The Besties - For Super Mario Galaxy The Movie, We Get Help from Get Played

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

How do you talk about a film as strange as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie? You call in backup. Get Played’s Matt Apodaca joins us to talk about the blockbuster sequel. Does a film need a story? What��s the worst sin in adapting a video game? And which voice actor stole the show? Plus, Raccoin!  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, hey, hey, Matt, you free this afternoon? Uh, ish. Yeah, like, I guess, not to give, like, a L.A. answer, but for what? I was just thinking that maybe we could do, like, kind of like a work lunch, like a work lunch, um, at a California pizza kitchen. There we go. No, that's really good. Yeah, no. I can get, I, as long as I can order a white pizza with bacon and a peach lemonade, I'm all in, baby.

Oh, yeah. Good, good. And, and, uh, the only a bad thing. is you know how it is out here. The waiters, they're just so laissez-faire. I wonder if they'll ever get around to pick up the check. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're so, they're kind of just like doing their own thing almost.

It's almost like that work at the restaurant is secondary to their main thing, which is almost not taking care of me at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. California's. That's good, dude. That was good, dude. Sorry, that was a little holly weird for everyone. No, I liked it.

No, it wasn't weird at all. I liked it. It felt accessible to me. Can we go to a TV taping afterward? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you think that they can give us some, like, really stale pizza and not let us take a piss for four hours?

Yeah, so we're going to go eat pizza and then get free pizza at a TV tape. Right, right, right, right, this is great. You guys know what I would do to go to a TV taping and you just say it like it's nothing. It's you say it's a fucking joke. You say it's like nothing. I would eat cold Domino's pizza at a taping of the, but the, but the, you guys Bob Hart's Avi Shola reboot and you guys are making a fucking joke out of it.

I've been on one TV taping. It was the TV taping of the show that I was on and we wanged it so bad. They're never going to ask us to do TV ever again. That's the only thing we're not. And they never will let us do it. I would go see any show. Yeah.

How fascinating to see how the sausage is made. The TV sausage? Stop laughing at me, Matt. I swear to God. Stop making me laugh. Yeah, I do just want to confirm, though, Matt, for tonight, CPK, followed by Resoli and Isles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my...

I'll see you there. I'll see you there. My name is Justin McRae, and I know the best game of the week. My name is Griffin McRoy, and I know the highest grossing motion picture maybe of all time. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I know the best film on the week, and I am not going to let the guest introduce himself. Okay. I made a mistake before the show started. I said that he could, and I got harassed by some of my best friends for it.

So instead, I'm going to welcome our guest, because that's what we do here. I want to introduce everyone here to the one, the only, the Xbox kid, Matt Apataka. I'm doing good. I have to clarify this. I, at one point... I hate the nickname. Well, here's the thing. I have many nicknames on my show

I can get played They call me the finisher They called me, they just recently started calling me The franchise because I've been digging in Shit, that's good That's a good franchise That's a really good That's a really good. That's courtesy of Nick Weiger

That's good stuff The Xbox Kid moniker came Because I got an Xbox series S And I never had an Xbox Before and I was like I gotta see what this Xbox thing's all about I gotta see what they're talking about This is an Xbox series.

I got to see what they're talking about. And now it's like the thing that I have that I think I hate the most on her. Xbox Series S? Yeah. And then I was- You got the one that doesn't play video games. The one Xbox. Yeah.

I did then was gifted a series X by my co-host, Heather Campbell, who was basically ready to throw hers away. It was like, I don't want this anymore. And now my cat sits. on it. It just like sits on it like it's like a chair. Yeah. It doesn't change. I think it's like a small cat chair. You have two Xbox series. So I think I have the Xbox series. Yeah. The whole when a new Xbox exclusive comes out, USB like, there's the time where you're like, which one am I going to play it on? Like you must be said torn. Yeah, yeah. When that happens, I, I, I am always so

torn. What do I do? How do I budget the time? for this particular game. But if something came out that was good, I'd be... If? I'd be a pig and shit. You know, it'd be great. Chris Plant, what are...

This week, we're going to be talking about Super Mario Galaxy, the movie. The Super Mario Galaxy movie, I think... That's right. Thank you. Sure. Yes. What is that, Chris Plant?

This one's a tough one, because you would think this is a movie adaptation of a Super Mario Galaxy, which is decidedly not. It is a movie featuring Super Mario, other Super Mario characters, and also some characters, not from Super Mario,

and scenes from various Super Mario games, but not those actual scenes. It also might or might not be a movie by any standard definition of that term, but we'll get into all of that after the break. The Super Mario Galaxy movie is not an adaptation of Super Mario Galaxy. My daughter looked at me as the credits began

and she said, I never played Super Mario Galaxy, so I'm worried I'll be lost. And I said, sweetie, I don't think anyone in here is going to be lost. I think we're all going to have a pretty good idea of what's happening at all times. You can't be lost if you don't move. If you don't go anywhere,

it's impossible to become lost. That's what I do enjoy about this movie is that the plot, I didn't have any difficulty following it because it was a static sort of object that and it's just an easy rider this flick. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I had I had the luxury of watching this in Japan.

And it was the second night I was there. And I was so tired, I felt physical pain while I was watching it. Like, I was just like so tired from the trip. I was worried I wasn't going to be able to stay awake during the movie. And luckily, that was not an issue because there was. something to focus on every single second of the movie. Awesome. Yeah. It's so cool. Yeah. If you're not enjoying the movie, if you wait, not a joke, 45 seconds, they'll be doing some totally different shit.

Like, for all of its faults, I do think it is sort of a master class in momentum because it is just like, there's this like, Trey and Matt thing, this, like, the South Park guys, they have this thing that's like, stories should be this. This has. happens and because of that this happens and because of that this happens. There's none of that. Literally none of that, right. It's truly just this happens, this happens, this happens, this happens, this happens. And, you know, it could be worse.

