The Besties - Blue Prince is the First Must-Play Game of 2025

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

We will try to convince you to play Blue Prince without spoiling Blue Prince. But first, we need to talk about the Switch 2: the games, the price, the canceled pre-order date, and everything else. Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

Hey guys, is this anything? If you want to build a manor, just go ahead now. Blue princes. If you're an architecture planner, just go ahead now. And if you want to solve a puzzle, just go ahead now. And if you inherit- Draft a hole, find a key on the- Okay, so this is- Let me try it. Draft a hole, find a key. I'm the- Okay, so this is-

Let me try it. Draft a hole, find a key. Yeah. Get that gem up. Is that a spoiler, Russ? No, it's not that it's a spoiler. I don't want to spoil it. I gotta make the lyrics more generic.

I don't think you can make song parodies about games that haven't been culturally like, they haven't clicked yet, except for about 30 people on the internet. Or maybe we're like, being first. You think that's the problem for our audience? You don't think it's that they're like,

mmm, Jim Blossoms, not familiar? They're definitely familiar with the Jim Blossoms. Was that Jim? I'm pretty sure that was Spindock. You're right. I'm sorry. You could say I was Little Miss Can't Be Wrong, but I was wrong. Little Mister Must Be Wrong. Yeah.

Hey, that's my nickname. Getting Van Ames right, it's my pocket full of kryptonite. That even rhymed. We're not gonna do better than that. No. ["Dreams of a New World"] My name is Justin Macari and I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Macari and I know the best game of the year. Deal with it.

My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week. My name is Ross Froschick and I know the best game of the week. Welcome to the Besties where we're going to talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club, and just by listening, you, my friend, have become a member of our illustrious ranks. This week, we've got a double header free. We're gonna be talking about the Nintendo Switch 2 and Blueprints.

Russ, you know about the Nintendo Switch 2. We don't need to clarify that. Plant, what's the deal with Blueprints? Blueprints? Is it a puzzle game? Is it an adventure game? Is it the greatest game of all time? I don't know, we'll talk about it.

I don't know, we'll talk about it, figure it out. We'll have an answer for you right after this. You know, it's funny, guys. Last week, we recorded our sort of like last minute Switch 2 things, and because of the timing, we didn't quite know what was going on with the Switch 2 yet. Hilariously, even if we had recorded our Switch 2 reactions after the Switch 2 announcement, but not the next day,

we still would have been like out of date. Like we still would have been out of the loop. And I could say it's a moment to moment, fluid changing situation. Things are moving quickly. We still can't pre-order the Switch 2. We still don't know when it's actually coming out in the United States and Canada. Poor Canada got lumped all up.

Sorry, but in Canada, our president sucks so bad that you can't pre-order the Switch 2. I think they said it's still planned for the June 5th release date. But we don't know when it is. So that hasn't changed. That assumes you believe anything is possible right now and can't just change within a minute.

Yeah, I mean, I think that that is the, I mean, okay, let's not get in the waves. Let's talk about the big picture, then we'll- We're coming in late enough on Switch 2 Conversation that I feel like we can maybe vault over some of the brass tacks stuff. I would like to know, I did not get to hear your guys' like, first blush.

I'd like to hear the fun, before we get into the mechanics of, you know, political, geopolitical currency manipulation, like, let's talk first about, what'd you, you touched it, right? I mean, just me. I'm the only one who touched it. I'm looking at you, you're the one who's boxes above mine. It's very clear that I'm pointing at you in my box. I don't know you in my box. I don't know how it would feel.

On a scale of one to fun, how fun is Mario Kart? 0.9 fun? Out of one being full fun. One is it's a binary system. I don't know why you're being so difficult. Look, I think we should start with the basics, is what is it like to pick this thing up? Because guess what?

Every single game requires that you at least pick this thing up? Cause guess what? Every single game requires that you at least pick this thing up. Great, sure. And- And you got it. I kind of wish it was better to pick this thing up. Oh really? It's better than the Switch One.

I will say that. Okay, can we stop? Well, let's stop right there real quick. Do you want to talk about your first reactions to the Switch One? Because you were pretty notoriously, epically wrong about the Switch One in a way that was catastrophic. Was I? You were predicting, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You were very down on the Switch One after your first time with it. You were like, I don't really get it. I don't know what they're doing here. And it became a massive success. So I feel like your track right here is really bad. Listeners, if you'll go back and clip out Russ being wrong. Yeah, please.

About the Switch One. Please do. I just, it's been eight years and I just kind of wish that like someone was looking at the ergonomics and being like, we could do a little better. You're talking about the lack of sort of like handholds. Yeah, it's just not, it's just still not great to hold. It's better than the Switch One,

mostly because of the size, like, cause it's taller. So your hands can actually like grip the whole thing. But- How is this, how is the screen? I've heard good things. Screen seems fine. It's bigger. I don't know.

It was nice. I'm not like a screen junkie, if you will. It was bigger. You know, the ergonomics was what jumped out at me initially. I don't think it's bad. I think if you have a Switch One and you're fine with it, this will be fine too. It just like, it bums me out that I will definitely need

if I wanna play in handheld mode for any length of time, I will definitely need a grip for sure. Is it, is it, okay. I'm wondering about that, right? Because I've been messing around with a lot of these like portable computer, like the, you know, the, your- Your ROGs. Your ROGs, your Odins.

Whatever. A lot of those ergonomics are coming in aftermarket, right? Because people are getting like the solutions that they want for them, right? So if you're traveling a lot with it, or you're just gonna use it docked in a lot of ways, like maybe that's, maybe you don't want the extra bulk of like good ergonomics.

You know what I'm saying? Like I'm wondering if like on a default, there's those really good Joy-Cons where it's like you can put those on and it's like more of that, but you're trading like the transportability. I think that's Nintendo, I didn't get this quote, but I think that's Nintendo's rationale,

is they want, they needed to design something that could work not only in handheld mode, not only something that you could dock, but also something that you could take the Joy-Cons off and use them sideways and not have them be a total disaster for your hands. Sure. And if something had like a grip on the back of it,

you're not gonna hold it sideways. Now, the number of times I actually used the Joy-Con sideways for the Switch One is about three. They do feel better sideways now, I think because the larger size and they made the L and R buttons easier to press, but it's still like not great. But it is a fair road.

I use that feature a shocking amount for Switch One when I'm traveling and Henry wants to play like a multiplayer game on Switch. And that is one of the big selling points of Switch 2 is actually being able to use those as controllers and have it not be like almost, almost unusable. Yeah, you could like actually press the trigger buttons on the new Switch 2, which is a real improvement.

Yeah, I get the argument and it is tough to make something that is gonna work for all people. It's just a little bit of a, like, I don't know, man. They have a pro controller, I guess that's your solution. And then these third party companies that are hopefully not based in China, if they stick around, will make grips and things like that. So yeah.

Now they weren't letting you sort of like, if there was a big new feature, and I don't know that they would necessarily agree with this, it's probably the- The mouse. The game chat. Whoa, okay. So I was thinking the new button, the game chat, like did they have prioritized chat to a point

where it is a button that you press to like access it? And you couldn't mess with that, right? That wasn't like on display. No, I mean, you could, well, the button was there. It wouldn't really do anything. And how was it? It was great. It was a great button.

Was it more of a nubbin? It kills me because you do need a subscription service to use the button. Amazing. If you press the button and you're not subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online, it just pulls up an ad for how great Nintendo Switch Online is.

