Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Your Nintendo Direct HOT TAKES - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

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Go to boot.dev and use the code Kind of Funny to get 25% off your entire first year on the annual plan. If you want to get our shows ad-free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash Kind of Funny. Yo, what's up? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Friday, February 6th, 2020. I'm on your host, Blessing, Adioia Jr.

joining me is the legend Greg Miller. Where's that coming from? That's my phone. You're all over it. Hey, boy, boss. you. I'm doing good. Greg, how are you doing? I am excellent. I'm excited for this episode of the show. I'm excited for this episode as well. We're also joined by

The Master of Hype. Last, what up, Big Cats. I am very excited for this episode. Yeah? I'm looking forward to people's hot takes, because I think they're going to be mild. Oh, you don't think they're going to be hot enough. Quick, Mike Hot Take, you go too easy on Nintendo audience.

I mean, of course we're going to say that. I mean, I just want you to know. I have a Nintendo hot take for next week when we do hot takes. We're on the hot take. Give me the Nintendo hot take right now. Oh, for our collective hot takes because, yeah, we're doing that next week.

Of course, the audience is going to give us their hot takes today about Nintendo and Nintendo direct yesterday. But next week, the crew, the panel, are going to bring three hot takes each and we're going to talk about him. Also, Andy Cortez, the Knifey, who's going?

Hey, I'm great, man. I'm great. I'm great, dude. He's great. You don't sound like you're doing great. Didn't hang out with his friend Mike last night. That's the problem. I watched.

I was a part of it. Are you sure you're great? Well, Greg popped into my channel. It was like, why aren't you playing with Mike? And Mike wasn't playing Overwatch. Yeah, because you didn't invite him. He was spectating. Yeah, we were playing.

Sitting there on the side. Nobody wanted to come play with Mike. He did that guy. The new hero's awesome, though. We played a lot of watch with the community last night. It was a ton of fun blast. Yeah. Yeah, I had a good time.

Andy had a good time. Yeah. The new hero's awesome. Yeah. I cannot wait. You know what I was doing last night. Went to first Thursday. I'm so happy.

I saw this. Let me tell you. You're out there. There is. Let them tell you, Jack. They're throwing so much ass in San Francisco. I don't know, especially because, I mean, Mike knows. I guess we all know.

Super Bowl weekend here. And so everybody's in town. There's a DJ. Hold on. I need to find the name of the DJ. This DJ. Explain first Thursday, too. First Thursday is a block party that happens every first Thursday of the month in San Francisco.

It started off as more of an East Bay thing. East Bay does first Fridays. I mean, they've been doing that for a while. First Thursdays only started, I want to say, maybe in the last year or so. And every single month, it's been getting bigger. and bigger and bigger to the point where the big deal. I accidentally ended up at the first one and I was like oh cool this is neat

people are outside, there's vendors there's a wrestling ring who are wrestling oh cool, okay this is fun. Last night it felt like the entire city was outside. I love that you I felt alive. It was fucking awesome. And then I got home and I listened to the entire hour and 40 minutes of the new

J. Cole album. Oh wow. Yeah, fantastic night last night. Fantastic way to spend a night but you're not here to listen. Finally not in Oakland. I wish I could say it had a fantastic night. As I've already recapped the mic, but I need Andy's eyes to see it. Andy, give us your eyes. Andy, play this for two seconds. Just run around.

Just run around. Just run around. Just run around. Just run around. Circles. Of course, if you're an audio listener, he's playing the Monster Hunter Stories 3 demo on my Rogg, Ally X. Ooh, I was looking at this for famous critic.

Oh. Okay. What am I looking for? Oh, hold nice. I like this art style. Yeah, the art style is great. Embracing it. Take a look near far.

That's good. Go do your intro because this got me to a battle. I'm coming somewhere. I'm going somewhere. Okay. Okay. Of course, like we just mentioned, this episode is going to be about your Nintendo direct hot takes. Of course, I pulled from many Patreon comments.

Greg posted a free post over on Patreon that I believe anybody can comment on. Patreon.com slash kind of funny. If you're not over there with a free account, I understand you do the podcasts, you like the YouTube. Go over there because it gets you just better access to us with questions and comments and concerns. Exactly. A free account. You can go over there, a comment. And so I pulled a bunch of those.

Of course, if you're watching live, you can also super chat in with your. Hot takes, we can get them read on the show. But Greg, what do you have going on? All right. Unpause this and play on this. Unpause this, please. Unpause this and play on this. Just run around.

Motion blur. Yeah, what the fuck, man. You know what I mean? Why the fuck can't the switch? They advertised it during this direct Monster Hunter Story 3. Can't just turn it off? And what can how just bubbly? This is the settings, Andy.

Yeah. He's getting old. No, it's not, no, it's not that. This is out the gate. This is definitely blurry. Rog looks great. Chris. He wasn't at first Thursday's thrown ass. I wasn't there thrown ass. Nobody invites me to throw ass anymore. I gave Pink Eye one time. Oh, well, never mind, actually. Remember, we couldn't do this without our Patreon producers. So shout out to Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney, the Somme Twining. For now, let's begin with topic of the show.

Tats, Tots, Tots, Tots. We're talking about your Nintendo Direct Hot Takes. And here's the thing, Mike. Last time we did a Hot Take episode, it was about Xbox. Yeah. And I have. the complaint. I feel like the hot takes weren't hot enough there. And so my challenge this week is for y'all to come with the hotter hot takes. So let's see if they do it. Starting with some takes about the direct itself. I'm bringing in a couple of satisfied customers. Oh, wow. You rarely see that. Yeah, we got Seb who writes in and says, Hot take, the industry's expectations for partner directs are way too high. Just as the panel mentioned, we got dates and demos of third party games that would have skipped Switch 1. These

directs are meant for Switch gamers who don't have other consoles and the ones who are going to play or who are going to go play where it looks the best or if they want a handheld experience. What average person owns both a Switch and a Steam Deck? We should be celebrating that Switch is getting games we would have missed last gen. I'm very happy with this Direct as someone who is primarily using Switch as their main console and their only handheld. I'm going to bundle that with another one we got in from Blake Wilhelm who says, I think y'all need to really reset your expectations when it comes to partner directs. These scores were abysmal, and there's honestly no reason it should have scored less

than okay. What do you guys think about that? I think you need to watch your attitude, blood. Yeah, you know what I mean? I mean, I don't agree with the scores being miscalibrated. I think, of course, we're talking about a show overall and what you not even expect. Because I don't think anybody, we joked around in the pre-show about what your expectations were.

Yeah, da-da-da-da. But like we weren't expecting E3. We weren't expecting it to be Fallout 3 remastered. These are all the crazy hopes and dreams you throw around. I was expecting just a solid show. Again, for Nintendo to continue doing these third-party directs, right?

And what Tim always wants them to do, this commitment that your switch to can be your third-party console. And then here I am playing Monster Hunter through, you know, cell... No, no, no. I can't want to say cellophane.

That's not it. the jelly. Vaseline. Vaseline on the screen. You know what I mean? It's like, no, that's it. I feel like I was sold a false bill of goods yesterday. The game doesn't look as good as it looked out there on that. And people are saying Monster Hunter Stories 3 looks better, docked, great. But you're not, the system can do both.

And so if I'm on the go, why does it look like that? That sucks. But anyways, well, I mean, you're talking about a $1,000 machine versus a $450 machine. One's way more powerful. Or do you want to fucking get in the hot takes? Come at me? You want to write your own little hot take in here? I will. Thank you very much.

I know. He should have known the word Vaseline. I should have. I still have been off since that one time. We did Howard the Duck and I came in and couldn't pronounce any word and it is still shaken me as a former. I want you to know. I feel that's tough.

