Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - The Plucky Squire Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

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What's up and welcome back to the kind of funny games cast for Tuesday, September 17th, 2024. Of course, I am your host, Tim Gettys today. I am joined by the new face of video games blessing at a 08 Jr. And the big daddy himself, Greg Miller. Ahoy, Timothy. We are weeks away from Ben's birthday. October 8th, of course, you all know it is going to be the vessel of hatred Diablo 4. We can't wait. There's no better way to celebrate my son's birthday than going out there and tearing it up Diablo style. Also, look at this. We got our, oh, it's not on a shot.

Five million hours watched on Twitch. And we get this. Oh, yeah. Thank you. That's exciting. That's what they say, right? Dang. We'd be twitching, y'all. We'd be twitching a whole bunch. When do we get the YouTube thing? Like, the play button. We got that a long time.

Oh, did I miss that? We got those when you were a fan. Oh, man, good for us. It was a traditional kind of funny thing of like, they hung in the old office. And then it was we moved here and it was like, where should we put them? And somebody was like, we should put them in the bathroom above the toilets. And then there was a conversation, isn't that kind of offensive to what they are?

And so then the conversation ended and we never hung them, period. Kind of funny, everybody. We should put them like over by the thermostat or something. The streaming room or something. Are you talking about the toilets, you cowards? You sit down and you look at what you achieved. True. That is very true.

That is very true. That is very true. Instead of right now with the bathroom, I'm just sitting there looking at a Babstar, a Batgirl like autographed drawing, which is awesome. But yeah, it's to Greg, which like obviously makes sense, but there's something just very funny about it just being in the bathroom. You know what I mean? Every time I'm in the bathroom, I think a Babstar.

It's a whole thing, everybody. Remember, this is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every weekday, we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics of video games live on YouTube, Twitch, and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please, please support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free. You can watch us record them live and you get a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go.

A little housekeeping for you. You already got a conversation about Marathon, Bungie's Marathon, maybe launching at $40. Okay, let's see how this goes over. I doubt it's going to go well, bless. It's not, it can't. It can't. I simply can't. But check out Games Daily to hear these beautiful gentlemen talk all about that.

And then after this, Nick is back and he misses gaming with Mike. So they're going to be playing more supermarket simulator. Nick's just all in, man. He just wants to work at a supermarket. I appreciate how many people saw the thumbnail from yesterday's thing. And then he got a new job on the kind of funny podcast and they thought he worked at Trader Joe's. I appreciate that. That is amazing.

And yes, of course, Nick Scarpino did in fact get a new job. If you want to hear about that, you're going to have to listen to the kind of funny podcast yesterday to kind of detail what that actually means and what it's going to mean going forward. So on the calendar, it said Kingdom Hearts 2. So he's switched from Kingdom Hearts 2 to supermarket simulator. And a big reason for that, bless. A big reason for that is at 2 p.m. The stream's going to be a little short today because at 2 p.m. Pacific time today,

waiting for the punchline. Nick Scarpino's full-length feature film documentary is, finally going to be released to the public for free so everyone will be able to watch it. It's going to be a YouTube premiere on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. So check that out. And do not fret

Mike will return to the friendship that is Kingdom Hearts too. Okay. He just wants a longer strict time. They ate the pow-pow fruit. And they're going to continue to eat that fruit. Thank you to our Patreon, producers Carl Jacobs, and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by Shady Ray's

and Hems, but we'll tell you all about that later. We got to get to it. The topic of the show. Tots, tots, tots, dot, dot, dot. The Plucky Squire. It's finally here. Finally here. Talk about a game you've seen for so long. Exactly. A very, very, very, very hyped indie game that we have been looking forward to for many years at this point.

It is one of those games that we were waiting for the release date. Didn't expect to ever get a release date. And now y'all get to play it. But is it good? Is it great? Is it amazing? Is it bad? We're going to find out the Steam description is as follows. Storybook characters discover a three-dimensional world outside the pages of their book

and must jump between 2D and 3D realms to save their friends in this charming action adventure. The developer is all possible futures. The publisher of course is Devolver Digital. It is out today. Greg Miller. Hi Tim. You have played you have beat the Plucky Squire.

That's me. What are your thoughts? Oh man. Where to begin? Good question. The Plucky Squire is a very enjoyable game. However, I don't think that makes it a good game. On the kind of funny scale, I give it a 6.5. I think this is an okay game.

So 6.5 out of 10. Thank you for tossing up the scaler so you can see. The Cardinal Sin of the Plucky Squire comes down to maybe two sins, I guess. Number one, just being too easy. So you never feel like you need to overcome anything. like this is a breeze to play through and what usually I think that could be forgiven is the second sin where it has a bunch of different gameplay concepts

and does the thing that I find most heartbreaking about a lot of indie games but games in general which is that it commits to none of them and so there are a lot of cool ideas here that are never fleshed out to feel compelling enough that when I'm doing it I'm having a great time this is an interesting one of usually you talk about how long it took you to beat a game. My clock is completely screwed up because I had a game breaking

bug on PlayStation 5 where it broke the game. I could not advance. I reached out to the PR team who reached out to the developers who came back and did inform me that this is a bug that is known. It will be fixed. It's already fixed on the PC version. Would you like a PC save? Yes. The way Puckie Squire uses its auto save feature for your one save slot, I had already, I had no way to get back to something beforehand and even then, whatever. So, you know, I think it took me around eight hours, give or take, maybe a little bit less, maybe a little bit more hard to say because I jumped over in the middle of this after having to take a break and yada, yada, yada.

I enjoyed my time with it. It is a absolutely gorgeous game, a beautiful game. I think it's animated incredibly well. I like the storybook nature of it. I think it may be a little too one note. I didn't fall in love with the characters and what was going on in it, but I enjoyed reading it especially as a dad of a nearly three-year-old who reads a lot of storybooks. I got that vibe.

I understood what they were going for. But sadly it didn't translate to gameplay. And a lot of you had already done a preview of this, the first four-ish hours, I believe is what you played. And when I was talking about this early on, the person who put it the most succinctly to the point where I was like, I wish I had thought of that. That is too good, was Roger Picorni, of course, the tastemaker. And when I was like, are you on this, are you going to be on the review? Are you playing? He's like, no, no, the preview didn't do it for me.

I'm not going to play any more of it. And I went, oh, man, wow, why is that? And he goes, I loved the style, but I was looking for the substance. And when we finished the demo, I realized the style is the substance. And I was like, that is a great way to put it. Plucky Squire, I think it's so, is so lovingly handcrafted and beautifully realized, both the 2D version and then the thing, we'll talk about all this, that I think the gameplay fell by the wayside.

And it's just not a compelling game to play, which again, I think is an enjoyable experience. If you want to get into a kid's storybook, if you want to go through and have a cute little tale and see what they're doing here, it's great, but as a game, I think it fails to be compelling.

Lucky Squire, more like the picky critic. You know what I'm talking about? This guy, you know, I just had a... I just had a hell to do. I love that.

No, I'm very... I mean, it's been one of those things. I look at the scores today, and I mean, I've talked about this when we were off camera. But 9 o'clock, I open my phone.

I'm like, IGN, 7 out of 10. I'm like, okay, cool. I don't get me wrong. We don't all need to be the same reviewer, but I like feeling like I'm not crazy because there's been a couple reviews lately. I feel like a crazy person. And then I go to Metacritic or I go to GameSpot, 9 out of 10.

And I'm like, oh, here we go. And I go to Metacritic and it's got tens and 100. I'm like, okay, this is going to be another one where it's like, I have a very particular opinion about this. Again, I like our scale. I like exploring it. I don't think an okay game is a bad game. I think you can play that. I think, but when we get into more of my criticisms than what I did.

Totally. And yeah, you know, I want to read Paris, who tweeted out, uh, the Plucky Squire is a 10 out 10. Yeah, I said it 10 that lived up to all my expectations. The story, the puzzles, the art style, the animation. It's a storybook come to life, play this game. So yeah, definitely opinions all over the place. I didn't get to talk about this yet. It's rare that Paris gives something a 10 out of 10.

That's what they say. I've never seen them. I've never seen them hype something, you know? But I... He's going to roll up in a plucky squire chair in a second. You know what I mean? I love you, Paris. I love Paris.

I love Paris. I played the preview of this as well, but I did it on my Mexico trip, so I haven't been able to talk about it anywhere. And I feel similarly to the vibes that are going around the office here, which it kind of mean, I feel like Greg being the only one to actually complete it. I think that does say a lot as well. Yeah. Again, you started, or you started it, Roger and started it.

Andy had started it as well. So I know that like people had the chance. There was a preview section. But yeah. But I enjoyed it. I enjoyed what I played a lot. And it is very simple. It is very just kind of like, it's interact.

It's less a game of challenge and more. game of just interacting with things to make cool things happen. Sure. And to that extent, I enjoyed it. And I did want to keep playing for review codes. We couldn't play on the Steam Deck to me. I'm like, this is definitely a Spring deck game for me. So I'm still interested in playing through this because I did enjoy it enough that I want it.

I want the experience because I feel like it's so charming and I feel like the art style, like the style being substance and all that stuff. Like I'm here for it. Yeah. But I totally get what you're saying about it of like it. I do wish that there was a. bit more. It's funny because it reminds me a lot of Cuphead, a game that you look at

and like, and I think similar development cycles in the sense of like, the first moment we all saw this were like, and the first moment we saw Cuphead, it's like, I want that game. I want to play that game. And then to finally be playing it, I'm like, oh, it achieved what it was going for. But with Cuphead, it's like such a beautiful style.

And then just brutal gameplay, but like that was the point and that was the challenge. And like, you get to see these amazing animations over and over because you keep dying. Whereas this, it kind of just feels like the, the challenges in there, it is more just about having a lot more of the animations and fun little character moments. And I really feel like the music backs up the style, like the visual style of the game very well. And the VO is super fun. Yeah. So, you know, we're talking about the game and you read the

top of it, right? But the idea here is that if you are an audio listener and you're not watching is that the entire game happens inside a storybook on a child's desk. When it opens up and you go, You're playing Jot, who is, of course, the Plucky Squire. You have a sword. You can also, you're also a writer, so there's some wordplay in there. I'll get to a little bit when we talk about some of the puzzles and my disappointment with them. But the idea is that it's all happening inside of a book. As the pages turn, the big colorful pages, not the word bubbles you'd be seeing here,

are narrated by a narrator who's reading it to you, which is a very nice thing. And the narration is great. Stuff like this is going to be, is going to happen. There you go. rather annoyed. Jock prepared. Oh, damn. Dust up.

And then it just turns straight up into punchout. And so again, this is one of my criticisms of the game, is that they toss in this mini game, and there'll be two other protagonists who roll with the Plucky Squire. You are the Plucky Squire. But when they have their mini game, you play with them as Boss Fight's 2. So all of a sudden, there's just three mini games in here that are all three of them

are different. And then you'll do them once in a boss fight, and then again, at the end of the game. and it's like, but why? Like, I only found one of them enjoyable. Like, why did we do this? Again, it's an idea that somebody had that got in the game and then I didn't feel like got fleshed out.

But it's not even, I think, the biggest cardinal sin of what they're doing here, right? The puzzles, you know, that Paris called out there and I saw a couple of other people be like, oh, there's these word puzzles in them. I was so excited for that. Eventually, and Barr's doing a great job here. You'll eventually run into some words on the ground,

the green swirls on it. Is it Kevin? Yeah, it's great. Oh, I'm so sorry. It's confusing me when you all run around and do the thing. There's green swirls on words that you can take out of words on the page when you're playing and then rearrange them, which then changes the layout to solve puzzles. And I was like, oh, what a great idea.

The problem is, again, I think it's one of many ideas in here, which means it never gets the full spotlight. Where it's like, I obviously am talking just very top level here. I'd say once a chapter you get to do that, maybe twice a chapter. I thought it would have been a way more compelling game to keep the combat as basic and easy as it is and have that be the challenge and have it be that, oh, well, I'm in chapter nine

and I need X, Y, and I think I should solve the puzzle this way. I'll go back to chapter one, get the word, you know, whatever, cuddly, and bring it over here to make the Monstroms trying to fight cuddly or whatever, right? Maybe I'm thinking of a scribble-knots type of game or whatever, right? But that is not even remotely as deep as it goes. It literally is usually you're given,

first off, if you're inside of a chapter, you can't go back to the chapter before. You're in the chapter you're in, which limits the number of pages you'd be able to use, let alone usually it's on the same page or maybe one page over. And then the biggest thing is you talked to Moonbeard here, the wizard. Moonbeard and a mini moonbeard who will show up or whatever. Well, it reminded me so much of God of War 2018 in your criticisms of Atreus, where it's like, hey, Plucky Squire, we're presenting this problem. And then in the next word bubble, you're giving me the solution.

It's like, well, no, let me at least flounder for a second mini moonbeard who's in there you can walk over and talk to and he'll give you a hint, which is also the solution, right? It's like the game gets in its own way of like trying to make it so frictionless to move through that then there's just really, I don't feel a vibe to the gameplay of it. And there's so many cool ideas here of like we're seeing and talking right now about what's happening on the 2D plane. The hook of the game right is eventually there are these portals, these green swirls on the ground spirals that you can. walk to and pop out and exist then on the desk as a 3D character, right, in a 3D world. When you do that, lots of times it is just fighting the same enemies now in 3D around the world to get whatever the McGuffin is to go back in the book. But you eventually get these stamps that you can then use to enact in the world you're

fighting, right? So you can drop bombs or use this red hand to stop things that are moving. And again, I was like, when I get it as a very basic introduction of all right, here's this stamp that'll stop things happening inside of the books. like there's a moving like sawblade basically to go through. I was like, awesome. This is going to lead to some really cool hopping in, hopping out, do this thing, do the thing. It's like, no, it's usually hop out, do the thing, hop back in and advance through it.

And again, I don't feel like I used the hand all that much, especially when they have puzzle books that are books in the puzzle that then become, you eventually get the ability to manipulate the books. So obviously when the Plucky Squire jumps out, Jot jumps out, he can turn the pages, but then you have puzzles that'll be, manipulate the entire thing. So you lift the sides of the book to have bricks slide down, right, to block things or do this and move this. There was only one in, I want to say chapter nine, and there's nine chapters to the game, maybe it's chapter eight, where it was like, I had to stop and be like, well, what am I supposed to do? Why am I not? Oh, there it is. Okay. Like, I wanted more of that. Like, again, they have, I think these systems, they have great systems in here. They just don't flesh them out to make them compelling where I'm like, oh, I'm excited

for this puzzle. Oh, I'm excited to do that thing. It's whatever. And even right here is you get an art scroll. This is another great idea that I don't see a lot of games do. You're unlocking art in the game and you're unlocking concept art. So then you go in to look at the concept art and it tells you a little story, a very brief story of like, you know, we eventually ended up making it look like what you're playing, but this is where we started and stuff. And I love that idea of it. Here's a great one of the word puzzles of like, cool. And again, this is like, I think the first one, right? You see gate hidden over there. It never gets bigger than this. And I'm not, you know, I saw some people's reviews today, talking, well, you know, it's this kid's game, so it's this, that, and the other,

and I get that, but I think, I think even for a kid's video game, and like so many people are bringing up Zelda or something like that, it's just a bit too brain dead of what it is, and I think that it's clearly meant for us, the gamer, I feel like, right, more than just a kid. And I granted anybody's going to play a game, I understand, but I think they had, I think that you look at this and it is so stunning. It is such a great idea. It is so cool. The visual, even when I was like, combat's basic in 2D. and 3D. Still, when I hopped out of the book, I was like, this is cool. And what's, Sam's

desk continues to change as you play. And there's a meta-narrative to what's happening here, because, of course, what's happening is the Plucky Squire, the character, is a popular kid's book, right? Many iterations. He was always, though, running up and fighting the Sorcerer, Humgrump.

And Humgrump, of course, figures out here that they're in a book and he can change it. So it's this idea of, like, Plucky, you have to stop him. Otherwise, our world's ruined. And the kids on the outside, who are inspired by you, they'll be ruined too and da-da-da. Like there's an interesting narrative there that's played with, but again,

it never rises to the level of like, oh, my God. And like, playing through it, and it being a kid's game, and it being so cute and, again, it is a cute game. It is a sweet... It might be the cutest game. It is a sweet game here as you get one of the glitch birds or whatever. Like, it reminded

me so much, even though I didn't like chickery, remember? Like, I didn't connect with chickery. I still like the characters, and I still like the interactions, and I still like that. I feel like they're going for something like that here, and it didn't work for me in the same way. I never was all about Violet, who you see on screen there. Thrash eventually shows up.

They have a cute little dynamic, but it's, again, surface level. I feel like so much of the game is surface level, and it's an enjoyable experience to play through, but when my save borked, I was very much like I wasn't like, oh, I gotta see how this ends. Oh, I got to do the next thing. I was prepared to come in here and have the headline be, the Plucky Squire review, parentheses, 70%.

And I can just be like, I play this much and I'm not compelled to go back to it. I was never compelled. to get back into it. And I think that's both, well, I think it's solely because the game just doesn't commit to anything to where I don't think the story is super engaging.

I don't think the things you're doing in the game are super engaging. It's cute. It's beautiful. There's fun to be had here, but it's not what I wanted, which of course is the Greg,

oh, this feels like a cozy cup of hot chocolate. This is something I want to play and I felt like I left here with a sweet experience. It's funny because I, you kind of already answered my question because I was going to ask

mainly about the kid aspect of it because I played the first, chapter for my preview and I kind of came away with it with the same feeling of you guys where I was like okay like I can see where this is going as far as how cool it is to look at how cute it is how much I like the art style but the gameplay felt so basic that it felt like I was playing a kid's game and I don't feel like that's what devolver is marketing it as no it's like oh this is a child's game but like for you this isn't something that you would bust out again to play with Ben or like do you feel like this would translate to him no I mean but that's a hard one right since

Ben's three years old, right? Even though these are such basic video game concepts, I think the idea, yeah, exactly, flipping it around, like, I don't see this being one that he would eventually connect to. Because, again, I think the game's, at the heart of the game, and what it's doing is it wants it to be nostalgic for when you read storybooks and you were a kid and you were being inspired by something, right? Like, those are the tropes they're playing with and going with and doing fun things with. But again, I think it's all enjoyable, and I don't think that leads necessarily to a good video game.

I feel like it's, I think it might have been Polygon who said something on, I actually want to, let me get the quote because I really appreciate it with they put. I thought they put it well. As they're getting, getting to it, my other question also is just about the 3D and two, like the 3D aspect in the going back and forth. Yeah. How does the 3D feel? Like the 2D, you can kind of, as we're watching the gameplay, like it feels how it looks

from what I played, right? Like it is a Zelda type, you know, gameplay style. And then you have those 2D sections that it switches to. And it is basic, but it works how it works. how it works how it looks like it works. The 3D stuff I never got to and I've always been fascinated about because I really liked that idea. Did it feel natural? Did it feel good

to play? Eh? I mean like if natural yeah, but again it's the same idea of everything you're doing here, you're just doing there. It's the first time you pop out and you see the characters you've been seeing in 2D and 3D is like oh that's a cute concept but then it still is just

mindlessly hit him with the sword, right? Dodge roll out of the way, throw your sword if you need to. But again they if you get hurt, they immediately give you health. So it's just, and I'm not, I'm not crushing difficult player by any stretch of the imagination, but when I'm spending the light bulb currency I'm getting to unlock more damage to my weapons, like even when I got more damage for my weapons, they didn't feel like they did more damage. Like I didn't, it wasn't like, oh, this won't be, annoying isn't the right word, but it won't, if I get, if my sword damage gets up to level three, clearly I'm going to hit these things

and there'll be one hit. And it wasn't that case. I'm like, all right, well, like, are they leveling and scaling two? and then it's like on top of the mini games I'm talking about for the bosses you eventually have a little mouse you're working with not one of these bad mice okay this is Pip we're talking about

he's a motivated mouse we like him but like he has a whole stealth section then of like it's but it's a rhythm based stealth thing of you hopping around and doing and like you saw the boxing mini game but then thrash has got a mini game where the boss is throwing things at you and it's like it's another rhythm one

with your drumsticks of hitting them out of the air and then Violet's got one that's like not poyo pollo but you're shooting the bulbs to make you know threes to blow them up or whatever i liked that one but it was like all these things you get a quick taste of and it's not enough to either satisfy you or compel you i feel like in what it's doing uh polygon though let me go over there if you don't mind of course polygon doesn't score their reviews this is written by ollie welsh uh their conclusion comes down of we join it in progress it's a fantastic concept but a lackluster design that neither surprises player nor meaningfully

empowers them. It's a classic example of a game that must have made for a thrilling half-hour demo at the pitching stage, but never quite found itself in production. And I think that crushes it. Where again, we look at this thing, all the demos we saw and we're like, that looks so much fun. And then playing it, it was like, juicy fruit, where I chewed it for a little bit. And I'm like, all right, there's no flavor anymore. Like, I see your one flavor and we keep going. And it's like, okay, I'm going to keep doing this where I was like, man, I wish I was doing more word puzzles. again, the idea of folding the book, and eventually they introduce these things of like, there's these green glowing parts of environments that you have to shut the pages together, right?

And then when you open it, they've jumped to the other page. I'm like, that's a great idea, but you've introduced it and barely use it. You introduce this and you barely use it. You introduce this and you barely use it. I would rather seen them drop three or four of the mechanics they put in and put all their time into. Yeah, combat is basic as hell, but there's so many words to go do to really get through this puzzle. Or we're dropping the word mechanical all together because again, like even in their concept art,

they talk about the fact that Plucky originally wasn't a writer, he was just the Plucky Squire, but then they wanted the word thing, so they put like ink on his hands and stuff so it would look like it. And it's like, that's an interesting thing.

You tack on to him that I don't know if you needed, right? Get rid of that then and make it more puzzly based or more combat based. Like, it's just an overall okay experience. But how is this not the best game of all time? Like, like, everything I'm seeing here just looks so great,

but like I get it. Because from what I've played, even, it's like, I saw someone in the chat be like, oh, this is a very similar like old school Zelda games. And like, it's not. It just kind of looks that way. Yeah. But like, well, I mean, I'm wrong. Apparently, Luke in the YouTube chat says Tim should have reviewed this.

So my opinion doesn't matter. Yeah. Well, I mean, I, no, I played it. And I chose not to continue playing it at that point. So it's like, I do want to play through this game. But, uh, and I think that I will because I, again, I enjoy what I played, I enjoyed enough of just like doing the things mindlessly. I liked the rewards that I was getting from it of like just the,

Like, I enjoy the VO enough that I'm like, okay, cool. There's the production value of this game. Production value is so great. Carries it. And that's why it sucks. Like, not the game, to be clear. The thing, I want to love this game. I was so excited for this game.

And then to get in there and not have any of those things that compelled me to turn it on and say I wanted to review it and play it, actually pan out sucks, right? Let alone a game breaking bug where, you know, I was like, oh, well, I'll never platinum this because I was like, oh, this would be an easy platinum. Yeah. Mr. Midnight Ride says, how come everyone at KF played 15 minutes of this and then deliberately stopped? What's that about? I've never heard them do that.

I mean, I think it says something, right? It does explain it earlier about like Roger's thoughts on it and less said his thing. I played 15 minutes. That's the only thing is like, I think what, we did the preview, which was four hours. I only played like less than an hour.

And it was the thing that I do with any video game. If I'm interested in it, I'll start it. I can't give every video game five hours because guess what? Hundreds of video games come out in a year. But like, for me, it was the thing of starting it. Being like, okay, like, you know, this isn't hitting for me.

me yet, hearing what Andy and Paris had to say, being like, okay, cool, like let me, maybe I'll check it out. And for me, the big thing, honestly, the reason why I didn't play more for the review is because I have other games that I'm playing. I said yesterday, I have a long RPG that I'm playing. And so, like, I kind of have to pick and choose my battles. I mean, we're an 11-person small business. If you start playing

something and it doesn't click with you. Like, you're going to bounce out, I think, right? And I think enough people knew that we talked about this in meetings that I was going to be, quote-unquote, lead reviewer, which we don't use anymore, but I was committed to playing it for this and being the person for it, but I think, yeah, 100 percent, I feel justified in my end result

based on the fact that so many people started it and were like, did the preview for four hours or less. Mike, you said what? You thought it took you two and a half that preview? Yeah, come over here and you tell them why you stop playing. Come over here while, tell them why they're wrong. No, Mr. Midnight right, say my bad, I just heard finishing the first level chapter was just curious.

We're not going after you, Mr. Midnight. I'll fucking kill you, Mr. Midnight. He'll murder. Hey, Mr. Midnight. It's Snowbike, Mike. Yeah, I played the four-hour preview. It took me about two and a half hours to get through that first half of the game is what they called that, I believe, when we did the preview session. And it is a fun, delightful time. It just, unfortunately, was not a game for me.

I felt like it was more of a kid's game than what I was looking for. And it's just not my cup of tea. But I think it's cute. I think it's fun. It's a great time. If you're looking for that. Thank you, Mike. There he goes.

So, yeah, I mean, I feel like we've talked about everything we kind of need to here for Plucky Squire. Do you want a super? chat though? Let's super chat it up. Mental gear gaming super chats and says it seems this is more of an experience with gameplay than an adventure game like tunic death door cocoon. Am I right there? There's more of an experience with gameplay than a yes you are 100% correct. Sorry I wanted to wrap my head around exactly what you were saying. Yeah this is an experience. I think that's what they were going for but it's crazy that there's a at the beginning it's like do you want adventure mode or story mode? Story mode super easy. I'm like how much easier can this game fucking be and there's a lot of

accessibility in there. I think you can be invulnerable. You can do whatever. You can skip mini games if you don't want to do them. So I mean, they give you the options. But yeah, this is meant to be, I think, as akin to reading a storybook as possible, which of course is you're just turning the pages and going as quickly as you want to. Right. I can tell you how fast I read the golden book, Paw Patrol, Mighty Pups, when I want to get out of the room and how fast when it's the first book, let's go. Let's hear all about Mayor Humdinger and Herald. You know what I mean? How me tell you, shocking how much the Mighty Pups, Golden Book defeats from the movie. Very different, all right. And if I have your attention, Paw Patrol, what's with

the erasure of the one in only Liberty? All right? You introduce a weiner dog in the films, but God forbid she makes it to the golden book. God forbid she makes it to the cartoon. It sickens me. It sickens call. And I'm sure Portsy's rolling over in his grave about it. Liberty. Oh, I thought you're going to talk about the golden book. No, I'm also concerned with Liberty who sounds like a other boys character. No, no. Liberty's a cool weiner dog. Don't worry about it. Liberty's a cool weeder dog, everybody. Fair enough. Yeah.

You already know. I don't trust anybody who names their dog Liberty. What are your other pets named? Free speech. She's a stray, so don't worry about it. But Ryder finds most of them as strays, I think. Clawmaster says, how's it feel, Greg?

Snowbike Mike's really close behind you in the fantasy critic because of this game. I'll pull ahead. I'm not worried about it. Stomike Mike's got nothing else up his sleeve, a bunch of blanks. Then Ian Aronoff says, first time watching live for a while, just did our, final wedding payment getting married in October. Thanks for all the podcast and content during stressful

wedding planning. I love you guys. Thank you so much and congratulations. I hope you have the best wedding ever. Indeed. Any final thoughts on Plucky Squire, Greg? No. I think I've gone through it. It's a miss for me but not a miss like that makes it a bad game. I had higher hopes for this.

Based on everything we had seen, everything we had heard, I really thought I was going to get into this and this was going to be a game I would love. I think we saw the reveal and went, oh, this looks like it could be one of the indie games of the year. This looks like it's going to be like one of the standouts of the year. And like I think it still looks that way. When I when I talk about like how it pops out the page, no pun intended, the way it jumps off the page when you look at it, it looks like something that is fascinating and really cool. And I think there is that I'm fascinated for a lot of the audience to get their hands on it to see what the reaction is in chat live as we talk about the game versus what is going to be after they play the game. Because I find this a lot where there are a lot of games that I think look cooler than they play. And for a lot of people, for a lot of people. that's enough, right? Like, I could see myself, if I had, like, the free time or, like, the, if I was just in the mood for this kind of game, right? Something that's easy going.

Let me just, you know, hit a bunch of things with a sword and solve easy puzzles and, like, have a good laid-back time. I can see myself being like, oh, yeah, no, that was delightful. I think Tiny Ken might have been that for me where I was like a game with a fun art style that was, like, you know, easy going, but also had a lot of cool unique things to it. But on the other hand, right, like, when you get your hands on the controller with some games, even though, like, to my eyes, a game can be super pleasing to my senses, to the substance thing that Roger brought up, right? I'm like, then that was with me,

me with this game. I was kind of like, all right, cool. Like I feel, it's almost like I'm dozing off a little bit while playing it where I'm like, okay, I want something that's a bit more engaging, a bit more, I guess, interesting from a gameplay sense. But yeah, like this looked like something

that could have been a standout of the year. I can't stress enough how good the art style is and I know anyone looking at it can see it, but you guys know how much of a sucker I am for OLED. And this on OLED is unique. It's worth getting just to see. I mean, actually, what's the price of this game? I don't know.

I don't know if it's actually worth getting just for that. I think it was on PlayStation. One of the PlayStation Plus tiers for sure. Oh, yeah. It is worth booting up. Absolutely, if you have PlayStation Plus at the very least to see if it's for you. But like the art style is so well designed. 35 bucks physical.

For sure. And the 30 bucks on Steam. If you can scroll kev to the back where just a bit more world map, less silhouette stuff, like I love the use of like the, thick black outline around everything. Like it just makes everything pop so much. Great color palette. And so yeah, like the visuals and production of this is incredible. It's just, yeah, how much, what's the quality

of the game of it? I think that's the more. And also what are you looking for? Yeah. Like this is still from the hour I played, and even hearing Greg talk about it, it's still something I would give my five-year-old nephew. Like, if I'm looking for a baby's first Zelda or like a kid's versus Zelda, right? Like, I could see this appealing to them still in that matter. I'll necessarily be like, I don't know,

I would go to my adult friend who just got out of prison and be like you got to play the Plucky Squire. But I feel like there's, I feel like there could be an audience for it, right? I feel like there's people who are going to be looking for this kind of thing. Again, like I think I want to be very clear that I think it's a charming experience, right? It's a beautiful game. But to talk about video games, right?

And what a game is, of course, is you playing something that you're interacting with. That's where it comes to okay with me. Which again, it's very, six five, very close to good. But it's that idea of just like, I think it's a game, it's just not outstanding. But as an experience, I could easily see it being. For me, I think in a different life,

if I hadn't reviewed this, what it would probably be for me is some Saturday where it's like, all right, cool, it's fall, I'm cozy on the couch, I want to play something. I could see me starting this and never finishing it, but coming away being like, that was, I had a great time.