That's great. I love that show, man. I love it when the Pluto button on my remote does that, too. I love it. That's like, hey, don't you want to subscribe to Pluto? We got a whole button for it. No thanks. Yeah, so I don't know. I personally don't view game chat as like a major feature because like it's kind of table stakes at this point.

But... Okay, wait. See, this point. Uh, but. Okay. Wait, see, this is what I want to talk about. I want to talk about this because I feel like if you are to me, I kind of got what they're going for and I don't, or at least I think I do, and I don't know. If it will work, but I think that this is at least the idea. Since we have like, our kids have gotten old enough to play games, uh, like Griffin and his son, Henry, and my daughter, Charlie have played games, like pretty

sporadically, right? And Charlie will play, uh, with her friends. It's a communal thing, right? Like we've seen Minecraft do that. Roblox stuff. I think that if you, if I, as a parent knew that like, we could put them in the Nintendo ecosystem, and I knew that the kids, and it's really easy to talk with your friends,

and it's recognizing that like, the game is something you're doing while you're doing something else, but it's like actually making that easy to a point where I could link up Henry and Charlie one time, and they could chat to each other without Griffin and I setting up, which right now what it is,

is us like calling each other on Facebook Messenger or something, whatever app is open at that time, then we'll connect them that way. And then they're playing on, sometimes it's like three or four devices before you get this all like going. So I think that if, I think that they're trying to get ahead of a market that is playing games in maybe like a different way than we did when they tried Game Chat before. I think that's true. I think a few problems come up along the way. One is a big if of will a Nintendo internet thing just naturally work?

Or will your kids be running to you screaming because it's not working and they don't know how to find the code? Is this a zero or a capital O in my French code? Yeah, I think there's that. I think there's also the reality of kids are younger and younger in knowing how to use Discord and things that seem really complicated to us

or to someone designing this system don't realize that if you actually just hand a kid an iPhone at like nine or ten, they're going to know how to do a fair amount of this stuff already without any help or support. I think there's like the question of do you want your kid being able to do that? But like there are a lot of kids- Right. I mean no. Yeah, yeah. Is the answer? I mean like yeah, no, not at all.

Yeah, right, but I think when you get, like when you narrow this down to like, okay, parents who are going to be protective in that way, who also are familiar with the Nintendo brand, who also have kids who are not just going to circumnavigate it, but are smart enough to use, like, it's a really small window of people versus people like adults who are just going to use like it's a really small window of people versus people like adults who are just

going to use discord and let me let me add this as well um on playstation 5 playstation 4 playstation 5 and xbox platforms the idea of game chat already exists and doesn't require a subscription service you can chat with your friends play any game you want You don't have to be in the same game together and just have a chat going, a party chat going, and it doesn't require subscription. You won't get- Is that true? You don't need PS Interact, Splash Live?

Correct. Guys, I feel like you're kind of like, you've missed the metaphorical value of having it in the device. Like, if we're talking about what can be done, you have always been able to pick up your phone and call your friend while you're watching TV. But I'm saying it's in the device of the PlayStation, it's in the device of the Xbox.

Like it's built in. Yeah, French is saying like Game Chat just not new. The surface level, where it is surfaced is different, right? Like you're right, like that is a thing that has been in there, right? It is very different from I push a button and I'm talking to my friends. That's what I'm saying is the way that has been in there, right? It is very different from, I push a button and I'm talking to my friends, right? That's what I'm saying is the way it has been

prioritized metaphorically by attaching this like button and part of the press conference to it, like I feel like if they're looking at how popular the Switch has been, right? And they're like, the one thing that we wish we could change, we're gonna keep almost everything the same. The one thing that we wish we could do better. No gonna keep almost everything the same. The one thing that we wish we could do better. No, that's a fair point.

I don't know. I still don't, I'm still not saying it's gonna work. I'm not so stupid. I agree with you in that sense that it's just such a big if of the software. If this ends up being written, the problem for me right now is it looks like just copy paste of Discord.

And if it truly is something where you hit that button, and there is a group of 15 friends that are your go to friends, and when you hit that button, you're thrown into a room where you will always be talking to them. It literally is as simple as hit the button. And you're there and I mean, you'll need to add people, it's not gonna like automatically. I don't know. I'm saying what is my best version of it which is it should be as painless as possible and you want to be in a game chat with 15 friends that's your best

version that does I mean what I'm saying is I don't want it to be if this truly is as natural as any other Nintendo thing it shouldn't be like discord it should be like hey I can be exactly no I understand describing like I got that button and I am here with my family and we're having a nice time. I would love to hear from what Rust thought was the big transformative feature of the mouse. Did you actually get to play anything in mouse mode? I played two things in mouse mode.

I played Metroid, which I know you don't really care about, and I played Welcome Park. Ha ha ha. Nice. Ha ha ha! No really care about, and I played Welcome Park. Nice. No, no, no, I agree with Russ. Metroid's Metroid, tell me about this Welcome Park. I didn't know Metroid, maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention, was a mouse equipped game.

It is a- Metroid Prime 4. Yeah, yeah, Metroid Prime 4 is extremely mouse equipped such that at any given time, you could either use mouse mode or like hold two joy cons like normally and like switch back and forth. So the second the game notices that you're using mouse mode, it'll just switch to mouse aiming.

How did that feel? Which is pretty wild. From an accuracy standpoint, fucking fantastic. Like incredible, totally responsive, incredibly accurate. From a pressing button standpoint, I'm a little concerned because if you think about a Joy-Con and you put a Joy-Con on its side, try pressing the face buttons in that scenario.

Oh yeah. And it's a problem. They're like activating like the ball. Does this feel good? Are you, okay, let me ask you this. Okay, if you're playing something in mouse mode, right? If you're playing with a computer, like the number one thing you would be doing

is clicking like a left mouse button with an index finger, right? Yes. What's the like main action? Like what's the shoot? The shoot is that bumper button. Does that feel good? That feels good.

It might be the- Sorry, I keep doing this. No, I know, I see you wiggling. The listener can't see it. It's just- No, you do look like the fucking Crip Keeper every time you do that. Yeah, I'm gonna stop doing it.

Maybe the one button that feels good depressed while in mouse mode is that bumper. So at least they nailed that part of it. But I do have concerns. Yeah, for the other buttons that might be required, it just doesn't feel super natural because it just like the thinness of it and where your hand rests, it's just a little tricky to like hit

any other button on there. That being said, like, you know, I didn't feel like I was constantly needing to reach those buttons when I was playing Metroid Prime 4. And with Welcome Park, which is obviously the much more anticipated game for people that don't know, it's basically like a tech demo

for all the features in the Switch 2. Those games were like, move a UFO to dodge the asteroids. And so you're really, you weren't even pressing any buttons. You were just like, why are they charging for it? Why are they charging for it? to dodge the asteroids. And so you're really, you weren't even pressing any buttons. You were just like, why are they charging for it?

Why are they charging for it? I have no fucking idea. You are a bit, hey Russ, can I say something to you right now? You are on real ass, like television networks that are talking about business, about video games. They bring you on as the person who's like,

explain this shit to us. So Russ, I'm asking you as a friend. I don't know if I have to pay your rate, your Bloomberg rate. Do you want an honest answer? Yeah! The honest answer is I spent, I had an interview with Bill Trennan, who's a VP at Nintendo, and I spent about seven minutes asking him very direct questions about the overall pricing of the Switch, the pricing of the games, so on and so forth. And I kept asking and he kept seeming a little uncomfortable about it

until PR told me to stop. That's all right. What happened? Great, great, great. So I probably would have gotten there. But OK, did it feel like we've been doing this while? This feel like maybe a decision that, you know, Jay made that in NOA's like, I don't know why it's... I think every, quite honestly, I think practically every decision when it comes to like major decisions come from NOJ.