I don't think our scores were off. I think there were the honest opinion of where we're at. Again, I don't think it's expectations that we need this to be this highfalutin E3. It's Space World 2001 again. No, we just want you to show what you're bringing to the third party customer. I don't like the out. the out a lot of Nintendo fans give

of like guys this is for the switch gamer that only has a switch this is what it's like well no that's not the world you exist in and I think again directs are not like you know my I was talking to Kyle Hayes last night I have a wild hair up my ass all right okay you gotta pluck wild hair up your ass that's also saying that's also a saying wild have you all heard this ever heard of it like a hair a rabbit like a rabbit like a rabbit it's just a hair hair but I don't know

A wild it's here. I assumed a H-A-R-E. Yeah. Yeah, like a rabbit up your butt. Yeah. I hit up haste. I feel like that's more like a wild rabbit. I never thought about what it is.

I would have like, it's like a bull and a china shop. Thank you, Twist-Shed. You're with me. Twist-Shats there. Bull and a China shop sort of thing. Yeah, exactly. Sure, sure.

I got a rabbit up. Anyways, I hit up my friend Kyle from college where I was like, because I'm on this tear right now with Animal Crossing where I'm like, I know the answer to this. But you don't have the GameCube and Animal Crossing and your memory card from when we all had an Animal Crossing village in college in our house and he's like, I might, I'm gonna check in the attic, I'm gonna go fuck out. But it was this idea of like, Kyle's daughters have a switch to

and that's their only system. They weren't watching the fucking direct, right? This is a direct that's made for gamers. It's for the terminally online people we all are that are gonna go consume, get excited to watch a 30 minute commercial that, go watch a 30 minute commercial, right? Like, I just feel like they didn't bring the stuff here to make us go, oh man, they really are taking third party seriously.

Or hey, here's what's exciting about it. right now. Like I, the games that I saw that I was excited for yesterday, I'm still excited for, but I already knew that I was excited for them before I even saw them, I feel like.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's the thing where I, in terms of our reactions or our expectations, my thing is I can't react from the perspective of somebody that doesn't have multiple consoles

and somebody who is a casual game. You know, like I had to react from my own perspective of my own, who I am is blessing out of EEOA Jr., somebody who loves video games, right? Like I can't put myself in other people's shoes that strongly to be like, no, this is fantastic because I had third party games. Therefore, it's a great showcase. It's like, no, I'm somebody who grew up on Nintendo.

I want Nintendo to do, to put out fantastic things that excite me. If I am looking at a showcase that is starting the year and I'm like, 99% of these games are games that I do not want to touch, then that's just where I'm going to land on it. And that's another thing to throw into it, right, really where I think we're talking, I know we're combining two different statements here. right of like the industry needs reset its expectations and then are also a thing but I would go back to like I never had a problem with it being like oh here are old game old game is old no

you're getting Valheim that's great that's you guys love it that sounds awesome whatever it's more of like Tokyo Scramble look like dog shit right and then there this arcade archives thing pops up and we're like what the fuck even is that you know they did oh yeah they got after me for that way

it's just this idea of like okay cool like you're showing and then the games you're showing that I think are already in the conversation of a, hey, here's pragmatta, and it doesn't have anything new to it. Like, it's not like this is what was really cool. I guess the demo was out. That's cool. Okay. Yeah, that was nice. Um, Resident Evil, again, here's some amoeboes and a controller. Okay, but I mean, like, I've heard a lot about Resident Evil. What was, I don't like being as dismissive as, this could have been an email, but this really was a, what was the benefit to showing up here? What did you get out of this? How did you spend your 30 minutes of time watching it? To bring up

another hot take from an unsatisfied customer named Paul. They say hot take, people going, oh, well, what did you expect from a partner direct, or it's a handheld, truly paved the way for more and more mediocre showcases by just accepting any and all sloppy ports thrown our way. It's okay to expect better from Nintendo. I like that.

Mike, speak on it if you like that. I mean, I'm on that side, right? I think we need to expect better from Nintendo. I think we give them the out because of their first party outage and like how good those games are and how well they run on their platforms. But there is a glaring air here, and it's the third-party games

that just don't run well and don't look good. And there are problems here that, like, we kind of just give the pass to because it's like, he's got Mario. If Mario was sold on any other ecosystem, you would not be buying the switch. You would be done with this, right? Like, we would be moving on

because you'd be buying Mario on any other platform that you could get your hands on because that game would be there, and all the third party games would run better. Your excuse is because you love Mario. To counter that point, Mike, Mario isn't on any other ecosystem. That's the problem. It's like they have us.

But I don't think that's the problem, right? I think that's by design. My thing is I don't give a fuck about third party games on the Switch. That's where I'm at. If the third, and this is me speaking for me, obviously not me speaking for people who only solely own a Switch. I know this is a different perspective. But if the Nintendo Switch 2 had zero third party games,

it would mean no difference to me. absolutely zero difference to me. I am picking up my Switch 2 to play Mario, to play Zelda, to play Pokemon, to play the games that are exclusive to the system because those games are fantastic to me. My ideal perfect live in a Utopia world would be for the third-party games to look fantastic and as good as they do on my other consoles or PC or whatever. But I'm buying a Switch because I know what it is. You know what I mean?

I can't expect those games to look like a PS5 Pro because it's a handheld. thing that I'm taking places. I'm excited that this year I'm using my switch to more than I ever use my switch one. And I'm going to see how long I can ride this little joke I'm doing of I'm playing everything on Switch, right? Where it's like, yeah, this is cool that this stuff's there. You know, somebody in the chat call out, I think it's cool that Pragmatta and Reson are coming day and date. It is cool. It is awesome. It's cool, as you were saying off your New York hands-on impressions. Yeah. But apparently Resident Evil runs great on it. Like, I'm going to do it. I'm going to get Resident Evil on this. You all can get the PC and the PlayStation's and I'll jump and play on

switch and see what it's all about, right? Like, that is cool. It's just this idea, though, that, like, it sucks to be what we're talking about here, where it's like, I don't want this to be what the switch has been to me in the past. And then that, which is a device that, yeah, first party lineup is what matters and everything else I'll never play there. I like the idea of being able to play there, but then to get there and see that, okay, Resident Evil runs great, but according to you in a preview, pragmatic doesn't. Like, what the fuck? You know what I mean? Like, I don't think the monster hunter, I think Monster Hunter stories could look definitively better on Switch right now than it does based on the two side by side.

Even though one machine is way more powerful, I just don't know if this turn-based RPG as I run around this world is drawing that much. Well, I mean, that's on the developer. Sure. That, you know, that's more on the developer for trying to optimize a bit better. But we knew this going into the Switch 2, you know, all right, the Switch 2 is here,

and we are aware that if you want more power, you're not looking at 450 anymore. You're not looking at the 400 or 350 that we were, that was kind of rumored at the time or what we were hoping for. If you want more power and more visuals, you're looking at $7 and $800. And that's not what Nintendo's interested in doing. Now, it really is on the developers, though,

to make things look better and run better and optimize a bit more. But sometimes it's like you get the notice from on high that like, we got to get this port out, hurry up, ship that shit out. And you're going to get lazy ports sometimes. and you're going to get some games that look like dog shit sometimes. And sometimes you're going to get really good ports because whatever, they already optimized for a spec that was close to what the Switch 2 delivers.

Like, it's always going to be a mixed bag, unfortunately. Yeah, and I think Nintendo could do more to help with that, though. You know what I mean? In terms of- Well, the Dev kids was definitely an issue. Of course. And that is my, one of my big questions about this in this fun conversation is, at what point do we see it possibly catch up? Where we get it to, is that for me?

Thank you, cool, Greg. Thank you, Nick. He's always taking care of me. That's why I call you Daddy, Daddy. Oh, man. Do we catch up where it's like, okay, enough Dev Kifts have been out there, enough people have learned the lessons, shared their information, and now we are there.

Daddy wants to talk. It's actually Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, not Daddy comma, Daddy. Oh, too, Daddy. Yeah, he calls me Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. It's like sister, sister. Yeah, okay. Yeah. I think that has a comma.

