The Besties - The Besties Podcast VIII

Episode Date: April 13, 2012

We're all slowly recuperating from the emotional and physical gauntlet which is PAX East, but that didn't stop us from playing the latest games and forcing them to fight each other in an epic, heart-wrenching battle. Be there as Griffin mistakes a human man for a trashcan and we give Journey a deadline for bringing about peace in the Middle East. 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!

You want those waves nice and tiny, because I can fix them if they're tiny, but if you get overblown... Okay, they're tiny. They're tiny. Then we're good. Plant, I can assume that your levels are going to come out like a screaming lunatic. Yeah, you can count on that. Okay, great. I think people have come to expect that from you. I love you. Hello, my name is Justin McElroy, and I know the best game of the week. Hi, I'm Griffin McElroy. I'm here to rock you like a hurricane with all the good games. Hi, I'm Chris Plant, and my game is pretty good this time.

My name is Russ Frustick, and I'm a Skylanders. You don't have to sing every time. What is that? Skylanders. So, just so I'm clear, your introduction was, I'm Rush Freshdick and Skylanders. Yeah, I wanted to give people a preview of what they can expect. Is Skylanders your game? No, I think he's saying he is a Skylanders.

No, not plural, singular. I'm a Skylander. He's a plastic toy that little kids pay $500 for on eBay. It's like that Richard Pryor movie, The Toy, starring Russ Freshtick. As Richard Pryor. Hey, so every week on The Besties, we talk about new games released that week. We pit them against each

other in a battle for supremacy. And whichever game comes out on top has to do battle with our current reigning champion, which is still Journey. I think this is the week that we knock it off its horse. You think it's the week that it gets unseated?

Journey was declared Game of the Year because it lets players talk to each other without knowing their identities, so it could, in theory, heal the wounds in the Middle East. I mean, it does not... It specifically doesn't do that thing you just said. It lets

players play together without communicating. No, they can communicate, but they just can't talk. Can't talk without talking. That's what I said. Griffin, who is pitching first this week? Up to the plate. This week,

let's go pandemic rules. Who was the last person to be sick? Because I got pretty sick after PAX. I was sick in January. That's pretty far away. Anybody sicker? Was anybody sick after Monday? No.

Okay, great. I'll go first. This week, I am bringing to the table a little game, and by a little game, I mean a gigantic, unbelievably large game called Xenoblade Chronicles for the Nintendo Wii system. This looks like the kind of game that makes me... It's like Klonopin. I take it, and I'm just like... I'm just glad that everybody on this show has such an open mind. But no, it's only because the title and everything I know about it. I'm just like, ah. I'm just glad that everybody on this show has such an open mind. But no, it's only because the title and everything I know about it.

Tell me a better title. Can you give me a better title for the game? I can give you what? Gears of War. Okay. Gears of War Chronicles. All right. Because that way I would pay attention.

Halo Blade Call of Duty. Tell me about this game, Griffin. So it's an RPG. It's a Japanese RPG in the truest sense. And it takes a lot of the concepts of a Japanese RPG and sort of refines them for a more modern audience. There's still a lot of tropes in there. Like the characters are all sort of archetypes of the characters that

you've come to know and love in jrpgs like there's the young boy destined to save the world from uh you know an encroaching enemy force but um it's actually very very neat it's almost like an mmo where it's not online so you don't have to deal with other people which is i'm sure appealing to some people who have played MMOs it takes place in this incredibly large world which I it's on one Wii disc and I don't I still don't understand how they managed to squish all that down it might have something to do with the fact that it looks like a Dreamcast game but it's got a really great story and really great uh voice acting by these people who

have all these very charming british accents uh and it's got probably the neatest thing about it is so the the titular xenoblade uh allows you to see into the future uh which has all kinds of implications on the story uh but in fights there's it's really neat because you're almost always outnumbered and outgunned uh by enemies but if you see you can see into the future sometimes if somebody's about to like lay down a killing blow on somebody on your team you can see into the future and see it happening and then it gives you like a few options to like skirt that future so you have a way of like, you're basically constantly cheating death. And fights aren't turn-based.

