Video Gamers Podcast - Best Gaming Duos of All Time - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

Who are the best/iconic/coolest gaming duo’s of all time? Gaming hosts Michael, Paul and Josh go head to head in a gaming tournament for the ages. We pick teams of four video game duo’s and then argue in a tournament style bracket as we pit them head to head to see which video game duo reigns supreme in this can’t miss episode. Thanks to our LEGENDARY supporters: Gideon Is Lit, Toro, Scrump, Gaius, Remi, MarbleMadness, Dr. Catatonic, Blackstar (DQ), Glapsuidir, Phelps, Michele B, Redletter, Nevo, Waynerman, TFolls, AceofShame, Jake, RangerMiller, and Ad Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/multiplayerpodcast Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/multiplayerpod/ Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/MultiplayerPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q  Visit us on the web: multiplayerpodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hello, fellow gamers. Welcome to the Multiplayer Gaming Podcast. Today we have a very special draft and tournament on this episode to discover who will be crowned the most iconic gaming duo of all time. Should be an absolute blast. I am your host, Paul. And speaking of iconic duos, I've got quite the duo joining me here for this episode. Coming up first, I admire him because I know how much he loves the iconic food duo of chocolate chips and mint ice cream. It's Josh. Oh, yeah.

I was going wrestling duo there, but you are right. I thought that was the Kool-Aid man. Yeah, I thought it was Kool-Aid. No, that was more Macho Man, but that might be before some people's times. Randall Savage. That's a good Kool-Aid man, too. Funny take, Paul. I actually really do love mint

chocolate chip ice cream. However, I hate mint flavor. So figure that one out. I know. I remember we got into a little bit of an ice cream debate. You and I are big fans of mint chocolate chip. And joining me and Josh, he's the man whose favorite food duo is vanilla ice cream and vanilla ice cream. vanilla ice cream it's michael i just funny thing is i actually like the flavor of vanilla ice cream and i like the flavor of vanilla too it's crazy yep there you go all right so before we jump into this draft and tournament we have just a little bit of housekeeping josh do you want to tell the people our very special announcement here today? I love these announcements, guys. I love them so much.

We have a new legendary supporter. Gideon is lit. Hashtag legendary. It's actually his name, but man. He is also lit. Yeah, he is also lit because he's our latest legendary supporter. Thank you for the support. Gideon is lit.

Long time member in our discord a little bit of a lurker for a while definitely has chatted before but just all of a sudden said something popped in with the the legendary name um you know and uh he's already picked out his game for us to play so he said he's we don't need to hide it so it is going to be a game that many people have requested us to cover. It's going to be Ark. So I know my daughter, my daughter, who is a huge Ark fan is finally like, yes, you got to play Ark, dad. But you know what? Gideon wanted to support the show from listening for a really long time. If you were listening to this and you're like, man, I've been listening to you guys for months now or a year's even, and you think, hey, how can I keep this thing floating? Head on over to

MultiplayerSquad.com. Be Like Gideon is lit, or many of the other supporters of the show. You can pledge over there. It really helps us out. It starts as little as $5 a month. You get a ton of perks. This is money very well spent, not only for you but for us as well so head on over multiplayer squad.com i mean even better than the perks that you get we actually like you more that's a big deal it's one of the big one of the big perks of it yeah and you know we we i would say other than maybe minecraft arc has been the most requested game for us to cover. So we are going to dive into that here in the next couple months. We have a very full schedule of new games coming out. So that one, I don't think we'll be able to cover until late June, maybe July. We'll kind of have

to wait and see where it goes. All right. So let's get started with this draft and tournament. In case anyone out there has never heard this one before michael do you want to tell the people a little bit about how this works indeed this is an episode of pure lunacy one might say basically we come up with a topic either someone suggests it in our discord chat or we just kind of round robin ideas and pick one but we essentially decide on the topic and then we go to war with each other we uh have like a draft style like nfl style tournament like draft essentially like one person with the first pick they'll say who they think the best is of this topic or what the best is of this topic and then we'll just kind of go back and forth in a steak draft format so it goes you know i think this today it's gonna go josh

myself then paul then paul myself then josh then that repeats. And then we argue about it once we do our draft. And we come down to the one list item standing. And today's draft is the best gaming duo. So the best pair of things, people, places, or sentient items in gaming. And we'll see what it is. And then after this is all done done it will be in the canon and annals of time for all gaming what we say will be the best duo in all of gaming and it shall be heralded from mountaintops for the next thousand years and for best gaming duo we did decide there

was one duo that we needed to ban because if you're talking about Most Iconic Duo, there is a clear answer. We never agreed on this. Josh. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We just agreed we trolled someone picked it because it's so vanilla and boring. You guys said we should ban this. And I said, I have the first pick, you dorks. I'm not agreeing to ban this. That's not how I remember it going down josh i i thought i thought we agreed that mario luigi are never in agreement but you know what i don't need them i'm gonna win anyway so

fine mario you know your band but i i would like to point out that the next time there is a tournament where there is a clear first choice and one of you has the first pick i'm gonna be like no we're banning the character oh no i i didn't think we were banning it i just thought it'd be boring if somebody liked mario and luigi like it's iconic wipe it off the board because i got so many good picks tonight i don't even need mario and luigi and actually that solves a dilemma that i was having so well there you go they are going to be off the table so yes josh you get the very first number one pick here in the draft. Who are you going to take?

He's about to pick whatever I was going to pick when he took Mario. Well, I was going to pick Mario and Luigi cause I want to win. Um, even though that would be the lame choice, um, take Mario and toadstool or, you know,

doing that. Mario and Waluigi. You know what? Since we, since we suddenly tried to throw a wrench into my first pick, it's okay, boys, because I'm prepared. If it's not Mario and Luigi, I'm picking Joel and Ellie, baby, from The Last of Us.