If they'll ever catch up And if it'll be something that this is something that could have been fixed Or gets patched or whatever down the line Or if that Monster Story's 4 is fine Because they figured it out or did whatever Because it hasn't had it for enough for it I mean it's also the dev kit issue was definitely like That's something you can't defend Nintendo for

The fact that there are so many of these developers out there going We're just putting out a switch one version We're putting out a release right now That is spec for the switch one Because we don't have a switch two that we could develop with right now. And that is on Nintendo. That does suck.

And I think, again, to, this is direct related, right? I don't think it falls into the score or whatever, but part of the problem with the Switch and then part of the problem with Nintendo and part of the problem of third parties is in the chat there, it went by already. Y'all are being very active. Thank you so much.

Somebody said, it's the inconsistency that hurts. And that's the truth. Where it is like, I got to wait until somebody plays the game. Yeah. And even me with the demos, right? Somebody's got to play this game to tell me if it's, it doesn't matter that Nintendo.

who's showing it at a showcase, it might still not be the best version of the game or not up to par on the game. We're talking a lot about third-party optimization. So I'm going to jump forward in some of these because we have quite a few write-ins here about third-party games and optimization. Starting with one from Austin, Rossboro. Ros-Broro? Rossboro. Oh. It's like Roxborough.

You can't trust what you read it. Rossboro. Rossboro. Is it Wister or Worcester? Who knows? While I'm excited about Fallout 4 coming to Switch 2, I'm concerned with optimization. So far it feels like the only truly next gen, whatever that means, a game that is delivered, an exceptional experience on Switch 2 has been Cympunk. I understand the limitations of the handheld, but a lot of the ports have just not run smoothly enough for me to enjoy playing them.

And I'm going to bundle that with one from EZE, RIP the rapper. He's back and he's talking to us? He says, the most exciting part was finding out the Pragmata demo. was on console, dot, dot, dot, dot, so I can play it on my PS5. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, a couple ones about optimization there. Yeah, like, for you guys,

when we get a Fallout 4, for example, announced, is your immediate assumption that is this thing is going to run bad? Like, are you, do you air toward the more fearful side of how it comes out? Well, I don't even think I was, when I was reacting to the visuals of Fallout 4, I think that's just Fallout 4.

I don't know if Fallout 4 has ever looked awesome. Like there have always been moments where, you know, lighting just looks bad and I think that's just been Bethesda's MO. Yeah, I mean, it's an older game. You know, unless it was Fallout 4 remastered that got a brand new lighting engine. And yes, it's still the same models and textures and stuff, but they're making things look a little bit better. But I think that's just how Fallout 4 looks.

Like I haven't really played a whole lot of it, but I wasn't surprised that it looked that way because that's kind of how I have always seen fallout four. Yeah. I think I have the same thing as far as fallout four. I think for me it's a 2016 game, yeah, right? Yeah, 2015. For me it was more so Final Fantasy 7 rebirth,

which honestly, I was dogging on it yesterday, but it does look appropriate to even good for Switch 2, like knowing what a Switch 2 is versus what a PS5 is, the fact that they have Rebirth running period on Switch 2 is impressive to me. Rebirth is not a, on PS4, you know, reberts not on

the prior gen X-boxes or whatever. Like, it's a current gen video game that's going to hopefully get some more optimization, but I'm surprised that it's, you know, looking and running that way. It's still Unreal

Engine 4, but there's going to be a lot of tuning that has to happen in order to get it to run on the Switch 2. To the question, yes, not 4 necessarily. Again, it popped up It was like, I platinum fallout four, but I platinum it a lifetime ago, right?

A console generation ago. I don't remember how it looks. But I do expect these games that are being ported over from the bigger games or whatever to have some kind of problem, whether it is shadows aren't going the right way. You know, I don't expect them to be broken, but I do expect them to have interesting switch issues and not be up to par with what I'm seeing on PlayStation. We're going to bring in some dustblood takes here. Daniel May writes in and says, this felt like a red flag showcase.

I'm shocked the only big reveals were either previously confirmed or already on other consoles. I get that few people have multiple consoles, but there could have been at least some teaser for Dusk Bloods. Argoff also writes it and says, old games are old. I don't need to know about ports from better systems. Where is the Duskbloods? Is it even still coming this year? Andy, where's dustbloods? Is it even coming this year? Dude, the fact that there was no Eldon Ring has me just really, really worried. But also maybe it's a, what I'm hoping it is is they come to Jesus moment. from software. Because from software, Nintendo issues aside, has always been super, super, you know, inconsistent with optimization. And even on the best rigs possible, you know,

you struggle to get 60 frames in some parts of the game. And it's, it, it, their games have never ran the best that they possibly could. And there's always like some sort of tech limitation there. So it's like, to me, the fact that we saw Eldon Ring running really, really badly, and then I played it and it ran real badly. And then apparently the next convention that happened, people said, oh, this is a newer build. And yeah, it did run a little bit better. There have been some improvements. But I think it's kind of a come to Jesus moment right now for from software going, damn, this, we can't, we really can't get this thing running or looking awesome on this piece of hardware. You know, what we're going to have to keep on

optimizing in order to hopefully get this working. And I see likely the same issue with dustblocks, because I assume it's running on their same engine. They use the Havoc engine, and I, or their version, or however else they've, you know, modified that engine. But it's, I got to assume they're dealing with a lot of optimization issues there as well. You know, can we even get it running at a steady 30 frames per second? On the other side of the coin, I think I look at it at, all right, is Dust Bloods one of the lead premier titles of the year for Nintendo? If we're talking about it that way,

are we just saving it for a bigger and better showcase? Yeah, I mean, I said at the beginning of the show and I'll continue to ride it. Like, Dust Bloods is a June summer showcase. It is a showcase title, a console exclusive with From Software. Like, that is a big deal, right? So, like, it's not a February showcase.

It is a June showcase. And also, like, I will continue to ride. It's going to be Eldon Ring first. and then dusk blood. You will release Eldon Ring first and then we'll get the Dust Bloods. So I don't think coming into this February direct, like I said before,

I'm not expecting Dust Bloods to be here. If anything, we should be seeing an update on Eldon Ring and then we can get the Dust Bloods. But that's their, that's a premier showcase title, bless. Yeah, when I think of partner showcase, I mainly think of like ports, not necessarily exclusives. I feel like the exclusives are usually meant for, but like much larger presentations.

I feel like the, the mediums, in there, right, would be third party new games. Third party, like, I feel like to the, to some of what they're talking about here, I think Daniel May was the one that said it, right? Like, the fact that that I'm shocked, the only big reveals here were either previously confirmed or already on other consoles, I'm kind of in a place where I'm like, that's, that's hella boring for a showcase. Like that's where I come back around to like, again, the Greg thing of, I hate saying

this could have been an email, but this could have been an email, right? Like, if we're just talking about these games coming over that have existed, it elsewhere. Again, I understand the idea of talking to your audience who might only own a switch, but when I think of who that person in the audience is, I'm like, how many of those people are I guess on the hardcore enough side that they're locked into watching it direct? Like, the people that I know that only own a switch are also the people who I know that wouldn't watch it direct. Yep. You know, there are people that casually game that are like, oh yeah, I play, I buy Pokemon and I might buy a Hogwarts legacy or something, right? Like maybe two or three games a year,

and I only own my switch. Yeah, I don't, I don't think you're wrong there. I think I think it can be I can see both sides being true where the people watching this direct are hardcore fans of the gaming industry therefore likely have more than one console but then on the flip side of things it's like well they're

Nintendo also needs to show Nintendo fans that you don't need to go anywhere else you should stay here and I don't think they showed anything yesterday that it was super convincing for people going, man, I've seen trailers of that game running on other stuff and it looks way better and obviously it's going to be more money and, you know, then we can get into a conversation about just the state of the world economy and how

tough everything is monetarily, but it's, you know, I don't know, it's all just kind of a big mess right now and I don't know if there's a right answer to anything. I think the rightest answer would have been like, don't do this. I agree. Wait for something else. You know? People are talking in the chat, one of the comments that went by of like,

we did get new games and, you know, you guys, uh, shout on the one of them. I forget what the one it was. Tarak. Yep, thank you so much. I got excited for Tarok. But it's the idea of just like, you need new games of note. Like I think, again, like we're talking about orbitals isn't new, I know, but it was a new look at orbitals at least and a reminder of how cool orbitals is.

Orbitals, I don't feel is this played out as Resident Evil or the three Bethesda games. Like, we needed something strong to open and strong to close. and hopefully something in the middle that's strong as well. Yeah, good opening. I feel like this game, yeah, Orbital's was a good opening, but then from there on out, we just didn't have anything to boost. I mean, I think you had the expected, right? Orbitals is the good opening.

Resident Evil and Capcom are the middle that we already know about that you expect a large title and Capcom to come support, right? That is what you expected. And then the finale was just a lackluster part of this with having Bethesda games, which is great if you're a Bethesda diehard and having that catalog there, but it just didn't have the play. punch to go walking away going

that was worth my time, that was good. See, I don't think Capcom bringing in Pragmat and Ari is enough for that, for that to be the middle. I agree. The middle, even though they're spread out. I'm saying the middle because it's the expected. We already know this. I don't think you need more than those two. Everybody's excited right now, if you're talking about February and partner directs to say, hey,

this month you're getting a new Resident Evil game on your Switch 2, that should be enough to sustain the middle of this 35 minute broadcast. I think it's the ending. Part of me also feels that if Tim were here, he would have reacted very enthusiastically to the rebirth news, because the rebirth views is just something that I think all of us assumed was already confirmed, and that was the first time they were announcing it and confirming it.

And so that likely changes the tenor of things. It's the tough thing where I called that out, right? I was like, I'm pretty sure this is the first time we're saying rebirth, because remake was the big talk of the town last year. But it's also the fact, again, I can't react from the perspective of somebody who's going to play rebirth on Switch. because I played Rebirth on PS5 And so that's where I come back to like Who is this for kind of thing Where again you're speaking to your audience

I understand that but for me watching as For us watching on this panel I think we can only react authentically To what that is I'm excited for people to play Rebirth though Right on Switch That's cool that you can do that I want to bring in one

About the HD 2D art style This is Jordan Rowan Jordan Rowan writes in and says Am I alone? Everyone hypes up the HDD art style and I don't get it. I think it clashes way too much and frankly,

I find it ugly. Even in the only game I love with this art style, Live Alive, I like that game despite the HD2D. Am I wrong here? Yes.

That's a question of taste. I think that it could look more awesome in some points. Like, I think when it first came out, it's this novel new thing. It's awesome. You're like, holy shit.

I want everybody to make a game with this. Yep. And then I think you can quickly kind of start to see the seams and where, you know, visually things don't always match up. And there's kind of like some things that throw you off visually. But some people also have some wild takes. That god awful screenshot I showed from Neo3, somebody, someone on the YouTube comment said, I think that looks kind of cool. I was like, well, you're fucking, that's a

horrible thing to say. But like people just, you know, have different tastes for what, works visually. And it's why, you know, I saw some people in the YouTube chat yesterday saying you can never, you guys aren't allowed to say I want worse looking games made. Oh yeah, that's Mark Starvoggio. Let me tell you. That was like, that was like custom out. He was in the Patreon thing too. You like wrote a fucking book. Yeah, I, I hated that take because we're not, when I'm like, you know, criticizing these games, it's not from an aspect of I want every game to look like the Last of Us part two. I want every game to have that level of polish.

No, it's like I want games to have good art styles that are paired well with the hardware they're expecting them to run on. And when you're trying to reach for the stars, but you don't have either the skill or the art direction to do it, or you don't have the tech to back up what you're trying to reach, it's going to look like shit. 100. And I can't defend that. To me, that's not a, like, when I can look at something as basic as looking as a short hike and think that game looks beautiful as hell, when I can look at something stylistically like Seafood and go, that game is beautiful as hell.

That game, if you zoom in on Seafood's face, I'm not seeing every pore and divot. I'm not seeing like where it's people are crunched to make every fucking nostril flare look accurate. No, it's like, that's a great art style. That's a great art direction. Dalheim yesterday. I was like, this looks good. But when games have bad art direction, like, I'm going to make fun of that because I don't think your artists are doing a good job or I think that, you know, your game looks like shit and that's just how I feel. Like, I don't know. That's not a, you know, we want cheaper games made quicker. It's like, no, that's just a bad looking game. Like, that's not a, um, you know, if people were to put more

time into this, you're not going to fix this, you're not going to give me the solution that I think is required here. Now, this is why I like Jordan Rowan's hot take, because it makes me feel safe. Because I did have the thought as we were watching the Elliott, yeah, Elliot and Philadelphia game, right? As we're watching this trailer, I did have the thought where I'm like, man, we've seen this our style a lot now. And I know what's sacrily to say. Like, I know like, okay, yes, people love the star style. It's excellent. However, I feel like Square Inix has gotten into a flow state where it is, we don't really got to do much with this anymore.

Like, we're just going to make all our pixel our games look just like this. Oh, we're doing Dragon Quest remake? Or just do that? Just make it look like this. But what was the game? Star Ocean? Star Ocean, Arb, second, something, some, that game looks gorgeous. I don't know if that's Square Annex.

It might be Square Nix. But that game, I like how they translate that into something I feel is a bit more inspired. I don't like it when it's just default, Octopath, Elliott. it like, you know, we're just doing HD2D. I think it's, we only feel this way because we've only really ever seen the approach from Square. We haven't seen a whole lot of developers take a hack at this and say, like, here's our take on it.

And then you could go, oh, their HD2D is actually really, really cool and much better looking than that other developer. Yeah. Which one's this? So I think this is Star Ocean. Oh, okay. Yeah, Star Ocean is where I was looking up as I was talking. There was...

Well, I'm... Ooh, I hate this way more than the other... Oh, really? Yeah. Maybe I just like it because it feels a little bit... I don't like the realistic

trees with the pixel art or the realistic like environments with a... I enjoy when it all... That's an art direction thing. That's more of a... I like when it's all sort of like pixel artie. There's one that I like, or there's one that we've seen coming from,

I think an indie developer actually, that's making it a Chrono Trigger-like game. Greg knows the one. Yeah, we talk about it. I have it on a... Steam wish list. I've been championing it for a while. I'm just waiting though. Yeah, that is yeah, that's I think I'm booting steam. Hold on. That was on one of those games you need you know exactly yeah. It's a super small indie team. It's like something of time.

Store. But yeah, I think we're going to start seeing that threads of time. There you go. Threads of time. Yep. I think we're going to start seeing that more from different developers. At least I hope we start seeing it more. I think from the indie side because this game I think looks gorgeous as well, right? I just I want Square to take more inspired approaches as far as like distinguishing these games from each other because when I look at Elliott and I look at Octopath and I look at Triangle Strategy, I kind of see

the same game. Yeah and that's understandable. I don't think you're wrong about that. I think it's more to, you know, want to swing over here on Jordan of like not liking it at all. Like I love it. I think it's so good. I think it's such a great like... Dude, this looks amazing. The rest of time is the truth, man. I mean,

this is a small team, so set your expectations but I can't wait for this fucking game. This looks so damn. good. I love it so much and I understand not liking an art style because that's how it is. It's just for me, it's like such a classic way of looking at a game. I honestly, it's, I think why people like HD2 or 2D HD2 so much is that it feels like what you remember the games looking like, right? In this modern way. Like when I went back and did chrono trigger and started that up and it wasn't that, but it was pixels. And it was like, ah, man, like this would hit so much harder if it was HD QD,

which is like, where's that fucking remade? Now, I know with this game, you can walk in multiple directions, and you can't necessarily do that in the game replaced, but replaces another one that's like, that is a stellar art style, that is the star of the show. So it's possible to make things look great without needing the seven years of Notty Dog development time. We've seen plenty of devs do that.

And when games look ugly, I'm going to say they look ugly. And that's not a tech thing. You don't need latest and greatest cutting edge tech to make a game look awesome. Absolutely. We got a whole lot more hot takes from you all. But before we get there, I want to tell you about patreon.com slash kind of funny and YouTube.com slash kind of funny games where you can go and get the kind of funny membership, which allows you to get shows ad free. Speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by boot.dev.

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I want to bring one in from Tim eats corn the long way. That's lit. That's a good one. Is this you bless? No. What do you think I remember yesterday? It was like, you put him fake names that I didn't know you.

Oh, no. I didn't get around. Hot take, that's the best name we've had. That's a great name. That's a Patreon name. They register it as that. Yeah.

Tim meets corn the long way writes in and says, no Resident Evil nine demo. We got demos for seven, eight, and four remake. Everyone wants to know how we would run on Switch 2. That would have been a good time to show it off other than a trailer that we've seen before. Completely agree.

Yeah, that was a... Now that we end the direct, I'm like, oh shit, I didn't even consider we didn't get that demo, which is something that they often do. And maybe it does just need more time to cook. The fact that you released the Pragmatta demo, Pregmata? Pragmata. The fact that you released that demo,

not the Resident Evil demo? Stigmata. That was your name. I think it's nuts considering that the Pragata demo doesn't run. I think as great as you'd want it. It's fine, but like Resident Evil, that'd be a showcase. You know what I mean? Sure.

Is there a current public Resident Evil 9 demo at all? No. Yeah, I don't know about that. Is it crazy, though? I get that like there's a nice tease. I think like when I go back to 7, right, it's easy to see the kitchen and what that demo is, right? When I go to 9, I didn't play the beginning. Maybe you did bless on your demo.

That's my thing is I know what the demo. But my area, I don't know if you're letting the public jump into that, because it is kind of in the middle of the game. My, the demo I played multiple, multiple times now, right? Because I played it once during Gamescom time, and then I played it again at Nintendo last week. And the one that everybody played at Pax West as well. I believe it was the same one.

That demo would be perfect. I think you just take that bill out, of course, it's more difficult than this, but take that bill, upload it. Bada bina bada bama, boom. We got it out. Everybody can do it. It's such a good portion of the game. And it's like 20 minutes.

it's long. It's not that long. It's a great showcase of how scary it is, the vibes, the settings. Like, I'm shocked that they did not release that demo. Yeah, I think Capcom's usually really good about that sort of thing as well. So that is kind of surprising where if we got a, hey, it's available demo today available on Switch, but it's also available everywhere else. Like, I could have seen that being a reality, but that's, that would have been such a slamed duck in my opinion. Well, I forget how many days away from the release are? It's 27, right? Three weeks, yeah. I mean, there's the rumor of the PlayStation's Day to play next week.

We know how tight Capcom and PlayStation are. That could be where you finally do it. Yeah, that makes sense. Show it one more time. Again. Again. More Resident Evil. Let's bring in one from Travis Gikowski, who says,

Hot Take, the sterile, matter of fact and false corporate cheery attitude that these Nintendo Parter directs are presented with makes a bunch of good games look and feel really bad. These presentations lack a human element that Microsoft and Sony often used to great effect. Ditch the voiceover guy and have developers from studios present their games themselves. Okay. I mean, I do like what the developer underscore direct

has done with Xbox, shining a light on the developers, having them front and center. I think it is fun when you have a different voice there, a different appeal than just the, hey, here's the splash screen with some voice in the background. That could be anything. And it does lead to those moments that Andy always teases of like,

hey, we got a really intense moment. Okay, now here's Marr's. Mario, let's have a good time. So it wouldn't hurt them if they tried to have some fun with it. Also, iconic characters make the characters just be the ones in front. Why not? Hi, I'm Mario, and I'm here to talk to you about this fucking weird, paranormal fucking nightmare. Play-State already got the patent.

You know what I mean? We can't have the Mario characters. I hear you, this is just textbook Nintendo. Like you're talking about, like, I think in our space, in terms, I'm being, that's too broad a brush. But yeah, maybe not. in terms of the PlayStation, I don't know

what is my throat today, PlayStation Xbox, you know, the big three, right, Nintendo is still the most

Japanese and the most reserved and the most let's get this out and let it speak for itself kind of thing. I love, you know, PlayStation State of plays.

We see, of course, Sid pop up all the time. We see Sean pop up all the time. I love the developer directs that are, hey,

we're going behind the scenes. Let's talk to these devs. These are multiple things we're talking about that are all very different. A developer direct, that direct right is four, maybe five games.

Like that makes sense to go do that. PlayStation's state of play. Again, they want that in there, but it's not like Sean and Sid introduce you to everything. They're usually got a segment they talk about of like, here's what this is and what we're doing or whatever. And Nintendo doesn't want, I'm sure, to give off that much space. Again, like, you know, there's this push and pull of what we're talking about here

of like this false, what was it false corporate cheery attitude, right? No, no, it's a true corporate cheery attitude. Again, these are deals that Nintendo is signing with these developers, publishers that say, we will market your game, you will appear in a direct, you will do this thing. Like, they have to contractually, I'm sure, and I'm, again, I'm not on these conversations. I would assume for most of these games, they have to contractually honor these agreements and go do this. So that's why you are getting a 30-minute commercial like we're talking about. And why in the long run, I really don't think Nintendo is somebody early, way, way, way early was like,

we can critique all we want. Nintendo won't listen. Yeah, but it's fun to critique. And that's what you, that's what you tune in to do is Nintendo doesn't care about the reaction to this, I don't think. I don't think they care because they get the views and they get the thing and they don't mind. The comments are mad about everything. They can have a 10 out of 10 direct. Comments would still be fucking mad that Princess Zelda picked up a sword. You know what I mean? Like it's whatever it's going to be. So it is this pushing pull of what you're doing here.

But like this isn't for the art. And I don't even think for Nintendo it really is about, we talk about like these grand plans we want of, you know, well, you put the indies in here and you put the big things there so they come for the big thing. And then they see the, it's all just marketing. It's all just figuring out how to make. you buy what they want you to buy. Yeah, I mean, the voice isn't my favorite. Like, the dude narrating isn't my favorite. That said, when Andy makes fun of him, I like it. It strikes me as, like, a very market-tested voice, you know? What is, so what, what voice, what kind of like delivery that we can direct our host to have is going to feel safe and

feel appropriate, but also feel a little bit like it has personality, but not too much personality because we're still Nintendo. We don't want the voice to overtake what we're doing here. What direct did they have What they actually had? It was like one of the voice actors that we'd known from like big iconic animas. It was pretty recent.

It was very interesting. Jennifer English did when I thought. I know who I'm talking about. You know who I'm talking about. Yeah. Got like a sweater on. He was really good. It might have been Pokemon, but there was someone where they had someone

on front and center and they did a great job. It was the Japanese state of play. Okay. Was that a state of play? I forget what that was. There was something recent though. I think it was the Japanese state of play. Yeah.

I will say, I feel like the Pokemon presents tend to have like the personality. They always have the dude who like is dressed up real nice with the great hair. He shows up. Even like to jump to like, you know, a true Nintendo direct, like a first party Nintendo direct, right? You have people on screen there snapping, talking, you know, it's the president. And then of later on it was Doug Bowser.

