GET ME ESCAPE! | The Big Deal

[00:00:00] All right. Hey, it's your boy Dre here off the top. I'm not sure how to tell you guys this, but we got this weird note and

[00:00:06] Look, maybe I'll just read it out loud. Okay, here we go

[00:00:12] Hey use guys we regret to inform you that Steve fell off a truck

[00:00:19] Yeah, that's it fell off a truck

[00:00:21] Don't ask any questions in exchange. Please accept this very legitimate copy of true lies

[00:00:28] Let's start the show

[00:00:59] Hello party people it's your boy Drave

[00:01:07] Drave Drave Wow, what the hell happened? I

[00:01:11] Can't even say my name again. I'm gonna keep it

[00:01:14] It's your boy Dre and Drave and Kevin. I said you like you liked you liked the V at the end of Kev

[00:01:20] You just wanted to you wanted to get in on it. Oh my god. What what I

[00:01:26] I'm embarrassed. It's good. It's good. It's the Draven Kev show

[00:01:34] If the show were more popular my my name would be Drave forever nobody would ever let me stop

[00:01:41] Our listeners probably won't well, I mean I'm gonna be Drave already. What am I saying?

[00:01:45] I think enough people listen to the show where I'm going it's going to happen

[00:01:49] Yeah, and I think if the show goes to hell the Draven Kev show like slots in well on like Disney Junior

[00:01:59] Absolutely, I would I would let my kids watch a Draven Kev for sure much more PG than Dre and Kevin

[00:02:07] This is definitely not rated PG

[00:02:11] I'm not sure what this is rated. It is definitely rated this podcast has explicit content almost had explicit lyrics

[00:02:17] We don't have any lyrics. I would like some lyrics. Hey listeners, okay? You you've heard our intro song

[00:02:23] You heard it just now you've heard it a lot throughout time now

[00:02:27] What would you think?

[00:02:29] If someone actually wrapped over that would that be cheesy

[00:02:33] I've been thinking about that on and off for months like hiring somebody to actually spit some bars

[00:02:39] Over that see Kevin's trepidation whenever I brought this up in the past

[00:02:44] We could just go in a new direction and have somebody with a little banjo diddy sing over that

[00:02:50] I don't know. I don't know if we want to if we want to

[00:02:53] like taint our cool intro song with

[00:02:57] You know it could go like super sideways. Well, okay, okay if it sucks

[00:03:01] I'm just not gonna air it. I won't use it. I'll pay him for his time and say thank you

[00:03:06] But I'm not gonna like actually play it if I think it sucks

[00:03:10] What if you're blind and you don't realize it sucks, oh, I know what sucks trust me

[00:03:15] I'm sure the audience realizes by now Andre has full editing creative control

[00:03:21] Can you tell?

[00:03:23] Plug in plug in this shitty like rap intro

[00:03:26] You can have no idea that it's garbage. We're gonna lose all all 12 of our listeners will be gone

[00:03:33] If I play it for you too and you and you guys don't really really don't like it then I won't it

[00:03:39] Well, it won't matter how much I like it

[00:03:41] I will let myself be overruled in that until I sneak it in some random like solo episode or something

[00:03:46] Okay, real quick infinite budget you get one rapper to wrap over it for us

[00:03:55] Man

[00:03:57] Cuz I'm just putting it out there that it's always had like a strong Jay-Z vibe to me

[00:04:03] So I really think I think like Jay-Z is the shoe in it's definitely

[00:04:07] I definitely on this show play like more like East Coast style like New York

[00:04:12] Like boom BAP like 90s hip-hop so it would have to be an artist like that, right?

[00:04:17] And like I thought Nas

[00:04:20] Maybe that would that was like my first thought Jay-Z would obviously slot in there sounds like Pete idiot is out

[00:04:26] Yeah, he is now. I don't think I would choose him anyway. I don't I like his production

[00:04:31] I don't necessarily like verse rapping skills shall we say I think I would pick Nas if I had unlimited money

[00:04:37] I think I would go Nas or or we could get Will Smith. We have infinite

[00:04:43] I mean after that's after that slap. He's looking for work. Of course. He is oh, he'll have work

[00:04:49] He doesn't need work. He has money might you might do a pro bono

[00:04:52] Just

[00:04:54] Just to get his name out there again

[00:04:56] Yeah, he's gonna start somewhere after you smacked Chris Rock around

[00:05:00] Did you know Nas wrote getting jiggy with it for real Smith? I did not did you not know that he wrote a couple record songs

[00:05:07] I he wrote Miami

[00:05:08] He wrote okay wrote a few songs show that record it goes right and he doesn't have his name on it

[00:05:13] But he definitely wrote getting jiggy with it for sure

[00:05:17] Yeah, Miami is not that bad as far as things go. It's definitely better than getting jiggy with it

