Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Fixing SnowBikeMike: Video Game Therapy - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

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For limited time, you can get $35 off select frames plus free shipping with code Kind of Funny at AuraFraimps.com. Pre-Oder your Portiepushy right now at Kindof-Foney.com slash Portillo. If you want to get our shows ad-free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash Kind of Funny. Hello, gamers. Welcome to the Kind of Funny Gamescast for Wednesday, August 19th, 2026. I'm going off the cuff because I'm reading the last, the last gamescast doc.

We don't have one today. Because we don't need a games cast. We don't need one. It's all feelings today. It's all getting what's in your heart out there. I've been thinking a lot about erosion. Okay. Well, hold on.

I'm talking about erosion. I have so many questions. Yeah. Can you get to it. I'm one of your host, Andy Cortez, and I'm joined alongside our subject, Snowbike, Michael. Howard. Anything so much for sitting down with me. There's no one I'd rather

trust with my feelings and sit with my feelings within you. You, me, a small room, maybe preferably like 10 by 10, two couches, two televisions, an awesome game station, and just gaming together. Talk about life. Maybe some snacks along the way, some Mountain Dew Code Red, some fresh, cold water, you know, I like water. That sounds great. You know what I mean? It's just like, Two bro is bro-in. It's like the good old days before we all locked ourselves in our room

and avoided the outside world. Erosion. We'll talk about it. Yeah, are you talking about what water does to rocks? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Maybe that has to do with... I kind of see where he's going to...

What you're dealing with internally. Does it have to do with the rocks you have in your belly? Although, they're not rocks, because they're just openings in your adominable wall, in your abdominal wall. And they're going to have to push the fat and or bile, or bowel, aka intestine, back into the hole. And then they put a mesh layer over it to protect the ripped spot of your wall.

Okay. So it's not technically rocks. It's not like they're going to cut something out of me. Right. I would love for them to suck the fat out if they could. Let's just get right to it. Doc, while you're there. Get in there.

Let's just cut that. Anything that's past the wall? Get me in there, too. Let's cut it out there. Boom. Let's get out there. sit on the hospital bed like take it help me out if you're watching live be a part of the show by super chatting on youtube.com forward slash kind of funny games this is deconstructing snowback michael

howard if you have any super chats about erosion let us you know let us know drop him in the superchats talk about mike talk about his feelings let's talk about where he's at in his gaming world what's troubling him what are some pain points but what are some wins? What are some things that he's enjoying? We couldn't do this without our producers on patreon.com forward slash kind of funny. So thank you to Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, Delaney to Somp Twining, and Lax Nomad. And before I get into

the whole tots of it all, coming up real soon, we're going to have another drawing for the next games cast raffle winner. What the heck is this? the Gamescast Raffle winner, Andy. I don't even know what the heck that is. If you gift the most subs on Patreon, I will draw you to be put into the games cast intro, much like Samantha, who won the last month did. She wanted to be a Pokemon trainer. It was lovely. Did I ever give her the

final file? That's a good question. Okay. We'll get to that later on. That's something we'll get to in my therapy session. I have to draw Spiro. I still never did that. Samantha's coming. All right. I promise you you'll get that to you. You have to put some way to like incorporate the coos into that Spiro.

But the Coos is is our Spiro. Oh, Fero, sorry. Yeah, you're thinking of Fero. I have to draw Fero. Okay, so then you give Fero a baby Spiro. You're asking me to draw a lot

right now. You're asking me to draw a lot right now. I've not to do a lot of detail. Kyle Cusbae would not be the biggest fan of right now. I think he's, he's a lot of. going on with him. If you see, he put on

Twitter, he was like, yeah, you guys caught me. A lot of my arguments have just been me typing shit into chat GPT. His shit has been, Kyle. His shit has been so

Chad GBT formatted. Like, it is, it's like the most obvious answer on a multiple choice question of like, which one was written by his is like the most obvious one. Hey, co-pilot, battle this is running for me.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. This is deconstructing snow bike, Mike. for our tots topic of the show. Tots, Tots, Tots, Tots, Tots, Tuts, Tuts, Tuts, Tuts. Snowback, Mike.

Hey, Andy. You've been working it kind of funny. For about six years now. We're going on year six? 29, 2021? Feels like I'm still just a freshman trying to prove myself, working my way up. You know what I mean? I'll be honest with you, actually.

Did you join before the pandemic or during the pandemic? During, yeah. Because wasn't it when we started X-Kast, you were like a part-timer? Yeah, part-timer for a summer and then hired full-time. Maybe four years now. Yeah, I think we're on five. 2021 was when you became full-time. I think last year was my senior year, and I felt like I really delivered on my senior promise.

And, you know, now we hit the restart. Now I'm going to grad school. And just feeling good about everything. Feeling great about everything. Yeah, trying my best each of the day. We're not going to get into like the work side of things. We can, but like we're here about gamer therapy, not about work therapy. Work is fantastic.

Trying to deliver promises to, you know, myself, to Roger, to you. Let's make it fun experiences. I would like you to create your battle pass right now. Think of it as little mini goals you want to make for yourself. Okay. To help improve your gaming. life. Think of the way those battle passes look going left to right. They get more and more rare and more and more cool. What are the smallest to biggest goals you want to hit gaming-wise?

Can I pay to skip levels? Of course you can. Michael transactions. Shout out to Don, shout out to Funhouse. Is that what you'd like me to tell you about? Yes. My micro-transaction battle pass for Mike and my gaming. The low, the, give me some. My law. term goals and then up until the biggest term. I'm talking, what are some genres you want to get to? What are some franchises that are there? And what are some things that also, maybe along the way we can discover,

I never got to this thing because of this problem in my life. I never got to this genre because I always felt like maybe it wouldn't be for me and we can kind of deconstruct from there. That's a great question, Andy. You know, when I look back on myself, I've always had an open heart. I've always been willing to try new and fun things. You know, I kind of get the reputation here at work for being the ball and gun guy,

also the friend slap guy. But I find, and I think to myself, when I look back on it, I'm so much more than that. I played so many games in my history, so many red box visits, so many bad purchases that I made Mom buy that Soul Caliper game back senior year of high school, and I might have played it for like 20 minutes. Sorry, Mom, but shouldn't have bought that. But she did it, you know? And now that I'm adults, I'm never going to do that.

My child's like, I'm going to buy this and play this in 20 minutes. That's an absolute hell no. Absolutely, fuck not. You better play this way. Because, you know, when I think back out, I was like, that was a bad purchase, my bad, you know. And so I've kind of always had an open heart. I've always been willing to try new things. You know, I've had blind spots, sure, but there isn't a game or a genre that I'm not willing to try, did my toe into.

When I look at my battle pass, you know, the 2026, 2027 battle pass for Snowmike Mike, what's on it, right? I think a grand goal would be like a persona. Would I ever try a persona game? Would I fall in love with the persona game? You know, I fell in love with Waka, Yuna, Lulu. Yeah. I forget the catman's name. Renzo.

What's the cat man's the name of everybody? Renzo. I think I'm close on that one. I don't think it's Renzo, though. Titus? Titus, of course. And so I've played the turnpaced JRP, all-time greats. You know, sure, in persona there's a little bit more on the social side of things.

And we're seeing that pop up a lot in video games. Now, people really try to capture that social side of the turn-based tactics genre of like, hey, what if we spend a little more time off the battlefield? What if we deepen those bonds? What if we give you things to do in certain settings off of the just, main, you know, battle sequence. And, you know, people vibe with that. Do you feel like that's something that you would be drawn towards in other games,

the social aspect? Um, yeah, a little bit. Like, I enjoy getting to deepen my bonds with certain characters learning their lore and backstory. I think Dragon Age is a great game for that to talk about in like a different genre. If we want to get really down deep, I would love to. I'm not into romance. I'm not into

video game romance. I don't find that really that big of a draw for me. Let's break that down. Yeah, let's talk about that. It feels like something that has been popped up the last couple of years

in a big way of like, I want a romance character. I want to have my character fall in love, bang and marry, whatever other character. And that's not something that's like ever really drawn me

and that's not something that's like when I circle, does this game have it? I need to have that. It's like, that's a cool feature, but like, I'm too busy slaying monsters. Okay. I'm out, I am, I'm a, I'm a goal-driven man. I'm a guy who wants to do my main quest, my side quest.

I want to finish the story. I want to be the ultimate batty. I want to beat the game. I don't really want to shack up with some orc out in the Skyrim world and build a home. Like, I'm down to build a home and Sims it. but then like in the Sims I like romance I just don't need romance I guess in my

action RPG The Sims having romance I feel Mike would Is maybe a A bit more of a There's a mechanical purpose It's a mechanical purpose It has more to do with It's more ingrained into it

And I like seeing that sensor bar pop up Nothing gets young Mike's heart racing faster Than those two scenes Sims with the sensor bar over here wondering if mom's going to walk in the room, as I've had them make whoopee about 37 times in a row. Just imagine how do them nipples look? I bet you it's, man, it's crazy cool. Okay, so romance in action RPG single player games, not your thing.

Yeah, it's not a big draw. I see a lot of people attracted to it. And I wonder, like, what's the draw there? What is the excitement factor that I'm missing? Where did this start? what was the first game that isn't the Sims where like romance was one of the main objectives

that people latched on to? For me, if you're, if I was just, I want to know. I would feel like the first time I first started noticing it was Mass Effect 1. With Miranda. That's two. Well, two was Miranda, but I'm talking

Leara or Garris. Miranda, the racist one. Were you actually following in love with them? Ashley was the racist one. Oh, okay. You were... More like you're finding yourself... You were banging.

You were... They were banging to MassFit? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Alien body parts, everybody... We're all compatible.

Everybody's got a hole, you know? And have you been turned on by that? It excites me. Is it something you seek now in games where, like, you want that? You need that? No, but it's a nice additive thing. Okay. Okay.

You know, I think about Imron Khan mentioning that he thinks most, but pretty much romance has never been done good in games. And I would disagree with that. I think that there are some, I think it is an additive mechanic and feature that I don't mind. After a long, arduous journey, getting back to the campsite, walking up to Shadow Heart and her going, man, I was really happy to see you. It's good to see you.

Makes you feel good. Okay. Yeah. Or Layzel going, you know, because I do have the non-monogamous mod on Mike. Okay. Where you can just bang whoever you want. Why not? So I'm like, I'm with Shadowheart, but then Laisel is like, tonight your body's going to be mine.

I'm open to you coming into my tent. Yeah. And she's like, there's nothing you can do about that. I'm like, all right, it sounds good. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, like, I have no problem with that. I think that's my problem. It's like, I have no problem with that. That's cool. That's exciting. It's just not like. I'm not asking if every game has romance. Gotcha.

I'm not interested. Is that a problem with me? Or do I have enough romance in my life? I have a lot of love in my life. I have a 1.1 in Andy Cortez, who I love dearly. You know what I mean? Someone I'd go above and be on for. I just don't believe, you know what I mean?

It's like, I have... You won't say hi to me in the morning unless I say hi to you. I like the chase. I like the chase, Andy. Like the chase. Or you like to be chased, that sounds like that situation. No, he does like to, yeah, it is the thrill of being chased. Yeah, exactly.

It is that, like, I want you to want me. You're the fox and I'm the little white-tailed bunny. Oh, God, do not make fan art of that, everybody. What? I want to see if I make Roger laugh on that one. What are, what are some gaming habits, Mike, that you feel like you would like to fix and create a better healthy relationship with games. I have a pretty good gaming habit, you know.

I don't think I have a bad gaming routine. I spend a lot of time playing games. I enjoy games. I'm getting active lately, which has been great. I mean, if anything, it's like, hey, Mike, maybe on like a Friday night, you should go out to the club. Hey, Mike, maybe, you know.

In GTA-5. Exactly. You know what I mean? It's like, I guess, If I could rewind time and look back and I could give some like guidance and words of encouragement to the younger generation. I would say in your early 20s, as exciting as those video games are and as comfortable you are with you playing games in your room and online with friends, don't forget that there's a big, beautiful world out there. And on a Friday night, you should go explore the town every so often and see the lights, see people. out having a nice dinner, go join them for a drink at the local bar.

Take a night away from the television and the game screen. You should go out and take your car and drive to the next town over. You should go find a random coffee shop. You should go on a hike and trail. You should get outside more. I think back in my early 20s, it was game, game, game. It went work, gaming, work, gaming. Day off, game all day.

Day off, game all day. What were you gaming on back in? the day. Oh my God, the Xbox 360 into the Xbox one, the PS3, the PS4. I think of like the last of us. I think of Skyrim, I think of Fallout, kingdoms of Amelor Reckoning, Star Wars the Old Republic. Wow. Destiny 1, Destiny 2 were special time. If we were to go back to the early 20s, it would be Destiny 1, right? That first alpha, that first beta comes out and you go, uh-oh, this is World Warcraft, but with a gun. And I always wanted that. And then there it was. This is the most epic

MMO live service game on console. But you and your friends are constantly chasing the grind of getting that legendary exotic weapon. You're going to see Sir with the weird tentacle mouth. Where is he on the map this week? Oh, James looked it up. He's selling this X, Y, and Z weapon for the next two days. Do I need the Gallerhorn?

Do I need these boots that clearly aren't for the build that I'm rocking? but like why not buy them? Because what if I change the build? Right? And so Destiny was probably the early 20s like, hey Mike, you could probably put this down on a Friday night and go enjoy life.

And that's what I would encourage others to do, find a better balance, which I think I've achieved pretty well in my later years now. I still game all the time, but I get outside way more often. And I wasn't getting outside when I needed. How do you feel your golden triangle? your Tri-Force, if you will.

Din, Nairu, Aurora. Great job. What are your three golden triangle things? Because your golden triangle, Mike, is what? Multi-player games. Uh-huh. Competitive multiplayer games. Cooperative friend-like games.

Single-player epic journeys. I love that. I feel confident with that. Now, if that golden triangle suddenly became a golden rhombus, no square, is four, what are you adding? What's something you would like to add? What is something that you tell yourself, I wish I could just turn my brain on to enjoying this thing.

I wish this could become a regular part of my gaming life. I mean, there's a problem I don't have any because I enjoy everything but if I could I would play more sim style games I would play more fighting games

they're just not games that are like right now in my world high priority right would I love to play water park sim for 37 days

straight of course I want to have the biggest baddest water park there is I want to be the Ksso kind of funny with my waterpark park sim. Because I love going up to the cash register, welcoming Becky, Ryan, Tanner,

is my water park, taking their money, selling them the right guest pass, shoeing them inside, showing them my lovely offerings of water park activities. Julie, buy the snorple. Exactly. Hey, who wants a hot dog? You want ketchup and mustard on that? Of course I'm going to deliver that to you. Who pooped in the pool? I got it. I'll clean it up. Me. Exactly. Are we repairing and maintaining all this? Yes. Right. Would I love to stop everything in my life and just go deep, deep into the pocket dimension and play so much planet coaster that my eyes bleed, right? My dream is to just spend a whole day in Planet Coaster or Coast or Coast or Coaster where I make Universal Islands of Adventure in the game. Is this beautiful, have you been there?

No. They have this beautiful layout. I love the islands of adventure. Islands of Adventure. theme park down in Orlando, Florida. No, I have. You arrive. You open up, you go through the main little street, which is this cool adventurous, almost sea shanty pirate-like experience. Starbucks, popcorn. And when you walk past Funnel cake? The opening. No funnel cake, no funnel cake, no funnel cake. They have butter beer. They got butter beers, a big thing. You walk past the opening, and you're greeted with this beautiful lagoon of a lake. And the whole islands of adventure

is a giant circle. To the left, you have the Marvel superhero area. You get wowed by the attraction of the Hulk roller coaster up and over your head as it zooms by and then drops down underneath the water and then back up. And then you get drawn into the neon lights of the arcade, Dr. Doom's Terror Drop, Storm's T-Cups, the Spider-Man 3D ride that everyone loves.

And then after that, you move past that and you get into this weird Dr. Seuss-like Kid Zone where they have Rocky and Bullwinkle. that one lady Roxanne with the red dress. Betty Boop. Betty Boop. And then, of course, they have the big, you know, water slide there, a couple of kids rides. And then after that, you have the Jurassic Park area.

You met with King Kong, Jurassic Park, then Hogwarts Adventures. And then after that is another small kids area. And it's like, if I could, I would play nothing but Sim like games. I'd be building a zoo. I'd be building roller coaster tycoons. you'd be building tycoons it'd be so much fun like those

those are the games that don't get enough love in my life that I love the most those real-time strategy games like World Warcraft or Warcraft 3 and Sparkraft

they don't get the love like they deserve these are all interesting things you're talking about my yeah thank you thank you for explaining the layout of universal

to me I could draw it right now I wouldn't I'm sure you can it's like how I can name 48 out of the 50 states. Haven't nailed the final two. I don't know where they go.

You keep forgetting the Dakotas? No. You don't know the song? No, I don't know the song. I'm talking, if you gave me a map, I could nail out 58. Where are they going? Yeah, I'm missing two. It's like Connecticut and New Hampshire.

It's the top northeastern corner that I get a little mixed up with. I got Maine. Martha's Vineyard. Vermont. Where you at? You know what I mean? Who knows? But if you gave me a universal theme park right now?

I think they switch at random. I could put every location in all the rides. and then if we jumped over to Universal proper, because you know you got to have that park hopper pass, I could also probably nail that from Dagon Alley to Men in Black, Homer Simpson, E.T. If E.T. is still around. I think they're closing that down finally.

You grew up in Colorado and Tahoe. Yeah, but like there's some things that you latch on to in life that are important to you. You know what I mean? And for you, it's Universal in Florida. Orlando, yeah. Really? Big fan.

Okay. And, you know, I've always. only been there once. That's the kind of funny best friend who saw me out there. You know who you are. Awesome job. Maintains all of the water inside of the new Universal's Beyond. Very cool job.

You know, you got to make sure everything is up to snuff, make sure it's safe, and making sure all the water is moving. I really love that job. Shout out to you. I went to that one. I could draw that one for you right now. Epic Universe. Mario. The beast within Harry Potter. I don't know what they call that. France.

Fantastic. Fantastic beast. Thank you. Beast within dying light. Hotel over to, you know, universal horror. Did you lie to this best friend and tell them that you knew their name? I know that, boys. They were very nice. I know. They were very nice. I'm going to take a shot in the dark if you're watching this.

Cody. Thanks so much. Cody's a good guest. We'll see in the comments down below if I nailed that. A lot of water park discussion from you. Yeah. And I'd like to hear about how the water. erodes

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Andy if I was showing you correctly here Yeah Like I said there's a lagoon here That splits the two park entrances Right There's a lighthouse that draws you Two islands of adventure Then when you walk in

You'll see another lake lagoon And right there the Veloccoaster I put a little chicken dinosaur Right here to show you That this is Jurassic Park World But then right next to it It's your wands out Andy Harry Potterland

Okay Butterbeer And see, the unfortunate part about Harry Potterland, if I'm being honest with you, the transphobia? Yeah, major problem. But it's a major problem. They took down my favorite ride, which was the dueling dragons, and replaced them with hot, you know, Hagrid's Grand Adventure where you're riding a motorcycle.

Cool idea and vibe, you know what I mean? But, like, I was a dueling dragons guy. And it's really sad that. They really fucked you on that one. Yeah, you ever see, you ever been on a tandem roller coaster where they race each other? Yes. And then they come at each other and they both do backflips and your feet kind of almost touch each other

and then you keep moving. Did you see how Christopher Nolan rode the Fast and Furious Drifting coaster? I sent it to Tim. I've been riding Tim Hart. Wow. We're really, we're failing the audience and we're failing each other

by not being down there for the red carpet opening of the Fast and Furious roller coaster ride down in L.A. There couldn't be a worst time for us to the only trip. We should stop everything and we should be down there instead. Everybody's hair is on fire right now trying to get this top 100 thing going. Barrett's going through so much B-roll.

You got Kevin and Nick trying to work on shit, the building, and just fucking... We're all so close to having a heart attack. Can we get on this roller coaster at once? Yeah. Shout to Christopher Nolan, though. I didn't know he was down like that. Oh, he's so...

I don't know much about the man, but, like, from what I've heard, he likes Fast and Furious. He loves Fast. That infamous Rich Eisenclip. Wow. Of him saying, I love Fast and Fearers.

And he started with Tokyo Drift. And, you know, also, he asked him guilty pleasure. Is it Passive, he said, it's not a guilty pleasure. I don't feel guilt for other Fast and Furious. Yeah. And he also said, I love Talladega Nights. Not first or last. Let's talk guilty pleasures.

I would love to talk guilty pleasures. I love throwing five or ten down on a micro-transaction. A little pleasure of mine. Every now and then? Every now and that makes the first thing you're grabbing. Cool. cosmetic skin. You know what I mean?

A cool gun charm. You got a marijuana leaf. I'm probably buying it. You know what I mean? But like, am I frustrated at the end of it all when I buy a Madden Ultimate team pack and I didn't pull that Tim Tebow, 92 overall blue crystal catalyzed card? Yeah, of course. But like, was the thrill there when I bought that?

Yeah. You felt the excitement. Yeah. And then, like, I build out my Mad and Ultimate team. And that was something I was into in 2000, probably 17, 18. I really took a year of like, I'm going to get into Ultimate Team Heavy. And like, that was a lot of spending

and a lot of losing. But I was into it. And then when they took everything away, technically they didn't because I just keep playing that version. But when I went to the new version and the cards like didn't carry over, it was like, wow, that sucks, you know. And it felt like it was an empty part of me there.

Yeah. And so, like, yeah, I'm into like the online storefronts. I bought a tent, $20 skin, Fortnite outfit. Telling me they got Ariana Grande. Yeah, I'm going to buy that. You tell me they got Shaq for Shaqness during the holiday season? Mackness. Jackness.

Jack Christmas with Shaq. Man, he just throws it everywhere. And he shacked the claws. That man, there's better stuff out there. You know? And, like, of course I'll buy that. The guilty pleasure number one is micro-transactions. Yeah, just, you know.

You know, I... Something you like saying here's five to ten, man. Let's do it. You know what I mean? I've moved on. You know, I used to be a big 2K head. I bring it up every year. You know what I mean?

I used to be a 2K head. 2018 to probably 20. I was deep in the community. I was at the My Park. I was in the neighborhood. I was test and builds. I was buying builds unsuccessfully. You know what I mean?

And like, I'll always be a 2K head at my core of like... We talk about the core game as being. in the city. And like the idea of arriving in the city looking like I just got off a nine to five shift at FedEx or UPS with my all brown outfit. And I'm out there hooping as a 62 overall. And Jeremy doesn't feel good. Got his mom's credit card. He purchased his 88 overall because he got VC and now he's dunking on me. It doesn't feel good. So like, yeah, I'm going to spend $68 on enough VC to get me up to 88. And you're embarrassed to ask. people in your life

Hey, why don't you buy me this What do I want for Christmas? I want some VC You're too embarrassed to ask for that Hey Ronnie 2K I just want Back up the VC truck on me For my birthday is right

You know, yeah What's Guilty Pleasure number two? Physical media Like I'm all digital now But like man, nothing's better Than going into an old Retro video game store Mom and Pop Shop

Give me that sign Seeing just an old video game that you love lately, I really love just boxed PC games. Old school, early 2000s, walking to Target, Circuit City. I saw you bought The Sims recently. I bought Tomb Raider, Black and White, and a Sim coaster. And it's like just childhood pieces that make you smile. Like, I'm not going to go overboard, but like I'm going to get a box. of like just childhood pieces that I love.

And so when I'm 97 with dementia and Andy comes up to me, he goes, tell me a story, Mike. And I go, reach in the box. And whenever item comes out, I'll be able to tell a story about that. He's speaking. Exactly.

Everybody he's talking. This is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 released in 2007. Changed my life because of progression and prestige. Let's talk about. about this sign. A purchase that you made that you recently told us,

I've made a lot of dumb purchases in my life. As I have. This one might be the one that I regret the most. Yeah. How do you feel now? I had multiple plane rides. I've just skipped the plane. Didn't want to get on it.

Okay. Round trips. Well, now we're getting into the non-game portion of things. Because I would love to dive into a lot of other stuff. I mean, but this is worse than those. Okay. I thought it was bigger. was I jealous of a YouTuber

that had a sick Xbox sign behind him and was that was that YouTuber in his Xbox sign probably a $35 Xbox sign that you could have got off of an Etsy or some Amazon site like it was small it wasn't anything big but it felt powerful when you saw it. I was like you know what I want that in my background

but I want it bigger so I went to Amazon I went to eBay and I found this. And like, the photos that this gentleman took made it seem a lot bigger than it actually was. It was the ankles. Clip that up. It was the point five.

You know, like, I don't know. It was the point five. I don't know if it was from the base. Well, the point five will probably make the room look a lot bigger. Yeah, but like, well, you know, I'm not looking at the room. I'm only looking at. I'm only looking at the goods. Exactly.

And so when I got this sign, right, it brought back a lot of memories of walking into a game stop. It made me feel good. But this sign should have been twice as big to satisfy me. Okay. Size matters. And it turns out that size matters. Yeah. And sometimes a photo can seem bigger than it actually is.

Yeah, exactly. And like, you know, sometimes you got to get up real close next to it to real. Really understand that this isn't going to satisfy you. And that's what this Xbox sign is. Sorry to hear that. And now it sits in a closet. Because here's the problem. All of it is the problem.

It's not big enough. All of it is the problem. But it's also big enough for the wall that I have. It's a comfortable size. It's a size that, like, I could live with and be happy. But it's not big enough to be like, look at this, everybody. I have a special sign. How much was it?

$1,500. Talked him down from two. Now, I have a lot of connections. You know, thankfully with this job, with this life that you all have blessed me with. I probably could have wrote somebody, and maybe they could have helped me. You talked them down from two.

But I don't ask. I don't ask for anything. As many people will know, I don't ask. I like to stay in my bubble. I like to just rock it. I like to grow them bubbles in my canvas. I like to just. Rock it and be in my own world.

And so when I saw this gentleman selling a sign, I talked him down. I said, sir, how about a thousand? He said, lowest I'll go, 1500. Man, he's like, I'm dealing with the biggest fucking mark ever. He's telling his friends and group threads. You won't believe. Wow, I fucking hustled this. Got to his ass.

I swindled this fucking dude. All right, Michael. Yeah. What are some things about your gaming habits that you feel you'd like to really, really focus on for 2027? It doesn't have to be genre related. It doesn't have to be, you know, work related necessarily. But, you know, Blessing brought up some really good points about his relationship with gaming and how it's changed due to the, you know, The constant, we got to, we're reviewing stuff.

You want to be able to play stuff for work. You want to be able to play stuff to talk about things. How do you feel like you're going to prioritize games for the rest of the year of 2026 and 2027 and beyond? Yeah, I feel for blessing out there. I feel for Greg and yourself who feel that pressure. Thankfully, this job has allowed me not to feel that pressure. Right?

They get a lot of it out with the streams, with reviews, and previews. For me, I never feel that. I just feel like I'm chasing like what I want to play and what interests me the most, maybe what is hot currently to people. But as right now, if you've seen my gaming habits very much not what's hot right now, it's just whatever I'm interested in. And so if I'd like to change the thing about my gaming habits or dial in a little bit more, it would be reconnecting with friends, returning to my friend's slop roots. making a night to two nights about checking out the mecha chameleons, the big walks of the world with friends.

I've gotten so deep into the single player genre that I've lost the connection with friends. And like, it's an easy phone call or text message away from getting some friends back together and having a really fun night. And I can see how you could get lost in the single player world of like, there I am, only playing single player. games. I'm lost in Skyrim and now I'm in love with

you know the lady from the Champions Guild but like I could call my friends and we could play a night a big walk with Gary winning and have good time. So Agarilla says unless you have them blocked. Well you know I could always hit the unblock button if they chased me.

I have to feel wanted. I'll unblock you if I feel wanted enough. What's a genre? that you're going to take a risk on and say, you know what, I never play those,

this one I'm going to do. Could be 2KXO already, or 2XCO. I think I've proven that I can jump into the fighting game world. And I think that's an easy answer, right? The fighting game worlds, the JRP's. Like, I'm trying to get weird with it,

like a peggle, or a, what's the other soundbox game that Greg really likes? That's not Tetris, it is Tetris, but it's like Tetris. Came out recently. You're asking the wrong person.

You all know what it is. No memory of, I mean, I know what you're talking about, but I just don't remember shit. I would open up my... Luminous, thank you. Thank you. I would open up my heart to those games. Okay. I'm like, I'm just not a big Tetris guy.

I've played Tetris. Tetris has lived on for 60 years or whatever the number is. I'm good on Tetris. But like, if I was to be like, hey, Mike, like, let's be a little... Let's be generous. Let's try. It would be games like that. What would you fix about the gaming industry,

not having to do with the labor? What would you... Fix the gaming industry? Anything about the gaming industry when it comes to... I would want this genre to do this. I would want this franchise to do this. You know, it doesn't have to be studio-related necessarily. I would want MBA 2K to allow you to refund your build.

That's the one thing. I fucked up on my build, Ronnie, too. okay, please let me rebuild. That's the one thing. The kid on the Instagram reel said that he had a 7-2 Demigodd build, and I built that, and it turned out that next week he got

patched, and it wasn't the right build. Please let me refund my $82 to make a new build. Yeah, sure, I wanted to make a slashing point guard that didn't shoot threes, but he had the tenacity of a honey badger. He had the hops,

like Judy hops from pets. Like, I made a Russell Westbrook build, and that's how I play. But it turns out that everybody just plays beyond the arc. And that was my bad. We have a super chat here from Danielle Z. A very generous $20 super chat. And she asks, is Chris the one helping Mike draw in his journal?

Can Mike actually draw? Can you not, can you see he could draw? Can you see me make the universal? Park right now. And if I wasn't giving Andy all my attention, I would continue this Universal Park. Obviously, he's killing it with the art, Daniel. Chris Anka owes me a drawing. No, we're not going to do this. He should be drawing me. We're not going to do this because you never told him what to draw.

I did. Just like you popped into the YouTube chat the other day and we're like, Andy, you dodged me with you dodged me in the fucking three point contest. And I'm like, no, I didn't. I rented out of Jim. We, and then we played in the fucking, we, we, we, we played there together. At no point was there ever a gym rented out. I had a gym. I had a gym prepared. And then we never, why didn't we ever do it?

Well, you know what? I'm working with Roger. Rogers ready. So then don't say that I dodged you. Rogers ready. And yeah, I want Chris Tankett to draw me. He's in the chat right now saying,

no, you didn't. I'll block Mike again. Me, Nick, him, and you. Call of duty, guys. That's too many. More best friends. Man, think of the, think of the moments.

It's like when we were all together, gaming was at its best. Just a phone call or a text away. You know? Hello? Like I'm... I'm sitting on my desk earlier today, chat. Now we're getting to Andy Therapy,

but I hear Mike tell Roger, I invited you, Roger, to play Fall Guys. And it's like, everybody's inviting everybody. Mike got a text to play and shrouded from Nick. Didn't get a text from Nick. we don't want to bother you you're so busy you're so big time you were sick yesterday you were sick

you're up set to me that tummy we want you to be 100% but i was i was gaming though we could watch meth alligator together with the good old days sky with the super chat are we game sharing orbitals do you want me to buy it what are the logistics here big big dog anyways hope you're having a wonderful day, never change. Sky, if you are relying on this man. Yeah. To play a game with you. I've already made the promise.

Me and Sky are going to play orbitals and it's all I've been thinking about. Sky, you won't do anything. I will get us the codes. And you and I are going to have a fun play through this. We'll probably make a great way out of it. And you could talk about your time with Mike in orbitals. That means you have to play with Nick now. I think since maybe you're doing this in public,

there's like a lot more pressure on you to do it. But like if this was more of a problem, I would have probably messaged Skype privately and been like, this is never, I'm sorry, it's not. Oh, no, no, it's all, it's been committed. Okay, it's been committed. It's been committed. This is like what Sean Boland hits me up and it's like, hey, can Mike, can you

tell Mike to answer his DMs? I'm like, Boland, good luck. They change the DMs. I don't know if you looked at that. They changed the look of it. I don't like, I don't know what. Not to ask me for a passcode every time it's turned out. It's like, you know what, Elon?

I'm not using this anymore. I'm done. And I, you know, I moved on. Yeah. And now I'm in this like, spaceless. space. No social media. You know what I mean? I go to Twitter. Don't want to be there. I thought you posted your, the physical games you bought it. I go to Blue Sky. I post every seven months. The only reason when that, you know what brings me back to Blue Sky? That's a something you did.

What did I do? That sweet wheezing with a mustache. Oh, man. It draws me back every time. I see it and I go, you know, this is something special. I got to find that fucking clip. We got to find that clip, everybody. Can somebody quickly find the clip of Mike discovering himself as wheezing in the Pokemon because we're wrapping up this therapy session. Not much to change about me. I'm feeling really good. I'm playing a lot of video games.

I'm opening up my heart to trying new things. It's tough to look deep down inside of me and say like, let's change this in gaming, right? If anything, it's like, can I try a new controller? The Xbox Elite controller is my favorite controller, but it also breaks all the time.

Can I find something up? to par with that on the greatness level, the weight, the feel, the clean classic look. Is there something out there that can draw me in? Have you been seeing these leaks of the new Xbox controller? Haven't seen them. Is that the one with the pants? No, they changed that. Okay, okay.

But for a while, there was, there were the one with the pants. Like, there was a moment where I wasn't big into handheld gaming. Now I'm big into handheld gaming. The Xbox ally really turned me on. I was like, I don't know if this is for me. Turns out it's totally for me. I love that, right? I play PlayStation Nintendo, Xbox, PC.

Handheld has really kind of changed things for you. Handheld, really? You know what? I was really a big doubter on the handheld stuff. And the Steam Deck gave me a taste, but like what the ROG ally did for me of being so open where I can bounce between Xbox and the GamePass subscription that I pay for and then mix it with Steam, like bang, that was a winner right there.

Also the feel of that. that console just feels good in your hands. So that was a big deal. The R.RG ally. Okay, got it. I really like the grips. I like everything about that. Gotcha.

I'm playing a lot of single player games. I'm going down open critics' top 100 best rated games, and I'm playing those games. I'm still playing Friends Lobb games at work with my friends. I'm playing giant survival crafting games from Subnotica 2, Tenshrouded with Andy and Nick that bring me joy. will eventually play Big Walk. Like, I'm in a perfect world

where I'm pretty happy. I get to play everything. Doing it all. You're kind of spreading your wings. I do appreciate that. Yeah, like, I'm kind of, as of right now, I'm soaring. I feel like I, I feel like I've left the tree.

I've left the safety net, and I've just started to soar. And now I'm like, I'm soaring USA. I'm checking out new locations. I'm really trying to find this fucking... Hey, where's Mike? He's out in fucking JRP world right now. I'm just a good time.

Oh, wow. he's soaring over a tactics game now oh check him out he's over here playing call duty again oh where's he at tonight he's playing fall guys it's like I'm soaring maybe I'm everywhere what's been going on with fall guys lately because that was a regular

a lot of people yeah we talk about erosion we talked about erosion yeah like we didn't talk about erosion at all actually what the hell was erosion about I just remembered that I've just been feeling I'm like erosion's been really hit me because we live on the coast and like we're seeing it in real time right but like I also

about like erosion of the heart what it can do to you. And like what it feels like to have like your favorite game developers shuttered and closed off of just some gibrony ass idea and dumb move

business-wise. What it feels like to you know, have the erosion of the heart of your favorite game come out and it not be quite up to snuff. Have the internet tell you what's white, what's right, what's wrong,

what's good, what's bad. And have these people try to infect your mind. and erode your heart of like, no, like, I like that game. It was a good time. I enjoyed this. Why is everybody hate right now, you know? And I'm letting erosion kind of stink in.

But I've learned that like jumping back into a game after two plus years away and it being a competitive battle royale multiplayer game, like sometimes you just don't got it like that. And I still got it deep down inside or at least my heart tells me I do. You think you're falling into a multi-player like I don't have it, you know? But, like, I feel like I'm still there. I'm always what I've been. A mid-tier player. And I'll accept that.

Call of Duty, I'm not the bottom. I'm right there nestled in the middle. You're nestled in the middle. Fall guys, I'm in the top 10. Nestled right there in the middle. There's 28 people. I'm in the 10, you know? But do you feel like there's an erosion of your love for those genres?

No, not a love, just by skill. I'll still love it. I mean, I'll play against Timmy, two cans. You know, I'll play against Slide and Kenny. I'll play against anybody in the world. And I'll think that I can beat them. But I know. I know my skill's not there.

I know the truth. I know the truth. I've seen it. On the clip, I'm going to send this to assets. Or anybody who wants to know. But thank you to everybody who has joined us so far for this episode of deconstructing Snowback Mike. We're going to let you go off on this clip.

I thank you to everybody who has supported us with super chats, with your love. with your comments with your eyes with your ears with your hearts more importantly why is this wheezing almost look like me why does this weasing almost look like me me what the f f f f f is this bro that is unbelievable why does this weas almost look like me and he added just recently oh my god what the is almost it looks beautiful like you and I carry that photo with me to this day. Right here.

It's my Discord photo. That's true friendship. When people, I love you. When people meet me, they go, man, that's a cool profile photo. And I'm like, my best friend made it. I think we've spoken on the phone once in the last four months, maybe. But you see me every single day. It's the best time of my life.

His life. You don't say hi unless I tell you, hi. Well, you know, he's me. This has been the kind of funny games, guys. I don't know if we learned anything today. We learned. We learned. We learned.

Water parks. We learned that if you take pictures of things from certain angles, they look bigger. I really thought that was a three-foot, maybe four-foot sign. We'll see you for the stream afterwards. And we'll be back tomorrow with a lot more kind of funny content. Take care of yourself. Take care of each other. And we'll see you next time.

Thank you.