Like it's peppered in that these are people. But I think for Nintendo with a third party direct, right, a partner showcase, there isn't a face of the partners. And like, you know, that's the thing. And I, in Nintendo in the same way, PlayStation, I think, no longer wants a Geo Corsi out front, a Adam Boyes out front, somebody who's a person that's representing the brand, they don't want to then have whoever their third party team is

surface to that go. And I know who their third party team is. I'm just not naming names. I'm looking at past partner directs and I really feel like if there was just one to maybe two things, our opinion would be a lot higher. 100%. But like, man, a lot of the past ones are, you know,

that one cozy campfire game where you just sit by the campfire and that was like in July of last year which one? Where I write by the campfire or where? Where you just hang out with somebody with the camera like you just kind of like you just it's called chilling by

the campfire or something like that you know what you're talking about? Like it's that one it's I forgot about that fucking game. It's Star Wars Outlaws. It's Kronos like apparently Outlaws was one of we when we were talking about third party games. Everybody in the I was like, remember outlaws is great.

People have rate tracing. Oh my God. Yeah, people love outlaws on Switch. It runs and looks really, really great. And remember, we watched this and we're like, oh, it'll be free. And it was like, no, you got to pay for. Like, what the fuck is going on? Yeah, I think it was like $15 or something.

We're like, oh, that should be $5. To what Andy's saying, Mathuris writes in and it says, of Nintendo's three regular showcases, Nintendo Direx, partner showcase in the indie world, the partner directs have always been the least exciting of the three, at least to me. Agreed. As far as, as partner directs go,

this is one of the better ones, but that's also not a super high bar to clear. Expectations should be low for these. You shouldn't expect to see anything on the level of dustbleds at one of these. No shade to Elliott from Philadelphia and Octopath Traveler Zero, but those were the biggest announcements at the last partner direct in July. That's the ceiling for these things. I'm right there. I mean, Greg will remember games daily right before this.

He said, Mike, how you feel about this night? What did I give you? I gave the inside. I said, we go have a good top. Yeah, yeah. That's what I go into these with. This is what I'll say, because I agree with this. I agree with setting your expectations as far as what you're going to get.

Is it wrong to want more? I just feel like my- To desire more. My expectations were set that way for like the Octopath or whatever kind of thing. And I don't even think they met that bar. That's my whole thing with this. I did, I personally, Greg Miller did not come in expecting when somebody earlier was like, Metal Gear Solid fucking Volume 2.

I'm like, no, we're not, what are you talking about? No way. But it's like, I still expected to see a bunch of games in here. I was like, oh yeah, I can't wait to play. And I really didn't get that this time. I walk away from any direct, any showcase, and I'm like, hey, here are three or four games. I'm really stoked for him.

Not to get into a fight with chat. Here's my thing, right? To the people's saying that it's wrong for wanting more. My thing is, if a man comes into my room three times a year and is like, and just fucking bores me to death, fucking bores me to death for an hour every single time he comes to my room, right? At a certain point, I'm like, listen, at least entertain me a little bit. You know, I just want more.

It's not that I expect you to stop boring. the fuck out of me. Just try. You know what I mean? What's wrong? Spend a basketball on your finger way you tell us. Yeah, it's been a basketball on your finger. Maybe show a little bit more of an exciting game. What are we doing here? The reality is you always held to what your partners have and what you will show, as Greg said. I guess for me, I come in with a little more higher expectations on this time around

and maybe because we're early in the life cycle. I really want you to start wowing me, right? I am early in the life cycle right now where it's like wow me. with what is, and I know Barrett brought up of like, I don't need a bunch of Switch 2 versions, but like those are things that could wow me, right? These are things that's like, hey, get me excited about having this console year one and year two of its lifespan

to show me why I'm making this purchase. And that's what I think is a big part of this one and why expectations might have been a little bit higher as people are, Nintendo, is marketing the Switch to as it can be your only system. We're not as far behind anymore, yada, yada, yada. And so you come here and you're like, okay, cool.

Show me some of that. Right. Show me. the reason that I could get away. Quit talking that top. Fucking that walk. Who are you working with? Who are you calling and picking up and saying, you got to build your games for this?

And back to your point. We need you. Great point, Mike, of bringing that out. And then, yeah, even though Barrett was like, yeah, we don't need more Nintendo Switch 2 editions. For a lineup this week, why not? Why not? Dragon Quest 11, Nintendo Switch 2 edition?

Well, you know what I mean? Like, and I know I'm just on that shit right now, but I'm talking about that level of Nintendo Switch 2 edition. I'm not saying fucking Madden or whatever. I think you were looking at Barrett, but, but even I'm just swinging my head around. I saw Kevin leave. I see the Megalodon. I see it all. I see the entire playing field. I love that megaladon. Oh my God, it's a Megalodon.

Oh my God, I'm Megalodon. C. Pazra writes in with a super chat and says, in a broader scope, it's wild that we just got a partner showcase when we don't really know if Nintendo has any heavy hitters for this year. Is it just Pokemon? I really hope it's not just Pokemon. No. I mean, you have Mario Tennis that's out in like a couple weeks. You have Fire Emblem, Fortune's Wee. Yeah. Damn, that would pull. Well, you know, I always ask a question because I'm covering more of the Xbox side of things. We talk about that first half of the year kind of being light for Xbox and then they go second half.

What is the first half of November or Nintendo for the year? Probably Yoshi as well. I'm waiting until June to get these big ones for like, what is the first half? Mario Wonder, Bella Bells Park. I don't know if that's announced for first half, but I assume that's first half. What is that? I think it's not made with four players? Yeah, it's their Nintendo Switch 2 edition.

The Bellable Park is like the added DLC. Oh wait, I can talk about it because I played it. For a second, I was like, I don't know if I can say anything. I can. It's added, it's like an expansion pack, but with like a lot of multiplayer stuff, right? It's kind of like a hangout area where you can go, play different co-op and competitive games with friends. Sick. It was really fun when I checked it out.

Had a really, really good time. I'm really pumped to boot up that game because that was like another showcase of, God, Nintendo is so good at making the most out of this piece or. shit hardware. Like for the Switch 1 being as old as it was and as outdated as it already was and for Mario Wonder to look as good as it did. It's like, oh man, I can't imagine how this thing's going to look on Switch 2.

I can't wait to see like at its full potential. Maybe 120 frames for second. I've talked about it in Greg Way. Patrick Kloppek has been chronicling the whole update and it was at New York as well and got to play it and put out a crossplay about it. And it's got me so incredibly excited to go back to Mario Wonder with Ben. Because we play

it a lot, but there is a skill ceiling we've hit where it's like Ben isn't able to keep up with where we're at. And yeah, he can go be the rabbits or whatever. The rabbits, not the rabbits or whatever. Where they're invulnerable, but now there's a much to assist stuff. Anybody can be invulnerable, etc. Awesome, awesome.

Yeah, that's one. Oh, okay. When you look at it, like you said, you have Mario tennis fever. You have Popopoeia is right. You have Tomodakia. So like, April, you got something. You have something here in March. And then another one here.

in February. So that kickstarts you almost up to that summer showcase in June. So that gets you moving. Pocopia, baby. What is the heavy hitter? I'm for the first six months. Just Mario tennis.

Does fire him not have a release? I don't think it has a date now. What I'm crossing my fingers for to be a massive sort of like out of nowhere surprise hit, Sputoon Raiders. God, I want that game. Just a single player approach. Let's just make a single player game

and like make it a real big thing. I'm pumped for that. Oh, I believe it's Tomodachi. Tomo Dachi. Yes, that's right. A lot of people said it wrong. Weird. I've been robin there the entire time.

