The Besties - The Switch 2 and "Vampire Survivors+RPG"
Episode Date: January 24, 2025Nintendo finally announced the Switch 2. So why do folks seem a bit disappointed by the reveal? We discuss what we know so far… and what’s to come. Plus, one of our most anticipated games of the y...ear got stealth dropped and it’s a delight! 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!
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I downloaded a Neopets cheat engine,
and when that's running, which it is around the clock,
because I'm always grinding it out,
it tends to slow down some of the other processes.
And what are you turning on in there?
What cheats you got going?
Infinite breeding.
Yeah.
Who?
Yeah, a lot of the Neopets,
they only let you breed them once a day.
I turned on that cheat in college.
High five.
I don't want to high five that.
No, I mean, high five me.
I turned on that cheat in college.
High five me.
Yeah, I recently turned that cheat off for myself.
I removed that cheat from my own personal bio cheat engine.
Which is a cheat in and of itself.
Griffin went to the vasectomy doctor
and did it on Yes Clipping.
Yes Clipping.
That's a good line.
Oh man, that's good.
And this contractually, this checks off this podcast
for talking about my vasectomy on.
I think I gotta get it on Death Bart this year
and then that's the whole.
And Radiolab, you said you were gonna do some of that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Terry Gross has a lot of questions.
My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best video game console of 2025.
My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week.
My name is Russ Frusher and I know the best game of the week.
Welcome to the Besties where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive
entertainment.
It is a video game club.
And just by listening, you've become a member.
This week, we're gonna be talking about the Switch 2.
Didn't they just make one of these things?
Chris Plann, is that right?
They did it again.
Nobody saw it coming this time,
but they said Switch again.
And here we are.
Switch again.
We're gonna talk about that, what that means,
why it means, and so much more right after this.
In the B segment, we're gonna be talking about
Heroes of Hammerwatch 2.
Like it or not.
So they did it.
They did it, the Switch 2. They just made a sequel to one. They finally did it, they did it, the Switch 2,
just made us equal to one, they finally did it.
Like this is not unlike the Wii U,
which is a colossal failure.
Yeah, God, I hope.
Okay, that's interesting, juice.
Well no, I'm saying like Wii,
Yeah, please.
Okay, I will, Wii, mega popular thing.
Wii U, which is basically Wii 2, right?
I mean, that's what it's supposed to sound like.
Wii U, Wii is basically Wii 2, right? I mean, that's what it's supposed to sound like. Wii U, Wii 2, Wii 2.
And then it's bad, no one likes it.
That's so cool, yeah.
I would say the only difference is that the Wii U
was a dramatic departure from the Wii in form and function
and the Switch 2 looks like a big Switch.
But they learned their lesson, right?
You can't make a fool. Well, well did they though because the switch is really?
Just a Wii U without wires. I was gonna say everybody's like hey
They're just redoing the same thing again, and they kind of did that with the switch
They should go back and change the Wii U to like you the switch
Alpha oh, that's cool. You see and now there's a natural progression
Yeah, I mean I will you want who who?
Understands the the specs the bet like I know I know what we have before we get into like this
That's a good call good call. Okay. Here are all the specs. So the switch one came out
it was three point seven inch screen with a
2400 Hertz processor and the switch 2 is a
6.4 inch screen with a
7700 Hertz that's a large that's that bigger screen hold on are these official specs or no what's been okay?
Let's make that was very totally making numbers up. I was gonna say that's insane man. That's crazy
We don't know anything what I like a monster, what's wrong with you?
I like the bit, such was his confidence
that we were kind of...
Okay.
It's when he said the Switch had a three inch screen
that I was like, what did you say?
Isn't that right?
We don't know the specs, they have not announced
anything going on under the hood.
We can share what the widely assumed rumor
of the technology is.
Yeah, go for it.
The Switch, even when it was released, followed the Nintendo trend of being pretty not powerful
and then pulling off amazing feats with what amounted to like a middle of the road smartphone
after a few years. The Switch 2 sounds like it will be basically
like a Xbox Series S.
And will it literally be that powerful?
No, but with all the changes in modern technology,
specifically things like DLSS, which
is where you can use AI learning to make the resolution much,
much better and process it at a lower rate,
it will be like equivalent to that.
Why that matters, you can put third party games
on the Switch 2 in theory in a way you couldn't
on the Switch 1.
And that would be like a big differentiator for it.
You can run, what my headcanon is is like PS4 Pro,
it's like in that ballpark, it is like the PS4, PS4 Pro.
And yeah, that's a big improvement.
I will say, and obviously the other big change
apart from the actual like raw power of it,
it's about one inch bigger on the diagonal.
I don't have the exact number,
but it's about that size based on this,
the CG trailer that they put out.
Also, it looks like it has a mouse,
but that's not officially confirmed.
Yeah, so there's a, it seems to be some sort
of optical sensor on the side of the thing,
which now snaps in VTOL style to the side
of the screen part of the Switch,
instead of sort of sliding into a groove.
Using magnets.
We, see, Nintendo hasn't confirmed that either,
I don't think. Yes, confirmed.
I mean, you look at that, could only be magnets,
that beautiful step. That is the problem,
is after two years of leaks, they've just gotten closer
and closer and closer to the truth,
that the second we saw Joy-Cons sliding around on a table,
we're like, boop, mouse confirmed.
That's it, this reveal felt like the most perfunctory,
like we gotta, we're bleeding over it,
we gotta get something out there.
It felt extremely light on detail,
but I was, my spirits were buoyed by the fact
that it will be backwards compatible,
aside from select games, which I have to imagine
is like fucking Ring Fit Adventure
and other sort of like peripheral games
that require the old Joy-Cons.
I can see that, where I get the form factor of the thing.
Right, exactly.
Let me just kick this off.
I would love to know what you guys think
because I am having trouble ginning up
anything too strong about this
because it seems so kinda evident.
And for me, this just feels a little bit disappointing.
I feel like of all the different aspects
of the Switch experience, for me, at this point,
the Switch is really just, it's permanently attached. Like the Joy-Cons, I mean, I don't even need to separate them at this point the switch is really just, it's permanently attached.
Like the Joy-Cons, I mean, I don't even need
to separate them at this point.
It seems, it's a little bit disappointing
that of all the things that sort of like carry over,
that that is something that was sort of like prioritized
when I, for me, that is super not how I use the Switch.
For sure.
Are you saying you use it exclusively in handheld mode or?
Yeah, or even if like, and even if not,
even if it's docked, like...
Pro controller.
Pro controller, I'm certainly not sliding those things off.
And like, I just don't, of the things to like bring over,
it's just like so sort of, I don't know,
I find it very uninspiring.