Oh yeah, baby. I don't think NOA's calling in shots, dude. NOA, obviously, Nintendo of America is making big marketing decisions for the region. But broadly speaking, if it's like a global, like, hey, are we charging for this or not? It's gonna come from the head office. And yeah, look, I'll be honest, what I played of Nintendo Park, pretty fucking fun.

It looks great. It was actually legit fun. And there's like, there's a mini game where you are moving the mouse across a line and you are trying to guess where the strongest vibration is. And so it's like this weird. That's got big one, two switch energy, man.

It does feel like one, two switch. I mean, if there's like a party game element right now, I only played it in single player, but if there's like a multi-player element, a lot of these mini games would be like legit fun in multi-player. So yeah. I was hoping, I was holding out hope

for a Nintendo land too. Oh yeah. So the answer is because they can. Is that the answer? So I was hoping, I was holding out hope for a Nintendo Land 2. Yeah. So the answer is because they can. Is that the answer is because you'll- I don't know. It just feels like for something they easily could have not charged for. Or include with the Nintendo account.

You know, it's like you're trying to incentivize that anyway. In the way, like the goodwill that Sony got from Astro's Playroom being a thing, it's totally vexing that they needed that extra $10 for whatever they're gonna sell. It's so weird. It's so weird. Can we talk about other games you played? Did you get to play Donkey Kong Bonanza? Can we talk about the mouse for a second? Yeah, sure. Oh, yeah. Cause we didn't really, I wanted to float this thought

cause I've been thinking a lot about, I've been messing around with a lot of like the, this form factor, right? With the handheld gaming form factor. And I think that power wise and like the usability wise, it will be outpaced pretty quickly by a lot of these devices. They're coming out at a really rapid pace and they don't have the same standards

that it has to live up to, but the ability to play mouse-based games in a portable form factor could be like really, really major in a way that we're like, it makes it the device. Cause like, there's a, that's the one thing that's holding me back is if I'm thinking about like a game for travel or whatever, it's, it's like, that's the one thing that's holding me back is if I'm thinking about like a game for travel or whatever, it's just, it can't be something, like I'm not gonna put something on my Steam deck that's like feels better as a mouse and keyboard.

Or even like a mouse based thing. Things like, even stuff like Bellatro or things like that where it'd feel nicer to play with the- I mean, Civ is kind of like the obvious one. If you like Civ, that would be the example. But this is my concern. I agree with you, Juz. I think that that would be so rad.

There's a big chunk of mouse-based PC games that I think that they could release on Switch that would look great and haven't been done to death on consoles yet. I agree with that. I also, however, know Nintendo's track record with kind of like specialty hardware stuff I agree with that. I also, however, know Nintendo's track record with kind of like specialty hardware stuff

and their ability to court third party publishers into supporting that. And the fact is, is it is not a mouse and keyboard based system. It is maybe a mouse based system. So they are going to require some sort of hybridization of like with the left Joy-Con plugged in, you can do some stuff and then with the mouse,

you do the mouse stuff and that's gonna require like no short amount of. So I'm actually, Griff, I'm actually thinking less mouse and keyboard, I'm actually not talking about mouse and keyboard games. Because like by and large, a mouse and keyboard game I think is better served by dual thumb sticks, right? I'm talking about a pointer interface. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Clarify what you just said, because a mouse and keyboard game isn't necessarily better with dual thumbsticks. Okay. If it has to be portable in a portable handheld gaming console, then- What I'm saying is, I do not find myself wishing that I had a mouse and keyboard

to control first person or third person, a shooter, right? I don't want that. But I do wish I had like for deck building games, for example, is the massive one, right? Like it would just feel better. I hate poking cards and dragging it with my finger. It feels shitty. I think to address what Griffin just said

about the third party support, my impression is it seems relative, who fucking, I'm not a game relative, who fucking, I'm not a game developer, quite honestly, but it seems relatively easy to just program a mouse, especially if your game is already designed for it, a mouse functionality such that I agree that you might not see a ton of first, after a couple of years,

a ton of first party games coming out. I think you will see a ton of third party games coming out that will support the mouse if you want to use it and if it makes sense. Interesting. I just don't think it's that hard to implement. Like that's my read on it. I could be dead wrong,

but I think you will see it. I would love to hear about some of the other games you played, specifically the new Donkey Kong game, if it was hands-on at this event. I thought you wanted to hear about Dragon Drive. No, Donkey Kong, but it's like Dragon Drive, obviously, a wild one to include. Dragon Drive hit like at peak Nintendo ass energy

during that direct when it was like, oh, they got a new, oh, they did a new arms. It's like, oh, okay, Nintendo's did a arms again. That's fun, that's cool. Yeah, no, I didn't actually buy Dragon Drive. I watched someone buy it. Dragon Drive looks, and according to Chelsea, yeah, it's not great.

But that's okay. But, Donkey Kong. I have learned firsthand that trying to shoot a basketball using Joy-Con motion controls is a non-starter. It does not feel amazing. Yeah. We'll talk about Donkey Kong,

because I played that and quite enjoyed it. So Donkey Kong, Bonanza, and it's spelled like banana, but Bonanza. When I first saw the trailer, and I'm curious if you guys got the same perspective, didn't you just think like, oh, this is just like Mario Odyssey with Donkey Kong? I thought it was Odyssey until I saw that ape.

Yeah, but even when you saw the ape, didn't you think like, okay, they just slotted in? Yeah. I figured it was doing destructibility as a big feature. It was what I, I thought it was, it seemed like kind of a red faction was the impression I got, but that might've been wishful thinking on my part.

No, no, no, you were spot on, Justin. You got it. It is, it feels like a Hulk game is what it feels like. You are like- Oh, fuck yeah. Kind of let loose in these environments and Donkey Kong's eyes are like that of a true obsessive. He needs this, whatever the material is, it's like gold banana material.

He needs it. He's obsessed, yeah, it's his cocaine. He's obsessed with it. And you go around like fucking Hulk or like the Tasmanian devil, just fucking wrecking everything in reach. Every single button except for one, there's a jump button,

and then every button and every trigger triggers some sort of fuck shit up action. That's great. That sounds awesome. Where he's slamming the ground or punching a wall or throwing a rock or ripping rocks out of the wall. That's great. Everything is destructible.

Like everything is focused on destruction. I wouldn't say everything's destructible. It's not like you can, you know, level the entire level. Take the thing to the studs. But I was, of what I played, kind of blown away by how much of the environment was destructible. And it was all happening very, very quickly, such that, like, it was clear this was not something

that could have happened on the Switch hardware. Like, much more involved than anything I would have seen. I'm glad to hear that. Very excited. I think both my kids are gonna like this game a lot. Why the fuck is it coming out a month after the launch? Obviously, like games, there's no telling, like how hard it is to get them across the finish line, but you would think like a month.

I think it's done. From being a launch title. My interpretation is I think it's done. I think the reason they're doing that is because it's gonna be a pretty light year from a first party standpoint, and they want to spread things around. That's my interpretation.