[00:05:23] You're not a fan of getting jiggy with it. No

[00:05:25] It really date really date. I mean Miami feels dated to

[00:05:30] But I mean they didn't feel that way at the time though. I mean they definitely

[00:05:34] I think even at the time like you had to have known in the back of your mind that getting jiggy with it

[00:05:41] Was not gonna hold up fucking 15 years down the road

[00:05:44] No, I mean of course not. I mean it barely held up like three year

[00:05:48] I think the year hit 2000 and we were like done like you know, I was as shit was over

[00:05:53] But like no he he wrote them shits. I said Wild West theme song. I see yeah, that's the one

[00:06:00] I'm not a fan of I don't like that song at all. I really don't it's not I mean in general

[00:06:06] We're not talking about the highest caliber of music here

[00:06:09] No, we're not but I that's always my favorite bit of like ghostwriting trivia is that Nasra getting jiggy with it for sure

[00:06:16] My back pocket for music trivia night

[00:06:19] Did you know Jay-Z wrote still DRE? Did you know that? Yeah, I have heard that before

[00:06:24] I don't know if I don't know if you would have asked if I would have recalled it

[00:06:27] But it was hiding back in the archive somewhere. Yeah that but but Jay-Z

[00:06:32] Sean Carter if he will actually put its his name in credits and stuff like he did he'll write it for you

[00:06:37] But he he wants it there, you know like he'd whatever but well, he maybe wouldn't want it there if it was Will Smith

[00:06:43] I don't know. I think I think Will Smith isn't as a take you know what that's what he needs to do

[00:06:50] That's what he needs to do a comeback where he has he will Smith puts out a new record

[00:06:56] Where he like fucking cusses and shit. He likes it calls everyone a motherfucker

[00:07:01] He like has three songs dissing Chris Rock

[00:07:04] He like goes berserk he goes full scorched earth. He talks shit about Jada. He calls Jay

[00:07:10] He calls Jamie the little bitch. He like goes completely insane

[00:07:19] I love it, I would be there day one for where does he go after that though then what well see that would get him

[00:07:25] That would start his true villain arc though, you know like you need to put out this record of like

[00:07:31] crazy shit

[00:07:33] Yeah, what is it? What is he title it? I don't regret the slap

[00:07:37] Just call it. I don't give a fuck or whatever

[00:07:41] Slap was justified you could just call it you could just call the record the slap could just call it that

[00:07:48] That's what everyone's thinking about anyway

[00:07:50] Hey, you want to talk about video games?

[00:07:54] I guess we should do I got all sorts of stuff brewing up for a will Smith side show

[00:08:00] Oh, man, I think we just did it

[00:08:03] I

[00:08:14] Want to talk about this week as you can tell Steve is not here by that diatribe

[00:08:19] If he would never stand for this he will be back with us next big deal

[00:08:23] But and when he comes back next big deal, we will talk about Princess Pete showtime which oh

[00:08:29] Boy, we got things to say but for now I want to talk about Penny's big breakaway because

[00:08:36] If you remember Kevin when this was shown at that direct

[00:08:40] I want to say like a year and a half ago. I I was like blown away. I don't know if you remember

[00:08:45] I was like holy shit this game looks incredible

[00:08:47] this looks like it could be so special and

[00:08:50] I was on it from the get-go in case you don't know Penny's big breakaway is a

[00:08:55] 3d platformer made by the guys who made Sonic Mania. This is her next project and

[00:09:02] That right there was enough for me to be interested. How do you feel about Sonic Mania? I don't think we've ever

[00:09:07] Awesome. Yeah, I loved Sonic Mania. I think Sonic Mania is the best 2d Sonic game

[00:09:14] Oh, yeah, that's not even close. I think it's the best game

[00:09:17] I thought that I thought that might have been might have been salacious to us 2d Sonic truth there

[00:09:22] But oh no, no, no, no, no, no that is 100% true

[00:09:26] Okay, honestly if not for like Mario Odyssey that probably would have been my favorite game in 2017

[00:09:31] Sonic Mania. I fucking love that game. Anyway, the first question someone might ask about this game is how much is it like Sonic?

[00:09:40] Which is a very fair question, right?

[00:09:42] And the answer is it's not like Sonic at all

[00:09:46] Except that for maybe like it draws from the same kind of like early 90s artistic

[00:09:52] Sensibilities and like color choices and stuff from that era which obviously was considered modern

[00:09:59] When Sonic came out, but it like Penny's big breakaway doesn't exactly feel like a throwback. It just feels

[00:10:06] Like a consistent world that just happens to look like that

[00:10:10] Because like the I'll give you an example like the platforms are all like these geometric shapes like hexagons and

[00:10:17] Like these weird angles and shit in these big triangles

[00:10:20] Which kind of sounds like the geometric shape motifs of like the late 80s early 90s, right?