Like, I didn't, it's not a good movie, but I didn't not enjoy myself. You know what I mean? I was like, oh, there's just always showing me stuff. Yeah. Yeah, Hoops, I'm curious to you. I have a feeling I'm slightly closer of the maybe, I don't know how I feel about it, but who's, I think you had almost an existential experience. Okay, I like, what's frustrating about this is that I actually like Aaron Horvath and Michael

Jelinek from Teen Titans Go. There's a, there's a lot of stuff on that show that's really subversive and really funny. And it is like a kind of chaotic and bordering on nihilists sometimes, like, or anarchic is probably a better way of describing it, where that can withstand 11 minutes. I think. Like, you can sit with that energy a little bit. But this movie happens, but it's not a... I asked my daughter, who's 11, we were driving home,

and I said, I want to talk to you about theme, and she basically understands theme, but I was like, to drill down what I'm talking about, what's Frozen 1 about? And she says, love. And I said, what's Frozen 2 about? She said, change. I said, wow.

And what is the Super Mario Galaxy movie about? She said, Mario. I think that that's like... question. Absolutely. It's absolutely. And it's the abstract. It's Mario in the abstract.

Yeah, not Mario the person. Just like Mario the person. Mario the person gets nothing in this fucking motion picture. Absolutely nothing in this way. There's not a single arc in the entire movie. It is just, right. It is 100%. The movie is about Mario.

Full stop. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. The Mario franchise and wider Nintendo properties. The Mario Galaxy. Yes. Can I just to really to folks who have not seen this movie and may not plan on seeing this movie

I really want to hammer this down of like how they just kind of didn't really worry about a story in this one just to focus on Peach Peach's plot line she she's talking to Mario or will they won't they a star comes here is like hey Rosalina has been kidnapped by Bowser Jr. and everyone's like Yes, yes, we know all about. We know these guys for sure. Yeah, we saw that part already. She leaves in secret, for some reason, goes to the Gateway Galaxy where they're going to find them,

but then a monkey steals their stuff. Well, you've got to get the stuff back from the monkey. Following the monkey, they end up in an underground casino, a zero-gravity casino where they have a Kill Bill Crazy 88 space fight against the antagonists of Super Mario Brothers 2. And while watching it, I was like, Why do we do it? Like, how did we get here?

Because movies, even the most threadbare plots will be like, and here's the reason why this is happening now. And this was just like, and now you, Wart, tell me where Bowser Jr. is. Like, why does Wart know where it? You didn't talk about this fucking at all. That's convenient that this dude works for Bowser Jr.? It's really not ever, nothing is ever set up, ever in the whole movie. It's just stuff happens.

I have a theory. I have a theory about how this movie came together. So at the beginning, you see like the executive producers, right? And there's two names. And the second name is Shigeru Miyamoto. Yeah. And a lot of times you see that and you're like, oh, good, that person got to collect their check. This feels like somebody from Nintendo, because they're very, very protective of the series, came in and it was like, no, no, no.

What works is what we do in the video games. And they were like, wait, where you like, say about three sentences of a story up top? And then you have individual levels that no story is conveyed. And they were like, precisely. And they were like, that's not how films. And they said, shh, quiet. It made so much money. Just please be quiet.

And then they made levels. Like the game is literally just level. Like this game, the movie would be a blast to play. I am convinced. It would be a very funny. It's insulting, though, because it gets to the last, by the last scene, it is literally cutting back and forth between a. NES style representation of a final level and how that is being represented on the screen

to a point where you don't even need to bring nostalgia. It is like showing you like, I remember, it's like this. Hey, stupid. It's like this. The conversation around this movie has been so, like, weird and frustrating because there's so much to criticize. Just from a, I'm not a film guy fucking, fucking, I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about ever, but even I was watching it, like, there's got to be some sort of connective tissue

that just they decided that too hard. Compared to the Sonic movies, right? If you want to talk about, like, here's a different way to do an adaptation of a video game with a fairly threadbare plot, they went through the effort of, like, having character arcs and having a reason for scenes to happen in the sequential order that they happen in.

And this movie didn't do that. And it's still just, it kind of, it's not, hugely unpleasant to watch because it looks so great. And they do sneak in some pretty clever kind of like Easter egg shit that even I was enjoying. But my son,

who is nine, was like ape shit, going gaga for it. Right? And so like, it's for them, right? That's great. But people who are critical get shit on it because they're like, it's a just a kid's movie, enjoy it. Not every kid's movie has to be the wild robot. Not every kid's movie has to be

Puss and Boots The Last Wish. But just like a story, like any story would be like better, I think, than no story at all. I want to hit you guys with a thought. And this is probably something that the first movie I really hated, and it's largely because Chris Price sucks so bad as Mario, and I don't even want to talk about it. It sucks so bad. He's like really bad. He's not acting.

He's not really bad at it. It's not a character. It's not anything. But that's a big part of it. But you know how many feature length. Mickey Mouse movies there are. Zero? Zero.

There's none. Why? My theory is that Mickey Mouse has to be exactly the same at the end of the picture as he is at the beginning of the picture, right? Mickey Mouse cannot change. I would make the argument to you guys

that maybe if Disney has not cracked the Mickey Mouse movie, maybe there ain't a Mario movie. You know what I mean? Like maybe this guy, I shouldn't be in a movie because he can't change and he can't grow. In the first movie, he barely doubted himself.

You know what I mean? And his brother doubled outed himself so they had the same arc just more. This movie, they don't even pretend like there's an arc. They just sort of are going through it. Maybe it's just like not a good movie guy. It's like maybe not good in movies, you know? Maybe just don't make a movie about him. I do want to play a little bit, a little bit of devil's advocate here.

Okay. Because I had a slightly, I would say actually probably significantly better time. I did not love this movie by any means. Yeah. But I saw the film Hoppers a few weeks before, and I would take this movie over another movie that, like, gives me a milk toast political message and largely makes the movie for me and not my kid. Um, uh, every time. The sweet spot is when it can do. both. Like old Pixar, nailed it.

Yeah. Well, Sonic, it closer. But these are like two ends of a spectrum that I feel like I'm having to choose from and I don't really want to be on either end. Right. This film, for all of its problems, the action is good. The action sequence, the actual staging of it, I think kicks ass. That's what makes it even more frustrating that there's not a plot that is like holding me in with the stakes because like I was like whole I was not expecting the choreography of it to like look

this. choreography wise I agree with you. There's just zero tension ever because Mario can't ever be in peril. Like you know Mario is not in danger. Mario's never going to get a cut or a nick or a scrape. So you can't do you know I think the best set piece in the first Mario movie is the one in the real world with the dog because the destruction has stakes. Right.

Once you're in the mushroom kingdom and blocks are getting smashed, who gives a shit? Then it's like the Superman problem of like, well, our hero can't ever be really in danger. And he can't ever change or evolve. So like, what should we do in the movie, I guess? I don't know what to do in there. Matt, you were in Japan. You are sleep deprived. You're watching this movie.

You're in physical pain. What is the thing that like, you're like, I dig this or this is actually the, the cruelest form of torture that I've ever gone through. I think that really did color my, my viewing of it. Like, you know, I was on home turf,

right? We were sort of like invited there for it. So, like, there was already a little bit of buy-in of just being like, I'm already having a fucking blast. This is awesome. Sure.

Like, uh, and, uh, and, um, we were sort of watching it with other press, like people who were stone silent in the,

in the theater. And I was, you're about to say stoned. I thought you were about to say stoned. I was so happy. Yeah, they brought... They were all just like bombed

watching the Super Mario movie. Yeah, yeah, it was tough. It was, yeah, it was, they were getting wild in there. It was crazy. But they were being so quiet during the movie that I felt like an idiot,

like, like, bonking himself on the head with a hammer while it was just like laughing my ass off. Like, I was just like, this is like, you know, it could have been tired. It could, It could have been jet lag.

It could have just been that I was like already treated so well. Like while I was there. You're in the spirit. Yeah, I was in the spirit. But like I go see all these movies. Like I've seen every Sonic movie in the theater. And I'm usually, you know, a solo childless adult with other dads and their kids at the movie theater. Yeah.

So this was a unique experience because there were no children. And I would have been laughing as much as the kids were probably. But like, yeah. This was like, I enjoyed the action. I enjoyed like the, if things were of consequence at this pace, I would be like this rocks. This is Fury Road with Mario and it's just going and going. But it's just fast with nothing really happening kind of. And I think that is probably its greatest flaw, but I would say that it's not boring.

You know what I mean? Like, I don't think a second of this is boring to me. Yeah. But it is like, it's not, we just actually watched, because there's like a real spectrum of what can be done with these adaptations. You have fallout in like sort of rarefied air where it's like, that's good stuff. You have like the first season of The Last of Us, these sonic movies. And there's like other ones.

We just watched Return to Silent Hill for our Patreon. Oh, no. And this movie is, Super Mario Galaxy deserves an Academy Award compared to return to Silent Hill. That was like, that was a horrible experience because that movie's boring. And that's its greatest sin. Like, it is actually boring to watch. Right. This movie at least is like, hey, this looks pretty nice.

And we're having a little bit of fun, you know? Yeah. I don't know how we want to get into like the spoiler territory. in so much as you can spoil things, but they're all right. You can have for a week. I know they've been sort of pushing it, but I would be hesitant to.

I don't even know what you would spoil because they've talked about everything, I thought. They told us we couldn't spoil stuff on the show, and then literally a day after we recorded when we were there, they, like, posted the big, what I think is the big spoiler of the movie, which I think we can barely say now. Star Fox is in the movie.

Oh, okay. So let's say, now that, okay, that was the, one that I didn't know. Oh, they did like posters and transit. It's everywhere. Yeah. They posted it before the movie was out. When they did that, when there's the nod towards a different, like, expanding the reality

out a little bit, to me, that got me pretty excited because I thought, okay, Mario's boring, but if you're going to use the Mario as like the fulcrum point for a Nintendo world, you know, broader Super Mario Galaxy thing, that has potential. That could be really interesting because there's characters that could learn things. I'd rather watch a Star Fox movie right now because at least that's like an archetype that you make movies about. His dad died. His dad died. His dad died. His dad died.

Mario's dad didn't fucking die. There's nothing for them to work with there. And Glenn did a great job. He seems also like a piece of shit. Yeah. But it is that opportunity comes and goes. I mean, it's like it's there and they have no fun with it. And it is like, does he say the thing?

Yeah, somebody says the thing. somebody says the thing about barrel roll it's not even the person they just say it because it's like here fucking swine here's your pearl he said do a barrel roll go home you know what I mean like I don't know the whole thing is that vibe before you wrap this section

I do want to talk about the people who I think I've had the most fun with this film more than us more than kids more than anybody which is the people who are the voice actors for this film who have been on a press tour specifically Donald Glover who I think

has three lines in this movie, but it's been part of his press tour. Matt, you, you, like, interviewed these people. Yes. What was the energy with them? Because I cannot imagine doing a press tour. I mean, I've seen an intended, a billion celebrity press tours. Yeah. Doing a press tour as the voice of Yoshi is one of the most fascinating things I've ever

seen come out of Hollywood. It's really funny because, like, I mean, because we were just one stop on their day. and they were all so game and so we had to like because like we don't usually do that right so like we had to very quickly onboard each of them as like this is what our show is and like what we normally do and like so this is like atypical for us but like it's going to be fun you're going to be fine we're going to make you look great um Donald uh was like Donald wanted to know where we record like immediately and I was like oh we like record in Los Angeles and Silver Lake and he just like laughed because he thought that was funny because like he lives nearby he's like why are we

here we could have done this at home so he was already in a silly mood and we sort of knew that like he has like a cop he's he started as a comedian like us like from UCB and stuff so we like hit him with some funny questions and like uh or you know questions we thought were funny some people who then found the clip thank you for hedging that cool because like it's funny because like then you post these clips and then it reaches people who don't listen to the show and then people literally comment is this supposed to be funny terrifying terrifying we call that breaking containment whenever I'm a bit like who the fuck are these guys why do they look like that it's not part of that's not part of it somebody did say something

like that about me and they had in their profile picture it was them and their child and I was like, hey, I just hope you do better for this kid in your profile picture. Like, what he's talking about? Nice. Good. And then, but. It's a teaching moment. Yes. And, but like, Donald was like, he was down for it. Like, he was just like down for anything.

Heather, my co-host asked him if Yoshi has one singular eyeball or with two pupils or is it two eyes separately. And he got a real kick out of that. And we talked about that for a while. Like, like, he was down to clown. I think like some of those things are like a little more sterile. right like tell us about like yeah being Mario how cool is it to be Mario and it's just like really like softball kind of stuff but like we sort of positioned it as like a opportunity to like

be silly and since that episode came out and the clips came out there were two separate articles about how Donald Glover is silly again and they linked to our show and I was like that's so funny yeah because he was like he was like a serious musician for a while and he was like I perform with my shirt off now. So I'm like not silly anymore. Like a serious guy actually. And now he's like, I'm silly again. I'm just like a silly guy down.

I like it once you get healthy. Yeah. My shirt's still off, but it's in a funny way now. Like John Belushi. You know, funny. Yeah. I think the news article I've seen the most that's come out about this press tour is Charlie Day's quote about his favorite Luigi.

Yeah. In recent American history, and he, without missing a beat, does say Luigi Maggi. to sort of like, no hesitation just drops it. It's a bit cool. Like, you know, there's not that many. Yeah, sure. That is a fair point.

When I saw that clip, I had a question that I wanted to ask him that then I pulled back on because there was talk while we were recording that it was like, this is a kid's movie. So I was like, okay, I'm going to pull off of this for a second. Then I see this clip where he's talking about Luigi Mangione. I was like, I think I could have asked my question, which was, it might have been a Polygon article. I think that suggested that Luigi's hog is 3.7 inches flaccid. And I was going to ask me if he considered that in his portrayal. That sounds like some shit, Pollygon would say.

What happened to our once vaunted institution? But I didn't ask you because I got scared. Yeah, sure. I want to, guys, this might be a bit of a pivot, but I would like to take a break and then come back and talk more about the Super Mario Galaxy. me specifically. I'd like to go roll by roll and talk about each performance if we could very briefly. Would that be okay by you guys?

Sure. Yeah, we can talk about Rack coin later. For sure. Great, perfect. Okay, welcome back. I just need like five minutes real quick and just to draw some hot takes on it. I would love to talk about Rack coin too. Just real quick, I wanted to give credits to people that I thought were doing a good job. Because you mentioned Donald Glover not having a lot of lines,

but I'll say this. Donald Glover does more with the very few Yoshis that he has. He brings more acting to that than some of the people who have more lines. I don't actually know if Mario has more lines than Yoshi in this movie. He's barely set dressing, but like, I think Donald Glover does a really, really good job. I think Charlie Day does a really good, I think he's really dialed in on Luigi as a character. Like, he really, I think he really brings a lot to it. I would rather have a Luigi's Haunted Mansion movie more than any.

anything else in the Nintendo Universe at this point. Yeah. I think that would be legit. That would be strong. I thought that Benny Softie turned in a great Bowser Jr. You know what? To have a character that they hadn't fucking talked about even a little bit at all. Even a little bit.

Just show up and everyone be like, oh no, it's a baby Bowser. That's a tall order, man. I know that Benny Safdi is a name, but I think that it feels less like stunt casting than a lot of these do. and I really would love an era where not every one of these roles has to be an out-of-left-field bizarreo pick. Right. I don't think Brie Larson does very much at all. I don't, especially when compared in scenes with Anya Taylor Joy, who I think does a really,

really good and credible job personally. I just, I think Brie Larson is not doing anything. There is a way in which Rosalina sort of like responds to the things. things other characters say in this movie that does suggest that maybe these lines were recorded in a half-hour Zoom call once. There's one where like Bowser is talking about how, or Bowser Jr. is talking about how he's going to destroy. Bowser Jr.'s plot in this movie is that he's kidnapped this woman to drain her powers to create a canon that can destroy the universe. That's fucking wild Bowser Jr. But he says this and she says like, the universe will never forgive you. And it's like,

That's the way that you said that was not really appropriate for the sentence that was said to you that like I know that a lot of the time voice actors aren't in the same room When they where they record these things but this felt like I don't know man this felt so out of pocket That's also like a scripting issue though because that's an insane thing to write for somebody yeah The universe will never forget The universe's feelings will be hurt the universe is going to give you a guilt trip about this yeah I'll do that Oh, Toad, Toad, Toad, solid. Solid, not much.

Not much Toad in the movie. Who's a foolboy Star Fox? I thought he did great. Glenn Powell. I think he's somebody's lunch. He's great in the movie. Yeah, he's fucking great. I think so.

He nails it, man. I want that Star Fox movie. Thank you, Glenn, by the way. Went to the Nintendo, like, went to the Nintendo, like, and was like, I want, I want to be Star Fox. Let me be Star Fox. That's awesome. That's a, Glenn Powell, is a, seems like a real sweetheart. He seems great.

What I've heard from people who have talked to Talk to Glenn and people who have loved or been loved by Glenn, just close personal friend, his dad, everyone talks to loves Glenn Powell. Yeah. I took God, but I'll tell you, you guys are in L.A.

Let me ask you that this is fair. My brain refused to process Glenn Powell for probably eight years. That guy had to fight tooth and nail to get any sort of mind, mind grip on me. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's fair. I think because he's like

he was like a supporting character in some good movies like and then he's like actually no, I'm like the main guy now. Yeah, I'm a guy and he's in like three or four movies a year and you're sort of like this is like more than I wanted. This is too much plan.

And I was starting to get sick of him. And then now he's in this. I'm sort of like he's kind of like he's kind of good now. I'm in a game. It's like Honestly, it's kind of hard for people like Matt and myself because being in, you know, like the scene and like in the mix. Yeah. We might see it. We see Glenn.

I mean, I have like eight years ago, we were seeing him at Max Fabelman's parties. Yeah. You know, every night. Chopping it up. Listen. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. That was just for Matt.

That's nice. That's good shit. That's well, because I remember the night. I remember the night. I remember the night. It was really fun. Yeah. Well, the weird thing about that night is Max actually had to take his mom.

We were having this great party. And then Max left. And we're like, where's Max? And he was with his mom in his closet. Yeah. Showing her a film he made of his mom cheating on his father. Yeah. And then he showed her jaws.

Yeah. I could have got two bangers for you. One, this one. It was a fucking insane night. Anyway, Glenn was still talking about the film. Listen. Yeah. Linda did a much better job than anybody else in this.

If we could take a little spoiler bubble, I just, if we just like for two minutes, what happens with Bowser in this fucking flick? It's so crazy to me, not just the fact that he sells himself into slavery to ease of race. So after he becomes friends with those guys for two minutes, that's pretty wild.

For 45 seconds. Yeah. For five seconds, yeah. And then later on in the movie, he falls in lava and dies. And he comes back out as a skeleton, and then the skeleton's destroyed and he's just a skull. And it's like, I don't know what you want me to fucking feel about this guy at this point. Is this a being?

Is this an entity? You know what I mean? This is the problem. Dry Bowser. This is not a guy that has thoughts and feelings, right? Bowser is not a character. If he can be reduced to a skull that his kid carries around, it's fucking crazy. Something I've always thought about the characters of like dry bones and like dry Bowser and stuff.

The implication is that when you have skin and like muscle and like flesh, those are wet bones. Wet. And I just is weird. That's strange. They're unnecessary. I don't think of myself as wet currently. Yeah, no, I'm not wet. I'm dry.

It's like Mitch Hempurg said corn comes on the cob. I'm not Mitch altogether. I'm not wet. The arc of Bowser in this is such a miss because the Bowser villain to hero arc is about as good of a story that the Mario universe is capable of telling. It's not even that good,

but it's as good of a story as it can do. Yeah, I mean, I remember playing Super Mario RPG, Legend of the Seven Stars, and the moment that Bowser joins the party, and it turns out that he's like, your pal now because you're working together again. That rules. That was like the first time.

in a story that I had seen that kind of like the main bad guy is good now and so like there's there's some obviously it's been done a bunch of times and a bunch of Mario games but like there's something you can do with that and the movie kind of does it and then it but then it doesn't really said it really wants to do a fatherhood story right so it's like it does halfway villain redemption and then he meets his kid and his kids like you're evil right his dad's like yeah actually fuck being good I'm actually I've been turned evil by parenthood that old classic movie trope. I've been turned evil by wanting to connect with

my son. Hey, that could be a cool movie. You do not have the chop Super Mario Galaxy movie. You cannot swing that. Hey, should we talk a little bit about Rackoin? Yeah, I would actually. I don't want to step if anybody has any more Mario Galaxy. No, I don't think I have other positive things to say about my galaxy.

Raccoin is great. It is a rogue like that is modeled after a coin drop sort of, not arcade game. How would you classify the coin drop sort of game? Because it's one that I think a lot of people have seen, of course, at arcades and bars around the country. But it's not one that I think people pay a lot of attention to.

It's the one where you drop coins in to push coins down off a shelf and then knock other coins in a hole and get prizes or more coins sometimes. I love a coin drop machine. Chris and I had a fun trip once with some buddies where we went to a bar that had a coin drop machine and we played that shit for hours. It was great. It was a good time. This one is a rogue-like version of that where you play coin drop with different classes and the different classes can buy different special coins that have different effects, usually to boost the value of those coins or to change them in some way. There's a coin that is a buzzsaw that will chop a coin up into four smaller coins. So you can get scored on those four times. There's one that, makes all the coins super big, so it makes it easier to push other coins down. But then each class has its own sort of mechanic, its own synergies. There's like a cooking class that has recipe, like ingredient coins that you can mix together to make shit. So there's like a ton of variety there.

And then it also does the, you know, Slate of Aspire style. Like you're buying not relics. Chips, I think they're called that have like a constant sort of effect. There's items that you're also finding and buying. it's really, really deep, but the main mechanic of the coin drop game feels like such an unsolvable property to me. Or it's like it's, it all kind of funnels through the barrel of the coin drop mechanic. And that is a tough thing to kind of like understand the physics of with any amount of certainty that you can sort of strategize around, around how you're dropping your coins. Matt, you played some of it too, right?

Yeah, I was playing this and I... I do, because I love... I love number go up. I love that. Number go up is so good. Number go up is so good. Good genre. Good genre. But this... This does feel like

if there was anything less than this, I would just be like in a cage at a zoo, kind of. Like, do you know what? Yeah. Like, I, like, it is like the sort of fire. final wrinkle in my brain smoothing over completely. Like, it's like there is things to think about in the game.

Like you do sort of have to sort of like figure out like what you're doing and why and stuff. But like I'm just trying to watch those coins fall. I'm not really. I actually don't care about what the special coins do or anything like that. I'm there because I want to see those coins fucking fall in. That's all. Yeah. That's all I want. And if I don't have a good run, that's all right.

I'm going to start again. I'm going to watch those coins keep falling. That's all. That's all it is. And I fear that if I don't uninstall it soon, I might never play another game again. It is. Because it is just like, it's just candy. It's just like it's, and I, I'm really, really enjoying it. I had the same issue with, what was the ball one? Ball pit. Ball pit. Ball pit. Same thing. Same thing. It was just like, I can't keep doing this. Yeah. But it is, I look, I look. I look. like the raccoons.

The raccoons are great. There is like a ton of shit to unlock, right? So when you have a failed run, you are unlocking different special coins. And some of the special coins, like, really do synergize in interesting ways. There's one class that is about, you have, like, lily pad coins that are, like, worth more money, and they also get water coins. And if you water the lily pads, they will multiply in multiple lilypads. And then you can spawn in a frog coin, and they'll jump over from lily pad to lily pad knocking

all the other coins. Like there is definitely stuff to think about and you have to be smart about when you deploy those special coins and how you can exchange this like other currency for more coins that you can drop. Like there's some there's some strategy to the like physical play of the thing. I it is not, I've beaten the game a bunch and played through all the classes. I haven't necessarily found it to be like there's a lot of different routes that you could take with the different classes. It feels very much like, okay, if you're playing as the chef class, you know, like, you need to get these recipe. You've got to get these ingredient coins. You're trying to shop around for these types of things.

So, like, despite the fact that there is a ton of stuff to unlock and you are constantly getting new coins and stickers and clips and all that stuff. I don't know. It just kind of feels like I'm still sort of doing the same thing and hoping that I make whatever correct choices to, like, really crack the thing wide open, which is very satisfying. when it does come together. And I think that the runs might be a little too long. A little bit, yeah. Like, because it'll be like, you're on, you know, you're on like part one of 15.

And I'm like, 15. Yeah. What about 10? Yeah. That would be nice. I would prefer that. So, like, I've enjoyed, I enjoyed my time at the game. I enjoyed, like, when I unlocked a new class saying, like, oh, okay, the special

coins are doing something totally different after I tried it. But I'll also, like, I think I'm done with it. And that is, I'm okay with that, but it's also not a staple of the genre. Like, if you are playing this expecting it to be coin drop Bellotro, like it doesn't, I don't think it approaches, approaches that necessarily. But also, I've never played a coin drop video game before. And they did a pretty damn good job of, like, simulating that sort of experience and what makes it so so sticky. But to that point, too, like I feel like none of these ones that have come out since Bellatro are as sticky. is Bellatro because like I still have Belatro on all available platforms including my phone

because it's just fun to pick up even just for like a run like a quick run just to see what we can do but like I haven't I haven't touched ball pit in forever right I think the only one that's come close to me is Merge Maestro which uh oh it's sort of a different a different style of game absolutely but I think the connective tissue is is absolutely there and And that is a game that I really, really sunk my teeth into. Okay. I'll check this out. This one is.

Oh, yeah. It's on iOS. You'll, it'll, it'll, oh, Matt, I'm sorry. That's okay. No, I'm going to fuck you up, man. My life sucks. It's okay. It's over.

Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Not anymore. Now your life's better. It's going to be good for the next three or four days. Yeah. Yeah, while I'm awake those whole days. And in my experience, that's when, after that is when.

That's what you take. The crushing realization. I just hate raccoons. So I can't do it. I hate raccoons. I hate raccoons. What's your beef? Well, I keep snacks outside my house for delivery folks come by,

and I have to remember to go out there and get them every night, or else these fucking little guys, like clockwork, will just come out and assault my snacks. And they'll leave a huge mess. They'll get into the trash. I hate these guys. That's all. I'm sorry.

It's all right. I don't want them to push their coins on me. That's it. Hey, should we do some honorable mentions? I would love to do some honorable mentions. That sounds great. Hey, Matt, to start things off, you have been going through the Resident Evil universe. Yes, yeah.

I had previously only played Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 4 VR, Resident Evil 4 remake. And now I, since Requiem was coming out, I was like, I got to get more involved here. I got to see what this is. Because my boy Leon's back and I got to see what he's up to. So I played two remake, loved that, then jump straight into Requiem, finish that, love that. And now I'm playing Resident Evil 3 remake, which I would say, as someone who's not played the original, I think I'm probably having more fun with it than somebody who has experienced the original, but I still don't like it as much. Like it doesn't feel as good to me. I don't

I think Nemesis is simultaneously too much heightening from something like Mr. X and also a deightening because he's only in scripted areas kind of yeah whereas like Mr. X is more dynamic

and there is something scary I was just unpacking this the other day I think there's something scarier about Mr. X because he's wearing a little outfit like he's this cute little hat like yeah it's tough to be like super That's somebody with a plan. It's a setting.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, why do you're, so you're just wearing these clothes? You put this off? You had options. It does look like he can solve mysteries, too, you know, which makes more of the plan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's going to figure out where I'm at and what I'm up to and why I'm doing it.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's to get all his clothes that like mince wear out, like big and tall. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, Matt, it's the best hat I can afford on my salary. I have limited options due to my size He has a salary He gets a W2 Address to Mr. X

This is tough From the Umbal Corporation Yeah First name Mr. His first name is Mr. Mr. X is my father Call me Mr. X I'm

But I'm doing that And I will finish it Because I want to play all the ones that are available for PS5. I just upgraded to the pro recently and I want to check out

Biohazer. Got in there before they jacked the price up, I hope. I got in there before they jacked the price up and let me tell you, did I need to do it? Probably not. Probably didn't have to do it at all, but they scared me and it worked. So, congrats to them.