They're very dynamic. So you're talking about MMOs and people wanting to play MMOs without other people in them. When I think about MMOs, I don't really think, oh, those games are so much fun as like gameplay experiences.

Sure. They're sort of crappy right well i mean it's not i was more talking about the scope of it rather than the you know clicking on a thing and then pressing one until it dies griffin how accessible is it with this oh god not at all zero percent like no access i'm i'm as i i love a good jrpg uh and i'm about 15 hours in and there are still there are there are mechanisms within mechanisms in this game and i still don't understand all of them um but the ones i do i it's it's not because they're confusing i think i think it's just because there's like hundreds of them um so there's there's i mean i've heard from people that it's

it's got you know over 100 hours of stuff to do um and if you're into like jrpgs and you're into like mechanical improvement of of characters then this this game's going to be your jam the coolest part of this game is that you can cheat death right that's what you said yeah and about this feels like the setup to a burn no no no no just go i'm seeing into the future and i'm seeing a burn how long how long do you have to play the game uh i mean you don't have to you don't have to play it at all if you don't want sure sure but how how long would you say the game is um i've heard it takes about 50 hours to beat if you skip most of the extemporaneous stuff.

I'm just running the numbers here. Okay, just crunch them for me, will you? I'm crunching them. I could watch the entire Final Destination Quintology in probably half the time it would take me to play that game. And I would get five times the amount of cheating death. And I would have the Candyman. But you're not... I think you're mashing up your franchises first off, second off.

But you're not the actual one cheating death. It's Devon Sawa who is doing the cheating death. Only in the first movie. He's not... So in Xenoblade Chronicles, you play as Devon Sawa. Can I start over? Can I do it again? you play as Devon Sawa. Can I start over? Can I do it again? You play as Devon Sawa.

You're there. You get off a plane, and then a teenager gets hit by a bus. All right, let's... This sounds like a great game. It's actually pretty good. I'm just glad that Devon Sawa's getting work, because Jesus Christ. It's like Bruce Willis in Apocalypse. They scan Devon sawa and completely

uh rest fresh stick hey guys how about you what do you what do you got what's on your burner i've got a little game called skylanders cloud patrol no way i thought you were shut i was not joking you thought i was joking i'm not joking you've played better games this week i know not necessarily when did this come out i don't actually know what else i played this week it came out last week what is ios ios it's an ios game do you put your toys on the phone yeah so you stick your um your skyline toys on the ipad and you rub it around until the iPad screen gets kind of messed up. And then you take it off, and you go to the store, and you return your iPad for a new one. And then you can play Cloud Patrol.

Okay. Yeah. So, Vicarious Visions made this game, Skylander Cloud Patrol. They made, you know, what was the last X-Men Marvel game Marvel Ultimate Alliance they made so they made some good games and now they're bringing that expertise

to mobile phones Cloud Patrol sort of plays like sort of like Fruit Ninja meets like a targeted like a carnival game where you're shooting trolls and stuff like that and they borrow some elements from jetpack joyride where you're completing missions to like unlock gems and those gems unlock skylanders that you can buy in the in-game store but you could also

use your code on the back of your little skylanders toy to unlock guys in the ios game it's it's pretty fun. Like, all things, you know, I realize there's a lot of scoffing going around about Skylanders, but for an iOS game, you know, pretty boss. I enjoyed it. My, can I, do you mind? Absolutely.

My wife is addicted to Skylanders. She would love this game. You don't... I don't mean addicted, like, playfully. Like, oh, she plays so much. I mean, we're late on our mortgage on the house that we own together because it's all Skylanders.

I don't understand because... You're not married? Right. You don't own a house. You're not married, Griffin. Who is this wife? It's is this wife it's a secret it's a secret wife but she's addicted to Skylanders

it's a goof this is the danger of being the one who edits the podcast cause Griffin feels like he can just get some freeform jazz goofs going just experiment to where it goes and then edit it later. I was at Denny's the other day, and you know what the waiter said to me?

