Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Pikmin 4 Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: July 19, 2023

Mike gives his Pikmin 4 review so far and Blessing gives his Viewfinder reveiw. Time Stamps - 00:00:00 - Start 00:05:37 - Housekeeping 00:07:26 - A Beginner’s Review of Pikmin 4 00:30:48 - Ads 00:31:54 - Viewfinder Review 00:46:06 - Tim Beat Tears of the Kingdom  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast. Of course I am Tim Gettys and I'm joined by the new basic video games blessing at Aoye Jr. Good afternoon, Tim. We have the Big Daddy himself in a bomber jacket. Love this look on you, Greg Miller. The photos I take are perfect. Thank you for complimenting the jacket even though Mike insulted it before we went live. And of course I am just doing it because I've been running on 90 fucking degrees all day.

And I'll tell you right now, I'm sweating through the armpits somewhere. the jacket. Everybody take a photo, a screenshot, because it won't be this way forever. He takes great photos. He does. He does. I'm in as a photographer. Oh, yeah, yeah. You mean it's a subject? Come on. Screenshot anything you want from this show. It's tweeted me at Game Over, Greg. You also include Nick for it. Here's the deal. Let's go off the rails for a second, Tim. Sorry. I can do that. I'm off the rails. I am a photographer, Greg. Yeah. They call you Peter Parker in the street. I'm snapping. Yeah. I'm candid, Mike. I like to take photos of my friends, while they live in their life.

I always find the best photos. Aren't the staged photos? They're the real life. Greg is doing stuff kind of photos. I'll tell you what, I snap a great candidate of my friends all the time. Turns out they don't like it. And I think it's beautiful. I think it's great. This is the problem with some people, all right?

You got people like me. Born, Tim, for the camera, of course. You want me to podcast talking to it? You want to take a random photo of me. It's going to be good. Then you got other people. trolls. These people can't be trusted.

They don't like any of the photos they take. Maybe they're hunched over. Maybe they're not smiling. Even when I'm not smiling a photo, even when I'm like this. I can find beauty in that, ladies and gentlemen, and you should find beauty in yourself and your friends. And if your friends are like Mike friends

and they can't see the beauty in themselves, you hold that photo up to their face and you go, you like it. You're beautiful and I love you. And if they still say no, put them in Lake Tahoe, drive the boat away. Mike, I love that you say that you like taking candid photos and you're a fan of the candid photo.

You're also the same person that you're going to have to help me out here with some names. But was it Washi? Washing, JD? I know what you did that. On Twitter, it's very, it takes a village because the opposite of what Mike's saying here, it seems like you forced your friends to do a photo shoot that seemed very elaborate. To get some pictures of Mike, it literally looked like seven people had to be involved in the staging of this photo. And we had some behind the scenes of Mike posing.

harder than I've seen any man post for a photo ever. So how are you going to sit at this desk? I'd be like, I like candidates, man. Can I be real? Yeah, can I be real? Can I be real? Can I be real? Can I defend you?

Before I even start? Yeah, yeah. This is a man who's like Tim Gettys, who always says, oh, I like Taco Bell, but I'm not going to say it's the best Mexican food out. Does they're different? Let the man enjoy a cheeseburger and enjoy a house of prime rib, prime cut of meat.

I love that. I'll let you do that. I'm just bringing to attention the fact that I'm here. Beautiful photo. Beautiful photo. Completely candid. Completely candid. Beautiful candid.

Here's the issue, Tim. That's a candid photo. Now, that's fair. That's fair. Right there. I'm the king of the candids where I take candidates. Yes. They call candid camera.

You've been caught on candid camera. My best friends, don't take candid photos of me. And that hurts inside. I think of the all time. We're saving, we're making memories together if they would just open up their phones. Snap a couple of photos of me, having fun. in the boat. I wouldn't ask them to line up. What's the Twitter?

Jay Washburn? It was probably Washy. Washi 1.35 probably did that. The problem with this whole... You'll hear this a lot. I want to live in the moment. I'm never going to go back and look at this. Guess what happens? 80 years old, you get Alzheimer's. You don't know what the

moment was. You have the photo, you see a candid of Mike. You go, that was a man who looked good in photos. And he always had fun and he brought the video game opinions. Like, pickman four. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you, it's this. Look at this. There's someone taking a picture or someone taking a picture. Watchy's tweet to company this is making friends take pictures of you so that you can mess with your other friends, the psychotic behavior. And I don't know anyone who would go to such lengths for something so stupid. Who would waste not one, not two, but three people's time on such a dumb endeavor.

That's a great photo. And it's all around. And again, you're making memories here. Uh-huh. I mean, I think... You know what you tell Washburn next time? If I didn't invite you on this and if I wasn't your friend, you'd have no friends. So your memories would be sitting there watching the fucking cigarette burned down to your fingers. Your one bedroom apartment.

Your cat over there, three legs. No fucking idea what you're in. It's... Furn, you suck. I mean, Washburn, you suck. Change the headline. It's Washburn Review. I think one out of five.

I've learned. from the best. I learned from the best. And, you know, we're just going to have fun with it, Tim. That's what today's episode is. How do you feel about this fun? You just had a long weekend, having a lot of fun in Disneyland. Now you're here you have to deal with this. How does that make it feel? Blessing looks like he just ended a 28-hour kind of funny live show. It's hard to speak. Well, we'll give you a little bit of a rest for a while because we're going to start the episode off with a Pickman for review that Snowbike Mike will be bringing to us. Of course, that's because this is the Kind of Funny Games cast.

It's where we try to review all of the major games and try to shine some lights on some smaller titles that we think you guys should check out, like Viewfinder that we'll be talking about later today in this episode. So bless, prepare yourself for that one. Yeah, I feel like you're going to be talking about that quite a bit. Of course, you can get the show on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games or Roosterteat.com as a video.

If you want to get it as a podcast, search your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Gamescast and we'll be right there for you. if you want to go above and beyond. You can get a patreon.com slash kind of funny. You can get the show ad free. You can watch live as it's recorded unless it's an embargoed episode for a review

of a game like this one right here. And you can use our epic creator code. Kind of funny on all epic store purchases and at no extra cost to you. We get some of that money. It helps us a lot. So thank you for all your support over there. Today we're brought to you by Liquid Ivy,

but I'll tell you about that later. Little housekeeping for you. Today we're talking about Pickman 4, but Greg wanted to take everyone on a little journey back to Pickman 3 and Pickman 2 and Pickman 1. We have the show called Remember Blank that we do over on Patreon where we get to reminisce about our memories about a different game franchise or different gaming moments, summer video games, different themes, right, Greg? Yeah. And then Greg will go on Patreon and ask y'all to write in your responses so we can read your memories. This is the first time ever that we did a topic where y'all had no memories. You have no memories of Pickman.

So they're all yours. And it plays into, we have a great conversation about Picman and why we hadn't paid attention, what Mike, you know, thought about this game and why it may or may not have worked for him. And then, yeah, everybody's response is there. And there's some really, there's some really poignant stuff written in there

from a whole bunch of different people. Yeah. So you can check all that out over on Patreon.com slash kind of funny. But enough about all of that. I want to get into our review of Pickman for one of the big Nintendo games this year. Hot off the heels of Tears of the King.