Tomo Dachy. Nails it. Scott Beckle writes in and says, people need to stop thinking that Mina the Hollower will have a shadow drop. Reason being, it is a Kickstarter game, and the backers, like myself, have not gotten the final service yet

with the shipping address, platform or choice, etc. It's a good call. Are people screaming about stealth drop? I have no idea. I'm sure it's something we predict every single time. Really? Okay. I said it for a prediction

on this one for sure. Okay, okay. Oh, okay. Not like I'm putting my foot down. I was just like we're calling out what could possibly be in there. Like seeing the game is one thing. Yeah, but I didn't know people were clamoring to get a stealth drop of it. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Jake Bakes Kakes Rice in and says this partner showcase would have received a lot, would have been received a lot better

if Nintendo's first party slate was more robust. With Nintendo's current slate a little less exciting than normal, the disappointment here was heightened. You're not 100% wrong on that. I could see, yeah, if we would have gotten them, you know, there's rumors of the next Nintendo direct, yada, yada, yada, yada. If we would have gotten a first party direct to start the year,

here's Mario Tennis, here's Pocopia, here's wonder, and then here is Akarina remake. I know I'm dreaming. You know what I mean? But blah, blah. And then, of course, at the end of the month, here's Pokemon Day, here's Pokemon Generation 10. Like, there could be a thing to fill in. I don't think we

would be, it would, I mean, again, if this is us having fun and talking about games as we always do. In the grand scheme of Nintendo's 2026, this is a mountain out of a molehill. Like, no, this didn't do good or bad. This did nothing to Nintendo's reputation for the year, nor did it, I think,

do much for people's excitement for the Switch 2 this year. I mean, with the exception of coming on and being like, here's Todd Howard, we do have the remastered Fallout 3 exclusively. Like, none of that would move the needle in terms of like, holy shit, I got to pick up a Switch. Like, I think they show you stuff here.

You're like, okay, cool. And yeah, that fills in the gaps between the big ones, but I'm expecting big ones from Nintendo because again, back to Blessings Point, that's what I bought the Switch 2 for. I'm delighted and, and what is it, surprised and delighted that I'm using my Switch so much in playing old games and new games and non-Nintendo games as it is, but then I get excited for Hokopoeia, and I get excited for Mario Tennis, and I get excited for whatever else I'm going to get this year. I am still tuning in for the partner aspect of it, though, as much as we can say, like,

hey, first party can get you excited to carry that. It's like, it does say partner across this, and I'm, tuning in for your partnership. And it's also the other one too. Like, you know, I don't, I, it happens still every year, right? Where we should get an indie direct right before GDC, right around GDC. They've got one last year, right? They stop calling them indie world, right?

I think no, I think now they call them indie world. Now they call them Indies. That's the one. Yeah. That's always an exciting one that I like a lot. And I think it's a great placement with GDC and here are a bunch of small games. And you talk about expectations being set. Sure.

But that's also one I'm like, oh, here are. a bunch of cool games they're going to fill in gaps between the big ones and between double a i also yeah i mean yeah mike bringing a great point up with just like the whole partner aspect of it and i i i want these to be more than just what ports are we getting and i don't know if that's necessarily yeah you can't hope for me realistic you can't hold for more you know wrong yeah was harvistella a i think that was a direct but no but was that an exclusive Nintendo Switch thing. I don't think it was.

No, okay. Because I feel like Squeenix will always like pop up with the, this is exclusive for Switch. Although that was the same. I get the mixed up because that came out the same year is like everyday life or like one of those games. Right, yeah. Yeah, they have like a handful of games where it's like, these can't be real. And they came out. We never heard from them again.

Bringing in one from Mashu, right, sit and says, as things currently stand, Nintendo are set up to the, to be the losers of 2026 between themselves, Xbox. and PlayStation. With big hits like Soros, Wolverine, Fable, Forza, and both platforms getting GTA 6, Nintendo does not currently have anything announced that can contend with those even if you account for the Nintendo Magic. Fire Emblem won't bring in new fans,

and Gen 10 Pokemon will always have doubters. They need to have something big, planned for games like Spatoon Raiders, and some unannounced secrets in order to save their year. It's February. You say that now. that's it's such a it's such a quick

like nothing thing to say of a Pokemon will always have doubters man who gives a fuck they don't give a fuck that thing will sell 30 million in the first three days look up the first three day sales of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

which was the most broken Pokemon game in the franchise it all it outsold God of Oragor Ragnar maybe like by multiple times in the same time period yeah that's insane it'll be fine I think you're talking more Or just from the public's perspective,

public, you know, but it doesn't really matter on the Pokemon aspect. It could be called Pokemon shit and piss. And it's going to, you know, I would get this version. I'd get shit. I mean, it's year two of this console. There will be something big. There will be something important in the fall, whether it be Pokemon and something else. No, we're going to get.

This is year two of this console. It's going to be. We will get a, I guarantee we will get a surprise Zelda game this year. I don't know what it is. We will get a surprise out of nowhere Zelda game this year. When you say Zelda game though. I mean, in the same way

that we had never ever heard of fucking the little Links Away, well, I mean, Links Awak and Remake is another good one but to think about, but the Zelda top down one Fortune's Weef, that's not what it's called. Oh, the one you're playing as Zelda. There's always a surprise out of nowhere thing

that has... Echoes of Wisdom. You were working on this? Whoa. none of this was ever sort of rumored anywhere. Like, there will, I, I know it in my bones. There will be a surprise out of nowhere Zelda game coming this year. I almost want a pizza bet, but I don't know if I got it in me.

Come on. Because I think there's a chance. Pizza bet. Pizza bet. Pizza bat. Either way. But like, okay, we're saying it has to be either that top down 2D or like 3D Zelda. If it's like, like Zelda,

a cadence of high rule or something like that. No, no, no, no. No, I, there will be a core Nintendo team working on a game. Like, I'm not saying a follow-up to Tears of the Kingdom, too. I'm saying, like, it'll be a remake or some shit, yeah. All right, Ben. Made by Grezo, made by any of their teas. I like that.

Yeah. Katie, write it down. Write it down. Write it down. Put it on the dock. Bo-bo. We have a dock now. Google dock it.

Huh? We have a doc. Yeah, yeah, yeah. at a Google sheet that we're trying to keep track. How's that going? I think so far so good. Okay, good, good, good. Yeah.

I feel like we got time for one more. One more hot take. Let me look at the Super Chats. Let's see what y'all are saying in the Super Chads. One more hot take. I won't close on this one, but I'll throw this one in here. Shadow Killer 955 says Nintendo gets away, or sorry, Nintendo gets way too many passes for WNDs.

I mean, what do we define as a pass? if you're calling out that it's a WND what a weird fucking Nintendo decision what an eye roll I can't believe how far behind they are online gaming or this that the other by like what's the I mean is that's not giving a pass giving a pass would be brilliant

game chat what a brilliant edition I'm glad that I have a fucking dedicated button to this thing I will never use I think we we laugh and make fun of them enough I think maybe they are like well you should boycott there or something like that I mean that's yeah but well they added Bluetooth head phone finally. That's fucking insane.

Hell yeah, right? Kyle, did you ever set through that update for Bluetooth? Oh, fuck. Oh, shit, man. I've been four years in. I mean, I'll say, because I don't know if I agree specifically with the W&Ds. I think I'm

I don't know how to talk about Nintendo anymore. I think this is a thing I realized in the last two days where I feel like if I say something positive about Nintendo games, it's the thing of like Nintendo Bum people love Nintendo games, whatever, whatever, they get the pass or whatever. And if I critique Nintendo games, it feels like, or Nintendo period, it feels like people get

mad. And I can't find- But isn't that just everything we do? It's everything we do, but like, I, I almost feel like I'm falling out of touch with Nintendo. And I think I'm feeling it strongly because I have a child. I will, maybe that, but I also grew up so strongly with Nintendo shit, right? But like, even for me with Switch 2, I hear about, I hear the way I think you talk about Switch to you or Tim talks about Switch 2. And I'm like, man, I'm just not having that same experience this generation. It's because the Steam Deck changed your life, Big Dog.

Yeah. Because PC gaming and Steam Deck and you've seen the light, you know. It's competition now. And you're going to be looking at everything else going, oh, things could be so much better. Yeah. I think an interesting conversation and Rinkle to it is the fact, too, of like for me coming to it with no real nostalgia, right? Like my first game, Nintendo system is a Game Boy. Great.

Sure, whatever. I eventually buy an S&S just for Mario World, but way after the fact. And then my real, I am concurrent with this is N64, right? I am buying games for my N64 and whatever. So I don't have like this built-in nostalgia. So so many times I feel like a new version of a game comes out and I jump into it and I really like it. But you, you, the Nintendo fan, have so many memories and versions of it and nostalgia and how it was definitive that it can never live up to that, if that makes sense.

where I feel like the, I feel like as I play most of the stuff, the Nintendo games we get now, first party, so many of them are so corporate, so sterile. Awesome for sure. I'm not saying they're not, but I think then people, a great example. I'm reading Kelsey Lewin's Animal Crossing book right now,

which is so about the GameCube version and N64 version of Animal Crossing, which of course I was there, GameCube. I was right there with it, right? but as she writes about it and talks about it and shares all these memories and research from it it's like I forgot how fucking weird and quirky Animal Crossing GameCube was in the way your villagers would be mean to you

and they would insult you and they would do this and they would take things and it's like right like that shit does not happen in New Horizons New Horizons is frictionless I get there everybody loves me The old one was an extraction shooter The town revolves around me right whereas like I

like for some games when you talk about a Mario or this, like, not that Mario was ever fucking hardcore, I'm beating somebody over a crowbar, but it was like, there was more of a weird Nintendo, we're trying something here, where now everything feels designed to be frictionless and non-intrusive and to live up to what people think Mario is as a character, if that makes sense. And I know I'm saying Mario, but I mean everything. I feel that. I think I'm still in a place, though, where you put out a new 3D Mario tomorrow, I'll fall in love with it, right? Like, Don Kong Bonanza was one that I still was able to fall in love with. I don't know.

There's something about like the overall ecosystem of Nintendo that's been, I think, losing me a little bit. And I don't know. I feel like it's me feeling like I'm sane as I'm looking at these things like Mario Kart World and being like, man, this felt like it felt short. And like I look at the slate of even games this year. And we list all these games. But I'm like, none of this shit really excites me.

It's to the thing of yesterday watching the direct and feeling like the either Stain or Kyle, one of them being like everything's shit to me. Like, I'm looking at this direct yesterday. I'm like, this is all shit. But then, like, I don't know. It seems like not so many people do not feel that way. I, I, okay, well, I think maybe that's a lot of, it could just be the reasons he buys hitting right now.

Because they also did deliver arguably the greatest game of all time a couple years ago with, with Tears of the Kingdom. Yeah. And I think that, I think with how we receive games and how infrequent their releases can be, that if we, one misses, you're going to go, well, I got to wait to see if they can come back in two or three years from now. Like the fact that Mario Kart World kind of missed for all of us, not being, maybe what we hoped it should have been. And maybe where we put our expectations going,

oh, shit, if they could forciify this video game, like what an amazing win for them. And when Mario Kart World misses, we go, shit, we're not going to get another Mario Kart World for another seven years or whatever. And so, like, that's a much larger miss than, uh, than when like, you know, maybe an actor putting out five shows a year is bad in one of them. Then they might be good the next time, but it's like that's such a mag, that's such a I mean, you take that you apply it to Metro Prime 4 for me as well. Like, Patrick Prime 4 was such a disappointment for me.

I think you take it and imply it to even Pokemon Z to A where I started immediately was just like, no. Like we can't, I, what's going on here, right? And I think there's a level of, I guess maybe I'm just running out of patience for it. Maybe it is the thing I'm so much a fan. Well, I think, again, because those are two great examples, right? Is the new voice of Pokemon, it's kind of funny, right? And only knowing what, in reality, the Pokemon's that have come before, Scarlet and Violet, right?

That was the one I invested the most time into. Like, for me to jump into Z to A and have it be well below the expectations of a modern video game in terms of voice acting, etc., etc. But enjoy it and have fun with it, yada yet it's because I haven't played in 900 Pokemon games and I don't have so many years of where it should be. Metroid Prime 4, my first Metroid Prime, I enjoy thoroughly until the fucking green shit at the end, right? And the boss battles at the end.

But I'm like, okay, cool. Like, that awakens something in me that I want to go back and do Metroid Prime 1 because I never have, let alone go back and do Dread, which I skipped as well. Like, there's something to it where, again, I've said this over the years when I was so firmly just doing my PlayStation coverage of

Nintendo is a toy company. They make toys. And they don't want to go beyond that, I feel like in what they're doing. They're making things for you to enjoy and have fun with. But I think that means that eventually you outgrow toys. Like I feel like you hit up against barriers. Why the fuck are Pokemon people not talking?

That's stupid. Why is this not dealing with more mature subject matter? And especially when you look back and talk to Tim about what the Pokemon games used to do with your rival. And this, it's another thing of like they've rounded off and sanded down all the edges to make something that it can be as mainstream as possible. But so many of us at this table want the video games that are going to push you, whether it be narratively, whether it be gameplay, why there be all this stuff. And that's not what Nintendo's trying to do. So it's a safe spot, but I think it's also a young

spot for people who are coming in and playing games, family who want to play games and do all these different things, which isn't bad, but it's also like, it's back to what I owe for years on this very set slash all the other sets. I've sat there with him where he comes out, talks about a Pokemon and why he's disappointed in it. I'm always like,

but what did you expect? Like, it's always like this, but everybody expects and wants more. It just never delivers that way. I feel that. Now, I agree all the way, by it. Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, me talking about the most recent misses, when we talk about, you know, the more recent successes,

every Metroid Dread was massive. Metroid Prime 4, a disappointment, also a decade after the prior iteration. So that's always like, we've heard about all the shaky ground that that game had been on for a long time. They put out tears of the kingdom, one of the greatest,

Mario Odyssey was a couple years before that, or several years before that, 2017. and I feel like if the next Mario doesn't hit then maybe we should have a discussion of like oof, maybe it's just not for me anymore. Maybe I'm just not really,

maybe these games aren't resonating anymore with me. Maybe these franchises aren't resonating anymore with me. But until then, it's like, I boot up their games and I still feel that charm and it still makes me smile. And like, I don't think I'll ever outgrow Nintendo. unless they consistently put out, like, bad first parties. I think that's when I'll be like, all right, maybe not for me anymore.

Yeah, I don't think I'll ever hit that point, though. Like, it's not even like the thing of Mario. Like, I'm not played a mainline Mario where I'm like, oh, man, this isn't hidden for me, right? Like, the same for, like, big Zelda. When we're, whenever we're putting out a new, well, I guess there's some Zelda's that didn't do it for me if I talk about a skyward sword or whatever. But Zelda 2 is the kingdom, Breath of Wild. For me, for me, kind of go against, like, the toy thing of Nintendo.

I guess maybe to me the extent of it not having a lot of voice acting or a deep ass store or whatever. But for me, these are monumental games that are industry shifting as far as how good, how well designed they are. And I guess that's how I view Nintendo. And I wish those things would ripple out into the, maybe the business of Nintendo. I don't know. I just want Nintendo to do better in certain places where I feel like they aren't living up. But I look around and I'm like, maybe other people don't feel that way. I don't know.

That might be the last hot take of the other. That's the hot take I'll close this episode with. Let's get out of here because we're going to do the next thing, which is what? Party mode. And we're going to IRL with it, Bless. We're moving the desk and we're setting up the table for Beer Pong. Beer Pong. It's going to be a really fun time.

We've got some fun teams as well that I can't wait to review for you in just a little bit. Don't go anywhere if you're watching live on Twitch and on YouTube. But of course, Bless, where can people find us if they don't stick around for the live show? I mean, everywhere. The places that you just mentioned, you can also find us on socials. I don't know if you're trying to ask me for something specific. I'm just going to have you on the show. Oh, cool.

Yeah, of course. You can find us right here on Spotify if you're listening or right here on YouTube on YouTube, if you're watching. Of course, this has been the Kind of Funny Games cast. Each and every weekday, we get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us to the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube,

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