Get Played - Star Wars: Galactic Racer

Episode Date: October 12, 2026

Heather, Nick and Matt venture back to a galaxy far far away to discuss Star Wars: Galactic Racer! Check out Matt and his pals on Super NPC Radio’s Control Resonant Games Club over at patreon.com/getplayed See Matt and others do improv based on video game dev stories in Game For A Laugh on October 25th at the Santa Monica Playhouse and use code GETPLAYED for 15% off tickets (all proceeds going to CHIRLA) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/game-for-a-laugh-game-dev-stories-made-funny-tickets-200248170368 Matt wrote some blurbs in Retro Game Books’ Video Game Maps: NES & Famicom - Deluxe EditionEXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/getplayed Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guaranteeCheck out our merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayed Follow us on social media @getplayedpod Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com For our exclusive show Get Played DLC, ad-free main feed episodes, our complete back catalogue including How Did This Get Played? episodes go to patreon.com/getplayed Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fm All of our links can be found at linktree.com/getplayedpodSee 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. Gaming today isn't one thing. It moves between cozy, chaotic, and everything in between. One minute you're exploring something slow and immersive. The next, you're in a fast-paced match. And somewhere in there, you might be creating, streaming, or just seeing where the session goes. That's why alienware systems are built with the performance to handle all of it. With Nvidia-Gforce RTX, it delivers powerful graphics that bring every world

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This happens sometimes. It's a good problem to have. but they're trying to poach us. We're being courted. Yeah, another podcast network is trying to lure over get played from headgum. So, you know, I don't know

if we should commit to anything, but I think we should at least take the meeting. Hey, look, they want to talk to me? I'll talk to them. Yeah, I'm all ears. Why not? Hey, I'll listen. Yeah.

Discusa, but emoto convasa. Hey, great to talk with you as well. No, d'ale, Boba. Isakabuka Yeah, we're sorry Heather Couldn't be here with it But thank you so much for coming into the studios You know, you don't have to worry

The headgun brasses, they all went home So, you know, it's just us We can talk openly Opa Get to play My Casa Jotulu Ombara

Subbo First of all, it's incredible to meet you Yeah, I mean, a huge fan Yeah, been a fan since 99 I guess, you know, we're pretty happy here. What could you, what are you going to be bringing to the table at your network that headgum's not doing right now? Oh, to know credits, mocola baccasa, and chopo. That's a really attractive offer.

Yeah, I like the sign as the sound of those credits. Yeah. Credits, imperial credits, Ulocahnala la bossatatoma I'm Yeah, I don't know I mean, this sounds pretty good honestly I mean I'd you know

I'd worry No offense That maybe these credits aren't exactly On the up and up Cheska Oh my Kazalaba Matt you've offended Oh no sorry Sibbolba

No I just said Oh Daniel Lisa Sorry there's an American phrase No offense and I meant it in a way where I didn't want you to be offended. Um bububu. You weren't supposed to be offended.

I said no offense. Subabu, I'm sorry. You know, like a ranch. You just want to show Subalba to the kitchen. Maybe you get yourself a La Croy. Maybe you could have a, you can calm down a little bit. We can come on, coming back and resume this conversation. What are you doing, man?

I don't know. You know, Subboa, he's a tough customer. We don't know what he's involved with. He could be in bed with the huts for all we know. He's leaving. He's leaving. Maybe that was my, you know, I'm sorry. Hey, Heather, I'm sorry.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm late. Yeah, Matt said offended Subobo and Subbo walk about. I said no offense. That guy stole my truck and drove away with it. Oh my God. I'm telling you, he's, look. He was really fast.

Well, look. I'm sorry that didn't work out, Heather. We'll figure out what's going on with your truck. But we actually have another meeting. So I think we should let this guy in too. Hey, why you go with Sabobo? You should go with me, Wattel. We upgrade our land speeders and outrace Griff Halloran as we play Star Wars Galactic Racer this week on Get Played.

Now this is podcasting. Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to Get Played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Tiger Weiger. That's me, Nick Tiger. Wiger, along with our third host, Mr. Games himself, Matt Upadaka. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone. And welcome back to the premiere video game podcast where this week we are talking

about the brand new, just released, drop dead, ice cold hit, Star Wars Galactic Racer. Going fast they are. Great. You know what? I'm not going to get mad at it because I love it. like Star Wars. This is the thing. I feel like since Disney took over Star Wars, the IP, from George Lucas in an agreement he was fully on board with. He got $4 billion.

Yeah. No one has to weep for the man. He used to build the George Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts. So God bless. That all worked out. But since that happened, I feel like I keep asking myself, do I still like Star Wars? Because they keep pushing me. The answer is.

Andor. I love Andor. Andor is like, I like Star Wars. Anytime you come up against that doubt, that feeling, that vibe, that vibration. The dark side will call it. Yes. Just turn, look to the distance and see Andor. Here's what I agree.

Andor is a North Star. However, like, for me, it's been kind of like, like, I like this. I really don't like this. I like this. Why are they doing this? And I just kind of keep, the pendulum keeps swinging back and forth for me. Andor was a was a big positive swing. But where was landing is Star Wars Galactic racer has me going, maybe I like Star Wars.

Fuck yes. I love to hear it. And also, here's my headline for this. Yeah. And we'll get into it. We'll get into it. We'll get into it. Breaking News, Heather and Campbell with the headline.

Is this the best racing game of all fucking time? That's my headline. Wow. I don't feel like I can speak to that, but I certainly have been having a blast so far. Because you're, like, we'll get into this. You don't like being in the car. I'm not, I'm not a car guy. Now, this game does not involve cars.

Now, there's involved cars. Yeah. So you're kind of like, I like that. Yeah, I like that. And also, I like the Cars franchise, but that's its own thing. You know what's actually interesting about this? I've never seen a Cars movie. Oh, man, treat yourself.

Oh, I almost went to see Cars 3 on the posters alone. The posters for Cars 3 are fucking incredible. Those were, those were graffitied posters that you saw the one with where the cars are sucking a dick Yeah I was like that looks for I gotta go see this You know like the posters Hong Kong The posters looked like it was like a real movie like like like not like a real movie but like a like a like a serious drama About cars right and just not but I I've never seen it but I love the ride we talked about the ride

The ride is great Right is excellent racers one of the best ever To quote a friend of the show, recent guest, Griffin Newman, Cars 3 makes Cars 2 look like Cars 1. He just dropped bars all the time. He's incredible. Cars 3 is great. Should I start with that one?

Yeah. Wait, I said it backwards. Cars 2 makes Cars 3 look like Cars 1. That's the quote. That's what it is. Either way, no matter how you slice it, sounds like I'm going to have a fun time at the movie. that Christella Alonzo

plays cruiser Mierrez in in Cars 3 the other newer character is played by Army Hammer so I kind of keep that in mind right right before the right under the wire he got that one in that's the car that eats other car

if you look at the timing of it it really does line up with like like you know he had the breakout in social network and then like the big swing him being a movie star with Lone Ranger, which obviously fizzles. And then I think Cars 3 is either right before or right after that and then call me by your name and then it's just like, he's just gone. He's out of here.

Yeah. Well, no, his podcast is really good. Dying to get on that thing. You have to. We're going to talk all about Star Wars Galactic Racer. But I mean, I guess we should. We always hesitate to jump into video games. And I'm like, you can just talk a little bit.

We can't just talk about it. Like, we can't just talk a little bit, but. How's your day to day? What the fuck is this? This is all right. What was the rose of your day? Played video games. Okay.

Heather, what about you? Hi. Hi. How's your day to day? My day was good. What was the rose of your day? Hmm. I wrote with my Rig and Morty co-writer, Jess Locker.

I wrote a little bit this morning. She comes over. I make her a cup of coffee with my extraordinary coffee setup. Did you attempt an art? I did. I did. So I've mastered the heart and I've mastered the leaf in the latte art. Today I made a pumpkin.

Happy Halloween. I made a pumpkin. And I would say I got 60% of the way there. And she was like, I can tell it's a pumpkin. And I'm like, yeah. But if you got this at the restaurant, you'd be like, oh, thanks. Good try. you wouldn't be like, holy shit.

So it was my first ever attempted the pumpkin. Pumpkin adjacent. Are we saying just a pumpkin silhouette or you're trying to full on fucking jackal anion. Jackal anon. Wow. Yeah, Jackal Lanner. That's a whole different.

I didn't take a photo. I didn't take a photo. In fact, I want to show you a photo of one of my most recent latte arts. Maybe show it off a little bit. Let's see if I can pull this up. It's like a perfect Caravaggio painting. That one. That's my.

Hey, that's really good. That's really good. Yeah, that's sort of like a leafs in all direction sort of thing. Yeah, really good. Yeah, that's, I did not take a picture of this, this fucked up pumpkin. When I see latte art sometimes when I get it, I'm always like, now I really want to take a sip. Yeah, I know, you don't want to ruin a beautiful thing. Yeah.

You know, JFK's wife, cars a pumpkin. It's a Jackie Ola Latter. That was the rose of your day. I think he was hearing that. So just to point out, my day has been horrible. Rose in my day You know as cheesy as it is Being here with you guys today

Wow, that's nice Pretty nice I was looking forward to it We banked an episode Yep So we had a week off Missed my friends Well yeah it's kind of wild

Right back in the same room How long when people You see people every week Sometimes multiple times a week When you take a week off It feels like an eternity And I didn't do anything the whole time You just like

I tried doing the podcast at home for my wife and she was like, stop. Don't talk to me. Don't ask me when I'm playing. I don't do any of that shit. Yeah. We're in the aftermath of I'll just say I'm feeling a little bit from our dinner. We had a little bit of a sleep inducing dinner. I got myself a nice big brothy miso ramen.

I feel great. You feel great? I feel pretty good. I will say I got chicken Karagi and it was a little too fried for me. And I haven't been really eating stuff like that. Oh. So I feel a little insane. Okay.

I did like it. We had Dai Kukuya, which is a Japanese chain. I and Ranch both had the fried rice, which fucking, it just slaps. Did you like yours? It's so fucking good. So good. It's so incredible. The ginger.

I love the pickled ginger. We got pickled ginger in there with a regular fried rice. We had a side salad. I put it in a bowl so I can mix it up with the dressing. Excellent work. Good job, Dai Kukuya. Ranch, what was the rose of your day? Dinner.

Yeah. Wow. Oh, okay. That's how good that fried rice was. Ranch loves dinner. She won the lottery earlier. We all talk about liking dinner. Yeah.

I think kind of ranch likes it to moan. Yeah. And who can blame her. It's one of the great meals. Yeah, one of our top meals for sure. Breakfast is the best meal. Yeah. That's the most important.

It's the best of the meals. Is breakfast the best meal? Yes. I'm going breakfast? Well, you know what? Breakfast, dinner, lunch. I think you're right. The way it is.