I think there is an argument to be made,
and this might be Nintendo's argument,
that because of the larger size
and because they did improve the kickstand
on the back of it, it's like a better kickstand or something,
it does become a little more viable
in a split screen couch co-op scenario.
I would love that. I would love that.
I would love that to be true
because the number of times that, you know,
Henry's been playing a game on TV
and then Gus wants to take over the TV
and so we switched to playing, you know, Kirby co-op
with the thing on the couch constantly fucking falling over
because the kickstand even on the OLED is not very good.
The idea of playing that with the Joy-Cons,
with individual Joy-Cons instead of two Pro controllers,
though, is just unthinkable because it doesn't feel great
to use a Joy-Con sideways as like a regular controller
when there is a normal controller.
But if that is available, that would save me a lot of headache,
you know, whenever that situation arises,
as edgy as it is.
Two takes different directions.
One, we don't know what the Joy-Cons do yet.
Like, they might be mice, for one example,
which, if that's true, could be cool.
And I hope that there are, like, weird things
that the Joy-Cons still do.
Maybe they are better versions of the Wiimotes and they're actually going to have more physical
play back in the system.
I don't know.
I feel like there's like still a surprise that could come.
The other direction of this is what I guess like what do you think the audience is asking
for?
Because I feel like half the audience is like, this is a disappointment.
I wanted it to be so much weirder. Nintendo, like they come out never
since the GameCube, they make things weird. And then the other half of the audience is
like, I want it to just be the Switch, but better and like ultra powerful. And I think
they're, I feel like it's kind of, they're caught between those two camps.
That to me is what's hard is for a company this is like easily distracted as Nintendo with stuff like this.
I feel like if you're not coming out saying that this mouse functionality is like a big part of the idea with the thing.
I can't see them. I mean they even mentioned HD rumble when they pitched the Switch.
Like I can't imagine it being a big aspect of it.
You know what I mean?
I think if you're waiting for another shoe to drop,
where it's a big bit of functionality,
I don't think it's gonna come.
I think this is it.
I will say there's still more shoes to drop.
I feel pretty confident.
I'm not saying that they won't do it.
I'm saying that they won't support it in any meaningful way.
I'm saying they might come out with something.
That's interesting.
If it's not-
I know, they kind of forget.
Yeah, it's like, right, like HG Rumble again.
Like, okay, well-
To be fair, all of the first party games
on the Switch basically have HG Rumble.
It's just none of the third party games do.
So they did forget about it, but you're right.
It wasn't the like, oh, you can feel these balls
and one, two switch rolling around in your Joy-Con.
That was cool though.
I stand by that beat test.
That was cool.
What I could get excited about is like,
if they were gonna use this to bring in,
if they were gonna use mouse functionality,
not for like gaming, because that's, no.
Like no, we're not gonna do that. What if for a first for if you want to buy doom on your thing
That's not about it
Okay, I'm sure only if one joy con turns into a mouse and the other one turns into a keyboard
Yeah, it's just like net realistically is that it's never gonna be a thing
But like for creativity apps like if they wanted to get back into the Mario paint space
Oh, yeah, that's I said that earlier, not entirely joking.
That would be cool.
Like if you want to get into that kind of, or Mario Maker.
Mario Maker, Mario Maker.
Fucking Flipnote Studio, like they have a history
of like having wild sort of apps like that.
Wouldn't you make that part of the reveal?
I mean, wouldn't you make that part of the reveal?
That's what's hard for me.
There's gonna be so much more coming though. This is the conversation I feel like that we can have,
right, because there's so many unknowns.
The question is like, why was this the opening shot?
Why was this the first salvo, right?
Why not wait?
For me, there is no company,
and obviously there's not a lot of companies
making gaming hardware, but like,
there's no company where the hardware and the software
are more intrinsically linked than Nintendo, right?
Because I pretty much at this point only play
Nintendo first party games and multiplayer games
with my kid on the Switch, right?
Everything else is going through the Steam Deck.
And so the fact that there wasn't anything
other than a new Mario Kart, which is fine,
but like not at all demonstrative of what the Switch 2
could do, like I did, I honestly did not clock
that it was a new Mario Kart game the first time I watched
it, I thought the show was.
You gotta look at Donkey Kong, he looks fucking weird
in that trailer.
Okay, yeah, I guess I wasn't Zep broodering it hard enough
to like, why not?
We all know this shit.
We know this stuff because like the images
from accessory makers, like this thing was fully out there.
Fully, fully, fully, fully out there.
Not the specs, maybe the specs are all rumored,
but like what the thing is
and what it looks like is out there.
And then they had a trailer that 90% of it was dedicated to rumored, but like what the thing is and what it looks like is out there.
And then they had a trailer that 90% of it
was dedicated to like, and here's what the joy cons
look like, and here's what the screen looks like.
And it's like, yeah, we kind of know that.
So why not have a reveal trailer that's like,
yeah, here's all the stuff you already know.
But also-
That's what I'm saying.
If you could gin up some, if you had another thing
where you're like, sorry, press sneak fucks,
you don't have this, you probably would.
And if it's coming out this year, they have that, right?
Like they know what games are gonna be on it at launch now.
Like you don't have to completely go ham
and show everything, but like now we're waiting three months until we find out anything else about it.
Like, all you did was kinda say like,
yep, all that stuff that is out there, that's true.
Bye.
Well, what that lets them do is now third parties
can say we're making this game for Switch 2,
which they couldn't before that trailer happened.
Sure.
Yeah.
So it does open the gates.
I also just feel like this is like,
this is wins all around for Nintendo, I also just feel like this is like,
this is wins all around for Nintendo.
Because now everybody, you're like,
like everybody gets emotional, everybody wants it.
People talk about it.
People, oh, it's three months, three months!
Three months comes, and then they're like,
here's everything.
Here are all the games you wanted.
Here's Mother 3, here's Mother 4 and Mother 5.
Here's Pokemon 32.
We've got it all for you."
And then people are immediately like, okay, I'm relieved.
I'm going to play the new Mario Kart and the new MMO and the new Mario and the new Animal
Crossing.
Metroid.
And nobody's going to think about this announcement ever again, except for like, sickos like us.
It is a little disappointing though.
I think the disappointing aspect is like,
because when the Switch One was announced,
and that trailer was like, what the fuck are they doing?
Are they playing video games
on the rooftop of their fancy condo?
That was mind blowing.
And that shit came out of nowhere, right?
Like, it is, there is no comparison.
I don't want the Switch 2 to be bonkers.
I want it to be a stronger Switch
with a really good first-party lineup.
For me, the thing I'm looking forward to,
isn't the Switch 2 hardware,
it's that the dissolution of this fucking logjam
of first-party Nintendo titles
that we have just have not been getting.
Speaking of, we're gonna talk about Donkey Kong Country
returns HD later in the honorable mention segment.
But like that to me is like when that is finally moving,
when that is finally flowing,
then I'm gonna start getting invested.
Can I ask though, like is Nintendo making a good case
for them to continue to be in the hardware business
if this is the hardware.
Like, you said that you don't want the Switch 2 to be anything crazy, right?
Yeah.
Well, I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you.
I can't say that I'm like, I was wanting it to be like, it's a camera that goes in your fingers.
But like, I mean, at this point, why be a company that makes hardware, right?
Like, if this is the best you've got, if this is your big idea, is like, another Switch,
and it's basically like, it's basically a Steam Deck.
I mean, like, if Nintendo is not, things are so much more boring than they were 10, 15
years ago, 10 years ago, whatever. And I don't, I think it's worth like, kind of,
I do think it's worth like,
we like to joke on Nintendo for being such an oddball
all the time, but like, I don't,
I do think it's a little sad that it's just like,
such a clear sort of like, continuing to follow the money
that's been working pretty well.
I think that all completely checks out. I think what Nintendo does at its best is it gets ahead
of where the market is going. And that is as early as like home consoles with the NES thing going into
the Super Nintendo, that is the Game Boy going into the Game Boy Advance. They're always like ahead
of where the market is. There was a moment, it's hard to
remember now, where it felt like motion controls were the future of gaming. And the funny thing,
I guess, about the Switch is they were so far ahead of a schedule, like way more than probably
ever before, where we're going to create a handheld console experience. So now the rest of the market is finally catching up to them.
And they basically get a freebie of we don't have to completely reinvent the thing because
we are just dead center in what the market is.
The reason that they actually make the hardware then is because they can make money off of
hardware where nobody else can.
People will design their games down to be on their hardware.
By say down, I mean the visual presentation, not the quality of the game.
And people will buy their games wherever they are.
So I think if it were any other company where they're losing money on hardware, Xbox is
I think hitting this problem.
Totally agree with you.
And I think there's real questions of like, should Xbox even make a handheld or should
they just make an OS that is somehow better than Steam OS?
Switch, I think it's just free money.
Yeah, it's free money.
They sold 146 million switches.
That was as of September of last year, so even more now.
It's probably going to be the best-selling game console of all time.
It's going to beat out, I think, the PS2 is ahead of it.
Or the DS? Was the DS up there?
DS was up there. I used to do the joystick Japanese gaming hardware sales report every week.
And keep in mind, so strictly capitalist reasons, that's the reason to be in the console market.
And the other thing is, as Plant was alluding to,
a lot of people will design for this hardware,
and Nintendo is getting, what is it,
30% of every third-party sale
that happens on their marketplace.
So.
Russ!
Russ, I love you, my friend, I love you,
but please, save this for CNBC.
This is an enthusiast.
You're shooting your, your, your, your what?
This is an enthusiast podcast.
You wanna bring money, money logic into this?
What are we doing?
Like, what do we give a shit?
Like, I'm serious.
I'm telling you why they're doing it.
I understand that.
I'm not saying it's why I'm.
I'm saying that like, I think it's, I think it's sad.
I think it's very sad.
And I think that we should say that it's sad
to watch the reveal video for a new Nintendo console.
And the reaction is, hmm,
because that's how I felt.
And I can't imagine anybody feeling any different.
That's a bummer, man.
Do you remember the first time you saw this?
I admit it.
I thought the first, the Switch one trailer
was like a ground-changing moment.
And this was definitely not that.
We, Wii U, Switch, Virtual Boy, The Switch one trailer was like a ground changing moment and this was definitely not that. So I was-
Wii, Wii U, Switch, Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, GameCube.
I mean-
Now hold on, you can't slide Virtual Boy in there.
Like it was-
When you saw the reveal of the Virtual Boy,
you were like, what in the fuck are you guys doing?
That's so crazy.
You're gonna sell that?
I bought a Virtual Boy and it was all the money
I had in the world, and it sucked shit.
But it's still...
But we like, I just think it's like,
if the argument is like, we should be celebrating Nintendo
because they get to rest on their laurels this generation.
No, I'm not saying we should celebrate them.
I'm just saying they're gonna make a really successful
fucking handheld.
I would also say it leaves them room to do two things.
One, you would leave this to Microsoft.
Let Microsoft do this.
All right.
A true gamer would want the cameras in the fingers.
Right.
Where me and Modo is on, he sees the future.
Let me just say, I think apart from the shock value, all their innovation comes in software.
You get that initial shock value of what is this console and then once the console's out,
the next seven or eight years is just like,
basically software innovation or,
hey, we're gonna let you build a cardboard robot
that connects to your Switch for some fucking reason.
Like they will bring innovation in other ways.
I agree with you.
This handheld, this console does not seem like
it is bringing that fire,
but they're gonna have the new answer
to like what Zelda's fucking is this year.
You know what, I want hoops.
I want the original.
You're proving my point.
Don't make hardware then.
If they make hardware, then don't make hardware.
They make money and then the money funds the software.
They make money off of us buying it.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Just make video games.
You're not proving the worth of your existence.
Why exist?
We, we're missing it.
It is so obvious.
They have to keep the Joy-Cons
because they're gonna finally deliver
on the original Switch's promise.
You will be able to get fishing Joy-Cons.
You will be able to get basketball hoops
shooting Joy-Cons where you're flipping little baskets.
You're gonna, it is gonna be this is the generation
accessories of joy-con switch to will be the one where you can insert it into the the original joy-cons will be a
Keyboard is going to strap on to your joy-con. It's gonna be
Fucking awesome. And then we're all gonna look back at this episode, and be like, we were, what were we thinking?
We should have known that they were gonna put Seaman,
the Dreamcast game, in my joint.
That's not how it's pronounced,
that is not the emphasis we like to put on Seaman.
Here is what I'm telling you guys,
here is what I'm telling you guys.
We went from a world where there were multiple
Nintendo consoles doing different things
in different directions, different form factors,
like as many as three platforms at once going.
And I just think that it's, like, a little sad
to go from that Nintendo to the Nintendo
that follows up, like, the longest running console
it has ever had with just, like,
a number two of that console.
It's like...
The name is bad. The name is disappointing.
The name, I think more than anything, is disappointing.
I mean, the name is accurate.
I feel like the name I have the least problem with
because it very much is like, mm, Switch 2.
You know, my grownup Christmas wish for the Switch 2
is that they get a little bit more fun with the OS.
I miss me, Street Pass.
I miss, like, that stuff, I feel like, was,
I don't know, it really characterized
what Nintendo's priorities were
when the 3DS was kind of like, you know,
the big heavy hitter for them.
And I feel like the Switch has a very functional OS,
but it's not as sort of like silly
I want to I want to be able to open presents when I buy a game
I want it to be a little present box and I click that present box and here's here's what I what I would love if
If Nintendo is gonna go down this route, right?
What I think you're missing by increasing the size is I think you're losing more of like that portability market.
I think there's a market of people.
And I do think that a lot of the retro consoles,
part of what they show is that I think people want
a device in that form factor, right?
You don't necessarily want your Jinkos
to carry around your thing.
I would love for them to play with something
that's in like a VMU,
like the idea of a Joy-Con that you can bring with you.
You know what I mean?
And hope it can respond to other people's Joy-Cons.
You know what I mean?
Make there a reason for that.
Like joy-con street pass functionality.
That would be very cool.
Because I don't wanna carry, even less,
I already don't carry the Switch around,
but even less am I gonna carry around
a Switch 2 in my pocket.
But there's also the Switch Lite,
which also isn't pocketable.
I love the Switch Lite.
It is my preferred form factor of the Switch,
even though the screen is not anything to write home about.
But it is not, it ain't pocket sized, right?
And so there is something lost there.
Yeah, I would agree that of all the things,
the limited things they announced,
it being bigger was not necessarily a selling point for me
because I play it almost exclusively in handheld
and I just wanna like have it be light and easy to hold.
Yeah.
I was also a little bummed that the Joy-Cons
do not look remotely,
they've like seemingly made no effort
to make them ergonomic,
which was one of my big critiques of the first Joy-Cons.
They still look terrible.
They're still just like flat backs,
which I think is because they want people to use it
detached and sideways.
But again, I don't think a lot of people
are necessarily doing that.
So maybe just make them comfortable to hold
in most circumstances.
If they made them comfortable to hold without the doodads,
I think people can be, it is just that combo of like,
even after you put the stupid things on,
they're still not very good.
It's not worth it.
Have you all seen the Ion Neo 3?
Yeah.
Like how you can like replace the,
effectively the control faceplates,
they're like clip in.
I guess, I know I'm repeating myself now,
but I really wish Nintendo,
I really hope they do something like that. I think having Joy-, but I really wish Nintendo,
I really hope they do something like that.
I think having Joy-Cons that are more for ergonomics,
I know that, like saying this out loud,
I know that they're gonna rely on third party
to just handle it, but having their design level
handling this issue would be so much better
and so much more enjoyable.
Take it.
You know, I'm starting to feel like the third parties are really doing kind of an amazing
job filling in the blanks on the ergonomic side.
Like you talk, you look at companies like, um, I've been using like a GameSir controller,
which is a company that I hadn't heard of until like the last year.
And it kind of crushes the original Xbox controller, Like, Dbrand and all these sorts of companies,
I think, are doing a very good job
of filling in the blanks.
I got a PowerA Nano controller for the Switch
for Henry to use, because it's a little bit smaller,
and now it's also what I exclusively use,
because it feels good to use it tiny.
I think it just allows for more flexibility,
rather than being locked into whatever the thing is.
I just fix the fucking Joy-Cons, guys. make sure I don't have to replace them every year because that was...
Yeah, they hate that.
Yeah, they really do.
I am impressed with our ability.
What's one of their least favorite things about the Joy-Cons is how fucking many of them you buy.
I appreciate the fact that we have gotten 28 minutes of blood out of this stone.
I don't know that there's a lot more to talk about
this week, too, until April.
There is one more thing I wanna say,
because you guys didn't see him initially,
because he was in the background.
Can we comment on Donkey Kong,
the new design for Donkey Kong,
specifically in Mario Kart 9?
Because that was like the biggest difference
that was in the entire trailer.
I've dropped an image of the new Donkey Kong into the chat.
Yeah.
What are your first reactions?
I mean, we'll start with his gains are impressive.
This is a thick man who has been putting in the hours
and the discipline.
Is this AGH that he's using?
It's, yeah, it's ape hormone stuff.
I don't know what the acronym stands for.
It does look like the movie, it looks like the movie DK to me.
Yes.
Oh, and like the very classic,
drawn on the side of the arcade cabinet.
Oh yeah, it's kind of throwback in that way.
Yes, I think that's what they're going for here.
That was a meaner Donkey Kong, an angrier Donkey Kong.
The Donkey Kong that is on the left here
is just Andross from Star Fox 64 with different,
with wearing some sort of grim ape mask on.
Can we go to the break and talk about a really good game
called Here's a Game Watch 2?
Let's do that.
Okay, so let's all look back in time
to when I introduced Heroes of Hammerwatch to this crew.
I was hoping this would be a celebration of you.
Many years ago, I introduced this game
and you guys rolled your eyes,
you're like, oh, this is, look at these little baby guys
with their old graphics, who cares?
And it grabbed the podcast by storm.
I don't think Plant played it,
but everyone else played it a lot and really liked it.
It was my most played Switch game of that year.
That's crazy.
I didn't play it a bunch.
You didn't play it that much, too?
It was just me and you really, Russ.
It's a...
Oh, okay. We got hard into it.
We did not play this.
It's strange.
Hammer Watch 2 came out.
We didn't really like that too much.
And now, Heroes of HammerWatch 2 has come out
and the naming convention is very confusing,
but this is the good one, y'all.
Yeah, this is the good one.
It's like Forza Horizon, right?
Right, this was on my most anticipated
Games of 2025 list.
I didn't realize that it would be out
three days after we released that episode.
They totally stealth dropped it.
Yeah, so it's like, if you can imagine,
they grafted RPG mechanics onto vampire survivors.
So like, or in gauntlet,
and you put a little bit of gauntlet in there,
and I think you're pretty close.
Wow.
Why have I not played this? Yeah, Chris, you should play this fucking game, man. you put a little bit of gauntlet in there, and I think you're pretty close. Wow. What?
Why have I not played this?
This sounds-
Yeah, Chris, you should play this fucking game, man.
Yeah, it's pretty good.
I mean, basically- Wow.
Yeah, so basically you're making,
you're taking a, say you pick a wizard,
there's four different classes.
It's the classics, right?
There's actually seven, but some of them are-
Yeah, you unlock other ones as you play.
Come on, Juice, do your homework.
Does your wife seem happy?
Like, does she seem like a happy person?
No, she does not.
I didn't think I wouldn't imagine. So there's four classes.
There's a warrior, and there's a wizard, and there's a rogue, and there's a paladin.
Each one feels pretty different. You know, there's like the difference between slinging spells around and then having like more close combat abilities, but it is still that like, feels that auto shooter thing
or you're trying to like fire as fast as you can
and fire off your abilities as fast as you can.
More, I would say more agency
than a lot of those like auto shooter things give you,
but it is that, it feels like that.
It's like a Diablo demake in a way.
Yeah, it feels like an ARPG more than an auto shooter.
It's hard because like Vampire Survivors is already like a, you know, like we're taking
like mechanics there and like boiling them down to their,
there's some of that in there.
There's Gauntlet in there,
there's Vampire Survivors in there.
There's a persistent sort of,
and actually if you didn't play Halls of Torment,
it's kind of similar to that,
where you have different characters
that have different gear that you unlock.
So like, as you're leveling up each of these individual classes,
you guys would play a lot more than me, so you could probably explain better how leveling up each class is helping your, like, meta.
So each class has, like, a mastery bonus that applies to every character. So for the rogue, if you make a rogue,
every level that you get with your rogue
adds like a 1.5% gold bonus,
which really starts to stack up as you level up that class.
Sorcerer, if you level them up,
it increases your mana regeneration.
The basic loop of the kind of rogue-like elements
of Heroes of Hammerwatch 2 are what make it so strong,
because every time you play,
you are leveling up your character
and earning those bonuses
for every other character you might make.
You're finding resources to upgrade your town,
which unlocks all kinds of different
upgrade opportunities for you.
You are finding pieces of equipment,
which is new for Heroes of Hammerwatch 2, so you're not just leveling up,
you're also putting builds together
based on what kind of equipment you're finding,
which has all kinds of new systems associated with it.
There's an enchanter that you can use
to get the right sort of bonuses on it.
It is so much stuff, and it makes it feel like
every time you are playing, you are getting stronger
in like 10 different ways, which is very, very,
very compelling to me.
It also has the like, the juice that you get
when you're playing a Vampire Survivors
or Halls of Torment where you are fighting seemingly
like a thousand, I mean, it's not this many,
but like a hundred guys at once and the screen is filled
with numbers going up and you get that satisfaction of I'm gonna not this many, but like a hundred guys at once, and the screen is filled with numbers going up,
and you get that satisfaction of,
I'm gonna drop this nuke and clear the entire screen.
That feels fucking amazing.
I will say that as long as the Vampire Survivors
comparisons are coming, I did experience kind of a
slow period in most of the time, early in runs,
where it's not really much of a challenge
and you're just trying to get it going.
I don't know if, like, I know Vampire Survivors
fixes that with a hyper mode or that kind of deal.
I don't know if that's an option.
Yeah, there's a fast travel mode
that's a little bit hidden in the game,
but you basically get the ability
to skip the first five levels, worlds, if you feel like you're strong enough.
It's actually a really smart system.
Once you get deep enough into the game,
you unlock this air, this tower, this room,
and you basically say, like, okay, I'm gonna challenge myself
with basically, you can light these different candles.
And if you light four candles,
a shitload of enemies are gonna come in,
and if you survive all those enemies,
it'll give you enough gear to basically survive
seven levels deep.
So it kind of like, it's like a skill test.
It throws one incredibly difficult challenge at you
in lieu of playing through three or four levels.
Which is great because then you skip ahead
to the harder stuff where you're getting more experience
and more money and better loot, and it lets you skip some to the harder stuff where you're getting more experience and more money and better loot,
and it lets you skip some of the more repetitive stuff
that you've already done.
Here's a Hammer Watch 2 is actually pretty good
at doing that, more so than Here's a Hammer Watch 1.
I think it looks great.
I think it, I'm playing as a paladin,
and it also has class specializations,
so once you get a class to level 10, there's like three different branches that it goes off in.
So the paladin I'm playing is all about like fire magic that goes out in this huge radius,
which then sets off this combo system.
So now you're moving twice as fast and shooting like bolts of light out of you.
It's so like fast and crazy.
I'm often hard on games with a retro aesthetic, but I will say they're doing some really cool stuff
with transparencies and things like that,
that have a, it almost makes it feel
a little bit uncanny valley,
because it's like, graphically it looks like
something you'd remember, but there's effects,
there's things going on under the hood
that feel very modern, I don't know, it's a cool.
Yeah, the lighting is very modern.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the designs, the designs of the individual like characters and the spells and stuff are are are modern
Did you guys like playing all of the classes equally or did you find yourselves?
gravitating towards some I
Went wizard I started with a wizard and that's kind of like glass
Cannon is usually what I start games with and that felt really good and I ended up leveling that up all the way and eventually beating the game with it.
What's the bonus for that?
What's cool is when you beat the game,
you get gear for the other classes.
So I was able to start a fresh Paladin
with like a level 20 sword right from the jump.
So what was previously like a very slow restarting
of a character from scratch actually went a lot faster
because I was like, what's the term?
Twinking, is that right?
It doesn't sound right, but when you drop to the floor.
That's right, I mean that is what it is called, yeah.
I have not heard that term used for quite some time
for reasons that I bet you could figure out.
So yeah, I was able to basically get past the slow parts
of leveling up a guy from scratch.
For Chris Plant, I was able to like basically get past the slow parts of leveling up a guy from scratch for Chris plant
I will say this
The reason that I think I think you would enjoy the core gameplay
But this game definitely requires you to do that thing where
When you're level three, there is no possibility you will ever beat the game
Numerically speaking you will not have the strength to get to the end of the run.
It's not spunky, you don't start from scratch,
you need to like grind the resources to get enough stuff
to level up the skills to get you there.
Once you're there, it feels really good and satisfying
because you feel like you've earned it, whatever.
But that is just a heads up because I know you are not
a big fan of doing that stuff.
I did not have a lot of problems with the game.
The only thing that was tripping me up,
and this could just be, yeah,
your mileage may be everything, but some of the abilities,
the wizard has an ability where it's bringing up a reticle
and then you're firing, so it's bringing up
a targeting reticle while you're moving around.
And there's this targeting reticle,
and then you have to push a different button
to fire off the attack.
So it's like you start the ability
and then you aim with the reticle while you're moving
and then you fire it off.
And I found-
It feels like more of a mouse and keyboard
kind of contrivance.
It's not hard or impossible.
It just, especially on the Steam Deck, like felt bad.
It just like, I was getting like a weird claw grip
to make it happen.
Yeah, I ended up remapping a lot of controls
just to make it feel better.
And when you're moving, trying to like target something
in that view while you're moving,
it just feels like too much.
I don't know.
I like the characters that were,
that didn't rely on that as much.
Yeah.
I will also say there was a patch yesterday
that improved this somewhat,
but there is this insane issue where
after you play a certain number of levels,
the load times become exponentially longer
and it doesn't get fixed until you quit the game
and restart, which is like,
they do save it every time you start
like a new level of your run,
so it's not like catastrophic,
but it is pretty annoying,
and hopefully the kind of things that they can fix.
It seems like they've been very proactive.
There's been, I think the game launched last week,
and there's been three patches, significant patches,
since then that have really addressed
a lot of the community concerns.
I think they are very worried
after the reaction of Hammer Watch 2.
I think they're like extremely worried
of like falling in that muck again,
but obviously the response for this one
has been much more positive.
Really great.
It's so strange to me how they released this.
Like I know it's not the biggest franchise in the world,
but this game kicks ass.
It's really exceptionally fun and good
and I can't stop playing it.
And the people play, the community is like super,
super into it.
I don't understand why they didn't put like a little bit
of heat.
Here's my thinking.
Well, I will say guys,
I think you got some roastin and glasses on.
I'm enjoying it,
but like, I think you're seeing a lot of the potential
because of the experience you've had.
That, my experience technically was really bad.
I mean like really bad, like freezes beyond the caching,
like it would just stop, hard stop,
or like it wouldn't be able to move the character.
Like there's a lot of stuff going on like that.
And some of the things we're talking about with like
equipment and the way that those systems all interact,
a lot of it's like not very clean or well explained.
And maybe you understand it better
like from previous experience,
but I think there's probably more rough edges
than you're seeing.
That's fair, yeah.
I think that's right and keep this in mind.
When I got super into Heroes of Hammerwatch,
it was at the Switch launch
and this game is only on PC right now
and I'm pretty sure when Heroes of Hammerwatch 1 launched,
it launched on PC first and then, I don't know, it could of Remarch 1 launched, it launched on PC first and
then, I don't know, it could have been a year
later that it launched on Switch.
And so it wouldn't surprise me if to answer both
of your questions, one, they're going to address
a lot of those issues as they work through these
patches and two, they'll do more of a marketing
push when the game hits console.
I could see both of those happening.
I am really loving it.
I'm very much into it.
And if you're a fan of the first one,
I think you should definitely check it out.
If you're a little wary, you can wait
because they're clearly patching it a lot
and a short board content will be dropped.
It definitely feels like one of those
that if you play it in a year,
it will almost certainly be a better experience.
It's almost certainly gonna be very refined.
I don't think it's in a bad state right now,
but I think a lot of that, you're right,
has to do with me and the amount of time
that I've spent on the original.
On the original.
But the fact that I'm already seeing performance gains
and like not seeing as those like dramatic slowdowns
that I was three days ago,
really says that they're pretty tuned in to what's going on.
The first game also got a few really good DLC releases
that I'm hoping they will continue supporting.
I don't know, I loved that first game
and Hammer Watch 2 I thought was so disappointing
and frustrating and I was worried that they would not be able
to sort of like return to form,
but I think that those fears have been assuaged for me. I was worried that they would not be able to sort of like return to form,
but I think that those fears have been assuaged for me.
One last thing, it is really, really fun in multiplayer.
We mentioned it in passing,
but it's like kind of perfectly designed for multiplayer.
It supports up to four players.
Normally, apparently people have been using debug codes
to get like 16 people in a game,
which is very funny to watch.
I joined a server with 64 players.
It was so funny.
I had to leave after like 10 seconds
because my Steve deck was gonna melt in my hands.
But it's great.
You can revive people.
There's like this tension of like,
oh shit, this guy died while going through a bunch of traps.
Do I bother to revive him or not?
It just feels very much like a great,
it would be like a great couch co-op experience
or online for that matter.
It's very stable. It doesn't feel laggy at all.
Yeah.
What are we gonna do now, guys?
Are we gonna do honorable mentions
and talk about Donkey Kong Country Returns HD?
Let's do that. Let's do that.
Sure.
I didn't play the original Donkey Kong Country Returns.
I played it on 3DS.
This is actually the third time it got, I guess the second time it got re-released,
because it came out on Wii originally, and then it got released like a year later on 3DS,
and now this is coming out on Switch, which is a very bizarre sequence of events.
Yeah, but it was the predecessor to Tropical Freeze, which was a Wii U game that came to Switch.
And now there's an HD version of Donkey Kong Country Returns.
Yeah.
Called Donkey Kong Country Returns HD.
And this was basically retro saying, we're going to reboot the Donkey Kong Country franchise
after doing so well with Metroid Prime.
And so they made basically, you know,
these games play like Donkey Kong Country,
but obviously with 3D graphics, but still side-scrolling.
And I think with this one in particular,
they were, it feels very much like they're like,
let's get our feet wet, and more or less make, like,
a relatively basic platforming game
in the style of Donkey Kong Country,
but from a design perspective,
we're not gonna swing for the fences necessarily,
we're gonna focus on other stuff, I don't know,
just to get it set.
And so when you compare this game to Tropical Freeze,
it's kind of night and day.
Tropical Freeze feels like a much more developed,
thoughtful game.
Yeah.
I played it with Henry, pretty much exclusively,
in two-player mode.
And we were having a pretty good time with it.
It does get really hard, really, really fast,
because it's a Donkey Kong Country game. And when I say really hard, I mostly really fast, because it's a Donkey Kong Country game.
And when I say really hard, I mostly mean,
you know, for an eight-year-old, I'm fucking,
I can beat any game, like, try me, put me in front of you,
I'm gonna fuck it up.
But it started to get very frustrating.
There is one mechanic that I think is the worst thing,
just the worst thing ever to ever feature
any kind of multiplayer platform or game.
And it is that if one of your players dies
when you're playing co-op,
that player can respawn into the world
as a decay barrel on a balloon that floats down.
And it goes across the screen back and forth
in an insane sine wave that is unpredictable and demonic.
And if you don't hit it as the other player
to free that monkey, then that barrel's gone
as is that life.
So like there was a level we were trying to get through
for a long time that was like an ocean level
where you're jumping across all these little platforms
and trying not to fall into the water and instantly die.
And if one of us would die, we'd spawn back in
and the barrel would just zoop, zoop, zoop, zoop, zoop,
back and forth and we'd miss it and would go through
all of our lives and then lose and have to restart
the entire level.
Like there's some stuff in here that is so frustrating
and not in an enjoyable way.
Ruin the faith of your child in you.
Yeah.
Right?
Like your child is like, you, dad, mom,
you're a pro gamer.
Surely you can do this.
And here you are jumping off a cliff trying to save
the life of your child.
Of your child, yes.
And they're like, wow, you can't even do this.
You can't even do this for me
If you're gonna fail me here, how are you gonna fail me in the future?
I do not I'm not a fan of this. It's also weird cuz
Tropical freeze did add more I guess help to kid gamers
They added the funky Kong mode which had he had more health. He had a double jump
he had like fucking hovering like he had all sorts of like
things that he was making the game easier with,
and it doesn't seem like they've added
a lot of that stuff here.
There's an inventory where you can like bring
power ups and stuff, like into levels.
Most of them don't work when you're playing in co-op mode.
So like, what are we doing, man?
