The Besties - Want a New GBA-style Zelda? Try This Indie Game

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo looks and feels like a lost Game Boy Advance game, but with all of the quality of life improvements of a modern game. We talk about what makes it a great game to fill a weekend. In the back half, we share our feelings on the nerd event of the season: Superman! 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!

Name of the year. I know that's not what we do here. I know that we focus more on sort of the holistic package of a video game, but you ain't gonna beat Peepastrello. You ain't gonna beat Peepastrello for name of the year. This is a good name, man. Peepastrello is fun to say. Is it name of the year to say out loud?

Maybe. Are you judging it as just like a person's name, Justin? No, it's just like, Peepa Strello, does it help me remember? Okay. You ain't gonna forget Peepa Strello, come on, dude. If I hear the name Death Spank, I'm immediately thinking Death Spank, right?

I'm thinking about the heroic knight with the bad sense of humor and he loves bacon. That's, you know, but Pipa Estrello, I don't know. Who's Pipa Estrello? Well, are we including the subtitle in the name of the year? Pipa Estrello and the Cursed Yo-Yo. I mean, the Cursed Yo-Yo, like, it's fine.

It's not necessary. Just Pipa Estrello. Now what about Ys Mamoie,ah, the oath in Felghana? Cause that's January 7th. That came out, that's a really different- You might have forgotten about Ys M'Muah, the oath in Felghana. It ain't no Peepa Strel'o though.

You ain't topping Peepa Strel'o. Are you really telling me that this title is better than Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii? Really? That's a good one, Yakuza in Hawaii. Really? Um, that's a good one. That's a good one. But it ain't Peepa-Strello. Peepa-Strello is more fun to say than any other name I've ever heard.

The mouthfeel on this one is just out of size. Peepa-Strello seems like you're getting away with something. I agree with that. I agree with that. Like, you shouldn't be allowed to say it. We shouldn't be allowed to say Peepa-Strello as much as we have even in the intro of this podcast episode. Yeah, I agree. We shouldn't be allowed to say Peepistrello as much as we have even in the intro of this podcast episode.

Yeah, I agree. The legend of heroes trails through daybreak two. No. Fair. You ain't beating Peepistrello, baby. My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week. My name is Ross Frushek and I know the best game of the week. My name is Ross Froschek, 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's a video game club, and just by listening to you, my friend, I've become a member. This week on the show, we're gonna be talking about a new title called Pipa-strelo. Pipa-strelo. Pipa-strelo.

What is that, Chris Plant? I'm really sorry. Caught you by surprise, huh? I was trying to see if I could find any other game names and I found one called Don't Tell Mom I Fed My Stepsister. And let me tell you, it's not your, you're not giving them sandwiches. What is Peepestrello, Christ, I don't know.

It's like a, it's a Zelda game that's 2D pixels and you play as Peepestre strello a thing with a yo-yo Okay, thank you. You know what we may have to reassign our jobs. We'll talk about that during the break Before we talk about peepee strello and the cursed yo-yo I just want to confirm because in the intro plant called people's use are-strel-o. Are you saying Pee-pee-strel-o and the cursed yo-yo? You gotta say the guy's name wrong. Are you saying, no, I need to clarify. Are you saying Pee-pee-strel-o and the cursed yo-yo?

Pee-pee-strel-o. And? The cursed yo-yo. The cursed yo-yo? And folks listening at home, we are gonna talk about the game itself. Is that not the name of the game? Sorry, I just need to know.

Yes, but, Frustick, are you adding this, like, this fun second syllable to the word? This is why, are you leaning into cursed, or are we going with cursed? I mean, cursed sound, I don't know. That works feels right. I like that. It does feel right.

The cursed yo-yo. I like it. Okay, I need to clarify something. Because a cursed yoyo has a curse on it. A cursed yoyo is a yoyo you really hate, which would be funny, because it's like this cursed yoyo, and then you throw it away and it comes right back to you.

That's a good bit. That's free. That is a good bit. Yeah. What are you gonna clarify, Russ? Okay, at the beginning in the intro, when Plant was describing what this game is, he said a thing, it's specifically referring to Pipistrello.

And to be clear, Pipistrello is not a thing. Pipistrello is an animal and a very specific animal indeed. And I wanna make sure that everyone knows what kind of animal he is. Yeah, he is a pipistrello. He is the animal pipistrello. That's Italian for bat. Yes.

Thank you. He's a bat. He's a bat, yeah. I didn't realize that until maybe two hours into the game when someone referenced that he was for bat. Yes. Thank you. He's a bat. He's a bat. He's a bat. Yeah, I didn't realize that until maybe two hours into the game when someone referenced that he was a bat. Because he doesn't look like a bat. He looks like a little monster.

Or like a mouse. What I thought the whole game is, I hate the way this ugly boy looks. Um, it is, can I try and set up what Peepestrel is all about? Sure, yeah. It has really charmed me. Right from the jump, the game opens by showing you

what is essentially a 3D render of a Game Boy Advance. Classic, not the SP, not the folding screen, a classic sort of long Game Boy Advance. But like a knockoff you would find on like same works place. Yes, yeah, and you see the cartridge of Pipistrello and the cursed yo-yo go into this Game Boy Advance and then it zooms in on the screen

and then that's, then you're in the game. And I think that that is a really, really effective setup because this is such a love letter to Game Boy Advance games, that entire era, just from the way that it, from a design standpoint, from an aesthetic standpoint, everything is sort of like, it took me a while to get used to how kind of like zoomed in everything felt,

like it didn't feel like there's a ton of real estate on the screen that you are like navigating, it feels like you're playing a Game Boy Advance game, but a really, really good one. And I have so much fondness for that era, so it worked on me. Before we go too much further, yeah, let's just say what the game actually is.