Kingdom. Mike, you showed some interest in this. We went, the, I got hit up from Nintendo and we're like, hey, who wants to play this game? Like, who has time? What's going on? You're like, you know what? I want to give it a shot. I don't know anything about this. I'm like, you know what? That's perfect. I kind of want to get some raw

opinions about this franchise from somebody that has not only ever played this game. I don't think it's ever played a game like this before. I know you dabble with Halo Wars and things like that, but that's quite different. What did you think of Pickman for? I I really, really liked this experience, Tim.

And as you said, right, I did raise my hand and I was willing to go outside of my box and try something new. And I found something new that I really, really enjoy. And I'm excited to share the fun that I had with Pickman thus far. Of course, this will be my review in progress. I'm 15 hours in. I have not beat the game.

But I am excited to share the things that I like and I don't like about the Pickman franchise. And what's exciting is, of course, we have a cool review scale. Greg, hit me with the review scale. because I love when people know it. Ladies and gentlemen, it's five points. All right.

Five, amazing. Four, great. Three, okay. And it can be, it's okay. It's okay. You know what I mean? Two, bad. One, terrible.

See what he did there. All you viewers out there watching on video. That's what I called Easter Ager the business. Let's get back to the review. Of course, my review thus far as a Pickman first timer, again, I have not been. beating the game, but I'm 15 hours in, and I would look at Pickman 4 and tell you that this is a great game. This is a 4 out of 5 on the kind of funny scale. This is a fun time to jump into, no matter

what your Pickman experience is, because what I think a lot of people will find, and of course the Pickman old heads that have played this before, probably are tied to Captain O is what I like to call. Captain Alamar. Well, guess what? He's lost on an adventure, and now it's all about you, a rookie. And I think that's really cool. It's now you're setting the stage for new players to be able to come in, make their own story in Pickman and get to experience this really fun game that awoken something

in me. I am a guy that loves completing tasks. I like getting told what to do. I like having a large task list in front of me and I like being able to organize them and complete them in a timely and efficient manner. And somehow, that's what Pickman is to a T. That is what Pickman

the video game is, is you are allotted X amount of time and your goal is to explore these awesome fun, kind of really nice callbacky nature areas. And then, of course, creates and complete these tasks in a timely manner. And that's what I really found that I really enjoyed was every single time I jumped in,

I would game plan, I would strategize, what pick me in am I bringing, what will be the best for this situation, setting, whatever it may be. And of course, where did I leave off from the day before? What tasks are still left at hand? And that's what I fell in love with. Things that I didn't like about this,

is the load times. There is a lot of loading in between coming back to home base, going out into the world, loading up, skipping this, skipping that, is just a lot of like cutscenes that don't matter, that then turn into load screens, that just kind of slow down the gameplay, unfortunately. And there are some really awesome creatures in this game. And I thought, you know, with my minimal knowledge of Pickman,

that there would be some like larger than life, kind of almost boss fight creatures. And I really didn't see a, large variety in that element. There's a lot of creatures and there are a lot of fun ones that do different and unique things. But when it comes to like big, oh, wow moments, this is a crazy boss fight. Not as many as I was anticipating.

I thought there should be more. And that one was kind of a down for me on that one. So those are my two little critiques of the game this fall. I have so much, so many questions. So we're watching footage right now. And obviously I've seen footage of Pickman before, but I've never looked at it and gone, oh, that's something I want to play. That seems like whatever.

And that has led to, not fully grasping, I think, what Pickman is. And audio listeners, you can't see it, might be doing the same thing, right? Halo Wars got brought up or whatever. So is this, this isn't turn-based strategy, right? This is strategy. I would call it more real-time strategy, right? I think that's why Halo Wars was brought up.

And for me, Age of Empires, Halo Wars, Warcraft 3, really resonates with me. And that is real-time strategy. What do you do with unit management? What are you doing with the tasks at hand? And that does play into Pickman. That is what Pickman is. Sure, I'm not fighting for. other people and bringing on their units and having to adjust on the fly.

It is very much, hey, here are my tasks. I understand them and know them, but what am I doing moment to moments? And I think that's the big push here on Pickman. The word that they always bring up is Dan Dory, which is completing tasks in a timely and efficient manner. Okay. Where did that word come from? That's what it says.

I think it's a real word, but that's like the big word that they use in the game, Dan Dory. So then talk to me about now fail states because one of the things we talked about and remember blank was we didn't really talk about. this game. We talked about what it was and what people had found and yada yada and one of the great write-ins, I think was from Brandon, that was like it's stressful, but relaxing, this, but that what are we talking about in terms of fail states

and is game over and like, you said starting the next day and seeing what I didn't accomplish from the day before. So days are happening no matter what and your goal in the game is to get all the task done by the time what happens. So it was interesting when we did

the remember blank, people that had previously played the game talked about, hey, after 30 days, it was over, right? And I have not hit that point. I'm on day 28 right now. And I have not seen a end. Oh, you didn't complete all this in a timely manner, right? He's dead. So I'm currently going through. And I am not feeling any sort of pressure or, oh, man, I failed this task whatsoever. For me, it is very lax. It is very much come at how you want to, understand what's in front of you. And if you didn't bring the right tools for the job, come back the next day and do it again, right? And I think that's, encouraging for me that I talked about and remember blank of like this is a game that I would be

really excited to put in front of kids gamers that don't game all the time people that are veteran gamers I think it hits a wide range of people but it really comes down to are you interested in like a real-time strategy game that has to do with collecting just small inanimate objects that will make you smile right there's an ocarina there's a game boy advanced cartridge that will make you go ooh but then the other 90% of things are large pieces of fruits a shovel things like that So it is a very interesting balance. Real quick, Mike, I want to let you know. Dan Dori is a Japanese word that means progression of a story or procedure.

So it's the art of organizing your task strategically and working with maximum efficiency to execute your plans quickly. And that is exactly what Pickman is all about. And I really enjoyed that. And that's what I found the passion was. Right. I think there will be people say, oh, that's boring. Right. Like coming at it, there are zones, four zones that I play it through that are large but not massive.

right we brought up tiny kin as an example of me and blessing during that remember blank of like the traversal and how you're getting through it this is very boots on the ground they do introduce a cute puppy that you're going to ride on and yes it is faster it can swim but this isn't oh now all of a sudden i'm grinding on a rail across the map this isn't oh all of a sudden i'm levitating over a small hill is very boots on the ground so you will find joy and just slowly walking around the map and figure out what's going on in front of you but yeah it is about Here's the task, and each level has different things about them. What I really found that I liked was one of the levels had a high tide and low tide, right? So now I'm dealing with water in front of me. And how do you deal with water? You find the pickman that can swim. You find the pickman that can freeze the water so you can walk across it, or you wait to low tide, and then you go get your task done at that.

But there's so much more to this as well. Like I really was fascinated by what is the gameplay. And a lot of it will be during the day cycle. You are out collecting collectibles that will help. fuel the ship, you're going to find lost crew members because bringing it back to the story, Captain O is lost. A lot of people have come to this planet looking for Captain O or possibly just looking at this planet. And now is your job as the rookie of the rescue mission crew to go and save these people. So you will also find other Gibronis out there that you will bring back

to the spaceship and they'll kind of colonize and hang out while they await for you to take off back home. Did you feel invested in that in that aspect at all? Or do you kind of just feel like the people even just other things you're collecting. No, I thought they did a really good job. It actually felt really rewarding to find new people, right? So on the other side, you rescue the rescue crew, which each person does something different, right? One guy is the captain of the ship, so I need him to take off. The other guy is the recon guy.