That's a great marketing tactic. Like, hey, we know we're not doing games on these things anymore, but here in a week. they're going to cost two grand, so buy them why you can. I guess I better get it. And then two weeks after that, PS6 comes out next year. Like, no, oh, great.

Oh, man, you done it again. I done it again. And I'm going to have to get that one. And then the cycle, of course, will just forever continue. But I'm looking forward to playing seven and eight so I can see what those are like. But when I was in Japan,

they had the, I had no interest in the Requiem Switch 2 controller. Here because they have a switch to a Resident Evil Requiem a switch two controller with like a newspaper like sort of like decal on it and it's all black and it just says Resident Evil but it's covered by the switch two logo So it just says like resident and like that's yeah It says biohazard one yeah Yeah, but they had the biohazard one when I was there and I was like well I have to buy this because I can't get this at home I got to get this and now I have it this is the trouble of visiting Japan. Yeah. Yeah. Everything you can't get at home, so you therefore want. Yeah, I'm still awaiting my

shipping container of all the things that I bought when I was there because I was like, well, I have to have everything I lay my eyes upon. But yeah, Resident Evil is sort of like my new obsession. I've been contemplating watching the movies because I've only seen the first one. And I know that they're not anything like the games, but I kind of feel like I have to go all in on all of it, I feel like. Let me tell you this, they are better than this Mario movie. I can say that very confidently, but I am biased. I do tend to. Well, maybe not the animated ones.

I'm in for any of it. So I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll determine. I know that the bar is now, Galaxy is so much higher than Return to Silent Hill. So if it can even clear, Return to Silent Hill, Doom, I think I can, I think I can sit through something that's pretty bad. So we'll see. I love it. Hoops.

What are you up to? Still playing Mugenics. Wow. Muggenics is good. It's great. It's a good game. I watch. I've taken too long a break from Mugenics,

and I've tried to get back into it a couple times, and I don't remember what my priorities were vis-a-vis breeding. And I had like a really intricate kind of system going. And now that I've tried to plug back into the game, it's like, oh, man, that's it. Everybody is each other's grandpas. What the fuck was I doing? You know, it's surprisingly funny is SNL UK. You can watch it on Peacock.

I'm somebody who is a big SNL fan. You know, I see the good and the bad, obviously. But it's something that's been part of my life, my whole growing up. So I found it really interesting to watch a different iteration of it. I was really prepared for it to be pretty lousy just because you're starting with an untested group of people and untested writers and there's a huge expectation. I was really impressed. I've been really impressed by the first two episodes that I've watched. They really, it is really interesting to see a show that structurally apes, S&L, almost entirely to an extent where when there's small differences, you feel it.

Like, it's very noticeable, the things that are different. But tonally feels very different. Like, there are sketches that feel more Monty Python or more a bit drier, maybe, more specific to, like, British culture, things that wouldn't hit the same way here. But it's also, it doesn't have the same restrictions on, like, language and stuff like that. So it feels really sharp. It feels really pointed. The weekend update bits, I think they've done hit a lot harder than anything that they've done in America recently. And I really think I was shocked because I think it's good enough that there will be kind of a bit of like competition or back and forth between the two staffs because they're basically have the same dictate on different sides of an ocean about five hours separate from each other, which is kind of wild.

about, like, how do you avoid doing the same gag? You know what I mean? Like, how do you avoid the same? I don't know. But I think that's really interesting. The first episode, Tina Fey is the host, which feels, I mean, kind of the perfect choice. I think if you want to communicate a sort of passing of the torch with someone that still feels like cool and relevant, I think.

But I laughed the whole way through. I was really, really impressed. Yeah, it's on Peacock. uploading the day after the show just like in America. But it's, I thought it was really, really funny. Another bit that I,

just to give you an idea of the kind of show, the first episode had the big like, meetic thing, uh, was an impression of Princess Die, uh, that sort of like busted out because it was, uh,

one of the guys performing the role was like, uh, extremely funny. Then in the second episode, there was a skit that referenced Prince Die. Um, And it was Prince Philip holding up a newspaper that had his picture from the week before as Princess Die printed on the newspaper that he himself was whole. It's really, it's cognizant of its own, it's cognizant of itself in a way that I don't think the SNL, like it feels too young to be doing.

But in a really smart and interesting way, it's like, it's really confident. the opening sketch of the second episode was Prince Andrew being brought into MI5 the day after Princess Diana died and being told that listen what this means is that Charles will take over his king one day

and the best way for the people to fall in love with him is for them to hate his relatives and for you to look bad by comparison. So we have a special mission that we are, we are sending anyone. Oh boy,

howdy. Because you would do, we know you would do, you've always been such an, and he, he's going through, he's going through the folder like, really?

All of this. And they're like, we know, we know, but you know, you would do anything for the crowd, anything for your brother? It's really good.

It's, I mean, I was, it's hysterically funny. It's really, really good. By the way, it's Andrew,

Wikipedia page has been updated 26 minutes ago. So still an active story. Active crime scene. Yeah. Investigation. Great. I have been messing around with the AYN Thor. That's the dual screen retro handheld.