Yeah, so it's like, Plant wasn't wrong. There is definitely a 90s Zelda, 80s, 90s Zelda overhead vibe to this, kind of a link to the past kind of thing But the thing that I think is cool and sets it apart is the people's Trello's main thing is this this yo-yo and the yo-yo Attacks, you know, like you would expect from like a star tropics or whatever Lots of games have a yo-yo But what's cool about this is if you use a yo-yo to attack angles like corners

There's a lot of lots of 45 degree angles throughout the world. And if you strike one of those, it kind of like can extend your attack. So like your attack will then go 90 degrees off of that and can continue an attack. And you can use that. There are sort of like what you might think was like lines in a Tony Hawk game. Similar to that, there are lines in the different stages and screens where if you hit this certain angle,

you'll hit repeated angles that will extend your attack that may even take out all the enemies in the room if you shoot at just the right point. It feels very, it reminds me a lot of Minish Cap to Conjurer-specific Zelda reference. It's very simple to start out. It did not hook me at first, but very quickly as you explore the game,

you get your objective to collect these MacGuffins from around the map, and you get different power-ups that give you more options, things to do with your yo-yo. Release it from the string and just send it rolling forward so you can use it as like a far off range attack, but then you have to go and grab your dumb SEO yo off the ground before you can attack with it again.

Eventually you learn to walk the dog, which is kind of like a locomotion power that like opens a lot of fun doors for you. Yeah, that's really cool. And there's like tons of, you know. That's probably the moment I would say that it really unlocked for me, because like, when did you get to walk the dog

that lets you travel with the attack, then it really starts to feel a lot more, like, kinetic than you would normally associate with a sort of, like, isometric... Is that right? Top down? No, not isometric. Bird's eye. It's a bird's eye, yeah. But I think it's important to also know that, like, all that stuff ties into combat, sure,

and there is a lot of combat in this game, but it also ties directly into all of the puzzles. So there will be puzzles where you need to launch your yo-yo, because you need it to land against a wall and then weigh down a weight, a pressure plate, and then there are times where you need to ride it, and there are times where you need to ride it

and then throw it and then do multiple combinations of the two as you're moving your way through a given puzzle. So that stuff feels very, some of the later Zelda games where they have these mini puzzles within that are totally optional, that stuff feels very much clued into that.

Yeah, you're collecting stuff to basically heart pieces to extend your health. There's a really, really, really clever way that this game handles upgrades. You're collecting money from fallen enemies and by solving puzzles and stuff the whole time. And you have this little home base that you can pop into basically anywhere you see

a little manhole cover on the ground. You pop in and then you're back in your home base. And there's a vendor there who will sell you new upgrades, but the way it works is, it'll be like, okay, this one will extend your health bar by one thing, or this one will increase your attack power, but it's gonna put you in debt for $300, and until you complete that debt,

half your money's gonna get drained, it's gonna go into this debt account to pay it off, and also you're going to have a debuff on you. So maybe the debuff is you take more damage, but once you've paid off the debt, the debuff goes away and that power is yours permanently, which I think is such a clever way of like, I don't know, always making you feel

like you are progressing. Even if you hit a wall and you aren't making money, you still have the upgrade, right? You still have the power. It's just a question of like, how long it takes you to work off the debuff debt that it puts on you. Yeah, I thought that was very, very smart.

Yeah, they do a similar, similarly like, a smart, small thing is the more, it's like a little bit of a extremely, extremely souls-like element where the more money that you're carrying with you in a given time, when you die, you lose more of it. So there's this incentive to, like, upgrade and, like, a stress that comes along

with carrying a bunch of cash on hand. There is an interesting twist to that, though, because unlike a Soulslike, you're not sent back to, like, a save point or, like, the equivalent of a bonfire. No, yeah, it's just a clean restart. You can restart right from the screen that you're on, but again, you're taking that punishment and there are upgrades that diminish the punishment.

It's a good point though, Russ, because I think that games like this have struggled with ways to, when you have this limited health bar, whatever, ways to make death feel meaningful and not just a reset or an annoyance. And I think that this system of like dinging you a little bit,

it makes it so that you don't lose any progress really. You're like right back in it. But there is a little bit of frustration with like, ah, I should be more careful than that. Yeah, because the upgrades are genuinely really meaningful. Like you are, I died a lot in this game, especially. It's yeah, yeah. You'll find some arena battles,

and it's like, oh, there's great rewards. You can earn badges, which are basically like, how they work in Paper Mario or whatever. You find them and they give you these benefits, but you only have so many slots to equip with the badges, but you can increase that with upgrades too. All that stuff is so meaningful, and so tracking them down and doing these super tough

puzzles or arena battles, you're gonna get your ass kicked. And so, I don't know, I wasn't expecting that from my first few moments with the game because it seemed pretty like, oh, it's like a cute Game Boy Advance thing, but there's genuinely a lot going on in here. You can also get in trouble if you're playing it

like you would another game that looks like this. Like if you're trying to force it into, I'm just gonna whack this guy with my yo-yo until he dies. And then I did that so many times, then I looked around and found like the one line that they wanted, like if I had just looked for that one angle for a second, I would have found the one attack

that would have like wiped the whole board clean in a second. Yeah, there's also a parry, because it's the year of the parry, man. Once you unlock that parry, it really starts getting good. I want to go back to that thing that you said about the nostalgia of the Game Boy Advance, Griffith. What I really admire about this game is it captures the actual feeling

