The Ringer-Verse - The Switch 2, ‘Until Dawn’, and The Video Game Mid-off | Mint Edition

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

In this Mint Edition and Button Mash crossover, the guys talk all things Nintendo Switch 2! Later, the guys get into the latest video game to movie adaptation, 'Until Dawn' and more (31:00). Hosts: Jomi Adeniran and Steve Ahlman Guest: Ben Lindbergh Producer: Jonathan Kermah 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 BJ 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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Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tremfaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tremfair 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. They 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. Hello and welcome into the Ringerverse, your nexus feed for all things fandom. This is Mint Edition. I'm Steve Holman.

I'm Jimmy the Neran. And we are joined by the enforcer of the Ringerverse, our video game expert extraordinaire, button masher, but he's knee-deep in the last of us, so we actually doesn't get to talk that much about games. It's Benjamin Lindbergh. Oh, hi, guys. Yeah, it'll be nice to talk about video games,

or at least another video game adaptation from Sony and PlayStation productions, which is all I'm talking about these days. Exactly, and guess what? We're gathered here today to talk about many a thing. Is it a good thing? Well, we'll see. But we are talking about Until Dawn, the adaptation from the PlayStation's,

studios that was also many Ballyhooed about, but also we're talking about the Switch 2. Mainly the Switch 2 pre-order shit show, I think, is the clinical term for what went down

this Thursday, Wednesday, and into the early weekend. Hey, work fine for me. No complaints over here. Smooth sailing as far as I'm concerned. Everyone else, you're on your own. Of course. Every person for themselves when it comes to Switch 2. Tough.

Yes. Abinizo Scrooge is sitting up in his mansion with his Mario carts and his $500 cameras. Hording my switch. Of course. But today we're going to be talking about that until dawn. And kind of the lesser, you know, lesser exciting video game adaptations that we might have had that might have something redeemable about them, but we're calling it the mid-off. The things that we can say aren't good, but maybe we enjoyed to some degree. But before we get into all of that, some programming reminders from Mint Edition from us to you.

Tomorrow sets the beginning of a brand new show, The Midnight Munchies. We had a great time recording that with Charles. We're talking about eating mushrooms and all mushroom levels of things in honor of the last of us. One of the worst experiences of my life. Okay, I'd say one of the worst things that I had eaten and then just fine, not great stuff. No, legitimately some of the worst things I've ever put in my mouth. So I hope you guys enjoy the video. I'm sure you will.

A standard bear for that. And then next week, a big week once again, Midnight Boys are going to have you their instant reactions to The Last of Us right when the episode ends. So tune into that right when you're done watching the monumental season. As well as House of R having their deep dives on Mondays for The Last of Us. Midnight Boys are going to be doing their instant reactions to, and or once again as well as the Thunderbolts this week

and then button matches got their deep dives on The Last of Us from a gaming perspective. It's all covered. And Jomey, where can people find that on the internet? They can find it on the internet on Twitter, on Facebook, on TikTok, and on Instagram at Ringiverse. Make sure to follow, like and subscribe and comment and do all that stuff, man.

Like bump those numbers up. You know what I missed? You know what I forgot that we used to do, that we should really be bringing back, our secret comment, our secret YouTube comment. Oh, man. Also, we have comments on Spotify now.

So what's our secret Spotify? Do we have comments on Spotify? We do now. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. That's yet another great discourse that you can immerse yourself in.

That's not where I want to be. I try not to read the comments, but it's not hard. It's impossible because it's my job to read the comments. Right. So, like, YouTube I stay away from because I don't have to do that. And I'm like much better at staying away from the Reddit.

Right. But the Instagram comments, that's like, I'm like, well, got to make sure nobody's cussing nobody out today and things like that. And it can be hard sometimes. They do be heard in my feelings. Okay, quick 360 around the table. Ben, your favorite comment that you've ever read about yourself, go. Oh.

I think most of us, most of them have to do with memes that Van has created about me. Right. So I owe him, I think, for much of that. How you're basically the Shug Knight of the Ringerverse? Yes, my alternate persona or maybe multiple personas that I've developed here that are about as far away from my real persona as possible. That's where the comedy comes in. But I'm a big comment reader. I like reading the comments.

Unfortunately, everyone's always nice and positive and simple. So no issues there. Yeah. The nicest comment, I can't, there was once, I think I read one recently that was like, does Jumme have the deepest, most intricate takes? No, but he's fun to be around. And I was like, okay. But he's a good hang. I felt like you didn't have to add that first part.

You said I was cool. Yeah, right. Sure, thanks, man. You didn't need the most backhanded compliment I've ever got it. I've been, of the ones that I've been compared to, I think the ones that I've stuck with me is that I would look like Rachel Maddow, given glasses and a better haircut. Jesus Christ. But that's kind of the toughest one that really just sticks to your ribs and really makes you feel ready to do the next pot. But anyway.

I see a lot of Steve comps out there. People insisting that you look like someone. Like Joe Allen or something. Yeah, I've participated in that myself, I think. So I've contributed to the problem, the trends. Very true. It seems like you have one of those faces, maybe. I do.

I have one of those faces that isn't even really a face. It's just an amalgamation of many faces. It's like when the sim is set to zero and you have to, like, work and, like, build all of his stats from nothing. That's what you got to do. Right. You're like the Joseph Campbell, the hero with a thousand faces. It's just we see Steve everywhere. Well, along with seeing the Ringiverse everywhere, it's time to get into today's show.

You definitely didn't see the Switch everywhere. Very scarce. We had a bit of a shit show coming in from this Wednesday into Thursday morning. Switch two pre-orders went live for. some people, for scalpers for sure. Benjamin Lindbergh, you were able to successfully secure one along with, I believe, Matt James, if I'm not mistaken. We setting our workplace slack ablaze.

Pretty sure David Lara also copped one. Oh, did he. Oh, yes, he did. It was almost 100% it seemed like in ringer video game slack, which is not our most active channel, but of the people who were posting there, it seemed like we all left happy. Except for Steve. I mean, we'll see. there might be an avenue that's happening.

I actually cannot confirm as the people that I want it from. You cannot confirm or deny the existence of your switch to. Because I genuinely don't know. This isn't like I have knowledge. I don't know. We'll see where my money goes into the ether today. See, I'm glad you guys are having fun with this, man. Like this is real, like watching from a distance is real nice.

I can't get back in the pre-order fights, bro. I can't get back in those those trenches, man. I fought my war. I want it, I'm done. I'm never going back. I don't recommend pre-ordering in general. I don't pre-order video games. You've got to earn my money.

I'm not going to just buy it sight unseen, but a console, I will, because I'm obviously going to get the console at some point, and I want to make sure I get it soon. If only so, I can cover it on Butmash, for one thing, it's part of the job. Oh, whoa, man, can you express that? I mean, maybe.

I'll try. These will be off microphone conversations. since these will be off microphone conversation. What do you mean? Hold on. If that's what we're doing, then I might as well get a Switch 2 too, too. Yes.

If you can find one. I can cover on button, man. Spotify handing out three switches left and right over here. I like the way you think, Ben. You got a big brain, Ben. I like it. Seems like a work expense to me. It seems like I could make that case.