Cause people, they expect people when they buy the console, they're gonna buy Mario Kart, that's the system seller for them. And Mario Kart's gonna take them a chunk of time. And then by the time Mario Kart is starting to wane or whatever, July hits, they buy Donkey Kong. It's also different quarters. Also different quarters, that could be true. You know what else? It's also different quarters. Also different quarters, that could be a issue.

You know, you're ending the- Business boy over here, we need you on the BBC. Get you up on there. Yep. I can lie. Did you play Mario Kart World? I did play Mario Kart World. Fun as fuck.

Super fun. Oh, good. That's nice. Did you get to fuck around with the open world? You said a.9 out of one. Go back and tell us about that. Yeah, what's the.1? What more can Mario do for you? So I'm not a huge Mario Kart fan.

I like those games, but I'm not like, oh, I'm obsessed and I'm gonna play it all in my spare time. I think most people are like that. I think it's a great party game, but not necessarily a game you would spend a lot of time in outside of that. It does feel like they're trying to flesh out the like, for lack of a better term, single player experience

with that open world, like you can between matches. And if I had to guess, they didn't show this, but I have to guess, I think there's a dedicated like open world exploration mode. In so, I think it'll be something like Forza Horizon, if you were in this environment and you're locking characters and costumes and doing like side fun, side challenges

and things like that, to add to the depth of like why this is an $80 game, it feels like, apart from the fact that they can sell it at $80 and it'll sell, I think they will make it pretty meaty. What I played, there was like 34 playable characters. You could play as the fucking coin purse from Super Mario Land, like, it is some deep cut shit in there.

It's cool. They're just showing in the demo. So it feels very robust. The actual driving, to me being like a kind of a layman, felt very, very similar to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The maps were much, much bigger. Like the tracks felt like much more wide ranging. And because it's all open world,

you can have a track that's like, you start in the snowy Alps and you go down into the valley and then suddenly you're underground because you're like mixing and matching biomes within the same track. So that's pretty fucking cool. It's really interesting thinking about this in terms of like the Mario Kart announcement

seemed very surprising, right? But I mean, was it, how was it surprising? Well, no, no, no, not the Mario Kart announcement. To me, the open world. Oh yeah, that was. It's a big departure, right? It's interesting when you look at Bowser's Fury, because I feel like Bowser's Fury in hindsight

was really even more of a test case than we knew. I think it was really Nintendo saying like, how can we, let's like practice this. Like, let's see, because if you look at it, it didn't make a bunch of sense in their like overall strategy, but it really feels more like a test case now in hindsight. Where, and with Zelda 2, I would argue Zelda probably started it. It's like, hey, we made this an open world.

How do we shift these other franchises to that? And like this, it seems like the next the next one. And I think they see the play times of those games. They see like Zelda play times and they're like, oh, how do we port this over? And the more play time someone's spending it, like I could easily see them launching like fucking car passes and things like that in Mario Kart world where people are continuing to spend money in this thing a year or two after this. You know, I think that's the incentive.

It would be, I feel like it would, I don't know, they're missing, I think the value they could have captured by making it more of a social thing by lowering the price a lot. Like this is not gonna be, if you want something where you're gonna be like, it's more of like a social space hangout thing, I think by lowering the price a lot. Like this is not gonna be, if you want something where you're gonna be like, it's more of like a social space hangout thing,

I think it's gonna be a lot cheaper than 80 bucks. So they, so you're right, but they are working on it. We didn't see it and it wasn't even talked about, but they have been working on an MMO, a Nintendo made MMO for years. There was like a play test of it a couple years ago. I think that is their solution for solving that problem. Who knows that might be like free to play and then there's like in app whatever currency

stuff. Um, so I think that might be their solution. How much credit do you think I should get for these cool new video games? A lot, I think. Yeah, probably a lot. That's what I thought, because like, I think we all remember five years ago, I wrote a letter to Miyamoto that said,

give me Forza Horizon Red Faction Gorilla Nintendo now. Yeah. And I was out of ink, so I did cut the letters. And you wrote some pretty threatening shit in there too that you don't have to bring up here. But it did move the needle. Yeah, right, right. But it seems like it worked.

Yeah. The only weird thing about the Switch, I would say that I could think of, is that we have no idea how much it'll cost. Oh, we will be free. Yeah, that's it, that's actually the, the sort of big thing is it could cost anywhere. I'll tell you this,

but it's not gonna cost less than $350. 450. Well, it's certainly not gonna cost less than $450 for the Griffin. I don't think it's gonna cost less than that for sure. Yeah. I mean, as of right now, the tariffs on Vietnam where they produce,

Nintendo produces their consoles are 46%, which is a lot. I'd imagine... As a business reporter, would you say more than 40, less than 50, Russ, to give people sort of a baseline? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So 46 is generally considered more than 40, but less than 50, correct. Yeah.

If people are done like 45%... Crunching the numbers on that, I'm getting 657 on my calculations, which is tough, which is rough. That's a lot. What if I had to travel back and forth across some different things and make it even more complicated pretty quickly? I don't think that's possible, plant. Honestly, the original chart was generated by AI.

I don't see how this could be any less complex. We're in PlayStation 3 launch territory, gang, and this thing does not have cell powered processing, so. You're gonna have to get a second job, but the joke is we don't have any other jobs either. It's just kind of bad all the time. Right, right, right. Is the gimmick. I think, the bad thing is, I think 450 was the ceiling,

and they knew that, and now they're like, well, shit. Well, they were charging 500 for the bundle, but. Right. Right. Russ, they were charging 500 for the bundle, but. Right. Yeah. Right. Russ, was there anything else from the event that you wanted to touch on? I mentioned this in Resty's, but every room that we walked into,

they would have people clapping at us, which is a very bizarre experience when they're just there to play video games. So weird. I wanna mention I played Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in 60 FPS. And that feels fucking gorgeous. Is it the, so this is, is that,

was that the Switch 2 enhanced edition or was that just the regular edition of those games running at a faster frame rate on the Switch 2? I don't know. I don't think, I think you need, in order to get the frame rate increase, I think you need to pay for it or you need to be subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online. I don't think, I think you need, in order to get the frame rate increased, I think you need to pay for it, or you need to be subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online.

I don't think it'll automatically update. There are titles that will automatically update for free. Mario Odyssey being one of them will update some aspects of the game for free. But I think with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, if you want to play it at 60 FPS, for whatever resolution it is, you will need to pay for the upgrade, which I think... But some of... God, that's so fucking confusing, man, because the thing that Henry took away from this most is that Kirby in the Forgotten Land is getting new content. It is, with the $20 paid or whatever it is.

Right, right, so it is with that, which is fine, I'm not... I'm accustomed to paying for DLC to a certain extent. It's a little weird that they're doing it for just resolution and performance increases. Right, that feels bad. Their justification, whether this is whatever, is that it now has Zelda notes in the app, which allows you to, I guess there's new voiceover stuff

from Zelda only in the app, not in the game, but it does have a feature that I was pretty enticed by, I guess there's new voiceover stuff from Zelda within the app, only in the app, not in the game. But it does have a feature that I was pretty enticed by. And I think it'll allow you to actually find all of the Koroks without ruining your life. Because I think you can use the app to like help you guide to the Koroks. And it just talks to you, right?

And it talks to you in Zelda's voice. It talks to you, it recommends great books. That's how it gets you out of it. When you're talking to you about, it recommends great books. That's how it gets you out of it. When you're talking to your colleagues, to what extent was the absence of a big new Mario felt? Because I feel like there was a sense, I was kind of waiting for it the whole time, you know, to drop the big new Mario and it wasn't there. How was that vibe?

I think Donkey Kong Bonanza was obviously their solution to that problem. Sure. Donkey Kong Bonanza, I think, gets you 70% of the way to kind of scratching that itch, but obviously isn't the full-on holy shit mode. That's why the launch date thing works with Donkey Kong. It's like, you're Donkey Kong, dude.

You need to be there at date one. We would wait for Mario, but you're Donkey Kong. If that's the to be there day one. We would wait for Mario, but like you're Donkey Kong. If that's the launch game, like you gotta be there. Odyssey wasn't a launch game though, right? Odyssey was not, it was a couple months after. Yeah, Zelda was. Breath of the Wild was. This has been a very long time since Odyssey.

Like it's been a very, I mean, I believe we know. They definitely do. I don't think this is gonna happen this year, but I definitely think there's more, there's probably one more first party game that's gonna come out from Nintendo that they haven't announced yet. Air Riders is scheduled for this year, Kirby Air Riders. I don't personally care about Kirby Air Riders.

I know Plan's excited. I'm in. But I think, right now that's the only like Q4 holiday title that they've announced, like a 2025 title they've announced. I think there must be one more. I don't think it's gonna be the 3D Mario. I think that's probably a next year thing,

if I had to guess. But at this point, like Nintendo's been announcing and then releasing games in a fucking three month span. You look at Echoes of Wisdom, was announced in like June and it was out in September. So- I was speaking of shocked when they announced the release date for the Switch 2 being June 5th.

Oh really? Which is shocked. I thought for sure it was going to be a holiday. Oh yeah, no, a lot of the rumors were pointing to about that timing. Oh, like June, but yeah. What's up, Justin? You seem torn.

Natalie and Brog Berkeley over here. Yeah. Um, it's, uh, so we can't, we can't preorder it. Correct. Um, I don't think they're gonna have any problems selling them. Yeah, they'll be fine. That's going to be fine. I think what will be. What I think is going to be really probably will end up being the biggest

story of the switch too, is this weird pricing situation, right? Where they have, they announced a price and now we don't really know. Like, obviously these tariffs have not been formally like we, we don't know if they're going to be rolled back. They could change it any minute. But if, if Nintendo starts doing pre-orders, they're kind of locked into a price. Like there's a couple of different realities where like Nintendo charges a lot more because they have to, right?

They're saying like, look, you see this, we have to do it. Yeah. And then the situation changes and then it's like, well, we've already normalized this price. Like, do we cut it back to react? I don't know. I think they hold off just based on the fact that like, this is, imagine it's, you know, 10 years ago,

any other administration, the idea, like when a game company announces the price and release date of their console, that shit is etched into tablets, taken down from the high heavens from God himself, right? And now it's a situation where it's like, well, if it stays this way, like we can't do it for 450, but nothing else about the tariff situation And now it's a situation where it's like, well, if it stays this way, like we can't do it for 450,

but nothing else about the tariff situation has stayed that way for longer than like 48 hours. So it's hard to like, it's hard to imagine them kind of like committing to that, knowing that the sort of volatility of this, this sort of insane economic position. I think they will frame it as some sort of, to account for the global trade, what-a-but-a,

the price is $600, just for argument's sake, price is $600, but make it very clear that it's the reason the price is $600 is because of this thing, and if things change on that front, seemingly in a permanent way, the price will normalize to. But they can't do pre-orders. Correct. Until that, right?

Like if they start pre-orders at 600 and then their tariffs get rolled back, those people that paid $600 have paid $600. There's no rectify. Best Buy is not going to be like, yeah, let me get you back your 150, dog. No problem. I think the thing is exactly what Griffin said, which is this is a month and a half away from when they're going after, almost two months from when the thing actually releases. This is changing on a 24 to 48 hour basis.

There is no world in which the terraces they exist today are the same on May 1st. That's not to say that they couldn't be worse or better. I don't know, but they will be a hundred percent different. That's for sure. There's already signs of that being the case I also think that Nintendo is smart enough to Not have to say the thing that you said fresh of hey Here's why we raise the price if they have to raise the price. It will be after car Manufacturers are raising the cost of their cars by 10k 20k, right? so I think that they would hold off on raising that price until

That subtext becomes text across the entire economy I would also like to remind listeners that we do record this show in advance of when it comes out Not a joke not a joke like It could seem absolutely when this thing comes out who the fuck knows where we're at? This has been a very long discussion and we could talk for longer, but I think we do need to wrap it up. And we have a hell of a game to talk about.

Yeah, no kidding. Speaking of, Rust, do you wanna address the game after the break? Yeah, sure. So you guys are gonna be talking about a game called Blueprints, which is a first-person, kind of Myst-style puzzle game with a lot of secrets in it. I was pretty excited about this game.

It's been described to me as like the new Animal Well, if you will. And I actually started playing and found that I really couldn't play with a lot of confidence because the game is incredibly color sensitive. There are a lot of colors, even more colors as you go deeper is my understanding. And it was creating some problems

because a lot of the puzzles in the game are very subtle. And if I don't know when colors are important for a puzzle, it really messes with me. There was a moment where I like made the total wrong decision because I was like, I for sure have green rooms in my house. really messes with me. There was a moment where I like made the total wrong decision because I was like, I for sure have green rooms in my house. I did not have green rooms in my house. That's like a very basic level.

So a couple of things I want to mention. One, if you go into Settings, there's a Settings option. And in there is Accessibility. And they do mention Colorblind mode in there. And it's grayed out. And they say, I have a note underneath it saying, hey, we know how important this is. We are working on it. But as of right now, it is not in the game. I don't know how long it's going to be until it is in the game. But I wanted to make that clear,

A, for colorblind people like me, obviously, you, I think, will have a lot of difficulty playing this. And B, given the fact that it is such a secret heavy game, I don't have a lot to contribute and I also don't necessarily wanna like totally blow up the experience for myself. Not that these guys are gonna give spoilers, but without having really any context of like where the game goes,

it didn't feel like it made a lot of sense for me to participate. So I actively said I didn't wanna participate in the B segment of the show where they are talking about the game because I really have only like scratched the very, very surface. Hey, Russ, to what extent does Steam

and other digital platforms like surface that kind of information? Oh, like whether it's supported? Like is there a, I've never really looked for it. Is there like a warning on games? I've never seen like a system wide warning. Obviously there is like a couple things. One, Steam supports, you know, returns.

If you only play a game for under two hours, you can just return it. But I've never seen like system wide games. Obviously for people that it's like a real concern, certainly do your research before playing any game. But yeah, you know, we've talked a little bit about accessibility in the past. This is not the first time I've experienced it.

It is one of the first times in a long time where it was so integral to the game that I really couldn't participate. But again, I would reiterate that it's very clear to me that developers realize how integral it is and seem to be working on it. I don't know how long it'll be, but that's sort of like a long preface to say

I will not be in the second half of this episode. While Russ is away, the Us will play. You can say the next episode's about anything we top. It's called Noita, and you gotta play it. All right, let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. Bye, Russ. I feel like this could get out of control very quickly. And I feel like, one, we make a promise up front

that we're not gonna spoil anything. It's impossible, go ahead. It's impossible to spoil something? It's impossible to not spoil something. Just by talking about it, you're gonna contextualize the game in a way you're giving things away already. I already know five puzzles just from listening to you talk. Okay, so Raz is still with us in spirit,

which I can appreciate. Sorry, yes, okay. Okay, he's out, sorry. You've purged him out. Blueprints is one of the most exciting, most consuming games I've maybe ever played. And I've been so stoked to talk about it, even though I think it's going to be kind of a challenge because there's not really a game

that has existed like it before. It does have a lot of sort of familiar components though. So maybe we start kind of there. Okay, I wanna try something because I think that, I think you could best understand blueprints like a single player board game, right? Imagine blueprints like a single player board game and your board for the game is a nine by five grid and you always start the game

at the bottom center position of it and then you draw three cards and each one of the cards is a room. After you've drafted, you can choose which room to play. Some rooms have a cost of resources that you've accumulated, hopefully in other rooms. Yes. But the important thing is that the orientation of these rooms and the assemblage of these rooms is randomly generated every time by you as you explore through the house.

You're building this house as you draft your way through it. A touchstone that may be helpful for some folks is betrayal at House on the Hill. If you've played that board game where you are placing the tiles down and building the house as you go, that is very much the system here.

Right, there are a truly dizzying array of interlocked puzzles, both mechanical and sort of like narrative in nature, that are all interlocked, but in order to like fully maximize their abilities, a lot of times you're having to synergize the rooms that you're pulling. So you may need one room because of the effect that it can have on another to progress your understanding, all understanding.

And really that's the that's the currency, right? Like that's the number one currency, I think, is understanding. I'll layer one thing on top of that, which is it is a series of more challenging games to actually reach your goal. So your goal is to find the 46th room in a 45 room estate, right? In theory, at the beginning, you draft these rooms

and you want to draw a line from the room that you started to an antechamber on the other side of the house. So in theory, you could do that by just picking rooms that make that line from point A to point B. But added a layer, you have a limited number of steps that you can do and you have some locked doors. So now you have to start using rooms that do not actually give you as clear a pass and may actually terminate pass. But those rooms have the jewels or they have keys. So in theory, now the game is good. But as you get further, you reach rooms where the keys don't actually work. Okay, well now you need to find a computer terminal and the power of the computer terminal. And suddenly it just keeps cascading on top of this where you are now. No, those are the first two or three layers. You're 30 layers deep of, oh, but if I need to do that, I have to do this.

And it's a bit of a give amounts of cookie puzzle game. Now to, to add another thing. Yeah. And hopefully you're still hanging with this, right? This idea of every, every time you play the game, every in game day, you are to add another thing. Yeah. And hopefully you're still hanging with this, right? This idea of every time you play the game, every in-game day, you are starting over and building a new house with this randomized draft

every time, trying to solve the puzzles, you have to take fucking notes. You have to take screenshots nonstop. You will have to take screenshots nonstop. Or you will be mad at yourself. You'll be so pissed. So you don't know when the next time you'll see this puzzle again is, and you kind of got to have it like

store away somewhere. And don't take screenshots nonstop. We're kidding about that. Cause a lot of the stuff that you're going to encounter early on, you'll encounter a lot over and over again. Until you get it. Take screenshots there and don't write it down. Because I, the first five days,

I was on a plane for like four hours just writing down every little thing on like oh, well There's a picture of a pawn and I wonder if I'm a pawn in the greater scheme of things Yeah, so so the game for the most part is how do I draft these rooms in a way where I can solve? Start to figure out what these puzzles are and start to solve them right and it's hard when you start the game out It's almost impossible to actually guarantee that you can make progress in any given run trying to make these two goals interlock. However, it is also a roguelite. And there are a lot of ways where you become more powerful, where you have more options. And that power curve, I think, is more elegant

and more satisfying than like any RPG, like my strength went up two points, because you've been trying to get these two rooms to draft together for fucking ten runs and it's killing you, and now you, but you just found this upgrade that is permanent that is going to facilitate that, and now you're making progress, which then leads to more puzzles and more upgrades. Like, it is, in a sense, the Dark Souls of thinking. Mm. Mm-hmm.

That's very good. Rather than learning the enemies that you need to fight and getting really good at fighting those enemies because you fight them over and over again, what it really is, is you're learning the vocabulary of this house and you're learning the way this house thinks and the way this house communicates with you and that is what you are getting.

That is how you start to feel confident navigating this house because you know it so well because you've been in the rooms over and over again. So when you realize you've walked past the fucking thing that you've needed to look at 30 fucking times, then you really can savor it. That's just, that's very elegant because the learning is the hook. I have bounced off other games that have been the Animal Wells that Fresh mentioned earlier, or even Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. And what I really appreciate about

this game is it is a puzzle game, but the vast majority of the times, it is actually telling you how to solve its own puzzles. Yes. If you look around for the answer, it is happy to just literally hand it to you. But you have to keep your eyes open and you have to be curious. That's the thing, because it's not going to hand it to you in the right order, guaranteed. Correct.

You will find a hint that makes no fucking sense to you and won't until you find this room you've never seen before 30 hours into the game and you're like, wait a second, that has to do with this. And hopefully you've taken a screenshot. What's great about that, if you know this, especially going in is yeah, you can try to solve some of the puzzles and there are some that you can solve without those hints. There are a lot you can't, but often in puzzle games, I get to a point where I'm stuck on

a puzzle and I bash my head against it and I just don't feel smart enough to solve it. And then I just walk away from the game. Where here I get to a puzzle and I can trust that, hey, I don't know the answer to this. I should just keep moving. Just keep going and doing other things. Because eventually I will find an answer for this. I really think that there is a, there is a, the learning curve of this game, I would say, is steep but short to get to like a point where you're enjoying it.

Yeah. I think that right at the first, when you first start going, and this is not a knock against the game, but it's sort of like a heads up, or a way that I wish I was more comfortable experiencing games, at first, it's much more about just having your eyes open

and looking around. Yeah. And that's it. I mean, it's really like, and waiting for stuff to come to you. The puzzles that are obvious. You're gonna build some shit houses, which is, my favorite experience was when Juice

and I were on tour, and you would just out of nowhere just be like, great fucking house, great shitty, because each room has a different number of entrances, it's so easy to lock yourself into a situation where you have drafted five rubes, and then there's no more exits, and you're like, well, that's my run for the day, okay, goodbye.

But even then you learn something about those five rubes. That's the thing, right? Like, there were times where I built a house and I built a path that was maybe a room away from the antechamber on the other side and got a dead end. But I had an entire path on the left side of the estate

that I could go kind of rebuild. And I knew I wasn't gonna be able to make it far enough to get to the antechamber, but I went and just built, just to to build just to see what I could get. And I ended up discovering something that blew my mind, that completely reframed the game for me. And did that have anything to do with in that run getting to the goal? No. But that was honestly, looking back, that was when the game really clicked for me, because then I started to realize it truly is not about just reaching the goal. And it is about solving its greater mysteries.

What I what I feel like if I had to to put a knock on Blueprints, if I had to like complain about something, it's that I feel and this is more of a warning, because once I tell you, it won't be a problem for you, but I feel like Blueprints makes it feel like that you are playing against the passage of time, or that you have a time limit, or that like time must not be wasted in a way that is not accurate.

Like you are seeing signage for like, there's a sale on this certain day. And it feels like I started thinking like, well, I gotta be ready for that. Like I gotta be ready for that day. I gotta be ready for that sale. I gotta have my stuff lined up. I gotta be ready.