It's truth. You can't, you can't fight it. breakfast, dinner, lunch. I might be a lunch guy. What the fuck is wrong with you all the time? Wyggs likes lunch. Here's the thing about lunch. It's usually the break from whatever you're doing.

So it's just like, I am looking forward to my lunch break and it's like, oh, now I got my lunch break. Yeah. And if you get yourself a good lunch, you're like, oh my God, you're sitting pretty. I think the best lunch could be up there with dinner. Yeah. But when lunch is bad, it's the worst of any of the meals. Well, yeah, but I mean, that's applicable to any meal, right?

I guess a bad breakfast is maybe the least bad because you just like, fuck it. I just need to shove something in my fucking body so I can get to work or get on this plane or whatever the fuck. Bad lunch is worse than bad breakfast for sure. I fucking hate lunch. You hate lunch? You hate lunch? I hate it. What would you do with the middle of your day?

No, here's what I was thinking of. What would you do with the middle of your day? As we're having this conversation, as you guys know, I skipped lunch today. You did. Right? Out of spite. Out of spite. Because it's like, get the fuck away from me, lunch.

Get away from me. Get lunch. You don't own me. You don't look at me. Don't look at me. Yeah. I know that part of podcasting is takes because you want to engage the listener. You want to give them something to think about.

Something to be angry about or surprised by. And as I'm listening to you guys talk about lunch, the more and more I'm starting to fucking hate it. So I'm like, I don't want a lunch. What about a club sandwich? I don't want it. That's a good lunch. Look, I'm not saying club sandwich.

sandwich is a bad lunch. I'm saying if I'm having a proper breakfast, if a good breakfast, I don't need that lunch. I need a breakfast and early dinner. If I'm doing breakfast at like 10.30, I could probably skip lunch and have like a 5 p.m. dinner. Whereas like if you skip dinner, you feel crazy. And if you skip breakfast, you feel like you didn't start your day. If I skip dinner, that means I mouthed off to my mom and I got sent straight to bed. Don't do that. She's a nice lady. No, well, you should see how she acts. She thinks mom. Well, never mind. If I, if I, this is where I do it.

I can't, I cannot skip lunch. Like, that sounds insane to me. Because then I just have no energy for the rest of the day. Yeah. Like I'm a big energy guy. Yeah, I'm a big energy guy. You're all about vibes. No, I'm just like, I like, I get so sleepy and so cranky if I don't have lunch.

But you also get sleepy and cranky if you eat dinner. Yeah, you're kind of a sleepy, sleepy, cranky bitch. The point is I can survive. without breakfast, but I feel like I just need lunch. I got to have lunch. If I skipped dinner, I would request to be killed. I will sometimes, I'm just be so fucking tired. I won't eat dinner.

Do you ever go to, like, you're ever in a situation where you're like, it's a group sort of thing, and so you're maybe pushing the boundary of how late you would normally eat dinner, but then that boundary somehow keeps getting further and further out. And then somehow you're eating dinner at like 10? I fucking hate it. Can't do it. What are we doing? I got to have my dinner time is 6 p.m.

Yeah. Because I need the biological necessity of having that shit out of my stomach. All that food needs to be out of my stomach by the time I'm going to sleep. Interesting. I, latest I do is 7.30 because I'll go to bed at like 10.30, 11. You're in bed a little earlier. Yeah, I'm my early bird, early riser. Yeah, yeah.

So I can do 7.30 at the absolute latest. The other day I woke up at 5.30 straight up, just 5.30 in the dark, went downstairs, made coffee, walked the dog, had breakfast, did a full day's work. Wow. And then went to work. Whoa. Tony's been doing something crazy. Uh-oh. Tony, your cat.

Tony, my cat. Named after Tony Soprano. Named after Tony Soprano. He's learned that this wakes us up. So now he does it every single morning. Okay. At a roughly around the same time. Because around the time we started get up anyway,

we think that he's like, hey, they're not waking up, I better do something about it. I better make sure they're okay. There's like a hanging, like a mounted mirror on our wall, like a full-length mirror. It's not like a heavy mirror or anything, but it's like it's just like sort of it's on our wall. He goes over to the mirror and starts pawing at it,

like making a lot of noise. And we think that I sort of thought that he thought that was another cat, that he didn't recognize that it was him. But I think it's that he, He thinks we're dead and it's the only way he knows that we that will wake up. Wow. That's intense.

He's like activating the portal. Yes. He's like, the portal will bring them back. They're summon them. Yeah. Because it wakes us up and then it's like, you know, maybe a half hour before I wanted to wake up. And I'm just like, well, I'm wide awake because this little rat bastard was up to no good. My, my HVAC has broken.

And so here. That's the Heather vacuum? Yeah, the Heather vacuum. So here in the week of one of the, not one of, the longest stretch of 100 degree days in Los Angeles history, I've been without AC. Oof. So my dog has been staying with the sitters. Yeah. I've been, you know, sleeping in like a fucking muggy hell.

Yeah. It is awful in our house. It's been really bad. And, but when the dog comes back, she likes to, she likes to, she likes to. to wake up me and Mary at about 2.30 in the morning. She'll whimper a couple times to be like, hey, maybe I come up in the bed now? And we're like, nope, go back to the sleep. And she doesn't go back to sleep.

But she always tries. Wow. I know a lot of our listeners are not sportos, so we don't need to dwell on this at length. But Matt, we are in the midst of the MLB playoffs. It's the sporting season. Your boys in blue, your beloved L.A. Dodgers, buoyed by the record-shattering payroll, courtesy of Mark Walters, the owner's pilfering of insurance accounts. Everything's fine.

But they are headed to the NLCS as of this record. That's right. Congrats, buddy. Thank you so much. I'm proud of my boys. I'm hoping for a three-peat. I just love watching, I love watching my boys. And I love, in particular, I was as I was mentioning before record, Mr. October, Kike Hernandez, my guy.

Yeah. I love him. He's a short king. He's a funny guy. and he really shows up in October. Like, he's, he's really clutch. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, I think he's a great player, uh, you know, all the time, but like, like, he just really locks in in October and

it's exciting to watch him play. I always love a role player like that. Yeah. Yeah. They just like, like, they, they, they somehow find their niche when it really counts. They said that clutch gene. There was a, um, you know, how they do the, the interviews, like, in the locker room and stuff, they're talking to Dave Roberts.

Uh, the Dodgers manager. Yeah, and he, like, shouted out. Kike and he was like I can't remember exactly what he said he's like he's like he's been playing really great and Kike just in the background goes it's October I do this shit the fuck you talking about

what a delight he's he's great there's a shocking development on my Sporto side which is the Chicago White Sox are having an excellent excellent run Yes um right now on my phone they're up against Cleveland. Yeah.

1906 was the last time that they got this far. Yeah. 1906. I saw this. 120 years ago. It's a long time. It's really insane. How did you find yourself as someone from Chicago rooting for the white socks over the Cubs?

The Cubs are sucks and they bully. The Cubs are sucks and they bully. I do have a lot of friends who are diehard Cubs fans. Yeah. and it is, I'll say it with as much affection as I can't, a particular vibe? Yeah, it was the vibe. Because growing up in Chicago also the, you know,

I did improv as a child. And the improv theater was right next to Wrigley Field. And I was just like, it's not my, it wasn't my scene. But White Sox, let's go. I did see an interview, they were interviewing some kid on the news. Just a kid? He's a white socks fan Okay

He's a kid here Jonathan Kid Your favorite flavor is grape you said Grape? That's all the news we have He's a white socks fan They were talking to him

He was like some old guy And I think there is like Kids from Chicago Are just like a little bit older Seeming Like they like they like like just the spirit of him because like as a baseball fan like there are so many things like not It's a tough city man it's a tough city but he was like they were talking to him like he was like they're like what is this going to mean to you His voice was quivering like holding back tears and he's like I mean this would mean everything I mean I'd be winning my whole life for this and I'm like this motherfucker is nine

It was really sweet and it made me you know I you know Congratulations to the white socks. Hey man And congratulations to Rochelle Chen, fan of the Golden State Valkyries, the Valks, buoyed by her surname's sake and my future tattoo, Caitlin Chen, appear to be headed to the WNBA Final. So that buoy was positive, but mine didn't sound so good. The Valks are so fun to watch. Their home court, ball hala. So fucking good. When you dropped this in the chat the other day, I was like, that's, that's really.

Really good. Yeah. Look, I hate NorCal with my life as a lifelong SoCal resident. Yeah, I hope that's the part of it that, uh, never mind. But got to give it up to the Valks. They are, they are a lot of fun. So we got Valks, we got the White Sox. We got the Dodgers.

Yeah. All doing really well right now, right? Nick, is there any sporto event happening for you that you're, you're celebrating? Let's see. I started reading for the San Diego Chargers this year, now Los Angeles Chargers this year and they're 0 and 4. So, I guess there's that. But the NBA season is going to be starting soon.

How do we get you over to Rams? I kind of feel like I could be more of a Rams guy. Yeah, maybe just give up with the Chargers. Fuck the Chargers. I'm out. This guy, they suck. Rams, it's an easy switch. It's an easy switch, similar colors.

I was a Rams fan as a kid, but it's, then I just kind of fell off. They moved to St. Louis, and I just sort of checked out. And then didn't have a team for a while. I was trying to get back on the Chargers. But I was like, I don't know, all these fucking guys. Maybe we do the Rams. I can maybe do the Rams. I don't know.

I'll figure it out. Let's just go back to Raider Nation. What are we doing? We've become the worst guys possible. The two pussiest Raiders fans. We actually don't want to kick your ass because we're afraid we might kill you. Hey, buddy, look, we've all been there. You got the angle, but you still lose the trade.

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And I'm going to ask my friends what they're playing in the video game world. This is my job. This is what I do. The merch is here for you. Wow. Madabodaka, what are you playing? Merch, thank you so much.

Thanks so much, Resident Evil Merchant. Good to see you. We had a week off. Didn't see you? Confusing. We always forget to tell you. Yeah, you showed up as is my understanding. Yeah, I showed up.

Scared some of the interns. Sat on the bush. You tried to ask Conifer what he was playing? Oh, man, that guy. Explain some stuff to me. Hey, you know what? If you're going to learn anything, I'd say good person to chat about it. Long take on political machinations of the Los Angeles area.

Mm-hmm. Our, yeah, you weren't around for this, but our second ever episode, Adam Conover, came on and just discussed the, the legendarily terrible Superman 64. Yeah. Superman 64. Yeah, Superman 64. Superman 64. That's right.

Superman 64. Superman 64. What? We're just having fun. Yeah, we're just fucking around. We're having a good time. We're just fucking around. We're just shooting a shit.