We pivoted off discussing this as like
our main game of the week, I think pretty quickly
after each of us played it and we're like,
there's not a ton to-
It does make me wonder, I just worry a little bit
because Nintendo will obviously continue doing this.
They're gonna re-release their old games
and in a lot of cases, I'm thrilled that that's happening
because there are games like Link Between Worlds
that I would love to play again in full graphics
and on a big screen, something like that.
But I do worry that like, if the barrier to like a remake
is this rather than like a much more full featured thing,
that makes me a little worried.
Like I think Super Mario World was a great example.
What was it, Super Mario, what's that one?
3D World.
3D World was paired with Bowser's whatever the fuck story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Whatever that game was.
That was great.
That was fucking amazing,
because you got two great games in one package.
Totally worth it, but this for $60 is just like,
it's a Wii game for $60.
I wanna just say also,
I wanna rescind my earlier trepidation about the Switch 2.
If Nintendo can continue to deliver like this
on the software end,
I think we're in for a very bright future indeed.
I think this is more indicative of the log jam.
The past, like, I don't know, man,
year of Nintendo first party exclusives
has been so
lackluster
And so disappointing and it just feels like there's this big beautiful
Tomorrow waiting just around the bend the weird one for me is why not?
Wind Waker like that thing has been done
Yeah, or ever and like why are we getting this instead of
Wail Waker?
My thinking, my guess is that they just are
spacing out Zelda titles and they just had a
Zelda title come out four or five months ago.
So they need one next year.
And they need one next year.
So that would be my guess.
But I'm sure it'll happen.
I mean, I've been saying that for four years,
but I'm sure it'll happen.
Can we talk about other honorable mentions? Yes. Yes. I guess, but I'm sure it'll happen. I mean, I've been saying that for four years, but I'm sure it'll happen.
Can we talk about other honorable mentions?
Yes. Yes.
I wanna briefly mention one, the movie Night Bitch.
You can watch it on Hulu.
It's adapted from a novel, and it's a,
I would say like it's sort of a heightened reality movie. I hope so. Yeah, I would say like it's sort of a heightened reality movie.
I hope so.
Yeah. I would say, uh, it is a movie about, uh, a, a woman struggling with, uh,
balancing like motherhood and her career and her aspirations and the
pressures that society puts on her and everything.
And it is, in the premise, there is this idea
that she is turning into a dog at night.
And that is a metaphorical device, maybe.
I don't know.
You gotta watch the movie to find out.
There was a wink there.
Yeah, there was a wink.
You didn't hear it.
But it's a movie about how women are expected to function
in our society and parents in general
and how hard that is and how unrealistic
and monstrous in many ways it is.
There is a lot of stuff watching this movie
that I could feel like my wife reverberating with
and things in this movie that helped me understand
what her experience is like and has been like. sort of like reverberating with and things in this movie that like helped me understand
what her experience is like and has been like.
There is a lot of this movie that I already realized from like talking to my wife over
the years and living through things with her.
But if you are someone who is a young parent on no matter what, where you are on the sort
of like gender spectrum, I think that's like a really powerful movie and a very
like I wish I had seen it as a younger dad, because I think I would have been a better
parent and if I had seen it and understood a little bit better, sort of like my wife
and and and where her head had been at, but it starts Amy Adams. It's called Night Bitch.
It's very funny. It's very well done. It's very entertaining, it's not preachy or anything,
but I found it very moving.
So the other thing I briefly wanted to mention
is that since we had our retro discussion,
I've been messing around a lot with the retro retro games
and trying to get a bunch of stuff up and running
on the Retroid 5. And I had this idea of trying to get a bunch of stuff up and running on the Retroid 5.
And I had this idea of like trying to get a bunch
of FMV stuff that I had never checked out, right?
Like digging that out.
So here's the problem is the Phillips CDI had this thing
called the digital video cartridge, which-
And Justin can confirm,
this shouldn't be a three hour YouTube essay, right?
It'll be really quick.
Jenny Nicholson this if you want You could. It'll be really quick.
Jenny Nicholson this if you wanted to.
It'll be really quick.
So, you know, like a memory pack expansion
for the Nintendo 64, right?
Right. This is a digital video cartridge
that you had to install in the Philips CD-i
because it could play video,
but in order for it to like process video off the discs,
you needed the digital video cartridge, which was not
in built into the Philips CDI
The digital video cartridge has not been
well emulated in any
Real sense that is that can be reproduced. So there are a lot of titles on on
The the CDI that I have never and as far as I could tell will never experience because the emulation is not there and there's no passion for it.
There's things like guys, what's Christmas country and Christmas crisis?
I don't know. Right? Do you remember the 60s? I don't know. I don't get a chance to.
You know, because I don't get a chance to. You know what I mean? Cause I don't.
Wait, is that actually a game?
Yeah, Monty Python's invasion from planet Skyron
and I don't get to.
Holy wow.
It's not fair, right?
There's a seventh guest, you know?
Guys, there's a Hulk Hogan,
Thunder in Paradise FMV game.
I don't think I'm good.
I listen, okay, listen, that's a bad word.
But here's what I'm doing.
Here's the deal.
I am taking this opportunity to announce
Justin McElroy Prize for Success in Innovation.
And here is the prize.
If you can get the Phillips CD-i digital video cartridge
emulated in a way where I can play it
on my Retro Pocket 5,
I will give the recipient of that award
$1,000 in Olive Garden gift certificate.
Wow.
That's a lot of pasta.
I will not be adjudicating this.
I will not be researching it.
If you are the person who says,
hey hoops, here's how I can get these digital video cards
that's going for you, I did the emulation,
I made it up, that person's gonna get
this incredible prize.
Let the race begin, let man's progress be unfettered,
and let's get, oh.
Okay, I mean like.
And our lawyer's not here, our lawyer's not on the call.
So I'll go ahead and say-
Our lawyer is not on the call.
I'll go ahead and say this might not work for you at home.
If you think I have the skills to do this,
you might do it and still not win the prize.
There is gonna be an element of chaos.
I think it's the first person to email you, right?
The first person to email me with their work.
Don't just email me a link to something
you read that might work.
No, I want you to make it.
Make it easy for me.
I'm using the same, I'm using the same CDI core.
It's within the main framework.
That seems to be the accepted way
people are playing CDI games.
By the way, this isn't like piracy.
No one gives a shit about the film CDI on any reality.
If I called Phillips
They wouldn't I don't even know if I could call Phillips. I don't think I do
I don't think you could call Phillips at all. I
Just want to make sure I have this right because I am writing the rules down into the newsletter if
the the Justin McElroy prize for success and innovation if
You can get the Phillips CDI emulation fully playable on justin's
retro pocket 5 well I let me say the the philip cdi digital video cartridge
emulated because that's what I mean it's easier to pick a title maybe you should
tell people if you can play no Christmas Christmas because I don't want them to
like but this is a prize in innovation. This isn't selfish I'm trying to move mankind forward. I see you understand. Yes
Sorry say this the digital video cartridge. Yeah. Yeah. Hey plant
I'll say this if they have this much trouble with what it's called. They're probably not gonna win the prize
Can they get cash value for the cards? Yeah, they can. They can, as long as they don't mind selling someone
their Olive Garden gift certificates,
because that's the only way it's gonna work.
Maybe somebody will give them pennies on the dollar.
Potter down at the bank is buying Olive Garden certificates
for 50 cents on the dollar.
I'll be closing my account.
Now hold on just one second.
I'm trying to open Khabara's Grill.
Your money's in her olive garden gift certificates.
All the Darden family of brands is represented.
I wanna promote a documentary series
on Peacock called SNL 50 Beyond Saturday Night.
It's a four part docu-series about Saturday Night Live on its 50th anniversary.
First episode's about, it's called Five Minutes, and it's all about auditioning for Saturday Night Live,
what that is like from all the cast members.
The second episode's about what it's like to be a writer going through the week, you know, Monday to Saturday.
The third part is about the more cowbell sketch.
The whole thing is about the whole,
and then the fourth part is about season 11,
which was the insane season where Lorne Michaels
returned to the show after like a five year hiatus
and cast fucking Randy Quaid and Robert Downey Jr.
and like all of these people who were only on
for a single season,
almost getting the show canceled forever.
It's so fascinating.
The audition and writing episodes have given me
so much anxiety as a comedic performer.
And so there is a strong emotional response,
but I think it's just fantastic.
And it really, really, really takes you
behind the curtain.
I cannot fathom the amount of anxiety
that that show must produce in people.
It is truly the worst scenario.
It really though, I just wanna echo what Griffin said.
That first episode is the only one I've watched so far,
but you think about what Broadway video,
which like Lorne Michaels' company has access to.
I mean, think about all of these auditions
are perfectly captured in HD.
So there's so much footage you've never seen before
of people watching their auditions for the first time.
Like that's-
It's the NFL film of comedy.
Yeah, 100%.
Oh man, Heidi Gardner's audition is so,
like her response to it is so moving.
You get to see Tracy Morgan's audition,
which is like the funniest shit.
Will Ferrell's audition is like iconic.
Like, I don't know, it's,
I have fallen off SNL.
It's not a show I watch every week anymore,
but the, I feel like I care a lot about that show still
and got to see some stuff about it that I didn't know.
I also have been messing around with
the Retro-Roid Pocket 5,
and I've been playing mostly Final Fantasy IX,
because we talked about it last week.
That game still looks fucking great,
and it's fun to play.
And Shenmue, because finally Dreamcast emulation
is pretty good, and Shenmue is a absolutely wild game.
I may need to come up with a new prize to make Seaman work.
That one's tough to emulate too.
I was trying to get that going.
Do you have a mic on the Retro Packet Five?
I don't know.
How are you gonna talk to Leonard Nimoy
if you don't have a mic?
I don't know.
I'm gonna Google that.
Plant, you have anything?
I'm gonna Google that.
Uh, Plank, you have anything?
Um, people who are in New York,
go to the MoMA, if you can, between like now and I think like mid-February,
because there is a movie playing that I think the last time it played was 2010,
called The Clock,
and it is a 24-hour movie
where each minute is related to moments in other movies where they're talking about that minute.
So like if it's 2 22 p.m.
They it's a clip from taking a Pelham one to three where John Travolta is like it's 222.
You better be ready by two thirty four.
And then at two thirty four we like get follow-up to that scene for 24 hours
It sounds kind of watching Netflix or something
I really wish because the first I
Don't know 10 minutes. I was like, oh, this is real painful and slow the next five minutes
I was like, I think I'm asleep and then then the next two and a half hours, I'm like, this is the most engaging thing.
I mean, it's like TikTok.
It is.
You can't stop.
Like it's.
Cause it's like constant cliffhangers.
And they, the, the artists who made it has like a great sense of humor.
So you start to realize that it is kind of building its own story and that there
are callbacks and goofs
Between all of it and it is not like all art films like a lot of it is I mean it couldn't
Yeah
It's great and I
Yeah, if you can go see it you should also if you can't go see it
Hey, I'm just gonna say you should be
using your country roll subscription right now because it's the new season of
anime there's a lot of good stuff honey lemon soda I watched it was just good
vibes if you want a little sweet romance you can get them right now cool
what about you I played Donkey Kong Country.
I'm in, uh, you know, potty training hell. So there hasn't been a lot going on.
I'm continuing to play Pokemon Snap, new Pokemon Snap, which is, I think we're like
probably 50 hours into that game.
There's so much fucking shit in that game.
It's insane.
That's incredible.
I think, I think I massively underestimated it when I first played it.
in that game is insane. That's incredible.
I think I massively underestimated it
when I first played it.
And if you are a Pokemon fan, or you want to turn a child
into a Pokemon fan, holy shit, this is the one to do it with.
Very, very, very fun.
I think we did it.
Do you want to recap?
Yeah, we talked about the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement.
We dug into Heroes of Hammerwatch 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD.
We also mentioned Final Fantasy IX, Shinmue, New Pokemon Snap, Night Bitch, SNL 50, Beyond
Saturday Night, The Clock at MoMA, and Honey Lemon Soda.
And we revealed or announced the Justin McRoy Prize for success in innovation.
You can find the details at besties.fan.
I want to thank everyone over at the Patreon for supporting us at patreon.com slash the
besties.
You can get new episodes and all sorts of cool stuff there.
We have rest these episodes.
We have this month's bracket episode.
We have a new bracket episode coming out first week of February. Always cool stuff there. We have rest of these episodes. We have this month's bracket episode. We have a new bracket episode coming out
first week of February.
Always new stuff there.
So thank you so much to all y'all for supporting us.
I also wanted to mention that the readers,
specifically Bastode, wanted to applaud us over the fact
that Russ from Retro Game Corps last week mentioned that he was a Master Chief in the Navy
and none of us made a joke.
Oh, guys.
Oh, man.
It was really cool, man.
We were all on our best behavior, I think.
We really were.
Yeah.
I think we all did the simultaneous eyebrow raise.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm.
OK.
I was vibrating.
What are we doing next week?
Next week we're gonna be talking about Citizen Sleeper 2.
Bit of a cult hit, getting a follow up here.
We beloved the first one.
Will we beloved this one?
Hard to say.
Only time will tell.
Find out next time on the Besties.
Because shouldn't the world's best friends
pick the world's best games? Besties!