[00:10:25] But it's not using that as like a background or something like it is the stage

[00:10:29] Does that make any sense? So it has that like, you know, well, and I don't want to derail you here

[00:10:34] I said a couple episodes ago that this game to me did I like mentally

[00:10:39] Aesthetically drew some parallels with Ballin Wonder world and I think that's exactly why I don't I don't say that to be

[00:10:44] You know to condemn Penny in any way, but but it did it aesthetically. I definitely

[00:10:50] Related the two and and I think that the way you explain that kind of details why

[00:10:56] You're not wrong that it absolutely does feel that way

[00:10:59] It also has the okay, you know like in Super Mario World like like in the

[00:11:04] First world or it has like the backgrounds with like the giant like diagonal jutting up from the ground like kind of

[00:11:11] Geometric like gyms kind of you know what I mean?

[00:11:15] Penny sort of has that stuff too like in the foreground and background

[00:11:18] It kind of has that so it does feel like the 90s in that way, you know

[00:11:24] Also the color choices are very pastel and like I think a good comp is Rystar

[00:11:29] With like those pinks and purples and stuff, you know like it just looks a very genesis-y

[00:11:33] Mm-hmm, and it's not like trying to be super colorful

[00:11:36] So you know how like Sonic is like okay the Genesis is limited in color

[00:11:39] But when you play Sonic it doesn't feel that way right because that game is like super colorful

[00:11:43] They're putting all these primary colors in your fucking face, right?

[00:11:48] Whereas like Rystar is like playing more off the fact that as a limited color palette

[00:11:52] So it's like using these particular types of hues to make like a thing. That's what Penny goes for

[00:11:58] But yeah, I think it's really appealing and it's a Genesis game come to life in the best way possible

[00:12:04] It's also a buttery smooth 120 frames a second on ps5 which is always ace

[00:12:10] I know the switch version had some problems. I understand like that's the way most people want to play it

[00:12:14] But like if you have a ps5, please do yourself a favor

[00:12:19] so I

[00:12:21] Called Penny's big breakaway a 3d platformer earlier and while it is one

[00:12:26] I don't want people to misunderstand what that means. This is not some bullshit collectathon

[00:12:33] Like some banjo-kazooie or anything else with that sort of like aimless meandering around

[00:12:38] It's imagine something more Kevin like a Super Mario 3d world or sack boy a

[00:12:44] Big adventure Kirby in the forgotten land maybe is also a good comp where it's like yeah

[00:12:49] It's a 3d platformer, but it's also like a fixed perspective

[00:12:53] And you're going along like I mean it's more open than like 3d world or something like that

[00:12:58] It's probably it's probably more akin to like the the Kirby example

[00:13:02] But it's that type of 3d platformer. Okay, you could and it has like

[00:13:08] Expansive but not super duper expansive. It's not an exploration game by any means you could almost say it's like Sonic adventure without the speed

[00:13:18] Sometimes I know that sounds like weird. So is it still then like

[00:13:23] the intent is to get through each level from point A to B and possibly like

[00:13:29] Get some optional pickups along the way or is there is there more nuance to like, you know

[00:13:34] What you're supposed to be doing in each of these levels if it's more expansive where it's not, you know

[00:13:38] There's like like sub objectives to pursue throughout

[00:13:43] Um the answer is both there is some objectives to pursue

[00:13:47] There is doodads to collect as well if you want the three doodads in the level

[00:13:51] You know

[00:13:51] You might have to hop and jump up this certain thing or get this certain item as you go along to hit this thing

[00:13:56] And then there's like there's also little

[00:13:59] Mini quests as you go along where it's like hey my friend up ahead it could use this cell phone

[00:14:05] How about get it Tim without breaking it which means you can't like use your yo-yo

[00:14:10] That's your main attack in the singer yo-yo the yo-yo is sentient by the way. It's really weird

[00:14:14] It has a mouse and everything of course it is right

[00:14:18] And so that means like okay you better get across this section without you know

[00:14:22] Hitting anything which is like a little fun task you could do or of course

[00:14:26] You could ignore all of this and just treat it like a total obstacle course and just go from point A to point B

[00:14:30] As fast as you can and that's really fun too

[00:14:33] You know

[00:14:34] In that respect I would almost say it's like Donkey Kong jungle beat in the way that you

[00:14:40] Flow together the things you can do with the yo-yo because like you can use it to attack as I said

[00:14:45] We use it to swing on stuff. You can use it for a mid-air dash

[00:14:48] You can ride on it for speed like if you're if there's a hill coming up

[00:14:52] You want to jump on your yo-yo so you go down the hill right instead of walking and you'll get to know all these terrain