So you find him early so he can then plot out different parts of the map that you can go to and land on. One guy is the lab technician that will then be able to upgrade the pup suit, upgrade your suit, sell you different items. The one gal you rescue early on is the pup trainer who will be able to rescue that. Then pass the rescue crew, there's different pieces of this, right? There's a guy who's interested in collecting different items from around the world and planets, right? So for him, he catalogs all your items that you get.

I thought they did a great job with all these different people that have fun backstories that you go talk to that have different parts of the world. They snap quick, right? So the guy who's all about your collections, you find him. halfway through the game, let's say, or whatever. He snaps into it. He goes, hey, if you go find these as a side objective, I'll give you reward points, right?

What I love about this game is, you immediately talk to him right afterwards. He snaps. Oh, you've already found 30. Awesome. You're good to go. I don't have to go for a day, find one, and then he snaps into it.

They snap immediately, which I thought was really cool. And there's multiple of these people, right? There's a school trip that got lost. There's a television station that got lost with their people. And every single one of them have a small story. A number of them have small side objectives that want you to complete, that want you to do, fight off different animals, come back, report them to me. I'll give you a reward point.

So I like that. I'm finding people, and especially when you come home to base, you can see them spread across the area and you start to make a larger and larger little home base. And each one is there. And each one is doing something cool, which I like a lot. How do you feel about the depth of the gameplay? Like it being a strategy game, do you feel like you're using your noggin to solve problems

and you're actually getting better at this? Or does it kind of feel like, Oh, this is an introduction to this type of game. 50-50 blend here. I think I am using my noggin and I am thinking about what I need to bring in to each day to complete each task. But at the same time, I can see the criticism of, oh, I'm bored. This is the same thing over and over again. And it is very much like that, right?

Like, you do not have to think outside the box. You can bring a lot of your favorite pickman into each day and still complete the task that you need, right? So there is this weird blend of I didn't get stumped a lot. I didn't have these mind-scratching puzzles where I couldn't figure it out. It was very much, hey, walk around, go to X, Y, and Z and collect these collectibles, bring them back in a timely manner. That was it, right? And I think there's something to be said on you could push a little bit harder to make them

more head-scratching puzzles. But at the same time, like I said, I think this is so approachable and welcoming to anyone that I think they've found the right mix of it's just a good time doing this. I was going to say, rather than be pushing you and, you know, really challenging you with puzzles. Is it just satisfying? Yeah. Was that?

Yeah, it's just satisfying to find that. And they do another good job. Like I talk about the snappiness. Every single time you find a new little dungeon or a little tunnel to go through. If you complete it fully, they put a flag up next to say, hey, you've done that 100% in it, right? If you don't, you know, you can come back and do it again. And I love that. I'm a big stickler of, I need to know if I completed this.

Gray out the icon on the map. Put a flag up next to this little area. So I know I'm done. Awesome job of that. And of course, that's what the game is all about, is it's a collectathon. It is completing these tasks. So it is their job to say, hey, like I said, I have four areas.

Every single one I know what percentage are at. The first one 99%, the second one 94, the third one, 57. Like, they're tracking my progression every single time. And I like that. So are you excited to beat this game? And if so, yes, are you excited to go back 100% everything? Or do you think that it's going to hit a point? You're like, I did what I got to do.

No, I will 100% everything. As you can see, I've already done the first two. I've gotten lost in the sauce of this game where all I want to do is collect everything and say that I did 100%. Because I think that is really what this game is all about, is doing it all, right? And I am excited to see, where's Captain O? What happened to Captain O? Because there's these really cool little treats and little teases throughout the game

that you'll see of like, what is he up to? Where did he go, right? You'll get Captain's logs. And the crew will talk about, oh, he was doing this or, oh, hey, what is he? you've been up to, right? I don't want to spoil anything, but like, I like that they give you little breadcrumbs. And then on top of that, there is some really cool gameplay involved as well, right? Not only just the collectathon, but they do a couple of different things that I thought was cool. You can go out at night. And so there is a night mission game mode about this, which is very much

tower defense. It is not going to collect. It is, you have two areas that you are protecting. No. The first thing you said is turn me off. I don't know power defense. You will have to do this because you are going to collect different space humans that are now infected by some sort of weird space disease. And the only way to get the antidote is to go out on night missions, complete these tower defense missions, and then you'll get an ingredient for the antidote. But I really like the tower defense. Okay. Because I like tower defense in general because it's like, is it another one that's just, it's not punishing? It's just satisfying.

It's satisfying and easy. I don't think it's overwhelming at all. So you'll start off with what? Brain dead? Yeah. Brain dead is easy. You'll start off with one little base. And your goal is to, with your little glowing pickman, run off, go collect more glowing pickman. Come back to base, defeat the animals that are coming at it. It's very easy waves. It's only about three minutes.

So you're never there for a long time, right? But it progressively gets a little bit different, right? Now you have two bases. Oh, did we tell you, you can expand your base? So now the animals affect the first tower instead of your. main base, right? So if you're really quick on the draw, you can start pushing them back and then fight them at your will or let them come closer to you and really extend out the time. Thought that was a fun way to switch up the gameplay, right? Then there's two more cool ones.

On top of that, there is some arena-based gameplay that I thought was cool. They have the Dandori battles, which is 1v1, right? So you can play 1v1 against the computer, 1v1 local co-op, or if you'd like a teammate, you can go 2V1 against the computer. But these Dand-Dory battles will happen throughout the story. And essentially what it is is you're put into a small arena and it is your job to get as many collectibles faster than the other guys getting collectibles. So you have your tasks, which I really love.

You get to prioritize. Is it, hey, I'm going to quickly go over and grab the biggest, baddest item for the most points? Am I going to start grabbing small items? Am I going to kill animals around my base? Or am I going to go collect even more Pickman to now have a larger army to go really faster on the end time? and I love this battle of being able to choose what I wanted to do,

change it up every single time with my strategy. And also, you can go beat up on the other guy. You can go bang into their dog and make them distracted. You can steal from them. So if their pickmen are running away with it, if I have more pickment on that item, it'll come back to my base. I loved every single time I got in the Dandori battle.

I thought that was a really, really good time. And then also, there's the Dandori challenges, which is just simply a time trial. hey, here's a small arena. There is X amount of collectibles. How fast can you do it to get a better medal every single time you play? And I always love that, right? Because you're pushing me to get better to re-stratage and think.

And we all circle back, right? It's about task management. It's about what you can do an efficient amount of time with the tools that you've been given. And they do a really good job at making the gameplay sing not only from the normal day-to-day in the night cycle, but also, hey, here's some fun options that you can play and really enjoy. So you're not fully done with it, but you're saying so fun. you give it a four out of five saying it's great. Some of your criticisms seem to be wanting to a little bit more set pieces or something like that,

boss fights and loading screens, things like that. Do you think that more set piece stuff would have taken this to a five? Or do you think that for what this game is offering, a four kind of seems like a ceiling for you? No, I don't think. I think if you had a little bit more, I would call it a five because the gameplay really sings. I think where I'm really stuck is the load screens. It is a lot and it slows down my momentum of fun. And I think that's the downfall of this.

Even if you're skipping through the cutscenes, because it's like it's the same cutscene every time. The day ends. We go back to home base. It shoots us up in a rocket. We go back to our home HQ. Recycle. Go back.