of playing a great Game Boy Advance game, not just looking like it. And by that, I mean, when you have nostalgia for an Atari game, you expect kind of like a trifle, they're going to play for like a few minutes, they'll be silly. With an NES game, you have different expectations. For people who were not around when the Game Boy Advance came out, what was so incredible about that system

is it for the first time felt like real games. Yes. Like, when you played Game Boy, it was cool that you could play a game on the go. about that system is it, for the first time, felt like real games. Like, when you played Game Boy, it was cool that you could play a game on the go. They did not feel like real games, barring maybe two or three exceptions. No, they had to be- There's this grand spectrum of like Game and Watch

and Tiger handheld electronics are down here. You knew you were getting methadone, right? You knew you were just beeping on that until you could get home and play a real video. Sort of like Link's Awakening being maybe the only exception. Yeah, I mean, there's exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, like, if you want to play

Final Fantasy on the original Game Boy, you're playing like Final Fantasy Legend, which is not good. And then Game Boy Advance comes along, and it's like, oh, now you can just play, you know. And you're getting more NES ports on GBA, too, right? Exactly, yeah. Yes, but there are these moments

where you are playing a Game Boy Advance game and it just was shocking. It surprised you how much the game opened up itself. And I feel like that this game just captures that vibe. It's like you were saying also, of like, there's more there there. And if you don't go to it, like expecting to kind of get your ass kicked and really have to like commit to the game,

you'll be caught off guard. There's also a really fun tropical vibe to the game. It was made by a developer, oh, what's their name? Pocket Trap, a Brazilian indie developer. And I don't know, the game seems to have a lot of cultural influence too, and sort of like the soundtrack and the design. I used the word charming to describe it earlier.

It really is one that I was not expecting to, I don't know, put a lot of time into, but we just had two extremely long coast to coast flights and I could not put Peepa Strelow down. They have previously worked on Dodgeball Academia. Oh yeah. Ningen on Cartoon Network and HBO Max.

Cool, I also want to- Which is a cartoon, not a video game. I also want to call attention to just the narrative beats, specifically the idea that Peepa Strelow is kind of like a shitty nepo baby kid. Yeah. Yeah.

Like the whole, the game starts and you're like coming back from a yo-yo tournament where you just did like pretty poorly and your aunt is like- He's a shithead. Yeah, he's a shithead. Your aunt is very wealthy, she like runs the energy company for the entire city basically and a bunch of villains-

She's an oil baron essentially. Like she's not great either, yeah. Yeah, your whole family sucks. Right, so a bunch of villains show up and they're like, hey, you're stealing, you know, you're charging us, raking over the coals over this energy, and they like steal all our batteries and eventually, I think accidentally suck her soul

into the yo-yo, but like they kind of have a point and that's... Right, they're not wrong. They're breaking up the monopoly of Ma Bell and like breaking up into five different things. And she's like, the only thing that can save my soul is you have to rebuild the monopoly. Yeah. So it's a very clever, I think, twist.

I like it. A level of nuance you don't get in a lot of those GBA games. I honestly also at this point, I think it's really... I think if you're already gonna do this retro aesthetic, and you're gonna do... You might as well do something different with the narrative, right? Why are we having to save the world again?

You know what I mean? Just do something fun. Do something a little bit off the wall like this. I dig it. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, a wonderful little surprise, wonderful little treat. I think I'm almost done with it.

It's not like the biggest thing in the world, but. It feels like it's like eight. Great little pick up and play deal too. Eight or nine hours. Yeah, like I've played so many monster games this year that have required so much of me having this little weird bat boy, like in my rogue ally,

like, hey, wanna come throw some yo-yos at some guys? I will say, Griffin, every episode of Griffin's Monster Games on G4 this season has been better than the one before it. Oh, thank you so much, man. I'm so glad that Griffin's still playing the Monster Games for us, the fans. Yeah, when we lost our axe partnership,

I thought that that was gonna be the end for us, but yeah, no, we persevere. You've been breathing really well, though. Fresh air, it is smell great. Yeah, I do miss the stink, that good stink, though. It's important, this one isn't life changing, you know what I mean? It's not one of those where it's like, you know what,

and you know, end of the year, I don't know. This feels like the kind of thing that we'll, I don't know if we'll remember, but if you want something like really solid and amusing and pleasant and fun, this is like, it's just like all around. And it's very, I'll say like- It's a hell of a weekend game. Yeah.

A great weekend game. Like download it on a Friday, play it for the weekend, or if you have a long trip, great. And very respectful of your time. Yeah. It wants you to have fun, it doesn't wanna waste your time, it's very pleasant you to have fun. It doesn't want to waste your time. It's very pleasant.

If this game had come out in the GBA era, it would have been like nines and tens. I have no doubt. Like it just like is incredibly capable of what it's doing. And I agree with you, might not make the goaty list, but like I've had a blast playing it. Yeah. Let's take a break and then let's go visit

the man of steel in his crystal palace. D'you see that? I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. We've all seen Superman. The whole world has seen Superman. Right? I believe so, yeah. A fair number of people saw it, yes. Yeah. Why do you feel it's appropriate for us to talk about Superman on a video game podcast? I have feelings.

I think I have an answer, but I want to hear it from you. Geek shit. Geek shit, man, yeah. We just talked about a little video game back. I have no other venue! If I talk about it with my brothers on my other shows, they'll try to make me do boner jokes about it. So I have to talk about it here. What do you want? Sorry. Kevin Smith over here.

No, I don't want to do that. I want to be taken seriously as a Superman critic. Holy shit, I am Kevin Smith! I was gonna do it! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Yeah, you're thinking about it. There's been so many good ones. Wait, sorry, do you mean Henry Cavill, Superman? Because he is the original gamer. He has LEDs on his computer, there's no question. They got a different guy now. Can I start? Because I had the most tempered excitement for this film.

And we will avoid any major spoilers as part of this conversation. Yeah, we're not gonna bring up any spoilers. I genuinely, I have not watched a superhero film since I think Shang-Chi, I believe was the last one that I did watch. No, that's not true. We saw the Deadpool V Wolverine, which was fun.

But like, I don't know, man, I didn't care about DC at all. I've never really found Superman particularly enjoyable as a character. I thought Man of Steel is one of the- Why are you letting me go first? Well, because I, that's a good point. You gotta knock him down before you rise him up.

No, no, no, Griffin, knock him down and he'll rebuild him. I think what they've done here has been very fun. And I think that what they've done here is very iconic and very smart and very, I don't know, just really canny to go back to kind of like brass tacks, I think that what they've done here is very iconic and very smart and very, I don't know, just really canny to go back to kind of like brass tacks Superman as a beacon of hope

without really much complication on top of that. Like the movie is very much about how the rest of the world reacts to him as this straightforward scion of hope. And I don't know, I think that's a very, very interesting choice. And I think that it probably wouldn't have played maybe 10 years ago before the DC universe got the treatment

that it got in cinema. But this very much feels like a, I don't know, a response to that. And I really ended up liking it quite a bit. Yeah, this is always the kind of Superman movie that should be made. I don't agree with, I wanna reject the idea

that Zack Snyder's Superman was the Superman for that time, and this is the Superman we need now. The Zack Snyder Superman was a fundamental misunderstanding of the character, period, the end, writ large. History has proven that to be true and culture will agree with me throughout the millennia. I said it then, and history has proven me right. This is the super... There are comic books that are authentic

to what Zack Snyder was trying to do with that. No, no, I mean... Yeah, but that doesn't... I don't think those movies were good, but... No, no, no, dude, no, no, no, no, no, no. The long-term plan for Zack Snyder was that, like, Superman was, or no, Batman was going to have sex with Lois Lane, and then Superman was gonna turn evil and, like, kill the world.

He did turn evil. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah, it was not good. I think we can all agree with that. But I'm not saying good or bad movie. It doesn't like whatever. It's just that's not who the character is. And people who defended it were people who never liked Superman and then they like Superman because they got Superman wrong. That's fine too.

Fricking great, man. I think that the good for you. I'm glad you got some movies you like. This is a movie that recognizes what Superman is about and then asks a lot of interesting questions about it, about what Superman is and who Superman is and why he does what he does. And then most importantly,

comes up with a lot of interesting answers and has the strength of its convictions to say like, this is sort of what we're thinking. And by doing that, by like being willing to throw away like the convention or the things that have to be in a Superman movie or have to be in a Superman movie or have to be part of a Superman story or have to be part of a superhero movie, I think,

or over like that have to fit into that template or, you know, cast aside. And I think that that's what, that's actually where I would say it's closer to Deadpool versus Wolverine in a sense, weirdly, because that movie was specific to those characters. Like, that was specifically that kind of the movie for them, and it wasn't in the typical formula. And this is a movie for Superman. Like, this is a movie to explore what he means,

and not a franchise starting, you know, superhero movie, even though it obviously is pulling double duty. This, I think the thing that stood out to me most is just the overall tone of this movie from all the other characters delivering performances in this movie is blase. And I actually say that in a good way. There is like an accepting, just like,

well, that's how it is aspect to this universe that James Gunn is presenting that feels like it allows me to not only buy that Superman exists in this world, but also that he's like, people sort of like sometimes like shrug at him and you, oh, he's being ridiculous. And it all kind of works because everyone is just like. That pre credits.

There's a scene where a conversation is happening that could be happening anywhere, it could be happening in a windowless room, and instead outside the window, a giant galaxy tearing monster is being fought by other superheroes. It's a Tuesday. Nobody is... For them.

It's a Tuesday. Yeah. Exactly. There's a really smart, like the first credit, like not credit, but like the first text scroll on the screen, and not exactly this, but it's some equivalent of 3,000 years ago there were gods, 300 years ago there were the first superheroes, 30 years ago Superman came to Earth, 3 years ago he came out as Superman, 3 hours ago he started this fight, 3 minutes ago he just lost the first fight

of his life. And it's so smart because it's like, okay, we're resetting everything. This is it. This is where we're at right now, okay? And it looks exactly like, it doesn't look exactly like, but it reminds me of the scrawls that you find in the beginning of issues of comics that aren't the first one.

You know, cause you'll get like a page of setup. It's like, okay, here's kind of where we're at. Now back to the story. And that's what this feels like. It feels like we're joining it like, as it's already started, because you don't have to introduce who Superman is. Harkin-Lois are already together.

Like you're, it's in media res. And that immediately engages you. And also it solves the problem of like, Superman's boring because he wins all the time. He loses a lot in this movie. And not because, you know, they fall on the, like, usual kryptonite sword.

Like, he's kind of just, like, much more, I think, vulnerable. And literally, I mean, vulnerable in this movie than he is in other presentations. Because that's more interesting. You want to think that he might lose. BOWEN What I think works best, both of what you, Fresh and Hoops, are saying, is it feels like a

story of the week. Like this does not feel like the most important Lex Luthor story to ever be told. It feels small. It feels like a Lex Luthor story. There will be more of them. And the way that all the like, I saw some complaints about the many, many extended universe characters who show up in this movie and have people like, hey, I liked it, but like, I'm just so annoyed that it's going to be setting up more stuff. And it feels like that's just not the case. And I hope that that's not the case.

It feels more like if you, I mean, again, if you read the comics, this is how it just works in the comics. It's closer to The Simpsons, actually, where characters are always just drifting in and out, and maybe you get an episode where they're important, but for the most part, they're just there because they're the right person for that moment. What you're talking about is actually,

I think, a huge part of the reason that Marvel ran out of steam, because the fun, once you gave us the fun of seeing 20 superheroes interacting in one movie, it is so hard to go back to just one guy running around, who cares? An Ant-Man super small, like how can he compete? It feels that way, like you're missing a lot of those. I thought we were gonna go more in that direction

when you had like, Civil War was a good example of this, where like it was a Captain America movie in title, but it was doing a lot more, but that's so hard to communicate. I can't imagine, like unless we're bought in for every movie. When the stakes are just too high, right? Like that's the other thing with Marvel. I don't think I consciously realized that

one of the reasons I enjoyed the movie so much is because it wasn't trying to splinter off all of these different, like the idea of there being a full feature length film about Nathan Fillion's Hal Jordan is so unthinkable. He's Guy Gardner actually. Guy Gardner, sorry, yes. Is so, like, seems so beyond the realm of

Possibility now that said well, we're gonna get a mr. Terrific show a mr. Terrific show does feel it definitely Well, and and Carrie I also want to call attention to the performance of Nicholas Holt who plays Lex Luthor Because in every memory that I have of any Lex Luthor, and this is probably not... I haven't read a ton of Superman comics, but in the movies that I've seen, where he has been featured, I've always seen him as, like, a force of greed. Like, he wants a shitload of money. Like, Gene Hackman, the whole plot of,

I believe Superman 1, was a real estate plot to, like, get more money by... It's basically Chinatown. Yeah. His motivation in this movie has nothing to do with money, has nothing to do with power. It is purely a ego, like, envy, Superman fucking sucks.

And I kind of love that. The simplicity of that. That's who Lex Luthor is. Like, that is... That's speaking right to the soul of the guy. Yeah. That's who Lex Luthor is. Like that's speaking right to the soul of the guy. That's what makes him compelling. Nicholas Hold does a speech towards the end of this that I think like about envy, that I think speaks to Lex Luthor so elegantly. It's like fucking great.

It's like outstanding. I also wanna shout out Rachel Brosnahan. I think it's the best Lois Lane that I've ever seen in a live action Superman thing. I don't know that she's a good reporter, but that's not a knock on her performance. I think she makes best. Oh, wait, wait.

Let's talk about the journalism in this movie, because it's wild. Yes. It's very cool. It's really bad. Well, okay, so it's really bad and it's really good, and it's very critical of it while not always understanding it.

So the problem is Superman, as Clark Kent, interviews himself. And Lois Lane is rightly like, that seems like a bad. But then Lois Lane interviews Superman slash Clark Kent, who she's in a relationship with, which is also bad. They also publish information without ever like vetting it or like asking for comment, which is weird. The thing that I did like though in this movie, and I think it's like almost the point of the movie, is it's really easy to let a system trap you and to prevent progress. And by that, I mean, like, there are conversations throughout the movie where Superman's like, I want to do good, and Lois Aims like, yes, but did you go through all of the right steps? Did you go through the government? Did you do all this? And what we see is Lex Luthor in the movie use that like process to grind down Superman. Like

that he is literally using the apparatus of the government in the media to like punish him, which doesn't feel so different than when you will open the New York Times and see something that is clearly like it's the classic Trumpy thing of like people are saying and then suddenly it's like a news cycle. I don't know. I just found the journalism in this movie really weird and really interesting. Also, they publish a story in the climax of the movie and you get to see the CMS and I just, I live for that. It's basically not since Shattered Glass has a CMS had so much attention on screen.

So it's great. Yeah. One thing is, can we lose the dog? We can't. We absolutely couldn't. Wow. There's a lot of dog stuff, but it's good. It's a little too much dog stuff for me.

It feels a little thirsty. Are you saying it's like your dish came with too much salt and pepper on it, like it was came with too much salt and pepper? On it like it was a little too much of the spice I'm just saying they probably text dog name registry saw a lot of cryptos in there and thought maybe we could pick up a few Millie at the box office if we slip the dog in a few more scenes, they're gonna love this dog The test the test Dogs are gonna get adopted though over the next few months

They're gonna have cryptos at, and I am not, I am completely vulnerable to that. Crypto is also the only character outside of a very brief cameo that I won't spoil, that is setting up a future movie that is coming out next year. Like, guaranteed, crypto is gonna be featured in whatever the next movie is

Is this the best PR for crypto like just the word crypto in a long time? It is with a K I like dig about the crypto stuff, which I Joke about what I'd like about it is that it feels like a non It feels like a personality choice it feels like a personality choice rather than an authoritative choice. It feels like the decision to say like,

with this Superman, which is how Superman has been in the comics the whole time, right? With this Superman, we're trying something different. This take on Superman does this. I feel like this is a movie that has the courage to kind of say, this isn't every Superman ever. This isn't the definitive cinematic Superman, this is this Superman.

This year of 2025. And honestly, that's the answer for all Supermans in a way, he's gone through so many transformations since 1930 that if you were to say, point at this definitive Superman, some people would say Christopher Reeve, definitive Superman, some people would say, I don't know, fucking Lewis and Clark, Superman.

There are so many approaches to it. But they're trying to, like, if you look at Superman Returns, that was not a movie about establishing a take on Superman. That was a movie about trying to recapture the take that Richard Donner had. That's true. That is, yes. So it's like not, you don't have the personality.

It's a fake, it's an imitation. I think it also immediately says there's a certain degree of silliness and lightheartedness when the dog is the first thing you see. Crypto fucking him up at the beginning of the movie, after he's been beat up and he's in the snow. This happens in the first 30 seconds of the movie. Crypto runs up, you think Crypto's going to save him, and Crypto fucks him up real good.

And Crypto being a bad dog, literally they say multiple times, he's a bad dog, he's, they say multiple times he's a bad dog. He's like a troublesome. It's a good. It's great. It's like so smart. It's really funny. And such an adjustment of what you expect.

Not only from Superman dog, but also from any dog in any movie ever is usually like a pretty fucking good dog. Like there's not a lot of asshole dogs in movies. Cujo maybe. So nice. Yeah, but the thing is with all these choices that it's making and the personality and stuff, what's important is that it gets at,

it uses that original perspective and that original insight to get at the central question with Superman and the central thing of his character, which is always about helping people and being a symbol and doing good. Those fundamentals of who the character is, those are still there, those are unchanged. And I think that's really why it works so well.

Do you feel like we're going to be getting more of this type of like DCU for the foreseeable future? Or do you think that they'll commit to the, hey, we got this, and then we have Robert Pattinson as Batman and a totally different thing. And then we, maybe we have another Batman that silver age Batman, cause that was always like the promise of James gun, but you know, the promise is easy to make when you don't have the most successful movie in the world. And then suddenly people are like, I want a million of these.

I do not know how the fuck. First of all, I think James Gunn walks if they start forcing him to do things he doesn't wanna do. I don't think there's no incentive keeping him there if they like really pull the thread on him. Secondly, I don't think there's any way to meld Robert Pattinson, Batman with this movie. I think they would need to be separate.

I think it could be five to seven years before like Batman gets injected to this world because it is so vastly different. And honestly, I'd be cool with them never getting injected into one another because there's such different properties. That's fine with me. But I do think that anything that involves the super family, if you will,

and they've already announced the Supergirl movie, has to be at least in the ballpark of this tone. Maybe, I don't know, right? Because it's like, you see some things that come back around to where the tone makes sense again, right? Like you have, I mean, Deadpool and Wolverine is a good example where the Wolverine of some

of those movies, who was also Hugh Jackman, would not make sense. The two movies wouldn't make sense smushed together. But if you take the character, you might be able to make something happen with just the, it's about taking the character out of the world and putting him in the other world, right? Like you have to commit to one of the tones,

smashing up the movies wouldn't make sense. But I think you could put one of those characters into the other movie. I was gonna say, they also did that with Thor. Yeah. Where they changed tones dramatically from one movie to the next. We will find out how weird it's gonna get very quickly

because no more DC movies this year. Next year, Supergirl comes out in June. In September, Clayface, the movie, written by Mike Flanagan, of all people. in September, Clayface, the movie, written by Mike Flanagan, of all people. Fuck yeah, man, actually, yeah, actually. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, actually. The writer of Haunting of Hill House,

Haunting of Blind Manor, Midnight Mass. I am very curious about what that means. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of standalone stuff to me. There's also another Batman movie Well, that's what I'm saying. So maybe that's the solution Yeah, maybe is just have it go as long as you can standalone Don't stress about building up to a fucking Justice League movie Just make very very good movies and so people really care about DC again, which they as part of it, you know, I

Don't know. I feel like this impulse is part of the problem, right? Like the impulse to say, okay, now I really like this one. Give me fun. Like I feel like it's part of the issue, right? Which hopefully they've learned the lesson, right? Hopefully they just do the movies that people wanna do, that people are interested in doing. Like Matt Reed is Batman.

I feel like history will be very. Like Matt Reed is Batman. I feel like history will be very good to Matt Reed as Batman. I feel like the first time I watched it, I thought, this is kind of boring and a lot of it. But I think when you go back to it, it's like, he really likes Batman a lot and he really has a very specific idea about Batman that is kind of funky.

Like I kind of dig it, Matt. He seems like he really wants to make the next Batman movie He just wants to like take time to do it. Turned in. Big news in LA town. I prefer he take a long time with it. That's good. Cut some parts out of it this time Matt. I think I'd be much more excited for another Matt Reeves Batman movie if I hadn't got that Joker stinger Which really made me worry about anything after that. Now listen, if you could give me,

what about Matt Reeves' Batman Mr. Terrific? That would be a hell of a film. Watch that. What if we had Joaquin Phoenix Joker and Jared Leto Joker in the same movie? Just do it. Just do it. Sorry, can we do one more Superman thing

and then we'll wrap. The Mr. Terrific fight sequence. I wrote a Superman rap is what Clint is referring to. The man of steel really makes me feel like, sorry. Yeah. Mr. Terrific fight sequence is amazing and the best use of the Guardians of the Galaxy type of thing.

It is the only needle drop in the film that did not annoy me. It was Griffin's first note out of Superman. We walk out of it into the beautiful California sunshine, so happy for this film, and Griffin was like, could have done without all the needle drops, James. Like, okay, Griffin. I mean, that's his deal, and I get it,

but it does feel like you've just gotten your uncle's car and he's plugged it in the aux cable. It's so good. Somebody mentioned that it looked a little bit like a theater staging where the actors, the villains are like kind of like, they're almost dancing in their way that they're getting thrown across. But I love that.