What did he say? What did he say? Oh, this is train wreck. People watched our video and they thought, boom, I like these guys. I can get on board with this video show. I like these cats, and then this is what we deliver to them. Oh, wait. I wanted to say something then this is what we deliver to them. Oh wait, I wanted to say something about Skylanders Cloud Patrol. Yeah, maybe you should

What? Just go. Okay, so you can actually do like like Panzer Dragoon style like lock-on systems where you can like get five guys locked on at once and then let go for like a homing shot and you get bonus points. So there's a lot of tactics involved. Hey,

Russ, just like some maybe workshop pro tips go for like a homing shot and you get bonus points so there's a lot of tactics involved hey hey russ just like a just like some maybe workshop pro tips for the besties maybe next time open with the ways in which it is like panzer dragon order and not with the ways is like fruit ninja connect and carnival games like are you trying to lose are you purposely sabotaging yourself but i came around eventually i'm gonna be honest it's it's a little troubling that every like feature you mentioned from the game you're like oh yeah it's got seaman's fish uh raising uh mechanics you can talk to the skylanders too they just don't talk back you can talk it's got a little field runners in there it's not i'm gonna be honest

it sounds pretty derivative sorry vicarious i haven't played your game but i mean it doesn't sound more derivative than a jrpg yeah how's that spiky hair treating you it's except i actually i talk it's got time travel yeah they've never had that guys i don't like that i think that i think the burns are getting a little too real on this show yeah it's getting real rancorous let's like talk about something nice what's pleasant that has happened to somebody this week what's like a nice relaxing thing i when i flew back from pax east i was in line at the duncan donuts and uh i saw a united pilot and i was pretty out of it just because I was just riddled with Pax Plague

and I thanked him for his service. Wait, wait, wait, wait. So you're saying a normal pilot. He was a United Airlines pilot. He's in his United Airlines uniform. He was in front of me.

Waiting in line at Dunkin Donuts, waiting to get a donut and you're like... He was checking out. We were ready to check out. There was a woman in front of me. Waiting in line at Dunkin Donuts waiting to get a donut and you're like He was checking out we were ready to check out. There was a woman in front of us. We were making awkward small talk and I just looked at his badge I think he may have had some stripes which was

confusing and I said thank you for your service and then he just sort of smiled and nodded and then he bought his you know mocha latte. Did he land your plane i do not think he was the pilot on my flight so when you meant service you mean his military service which he may or may not have had i was i i russ i can't find reason in the thing that i did or said earlier that day i was at the convention center and I had just finished eating a sandwich and I went to throw away the clamshell package that this sandwich came in

so I went to throw it away and I realized that it was a recycle bin that was like up against a pillar so I walked around to the other side of the pillar and started to throw it away into the garbage can but then I realized it wasn't a garbage can at all it was a man who was dressed in gray and sitting down and I started to throw my garbage into him. And I said, he looked at me very confused because I was handing him my clamshell sandwich package and he looked at me very confused and I said, sorry, you look like a garbage can.

Was he proud of that? I wasn't proud of it. And he looked very hurt. Because if he was cosplaying as a garbage can, I think he'd be honored. No great compliment. No, he just was very plain looking and cylindrical. Anyway, Sunday was not a great day for me socially. I want to tell you about my game this week.

It's called Epic Sax Guy. And it is a flash game made by pippin bar who's made a bunch of other things uh and it is based on a youtube uh video of a very exciting performance from eurovision uh 2010 i think it was oh that was a good year that was a good year. It was a great year. And this guy, he is a saxophonist who did this amazing solo. He's part of this Moldovan dance pop trio called the Sunstroke Project. And the video itself is this amazing guy with a sleeveless shirt and spiky hair and sunglasses and fingerless gloves playing a saxophone it's amazing but the game is about is sort of like a career sim slash rhythm

game for that guy so when you start the game it this the all he did in the saxophone video is play the solo. It's literally like 10 notes. And in the game, you start off practicing that, like in your bedroom, practicing these 10 notes. And you play using the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 keys on your keyboard. And it's actually legitimately difficult to play. And you practice in your bedroom at first and then you move into the studio and there's a jam session and then you're actually performing um the the the song you know at eurovision and then the end game is someone made an epic sax guy 10 hour video on youtube and the last thing you can do in the game is actually play for 10 hours as you see YouTube

commenters continue to add to your video. And it's all got this sort of very charming 8-bit style to it. Maybe even less than 8-bit. It's probably hovering around like Atari 2600 level. But it's better than that. Come on. Give him some credit. It actually gets in your head, and once you get that one riff stuck in your melon, it kind of makes you keep going back to the game because it gets locked up there. But it's actually enjoyable to play, and it's fun, and it's a cute idea, and I like it a lot. So this is a game based on a true story. It's based on a heroic true story of one man, one saxophone, and one dream. It's basically a biography then, right? It's a biography game telling the true life story of one man and one saxophone and one dream.

