Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Dan Ryckert (Special Guest) - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 150

Episode Date: December 25, 2017

Dan Ryckert stops by for the 150th Gamescast extravaganza! (Released first to Patreon Supporters on 12.22.17) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of Gamescast is brought to you by kind of funny.com slash store. Guess what? Could you get this shirt there? No, you can also get that on receipt side, but you don't want to do that. It is a nice shirt, though, and it goes really well with this desk. But there's a lot of shirts that go better

with a bunch of different, cool, Greg, can you give me the blue? Give me the blue light down there. Yeah, a lot of kind of funny shirts go really nice with that, and you can get them right there on Kind of Funny.com slash show, and we'd appreciate it because it pays for Andy's salary. And you want more party modes, right? I know you do.

I've seen the comments. You want them longer. want more. You want you want this, you want that. How to make that happen? I don't know. Buying shirts probably won't directly make that happen, but it will go a long way and making us think about it. You know what you mean? Kind of Funny.com's last story. What's up guys? Welcome to the first ever episode 150 of the kind of funny games. Yeah, we did it. We did. We did. We're celebrating with one. Dan Reichert from Giant Bomb. Hi, that's me. I'm man. Yeah. One of the coolest dudes in video games. Greg Miller.

Nice to me, Greg. And we got some beers. Lots of beers. Well, we're recording late at night. Yeah, so it's late night recording of games cast. Yeah. It's one of those things we're recording this episode pretty early. I think that this is three episodes ahead of time.

Sure. As a time where we're... Because we're on holiday break when this post. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You know what you know about this? You ever make content on the internet, Dan? A little bit.

Yeah. So this is going to be a fun little time capsule special. But Dan is in town. So we're like, well, we got to do something fun. And since it's late at night, it's like, you know what? We're not going to do the whole normal gamescast. Rigmore when it comes to the this week and gaming history and talking to the show. Tom Bach, go

fuck yourself. No, Patreon. Oh, sorry, no, we still like Tom Bach. I'm sorry. When there's no rules, I don't know what it is. But this is going to be more free form. We're just going with it, having some fun. We're going to have a conversation about video games. I brought gifts. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, I'm going to get sure, yeah, I like this. All right, I got two.

I guess I give one to you and one to you. Okay. All right, Tim, I have a giant, most likely inspired gummy bear. Sweet Jesus. Kevin, how much does this excite you? Oh my God. said fire. Could you put this down? Did he say fire coming here?

A likely expired. That's never stopped. Kevin. It's been around for a long time. And Greg, yeah. Tis the season, it's the holidays. So I got you a jackal lantern filled with hundreds of Mortal Kombat Box. Oh, neat. Why do I feel like you're just cleaning out the Giant Bomb Office?

I don't know where you would get that a game. I got a Johnny Cage and I got a Sonia. And lots more of them, yeah. There's no Kano for some reason. There's no MKINO, okay. No reptile, no Chengsung, Goro, but the core seven. I've sewn you. Yeah.

Yeah. Kevin, I'm going to need you to do me a favor. I'm not eating it. Well, I'm not going to ask you to eat it. You're just going to do that on your own volition.

But I'm going to ask you to please use the sky can. Okay, give me two seconds. Hold on. We'll give you all the seconds for a little bit. Yeah, look at it right there. So, okay, we got what this is, the world's largest gummy bear.

That makes sense. We got a giant gummy gator. Cool. Giant gummy king snake. Fine, whatever. Giant gummy peace sign. Don't really understand.

That's a bear. The logic of all of that. But then there's just a double-sided dildo. Double-sided dildo. It clearly says world's largest gummy worms. You know what? Multiple uses. That's cool.

Sure. This thing is heavy. It's got some deference. Yeah. Because we're recording this out of order. Yeah. I can't give context on the air. But, Dan, we have a gift for you, too.

Oh, dear. It's a bag of rocks. I get a bag of rocks? Yeah. Yeah. It's just like fun candy rocks or something? No, no, just straight up rocks. Oh, that's just literal rocks.

Look at that. Yeah. Enjoy! Why are they wrapped like this? You know what? Don't ask a lot of questions. These are nice, actually. I need to get like a little fountain for my...

You got some nice rocks. Dude, if anyone out there has a coy pond in need of rocks, you got an aquarium, hit up Kevin at kindof funny.com. He will fucking hook you up. All those shipping on these things. Careful your phone, Greg. Oh, dear. Pro move.

That looks like a scary time. I've had half a beer. I'm ready to get fucking crazy. This is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every week we get together, talk about video games, all the things we love about them. You can watch it live by going to Patreon.com. slash kind of funny games for just $1.

Or you can get it VOD early every Friday. Same place. Patreon.com slash kind of funny games or you can watch it later. Literally every other one is Sony. Yeah, it's a lot of Sonya. Trying to get some,

you know, equality going on. Sure. Okay. Yeah. We can only have one female in the core seven, but we'll give you.

Yeah. Yeah. So Dan, you are here, you have moved. You've left us. You used to be here with us. Then Taco Bell married you. Yep.

I got nice. Married and moved to New York. So much has happened. It's been the busiest year of my life by a long shot. Also the best. I was going to say, best year of your life. Yes, absolutely. 2017 has been very, very good.

Just because of video games or also because the marriage thing? Mainly the marriage thing. I also like New York City a lot. It's also been my favorite year of games since God knows when. Do you think this is the best year of games? Ever? I would put it up against like 2001 in 1998. Yeah, everybody says that.

Yeah, because 2001 was, you know, Metal Year 2. Final Fantasy 10 GTA 3 You know A twist metal black I loved And then 98 was obviously Metal Gear O'Harena You know

It's two great ones I'd say it's the best Since at least a one Gotcha I still make the argument I think it is the best year Of gaming And not just because of

We got a Zelda And we got a Mario But the fact that it feels Week after week And maybe now In the holiday slowing down a bit But throughout the rest of the year Week after week

There was something amazing to play Like there was the caliber Of games we were getting Was crazy You know what I've been thinking a lot about you making that argument, because I want to fight it. I want you to be wrong. I want there to be some type of... You love being mad at me and arguing with me.

Exactly. But I think that you might be right, if only because when you're something greatest year, back in the day, we would only get stuff at the end of the year. Maybe a couple things would trickle into a March release. But this year, it's like, no, bam, bam, bam, every single month had something great. Exactly. This was insane too, because in March

the Switch launched, and the Switch is my favorite Nintendo system since the Super Nintendo, like, pretty much already. And it launches with Zelda, which you know, was one of the best games I've ever played in my life. Played the hell out of that. And then over the summer months, when there's not really much coming out, uh,

PUBG kind of took over the world. I don't remember when that actually entered early access or when that became what it is now. When it started becoming the event. It was summertime because it was games daily started. And it was like, oh, they've moved this many million units. That's cool. I wonder where they'll top on. Oh, they're getting close.

They beat Dota's record for a day. Not that they beat their, they'll never beat their, oh, they beat the overall. It was like a domino snowball effect. It was just, do, do, do, do. And so I played that all summer. and that's just an incredible game and then Mario, just unbelievable game.

You're like the first person to get all the moons. Yes, I do believe I was the first civilian non-Nintendo person to get all the moons. That is fantastic. How maddening was that though? Maddening? Yeah.

Oh my God, I loved it. Like I kind of want to start it and do it all again now. Like, nothing says I have to get all the moons to review it. Sure, yeah, yeah. I was just obsessing over it. But I've been there of like trying to platinum something or beat something before it's out and there's those like the puzzles you can't figure out.

And I'd see you a, occasionally pop up on Facebook in the video game reviewers thing and be like, does anyone know how to do this one thing? Because I had like, you know, 900 something. Yeah.

And then I needed like a couple more. I know there's technically only 800 or something, but blah, blah, you can buy other ones. But yeah, there'd be a couple where it's like,

I can't find where this picture is. Like I looked all over this level. I have no idea how to find it. You know, the toad guy won't tell me. But, uh, oh, man, wound up finding them all. It, uh, man,

it's one of the best Mario's and one of the best Zelda's, if not the best of both series, you know? I feel like we've talked Mario and Zelda to death on this show a lot because we really love those games. But I can't have you here and not get into an in-depth discussion about Mario. You definitely are the number one Mario fan that I know. You know Mario very well. And I feel like I know it very well.

But seeing the way that you talk about the game, play these games, you are an expert on it. I wouldn't be sitting here. I wouldn't have this job without Mario. That's what made me fall in love with games. No pressure of making definitive claims. make super definitive claim. Really? Make them. Just fucking make them. Go. You know what I'm asking you. Where's it rank? Like, Odyssey. Like how does that, like how does it compare to the galaxies of the world? Before Odyssey came out, I would say my number one was world, followed by three,

followed by Galaxy 2, followed by Galaxy 1. After that, maybe 64. So Odyssey. Classy guy. Fuck Sunshine. Hey, I love Sunshine. I'm doing a whole feature on Giant Bomb right now. It just didn't rank, though. It didn't rank, as I'm saying. You know, it's not top five. Top 5 Mario. Just like you know. And playing it this year, you can tell how it's aged a bit

and like the camera is very, very bad and everything. Not like 64s was great or anything. Sure. It was a product of its time. So I would say it is definitely top three. Top three? Yeah. I like to wait a while.

Yeah, of course. Even though I just said I would make a definitive statement. Your definitive statement is I like to wait a while. That's a statement. You're making a statement. I would say it's definitely top three though because I do think it's the best 3D one. So it's between that three and.

in World, which maybe it's tough two for sure. Is that easy to say though? Like, is it easy for you to say that Odyssey is better than the Galaxy games? I have trouble kind of separating Galaxy 1 and 2. I agree that I would say two is better than one. But, like, it's been so long since I've played through those games.

So I couldn't, in the same way that I could talk about Mario 3 and Mario World on top of the differences and why I love this and that forever. Galaxy and Galaxy 2, it kind of blends. It kind of does. So good. And it's kind of hard to rank those two because, one, had that crazy, like, holy shit. Like, you know, never done this like gravity planetoid stuff.

So it had kind of that wow factor coming out of the gate. And then they showed the trailer for Galaxy 2 at E3 that one time. And it was like, oh, it's more weird. Is this an expansion pack? Yeah. This feels like, are these discarded levels? What is this? So like my expectations were kind of low going in.

And while I think overall it's a better game, it didn't have the wow factor, like that first time feeling. Sure. I just think it's better. By a smidge. You know, there's less like motion control gimmicks and stuff like that. Fucking waggle. Yeah, I actually thought Galaxy didn't do it that bad. The waggle was not bad.

The little shake wasn't bad. The jumping to the different blue stars where you kind of were all floating. That was a little overdone. But they don't do it. I don't know. I don't think they did too much. I just didn't think the mechanic was that good. Yeah.

But yeah, I would say it's the best 3D one. Nice. Yeah, for sure. What does 3D world fall into your? So I love 3D world. He did several times. You got every single, you know, coin.

It was green stars in that one, right? Yeah, green stars for that. Yeah, did everything you can do. I don't consider that a mainline Mario game. And this has been a point of contention on Twitter, on podcast. and things like that. Wait, why? Because, anyone who has heard this

conversation elsewhere, I'm so sorry to hear this again, but it is, the structure is so different. It's a point A to point B, like, hey, we're going to the flagpole. It's a 2D model game in 3D. I guess, yeah, can put it that way, where it's not this like open, more free-roaming, like, you know, playground. Or

64, Sunshine Galaxy, you can kind of just, like, go where you want to within these levels. 3D world and 3D land, you are definitely just like, this is where you start the level, this is where you have to go. There's like, maybe you can go on that pipe or you can go up that hill, but it doesn't really branch that much. Gotcha. So the argument I've always made, though, is that you're right, it does branch off, but there

are three branches of Mario now. There is the 2D platformers. There's the 3D open world platformers, and then there's the 3D obstacle-based platformers. Yeah, I agree. The 3D land, 3D world are a part of. And to an extent, I'd say half of Galaxy 1 and 2 and a bit of Galaxy. Yeah, yeah. I would say overall, though, I'd classified as the new series, new Mario Brothers, if they're

still doing more of those. the 3D series, as in 3D in the title, and then the sandbox ones, like Odyssey, Sunshine, 64. And I'd say Galaxy is more sandboxed than linear. Yeah, it's kind of a weird half step between the two, but I think that's a good thing, because it's like, I like that the Galaxy levels and worlds weren't too big.

Yeah. And it was like everything felt fresh because you were always doing something different. I feel like Odyssey does a good job of that as well. Where you're in these giant worlds, but every set of moons you get is just in a different kind of corner of that world that feels different than the other.

others, especially, I first really noticed it in the sand dunes. Yeah, same kingdom. Yeah. Where it's like, oh, shit, like everything feels super separate, but I'm still in this whole thing. Definitely. Now, I said we weren't going to talk too much about Mario and Zelda, but we already did. Who the hell cares? Is this a conversation show?

We're here drinking beers, having fun? I'm just trying to make sure that the people aren't here and the same things over and over. Dan, since we have you, yes. Besides Mario and Zelda, this year in games, and the other one, besides Horizon, we love Horizon. We love Horizon. What are the things for you that you've been like? I liked Horizon quite a bit. I liked it more before Zelda came out.

So I played like maybe 30 hours of it before Zelda came out. And then I just went nuts on Zelda for a while and went back like, I got to go back to Horizon. I put so much time into it. I was really enjoying it. And I do like it a lot, but that felt so much more like, you know, open world we've seen before where you pull up the map and there's a million icons and, you know, objective markers and stuff,

where Zelda was this like true open world. I'm going to climb this tower and see these things. Yeah. So it definitely brought it down a bit. me and like the story I think had a lot of intrigue and everything at the beginning. I was curious where it was going. Some of those text logs and everything and seeing what happened to the world was

very interesting. But by the end, you know, I thought Aloy was a pretty flat character. I wasn't too big in the story. Like I actually think that I dropped it off my personal top ten for the year. Oh wow. But I liked it a lot. It's a huge technical achievement. Like when I got my OLED TV that was the first thing. It's like, oh shit that in the pro Do you have the LG? Yeah, the LG

OLED. Yeah. I love that everyone has it now makes me so happy. Everyone's getting it. It's so beautiful. Ben, Jeff's got it. Yeah, we're all getting that. Fantastic. But I do like it a lot, but there was just so much this year. Just wondering. Yeah, yeah, it's good.

Monster. I'd say, Cuphead's way up there for me. I love Cuphead. I mean, whatever. It's so stupid because we always talk about the game of the year as if it's like, oh, man, it's such a bummer that this year is so good. Too many games are great this year. Cuphead is such a special game.

And I think it's so special to me and to the video game industry and world because that was a game that had so much hype and was delayed in quotes so many times and had such bad previews after a while where I feel like the the conversation turned into, ooh, it's sorry to sour. Why isn't their platform levels? There should be platform levels. And then it turned into, oh, this is too hard. And I don't know. These platform levels suck.

Yeah. Oh, this isn't good. And then it came out. It's like, oh, this is perfect. Well, they went quiet, right? That was the problem. They came out, oh, man, this boss fight is really hard, but awesome. What are the platform levels?

There are none. Oh, hey, we made them. Oh, we don't like them. And then it was silence for the longest time. It was Xbox spinning its wheels trying to figure out what's going on. And I would have bet that this game was going to flop. I was like, oh, it's going to look beautiful, but it's going to be super short. It's not really going to connect with people besides the visuals and aesthetic overall of the game.

But I was so wrong, and I'm happy that I was because it is just, it's gameplay perfected. I've never seen a game get hyped so quickly because it was in the middle of like a sizzle reel of like, here's all the independent games coming out from Microsoft. And they were just showing a billion, you know, with no context clips of different games. And everyone saw like three seconds of Cuphead. What the fuck is that thing? What do I need more of that? Forget everything else here.

What is Cuphead? And then years and years of waiting for it and for it to deliver the way it did. Like I agree, the platform level is where the weakest part. Those bosses and the way they animate and the challenge. It's just incredible. It's just style, right? Like you talk about style in a game and what does that mean exactly or visual flare. Like that's what that game is.

For me, the platform levels, I even thought that in the final game, they weren't that bad. Like, I liked them as kind of a change of pace from the boss fights. And yeah, I probably would agree they're the weakest part

just because the bosses had such character to them whereas the platform stages, some of them got a little bit samey. But even then, not too much. I don't think they're bad. But it was just compared to

when we played the platform levels at E3. They were very different. And there was a lot less going on. And whereas I feel like the platform levels in the final game felt more like boss fights just you have to move left to right.

Right. The one at E3 felt more just like, kind of like Mario, where it's like, oh, yeah, just get through the stage. You can get hit a whole bunch of times. And then the final one is like, no, no, no, you need a flawless run to get through this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think they're bad. I just think they're unnecessary.

I think you can do that game and just have it be a boss rush. I mean, because that's obviously where it excels. So, yeah, that's way up there. I mean, I loved R.E.7. I loved. Still so hard to believe R.E.7 came out this year. Yeah. Was it January, February?

January. Yeah. Totally kicked off of the year. And it was just one of those things I forget about. all the time when we talk about, oh, game in the year, and this thing, it's been such an amazing year. And then you go back to it. No, no, it's been amazing since fucking January.

They won. Yeah. I loved Metroid, Samus Returns. That was so much better than I expected it to be. It was a surprise. To me, it was so much better than I thought it would be. It was also kind of like a half step, whatever. I'm like, at least I'm happy that there's more metric come out.

I'm happy that it sold so well. And I was bitching so much when they first announced that it was on 3DS. Because I was like, why? I put it on the fucking switch. And now that they didn't, and now that it's over, I'm so happy they didn't because it was like, cool, let's get Metroid out there, let's have it sell a whole bunch, get people remembering why they love Metroid so that we can have a proper next one on the switch because this was, it was a half step. It was a remake of two. Well, I think my hype levels were so low for that one because it's like numerous things. First of all, they don't even show it during their E3 direct. It's like an afterthought. Hey, stay tuned for Treehouse Live. There's going to be something happening. Yeah, it's like, oh, by the way, yeah, here's this thing. Also, it's on 3DS. Also, it's a remake.

of Metroid 2, and I just played through all of AM2R, like a few months before that. And then I found out it was Mercury Steam, and I hated what they did with Castlevania, that, like, weird 2.5D1. I like Lord's Shadow, but the kind of 2D1, it didn't feel right. So I was like, ah, this is just going to be terrible,

and turned out to be actually really good, and different enough from AM2R to, it feels like different games. Yeah. Yeah. Anything else? I got a big list. Steam World Big 2.

Was good. Were you big on NIR? So I've been hearing a lot about NIR. a lot of spoilery stuff while we've been doing our Game of the Year podcast. And it's fascinating some of that stuff, some of the things it's doing, but I did not enjoy playing it. So I fell off fairly early.

I just didn't think the gameplay was that good. Yeah. But a lot of the ideas and without saying much, you know, like the different endings and things like that, I know about all that stuff that happened. And that's, I love weird stuff like that.

Yeah, like Metal Gear shit, right? Yes. Yeah. That's what Andy's been trying to sell me on Near with, because he's been, he played it over a break or whatever and came back and was like, it's like Metal Gear. And so I started it up and did the same thing

where I played for a little bit and I was like, I kind of okay, like I like what you're doing, mixing it out from going to like to being a schmup to be in an action game to be in this. Like I'll, but I bounced out. I wanted to play something else. I'm like, I'll come back and try it later,

but I can see the metal gear. Now, James, you're shaking your head and discuss you. James, come over here. James is here visiting. He, Conquer the Day Foundation brought him in. James, tell people why you like near. Well, to start for me personally, I just like the combination of the different,

like the shoot them up, like, I don't know the arcade top down And then also I'm a big fan of Hackenslatch Like I love Double My Cry games And I love bayonet And I love that

And I love how well they did that And then also the open world While it's not crazy open world It's not That's one of the good things It's not like Horizon where it's Get the little dots

And fill it out It's just like hey it's open world It's not huge So you can You can manage it And then And then they're also They're pretty interesting locations

They're not crazy different but they are interesting enough that each area is interesting and spices it up. And then also, the game doesn't hold your hand at any point. I think was it Andy who's talking about there was the one chip that if you hit it, you'll die. Oh, yeah. Doesn't turn it in. Yeah, it doesn't really explain that to you and it doesn't explain chips and doesn't explain your leveling up system.

It doesn't explain anything to you. It just says... Sounds like fun. Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't explain anything to you, but it's great because it's like that's the point. It's a sport is you're trying to, you figure it out. It's kind of like it's a different way of Cuphead. Cuphead is you figure it out by playing it over time.

It's kind of the same way in that you figure it out by playing the game. It's like Zelda. You figure it out by exploring the area. Yeah. It's that type of thing. And so it's a hack and slash arcade RPG. PG. I appreciate anything

that is as unique as that game certainly seems to be. And that's the thing for me. It was so unique. It was so different. Yeah.

I just when it comes down to it, I just didn't enjoy the actual moment to moment gameplay. I mean, that's just me because obviously times of people love it. But yeah, I appreciate the weird stuff it does.

Yeah, for me it was the hack and splash. That drew me in. I'm a huge fan of that style, so I was like all in. See, that's why I, no, you're fine. That's why I want to see you try because you're such a devil-like guy.