I love that style. There's like, there's a lightness to the whole movie that just feels like a throwback that, I don't know, I feel like safe watching it, I feel good. Yeah. Oh, okay, very tiny thing. Little thing to that point. When we're with the Justice Gang,

hilarious thing, Justice Gang, Guy Gardner says at one point, what I'd really like to do is hit you all with a giant hammer when he's frustrated. And there is such a canny cut to Hawkgirl smiling at Guy being Guy that shows that he is like, that is like defusing the situation. But it's like, it's really smart, cause it's like, wait, how does Hawkgirl,

okay, she's fine with it. Like this isn't a bad situation for her. And it's totally, it's really smart, because it's like, wait, how does Hawke girl, okay, she's fine with it. Like this isn't a bad situation for her. And it's a half a second, but you do cut to her, she's good, back to the, like, that's a really smart filmmaker. That's somebody who's like thinking about, how do these characters live in this era? Because in the 1990s, no one is getting a cutaway

after Guy Gardner. Guy Gardner is probably the hero of the whole thing is played by Dolph Lundgren, right? Like... Um, hey, anybody been watching or playing anything else? Oh, man. Video games. Uh, what have y'all been playing? Did you play anything on the, on the, while traveling?

Uh, I played a bunch more Monster Train 2. Um, I don't really have a ton to add. I've been unlocking more of the different clans and the way that you combine them to make different decks really does make the runs feel pretty dramatically different in a way that I am finding very compelling. It hasn't quite got its hooks in me as deeply as a Slay This Buyer, but I don't know.

I feel like I will play a run with two of these clans in it, and then I'll have this idea of like, wait a minute, if you use the Pyreborn clan with the one that buffs the magic, then I bet you could get into some pretty nasty shit, and I don't know, I've been theory crafting that game in my off time, which has been very integral. I also finished Murderbot,

and I think they did a great job with that. I think the last episode is really strong and really sells Skarsgård as the titular Murderbot. That's another good example of tone and like really diverging from like what you view as like a quote, sci-fi tone in a very interesting way. I thought they did a great job. I have been playing a game called Maze Mice, which I'll probably talk a little bit more on rescues, but I'm dropping here so people know to check this out.

Hoops, I think this is definitely yours. Maze Mice. Maze Mice is a vampire survivors like meets Pac-Man. So you are in a Pac-Man map, and you have enemies across the beach. Are you killing the mice, or are you one of the mice? You are the mice, and you're being chased by cats. And they are following you, following you, following you,

and they follow your path exactly. So in a way, it also kinda has that snake vibe, where they become your tail. Oh, you know what, that's also kinda like Deep Rock Galactic Survivors, right? Kind of. Where you're setting up, is it like traps and stuff that you're trying to lure them into?

Yeah. Yes, but instead of it being a big free-for-all map like Deep Rock, it is Pac-Man stages. And to get your upgrades, you are collecting pellets that reset after you've collected them. So you collect a line of pellets and then they'll appear somewhere else in the map Do you have to find a way to get to without you know running into your own tale of monsters? It is gonna say I didn't realize it's the same is it the same developers luck be a landlord Is it trampoline tails looks like it maybe oh? Yeah, it is

but Yes, a really cool thing that it does is you you move the enemies move the like kind of classic rogue system so when you watch trailers of it it looks like it's moving fast like Pac-Man but the reality is down to the frame you are choosing to move. So if you want to make a sharp corner and you're really worried about nailing it, you can down to the frame move without the enemies like swarming on you. Or you can stop at a intersection and decide which way you want to go without having to just like constantly be zipping all over the map. I like that.

And inadvertently, you know, creating a situation where you run into your own tail. It is, it's really neat. Seven bucks right now, folks. Get out there and grab it. What a steal. It's a deal. 741 with the axe, come on. Hoops, how about you?

Anything else you've been enjoying? Yeah, I played a lot of Tron Catalyst, the new Tron thing from Bithel Games. Um, I, uh, the last one was a lot talkier. This is more action, but here's the thing. Or the last. The last Tron thing that Bithel did was more Tron. Uh, what was it called?

I'm like a visual novel almost. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, help me with the title of something. It was Tron Identity? Yes, Tron Identity. So this, yes, so Tron, this is, yeah, that was more of a visual novel. This is a new one that is much more action oriented.

The combat is probably closest to like a Hades, something like that, from that isometric point of view, where you are like throwing your disc and using your disc to attack enemies. There is also, it's all presented in like an open world where you are able to take out your light cycle and like travel around the world at any time independently. If you know Tron, you're a computer program, and this is a story like that where at the beginning of your computer program that is delivering, you're like a delivery program. And in the middle of your delivery, this delivery that you're carrying explodes and creates a glitch. And the glitch is represented through a time loop. So you're living through the same time loop to try to solve. And when you wake up, you're told by first person, like, Hey, we don't know who did this. We don't know what was in there, but because of this glitch, you were able to live certain chunks of your time over and over and over again.

So basically you're able to repeat time to try to solve your own murder, to see who caused the glitch, who blew it up. And you can use this ability to reset time where like, you'll get a code in your identity of this for a door, right? And then the next time you do the loop, you've already got that code. So you don't have to meet the guy that you got the code from.