Hold on. Hold on. Let me make some calls. Hold on. We're going to make this work, man. Don't worry about it. So I am a proud pre-orderer of a Nintendo Switch 2. And yeah, it was kind of.

kind of a cluster. When is it not? I told you, Steve, I said if you're in the best by line, stay in line. And I did. Stay in line. Yeah. And I finally snagged one. I got lucky a little bit before 2 a.m. My time, which is fine, because until Don describes how late I typically stay up. So I would have been there at my computer anyway. And it came through. So for me, okay. But yes, certainly demand outstripped supply and outstrip the ability of certain websites to actually function. So there's kind of like a, yeah, it was like a choose your own fighter adventure sort of thing where we had various retail outlets and everyone's like passing the intel.

Oh, we need a re-up over here. They're out. We just, we got to, this, this site is starting. I had it in my card and then it just disappeared or the website timed out. That'll happen. When is it not like that when it's something that many millions of people want? As much as an invigorating rush as it is to maybe or maybe not get to spend $500 plus

dollars on a console that we're getting sight unseen. I actually kind of agree with you, Ben, that I'm also not a pre-orderer

because it's a bit of a better business practice and, you know, consumer etiquette thing that I like to have because, you know,

we don't know what the thing is. We actually don't know if this is going to be the right thing for us, but it's also very easy and susceptible to the hype

and the things that will, you know, excite us to get to play a new thing and to get to have this newest product as soon, as soon as it possibly can, even though we'll eventually buy it anyway for the same amount of price, if not more, later on.

And with games, they're just juicing it and squeezing any extra dollars out of the few that they can with pre-orders by having these artificial early access. Oh, you get to play it a few days before everyone else, which is really just you backdated the availability or front-dated it so that you could charge people a little more because they're desperate to play it a few days early. or just all the different additions and collectibles and everything. And hey, if you want something on your shelf, that's fine. But a lot of it is just kind of trying to extract as many dollars as they can out of people. And I'm more of a wait and see type. I mean, it's bad now because I remember when they first had this, they announced the Switch 2 and Mario Kart, World Tour or whatever.

And it was like, bet, this game and the concert will cost you $500. the game by itself is $80 and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What happened to my 60? Yeah, it's crazy that Nintendo themselves have scalpeled prices. This is what happened to the, what happened to the game I love, quite literally. Right. Inflation hits hard, but that was before you realized that you could just expense everything and not have to pay. But it's also that this higher price point for Nintendo games now is kind of going to be the hot button contention for

the value proposition of games going forward because we have Mario Kart, a world tour that's going to be $80. We have the new Donkey Kong that's going to be $80. And it seems to be all first party major releases from them. But then GTA is going to come out

and that's going to be $100. But people will pay for that. But I'm just saying, like, we are, the precedent has been set down. Exactly. It absolutely has. To where we now got to shell out $80, $100. Those used to be deluxe edition

special edition prices. If you wanted to buy Halo 5 and get the little collectible on the side with the skins and the special level or whatever, you would pay $80, you pay $100. Now that's just a regular base. We've got to fight back as consumers. We cannot let this disrespect slide.

See, but Ben, counter this point, though, what do we say to games that would either come out as either free to play or at a lesser price? but then would chill out a massive amount of DLC or add-on content or things that would add to, if not more than $80, something along those lines over the course of years of that game's shelf life. Is $80 a sensible thing if you're going to only pay that and then play it for a very long time? I'd rather pay a slightly higher price up front than just be microtransactioned to death.

And I'm not someone who's ever really going to pay for micro-transaction. I never buy stuff in games, but a lot of people are susceptible to that. I didn't buy the venom twerking skin and Marvel rivals. How dare you? No, I deprived myself of that. But not to be this guy, but I mean, we did have it kind of good for a while with the stability of the price point for video games because how many other consumer goods stayed the same price for decades, essentially, the way that video games did.

And I'm not any happier than you are that finally they have raised those prices. But it did seem in a sense like it's overdue. and that still the cost to entertainment ratio is not bad given how many hours of entertainment you're getting out of a video game compared to how much you're paying to see until dawn in theaters, for instance, right, for less than two hours of perhaps not the highest quality entertainment. So it was kind of inevitable. And yes, there are still many options out there if you just want to play budget games, indie games, free-to-play games.

And so I've sort of resigned to myself. a bit to it, but, you know, I am kind of concerned about, okay, how high will the ceiling for these things go? The other thing is that development costs have increased and inflated tremendously too. That's why games takes so long to come out these days. And so, in a sense, like your funding game development and this broken industry where people are constantly getting laid off, look at it as a charitable contribution, which it definitely isn't, because it's not necessarily going directly to the people who made the games. But yeah, couple that with... all the inflation and the tariffs

which come into play, of course, with Switch 2 and actual hardware. And there's just a lot of uncertainty. Yeah, we're cooked, guys. This conversation just told us we are extremely and utterly cooked. It might be over. There's no Switch 3.

There's no Switch 3. I mean, we'll get that when we're 70 years old. Yeah. It's just, we're going to be paying $100 for GTA 7 in 20 and 95. That's what it is. it's never been more over than it is right now. I mean, Jomey, you're not nearly as like,

maybe you're not embedded in the button mash milieu of needing to play the latest games all the time. Does the Switch to appeal to you right this very second to need to want to buy it, like, say, this calendar year? Or would you want to wait for something that's a bit more robust and coming up? Because I remember that when you said that you were trying to get the PlayStation 5,

at the height of COVID, we were all, like, scrounging, to find our way to buy that. Brother, man, it was a war, man. Like, I took me a month to get it, man. Best Buy sold me out. GameStop sold me out. Target, Walmart, you name it. It was not happening.

And it wasn't until one of those PlayStation things finally came through. I was in the Q, man. I sent over my $500 for the disc edition, man, and it changed my life. But I did that because I really wanted to play Spider-Man, Miles Morales on the PS-5. Right? Like, I had bought it for the PS4, but I was like,

if I get the PS5, man, playing in a super HD, you know, whatever. And, like, yeah, it was, it was great. And finally, like, have that moment. I don't know if, like, you guys would have to be, like, day one student following me during that saga, but it was, like, a whole thing, right? Yeah, no, no, you posed with it like it was Kobe in the shower. Yeah, man. With the trophy.

I finally had that moment, bro. It was special. For the Switch 2, what can I not play on my OLED Switch, that I need to switch too for. Maybe like three games. And that's not where I'm at. You know what I mean? I use my switch for the game nights.

You do the Mario Party. I play Life Estrange on there. Sure. And I might dabble in a portal here or there. Oh, and Mario Golf, obviously. That's it. That's it. That's it.

Yeah. I'm going to say that's the consolation. That's the silver lining. if you don't get one before launch day, and there's still more than a month to go, and there will be restocks and other opportunities. But I might not get a game on launch day other than Mario Kart, which is coming with the bundle that I pre-ordered,

Mario Kart and Wind Waker, which, of course, I played decades ago, and now can finally play easily again. Those are really the only things I feel like I need day one, because if you have a switch, as many, many millions of people do, or if you have other systems, then not a ton of exclusives to start with. Like, you want a Nintendo system for the first party games. And other than Mario Kart, there's just not a whole lot to go around on launch day. And then there's going to be a pent-up port situation where all the games that couldn't run on the original switch, because it was so underpowered, will make their way to switch.

And so if your lone system is Switch, then, okay, you get a Switch too. You can finally catch up on the past few years of gaming. But if you have other systems and you have a switch, you're good for a while. And I think maybe before the end of the year, there could be some surprise announcements. Maybe that 3D Mario that has not been announced, but obviously has to be coming close to completion. There's no way. I wouldn't be shocked if it's a holiday season game, but, you know, high hopes. But even say Metroid Prime 4, which will be on the original Switch 2.

But if you want the enhanced version, then you could get it for Switch 2. But yeah, I think for the first year, there aren't going to be that. that many must-haves other than Mario Kart itself, which, like, you know, the predecessor is, is one of the best Nintendo selling games of all time. So that alone is sort of a killer app system seller. And this is why I'm like, the Switch 2 might not see me,

I mean, maybe at some point, but at least for the foreseeable future, because I'm like, what? I was like, it's going to launch with Mario Kart, and then what? And then what? Right? Like, where are the exclusive?

I'm not doing console wars, right? I'm not re-we're not re-litigating that. But the fact that the whole thing with the PS5 has got no games, it's got no games. And now we look back and it's like, oh, actually the PS5 had games, Nintendo don't got no games. And we're not even going to talk about Xbox.

Yeah, but we keep forgetting that we're five years plus into the life cycle of that console now. But it not, but I mean, it didn't have games in 2022. It didn't have games in 2023. I'm just saying people we were lying about it We were absolutely lying about

PS5 for sure They were not looking hard enough For PS5 not having Or saying just to say PS5 Don't have games When Nintendo legitimately don't have games And every year we're gonna get a new port Of some game that we used to play

In 1998 or whatever And be like look hey look look look This is a day it is crazy to know That the most exciting things That like came from those Nintendo announcements Along with the Switch 2 Were games that were ported from the GameCube that people were very excited for.

Because the only people that could afford a $500 console, along with the games that they grew up with, are now the millennials that can only afford this. It's not being serious. It's not being serious. Look, again, Switch 2 is going to be great. We're all going to have a good time. I'm going to get mine and expensive just like, man.

You know what I'm saying? Steve, you can do it. We'll see. We'll see if the money goes through. Save yourself $500. All my money's tied up in Fortnite bucks. I can't. V-books.

In the Barbell's Rivals Battle Pass. Yes. You need that Emma Frost skin. Good God. You got to have it. It takes a while for a new system to build up a library of must-have games. And this latest console generation took a longer time to switch over to exclusives to this generation. It was just, you know, PS4 games on PS5 or cross-generation for a very long time because there was that big built-in install base of all the people who had those old systems.

So as a developer, as a publisher, you're thinking, I don't want to release this exclusively for a much smaller subset of people who have only the latest one. And then there were the supply chain shortages and chip shortages and that slowed adoption of the new consoles. So we've now finally gotten to the point that, okay, they're mature and they have large libraries. And if you're just getting on board now, you're going to have plenty of stuff to play. And obviously seven or eight years into the lifespan of the switch, there's a ton to play as well. but a lot of that will then be available on Switch 2 if you somehow skipped the Switch, which not many people did.

And that was one other point I wanted to make. There have been 150 million switches sold. Yeah. And of course, some people have more than one. But if you figure there's even a tenth of that demand right now for Switch 2, you're never going to be able to keep up with that demand. You're never going to be able to meet that. Like, when has a console that was actually desirable,

that had some hype that people wanted, been easily and widely available at launch or even in the first year. It just doesn't happen because there's no way to build up enough stock, really. And Nintendo had all the time in the world to plan and also reportedly may have even delayed the launch day for Switch 2 to make sure that they could build up a bit of a stockpile here. But you can only start so soon with that because if you sort of lock in your system specs several years before the system is going to come out, then it's going to be underpowered

and obsolete by the time it arrives. So you have to wait until closer to release to actually start manufacturing the thing. And then it just doesn't allow enough time, really, to build up enough that you can just say, yeah, everyone who wants one on day one can get one. So you hope that it's not a total nightmare. And it seems like they're planning for maybe 15 million or so sold this year, which would be more than the initial switch did. And hopefully some of the supply chain stuff has been straightened out since the last launches.

but you know it's always going to be a fight and a struggle for the first months or years. And this is the thing that always gets me going about Nintendo, because for the unprecedented success that they continue to have with their very unique and good consoles, I'll genuinely admit good consoles that people love, they can seemingly batter about all of their goodwill with higher prices, less than, than anticipated stock on launch day,

massive amounts of overhauls and changes to their online system, and ultimately not giving somebody their audience, like really what they want, and they'll still be successful. Yeah. That's really kind of, I don't think anybody else can really do that. Like, certainly Microsoft hasn't, like, they tried to make that gamble and they lost.

They, like... Lost is kind. Yeah, but, like, kind. But Sony has a level of product assurance that has a generated amount of goodwill as well as being competitively priced. I could buy another PlayStation right now

instead of buying a Switch 2. And I think somebody that I could gift that to gets more use out of it than what a Switch 2 gives me right now. Not to say that the Switch 2 doesn't have the level of lifespan that we could, but like we have already in like an outdated form of technology in the Switch 1

that will probably depreciate, I'm guessing even faster as the competitive marketplace for like handheld PCs and whatever Sony's next console is going to bring. My last thing for this is like, do we think that Nintendo is

going to be like a half step behind or are they just running in a different race right now? We want to play Mario Kart. We do. So they have us where they want us. Yeah. I mean, I think there is more competition as is

said from other handhelds. There's even talk of Sony and Microsoft getting into that game in addition to Steam Deck and all of its competitors. And then, yeah, it's a little less revolutionary, obviously, than the original Switch was because they've decided this is one of the most successful consoles of all times. So why mess with success? We're going to give you more of the same, more powerful. It has some other functionality and improvements, but it's very recognizably a switch, but better. And so, yeah, it's not going to just turn the video game world on its ear the way the Switch did. But as long as they keep up a steady supply of first-party games, which they've always done to some extent,

then they're going to be fine. And it seems like there's a lot of goodwill and intention to support the Switch from Microsoft and even you'll get Sony games because there's less of a console where there's less of a fight for exclusivity. You're going to be able to play a lot of those things on Switch as well. And PlayStation is raising prices for its hardware right now, too, what with all the the tariff uncertainty. So it's not like those things are getting a lot cheaper, even if they are available and have more of a catalog built up. I mean, generally across culture, if you're willing to

wait, if you don't have to play or watch or read or whatever, everything day one, you're going to save yourself a lot of money. If you don't have to be like popping a wheelie on the zeitgeist, if you can just get that book from the library or stream that movie or wait until that game is on game pass or it's used or whatever years down the road, you're going to be. pay just a pittance of what you would pay on day one, but we want to be in the conversation. We want to participate. It's kind of a communal experience. We want to experience the new hotness when everyone else is. And we want to support creators making things, which wouldn't be possible if we all just waited years to get anything. So that's why I will be picking up a switch on

day one, a switch two, if all goes well. I have a quick question. Can you actually watch Netflix on the Switch two this time? Or? Oh, God Because that's really important If you're going to pay $500 You gotta be able to watch There once You gotta be able to watch videos man

Like it's come on man What are we doing man What happened to the game I love, bro? PSP you couldn't We didn't have Netflix at the time But you can get the DVDs You know, or the little UMDs Man I used to watch Ice Age on that like crazy

Yeah What's going on? Netflix is not confirmed for Switch 2. So if your buying decision comes down to can I watch Netflix on Switch 2 then TBD,

maybe wait to pre-order. See now, it's tough out here. Again, it's really, because we're going to get to Unto Don, I promise. I promise. But this is the kind of

thought process that is just hustling backwards. You can use your PS5 or your Xbox as an entertainment system, right? Netflix, Hulu, all your streaming stuff. Right.