I was so huge on NIR when I played the before, Anything even came out for it when I started seeing trailers. I was like this looks like my type of game This seems really interesting. I'm down and then when the demo came out. I'm like oh, I am all about this That's the big like a robot fight with the slashing of the arms and yeah, yeah This is rat and it give you a good idea of none of the RPG stuff, but at least the top down Schmupp stuff and the hack and slash and I'm like oh yes I mean because I feel like it's been a while since we've had That style of hack and slash game like the bayonetta games are great and I even bayoneta two and will you I

Absolutely love that none of people got to play it. Such a good game. Yeah, exactly. And the Devil May Cry games have been gone for so long. So it's like, I'm very, I need to play this game. It's, it's an awesome game.

And it is, it's platinum. What I don't like about it, though, is this whole ending business. So the ending, the ending business, the ending business to me, or the way I see it is that it, so the whole thing, like, it has multiple endings. It has one ending. It has 26 endings technically, but they're all like, they're all like, the way it works.

But it has one. Well, do you know the spoiler? The way it works is this kind of thing where, like, you'll get a mission. And like, we need your... Don't spoil anything. It's not. No, no, no. It's like, it's like, oh, we need you to go over here.

And then you go the opposite direction and the credits roll. And that's an ending. Got it. That's one of the 27th. Oh, okay, cool, cool, cool. That kind of thing. It's not the kind of thing where because you made this decision with this character, you get this ending at the, you know, at the end.

It's, there's one ending when you beat the game. but if you ignore someone, the credits will roll immediately then. So there is a question I have about this. And then this, the next one minute might be kind of spoilery. So just know that. I'm gonna keep an eye on it.

I'll let you know. I'll put my hand up when it's not anymore. Yeah, please. I am just, I'm just wondering, could you just beat it the once and then just watch the other endings on YouTube to be okay?

Yeah. Okay, so that's, it's not like, well, okay, okay, okay, cool. Great, okay. So there's something, okay, that's good. I always forgot because, yeah, there's, there's a, yeah. It seems there, there is something far more impactful that I have seen. I've seen it beaten, beaten, like, that is very hard to talk about without spoiling.

Oh, yeah, I don't want to. The idea of replaying a game over and over is not something I like. You don't have to, you don't have to replay the game over and over. You can. And here's how it was explained to me. There's the first time you see credits, and then the second playthrough is kind like you're doing it again. That's the closest to like an actual second play through.

Correct me if I'm wrong with any of this. And then beyond that, it's continuing the story. The way I put it is near, the whole game itself is three games in 10 hours. Or like game one is in 10 hours. Then you immediately start game two, which is 10 hours. And then you start game three, which is in 10 hours. 30 hours total. And it's the full game.

It's three different. No one's flowers. Now we're out. We're done with that. Sounds cool. Still sounds like a lot. But sounds cool. not really anything

not really anything but it like still yeah yeah the way the best way to put it is it's it's three games that came out in one thing but it's the kind of thing where you play them through in one not one sitting but you play it through it as one game

and one thing and which I thought was cool you know it doesn't go on like that it doesn't act like that until yeah it doesn't act like that I just keep remembering one little thing because I haven't played this game since March. Yeah. Another one's so early. I know, yeah.

But, yeah. So you recommend it. I recommend it. It's number three for me of top ten. It's number three. It loses to Zelda and Horizon. Did you play Mario? Yeah, that's number four.

Okay. There you go. Well, James, thank you very much. You were fantastic there. Now, Dan, yes. Speaking of time sinks. Yes. In 2017.

Yes. Where you come down with this persona-5 business. That game is Not for me. Yeah? I did not grow up a JRP guy. I don't watch anime. So nothing about the look or anything in that game or the super text-heavy stuff.

I'm not a huge story guy when it comes down to it. Unless it's Metal Gear, which is the most story. Which isn't at all. Story or anime or any thing. I understand how weird that is. I hear you. Yeah, I'm just not big on like fantasy stuff or like anime type stuff. Sure.

That doesn't mean I write. Like, you know, Zelda, a lot of that, like, the style can be Japanese animation style and everything. And I've actually kind of opened up. I've been watching some, like, Studio Ghibli stuff. Oh, nice. And, like, that's actually really good. So, it's just not for me. The story stuff and the, the combat, like, I was an asshole or really close-minded growing up because it was anytime I saw a game where you're attacking via a menu.

Yeah, that was a turn off for me too. Yeah, I would go to my cousin's place and he'd be playing the Secret of Evermore or Final Fantasy 3 slash six. and I would see like, oh, item or, you know, attack. I would just be like, why the fuck are you playing this? Like, I want to be able to hit why and slash my sword. I don't want to pick it from a menu. Like, I was such an, like, at school, I was making fun of people that loved Final Fantasy 7. Like, Final Fantasy 7.

I was the biggest. Where's your potion and your mage loser? I'd be like, oh, yeah, with your magic fairies and your wizards. And meanwhile, I'm just playing the shit out of Zelda. It's like, it was the most hypocritical bullshit in the world. But, yeah, I played Final Fantasy 10 in college. And that's when I was like, wait, I actually really like this game. and I've very gradually gotten more open-minded.

I swear to God, you're my video game best friend. The moment that we met, when Smash Bros. Wii U first came out. Yeah, it's when I first moved to San Francisco. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We had this huge party over at Greg's place, and I was just like, just talking to you about stuff,

I was like, oh my God, I love this guy. Huge Nintendo fans. Fantastic, it's so good. And Fall Fancy 10. Yeah, it was great. I hated 102, but, you know, 10 was the only one I ever beat. Well, tactics and tactics advance.

I love those. Those are great. basically that's a long way getting around to saying like JRP's. Not your schick. Not really but I'll try them but like Persona just oh man it just screams not for me. Sure. Yeah it's been rough for me because I love persona three and I love persona four

and I love persona five but I know this is tired for everybody but like I put 25 hours in persona five and I was Scott pulled away by something else and it's been looking back every time it is just like so well do I really want to put 70 hours into this right now? Especially it's up to get back into something

and it's even gone for a while. And it is that thing like, and I, since we're talking about all these great games here, and we had new representation, I feel like we need to have persona representation of like, it's awesome. I think it's the best persona game I've ever played and I've played a lot of persona games, right? And it's just the fact that it's just more persona, which is great. Do you think that from when you played persona 5 is the best persona? I do. Really? And that's somebody who loves persona four. You talk about all this so much and how it's not getting you back in. Do you think that has anything to do with it not being portable? Probably. Yeah. No, yeah. Totally.

I joke about it all the time. Like with people I'll occasionally talk to on other chains about other games on Atlas where I'm just like, anyway, I don't know what about a Persona 5 Switch or whatever. And they're like, ha-ha.

You know what I mean? It's just that is why Persona 4 was able to have that lasting power is that I was able to go with you in small chunks and chip away. Right, you were one of the weirdos that liked the Vita. Fuck you, man.

Everyone like persona 4 Golden on Vita. Everyone. The game, yeah, exactly. Vita not so much. The Vita, you know, ahead of its time. The hardware is great.

Okay, okay. Okay. I'll give you that. Then what didn't they like about the Vita? The games. Okay, then, yeah, of course. Okay. All right.

Well, sure. Of course. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I know that's, it's a weird. I have no. There hasn't been a conversation on games cast or any of the kind of funny or any product that I'm on,

talking about like the come to Jesus moment about this. And I don't have the right words for it. But yeah, I think persona 5 is the best persona. It's just that when I'm playing it, even when I was playing it and be like, oh my, like this style. and the music and the Tokyo they've built.

Like, everything about it is a treat and a delight and visually awesome, but it's just the fact of even playing it, I'm just like, all right, cool, I know the, it's like what you're talking about. Like, I'm not a turn-based battle guy either. I'm not a menu battle guy either. And so that's why it was all, when Jeff Haynes handed me persona three and was like, you really like this game on PS2, you should play it. And I went home and played it.

I was like, I fucking do. I think it was because it was fresh to me as somebody who never played Final Fantasy's and never did JRPGs. So to do that for three, to do it for Fez, to do a little bit for Persona 4 on PS2, to do it for persona 4 on Golden, to then get into Persona 5 in a year

that literally is stacked. Sorry? Fez? Yeah, there was another persona 3 on PSP. Got it, got it. I was going to do it. Sorry, my apologies. Not Fez, yeah, yeah.

Classic JRPGGG, Phil Fish is Fez. But that's what it is, right? I'm going to Google that one to make sure, but I'm pretty sure it was persona three, but you fucked me up. It doesn't matter. The persona 3 PSP that I reviewed that had the girl character,

it was a big deal. To get into persona 5, it's just like, cool, I know how this all works, and I'm not at all really invested in grinding out the JRP battles to level up my personas, to combine my personas,

to go find this, because the fairies are vulnerable to my gun, which is new and cool, but it's just, when you start going, it's all mechanics. And as much as I love the story and I love the character so far,

like the Phantom Thieves, like, I could read a wiki and I could go do this and save myself that time, which is heartbreaking to say, especially because I know how much of our audience loves persona and how much I've talked about persona and how great it is. I think persona 5 is the best, but as somebody who's not a JRP person, it is that thing of like, it just isn't for me right now. And I just, I don't know if I'll ever feel like going back and doing it, but I'm a hypocrite if it was on Switch and, like, like, right now, I'm getting ready to give you time capsule of this. Thursday, I take off for Game Awards and PSX.

I'm fucking super stoked to play more Mario. Because I'm just saving Mario on the Switch. I got whatever, 500 moons. And I, you know, I enjoy it and I love it. But I'm not chipping away at home because I come home. And it's like, all right, cool. Destiny, this thing. And this is also the weird thing.

Talking about persona, right? This has been the year for me, which has never happened before, Dan, of the multiplayer game. Where suddenly I'm in multiplayer games. I'm in games as a service and I'm enjoying it. And I'm playing Destiny and playing Friday 13th. And I was, rest and please playing Marvel Heroes. And it's like I'm jumping into these games. And cool.

I know that I'm going to play for 30 to 45 minutes, but beyond that, I'm not sure what I'm getting into tonight. And so it is, I don't want to start persona and just grind a dungeon. I don't want to start persona and jump back in and be like, wait, where was I? What's happening? And what? And like, it's a bunch of weird little excuses.

It's just not a game that's congruent to my life at the moment. But I can, as I was talking about with the reviewing, I've played 25 hours of it. I can tell you, I think it's the best persona for sure. I think it's awesome. I know people, And I, and this isn't me disparaging anyone. I love the characters of Persona 4, right?