Is it better or way better than Beatles Rock Band in that sense? In this sense, Beatles Rock Band, you can only connect with half of them because the other half are dead. So in this game, you connect with this one guy who I'm assuming is still alive unless he just, you know. Very recently perished. Very recently died. And I'd rather not think about that. So you can connect with this guy. You can feel his story.

You can live his his dream and uh and it's it's actually fun especially in the jam session because they give you like the backing track it's all midi uh bass versions of this song but they give you the backing track and you can just kind of noodle you can just go for it just really play the sax solo that you have in your heart is can we and is it an alto saxophone or is it a tenor oh that's a great great question uh it is a it is a baritone saxophone so it's a it's a it's a what it's a random it's a it's a hard saxophone so if you look at the video the good ones yeah it's a good one it is can i jam can I noodle for a bit while you guys keep talking?

Please. Okay. Wow, Griffin's pretty good. Griffin is actually doing a pretty good job. So that is the idea. It's a lot of fun. It's actually a pleasant enough little diversion. It actually scores you how well you perform and stuff like that.

So it's neat. It's every sax guy. It's made by Pippin Barr. Get it. If you do a bad job at the saxophone, can you see into the future and see yourself doing a bad job? And then, I guess, just play the saxophone even better? This guy is so good that there literally cannot be a future. There's a time lock on how awesome his solo is.

Oh, man. He actually cannot alter it because it is that awesome. So there's no reality in which the solo won't be great. Is there a version where you can play as an American saxophonist? No, not to my knowledge. I don't want to sound xenophobic. I don't want to sound Xenoblade. I don't want to sound Xenomorph.

I'm just saying all the best saxophonists came from the United States of America. Can you name a saxophonist came from the United States of America. And that's all. I mean, sorry. Can you name a saxophonist that didn't come from America? Jonathan Coltrane. Jonathan Colton. That didn't come from America? Yeah.

Yahoo Sirius. That's a big one. Yeah, he's from Australia. That's pretty much the biggest one. Was the kid in Alex Mack originally from America? That's a very, very deep cut that you just dropped on us. Yo-Yo Ma. Started off.

He's a cellist. No, he's a cellist now, but he started off on reed-based instruments. Who else? Hey, guys, who else isn't from America that I can make jokes about? Those are actually the only non-Americans I know. Okay. Because Yahu Sirius. Yakov Smirnoff.

Yakov Smirnoff. He's got to be a sexer. The Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama. Dolly Parton. Princess Diana. Princess Diana. I hate this show.

Hey, Chris. Huh? Did you play a game this week? Jet Li. Okay. Hey, Chris, did you play a game this week? Jet Li. Okay, the game I have brought is Fez, and it is a 2D platformer in which you play as a white guy, and you... Now, hold on.

Why is that an important piece of information to share with us? Which part? The white guy part. Well, the fact that he's white. I mean, he's a white guy. Right. It doesn't have to be about that, though. Would it be better if I called him a ghost?

Yes. Is he a ghost? I mean, he has legs. I want you to be... Ghosts don't have legs. Everyone knows that. I want you to be factually accurate. So, like,

just say that he's, like, just a person. Just a person. Just like a white person? It doesn't have to be a white person like Just a person It's like a white person It doesn't have to be a white person Just a person Because he's starring in the game Is that why you're stuck up on him

Would it be better if I restart Yeah start again Fez is a 2D platformer In which you play as a person You're right That just doesn't sound It's not descriptive at all You play as a person. You're right, that just doesn't sound... It's not descriptive at all. How would you describe a person?

You play as a white person. There we go. Okay, that's fine. That sounds great. It's a 2D platformer in which you play as a white person, and you jump around this pixely world, and you collect little yellow square cube things. But are you ready for the twist?

Literally. You twist the world because it looks 2D but then you hit one of the shoulder buttons and then you see it from another angle. So there are four angles. It's a giant box.

You're seeing the world as if it is pivoting around this box. And then you solve puzzles in the world by changing your perspective as a white person. That seems... Can I do my... As a white person, I have never

changed my perspective about anything. Especially not Japanese games. Yeah, especially. So I... There's been a lot of hype, I think, about this game. It has been sort of an indie darling for so long that the indie scene probably just needs to marry it at this point. It's been in development for three and a half years? 37 years of development.

Phil Fish's dad started it, of course, as we all know the story, and then Phil Fish finished it. What his father, Philip. Who was, funnily enough, was a Shriner. Yeah, he was. That's the whole thing. Hence the inspiration. I thought he was a fish. No.

Okay. Okay. Wow. Good one. Pretty good goof. Chris, how does it live up to sort of the long runway that's been painted out in front of it? It is pretty good. A winning endorsement.

That's the kind of insight that you turn to. It feels like an NES game in the best and worst ways possible. Like, the music is like a great kind of throwback. The gameplay is very simple. You just kind of hop around and find things and solve puzzles. But it's also, I mean, it's difficult for one, which is okay. That's good for a puzzle game. But it's difficult in less enjoyable ways,

like kind of navigating the world. The world is broken up into these little like segments or little floating islands. And they are, I don't know, they're like, they're bookended or not bookended, but they're kind of taped one to the other. And to get from like point A to say point C may involve like tons of backtracking or uh dealing with a portal system that isn't uh the best but it looks gorgeous and it sounds awesome the soundtrack is sorry before you go on about the soundtrack is it like a big open world like a metroidvania style world kind of kind of like a metroidvania i mean there are lots of like hidden things but it's not like a metroidvania in the sense of if you learn something later you

can go back to the beginning and use it there's yeah it's that because you don't learn anything new right you're just jumping and spinning the world the learning is very it's very real like you'll find a like a qr code and you'll scan it and it'll give you a hint for a puzzle that you just couldn't solve earlier but you're not getting like you're not getting like the double jump or something that's a joke right the qr code thing no that's real and it's totally it's it's no kidding the first time i did it it was pretty baller so you literally take a picture of the screen and like upload it uh-huh i can't even tell if you're goofing on me i swear to god pretty cool it's neat i'm telling you it's it's it's really neat uh that sounds cool

chris it is cool i mean i can't i can't help but notice i'm sensing some like um a little bit of disappointment maybe in your voice is that accurate three and a half years is a long time to wait for a game. That was really, really hyped. And it's definitely good. You know, it's weird. I wouldn't change anything about it at all. I think Phil made the game that he wanted to

make, which is great. But in pursuing that NES feel, it's a game that I'm not entirely used to. I'm not used to being punished for play. Arthur, in his review, called it obtuse, and I think that's the best word

imaginable to describe some of the stuff about it, especially the navigation. Yeah, maybe archaic also. It's also very pulchritudinous. Uh-huh. Is it? Would you say it's avuncular?

I wouldn't call it avuncular in the sense that it doesn't have an uncle. So clearly Chris did not feel super strongly about that game. I liked it better than Chris did, it sounds like. I liked it better than I liked Xenogears. Okay, not the name of the game. Xeno. Just say Xeno. We'll know what you're talking about. Xenogears. Okay, not the name of the game. Xeno. Just say Xeno. We'll know what you're talking about.

Xeno Warrior Princess. Of all the games we have this week, only one teaches you how to play saxophone. So I think Epic Sax Guy is the best game of the week. Well, first off, it's based on a meme that my grandmother invented in 1936. That my nanny invented in 1922. So I'm not sure. So you have a closer attachment to it then? No, I'm saying it was the same. You know how I don't have an attachment with the Doobie Brothers?

Right. It's basically the same thing. Because the name is so old. Because it starts knocking games out. I already know. Yeah, I agree. Also, I already know how to play a saxophone like I know how

to Russ your game sounds like the pits dude Panzer Draguna Orta, but with Skyline you didn't open with that ad, but I remembered it afterwards. It's Panzer Dragon Order with Fruit Ninja Connect with Jetpack Joyride with draw something with Angry Birds Space with Fruit Ninja Connect with Jetpack Joyride with Draw Something

with Angry Birds with Angry Birds Space with Bejeweled with Plants vs. Zombies. And Farmville. And Farmville. Don't worry about it. Let me just say,

my game has QR codes too, but way better. Okay. I'm going to go with Fez because I think it is actually a better game than Xenoblade. Fez is probably the best game of the week, right?

Yeah. I'm going to vote for the Sax Guy game. Thank you. Shut is probably the best game of the week right yeah now i'm gonna vote for the sax guy game thank you shut up uh now here's the question fez is obviously the best game of the week can we make a case for and i don't want to rush this can we make a case for fez being a better game than journey here's what i have one argument for it and i think it's because it's the antithesis of journey because we're journey is sort of bringing world peace Fez is all about hatred towards other races So if you wanted to like make the argument

It's almost like light and dark. Why? Why even white because it stars a white guy and it's really offensive here can i can we try this how about this hey journey you've had like a month and a half to solve the the middle east crisis and you haven't done it right it's ineffective it's a beautiful dream that we kept alive middle east tries journey yeah but fez't just win by default. Like, it just happened to walk through the door. No, but I'm saying the merits of Journey have been depreciated by the hard, hard truth of time.

And, you know, by playing Fez, I've learned to look at things from new perspectives. Exactly. Guys, I'm looking at... No, I don't want to kill Journey yet. I'm looking at Routers right now, and the headline from today is middle east mediators seek to revive israel palestine peace talks that is from today it is half it is making

a dent i'm sorry fez you're a good game but journey is in fact still working its magic to cure the middle east is there a mention of journey in the story it is it mentioned it does mention netanyahu okay but no i think he worked on journey actually yeah he got an executive producer credit i think but it's mostly honorary also did you call reuters routers reuters that's what i said you definitely definitely said routers yeah i thought you were on the scene i was saying it i was saying it i knew it was wrong but my brain wouldn't tell me how to say it right um i just said it i just love that your head's in the game when we're when we're all just like recording and just sort of finding just sort of exploring the space i was googling to see if the Middle East peace process

had been completed yet. I was Googling to see if there was peace in the Middle East. What specifically did you Google? I'm curious. I Googled Israel-Palestine peace news. Israel-Palestine, what's up, please? How are you guys doing? Give me the scoop.

Yeah, it's not fixed, but there was some kind of breakthrough, because we're really trying to get those peace talks going again. Okay. So I'm sorry. I can't support unseating Journey this week for Fez, because Journey, I want to give Journey time to work, and it seems to be having an effect. But Journey, don't rest on your laurels. I'm just saying, more work to be done. We've got to have a deadline for it. I'm saying two weeks.

If it's not done by besties, what is this, episode six? This is episode eight. You've got two weeks, Journey. By the end of April, Journey, make it work. First episode of May, peace process needs to be in full effect I don't care what's the best game Across the border It could be Skylanders Cloud Patrol 2 for all I care

I don't care what game we pick as the best game of the week On the first week of May It is displacing Journey If Journey can't get it together Here's my question If Journey does get it together We'll have to start a new podcast Is it the best game of all time?

Do we just give up? It will be the last episode of this podcast. Yeah. Which, after this one, I'm pretty sure people will be okay with. Yeah, people will be very comfortable with that. So, there you have it, folks. Fez is the best game of the week, but it doesn't unseat Journey, which seems to be making a dent in thawing out the glacier of contempt

over there in the Middle East, which is an apropos metaphor because it is very cold there. Very cold. Very airy. Very cold. Make sure you go to our new website, Polygon.com, and sign up for our mailing list. You can also find all of our video game coverage at TheVerge.com

for it's actual gaming. Follow us on Twitter, at Polygon, and thank you so much for listening. Make sure you join us next week for the besties. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? besties