I really enjoyed that, right? Interesting. And I also just think timing-wise, it's a little rough for this too with, I mean, Astrobot having just come out. I think I saw a lot of comparisons in the chat to Astrobat. I think that's a little different.

I don't think this is quite the 3D platformer that Astrobat is. God no. But with Zelda echoes of wisdom coming out next week, and that very much looks to be a, if not baby, that's very interesting. A more kid-friendly Zelda game. That's very interesting of like, as much as I'm talking about,

I wish this would have picked the lane, I wish it would have been more challenging. That sounds like what it'll be for me, right? Yeah, we'll see. But let us know what you think in the comments below. Are you still planning on picking up Plucky Squire? If you're playing it, what are you thinking?

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Tim. I want to take you for a ride. Take me for a ride, Tim. Marvel versus Capcom fighting collection arcade classics is finally. here and I can't believe it. The world can't believe it. We have Justin Wong out here slapping fools on the internet. My favorite is him tweeting out

like a picture of the game on his switch and being like time to play with the switch players and all the players like no, get the fuck away. I heard about this great. No. Justin Wong who's like iconic fighting game like pro player who's incredible. He is

just dominating the leaderboards and like going on every system and just destroying. Just killing people. I love that. I love that. It's just awesome. But he, anyways,

besides him, which I'm having such a great time watching that whole saga, I had one of the best weekends of my life, just playing through these games. And like, it's, Marvel's Capcom is always going to be

one of my favorite games. And it's definitely a perfect example of a game that I am horrible at. It's absolutely horrible at, but it does not matter because it's so fun. And everyone here knows how much I love Marvel. I also, very much like to love

Capcom. You put those things together, it's going to be a great time. But there's something about the presentation and style and video gaminess of these games that is timeless. And they look so good. The CRT filters,

the banners that they have on this stuff, everything about it is just so amazing and classic. And it's like, this is when I think video game, I think of this look and these sounds and the crunchiness of the sound effects. all of the same sound effects used over. Thank you.

There we go. Come on, dude. Come on. But what's been super fun is I've always been, and I still am, a Marvel versus Capcom 2 boy, where a lot of my Marvel history and character knowledge came from Marvel's Capcom 2. I learned about Thanos for the first time for Marvel versus Capcom too.

And I'm sure I'm not alone in that. I'm sure many people learned about so many of these characters for the first time. But what's really fun for me is back then when I was playing at the round table arcade. You know. Glassed honest pizza. I remember I never had a dreamcast, but I wanted to buy a dreamcast just for this game.

And when they finally put it out on PS2, I was there day one. Me and my friends were obsessed with this. None of us were good. But we played the hell out of it. And what's really fun now is so that was Marvel's Capcom 2. My best friend, Curran, had Marvelverse Capcom 1. We'd play that all the time on PS1 as well.

But now that I'm older and now that I appreciate video games and Marvel and Capcom in such a different way. This collection is damn near perfect. And even if you're not a fighting game guy, even if you're not into, if you don't have much history with these things, it is so much fun to just bounce between the different games and kind of just see the lineage, see the history,

see what characters were in the early versions and then in others and realized that there's so many these, the reason that Marvel's Capcom 2 has a 56 character roster is because they were just ripped straight out from the other games that they've, made where like there was such a direct lineage and I know that this is obvious information to a lot of people but as somebody that didn't have access to majority of these games to see them start with X-Men children of the atom that was essentially almost exactly just Street Fighter 2

but with X-Men yeah and it's like the gameplay of it it was one v1 8 characters that you get to choose from going to the different locations it is so and the pace of it the speed it is Street Fighter 2 and Street Fighter 2 is a game that in my adult life, like I want to say in my like late teens, early 20s is when I actually played Street Fighter 2 for the first time. Like not just a couple quarters at a arcade, but more like, I got it for my Super Nintendo at a goodwill and played through it and actually beat the game and learn the characters and all that stuff. Playing through, uh, I played the, not career mode, but like the arcade mode, the arcade mode ladder, uh, for each of these games, uh, this weekend.

just to see it through. And it's so fun to see how this starts where it is just Street Fighter 2. And then they start to get their identity when you go through the like the X-Men versus Capcom and then the Marvel superheroes and like all of it

just starts to grow on top of each other. And it is just awesome. Once Spider-Man gets introduced, the game has changed. And it's just so great to see him with his web swing and web throw and all the iconic stuff. And like look at these characters. The art, dude, the art is so good. If someone who never was a fighting game guy,

like, I would go to arcades and just watch because it was so beautiful. It still is. I mean, honestly, like, I am such a big Spider-Man guy. This is the best Spider-Man design ever. Like, this is what I want Spider-Man to look like. Look at how big his eyes are, man. It's just how he poses. And then, like, Keb, if you, I don't know, it might be hard to find this, but, like, we need to look at Gambit. We need to talk about Gambit. I don't think anyone's ever looked cooler things. Gambit in the Marvel versus Capcom games. But anyway, I'm having

such a fun time. And the thing that breaks my heart the most is as much as Marvel versus Capcom 2 is my favorite and I stand by it and like, obviously the game plays the best and the three on three, the insanity, just the fun of it all. That's all there. I just got to be real as an adult

looking at these things. The Marvel versus Capcom 2 soundtrack is atrocious. It is something wrong to humanity. And obviously I love, I want to take it for a ride. I love the memes. I love all that stuff. And even all the jazzy stuff, I still love it, knowing it's fucking bad. Yeah.

But then when you listen to the soundtrack of Marvel versus Capcom one, it's like, this is perfection. This is what video games should sound like. And then you look at the visuals. You look at the background of the stages of any Marvel versus Capcom one and prior. And you compare it to MVC 2. Yo, what the fuck were they smoking, man? All this, the 3D book clown and shit. It's like they fucked up, man.

Anyway, I just had to get those thoughts off my chest. I'm glad you did. I'm glad you did. But it's like, Greg, you're playing more than this Capcom one, and the music changes depending on the character you're playing. And it's like, they're theme songs. When Mega Man pops in, it's fucking Mega Man music. And then when your character switches out,

it's like all the X-Men have like unique Capcom made themes, and they're bangers, man. Can I say why? I went to Evo and I had gotten an appointment to play the collection. And I went through all the games. I probably played like 10 minutes of each of the games that were available. on the thing.

And I got to Marvel versus Capcom 1, which is what's on screen right now, right? Yes. Yes. And I started, and it was my first time

playing NBC 1. And I was like, this shit slaps, dude. Like, I was shocked. I like how it controls. I like it. It feels a bit more grounded than MVP 2

because MVC2 just goes off the chain when it comes to like, we're going to add every single character we know into this thing. Well, you don't. Yeah, there's something about the way

MVC 1 moves and plays that I'm like, I kind of prefer this in a lot of ways. Now that said, now that we've got hands on the full game, on the final game. And a few days ago, I, like, sat down and played it for

about an hour or so, just playing online. Man, Marvel's Capcom 2, it is magical. Like, it is, like, man, I can't believe, it is a, I can't believe this exists kind of game. My history with it isn't as deep as Tim's when it comes to Marvel's Capcom 2. It's,

it's also a weird one, where it's a game that I would see I think periodically at arcades, and I'll, like, try it out at an arcade, but I never got too deep into the gameplay because I never owned it. I would also see it online. Like, there was this weird thing of, I had a big flash game era as a kid, like many of us did, right?

We're just playing games on websites. And I swear to God that, like, there was some Flash Marvel versus Capcom game that was available out there. It was, um... Do you know what I'm talking about? There's the big, uh, MAME. M-A-M-M-E.

Well, no, it wasn't that. But I don't, yeah, because M-M-M-M-E is like, you can put anybody in there. Like, people are making fucking... Mugin. Mugin. Yeah, they're making Bart Simpson fight fucking, like, you know, Vigita. Yeah, yeah. Like, that's, that was Mugin. Um, there was like some flight. And I don't know if maybe it was an emulator. I don't know what it was. But I would like seek that out all the time online. And it would like pop up and it would disappear. I don't know if that was like a rights thing or copyright thing. I don't know if they're doing that back then. They're just fucking running from the cops. All I know is that like periodically I would find a Mara Rist Capcom thing online. Play it for session. Go, oh, this is amazing. And then the next night I try to play it. It'd be gone. But because of that, this game has always been kind of like this ethereal, mythical thing of, I know Marvel versus Capcom is out there, but I don't have a way to play it.

It sounds like the coolest thing ever. As an adult, or as I got older, around college, I had a group of friends that were super into finding games. Ceremole was like the leader of him. He was like this fucking 30-year-old man that had a PS3. And me and my friend Stevie would hang out with Ceremo, play a bunch of fighting games. That's how I got into Tekken. That's how I got into, I got my butt smacked in a street fighter,

ultra street fighter four. That's how I didn't get into street fighter. And then he had Marvel versus Capcom two on there somehow. And it was like a lot of us from our church from back of the day, right? It was me, it was Stevie, it was Ceremo, and then our friend D.P. And Cerebell, they were like the older dudes in the group. Like I think around that time, both of them were closer to 30.

And me and Stevie would watch Ceremo and D.P. go back and forth in Marvel versus Capcom 2. And our minds be blown because DP, we didn't even know he played video games. But he was just a fucking menace. He was a fucking menace at Marvel versus Capcom 2. He would play Wolverine. He would play

Sentinel. And he would just use like the move where Sentinel would like push his feet. And he'd be, every time he'd do that move, he'd be like, back up, back up. Like that. That's all this stupid. It was like, it was so hilarious to watch him and Samo go back and forth and be like back up, back up. And like, that was a

oh shit man this is a this is the time of our lives right here like this is incredible dude i have the exact same this is so fucking stupid but i remember being a current house and i would always play a megaman and NBC1 and one of his specials he just shoots a bunch of ducks out and i would just start yelling ducky time and he fucking hated it always getting destroyed by mega man's ducks was just like not the move and it was that game it was it's it's almost like as much of a party game it feels like as much as it is a fighting game like obviously it's a fighting game but there is a chaotic nature to Marvel versus Capcom too that makes it so that you can invite anybody

over and they're going to have a good time because it is just you throwing out specials. It is like you're jumping all over the screen. The speed of it is insane, especially when you're playing on turbo. And I've been experiencing that this last time jumping into it over this last week playing online and being like, man, I cannot get down the rhyme

and reason to this game. All I know is that I'm having a good time. And that's a great place I want to catch up on here because DeVinster in the chat says, I've never played NBC when I still enjoy without the nostalgia that you guys have. And I think the answer is if you are interested in Marvel at all, if you're interested in that style of fighting game,

the answer is easily yes. There's a lot here, and it is just fun even if you don't know what you're doing. Just butt-mashing in these games is enjoyable. Yeah. And it's so flashing and the things that are happening are very cool, and you understand what's going on. I think it's a very readable fighting game, which is important.

And also, it's characters, you know, like Iron Man and... Yeah, Kath America. Which is just cool, right? But I will say these are arcade ports of all the games. So like it's there is nothing. There's no tutorial. There's no like onboarding process. These are games that were designed to eat your quarters.

Yeah. Now the good thing is it's free play. So you can just continue as many times as you need to. But I will say as somebody that is bad at these games that doesn't understand them, that has not changed. Like playing through these, I'm just like, I wish that there was some level of like. There's a training mode. just there's training mode, but it doesn't train you. You know what I mean? Like, you play a new Mortal Kombat now.

And it, like, there's a tutorial of like, here's what's going on here. Here you just jumped in and it's like, you can pull up the actual, I love it. There's so much great stuff in this game of like being able to look at the old arcade cabinet art. But like on the, on the arcade cabinets, there'd be that like the move list. You know what I mean? And it's just a shit ton of words and a shit ton of like directions. I'm like, this doesn't mean anything to me. Yeah.

Even I, for me, it's somebody who's like, you know, I'm playing all the, all the, games that are coming out. I'm super into them. I look at the move list for this game and I'm like, fuck that. No, I'm not doing this. I ain't got the time to figure out what this notation is. Learning a new language. Yeah, but it's great, man. I really feel I'm an NBC3.

I mean, here's the thing. Or NBC2. NBC2, back in the day, I was such a basic bitch. It was Spider-Man, Wolverine. And Wolverine. Oh, my God. Because there's two Wolverines in the game. Jesus Christ. They let you do. One has the bones and one has

that's disgusting. But then yeah, then more modern times. Again, I'm basically in a different way now. I've been playing a lot with, I always got to go Spidey though. I still love Spidey. But Spidey, Gambit, and Chunley. Okay, yeah, I'm rolling Akuma,

just because I understand how that character works. Start playing a lot of Captain America. I'm liking this guy. I can throw a shield all over the place, pick it back up, throw it again. And then Cyclops. Just because X-Men 97 has been in such a Cyclops mode. And Cyclops looks dope as hell in this game.

He looks sick as hell. But yeah, Greg, look at this. Look at the background. Look how stupid it looks. It's all 3D. Right? Yeah, that's horrible. It's just like how much the characters pop like that size.

But even the hypercombo background, like it lacks excitement. It's so dull. The shadow of the character of these pixelated 2D characters. And again, the music is just like this weird ass like fruity jazz. It's like weird stuff. But then, Kev, go back to NBC1 just for like a quick, um, comparison like NBC1 is is art

it's perfection it looks fantastic I'm surprised we don't hear people talk about I get that MVC 2 was probably the most exciting one yeah I'm surprised I don't hear people talk about the first one as much yeah I'm like it it's solid like it's a solid ass video game yeah great stuff here anyways I could talk forever about this um Joshy G says Tim you gotta check out Capcom versus

SNK2 soundtrack I do you're right um and then Portland Kevin says didn't Greg fight someone in NBC2 at IGN where their job was at stake? Mark Ryan, I imagine, who was the demon? Oh, no, I think you're thinking of Colin. I think it was the son. It might have been in extra life

where Colin and Mark Ryan did 100 matches. And if Colin could win one, Mark Ryan would have to make him in charge of the chamber or whatever. That's so funny because, dude, Mark Ryan was nasty. At NBC2. That's awesome.

Fuck yeah. One thing I don't like about Marvel's Topcom one and two and I've hated this since I was a little kid, when you hit X to accept your character, it gives you the alt colors. Yeah. Yeah. Always fucks me up.

And there's no way to go back that I know of. But you square, everybody. There you go, for you. Square. We square. Moving on from MVC collection to another collection. UFO 50. UFO 50.

A very interesting game made by the developer of Spalunky. Yes. Plus, you've been playing this. You're obsessed with this. Yeah. So I've been playing, I've played a little bit of it. It's been just a busy time of balancing multiple games,

but this is one that I wanted to get into, because I went to San Diego recently for an event, and I ran into Mitchell Saltzman, who was telling me about how he was playing this game, and he was like, dude, it's really cool. And I was like, didn't this game already come out? He's like, no, it's just been in development forever. Like, it just got announced forever ago,

and it's about to come out. And so I hit up Greg, and I was like, yo, can I get a code for this? And basically what this game is, is it is a collection of NES games that don't actually exist, right? the idea of it is think of those cartridges that you got back in the day that are like the bunch of games in one cartridge that you know did you get them allegedly you might have

allegedly why is Pikachu blue i don't know yeah what's going on um but this is essentially a modernly made version of that by yeah mossmouth who was the developer of splunky it is 50 games made by this UFO 50 developer and when you boot up the game at first you see 50 cartridges your screen. That's cool. And they were organized chronologically. And so the idea is that, yeah, these games were in development back in the day and they each have like a year, year attached to it. So like the first game might have came out in 1980 and like the last game might have came out in 86 or something. And the first thing that I immediately did was I went to the first game, booted it up, saw how it moved. And I was like, and then I came out of it,

went to the very last game because I wanted to see like, all right, how hard are they committing to like having this be a chronological thing? And it was so fucking cool because I went to the first game and it felt like this archaic, like, oh, this feels like the first game ever released on the NES. Then you go to the last game, and it's like, oh, shit. This feels like Mario 3, like, y'all have a hold of this. Like, you know, it's way more intense graphically and all this shit. And so you go through and you can kind of feel the progression of games throughout time on this NES platform.

Time. But then on top of that, the games are super varied. They have most player games. They have single player games. And they're like full games. These are not mini games. No. This is not a mini game.

collection. This is a game collection. These are 50 NES games that feel like they could have came out on the NES and had been full-fledged releases. And so when I go through some of them, like, one of my favorite ones here is called Seaside Drive. Now, this one, I'm just going to read the description of this one on Steam. Sometimes you want to break from a long open, from long open world games and challenging strategy titles. So why not jump into a straightforward arcade style game like Seaside Drive? But even in the popular genre, UFO 50 brings something new to the table. In this case, OG Fumoto, the creator of Downwell, designed a stylish car-based shoot-em-up, where drifting across the screen is how you power up your gun. So this is a game, oh man, Kevin's on it. That was actually the game just there. It's a game that was developed by the creator of Downwell for this collection. And what you're basically playing is like this car that is drifting back and forth. And you're also doing like shoot-em-up stuff. So like you're shooting all this shit in the air. You have like helicopters and yeah, you had free willy for some reason.

And you're shooting at them. but the way you charge your gun is by drifting. And so you had to go back and forth, drift while dodging incoming fire and then shooting back at all the enemies. Super fun. There was another game I played that was like a 8-bit RPG. It was basically Final Fantasy. And you start it and like you start off as like this ghost, right? There's this fire in this like bar or something.

And like you have to like save, you have to save ghosts and some fire in the bar. You play as a ghost. There's a fire in the bar. You save four of the people and those four people make up your party members. And so I think for me, one of them was a cowboy, another was a dancer. Classic. Yeah, like they all have very different. Public Final Fantasy classes.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. They all have different backstories to them. And when you start the game, it is a straight up, like, 8-bit RPG. And I was like, this is cool. I ain't got the time for this shit. Like, because I was like, oh, certainly this is going to end. And I play 20 minutes. I'm like, this feels like the beginning of an adventure.

And I do not have the time for an adventure. So I pop out of that one. There was another game that I played that was a competitive, like, strategy sim game where you're an ant and like there's a queen ant and then you have to get the eggs back to your queen ant and when you do she generates like either like an army ant or like a like a transporter ant and so you let you have to like basically take over versus like the enemy that's trying to do the same thing there's just a variety of things here and they're all these eight bit nes games that are made just for this collection they aren't real games or i guess they are real games

now but they weren't real games back then yeah it's such a creative cool idea so the one question I have, it sounds awesome, this is amazing. Is there a narrative to it? Like, because these are made by real creators, so down, well, guy does this, Spalunky does this, but then they have these fictional backstories of, it's 1990, whatever, blah, blah, yeah, yeah. Is there like, this is one developer and their whole

thing, is it like? Yeah, it's like one publisher. Is it like, U.S. Is it like, U.S. I don't think so. Okay, I didn't know if it's like, you're going to find out something horrible is it. Like, I don't think there's anything that's like, oh, there's an overarching story connected them all together, aside from UFO 50,

being the publisher, I believe that's like, or UFO, I don't know, they're the publisher that's putting out all these games. I will say, one of the other cool things is that there are sequels to games in here that are like, like one of the ones is Campanella, and you'll find that early in the collection, and then there's Campanella too that comes around later. That's awesome. So there's sequels to games within the collection. Yeah, I've been having a fun time with it.

I barely scratch the surface, so I'm being honest. That's a really cool idea. So there could be an overarching thing that I'm not discovered yet because I've played maybe eight out of 50 of the games and Rodge has been playing them too and we've been comparing notes of oh I played this all you played this and like been trying to figure out

like what the best games are got I got it got it got it um but it's available I believe already available on Steam and I forget other platforms but I can look that up real quick yeah UFO 50 tonight for sure if you're an NES person you got to check it up that trailer was from seven years ago

dang that's crazy on the end little card it says coming in 2018. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, right now I think I just have it on Steam. Wild man. Very cool stuff, though. Moving on from that, any opportunity I get to talk about Prince of Persia of the Lost Crown, I'm going to take less. And I'm very happy that I have a good opportunity to talk about it because

the Mask of Darkness DLC came out today. I have not finished it yet. I want to say I'm probably a third to a half done with it for my time last night. And I just can't believe. that debatably my game of the year just keeps getting better. I can't believe there's DLC for this game and real DLC. Like this is a whole new mission with a new part of the map and like new abilities, new platforming styles, which I really didn't expect, and new story elements. Like they're going in with the cutscenes with new VO and new bits to enhance the story

of Lost Crown, which I enjoyed so much. I will say that so far it's not my favorite bits of the game. they add this new platforming element where there's these like cylinders that you can kind of like jump on and like wrap your arms around and like you go to the other side of it by holding left or right and hitting X

and it just kind of doesn't feel as good as a lot of the other platforming bits did in the core game but the story of it is as good as the rest of it so far and the platforming challenge is everything I could want from this game where I've been playing the the challenge mode

DLC that came out in July over the last couple months and it is just so brutal like it is just like hey let's take this gameplay and turn it up to a 12 difficulty and I think there's like 20 challenges and at this point I've only beaten four like they're very hard

even though I spent hours trying with this this feels a lot more balanced to be an experience that's paced like the game so the difficulty is rising nicely but it's also very difficult because the platform this game is demanding.

And the platforming and combat mixture, I don't know that I've ever had to feel as good as this game. And they continue to wow me with that in this DLC. And what was immediately something I didn't like about it, but then it slapped me in the face and said I'm a stupid bitch really quickly. Whoa! Was they take away your powers. They take away your powers like right when you get into this and you have,

you're very limited in your abilities. And I'm like, did you motherfuckers really take away my double jump? I need my double jump less. So I was kind of mad about that. But then as you start going through some of the platforming challenges, it's like, okay, clearly they designed this around you not having the double jump. And like they wanted a more curated experience.

And I was like, that's why y'all make games and I don't. Yeah. Because I'm really, really enjoying what they're, what they've done so far with this. And it's just really impressive. It's $5. And it feels a lot more substantial than $5 to me. But then there is the flip side of like, $5 is just a weird amount to put on DLC for this game like it almost feels like just put this out for free if you're going to do that it's like

i don't know i'm kind of torn uh on the pricing of it yeah actually cab what you just had right there um with uh he was like straddling the shaft whoa um it's what he's doing this the mechanics of it don't feel as uh like just fluid as a lot of the the momentum and motion um the rest of the game has um whereas like there's some of those weird blue things uh you're seeing where you can jump in, you strike it with your sword, and it, like, launches you different ways and, like, teleports you a bit. Um, that's great.

That feels like vintage Prince of Persia lost crown. That really takes me back to, uh, January, 2024. You know what I mean? Um, but love this game. So long ago. Can't wait to keep playing, uh, more of it. The fact that we got more of this is absolutely crazy to me, but this is a very, very special video game.

And, um, I'm just happy there's even more of it coming out. So, hell yeah. Now, Bless, you have one more game you want to talk about. I do. Jackbox, Nottie Pack. Nottie. This is one that we got the review code for, and, man, it came in at perfect timing because... First off, this is one you've been asking about forever.

You've been asking about. It's like, it's rare you hit me up about a code, and you were like, hey, when the time comes. Let me, okay, what about this? Because it's one of those things where, like, because we, like, I, for some reason, was C-Ced on the email between you and the, and the PR. And I, like, I did it, and I was like, this is one that I think Greg, would just ignore if I don't poke them about and so I was like Greg

just so you know when this comes I want the I want to play this one and it came in a perfect time me because I had friends over I talked about this yesterday about like I had friends over to play smash and like play Mario Party and stuff and hang out this weekend and when they came through I was like oh guys I got the new jackbox

but not only is it a new jackbox it's the jackbox naughty pack and they're all like whoa whoa put their keys in the bowl they're all like it's the naughty back and I was like yes the new jackbox naughty pack like we got to play it and if you're somebody I if everybody our audience is likely familiar with a jackbox right it's a party they've watched enough party modes to know jackbox yeah it's a collection of party games that you play

with your phone and it's meant to be a social thing right um and usually a jackbox party pack comes with five to six games it's usually drawful it's usually like there's there are the games that you equip lash like the games that you know um jackbox naughty pack as soon as we booted it up we were embarrassed we were surprised by the amount of games it was a lesser amount of games than what we're used to

there are three games on this thing okay the games are oh actually I have the steam page let me get the correct names right the first game is faking it all night long we know oh faking it all night long naughty

the second game is dirty drawful and then the third game is called let me finish let me finish is the only new game that's included in the pack. So that was kind of shocking and a bit disappointing because usually you're getting five to six games,

this one you're getting three games. And faking it and drawful are games that have been in Jackbox Party packs. Like we know what fake it and drawls. Just to stop you, it's just like, have you ever played jackbox and not had it just being naughty? Which is,

it should have been the first red flag because for me I was like, oh, it's going to be naughty, which means they're going to lean into the way that we already play Jackbox. Yeah. Because when you're playing Jackbox, half of the answers people are writing down

are cum or nuts or something that is going to be a dirty answer if you're playing with that group of people. So I was like, okay, well, they're going to lean into it and maybe that's going to make it more fun. Maybe that's going to enhance the experience. What I found with both faking it and drawful, sorry, faking it all night long and dirty drawful is that the prompts that they're giving

are mostly the prompts that I'm pretty sure have already been in the game. There was not much dirty about these prompts. And me and my friends were like, oh, we could have gone way harder with this, right? Like it is, like, we're drawn. Like, it feels like they snuck in, like, a few things here and there. But even the dirty things didn't feel that dirty. It's like things like diarrhea related.

Oh, no, I poop candy. Yeah, it's like, it's- Everyone laughed at my more like rope. It's less sexy stuff and more like, oh, we can push into PG-13 as opposed to just PG. And so, like, yeah, you'll get jokes about diarrhea or jokes maybe. I don't even remember if we had, like, titty jokes or anything like that. Titties might be off limits. Like, I don't know.

So faking it and dirty drawful, we're kind of disappointing on the naughty side. Like, they're still those games, and so they're fun for playing faking it or drawful. But then we play Let Me Finish, which the whole premise of Let Me Finish, here, I'll just read it straight. Please. Let Me Finish is Jackbox's new presentation game that examines life's serious questions like, where is the mailboxes but? Or how does this avocado get aroused? Everyone gets a chance to speak their mind, but will others pick up what you're putting down? So this is a game where they ask

Random Ask questions That aren't great questions, right? Like the one on the screen right now is Where is this thing? And it blurs out the last word And it just shows some fucking licorice Right? And it's like you get a prompt like this

When you're playing the game, does it blur? No. But maybe this prompt they blur I don't know, maybe It's a You can read the word What is it? Say pussy?

Yeah, it does. Wow. Noddy! See, I don't even I don't know. I don't remember written the word pussy when I was playing. I feel like that might just do it for the ad. You're playing a switch version.

That's probably what got you. But I was playing the switch version. I know. I request the code. So it'll ask, where is this thing's pussy? And it'll show you a picture of licorice. And then everybody playing has to like draw on their phone, like, I guess where the thing's pussy is. And then you have to argue and like make the case of, oh, this is why I circled this thing.

But it never feels, oh, this is actually one that we got to you. So which of these meats most wants to be. called daddy and then have to circle of meat and then explain why that's the meat that wants to be called daddy let me just say right now the prompts are so fucking bad I don't hate this this this sounds like you get the right group of people together and this could be a funny jackbox game I don't know if it needs to be in the naughty edition though like that's like all right we get it we get it yeah it just didn't I think the part that immediately was awkward and not as fun was like the okay so this is why I circled this meat it's because it's long

you know and surely somebody with a meat that long they want to be called daddy like yeah and like the next person will go in there like yeah I circled this one because it's like it's all tied up and we're like well if you're tied up in ropes like I feel like that's less daddy and like we're getting into those conversations they just didn't feel as like fun though

I don't know it wasn't it's not like it was the wrong group of people to you because this is my group of friends that's down a cloud Michael Hyam was in this group of friends so you know this is the group of friends wasn't anime enough you know what I mean it was some depressed anime he could talk about that was his problem but yeah like one of the ones we got was like

where, it was like a picture of a submarine and it's like, where would the submarine take it from behind? And I'm like, I don't know, man. Like, I'm looking at the submarine. I'm like, I don't fucking know. And I don't want to make the argument. Somebody was like a kid breaking down in a long division class in the fourth grade. I don't know.

No, man. It's dumb. I got circled the back of the submarine. I was like, because it's the back. I don't fucking know quietly turned it off Yeah It's the back Well like halfway through

It was like the thing Of my friends were like Is this game hidden for y'all And we're all like Eh not really Like not at all Yeah so that was disappointing And then yeah

Like you would have the narrators Trying to spice up the night You know how like you're playing Jackbox And there's always like the commentary Yeah Yeah yeah yeah And the commentary here Cookie wasn't that his name?

I always thought it was Jack No that was the thing I guess you don't know Jack would be Jack I think Cookie hosts You don't know Jack Oh gotcha gotcha Gotcha, but yeah, like the, the commentator here was like, I'll put down your beer and finish your answer.

And I'm like, all right, so beer's not here to you. All right, cool. That's where we're at. So yeah, didn't have much fun with this one. I was very disappointed. Yeah, then that's my review. That is a bummer. That's my review.

If I'm going to give a number, I'd give it a three out of ten. Wow. Yeah, haven't played all three games in this thing. Three out of ten. You have ten, bad, everybody. Let us know in the comments below, if you're interested at all in playing the Jackbox naughty pack with your friends

and where you think the submarine's butthole is. Please let me know. You know what, fuck that. Tweet at Nick underscore Scarpino and let him know where you think a submarine asshole is, okay? I've got to live with Nick's bullshit for so many years of toilet toads and this and that.

Send Nick the submarine assholes everybody. Somebody asked if I was playing sober with my friends. I think the problem is that we did start with that game. We were drinking and also my friends about to convince me. eat half a weed gumming. They might have. Allegedly, allegedly, I can't confirm

North and I am. Don't you selling our pure boy. All right? Keep this crazy IG and drug addiction away. Oh my God. That is freaking hilarious. We got to play jackbox again. Maybe not the naughty one. But like we got to bring that back. I haven't heard Roger.

You know what's Roger? Roger can't do. He couldn't do it. He couldn't do the naughty version. Well, any version. You know what I mean? I just want to hear what comes out of his Maybe y'all can get some juice out of the naughty version. I'd like to see this group of people try to play the naughty version. Yeah. See if that ruins the stream.

Maybe we should try. Yeah. Let's see. But anyways, let us know in the comments below. Honestly, whatever you want. We're just looking for the engagement. I really appreciate it. So just be nice to me on this beautiful Tuesday, September 17th. I love you.

I love you so much. We're about to do a stream, though. It's going to be Nick being a supermarket intendant. It's going to be great. Superintendent. Superintendent of a supermarket? I don't fucking know. I'm so lous.

right now and I'm very hungry. Anyways, I love you all. Goodbye.