But like, that doesn't matter. Like it doesn't matter. And it doesn't, and the passage of days was a lot more frustrating for me when I would have like dead end days like that, because I thought the way that days are like counting very definitively makes you feel like there's a time pressure and it's not and I wish I had realized that earlier There is there is not a time pressure. I think that that is I think the reason that that is there and I agree with you

I've also had that same feeling of frustration of well, if I don't get ready for this sale that is on one side for some reason, I'm gonna be fucked. I think the reason it does that is because this game's big trick is you think you understand the scale of it, and then something happens and you realize that you don't. And there is not, I'll say definitively,

there is not a game that has ever been made and released that pulls that off as many times sequentially as Blueprints has done in the 120 hours that I have spent with it so far. It just keeps going. You think, one of my favorite concepts in games that I love to think about is the hand of the creator, right? Yeah.

It brings us joy to feel the creator in the work because they have put themselves into it and you can feel them guiding you. Like when you are having a good time at a video game, a lot of times you can feel that creator present. They've thought about this. And a lot of times when you're not having fun, it of times you can feel that creator present. They've thought about this. And a lot of times when you're not having fun, it's because you can feel like the creator of the game

didn't really think about this experience, like what this would feel like, right? Because they didn't put their... There's a sense in this game where when you find something, sometimes it's so hidden that you can almost feel a, like you can feel someone speaking to you. Like it's like that concrete, like, yo, you found it.

Okay, good. Cause I've been waiting for you to find it. And also 30 other things that have just kind of been floating around in your head have just like simultaneously clicked. And the pleasure of it was such, and Griffin saw this a couple of times, I would set the video game down and just let the pleasure of it was such, and Griffin saw this a couple times,

I would set the video game down and just let the pleasure of that wash over me because it is so perfectly orchestrated and satisfying and it keeps happening over and over and over again. And every time it happens, you think, well, that's the bottom. And it's like, wait. It is on some animal welfare shit, which I do appreciate.

I think that it is easier to solve the thing, like Chris said, like it's easier to solve the stuff than it is in Animal Well, because you will constantly... It shows its hand a lot if you are paying attention and you're looking around, but it is also on some Animal Well shit where like, I know the three of us are on different strata of the game. And so like, talking of the game. Yeah.

And so like talking about the game is, I think pretty difficult. I think you all have a hard time chatting about this game with your friends until you have guaranteed that you all have reached a certain like checkpoint together. I will say this though, speaking of Animal Well and this, I bounced off Animal Well soon before I will bounce off this.

This is a much more deliberate and orchestrated and laid out. There's a lot here, but I think it's more fairly laid out and more obviously sign posted than in Animal Well, which it clicks more for me. It's just a personal taste. I wanted to share a detail from a call I had with the creator of this game. And because you were talking about how it really feels like they are whispering to you, and this will make a lot more sense as more people play the game, but everything in the game, again, can feel like a clue. So I'm on the call with him, right? And behind it is a ton

Tonda Ross. Yes. Yes. The name pronunciation. I believe so or Tonda. But yes. So I'm on a call with him and he lives in LA and he used to work in the film industry and behind him is a poster for Nightmare Alley, the original film from 1947, right? And I'm like, oh, love that movie. And I think that's really interesting because Nightmare Alley is about a confidence man like somebody who's kind of like creating illusions and tricking people. He's like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I hadn't thought about it, but you know, like everything feels like it's kind of part of the game. And then there were two other movie posters next to him and I was like, oh, like what's up?

What's up with those? Like those are old movies, but I don't know if they have anything in common with Nightmare Alley. He's like, yeah, no, I don't like those movies as much. I really like Nightmare Alley, but I don't really like those as much. It's like, why, why do you have them on your wall? And he's like, oh, they were all released in 1947 and my address is 1947. So like, that's what you're doing.

This is my dude. Is what you're saying. I immediately just like vibrated of holy moly. You're incredible. Like that you are this game. It's, there's like nine different brilliant things about this game. The puzzles themselves are brilliant.

The microcosmic puzzles, the bigger puzzles, the writing is fantastic. The story, once you start to unpack it, is quite gripping, but it is the way that like, you have this one half of your brain that is thinking about this board game drafting, deck building sort of mechanic, and that is keeping some plates spinning in your brain.

And then you are also trying to figure out all these puzzles and how they all interact. And the way that your brain works as it is trying to do these two things at once keeps you from getting frustrated and locked in on either thing, right? Because in Animal Well, you're trying to solve puzzles and you aren't making any progress, you're stuck, right?

But in Blueprints, you have like this other game that is also going on and if you keep playing that one, it's gonna move you along the path on the other hand. Right? There's a meta layer. There's a couple different layers you can do. It's insane how it, that it works. When I had started talking about the, comparing this to Animal Well. Yes.

The thing that I wanted to say, and I really, I'm never this cat, but like, you really, really, really shouldn't try to look up any help with this game. Because thinking about it, and I wonder if this is part of the idea, it would be almost impossible to extract information that you need without spoiling many other things for yourself. And I swear to you, I am the first person to go to guides if I feel like something is unfair. I mean, I have no qualms about it whatsoever, but I really, in this one scenario,

am telling you that you will ruin this experience for yourself. It is fair. It's there. It's not it's very deliberate. It's there So like don't try to look I agree with you to the credits and then maybe after that chat with friends That's why I would say I was get to a point where you're gonna want to I'm saying 100 That's a huge I very much agree. I'm putting that in a separate bucket. I think talking to people about stuff it's a lot easier for a friend to be like, okay, Griffin has had some very weird, cautious, what do you know that I'm,

help me try to figure out where you're at. So that's a lot easier, I think, than Googling. Yes. It is my game of the year so handily right now, and I don't know what's on the horizon that could unseat it because it has truly had some of the most memorable moments, most satisfying solutions. I can't stop thinking about it. I've been having the dreams where I'm rotating floor plans

in my slumbers. It has really, really, really got its hooks in me. And I think it is a truly once in a generation game. I think it is. Have you left the credits rolling? What's that? Have you left the credits rolling? No.

I left the credits, I left it on when I have to go start, I left it at the menu and when I went back in, the credits were rolling. And I started watching the credits, the things that are being highlighted in the credits and watching like the different shapes in the credits. And none of it was anything but. You've lost your mind.

Could have been. Could have be something. I don't know. It's, it's, you know, I think listening to this, if this is your shit, if it sounds like your shit, it's gonna fuck you up, man. It's really, really gonna get you pretty good, and I am excited for more people to play it.

And even if it's not your shit, try it. I believe there's a demo. Give it, give it a shot. I don't think the demo is available anymore. I think it was up in next fast. I strongly encourage people to check it out. No matter what this is the game that feels like an exception to that. Even if you're not into the genre, because this is so not my thing. Normally this is so normally what I bounce off of and then give it a try.

And the rule is if you're getting frustrated, if you feel like it's impossible, literally just play one more day. There were so many times I was like, I need a guide. There's no way I could figure this out. I may have audibly said out loud, fuck this game, I'm never playing this again.

This fucking sucks. And then I did play another day. I was like, okay, that's much better. Yeah, it's easier now I understand. This was like, okay, that's much better. It works, yeah. Yeah, it's easier now, I understand. This house is, it was just a bad house. Just had a bad house last time, no big deal. It is also, I think, fair warning,

just based on the critical reception to the game. This is gonna be the game that people are talking about a lot this year. And so there is a certain element of, being a part of those conversations is important to you. Which is why it is so disappointing and such a huge fucking bummer that our dear friend Russ Freshdick,

who's this is absolutely his shit, like can't play the game right now. I think we will do a spoiler episode at some point this year. I would like to talk like a full, how does this game work? Let's crack it open. Yeah. I would like to talk like a full, how does this game work? Let's crack it open. Yeah.