This marks now the second time Joel has been the number one overall pick in a draft. I believe I took him number one overall in the Best Dads draft. So Joel is living large in this. I believe I took him number one overall in the best dad's draft. Yeah. Joel is living large in this. I will say now that I have seen the show and know more about the games, Joel is a terrible. Oh,

he's a great father. He's a flawed human, but he does his best kind of liar. If you want your daughter protected during the uh fungal apocalypse joel's your man i'll just say that that is true that is true i i do recall picking kratos as best dad and you trolled me for that being like he's a horrible father yeah yeah well you know what same class if you want to be protected then there you go but. But now Joel and Ellie, I mean, you know, all joking aside, you know, the last of a series is beloved. It just released on PC. Now there's

some issues with the PC port, but now people that never got to play the games before are getting introduced to the first game. And then obviously the HBO series has just been a phenomenal success. Lots of people understand the dynamic between Joel and Ellie more now. I think that it is the clear 101, and I am very happy to now have that on my list. And who doesn't love Pedro Pascal? Exactly. Yeah. I'm very happy you picked that because you fell for the recency bias trap that will not win this draft for you because my pick is actually the best duo in gaming and i'll explain why uh first of all let me just say my pick is kratos and atreus right okay um the reason being is because so many things that you as a listener are going to hear

and yes i'm talking to you listener uh not the people who vote for this uh which is josh and paul but uh is the reason why this is the best is because so many of these people on this list are going to be either great combos in either story or combat. But on my entire list that I came up with, Kratos and Atreus complement each other with both. And they're one of the few shining elements of that because they have a great story, father and son relationship, dynamic. You see them grow up together uh you know in both kratos's emotions or emotionlessness but you know and then also of course you see atreus grow up but then you you know you go into god of war ragnarok and you get to play more as atreus and

you see that like it's a breath of fresh air every time you play with the bow it's different from the combat and you look forward to switching from one character to the other and they complement each other so perfectly and that's why it's better than joel and ellie which is basically just a story element there's not much difference in combat just shoot things uh you have to boost ellie on top and she drops the ladder every now and again that is true let me play as her late in the game yeah how very uh a way out of us yes give me a boost. I love that you accused Josh of recency bias and literally choose the duo that literally

was not all that fun in the first God of War, or not the first, but the reboot God of War. But yeah, Kratos and Atreus, I like it. It's a good pick. I acknowledge it, though. It started with story in the first one. The second one solidified it as like, this is really a solid combo. All right. I like it it pick now comes to me i get to go back to back last pick of round one first round two i'm worried

i'm worried about paul having back-to-back picks right here this is a good spot to be in this draft yeah all right with my first selection here i am going to draft luke skywalker and yoda no i'm just kidding i just wanted to set off the door i thought about having that that's a joke is this for real i love that michael gets mad anytime we draft yoda in one of these drafts and i was like i'm gonna work it in just to see michael's response i think it's more vader but yeah okay i'm gonna go with captain picard in the starship enterprise I'm walking away with this draft. All right, with my first pick, I knew I was going to be taking Arthur Morgan. The question is, who do you pair him with?

Because there are so many good combos. And I landed on Arthur Morgan and John Marston. They are two of my all-time favorite protagonists. I absolutely love how Red Dead 2 fully informs how John became the man that he is in Red Dead 1. I love both characters very deeply. I love the emotional journey, the character development. I love Red Dead 1 and 2. I had to go with that duo here. You know, what's funny is I also had an Arthur Morgan dilemma that I will just mention real fast because I'm not going to pick it, but I picked Arthur and Dutch because of just the tragedy of it. And I had Arthur and Dutch on my list. It was at the bottom of my list. That was one of my dark horse picks. I didn't think one of you guys would go for that

so early. It is a great combo. That's not to say it say it's not but yeah it was on my list as well i will also fully say i am not playing this draft to win i am playing who i think are my personal favorite duos me versus you josh and dutch sucks you know i was there's no way i'm gonna draft dutch unless it was dutch and micah bell and then i guess they're both still on the table i guess that that i think is a better one to take than dutch and paul just takes dutch and micah Bell. And then I guess they're both still on the table. That I think is a better one to take than Dutch and Arthur. Paul just takes Dutch and Micah next. Right. I very well could. I wouldn't be above it. Get all the Red Dead franchise out of the way right now. Let's see. Man, there are so many good duos. All right. I'm going to take a duo that is a game that we have done a deep dive

they are both very fascinating characters they are a very good team of detectives no that work together you're taking this with your second pick oh man oh i almost took it with my first pick such a big one man give me detectives harry dubois and Kim Kitsuragi from Disco Elysium. I knew it. I was like, dude, I'm going to take them in the third round because neither one of you is going to take them that early. But they should go that early. Yeah. Oh, man.

My mom just texted me today and said I bought Disco Elysium. And I'm like, good for you. Yes, because that's how much I talk about this game. Like like great choice it that is one that this is what i love if you go on to any of the you know google uh best iconic gaming gaming duos you do not see kim katsuragi and harry dubois on any list anywhere and they are this is this is why gamers know, man. Gamers know. That is a phenomenal duo of characters. And anybody that has played Disco Elysium understands how awesome that dynamic is. I'm really upset, Paul, that you took it so early because I really thought that it was going to fall to me when I get my back-to-back picks. And now it's gone.

That duo is criminally underrated simply because not enough people have experienced that game and i'm telling you all right now if you have not played that game go play it it's called disco elysium i don't know if we mentioned that yeah yeah we mentioned a few minutes ago yeah go go go pick up disco elysium i will say also one of the reasons that they make such a good pairing is that they are very opposite in a lot of ways. Harry is like a bigger, thicker man. Kim is very small and thin with glasses, and they have polar opposite personalities. Harry is basically an absolute lunatic who can't remember anything from the day before, engages in drugs and alcohol freely freely kim is as straight-laced as they

get but over the course of the game i will never forget one of my all-time favorite moments was when kim is answering to harry's bosses yeah and kim is is relaying everything he's seen from harry over the course of the game and he's like he ran around with one shoe for three days. He randomly talks to animals and inanimate objects. But he might just be the best detective I've ever seen. And to me, that was that moment where I was like, this is an iconic duo. I love how these two mesh and work together. So yeah, Harry and Kim are now off the table. And we are now headed back to Michael.

I almost cried at that moment of the game. Because I wasn't sure where it was going to go and it was such a great uh great uh you know what is it when you wait for something for a long time and then it comes not a reveal i'll come back to that word we're gonna come back to that word payoff there we go that took a while took a while to get there didn't it all right my next choice i guess is going to go with the one that i i have to i can't wait on this one because i i don't know if you guys are going to pick it it's not going to win this is a personal I have to... I can't wait on this one, because I don't know if you guys are going to pick it. It's not going to win. This is a personal favorite of mine, but it has to mention

that Marcus and Dom perhaps could win the entire thing, simply because the fact that in Gears of War, the game that basically paved the way for co-op cover combat games, these two have to make the list. And it's interesting because in such a combat-heavy game,

it's so rich with just a little bit of story element but on it you know you get dom's tragic story that unfolds at the games which would be almost impossible for anyone to bear and his one-shouldered crayon is marcus phoenix a guy that has the demeanor of a log of wood that just spews profanity basically has the empathy of nothing but somehow does get past his gruff and emotionless side and shows that these guys are really brothers throughout the first three Gears of War games and I just cannot think of a list that includes best gaming duo that does not have these two on it is Dom really in the first three Gears games yes wow see I haven't played the first three and then

no more I have not played any of the gears games since they very first released and in my head i thought he was only in the first game so my revisionist history has really screwed up that story because i i did have it on my short list but i thought dom only lasted one game with marcus i didn't realize i think it's three isn't it because coltrane became so in the forefront? No. So the second game was with Dom. The heavy story is Dom and his wife.

Well, Maria, I love you. And then he has to shoot her. And Marcus is like, Dom, quit messing around. And it's like, that's it. And then the third game is the game. Great Marcus. Yeah, right. And then the third game is when you get Gary Jules' Mad World, which if you watch it now, it's hard to watch because it'll still make you cry,

even though it's really rough polygons. The graphics are not that great anymore, but he does die in game three. Is Gears of War just criminally underrated because the game's kind of tapered off? Yes. Maybe. Honestly, I think so. It was a phenomenal series. The first two, I think, maybe even three. I don't remember three very much, but I do remember the first two, and those games were great like the first two or i think maybe even three i don't remember

three very much but i do remember the first two and those games were great first two were phenomenal yeah after that is when like the side characters they started doing prequels and stuff in four um yeah i never played past the third one to be honest with you marcus and dom was on my list michael i don't know that i would have taken them but i definitely thought about them as well i had to take them just because like they but like the the importance of the game and the duo aspect of that game was too important for me to leave off early all right josh finish off round two and take us into round three oh boy i'm so happy right now you guys i got two there's three duos here that I would be more than happy to have. I'm going to get two of them. And I'll tell you what, I'm going to go... These are so good. Okay. The first one.

This is... If you have played these games, this is easily the most recognizable game duo that exists because it's in the name of the game the name of the game is literally the two characters and they are inseparable through wait wait let me guess is this uh ratchet and clank is it banjo and kazooie is it jack and daxter no it's banjo kazooie man because there's so many get out of here with the jack and daxter and the the uh the what's the other one? Ratchet and Clank and all that stuff. Banjo-Kazooie is the OG partner game. This game was so good. My wife loved this game, man. We played this whole thing together. Banjo-Kazooie, literally when we came up with this, Mario and Luigi was the very first duo that all of us thought of, which is why we said, hey, let's just wipe that off the table.

And legitimately... We just wipe that off the table. And legitimately we said, wipe it off. Yeah. We said, I, I, you know, that was my, right.

Cause I wanted this to be a fair, a fair tournament here. And then everyone rewind 10 minutes. And then literally Banjo Kazooie was the very next like combo that came to mind. Was it the best combo? I don't know. Probably not.

Cause I picked Joel and Ellie, Was it the best combo? I don't know. Probably not, because I picked Joel and Ellie, which is the best combo. But Banjo-Kazooie could not be a better combo when it comes to video games, man. It's a good pick. The biggest issue is I never played Banjo-Kazooie. You missed out so much, man. That game was great. It's one of my wife's all-time favorites also. She loved it. I think if I ask my wife, that's up in her top three games ever to be honest. Nice.

All right. And then my next one. Guys, I'm happy all around. This is an easy one. It's Master Chief and Cortana. That was my next one. Because what a phenomenal gaming icon. They're iconic. because what a phenomenal gaming icon. They're iconic.

The story between them is emotional. You know, I mean, there's just, it continues through the whole series. Let's be honest, there's a ton of history there. I think Halo Infinite did a fantastic job of giving you more insight into their relationship too, which is kind of cool. So we have like a recent kind of look into that also.

But man, Master Chief and Cortana, absolutely top-notch. Iconic gaming duo. That one is where I should have gone instead of Gears of War, but I was really scared Gears of War Dom and Marcus was not going to fall to me. But that's what I do all the time in this show. But I feel like you've had like seven picks already. I'm like man i've only had three but they are the best three so that's i think that's what you're going for

michael with three good ones they're all my list except for banjo and kazooie because i did it's just banjo kazooie not banjo and kazooie but banjo and kazooie is who is who you picked though like it's the characters that's true i guess yeah all right coming back to you michael your third pick what you're going with i'm gonna have to go with the obvious choice for the one that i want here which is laura croft and her ridiculously two oversized handguns wait they're not sentient never mind scrap that one okay um i'm gonna have to go with i you know you're gonna i thought you're going something else i did did too. I was like, we're going to edit this out. I wasn't going to spell it out for anybody, but it might have been there.

Two triangles. We talked about the polygons. Oh, polygons. All right. So I'm going to have to go with Nate and Sully from Uncharted series. Oh, I love it. Josh isn't going to vote for it because he's never played Uncharted. I've never played it. Like a dope i know

what a good combo i just i i have not played enough of these games i think we've talked about i've probably played a total like four hours of two of the games but i know enough about the characters they make every list and i just i'm not gonna win this one anyways so it's like just put it out there almost a father-son relationship with them you know sully's sully's always right beside nate you know keeping them alive but the most important thing about that is they have this loyalty that i think is unmatched in other games um they don't always see eye to eye but you know sully's caution with nate's ambition just works really well and there's so many of those games like they they have to be on this list so and you know laura croft's guns aren't sentient, so it didn't work.

Oh, I love Uncharted so much. I'm hoping one of these days we can do a deep dive of maybe, like, Uncharted 4 or even one of the first two. That would be great. They're so good. I'd like to play them at some point. Yeah. All right. Well, we are going to take a short break, and we will be right back with my next pick.

All right. We are back. I get to finish us out in round three and then start the last round uh let me ask you guys a clarifying question i don't know if this qualifies as a duo or not yes paul you can take fray and cuff it's okay do it uh no thank you oh are are glados and wheatley a duo? Cause they're like, they're kind of, but not really. I wouldn't call them a duo.

They're in the same game, but I don't know that they're like a duo. It's like the villain from one and the villain from two, but they don't really work together at any point. I would scrap it. All right. We got to start taking some villains, which is why I'm asking.

So instead we're going to go a little bit more old school. Give me Scorpion and Sub-Zero. That's a great, great choice. It's on my list. Dude, when Mortal Kombat came out, did you think they were just the coolest video game? Absolutely. Now, because they were the coolest. Who do you like better, though, out of the two?

Scorpion. See, I'm a fan of Sub-Zero. In Mortal Kombat, the game, i do agree that scorpion's like the cooler character but in actually playing mortal combat sub-zero if you were good with him like all you had to do was dodge the get over here hook and then you could wreck scorpion yeah i loved them both so much and then when the later games came out i also loved reptile i don't know what it is i think it's like that's right the ninja turtles i always loved and they had the different color eye mask and then in here they just have like the different mouth mask and there's something about the different colors

and like the elemental scheme it's like the ninja costumes too yeah yeah they always seem very cool to me now they were were they brothers they were brothers and then reptile came later you're right was he also a brother was he were they were they like triplets i don't know three brothers mortal kombat lord gets really weird i tried to go down that rabbit hole at one point like when the first mortal kombat movie was coming out it's just weird yeah right all right so scorpion and sub-zero are off the table and then with my last pick oh man i i have to go with this combo it's also a game named after two characters that we have not yet mentioned i'm going back to my sega days well i didn't own a sega but my friends who had a sega

i'm gonna take toe jam and earl i love those games i am picking this purely on my personal nostalgia i love these goofy aliens who just have to find ship pieces and they dance in elevators to bad hip-hop and they run from crazy dennis and get shot by cupid's arrow and it reverses all your controls i absolutely love toe jam and earl and i'm going to take them here and i'm not ashamed to say it i i played toe jam and earl on sega and that game is so weird that i don't remember what it's about all i remember is falling through little holes into different levels but the different levels were almost like planets or something. It was just really weird. Like that game was, it was really out there and young me just did not get it. And then I've never touched it again.

Like, I get that they're good games and I did have fun with it because I played it a lot. I just don't know what those games are. Yeah, if anyone out there has never played it, basically long story short, you're just two aliens who crash land. You have to find pieces to repair your ship, but you have to find a ship piece on certain levels, and then you have to find the elevator. The elevator will take you from level one up to level two, but then

level two is up in the sky, and if you fall off a ledge, you fall back to level one. And so you keep working your way up multiple levels, and you find presents. You have to pay money to find out what's in the present and they give you various powers, maybe to fly in the air or rocket skates or sneakers that make you run fast and very goofy game. And you go through character levels like point Dexter and like doofus. And those are like your ranks as you rank up in the game which always made me laugh all right michael coming back to you this is your last pick buddy i know dig with the funny choice of the choice that might be a dark horse let's go dark horse i'm gonna go with uh gerald

of rivia and jennifer not jennifer, but Yennefer. The reason being is because they are a duo. They're constantly either enemies or friends throughout the whole thing. They have this on and off romance. They certainly get stuff done together, though. Geralt is a very... They're very yin versus

yang when it comes to it. He's emotionless and muted, while Yennefer is bold and passionate about everything. And I just think it's a good i think it's a good way to close this out strong strong fourth one is gerald and yennefer and we all know gerald loves the smell of lilac and gooseberries and that's what uh yennefer smells like so yeah there you go i love yennefer too what's the other woman that you can have a romance with? Tris. Tris. Who's way better than Yennefer. Oh, I don't know about that. I don't know about that.

Yeah. Well, nice pick, Geralt and Yennefer. I thought someone might go for that. Thought that would be here somewhere. Josh, you get to round out our draft. Last pick. You know, I had Ryu and Ken on here. That's who I almost took.

And I thought Josh might take. I'll be honest, since you took Scorpion and Sub-Zero, I'm not taking that. And then I had Billy and Jimmy from Double Dragon. I played the heck out of Double Dragon in the arcade, man. But that nobody knows who the heck Billy and Jimmy are. And guys, this might be the cheesy pick. and jimmy are and guys this might be the cheesy pick but number one i'm doing this for all the nintendo fans out there and i feel like if these characters weren't on a list somewhere that the people would revolt all right and in the last round for fourth round last pick of the entire draft how can you not take the value of link and zelda as an iconic gaming duo i'm taking it man i can't not take it with the very last pick of the draft

all right we knew someone from nintendo had to go i actually was about to say i'm really proud that none of us took cheesy nintendo duos but josh there there are a lot of people like if we did not pick some nintendo duo people would have revolted i that's fair and my honorable mentions i i do have a couple of really strong ones but they wouldn't have won i have bub and bob from bubble bubble one of my all-time favorite games i've got bill and lance from contra uh but they just don't have any story at all it's just two guys with uh the spread gun, which was the best gun. With Contra and Double Dragon, I don't think anyone knows their

names. In my head, I even thought maybe I'll take those guys from Double Dragon, but then I was like, well, if I don't know their names, I'm not drafting them. Same with Contra. I don't know their names. They are good. They are iconic duos, but they were nameless duos back in the day. And I didn't even know the names

of bub and bob i i didn't learn that until today i was just like oh the two little dragons from bubble bobble they're there who are named bub and bob uh let's see i also had uh the spies and spy versus spy but i'm pretty sure that was a cartoon before it was a video game uh nico and roman no where's my cab no not really but um and the fault dweller and dog meat which is my favorite choice uh but i don't think it would have gone anywhere no no that would not have what about you josh any other honorable mentions um big daddy and little sister is a really good combo every time i pick a big daddy you guys just kind of shake your heads at me so i was like i'm not going to take it this time but that was actually a really neat combination in a video game.

Lee and Clementine from the Walking Dead, the Telltale series was a good one. And I could never bring myself to pick this one. But Ash and Pikachu was a popular sentiment for gaming duos. But you guys know how I feel about Pokemon. They are the only Nintendo duo that i wrote down on my list and i knew i wasn't going to draft them but as an honorable mention yeah a couple others that i had on my list ornstein and smaug i thought about that but i hate those guys so much that i could never put them on a list i felt like we needed some villains so i jotted a couple of them down.

Joker and Harley Quinn, again, it's more of a comic book, movie kind of thing. And also Bebop and Rocksteady, kind of similarly. I think first of the Ninja Turtles show, as opposed to them being villains in the games. As you should get off this list. Yeah. Darth Vader, what are you doing here?

The one I almost took as my last pick uh v and johnny silverhand i think that's a great duo especially as they occupy the same brain in the same head space and i also had michael and trevor from gta5 that would have been the gta combo i would have taken instead of nico and roman right from four i 5, but I was like, there's three of them. So it's like, I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah, Franklin's such an underwritten character in that game. He's the most boring by far. The only other combo I had was Cuphead and Mugman,

but there's no way I was going to draft them. Yeah. All right. Well, it is time. Now we are halfway through our episode. Time to start matching these up against one another and find out who we are going to crown the victor so starting off here round one match one we have joel and ellie facing off against gerald and jennifer all right so i guess that's a throw away

because joel and ellie you're probably gonna run away with that one if you want a dark horse you gotta take it in round three because round four four is always going to go against round one. And that's a lot tougher. Paul, you know I can't think past whatever word I'm trying to say right now. I can't even get through that half the time. I will say one of these is a better video game. The other one is a more iconic duo. I agree.

Yeah. Joel and Ellie is a duo to the core. Geralt and Yennefer, not so much. No. Geralt, does Geralt and Yennefer, not so much. Does Geralt really have a partner? He's a lone wolf.

That's why I get the sentiment there, but it was kind of like, I mean, Geralt's with Yennefer, Geralt's with Triss, Geralt's with who's the other female wizard lady that he's with for a while? But Yennefer's the one that just has him, yet if her is the one that just has him though so she's the one that actually has him the first witch that you can yeah i killed her by accident

yeah i accidentally killed her and i didn't even realize that i wasn't supposed to do that all right so we're putting joel and ellie through right easily yeah yeah i agree yeah fair enough oh my poor my poor boys toe jam and Earl, are about to get stomped. Kratos and Atreus versus ToeJam and Earl. Oh, man. The only argument I could possibly make is that ToeJam and Earl have made more games together than Kratos and Atreus. Yeah, I can't do it. You know what?

I told myself I would intentionally, I don't care if it fell to the last round, I was not going to pick Kratos and Atreus because I'm always picking Kratos and things like that. So I was like, they're just off the table for me at this point. That was like me with space games when I didn't take Mass Effect 2 and then you won the draft, Josh, because I let it go. I mean, I got to give this to Kratos and Atreus, though. If I'd played ToeJam & Earl, I'm sure it would be there, but maybe not.

ToeJam & Earl has the history. If we're talking decades worth of these characters, then yes. But I think 9 out of 10 people, they're going to pick Kratos and Atreus. Yeah. ToeJam & Earl is much more of a cult following as opposed to mass appeal like kratos and atreus all right and we have round one match three arthur morgan and john marston against lincoln zelda so i so here's here's the thing about arthur and john though is arthur and john are they a duo at all they're both in games. They're kind of together a little bit in the second one.

Have you played Red Dead 2? No, but hear me out, though. But they're not like a duo in that game. John is kind of a side character who's just in it. You go on quests together. You go on quests with everybody. Sadie goes on quests with you. You go on quests with Dutch.

You go on quests with everybody. Micah Bell. Micah. Like, is he real are they a duo are they just in the same game and i will say when i like and this is not to try to slander paul's pick but also i need to slander because it's up against my pick but arthur morgan and dutch are the two that jump out that's who i had had on my list. And so when I think about a duo that is in a game, Dutch is the one that comes to mind for me.

And yes, I know how the game ends. The man who John and Arthur go against him for the entire last third of the game? But that's part of what the game is, is the de-evolution of their relationship. Remember when one character gives his hat to another character and they wear it on their own for an entire game did that involve dutch yeah i don't know no no that was

arthur and john i get where you're going with arthur and john but i feel like that is the lesser like known duo if we were if you were gonna ask people hey what's what's the duo in red dead too i mean aragorn uses a sildur's sword and they never met, so the hat thing doesn't really work for me. That's good. Anyone who says that they're not a duo, that is not true. I'm going to vote for myself on this one. If you want to say Link and Zelda are a better duo, you can, but you can't say it's because Arthur and Jon aren't a duo. Oh, no.

I'm going to vote Arthur and Jon here just because Paul will get real mad if I do. but you can't say it's because arthur and john aren't oh no i'm gonna vote arthur i'm gonna vote arthur and john here just because paul will get real mad if i if i slander his first pick and pick against it i'm kidding um hey you vote for whoever's the real winner link and zelda could not be more boring i love zelda games no one is like give me more of that sweet link and zelda content if i was gonna pick link i would have been from okra in a time who's more iconic though who are more people going to recognize as a gaming duo arthur john or link and zelda well arthur and john google sheet says best not most iconic just for the record arthur and john made my list i'm gonna go with arthur and john i know i we got to move

on from this one i and i know that link and zelda list. I'm going to go with Arthur and John. We've got to move on from this one. I know that Link and Zelda, it's gross to get them off this early. There's got to be a better way to say that. They were a great last choice, but I think Arthur and John need to move on. I apologize to all the people that love Nintendo, which is

like 90% of the world. I love Nintendo too, but to those people, it's okay. Great gameplay, sad characters. Yeah, I love Nintendo too. But to those people, great gameplay. Great gameplay, sad characters. Paul, don't show people my post in Discord where I slandered how boring Nintendo characters are.

I was going to say, and you also slandered the Master Sword more than anyone I know. You have done that yourself. I'm just trying to win here, guys. Come on. All right.

Round one, match four. Harry Dubois and Kim K and kim kitsuragi that's my pick because i don't know the other two i mean i know who they are but i've never played that game so unless you want to override your own pick paul then i'm going with harry dubois and kim kitsuragi this is this is gross because i also would pick harry dubois and kim kitsuragi here uh that's getting rid of one of my own for a second time in a row. But Nathan Drake and Sully are incredible. And there's a lot of people that would be like, how are they out in their first matchup against somebody? It's because they're

up against Harry and Kim. That's why. Yeah, this is actually, I think, very close. This is not a landslide like some of the others. I think you could very easily argue either. I think if you polled more people, I think you're very easily argue either. I think if you pulled more people, I think you're going to get more people saying Drake and Sully, but I think for us three, we really love Harry and Kim. So yeah, I'm going to,

I'm going to stick with my boys. This is like an example of, if you put like the 30 greatest basketball players of all time in a time bubble together. And the first round you had Michael Jordan versus LeBron and clearly Michael Jordan wins. And everyone's like, but look, bronze the best. Yeah, but he's out in round one. That's what we're looking at here. Pretty much. This is why, honestly, I love doing these tournaments, because we are lifelong gamers. And if you look at any list, you're going to find Nathan Drake

and Sully at the top. You're going to find Lincoln Zelda at the top. You're going to find Mario and Luigi at the top. What you don't see on these lists are characters like Harry Dubois and Kim Kitsuragi. You know what I mean? I got to give Paul credit. I don't think he's going to win this draft, but Arthur Morgan and John Marston, you know, those sorts of like the actual duos, when you are playing a game that are actually memorable to you as the gamer versus let me make a popular list of duos and, Oh, well we better have these iconic franchises at the top versus like these

actually really cool character duos that you would run into when you're playing the game. Yeah. Our list is not a click bait list. It's not the sexiest list. One might argue with Harry Dubois on this list is by far the least sexy list ever made especially if you shave his beard off don't do that i love it when you look at yourself you're like that was a bad choice oh with the chops oh yeah i love it don't do it all right match or not match one round one match five i think this is another close one

marcus and dom from gears versus master chief and cortana from halo this is another close one. Marcus and Dom from Gears versus Master Chief and Cortana from Halo. This is the Xbox showdown. It is, but I don't think this one's close. I can't vote against myself on this one because I think Marcus and Dom are more iconic as a duo. They work together. They're in three of the best games ever made. The games themselves, based on a duo, basically invented the co-op shooter. As a duo, that's the point.

There's a reason that Xbox said, you know what, we're going to continue the Halo series, not the Gears of War series. The Gears of War series is still out. A game came out last year and it sold like 13 million copies. I mean, there's just an obvious better duo here. Marcus and Dom had their moment. get it i played them there you know it was memorable but the the interaction between master chief and cortana through the entire series they they're just the better duo in my opinion play gears of war three and when dom dies if you don't cry you're not human i did play gears of war three you played it.

You watched him die. Yeah, I've played all. Didn't Cortana die too? I didn't play 5. Gears of War 5, I think, is the latest one, and I never played that one. But I did play 4. And the series starts falling off. Am I just weird to think Cortana's kind of boring?

She's an AI. Cortana is boring. Thank you. You just don't like. You know what, Paul? You're a robotist, is what you are. You said it in the last episode that you don't like robots as characters paul you're a robotist is what you are you said it the last episode that you don't like robots as characters a robot well she's not really a robot

but she's an ai but you know whatever uh i'm sorry josh you're still looking very strong in this draft i cannot believe guys all right i'm not that big of a Halo guy. I love Gears more. To the listeners out there, I apologize for my cohorts, for Link and Zelda, and Master Chief and Cortana getting eliminated back to back to the likes of Harry Dubois and Kim Kitsuragi and Marcus and Dom. Oh, no, I'm sorry.

Arthur Morgan and John Marston and Marcus and Dom. I make no apologies. I go straight from the heart, Josh. Marcus and Dom are a better duo, period. Oh, boy. If there was a dictionary for gaming, they would be the definition of a duo.

You have to play as both. No, that would be... They were way down on my list. If there was a shooter definition of duo... Yeah, that would be Master Chief and Cortana. She doesn't shoot anything. Oh, goodness. All right.

Well, we are going to take one last break. We're going to let Josh cool down, and then we're going to come back and crown our winner. All right. You guys are crazy. I can't believe this. What is going on around here? Is his face more red than it was before? What are you talking about?

Cool down. All we did was have a minute to argue more. Guys, Lincoln, Zelda, and Cortana, and Master Chief? What is happening? You guys aren't watching the video that I'm watching right now, but his beard has literally left his face and walked out the door. It was done with us. Oh, my goodness.

All right. Okay. I'm better now. Fun fact. We don't actually take breaks these these are for ads okay so i literally say we'll be right back and then josh just immediately starts screaming oh i love it i was gonna say i didn't even see josh because my eyes were closed i was laughing sorry he's so bad if we actually need to take a break every 10 minutes in a podcast i I guess I'd go to the bathroom again. It's the smallest bladder imaginable. I drank seven cups of coffee.

I do have an empty two liter of Diet Coke. I do kind of have to go to the bathroom, too. So let's get going. All right. Finishing out round one, match six, we have Banjo and Kazooie versus Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Oh, this is an easy one. Oh, but Josh, you heard me and Michael say we didn't play Banjo and Kazooie. I'm not even going to...

I'm not... Somebody help me. It is a bummer that I've got listeners. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to post each of our lists. Sure. And if I don't wind up with over over 60 of the votes for who had the best list of gaming duos then i will publicly apologize to you and michael you're gonna add mario luigi

as a fifth choice on that no get there no i'm just i'm just i would put my list up against your lists any day of the week and say pick which one and feel very confident that the majority of people would be like yeah josh crushed this and yet somehow i'm losing in all of these rounds to you jokers go ahead go ahead pick go ahead how many does he have what are we on here he's got scorpion and sub-zero go ahead pick them i know i'm i'm definitely voting scorpion and sub-zero they are way cooler and more iconic, and they're still in ongoing games. Banjo and Kazooie, I get it. It's a mid-90s thing. You had to be there in the time to like it.

I do like Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Go ahead. All right. Just plunge the knife deeper. It's fine. Scorpion and Sub-Zero. You wrote that really fast, Paul. I love that I didn't even have to say anything there,

and Josh lamented because I didn't know what to do, and I just stepped back. You know that Homer gif where he just goes back in the shrubs? That was me just now. Okay, so here's a question. Let's go into an alternate dimension timeline. If I had picked Ryu and Ken, and they had to go up against Scorpion and Sub-Z that would have been awesome though but who would you have picked you know i'm a mortal

combat guy i know you're a street fighter guys i feel like it would have gone to michael yeah it probably would have been scorpion sub-zero to be honest with you because they're so cool the outfits they're so it's you can is easily the more well-known... Oh, my goodness. Scorpion even has the better voice line. Guys. Go over here. Where am I?

I was like, oh, man. We're in the right podcast. Did I show up to the wrong podcast today? Maybe. Maybe this is one of those generational divides, Josh, because you're so much older. This isn't helping,ul all right now that we are done with round one round two will be much shorter because we now are limited to six duos the ones that we have remaining are joel and ellie kratos and atreus harry dubois and kim katsuragi arthur morgan and john marston marcus and dom and scorpion and Sub-Zero.

Boy, I did not think I would have three duos left. I feel a lot better now that I see, because since you guys eliminated all the other actual competitors, I'm feeling better now, guys. Yeah. I don't get to win this one, but I never win anyways. I don't want to make Love, Marry, Murder, Massacre again, so I'm just going to Homer Simpson into the bushes again later there you go all right round two match one we have joel and ellie versus marcus and dom this is so dumb wait is this this is round two round two oh wow okay well this is an easy pick joel and ellie what i What I like is they're both actually duos. They're both iconic. Man.

Alright, there you go. It's already been filled in. Joe and Allie. I'm just going to sit back and write. I'm just going to sit back and write. I forgive everything that just happened to me. I'm just going to write the rest of this podcast until the end. And then I get to go to the bathroom and watch The Mandalorian.

What? You still have a pick in here. This is one of my favorite running jokes of the draft, is when someone starts launching into this long argument, and I just immediately type the other name into the field, so I could feel Michael revving up, and I'm just like... No, actually, the funniest thing is I was actually just about to go Joel and Ellie, because that would have been my first choice over marcus and dom clearly like it actually wasn't even going to be an argument yeah and i do like that they are true duos right

which you pointed out i do like that unlike arthur morgan and john marston who will not make it very far well luckily they're going up against one of my other duos, so at least I'll win that round no matter what. Dang it! All right, round two, match two, we have Kratos and Atreus versus Harry Dubois and Kim Katsuragi. This is the stupidest draft ever, because this is the hardest choice so far. This is honestly the hardest choice. This is very close. Like, the one thing that I can say is my initial argument was that in story and in combat kratos and atreus do complement each other very well and i think that i think that goes to say a lot that's why i would

give the edge to kratos and atreus it's i know my answer so it's not going to change based on any arguments here okay let's just go 100 fine they're both i will just explain my answer because here's the thing kratos and atreus are a father and son team, and I love the God of War series quite possibly more than just about any other games out there. Harry Dubois and Kim Kitsuragi, their dynamic is just more dynamic. You know, like Kratos, I love Kratos. He's one of my favorite video game characters. But he doesn't have the depth and dynamic like Harry Dubois and Kim Kitsuragi have. And he and Atreus do not complement

each other in the way that Harry Dubois and Kim Kitsuragi do. So I'm going with Harry Dubois and Kim Kitsuragi because that was one of my favorite picks that I had on my list that I did not think you guys were going to take. And if you have played Disco Elysium, you'll understand why. If you haven't, you're going to be sitting here going, but Josh, it's Kratos and Atreus. And I'm going to go, yeah, I know, but I love both of these games. And as somebody that loves both of them a ton, just as a duo, there's just something magical about Harry DuBois, Kim Kitsuragi. When you play that game, you'll know. Paul,

save me, save me, Paul, save me. You know, I'm voting for my boys, Harry and Kim. Ah,

I'm out of the draft. This is the earliest I've ever been out of a draft and I had some solid picks. You did. I think all the picks were really good other than maybe Geralt and Yennefer. And I actually run for was bad. Toe jam and Earl, Geralt and Yennefer. And actually, round four was bad. ToeJam & Earl, Geralt and Yennefer, and Link and Zelda.

That's a pretty weak round. What did we have left? I could have picked Bill and Lance from Contra. There was nothing left on the list. All the good ones were too. Yeah. Yeah. I think all the strong ones were gone.

I still think that Kratos and Trist should be the winner. I'll go on record saying that simply because they do have the double element. They are both in story and in combat, and nobody else on this list has that to the degree that they have. It's literally the duo that that double hits. It's got one foot in both ponds easily and wonderfully. Yeah. What is by far that there is a big butt? Yeah.

Who's by far the worst character in God of War? Atreus. Atreus. Atreus. He is insufferable over the course of that game. When I played, it's funny because I thought he was going to be, and I didn't think he was as bad as you guys said he was. I was like, oh, maybe it's because I thought it was going to be terrible, and I'm like, oh.

I'm on God business. I can do whatever I want. Yeah. He is such a turd. Oh, so you don't like character growth because just where he is now is not important. He's great now. So you don't like character growth because just where he is now is not important. I will say that Kratos and Atreus, I love those games. People know how I feel about them, but I would never nominate them to be at the top of a best gaming duos list.

I think they should be in the top 10 or 20 mentions. Okay, let's move on. Let's just kick me while I'm down. Let's move on. Let's move on. Quit moving 20 mentions okay let's move on let's just kick me while i'm down let's move on let's move on quit moving michael let's move on like there you go i'm just gonna stab i'm just gonna upset the rest of this draft because i have a lot of power now because i don't care you can do whatever you want michael all right and then we have my goofy match up here at the end of round two arthur morgan and Marston versus Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Paul, I'm going to make you choose your favorite child here.

Which one do you want to move on? I just took it to those. Yeah, Michael. I just wanted to see what Paul said so we could pick the other, Michael. Okay, let's do it. You ruined it! All right, I want Scorpion and Sub-Zero. All right, fine. Put them through.

I like those two. I'm good with it because Arthur and John are not a duo. Oh, there we go. Oh, boo. Oh, man. All right. That's cool. Scorpion and Sub-Zero.

I like getting the Dark Horse into the finals. They're not going to win, but I love having them there. They are good. They outperformed. They're very recognizable dude if you did nothing but just put the two of them up on a screen and said who are these guys people would be like oh those are the if they didn't instantly know the answer they'd be like yeah that's the mortal kombat guys they so they're there just because they didn't match up against

atreus and kratos that's why yes that's the only reason yeah yeah they shouldn't be here just just a match matchup all right we are now in the finals our last three are joel and ellie harry and kim and scorpion and sub zero so we're gonna match them up against each other 1v1 and see who ends up winning the most rounds so first we have joel and ellie versus harry and kim which is which is the real question this is the real winner here i feel like this is the real winner here. I feel like this is the real winner. You want to hold off on that one? Hold off on this.

I have a clear winner for that too, and I'll wait. Okay, so let's start with my two. Harry and Kim versus Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Harry and Kim. Scorpion and Sub-Zero. I knew I was going to try to... I don't want to go up against Harry and Kim. I knew I was going to try and mess it up and mess with it,

but I have something called integrity, and it will not allow me to vote anything but Harry and Kim in this particular matchup with Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Fair enough. All right, what about Joel and Ellie versus Scorpion and Sub-Zero? Joel and Ellie. All right, here we go. It's Joel and Ellie.

All right, so Scorpion and Sub-Zero are out at third. Can we count to three and say it? Now we have the championship match, Joel and Ellie versus Harry and Kim. We're going to count to three and say it? Sure. One, two, three. Harry, Kim, Joel, and Ellie. Did you say Harry and Ellie just to mess us up?

What did you say? I said Joel and Ellie. Oh, okay, good. Wait, Joel and Ellie? Yeah. Yes, because that's the right answer. No, it's not. I think it's Joel and Ellie yeah yes because that's the right answer no it's not i think it's joel and ellie 100 the right answer if harry and kim won this draft i feel like there would be

riots in the streets i feel like that's the but i love that they came back 10 minutes let's go back 10 minutes and go back we just said this isn't everybody else's list though everybody else's list is gonna have joel and ellie Yeah. And our second pick is Harry and Kim. That's spot on. That's the right order. That's the right order. For me, I immediately thought Mario and Luigi, unquestionably, number one. And number two for me was Joel and

Ellie. If I had the number one pick, I would have made the exact same choice. Yeah. Josh didn't even like that game. It's not that I didn't like it. I just never finished it. I mean, I didn't like it. I just never finished it. You didn't like it. I mean, I liked what I played. Just didn't play more than six hours of it.

But let me tell you something. In that six hours, Joel and Ellie are the best gaming duo I've ever seen. Oh, all right. So Joel and Ellie are crowned the winners. I will say there might be some recency bias with the HBO series coming into play. A little bit. Maybe. You gotta play to the times, guys.

We let pop culture influence our video game show a little bit too much. Darth Vader, come on, get out of here. Video games are pop culture, so at least it's in the same umbrella. Also, I picked games that spanned generations. I had Banjo-Kazooie, which is an old game. I had Master Chief and Cortana, which spanned a couple decades. Then I had something new with Joel and Ellie. And I don't even remember what my other pick was.

I like that your new game is like 11 years old. Right. It came out like two days ago, Paul. The remake. Oh, that's funny. All right. Well, I love doing these drafts and tournaments. If you guys have any ideas for drafts you think we should do,

please come join our Discord server or follow us on socials at MultiplayerPod and let us know. We would love to hear your guys' ideas. A listener actually did suggest this idea. socials at multiplayer pod and let us know we would love to hear your guys ideas a listener actually did suggest this idea the problem is that josh may or may not have deleted that channel in discord so we don't know who recommended it it might have been ace of shame it might have been someone else we do not remember so thank you to whoever our mystery fan is that suggested this thank you mystery person and thanks to getting this lit for the legendary legend of

legend status yep and we do also want to remind everybody our patreon page is multiplayer squad dot com if you want to sign up you'll get free bonus episodes you get all of our episodes a day early and they're also ad free and so you can start supporting us starting at five dollars a month we very heavily rely on our listeners support for running our show so please go check that out and i'm really proud of us guys we we finished this in less than an hour we've had some drafts and tournaments go a full hour and a half we were very quick with our arguments and i think our flow was good in this one yep for sure and the the true champion champed out also so i mean, it ended badly, but let's...

At least we did a show, guys. The best that we can say is, you listened with your ear balls to our voice boxes for an hour and had a good time. And that's the best thing, even if the right winner didn't win. Yep. And this is one of the things I love too

about engaging with the community. I love hearing people make arguments and talk about who they think should have won the draft anytime these episodes are released there's always a lot of messages in the discord that cover it all and it's always fun to hear people's thoughts i remember uh best class there was a lot of arguments about whether or not necromancer should have won oh yeah and uh best dad way back in the day i remember that one generating some talk so yeah make sure you come check that out.

That one was so much fun. I wish I was here for that one. Oh, for Best Dad? I think that was the last draft you guys did before I started guesting on the show as just the guy who comes in and is the third wheel to help you guys get through a draft. That was an awesome one.

I love that one. Oh yeah, that was such a great idea. All right, well, thanks again to everyone out there for listening, and until next time, happy goodbye individuals be well as your champion i bid you goodbye