And Chi is my fucking girl. I'm always gonna be down to roll with her and stuff, right? And I love the story of persona 3. I just think these kids are better. And I like where they are. And I like their outfits better. And I like the style and the thing that it looks like a fucking 70s Pulp movie.

And like they just knocked it out of the park. And it's, but it's similar to what I was talking about with like Uncharted 4. Where it's like it's a cheap. This is a payoff of everything that's happened before it. So it's not like, out of the blue this game came along. It was amazing.

It's like, no, they've learned from every persona game they've made to get to the point where it would be more shocking if we got to hear and we're like this fucking sucks. Is it uncharted 4 is more like uncharted 2? No, no. Well, Uncharted 4 in terms of, well, uncharted 4 in terms of they've learned what works,

what does it, exeterating. Yeah, yeah. And like where it's like, I think Uncharted 4, I think, stick with me. If you were to review all your uncharted games would be the best uncharted game. I agree. I mean, mechanic-wise, visual-wise.

Yeah. Sure. Where are you putting gold. an abyss. No, I'm just kidding. Sorry, what was that on? Was that a mobile game? Yeah, fuck you.

No, you're thinking of fight for fortune. It's one of those things where, yeah, it's just, they learn every time and do different stuff. And I think that it is what it is. And it's how you go. I love the game, but I know that's a weird fucking thing to say when I just not compelled to go back and play it because I'd rather play a 20-minute match of Friday the 13th and then get out of my life or jump into destiny and try to get this thing to that thing.

I don't know. I'm a fucking weird hack. The biggest thing we need to talk about. What are we got on time of me? Is that, I don't want to throw stones at you, Dan. Okay. You know, I love you.

If you need to, thank you. I got a bag right here. We all live in a glass house here. Yes. I feel like it's unfair, if not unjust, that you're doing all this game of the year voting.

But while James was on, I checked my phone, you haven't played pocket camp in nine days. Oh, Animal Crossing? Yeah. No, fuck that thing. Seriously. Bring some reason to the show.

Here's the thing. I love Animal Crossing. Crossing. Every single one of them, even the weaker ones, city folk, whatever. You know, I'll put 100 plus hours in any of those games. Pocket Camp takes away so much of what I like about Animal Crossing.

And it really has nothing to do with the micro-transactions. I know everyone, you know... Weep tickets! Ah! Yeah, that didn't bother me at all, and that actually seemed like not a super exploitative way to do that. It was the fact that when I play Animal Crossing, part of the joy of that game is meandering around the city and just seeing

what I come across. Like, oh, there's my, you know, rhino neighbor. Oh, okay, I'll talk to him and I'll go fish a little bit. Oh, maybe I'll walk down to the museum and drop some fossils off or whatever. I feel like I'm just kind of wandering a town and it's a very leisurely thing. 100%. You're nailing it so far what Animal Crossing is? With pocket camp, it is not only does it take out some stuff like the fossils and all that stuff, but you're not wandering. You're not, it's not a leisurely stroll through a nice little town. You are going to a checklist. It says timed goals and stretch goals and say, oh, I have to give three apples to the squirrel. I have to do this thing. I have to do this thing. Okay, my

stretch goals, I've got to keep that in mind. Okay, and then now I've got to tap this very specific place, and I'm going to go there because that's where I fish. I'm going to tap this space because that's where I go get my bugs. It's the fact that you're not just walking around a larger town. I just feel like I'm checking boxes instead of exploring at my own pace, my own leisure. You're correct. And also a lot of the writing. Like, I think a lot of them are just like, it's not as funny as far as the conversations and stuff. It's just like, hey, give me some bananas. You know, it's not the puns

and the jokes. Like, they don't even give you the puns when you catch the fish. I got two words for you. You rock. A lot. Wait, that's more than two. And they, like, multiple people say this thing over and over to me. I'm like, all right. Yeah, I deleted it. I was so excited when I first when I first started it, I saw that, like, oh man, this seems like a real

Animal Crescent game. Like, it's so simple control-wise that, you know, moving around worked fine. Yeah. I thought the fishing mechanic and the catching bugs mechanic and all that stuff, I thought it worked really well, just kind of waiting and tapping, because that's basically what you're doing with the A button on a game Huber 3DS. I just didn't feel like I had freedom.

I felt like I was doing stuff because the game told me to do it and I was going places because that's where I have to do the thing. I wasn't exploring. I wasn't making the town my own. I was just being told to do a bunch of bullshit. So I haven't played it at all. I'm not an Amble Crossing guy. So I was like, this isn't for me.

Call yourself a Nintendo fan. No, exactly. Do you think that they did a good job mobilifying the game or do you think that you would have preferred it to not be the way you're talking about? Because I feel like the reason they added all this. checklist and all that stuff is because that makes sense for a mobile experience. It does, but

I don't see why they couldn't have just taken the format that has been proven to work and put that on mobile. They already proved that they can, you know, the motion and the fishing and all that stuff. They made that work. They just didn't give us the Animal Crossing, the freedom that we

had before. And so by replacing that with checklist and everything, that's just, I think that takes away the soul of what Animal Crossing is. And a lot of people have said that. It takes away the soul of what Animal Crossing is. And if somebody who plays it to this day, I agree. And somebody who loves Animal Crossing,

I agree. Like Chrissy Teagan says that. A couple games cast ago by the time this airs. I made the reference to Amaris, who was like, oh yeah, I love it. Is it a good game? No. Like, it, for me, I was thinking about it the other day.

And it's like, yeah, like, I can't plant trees. Yeah. Which is like such an animal crossing thing of like, it's right B. Exactly. You know what I mean? I can't make my own petries.

I can't do this. Yeah. It's also the fact of, I, in 2017 for sure, and I can't remember last time ever that I was so hot and cold on a game. Where there are days I wake up and I'm like, and I'm just on it nonstop. And then there's days where literally I open up, I'm like, not today. And shut it and go out. And I guess as somebody doesn't play mobile games, maybe that's the mobile model they want where it's like coming.

I mean, they want me to fucking pay a thousand dollars. Maybe that's what it is. But it's the fact of the soul is gone in terms of, you know, My campsite isn't my campsite. My campsite is like, what fucking thing do I have to build to get you in? To get these people to come in and be my friends and do that. But then when they added Christmas stuff, which is the last time we recorded a games cast, I was very much like, ooh.

And I was all in. I'm like, I got the tree and I got this and I want to build out my campsite to have that tree stuff. And a big turning point for me over the weekend was, no, Patreon people watching live. I'll ruin the joke I'm going to make for you, all right? But I'm going to, but like, don't ruin it for me. when it goes out, retweet it and stuff, put it on Instagram. What I'm building right now.

So, Tim, let me lay some Animal Crossing foundation for you, okay? Please do. You invite any animal you can to your campsite, get their friendship up, get your XP up, all that jazz. However, you have your camper that you can also, for some reason, customize inside, even though no one ever comes into it.

No. Who the fuck even cares about this thing, right? So I noticed, I went in there for the first time in days. I was like, all right, there's still nothing going on here. And that's when the joke struck. I'm currently building out my camper, right? It's got the heart-shaped rug on the ground. It's got the heart wallpaper.

It's got two couches. It's got a TV, and I've got lamps going. It still doesn't look as porny as I want it to, but I'm working on making it super porny. Because then, Tim, I'm going to take this screenshot, crop it down to a square, put it on Instagram, put it on Twitter, and I'm going to say, sure, I'll invite any animal to my campsite,

but only a special few get to come to my shaggin wagon. And this is going to kill on social media, just so you all know. This is going to be number one on the Animal Crossing subreddit when I'm done with it. You know what I mean? I think it's about time for Austin Powers humor to come back. I think that'll play in 2017. It's nostalgic. It's nostalgic.

But I just, it's something in the center. What I'm currently building, and this isn't a joke. If I'm lying, I'm dying. Am I actually done, actually? Because I'm building a cushion to put in the center of the heart rug to sit on the heart rug. Because I feel that will drive home that this is a fuck damn. for me to fuck animals. You could just have a black couch, though.

Yeah, but I'm not casting couch. The way that you just described porn makes it sound like you haven't seen porn since 1970. As you know, I read my porn, so I don't know what it looks like. There was a heart rug next to a heart wall. Bangbuss has been a thing. You know, I just don't, I don't,

that's not how I can see my porn. They don't have a literatica bang bust to my knowledge. Right, right. Yeah, I fucking hope they do. I'm sure. Actually, this reminds me. I'm going to check in them. Check in see.

Maybe you're all going to see this. Well, and that's too late in the day for me to go live now. But I think, let me check. Crafting. Yeah, the weird cushion is done. So, heads up. I was worried. Good one, man.

We're coming. Joey, are you still playing Animal Crossing Pocket Camp? I literally came in because I heard you guys talking about it. She literally came in. You got to come. You know how these mics were. He got to come talking to them. What level are you now?

Oh, don't come in? I say on the microphone. Don't you? I'm playing right now and I heard you guys talking about. So that's why I came in. I'm level 32. And I have 53,000 bells. God damn.

343 leaf tickets and I haven't bought anything. Nice. And I'm crafting all of my... Have you been to Greg's fuck den? I can't invite people into it. So like, you know. That is like... Yeah, is it getting there?

People can't just walk into that. Yeah, I have an upstairs. Do you know that there's an upstairs? Because that's a little bit more... To the van? Den-ish, yeah. Oh, wow. It was very much...

It's the same thing as like... Where you went to the... You go to the OK motor guys and he's like, oh, cool, you want it upstairs. I'm giving it to you. You owe me 30. I'm like, no, I didn't want this. They don't tell you how much it is until you buy it.

And you're like, oh, now I'm on the hook for it. But there's no interest on the loan. Yeah, Tom Nook's a hero. Everyone always bitches about Tom Nook. I have always been a defender of Tom Nock. He's a great businessman. He's a great businessman. He's a good man in general. In general, Tom No.

I'm thankful for Tom Noon. Look at my fucked in. All right, your fucked in's looking pretty. I might have to put it out. I can't have for a right. I'm screenshoting. It's not bad. We're making, it's happening right here.

You're all making it happen. in live. We need some retweets. I will don't fret. I will retweet myself in the morning when there's more eyes on my Twitter. Just letting you know how the social media works. Look at that. See? Pogs for all. I already paying up. Look at that. Cool, Greg.

So we're paying for you. I think I already know the answer to this. Yes. But are you playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2? No. I do kind of want to try it though. Really? Like, yeah. But why? And is your answer because of the Nintendo Switch? I mean, that really does help a lot. You know, I fly a decent amount.

everything. Like if it's on the switch, that does get me to be like, well, okay, maybe I'll give a shot here because I can take it with me. I'm going to start it. Realistically, based on my history with games like that, I will play it for a while. I'll be an hour and a half in. I'll be like, there's still this story that I'm not following,

and I just don't care about, and I'll probably set it aside. But yeah, I haven't switched. Like, for instance, I have not thought about playing Skyrim since Skyrim came out. And I love Skyrim when it came out, but it went on the switch, and I got it. And like, I flew out here, and it was like five or six hour flight coming out. I played it the entire time and I was like

fuck I'm having a blast with this. This is great yeah which you know it's still the same SkyRom it always was yeah yeah so the added DLC and stuff but being able to just take it on a flight and that's a game that sucks you in and time goes by like nothing it's perfect for stuff like that and so that's why you know that has so much more value to me than like playing that again on PS4 or Xbox 1 or something is because I'm looking for stuff like that when I'm in the sky or you know traveling so yeah it's been a blast well that's I mean Skyrim is a great example of what I always wanted on the Vita,

and now the Switch is Vita 2, where it is like, yeah, give me an open world RPG, something to get invested in, and come back to and go away from and do this, and not have it be similar to how persona is such an investment on a TV, be where, like, wait, where was I in the story and whatever? All right, I'm fucking killing bandits,

there's a goddamn dragon to kill, I got it. Yeah. The thing about the switch that it does so well is beforehand you had the divide with Nintendo systems. You had, they were very good at their big, marquee, first-party titles on their home consoles for the TV. And then the reason I thought the 3DS was so much better than the Vita was that it seemed to understand that portable games should be different than home games. Home games are sitting down, you're getting company on the couch, playing for hours.

Portable games, I want to be able to open up on a bus or play for 15 minutes or whatever, and that's why I really liked, you know, games like Picross and Percross and Pocross and Pocross and Poyo Pekross and I thought the 3rd, or new leaf. Whereas the switch, due to its nature, can do both. It's got these giant, sprawling, open games with Zelda and Mario and now Skyrim. But I can also play Percross or Pollo, Poyo, or Tetris, if I'm just on my commute, and I just want to be on my commute. to play a little bit and be done. It really is just kind of the perfect melding in both worlds. So looking at you as a Nintendo guy, you being somebody that's saying that the Switch is your favorite Nintendo system since the S&ES, which is a huge statement.

I think so. Year 1 so far that we've had, since March, what has that looked like for you? When you look at the different games coming out, obviously we talked about Zolden Mario, Mario, but how did you feel about arms? How did you feel about Mario Card? How did you feel about Poken DX and all that? Well, first I'm going to clarify. Like, I am a huge Nintendo fan.

Like, I love it, and the Switch is probably my favorite console. But if there's one thing that has annoyed me since I was a little kid about the gaming industry, it's, you know, console fanboys and like, oh, fuck Xbox. You know, there's always been great stuff on every system. Except PC. I love my PC. God damn it. I probably blame my PC more than anything. Oh, of course, your taxes, Excel.

Makes sense. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I plan everything. I like everything. Everything's got its pros and cons. Overall, I am, like, the Switch is my favorite console right now. but this year, launching with Zelda

was amazing and proving that the gimmick worked so well. The gimmick did not work with the Wii U at all. I never really liked the Wii U hardware. But one of the reasons

I think Mario Kart works so well for the Switch was because Mario Kart 8 is an incredible game. It's maybe the best Mario Kart. It did not get to do it deserves. And so even though I played the hell out of it, I think that was the last game I reviewed a Game Informer,

I played the hell out of that game, and I still played so much more of it when I was able to take it on a plane or take it to go. So it's done a good job of bringing those Wii U titles forward. Pocken's not really for me. I was just, I think I was just a couple years too old for Pokemon. I never fell super into, I know you're a huge fan. We're right there in the same boat.

It was the same thing where I felt like that passed me by. By the time people were getting involved, I was like, oh, it's a kid's game. The thing is, not to go too far down this rabbit hole, but there is a chance and it is very slim because if Pokemon was made by Nintendo, this would be the case. But the fact that it's Pokemon company and there's a whole bunch of weird separation with all that

I worried is not the right word but I can see them just going with here's another generation of Pokemon I can see them going with them understanding that the switch Pokemon is going to be important to people like you The tweet is so good

It's the Shaggin wagon You know what I mean? Come on guys Oh it rhymes Yeah exactly And into the wagon Sure I'll invite any animal To my camp

But only the select few Get invited to the Shaggin wagon And C-Sysons I put animal in there, I'm totally fine. It's totally cool. Yeah, yeah, 2017. You gotta be careful. We got to vet everything. Red Team everything you say.

But I can see them trying to Zelda Eye, Breath of the Wild Eyes, Pokemon, you know. And that's what gets me excited. To me, and I know that this is like, like, so many, like, real Pokemon fans. I shouldn't use that voice. So many real Pokemon fans are happy with what Pokemon's doing and want there to be a thousand Pokemon and want all that stuff. And I get that. I know that there's so much hostility towards the G-1ers that it's like, oh, it's not how I remember it.

So it's not good. And I get that. I understand that you need to progress. And it's just like to always want the same thing over and over is a problem. Having said that, all that I want is for them to go back to basics, start again, some type of reboot. And even if it was red and blue, too, isn't reboot enough for me. But like, I feel like that would be such a right answer that I think you guys could get into. Greg, I know you could get into if that was the game.

I, here's the thing is like, when I always fuck this up, but stick with me, Sol Silver, the one with the pedometer. The one with the pedometer. That came out, when that came out, I was working at IGN. We all had DSs and we all got it and we played it. And I played a good amount. And it was my first Pokemon game and I got it. And I was like, okay.

And then something else came and I got distracted and forgot about it and stop playing. But I enjoyed it for a little bit I played. It just didn't get its hooks in me the way I think it has. It's what people always talk about with like nostalgia. It was just like, oh, okay, cool. So I'm doing this. Me, my favorite Pokemon game. I'm with you.

I played X because that was the one where I never really played Pokemon. Well, I'll give this a real shot here. And I put a good 15 hours or so into it. And I did like it. But, yeah, I didn't get the hook in. X was fine. Yeah, X is one of the low points. I don't know, James were a lot of them.

Super fan for Pokemon. Yeah. But so many of them are so similar, you know? Yeah. I feel like, Sun and Moon did something different, which was cool. And then the ultra-sunn and moon, it's like, I don't need that. I'm not even a play of that.

I'm fine. I have enough things to do with it. People love it and cool. That's great. But I really do hope that on the Switch that they do, they don't just do the next generation. I hope that they go back to basics or at least change things up to get other people interested. And again,

I'm saying all this stuff, armchair quarterbacking, one of the most successful franchises of all time. My thing is if the Switch one comes out and it's a beautiful Pokemon that's like whatever, it is just, hey, here's the same thing, but refresh with color and a little, I'm gonna play it, I'm definitely gonna try it. They're not still in black and white, right?

I know, I know, but I mean, even like thinking of it on DS, I don't remember being like a beautiful experience. It did have color though. Yeah, okay. The DS was a color console. Actually, they did a Game Boy color, and even that one had color. They did, yeah, Game Boy Advance that also had color. DS had even more colors.

Yeah, there's so many colors. There's lots of Pokemon games that are not black and white now. It's true. But there was Pokemon black and white. But those were also... Those were actually in color. Let's cut the shit for a second. Yeah.

Was there a game beyond the pedometer? Because the podometer was definitely black and white. That's all I ever played. That's not true. Well, the pedometer... Wait. Oh. It was the pedometer?

Yeah. It was black and white. That was all the joke. It's all I got you. He's a garbage. Yeah. Well, I remember Pocky Pikachu was black and white. But was the golden silver one?

That was also black. Yeah. The pedometer was, yeah. When there was money in that thing, it was stupid. People loved it. Yeah, of course. We all walked. It was the Pokemon Go before Pokemon Go.

Exactly. No, but I'm excited to see what Pokemon does, and excited might not be the right word, because I know what they're going to do. It's just going to be Gen 8. Are we on 8? James, come to the microphone. I'm going to pee.

You're over there biting your tongue trying to say so. And I haven't forgot your question. I'll get back to the year and general. I appreciate that. I hope it's not Gen 8. I hope it's not Gen 8. I know it's not going to be an open world thing. I'm 100% on your side in everything.

I hope it's red and blue too. I hope it's red and blue two. I hope it's just like a game that's supposed to be on the switch. I mean, like, graphically and like power-wise and like the models are not the weird models that they are today. Like, I hope it's a switch game. Well, there's HD models that exist from Sun and Moon and from the 3DS files that, like, if they up-res those, they're fine. They made those higher-res and down-resdom for the 3DS games to prepare for the future. Yeah, I just, I hope they do something.

I hope they play around with it and they try something new with the Switch for. Give me Kanto and Joto. Right. In one game. In 3D. And if you want to be cool, maybe put in Hoan in there. Just, you know. Well, that'd be crazy.

Because, you know. That's the thing. We're in a different world now. Put in D.O. It's a whole new world we live in. Doodoo. Put in Hoan. It's a Jodo theme song.

I am. Yeah. I gotcha. I got you. I got you. It's a brand new place. But you still got to catch them all. And be the best you can be.

Yeah. Pokemon Joe too. Yeah. I'm so sorry, dad. I got my good. I got that. No, but yeah, seriously, I hope that they do something special, but I don't think they're going to, like I said,

because Pokemon Company has such a weird relationship where they kind of have control over Nintendo, which is the only first-party franchise Nintendo has that has that weird dynamic. The only reason why I feel like they have that control is because of how successful the series is... Yeah, no, definitely. If Pokemon wasn't selling billions and billions and billions and billions and billions

of copies, I think Nintendo would be all up in them, but because they can do whatever and they'll make all the money, Nintendo's like whatever. Yeah. Well, we'll see. We'll see off. Thank you, James. Yeah, your question

about the year of Switch. Going through Switch. I think it's had major, major highs, you know, with Zelda and Mario. It's had some kind of middle of the pack stuff. Splatoon, I love Splatoon, too. I played the hell out of that.

It's what everyone says. It is more Splatoon. You know, it definitely is. It doesn't feel like a giant step forward. I do like being able to take it on the go, laying bed and play and everything. But, you know, Samin runs great. I love that.

So I'm not a Splatoon guy With early what you're talking about with Mario Kart It was like Mario Kart 8 is great and then now playing it again is awesome on Switch Did Splatoon too not have that hook for you? What's it go? I love Spiltoon now it's More Splatoon I think I was happy that it did bring Splatoon to a new audience and so many more people have the switch But for some reason it didn't like I guess it did I did play the hell out of that game

I think I reviewed it so yeah I think I didn't play a lot of it I'll put 15 minutes in slap to score on and move down. Yeah, I reviewed that. Yeah, I don't know. Mario Kart 8, I think, was a better game overall. But still, I think Splatoon was such a cool thing

that Nintendo tried a new IP, and it worked out, and that more people are playing it now. Arms, speaking of new IP, I read that too. I appreciate a lot of the things they're trying with arms, like a lot of the characters are really fun. The concept is weird and goofy and out of left field. I like that.

Something like the theme song is incredible. So good. Overall, though, it was a game that I played for a couple weeks when I first came out. I felt like I kind of did what there was to do. That was the one problem, right? Yeah. Some of you played it a lot, but then had a wife who played it a ton. It was cool, and it just, it came at the right time because it was, all right, cool, you don't have a smash.

You don't have a competitive fighter on this thing, but you can't play this online. And so there was that to it, but it felt so shallow. It did. It was content light. Yeah, that's a great way to put it. Because it's like, for Nintendo, I, if any, anything, I think we're going to look back at history at the Switch's first year and be like, oh shit, in addition to Mario and Zolma, they did launch the first entry in a new Nintendo IP

that I think will be around. Yeah, Arms 2 is going to come around and I think be way better. There's going to be arms characters in the next smash. Like, these are characters to be around. They gave enough care to the theme song, into the world, whatever, to make it feel authentically Nintendo. I'm going to have to buy Arm's Amibo at some point. I know that. Not yet, which is so weird.

Yeah. That's like the one franchise there's no Amoeble for. I'm at the point now where, you know, I got all of them at one point. I had them all when there was like 80 of them. And then every time they fucking announced something, especially if it's like for something I don't really care about, like I'm not a monster hunter guy and they announced all those Japan-only ones. It's just like, shit, I guess I have to.

I bought this whole stupid cabinet just to display my amoebo. Like, I can't not buy the new ones. And so like I'm just kind of waiting until they're on eBay and they're cheap so I can buy them all without feeling like a complete asshole. But, yeah, kind of an asshole. I bought all of them. All of them. Although it is cool when there's a new game Does it make you more of an asshole volume on eBay?

Because it's not even going to Nintendo. I'm smart. I'm smart. I've given Nintendo enough of my money over there. Dude, this is always my thing with Funko Pops. They're the fucking worst. I got to have rules. I can't just buy every DC when I see you.

The only Superman. They're the ugliest things. They're soul as black guys. Let's not do that. They're cute. They're fun. Come on. No, they're horseshit.

No, no. I'm okay, fucking Amibo man. Shut up. Those are delumful and detailed and unique. They don't all look like the same soul is dumb boxhead. They'll finally get my money when they put a dry bones out. A dry bones amoebo? Yeah.

Did they not? No, they didn't. No, I'd have a trust me. They're not. They're not like, there's a Gumba one. There's a Cooper Trooper one. I got the boo and Wallygie. What's that?

Oh, it was Odyssey. They came out on the off side. Oh, yeah. And I'll take credit for the Waluigi Mibo existing. Thanks to my sign of WrestleMania. I don't know if you saw that. I did. I have a feeling that Reggie was probably watching that latter match and was like,

he's got a great idea that we would have never thought of making Wall Luigi Ami, let's, you know, call up the press. Yeah. Real quick, this set the internet of fire a few weeks ago, but we haven't talked about it any of us, but especially you and me, we talk about everything. We're all of the agreement, right, that Toad's head is his head and not a hat, right?

You saw this, you saw this argument? Just making sure. It's a head. This is a really stupid thing that was going on. I didn't see this argument. People are dumb. I'm going to go pee. I think we decided on the Beescast that it's like a meat hat. Like, it's an organic... It's his head! It's an organic thing. Like, he came out of the womb with like a tiny little

thing that grows with him. It's like we have hair, we come up, but it can't come off. I mean, is it just in a mushroom? Is it a mushroom cap? I think surgically it could come off, or like there'd just be a bunch of like weird goo and he would have to force it off. Like you shouldn't because you have to like surgically reattach it and everything. No, you don't want that. Yeah, but it is

part of his head. Yeah, I know there was that cartoon or the super show where he took up the thing with that. It's not canon. That doesn't count. As a Mario historian, no, it is a meat hat. I wrote a one act play in college, took playwriting, right? Thank you, Kev.

Thank you very much. And I don't remember much of what this play was about anymore. And these files are long gone by this point. But it was a one-act play of this guy seeing a girl at a party and then kind of imagining their entire life together. And his pickup line was something of, would you rather fuck Toad or Bowser, I think? And that's how... Bowser's really spiky. Toad is like, he seems almost like a plush.

And it was one of those things. The play, like, because you know, you're... I'm a dumb kid. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. And I'm writing this play. Fresh, no, sophomore year,

maybe a college. And everybody who's into the play totally, because you have to give, you know, your notes at the end. Everybody's totally into the play because you do a reading in class or whatever around it.

But like the final line, when he actually gets the nervous to talk to the girl, he asks for the question, and she picks Bowser. And he had made earlier in the argument, in the play, he had made the argument

that Bowser was the correct choice, right? Right. But the line was something like, yeah, I don't want to shove a mushroom up my vagina. And like, when we finish, That's like the final line of the play.

And I remember like, like, every feedback. And like everybody's like, oh, it's like, oh, it's really good. That last line totally took me out of the play. Like,

why would anyone say that on the first, like, good, good notes, good notes. Speaking of video game plays. Yeah, lay them on me.

One of the times that Mortal Kombat sent me to the hospital as a child, uh, was, it was my friend's 10th birthday, my friend Lane, and I went to his place and I was obsessed with

mortal combat. Sure. Like, the first one was out and it was just the coolest fucking thing I'd ever seen in my life. And so I wrote a Mortal Kombat play to be performed at his birthday party. Nice. I was going to play, I was Scorpion.

And you were calling other people fucking nerds. Oh, no, that's the thing. That's been the immigrant. I'm an idiot. I'm a joke. Make no bones about it. So I was Scorpion. And I had the birthday boy lane play Johnny Cage.

And so we were down in his basement, which was not finished. So it had concrete floors. It's your traditional Midwest basement. Yeah. Was there a support pole? in the middle of it somewhere? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Of course. Yep. And so I think a few of the parents were maybe there, but like all the kids were down there and we're doing our dumb thing. Like, I don't even know if we got good costumes. We probably just took like a yellow scarf for

Scorpion and maybe like a hat. But you pulled out a lawn dart with a piece of rope attached to it. Honestly, probably something like that. I had sunglasses for Johnny Cage. No, yeah, I was Scorpion. That's right. So he, Johnny Cage had the blue, no, green fireball thing, you know, and so I got a green kush ball and I gave that to my friend like, okay, so then the end of the fight is you throw the, uh, the fireball. at me and that'll set up the fatality or whatever. And so, you know, in dress, we didn't, we didn't actually bump around. Yeah, yeah.

But when it was time to do the show, I wanted to actually, and I'm putting on a show here. You know, I got a bump for this thing. So, bump from wrestling, you understand? I understand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so he throws the thing at me and I caught it and, like, acting like it blew up or something. I did a front flip. Like, I didn't plan on that, just in the moment.

I was like, I got to fucking sell this. Do it on the night. Do it on the night. I'm Scorpion. And I did it. I did a front flip. And I was like, something in my back just, like, tinged really bad. And I went to go, like, get up.

Oh, so you made the flip. Yeah, I did the flip. I thought this was going head first into the concrete. Not bad. Not bad. I got the full flip. I landed on my back. And I was like, I was trying to get up to take the fatality.

And I was like, oh, nope, nope, nope, nope. And then they had to, like, call my mom and they had to go to the hospital and everything. But yeah, that was my play. That's, you know, I have a symbol. One of the time. I told that boom about both the times. I want to hear about the second time, but that reminds me of a story, too, where I took a bump, and I was unable to get up. But I don't know where this is going.

I wasn't a little boy. I was a 32-year-old man on the Paxi stage. Was that a hell like that? Trying to catch my breath. Oh, Alex was very responsible during that. What's your second story? What's your second Mortal Kombat? I don't know what he's referring to.

So the other one was, I think, before that, I got the Genesis version on Mortal Monday. Get that blood on you? Yeah. Played the. hell out of that and you know I had the tester mite thing you had to hit A and C I think with two fingers to like build up the meter I never had the genesis one okay I think it's A and C and then you had to hit start when you're above the line and I got to I think it's when I got to Ruby which is I think it's one step before diamond but it's very very hard and you have to like yeah so I'm just like really distraining everything's like sure fuck and I almost got it up there and then like my neck like something was what like I was like oh and like I couldn't move my neck from like this and like I would kind of try to force it and it would hurt really bad and it would hurt really bad and and to go to the hospital again. Like neither of these were like serious injuries. Sure.

Mortal Kombat did send me to the hospital twice. Wow. He knows about that now. Fantastic. He just thought it was funny. Of course. Yeah. It made you the man you are today.

It did. Man. That is insane. I'm trying to like a video game injury stories. I have. Yeah. I don't know that I had any. M.K. also sent me to the principal.

You used to pretend to be injured. So, okay. Yeah, Kevin. Yeah, we're going there. Damn, that's one of those memories that you just, you don't have until someone's, Somebody brings it that up. Yeah, we did that.

We were dumb kids. There's this game series on the PlayStation called Extreme. Oh, like 2 Extreme and 3 Extreme? There was no one Extreme, but there was a 2 Extreme. What was it called Extreme? Like, it's the only one I heard of it was 2 Extreme. 3. Yeah, there's two.

Is that really not the second one? I always assumed it was a sequel. I don't know. As far as I know, it starts at 2 Extreme. Okay. And then there was 3 Extreme. Yeah, yeah. And pretty much it was a racing game where you can choose different extreme sports.

So like roller blades or skateboarding or snowboarding or biking. Yeah. And it's just, it's just a racing game. It's not Tony Hawk. This is pre Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Totally just a fucking shitty racing. They're like ramps and stuff, but you're not doing like style points or anything. But we would play and we wouldn't even care about the race.

It was just more like trying to do stupid stunts and stuff off things because we wanted Tony Hockech's pro skater before it came out. And then when we were crest and stuff, we would like in real life be like, oh, well, we broke our leg there. So we can't walk and that didn't really affect us when we had wired controllers But for some reason it this sounds like a dumb story. It is a dumb story. Yeah, but we were dumb kids kids are dumb. We were really fucking dumb. So you acted like you broke your legs? You know, I don't remember I feel like there must have been a second step to it Kevin go to your microphone. Is exactly what Andrew was talking about. Well, yeah, okay. He's brand new. I was I was giving the information to Tim so that he can relate. Yeah, but then this is just awkward

silence for everybody. We want you to be part of this, you know? We love you, buddy. So we would essentially take turns playing and whatever injuries we had we would have to keep during not our turn. So you had to like sell the injury when you weren't playing the game? That's all that it was. We didn't have to, we wanted to. We were trying

to make co-op out of just normal games. You know what I mean? Sure. So like Tim would be playing and me and Greg would be on the sofa being like, oh my leg, my arm. I think Greg was just like, I don't like this. Dumb kids, dude. I don't know. No, yeah, I know. Kids are dumb. Make your own fun.

Yeah, just make your own fun. That game was not fun. We need to do a party mode of too extreme. That's all I say. I don't have a good injury story. Dumb kid's story with video games. I have millions of. Of course.

The one that jumps to mind in an unfinished basement was that Mike Boilin's brother was a jerk. No, he was great. He was older than me and he liked comics. And that was like a big deal. Like I finally knew somebody who liked comics, like I liked comics. And I remember when he beat Superman on Genesis by Sunsoft, which was a game as a kid was just too tough for me to be. Like, you know, you couldn't.

I kind of figured it out or do it. But he beat it and he told, and like, it was like, you want to talk about the most, like, badass. He must have been like, what, eighth grade. You know what I mean? Talking to a fourth grader or whatever the hell we were and telling me, yeah, I beat it last night. I was like, oh my God, you can beat that game.

He was like, yeah, I beat it in memory of Superman because Superman 75 had just come out and he had died. And I was like, oh my God. You're the coolest person I know. I was like, what a fucking cool. And he made his Genesis, a boxing game, whichever one it was. I think my, Van der Holiefield. He was a K-O. Boxing.

Yeah, that sounds right. He made Bruce Wayne. And I was like, this is the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen. That is so. Kids are dumb. Really dumb. It's so dumb.

Cross the board. So Dan, go back to your first year at the Switch. So besides those games, then Mario plus Rabbids, Kingdom Battle. I like that game a lot. I think it's insane that,

first of all, that game exists. Second of all, that it's as good as it is. No business being as good as it is. Yeah, it's, they did a great,

job with that. I kind of fell off. I got like near the end of the third world and then other stuff came out or something. I still tell myself I'm going to go back and finish it. I've heard there's some good stuff. I heard it gets really hard near the end. It does. I like it a lot. I don't think it's in my top ten of the year.

I like it a lot and I haven't actually put thought into my top ten yet and I am actually worried it's not going to make the top ten because this has been such a good year. Where it's like it is a damn fine game. There's been a lot of damn fine games. would you say Uncharted Lost Legacy

is on your top 10? Uncharted Lost Legacy? Undeniable in my top time. Okay. Ooh. I don't know if it's in mine. It made it there. Still a great game.

I'm not taking away from it. And I get all the criticism against it, but it's like I still think that just as an experience, it's great. It's better than I expected it to be. It seemed like it would just be a little DLC thing they sold as a full game and I liked it a lot. Yeah, no, it was great.

Wait, is it in your top 10 though? We'll see. Oh, stay tuned, jibomb.com. Giant bomb content. Not locked in yet. That's one of the ones that it's going back in the work. I still need to write mine too.

Alex was telling me. Yeah. I invited me in those early years. No, it's great, dude. Don't worry about it. I mean,

because that's the thing is if I look at it, I feel like uncharted right now in my head is maybe. I don't know. It's definitely not a guarantee, even though I just said it was. But until this conversation where it's like, oh, I was talking about rabbits.

And I'm like, what isn't your top 10, right? Yeah. I'm like, okay, no, uncharted is over rabbits. So. That's thing. It's like,

obviously Mario, obviously Horizon Friday the 13th, which is going to be, it's going to be one of those games I always do for you guys where I'm like, this is super high. And I know it's not a great game, but it's a fun game and I fucking love it. Destiny 2, which isn't, you know, my normal modus operandi at all. Um, Resident Evil. Thank you very much. Uh, I mean, like, that's off the top. Man, persona 5. I'm gonna put on there and be like, didn't beat it. Dang. I owe Cheeks Jr. fucking pizza because of it. But there's this fan who said I wouldn't beat. And I was like, no. you're fucking crazy. And this is like, he said it like June. Oh yeah. Yeah, I got all. I got so much time.

And then I was like, I can't compel myself to go back and play this fucking game. Yeah. I mean, it's a weird one, especially, you know, my history with it,

but like, I bet PubG, based on the fact that it's finally coming Xbox. I'm going to put a whole bunch of hours into it. Yeah. But even playing it on PC, right, it was amazing.

Yeah. Like, we've had a lot of fun with Grand Theft Auto Online. Like I want to play more of it. But in terms of like experiences this year that have like caught me off guard. Like, Huh. Especially when I like, did you watch Danny's, uh, no clip documentary?

Like, whole billy's of GTA online. I want to watch that. Dude, it is so good. And it is totally one of those things. The stories they tell, I'm like, this is, I don't even mean the kinship friendship, just them talking about what they do in game and stuff. It's like, fuck, I, this is similar to when I was always like, if I didn't have a job in the game industry, I'd only play DC Universe online.

Right. And the way these people talk about GTA online, I'm like, holy fuck, I would love to do this. There's this girl who's in the crew. that she's like the most junior member now. She's only been with them a few weeks. And she tells the story of like how they were, she had, she's like,

oh yeah, you know, and I had, I had two million dollars worth worth the product to move, but I didn't have my guys to play with. So I needed friends. I found these guys and they,

and it's just, she talks about moving drugs in a way of like, oh my God, it's, it's, it's 3D Chinatown Wars. Like, I fucking loved that game.

Like, I can do that in this game. I should totally be playing. It's awesome. Way better than people get credit. 100%. Definitely check out YouTube. com slash no clip.

Oh, yeah, Danny. Danny's going it. The amazing documentary great. He's doing great. But yeah, other than that, like, I think we hit the main first-party stuff for the Switch. Did you give Fire Emblem Warriors a shot? I have it on my Switch. I have not started it yet.

I do want to try it. I don't hate the Dynasty Warriors games as much as a lot of people do. I'm not a huge fan of it. I do like Fire Emblem a lot, but I know it's not really a fire emblem game outside of aesthetics. But, yeah, I want to give it a shot, definitely. But the thing about the Switch for me this year has been, if there is ever a, like, a good example, Sonic Mania. It's on everything.

And it's like, okay, I can get on everything. This is a game that is not going to have performance issues on the Switch. So across the board, if everything's equal, I'm going to get the Switch version 10 times out of 10. Because I can take it on the go. Or if my wife's watching something on TV, I can take it out and play there and like Hulu's on it now. And it's, that fucking system is so good. Yeah. It feels good.

It doesn't look like a toy. Like the Wii U GamePad always felt a little like bulky. Oh, it feels like Fisher Price. Yeah, totally, totally. Yeah. Where the switch feels like an actual, like modern piece of electronics. Well, that's the weirdest thing of when I, you know, when the switch dropped and I played it exclusively for my on-the-go console for a few months. And then something finally came to Vita.

It might have been Undertale. Oh, yeah. And I picked that back up for the first time to play something for the first time. I remember picking that up me like, oh my God, it's so tiny. Like, you don't even think about how great the form factor the switch feels. But like, I didn't even put out my list, but like Mario Kart obviously is going to be super high. Like I put so many hours into Mario Kart this year. Yeah.

playing so much of that. And I know it sounds like a fucking commercial, but like the different ways of playing that. Where it is like, all right, cool, I'm playing like this. All right,

I'm on a plane across the country. Put it on the thing. I'm playing a pro control or underneath the thing totally. Oh, Jen's awake. She wants to play with me. Yep.

Pop off the stupid fucking joycons, which I thought were the biggest joke and actually use them. And you're like, oh, no, actually this works. Like, it's not the most comfortable way.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's insane that system. Insane that game. Like, I'll get on a, bus to Jersey with my wife to go see her family and I'll realize I had my switch my bag and wait a minute pull it out put it on a tray and do the joycon thing play pollo poe poeot tetris

one-on-one and it's like man this just fucking works yeah this is great it's crazy I mean again we always talk about this but that the first trailer that came out a little over a year ago now like they're like we're all at a party play it's like yeah right and here we are and it's just normal thing the amount of times you've been at a party where someone actually does that you're like oh it was amazing in e3 this year because like Mario Odyssey was the big game Nintendo's booth and there's a big line looping around the booth and just everyone you saw sitting down, they're all

sitting down, they got the kickstand now, they got four controllers, they did it. They made good on that game. Yeah, it's the best Nintendo years since Super Nintendo for sure. Agreed. It's just incredible. Now before we go too far off a statement made earlier, Sonic Mania. Yeah, yeah. Come down to Sonic Mania. I like it a lot. And I

was always on Team Mario, but you know, I had a Genesis of my mom's house, had a Super Nintendo, my dad's house. I played everything. Sonic I always just saw as a different thing Mario was like you know precise platforming and challenging and perfect yes Sonic was Sonic was not perfect

fast! Sonic was fun it was fun He's tapping his foot I'm not going fast enough Yeah like I liked Sonic a lot Especially too But like Mario was like everything But yeah Sonic Comedian made good On everything I ever liked about Sonic

And that fell off Once it went 3D with adventure and everything So yeah, it's definitely the best Sonic since like knuckles. And do you think it's better than that? I think it might be. Oh, I think it definitely is. The new areas are incredible. Oh, man. Sonic Mania is, and I feel like I don't get to talk about it enough.

Like Sonic Mania and Cumberd. You host a video game show. No, I know. I know. We move forward. We keep going and it's just like. We don't look back enough and talk about things. It just gets into all this other stuff where it's like we're in this game of the year

and especially this year where there is so much. Like, God, Cuphead and God, Sonic Mania. Like, the fact that this year happened to me, I don't understand. I got Zelda, I got Mario Odyssey, I got Cuphead, I got Sonic, I got CrashBundice. I was going to say, where is the Crash Bandicoot? I like that. That's insane to me that this all happened, but it's like Crash being in a different conversation. And not to hate on that because it is what it is.

And I feel like it, I saw today that, so I didn't look at IGN's Game of the Year nominations, but they uploaded them all yesterday. I'm going to talk about a fucking parent. They put them all on the show. They uploaded them to the YouTube. They put them up there. and for all the shit, but I didn't even look at the categories. They now have a category that is

Best HD Remaster. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, I think we've done that at least once. Yeah, because I mean, they happen so much now. Yeah. I mean, that's fucking cool. And I love that. And I saw that Crash tweeted out that Crash himself. Wow.

He's a busy man. Crash himself actually sent me a holiday card. And I love that. It says XOXO Crash, and it warms my heart. I saw the Crash was nominated. for IGN's best HD remaster, whatever the point. And I'm like, fuck yeah, that's awesome. And to me, I'm like, Crash Insane trilogy deserves some type of something.

And I think that that's it. They did a good job with that. They did an amazing job. I never really got bothered by the jumping changes or whatever. I think it made it better. I honestly feel like it's the definitive way to play those games. I like being able to, you can save anywhere in there, right?

Where's before you had to work through... In Crash 1, they like, they totally fix this. fixed a lot of the problems of the original ones. Some of those levels are still a giant pain in the ass. Giant pain in the ass, giant pieces of shit. It is what it is. It is still the same games. And I like that they kept it that way.

Because if they changed too much, then it wouldn't have been the same thing. So it's like, that's why Crash isn't in that same conversation because I truly believe Cup had work of fucking art, Mario and Zelda, obviously. Sonic Mania, not quite there. I'm not stupid. I'm not crazy. But Sonic Mania is the best Sonic game. I truly believe that.

And I feel that it was such a love letter. to Sonic fans like me that just wanted to believe that there could actually be a Sonic game to break the cycle and there have been games that broke the cycle. Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations,

both good games. With young colors. You didn't like Generations? Not so much. Really? James is ready to come off the bench. The first two people I've ever heard be like, fuck yeah, generations.

Do generations. Really? Yeah. To be fair, I didn't play a lot of it. I played a little bit. I was like this is another one of these. Generations is it took what colors started. Okay.

And took what the, daytime levels of Unleash started. Okay. We're gonna just do this. Maybe I'll play more of it. When are they putting out the were hog version? That's what I want. Let's not do that.

But whatever. Mania is so special and it's so good and it's again such a love letter. Yeah. To the people that were patient and it was made by people that really care. Yes. And I hope that we get more and it seems like we will. I would imagine this probably did pretty well. So yeah.

Sega put out a thing saying it was the most successful Sonic game of the last like decade and a half. Certainly critically. What successful means, we don't know. I don't know if that's just critical. Marketing sales wines or whatever. And also Sonic Forces sucked. Boy, did it.

Yeah. James, quiet down over there. You're overstepping your bounds. You bought it, you played it, and compared to generations. Let's not even compare it to anything else. Compared to mania, it says it's nothing. It's nothing. He's then taking deep breath.

He's trying to formulate an argument. He still is now. He's like, let's take generations. Let's make it boring. that's the ringing endorsement of a game that's what it was that's what it was to me he says but but compared to the

shadow he doesn't understand the microphone does not pick him up if he's not right here so he's just still ranting okay here's the thing it's not the worst Sonic game yeah yeah I can agree with that I can agree with that it is not the worst

Sonic game it is better take it to the bank it's better not shadow the head chalk he's talking oh sorry I mean he's still talking to Tim so that's it that's all you know if I can just B-Manya. Fucking buy-mania.

If I can just chime in for one second on this argument. It's a conversation of the Shag and Wagon Wagon tweet doing real well. Just wanted you guys to know. I don't know if we're on the Animal Crossing subreddit yet. Kevin, you could make it happen. You could make a dream come true. Just putting it out there. Should I spend $1,000 on that phone, Greg?

Yeah. I mean, you're in the house of iPhone. We both have it. Nick has it. Yeah. Kevin bought it for his fiance. I'm sorry, his wife because she's smart. Here's my thing.

I'm a tech guy. We have the LG OLD. We do. We do, yes. If you enjoy that, you kind of love this. Look at how good Animal Crossing looks on it. My thing is, being a tech guy, I was still on the two-year cycle for such a long time. Me too.

Where I had the iPhones. I started on the 5, and then I got the 6 plus. Okay. I did not do the 6S. I did not do the 7. I did not do the 7S. Right. So I was at that point where I, once this came out, I already, it was,

predestined. I was going to get this. Waiting three years was crazy for me. I got this thing. This is the most excited I've had. I've been to have a piece of tech in forever, even more than my TV. I love my TV. Man, I started with the 3G and I've been on the two-year thing every time, but like when I saw $1,000, oh boy, that's a big ask. It's a lot of money.

But if you sell, if you've been on the cycle, what are you on then? The 7S? I have a 7. Or 7? Yeah, you can make, trade that in for a whole bunch of hundreds. Yeah, go big. Get the 256. Oh yeah, I always do the big like storage space. Yeah, okay.

Just have to ask. Totally. I haven't seen one in the wild yet, and now I've got two in front of it. It's just that thing in the camera's awesome. And I mean, for me, the justification always is that it's the computer I use the most. I use it for everything. So yeah, you know, I don't want it to be. Makes sense.

Sorry to the real conversation. So, all right, we talk about. We're a conversational podcast over beers. Don't worry about it. Yes. We talked about all of the, that we talked about Horizon, persona and all that. We talked about the Nintendo games. Is there anything else before we go?

Yeah, what are the wild? card games we don't play that you play. What's your Friday the 13th? Boy, something that I loved that no one else on the planet likes. First off, fuck you. It's currently in the running for IGN's multiplayer of the year. I think it might be voted on by fans, but it doesn't matter. I will look at my...

Because guess what IG in their ivory tower, they don't know what it's like to be down here as the peasants in the mud rolling around. You don't know what it's like being in pigs. Let's see. I don't know if I have any super crazy ones here. Oh, Wolfenstein, I love this shit out of Wolfenstein. I don't know if I have something that I loved that like...

Now that you... Let's dial the back. Not that's something you love that's weird off the wall, but something we don't talk about. That's why we like having guests. Oftentimes, like you said, you love Minesweeper, you love Excel on PC.

We don't have... We don't play any PC games. We don't know about it, you know what I mean? That is my primary way of playing games. Really? I never was, because like, growing up, I never had a PC that could actually run anything. My stepdad did, but he was convinced he'd have a virus

if I did anything. Yeah. So, yeah, I feel like that's my one whole... in my gaming history is that like I didn't grow up playing Starcraft or Half-Life. And I was tried to buy it and I'd get my little $300 e-machines and it would never run and you know, I'd maybe get to a menu screen if I was lucky.

I could get Command of Conquers. And I had a ton of love for Command of Conquer because that would actually run and I got to play it. But yeah, like now that I'm older and I can like build a computer and stuff. I have a really good computer now. You know, run 4K to my TV and everything. So that is my way

of playing games now. Interesting. But I think that's why I like it all. Yeah, oh yeah, no, we all do too. I mean, I get shit, but I'll play a great PC again. Yeah. Trying to think, like, Dead Cells was really cool. I know that's an early access thing. What is that?

I don't even know. It's a rogue-like, it's very much that like, you know, Castlevania style, rogue-like, which, you know, there have been a billion things like that, but I think this one just does it very, very well. Cool art style, good challenge. Kind of like Slime Rancher? That's kind of fun?

Okay. Play that at all? No. It's on Xbox. That one's pretty cool. Is that a Dragon Quest deal? No, it's like a, it's like you're making the, Farm.

James is laughing, but I'm excited. I know what you mean. Educated guess there. Basically, it's like imagine Sturdy Valley, but 3D but you have a like Ghostbusters gun that like sucks in these slimes. And you're trying to just kind of wrangle them and keep them all in

pens so you can sell them. And so like it starts out like okay I'm going to get these rock slimes that are all spiky and rocky and stuff. And I'm going to shoot them all into this pen that I built. And then I'll catch these other ones that look like cats or whatever and I'll shoot them into the other. And then you have to feed them certain things, but if one of them eats a wrong type of thing,

they can just like freak out and start multiplying. It's a fucking gremlin situation where they're all going to hell. This does sound like a Greg Miller game. And so like you've got to find out what kind of food all the different slimes like. So it's like, okay, so those cat ones like carrots. So I've got to make a carrot field over here. But it's just kind of funny, like, the chaos that can happen when things go wrong. Because it doesn't like specifically say, like, don't ever put these two types of slimes in the same pen together.

You learn through making mistakes. and when you make mistakes, it is complete chaos. It's super funny. And like, you're sucking up with this Ghostbusters gun. Yeah,

yeah, you got me. You sold me. He's a little. Luigi's Mansion gun. Okay. But, uh, yeah. Mario.

It's great. You're just going out to the wild, finding these slimes and some come out only at certain times a night and everything. That sounds awesome.

It's pretty cool. I like it's not like top 10 for me, but it was something I play that was very good. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's a good one. Good one.

Uh, I'm, got the giant bomb game of the year stuff coming up. After, I think it's going to be the 25th to the 29th. We're going to do like 900 hours of podcasts will be released.

Well, not actually that, but I know. It feels like it. No, yeah. So, that's, break it down. You've been here for two weeks recording podcast nonstop. What is the podcast content? Is it, hey, today we're talking about

action game of the game of the year and you do a podcast about that? It's not so much like the standard categories of sports game of the year, RPD of the year. It's not that. We do have game of the year. You know, worst game

the year, best style, best looking game. Like we kind of separate between, like, best looking game. It's just like what it sounds like. You're looking at it. It looks really good. Style is like the whole encompassing thing of like the persona-ph persona is like a major contender for like style stuff. There is, there are so many good moments in Wolfenstein that we broke that out into like, you know, here's the best Wolfenstein moment. Well, best looking game.

Cuphead Horizon. Are those in the same? I don't want to give away too much about. Are they in the same conversation? Totally. I mean, they both look amazing. We talk about all this stuff. But yeah, just weird categories that change year to year.

We've gone through a lot of them now. We're not done. Like, best game is going to be the one that takes forever. But yeah, we do a ton of video content alongside it. We just try to do something different than, you know, the average best. Of course, of course. So, yeah, I don't want to give away too many categories. No, no, that was it.

I was just wondering how you guys shake it out for somebody who doesn't know. It's five days of podcasts. Gotcha. And each day is like four different categories. So it's a lot of arguments. It's a fun time, though. It's fine. Yeah, I'm having a blast. Other than that, Twitter, I'm Dan Reichert.

I sell books on Amazon. Yeah, I think that's not really, like, actively, like, selling something right now. If you want more Mortal Kombat stories, the dumbest kid and gifted class, right? There you go. Yeah, thank you. It's on my bookshelf. I see it every day. Oh, yeah.

So, it's been good. It's been great. Thank you for joining us. You guys got a good thing going here. Congrats on all the success. Thank you. And I know you've had this for a long time. of the studio and the set.

It's pretty cool. I'm impressed every time I come in here. I still get distracted by the wall during this. It's awesome. I just can't believe the amount of times it actually sinks up. Oh, it's so weird. Where he's talking about Mario and the Mario World Maps up? I was like, okay.

That really happened? Yeah. Oh, nice. Yeah, it's just fantastic. Yeah, I love it. Excellent. Well, we also love you. Thank you for 150 episodes of this show.

It kind of blows my mind as well. But until next time, I love you, and thank you. God damn it. Should it see you to come in. P PUD!