I already did. It did my job. And you know what? You did it pretty damn well. I gave me a hot. Yeah. Like, coals on the fire. That clothes on fire?

Colt. What? Coal? I believe coals on a fire. Coles on fire. It was not a day. My clothes on fire. That's what I was confused about.

That didn't happen. I was confused. No, that's happened for a while. That's okay. They're like, coals on a fire. Coals on a fire. It's been clarified. We understand what you said.

It is my clothes were on fire I'd be a liar Liar, liar, liar, burns up fire, Superman to give up. Matt, what are you playing? I'm still playing MEO, the Smiling Man. I told you guys

this in the chat, but I didn't put it, I didn't, I hadn't said it on the show, because this happened after we recorded the last, I believe. There was a part in the game. So when you are doing the investigations, you do these review sections. I'm in about chapter eight now out of 12,

chapters. So I'm getting close to the end here on the back half of this thing. And I would like to see it through. But there's parts where you review what you've learned so far. And I will say a lot of a lot of the information gathering can feel a little repetitive to me because it's like, I already know some of this stuff. Like some of the stuff that you end up reviewing. You're like, how many times are we going to say that this is how this happened? But it ultimately contextualizes the new information that you get. Because like in somebody, which is, you know, rarer in the broad scope of it. But sometimes you have to, there's different ways you can input the solutions or the

answers to what you're, you know, different clues. So you'll never know how it's going to be. So sometimes you'll have to like select something from your notes, pick the right word, and that then fills in the blank. And you're like, okay, yeah. So he was strangled with like a, you know, with bare hands or something. Or you'll have to,

there'll be like a multiple choice. Or you'll sometimes have to type something in. And I had, the thing that this Nintendo developed and published game wanted me to type in was the word suicide. And I was like, this game is fucking crazy. Because then there's also a follow-up prompt

that clarifies if what you typed in was what you wanted to type in. before you submit it. In case you made a spelling error or you maybe want to rethink what you wrote. And the prompt read as follows, suicide. Are you okay with this?

It's like this game rocks. The plot is getting, I'd say pretty juicy. We're getting close to figuring out what the hell's going on with this so-called smiling man. So I'm doing. Doing that, and you know, this game, I started playing this out of, you know, needing to play something while my hand healed, hand update.

Still in the process of healing. I have mobility in it, but it's not fully functional thumb. So, like, still have a hard time using it on, like, a regular controller. And, you know, sometimes I'll be playing a game and muscle memory will kick in. And the thumb will go to do what it's supposed to do, like hit the X button or something. and it'll hurt because it's not quite healed, but I don't have to be wearing the brace anymore. That's nice.

Honestly, it is because it gets all sweaty in there. Yeah. It was a tough hang. Stinks. It stinks. It stinks. But I've branched out to another game that I've been playing. And I started playing this because my friends over at the show,

well, the network, Super NPC Radio, they do a good. games club every quarter they pick a game and they play it all the way through cover it over many weeks at this quarter they're doing control resonant and i was you know before i broke my thumb was like oh i'm gonna do this with them i'm gonna play it and i'm gonna play along and i'll be on these episodes with them and it'll be a lot of fun had to miss one and i was like they were the way they were talking about the game in our in our group chat they were like this is a chunky game so i was getting nervous that it was like if I wait any longer I'm gonna fall really behind I might not be able to join

at all so I jumped into control resonant and I've been playing it on my PS5 I've been using my index finger for like the face buttons on the controller they fucking cooked on this thing

this game is really really good it is a lot of fun it is very different than the regular control it is so different that I'm almost convinced Heather might like it

Wow Wow Because it's an action Like I mean the other game is an action game too But that game is more The first one is more shooter focused Like third person shooter

Type of thing with and other abilities And you know you can fly around and stuff You get all that stuff in here But it is melee combat focused And so there are bosses In their like area bosses Throughout the world called Resonance that are like souls like bosses.

Okay. Basically where you don't, you can get to them in any order kind of. You can kind of, there's like a path to get to them that you have to go that's like, you know, involves platforming and then, you know, maybe like waves of enemies and stuff like that.

But when you get to the resonance, they're fucking, they're really fun and they're really freaky. The first one you fight is called the artist. And she's just a big head with like Medusa hair. Okay. Just a gigantic head. And you're just like, and I'm trying to take this thing down,

and it's hard because I'm not playing at full strength, you know. And there are, of course, things you can do in the game. There's an assist mode options menu where you can like turn stuff. You can like turn stuff on or off at any point to like modify the game. I haven't mess with it because I'm just like, I'm stubbornly pushing through in this thing. I took down that one. I've taken down another one called The Dancer. And there's other ones that they're not really story beats these things.

They kind of, they do exist in the world and they do service the story. But they're not, they're usually on your way to like the main quest. And you're like, hey, I heard there's like something strange is going on over here. Better find out what that is. You can also, the traversal mechanics in this game are insane. because you have it you can get like um you get a dash of course you get like you know you're walking around you're probably not going to like how fast he is slow he's a little slow you're not slow slow but he's not like as fast as you want you want him to like haul ass you want him to like

meep yeah he's not like that i should say also you're playing as dillon faden jessie fadin's brother who uh in the first game was uh under like the control of the hiss and was captured by the federal bureau of control and it had been in a coma for seven years. So you're playing as him while you're sort of working with the FBC and looking for Jesse. You can you get this like power called reach that basically is like a physical grapple where you're like pulled toward a point high up. Okay. That one is really cool. And you get one called Shift that the world is kind of inceptioned.

Yeah. So there's like buildings kind of like sideways and streets are going like the wrong way and stuff where then you can use that to like walk on a surface that was previously going up and now it is flat. So like there's platforming things that you can do with those two abilities that are like some of the coolest things I've ever seen in a game before. Like in that I'm sure it exists in other games too, but they just really. I kind of feel like this game is like it is coming at a particular moment where we're you know Game studios of like their size and bigger are being shut down for not being hits This kind of this game kind of feels like a hey this is everything we fucking know how to do Like this better this has to work kind of because there's like stuff in it that like there was a level or not a level

It feels insane this call things in games levels because it feels old. Uh-huh, but this was what you would effectively call a level of this game. I think the terminology is still useful. A sequence is what I mean I meant to say, but it was a part of this game that reminded, you know, earlier this year I played through Max Payne. Right.

That I was like, this is exactly a Max Payne sequence. Oh, okay. And I was like, they just like are using all their tricks available to them. And it's really good and strange and just exactly what I like about remedy games and control in particular being my favorite. I'm excited to finish that off.

Or, you know, finish it eventually. I'm going to be playing it weekly with my friends over at Super NPC Radio. So check that out. And that's what I've been playing. Wow. I'll talk a little bit about what I've been playing. So I'm still playing Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave, but that's not the headline. I love hearing that you're playing Fire Emblem.

It rips. That's not the headline this week, though, because, you know, as I've mentioned on the podcast before, I sometimes feel a sense of obligation to mess around with something that is new and is newsworthy, just so we have someone on the podcast that's ostensibly a comprehensive video game podcast that has some awareness of this. And this was one where it's like, if someone's going to take a bullet. bullet on this one. It might as well be me because I'm the closest to this, to being the audience for this game of the three of us. Roblox. You're not far off. I don't like giving any money to Jonathan Blow. At, at best, an insufferable narcissist, at worst, a Maga Chud. But he has directed this game that's been in development for a decade that was announced at the Game Awards in December, this magnum opus called Order of the Sinking Star.

This game is not Roblox, but it is very much based on Sokobon, the OG box pushing game. And it is just that taken to its logical endpoint, I would say. It's just absolutely exploded out. It has about 500 hours worth of gameplay in its campaign. It is absolutely daunting. Right. Yeah, I picked up fucking Fire Emblem fortunes weave, which I also have on my Switch 2. I bought this order the Stinging Star on Switch 2, which, and hey, honestly, kind of an oddly

perfect switch two games so far because some of the puzzles are just kind of like discrete and self-contained and so you can play just a chunk, just work on one puzzle for a little bit, even though there's this this ginormous open world legend of Zelda style top-down environment for you to explore as well. So here's what it is.

For people who aren't aware of this game's history, like I said, it's been being worked on basically since The Witness Rapped. and what it ended up being is Jonathan Blow's language is Game Design Super Collider which combines the mechanics of four existing independent

Socoban style box pushing puzzle games It's just a highfalutin way of sense of mashup It's just four different games that are combined into one game And so these designs are actually licensed from the original creators I don't know if any of them It's three developers who made four games

I'm not sure if any of them were actively involved in the development of order of the seeking star, as far as I can tell, it's kind of hard to get that much information about, about its actual development history. I know there was some controversy because Jonathan Blow was being so forefronted

in the marketing, and Jonathan Blow, by the way, I didn't give that context, Braide the Witness. He's in Indie Game, the movie, one of the three creators profiled. One of these guys has been just kind of like a titan of indie game design for a long time.

time. But he was forefronted and these other developers who actually made these these mechanics were kind of backgrounded, but I guess that's been semi-recognified. Sokobon dates back to this 1981 game called Sokoban, which translates as warehouse keeper by Hiro Yuki Ima Bayashi. And we've all played this game. Even if we haven't played this exact game, we've encountered this puzzle design in other games where you're just pushing fucking boxes. You don't want to end up on a corner. You don't want to end up on an edge. you know, and then you're just trying to get whatever it onto a, a button or something, to depress it, to open a door. It's a thing you'll very commonly see in a Zelda-like.

And so it's basically that this one combines four Socomon games. They are Heroes of Halling, which is a game where you've got three different characters that have different abilities in terms of how they move them. There's one guy who can push, there's one guy who can pull, and there's one guy. who can switch places with them. There's the mirror aisles, which is so much about like angling mirrors and positioning them because that allows you to teleport the player character. Oh, by the way, Heroes of Hulling was based on a game called Heroes of Sokoban, developed by Jonathan Ostrov.

The Mirror Isles, it was developed by Alan Hazelden, as well as skipping stones to Lonely Homes. That was another Alan Hazelden game. And that one is like very much about pushing things across waterways to, you know, create bridges or move things around it or whatever. I haven't, I spent the bulk of my time so far, and this game came out today. So, like, I haven't had a ton of time with it, but I spent a couple hours with it. I spent the bulk of that time in the overworld with Heroes of Hauling and with the Mirrials.

So I've only really touched a little bit on skipping stones to Lonely Holmes. And then Vault of the Beamcasters, which has so much to do with, like, taking gems into things and making those into beams, which enable you to move, like, fucking boulders or whatever. So they each have their own kind of mechanics, but they're all based on the core mechanic of box pushing of Sokoban. And then as the game progresses, as is my understanding, these mechanics start to cross over and we start to see them interact with each other and interplay with each other. So far, I'm annoyed that I like it so much. It is, it is like kind of oddly, really, really compelling. Just having the exact same baseline, but like slightly different

flourishes on it is fun. And they also all have their own unique aesthetics. Um, it's, it's, it's, it's got like this, you know, kind of annoying fucking up its own ass story, as you might expect from the guy who made Braden the Witness. But like it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's whatever. It's fine. Um, it. But, but, but the, the core gameplay is is is really, really compelling. And I, you know, like the, the, the sound design and the music and the, um, uh, the art and animation are all working for me. I don't know if I'm to stick with it. Because it's one of those things where it's such a. It's such a. Um, it's such a. Um, um, it's such a. Um, it's, it's daunting tasks to commit to something that is going to be 500 hours. But I don't know. It's also the sort of thing where I can see myself slowly chipping away at it over time. So I'm going to mess around with it a little bit more. I'm glad I picked it up. I'm glad I saw what kind of all the fuss was about.

It is also just kind of like a bizarre way to conceive of a game, right? To be like, hey, I like these other games. Let me just buy the rights to them and then do my own version of them all with than one ur game. So yeah, because basically, like, if I didn't articulate it very well, there's like a north, east, south, and west quadrant that are connected by an overworld. And when you go to each of those quadrants,

that's when that game design takes over. So, yeah, that's order of the sinking star. That's what we've been messing around with today. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, didn't have to do 500 hours? That's the thing. When I read some of the, you know, in the run up to its release, when I read some of the reviews and some of the takes on it, there was a lot of like, it's just kind of exhausting. You know, it's kind of like it might just be too much of a good thing. And the extra annoying thing is that that runs into this sort of defensiveness from fans that are like, oh, you're mad that they gave you this much game for $30. And it's just like, No, but it's fair to criticize something for being overly long.

You know what I mean? It's like, oh, they made 10 seasons of a TV show that like ran out of steam after season six. I think you can say like, hey, they shouldn't have made this as fucking big. Also, like the magnitude of 500 hours is one third of all of my time in Fortnite. You know what I mean? It's a huge amount of time. That's the amount of time I spent in Bellacharo. And it's just like, yes, okay, that that is fundamentally a, yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I,

So I understand, like, yes, I played a lot of that game and I felt like I got my money's worth, but there's a different sort of sense versus playing like a run-based game or a game that you like play to keep playing in, you know, Kirk Hamilton's parlance of the Triple Glick podcast versus an actual campaign where you're trying to see a story to the end. That's just like a different sort of user experience, you know. Yeah. But I don't know. I'm still like, annoyingly impressed by its design. So shout out to Jonathan Blow. and uh... shout them out

also fuck you uh Heather what are you playing well uh I went to New York last week and I had a plane ride there and a plane ride

back and so I put in ten additional hours into Persona 5 Whoa now that on the switch two you can play docked mode when you're handheld

the graphics are crisp and clean and God that game is so fucking stylish I'm farther than I've ever been in the game I'm enjoying myself as a result

I brought Kronom Trigger with me, didn't pick it up once, just played Persona 5 the entire time. And it may have, Persona may have bounced me off Chrono Trigger again. It certainly has occupied the space I would have played near some more. Near, I just, I never hit that point where it like really, really grabbed me. I probably will drop back into it. but right now if I'm going to sit down with a with a game that isn't this week's game that we're covering, I think it's going to be persona five. Wow.

I'm really fucking happy to be back in that world. Great game. And also, you know, I've talked about near being ugly on the podcast and I've seen on the Discord people have been like, well, it's, you know, it's an old game. And she doesn't really, what she really mean when she's trying to articulate that it's ugly. And I don't want to get into what in the aesthetics I don't like, but I do want to compare it to persona 5 in that both of those games are very old. But the art direction in persona 5 is so like bullseye that every moment of it, you're just kind of dazzled. And it's a PS3 game, you know? Yeah.

So it's not a question of like how old the graphics. The Last of Us is a PS3 game. It's just like this sort of emptiness and the sort of, I don't know, the textures in NIR were what I was speaking about when I was calling it ugly. But yeah, I went to New York. And while I was there. For what it's worth, I just looked it up. NIR was released in 2017.

Persema 5 was released a year earlier originally in 2016. Yeah. Whoa. So they're basically contemporary. Yeah. Did you get a slice when you were there? A slice. I did have a slice.

Yeah? You like it? Yeah, I have a fucking excellent slice. Mary and I shared some pizza from some, I don't, I can't remember. Then they started with an L. Great pizza place. Great. Probably Luigi's.

It feels like this common name for a pizza place. A pizzeria? You know, I'd have to go. Never mind. I gotta leave. Oh, I gotta go. I gotta fucking get out of here. No, it's so crazy.

We're all going to the same place. you are. To help. While I was in New York, I, can I ask you real quick? Because I love persona five. I played the shit out of it,

finish that game, then finished Perciano five, Royal. 10 out 10. Do you, like, do you find yourself gravitating any party members in particular?

Is there anyone you are, you're, you're targeting for romance or for friendship? No. Okay. Ask an answer I'm targeting batting cages The pizza place could have been like little

Tony's Yeah it could be little Tonys While I'm in New York I would say as a result of this Podcasts influence over my life And us getting into These packs of cards and Magic the Gathering cards And me saying you know I play a lot of

Pokemon Pocket Which is a very very of the Pokemon card game. I was like, you know what? I'm going to get back into Pokemon. I used to play it when I was younger. I'm going to start playing Pokemon again. Why are you smiling?

Is it another L name? No. Lazzania and also pizza? Why do I do this show? Don't tell me you wouldn't go in that I'd be interested. What's that also all about? It was superfluous. Maybe it's extra good.

So when I'm touring around New York, on this little trip. I, of course, dropped by my favorite video game store in New York called Video Games New York, which is a fucking fantastic retro video game store.

I love it. But I'm also there exploring my new... What's this? Did you get anything? Did you pick up any... I did not pick up anything. Interesting.

I did not pick up anything. I am trying to play as much of the games that I already own, which is to say, enough for 10 lifetimes. Yeah, for sure. So I didn't get anything.

though I did stare at how the Game Boy advances are now in like effectively the museum section of the store. And I was like, this sucks. What? How. Yeah. It's not even. Is it? I guess it's really old.

Look at these artifacts of a forgotten age. I think I had when I was 19. Yeah. So I go to video games New York. Bop in there. It's great. but I go to a new store that I've never been to. Opened in 20203.

It's called TrainerCort. TraynorCort is a Pokemon, the card game store. I'm repping the T-shirt right now. Wow. Very for sure. And it's going to feed into a segment that we're going to play later. But Trainor Court is a Pokemon card game store, which the, I would say that, like, the hook of the place is they have, it's designed like the TWA Lounge in 1960. is an impeccable aesthetic.

There is a bar. And it isn't a bar that serves drinks. And as you know, I've been sober for years. Yeah. So the experience of sitting down at a bar and ordering something is something I desperately miss just for the ritual of it. You sit down at the bar at trainer court and they give you a menu. And the menu looks like a bar menu, right? but it is a progressive list of vintage sealed packs that you can order.

And behind the bar, instead of alcohol bottles, are packs of Pokemon cards. Wow. So you can sit at the bar with a menu and you can order like, I'll take a couple of these, the 30th anniversary packs, or I'll take a couple of the packs that were released just before that. Or you can flip back to like the reserve section and you can pay up to three grand for a single sealed pack of Pokemon cards from some like 1990s vintage. Wow. I sat down at that bar and I spent about a hundred bucks buying packs that they serve you at the bar. You can choose to open them there. They give you to them in a glass. They give you, I mean, fuck they should, man.

Put them in a cup. Here you go. Yeah. God damn. But what's nice about it is you get like a, when you're buying drinks at a bar, you get a dopamine rush. You get a dopamine rush. You get your drink, it's pretty, you sip it, it gives you like an elevated, you know, endorphin feeling. And then you're like, keep them coming! What's the freaking hold up? This rounds on me. I've never done that, but it kind of might be fun to do.

I did that in Japan. You did that in Japan. You did it? I made to spill my drink. You remember? I was there. As I was gesturing, this rounds on, like, one round for the bar, I had knocked my drink over and it shattered.

It's humiliating. It was, it was the best you could do. No, it was like the most perfect thing you could have done. So you sit at the bar, you order some, you order some cards and you get that same endorphin rush. You get like, oh, there's serve you. You open them up, go through the pack. And what else is nice about it is there are bins on the bar, like little boxes where if you get cards that you aren't looking for, if you're not getting chase cards or art cards, whatever, you can donate those cards in the bin.

and kids come in and get the donated cards for free. That's nice. Which is so fucking slick. I love that. It is so slick. I was like... I should have that at real bars for drinks. I had such a...

It was like, it was just good. They sold like excellent merch. They sold like also some like Pokemon plush. Yeah. There's a sticker collection that, uh, that I had gotten, the last time I was in Japan, which I forget the name of, but they had some of those stickers there up on the wall.

Their shirts are great. I just, it was, and I'm sure there's people in the, you know, on the Discord or whatever, who are more entrenched in the Pokemon card game, and they are maybe angry at this place for their prices. I don't know. It was such a unique experience,

something that like, I was like, I can't believe this doesn't exist anywhere else. Yeah. Because certainly you can go buy packs at like a fucking terrifying store on the second floor of some nightmare mall. Yeah. You know? And that's primarily the aesthetic that I've experienced getting back into it is I'm going to go, I'm going to go see if this place has any packs today.

I'll stop by a place and I'll be like, oh, God, I have to go up like three flights of urine-soaked stairs in order to get to a room that looks like a bomb went off. and it's got like packs behind a counter and a person who looks like they're a hostage. Versus this like posh, Ralph Lauren, like, TWA experience where I'm sitting at a bar with a fucking menu. Well, in the experience, too, of buying like a new pack from like the current set is becoming insane too because like even major retailers aren't selling it MSRP anymore.

Right, right. So it's just like, well, you're just like, well, you're just, just kind of fucked out of way. The 30th packs were seven bucks. Yeah. Which is a slight markup, but also the convenience of being at a fucking bar and ordering packs is incredible. It sounds like a great customer experience.

You know what I love shopping? Yeah, we did learn this about you though when we were in Japan. I think we all like, I sort of like shopping a little bit less, but go with me on this. Yeah. I don't like shopping, but I do like buying stuff. Buying stuff is great. Look, you don't have to convince me on buying stuff. This is a key part of shopping.

But I like the shopping experience. I like going someplace and talking to somebody. Yeah. You do. I do. Yeah, I'll chop it up with customer service trap. Why not? I'll tell you.

Someone with a salesperson. Yeah, show me what you got. Take a look. Bring you up our Japan trip. Yeah. I was recently at a Japanese restaurant where the owners moved from Japan. I was in Ohio to Ohio to open this place. And I'm sitting there and I was like,

saying to my wife, I'm going to hit him with an a rigatogizmas. And she was like, don't. And I was like, I guarantee you they're going to love it. And all the way out, they could do the bill. They say it to me first. I hit him back. And they went, oh, cool.

I was like, hell yeah. That's what I'm talking about, maybe forever changed. But anyway, this bar sounds like a really cool story. And also, I got to say, the t-shirt looks really cool, but also looks like a good quality shirt. It is. It's a thick cotton. Like, it feels like a real good shirt. They had two shirts, and that was it.

Yeah. And one was gray. One was white. It's got a great font that looks like, you know, 1980s tennis court font. Yeah. It just felt, it felt like a, like a Pokemon card store for adults and not for junkies. And I think that the, the terrifying basement. And I'm not, I'm not negging my own new and old hobby.

I'm just saying that there's like, you can take the pleasure of, of Pokemon cards and extend that to the environment that you use to serve those cards. It doesn't have to be a nightmare. I'm, I'm on the same page as you, Heather. This sounds great. This sounds like the kind of a card shop I'd want to go to. I fully understand people who like, for them, it's like, it's like the thrill of the hunt. It's finding the bargain. it's tracking something down,

it's spending as little money as possible. That's totally great. God bless, Godspeed. For me, I'd rather pay a little bit of a premium for just like a nicer, more holistic experience.

Because also overall, it's just like, you know, it's a better use of money to spend on experiences versus possessions. Experiences are a thing that you'll, that will stick with you. That sounds awesome. I'd love to go.

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podcast episode description box. You just got to get them. You just got to do what you want. Let's talk about Star Wars Galactic Racer, released on October 6th of this very year, the debut game of Fuse Games, which is an independent UK studio, founded recently by former developers from Criterion, Criterion for Famed for Burnout and a Need for Speed, among others, came out for PS5, Xbox, and PC. I'm playing it on PC, I assume the two of you're playing on PS.

5? PS5. Yeah, that's right. You have PS5 Pro. And it is an arcade racing game set in the Star Wars universe in the, I guess the new Republic era, the aftermath of Return to the Jedi, kind of contemporaneous with the Mandalorian. But to just call it an arcade racing game is kind of underselling it because it fucking rules.

First of, I think it rules. But also, the campaign mode is so much more fully formed than I expect. It's incredible. It's really, it's really rad. It's really creative. Very robust. As somebody who loves roglights, I'm like, what a cool way to do a racing game. Brilliant.

How's no one thought of this? Fucking brilliant. Yeah. They were calling it a racing adventure game, which I think is a good descriptor for it. Here's why this mode alone has my vote for, is this the best racing game of all time. One. One of the problems with racing games is that once you master the tracks, you're kind of like, okay, you'll get your speed, you try and beat your own times, you try and beat the difficulty

level, et cetera. This adds a randomized element to the run of the actual, like, campaign that you're doing that gives you that sort of Hades, that sort of blueprints feel where you're like, oh, shit, this time I got these upgrades, which makes this part of this level feel different. And the fact that those upgrades can also have deficits, like if you get a new part and that park gets damaged and now you've got an entirely new thing that you have to tolerate with your car, for example, boosting while you're in the air freezes your vehicle, which throws off your handling. Like, it's, it's perfect.

It's so enjoyable. It's, and it is so insanely fast. Really fast. Great sensation of speed. You know, I got it locked under 20 FPS on my. my rig and it's it's it's it's it's it's running really well yeah I mean I'm I'm super impressed with it I think that the gameplay is just incredibly fun for somebody generally doesn't play racing games I think the sensation of speed is such a huge part of it also just how like fucking packed the

the the the the the tracks are with with vehicles yeah and because this is the in the you know the DNA the the the you know what one of its ancestors is the burnout series it does have have a lot of like crashing and takedowns as mechanics. You know, Burnout 3 takedown famously, that was the whole thing it was based around. Which is also an element to pod racing in the movies. Right.

Like takedowns was the thing. And so getting to ram somebody off course, they scream and then you get a slow motion shot if you haven't turned off that aspect. Because when you look away from your pod racer, you're going so fucking fast that you almost immediately get dead end. a wall. But you get like a scream of some guy who's like little face shows up at the bottom of your

screen and he's like, no! And then he explodes. And it feels like the Phantom Menace. It's awesome. Yeah, really cool. And here's another reason why this game might be the best racing game of all time. I have not finished the campaign. But I have progressed through the first section.

section and the second section. It is telling a story and that story happens sort of like in these pit stop areas that preface each new planet that you race on where you interact with a few different characters. You meet a couple of guys. You talk to them and they give you a little bit of a story and you're getting this story sort of pipe to you that you are from a planet where one of these racers is from a race that subjugates the race that you are. Kestar Bull is the NEPO race champion who's your rival. You are Shade, who is a helmeted human of, you know, whatever gender, body type voice you choose and how modulated it is. And so basically, yeah, like, like he's, Shade comes from an oppressed people, the Bull family. Kestar Bull's, you know, like a heritage is responsible for their suffering.

And because this story is being piped to you and you're having. these interactions with these characters as you progress through the campaign, by the time you're fighting against Bull, like racing against him, you feel like a fucking hero. Not a racer, a hero with like a destiny. And that feeling I've never had blended into a racing game. Like I've always been like, oh, I can be the best racer. But I've never felt like I have to do this for a larger purpose. It's remarkably effective that it's just like, hey, we're not going to have a player character who's either a blank slate or, you know, one of a roster of like 12 different characters and we'll just, the campaign will just make sense regardless who they are. But it's like, no, this is this is one specific individual with a specific grudge, a specific history. And yeah, it's simple.

It's straightforward. I'm out for revenge because you fucked my people over. But it's just like it works really well. And it being kind of threadbare and something you can understand in shorthand is why I think it works in such short chunks, Heather. I'll say right here. Yeah. I don't. I'm going to avoid spoilers to the best of my ability.

Telling this story, you're telling me what I have to do. I race to that point. I have my champion moment and there's a turn. And I was like, son of a bitch, I did not see this coming. I thought I was at the end of the game. And I was so excited that there was more story to be told to me. While I'm doing these fucking races, it's awesome. I'm really loving it as well.

I'm also like just thinking about like, because Star Wars so far, the major stories in Star Wars that the way that they're told are from a particular, not just point of view, but they're told through like a certain modality where it's like these Jedi or these people it's all sort of like one thing. Yeah. Or like and or is of course a different thing

and then now they're starting to do it in different ways. It never once would have occurred to me that there was a story to tell in the racing world within Star Wars. Yeah. And that just sort of has my mind sort of like spinning like what else could we be doing here? Yeah.

Like there's so much, there's so much meat on the bone. I was like I would watch a Star Wars sports movie. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, just like, if they were to adapt, like, something like this, like, or, you know, it's just, it's F1, but Star Wars. I'm like, yeah, fuck yeah. Who cares?

Like, it could be anything. Well, part of it is the sound design in the racing in the game and also in the movies is so awesome. Like, at the beginning of each of these races, there's a couple little things that happen that just, like, lock me in. One is you have to enter in a key code to like activate your your shields, your boosters, whatever. The more stuff you equip your car with on your run, the more like little buttons and blips you have to press in a specific order. Those things, the hardest thing for me to do so far. Oh, no. Because my thumb doesn't move fast enough.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Right. To do it. So I have to be very intentional with my finger presses. Yeah. But I do I love that mechanic. You type in these things and you get the feeling of

when you watch Phantom Menace of all the little flips, the switches they flip at the beginning of a race. You're like, what the fuck are you doing? Why wouldn't you do that before? And it's like, oh no, you only have a certain amount of time that you're allowed to do it in the racing rules of this world. The other thing that happens is after you input those codes, you start your engine. And on the PS5 controller, it is a, it is like a gun trigger that you're pulling.

It's a chunky press. It is a pull, then a click, and it feels like you are actually achieving a haptic event. It fucking rules. Yeah, because I'm playing on the Xbox controller on my PC. And so, yeah, I do not have that haptic feedback. So I'm missing out of that element. But it is still really tactfully satisfying to start your engine. I'll also just say, like, I'm not up to speed in racing games.

Maybe this is a standard. to maybe this thing that happens in a lot of them, but like just in terms of filling the dead air that is necessary before a race begins, because you can't just like, like, loading screen, like race begins. You know, you have to have a little bit of setup just to have that space be allocated to, hey, here's a little mini game. It's kind of whatever. It's really basic. It's as straightforward as gaming gets put this exact sequence of, you know, keys in a certain area in a certain order. But like, it's just enough to keep me engaged and keep, and keep. retain some interactivity in what's otherwise just a cutscene. It's great. I think that's such a clever stroke. I did just before we got here today get all the way to the end. The end, the end? I don't know about if it's the end of the end.

I don't know if there's like something past the, like winning the, you know, the main race. Like you have the, there's like three circles. There's like three planets that you go to first. And then there's a fourth one where like the big, the big race happens. I got to that. And I lost. And I kind of just feel like, I feel like we should say what it is. Matt, can I tell you that that is not at all the end of the game?

This is the best racing game of all time. It is not at all the end of the game. Because did you beat him? I beat him. Then I went six more planets, thought I wanted. thought I won the game and it was like nope

the game is just beginning and I was like holy fucking shit there's a lot of stuff to do can we say who it is again if it was the end of the game I would be like oh let's save it but it is not it is not the end of the game

it's not to be close he's on the Wikipedia for the game so like people I think are aware that he's in it you get to race Sibobo you get to race Sibobo And it kind of just makes me, because, like, he's all the way from episode one. This game takes place after Return of the Jedi. Yeah.

What is the lifespan of a subalba? Yeah, what race is subalba? What race is subalba? I should look this up right now. I'm sure this is in Wikipedia. He's a, is he a dig? A Doug? Is he a Doug?

He might be a Doug. Doug sounds right. I'm looking it up right now. But yes, it is a sort of thing of like, what's this guy I've been up to for 30 years? He's been racing. Here's the thing. He's in bed with a bull. Guys, if you're going to, if you're going to, if you're going to play the game.

Subbobah is a Doug. Homeworld of Malistair. Thank you so much. Great poll, Heather. If you are going to. Insane thing to know, actually. Well, why is it in there? It's really, get it out of there.

I don't want it in there. Get it out of there. My brains would be on the wall. Gunned to my head asking me that. So, here's a lot. There's a thing. I want a spoiler country a little bit. I say go off. Put on your hats and glasses and maybe you're driving goggles and you're driving gloves and you're driving gloves. If you're in for this fucking game, like fucking, maybe what I'm

about to say will get you excited to play it. Maybe you want to stop here and save the game to give you these reveals, right? First time I race a bulb, that dude like mop the floor with me because I didn't understand the shield mechanic. I like, just learned the shield mechanic as well. There's a, there's a toggle on the, like, the D-pad on your controller. And I thought to activate your shield, you just press up where the shields are located. But really, you select from things that you activate on the D-pad. And then you press L-1 in order to activate the actual shield.

Yes. And Sibolba fucking threw shit at me. And I was like, I didn't even know that you could do this in this game. He's like, fuck, firing guns and shit at me. Yeah. So I blew up, I lost, and then you start the whole campaign again, right? You beat Subalba and you get to graduate to the galactic race. Okay, great.

So then you're in the race, right? You go through, I think it's significantly more planets. And you finish that sequence by going up against, is his name, Boole? Yes. Kaskar-Bool or something like that Kestar-Bul Kestar-Bul, right? So you finish

and you're all the way to the big championship the stadiums full of people you go up against this guy and by the time I get to him I know enough of my backstory with this guy that I'm like

I'm gonna fucking kill this dude he kind of like has a char silhouette I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna kill this guy because you learn so much about what happened to you that you're like, oh, this is more than, I'm going to fucking kill this guy.

You finish that race, which I beat him the first time because, again, I've never been more locked in in a race. I'm like, I am not going to lose and go through all this again. I'm fucking killing this guy. You win that race and that asshole arrests your backer. Your friend. Your friend. Your Encarplet type guy. declares the entire galactic race invalid because he is the owner of the races, institutes himself as the head of the Galactic Race Federation.

I'm going to fucking kill this guy. Undoes your victory and you're in chapter three. And that's where I'm in. Oh my God. Where I was like when all this shit happens and the like this John Williams-esque music is playing and it's like people are marching out and handcuffing the guy who's your backer. Yeah. I was like, I was like, I, I didn't see any of this shit coming.

I like that backer character. I like the little monkey friend that helps that build your, yeah, outfits your car. I'm just like, it's interesting to me. And to spoilers. End of spoilers. It's interesting to me that there's so much in this game actually. Because like, there's stuff in it that I haven't even touched.

I haven't touched the different, like different modes you can play in where you know there's multiplayer and there's arcade and then there's like different scenarios where I think you're maybe racing as the other characters in the game yeah I messed around with arcade a little bit and I was like I was like all right this is it

but I mean I just found the campaign it's so much more interesting oh yeah the campaign is like is the thing to play oh I forgot a spoiler I forgot a fucking spoiler we gotta go back into spoiler country real quick go back into spoiler country don't don't get too comfy with those hats and glasses off put them back on I'd say again it's not that deep into the game because I already know the game's

quite a bit longer after you beat Subboba, right? Yeah. He's now in that like area in the beginning. You can talk to Subolba? You fucking talk to him. He tells you racing stories and he's like, you won't believe it. One time I was on Tatooine and you get to play the Tatooine pod race prior to Anakin as Sabulba in his fucking pod racer on that track. Wow.

And every time you come up to that guy, he's like, you want to hear another racing story? and you're like, absa fucking lootly, you can only progress if you finish in first because Simovla's not telling you stories about when he finished in second. No. So the only way you get to leave those memories and progress is if you finish it first as Sabulba.

That's so great. It's awesome. Well, and I feel like the thing we should say here is that I feel like in part of the pun, we're not gassing this game up. It's being reviewed quite well. It has the highest review score. of any Star Wars games since

Knights of the Old Republic, which feels impossible because those Jedi Fall in Order and Survivor are very good. They're very good. And obviously a different thing. And also, I should say, this is not the

first Star Wars game to come out this year. Star Wars Zero Company, a game that I messed with a little bit, also reviewed very well and also extremely wiger game, actually. Yeah, tell us about it, because I haven't messed around

with this one yet. Zero Company is basically Star Wars X-Com. And that's for some people. That's all you need to know. And the story is good. The tactical combat is really good. It's great. It's really, really fun.

But it's just interesting that these are not the games that we're really expecting out of Star Wars right now. And they're two of the best games of the first. in the franchise in a long time. Maybe two of the games released this year. The most frustrating part about Galactic Racer is that there are people who aren't going to play it because it's Star Wars aren't going to. And if you play racing games, this game fucking rules.

And if you just want to like a good, it feels like a video game. It feels like a good video game. Yeah, it's just a straight-up fucking video game. And the sound is so good. I love the sound design. I really like the score. I was trying to look up because your mechanic is Hebe. Hebe helps you out.

Hebe. Is Hebe a Mazkanata? He be kind of looks like a Mazkanata. I don't think Hebe is a Mazcanada. He is not a Mazcanada. I think Hebe is similar to Favro and Scorsese. Okay. I think Hebe is one of those.

Hebe's from a rise of Skywalker, isn't Hebe? Hebe's a rise of Skywalker? You think Hebe is a Babu Frick? No, no, no. No, Babu Frix are in Mandalorian and Grogu by the way. Yes. And Ardenian. Ardenian is the race.

I think Hibbe is an Ardenian. But I think Ardenians premiere in Rise of Skywalker. Yeah, where did Ardenians first service? Regardless, if you look at Mos Kanata, clearly, I remember the character differently. It does not have four arms for one. Remember when Maz Kanada is horning for Chubakka? Yeah. And remember when she's busting a union-like dispute?

It's weird. I do like, again, do I like Star Wars or not, crate is in this game. Yeah. The planet from the end, the final set piece on in Last Jedi. Yeah. And it's really cool when the sand is turning red

and you're racing over it. Well, let's just go and talk about that for a second. You get to experience the three vehicle types in, or the three main vehicle types, I guess I should say, in like the opening sequence of this game by playing as different racers and in their vehicle types and so you're going over different planets

when you're on crate I was like let's fucking go this is awesome yeah there's like a speed run sort of tutorial where you're just kind of like going through all the different the different mechanics and one of the mechanics of crate

is to be in somebody else's salt trail fucks up your car oh yeah fucking rules I do like that how much terrain is an element in this game for something that is just because you know you could have a speeder game that just basically

like, hey, all these things are flying. They just, we're just not going to even worry about terrain effects. But habit, like, no, that lava can catch you on fire. That water can cool you, cool off your engine. Yeah. That acid can corrode you? Right. All that shit is, it's cool that that's all in there and just add some more unexpected depth.

There was a run that I was on on this particular planet, and I can't remember the name of it now, but it was an ice planet. And there are these heaters throughout the race. that you have to drive through, and it can be tricky to navigate through them. Yeah. Some of them are on, like, a turn, so you could miss or can crash into it,

but you have to drive through the heat because your car freezes in the snow. Yeah. And it gets worse and worse, the longer it freezes. And I just think that's just so interesting and so fun because, like, they didn't have, like, if it didn't freeze,

I'm not going to sit there and give a shit. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not going to be thinking about it. Like, why isn't it my car freezing? but the fact that it's an element and it's like that you can combat it by driving through these heaters is cool. I also like that it that you can stylize your type of vehicle the way that you want to play the game. And the longer you play the game, the more options you unlock for basically what character you are. Right.

And some of those options include that when you ride your boosters all the way up to the red line, that the longer you redline, the faster your car goes. And if you can just play the red line all the way up until you are about to explode your car, that that is a type of racer. And you can load up all these bonuses that service that idea. So for me, being that I'm like, I just want to go as fast as I possibly can. I load up the car with all of those bonuses. And when I try and thread the needle on those heaters,

I hit the side of it so hard and die so fast. It was like the one thing about a game like this where you crash into it, like you would just be dead, but your car, of course, just like resets and then you're a few places behind or whatever. What I think is interesting about your response to this game in particular is that I don't think of you

is, I think of Nick and I is the one that like kind of like like roglytes, but you're not a racing. So it's kind of like there's an interesting thing going on here where you don't really like racing games, but this one is working for you because you like roglights. Well, and also it's Star Wars. And it's Star Wars.

You like Star Wars and don't really like roguelight, but you like racing games. Yeah. So it's kind of just like Star Wars is the great unifier. I think that the roguelike elements of this game service the game so effectively and just make it more and more fun. Like I'm like, oh, I want to know what I get. It's like there's like a small gambling element. By the way, there also is gambling later in the game. You can start placing bets with other races.

racers. Oh yeah, I've done this. Fucking, that fucking rules. Yeah. You also can, like, choose a backer who's, like, who's, like, a hut or something, and a hut's like, yeah, I just want to see you beat people. Yeah. And if you don't beat literally everybody in every single race and get a first place,

the entire run, he's mad at you. That's really fun. I do also like that you don't necessarily have to win a race. It just, though, your place in the race impacts the bonuses that you get. you just have to finish. Yeah. Yeah. How many credits you get and other, you know, ancillary bonuses.

I just, I feel like, and I'm repeating something, Heather's sentiment, but I just to underline, the roguerite structure is so effective for this because it encourages experimentation, which is one thing, but also just like that feeling that's so satisfying that, that, you know, when you're, when you're doing a run and I'll just say Hades again or you are vampire survivors or whatever, and you start to be like, oh, I'm really getting this build, I really like. I'm like like I'm I'm I'm steering myself towards that play style when you're able to execute that. It's really really satisfying.

Yeah. And it's just having this that grafted onto a completely different genre. It just it just hits in a whole new way. This also really works for me because I think the base speed in your in your vehicle of choice is already pretty fast. Yeah. There's like the one boost that you have. Yeah. That is like, hey, I'm going pretty fucking fast now actually.

Your afterburners. Well, then there's the one. Then the jet. I can't remember what it's called. I think it starts with an R, right? Ramjet or something. It's Ramjet. It's Ramjet.

You're Ramjet. Possibly the fastest I've ever moved in a video game it feels like. It feels like you're going to fly out of the TV. It's crazy. The default speed on the Podracer is faster than the fastest Ramjet. I can't tell you how many and how often times I died on my first. first Subalba run. Yeah.

Because I was just like, oh, fuck. That's so funny. Fast. I was like, this is like you, I can't. Also, I'm going to say, you know, in a world where I'm addicted to my phone, oftentimes, like, when fucking, when I'm waiting to drop on the island of Fortnite or whatever, I'm looking at my phone, like, seeing what's up. Like, you can't look away from this screen.

There's no time. You can't, you can't, like, if somebody comes. to the door in your house, they just have to die outside. Like, you can't stop. The shoot, like, you were talking about, you were talking about this earlier, Matt, but like trying to shoot the gap,

trying to get into like these little crevices. And when you do do it, it's satisfying. But also because the explosions are so spectacular. And also there is an additional mechanic, which is one way you can structure your build is to have effects that happen on your car's detonation, on your car exploding. So like, you know, like whatever, like an ion blast or something is generated that that fucks up other racers or confers some sort of bonus to you on respawn.

And so like, I don't know, it's like to me it's always kind of funny to explode. Like every time it happens, I'm like having fun still. I guess that's just kind of like the genius of the burnout design, which is where this is all coming from. I exploded. I think I exploded out of a race. Like I had crashed a couple of times and then exploded. because I overheated my ramjet and I got an achievement.

The other thing is the explosions are sometimes so sudden and visceral that you feel, you're like, oh, yeah, for a second you think you're actually on fire. I also want to go to the character, I want to talk about shade for a second because I do think that some of the things that these Star Wars games can run into

in particular is that like, Some of it has to be, like, canon. Like, it's just kind of, like, messy now. So, like, in the first, well, it's, the characters are canon, like Calcestis is canon. Yeah. He's a canon character, but you can customize how he looks, and you can make him look like a dirt bag.

Yeah. Which is, like, you know, maybe not canon, but maybe you could sort of buy that somebody in the world of Star Wars told a story where they met Calcestis, and he had a handlebar mustache and a mulletter. Like, you know what I mean? Like the way that people's appearances change when you tell a story or whatever. Yeah.

In this and in Zero Company, you can also customize. I think the customizations in Zero Company are more vast because you can like pick. The default character is like a human. But you can make the character an alien. Okay. And I'm like that's like, that's just a little different.

In this, he's helmeted. He looks like a Daph Punk guy. Or she. Or she. are they and you can be you can sort of select a voice and then a sort of a sort of look I picked like an over the shoulder cape sort of slick sort of look like truly like Char but if Char was in daft punk and I picked like the most like I picked a male voice but I picked like the bitchiest like British one he sounds like a real asshole but but I picked also the most modulated uh like robotic like filter for it. Right. Because of each voice there's like four levels of filtration.

Yeah. And I love shade. Shade is cool as hell. That's awesome. Yeah. I made my shade look as much like a zion forces. Remember? Like everything, my car is green.

My outfit is green. I'm in all full green the whole time. Because I'm lightly doing a little Gundam in there. I do want to be able to unlock more. of the customization options for the vehicles. I have unlocked all three vehicles and I did put the most stat points into

the third type, the name I'm forgetting, but it's like a new because it's new. It's like a legitimately new vehicle for Star Wars. And I just, that one I have leveled to level six for some reason. But I I'm just having fun. Each run I start just sort of seeing what works. I really like the speeder bike. The speeder bikes are really fun to

Yeah, I was going to say like the skim speeders, but the speed bikes are good. I mean, they're all fun. The vehicles are all fun. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Hey, the vehicles, they're all fun. Podraisers are insane. I have to do that.

Like, you, you, I just started laughing because, like, how, in, like, how, like, imagine. Imagine if I pulled out of the parking lot of head gum and just immediately crashed into the, the store across the street. Like, that's what it was like when I got in the, the car car. fucking pod racer. That's, I mean, our buddy, Juno Fonzo Mark, Sether, you maybe heard this story, was eating at a sidewalk cafe and their

friend pulled up in a car. Like, you know, it's like one of those random things. Their friend pulled up in a car. I rolled down the window and yelled out, what's up, motherfucker? And then stepped on the gas and immediately crashed into a park car. Yeah.

I was like, oh shit, oh, fuck. I was somewhere one time it was a park picnic thing for our friend Jacob Weisaki's birthday. Sean Diston comes up. He's like, I forgot something in my car will be our back. And I kind of said, with an earshot,

it'd be really funny if he just peeled away, like, just like hauled ass out of here. And I didn't think he heard. He gets to this car. Just fucking... It just like pulls away, and it was so funny. He didn't hit anything. Oh, thank God.

But it was just like the most... It was so fucking funny. It's extremely dangerous, very funny thing to do. But car bits are funny. You never really thinking about doing car bits. As long as no we get hurt. As long as we get hurt and nobody does anything bad. I am just sort of like surprised.

I kind of suspected that we would all like this. Yeah. And maybe this is crazy. Okay. I do think it's interesting. And maybe we'll do an episode on this in the future. I just wouldn't have guessed that a Star Wars racing game in the year 2020. could be a potential game of the year contender.

It is really, really good and robust and really solidly reviewed. I think it could be on the list. I think it's on the list. I think for my personal game of the year, it's already been locked in. And I was so blown away by Polkopia that for me, it's just, I can't even imagine that Grand Theft Auto will overtake it. but I'm having I don't know if I'll put as many hours into Galactic Racer

as I put into Pocopia, but I'm having more fun playing Galactic Racer. He's so much faster than Ditto. It's so fast. It'll be interesting because, you know, I guess I'll call them governing bodies. I don't know what the term is. The things like the game awards that kind of like

these self-appointed like overviewers, overseers of what is and isn't worthy of critical respect tend to like license things and then also like genre things, like particularly

sports things, sports games, tend to be sidelined, a pun intended. So like I feel like racing games are rarely in contention. But I don't know. It's one of the better games I played this year, at least so far. And it's also like just such an impressive achievement.

it is the other thing. Like, I'm just watching, I'm, like, walking around, like, in the hub world. And, you know, I've got this absurd, this absurd 21 by 9 ultra wide monitor. And I'm watching around this thing, 5120 by 1440 resolution. I'm just like, this game is fucking gorgeous. Yeah. And this is just the hub. This is just the part where I'm on foot going around talking to NPCs, but just, like,

this level of attention to detail, this high quality art direction, just for something that's purely for flavor, that, like, if this was just a series of race, is one after the other. It would still be really fun. This is just to add depth, depth to the world and stakes to the competition. To make you angry at the other racers.

Exactly, but it's really effective. Oh, it's so good. Because, yeah, you'll often run into somebody that was talking shit during the race or whatever, and you'll talk to them and keep doing it. They'll keep running their damn mouth. Yeah.

And then guess what? At the end of the race, they have a mouthful of dust because they're eating it. They're eating my dust. So fucking good. It's really great. I'm having a blast with it. I'm going to, I got to, I got to do a little more work.

I'm going to, I'm going to keep playing a racing game to find out what happens in this story. That is the crazy thing about it. And then, you know, I did, I think, you know, I don't think there's any shame in this. I did start it in at the, at the recommended difficulty. Pilot. I might kick it down one. Okay. Just so I can see more of it.

See more what's going on. Yeah. But then will I mess around with the online? Probably not. Not a mode that I'm interested in. Because I'm not playing it like that. Yeah. Online racing games always demoralize me a little bit because I'm like, well, I'm racing

against like a 21-year-old who's... This is what they do. Like their hands can move faster than my brain can work. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, there was another thing I wanted to say about it too. Oh, I feel like this should get at least some attention on the show. people because like you know

games are expensive not everyone's going to spend the 60 bucks to play something and we're not even saying that that's what you're doing we're just we did it we're talking about we're telling your experience yeah if you have an Amazon Prime account the game is free on Amazon Luna what to play the game is free on Amazon Luna

what is their streaming service it's like a cloud streaming it's a cloud streaming thing it'll be a little bit of different experience but like still you know it's probably you get the job done The stuff that's not in there is the, it's the campaign only. So none of the multiplayer stuff. But like the campaign is the game. Yeah, sure.

I'm like, that's the thing that I'd be interested in. If I had Amazon Prime but didn't want to spend the 60 bucks, I'd be checking it out. Yeah, I guess so. I was trying to find a list of the Galactic League Racers beyond Kestar Bull and Shade. This is, I don't know if there's a comprehensive list, but this is what I found. I love these names. Kachamok. Yep.

Griff Halloran, Ari Quill, Soren, Zax, Nick Scandaro, which I particularly like, because my name's Nick. That's pretty good. Also, apparently, Nick Scandaro was a bull family enforcer. Kachamaks is a corporate girl. She's got, like, her own company. Like, when you talk to her, she's like, yeah, I'm the CEO of Moxco or something. They're like, all right.

Hey, I mean, that's like an F1 like thing. Yeah. Just like they'll be just in the actual F1 world, it'll be like, oh, this guy is the, this racer is the son of the guy who owns the racing team. Goalie and O2R0. Fola Kanjin, Senfira, Malice Vazzoch, Lirin, and my favorite, Biddy Blas. Biddy Blas is good. Biddy Blas is great. Biddy Blas.

My name is Biddy. Biddy Blas. You're going to be eating my dust, you son of a bitch. I think, you know, we don't regulate. games on this show, but I'm going to do it. This game fucking rules, 10 out of 10. Wow. It's fucking rules.

It's really, really great. I think it's certainly, I mean, it's one of the more fun games I've played in some time, at least this year, but I'm having a blast with it, and I'm going to keep playing it. I like that it's also like, it seems like a game I can just hop in and hop out of, you know? Though I will say, you can't save during a run, and that fucking pisses me off. That does suck. Because the full race, I mean, I've slept my PlayStation in order to come back into it. But like, and I understand why, because you could then save and save scum your way through like the, the roguelite elements.

Yeah, well. But it is a little hard to lock that amount of time for one race run. You were spending some time doing the whole race for sure. Yeah. Apparently, this is only the fifth Star Wars. Wars racing game, which I'm kind of surprised by. And the first one since Star Wars Racer Revenge in 2002. Wow.

I had no idea that this genre was dormant for so long, but back with a fucking vengeance. We needed it now more than ever. Yeah. We did. Star Wars Episode 1, Racer, of course, we did it on probably the previous high water mark for this micro genre. We've talked about that on the podcast. Star Wars Racer Arcade.

I actually remember having fun with Star Wars Racer Arcade. Star Wars Reader Adventure Dimension. And also Star Wars Super Bomb Bad Racing. I totally forgot about that one. That was the one with a super deformed like Darth Mall and Yoda and Subalba. And it was just like basically Mario Kart with pod racing. Yeah, I don't. No, it's not for me.

No. Not for me either. That's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for, I want it to feel like I could die while I'm playing the game. When I, spoiler country, when I went up against Boole in that race that ended up not even being the end of the game. game, my heart has never pounded that hard. I was scared seeing, when they were like, hey, you're going to race Subbo. I was like, fuck, no, I'm not.

That guy's fucking crazy. It'd be funny if you had the option to just quit racing at that point. I'm out. Credits roll. And you can't play the game anymore. Any other thoughts on this? I mean, I just, I'm having a blast on that. I think it's, I'm just, I just feel like it's such an impressive design.

It fucking rules. It fucking rules. I think one of the bigger surprises of the year. Yeah, for sure. I was not thinking, oh, Star Wars Galactic Racer is going to be like a highlight. Yeah. And here I am. I was interested.

Yeah. Yeah. In part because it's like, oh, I have fond memories of the N64 slash streamcast game. Yeah. Star Wars Episode 1 Racer. But this is the best. Good times. Shall we do a segment?

Let's do a segment. Guys, it's time for another episode of Pack the Ripper. Wow, Heather, I guess that means you're Pac-Man this time. I'm Pac-Man, and I have come from Trainer Court bearing gifts. Wow. You're sort of like, hang on. With the trainer court. What's happening?

What's going on here, man? You're kind of like Judge Judy, too. Trainer Court is now in session. Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's rain. So I got us each two packs. of Pokemon cards. Yay. The first is a slight vintage.

Because I didn't want to dip too deep. You know, I don't want to... You didn't want to spend $3,000? I don't want to spend $3,000. But I did want to treat my fam a little nicely. Hey, look at that. So I got us all packs of Mega Evolution ascended heroes. I'll hand those out now.

Wow. Distributing these. Now, what do you think we should do in terms of opening these? Because I think we've learned in the past, this is not necessarily the most scintillating audio content. but I do want to enjoy opening these packs. Well, I have no fuck. I don't care.

The second packs were a little bit more expensive. Oh, boy. They only contain a single card. Whoa. They are Family Mart promo packs. Wow. So these are out of print. They only have one card in them.

Each card will be different. But I saw Family Mart. And I was like, I mean, Ranch, you weren't there. But Family Mart holds a very special place in the heart of the podcast. Yeah. And I was like, well, I got to get us the Family Mart promo. Family Mart, a Japanese convenience store chain or Konbini, as they say, that we visited when we were on our Japan trip. And had some eggs salad, no, not egg salad sandwiches. So there's a different fucking sandwich we got from there.

What did we get from there? Everything we got was great. I love my socks from there, certainly. I love my family mart socks. pack do you think we should open first? The family mart pack? Or is that one more special? I don't. Let's start with the Ascended heroes. Let's start with the Ascended Heroes. All right, I'm opening this bad boy. All right, let's see if I can do this.

Everyone makes sure to crinkle right into the microphone for the misophoniex. Ranch is doing it the most. I'm going to make it louder. Ranch edits the show. All right. Why can I open this? You know what? I just got my, I just trimmed my nails today is the thing. Oh, I can't do it because my thumb does more. Do you need me to open your packs so that you don't damage your cards?

Yes, please open it for me, either. Yes. I do really like the sensation of opening any kind of pack. How fun is that? It is really fun. I still have some NBA packs that are, that sit unopened in my filing cabinet at home. Is that so? Rips some of those bad boys.

Yeah, I bought like a fucking box during the pandemic when I was so fucking bored. Actually, me and me and, uh, had gum co-founder, Amir Blumen, each one on on on a couple of boxes and um there you go I opened like a bunch of them but they didn't never actually finished it well they're like they're like vintage skybox NBA cards from the 90s unopened so it's really exciting to like go through no I can do it like a david robinson all right a scotty pippen so I guess we're just going to call out if we got any like full art or hollow cards right I'm going to open it the way they show me to do it on the videos I'm going to take the one from the back and I'm going to put it in their front okay okay great

And I'm gonna go like this. Here we go. Okay. Basic energy, mega signal, roly-coly. Pikachu. Ooh, Pikachu.

Team Rockets. Tarantula. Electric. Air balloon. Hops, Cramarant, Fighting Gong, Medicham, and Team Rockets

Honch Crow. Wow, Matt. I got actually Team Rocket's Watch Tower. So we can build a whole Team Rocket playset here. We can do a Team Rocket play set. Electrick Gold Duck. This appears to be

a shiny of some kind. Nice. Nice. A holographic card. Roli also a little shiny. Yeah, I don't remember what that's called because the art is not holographic but the card is. You got a hoopa here. This one's also got a little shimmer. Hupa. You're a bit of a hoopie basketball. I think they're called foil cards. I got a fan

Rotom, basic energy, Audish, Mawyle, Raltz, Rolu, and that's that pack. All right. I've got my basic energy. I've got a Metacham, a Dratini, a fighting gong, a Delcatee, a Salazel, a snow runt. My foil cards are a Luna Stone, a buddy, buddy poppin, and a Rayquaza.

Oh, nice. I think the Raqqqa is maybe not like a super, you know, favorite card, but I think a lot of people like a Rayquiza. I like Raikwaza. All right, Ranch, what about you? I have a skitty. Teppig, bell sprout, blast trumpet, air balloon, cramorant, gold duck. Oh.

Team Rock is MimiCube. Wow. That might be a really nice card, Ranch. You might want to check that on the websites. Team Rock. And then shiny audish, shiny okie dogy, and basic energy. All right. Wow.

Ranch, tell me what the numbers are in the bottom corner. It'll be like two numbers with a slash. 238 slash 217. By the way, we should, I think we've talked about this on the podcast before. But for people who aren't in the current TCG trading card game, sort of mad dash that's going on, this gold rush that's happening, there are now these, you may be seen them in. your grocery stores. They're now these vending machines that have cards in them, backs in them.

And every time I've seen one, it's been completely cleaned out. There's been nothing inside of it. I've gotten lucky where I think I've gotten at most, like, six packs from one. Incredible. And have had some nice pulls. The card that Ranch pooled, Team Rockets MimiQ, $15 card. Hey, not that. Okay.

That's the full art. Yeah. Nice. Do you think these Pokemon cards will become? the de facto currency after the fall. Yes. Great. Well, let's hoard them.

Hort them now. All right. And now for the... I don't have any energies. I can't eat this month. The Family Mart promo card. I'll just trade my body. Family Mart promo card.

Now, these are in Nihongo, in Japanese, because they are from Family Mart the Japanese chain. But it looks like I got myself a Pikachu. Oh! Yeah, that's who you want. Family Mart Pikachu. Yeah. And it has a Family Mart logo on it. That's cute.

Kawait is. I can't even. Look at that little guy. Look at that. He's, I mean, we've talked about this before. Yeah.

Pikachu's really cute. Yeah, he's cute as fuck. I can't open mine. I had a hard time with mine, too. I got mine open somehow. I don't know how I did it. I can't open mine. I think I saw you whisper open.

Mine won't open. I might need scissors. I'm getting better with mine. I got it. Also, it's a million degrees in here. Yeah, it got real toasty. It's because we're opening real heaters over here. Yeah.

Oh my gosh. goodness, I got War Torto. Oh. Look that guy. I love War Torto. All right. With the Family Mart logo on it, that's really, this is actually really cool, Heather. All right.

I pulled. What you got, HACC? Squirtle. Oh, look at that. Look at that guy. Squirtle. Family Mart Squirtle. All right.

One more to go. Rochelle's poll is. I think it's in, it looks like Chinese, actually. Matt, can you identify that guy at a glance? I guess maybe mine looks like Chinese, too, but... Well, it could just be the... Oh, shoot. I don't know his name.

I'm a fake fan. He's... Describe him, Ranch. He's a round guy. Galpin. With gray... He's gray and yellow. What that's fun?

And kind of is... I don't know how to explain this. If you're going to identify this guy from Ranch's description, hit us up in the comments. He's like yellow cheeks. And... tiny arms and legs and is very round and like a lightning bolt. I found him. His name is Toga Damaru.

Toga Damaru. Togadamaru. He's really cute. Very cute. I believe this is Japanese. I mean, the thing is it's like Japanese kanji uses Chinese characters. Wait, these are Taiwan. These are from Taiwan.

Oh, these are from Taiwan? Oh, cool. And then never mind. Yeah. Yeah. They're from, they're apparently Taiwan promo packs. And your Pikachu is currently worth $50 on eBay. Okay, all right.

That's two sandwiches in Los Angeles. I didn't know there was Family Mart in Taiwan. I guess there is. Yeah, how about that? Squirtle is $26 bucks on eBay. Let's see. What was the war, you got a war total? War turtle, yeah.

Mine looks like it's going for 2020. $25. All right. Grated 59. And Ranch's was, what was Ranch's? I didn't pay attention. Oh. Toge de Maru.

Toja tomorrow. Okay. That is a 58. Wow. Wow. It looks like. All right. This is what it looks like.

Look at that. That gets cute as fuck. Oh, excellent. Well, hey, we inadvertently took care of a ranch's holiday bonus. You're welcome, Edgum. Thanks, Heather. for stopping by the trainer court. Yeah.

You're welcome. Court is out of session. Welcome. And that's this week's get played. Our producers, Rochelle Chen, Ranch, twitch.tv. slash yard underscore underscore Sard. When you are streaming. Are you streaming?

Been a while. Been a while. Take a little hiatus. Yeah. Do you think you're going to come roaring back at any point? You're just too busy. I will be back. Hopefully in the near future.

Anything else you want to shout out? Any other plugs? No. All right. Join the Patreon. There you go. Our music is by Ben Pronti. Ben Prenty Music.com, our artist by Duck Brigade Design, Duck Brigade.com, get played merch at kinshipgoods.com.

And as Ranch mentioned, we have a Patreon. There's a bonus episode every Wednesday, as well as ad-free main feed episodes. So if you don't like the ads, you can opt out. Just join us over at patreon.com slash get played. Matt, we are doing something really fun as well for our bonus episodes, Get Play DLC in the month of October. That's right. It's Octzilla, baby. Ever heard of it? We have covered the original Godzilla, not from 1954, and this week we're talking about Mothra versus Godzilla from

1964, and let me tell you. It's a lot of fun. It is a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun with the episode, if you haven't seen the movie, or if you have and want to revisit it. Give it a rewatch and then join us over on our Patreon. patreon.com slash get played.

And Matt, you had some plugs. Yes. So I want to just re-highlight my friends over at Super NPC Radio for their coverage of Control Resonant on their Games Club series. So go check that out at their Patreon, patreon.com slash super NPC Radio. And then also I contributed to a book called Video Game Maps NES and Famicom Deluxe Edition. So you can check that out at Retrogamebooks.com. That is out now.

I wrote a couple of blurbs about some video game maps. Wow. I'm having a hard time remembering which ones I did because I did turn in a few. I don't know which ones they used, but I know for sure I did one for Final Fantasy 2. think. So check that out. And I've been doing a little bit more improv recently and I'm doing a show called Game for a Laugh that is an improv show based on real stories from a game developer. So there will be a game developer monologist at this show. The show is October 25th in Santa Monica at 6 p.m. at the Santa Monica Playhouse. There will be, I'll put a link to the tickets in the show description,

but there's a promo code for Get Play listeners for 15% sent off a ticket so you can do that. And then all proceeds are going to Churla, which is the Coalition for Humane Immigrant. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. So check that out. I'll have links for everything in the show description. That's awesome. Got a couple things, a couple irons in the fire.

Huh? Who, me? More than a couple. Yeah. I'm a little busy. Sheesh. Man, sheesh is all I got to say. Sheesh is all I can say as well.

And hey, you know who got played this week? The villainous Kestar Bull. I'm going to kill him. That was a hate gum podcast.