Because I got the itch to play the Chrono Trigger DS version. That's one. I go back and play Final Fantasy, those games, like a bunch. usually like at four times speed just blazing, blazing through him. But Chrono trigger is not one that I return to as often. And man,

it's really just, it truly is one of the best games really ever made. Like there is so much about that game that is so transportive and just a complete fucking knockout effort, uh,

freak collaboration, uh, from some of the best who've ever done it. Uh, and just so cool. Music's so cool. The DS has a different translation. It also has some pretty neat quality of life stuff

where you can assign shortcuts to different menu selections like on the bottom touch screen so you don't have to go through a bunch of different shit to like equip the new sword that you just found, which is a pretty basic thing. But yeah, it's really, it's really great. And it's still just a joy to play shit on the, on the Thor. I've been hoping to get a new sword.

sort of horizontal retro handheld, because I've heard a lot of good stuff about the retrood pocket six. I enjoyed the five a lot. But again, all of those are just really, really fucking difficult to source right now, like really, really, really hard to find in stock anywhere because of the myriad issues sort of facing the computer entertainment industry at this point. I ordered a Thor toward the end of February. And it has still not shipped yet. directly from from Ains so I'm waiting to get some kind of

update because I want it I want it so bad Yeah Maybe that's the new Maybe that's the new shell game right You make a great device Charge an affordable price Wait till all the pre-orders come in

Shut down the company That's it Yeah It's good I like this Mine's a very quick one A new book called partially devoured which is a breakdown of the film Night of the Living Dead,

George A. Ramirez's original zombie movie. And if you've ever thought like a movie, like franchise breakdown, no, a movie breakdown, no, a scene by scene breakdown, no. I want a frame-by-frame breakdown where the chapters are zero minutes, 32 seconds, four frames. Let me tell you, it's here. I am about six hours into it, and I think we're on minute seven of the phone. It is the most sick of shit possible, and I am very, very, very much enjoying it.

I do not know if I recommend it to everybody, though. But, hey, if you have it at your local library, you can check it out without all that financial pressure. I do want to wrap up. Before we do that, though, Matt, I want to give you a chance. to plug your stuff. I know that you are working on that film with Max Fableman and his brother Sammy, but other than that, are you working on anything else? Yeah, yeah, yeah, entitled Fableman Apodaca. So that'll be out TBD summer 2008, I think. So it's going to be a big temple. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Classic Fableman. Yeah, yeah. I'm working on the, I, they're working

on the movie. I've sort of designing the popcorn bucket. Oh, that's wonderful. I am working on the movie, right? Now, Matt, is it true that in tribute to the theme, the popcorn bucket is going to be shaped like a popcorn bucket? Is that, is that right? Yeah, so for, well, okay. Just to sell me the love of the movies and the magic of the movies.

This was a leak. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You know that, but the popcorn bucket is shaped like a popcorn bucket with popcorn in it. Oh, my God, that's fun. There is like plastic. Plastic popcorn. Popcorn.

Okay, I love that. But then you have to sort of twist it. We're just the popcorn go? Well, that's the thing that we're really trying to figure out because it doesn't have a whole in it. But it is sort of like an Easter egg. Like, you know, like it is even come in half. You have an Easter egg in it. So it's kind of like two bowls, kind of.

You could even out of the. There's an egg in the pop. So you open the popcorn, there's an egg in the popcorn. And then inside the egg is real popcorn? You put real popcorn in the egg. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Unpop, unpopped.

Unpopped. Just a couple kernels. So then you can take that home and then sort of like make sort of like six pieces of popcorn at home. That's great. I can see some like technical challenges between now and 2020. But it's good that you have, it's good that you have that time. We're going for Buzz, you know. Is it true that Tony Kushner is actually writing the kind of bio for this?

for this popcorn bucket. Matt, do you have any projects that are maybe out sooner than 2028 and extant? Yes, I have a video game podcast also called Get Played with Nick Weiger and Heather Ann Campbell. We talk about video games. I don't know why that was so hard.

We've been doing that for seven years and it's an absolute blast. We do that on Mondays and then on Wednesdays we have our show Get Played DLC where that could be anything. that could be any kind of thing we talk about that wild movie

we just did an episode about the game show Family Feud you know just like sort of unpacking what that's all about that's on that's on Wednesdays over at patreon.com

slash get played I was on an animated show this year called Striplaw on Netflix and I think people should watch it because I think it's really funny and you'll know

who my character is because he sounds exactly like me like he just I'm not an actor. They asked me to do the show and I was like, okay, this is what I got. And they are like, that's right. Perfect.

But I think that's extremely worth checking out if people haven't seen it because I think it's really, really funny. But that's it for me. Thanks for having me, guys. I listened. So I was very excited. I was very excited to join you guys. And it's a real honor. I think you did a bang up job, Matt.

We usually wait until after we finish recording to give. mostly when Russ is here like pretty harsh criticisms. Okay, I was scared of Russ the most. So that's good. Yeah, he's not, yeah, he, I think he, if I'm following the story correctly, he sunburnt his own feet so bad that he couldn't record the podcast today.

I think that's what it's happening at the story he gave me. He did send us photos of those feet and that they will be on our Patreon for the $100. They don't pay enough for that. We need a new tier for foot shots. Yeah. That's Patreon.com. slash the Besties, right, where you can become a member and find an ad-free $10 tier version of the show. Is that what you're talking about, Chris?

Yeah, or the $5 tier where you can get the bonus episodes, two Restes episodes and a monthly besties bracket every month? I mean, that's how monthly works. And I guess pictures of Russ Frustick's Toasty Puppies. I think what I'll probably do is, like, draw it for people so they can have an idea. What it looks like. It's kind of one of those things that if you see it too much. Right. Let me just say if you don't have a foot fetish yet, you will. This won't do it either.

That's not to remain the same. I don't know that we know what we're doing next week, but I won't be here. I don't think we can say what we're doing next week. I think it might be embarked. I'm not sure. So we should probably just say that it's going to be something great. And if it's next week or the week after that, The thing I'm playing right now, I'm very excited to talk to people about.

So you'll have to tune in when you want to hear that. Take us home, Justin. That's going to do it for us this week on The Besties. Be sure to join us again next time for the Besties because should the world's best friends make the world's best games? Besties!