty good. Oh, wow. But my snack of choice is bar snacks. Oh yeah. I haven't been able to really go out for six months, but that's about to change. As of this, I mean, as of this airing, I might be out. Wow. That might be pretty hype.

That might be pretty great. But being that I've been having my evenings in exclusively inside, I have been eating bar snacks and drinking non-alcoholic Coronas to get like a feeling and like watch TV that I don't particularly want to watch with commercials. And you kind of get like a cozy feeling from it all. So yeah, bar snacks, either from like Ralph's or Trader Joe's or where was the one I got some from Gelson's and it's like, you know, peanuts and a little checks mix and some little pretzel and like.

Corn like often it'll have like hard, crispy corn in there. Yeah. Yeah. Like fucking just salty. Like it feels it's that's my snack of choice. How about, how about you? I have been trying to snack less, but when I am snacking, I'm like, so what I'm doing is like not enjoying snacking.

Sure. Sure. So I'll be like, well, I'm really hungry. I want to have like something, but it's not a time for a meal. I'll have a bagel, but I won't put cream cheese on it. I'll just have a toast bread. And then I just stand there in the kitchen and stare into the middle distance. Yeah, I

Need both sides of the bagel and it's 4 a.m. Because I like The lights off and I like the night gaming and I like a sad little bagel What's your bagel a choice like like a sesame? Like a sesame. Oh, I love a sesame. That's really, really good. Very good. Um. Wren, you got a snack you go to?

Chocolate Milano's always. Oh, those are a lot of fun. Oh, fuck yeah. Yeah. God, man. Pepperidge Farm. That's an occasional indulgence for me. Yeah.

Every time I have it, I'm like, oh, man. They had these like chocolate mint ones one time Fuck me up man. Yeah, the chocolate mint Milano's are good. Fuck. Those are great They're also like they'll do like a chocolate orange Milano sometimes. Yeah, those are hoot. Oh, I thought of a normal answer Yeah celery Great snack. Celery is good snack. A nice a nice crunch in there pretty good. Now do you dip that in anything? Yeah Thomas oh Nice the nice crunch in there pretty good. Now. Do you dip that in anything? Yeah Thomas? Oh? I mean, that's can't go wrong with that's perfect snacking right there and finally this last one is from

Cooney beard and Cooney beard writes Feels like this time is a time of revivals with the new Prince of Persia game is a time of revivals with the new Prince of Persia game, Final Fantasy VII remakes, and X-Men 97 coming out. What video game series would you want to revive in this era, and why is it Beautiful Joe? Now Beautiful Joe is the correct answer. That's a great pick. That is really good.

Yeah. We were just talking about Star Fox. Now that's kind of a semi-dormant franchise. Yeah. That would love to have a new, an awesome new starfox game Probably will never happen. There's another Nintendo franchise I was thinking of recently that's been kind of that's kind of gone away at zero kind of like I mean

I'm zero yeah, so you're 99 was out for a bit, but starfox It could be so easy they they had that one for the Wii U that was pretty good except for the controls Just give us the normal control on the switch put in Switch, put in the Namco, Star Fox assault, even throw in the rare Star Fox adventures, make it a package. Great. You'd sell for 60 bucks or more. I am going to, I'm actually going to say the Castlevania franchise. That's a great answer.

Because I don't know when the last great Castlevania game we got was, but also I think, and I don't even know when the last like proper Castlevania game even released. And a lot of the best Castlevania games are like those, you know, the Metroidvania era Castlevania's, you know, your areas of sorrows, your Harmony of Dissidence, your Circle of the Moon, Core Symphony of the Night, like those games, like all those games were so great.

And I think they did some Dead Cells DLC that was like a Castlevania skin that I think people had a really positive response to. But like, yeah, I maybe said this before, but if they did like a Souls type, if Konami ever loosen their grip on the franchise and just let someone make like a Souls-born style of Souls-like Castlevania.

It's already such a dark franchise and they could maybe play up the camp factor a little bit and that could be a fun way to finally translate to 3D. I want, here's what I want. I want a Chrono Trigger game, because's been two so it's a it is a franchise but I want it to be in the Super NES style and here's my pitch for Nintendo and Squaresoft because I think it should be a exclusive to

Nintendo game. I think that it should be a and This is gonna sound like a joke, it's not a joke. So what made these games so cool when you're young is they were unfathomably long, right? You'd be like, yeah, man, I'm still playing. Did you get to this? No, I haven't been there yet. I think that somebody should make a 700 hour Chrono trigger

with Super NES style graphics, like a Brandon Sanderson style epic that just goes and goes and goes and goes with branching stuff that comes back, kind of like the promise of Octopath Traveler, but not like Octopath Traveler feels like it has a lot of filler in it. And Chrono Trigger feels like you're just going forward and you

can't believe that you are still going forward as you continue to play it. So I want a 700 hour no reused content super nes style Chrono trigger action RPG Wow and I think in order to justify it. They should sell it for $200 I'm trying I mean They've already done a lot of the ones that I want yeah, I I'm trying I mean they've already done a lot of the ones that I want yeah, I I wouldn't mind I wouldn't mind a return to Jack and Daxter sure we haven't done that we've gone back to crash yeah, and we talked before about not Spyro, but the

Who's the the the mischievous raccoon? Yes, yeah, I wouldn't mind I wouldn't mind a return that. And I know that they are remaking Metal Gear Solid 3. That feels kind of cynical and weird, because Kojima's not involved. But I would take the other ones, too, I guess. They should remake the MSX Metal Gear. They should do that in the Metal Gear modern style. Those are big events.

It's when Big Boss, that's right, down. Also, I just wanna throw out another franchise that they should bring back, which is Power Stone. Power Stone and Power Stone 2 on the second Dreamcast were super fun. So fun. And I think they would work well as, they could work as Power Stone,

they could also work as Sonic, they could work as any sort of IP you wanna put with it. And, well, they're kind of, you know, they, I want a Batman the animated series game. Oh, man. Oh, yeah. Remember those on the Sega Genesis? And they made them for a while, and then it was like, and for a while,

the thing was like, oh, they never made a good Batman game. Then the Arkham games came out, and they were like, oh, these are the good games. But the Arkham games, I don't like the Arkham games. They're okay. But the reason that I don't love them is the art direction. They're so militaristic. Sure, I get that.

Yeah, that's fair. And I kind of just want the cartoony Batman, but with that gameplay style. Yeah, that sort of art deco look, you know? Exactly. Mask the Phantasm, I totally get that. That aesthetic is marvelous. And I know that Kingdom Hearts IV is coming out at some point in my lifetime.

Yeah. But my answer is Kingdom Hearts. I want more. Give me more. Ranch, is there, the question is, is there a video game of your that you would like to see resuscitated? I mean, is your answer Neopets? What would it be? What would it be? Do you have anything come to mind? Mary Kay and Ashley Sweet 16. I have to die. That's this week's Get Played. Our producers are Michelle Chen, Rance, Yard, underscore, underscore, Sard,

on social media. Our music is by Ben Prunty, benpruntymusic.com. Our art is by Duck Brigade Design, duckbrigade.com. Check out our Patreon, patreon.com slash get played where you can find our entire pre-Headgum back catalog plus ad-free main feed episodes and also our Patreon exclusive show, Get Animated. Matt, what are we covering this week?

We're talking episodes nine and 10 of solo leveling. We're at the tail end of the damn series. Yeah, just a couple more after this. Just one more after this and then who knows what we'll be moving on to after that, but get in while the going's good. Is that what the phrase is? Yeah. Yeah, that's that's normal. I said that fine That's it. I'm not that's it. I'm doing okay. You're doing great. Okay, thriving Patreon.com slash get played for all that good stuff grant party Sonic weekly is the podcast

I'd tell a plug the show and then anything else you would like to play. Well, thank you so much for being here What an absolute joy. Thanks for giving us your expertise. Yeah would like to plug. But thank you so much for being here. What an absolute joy. Yes, thanks for giving us your expertise. Yeah, this was so fun. Thank you so much for having me. Love the show. Sonic Weekly is a podcast that comes out once every seven days or so.

We cover everything about Sonic, whether it is movies, games, comics, animation, me and my co-hosts who are even bigger Sonic fans and bigger Sonic experts than I. We cover all the Sonic things and yeah, you should follow the show because we have a lot of good episodes. We have a great fun backlog for you to discover.

Awesome, check that out. And you know, we gotta figure out a better way to land the plane when we have a guest here because unfortunately at this point I do have to say despite you being so generous with your time that you got played Here's a here's a dry bagel is consolation That was a hate gum podcast