That would be cool. We would have to separate it into chapters based on what strat I you are. Sounds very good listening. I'm fine obviously being spoiled. I'm going to make an executive decision to skip emails. Yes, I think so. And we're gonna go straight to honorable mentions.

Have you guys played or watched anything else that you've enjoyed? Well, friend, this past weekend, I took my wife and kids to see the Minecraft movie. Ooh, yeah. I will say this up front, is that the teenagers have discovered irony, and that is a challenge. I didn't realize what was happening. Packed, packed fucking house when we went to see it

on a Saturday at 2 p.m. They're making a lot of money. Very popular. Yeah, sure. Unsurprising. And there were a lot of teens and preteens sitting directly in front of us, talking the entire film, cutting up, joking, and also then at certain points,

it seemed like everyone in the theater except for us would quote lines from the movie that had just come out two days ago. So it's trailer lines. That's what the gimmick is that they are, this is a TikTok thing. Right. People are getting thrown out of theaters.

I know this now, but I did not know this when we went to see the movie, and the first time it happened, I looked at Rachel and was like, what the fuck is going? So it is very much that same thing that happened when, Minions. Oh gosh, was it Minions? Yeah, Minions, where kids would come dressed up in their Sunday best suits and tie.

When the movie let out and the lights came on, and all these kids stood up, sure enough, they were all dressed in suit and tie. So I'm assuming this was the third or fourth time that they had seen this film. That nice. So like that gave it sort of a Rocky Horror energy that I was not expecting.

I had a great fucking time with this flick though, man. It couldn't be anything else. Like it is so, like imagine how you would make a Minecraft movie and make it actually like extremely Minecraft and not like the 1993 Super Mario Brothers where it's like lightly inspired. Like imagine how you would do that. And then think about how sort of like threadbare

that would actually be. And then how you would solve for that is just put Jack Black in it like delivering. And have Jared Hess direct it. And have Jared Hess direct it and have Jack Black deliver lines in really, really, really silly ways. And that is enough. That's enough to hold the film together. Henry loved it. lines in really, really, really silly ways. And that is enough.

That's enough to hold the film together. Henry loved it. He's a big Minecraft player. There's a lot in there for kids like that. And it's like, it is not, the characters aren't the most fleshed out and the plot isn't anything at all. But if you just kind of like vibe with it, I had a pretty good time watching the

Minecraft. I'm happy that Jared has made Napoleon Dynamite a cultural phenomenon and then decades later made Minecraft in a weird way. Also like it's going to be a midnight movie. I think for years, the SpongeBob movie has become one in ways that like blows my mind when we show it at our Theater in California. Yeah sellouts like I mean people get so hyped for it And I weirdly think that we will see this in like a decade somehow be a cult movie, which is a saw Yeah

It's also funny that like if you want to make money for your project, you gotta get Jack Black. I feel like our generation of people is, like, one of the few ones who are like, we found that one! He was good, right? We kept him around. He was good, right? Nailed it. We did do a good deal with Jack Black. I finished the third season, and I guess, especially the final season, I guess, I don't know, that could be hears hearsay you never know with these stuff but White Lotus the it's just a really really well written and acted and performed TV show

and the third season which was like I said essentially wraps up with a show I kind of hope it does it's very much it makes it very clear what the show is about and what the show has been trying to do. And I think it sticks the landing in a really, really remarkable way. And this is, uh, each season has been about something else. I think the first season was very much focused on income inequality and sort of like an upstairs, downstairs thing. The second season, uh season was very much about sex

and the power that has over people. And this is a season about death. So like that we've been hitting the big ones, right? Money, sex and death. But the way that this is, it's really about the way people bring meaning to their lives and the power of like spirituality and religion and the place that that has in a modern world. And it's a really thoughtful, nuanced take on that. Parker Posey is doing some incredible work. Jason Isaacs is doing some incredible work. They feel like people that I have known in my life of, in the way they sound, not necessarily in their socioeconomic standing, but it's wonderful.

It's really wonderfully done. Walton Goggins is sort of like TV's Jack Black at this point. Like if you want to make money on something, you gotta get Goggins. It's great. It's really well done. It's a fantastic show and it has a clear point of view. It's really well done. It's a fantastic show and it has a clear point of view. It's really well executed and Mike White has been on Survivor and he did really, really well.

So what more do you need? One quick thing, one long thing. Quick thing, Anne Shirley is now on Crunchyroll. It is an adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. Everybody should watch it because it's beautiful and you can watch it with your family. Longer Thing, Children of Time. Oops. Whoa. Have you read it? Do you know about this? It seems like so extremely your shit. Okay. So it's a well really it's the first in a trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky and it is set in the future.

Their earth is absolute garbage and scientists want to make sure that like humans can survive and that humanity thrives in its own way. And they create I believe it's called the exaltation plan where they are going out in seeding planets. And the idea is hey we have this like arc full of monkeys We're going to shoot it into this planet that is somewhat earth-like And we're also going to fire a virus into that planet that makes creatures evolve

Ultra ultra rapidly so in the span of like 50 generations monkeys will evolve into humans and In the span of like 50 generations, monkeys will evolve into humans and once they get to a point where they can like communicate with the solar system, it'll ping our satellite and we will know, hey, we've created effectively a new group of humans, a new earth. Goes terribly wrong. Monkeys get blown up. This all happens very early, but that virus still gets shot onto the seed planet and instead spiders become the dominant life form and it is an entire sci-fi

universe about what would happen if spiders evolved at the pace that humans had and like how would society work if it was spiders instead of people? Which sounds at first on its face, silly, until you realize it is basically kind of a perfect metaphor for what if the internet was sentient, because spiders can communicate via web. And it is like all about extrapolating that out to its like furthest extent. It is unbelievably thoughtful and creative and smart and like takes its premise seriously without being burdensome. And I am blown away by it. There are two more of them that are about other animals. I believe there's one about Ravens or crows that came out recently. That is kind of more of a metaphor for AI. But the series is.

But the series is so far awesome. It had been recommended to me forever. I put it off forever. I am so glad I have started it. And again, that's called Children of Time. That sounds sick. I love alien spider shit. Like, that's like absolutely my stuff. Hey, what do we wanna do next week?

That's a really great question. Hey, that's just me and you, Hoops. It's just part of time. Yeah, the boys. Oh, that's right. Yes, Russ and I will be do next week? That's a really great question. Hey, that's just me and you, Hoops. It's just part of the time. Yeah, the boys. Oh, that's right. Yes, Russ and I will be absent next week, but Chris and Justin are talking about a game I desperately wish I could be a part of.

I am so excited. We are talking about Promise Mascot Agency, which is the new game from the studio that did Bestie's favorite, Paradise Killer. And this game looks like Yakuza, but with like local mascots? I don't know. I'm not sure I have it. Amazing.

It looks incredible. Who wants to talk about the Patreon? Russ isn't here, that's normally his thing. I'll say thanks to the following members for joining the Bestie's Patreon and supporting this show. Stacy, Matt, Adam, Sue, that's some pretty straight over the plate names. Love that.

Thanks, Russ. Thanks, Russ, for that. You can join at patreon.com slash the besties. Listen to the the resties episodes. Listen to our monthly bracket bonus episodes and support our show because you all are the reason that we are able to make it. And yeah, patreon.com slash the besties help us out.

That is gonna do it for us for this week on the besties. Be sure to join us again next time on the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties!