The Ringer-Verse - 'A Minecraft Movie' and 'South of Midnight' Reactions | Button Mash

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Ben brings on Steve Ahlman and Jomi Adeniran to break down the box office phenomenon that is 'A Minecraft Movie': the memes, the theatrical experience, and, yes, the movie itself. Then, after Ben and Jomi rant about being betrayed by the Season 4 finale of 'Mythic Quest' (36:57), Van Lathan and Jessica Clemons come on to discuss the new Deep South–set Xbox adventure 'South of Midnight' (45:47). Finally, Matt James joins to rave about (but not spoil!) the new best-reviewed game of 2025: indie darling 'Blue Prince' (1:18:00). Host: Ben Lindbergh Guests: Steve Ahlman, Jomi Adeniran, Jessica Clemons, Van Lathan, and Matt James Producer: Devon Renaldo Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Folks, it's Jay Kyle Mann from The Ringer, and as always, basketball is so freaking, freaking good. It's so good, in fact, that the Ringer's NBA draft show is finally back just in time for a ramp up to June. We've got you covered every week as we take an in-depth look at who's got next for the NBA's future. We'll talk the rising and falling stocks of the best and the brightest prospects in the 2025 NBA draft class. From Cooper Flag to Dylan Harper, the VJ Edgecom, and more. Tap in with me on the Ringer NBA draft show every Wednesday and make sure that you follow, subscribe, and hit us with those five-star ratings. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start.

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Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need of a virus. vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramfaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfair Radio.com. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business and even this podcast. That's why I trust Spectrum Business. It keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. And welcome into the ringerverse, your nexus feed for all things fandom. I am Belmontberg

senior editor at The Ringer and your host here at ButtMash. I am joined for the first part of this podcast by two good friends, two familiar voices. You know well. from Midd Edition and from Midnight Boys, QQU. One is named Steve. He is Steve. I could quote lots of other quotes about Steve from a Minecraft movie, but it's too easy. He's Steve Alman. He's here.

Hello, Steve. I'm good. I'm less so on the top 10 steves than this Steve in Minecraft, but I'm working my way up. Also with us is Jomi, Chicken Jomi, Adoneron. Hello, Jomi. You know, depending on who's really, on who's really. riding him at work that day. It's basically Jomey's boss is the chicken

Jomey. Chicken Jomey is crazy. If this was the Midnight Boys, we'd have a whole what do you call a section. Thank you for sparing us from not having Van hear that. We'd be like, whoa, whoa, chicken Jomey. Whatever Jomey's on the pods, you got to throw popcorn at the screen while you're listening to Buttmash. That's just how it works.

This is a full episode. We got a full house here. We will soon have Van Lathen and Jessica Clemens be joining us to talk about a new game that we've been playing lately. It's called South of Midnight. It's for Xbox. And I will talk to them about that.

Followed by Matt James, just checking in to talk about a new game called Blueprints, which is the top reviewed game of 2025 and also Matt's game of the year thus far. So I just want to get a little recommendation for that in. But first, we have to talk about the cinematic event of the year, evident. the number one movie in America, if not the world, is a Minecraft movie. It is a video game adaptation saving the box office once again. All the movie people look into us, looking to the video games, looking to our hot IP to save cinema. A Minecraft movie made $300 million this past weekend.

Few of those dollars were ours. We didn't go to screening. We just paid like regular Joe's. And the totals just keep climbing. And this exceeded all expectations. I think the most optimistic forecast for this were like half of what it actually made. So even the people who were thinking, oh, it's Minecraft, kids are going to see this. It's the best-selling game of all time.

Even they underestimated the power of a Minecraft movie or Jack Black or some combination of the above. So we've seen this movie. We'll talk about why it is a cinematic sensation. We'll talk about whether the movie is actually good, which is almost a separate conversation. What was your high-level take? So give me your snap judgments. Jome, you want to give me your thoughts first?

You talked about other things that we overlooked, and I think the biggest thing that we overlooked, was just the memes rule everything. The memes are what brought the kids to the theaters. The memes are going to take us forward. And so studios, if you're listening, if you can hear us, if you want to make a billion dollars to the box office, you got to do it with memes. And it worked with minions.

It's working with Minecraft, guys. Remember when they brought Mobius back to theaters? Because of Mormon time? Yeah, that worked out so well. It was super lucrative. No, you joke, but this is on track to make a billion dollars because of memes. Unlike Morpius.

Yeah. Unlike Morbius. I genuinely think, because Big Pick called this the most important movie of the year, and I would agree with them actually so far because this is actually, Jomey was on the Big Pick recently, talking about the most important movie to Jen Ziers.

And if you were to even glance at TikTok, if you were to even be in a movie theater while watching Minecraft, regardless of how you feel about it, it's true that this has captured Generation Y and pretty much anybody, like I want to say 12 and younger to a degree that it's irrelevant

whether or not we understand it because we have to sit in reference of it. You don't have to understand it. You just have to know that this is happening. It is. But it's as if because you said that Gen Z's most important movie was Shrek. And that also is endearing because of its memes and meme value in the long haul. But imagine if they imagine if Shrek only was memes

and then they made a movie about it. That's Minecraft. Well, because no, like Shrek came. out and then we made memes. Minecraft hadn't even come out yet. And it was like flit and shield, the nether, the whole thing. It's just a cascading effect of

this is nuts. This is funny. We're going to just go and ham it up and go into the theater and have a good time. And yeah, now there's going to be Minecraft movies for the rest of our lives now, guys. Right. I hope you know. By the way, this movie's terrible. That was my thoughts

on the movie. I don't know if that was the question. Was that the question? I don't know. I thought we're going to wait to get to that. But yeah, the movie sticks. Yeah, it's bad. It's really, really bad. But that's beside the point. That's just almost irrelevant, it feels like. But yeah, I mean, it is very memeified.

It's very, I mean, I should have started with first we pod, then we cast. Then we cast. That's podcast. Yeah. Right. It's just, it's Jack Black yelling. It's things you remember from Minecraft maybe. And you put them all on the screen and Jason Momoa is there.

And some stuff happens. No, no. You're absolutely correct. Then the movie ends. Jason Momoa is there. Oh, yeah. He's there. That's it.

In every sense. There's a great game that I like to play with whenever there's a Jason Momoa movie that I see where I was like, did Jason Momoa go to wardrobe or is he wearing the shit that he had on that day? And I would like to think that he went to wardrobe for this. I think he had to go to wardrobe for Aquaman. He did not go to wardrobe for Fast and Furious. But I think that he did go to wardrobe for this. Yeah. So I'll tell you how I saw this movie.

I saw this on Monday at 3 p.m. And I thought to myself, this is how I will avoid the madness. I'll just go, the kids are in school. I'll just, and so I walked in. I walked in. And the theater, when I walked in, I was the only person in this theater. Like big theater, big screen, not a single other person there. And I thought, oh, yes, this is how Minecraft is meant to be seen.

No way to be so proud. Pristine, just silence so I can appreciate the brilliant dialogue. and all the emotions and, you know, no one will be distracting me. And then I guess all the kids maybe got out of school at the same time, like right before the screening or something. So wait, was this during Maria Meninos was on the screen or this like just when I got there. But yeah, they were filing in just like after the previews had started. And so my plan to thwart the rush was foiled. And yet I ultimately ended up being happy about that.

Because if you're going to see a Minecraft movie, now, of course, we're. seeing it to some extent for content. But the authentic Minecraft movie experience is not you sitting by yourself watching this movie. And so when, look, I had a bunch of like teens behind me and then there were also very young kids, like maybe my daughter's age or like not much older than that, kids who maybe this was their first movie and didn't know theater etiquette. Now, lots of grownups don't know theater etiquette too. That's a whole other conversation. But The point is this is like multi-generation and very, very loud. And so the part of me that normally would be like looking around, I'm not a shusher.

I'm not going to shush people, but I might send a pointed glance someone's way. And so the part of me that normally would do that with the movie at first was like, I can't even hear like what was that line? Like these people are just talking as if they're at home or something. And then I thought, no, it is it is not the children who are wrong. It is me. In his eye who are... Yes.

This is the way that a Minecraft movie is meant to be experienced. This is the way I want to experience it, barely hearing it, barely following it, but just being immersed

in the enthusiasm of kids who are seeing a Minecraft movie. That's the energy that I wanted here, and that's what I got. I had the same thought process that you did where I was like, I'm seeing it Friday at 2 p.m.

Yeah, yeah. Kids are in school. There's no way. where they're going to be there. I mean, empty theater is great. I put my tickets on AMC Stubbs, boom. It's looking kind of empty. Bet.

Show to the theater. Packed out. Yeah. Packed out. The schools really are closed. The schools really are not open wherever. Open the schools. Close them for a Minecraft movie.

Yeah. And so the movie starts and Jack Black opens his mouth. And it's like, flitting steel. Woo! Walk and applause. I had to go to another. I'm like, okay, that's funny. This is a good bit.

You know me. I love a good bit. At some point, every single time Jack Black opened his mouth, every single time. You thought Cap caught the hammer again. Dude, it was literally end game for Gen Y. I'm not even joking. Yeah. They went crazy every single time.

something to happen. Yeah, I was inclined to agree with Ben about theater etiquette. And I'm like, are we cooked? Are the kids going to be the problem for the rest of this generation? And then I'm like, you know what? If I find myself shushing people during the Minecraft movie, I am the problem. Yes, right. First of all, you don't have to hear it for one thing.

Chicken jockey. Yeah, let the kids have their fun. Now, the thing about this is that it should have multi-generational appeal because Minecraft, like, yeah, it's for the kids, but it's also for us. I mean, this is a 15-year-old game, right? And I know that it was different then than it is now. And it's become more of a sensation,

and it's accessible in a way that it wasn't. And so my experience of Minecraft is different from if you're, you know, my younger cousin now who will never shut up about Minecraft whenever I see him, right? But it is, in theory, something that at least you're aware of, like you could have kids and also have grown up playing Minecraft at this point. it's been around that long. So, like, you could take kids to see the Minecraft movie and also maybe you played the Minecraft when you were, you know, not old.

Yeah. So there's a little bit of, like, cross-generation appeal here just because this game is such an institution at this point. Again, I would have agreed with you, but then I keep thinking about how impenetrable this movie is to me culturally as a gamer who had probably spent maybe, I think, a grand total of 20 minutes in Minecraft entirely. Like I do not play it. I do not watch people play it,

but I know that children play it, and I know that children watch it, and I know that children are consumed by this. This is their immersion into popular culture, kind of for the first time, because this is their gateway into the internet and a level of humor that not only is compressed in a way that they consume that we can't possibly understand

as like millennials and Cusper's millennial, millennials as we have Jomi here. But I think this is where I need to give the movie the utmost credit and actually respect, genuine respect, in knowing exactly what its cultural cachet is and knowing exactly how to deploy it for its audience. It does not matter to us whether or not we can enjoy, relate to, or even like this movie, because if you were to look on TikTok, you'd have thought that this is. is Barbenheimer too.

Mm-hmm. You have kids dressing up. You have, like, massive amounts of rockist, like, rocky horror picture show at midnight on Halloween level of interaction that I have to throw my hands up and actually really respect, kind of, because I don't see the, like,

the degradation of theater etiquette here. I genuinely see something that they, like, capitalized on. As much as I don't understand it, like, they got something here. I was going to bring up Rocky Horror. Yeah, it's not as if like a participatory communal experience in a movie theater is something new. If you've ever seen Rocky Horror, you've seen the room or this came up in Wicked, where people were singing and there was a whole conversation about, is it okay to sing in Wicked?

What we should have maybe is just screenings, you know, like a quiet car, basically. Mel said this at the time, right? Just like a quiet car. If you want to ride in silence, if you want to watch in silence, that's fine. if you want the more raucous experience where people are shouting out the catchphrases and throwing stuff. I mean, you know, someone's going to have to clean that up eventually. But other than that, if you want that kind of experience, then it should be build as that. It should be, that should be part of the draw.

And movies are always thinking, how can we differentiate ourselves from streaming? People have big screens at home. They have big sound systems. So what is it going to be? Is it going to be like 3D or Smelovision or something? What are we going to give them that they can't get at home? One thing you can't get at home is other people and a bunch of strangers who are yelling at stuff with you. And that can be bad, but it can also be joyous if that's what you want, if you know that's what you're getting into. So if that's the lesson that Hollywood takes from this, if we want,

oh, we want more Minecraft movies. I don't know how much IP is out there that has the broad appeal of Minecraft. But in general, that idea, as long as it doesn't spill over to every single screening of every single movie brings that energy, but I don't think it would because it wouldn't bring that audience out. No, I mean, I don't know if this, we don't, we're not making the hottest take right now, but I'm okay with kids going in theater and like, you know, having that kind of fun. Yeah. Grownups, let's let's have some decor.

We know better. And that's, I mean, this is where I go to my comment of like, mind you, this is my first impression of you, grown adult, by the way. Yeah, like, it's one thing, again, when they start clapping, they start to, in the bit. I look to my right and they can't be more than 13 years old. Hold on, Jome. Hold on, Jomey. I was

sitting next to you in a Sonics movie and we might have acted a little raucous. Once or twice. But still. We weren't singing the play. We weren't singing Define Gravity for seven minutes. I understand that, but like I think... I'm not saying like we, like

people should, you should, adults should sit there and be quiet and not do anything. No. Obviously, when Kat catches the hammer, you go, crazy. When they walk out the portals, you go crazy. When AlfaBah starts singing, don't sing along with her. That's West Wild man. Sit in silence and reverence. It's okay to clap. It's okay to have like those, again, those moments like when freaking in Return of the King, man, know what I mean? You about to know him? Dude, we go. I'm like, yeah, let's go. Let's go, Tim. But that's like one part of the, that's like one specific part of the movie. They, again,

I don't know again, I don't know about your screenings. It happened every 10 minutes. Sure. But I think the thing that we can parse because, like, again, we're about to, like, come up on the last of us. And when we, that first season hit, when we're like, oh my God, they did this nod to the game. Somebody picked up a bottle. Like, that's, that's like a subtle and, like, fine thing

that may or may not have even been intentional. But when we look at a Minecraft movie, geared towards kids, geared towards the things that are supposed to make them, like, laugh and like genuinely stimulate them for 90 minutes when that is just over like I wouldn't have put it past this movie

to genuinely show me the crafting menu and like sit in like a modding server queue for that long and people would still be down with it like if that's that blatant or obvious can that still be faithful and

respected? I kind of think it can I don't know I didn't think that I'd be carrying this much water for Minecraft, Ben. But I actually think that there's some value here. It's literally the Cliff Booth meme. You got to like point it to see something. You point it to screen. Right?

You don't have to whistle or clap or just to go, oh. And usually I'm kind of down on that often. If it's like, if the purpose of it is serving Easter eggs essentially, if it's just, it's made to convey references and it is the DiCaprio pointing meme, it's the Simpsons you know, say the line kind of thing, and that's the entire draw. I want more than that. I think previous movie adaptations of video games get themselves into trouble, where they're just like, okay, we have to do a very faithful adaptation,

or we have to get all these things in there that the game players will reference and they will recognize and they'll say, oh, there's that thing that I like. And that's all there is to it. But this is a Minecraft movie. I don't know what else there could be, really. Maybe it's a product of my low expectation. for the film, which were met, I would say. I mean, sure.

We're, what, 15 minutes in? We haven't really talked about the movie itself because it's more than a movie. There's not much to say about the movie. It's an event. It's a cinematic experience. It's a phenomenon. It's a meme, as you said, more than a movie. The movie itself is serviceable.

It's, you know, you're taking something that isn't really set up the way the Last of Us was to present a story, right? Sure, again, a very unfair comparison in bar here. No, but could you imagine Minecraft? Like, same cast. Gritty Sunday night. HBO PlayStation. But that's like, I kind of love that because I'm like,

what if Minecraft becomes the video game equivalent of scary movie? Like, what if that's that? Like, what if they just kind of make up? We've seen a test. Like, Last of Us and uncharted in Minecraft, a movie. They've tried to, I mean, look, Angry Birds is made into multiple movies, right? It's not like the source material. It's just that Minecraft is just supremely popular. And so everyone was going to be in when we, I think we talked about the trailer and we're like,

you know, people are talking about how the trailer looks bad and like, whatever. Like, everyone is going to see it. Everyone who's here's Minecraft and says, ooh, they made a Minecraft movie is going to go out and see this movie. It wasn't that hard to forecast that this would be a big hit. I mean, evidently it was because the forecasts were way low, but they should have asked us. I don't think it's a shot to us. Sure. I mean, I knew. I knew. I figured people would watch it, right? Curiosity, you know, and then the poor word of mouth would be like, all right. And then it makes, you know, $300 million dollars, we call it afternoon. But the fact that it's going to make like triple its budget, like a billion dollars and spawn just a whole new wave of how filmmakers think is unprecedented, really. Well, and I understand that we haven't really like delved into like the good or more substance. things about what a good Minecraft

plot could be or like the like Ernest because like we can money boarding quarterback it and think about like oh like I would have loved to hear like a story about how a boy learns the lesson of like the world is what you make it and it's animated and there's a beautiful little fox that may or may not die or something like that

but the bigger debate of whether of what we would like video game adaptations to be for us whether or not they're like just shlocky like cash grabs geared towards kids or legitimate Emmy, like, award-worthy HBO prestige TV shows, I think both can be valid because they're not nearly as, like, cynically made as, say, like an Uve-Bol Blood Rain adaptation where it's entirely too self-serious, very bad, and as nonsensical

as a Minecraft movie. Yeah, I mean, video games can be anything, more or less, so it makes sense that video game adaptations could span all levels of highbrow, lowbrow, middle brow, cinema. I think that makes sense. And this movie feels like they know what its audience is and they calibrated it accordingly. And obviously that decision has paid off. And you can tell, I mean, look, there are five names on this screenplay. And you can sense that, right?

I mean, there are certainly some storylines that just seem to disappear out of nowhere. and the second half of the movie gets kind of repetitive. And, you know, it's, look, again, I wasn't expecting that much because it's Minecraft, but you have your sort of basic, okay, the power of creativity and being yourself and expressing yourself and male friendship, you know? There's some good buddy comedy stuff going on with Jack Black and Jason Momoa, who both absolutely committed to these roles. They committed so hard to the 69 in the movie.

That's very, very true. No one phoned this in. No one was treating this as just a paycheck. They are absolutely embodying these characters. And Jack Black, look, he's Jack Blacking all over the place, right? And I think it makes sense that he now has this pretty lucrative sideline as a video game adaptation star. He's a living video game adaptation. He is.

Let's be real. He has the right manner, I think, to be in all these movies. And he brings the enthusiasm to it. And Momoa, as Garrett the Garbage Man Garrison, I mean, just iconic characters. character instantly. Great, great outfit, as you said. And it just kind of washed over me. And it was very much like a cotton candy movie. It just like melts in your mouth. Like I felt almost like leaving the theater. I had to jot down basic plot points because it was already leaving my brain. It was like eternal sunshining. It is really hard to like wrestle with like what did I just see?

Yeah. Like if I had to describe, if I had to do a plot synopsis of this movie, I feel like it would just evaporate as I was describing it because it's that dream that you remember then it's gone. The MoMAOA stuff is so funny because they're outside of like when he's talking about specific Minecraft stuff like the gassed at the end and things of that. Right, right.

That stuff I got. Literally everything else out of his mouth was garbage. Everything else. Gobelty cook. Like even in the Minecraft world, it's still useless. They have the scene where Henry goes into the story. and he looks at the orb for the first time,

which, by the way, it's just the Tesseract. We can just, we can call it through the Tesseract. I mean, Shoney McGuffin. But I'm like, bro, I've seen Thanos crush that with his hands. Yeah. Like, I've seen that. But he goes into the thing, and he's talking to the, he's talking to Henry. And not a word out of his mouth makes sense.

No. Is that breakfast pizza? Like, I'm like, what's going on? In fact, if we're staying on Henry, that conversation, the fuck, literally the next scene with him and Jennifer Coolidge makes no sense. She's just talking at him. Right. Well, whatever. And then the next scene after that is

with the teacher, and he's just talking sense or talking nonsense. And that doesn't make any sense. I'm like, what's happening here? All I saw was when she ran into the villager, I'm like, she's going to have a villager love interest, isn't she? In the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Yes. Well, no, they made sure to, no, they got paid for that. They got paid for that. We're not getting paid for that.

We're not getting paid for that. They got paid for that. Speaking of the coolest stuff, the Matt Berry payoff at the hilarious. Very great. Matt Barry can sell anything. I have never been so upset at a plot line before my entire life. What a waste of everybody's time. That's not true.

It was one joke where they're at the dinner. And the waitress is like, are you finished? And he's like, no, actually, he's Swedish, but we're still eating. He's Swedish, but we're still eating. That was funny. But I'm like, I'm here for the Minecraft stuff. Don't cut away from the Minecraft stuff. Even if it is dumb, even if it's like an.

salt my eyes, even if there are like things that are going on that don't make any sense. At this point, I'm here. Let's just, let's stay here. We already spent too much time in the real world. Let's get to the stuff. We can't keep cutting back to Coolidge at the dinner, brother.

That don't move me, man. I'm okay with cutting the Coolidge. I enjoyed the villager subplot because I like that he likes being there too. You know, he's, he's into her, even if he's not very vocal about it. And it did feel like at the beginning, I mean,

it was almost a different movie because you're in the real world, or it was jarring because there's like all this backstory about Jack Black and like, do I need to know all the history of this character? And then other characters aren't that well established at all. Right. It's ultimately, you don't really need to know anything, though it certainly helps to be a big fan of Minecraft. But I think it makes sense that this movie is now the biggest launch ever for a video game adaptation, even bigger than the Mario movie. And I don't know whether it'll have the legs that Mario had in theaters and then also on streaming, but I wouldn't be surprised. You know, there's going to be a big streaming audience that will watch and rewatch and rewatch this movie. I don't know

that it'll have the word of mouth, at least from adults. And the reviews are pretty middling, predictably. But it felt like the Mario movie to me in the sense that it was just kind of crafted to be inoffensive to everyone and go down easy and just be kind of a paid by numbers. like, what would a Mario movie be like? What would happen in a Mario movie? Yeah, here's what would happen. Here are the characters. Like, this is just sort of the standard Mario story.

Minecraft doesn't even really have a story, but this is essentially just like take the building blocks, so to speak, of Minecraft and jumble them all together and have Jack Black singing and shouting. And that's enough because chicken jacky. So are we going to talk about why these movies are afraid to actually like just be. Mario movies. And what I mean by that is Mario comes from like a world where the mushroom kingdom isn't really real.

Right. He has to go into the pipe. Right. Into a magical to a magical, like Alice in Wonderland level stuff. And then same for Minecraft. They have to go into the portal. Like they basically they're making Issa Khaz out of video game movies now. I mean, yes. Yeah.

Why do we have to do that? Why can't it just be a Minecraft movie? Why can't it just be It's one of two things. Because you either got to like make up an idea for people loading into this magical weird server with their buddies on Discord. Because it's because that's a thing. Minecraft's not like a thing with a story. It's just like it's a thing that you go into with your friends. Yeah, but that was made like 10 years after the fact.

But Minecraft started as just like a thing that you just basically made Legos out of. And then it was just a thing that like became this like co-opted thing that people made stories around. that Mo Yang eventually, like, co-opted into its own thing, which, again, was, like, incredibly great and successful, and I respect them for that. But to make a thing like the Mushroom Kingdom or Minecraft in general or the nether, not real, but a thing that you kind of, like, arrive at

for, like, the human world to come to, I think at least for the sake of a kid's movie, it gives you the idea that, like, this is a thing that's, like, a place that you go to. It's a bit of a meta-commentary, like you can do this in the game. You can just transport yourself to the nether and all that stuff. It's like a audience proxy sort of.

Exactly. Jumanji, you go into the game. You don't start in the game. That's cinema. All right. If this is this generation's Jumanji, it pales in comparison to our generation's Jumachi. If Minecraft is this generation's Jumangi, we're so cooked. It's never been more over.

I mean, but this isn't far afield from, say, the original Jumangi with Robin Williams. the remake with Kevin Hart and the Rock. Which isn't that bad. No, no, no, it's not that bad. It's not that bad. The Rock's got to be kicking himself and his agent. How am I not in this movie? How did Mamoa get this?

I bet you the Rock's been told to ease up. Well, the Rock's going to be Alex in the sequel. That's true. You need the 824 push. You don't need kids movies right now. You need some legitimacy. You got some bread under you, man. Don't worry about it.

You know what I'm saying? Get your honor. elsewhere. Yeah, we'll get that goal to glows nomination. There's going to be a Minecraft movie franchise. We had the mid-credit scene and the post-credit scene built in, so they knew. I mean, sometimes you get bad movies that don't get sequels that are aspirationally having post-credit scenes.

But obviously, if they're not already making the Minecraft movie, too, they will be soon. And we'll just have endless sequels to this. And that's fine. I wonder what else, you know, I've seen other people saying, oh, Hollywood's going to be looking at video game IP now. Look around. Look at the last five years. That's where we are very much.

That has been happening. I guess there might be even more quadrupling down on that. Fortnight. Yeah. Where's the Fortnite movie? Where's the Roblox movie? That's the thing maybe that we haven't seen so much. You know, we've seen initially, of course, like in the early days, you took games that

didn't really have much of a plot because that's what games were at that point. And so you had fighting games. games and you had platformers and Mario movie and Street Fighter or whatever and Mortal Kombat. And then we went to, okay, maybe the way to do this and it's been more successful is let's take games that actually did have a plot that we could port to the screen and it's almost movie ready or Sunday night prestige drama ready. Maybe now, though, what we want to do is the mass appeal. You want to go for the free to play games that are just played by everyone indefinitely because as we know that most people's gaming time now,

the majority of it is playing old games. It's the same games year after year after year. So yeah, where's the Fortnite movie? Where's the Roblox movie? Marvel rivals. Make it happen. Marvel rivals movie.

I mean, that's at least based on existing IP that is already movies, I guess. That's what Secret Wars and Dooms they are, really. It's shocking to me that post-warcraft that we didn't get an Overwatch movie.

Right. It kind of, Only because I think that like the iron is now ice cold for Overwatch in this day and age. But it's the fact that like Warcraft's bombed so hard that I don't think Blizzard ever gave it another shot. Not even a hot take. That movie was bad, but it made some money. Some, only some. Not even a hot take.

Overwatch should have been arcane. That's what that's what should have happened. They should have been like, hey, this is a cool video game. the potential to be. This is a cool little video. Because remember those shorts, Overwatch shorts, will go crazy.

Those are like little Pixar shorts. Little little things with, I remember the one with Tracer and the ghost dude. I can't remember his name at this point. He's just the Reaper. Reaver. Yeah, the museum and Winston. Like all these things would go crazy.

People were like, yo, we want more Overwatch shorts. If Blizzard had locked in and said, bet, we're going to make a 12 episode Overwatch series we can put all your characters in there even using that same animation you used on the shorts, billion dollars

right? Arcane went took day lunch. I'm never touching league ever. Arcane's some of the best TV we've ever seen dude and I played I liked Overwatch for six weeks until it got toxic. It was cool you know what I mean? And so for them

to not even like capitalize on that in the slightest bit outside of those shorts it's crazy. They would have had the arcane we talk about right now. We're like, man, jinks and pot, like all these characters who, again, we would never, ever in our life know because we're not playing league. We go outside. We touch grass.

It's just a level of mismanagement, you know? Yeah. It's wild. That's true. And I mean, maybe that's a good example because as great as arcane is, it was not a massive hit and was expensive to produce. And so maybe a Minecraft movie. is its own thing.

I mean, there's only one Minecraft. It is literally like the most popular game of all time. So anything else is sort of a step down from that. But there are some of these games that are just played by a massive audience that never goes away and are free to play and accessible to everyone and maybe don't seem to lend themselves to a scripted story, but that's not an obstacle, I think, is the takeaway from a Minecraft movie. Just throw together some elements that are recognizably from Minecraft.

and you're golden and do a bunch of marketing, which they certainly did too. Oh, yes. That helped. So you have to have that big budget behind it. Let Jack Black do Jack Black stuff, let him sing. I don't think he gets tired.

I want to see him at his computer at home doing TurboTax. I want him to just be like exhausted and bewildered by something. I don't know if he has that emotion in him. No. No, I don't think he does. Finding out that the director of the director of the, this was the same guy who did Nacho Libre. I was like, that makes sense.

Napoleon Dynamite and Nachelibre. I was like, yeah. Oh, wow. What a big come up for our guy? I see what's going on here. Hey, hey, good for you, buddy. Good for him, brother. They'd be like, yo, sign my deal right now. I need eight figures. I love gentlemen Broncos. Jared Hess. He's coming up. He's coming up. It's big time.

Well, on behalf of the video game industry, you're welcome movies for saving your ass yet again. Yes. Truly. You slept on us in our community for far too long. And now you've gotten on board and you've realized

that this is the way to make all of the money. So congrats on coming to that belated realization. And yeah, are we recommending the movie? I mean, not really,

but we are recommending the experience and for children or for people who have children or if you're streaming it at some point. And this is like the ultimate second screen. Just,

you know, you don't have to pay that close attention. I don't even think it's like that, though, bitch. I would not watch this at home. No. You have to be in the theater. You have to be with the people.

Yeah. Because if you see it at home, like when he screams chicken jockey, and nobody's there to go crazy. You'll feel so lonely. You gotta cry by yourself then. Yeah. What's the point?

Yeah. What I like, like, hey, it's a great movie. Go recommend it. No, two out of ten, no tower pimps, so I can't really give it a good rating. However, if you do want to feel like,

man, theaters are alive. Yeah. We're back. Movies are back. Yeah. You go to 30, see that, you're like, man, this is... We do come to this place for magic. And there's magic in the theater.

This is what Nicole Kidman is talking about. And you know what? The edict rings through here. Word for word, bar for bar. I'm sure she was thinking of a Minecraft movie when she said it. Yeah. No, it's true. Look, we're all estranged from each other bowling alone.

We're all in our little silos. We don't meet other people. We don't socialize. We don't cross across the aisle in a Minecraft movie. It's a cross-section of America. It's the melting pot. There's no aisle in the middle of an AMC when you're at the Minecraft movie.

I'd be friends with Jermaine Clement. Yeah. If he wanted to be friends, though. Sure. There's no crossroads, but if Jermaine Kement was like in a, and I don't know what kind of accent he was doing. That was a crazy one. But if he was like, hey, there's no crossroads of Minecraft,

but if you do want to be friends, hang out, I'm like, hell yeah, Jermaine. I would love to. All right. I would love to. Before I let you guys go, one thing, Jomi and I need to get together and rant just for a minute here. Let me lock in right now.

Yeah. Gather your energy for a second and I'll see you up because, okay, adjusting, you got to get a rant off. Look, it's a big time for video game adaptations in general. We haven't even had a chance to see Devil May Cry yet, which we want to, obviously, up our alleys as a video game adaptation as adult animation. Perhaps we will cover it. Perhaps we will ring averse recommend it at some point. But we have seen the end of the season of Mythic Quest, which,

Jomey and I devoted an episode of Button MASH 2. And I feel like having done a whole episode on that season, now that we've seen the finale, which we had not seen at that point, we had seen everything but the finale. And we gave it our unqualified recommendation, and we made certain assurances to our audience that I feel like just from a perspective of,

can they listen to us, can they trust us anymore? We have to come back and tell you what we think now that we have seen the finale. I know not everyone has seen Mythic Quest. It's not quite as big a phenomenon as a Minecraft movie. So this is just for the Mythic Quest heads out there. I am listening intently. I don't even watch Mythic Quest.

I'm ready to hear this. We have been hoodwinked. Oh, bambles of, let us stray, run amok, and flat out deceived, Ben. It is true. Ashley Birch was kind enough to join us on this podcast. Delightful human being. We so enjoyed talking to her. she looked us in the face.

In the eyes! And did not tell us what was going to happen at the end of the season four finale of Mythic Quest, which is our two main characters kissed. They kissed, Jomey. Will they or won't they? They did. They did. And after we had talked on this podcast about how we love this show for many reasons,

and we still love it for many reasons, But one of the reasons was we actually presented a platonic man, woman, male, female friendship. They connect on a deeper level. It's not about the physical. If anything, they're physically repulsed by each other. But they have connected. Enemies to lovers, it's hard, though. They're not even enemies.

They're collaborators who have a deeper love, a more profound love. They love each other on a creative level. It's a mind meld. They're creative partners. Never has it been physical. They have talked up the fact that it's never been physical. Okay, okay, okay. And we sold this to our listeners as a selling point of the show.

This is the exception. That urge to get them together, not Mythic Quest. They would never do that. They would never. They did, Jomey. See, and Ben, it's not the action. You know, it's the lying. That's the part that gets me.

Because it's one thing for the characters to be like, Actually, no, I'm repulsed by her. I'm repulsed by him. Ew. I would never do that with iron. Oh, Poppy's gross. Yeah. That's fine.

Every interview. Yeah. Every article. Yeah. We can't put them together. That's the easy way. Yeah, we don't need to do it. Everyone else.

They got a deeper connection than that. It's not romantic. And they lied to us. I mean, you can't really give it away in the press board. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. Again, there's a way to do these things. It's the same thing, and it's the same thing that happened with Miss Maisel between her and Lenny Bruce.

Oh, okay, this is a good comp. When we look at these two characters and we go, they have chemistry. Are they going to get together? Not the point. And they go, no, these characters don't do that. They're different. Not in, it's one thing to, to like, tease us as, as, As audience members be like, oh, is someone so going to be in the movie?

No. Or like, oh, maybe. Oh, I don't know. This is an Andrew Garfield, like, checked his Uber Eats. And then you're like, oh, maybe he is in the movie. But even then, I get it. It's like, you know what I'm saying? It's a little, you want to surprise people with that, right?

This is a legitimate betrayal of everything they've talked about for the last four years. Just a fundamental stabbing you in the back. I wouldn't say so because. and that we for me I'm okay when the main characters get together because that's what every single television show has ever done in the history of time so when people were like

Sydney and Carmi can never get together I'm like you have not watched television right right and again leading back to the podcast we did earlier I was like this show you guys always like man why do they always got to get together Mythic Quest would never do that and now here I am egg on my face

eating our words fool because I trust trusted people who not only, again, not only said in the show, okay, it's gross, but in real life we're like, no, there are certain lines we won't cross. You know, it's just, you know, it's a little, no, we're not going to do it. It's a little too weird. And yet here we are. Okay.

On this day, in this time, in this universe, and it still happens. All right. So, Ben, what's more wounded? Your vision of the show or your pride that you were lied to? I think it's the former. I think it is. I don't mind being wrong, but I mind. them doing us wrong, which they have, which, look, I still love the show.

I even liked the finale up until that last moment where they're like making eyes at each other and there's lingering eye contact. And part of me started to think, no, they're not. They wouldn't. No, this will be like Mythic Quest where they tease it and they suggest that it might happen and then they'll pull back from the brink. And then they did it. Lip lock.

And I didn't know. I hadn't been spoiled or anything. And I admitted like an audible, no. Oh, like I felt it physically just, I felt as if the knife had been plunged into me. And look, the worst part is, I mean, this show hasn't been renewed for a fifth season. What if that's it? That could be it. What if that's the last scene?

And I don't know if I did this to like juice interest in the show, which like if this is the only way we get more Mythic Quest, even then I would say, no, stay true to your principles. I've seen enough because I wouldn't want to go down that road. and I just audibly, as if I was in the theater at a Minecraft movie, emitted just a guttural, just, no. The real sin is the gaslighting for me. Don't gaslight me. Yeah. I see what's happening.

I can pick it out. Don't tell me what I'm seeing isn't real. You talk about Andrew Garfield. You're like, oh, Andrew's like, they ask him, are you the movie? He just goes, no. He's not like, how dare you ask me if I'm in. We would never. Yeah, I would never do that.

That's so crazy, guys. You guys are insane. you didn't see me in Atlanta last week. Right. That was another dude who looked just like me. How dare you accuse me? Are you guys going to make them get together? No, we could never...

And now here we are. That's crazy. Don't gaslight me. Don't make me look like, I don't know what I'm talking about. I can see what's happening between these two characters. I'm not an idiot. I know I have media literacy.

I think my final question would have to be like, are any of you guys on the forums are like, do the fans want this? Is this like a thing that people have to play and I think so. Well, yes and no. It's in the same, again, it's in the same vein of the Sid Carmi thing. Will they, won't they?

Yeah. No, not will they, won't they? But like, some people are like, this is fine. Some people are. Again, this is like, television's what they do. Yeah. Some people are like, no, this is, why would you do this? There are two main characters.

And so I remember going on the Reddit that day, watching the finale, disgusted me like, what's the takes? Yeah. And people were kind of in the vein of, yeah, this is always going to happen. But why would you, why would you lie to us like this? Okay. So I go, yeah, like, it's fine, but like, yeah, there are always people shipping everyone, but I don't know that there was a big, like, iron and poppy heart drawn around them contingent.

It definitely, there's been a backlash. It's been pretty polarizing, I think. So, look, I still have loved my time with the show. I enjoyed SideQuest as well, the spinoff series, four episodes. I watched that, enjoyed that. Justice for Charles, because Piccolo is claimed as a black character in SideQuest. Yeah. Yeah.

That must have been a midnight. boy's reference, but looks good for our boy. But, yeah, I'm going to always watch Myth Dequest. They make 100 seasons. I'm going to watch 100 seasons. Just devastating. Don't gaslight me. I know what I'm watching.

Okay. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. No. Okay. We're better than that. All right.

We're better than that. Clean it up, people. All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows Winter is the MVP and making a mess.

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introducing new NOS Energy Grand Prix Guava For those that want to be fueled up and fired up with a hundred-bound hour tropical tasting power, ignite your taste, start your engine, shift your flavor to high gear with new Nass Energy Grand Prix Guava. Hit the street, grab a can and get after it. All right, we are back for part two of But Mesh. We've got a new look cast for the second half of this episode. And a great one.

We are joined by Van, Louisiana Lightning, Lathen. Hello, Ben. What's up, Ben? Bringing Bozeman with him, as usual. I've got Grumpkin as well. Sometime they will physically meet, but not today. However, you are in studio with another frequent podcast partner of mine, Jessica Clemens, getting to Pat Bozeman as we speak. I am jealous.

I'm in heaven. This is my heaven. It's a bunch of Bozeman. He's the most prettiest dog in the universe. You're so perfect. You're so perfect. I have such fomo watching you. It's not even fear of missing out.

I am actually missing out. I am certain that I'm missing out right now. However, I'm happy to be joined by you two. Van just came out of a Midnight Boys recording. He's bringing the Midnight Boys Energy to ButtonMash three quarters of the Midnight Boys on ButtonMash today. This is a little stealth takeover by the Midnight Boys of Buttmash. And I wanted to have you both here today because we played a new game, a game that came out this week. It's a game I've been looking forward to for some time, and we've all spent some time with it. It's called South of Midnight. And it's a new game from Compulsion Games, which is a studio that's owned by Microsoft. It's published by Xbox Game Studios. So this is a big first party or second party game for Microsoft.

They've had some issues putting out Xbox exclusives. This is meant to be one. It's a game that has come with a lot of hype over the past year or two. And now we have experienced it. We have had our hands on it. And, Ben, I wanted to have you on this episode because this is a game that is set in the South, and you are an expert on that subject. You are an actual authentic southerner. And so I wanted to have you here to weigh in on this depiction of the American South, which I would say is a underutilized setting in video games, just in general. So we'll just kind of kick it around and say what we liked or disliked about this game. But tell me what your initial impressions were of South of Midnight.

So asked to be on the podcast by Ben because. And when the game finished downloading, I did no research on the game. I just used, I went in there and I downloaded the game. When the game finished downloading, I'm looking at the kind of the stop motion, Clay stuff at the beginning. And I'm like, here's a game that I'm not going to like.

Oh, why? I was worried that there'd be too much pluck for you. A little bit. I haven't played a game like this in a long time. Yeah. Like a game that you immerse yourself into that doesn't have sort of the combat free-swinging thing that Spider-Man had. Spider-Man was an immersive game,

but then you got to kind of be a little mindless with it and you got to get into the combat, do all the combos and swing around and stuff. The last time the three of us potted together, we were just saying, or the only two you two have, is when we talked about Call of Duty on this episode. It's a little bit different, different vibe from, that kind of game. Absolutely. It took me about, this got to sound weird, it took me about 10 minutes to fall in love. Like 10 minutes. Number one, I thought the game was very culturally authentic.

All right. Like I was feeling the sort of lore that was coming along with it. It reminded me of home a little bit just from the rendering of the South that the game has. And then almost immediately, I kind of fell into the story and it gave me some sense. I don't know if this is true for you, just as I'm playing through it, it gave me some sense of wonder, curiosity,

and importance that I do the next thing. It's like a really well-made game that even, I didn't finish the entire thing to hear, but I'm, I can't wait to get home to like play more into it. I'm like, I was super into it. Agreed.

This was not a game that I, I was excited to play this game once Ben was like, hey, do you want to jump on? I was like, this is the game I heard so much about, just because of the design was so beautiful. And as soon as I opened the game, I was like, this is gorgeous.

I'm going to be obsessed with this. And it was more of the storyline that kept me going along and wanting to feed into it and figure it out. Once there's a part, not spoilers, there's just a part where you run in, it's on the cover of the game. You run into the giant catfish.

And it was so beautiful. And I was so enamored with just the design, the story, and the music that it made me keep playing, but it also, I didn't finish the game because I wanted to play it at my own speed to really get all of it. This is the first game I think I've done on this podcast where I wasn't charged to be like,

I need to finish this just so I can give you guys my experience. It was more that I was like, no, I want to actually chew it up. I want to actually play the game and wander and see every corner because they do an insane amount of detail in this game that I'm obsessed with.

A really impressive amount. It's insanely impressive. I also do. don't know, Ben, please correct me. I don't know how many stop motion video games like this I've played. The fact that you can toggle it to not stop motion, which I had to do because I can't, I just, I will throw up if I have to do it like this for a long period of time. But I was like, I've never played something like this. Yeah. No, it was distinctive, certainly. I'm glad you both liked it. And yeah, I was, I was worried when I started this up. I was like, is Van going to like this? Because I've already got one strike because he never came on to talk about Marvel versus Capcom. I know he's holding that against me. And now if I make him play this game and he doesn't like that, that's going to be two strikes. So I'm relieved that you like this and that it actually spoke to your experience because this was developed. Compulsion Games is a Canadian developer based in Montreal.

So they had all sorts of consultants and people who came in to kind of give them the local flavor and familiarize them with this lore. but when I first heard about it, it sounded like sort of a strange match of studio and subject matter. So it could have been like a Canadian's understanding of the South sort of deal, maybe. And so, you know, I'm not that well positioned to judge, but the fact that it kind of rang true to you,

I think that's a pretty good endorsement. Yeah, so my father's from a small town outside Baton Rouge called Maranguanguine. So it's about 30 minutes outside Baton Rouge. And most big cities that you go to, 30 minutes outside that big city is the suburbs. It's really not that much different than the city itself. However, Baton Rouge is not that big of a city. So 30 minutes outside of Baton Rouge going west over the river, you are in the country.

And the road that you start on when you're first in her town, which has those type of homes. And then at the end, there's the big nice house where I guess her grandmother's, mother lives. I swear that they went and like they were in the town to where you have a trailer and then a sort of okay nice home and then another. And it's and the people that live there, you know them, you know them from the people that had to leave that got foreclosed on and the whole nine. So I'm just at first, I'm just like walking around going, yo, is this marijuana? Is this like kind of where I'm from? And when you, when you, You match that with the lore, and I don't want to wax poetic about Louisiana, but the deep south, for all kinds of reasons, feels different.

You know that there was a huge human toll that it took to create the deep south. It feels like when you're in the bayou that all of those people are talking to you. I know this sounds stupid to some of y'all, but at least for me, I feel a connection to it. and the game was able to immerse me into that in a way. And I think that's part of the thing that made me want to unfurl the mystery even more so. Yeah, it's so interesting how I'm not from the South, famously from Washington State.

Some would say the opposite of the South. But it was interesting. My family was all from Tennessee, so I know somewhat. But it felt like I was getting like a history lesson while playing the game. And I was like, I know this ain't what is, it's not accurate. But I am feeling like I'm learning too much. And same with the landmarks.

I was like, oh, they got the houses on like the stilts just because if the water raises and how it's going to, like what's going to happen. Up on the hill is the really rich white lady that lives in like a mansion. I was like, ooh, this is insane. It's interesting to know that this is a Montreal company that made this. The writers had to be from like the South. They brought people in who could kind of, you know, give them that. I don't know that they themselves were, but it feels like they kind of took the appropriate

care with that culture and the fact that it felt that way to you means more than the fact that it felt that way to me. But yeah, it doesn't feel like this was kind of like a French-Canadian's idea of the Americans out there that this is some kind of cultural appropriation situation. Like it seems like there was some care taken with this portrayal. And, you know, I guess a lot of people kind of comped to Beasts of the Southern Wilds when we first saw a look at this game. I don't know whether, like, do Louisiana?

Shannon's like that movie. Like is that, I liked it. I liked it. Yeah. But yeah. So it has that kind of vibe where, you know, Hazel, who's the protagonist of this game, she's a weaver. So she sort of discovers these powers that she has kind of classic trope. And she can, you know, see spirits and she can see the pain that people experience that's still lingering. And so what you were saying, Van, about how you sort of see ghosts when you're walking around this. landscape, like, that's literally the case in this game, right, where she's able to see this because she's a weaver and she can follow along with these people who are long gone, but who are still sort of resonating in some way and she can heal this pain. So it's very much this kind of southern folklore, southern gothic, you know, supernatural kind of atmosphere. And it's pretty captivating. Like, it's definitely not something you see in video games very often. Something else, just about the gameplay itself. Just so people know, I talk good, but Van no smart.

Okay? So, like, when I am playing a video game, if I get stuck, we're about to listen to a lore video. No, 100%, 100% video games. If I get stuck for too long, I'm about to come over to y'all and start listening to Easter and it gets, I'm going to do something to soothe me, right? But the gameplay itself here was very intuitive. The story moved in a way that was wide open but also linear. So you're exploring different things, but it is making you move forward.

I never felt like, now, obviously there are some times when you have to look around for stuff a little bit. That's part of the charm of the game. but the gameplay itself, how it looked and how it played, and that combined with the story, I never felt bored or frustrated with it in the time that I was playing it. This is probably the only game that's done that for me in a very long time. And it's so hard when you're on this podcast,

and we're playing games to play them before anyone else does. So I can't look up how to get past this rock in this tree, which I ran into a lot when we're playing. When we were playing our last game was Assassin's Creed Chadows. I was having a lot of trouble. But this game, like Van said, is very linear. It is very linear.

That's the problem that I think if you are someone that likes a challenge, I don't think this game is as challenging, even when you up the difficulty. It just gets like kind of harder to fight some battles, but the story is still very linear for you to figure out what you're doing

and to go through, which I really like. I think the handholding was very helpful, the fact that you can just press down on one of the controllers to remind you of what direction to go. And it's not just an arrow, it's a line of, yeah, that weaves you through things.

I think that is, this is perfect. for me. I love this. I cannot echo it enough that if you are kind of like a beginner or if you're someone that just gets very frustrated with having to search for things, this is probably a good game for you. Yeah, that's why there's been so much hype about this, I think, is just it looks great, it sounds great. And so before anyone even got to play it, everyone was like, oh, what is this? This doesn't look like most video games. And even when I was playing it and my wife walked in and she's like, whoa, what is this? Like, this doesn't look like the typical game that you're playing. And so this

game presents itself really well. I'm sorry. Like I was playing the game and Kalika passed by. And she's like, oh, what are you playing? I mean, every time she walks by, all she sees on that TV is college football at 25. So she goes, what are you playing? And I'm like, oh, this is the game that I'm revealing. She goes, what is she doing?

Yes. It's also, this girl is amazing. She's perfect. As soon as I saw her, I was like, oh, I can't wait to see people cosplay as her. She's perfect. This is different than other video games. First off, a lot of video games don't have, like, the female lead going throughout this entire journey that you're making her go through. But it looks cinematic.

It is so beautiful. I'm glad that women are walking by and going, wait a minute. Maybe I should play. Yeah. You're not shooting anyone. No one's shooting you. What is that? Yeah, it's not sad and, like, murderous.

And I'm like, yeah, her mom, because we're still at the beginning, I'm like, yeah, her mom is floating away and that thing. She goes, she's got the little, she's holding the thing. She goes, so there's a flood? What's the fun? What it is? She's like, oh, I like this. So she was, and I'm, and so I've moved all of my video gaming, like college football, 25 just broke my brain. I got to be honest.

It broke me. Like, I want to play it every second of every day. So I moved all of my gaming into my office. I moved it out of the living room. It's like a little van cave now. So nobody can kick me out of the game, right? Yeah. So it's dark when she's walking by.

And the images on the screen are so brilliant that they just suck you into. like what's happening. Very, very immersive. Been a long time. What would this game be comparable to? I'm trying to think of the last time I played one like this. A lot of people have compared it to like PS3 era, Xbox 360 era games where it's just kind of action adventure,

very linear like you're saying. And, you know, just sort of simple. It's not some big open world thing. It does feel very much like it's like that generation. I don't know if a specific game stands out to me, but that kind of, yeah, some platforming, a little light combat, but nothing too complex. You know, it's like an eight to 10 hour game maybe, which is refreshing these days.

So it does feel like a throwback. In that vein of theme of just like, oh, it's not too, it's not too combat. Well, it is kind of combative. But it's simple. It's fun. It's linear. It's not, I'm comparing it to Astrobot in terms of like, oh, it's fun. And it's gorgeous.

And you're going one way. You know what you're doing. I'm not saying it's the. It's the same side-scroller kind of adventure. It's more so just, it's beautiful, it's stunning, and it's just fun to play. That's what I'm comparing it to. But I understand where you're coming from saying like PS3.

I will say, oh, also, okay, one negative thing that I will say, which is nothing to do with the game, I didn't have the right Xbox for it. I thought I had the right Xbox for it. I completely was like, oh, I have two Xboxes. Yeah, I can play one of them. Nope. And I forgot I did not have the right Xbox.

So I had to borrow someone's. What do you mean you didn't have the right Xbox? I have an Xbox one and an Xbox S. It needs the newest one. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I thought, because the sheet said like Xbox, I thought, and this is my beef with Xbox and that damn naming of their consoles.

Oh, yeah. I thought I had the right one. And this is why I'm playing PlayStation on my PC. You can play with Series S, to be clear, right? Series X slash S, but not the, yeah, it's hard to distinguish the different Xbox generations. You got to have the latest one. You have to have the latest one.

But the game is also, because I, I had to make sure, triple check on Steam, $40. You guys, this is a steal in the game, how much you're paying for games right now. We all saw the list of what the Nintendo Switch 2 was given us. That's the other thing. It's like, it's kind of a compromise. It's like a middle ground where these days you have the big AAA, massive budget, super polished games. And then you have free to play games.

And then where's the middle ground? Where's the like double A game? You know, it's like kind of polished, but it's. It's not a gigantic 80-hour open world thing. It's kind of like the conversation that people have about movies where it's like, where's the rom-com, where's the like, you know, budget bad. Right.

It's all blockbusters or it's all streaming or whatever. And where's the kind of, yeah, the movies that we used to have. It's like that. It's that for video games, basically. And it's priced accordingly. And I think if I had to nitpick, I would say, again, it looks great. Like, even if you're just walking by, you stop and say, what is that? And it sounds great, too.

Like, the soundtrack of this game is, yeah. I'm obsessed with the music. Yeah. Like, I would listen to this. It's kind of like Beast of the Southern Wild, but I still listen to the soundtrack for that movie. I would listen to this even when I wasn't playing the game. It's just all kinds of, like, you know, different Americana genres and folk and blues and just all sorts of original songs. I would say the gameplay itself is much more conventional than.

the presentation of the game. Like the, it's, it's so distinctive in its look and in its sound. And then the game itself feels like a lot of games I've played. Like, it's hard for me even to identify one because it just feels like I've played this so many times. Like the combat, for instance, I would not say as a strength of, of this game. It's kind of repetitive. It's kind of like mashing X, you know, you can roll around.

You can use some special powers that you get. it gives you those powers and abilities quickly, which I appreciate it doesn't make you wait too long because the game's not that long. But it does kind of like rope you off into all these little combat areas. You know, every time you fight, it's like in this self-contained little space

and then you fight the same enemies over and over and over again very repetitively, I thought. So, you know, it's kind of like mindless, just butt-mashing, which is fine. But it didn't have the same kind of character to me that the actual characters or the game itself or the setting, which is kind of a character, which is a cliche to say,

but it's true, that didn't really come through with the gameplay so much to me. Even the platforming is, you know, it's just sort of standard jump in and while running and it's fine, but it doesn't really do anything new or different. And the upgrading, like you have sort of a light skill tree and you,

you know, can get new powers and none of that stuff is going to blow your mind or you're going to say, I've never seen this before. but everything else about the game, you will. So it almost feels like two games to me. It's kind of a mismatch where it's like the inside of it, the gameplay itself is very run in the mill.

And everything else about how it looks and how it sounds and how it feels is the opposite of that. And to me, that makes it very much worth continuing to play and makes me recommend it, but holds it back from being a total triumph. I get that. Kind of like a playable art piece a little bit. Like in a way

I'm playing another game Jomi downloaded it and then made me play it The samurai game on the PS5 Which one? Ghosts Ghost of Sushima Yeah And so That's a good one

It's insane Yeah And so that game has a lot of combat in it And a lot of very like You're making a real friend of me No I love me! Like So this game In terms of the combat

I was annoyed by the combat, not by the mechanics of the combat, but just that it was there. I kind of didn't want to fight. See, and that's kind of why I was like, I get where Ben's coming from. If you are a seasoned gamer, you might be kind of bored with the combat,

especially because to get those skill points to level up your skill tree that is very small, you have to keep doing that repetitive battles. And then once you get to the boss battles, it's kind of easy for you. But if you're not a well-season, or if you just are more interested in the storytelling, this is a great game for you

because the skill tree is pretty small. And is repetitive enough the fights that make it easier for you in the boss battles. I'm not saying the boss battles are the hardest thing in the world. It is not the Eldon Ring. But it is still like it feels at some points when you're fighting certain characters, you're like, they're just hurting me. They're just hurting me. And I feel like maybe I should have been able to dodge this.