If the switch, if Nintendo just put Netflix and Hulu YouTube on there, you can run the game. Because now you can take, you can also take it on the go, right? You have like a little tablet thing. You can watch things on. You can play games with the whole thing. Like, nah, actually, this is just for Mario and Mario only. Again, it's the, it's the use case that Nintendo for some reason just has a lock on. Like, people will, it will be successful, regardless of the,

the things that it doesn't have. If it has Mario, if it has Smash Brothers, if it has all those things, that cachet is going to get you a successful console. Not only for now, but for years to come. It's kind of nuts. Yeah, Nintendo without Mario would be nothing, man.

They'd just be out there in the streets, dog. They need to diversify their portfolio. It's getting ridiculous now. Yeah, I mean, they are diversifying their portfolio when it comes to theme parks and movie franchises and everything else. But that's always been... Get ready for Chris Pratt in Volume 2.

Yeah. It's always been the blueprint for Nintendo. Just make good games. And that has served them well. That's put them in good stead for a few decades at this point. And to the extent that there is a console war anymore, they're not fighting that war on the same fronts anymore. Nintendo has sort of ceded that territory. They're not trying to make the most souped up hyper-powerful console with the greatest graphics.

They are very much behind the idea that the greatest graphics, the most Power doesn't necessarily equate to the greatest games. And if you want power, you can get that from a PlayStation or from an Xbox. And so you're not necessarily looking for that from a Switch. You do want it to be able to run like several years old games without crashing the system. And so Switch was feeling its age and Switch 2 is welcome in that sense. But even the day Switch 2 comes out, it's not like it's suddenly going to take the console crown for most powerful system. It's still going to be behind the others that we've been playing for years.

It's just going to be closer to parody. Well, well, good news, folks. Super Smash Brothers forever and ever and ever, 100 years. Super Smash Brothers, baby. And the pre-order email came in. We got it. We secured it. We secured it.

All right. That's good news. That's good news. We did it, Joe. We really did. You love to see it. All right. Let's move on until dawn.

But for right now, Let's take a quick break. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those WeatherTech seat protectors.

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Until Dawn All right Ben Known horror enthusiasts And scary game player We have the adaptation of actually a very like Well-beloved and

like kind of heralded classic PlayStation game Until Dawn adapted for movie theaters and for the silver screen starring Peter Stormair and a bunch of fun hot teens as they look for Clover's missing sister and they get into a bunch of horror-filled antics that aren't really well-explained

or needing to be extrapolated upon other than they got to make it until dawn. Harkening back to movies that might have been a little bit more well-received like Cabin in the Woods, Groundhog Day, things like that. Happy Death Day. Happy Death Day, exactly. Ben Lindberg, did you enjoy until dawn?

Mildly, I guess I would say. It kept me awake, which was touch and go. Did it? Oh, wow. Okay. I did fall asleep 10 out of 10. Okay, well, that probably speaks to the scares that you're going to get from this movie, which is not many, frankly.

And that's even as someone who is kind of a coward when it comes to scary. stuff. This is more of a Jessica Clemens movie than a Ben Lindberg movie in the abstract. But it held my attention, but that's about the best I can say about it. It was quite mediocre and felt

quite recycled and very much like an amalgamation of other horror movies that we've seen. And it's kind of interesting to think about it as a video game adaptation because this is a 10-year-old game that was remade and released last year.

And the premise for the game essentially was, what if we took a horror movie, a slasher flick, and we made a game of it? And we made it interactive. And we put quick time events and we had this butterfly effect system. So it was kind of a choose your own adventure. And your choices, in theory, at least, these things are always sort of oversold when it comes to video games. But in theory, at least, you can make choices that shape the narrative and determine who lives and who dies and all the rest. And so if you then strip out, that interactive element and you make it back into a movie. It's like a photocopy of a photocopy, kind of. It's like the premise of the game was to take a movie and make it into a game and what would it be like if it was interactive? And then we're going back to the original medium. So it's almost like uncharted to name another PlayStation port to movies where it was like, this is an homage to movies.

This is a love letter to Indiana Jones and romancing the stone and adventure stories. And we're going to make it interactive. and now we're going to make it into a movie again, and it's just going to be like a warmed over rehash of those things that it was originally a love letter to. So it's sort of an interesting premise to begin with. And then I think we could talk about just the way they went about adapting it

because it's an interesting hybrid, right? Faithful but also completely unfaithful to the original. And that's where I want to throw to you, Jomey, because I know that like faithfulness in this adaptation is not exactly like the most important thing, at least to me, but the way that this movie actively kind of plays in our face with how it isn't kind of adapting its source material,

I wouldn't say feels insulting, but it kind of actually kind of feels like taunting in a bit. What do you think about that? So here's what I'll say. To echo some of Ben's points, I think the movie does a good job of keeping you awake, which is... In that it is occasionally loud.

It's occasionally loud. Yeah, lots of loud noises. There are some interesting things when they explode, right? There are some funny bits, but they're too far and few between to actually, like, cohesively weave itself into, like, a good narrative with the characters and with the story and everything that's happening on screen at the same time. It has moments, but they are just, they don't happen enough to where you can sit here and say, like, wow, what a film, okay?

And I'm gonna just I'm gonna need a little latitude here, fellas. Okay. I've been thinking about this ever since I've seen this movie. And the more I think about it, the more I'm said I get. Movies called Until Dawn. It is based, allegedly, right, on the game that released in 2025, right? A game that stars Ram and Ballet. It released in like, I believe, 22.

The movie was out in 25. No, no, no. I'm talking about the game. Talking about the game. Until Dawn the game. Right. Released in 2015. 2015.

Okay. Yes. I thought you said 2025. Sorry. The game released in 2015 that stars Hayden Panettiere, Rami Malick, Brett Dalton, Agent Seale, shout out. Surprisingly, like, pretty stacked cast, honestly. The game has bigger movie stars than the movie.

A pre-Oskar, a pre-Oskarami Malik is actually kind of nuts. Jordan Fisher, Megan Martin, Nicole Sakura, like a whole bunch of people. Not unknown names. Also, Peter Stormier. Right? Yes. Mm-hmm. And it prizes his performance in the movie. Right.

And these characters, Hannah, Beth, Chris, Emily, Jessica, Mike, Sam, Josh, these are people that if you've played the game, you know, you're like, okay, cool, I know these people. They are not in this movie.

None of these characters outside of Stormair and a little sneak picture of Josh are in this movie. movie. It's a completely different narrative from the game in this movie. So, and this is- Nah, hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm not done. I'm not done. Okay. When you sell me until dawn, I want until dawn. So not that you're expecting Hayden Panetteer. No, I'm not expecting Hayden Panetteer, but I'm expecting Hannah, I'm expecting them to go to a snowy cabin. Right. Right. I'm expecting Hannah and

Team pranks to go out and run into the snow and disappear. I'm expecting a one year flash or flash forward to where they all go back to the same cabin. Josh tries to pull another prank. Some people die in crazy ways when it goes

and whatnot. And at the end head and penitier and maybe some other people are standing in front of a house on fire like, man, we survived until dawn. Right. Sure. And that's the level of an adaptation that like on paper it seems like to be the easiest thing that you could think of to do.

But it's not exactly. And they don't do it. They don't do it. They give me Clover and Max and four other people who I can't remember their name of because who cares. Right. And I'm stuck. The only things that they port over from the game to the movie are Dr. Hill, right? The little Josh paper slip that I mentioned.

Right. The Wendigo's, which barely show up, by the way, are only in the last 30% of the movie. Yeah. The clock, the sand clock thing. And then if you have to be eagle-eyed to know this, but one of the characters had a butterfly necklace on. And that's like the butterfly effect, the butterfly tattoo, that had a had.

There's like the mind collapse was kind of a commonality. And then like the history of that. And then I guess the masked killer, which you get in basically every slasher movie. but, you know, sort of similar looking. And, like, even though it's not the same sisters, there are sisters, and one of the sisters was lost, and the other sister is searching for her.

So, like, there's some DNA here in addition to the Dr. Hill character. And again, I'm not throwing it that bell, because imagine if you went into a God of War movie and Cretos was in it. And it was some guy named Jeff. And you imagine if you went into a freak, like, imagine the Minecraft movie. There was no Steve.

There was no, there was no, the portal. There was no chicken jockey. It was just a dude playing with blocks in his house. You'd be like, yo, what is this? That's where I'm at with this, man. Like, if you strip away, you just like watch a movie for what it is, like a five out of ten, if I'm like,

it's supposed to be until dawn, it's not until dawn. Y'all just slap until dawn on top of it. Do a little little references and let it fly. Don't, hey, don't piss me off. Don't disrespect. Don't disrespect me, man. And that's where I'm like kind of giving pushback, at least to the idea that like I can find minute levels of enjoyment

and I think that this really seems to feel like like a branding slap on the skin rather than an actual like anything like having to faithfully do with an adaptation of a source material. This feels kind of like a branding exercise with a couple of things that are a part of Until Dawn while another horror director is just kind of like trying to have his best type of fun

with a flimsy little premise that has a couple of fun kills. It feels like somebody had a horror script and they're like, man, this is good, but we only make IP movies. What IP can you attach to this? In other ways. Well, what if we made it an Until Dawn movie?

And you just stuck until Dawn on top of the actual title and called it in an afternoon. Yeah, there are aspects of it that's sort of like a re-skin. It's sort of superficial. And so I am curious about, yes, the steps that the script went through. And at what point was this always envisioned as an until-dawn movie? And was it more faithful at a certain point?

Like, the creators have said, well, we don't think there's a point in just remaking shot for shot, you know, condensing a 10-hour game into a two-hour movie. And I'm somewhat sympathetic to that. I generally, when it comes to video game adaptations, I don't want them to be the same because I've already experienced that. So I want some differences, but it has to retain some core. fundamental resemblance, or else it is just sort of slapping a name and a logo on something. And until dawn, I mean, it's not God of Wars, not Assassin's Creed.

Like, it's a popular game. It's a successful game. But it was not a juggernaut. It's not really a franchise in the way that some other things are where it's like, oh, we'll put the name until dawn on it and it will be the biggest movie in America. It's not quite that level of phenomenon as a video game. And so I do think it's really interesting that it's kind of caught in between. because it's not purely just

we'll take an unrelated movie and we'll put the name on it, but it's definitely not faithful. And just the core premise of the movie, the time loop is not something that's in the game. No, no. Until Dawn was about surviving till dawn one time. And like it wasn't about the...

Yeah, and it wasn't the lift, I repeat. It's like the movie is more video gamey than the game. Yeah. Because like, yeah, it's very much like a reset, you know, restart at your last save sort of thing and replay over and over again, which as the movie kind of acknowledges, is not a new idea. And it's also not an idea from the game. So it's really kind of curious that this is the approach that they took. It's so curious because while the ways in which this movie can have fun with itself lie in, it kind of breaking its own premise and characters

kind of relaxing and realizing how stupid everything is, but then it kind of just like sets back into place what it feels like it needs to do. I think this is a comfortable enough time that we can spoil a couple of things from the film because a couple of things that I genuinely enjoyed is when characters actually started to say that this is stupid and you're being stupid

and then continue to do stupid things. Yeah. And like, and I can't lie. Genuine jokes. When kids just drink the water and they explode, that's funny. I don't care. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you say.

And then the fact that that carries over into like the world logic while not being explained, I'm kind of okay with this. Speaking of things not being explained, there's a scene where the guy and his girlfriend, they're like, well, we don't want to leave, but we got to go get help. and they drive out into the... And there's this big old... Iron giant... Iron giant looking Sentinel from X-Men

Days of Features Pass. With red eyes and like... And I was like, yo. What the fuck is this? Oh, that looks like a big one to go. I can't wait to see him at the end of the movie. Never comes back. No idea what that was.

Never comes back, right? Yeah, there's no consistency in the threats, which I guess is good because they get to throw a lot of things at you. Like every possible way you can die. So it's not. repetitive, but it's also like hard to get a handle on how this universe works. Like the variety is there, but also, yeah, it's like you crammed every horror movie villain or enemy into this one movie. And I kind of thought it was caught in between in that sense, too. Like, not only is it a

strange blend of wholesale reimagining and direct adaptation, but it also a little like the Five Nights at Freddy's movie and maybe like the game until dawn a bit too, but it it uses those horror tropes in a winking way, but also wants to have it both ways, where it's not a straight-up, like, comedy or spoofer, satire, or parody or anything. It's just like, you know, it's not scream or even happy death day. It's just that the characters do things that characters do in horror movies. They go down the dark stairs into the basement. Exactly.

And they, you know, like, they split up constantly instead of staying together. And, like, every now and then it will nod to that, but it doesn't really lean into that. so it's kind of hard to tell, like, sometimes it's quite serious. And so is it a send-up? Is it a spoof? Or is it more just like, well, we know this is really unoriginal. And we are just recycling all these hard tropes. Every now and then, we will acknowledge that that's the case.

So we're like kind of in on it, but also not really. We are kind of just like making another one of those movies. It's so fascinating because when a movie tries to take itself that seriously, while also not being serious about the things that it should, all of it falls flat. Because it occasionally wants to be as clever as like a cabin in the woods where it's playing into all of these horror tropes and is being meta about the fact that it's in a horror story

while also commenting on that horror story. But it's not smart enough to actually allow itself to have that kind of fun. So then it then just reverts back to this serious, How can we catch a killer? Or how can we like survive the night while having these flimsy threadbare things of like, I only have two friends in my life or I'm missing my sister. By the way, the only reason that she's missing her sister is because she wanted to move to the big city. And she didn't like that.

That's it. It's not like I'm abandoning my family or anything like that. It's like I'm essentially going off to college. I have a question. If you and four friends got caught up in the world. woods and they were like, look, if what do y'all die, we can all leave. Are y'all letting somebody die? Or are you killing yourself so you can start all over? And that's such a more, it's like, okay, if somebody is actually as like noble to be like, it's fine, go. I'll save you. Like,

the line being like, I don't want to live knowing somebody else died for me. I'm like, that's like, I think I would go to sleep okay, actually. If there was like a big heartfelt speech of like, I love you, this is going to be a great, like, that's all you need to. to do? I got to be honest. I think I would be fine. Like, you know, I would say I would need some therapy. But I think it's like, damn, we lost, we lost Kevin out there, man. No, no, you lost, uh, Jomi, you lost me. I stayed behind. You stayed behind? Yeah, I stayed behind. You know what? Thanks for your sacrifice, Steve. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you for your service. Hey, good looks, my man. Are you doing anything

that switch to? I mean, I get back. Steve said I could have his switch two. He was like the last thing that he said. And then it cuts back to me being like, whatever you do, don't take my switch. They were like, no, man, we all got to die. If one person dies, we all got to die. I'm like, well, hold on. Let's talk about this. All right, well, now things get interesting. Let's discuss

this whole operation. The movie kind of gets bored by itself at a certain point where you see a number of the cycles where they try to survive until done. And then basically, you meet them many cycles later and they're like looking at clips on their phone of the previous cycles that

you didn't actually see in the movie. It's like, We knew you were going to get tired of this. By the way, dude filmed that all of those horrific encounters so very well. I mean, had pro editing software on his. Exactly. Yeah. I was wild. There was like a found footage aspect to it at that point.

The original game had like acting and writing pedigree, like people who were actually accomplished in the horror genre. And this movie directed by David F. Sandberg, like he has done good inventive horror stuff himself. Yes. But this isn't it so much. I mean, there is that scene toward the end where the main character Clover's in the minds, and she's got the flashlight with the red light blinking,

and the Windigo is like, every time it blinks, it moves closer. Yeah, and it's like right up on the corner and screams. That's like right out of the game. Yeah, it's like right out the game. And like literally I'm in the theater and I'm like holding my PS4 controller to like not move, just like the game, you know what I mean? But stuff like that is just, again, like, It's not there consistently.

And again, it's just not the game. So what I'm watching, I'm like, once you divorce yourself that this is not the game, it's better. I'm not going to say it's great, but it's like much more of an easier watch. But again, it's like, you know, you can't just slap until dawn on here and make me feel like, oh, man, there's when it goes. Until dawn, boom, you made it happen. What an adaptation.

It's not really an adaptation. Yeah, it's interesting that this can be made by PlayStation productions, which is co-making the last of us. And so the same production house and obviously working with HBO versus not working with HBO, different properties of very different and very different collaborators and everything. But there's no guarantee of a certain level of quality necessarily when it comes to an adaptation of a video game even at this stage. But a video game adaptation can be bad or mid without it meaning much, without us having to have the whole state of video game adaptations conversation every time,

does Hollywood know how to make these things? There are enough examples that say that, yes, it does, that when a movie's not good, that can just be because many movies aren't good. And it doesn't have to mean much more than that. Like, just this month, we had three video game adaptations, which tells you a little bit about the pace at which Hollywood is making these things. But, you know, they ran the gamut of moneymaking and critical acclaim. we talked about the Minecraft movie on Buttmash, which was sort of similarly meh, but obviously is a financial juggernaut.

And then, you know, devil may cry coming out on Netflix, which we saw some of it and weren't totally hooked initially. But, you know, it got good reviews and people generally seem to like it. And so there's sort of something for everything. And it could be a big blockbuster. It could be a horror movie. It could be an animated streaming, whatever it is. And the rest of the year, I guess the pace will sort of slow down. We have season two of Twisted Metal is coming soon, which I'm looking forward to.

Not terrible. Twisted Metal. No, not at all. I quite enjoyed that season. It was a pleasant surprise for me. But not a ton of huge ones on the horizon for this year. But there's just such a steady supply that, you know, if you don't like one, if one's bad, well, we'll wait for the next one. It won't be long.

Steve, you have a Minecraft take? Well, no, it was more of the fact that, like, you know, watching Until Dawn kind of gives you some perspective on the Minecraft movie and that there might have been like a bit more passion in one of those projects than the other or some, like, you know, more palpable uvra, you know, that we got out of the, out of a chicken jockey or, you know, or a lava chicken or something like that. I was about to say, I thought you're going to call the movie good.

I'm just saying people weren't getting kicked out of theaters because people were loving when that girl got slammed into the wall and until dawn. Yeah. That was funny. That was funny, though. That was funny. We got Mortal Kombat 2 and Five Nights at Freddy's 2, I guess, coming before the end of the year, too.

But see, at least Mortal Kombat has Sub-Zero and Scorpion in the game, in the movie. You know what I mean? True. But it didn't have Mortal Kombat in the first movie and the reboot. There was no tournament similar to Twisted Metal season one. No twisted metal tournament. They're saving those for the sequels in the second season. I sure hope so.

Yeah. But, yeah. Sure hope so. You think we're going to get rain in the second mortal combat? You know, rain, smoke. Damn. With Devorah, let's get, I mean, you got to get Sandel in there. Shaal Kami.

We need to, I mean, I think Shaqa was in the first one, unless he wasn't. But that was like, what, 2020? Who can remember that far back? I need everybody in that one, man. I need every single Mortal Kombat character. I need Jade. I want Kwan Chi. I want Kwan Chi.

I want Shang-sun. You know? Lock me in, brother. I need sector. Tribor. Smoke. You know? Smoke.

What's his name? Striker. There you go. You feel me? Every single person in the Mortal Kombat universe. I mean, say that for three. Listen, Sonic had a, it was long in the tooth before we got metal.

Man, actually, no, it wasn't. Hey, we got metal Sonic in the third episode. But you see what, but you see what I'm saying? You know, like, to your point about Minecraft and how they cared about it, bro, Sonic is the pinnacle of, we love this,

we love this thing so much. We're going to take care with these characters and with these films. The way that we, bro, if it was like anybody else, we would have been got Amy. We would have been got Metal Sonic. We would have been got Shadow. We would have been got like Big the Cat in everybody.

That would have been the third movie, right? But no, they're doling it out little by little. Until Don is like, you get nothing. You get nothing. You lose. You showed up for until dawn, and guess what? You'll get to this, we wake up this morning or whatever, a synonym front of the Donner.

Yeah, right? Like, it's just not what it's about. To your point, Minecraft and Sonic, even to the Mario movie to some extent, it's not as, like, daring as you would hope, but at least they were like, look, Mario is going to do Mario things. Luigi's going to do Luigi things, and it's going to be great. And we're going to be like, you're going to be going to put it on the screen and be like, I know this.

from somewhere, I recognize these characters and where they're at, what they're doing, and why they're doing what they're doing, it just doesn't happen for this movie like it does for Sonic, like it does for Super Mario, like it did for Minecraft. It just doesn't, it just doesn't add up. Yeah, it's not there. I do think the floor has generally been raised when it comes to video game adaptation. So, you know, this is not a good movie, really, but it's a professionally made, competent movie that will hold your attention for an hour 40 or whatever it is.

So I think even the bad ones now are generally better than the bad ones used to be. I'm aware that Borderlands came out last year. So I'm not saying that there aren't exceptions. Yeah, but generally the hit rate is higher and the bomb rates, the bombs just aren't quite as bad as they once were. But, you know, when you're talking about the mid-off, like, this is not a movie probably that I'll remember particularly fondly for any, like, specific aspect of it. I'll just remember it was fine. It was okay. But there are some that are not great that I think back on positively. And, you know, maybe like even the Mortal Kombat movie that the one coming out this year will be a sequel to, that wasn't like a great movie. But I thought that was fun. You know, that was fun. Like good effects. Like it looked good. It had the right tone. It was sort of silly.

You know, it was not quite like the original 1995 Mortal Kombat where it's like so bad it's. kind of just super corny and of its era and maybe you feel some nostalgia, but it's not actually like a good movie really, but that kind of movie where, okay, it's not a triumph. It's not cinema necessarily, but I had a pretty good time at the movies. Exactly. And I think that like with a brief little mid-off here, we could, I could probably think of a couple of video game adaptations that ultimately were not good, but I found things that I kind of enjoyed with them. I know that we like we should not remember

Prince of Perch the Sands of Time starring Jake Gyllenhaal. I sure don't. Jack Gyllenhaal. Yes, but wow. I liked the idea that they actually kind of just went for it with the whole time stuff and it was very bad. It was

very not good. But you know, I could respect the swing. It was that time of like the Pirates of the Caribbeanification before we had the MCU where we were like, what's the next swashbubes? Buckling X kind of a thing.

Like we could have like the Sherlock Holmes adaptations. Well that was during the Robert Donnie Jr. Revitalization. But it was that. And then I remember in Detective Pikachu, I didn't quite like that movie at all. But in the first like maybe five minutes,

there was like a magic of like just trying to catch a Pokemon in the grass and seeing that turned into a real thing that actually kind of like stirred something up in my soul. I like detective Pikachu. I don't know you're talking about. We should have been out of sequel. That's kind of fun. Yeah. I like that movie.

What's Ryan Reynolds doing right now that he can't do Detective Pikachu too? I think we got a bit more Marvel conversations to deal with with there. But I will say you about this. Of the nine Silent Hill movies that we got, I think the second one actually tried to really adapt Silent Hill 2 very, very poorly. But occasionally there would be a good shot in there or two where I'm like, oh wow, that actually, you kind of nailed it with this shot.

you kind of made it look right here. People didn't like the first Laura Croft movie? No, no. Made money, though. Angelina Jolie. Oh, man, that went playing. I'm at the crib. Did it?

Yeah. The Angelina Jolie? Yeah. Not the second one. The second one did not move, moved on needles. No. But the first one, hell yeah.

Where's your, she got the gun, two guns at the end of the movie? Yeah, that was fired. Those mid-2000s adaptations, you just, oh, da-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d. And you just got to wear cool sunglasses and guns. Hit Man sucked.

I'm just going through it right now. Hitman was terrible. Listen, I'm glad that Timothy Olifant gets the back, though. Good for Oliphant, man. That's not where it's supposed to be at. Need for Speed? Never saw that. I think that this was in Aaron Paul's kind of like,

yeah, bitch success and assent in Breaking Bad. Yeah. And we just kind of gave him some projects that just did not work. Kit Cuddy and Dominic Cooper also in the film. Hey. Tough. You know. Yeah, I mean, you guys didn't like Rampage?

Dwayne and Rock Johnson? Okay, so was this during the Rockassants that when, like, he was actually like he wasn't, he was on the cusp of overexposure. Like, he wasn't as overexposed right now, but we were like, okay, maybe we were drinking the mana. Maybe we, maybe we weren't annoyed with his Instagram usage right now. Yeah, I think that's, that's probably right on the money. It was 2018.

2018? Yeah, he was right on the cusp. Yeah. I mean, there's been, I mean, you know, we, I think, I think, I, I think, I, I, I think, I I think to Ben's point, like, we're coming up on a time where, like, it's better than it ever was. Because you go through this list, man. We really do have blessings nowadays. We really do.

We really do. Yeah. Like, there's like... In a world where Arcane exists. Oh. We used to have it all, man. We really did. We used to.

That happened like six months ago. But it's over now. Right. It's done now. You guys finish Halo? I mean, Halo finished Halo. That's all the matters. Yeah.

Man, remember when we had to watch season one, Steve? Remember that? I was there, too. Yeah. So it was, his thing, it was cool when Master Chief was on screen, but then he wasn't for like after show. They were like, we need another character other than Master Chief. Yeah, that was another one where it was like, Halo,

but we won't actually show you Halo for the entirety of the first season and much of the second. Right. This is like, okay. And not to get all. Halo nerdy. This is pre the fall of reach, right? Correct. And if you go show us anything before the fall of reach,

give me Noble Six, right? Give me Jorge. Give me that. I'm not really, it's cool that our guy, Maxis team, is out there with this little girl trying to make sure she get home safe and protect her. But that's not really. If we're going to do

anything pre-reach, I don't need to see Chief take off his helmet and stare into the, like, the abyss. I don't need that. Here's what I'm going to say. There are six Resident Evil movies. There's a lot of Resident Evil movies. That's so many.

Look, shout out. You know what I'm saying? Get your badge. Get that money. No, truly. And honestly, I kind of have a fun time with almost all of them because they're so ridiculous. When Resker comes in and like, it's one thing to dodge bullets and movies. But the way that

Wesker dodges bullets and movies is actually the most hysterical thing in the world. Welcome to Raccoon City. That's the latest one? I believe it was the final chapter, Resident Evil, the final chapter. Oh, man. In 2016. Oh, but they got, oh, I guess it's a reboot then.

Yeah, yeah. I never, I never, reboot territory. I never watched Resident Evil's because I love myself. But it seems like there's a lot going on, maybe too much going on in this certain, like, adaptation avenue. I don't know. Sometimes Schlock can be good. Oh, whoa. Did you hear that from Steve?

Because when I'm like, I'm excited for Jurassic World. I didn't, I haven't, I haven't, I, I haven't, I, you absolutely. Hey, listeners, go back to the podcast where I got excited. Oh, you weren't saying chaos theory? For Jurassic, no, no, no. Jurassic World, uh, nothing, what's the new one? I can't. Not Dominion?

Not, of course not Dominion. What's the new? Aftermath? No. Shady aftermath? Rebirth. Rebirth. Right, there we go, rebirth.

Jurassic World Rebirth. I got excited for Jurassic World Rebirth. The Steve was like, how dare you? get excited for a dinosaur film. And I was like, listen. I did say those exact words. I'm like, yo, I don't need it. First of all, it's probably going to be bad.

But there's a chance. There's a small chance that it could be fine. And I'll take that. Right. I will take that 10 times out of 10. Right? Despite the fact that Jurassic World, Dominion, and Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom are probably two of the top five worst viewing experience.

It's the thing, Jomey. It's the things that you reserve your hope for of this precious resource of yours, your hope, and not putting it elsewhere. To put it still in the Jurassic World bucket. As opposed to what? I don't know.

The thing about hope is that you need it. The stock market? I don't like you. But the thing about hope, you can't, hoping good things that make any sense because you know those things are good, right? You hope. You wish.

You wish. You hope that this. thing gets better. If I know, for example, it's one thing to have, like, to be like the 2016, 2017 Warriors, you got Katie, you got Steph, you got Clay, you got Dremont. I'm not hoping that that team wins a championship. I'm not hoping that they win all the games. Obviously, that's going to happen, right? I hope that the Jurassic World franchise that hasn't been good in this century, if I'm being completely honest, outside of, like, chaos theory is probably the best thing that they've made since the original Jurassic Park movie, bar none.

It's crazy to say it out loud, but when you think about it, when you think about it, in this century, it's the best, it's the best Jurassic World content that they've made, right? And so you hope that rebirth can kind of rebirth some life into the Jurassic World franchise. Right? That's what you, that's what you hope. for. That's why you need hope. I can't hope on like, man, I hope of, you know, Superman is good, even though it's like unproving. You're like, Superman going to make money. Superman probably going to be solid. It's James Gunn. You know these things. Like, it's probably going to be cool.

There is a chance it couldn't be, but for the most part, you feel confident in that. I don't feel confident in Jurassic World Rebirth. That's why I got to have the hope that is good. Last thing I want to say, Jomi, while we're talking about video game media, we have discussed this on two podcasts previously. So just to tie a bow on it, close the loop. Yes. Our beloved mythic quest was canceled. Oh, my God. No season five, RIP.

And what they decided to do because it was canceled was re-edit the finale that we were so upset about when we last talked about it on button mash. They kissed, two characters kissed, Poppy and Ion kissed. We were betrayed. We were angry. We were up in arms. And now it's like it never happened. They have re-edited the finale so that they hug instead of kiss. The original finale is no longer even available on Apple TV Plus.

So it's just a favorite dream. I'm going to fix wolves. They did. It's not canon anymore. It's like, I guess, you know, you make out with someone and you both regret it the next day. You pretend that it never happened. That's what they did to Mythic Quest. And maybe that was the plan all along.

Maybe these characters come back in season five and they say, oh, we made a huge mistake. Who knows? And maybe this was just a desperate bid to get a renewal by putting some new storyline in there. And I guess I'm not mad about it, ultimately. I'm upset. I'm pissed. Don't do that.

I'm upset that they ever did it in the first place. And I'm sorry that it's canceled. But I'm actually kind of glad that if it had to end, that they had shot this footage so that they could say, never mind false alarm we didn't actually do that because I don't want the show to end on that note yeah I'm with I'm with like we won't forget that it happened

we know it happened yeah but okay but now this they retconned it out of existence Mandela effect now if I'm like I tell my kids like yo poppy and I ain't kissed at the end they're like no they're not I just watch TV yeah you're lying that didn't happen right they're gaslighting us

yeah no no no stand two toes down on it two toes down 10 toes down on it. I'm going to cut off eight of your toes. And you need to stand on both of them, right? Yo, you did it.

Back it up. Yeah, they kiss. That's how the series ends. Tough luck. Boom. You know what I mean? How many shows on Netflix have ended on a

Santa Clarita Diet? You know what I mean? And it's just kind of like, man, that's tough. I would have liked to see the story continue. Don't what's out on me now. Right?

You made the call. to have these two characters engaged in a moment that you told me what never happened, stand on business. Yeah. Come on. It's basically what Netflix did to 1899, that dark spiritual successor.

And they're just like, this will have three seasons. Sorry, not that many people watched it, so you get one. Have some pride. Stand up for yourself. There's nothing to be proud of.

I'm okay that they're ashamed of what they did. No, no, no. They heard us on that mesh. They said, lesson. Backseys what I'm doing. But it's also that interesting weird relitigation thing that we live now in the streaming era where things

will be cut short like sooner than the creatives actually had time to even relitigate or fix things in a second season. Who knows what could have come after that kiss? Who knows what would have come after the consequences of that finale? And in a second

season or in the next season they might have been able to either write the ship or make something interesting out of that happenstance. But instead, they're like, well, we messed up. All of you hate it. So we get to change it. And now we get to act like nobody else said anything. I think it was, I think it was more because it was canceled than because there was a backlash. Like, I'm sure they had this in the can knowing, okay, like, if this isn't going to go anywhere, then let's not end with this very jarring moment, not being able to tell the rest of that story. I don't want like creators to be cowed into changing their creative decisions because people were mad at them. I want. them to have the courage of their convictions and tell the story that they want to sell, tell, and maybe they can sell us on it. But in this case, because the show is over, like, I think that's why they did it more so than, ooh, we touch a hot stove and we're pulling back. It's just, well, we're not going to get a chance to show what this would have

looked like and what would have happened afterwards. So let's not even just inject that at the last second. I think they film both and we're like, you know, you go into the edit room, me go, like, what makes sense with the end for these characters? And then you go with them kissing. And then when it's all like, oh, we're not coming back, we don't want to leave on a cliffhanger.

So if people come back and watch for a season of the show, and they're not, like, mad at the fact that now they kiss and that storyline isn't, uh, doesn't go anywhere. They just hug. And it's like, okay, they made up their friends now. And that's how the series ends. Think, like, if I'm being logical about it,

That's probably how I went down. But, eh, I'm not really that. I don't want to be that nice. So I'm upset. Okay. Be better. Exactly. It's my take.

Be better. And that's going to do it for us. We did it, guys. In addition, what a show. What a wrap. What a show. What a great time to talk about video games. What a time to be alive.

We have Switch 2s. We have Switch 2s. We have Switch 2s. Peacemakers is coming out on August 21st. It's all great. Amen. Amen, brother. Thank you so much for listening.

That's going to do it for us. Don't forget tomorrow. That's the beginning of Midnight and Munchies. And next week, Midnight Boys, talk about The Last of Us on Sunday, the night, the moment that the episode ends. Tune in for that. House of Our Deep Dives on Last of Us on Mondays. We've also got Thunderbolts coming up. We've also got Andor as well.

Button matches talking Last of Us as well. Tune into all of that on the Ringervor's feed and the House of Our feed. We're produced. That's the great. John Kerma. an additional production from Arjuna Ramgo Pal. Jomi, do you want to take us out? I will take us out.

Thank you, Ben, for coming on. We really appreciate it. Anytime. My pleasure. Love a good, what's called, Mittmash. Mintmash. Love a good mintmash. Shout out to our intrepid producer, Mr. NM.1, on a call sheet himself, Nikola Kermchich.

And we will see you guys next time. B, Bop, Bop, Bop, Bop Bap Bap B Bap B B B Mario Kart. Well, Mario, again, that's y'all playing Mario Kart. Yeah. I'm going to be at the Kriking playing something, literally anything else. I'm going to play as a little cow. You're going to play as a cow. Do you ever have to unlock the cow?

I'm imagining that you just get the cow. You just get the cat. Well, because, I mean, sometimes you've got unlocked characters, right? What happened to that? We don't do that no way? What happened to? Micro transactions for the cow. What happened to cheat codes?

We have to pay for cheap. What if the cow's his skin, though? No, it's not just unlike, what if it's his skin? Or toot? What if it's a leather? It's a leather.