Do the same thing. It just slows it down so much. I think that speaks, of course, the switch hardware, but also the game design of like, that's what this is. Every single time we have to reload into this and just slows down my fun that I would

having where I finished the day. I'm like, oh, man, I got seven tasks to do. I can't wait to get back to it. Load screen. Okay, get home. I got to reload. Okay, I got to talk to these people. Now I got to talk to him to send off my ship, reload. And then I get back into it. And it's just like, it slowed me down so much that I would lose that momentum of fun that I was having. I do say, I think there would be a benefit of having more set pieces, but more bosses, right? Like, there's like some really cool big animals that you will see and be wowed by, but there's not enough of them. There's not moments where I go,

oh my gosh, like what am I going to do here? And you don't have that panic like you talked about. I'm like, oh, no. But I think that also speaks to the game of like, it is more of a chill experience. And maybe they don't want you to just be like on panic's edge all the time

because this guy showed up out of nowhere on you. So something that I'm very impressed with is like you are excited to go back 100% this. Are you then going to be fulfilled with that? or you got three other Pickman that are all on the switch for you, bro. Yeah, I think that's where I'm going to need the community and people that are into Pickman to really guide me of like, are the old Pickman's as fun as this, right? Is the quality of life there?

Is it maybe slower or doesn't have the same controls as what I'm feeling right now on the Switch? Because I really fell in love with what I experienced here. And I would be interested in trying some more Pickman of like, hey, what are? Do they have big set battles that like are a cool boss, right? Like we saw footage from Pickman 1, 2, and 3 of like, there was a giant Siegel there all of a sudden. I'm like, oh, I want to see that. That would be a cool, fun moment, right?

But is the quality of life lacking on these older games that maybe it's like, hey, you played the best. Don't worry about that. Sure, sure. This is the pinnacle. So if you liked it, Dave Add X Wines. Yeah, let us know in the comments below. I'm really interested to see.

I'd love that. Yeah, because all of them are on Switch now. So I look back on and I go, man, this was a really fun experience. I'm glad that I raised my hand and took it on as a first timer. I think it's a great game. This is something I would recommend to my friends. This is something that if friends and family members had a switch and the kids were looking for something to play, I think this is something cool.

It would be the caveat of like, understand what you're getting into, right? This isn't Zelda. This isn't Mario. This is more of a chill, figure out your tasks and complete your task, which I think is something to be said for children on an educational level, right? Like if your kids into that, maybe they got the mind like me where I'm into that kind of stuff where I have tasks. And I like completing them in a timely manner.

maybe it's something's beneficial for kids. Like on that similar note, right, as you've been talking about it, I find myself wavering back and forth because you mentioned that it's approachable, right, does a lot for me because I'm somebody who's not very into Pickman. I'm not somebody who's not super into strategy games either, right? But then you talk about it. I'm like, okay, this sounds fun, but then you talk about other things around. I'm like, oh, but this still sounds like a strategy game.

My question for you is, who would you recommend this game to the most, aside from, like, big Pickman fans, right? Like, who would you recommend it to the most? And then also, who would you recommend it to the least? Like, is there anything that you would say as a deal breaker? If you don't like this, then don't touch Pickman. So who I'd recommend it to is Nintendo fans. I think if you're a Nintendo fan, it has a lot of Nintendo charm, right?

It has the really beautiful and well-thought-out worlds. It has the cute, friendly characters that you know from Nintendo, right? And it has the callbacks, right? Like, you're going to collect some items and you're going to go, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, like, that's really cool. I think Nintendo fans are an easy win. Going and beyond that, strategy fans, cozy gamers, I think this is a game for you. you, right? Where I turn to is like, my friends who are like, yo, we play in war zone eight hours a day. Maybe I don't recommend it to them.

Sorry, Nick. But I do know a number of my friends who like these kind of games and are into slowing it down and thinking of strategy games like that. So I would say on one side, if you're really against strategy games, if you're not in the mood for that, I guess this wouldn't be for you. But if you're into a cozy game, that's going to make you think just a little bit about like your approach and do you have fun trying to come at things at different? ways and like collecting things. If you're a collectathon fan, you're going to like this as well. Awesome. Oh yeah.

Any final questions or final words on Pickman 4? One more question. Yeah. Stylistically, art style and music. How would you describe those? Did those grasp you? Yeah, music grasping. I think the music is very good.

I like all the cute sounds that all the Pickman are going to do. I think it's a great blend of soft music in the background that won't low you to sleep, but will also capture you and like really build the setting to it all. And then on the art style, I mean, man, oh man, the animals and the worlds are all well thought out. You're in backyards. I guess I should have said that. The world very much seems like our world, right?

Like there's a backyard. There's a garden. You go inside of a home, right? So like, you're going to see things that you know, right? I'm on the couch all of a sudden. I'm riding on top of a drone right now to go up to a higher area, right? So like art style-wise, there's a lot of touches to human life that you're going to see. But there's also the weird and wacky characters that you're going to be like,

wow, that's a really fun, dumb idea that you made into an enemy that I like attacking. So I really like the art style of it all. I'm predicting for the end. Big O has been caught and he's put with a bunch of amoeboes. Thank you. Shout out. It's a big O. And so I think that would be an interesting one of like, you know, Captain Olamour,

he's not the guy. It's you. You get to create your own person. And I thought that was really fun. Very basic character creator. But like enough to have some fun I made me with my red mustache. I thought that was funny as can be. You can change your characters look any time throughout.

the game. You do rescue someone that can change that. So like, you're not tied to it. But I think that'll be something when we talk about approachability and welcoming new players. You're not Captain Alamoire anymore. You're not the guy that everyone knows and loves. You're your own self. You get to be the rookie and be a part of this story. Very cool. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. I'm proud of you, Mike. That was a good review. Oh, thanks guys. Yeah. It's where Mike gets to show off the game. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff, man. Jumping into a game a genre that's not normally your thing and you did the damn thing. So very, very proud of you there.

Thank you, everybody, for your support over on patreon.com slash kind of funny. Because of your support, you don't get to hear this ad. But for everyone else, here's a word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Liquid Ivy. Y'all know how much I love to stay hydrated and liquid IV makes it easier and better than ever to ensure that I'm always living my best, most hydrated life. And you can to Liquid IV, the number one powered high. brand in America is now available in sugar-free with three times the electrolytes of the leading

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That's 20% off anything you order when you use promo code, kind of funny, at Liquidiv.com. Bless. Tim. At Summer Game Fest, we got to play a whole bunch of games. and the one that I wouldn't shut the fuck up about was Viewfinder All right Andy I think and you got to play it at GDC

Andy I didn't see it And he was like yo This game is incredible You gotta check it out And I feel like the buzz has just been ruin Things have been going on And now it's out And now it's out

ViewFinder is out You can play it on PlayStation 5 I am about halfway through the game Greg you are If a blessing I would need your help Because going off of trophies I've entered the fourth realm or the world, which according to trophies

would be the last one to get all the collectibles in. So I assume the fifth is like just an ending that you go to. I mean, I'll say four fifths through the game. Okay, there you go. And you, as of today, have beaten the game. Yes, I have. So we're going to get a little, an extra review

out of this one. What would you give Viewfinder on the kind of funny scale? So this is a tough one, right? You know, I've been trying to go into Viewfinder are relatively blind because Andy hyped it up after GDC and I was like, okay this sounds like my kind of thing, right? You talk about

Pickman not being Mike's kind of thing. This is, it seems you say, first person puzzle game with... Puzzle Poppy. Yeah, that's what they call me in the streets. They call me puzzle poppy. It's usually tell me that there's weird perspective stuff going on. I'm like, all right, I'm in, this is my type of shit. There was a demo that went up. I did not play the demo. I've

tried not to see trailers, right? The most I've seen has been what's been brought up during games cast as Barrett's brought up B-roll and stuff. And so going into this, I have been super excited. I've been, you know, super into the idea. I was going into this with very, very high hopes. And at the end of the day, I think the game is good.

For me, the game doesn't necessarily reach great status. And that, for me, falls on a few things, right? I think the idea and the concepts in Viewfinder are so excellent. And the tools they give you are really cool. I think that stuff lives up to everything we've been talking about as far as the reality-bending stuff, taking a picture and putting up that picture in front of you and then pressing R2 and having reality be bent and shaped around what that image is, that stuff feels cool every single time you do it. The ideas that this game puts forth in terms of you stand over here and you try to line up

three versions of an image, like put the puzzle pieces together and now that image is taken over the real world, I think that stuff lines up. Even some of the stuff they do with different filters for the world or different moments where it is, oh you're doing one thing and then you're in one place you look at a thing and now you're in a different place that stuff I think comes through and hits for me the places where the game falls

short a bit are one story you know the story never moved me throughout my time playing the game I was hoping that there would be that turn where I'm like oh okay this is what's happening oh this is the cool thing that the story is trying to convey through it didn't have that twist that you get out of a portal

it didn't really have the personal element that a game like McKett had where McKett was about like this relationship in the separation, right? I didn't have that special element to the story that moved me. There is a story here for me none of the elements of that really hit. And then things like, you know, aesthetic soundtrack, like art style, how the game looks. I think the game looks fine. I am not in love with the visual elements of it. Like there's not a, there are very few moments where visual, I'm like, oh damn, they took this to the next level. Again, when I talk about filters, there are moments.

right like one of the things I liked that happened early on in the game is you pick up an image and there's like there's a different art style to it and you put it up and all of a sudden boom like that happened like that is placed into your world and you can walk into it and that is really cool and it changes the audio too yeah it's like it feels like a completely different experience yeah love that stuff my thing with that is I feel like it was that those moments are a bit too few and far between and not as well utilized as I think they could have done with the puzzle elements of the game like there are stuff like that that comes back up later on. But again, like, there are a couple of puzzles that use it,

and then it feels like that those ideas quickly go away. And I would take that, and I'll apply it to pretty much any major idea or concept that they introduced. Like, it does the good thing of pacing in a puzzle game where it is, all right, you did this level, a few levels in. Now, let's give you a new tool to work with. And they do that, and they're like, let's give you another really cool tool to work with.

And so by the time you're getting later into the game, it's like, wow, these are a lot of cool different elements they were giving me, but I feel like none of them build up to, oh man, now we are going crazy with it. It feels like they introduce it and go, all right, onto the next one, onto the next one. And I feel like they miss out on so much of the potential of where they could have taken the puzzles. And that's where I would have wanted a lot more. But at the end of the day, after beating the game, it took me about four hours, right? It's a pretty quick play-through.

Even if you are doing a lot of the side stuff, which I did most of the side levels, I want to go back and I want to complete the ones that I didn't do. After beating it, I still had a really good time with it, right? I'll still say that this is a good game, right? I'll put it on the good side of okay as opposed to the meth side of okay. But it's not great enough to where I would say, oh, this is a great puzzle game. This is a four out of five, mainly because I can name so many other puzzle games that are in a similar vein that I'll recommend over it, right? Like, of course, Portal, but then even things like Manifle Garden or Super, I would put this almost more in the superliminal range.

But even those have things that, or Superliminal has things that it does worse and better than this game. But yeah, this game I'll put in that range of puzzle game. I think it's cool, but I would have wanted a lot more out of it. Yeah, I'm mega hyped for this one, and the more I played, like, I'm really loving my time with it, but I really agree with a lot of what you're saying here. I feel like the story bits, like there's some early, early, early stuff that happens that I'm like, oh, this is where we're starting this, like, let's go. And almost immediately, I was like, okay, I don't like the story stuff that much.

Like, there's a, the voice talks way too much, and it just doesn't seem interesting. seems a little bit like part of a different game almost. Like it kind of feels like more distracting to me than additive to the experience. And it's kind of a bummer because like I feel like the opening bits. I was like, oh, wow, this could be really cool. Almost reminds me of Firewatch in a way where you're like constantly questioning like what's going on here. And I just feel like I already know. I'm already kind of like, all right, I see what's going.

You see where it's going. And I'm like, oh, man, it's a little bit of a let down there. I do really like the difference though between this and some of the other puzzle games. like you were talking about like portal and things like that where I appreciate, I can see it being a criticism of it not building upon itself, but I appreciate the kind of one and done nature of the puzzle gimmicks where so far I feel like I'm not doing the same thing over and over and over, which I feel like with puzzle games at their best, they teach you something and then you do it a different way and then you do it in addition to another thing and then flip it backwards, reverse it,

like do all that and it's like you become a master of the skill set. Whereas this kind of just feels like so far every single. puzzles completely its own thing and it does feel like it gradually gets up there in terms of complexity but it's not adding on top of itself it's more just how complex the puzzle is and i found that kind of or i'm finding it kind of refreshing like i like that um but i can totally understand it compared to some of the other things not really hitting that mark so far where i'm at i'm a little higher than a three um but i i i think that a lot of that has to do with like the visuals and stuff i have so far have been really wowed by.

But what you're saying, it's letting me down a little bit where I'm like, oh, man, because I love the most are those filter things. Like, you bring it up and you go into this other world, and it feels like you're in another world, and you back out and you're back there.

And it's like, how does this work? And I think the thing that I'm most wowed by by this game is it feels like magic. Like, every time I see it and it works the way that I think it's going to, I'm just so damn impressed with it.

So I'm still really high on it, but like I think that you're very right with a lot of what you're saying of like I wish it was a little more this, I wish it was a little more that, but having a great time so far. One thing I do want to shout out to for this as a puzzle game, and this is especially coming off of a game like Tears the Kingdom, is that it doesn't feel like there is a set solution for puzzles.

And I think that's one of the best things, and probably the best thing that I would say this game does, is that there are so many puzzles where I felt like I either cheated or I found my own way. And because of, because all the puzzles revolve around you just making your own geometry in the world they kind of have to build it in a way where all right no matter what like we got to make these ideas work

and like whenever I would do a thing where it's like oh am I supposed to do this? Am I cheating? And never felt like I was cheating myself out of a good experience. And what's really cool about it too is I feel like the game incentivizes you to fuck it up. Yeah. Like in the same way a couple months ago like when everyone was first playing tears of the kingdom it's just like how can it be possible that this game is not breaking? Like we're throwing all this stuff at it and like that solution works. somehow and didn't break the game.

I feel like this game, like, by design, is you breaking the world so much? But when you fuck it up, you can just rewind. And I feel like that the rewind feature is something that I think the entire thing is built around so well that I never feel scared to try something. I always feel kind of like pushed to try it. And if it doesn't work, go back and really loving that

so far. But Greg, you're further than me. How are you feeling about it so far? It's interesting. So I talked with this on PSI love you because we had an embargo. So I had my night, afternoon into a night with it where I played up and it started

chapter four or whatever World Four. And when I was talking to Janet about it, I was like, you know, it was a barger for review. So it was like,

whatever. I was like, you know, I'm way early, but I think I'd be a four because I had a great time with it and this, that the other.

What's been interesting is I was, I'm not cold on it. I think everything you guys just said is completely accurate. But it's that thing of I sat down the other night

to do it and it was, I saw it and I went to Diablo. And it was that idea of just like, I don't know how to put it. I'm not the puzzle gamer. I don't traditionally like a puzzle game, right? I've talked about it before with the Jonathan Blow stuff, right?