So maybe those practices help. But I do think there are those two spectrums of like, oh, do you either really like the story? And that's what you're checking away at in the art or you're here to play the game. And I don't know if you're going to play the game, maybe it's not going to be different than any other game you played. Yeah, I know what you mean. Like it almost felt like they felt like they had to have sort of standard gamey stuff in here. But it almost didn't need it or in some cases it marred the experience somewhat. Like I almost wish that it were some kind of like walking simulator type game like a lightly interactive game where it's more like you're playing a story and you're just exploring the setting.

and getting to know the characters more so than grafting on the usual, like, hack and slash sort of stuff, because all of that just felt, yeah, it just didn't stand out. And so sometimes that happens with a game where it's like maybe it's, there's a real vision, like an artistic vision for it. And then the actual gameplay doesn't totally line up with that. I guess that happens with, you know, movies and stuff too, where it's like, oh, man, this is visually beautiful. But I don't understand this story at all, or I can't stand these characters, or the dialogue sucks, but I love looking at these images. It's not to that extent where it ruins the experience, but it does feel very much like half of this is super inspired. And like the mythology,

it just seeing like, you know, the giant catfish you're riding around on or the giant alligator. There's just like all these supernatural aspects. It's like, wow, I haven't seen this before. And then the gameplay itself is, it's very much, I have seen this many, many times before. I will say the fights. When you were speaking, I was like, yeah, yeah, the fights. But I was like, there were parts that I did really enjoy doing those skills that we learn. And it is through wandering through the game, like jumping from a truck to the ground and you have to make sure you glide and to run against the wall.

And those little, because you know I don't like puzzle games, men. You know I don't like puzzle games. But it was so easy to understand. It would be like, oh, I just have to push this truck over here, jump on it, get over here, jump to that. And I love being able to use what we learn in the skill trees to do other things in the game to that degree. Even using our little voodoo doll, I love the voodoo doll. And then using him to find little holes in the area, I was like, oh, I probably wouldn't have remembered to do that if I didn't see this hole when I was running by it. And then when you first see the doll, the doll having some significance and all that.

This is, I like a game where characters. I don't know why this is, this never gets old to me. I like games where characters do stuff, like slide down stuff, climb stuff, go on top of stuff. Like, anytime I'm in a tutorial and it goes,

to grab the wall, I'm like, ooh. Like I can grab the wall. Yeah. You know what I mean? So that plus all of the other iconography in there, it really made it work for me. And it was funny because I was telling Arjuna and them

that before I came in here, I was like, man, I really thought it was going to be some bullshit. But I was really interested. into her. I was really into her story. Like, you guys, think about it. It's not lost on me that the game begins

with the character who has lost their father and a major flood in Louisiana. I'm like, oh, this is my game. Like, you know what I mean? Like, this is my game. Although I'm not sure it's Louisiana because there are counties. Yeah, it's kind of like Mississippi.

It could be Mississippi. Yeah. It could be Mississippi because there are counties. if they wanted it to be Louisiana, you might have thought that they'd have parishes. You know what's interesting. I just immediately was like this Louisiana. It felt like it was supposed to be

because she's Creole. I mean, she's byro. But I'm like, oh, the counties, maybe that's something that the Canucks up there didn't get right. We're going to put a fucking 50% tariff on them. Yeah, I think it's, maybe it's meant to be a bit of a blend, obviously.

Yeah, I can see that. Sort of like magical realism. So they never solidified that. it's Louisiana, right? They never say, this is Louisiana. Not that I think it's more Mississippi, but it's probably like a bit of both. It's probably like it's the south, you know? It's all the same, right?

So, yeah, we can just kind of just, get the hell out of here. See, this is why you had to be on this pod so you could talk about counties versus parishes. Would not have thought of that. Me and Ben would have never found. We would have never been like, oh, yeah, I guess I do. Yeah, I mean, they say that early on. They said something about county. I'm like, oh, man.

I thought those. But then when I got like into the game, I was like, ah, nah, this is home. They just, they just,

they just, those little snafu or is Mississippi, which is just, you know, are a little bit of slower cousins to the east. Yeah, my family's from Tennessee, Mississippi.

That's north. Tennessee is different though. That's like, they're in Memphis. Oh, so that's right there. We're right on the border. We're on the border.

And let me tell you, they're a little stupid sometimes. They are. Don't get me wrong. Well, I'm glad you liked it. I would have felt bad if I made you play a plucky game that you hated, Van. So this is a release.

You know what? You know what it kind of reminded me of? It reminded me, well, first of all, I used to like those I kind of got into when I was back at Cybernet and I was game taping. Those telltale games they used to have back in the day I could play those for a little while. So I kind of enjoyed that. But at the same time, it reminded me that there are video games out there to play other than the games that I'm playing. Yeah. Right now, I have a four-game rotation.

It is MLB the show. This is the games that you just keep playing them. College football. Damn. The samurai game. And then I'm playing so much Marvel versus Capcom 2. They should have never, ever, ever put the game on the PlayStation. You sounded like you hated it.

I thought you hated it. Oh, no. Oh, okay. Oh, he loves it. No, no, no. I bought a controller for it, broke it from overplaying it. from overplaying it and I had to buy another one.

What's going on? I'm obsessed with the game. Don't show you Marvel rivals. I tried that. Oh, you didn't like it? No, I don't think I understand it. There's too much to it. There's too much to it.

Joe said it's the greatest game ever. Joe me bad at it. I don't think I understand that game. I don't think I know I'm missing it. Like, I can't get into it. There's a lot of, there's the reason why I didn't like playing Overwatch because there was too much, there's too confusing, too many players,

everything happening at once. But I think when you made it Marvels, I went, oh, now I get it. But it is a lot. It is a lot and very confusing. And every character is so different. And at this rate, everyone's already played every character 40 times. So any match you get into, you're going to get your ass beat. Oh, I see.

It's not going to be a fun experience at this point. But this game, this reminded me that there are other experiences out there in video games that I might like, that when I'm sick of recruiting for LSU on college football 25, that there are other experiences out there. Not just that I might like that Kalika might like because she is so sick of the football game, she's over it. But playing the football game, she snarls. She doesn't like it.

However, like, maybe this could be something that her and I could play together. I think you should get her to play. I think she would like it. It's very pretty. It's gorgeous. And it's so easy. I think it's genuinely very easy

for someone like me to understand. I was like, the skill tree level was just two sets. And you can't get, and it takes a lot of coins to be able to upgrade those levels. So I was like, oh, this is a great beginner game. people want to just play a new game. Yeah. Bad news for Kalika College Football 26 coming this summer.

Can't wait. Can't wait. Yeah. Cannot wait. I can't wait until that Bunn MASH episode. Oh, yeah. But it's a good point because especially, yeah, you get locked into a rotation and it's kind of limited.

And maybe you play the same games with your friends. They come out every year. You play Madden or whatever. We talked about this when you came on to talk about the last college football and how you kind of just, you have a rotation. And maybe it's Call of Duty and you play the new Call of Duty every year. There's a whole wide world of video games out there for you. So it's a good reminder, I guess, to check it out.

And, and, you know, there's been like the usual boring backlash to this game, as there is to any game, any property where there's a non-white character. I mean, you're used to this ban and everything that we cover in just everything else, all the, you know, downvoting and review bombing and everything. It kind of comes from video games. It's maybe worst of all in video games, all the Gamergate nonsense that just like metastasized everywhere else. And then it's just been brutal the last year. And generally we just ignore it because it's just the worst possible people saying the same things over and over again to just get attention from the worst people.

And it works often. But when they insist that so often the backlash is like, you're forcing this. into our games. Like you're hiring some consultant who's telling you to turn your character into a black person or something just to be PC or whatever it is. And then you play a game like this. And it's obviously not that. I mean, rarely is it that. But in a game like this, it's obviously not that because you're telling a story that is in this setting where it couldn't really be anything else. And you're able to tell the story in the setting that you don't usually see in video games because of that, which just makes that complaint seem even sillier.

I mean, I guess the game could be about her evil white grandma bunny, maybe, but that wouldn't be as good a game. So it's like, how are you going to make this game and set it there and have these kinds of characters and not have, it's not so much about like forcing it forcing representation into games where it doesn't have to be there or something. It's like inherent. It's intrinsic to this game. That's what this game is about.

Yeah, and play something else. It's that easy, but for some reason they don't understand that. They don't understand that. For some reason, it's easier for them to go online and go crazy about it for 20 days. Yeah, play something else. Like, play something else. Don't come ride the catfish. Don't ride it.

You know what I mean? Like, play something else, man. Play something else. It's cool. It's literally $40 for you not to spend $40. Right. I'm like, anyone else can go do that. I'm genuinely, whatever.

Because the same thing have with Assassin's Creed Shadows. where I was like, oh my God. I was like, they're always going to get mad. They're always going to get mad. But this game is perfect for everybody else that wants to play it. All right. South of Midnight, the reviews have been generally favorable, as they say. Not super glowing again because the divide that I talked about where it's just kind of like beautiful package for kind of a conventional game under the hood.

But there's a lot to like here. And that kept me going. Just like wanting to see this world and hear the next song and the characters and the acting. And it's just, it's all excellent. It pulls you along and it doesn't overstay. It's welcome. And neither will we. So that's the end of this segment.

I'm so glad that you all like the game. Just a cross section here of gaming experience, someone who thought he was going to hate it, liked it anyway. What better recommendation could there be? Absolutely. Thanks for having me on, Ben. Thanks for having me on. All right.

Our guest parade rolls on. We've got one more mini segment for you here. just a little coda for the end of this episode, because there is a new Metacritic champion. There is a new best-reviewed game of 2025, at least for now. And its name is Blue Prince. That is Blue P-R-I-N-C-E. But yes, it sounds like Blueprints.

It is a play on words. It's not only critics' favorite game of 2025. It is also Matt James' favorite game of 2025. And he is here to rave about it. Welcome, Matt. Oh, I'm ready to rave. Let's do. I know that you are.

So I have just dabbled. I have just played a bit of blueprints because I was watching and playing other things. I just wanted to get a little feel for it. But I know the basic strokes here. I know that this is a first-time developer who worked on it for eight years. And now it will be out this week for Steam, also for Xbox and PlayStation. And it's on GamePass and PS Plus day and day, right? So unless you have a switch, and that's all you have.

In that case, you're screwed. But otherwise, you can get this game cheaply, if not freely. And critics are raving, as they say. Everyone loves blueprints. And it's a little hard to describe the genre, which I guess is the point, right? I've seen a number of people say, it's unlike anything I've ever played, which is a selling point, but also makes it difficult to describe. We're not going to spoil anything, obviously. but it's like a puzzle game slash rogue-like slash walking simulator slash deck builder.

Have I left out any other genres that it's like? Maybe like a tabletop game. Ooh, okay. So it's a little bit of everything. It is a little bit of everything. I think that they've kind of cracked the code on puzzle games for me, on like mystery puzzle games, all of the common pitfalls of those games that often keep people away,

they seem to have stumbled upon a remedy for. You're not going to have a scenario in this game where you're going to encounter a puzzle and can't solve it. And well, your progress is halted and you can't advance past that because there are so many different ways to get to the end of this game, that if you can't figure out one puzzle,

that's fine. There's a bunch of other paths and puzzles to go through and completing this game, or should I say rolling credits on this game. I started talking to some other reviewers that have played this game, and it is astonishing the different ways that people got to that endpoint.

There are people who got to the end without ever seeing things that I thought were critical to getting to the end. It's astonishing. But as far as the gameplay goes, you play a 14-year-old boy who is set to inherit a huge mansion from his great uncle, the Baron,

under the stipulation that in order to receive this inheritance, he has to find the 46th room of this 45-room mansion. Yes. And the gameplay is that you enter the mansion and whatever doors there are in the room, the starting room will have three doors. If you open a door, you will then have to choose what room you were about to enter from three randomly selected possible rooms.

And this operates on sort of a grid system. So you're trying to get to the end room, and you're having to manage keys, which sometimes you need, gems, which sometimes you need, money, which sometimes you need. And you're also trying to manage the layout to make sure that you keep your options open and don't end up creating a sort of game board, per se,

where you have no more moves to make, where you can't advance. And the roguelike nature of this where if you get stuck on a run, that's fine. You call it a day and you start up the next day and the house will be entirely different. But a lot of the advancement in this game

comes through the knowledge that you get. You discover things that lead to other things. And you end up, as you're going through this game, you're kind of juggling, you know, eight to ten different mysteries that you have little pieces progress on here and there, and you just get very entangled in the lore and the mystery, and there's always something to do, and the gameplay is just so addicting. I can't stop thinking

about it. I think it's been affecting my dreams. Yeah, you've been playing more or less nonstop since we got the codes for this thing, and again, I've just dipped into it. And yeah, it's sort of this cell-shaded look of this mansion. And it's, you know, quiet, peaceful. And you're walking around and you're opening different doors and you're finding notes that were left for you. And you're collecting items. It's like the Monty Hall problem, the game. It's just door number one, door number two, door number three.

And the response to it, it feels like animal well kind of to me, one of last year's most acclaimed indie games in the sense that it kind of came out of nowhere for most people. And then suddenly everyone was raving about it. And it was this labor of love that was in the works with a solo developer or a small team for many years. And then there's sort of a surface level puzzle, but then there are much deeper puzzles that could take you a very long time to solve and might require coordination. And so I guess ostensibly it's what, like a 20-hour game maybe, but you could play many multiples of that if you want to see and find everything. Yeah, it really varies. how long it would take any one person to get through because of all the different pathways.

I think the Animal Well comparison is pretty good in some senses. It differs in that this is a much more player-friendly game. And in Animal Well, there are puzzles where, like, if you don't figure this out, you're not getting through. And there are a few different ways through Animal Well. But this game of particular is designed for so many different pathways. And I want to touch on something you said about, like this game, the deep lore and the mysteries and everything,

this is a game where you should absolutely keep a notebook and be writing down notes. Yeah. You should be taking photos nonstop with your phone. And I usually don't play games that way, but it is absolutely something that you should do because there are so many things going on at once, and you need to be able to reference things and connect these dots and without having to go back to a room that you might not have access to in your current run.

I have flashbacks to Mist when playing this game, and the creator has stated that Mist and Riven are some of his favorite games of all time, the classic CD-ROM games from the 90s that have heavily inspired this. And without even knowing that, I was having flashbacks to like playing Mist on CD-Rom on my Windows 95, I think, computer.

And like the moment my dad was like, okay, we're going to need to break out the pen and paper. Yeah. And it feels in so many ways such a modern spiritual successor to that with all of the kinks kind of ironed out. A big problem with Mist was some of the puzzles weren't that good. And a lot of the lore was kind of hard to track. But the vibes were there. Yeah. They sure were there.

And I feel like everything's firing on all cylinders in this game. And it is a joy to play and you're going to want to talk to someone about it. So if you're going to play, convince someone else to play to or convince, you know, play with, you know, your partner or a friend or go through this experience together with someone and don't look things up. Yeah. I don't look things up. I sold my wife on the experience that way too. It's like Mist and that was all I needed to say because she loves Mist and she just generally

loves puzzle games. So if Jess were still here, she might hear this and just nope out of the studio. Although you said that it's a puzzle game for people who don't normally like puzzle games or don't think they do. And so maybe she'd be into it. Who knows? But I don't know, the writing stuff down, I'm not sure. That might be an impediment to people. Just take photos with your phone then.

Yeah. At least take the photos with your phone. Just a little light homework while you're playing a video game. But you'll like it. It'll be fun homework. It'll be intellectually stimulating. But yeah, no, this game could not. be any more up my wife, Sally, I don't think. So when I told her, you know, I was comping it to

Mist or like Obra Din or some other games in that vein, and she just eats that up. So I think we'll be playing it together or maybe she will be playing it and I will watch it. I've also seen it comp to the Outer Wilds, which is another of her favorites, just in the sense of like discovery. Discovery. Yeah. Huge on discovery. Incredible. Not wanting to give away too much. Right. In this game. And that's the thing. I guess we can't, we can't really give away anymore than you have already said. The less you know, the better. Yeah, right.

Just know that it's your favorite game of the year. And evidently, a lot of critics' favorite game of the year. Is there anything else you can say or would care to say that would not spoil anything or give anything away, but would just hype people up even more? Yeah, I mean, I still think that some people will kind of nope out of this. You know, not everyone is going to connect with this. But I think more people will than they might expect. again, it's designed in a way to be

to not give you frustrating dead ends as much as possible. But I finished this game and I have other games that I really, really want to get to. And I have not gotten to them yet because I have put in, I think, an additional 15 hours

since rolling credits, still unraveling some of the mysteries. And I just don't see myself stopping anytime soon. It's just an incredibly unique, wonderful piece of gaming. Yeah, the number of hours that you've put into Blueprints seems not that much lower

than the number of hours that have elapsed since you got access to blueprints. It seems like there's pretty close alignment there. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, that tells you all you need to know, I guess. So thank you, Matt, for just giving us a teaser

and maybe we will return to this down the line. I don't know, but I wanted to make sure that we got it in just so if people have not had this on their radar, probably your favorite games writer slash podcaster slash YouTuber, this is their favorite game too. So you're going to be hearing about blueprints a lot if you haven't already. I can't wait for everyone to get their hands on this. It's going to be really fun. All right. Hope we got you hyped for a few things today.

Hope I can get you hyped for a few more. by telling you what's coming up on the feed. It's still Daredevil season. It's still Yellow Jacket season. We'll have continuing coverage of those shows in the places where they've been covered up to this point. And we'll have other odds and ends. We'll have some Black Mirror coverage coming up on House of Ar. We'll have sinners on the Midnight Boys.

But really, it's the last of us season. We're going full court press to cover this show. This coming Sunday, the Midnight Boys will have their instant reaction to episode one up. Going forward, those might be on Mondays. We shall see House of Ar will. also have their deep dives on Mondays. And right here on Buttmash, Daniel Chin and I will be covering each episode on Thursday. So first thing on Thursday, we'll be covering the Last of Us season two from more of a video game adaptation perspective. So after you've had your fill of the non-spoilery

breakdowns of the TV show as a TV show, we'll come along a little later in the week and give you a different look. And then, of course, the week after next, and doors back, baby. So lots to look forward to lots of button mashing to come. And of course, you can contact us here at ringerverse gaming at gmail.com. Thanks to my cavalcade of guests today. Thanks to Devin Ronaldo for producing it all. Thanks to our junior rem pal for helping direct traffic. Thanks to you, as always, for listening. Enjoy your Minecraft memes, button mash. We'll be back next week.