Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Astro Bot Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Do the boys love Astro Bot as much as the rest of the world? Find out! #GameProvidedByPlayStation Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - ASTRO BOT REVIEW - Ads - Some of the Greatest games of all time! - SuperChats! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up everybody. Welcome to the kind of funny games cast for us Thursday, September 5th, 2024. I'm one of your host Greg Miller alongside Forbes 30 under 30, a.k.a. The second best baby blues in San Francisco, a.k.a. The married one at Tim Getty's.

Glad to Tim hosts. This is one of my favorite types of days ever, Greg. A day that I know that I get to hang out with my friends and talk about something that I love, that I have a good idea. they love as well. So much love. So much praise about to be given.

And I'm excited to be at this table with you, gentlemen. Of course, next to you, another gentleman here is Forbes 30 under 30, AKA New York Game Awards nominated, AKA Leftover Poppy. Blessing Eddie O. Yee, Jr. 4 out of 10. Wrap it up. There it is.

Dan, for the scoring the scale. Yeah, wow. Exploring the scale. I'm glad you're doing it. And then. Taking a light jaunt of the scale. He's the Hispanic heartthrob Texas Street Latino heat

Clicking heads and ripping him to shreds The globe trotting All the way down to Redwood Shores Redwood City Headshot and rooting tootin Three point shooting Nitro rifle from Twitch.tv Andy Cortez

It's wild coming back and having such a culture shock What's the jet lag like for you right now? Yeah I'm just really like it's My time's all thrown off Everything's like I got there and I was like What you drive on what side of the road? Like this is crazy It's weird

It's great to be back though I'm excited to be back in the day. I'm a 40-minute drive back from your hotel. I'd be back in the day. Sick fuck. Oh, my God. Of course, this is your... And his accent changed.

This is your Astro Bot Review. This is the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday for sometimes five. Best friends gather on this table coming to talk about the hottest topics in video games, whether it be previews, reviews, or just some topic they need to get into. If you like that, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon. com slash kind of funny or youtube.com slash kind of funny games with the kind of funny membership you get good karma for supporting an 11 person small business and you get all of our shows ad free the ability to watch our afternoon podcast live as you record them and of course your daily dose of me in the one

man vlog gregg way it's also an audio mp3 if you're watching live and have questions about super about the astrobot review make sure you get in your super chats on youtube.com slash kind of funny games so we can answer them as we go. Housekeeping. Games Daily has already happened, and you got your Astrobot review Roundup. The stream is going to be right after this. It's going to be Warhammer 40K with Mike Blessing and Roger. If you're a kind of funny member,

today's Greg Way is about working in video games. And, of course, you can get a screencast all to yourself. A little private show, as they say. This afternoon. It'll be available every our YouTube and podcast services tomorrow. Thank you to our Patreon, producer, Carl Jacobs, and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by Dragon Age

vows and vengeance and better help. But we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be. Topic of the show. Tots. Tots. Tots.

Tots. Did not appreciate you trying to power through Tots yesterday. All right? I wasn't trying to power through. It's hard. You know what I mean? So many intros, so many shows. Even you used four sometimes five best friends.

You fucked up too. I don't fuck out. I do that one of the game. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, then I just listen to my content. You know what I listen to his show. I was in here.

God damn, we mix all the fucking shows together, bless this is what happened. It's something off on such a good note. Tim was so pumped to be here. Let's bring it back to Astrobot. It is out tomorrow, Friday, the 6th. Right now,

please don't ever do that again. Your robot does not sound like a robot. No, that's all the song sounds, though. Oh, I know. I listen to the soundtrack here. Yeah, it's got like, you know what I mean? Oh, my God.

It's like when Connie started. doing Autotune. Yeah, exactly. A little way to make some heartbreak action there. How can you be so heartless? No, I'm sorry. I regret it. I'm sorry. I take it back. God dang it has a 94 on Metacritic, but I want to hear from this panel. I want you to tell me how much of it you've played if you've platinumed it and what you

think your score is Timothy Robert Gettys. I have played Astrobot on PlayStation 5. I have beat Astrobot on PlayStation 5 and I have platinum. Astrobat on PlayStation 5. And I can say without any question in my mind that this game, Astrobot on PlayStation 5, is a masterpiece.

This is a 10 out of 10. This is the first 10 out of 10 I will officially be giving on our new scale. And I stand by it, thank you very much. I stand by it every step of the way with every fiber of my gaming being. This game speaks to me in every language

that I want to hear. And I understand it all. I understand it all. fluently. Front to back, this is one of the most fulfilling gameplay experiences I have ever had. One of the most fulfilling just sensory experiences I've ever had. The music, the looks, the feel of the controller. Everything about it is so perfect, so finely tuned. The game constantly has you doing things that are fun to do. And I feel like that's what I

look for most in a video game, but specifically in a platformer. Like the creativity, the curiosity, all of the things that I want, this game doubles down on, triples down on, and then comes back in a new fresh way over and over and over again. More than that, it's always clear what they're asking you to do, which I feel sometimes they get too creative in some other games and you're like, all right, I'm a little lost.

I don't really know exactly what I'm trying to do here. And for a game that's throwing new gameplay gimmick mechanics at you every five seconds, for it to be as clear, oh, I'm supposed to do this with this new thing I just learned. I think that might be the most impressive thing that this game pulls off. It might be the most finely tuned and well-play tested game

I have ever played. Everything about it feels exactly the way it's supposed to. The amount of times I've played 3D platformers and the camera's not going the way I need it to or the jump's not feeling exactly right. I don't feel fully in control

of the character. That never happened here. This anytime there's a platforming section, the game feels like it's trying to help me get to where I'm trying to go, try to help me make the jump, help me hit the enemy. When I'm circling around,

spinning around something, to throw at a boss, it helps me auto hit them because it's not, it knows how not fun it is to have to just miss and do the same thing over and over and over. It's like, no, no, no. We get what you're trying to do. Let's keep the momentum going here. And also, one of my favorite things about platformers, 2D and 3D is teaching the language of how to find secrets. And this game does such a good job early on and throughout of making sure that every single thing you discover is going to help you discover the next thing and helps you get better, not just at like getting better at platforming or better at the combat or whatever you want to call it,

but better at exploring the worlds that they designed for you. And it's very clear that the people that made this game love video games. When it comes to the gameplay, when it comes to the amages, of course, all the cameo characters and things that we've seen from PlayStation's history. But even beyond that, when you hear the music of this game and you see little gameplay elements that are nods and homages to things from the past, I can't believe how closely this resembles the underwater music and this sounds like dire, dire docks from Mario 64.

It sounds like aquatic ambience from Donkey Kong country. And I'm talking about some of the highest highs we've ever had in video game. And that's just one example of hundreds in this video game. A fun hub world to move around in. That's what we need in a 3D platformer. 100%. We don't get them enough. A world map that's fun to travel around it.

I don't know that that's ever happened. This game is incredibly, incredibly special. In terms of 3D platformers, I think it's better than any crash. I think it's better than any Sonic. I think it's better than any spiral. I think it's better than any sly, any tie, the Tasmanian devil. Any of that stuff.

No way. No way. Not tie. Not tie. And I think. Zan Fair. Super chats and says, hey guys,

it might be hard to answer since you just recently played it. But do you like, which do you like more? Astrobot or Super Mario Odyssey? And I can say that this, that Astrobot stands alongside any 3D Mario platformer. And I'll go as far as saying, and I think it stands by any 2D Mario platformer.

Oh! This is one of the best platformer, one of the best platformer games of all time. It's one of the best video games of all time. They freaking nailed this stuff.

I loved every second I had with this video game and I can't wait for more. Roger clip it out, put on TikTok. Blessing, I saw you go when he said this. Where are you with Astrobat?

Only to that last part. We'll talk about more about it later. Because I stand by it. There's no hyperbole in my stance on this. And I stand by it. I have played through Astrobot. I have beaten Astrobat.

I have Platinum Masterbot. Span about 16. hours or so with it. I'm giving this game a 9.5 out of 10. I agree with pretty much everything Tim said for the most part there, right? Like, it is an immaculately made game. In the weeks prior to Astrobot coming out,

or us getting the coach to Astrobot, you know, I've been talking, I think specifically on shows with A&D, kind of about like, you know, we play a lot of games throughout the year, every year here kind of funny. And every now and then, like I have my ups and downs as far as like, you know,

being in the mood for certain types of games or even being in the mood for video games in general, right? like, you know, I have my ebbs and flows. Sometimes it is the thing of, oh, man, I've played, I put in 100 hours into Tech Inn. I put in 60 hours into Persona 3. I just played Eldon Ring, Shadow the Earthry. I kind of need a break, right? And I'm picking up different games, and I'm like, ah, I don't know if this is hidden for me right now.

Or I don't know if I want to play Blackmouth Wu Kong right now. You had that Tokyo flight in which you were like, man, nothing's hidden right now. Yeah, yeah. And like, I've been kind of having that a lot recently. I've been telling myself, like, I think Astrobot might be the thing. I think I just need to get to Astrobat. And when I tell you that getting my hands on Astrobot, playing it, not only did Astrobot rejuvenate my hype and excitement for Astrobot itself, but it had me rejuvenated and excited about video games, period, right? Like, playing through it, seeing all the different references, of course, if you played Astro's Playroom, you know what Astro has to offer in terms of, like, the references and the bots that are in the different costumes and all that stuff.

the way that Astro Bot doubles down on that idea and really celebrates not just PlayStation's history, but the history of video games is very special and very cool and very charming and also isn't done in a way that's just like, oh yeah, here's this PlayStation character, it's nostalgia, you know, like just the blast of nostalgia. It's not only doing that. It's doing that with, you know, hints of like some spice added in there, right? Like, with every bot you collect, that's like a PlayStation or like a unique character bot, there's always some kind of reference or there's always some kind of like extra step given

to make you go, oh, I get that. Oh, that's cute what they did there. Oh, they're like, you know, talking about the specific thing about this specific franchise or game or character. And it's really cool the way they do that. I think they do such a good job of that. The way I played Astrobot,

because I think there's a couple ways you can play this, right? I believe Tim, as you were playing through it, you 100% at every level, right? Like by the time you, or did you go back and play? No, I always try. to on my first play-through. I try to explore it all, but then there was many, I would say actually the majority of them, especially as you start going on, I didn't 100% it, so I did have to go back and do a fair amount.

So we played the exact same way where essentially I played through most of this game twice, and I think that was a really special way to play it, because in that initial play-through, it is just me being like, all right, let's get to the end, let's collect a boss that I can find, let's like not stress myself as I'm playing this game, let's just play through it for fun, right? Get to the end and I'm like, all right, it's time, let's platinum, let's go back, let's find. every bot and visiting every level or most levels for a second time really made me appreciate how well designed each level is and how well paced out each level is where they find their their moments to shine they find their mechanics that they're only

going to use for one level but when they use it in that level oh man that shit's fire like they do such a good job of implementing the unique moments in there they're doing such a good thing of every level has its own gimmick every level has like some kind of idea that they're using, but they're still brief, right? Every level is probably under 10 minutes long, and so you're going into one idea, to the next, to the next, to the next, and it retains freshness,

and it's very, like to mention, very polished, very pristine, it feels play tested to hell, didn't get one bug throughout my entire time playing this. Like, it is a polished-ass 3D platformer that I think, you know, to the question that we got from the Super Chat about, you know, where would you put this?

I think Mario Odyssey is what they called out. I like Mario Odyssey better. I wouldn't put this above Mario Odyssey for me, but I think it's in the class of Mario games, right? Like, if this came out and I was told it's a Mario game, I'd be like, yeah, no, this has that level quality to it. Where is the man with the hat? So yeah, I absolutely love this game.

It's easily one of my favorite games of the year. If I'm going to nitpick, right, like, I think the two things I throw out there is that I wish the villain was a bit more standout. And even, like, the roster of villains, I think the boss designs, like the boss fight designs, fantastic. I think the boss fights are fucking awesome. I do think this game is lacking like an iconic character in terms of like

Astrobat itself, cool. Like I love some people might not like his design, right? But like I think Astrobat is an idea. Some tasteless people might not like his design. You don't need to think the Mona Lisa's hot to know it's a masterpiece. What does that mean?

He doesn't think Astrobat's hot. He wouldn't fuck Astrobots. He was pretty clear. But, you know, Asthmaebat, I think. works as like almost like the minions even though like astrova way more than the minions but like you know he's this fun idea of like oh you can clone it you can do whatever right and like you can put costumes on it i think astroir works for that the roster of villains i'm like oh man this needs a bowser it needs a dr robotnik it needs a king k rule it needs that like villain that's going to stand out and actually be like a character and i think it misses out on that i agree with you on that i think

uh it's fine and it allows astrobata take center stage but in terms of like where they go from hearing what they do. I don't think they need a villain that is from the PlayStation universe existing unless it's something really tongue and cheek like the most failed PlayStation villain. You joke, but like something shoe hay, like I don't know,

something weird, even Herman, which would be in such bad taste if he's trying to cancel the game, you know what I mean? But something like that meta PlayStation, I don't know, of like what it could actually be in terms of like everything else is so PlayStation coded and to your point, not like we were talking about in games, daily, not member

berries in your face. Like, it's a joke and you might even get, you find an astrobot, you might even know who this astrobot is. Do something like that of somebody from PlayStation's forgotten history of things or moments in time or failed devices that wants its spot in time and now it's trying to erase Astrobat. I think would be way more

clever than this, which are just you know, an alien. With like really, with like very generic cartoony looking eyes. Like, what they should do for the future of this franchise would be like the syndrome to Mr. Incredible, where, like, it is the platformer, like, you were just mentioning.

It could be Thai the Tasmanian, it could be sly. It's a well-designed character. That'd be an enemy for him to go up. Honestly, like, I think the enemy design is, like, the place where I start to field him and what he's talking about, in terms of how he feels about the Ashbaod design, where I look at the enemies. Not all the, like, a lot of the enemies are actually really cool, really cute. But I think some of the main ones, as far as, like, the big bosses, I'm like, oh, man, I need a bit more spice here.

Like, I think there's something missing. Like, it almost feels overly polished in the way that I think Tim feels about. Astrobot. But yeah, love this game. It's absolutely fantastic. 9.5 for me. Andy, where are you with Astrobat? I've only played a couple of hours. I was beating Warhammer, and you'll get to watch that review tomorrow. Tomorrow. I'll be talking about Warhammer the game's cast tomorrow. Played a couple hours. I really like it. So I have not beaten the game, which is okay. Because if you've watched any kind of funny review, there's always like, you know, one to two

to three of us that haven't played or beaten the game. Just kind of keep that in mind. A lot of commentators They're gonna come at you The way they came at me during Black Myth We'll call it. Because every fucking like review That's like a certain repeat Would be like,

Why is Andy here? He didn't beat the game. And it's like, Have you watched any review? Like it's usually one of two people That have played and beat the game And everybody else just talks. We podcast so I haven't been the game

But I will be here to play the games And review. Yeah, That's why Greg hired you. Well, I was I was Globetrot in the last couple days Playing Playing Dragon Age,

You know what I mean? I was out there. I was out there. I was about that. I'm talking about that one. I'm doing it four hours. Have we confirmed? I forget,

even one. I know we can talk that we were there. A 19th is the, September 19th is, we're talking about Dragon Age. Us talking about them. Cool. But so you are a big Mario guy.

You know, I would say you cut your teeth on Twitch with, of course, Mario Maker. Like it was really your bread and butter for a while before you found souls. And we're like, oh.

Look at this fucking snake. If I read this fucking one sentence and then I go watch a three hour video, it turns out this snake used to be a dad. You know what I mean? Yeah, it used to be a dead.

How does this match up in your opinion of tomorrow? Are you confident enough to give a score-ish? No, no. But I really like it. I agree with all the praise it's getting. I agree with the nitpicks that some people might have. I don't think that any of these enemies are particularly memorable looking so far. They just all look very, very kind of generic looking.

So I'm not digging that portion of it. But gameplay, sensory experience, all of it together. I like to always kind of make fun of the dual-send. vibrations. I've never cared about them. But not playing this game, playing this game without the dual sense vibrations and all that, the haptic feedback would be like watching Avatar 2 without 3D. Like watching, like it's like you've got to experience that sort of full thing. I think it's just done so well and implemented in such a creative, neat way that like you have to have that full experience. I'm having such a fun time with it. It's delightful. It's hard to not smile while you're playing it.

it's adorable and all these little collectibles just continue to make you smile and continue to surprise you because there's a lot of like oh shit whoa that's a neat one I didn't think they'd actually do that so I'm having a really good time with it can't wait to beat it you you're gonna roll credits do you think you're platinum oh yeah oh well no probably not platinum yeah but I will you say that now I think you're gonna finish the game and be like I want more well I will say that I will say that like I already you know I beat the first major boss and then kind of did that little bonus extra section and and it's been really hard to look at the missing icons and be like, well, let me just, what did I miss? So like,

I've already done that. Okay. Like, jumping off of that, like, I can say, without a doubt that this is like my favorite platinum I've ever gotten. I think it might be the most well-designed platinum. Like, some of the trophies can be a little bit annoying in the way of just like, oh, this is pulling me out of the actual core gameplay. Why are you making me do this? But every time I thought that, I was like, oh, if I didn't do this trophy, I would have not even realized the ways you can interact with the people at your crash side or whatever. And it, it opens up, like photo mode something I really don't care about in games, seeing how amazing it kind of functions in this and how fun it is to do.

I was like, okay, actually the trophies guided me to even more fun that I wouldn't have found otherwise. But just just real quick, just want to say like I feel like there's no time wasted in what they're asking you to do for all the collectibles and trophies. And it doesn't feel like padding. It doesn't feel like it all feels like to get to that 100% is part of the core experience

that they just keep building so expertly where once you beat the game, it's satisfying, but it gives you a clear path forward for the rest of the things you need to do. And you want to not because you're like, oh, I wonder if this is going to unlock a secret bonus level or a secret world or a secret. It's just like every single thing you're doing is a reward that then rewards you to get the next thing. And like that happened all the way through to the final, final thing that you do. Yeah, to the trophies, that's what originally made me fall in love with trophies. And back then they were called achievements. They're being beta tested on Xbox.

They eliminated them. I don't know why. They don't even use them anymore. They're hidden all the time. Maybe a diamond pops up stupid. But it was the idea of playing a game a different way. You know what I mean? Of, oh, I never used this weapon or, oh, I never knew I could do that.

Like, let's actually get into the weeds and see what this game could do that you aren't compelled to do necessarily. And an Astrobot, I agree. The trophy list is riddled with little secrets and little like, oh, did you know if you did this or get these people together and do it? I like that a lot. That's a really fun experience. Yeah. I myself am like Andy. I haven't beaten the game.

I'm a piece of shit. uh was it packs we got it why is gregg on the podcast i don't know man well somebody's got a host you know i can be the every man blessed carry the podcast i'm the only ones you beat the game why the other i could get it here and i get it uh uh yeah it was a short turnaround time on this one i was at packs it's less than a week yadda yada i have a much of excuses um having a great time with it and i actually really appreciate last night when it was like i'm at the world boss of the fourth area so right there's there's knocking on it i don't want to get i there's one more area i'm sure there's something after the fact, let alone the side secrets and all these things. But it is that idea

of like last night when I finally was like, yeah, okay, it's not going to happen. Like I'm not going to I'm not going to actually roll credits in time for the review. It was also the thing of like, I'm also glad that I'm making that decision now and I just stopped and went back and started doubling back and getting all the astrobots I had missed. Because it was like I play the, I play astrobot meticulously of being in it, jump to the next thing, look around. Where else could I go? What am I missing? Is there anybody? Okay, move into the next section. Look. around. What am I doing? I try to do it if I can all in one run. So when you have that one guy hanging that I didn't get or that one puzzle piece I didn't find, it is that idea of like I always

want to rerun the level right away and go for it. But on review, I wasn't. And so being able to last night pump the brakes, you're not going to do it. So that's okay. Let's just enjoy it and not worry about that part. It was a weight off my shoulders and then made the replay of the levels even more enjoyable as I went through to do that. Right. And the addition of this little guy who's for 200 coins can go with you and sonar the missing things and like lead you off the beat. I'm like, what a great addition. Again, for being this deep into it and being somebody who, you know, obviously loved Astrobot Rescue Mission on VR, loved Playroom like everybody else.

Somebody who's been with Astrobot for so long on this one. Right now for scores, I'm in between blessing, Tim. My heart says 10. My head still says, well, but it's even. though they upgraded in some respects, just the moment-to-moment enemies, right, are people we've seen for so long now, right? You're doing the same things. But then I argue with my own self of like, but does that matter? Because Astrobot is the star and doing all these different things, even fighting the individual enemies and going over them with my jetpacking, blowing them up.

That's almost not even the point of the game. The point of the game is to find the other bots. So it's the story of getting the bots and how cute they are and what they are, these new boss enemies, these new mechanics, right? Like you said, we haven't really jumped into. every one of the levels you're going through, not even the worlds, but the individual levels, is giving you some new, hey,

it's the grabber, hey, you're flying, hey, you're inflating like a big balloon. Like, it's giving you a new gimmick for every one of these levels,

like Mario's hats, right? Like, and how that'll change and go with Hattie or whatever's name was. Hattie? Cappy. What a memorable character.

Why even name it? You know what I mean? I love that game. I love it. You know how much I loved Gat. Odyssey. Thank you so much, Odyssey. I still think it should have been

Game of the Year that year over Zelda, but I diggers. That's insane. Anyways, going through and doing all those things and not having a bug, every one of these being as enjoyable as the last. Like, I don't get to a new level and I'm like, fuck, I wish I had that. Then these addition of the character levels

of, okay, cool, now you become this PlayStation character and do a little level, themed around them. I'm like, that's fucking brilliant and so much fun. And again, so exciting of like, I can't wait to see with the next two are, maybe more hopefully in the world for me, whatever. But like this, I tweeted earlier this morning, like, simply put, it's a joy to play, period. Like, I play this game and I am having such a good time, whether it's the music, the gameplay, the visuals, the, the Easter egg nods to the PlayStation fan.

It's delightful. I can't wait to play more of this game, and I can't wait to just be lost in it, lost in that sauce, because I think it's that good. I'd say even with the tiniest of doubts you have, though, that you will end up not giving this a 10. Because usually like, when you're playing a game and you know that these flaws are here, but I don't give a shit, this thing is a 10. And that's how I felt about Breath of the Wild

and Tears of the Kingdom where it's like, I have my nitpicks of moving around the inventory and the combat not really being what I wanted to be, but everything else is so overwhelming. But see, I think that's, honestly, Andy, I love that. I think that's why I will end up giving it a 10. Probably spoiler cast when we come back next week to talk about it. It's just the fact that, like,

I can't think of another word to this. this game other than masterpiece. Like, I think this is a masterpiece. I think this is a must play. I think this is my game of the year right now. I think it's overtaken helldivers. Like, I think this is like, holy shit, I can't believe they did it this well. And even, I was talking about a little bit on Games Daily.

Right now, I'm so desperate to get back to Starfield to get ready for Shattered Space and get my save to the right point that like, I want to play Starfield so bad. But when I'm playing this, I'm not like, oh, you know how when you review something, you want to go play something else, but you need to fit. I'm not like, oh, I gotta play Astro, but I'm like, I get there, I'm grinning, I get an idiot, and I'm having a great time. This is what I'll say is that I think, if you play in a platinum, which knowing you, you play in platinum, I think the platinum will get you up to a 10. Because for me, and I was texting Tim, right? I beat the game, and I think right after beating it for the eight hours took me just to get to the end, I was at a nine.

You know, I was like, okay, yeah, no, this game is amazing as we put it on our scale, right? And obviously, like, numbers were subjective, right? Like, who cares about numbers at the end of the day? But I was going to give it a nine. And then I planned it and I was like, the more I played the game to completion, the more I was like, oh, they really put their, like, they really put their all in this as far as the, the secrets, the discoverable, the bots, how they're hiding them. And then also like, you know, you mentioned some of the super special levels I don't want to get into. But like, yeah, we're not, for the record, we're not spoiling anything in the. Yeah.

But even even in those levels you talk about, I didn't realize that there's another layer in those levels that like had me go, oh shit. Like, they really thought this out in a way that I think really does. you know, a lot of honor to the characters within PlayStation. And like the stuff they choose to do, some of the characters they choose to highlight as well, some of the games they choose to highlight more than others. I'm like, dang, dude, like this has really taken me back through like some of the latest airs of PlayStation in a way that, you know, I wouldn't have thought to like highlight this game like this, right?

I wouldn't have thought to, you know, make all, I don't want to talk, I don't want to spoil anything. I wouldn't have thought to do some of the things they did. Live chat, right? Now What's Good says Astrobat has spoilers? Yeah. Yeah. Like there's 300 bots defined in this. 150 of them are themed around PlayStation characters you know.

So you can guess obviously some of the big ones. And you've seen them too in promotional materials. But there's a bunch of Easter eggs in there. I mean, to the point that there's so many PlayStation bots that, I mean, I love video games. I love PlayStation. I love history. I love all the history of video games, not history of history. And I would say 50% of these maybe, I don't know who they are.

Like there's a lot of deep cuts. cuts in these, which is like, or if I, I might know who they are, but I know their name. I might know the game they're from or whatever. And like, I appreciate that. Like, I love that it is the obvious ones that they're all there, but there are a ton, or at least most of them are. But there's so many fun things. But I think spoilers, like, it's less so even just like what bots are in it.

That's part of it. But it is just the gimmicks and the gameplay changes and the big moments that happen. And there are thousands of things to spoil on this game. But at the same time, like, I don't think any amount of being spoiledness is going to ruin your experience because it's just so magical. It's just so much of his playing. it, yeah, and the magic of it. Yeah, and getting an astrobot where I was like, all right, cool,

he's going to be the, because I'll show you how they have and they're in the place they show up and level and like, oh, he's going to be the next one, number three, and then it would be four up. I'm like, fuck, I missed a whole bunch of I can't wait to double back. It's that sort of Mario vibe. Yeah. When me, Tim, Nick and Mike are playing in Super Mario 3D world and were like, oh, we missed a freaking

green, whatever the hell. Coin or Star, what are they got in that? Green Stars, yeah, yeah. Dude, so the best thing is, I want to get into this a little bit more of, like, comparing it to the other Mario games. I'm excited to talk about difficulty, but Greg, go ahead, man. I'd love for you to do all that, but of course, I'd like to remind you, ladies gentlemen.

I was going to give you plenty of time, NB's, that of course we got our copies for review from PlayStation, so this was a game provided by PlayStation for review. FTC, don't come at us. And on top of that, if you love what we do, it kind of funny, like these reviews, like a daily games cast, like a daily news show, like daily streams, we'd love it if you supported us with the kind of funny membership. $10 gets you, of course, good. karma for supporting an 11-person small business, but also it gets you all of our shows ad-free,

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Check out Dragon Age vows and vengeance in eight episode, immersive fantasy series now at kindof funny.com slash dragon age. That's kindof funny.com slash dragon age. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. What's something you'd love to learn? As an adult, do you make time to learn new things as often as you'd like? Or was that lost in childhood? Kids are always learning and growing, but as adults, sometimes we lose that curiosity.

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Blessing. Blessings knocked the fuck out on the ground. I really hurt my wrist. You said that out really well. I had no idea when you're going. I like to keep him guessing. Tim,

what do you want to talk about? You were all saying. I want to wait for Bless to get back, actually, because I want to bless this conversation either. Get the ice pack, man. in comparison to some of the greatest games of all time, the greatest 2D slash 3D platforms of all time, the Mario games.

Also, some of my favorite games of all time. Like, whether we're talking about, Mario 64, Mario Odyssey, obviously any of the 2D ones you can name, Galaxy 1, Galaxy 2, those are legitimately like any one of those I just named at any given day could be in my top five favorite games ever. Favorite best, there's always different conversations there when we're talking about games.

There's the nostalgia and all that plays more into favorite. But critically, what is the best? I feel like those are separate conversations that have some overlap. And really thinking critically about Astrobot, that's where I think that it is a 10. And that's where I think that it is alongside the Mario Odyssey's and Mario Galaxies and all of that. And I think in some ways, edges it out. I feel like the only things working against it are the fact that,

yes, this is as good as Mario Galaxy. It's also coming out 20 years after Mario Galaxy. Right. So it's like, I understand it like that there is some level of like what Mario Galaxy pulled off in 2007 was and still is incredibly spectacular. And like unlike anything we've seen since until now with this, which is awesome. But on top of that, I feel like the level of technical prowess shown in this, like the fact that this is running on a PlayStation 5 and using the PlayStation 5 and how there's not only no bugs, there's also no options to have to flip through different settings and whatever. It just fucking works. This is just video game magic that I haven't seen in a long time. You know what I mean?

I'm just like, oh, the game just looks and sounds as good as it should without having to tweak a single thing. I love when you go into options too. There's like nothing. I wanted to speed up the camera speed. Couldn't do that. Also, I'll say that he's a nitpick I got keeping it from a 10 out of 10, most likely for me when I get to the other day.

You hit pause? Man, he's got ugly. It's just like the fonts we're using. It's a kid's game. You got to make it visible, got to make it readable for the... It just doesn't look like it belongs in this game. It's ugly as hell. 9.5 out of 10.

The biggest year I have with the game is that not every single mechanic is the most fun I've ever had playing a video game at every single moment. And I really need to use all those words to express how I feel about it because I feel like to say, oh, there's a lot of gaming stuff I don't like is not true. It's just there's a handful of things. And I think there's more than a handful. There's a couple handfuls in Odyssey that I have the exact same criticism. of them. Not all the cappy things are

equally fun and I feel like there's more ones that I find less fun than the things I don't like about this in Astrobot. I also think gimmick is a little bit more on the pejorative side because I like it is built into this level. This level is kind of designed around this mechanic. It's designed around this mechanic. And the

ones that I've done so far are a lot of fun and they like initially when I get them I go okay what are we going to do here how are you going to make this fun and it clicks within a second and immediately they have you traversing the world or doing challenges that are sort of built around those mechanics. What I want to know is like, do they, do we revisit these old mechanics at any point? Or do they keep on progressing?

Like, I think I've maybe experienced two or three of them so far. There's a good, like, maybe half of them, maybe more than half, like appear more than once. But usually the level is designed in a different way around those same mechanics. Right. Like even if it's using the same ability, there is like some different way that they've created the level to like actually stretch it. But yeah, there are a lot of them that they just don't use, right? And some of them I'm like, oh, you didn't want to make another level that was like this because this mechanic was probably so hard to implement. And I can't wait to talk about certain levels of the spoiler cast.

But like, yeah, I think they do a really good job of pacing out what, how often are using certain mechanics when you get certain abilities. Like I don't think there's any that you're going to get like more than like three or four times. At least you use throughout a whole level, right? Gotcha. Yeah, I think the Mario comparison is a fun one, because I think for me, one of the things that I do like about 3D Mario that I wish was, I could see push further in Astrobot is just the movement and how it feels. Astro's base abilities, like even removing the, like the level mechanics from it of like this level specific mechanics. Sure. It is you are jumping.

You are doing like the, not a double jump, but like your hover. Your hover, yeah, you're doing a hover that's using like the lasers. Which is also used as an offensive tactic to burn dudes underneath you. And like, I think that's about it for the most part. Like, you can run a bit faster if you're, if you just hold forward and you, like, you know, you allow yourself to run for a little bit longer. Astro will naturally pick up speed. And that's something in a 3D platform that I wish more 3D platformers would explore is,

like, what are the different ways you move? That's one of the things that I love about Mario Odyssey. It's just the, the act of moving Mario is so fucking fun because obviously, You can run and jump like any other 3D platformer. You rotate around the analog stick, and all of a sudden, Mario is doing a spin move that if you press jump while doing that, he'll do like a little helicopter move, right?

Or he has like his side jump where he'll run, hit another direction on the analog stick, press A, he'll do like, you know, the side flip. He has the backwards jump. It's the Spider-Man sort of equivalent of swinging around as fun as hell, running around as Mario's fun and up. The act of holding the controller is so fun,

and that then translates into how you navigate levels and how you do speed run challenges. And I think that's another part where Andy wanted to bring up difficulty, right? I think the levels that's hard, bro. Well, that's not a problem because I'm sure in the deal, we talked about DLC earlier today. I'm sure the DLC packs are going to give us like the speed runs and challenges. The speed run challenges, the harder levels, you know, stuff like that.

But I wish some of that was in the base game because right now I'm like, man, after platinuming it, I've played every single level in this game. None of the levels individually challenged me enough. I wish there were some that like really pushed the, oh man, you really got to master. You got to be precise. You got to be precise. You really got to master how you control astronaut and all this stuff. That stuff was missing for me, right?

Like there are some levels that are definitely harder than others. And there are definitely like, oh, this is the hardest level in the game. But even that, even like the level that would deem the hardest level in the game took me 15 minutes to beat, right? It wasn't as much of a challenge that I would have loved to see out of it. Again, hopefully we'll see it in the DLC. like that remains to be confirmed, but that's what pushes it to attend for me because I don't think it wastes your time. I feel like everything

you just said about Mario and how Mario controls. Oh, absolutely. Mario Odyssey, the way that he controls, no 3D platformers ever come close. I don't know that they ever will again if it's not Mario. Even Mario 64, I think no any platforms don't control like that. Even Sunshine. But all the Mario and Galaxy, literally Mario, every single game, Mario

controls exactly the way he should be. I freaking love it. And like, that's the point of those games. I feel like with Astro, they make such a smart call that his mobility is not the point and it doesn't need to be the point because the level's designs are less about ridiculous platform challenging and more about guided experiences through exploring these different locales and what I love so much about it is every level feels like a Disneyland ride like a perfectly designed Disneyland ride where they want you to be able to at a certain

pace take in everything all the sights and sounds around you at that given moment and I feel like vibrations and all of it right and I feel like like there's I don't know 80 level in this game or something like that. And I feel like some of them are short, some of them like a little bit more like obstacle based like challenge levels. And then some of them are the much longer kind of, I don't know, seven minute experiences,

but they all feel like very, very curated, crafted Disneyland rides where you're going through getting a story, getting experience, and it's fun. And I feel like when it comes to the challenges, there was, I'm with you, no level took me more than and tries to beat if even. Yeah. But it was always fun and it never hit a point that I'm like, oh, this is way too easy for me.

It was like I'm, I feel satisfied doing what they're asking me to do at this point where some of the Mario challenge levels, as much as I love them, they start to feel really tedious the 17th try when I'm just like, all right, I've done all these parts a million times. But this one part's really difficult and it doesn't feel like it was designed perfectly. And like some of them are. Some of them aren't. But when we're talking about the final levels of Galaxy 1, Galaxy 2, Odyssey, like, and even 3D world, the one that we did. like they're not all equal. I think this one does a great job too of, I think even calling a level difficult

would be obviously impossible and not accurate, but there's the many challenges in there that again, I don't think are difficult, but are the, you know, you've just activated the respawn point and then you can even see the next respawn point over there. Like, oh, okay, something I'm doing here is I need to get something in a rhythm to do or whatever.

And I feel like when I'm not the platformer guy, right? Like I enjoy them here and there, but, you know, a Mario, like, it has to be, That's not true, I guess. Let me back off that. But I like a platformer. I don't love a platformer. I guess it's the easiest way to say it, right?

I spit a little bit on your face, but it's not the first time. This was the idea of like, I would get to some of those, and I would like, you know, whatever you have to do in this section to get to the next. I would screw it up, but I would like, okay, it's me. I'm doing this wrong. I need to jump this. Okay, when do I activate the power? I'm running out of juice just in, like, it wasn't seven tries. It was three or whatever.

And it was that endorphine hit of like, okay, cool, I did it. Serotonin. All right. let's move on to the next thing and you get moving. Like I liked it. It was never a detriment to the level. It was a little bit of a challenge for me to overcome. I overcame it and then it was back to the ride like you're talking about.

I think the thing for me with it is, you know, talking about the challenge levels. The way that Tim describes how the game approaches this levels and on his gameplay, I think is right in terms of comparing it to like a roller coaster ride or like a Disney ride, right? It is, you know, about the attractions. It is about the discovery. It is about looking and seeing like a thing moment to moment. But for me, that did mean that when I got to those challenge levels,

I wasn't as excited for them as I feel like I should be. For somebody who is like, you know, I do love 3D platformers. I do love how they control. I do love the challenge of like, oh man, I need a, I really need to lock in and get to that platform and figure it out. Again, Astrobot, it's never bad, right? Even those challenge levels, they're good, but I wish they pushed me further. Like, I wish they explored that a bit more.

That's like the weird, you know, we talk about difficulty. I feel like Astro's difficulty is a bit more on like the, tighter side than like Mario where Mario like Mario Audits for example at its easiest it is so fucking easy it is way easier than an asteroid but at its most difficult the difficulty ceiling is so high agree and I like when platformers explore that whereas like you know Astrobat getting to those challenge levels it was the thing of all right well like it almost didn't feel like a having to like really push my skill to get to this to the end of this thing it was more so like all right what are the obstacles that I can that I can

expect and like okay cool I know this thing is coming so I'm just gonna boom laser over that hop to the next thing and like it was it was more so just about understanding the level as opposed to you really pushing my skill as a player yeah you know I'm not necessarily asking to struggle for 30 minutes to an hour I'm not asking for Eldon ring let's just notch it up it's a little tiny bit because I would love to kind of have those little fun experiences of jumping platform to platform and and dying a couple times be like oh man I have to kind of nail this where the rest of it has, like Tim perfectly said it, it is a

theme park attraction, a very, very good one. I just, you know, I want a little bit more there, but it's, again, like you just mentioned, bless, it's like, it's still very good. I think part of it for me to... My biggest issue with this game so far is like it could be a tiny bit harder.

Yeah, and I think for me, it also comes from... Obviously, we all played Astrobot's Playroom. I also played Astrobot rescue mission when that came out in VR and Astrobot's been very it's played very similarly throughout all those things so I think maybe I might also be just a bit more like

whether down is the wrong word but like I've been here right like I've fought these enemies I've used these abilities or I've used like Astro skill set again they're adding in things that are new with the abilities that are getting every level and also with like you know the references and all these things right like I think Astrobat is the fully

most fully realized console astrobot game. But in a way, I feel like I am like going through Astroirot Rescue Mission again, but this time with references, which is awesome because I fucking love Astrolet Rescue Mission, right? Like that's a deal to give a 10 out of 10 out of 10. I think that's also part of why I'm looking for a bit more mechanically

out of playing another Astrobot again. It's wild. How much better this feels, though, than Playroom. And I would have been like, oh, it's the exact same thing. After platinum this, I was like, oh, I got to go back because they added all the new bots in Playroom. I was like, I want to do all that stuff. It does not play the same. Really? It

the jump feels completely different and I'm just like, this is crazy to me. Like, it's still the same move set, but like Astrobot, the full game is way more polished than something that I already freaking loved. As somebody who never played through Playroom or, you know, watching Jeff Grubb and Barrett, I don't know if bless if you were a part of like their

sort of speed run challenges or whatever. That doesn't mean Mario Odyssey. And so, yeah, and that's another challenge to think about because I think about everybody going back and forth and trying to beat each other's records on the Mario Odyssey front. And knowing the difficult that is there because there's so much of a movement to kind of perfect in Mario Odyssey

with the roll and the long jump and the dive, like there's a lot of things to kind of really get the movement down perfectly. So watching that happen in Astrobot Rescue Mission between Grub and Barrett and stuff like that on the internet, I expected a different move set. I don't know what I was expecting with Astrobots and now that I'm playing the game, I'm like, well, what was it about

the movement that was really challenging you to like want to, maybe certain of those missions had those mechanics where it is like, here's this one gimmick that this mission is based on. Oh, okay, gotcha. Because like, I got into this game expecting Astrobot to have a full kit of like movement and like

that was just kind of missing for me. I will say that is by design, right? And not to spoil like the trip that mean Roger did and like the studio, the studio visit we did to Timosobi. Next Thursday, of course, our Astrobot spoiler cast, which will also go into their Japan trip and what they learned from Timosobi.

But one of the things they told us in what they presented is that they wanted this game to only have two buttons, really. I guess three buttons, right? When it's all set and done, as far as jump, punch, and then your ability button, which is mapped to the trigger. That's it, right? There's nothing mapped to the triangle, circle. Or at least I'm not checked. Maybe it's like you're jumping again.

But, you know, you only need those three buttons and movement. and that is it. They made it for simplicity, right? And, like, I think that shines through, especially if you want to make something that's family-friendly and something that is going to, you know, appeal to all ages, which is another one of the tenets that they have in designing this game.

But, yeah, I think that kind of comes back to me playing this as a, me playing a kid's game as a 30-year-old man and going, it's not complex enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Looking at this game, it's like, this is awesome for the industry, right? Like, I'm just so excited that this smaller experience that took three years to make

or three and a half, whatever it was, and it does not need to be an overly bloated video game, and it can have a lot of collectibles that you can go on that chase for. Now I'm just like, does this send that message to Xbox of like, we need to get banjo going? We need to get that, we need to be on the 3rd platform in front.

I think that's step one is people actually going out and buying this game and putting the money where the mouth is in terms of like, the people that say that they want these type of experiences, they need to show up and buy it. I bought this game. I bought the fucking controller, you know. I wanted to support Astrobot as much as possible because the team that made this did something special.

And yeah, I want more 3D platforms. I want Banjo. I want all of it. But like, it's interesting you say Xbox, right? I mean, I know you're calling a Banjo in particular, right? But like, don't look past what a historic day tomorrow is. Astrobot comes out with a single player, you know, three-year development cycle. Somebody said 60 developers in there.

I'm not a hundred-65. 65 developers, right? The same day they shut down Concord. after two weeks on the market, this failed live service game. You want to talk about the tale of two PlayStation. You want to talk about what's their vision going forward. And then, yeah, what is overall the industry, right?

As we have often said on our shows and you see it all the time on the internet, the demand for smaller games with the more sustainable turnaround time and people will show up for them. This is, again, yeah, the big test here. Will people show up for Astrobot and go out and get it? Yeah. I'm so fascinated to see

because obviously, you know, we look at Nintendo and we see when Nintendo does. We've seen how Nintendo's operated for the last, however many decades it's been now. And one of the things, one of the main things that Nintendo's been able to hang their hat on is that they have franchises that appeal to all ages that are very quality, that are very polished. And Astrobot and like that have the nostalgia. Astrobot has virtually all of those things. And I'm so interested to see, like, is that going to speak to the PlayStation audience? Obviously, Nintendo has like a lot more in terms of like just how story they are and explain.

experimentative they are and all this stuff, right? But, like, Astrobot is hitting enough of those Nintendoisms that I am so curious to see if that hits and does that reverberate? Does PlayStation go, oh, shit, we need more Astrobots. Like, they have something here. Here's the problem. And I'm not, there's no jokes here. I'm not being sarcastic at all.

The problem is the design of this character and the name of this character. Astrobot sounds generic as hell. You look at this thing, it's generic as hell. I pulled my brother in because I was like, you've got to see this section in the game, which blew his fucking mind. He's seen this game, he was just like, what the fuck is this?

But the first thought before he saw me actually play when it was just the title screen of it was like, what the fuck? This just looks like a shitty DreamWorks movie. That's my brother, who doesn't talk like that,

doesn't care like that. That's how this feels. And I think that the biggest hurdle is going to be, critics love this game. We all love this game. We're going to top of this game and gush about this game

and push this game. But I do think that while it has, all the things you just said, it doesn't have Mario. And Astrobots not Mario. And they're not going to make it, Mario, because take the design out of it. Just the name Astrobot

does not, it's not it. And I don't think it ever will be it. I don't think it possibly can be it. Well, I don't think it can ever be Mario. Of course. Just to be clear. I think there is something to it. And with this third iteration of it, there's something

to it of like, I think he does have will like it or hate it, a design ethos now, what he looks like in the Cape. And we know Astrobot. A PlayStation fan to stick with me. I know, I know your point. And you go. I think their idea, is that you want him to be somewhat generic so you can imprint on him

all the other PlayStation franchises like they do in this game. And I think that is the gateway to him being bigger than what he is right now. It is the idea that even if you don't play Astrobat, you've already seen hopefully the PlayStation Studios logo with all of them dressed as Ellie and Joel or whatever running in there.

And then once this game's out in the wild and you start seeing all the 150 characters that are there, the breakouts of... And again, I'm talking best case scenario, how much attention span, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, you know what I mean. Hopefully, though. Everything you're saying is right, and I feel, I just want it also clear that I do think that there is something with how generic the design is that is well suited to all the other bots.

It looks great. Like, when you see all the boss together, I'm like, all that stuff's great. I just think that the name of the game and the look of it and the look of these bosses and all that stuff, like. Asked about just sitting in the way. Ashton sitting in the dressing room just being like, they want me to be everybody but me. I don't know. That's crazy.

But Dr. I am poliachi. I definitely have two thoughts of it where I think Tim is right as far as like I think this game should have been called Astrobot PlayStation Bonanza or something like that right like I think

PlayStation All-Stars PlayStation also I think the game even in title and in branding should be branded more closely to PlayStation and that is even to say that I think after this game

I don't think you can make an Astrobot 2 that isn't doing the PlayStation referential thing I think every Astrobot game after this has to be a PlayStation

referenced. Like you can't make an astronaut rescue mission unless maybe it's a VR thing. I don't know. But like you can't make an astronaut rescue mission

for PS5, right? That is not referencing all these characters. I think to Tim's point, yeah, like I think the design doesn't have that Mario like personality

to it that you can connect yourself with connect yourself to and all that. I do think though that it has minions. Like asteroid astrobat I think is more

akin to a minions which I do think does have the potential to hit for people when you combine that with oh, this is the gun. God or this is the God of War one. This is the, you know, and you just list a bunch of franchises.

These could easily be a bunch of fucking Funko pops, right, if they wanted to start making Astrobat figurine toys. And I do think that that is a route to popularity. I think that can be a route to success. And I think we're going to see if that hits or not. I think they're going to, I think they have to double down on that. But yeah, I think to Tim's point, yeah, I think Astrobot itself by itself is not as strong of a, like, it's not, it's not like, I guess, a strong visual.

It's not a strong icon But Chris Pratt to voice him I think being able to imprint other things onto it Is where that strength in my spot One thing I've seen to chat a million times That we haven't touched on that I love So let's bring it up is the music Like I think you go back

You know that was one of the things With the other Astrobot titles The music was always so great So many bangers and earworms get in there Where they're talking about GPU or whatever Same thing here I don't I haven't in my four levels Run into as many custom bangers

The way it was the GPU song and everything else from Playroom. Strap it. Okay, I was gonna say. Here's one that's really good. The just generic couple Astrobat songs, so I do fucking love, and I sing all the time now.

It did. The music is such a standout in this game. I can't wait. I mean, the soundtrack, I guess, is technically released on the PlayStation, but I hope they release it like on Spotify and stuff

because, like, there's so many amazing tracks in this. So, if I told you for the PlayStation 30th anniversary, they're putting out the Unit 13 soundtrack. Which is it, yeah, great.

Let's go. God, I was reading the sound out. That's fucking awesome. And the five games there. I'm like, What are we talking about here? Or to come, everybody, don't worry. Whatever.

You don't listen to the Starhawk soundtrack? The Twisted Metal soundtrack does go kind of hard, but you know back in the day, if you put your PlayStation Twits and a CD play or just play the soundtrack? Oh, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. The soundtrack of this game is incredible, whether it's the new music that's like for the specific levels of Astrobot, whether it's the more throwback to Astro's Playroom of like it's singing about the SSD and remixes and all that stuff.

But then also the remixes of more familiar music. was just stunned by the quality of it and yeah sorry no spoilers there was one where I was like this is hot but it wasn't again the GPU song kind of shot and it just keeps going it just keeps going more and more

there I cannot wait for the spoiler cast because there's so much shit that I want to say that I will not know I was tweeted about one of the songs and I was but I was like that would give away what I'm talking about there was a music moment towards the end of this game that I could have never called in a bazillion years yeah it honestly doesn't even make much It doesn't make sense.

But it made me tear up. It's like, so fucking. Hello, this is Jim Ryan. It hit, and I'm here to wrap. Was beside myself. I was like,

I can't believe they're doing this right now. This is the most perfect song that they could possibly play right now. Is this when you teared up? Yeah, to the point about tearing up. Yeah, there's,

I had to play the last level. There's like 10 last levels in the scene. But I had to play the last level of this game through tears because I was like, I can't believe how well this is all coming together right now. And a lot of it had to do with, an insane music choice. Can't wait.

Spoiler cast next week on Thursday. We have lots of super chats to dive into. I'm sure you guys have more to say. CJ splits on superchast and says, a PSI Love You XOXO question. Is Team Osobi S tier now, bless? Oh, I like this question. I'm going to say yes.

I'm going to say yes to rest here. I think so. Yeah. I hope this is a huge hit for them. I hope that if you didn't pay attention before, this is something that brings it. What do you think? I absolutely think so.

I think after what they did for, I still have not played rescue mission, and that's just because it's on PSBR. I need to. Like I know, I know. I know. I got to figure it out.

I got to figure it out. I got to figure it. There's one in a tougher wherever. Because they've earned it. They are S tiered to the point that I want to see where they started because I saw where they are currently. I can't wait to see where they go. Astros Playroom was one of my favorite experiences that year in a year that had a lot

of amazing video games. And this, man, I love this so much. I do not. know how I'm going to handle my personal top 10 of this year because this year's spoken very loudly. A lot of good games. Let's keep with you, Tim.

Alejandro, Super Chat. Actually, you're in games daily, but I saved him for this. Astro was appealing to me for the platforming aspects, but I really, really don't care about the PlayStation propaganda. Well, I find it a bit too much. No. I mean, if you do, I think that's a you problem. Like, the

PlayStation member Barry stuff is like, it is not in the way of this game. It's in service of this game. like this game is for all the shit that I give for it being generic. It's literally just the name and design of the main character and like the enemies and bosses. And it's only so apparent to me because of how ungeneric every single thing is. This game is so unique.

This game has so much vision and care and like identity to itself that like yeah, no. The PlayStation stuff is just filler to Astros world. Like it is not, oh, Astros in PlayStation stuff. It's PlayStation stuff. It's in his shit. So yeah, I don't think it gets in the way at all. You're trapped in here with me. I think it might depend on, like, what generations of PlayStation have you played?

And are, like, are you, is PS5 your first console? Because, like, for me, I'm somebody who, you know, I started playing PlayStation at, like, PS2 and, you know, I played through the PS3 and PS4 era. And, like, there are hell of references to PS1 stuff that I'm like, okay, I don't get it, but it's still cool. That's the thing is, like, it's all, like Tim said, it's all in service to it. It makes me want to, like, open up that. menu where you get to view all of these at least rigs and do the little 3D you could rotate the

model and zoom in on it like I just love that stuff I do wish I guess one of my other uh critiques is I wish that there was more information like one of my favorite thing about smash brothers melee was the trophies where you'd get these characters they're cutely vague about it I learned so much about video games from uh melee I'd be nice to be able to click in through the joke and and but exactly because like the game doesn't even tell you who they are like at no point in the game is like oh this is this character from this game, they'll just have like some vague, like pun or something. Which I kind of like,

because it's not like the remember barriers like we're talking about, but then it is like, I'm like, it's like that part in Justice League the animated series when Lex Luthor takes over the Flash's body. At least I'll finally learn who the Flash's takes off,

looks in the mirror, goes, I have no idea who this is. It's so funny too, because I'll meet the most random character. You'll meet a guy and he's just like, he has a mop and he's like, oh, the janitor is back for action. And I'm like, who's this guy?

And you have no way to figure out who he is. I'm like, what fucking game It has a powerful Jane and her in it. Like I said, lots of questions. Thank you so much. Falcon has a very specific one. Do you have to blow in the mic at all? Mm-hmm.

Just a couple times. Wait, really? Yeah. I don't remember that yet. I don't think I ever did that. It's optional. You definitely had to. There's a couple times you had.

You might have just accidentally doing it. You're pulling a snow bike mic? Yeah. I played this full game with my PlayStation Pulse headset. Oh. So I don't think the, yeah, I don't think it would have been activated. So maybe just automatically did whatever thing. Maybe.

Yeah. Sony, the one-trick pony. Ooh. Super chats. It says, why doesn't Sony add, play create share tools and modes to their single-player games? Remember they added it to Infimus 2?

Was it a raging success for Infimus 2? Absolutely not. And that's why. And it wasn't infamous 1 actually, too, the U-C-U-C? You have a photo mode and you have a share button. So is that not enough? No, I think he's thinking, like, little big planet.

Why wouldn't you be able to go create levels? Oh, make levels. And I think there, the answer is that. With all due respect, for the most part, they'd all be shit. As they often are in these games when you go and create. Don't be wrong, there's amazing creators making amazing stuff. But the overwhelming majority would do this. It wouldn't make more money for PlayStation.

And it would be more work for the developers. And also, that's not what this game is. I mean, the whole discussion we just had, it's like this game is a, it's curated. It is not platforming. It's not challenging in the way of like, oh, make your own levels or whatever. It's like, that's not the point of this game at all. King Roblo says, no, it was infamous too. I played it recently.

There you go. I would love for, because I think Astrobot is, kind of game that could get spinoffs, right? Like, I would love an Astro cart that you are just picking AstroBats that are dressed as different PlayStation characters. Or, like, even if there was a play, create, share thing, which I don't think, I wouldn't be, would not be my first request, but if, like, media molecules, like,

yo, we got to figure out what we're going to make. We got to do something before they close us. Yeah, like, if they want to make an astrobot, create the levels game, I guess, like, that could be an option. But I could see this IP getting more titles from it. I got two Nintendo questions, and then one more, maybe two more to close this out. Bander, S.N. I'll read these back-to-back, says, is there a final super hard level like Mario games? And then Patty Cake says,

I love post-game Mario challenges like Grandmaster Galaxy and Champions Road. Are there satisfying post-story levels that are seeking those kind of challenges? I don't want to go too far into specifics. All I'm to say is I'm incredibly happy with the post-game of this game. Okay. Great. I love that very much. Thank you. I like that a lot. Andy, let's get a few for you, okay? Okay. Gonzo says Andy is stressed and needs appreciation for hosting the podcast. We love you, Andy. Thank you.

And then Gianni says, Andy gets a pass this time. The life of an international jet setter is no easy task. How come I didn't get a pass for Blackmouth, with Lukon? Thank you. I played like 11 hours of that game.

There were people that... You didn't travel like Andy did. He just... I came back from Japan. He... What is? Oh, I guess for Blacksmith. Before, yeah.

I went to New York or something. Andy came all the way up from down south today. The 40-minute drive, man. All I'm saying is that I flew... This code came in while I was in Japan, and I landed and I beat it. And I platinum. it. You know?

You're the man, man. You get Greg Seal of approval. This man went down the street to Redwood City. I'll be talking about Warhammer tomorrow, everybody. Pickle joystick says, I wanted to ask Tim, which ranks higher for you this year? Astrobot or Prince of Persia? It's a very hard question. Honestly, like between Palm v.

Seventh, Seventh, Rebirth, Prince of Persia lost crown and Astrobot. I'm having a hard time. Like, I don't know how I would rank those. And I think it's the apples and oranges type thing where I think that, undeniably, I can say, critically, the best game is Astrobot. Like I feel like the other two are not 10 out of tens to me. This is a 10 out of 10 critically. But I don't know at the end of the year where I'm actually going to order those myself.

But those are my top three. I don't think they're going to be beat. We have Zelda coming out in two weeks. What a fucking year for me. God, that Paris previews. That sounds awesome. So, so awesome. And now, there's a lot going on with this game that I just think that they nail on.

And again, I was saying earlier the favorite versus best and all this stuff. I just think critically what this game does is for what it's, trying to achieve as a 3D platformer, it nails and like when I compare it to the galaxies and odysses, when you're playing through this game, when you get to the bosses, sure, they might not have names that will remember in the future.

They might be like generic, just whatever. But what's happening in the boss fight is perfect. Yeah. It's so much fun. Every single boss, I'm like, this is thrilling what I'm doing right now.

The phases are so much fun. And I can't say that about all the Mario bosses. I just can't. Like I feel like they might have better designs, but I think in terms of the gameplay of it, it's not as critically perfect. Like this game to me, I think that there is every level

when you look at them all one by one by one by one, you compare it to Galaxy, Galaxy 2, Odyssey, I think all three of those games have more levels than this does. And I think that when it comes to the heights of the levels of those other ones, like I think that this hits those. What's happening here?

I'm sorry, no, I love this. We're having a great show. You guys are killing it. Another great review from Kind of Funny. Everybody, kind of funny memberships pick them up. It's just sometimes the live chat's a mistake where I look over, you know, one of the things

you talk about it when you're doing live shows and why people watch live video games and all stuff is that they have their own conversations, right? Like these things. Somebody popped into the chat and said, yo, I just want my office is chilly cookoff. And the only response was from somebody going, enjoy the mud

butt. Mud bun. Enjoy the mud butt. The mud butt. Oh, geez. I was like, damn. Like, way to take that guy off is fucking pedestal. Everyone else ignores the achievement. This guy's just like, you're going to shit yourself.

Oh, my goodness. Final question I wanted to toss out comes from newbie prod. It says, with Astrobot success and a guest appearances in the game, what do you think the chances of other iconic Sony IPs making a return like Ape Escape? I've said this for years. Ape Escape does not need to return. And if it does, they've nailed it in this game.

That's how you do it. That's how Episcape should return. The problem with PlayStation's history is that it's random as fuck. There are so many different games, so many different genres, so many different takes on different things. And while it worked then, I don't think it works now. And I feel like this game is such a great representation of how to make elements work. And Astrobots gameplay is so good. How do we apply that gameplay to this gameplay?

That's how you do it. We're never going to get another siphon filter. We're not going to get another so calm. We're not going to get another, all these freaking things. And that I think would be an interesting. Yeah. And I agree. I think I might want to be Gabe Logan again.

Nothing's ever dead. Anything could come back, yada, yetty, but I think it'd be more likely that, all right, we're kind of not done with the Astrobot platforming.

What can we do with Astrobot in these different things and give them a game that is going in playing classic levels or classic games from PlayStation's IP and stuff like that? I think that'd be the way to do it. Yep. Give me a new dark cloud. Any final thoughts on Astrobot, Andy?

I'm excited to keep playing it. Very, very good. Highly recommend. Blessing. Pretty good game. Tim. I'm so excited for y'all to play this game. And please go by this game and support it and talk about it to everybody

because it's fantastic and I want so much more of this. And of course, please come back next week on Thursday for the Astro Bot Spoilercast, Gamescast. I saw somebody earlier. That's not enough time to play it. It's going to take me two weeks. I got great news for you. The podcasts don't get deleted. They're up on the Gamescast podcast feed.

They're up on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. You can grab them whenever it suits you. Also, a round of applause to the one the only, Barrett Courtney. currently on PSN profiles the 14th person to ever platinum astrobat. It's a good job. Yeah. I don't appreciate that the top two people platinum did on August

18th. Why the fuck do we wait so long to get this goddamn game when they're getting it on the 18th? No, that's bullshit. Fell off a truck. Ladies, gentlemen, and NBs. That's another episode of the kind of funny gamescast. Remember each and every weekday, four, sometimes five best friends

gather on this table to talk about the hottest topics in the video game industry, whether they be previews, reviews, or anything under the video game sun. If you like that, of course, pick up that kind of funny membership, get all of our shows, ad-free, support an 11-person small business, watch the podcast in the afternoon like today's screencast get recorded live, and of course you could get Gregway each and every weekday. We are all about live talk shows, it kind of funny, so this is not the end of the programming day. You are about to get your Warhammer 40K stream with Snowbike Mike, blessing at E. E.O.e. Jr., and of course, Roger Picornie.

the tastemaker. Or I also like that, I understand tastemakers taking off as it should. Yesterday on the show, Mike called him the selfish lover, and we could keep that too. He did call him a selfish lover, and we didn't address it. But I saw

that meatball go across the plate, and nobody swung at it, and I'm like, I'll get him. So are we allowed to introduce our own nicknames to the show? Because I'm trying to make a new thing happen where y'all call me the avatar. The reason why. That's so lame. What the fuck, Wes?

No, no, no. Because, like, I want to know, and I'll do it. Especially if it's late. The other day on one of my personal streams about, like, people were like, oh, it's a blessing game or whatever. And they were saying, like, fucking fighting games and anime titties or whatever. And I went through the motions of how describing that, like, I play all the games that all the different people at this company play, right?

Like, you know, Tim's the Nintendo guy. I play Nintendo games. Greg loves Life is Strange type games. I play those. Andy plays Souls action stuff. I play that. Mike plays shooters. I play those.

And so I'm like, you know, don't fucking, you know. The every man. I'm the every man. Or the Avatar last year of it. Oh, I like that. I like that. Not the blue people. What if we called you the chameleon?

Because that's taken by a modal combat character. Avatar's not taken by anything. You know what I mean? No, nothing's ever, nothing's ever been called Avatar. Nothing. It's crazy that you have such a diverse taste but have never been in the last game. Barraza. I love persona.

Perajo, the hot taking taste making. That's what I was trying to pitch to the chat. Try these kids. You get Roger the hot take? They're really good. Yeah, Roger has a lot of, like, awful takes. I mean, it's bad takes. I don't know if he has hot takes.

You what I mean? Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, you know, we all got our... I love you, Rod. We all have our demons. Until next time, everyone. It's been our pleasure to serve you.