Huh? You play that game Minute, where you had one minute. So yeah, Minute is a really good example. Narratively, it's a lot like Minute, except it's not always the same beginning, right? You'll eventually get through a chunk, and then you'll move on to the next sort of chunk. And then you'll start doing that chunk over and over again. So unlike like a death loop where it's always the same day or always the same time,

once you sort of like piece together how a loop is supposed to go or like your ideal thing, you'll move into the next segment and the next loop. And it'll sort of like flow into the next chunk. But like a lot of times, like for example, your progress will get blocked because you'll trigger an alarm. So you'll restart the time chunk to try to do it, you know, quicker or differently or whatever.

Not a lot, it's not usually like specific timing based. It's not that death loop thing of like in 30 seconds, this person's gonna be there. So make sure you're ready. It's not that complex. It's a little more fun and open-ended than that. But it's really well written, looks cool. I love the Tron.

I've always loved the Tron aesthetic and all that stuff. So if you like Tron and you like being in that world with something that's a little bit more like tactile, this is a really cool way of doing it. It's neat. I feel like Tron. Real quick. I also played Maroi What is that? If you guys want to do something really weird go to steam

get Maroi Moroi It is you guys send a code so you can't get mad at me It's the strangest damn thing that I have downloaded. It is so weird. It is like a dark fantasy Surrealist action game Where you wake up without a memory, but the entire thing looks like a gothic, like, nightmare, sort of, and the whole thing is surreal.

You, like, meet the moon, and the moon is mad at you for taking all of its energy, and you meet, like, these, the, there's, it's extremely violent. So when you wander around the world and attack guys, you basically turn them into, like, guts and blood everywhere, and your character doesn't know why any of it is happening. The whole thing is like so surreal.

Watch like a trailer of it. And if you like this aesthetic, I don't even, I'm struggling to like compare it to anything just because it feels so weird. My touchstones for stuff like this is often things like, like those weird ace team games. It feels like that sort of like surreal a little bit, not Dark Souls with like that edge.

It's a little bit more like funny French surreal, you know, that kind of like European surreal. I don't know. Sure. It's really, it's very strange, but I kind of dig it. Like it's, I don't know, it's it's very strange, but I kind of dig it like it's I don't know. It's worth it's it's worth trying It's so like in the opening moments of the game you have to Find a corpse to feed to a machine that loves to eat people and the machine is so happy

that he grinds the bones of the corpse into a dust and you give the dust to a woman who makes a potion and Then that potion lets you create a sword in a nightmare and you use the sword a Duck gives you its teeth and the teeth give your sword an extra edge So dark souls and you can use that to you. This sounds normal. It sounds like I'm saying fucking Give it a whirl give it a. Sounds interesting. Don't say it You know what go to steam look at the reviews. It's mixed. We love to see it mixed. Yeah, please It's been a while since Justin had a little broken puppy to take care of. Oh this one's broke as fuck. It's good Real quick I've been playing it looks like if the Neverhood was made by somebody it ain't absolute dipshit

Real quick. I've been playing Tears of the Kingdom 2 on Switch. I have a bunch of stuff that I haven't done in that game despite spending, I don't know, like 150 hours the first time I played it. Tears of the Kingdom 2? No. It's just Tears of the Kingdom. I don't know why I said Tears of the Kingdom.

Did I say, I mean, well, I'm playing it on Switch 2. That's probably, I probably misspoke. Oh. But I'm finding the Koroks and I'm building the on Switch 2, that's probably, I probably misspoke. But I'm finding the Koroks and I'm building the signs for that guy. Apparently there's a hundred of those guys around and so I'm finding them and it's like a great, oh I have five minutes, I can build a sign

or oh I have five minutes, I'm gonna ship this Korok. I would play a game that's just making signs for that guy. So much fucking fun. And the bummer of the original game, and honestly I still think this is a bummer, is like there's no real way to find all those guys without being a total psychopath. Like you would have to draw a grid or whatever,

use an online like screenshot. And now with Switch 2, if you get the upgrade, you can use the app and it like guides you to the different guys that you're missing. Which isn't as, I don't wanna be using an app, I wish it was in the game, but. Do you, do you, do you ever have to be using an app, I wish it was in the game, but I like it. Do you ever have moments where you're like,

listen to me, you know what I mean? Like my dad was in the war, you know? All of our dads were in the war, you know? Think about that guys, all of our dads were in the war and we're like, the Nintendo Switch 2 app will let you find all the guys. Finally, you can realistically find all the guys. But that's what they fought, that's what they were fighting. That's what they were fighting for? which two app will let you find all the guys. Finally, you can realistically find all the guys.

That's what they were fighting. That's what they were fighting for? Yeah, well good news, our children will also be in the war. So it all comes back around. Yeah, but then their kids, they'll be fine. Zelda 3, they're gonna be stoked for that one. Okay, I think we did it. I want to thank some-

World War 4 will be fought with Splatoon. ... Go over to Patreon.com to watch the besties. We've got some great ass content over there. The rest of these episodes, we've got new bracket up... Wait, sorry, not great ass content. I mean... No, there's some stuff.

We haven't done that ranking yet, but maybe. We haven't covered Butt Night yet, but we'll do that. Thank you to some new members. We have Nathan covered Butt Night yet, but we'll do that. Thank you to some new members. We have Nathaniel, we have Jason, we have Robert, and we have Julie J. Thank you for being members. Next week, we are playing big one, Donkey Kong Bonanza. Hell yeah. He's here. He's back.

Here we go. Exciting. That's gonna do it for us on this week's episode of the Besties. Be sure to join us again next week for the Besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties!