Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Metroid Dread & Nintendo Switch OLED Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: October 6, 2021

Go to http://purple.com/kindafunny10 and use promo code kindafunny10 for 10% off any order of $200 or more! Tim, Tamoor, and Andy give their thoughts on the Nintendo Switch OLED and Metroid Dread. Epic Creator Code: KindaFunny Time Stamps: 00:00:00 - Start 00:01:08 - Housekeeping 00:05:25 - Nintendo Switch OLED 00:20:41 - Metroid Dread Follow The Kinda Funny Team On Twitter: Tim Gettys: https://twitter.com/TimGettys Andy Cortez: https://twitter.com/TheAndyCortez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast. As always, I'm Tim Geddes, joined by the Nitro Rifle, Andy Cortez. Great afternoon. Great afternoon, indeed. And joining us on this beautiful, illustrious kind of funny games cast, we have GameSpot's very own, Timor Hussein. Good afternoon, friends. I'm so excited about this.

This has been quite the day, quite the week in video game history. I've got to be honest, I'm still kind of shaking from the sore announcement in Smash. That trailer was just too hype. I've just been watching reactions all day. We're just rewatching the trailer all day. I just love that song so much, guys. It's been a good day to be Tim Getty. He's not only because of that, I also have something very special.

What is this, Andy? Oh, wow. Are you telling me, like, how true are the black levels on that? Oh, true. I can't wait to tell you all about these black levels, Andy, because there's a lot to talk about. But that's because this is the kind of funny. gamescast where each and every week we get together to talk about video games and all the things

that we love about them you can get it on youtube.com slash kind of funny games or roosterteeth.com you can also get it as a podcast by searching your favorite podcast service for kind of funny games cast and we'll be right there for you if you want to get the show ad free and if you want to watch live as we record it you can go to patreon.com slash kind of funny games just like our patreon producers pranksie tyler ross delaney twinning julian the gluten free gamer alex j sandavall tecci James Hastings, Casey Andrew, and once again, Pranksy have all done. Thank you. So very, very much.

If you don't have any bucks to toss our way, that's cool. You're out there buying video games. If you're buying them on the Epic Game Store, make sure you're using our Epic Creator Code. Kind of funny. It'll help support us without costing you anything else. There you go. Creator code. Kind of funny.

Real quick, Tim, for audio listeners, he was holding up an OLED earlier. Gotcha. Yeah. Nintendo Switch OLED. Always, always look. you know, you have to say it the way Nintendo wants you to say it, okay, Andy. It's the O-L-E-D edition, not O-L-L-L-L-E. Oh, I've heard-L-L-L-L-T's a no-no from them.

I heard Swol-Lead. Get out of here. Get out of here. because it's fall, video games are happening. There's a lot of different games coming out, a lot of games to review. So this episode, we're going to be focusing on Metroid Dread

and the Nintendo Switch OLED edition. And we're also doing another episode that's live right now over on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, podcast services, all that stuff for our Far Cry 6 review. That features Greg Miller, Snowbike Mike, Andy Cortez, and Janet Garcia,

if I remembered correctly. Perfect. Fantastic team, fantastic squad. Can't wait to hear all about that and get their thoughts on Far Cry 6th. So if you want to go check that out, listen to this first and then go check that out. Or whatever order, just make sure you listen to both because I'll appreciate that very, very much. Real quick, Andy, I haven't talked to you in a while. How are you?

What's been going on? I'm great. I'm great. Today, I just got the news that my face is up in Times Square right now. Yeah, it is, dude. the nitro rifle himself in Times Square in New York City One kid poster is it? Big one kid poster.

One of the best comments I saw in regards to my tweet said wow and it's life size as well. I'm really tall. Really big. There he is. Look at the real Grand Valley dude. Get that on the TV shout out. The Globetrotten. You're a Globetrotten gamer, too. They gave you a whole thing.

They wouldn't want to put Globetrotten headshot and I understand that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is incredible. How many members of your family have you sent that to? I told my brother the news a couple months ago when I got the invitation to do it. And I told him that I wanted to keep the secret away from my parents. And I sent it to my dad a little while ago.

And he was like, what the fuck? Are you kidding me? My parents are freaking out right now. They asked for a lot of, you know, give us some kind of catchphrases that, you know, your community would know. give us some emotes. And somebody replied that it's really sad they didn't use the two hours to New York emote, which would have made a lot of sense. And it would have made a lot of sense to use the two hours to New York emo.

It would have a little too topical, I think. But I think I definitely didn't want to submit them the too horny emo for sure. Yeah. Did you submit just the like air pacing scream that you did every time you fell off a platform in Mario Maker? That's my favorite. But you just go, ah! No, no, no, no.

Just a couple of sayings, a couple of emotes, some pictures. And yeah, shout out to Twitch for this cool opportunity for where we've got about a week and a half left of Hispanic heritage month. So it's really, really cool shit. I love it, man. We're proud of you, Andy. That is incredibly freaking cool. Tam, let's get into it.

I want to hear your thoughts on the Nintendo Switch O-L-E-D edition. We've both had our hands on it for about a week now and playing a whole bunch of different games, some Metroid. But what are your thoughts on the system itself? So the system itself, I kind of got it and I didn't expect much from it. I wasn't at all planning to buy one. Obviously, this one was supplied by Nintendo. So, like, I was kind of like, okay, I'm sure this will be fine.

It'll be a nice little upgrade. The moment I turned it on, I was like, oh, no, this is really nice. Like I'm like now, now I'm like, oh, I would recommend this to people now. And I have recommended to a few people. The screen is like head and shoulders better than the original. Like that's a really basic observation. Of course, it's going to be better than the original. But when you actually play a game on it, you realize how much of a difference it makes visually.

Like, I found myself like just attached to that screen. Like I was stopping to just look around. And then when you look back at the old screen, the thing that you can say about it is it makes the old screen look kind of embarrassing. Like I look at the old screen. I'm like, how did they get away with this? It's wild. Yeah, but like it is beautiful. It is beautiful.

And obviously the innards of the system have not changed at all. It still, if your game runs kind of shaky on the switch, it will still run kind of shaky on the OLED. so there's no more power or anything like that in the insides of it. Having said that, it still looks so nice. I played, I played a Breath of the Wild, fired it up, and just did the run from the opening temple straight out until where it does the pan over Hyrule and it shows the Breath of the Wild logo.

And it was like, oh, this is, this is amazing. Like I'm now replaying Breath of the Wild on the OLED because I just want to see more of it. It's kind of like it reminds me, reminded me, of like any time you got a, the first time you got a HD TV or a Blu-ray, a TV that could look at, look at, take care of Blurays properly. And you put in Planet Earth and you're just like, look at this. You don't really care about Planet Earth.

It's just like, look at those birds. It's crazy. Look at those birds. Look at this crane. Yeah. And it is like, it is the similar kind of thing where I'm just like firing up games to be like, how does this look? And it looks really nice.

Like I dropped in shovel night. I played a bit of that. I played a bit of Mario car and that looks amazing. I think one of my favorite, most unexpected things that I really, really looked at. And I was like, oh, this is amazing. This is really nice. Is the dock? Dude.

Like, the dock is so nice. Like, I don't want to sound like I'm overblowing it. But, like, I took the dock out and I was like, this has no business looking as good as it does. Like, and it's very basic thing. I think the things that sell it are the white and black. And then the rounded edges, it looks. And then again, you put it next. to the old dock and you're like, how did they put this one out?

Because it looks like a piece of shit. It's just like a square. Very embarrassing. Very like, incredibly embarrassing. This is just a piece of plastic junk with like some, some chips in there that accept, you know, an HTML. The thing that about it is it looks like a third party knockoff version of the new dock that you buy for like $5 from like Amazon just to get by.

And like this new one, it's so nice. It's got like, it doesn't have the flap on the back. The back panel now comes off completely. And it's a little more spacious as well. It's not like a tiny hole. They've got like a whole, like a little, almost like a tunnel for you to feed the wiring. Not spacious enough. Not spacious enough still, but a little more.

Not spacious enough. Yeah. And like that's my thing is I'm very impressed with like just starting with a dock. I'm so impressed by it. Like it was something I didn't expect to be that much nicer than the original one. Even just the quality of the construction of it. It feels sturdier. And when you actually put the switch in, it locks in better without that feeling of scratching that the original doc kind of had sometimes.

We had to angle it right and get it in. But yeah, this one definitely feels like a much more premium device. I will say, though, that I wish there was even more space. Like to get the HTML cable I have and the Ethernet and the USB port thing that I have, that little tiny bear it. Yeah, thank you. Exactly. right there is just simply not big enough, like to get all the cables in comfortably. But that's fine at the end of the day.

It's not. I didn't really expect much from this doc to be honest. But I'm surprised that I'm impressed with the dock. But I totally echo everything you're saying about the device itself. Like I am probably the biggest OLED enthusiasts that I know. Like I love the technology. I have forever, whether it's on phones or TVs or anything. Like I just love the true black levels that like immediate.

black and it was so surprising to me playing on the switch how much it enhances these games that like you know they're nintendo games so it's like it's not like they're the most the most high fidelity visual feasts as andy like to set likes to say but this old led the enhanced colors make the games look better like i didn't expect to boot up mario car and be like whoa it really kind of allows a quality jump that is not based on resolution, not based on anything of it. It really is Nintendo's art styles being allowed to just shine, bright and vibrant and how they're supposed to look.

And it makes things look sharper because the blacks allow kind of even just like text looks nicer with the OLED and just a lot of little things that add up. And another thing that I didn't expect is the screen is less than an inch bigger with the diagonal. It's a much bigger kind of. jump than I expected to see, especially when I was transferring from one switch to the other, like all my games over. Like, first off, it looks so much nicer, so much more premium just with less of a bezel, right? Like, the original one had an embarrassingly large bezel that made it kind of feel more like

a toy. You know, this feels like a nice premium device that makes sense in 2021. But also just that real estate portably, it just allows the games to kind of feel more real and kind of like bring you into them. And with the high quality colors, like I am so impressed with this screen. And I think that it enhances Nintendo games in a way that they've desperately needed.

And I didn't realize that's what they needed it to do. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of the first time I looked at a Vita and I haven't come from the PSP. And that kind of like, oh, wow, this feels like, it feels like they spent money to make this happen. like there weren't corners cut it feels like they were like okay let's make the best possible

screen I think I would comfortably say that this is probably the best screen on a handheld system that has ever existed and given how how a good this switch system is on its own without that screen having that available to you is pretty amazing it is slightly heavier

very very very slightly heavier and the other thing is like they didn't really change much of, I feel like the original switch had an issue with when the joycons were connected to the side, there was a slight amount of wobble to it. Like if you put in a bit too much pressure, you could feel it's like to like budge of it. There's less of that, but it's not eliminated entirely. I remember when I play my old switch, I feel kind of, I feel like it's quite fragile. And the new one, the OLED feels a bit sturdier, but it still has a tiny bit of gear that

is slightly uncomfortable. I am exactly exactly with you. Like right, It's like there is that little jiggle. There's a tiny tiny little jiggle, but I am right there with you, Tam, where even since day one of my original launch switch, there was that issue of it always felt like if I jiggled it hard enough, it would just fucking rip it off. Whereas with this, it feels a lot more like a Nintendo Switch light that I also have and I use in bed all the time. And like that obviously doesn't have joycons. It's all just one device. So this I would say actually feels more similar to that than the original switch, which is a huge compliment to this thing. How long will that last a year later after taking the joycons on and off a ton?

Is it still going to feel this way? I don't know. But it does feel like a much sturdier made device, especially with the kickstand. Like this is a high quality, nice kickstand. It echoes the entire length of the system itself. And it actually works, unlike the other one, that always felt like it wasn't supposed to be holding up the switch. Yeah. And then the other thing is like the thing that also hasn't changed is the joycon in it.

So there's no guarantee. They haven't fixed drift. So chances are, not chances are, but like, you're as at risk of catching drift on this new one as you were on the older one. This is all incredibly encouraging because obviously we know OLED is the better tech. And even having, seeing my dad's old 4K TV turn into a 4K OLED, it does feel like a completely new sort of technology. and you're seeing the same resolution, but it just looks just incredibly better. I still somehow thought Nintendo would fuck this up

in some way that it would be like a really shitty version of what we expect OLED to look like, but this is all such great news. This is awesome. Yeah, man. I mean, honestly, I'm supremely impressed with this. I don't necessarily think that it's worth the price increase and upgrade for everybody,

but I think that if you're listening to this show and you're interested in this and the idea of your Nintendo games looking even slightly better is something that you're like, oh, I kind of want that. I do think it's worth it, man. Like there, this is, this is such a better device. And again, like, it's a brand new thing compared to something I've had since 2017. But the battery life has been awesome.

I've been playing the shit out of Metroid. And I've had like no issues, no need to even plug it in or charge. Like, it's just goes and goes and goes. And that's the thing is OLED actually allows better battery life because of the way the tech works. So there's a lot of little things that aren't necessarily. enhancing the gameplay or like the tech that makes it run better. But it looks better, has better battery life. And it is a beautiful, stunning sight to behold.

I love the black on white joycons. Barrett, can you bring up the image I just said to assets? Yeah. And what you guys are saying right now, just like I'm already really happy with my pre-order. Yeah, I think if you've pre-ordered, you're like, I think if you're a person who plays the switch in handheld a lot, then I would seriously consider. The Switch is my, you know, my, my, my embed console, you know, so. Yeah. And I, I, I pre-ordered it on a whim kind of thing where I was just like, all right, like, it's, it's available.

I might as well, and I still wasn't sure about it. And just like what y'all are saying, I'm really happy with this is, this system is the first time. Whenever I play switch, for example, I prefer to put it on the dock and play on my big screen. This is the first time where I've been, like, no, I'd rather play in handheld, just because it looks way better. And because it's all like, it's all packed into a screen, like a smaller screen overall than a TV would be. The level of like quality and detailed density looks way higher. It just looks and it looks way, way better to you when you're like pouring over it real up close. Yeah, absolutely.

And looking at this picture here, there's no filter on this. There's no enhancement, no anything. Like that is how vibrant that game is. And like I've played Mario Cardi Deluxe for years at this point. And it's like, I know how that game looks. This looks like a new game. You know, it's like this. And just like Tam, I was going back and playing, popping in to see what a bunch of different games look like.

And even S&S online stuff, like popping into like Super Mario World, there's a pop to the color that's like, damn. Like it's just, it's a joy to go back and look at things to just see how they could look on this really small, tight screen with this older technology and stuff. And I'm very, very stoked about it. The other thing that's worth bringing up is. that when you have the, when you've got it down in like tabletop mode or whatever, and you crank up the volume all the way, compared to the old switch when you crank it up,

the audio is a little sharper. It like doesn't distort us, but it doesn't sound as tinny. So if you are the kind of person who like does have volume all the way up in a public setting, it will sound a little bit better. Still, the better way to approach it is to use headphones,

which is what I was doing when I was playing Metroid. But if for some reason you feel like you want to play older speakers the speakers are slightly better not massive just very slightly interesting yeah i didn't even try table top mode like that um i also will say that this game or this hardware launching with metro dread is kismet what a prime combo i didn't realize it didn't you really it is it's fantastic and it really shows off everything i was saying about what makes the oled shine which is kind of like taking these colors and especially like black lines and allowing them to look sharper than they would look on a normal switch just because of resolution and stuff because

of the color profiles. And there's like this film grain look to a lot of the areas in Metrooddred. And you see it. Like do you see the little black dots of the film? And they invite you into the world in a way that I'm so impressed by. And I have an OLED TV as well. And I'm like a 50-50 switch user, which seems rare, I guess. But like I play handheld and on.

on TV about equally. And with Metroid, I also very much prefer to be playing it handheld, just because getting all that information on that smaller screen just allows it to really kind of pop and be its own experience. Maybe it's also just because I'm used to playing Metroid on handheld devices for years. Oh, there we go, Metroid in the background. I love when this happens. But I want to talk about Metroid, but before I do that, let me tell you about our sponsors.

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Dan, you and I have been playing Metroid Dred. Metroid 5. I can't believe it. The first new 2D Metroid game in about two decades since Fusion. Wow. Wow. A story 35 years in the making. The ending of a story, 35 years in the making.

And I don't know about you, but it feels good to be playing Metroid again. And it feels good to say that it's a good Metroid. And like, I mean, there's very few bad METROids out there. Maybe like Federation Force, sorry. Metroid spinball, I guess. No question about Metroid football, okay. The fan base of Federation Force. is on the way.

You watch out, Tam. But yeah, it's, it's a, I mean, just jumping straight into it. Like,

it's, it is a, a game that I've been really enjoying. And the thing I really like about it is, this is going to sound like a criticism, but it's very no frills. Like, it's very classically Metroid.

And the reason why that's a plus to me is because this is a game, a series that inspired a genre, along with one other game, Symphony of the Night, Castlevania. And they have that Metroidvania. and Monica together. But in the year since Samis has been away, like people have

put their own spins on the formula and they've evolved it in different ways. And there would no doubt be a kind of temptation for when the Metroid inevitably came back to do similar things and, you know, try and mix things up in a big way. And that's not

what they've done here. They've done enough to keep it fresh and distinct. But they fundamentally make sure that the core tenants of Metroid are intact. And that is exploration atmosphere, the feeling of isolation, the feeling of slowly learning your way around this alien environment, and then eventually building a mastery over it. And the thing that they do really well here is they make you feel more like a bounty hunter. Some of the bus fights are

big, they're like explosive, and they use the power of the switch to make it more cinematic. and they almost pull from other M a bit with the like the kind of cinematic stuff that happens, the over the shoulder stuff the like anime-esque moments where Samas is like back flipping and you know doing crazy stuff and the overall you feel like a

you feel like a capable bounty hunter even when your tools are taken away from you but yeah I'm loving it so far yeah I'm in the final third of the game at this point And it is very, very similar to Canna Bridge of Spirits for me, where when I started it, I was like, I like, I like this. And the further I get, the more and more I play, I'm like, I love this. I really, really, really love this. And it's, that's to say, it's not one of those situations where it's like, oh, you got to keep playing.

It'll get good eventually. It's like, no, it starts good. It just ramps up so great. I think my favorite thing about it so far is how your power ups and the ability scale so well to make you feel like a bad. where you're constantly rewarded. Like the loop is as good as the loop of Super Metroid. And I couldn't give a higher compliment there. When I first loaded it up in the first like hour or two,

I was like, wow, they're really just trying to make a Metroid again, a 2D Metroid. Like there's nothing really fresh. There's nothing really new. Even things like this, we're seeing these things called Emmys that are like kind of hunting you. We've had similar elements like that in infusion. So there's like a lot of things where it's like, okay, cool, this is a, it looks a lot pretty.

It looks a lot more modern, but it doesn't feel more modern. But then as you kind of unlock some more abilities, it's like, oh, wow, this is incredibly cinematic. And you bringing up OtherM is very apt only in the good ways. I remember seeing the first trailer for OtherM and being hyped out of my mind that Samus Aaron was finally going to be the badass that we all made her to be in our head from this pixel character into like, you know, this anime type warrior. And then we got Other M and it absolutely wasn't.

not that at all. This is. And like even here what you're seeing, it's like these moments that, um, see, look to be like they're kind of like, quick time event type things.

In some cases, they are, but in others, they're so, like, there's a fluidity to the, the battle that you're in. And then it'll cut to this like one crazy angle of you attacking for a

second, but then it cuts back to the, the fight. It, you never feel like you're just watching a cinematic. It like, it feels like you're always in a, a 2D,

action platformer, but there's a level of depth to it because of the way that all the locations and the biomes kind of look like they're not just it's not just a 2D platform. There's like so much XYZ access

shit going on at all times that are kind of interacting with the 2D plane you're on. I am very, very impressed with the visuals of this game. Yeah, and sometimes it does it in a way that you expect, like towards the end of a boss fight. But other times like we saw in that trailer, earlier. It's like it catches you off guard.

Yeah. Like the first time I did one of those really high, like they, they clearly have designated certain spots where you do a shine spark and like it's like, oh, we're going to cut to a really cool cinematic angle to show Samus like just skyrocketing through all these platforms and it, you never expect it. The first time happened to me, I was like, holy crap, that was amazing. The other thing I really love is the characterization. It's really subtle and you kind of like it pays off in a big way for Metroid fans but this is Samus at the end not at the end but like many many many years into her career as a bounty hunter and you feel that in the way she carries herself not just in the gameplay herself because it is like silky smooth and it feels so good

to move her around she's like so nimble and turns on her dime and can jump and do amazing things but we saw in that fight with Craid for example it's not a spoiler that Craig's going to be in the game he's in pretty much. Crate is in pretty much every game. But like, as soon as she sees Crayed, you can see her, get her charge beam going. And she's just holding it and it's like, come at me, motherfucker. And it's like so amazing. And like, she does that so much because she's like, I've wrecked your shit so many times. I'm not afraid of you.

And she has that throughout. She carries herself in a really, like, confident way. But at the same time, there are things in the game that are designed to, like, knock her off that pedestal. and when it happens, you're like, oh, crap. And one of those is the Emmys. The other one is like a warrior character that shows up fairly early and throughout the game a bunch of times. And you have this amazing kind of push and pull

where you have certain things that the game wants you to feel confident about, but then you have other things where it's like, don't get too cocky because there are stuff that can still put you on your ass. And the Emmys are one of them. I don't know how you feel about the Emmys, Tim, but I started off really, really enjoying them. And over time, my dread towards him has dulled. But the thing about him is like no matter how much you get used to them, you kind of figure out in the same way that when you fought nemesis multiple times in the original Resident Evil Three, you eventually realize like the moment you see him coming at, you just run towards the wall and then you can very easily skirt around him.

You do develop that kind of muscle memory where you see one. You're like, I know how to kind of make you a bit of a fall. but then how it trips you up is in unfamiliar environments you may accidentally run into like a dead end and in that scenario like oh shit I screwed this up myself because when they grab you you have

two opportunities to get out of it and like just before they attack you you can hit like a counter button and Samus will basically kick them away and they're frozen in place and you can like slide under and run away. The timing on it is really difficult

It's impossible hard. It's so tight. Like I spent one, because I was capturing, and I spent like 30 minutes, just constantly doing it. And I eventually,

like got a bunch of them down. But what they do is, which is really interesting, is they make the timing window really inconsistent on them. So sometimes you'd like develop a good feel for it. But then you'll, they'll quickly switch it up and the attack

will come out quicker than you expect. So that means that it never, you never become predictable. You can't get it down. Like even Sekiro, for example, one of the trickiest ones when it comes to counter timing, there's consistency there. Like you know how a boss is going to, when they're going to strike, there's tells. But in this game, like they try and they make it on purpose really inconsistent

so that you can never take them for granted and mug them off. You always have to treat them like a threat, which is really cool design. It is. And to be clear, it's only the Emmys that have that. There's a ton of characters you can counter and their counters are consistent. And you know when to do them every single time. but the counters with the Emmys attacking you is like a last ditch effort. Like even the tutorial thing, uh, when it pops up, it tells you it's like,

we don't expect you to counter. We don't expect you to survive this. This is Samis is a badass. So she might be able to get out of it type thing. And I think that really kind of adds to, uh, the experience a lot of like when these things are coming. It keeps them scary because there was multiple times where I got hit by one. I was like, damn it. And then I got the counter and I was able to escape and run.

And I felt like a bad. And that's the thing that this game does better than any Metroid I've played is reward you with badassery. Go for it, Andy. I was just going to ask, I mean, just moving on, what sort of prior knowledge would somebody coming into this game need for the other Metroid? Because I know, like, this reminds me a lot of Half-Life Alex coming out where this is a legacy that's been going on for over decades. And now it's here. do we need to play either Super Metroid or and Zero,

um, trying to think the, Zero mission. Zero mission. Correct. Yeah. This is, this is most the sequel to Fusion.

Because Fusion was the last game, even though that was 2001, I think. Uh, but the thing about it that I think is really, really good is it works in two ways where on one side, if you're a hardcore Metroid fan, holy shit does this game deliver.

I'm telling you all right now, this game, fucking delivers the amount of fan service the amount of moments in things they do they play with your expectations constantly of when things happen when you get certain items like you're like oh I know what's going to happen here and it doesn't and you're like why and then when it does you're like oh shit there is a moment I'm not going to spoil what happens but there is a moment a get hype moment where Samis's theme starts playing and she's doing some badass shit and I was like I can't believe this is real I can't believe it feels so earned and it's like if you've

known the legacy of all the games. It is. It is there. They've done it. But if you've never played it, it doesn't matter. There's a previously on section and you're going to be like, I don't know what the fuck a Chozo is. I don't know what the fuck this is. It doesn't matter. Even if you're the most hardcore Metroid fan, it's still

semi just like cool words. Yeah, yeah. I think the thing, you will enjoy it. You can enjoy it completely as a standalone thing. You don't need the background knowledge. I mean, you should be playing Super Metroid anyway. haven't already because it's one of the greatest games of all time and holds up like it's 10 out of 10 today um but like still the the knowledge that you you don't really need the story part of it because what you'll

enjoy about it is the atmosphere and the gameplay and it will feel like something like akin to like a hollow night where you're just jumping into this Metroidvania and and you're just enjoying it for what it is like yeah and you can like it's for example the chozo characters and that kind of stuff there this is something new to this part of the franchise. So they set it up with, they don't really set up, they keep it kind of minimal storytelling. But you won't be lost for it. It's not like they reference like a beat,

a story beat from Super Metroid and then one from like Samus Returns or anything like that. It's just straight up. It is what it is. And like Tim said, the previously on is like a minute or too long and it's thorough in what it needs to cover. It gives you the basics,

the stuff that you need to know and you're good. How's the soundtrack? Dude. The soundtrack is unreal, man. It is so, so damn good. The one thing that I am not the biggest fan of is I wish the quality of orchestration was better. Like Nintendo seems to have two types of lanes when it comes to its scores. They either go all out and have like super high quality professional full orchestra things like Mario Odyssey or you can tell it's like, oh, they got the B team for this. And unfortunately, this kind of feels like it has that. But. There's certain melodies and like callbacks and and just themes that are just pervasive through all the different areas you're in. And it is like quintessentially Metroid, which is dope as hell. This is the one part of Metroid dread that I think is a massive disappointment for me. Really?

I think the music is pretty bad. Like it is because I have a pretty high standard for Metroid music. I still listen to like I think Super Metroid is one of my favorite soundtracks. The prime soundtracks are amazing. and this is the music is incredibly forgetable and at times I find it to be quite invasive

in terms of like ruining the mood and I think it's because of what Tim said the orchestration is not there and it's also like doing a bit too much at times the thing about the prime and the Super Metro soundtrack is like there's a delicate element to how it's used in the background

you never want it to like push its way through the atmosphere. And with this one, it's kind of like listening to a song where you can hear where it loops. And because it constantly plays that stuff, it becomes grating very, very quickly. The best tracks in the soundtrack in Dread are, like Tim said,

the stuff that is called back and pulls out melodies from previous games. But I think largely everything else is incredibly forgettable. Like there's no good, like Brinstar is nothing like, phase of minds or anything like, that is for Andrana drifts, nothing close to any of that. It's, I won't be listening to anything on this soundtrack again. Wow. I'm so interested.

I totally disagree. I feel like this definitely fits with the, the Metroid stuff. And I do think that the things we're familiar with are definitely the standouts because we're familiar with them. But there's some moments later on with some characters that appear that the instrumentation choices they did, I think are just truly inspired and really kind of work to give new context to, things that we've heard before or no and for what it means to the atmosphere, to the story, to just the experience. And I, so I again, this is another one of those things where the further I get in, the more I'm like, oh man, this, I thought it was a pretty good and I actually really, really, really think it's special. Uh, Metroid Seamus returns on the 3DS a couple of years

back, which was a remake of Metroid 2 and the Game Boy that added the kind of counter attack the melee thing. And remakes are hard because, you know, the, You want to be faithful to the original thing, but you want to feel modern. And I feel like Samus Returns was a really, really, really good game. But it wasn't like a great Metroid game. And I feel like this takes all those elements and made it a great Metroid game. Like this feels like a perfect mix between old Metroid, like a super Metroid, which while I totally agree with you still whole like stands up today and it's fantastic.

It is a little stiff in terms of Samis's movements of what you're allowed to do. And that's part of the game design. that's part of the level design and it works. But having played modern things like Hollow Night a bit, playing Ori a lot, you're used to this level of like fast pace, momentum and maneuverability. And this game delivers that in spades.

Not quite to the level of an Ori, but it does a really good job of giving you power upgrades that give you more mobility that you can also use as in combat. And Andy, like, I think you're going to really vibe with this game, the more you play it. And when you get some of the, Some of the boss fights are like ridiculously hard.

But then once you figure out the pattern, they're not hard anymore. It's just like, okay, cool. I know exactly what I need to do. And they were fucking me up a second ago. But I get the pattern down. Now I know what I need to do. I need to counter here. And I'm like, oh, there is a rhythm to this that I think is going to be really up your alley.

That's dope is out. That sounds great. The design of Samus, how it's evolved from Super Metroid to now, is kind of reflected in how she controls. Like Super Metroid, she's got the chunky armor. and she moves like a bit of a tank. And then post-fusion, they gave her like a much slicker look. And the look that she has here where it's like kind of white and blue and on the traditional,

she looks amazing in this game. Amazing. Well, it's like an Avengers tan when they gave everybody the white suits. You're like, oh, they look so much cooler. Yeah, but then they just did like a time high stand. All right, relax. Oh, Jesus. All right.

Jesus. Oh, my God. But yeah, she feels real good to move around. And it is like as you get those new, there's way more abilities that factor into combat than you had in the previous game. Previous games it was like to shoot maybe if you're feeling particularly excited, you could drop a more fault bomb hero there. But this is like there's there's like grapple hook. There's like the dash ability which you can chain together in midair. You can like do different shine spark moves and stuff like that.

It's a more intricate combat system. And they've also got like the counter system, but then they've got like a running counter system. And then you start factoring in the slide, which initially you used for like traversal. But then if you realize, oh, if I space it in this way and do a slide, I can get under all these projectiles with very little effort

instead of trying to shoot them out of the air using the manual aim, which they introduced in Samus Returns and is a massive new addition to the game franchise. But yeah, it feels, it's one of those games where it feels good to press buttons and it's always got something for you to engage in and you always want to be thinking ahead slightly.

You feel like you need to focus on what's happening on screen and you need to be good with your kind of mechanical movement in it as well. Yeah, fantastic. Because I'm just, I think going into this, I am worried that the old franchise is going to look old compared to, again, like Tim was mentioning, Hollandite, ori. I love playing the messenger. I thought the messenger had fantastic combat and great, just maneuvering around the level.

You really felt that fluidity. And I was always worried about what is this new Metroid game going to do? Is it going to feel modern enough? Or are we going to love it because it's finally the sequel that's been in the making for the last 20 years? I was pretty worried about that. It's interesting. I mean, a core thing of Metroid is you kind of get a taste of power in the beginning of the game. And then it's ripped away from you for a bunch of different reasons all the time.

It's just like how these things go. And I think this game is really interesting. how you start off and you have this power set and you're like, oh, damn, this is fucking cool. Then of course, immediately it gets taken away from you. And as you start building it back, like I said, it doesn't quite go as you expect it to. So they kind of give you some new things in ways I didn't expect

and all of those things add up to what Tam was talking about, of allowing you to have the slide be used for traversal and combat in conjunction with other stuff. And you really, again, feel like a badass. Like it really kind of like adds up very well there. I do think that it can kind of become cumbersome a bit. Like the two biggest criticism I have of the game are some of its commitment to being a sequel to Metroid, Super Metroid infusion where it's like the map is just pretty damn good.

But there's way too many elements that are unnecessary. It's very rare that you need to place a marker, but the options to place markers take up so much of the screen. There's so much text for things that you don't need to know. And they're not the useful things that I'd actually want. And so it can kind of get kind of confusing. There's like, it's one of those things where there's a lot of coding where you're like, okay, this shape equals that, this color equals that. Look, move cursor, zoom out in, reset, fast cursor.

It's like, holy shit. Like that's just, there's a lot of stuff. And oftentimes I'm not quite sure what it is I'm looking at. And that can get hard when you're lost and you get lost frequently in this game. and you're just trying to find your way to get somewhere. It can get kind of frustrating with that. Yeah. And the thing that I also kind of find frustrating is it's got this ability to,

if you hover over an icon, you can press a button and it will highlight all variations of that icon, which is useful when it's like, oh, I've unlocked the morph ball or something like that. And now I want to see all the places that I can use it, which is a good idea. But it just doesn't go far enough. me, like whenever they do it, they put like a very small border around each of those things. And even when you're looking at the map, it can look so busy that it's hard to see where

those are, which I find frustrating. The other thing that I'm interested in see how you feel about it, Tim, but like I find quite annoying it irks me is the map has this kind of fog of war thing where every time you move around, it like fills it in slightly depending on where you move. I hate it. It's so finicky where you're like, you might run for a room. and instead of just filling the room out and it's like you've run through this room,

it wants you to jump in every corner of the room, even if the room is completely empty. Yeah, and you're like, why did I do that? You've just created this extra thing to annoy me and there's no real benefit to it. Did the old game do that? The old game was grid-based, so it would be like square. So if you enter even the quadrant, it would just fill it in.

So clearly, there's this a completionist element of you where it's like you want to fill it in just so you can look at the map and be like, I did it, you know? And this is always like, a pixel where you can't get Samus in there properly. And it's just there and you're like, oh, for God's sake. I was going to say, obviously the devs were like, oh, let's check out this ripoff called Axi and verge.

They're like, oh, I like that system. Let's make it. Yeah. It's a same thing where it is cloud base where you have to like, how do what the fuck do do I get up in that corner? It's so annoying. The good thing is that annoying the most though in Metroid is all these games have elements of this, but Metroid is so much about, oh, there's a hole in the

top right corner, I know eventually I'm going to get an item that allows me to get in there and then another item that allows me to go in the corridor and then another item that lets me whatever. It's like, it really kind of chains those type of moments. And it just gets so frustrating when you're like trying, you want to kind of check things off the list. So when you look at the map, you're like, oh, I've exhausted that room. Like, I've done everything that I need to do in that room. And it just makes it really difficult for the amount of rooms in this game. But I will say, Level design is utterly fantastic. And so far, I want to like fully beat the game and like really like sit with it for a bit before I commit to this.

But I think it might be the best designed world. Metroid's ever seen in the sense of how everything connects. And I'm often surprised about dropping down through this one tunnel and where I end up. And I'm like, oh, shit. I was trying to go there. How the hell did that connect? And you're like, oh, that makes perfect sense. And it's like very, very, very fluid stuff.

And the more you play, the more you're like, oh, I know exactly where I need to go. And like kind of the language of how it subtly pushes, you always accidentally end up exactly where you were trying to go, but without purposefully going there. You're like, oh, crap, this is exactly where I needed to be. I just happened to stumble in here at the exact right moment. And that is like a thing where it's like the invisible hand of the designer pushing you through or environment cues and just naturally knowing through player psychology

where you're probably going to head after you get this item. And it's like genius. stuff happening in there. It's like classic. It's a reminder why this game or this franchise, you know, pioneered the genre in many ways. They still have it. They're not, they're not outclassed by all the others that have come and been inspired by it yet. Yeah, totally. So two criticisms and a compliment. Criticism one is this does the, the annoying thing of boss fights where too often there are very difficult boss fights that if you lose, there is a three room walk back. You have

do to reactivate the cut scene that you can then skip to then fight. It's like, you know what I want to do. I just got my ass beat. Just let me get right back into it and go. And it gets really, really annoying to just have to shoot a door, run through, maybe avoid one enemy, shoot another door, run through. Cutscenes triggered, start, select to skip it. It's like, why?

This is so archaic and so unnecessary. Do you agree, Tamp? Yes, I agree with that. Thankfully, I haven't had too much of that. But they're also... No. I mean, there's some certain boss fights where in conjunction with like the pattern taking a little while to recognize, it can be annoying because then you're like, oh, I just, I'm just trying to figure, I'm trying to download the information on this boss,

but I can't because I have to constantly go through all this rigmar role to get back here. But it's, it's not like a game ruining thing so far. Yeah. And then second criticism is with the, and this goes back to what I was saying earlier about like sticking to the old school metro design a little too much. Their commitment to button placement and like just how some of the buttons work. I find myself not necessarily having claw hand, but not knowing what combination of buttons to press to do the grapple beam versus the other beam versus the this or the whatever

or this dodge instead of that dodge. And it's like, I'm trying to slide, but instead I'm like doing the air dodge thing. And it's just like it can get a lot. And I find myself having to be like, okay, I need to hold this one down to aim this up to be able to shoot that. And it's just like that happens a little too often, especially in heated combat.

moments that whatever there's a time, and the ME things are a good example, they're chasing you, and you're not really fighting them. You're kind of just running away from them. So when you need to traverse things quickly, using a bunch of the different abilities, it can get kind of like, I'm just really not butt-mashing, but like trying my best to keep up with my mind working with my hands. I think that's compounded by one of the other things that I don't think is necessarily criticism. I think it's something that they did intentionally, but for me, it is causing some kind of issues is the pacing of new power-ups is way more, it's way less spread out than it has been in previous games. You can find power-ups in quick succession and that feels good, but the problem you have is it doesn't

let you build the muscle memory to really like bed in with certain abilities because by the time you get it and then a couple of minutes later you've got another power and you almost kind of overwrite the old one in terms of learning it. Whereas in older games, like you'd spend a lot of time with a new power so that you'd build a muscle memory and know exactly how to pull it out. It moves from power to power.

And as you go along, it feels like it stacks way closer as well. So I think it's not a major thing, but that is a criticism or an instance of what Tim's saying, like I have that as well sometimes. Yeah. And then the compliment I want to give it is one of the core tenets of Metroid is

you're getting lost, you know where you're trying to go, but you're like, I have no idea how to get there. And then eventually you're just running around, going through every door you possibly can, and you end up in an area and you're like, I am lost or even worse. I locked myself into a position that the game doesn't want me to be in, and I have no way out.

Always scary when you are playing a game before it comes out. Always terrifying. Like, is this part of the design? Am I fucked? Yeah. I had a moment that I was lost somewhere for, about an hour, maybe like an hour and a half into the game. And I was like, oh, no, this is not going to go well.

But to the compliment, you always get out. Every single time, I'm just like, oh, that was so obvious. And I should have just looked there. Like, so Andy, when you play this game, anytime you're getting frustrated, like there's only four rooms. There must be something wrong. There's not something wrong. The answer is there.

Shoot all the floors, shoot all the ceilings. that was me in death's door just being incredibly lost and be like wait this room looks new what what I've never been in this room I've been running around for two fucking hours like how did I ignore that door the whole time I thought that door was something I'd been through

yeah and like they clearly know there's certain areas where I've spoken to a few people playing it and I've seen a few people who are playing it for review always get trapped in the same area and they clearly it feels like it's designed to make you feel like you're trapped so then you have that moment where you're like oh this is a

It feels good. And it feels so good where you're like, nice try, map. You're not today. And I also want to say, I'm not going to spoil them or say what they are. The biomes in this game are incredible. That is something that Metro is always known for. You start off in some that you're like, Ben there, done that. I understand that.

As the game goes on, there are some that I'm like, this is just so cool. The amount of times I kind of have to pause the game, just be like, this is the coolest Metroid ever. Like, there's been at least 10 of them. Like, this game is cool as fuck. and its vibe is cool, the colors of Sammis are cool, the colors of the world are cool, the OLED screens popping. Like, this is just working in synergy for me, where I'm like, damn.

Biles are popping, we're partying, dude. I want to give a special shout out to, like, something insignificant that I really love. It's got fast travel, and there are loading screens between fast travel. They are so cool. Like, they're just, they're just Samus standing. Oh, you scared me. And she's like, she's like in a, in a, the loading screens are, Maybe a tad too long.

But you're watching it and you're like, this is cool because it's like she's standing in an elevator. And it's like got a really cool elevator motion or she's on a train and she's like holding her like power, her armor or her gun. And like it looks cool. You're like this is badass. I want a wallpaper of all of this stuff. Yeah. And even like even like the animation when you're kind of fast traveling, like she's suspended in the air and like there's an energy pulsing through her. And then it carries her away and you're like, she's the coolest video game character.

awesome and like oh my god you nailed it like the the loading screens which is what they are are awesome the one thing is they stutter like a motherfucker the performance of the game has been awesome for me i've had no slowdown in any traversal any combat every single time she's on the train or on elevator or doing the teleport thing it is just stuttering and i'm like what the hell guys like this is just like a movie play and like what's going on but uh you nailed it a second ago like every frame of painting with this game. Like, holy shit, literally every single shot not in motion is just like, whoa. This looks

like designed to be this way. So that's very damn cool. Hell yeah. I recommend it. That's really exciting. That makes me stoked as hell that Metro can come back in a way that matters. And I always get reminded of last

of us two being announced and I was wondering like, ah, what? Really? They're going to do another one? And then Juckman just being like, look, we had a story that we think is worth telling. It's like, cool like this is great proof that if you have a game that's worth making then go ahead and do it even if it takes you 15 to 20 years to come to that conclusion totally the last thing i want to say that i have in my notes here is just the simple animation of samis kind of aiming her gun around like if you're just standing in one place and you hold the l button you can kind of like free aim right

so you can like more particularly target we're trying to hit the way she like moves her arm around her head and like is looking, even just aiming while still looks cool as fuck. And what I really love about that is this is a game about isolation, about atmosphere and all that stuff. We're not getting a lot of dialogue. We're not getting a lot of like her talking about her feelings and shit. For the most part,

it's this robot looking character with a helmet on where you're not seeing a facial expressions. It's like they're not saying anything and we're not getting facial expressions. So how are we going to feel anything from her? And what you were talking about is she's this seasoned warrior. You see it with just the swagger she has. The way she moves, you talked about the way she,

like, charges up her beam when she sees Cray and all that stuff. There's like other elements where it's like little simple, three second animations of the way she'll walk in a room, she'll see something. And it's almost like a shrug of like, oh, God damn it. Like this again or like, oh, fuck, I don't know how I'm going to take this down. But here we go.

Got to shoot them. It's very, very, very well done. And it makes her feel, like we all have believed her to be for so many years. For me, it's the save room. She has like a hero pose in the save room where she's like standing real tall, like shoulders back and like just she knows she's like unstoppable. And you're like, you are such a badass.

You are so cool. And let's get an animated show, please. Oh my God. That would be so good. Yeah. Voice by Chris Pratt. No voices. No voices.

Just let it. Just let it be. Tam, thank you so much for joining us for this review. where can people find you? You can find me on Twitter at TumorH. You can see my work on GAMPOMB.com or GiantBumb.com or Heron Kind of Funny. And if you want to see me stream, you can find me at Twitch.tv slash TomorH. Andy, where can people find you?

In Times Square, baby. Tom Square, baby. God, I love it. Let us know in the comments below if you are thinking about picking up a Nintendo Switch OLED or Metroid Dread. And if you're interested in Fire Cry 6, make sure you check out a review. Kind of funny gamescast. So right there, YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, rushertreat.com podcast services, all of that stuff.

Till next time, love you all. Goodbye.