The witness, they've just never worked for me. When McKett dropped, I jumped in, and what I liked about it was the story, and it was pulling at me that way, and it's what I remember about that game. And so for this one, what I find interesting about it, hearing you guys talk, watching the trailer, and then just what I've thought about from it the past few days, the one thing I've thought about that I can't get over is that I don't think the game

does a good job, and I think it's because it hops around so much and gives you so much different stuff, of explaining its rules in a way, or at least how it would like you to solve stuff. Sure, there's a thing, you can do whatever you want to, but watching that trailer where they were putting the stuff in sideways so that things would roll, batteries would fall off ledges and grab it.

I was like, oh, I never did that. So for me, the game was always just, it has been, put it in front, go get the thing, do the thing, do the thing. And I felt like, there was a point in, like, World 2, I guess, where I was like, man, I'm just fucking. crushing these things and I'm not having the urica aha moment of a Zelda shrine where I go in and I get the thing but I'm enjoying going through I'm enjoying petting the cat I'm enjoying the thing fine but what I find interesting now reflecting back on it not having played it in a few days is this

one fucking puzzle where I was I didn't know there was a hint system until this thing saw me struggling enough that it was like you can use a hint system and I did it and I was like oh well I didn't even know you could do this with the thing and it's a similar thing of oh well if you put the thing here, it'll roll this way. It's like, well, I've never done that. And I'm into world four or three. I forget when I had the struggle. And like, I didn't know that.

And that's frustrating that I got that far. And then I felt dopeish. I wish I would have had more stumbles early on rather than feel like, I'm acing this test to get to this thing to have a weird stumble. And granted, this is my own life, right, where it's like I had the stumble and then maybe did one other puzzle and that had to stop. So it's like the last taste in my mouth, really. But it's interesting, I think that for me, the stumble is what stands out rather than

the different environments and the jumping and the changing of music and all that stuff. I'm enjoying myself with it and I think also, you know, I didn't play it when I had the chance. I think I sat down and I was kind of fried that day and it's like, oh, I didn't want to jump into a puzzle game. I'd rather just go beat the shit out of little stuff and listen to music. I mean, it breaks your brain, man.

Like, you know. But it didn't, I didn't really, like, again, outside of that one thing, I don't think I've been broken. But there's been... Sorry, not even necessarily in puzzles, just in the way that, like, there's like, there's vertical to it. Like, there's like, I think just the way of you entering the world and stuff,

at least I found. you got to be in it. I feel like it takes something from you to interact with the game. It takes years off your life every time you play. Yeah, and to your point, I totally feel what you're talking about in terms of, oh, I could have turned this surface and rolled things. I would never have guessed that. And like, for me, I don't recall any puzzle where I had to do something like that.

Yeah, okay, yeah, that's cool and that's neat, but I wish you would have held my hand to show me that. So then I would have experimented with that. Because, again, I'm basically done with the game. I mean, there's more puzzles, obviously. But I've gotten to a point where it is just like, very, put the thing to where I can jump to it to get out with the thing I need, right? Or clip off this side of the wall to walk around the thing where it's like, I don't get the,

oh man, it's like, here's the kingdom. I'm breaking the world as much as I'm like, man, right, climbed over the thing and got the thing. I'm like, that was what this was. All right, but on to the next thing. Yeah. And I think that's where it falls short for me too, is that just the fact that it feels like I'm going through the motions of a puzzle game.

It doesn't feel like I'm being blown away by a puzzle game, right? Like I get through the levels. I'm like, okay, that was pretty good level, right? And I go on to the next one. and the rules here and the tool set they give you is really dope to do that. But it is like the first time I solved a puzzle, like a light puzzle solution early on in the game, right? The first time I'd solve a puzzle by shooting a picture of like the panel that you need to get onto and then place the picture down and then doing that. I was like, damn, what a cool thing.

I did that like 15 times more, right? And like it's it's that thing where it felt so cool the first time. But then the second, third, fourth, all the way through. I was like, okay, well, I've done this now. Like, what's the next thing that you're going to show me? How are you going to build on top of it to make it to make it, like, feel cool? You know, like, the feeling of it, I think, wore off way earlier than I would have expected for this game, especially for a game that's only about four hours long.

Yeah. Bums me out a little bit. But it's still really cool game. It's still a good game. Swimming some sevens. It's going to be fun. Swimming of sevens, baby. Three out of five.

Um, so then moving on from Viewfinder, Greg, what do you, what are you been playing? Is there just all Diablo all day? Uh, no. No, I did the Oxen Free Review, right? That was last week, and that was a big part of it. I'm playing another redacted thing that I started the other night. So it's been, yeah, a hodgepodge of what I'm reviewing, and they've been smaller games or shorter games or jumping into something to be able to talk about it.

But it was like Viewfinder was a case of, oh, it's not on any main content, and it'll be over before, you know, so I can just do the PSI Love You Bit, and then if I get back to it. And so, yeah, then it's just been, well, season drops. Season 1 is coming up Thursday morning. The altars carry over. The map carries over. It's been, I have been doing what Mike hates the most and having podcast games where it's like, let's mute the music, let's kick on something on Spotify.

And then let's just look at this polygon photo of all the altars of Lilith and go click, click, click and get them all and be done with it. Occasionally get messed up with some beasts in there and do some stuff. Yeah, I'm similar to you in that I'm in redacted season right now with some of my stuff. But this is the first games cast I've been on that I can say I officially have saved Hyrule. I beat Tears of the Kingdom this weekend. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, just what a wonderful experience.

I can't wait to talk about this game for the rest of my life. Like, it's so damn special to me. Did you cry? Oh, yeah. You know, cry is a weird thing where it's like through the out, like, the last couple hours of the game. I just feel like it was just such a beautiful rise and they just nailed the execution of it all. Where I feel like I was on the brink of tears the entire time. Like, I don't know that I ever fully cried from it.

Sure, sure, sure, sure. But it was like, it was emotional. Like, it was really, like, special. and it's like not anything like, oh, this happened, so it was hype and it made me feel all that stuff happened too. I just feel like the way that it was a culmination of this experience and like the context of this being the sequel to Breath of the Wild or what Breath of the Wild meant and how much we've talked about that game

and like how mind-blowing it was and like here we are years later still talking about it as special, but now this new one came out that almost makes the other one feel obsolete. Like how is that possible? But like, that's how I feel. And playing through tears of the case, kingdom's like I want to play it forever like I have so much more like when it ended I think my percentage was like 45 or something like that and I'm like you tell me there's 55% more things to

do yes yes uh it's just great man like I I feel like there's so much in it that was just so rewarding and I really feel like I lucked out in the way that I played through it of um not focusing on doing the main quests like all like I I did one of the the temples and and pretty early on. And I was just like, I'm just going to go out and like strategically start a task. Like if something pulls me in, I'm going to do all of those things. So getting the little tears and memories at some point, I came across one. And I'm like, you know what?

I'm going to do all these before I move on. And then it was like, all, cool, the fairy shrines. I came across one of the quests to get that. You know what? I'm going to do all those until I do the next thing. And any shrine I find along the way, get that thing done. And it allowed me to kind of just like meet the game where it was trying to find me. and like really kind of get the most out of that stuff.

So this weekend, it was just back to back to back to back to back main quest. And God, I had the best time doing that. And it's funny because like some people will have the criticism of like there's certain cutscenes because the game is nonlinear. You can experience things in whatever order you do it. Because of that, they need to kind of like retread information a whole bunch. God, they could have done it a hundred more times. Guys, like I was so in.

man, even doing it back to back to back to back. My argument against that is that, like, there's something special in ritual. It's like when you go to, when you're playing Pokemon and you're, like, beating gyms over and over again, it still feels special every single time, right? Because that ritual is what you're going for, right? That is the thing that you're collecting. And so I'm right there with you with those, with those moments that retread. It's like, no, I felt it.

Like, every time I did one of those, it felt special to me. Yeah, man, it's just, I can't stop thinking about the game. The music cues, especially towards the end. Like, I can't wait to get the soundtrack for this thing. Like, I was so blown away. And I already knew I loved it. I can't believe beating the game how much even more I feel. I love it.

I've been asked a lot and talking a lot about for as much as a love Final Fantasy 16, which is deeply and intensely, like, is there any chance it beats Tears the Kingdom for my game of the year? Absolutely not. After beating Tears of the Kingdom. I mean, I even knew that like going in, but like after the last bits, it's like not a chance. Having said that, God damn, what a one and two for me. Like I think that Crash Team Rumble number three

Uh You got Haven't played it up Crush team Rumble It definitely gets the shout out For like, yo This is pretty damn fun I've been by my tongue

We'll talk about it Two I know Do we do? Yeah Yeah Yeah I think it's Impossible for Spider Man

To get in these tears But I hope that I'm wrong there Um But How many hours are you? In tears Uh shit I won

20 Hell yeah I love that for you Yeah Yeah What about you? Oh man I mean, you've surpassed me.

I think I'm probably at like a 105 last one I checked. Yeah, I think that's right. But I was telling you this on Games Daily, but like I can't believe that within a couple months I got both tears and Final Fantasy 16. And specifically the last like four hours of each of those games are some of my favorite gaming experiences I've ever had. It just, I feel gluttonous in like how much hype and like love I can have for video games. and they just have delivered, like, unlike anything I could have ever expected for them. So shout out to you video games. Good cool.

What do you guys think it'll take for another developer to put out a game that is like, Here's the Kingdom, right? Like, not just, because I know the argument would be like, what about Eldon Ring? And I maybe put Eldon Ring in the conversation, but I think even more so a game that just, like you said, meets you at everywhere you're at where it is. There is no moment where I really want to put this game down, right? Like, this game pretty much does everything. Like it is an 11 out of 10 video game.

I'm trying to think of like who else can do that, right? Like what other franchise can do that? It's so complicated because I agree. It's an 11 out 10 video game. I have so many problems with it. So many. There are so many things about specific things. I'm like, I hate this.

Like this isn't fun to me. It's cumbersome. I don't like it. This part's dragging a little bit. Like, but that doesn't matter because of how much overwhelming good there is. And I think that that's the magic. I know I'm biased a million different ways on this. But it's like I'm only biased because of,

what has been given to me over my life. Nintendo has a magic to it. And when they nail that magic, when that vibe is all working, there's something that's so special about it that the good outweighs the bad. There's so much bad. We know there's so much bad.

I think that's the thing that's hard to answer your question. Like, what other developer? What would the game be? What is that? I think that there's just like this, so many factors at play that are very difficult to be able to have in the first place, but then put together in a meaningful way.

Um, so I, I don't know, but I mean, I do think that Eldon Ring is a perfect example of a game that does that building off of the magic that from software has built over the last decade, right? That's a rarity to be able to have the secret sauce of everything build up this perfect pinnacle moment. Um, but I don't know. Do you guys have thoughts? I've got, I've got one. Kajima makes the spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid Five essentially of just hearing about the magic of like, granted I haven't played it, but like just hearing about the, the stealth game play, but then also, like, the, you know, some of the things that weren't great about the last third of that game. And then I think, like, his mind and what he's been able to do with

Death Stranding and trying to see even more of, like, what he could push even further in a open world stealth kind of game, I think would be, like, one of the only few things I could see that would be on that same level of just trying to think of- Yeah, he's still right. That's what I was talking about earlier in the year, maybe last you're about like, man, I'll pay this much for tiers of the kingdom, it being like $1,100 or something like that, right? I think people were asking like, what other game would you do that and all that? And the only thing I could think of was if Kojima was able to make like a Metal Gear Solid 6 that was connecting 5 to Metal Gear 1 and 2 or Metal Gear Solid, right? Like, I think you're right on there.

And I think one of the big reasons for that is there's a lot of shared, I think, design elements of a Brefflewild and a Meliger Solid 5, specifically the parts of them that are very immersive sim, where it is, hey, we are, the world is going to react to you, how you, how you behave in it. And also, like, you know, there are so many different ways to approach any scenario where it is, all right, there's a desert storm. Let's use this to our advantage. Or, oh, man, you keep getting headshots on these enemies. Cool, they're going to react to you and start wearing helmets to the next mission, right?

Like, things like that that make it feel like this world is alive and reactive. I think that is the thing that makes it powerful. And I think both tiers and Middle Year's Sautil 5 have that. And so I think that there's a part to that it's jumping off of this that I think if I would have interjected earlier would have said I think I think Barrett's wrong, but I think blessing brings it to where it's right. Because I think a part of what you're talking about with Zelda is the IP and it is the nostalgia and it is the knowledge base already. For Barrett, if Kajim was going to make the spiritual successor to Metal Gear, I was just being realistic. I think you're already losing so much already, right? Where it is the idea that anytime you start a new IP, there's a barriered entry, there's a new thing.

I don't like this character. I don't like it as much a snake. That a da-da-da-da. Whereas if, obviously, and I know, bear, I understand. But if you were able to jump to Metal Gear Solid Six, there'd be this whole thing. I'll be this is the let's go and what are you going to do and how you're going to build on a blah.

To bring Eldon Ring to the conversation, I think because of how those games are, Eldon Ring isn't the spiritual. It is the next one, right? It is the next from soft game. It is what you expect and what you want from that. I would go and reach back in terms of this, and it's not exactly the same,

but it's similar right, God of War, where it was the 20, 2018's coming out party and that was such a different thing. Because again, that's what we're talking about Zelda. You're talking about a beloved franchise that, you know, is a big deal to a lot of people, but it wasn't to everybody for a long time. And then what Breath of the Wild was, right? Where it was an open world Zelda, what are you talking about?

How's that going to be blah, blah? And you got you're like, holy shit. And then to take that and turn it on its head again with it. Well, now you're creating you're doing this thing and it's the same world, but it's up, it's mid, it's down. There's all these things to do in it. Like, they made something so creative, but then again, are pulling from a nostalgia based in fandom, right?

That Breath of the Wild was so many people coming back to Zelda, maybe that they hadn't since SNES, right, or N64, and then to bring even more here. Like, there's so many different things at play that aren't just, it's an 11 out of 10 video game. It is. I'm not saying it's not. I love it.

It's the idea that it's 11 out of 10 nostalgia dump. It's an 11 out of town Zelda game. It's 11 out of 10 Nintendo first party. It's 11 out of, I mean, like, there are so many things that add up to all the different resources and needs you need to get in there to make that happen and make that kind of special sauce and I think that's so

so hard and you can't even say it once in a lifetime because we have other examples but it's like and this one got a sequel. Yeah, exactly right? It's incredible. Yeah, I mean, I do think that that is something that we'll be talking about for a very long time is the idea of Breath of the Wild

Two Tiers the Kingdom to amazing video games that might not be everyone's kept a tea. No video game is everybody's. But, like, how many lists are topped, like, best games of all time lists are topped by Breath of the Wild. And at this point, you can't say it's a recency bias. At this point, it's like, no, it's been five years. And, like, it's still the top of most lists people put out there. And I think that that's about to change because of tears of the kingdom.

What does that mean for Breath of Wild? I don't think we've ever seen something like this since maybe like Mario 3 and Mario World, you know, like, Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 7. This idea of, like, there is a debate. There is the conversation of, like, if you're making a best, of list. How many Mario games you're really going to put on there? I know they all belong there, but like, are you really going to share whatever? It's like, I do think at this point, Breath of Wild, it's not going to make it.

Tears of the Kingdom's going to make the cut in the place of Breath of the Wild, right? For most people, most lists, most curations of like that type of thing. So you compare that to God of War where it's like, I know, again, it's opinions. Everybody has one. I prefer Ragnarath to God

of War I. I prefer Last of Us 2 to last of us one. Both of those evolved the franchise there. grow amazing sequels. I don't think it's at all comparable, though, to Tears the Kingdom of World. Why is that? You know, I feel like that's the big conversation

that I would love to hear people's perspectives on over the next couple of years of like, despite all the games I named, in my opinion, being five out of fives, like, why does tears feel different than them to me? Yeah, I think there's a, I mean, there's a few things I would like to jump off of. One of those things would be the,

I think the institutional knowledge of that specific team is there, right, where that team has been working on Zelda for a very long time. And there have been, I mean, there have been plenty of tweets and threads and stuff, but one of the ones that I remember from about a month or so ago was that, um, the video of somebody showing the shrine where you get to attach a bridge to a, um, like a vehicle with wheels. And then the vehicle pulls the bridge across a gap of lava and the bridge just reacts accordingly, right? Like, it is, all of the geometry, all of, all of the physics happening in that clear. is insane.

And people are, developers are quote tweeting and like, how the fuck did y'all make this happen so seamlessly? Right? Like, this is crazy.

This shouldn't be able to happen. And it is the fact that those people have been working on that franchise for decades. And they have that experience. And when you take that amount of institutional knowledge

and build it off of what you had with Breath of the Wild, which was a game that was opening up Zelda to being this free, um, immersive system like, here's a handful of tools,

now do whatever to interact with the world. building off of that and having five years to do it and having the last year of polish right talking about how there was the interview with i forget it was ala new or or um or somebody else who was talking about how this game's been done for a year we've just been spending the last year just polishing i think that is a big part of why this game feels like magic right it is hey we have everything that we know about how to make this kind of game now let's add building and let's add these things and give people now an evolved tool set from what you had and bruffle out and build everything around the that and yeah whenever I play whenever I play Tears the Kingdom I'm still blown away by the fact that Ascend works the way it works. They have built a whole game where Ascend doesn't break the game at least substantially right at least like

you know there's the temples are built around it in a way where you're still getting the full temple experience the game is built around like Ultra Hand in a way where you're still like you're not destroying the game by using Ultra Hand and like those are like that I can't imagine how much like work goes

into creating something like that but they did it because the talent is there. And I don't know if there's at the, like, yeah, I don't know if there's any other studio, or at least that many other studios that have that level of knowledge over the years and that level of expertise and experience over the years to do something like that.

I think that is like the big secret sauce that they have there. Greg, I know you have a lot going on and Zelda is a very, very big game. I've heard you say that you're looking at this as a forever game of going back. The amount that we've been talking about it, me gushing about like the story bits and towards the

and stuff. Do you have motivation to get through the like hit the credits on this one or are you still like, you know what? I'm just going to take this in my own pace. I have motivation for it but I know you said it or one of you guys said earlier Blessing or you of right, but it's a game that meets you where you want to be. You know, Brian came through Altona from IGN.

We did eight less plays as a reunion thing. We played Zelda and that was cool. I'm just going to towers and unlocking towers. That's pretty much what we end up doing. Right. And so like I'm taking it to I'm taking my switch to Comic-Con, right? And I have nice flights and some nice airport time, and I'm planning on jumping back into where Brian and I left off

after a four-hour session there, right? But my plan is, I'm very much like you, where it's like, I want to go do all this other stuff. So I have a feeling I'm going to do all that other stuff for a long time and then eventually be like, all right, let's go see the quest through. Let's go do that. That's my plan for it. Yeah.

Awesome. I love that. Mike, I know you played a bit here and there. I'm going to go back and complete my final two dungeons and see it through. I would like to see Big Daddy Gannon and like what that fight is. Like I think the opening sequence of the hand holding him down and like kind of that tease of what's going to happen really excited me. I do want to see the end of it.

But I have been playing some dope games. Yeah. I hope you all have been talking a lot about Dave the diver on this show. Of course, if you haven't, I will continue to beat the drum for Dave the diver, which is an incredible video game. I have it loaded off my Steam deck and I was thinking about Comic Con. I'm like, no, I got to play some Zelda. It is truly a must play game.

I mean, this is a fun mismatch of genre. genres that does so well to sing. The characters is dope. The art design is dope. It is a really great game. I've talked about it on the Xcast a lot. Want to make sure this audience here knows about Dave the DiVicose and plays it. It's on Steam.

I play a lot about it on Steam. I'm talking about it on the Xcast. Because we've got to share the dope games in the world. That's one of that's, I mean, honestly, that's the like the tipping point for me is can I get it on to a real console instead of this fucking goddamn garbage PC thing. I have to use all. And then another one that I've been playing. Something really cool happened.

So behind the scene stuff has happened to a number of servers on old Call of Duty games and Shadow Run on the Xbox 360. And thanks to backwards compatibility, you can boot up any of those games on your Xbox and jump in. And there is a lively matchmaking that is going on right now where last night, me and my buddies played Modern Warfare 2. And it was a gosh darn blast. What's the story there? We were able to find games.

Why did this happen? I don't know. They said that Activision did. then I saw something today where it was like, oh, no Xbox did it. So who knows, I think they probably are anticipating, hey, if we kick these on, backwards compatibility after this acquisition might really fire this all up.

This is what I wanted to happen. This is happening. And so we jumped in last night and played Modern Warfare too. Found matches like that were laughing, having a ton of fun, seeing the old maps. And you go, oh, my God, this is what it was like. Seeing the guns, the call signs, right? Like, that was really, really dope.

and then on top of that, Shadow Run, a game that me and my friends, you can still play custom games, but it wasn't really matchmaking like that. All of a sudden, you can just play Shadow Run, and there are people playing Shadow Run the game. And that was so much fun. Like, who's ever working on that in the background?

I see you, and like, we're excited for this. Is it every college user, or is it just Modern Warfare, too? A lot of people were bringing up Black Ops before as well. It's a number of classic titles. That's all I care about. So, yeah, you can jump back in and have a good time. That's so cool. And it is totally worth it.

Yeah. Mike, holler at me for some Black Alpsic. I really want to play it. Let us know in the comments below. If you're going to finish Tears the Kingdom and what Activition Game Server you want to jump into with the backwards compatibility on Xbox. Mike, thank you so much for your picking review.

Thanks for joining us on Gamescast. And thank you for killing it on the kind of funny Xcast. Remember, Mike host, Xcast every single week. You'd subscribe to that on podcast services or find it on this very YouTube channel. YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. Until next time, I love you all. Goodbye.

You okay there, boss? Spill some water on yourself.