[00:14:59] Levels and stuff naturally as you play the game

[00:15:01] It just makes sense as you like see it ahead of you

[00:15:04] There's not big cues like hey you might want to roll right here

[00:15:07] You'll just see the layout of the level and you'll be like oh I feel like I should do this

[00:15:11] Mmm, and then it works

[00:15:13] That sounds awesome because it always feels really good when there's like kind of like a cadence or rhythm that you can get

[00:15:19] Into with with just like general traversal

[00:15:22] Yes, and that's what I think that's also why I would also make the

[00:15:27] comparison to

[00:15:28] Jetset radio or sunset overdrive in the way that like

[00:15:33] Using these movement options and speed is largely the way you get away from enemies because there's not too many enemies in the game

[00:15:40] But there's also like sometimes swarms of penguins

[00:15:42] That's kind of the main like enemy that attacks you and if you if too many penguins get attached to you then you'll die

[00:15:48] Then you'll get swarmed and they'll capture you

[00:15:50] But like you can shake them off you by doing these moves

[00:15:54] I mentioned earlier, but also for the most part you just want to outrun them

[00:15:57] There's no benefit to hitting them or anything like that. You just want to get away

[00:16:01] So you move using all these movement options. I mentioned is the way you

[00:16:05] Kind of you know fight in this game if you will the best you can there is like boss battles and stuff

[00:16:10] But they're not too frequent, you know

[00:16:12] one thing I really like about

[00:16:14] Penny's big breakaway is that it largely solves the unlimited lives problem that I talk about in platformers because I

[00:16:22] Really do feel that that's a key element of platforming

[00:16:26] You have to have danger you have to have fear of dying or else nothing you're doing means anything

[00:16:31] If you don't get set back or you could just keep doing whatever. What's the point, right?

[00:16:35] That that's how I feel anyway

[00:16:37] Penny does it great because like I said all the thing all the movement options you can string together

[00:16:42] Those do like combos and you have a combo meter again

[00:16:46] Almost like sunset overdrive where you can like string together these things and like I'm sure every level could be played like non-stop

[00:16:54] If you wanted it to be if you really learned how to zip through the level with while doing like a full combo

[00:17:00] I'm sure every level has that if you really want to

[00:17:04] Obviously, I'm not gonna get good enough to do something like that

[00:17:07] But I you know, I think that's how they designed it

[00:17:09] So if you want to play that way you can and it is fun to play that way

[00:17:13] When you die though, you lose a lot of your score

[00:17:17] You lose 10,000 points which in this game is a lot

[00:17:19] So if you're go if you're playing that way and you're going for stuff and you lose that amount of points

[00:17:24] You're like fuck me

[00:17:26] Like yeah, I could start at the last checkpoint, but fuck I may as well just start over. That's just so like I'm not losing that

[00:17:33] Right and so that's where the child the organic challenge comes in where it's like

[00:17:38] Okay, do I want to just try this level again and

[00:17:41] And keep my score and like go for something better which is often what I did

[00:17:45] Right because that that's the way I like to play

[00:17:47] But if you don't care about that then you just continue and just keep on gives a shit about your score

[00:17:51] If you don't care, then you don't care

[00:17:52] You don't have to care right and the game gives you the freedom to do that and I think that's really nice

[00:17:58] Do they do they kind of like go out of their way to make you feel bad when you lose that combo as like an incentive?

[00:18:05] They don't make you feel super bad. They don't do some sort of like

[00:18:09] Or some some crazy sound when you lose

[00:18:16] No, it's nothing it's nothing that wild it just naturally just goes away

[00:18:20] It's not like is it devil may cry where it's like a great you on your performance and like see us for crappy

[00:18:27] And like D is for like dickhead not dickhead

[00:18:30] But like something else like you know like not nice where it's like so you want to get a beer above

[00:18:35] So it doesn't right you yeah

[00:18:38] um

[00:18:39] This as I mentioned this game is a fixed perspective game

[00:18:44] But that fixed perspective doesn't always make you feel confident in your jumps unfortunately now

[00:18:50] I'm not saying it needs to be like I don't know some game where you can control the camera like a Mario

[00:18:56] Where you can just put it way overhead you so you can really make sure of that one jump you're making

[00:19:01] It's not that kind of game at the same time

[00:19:03] You're zipping through the air or sometimes onto a little platform and you're just gonna trust that you're gonna land on it

[00:19:09] Yeah, penny does have a shadow, but you are making leaps of faith a lot in this game. It's awkward perspective

[00:19:16] It's can sometimes be awkward and but honestly I

[00:19:21] Guess it is a bad thing depending on who you are

[00:19:24] But for me, I think it's fine

[00:19:25] it just strikes the right angle of the course and I think it does a good job for the most part of

[00:19:31] Doing something dynamic

[00:19:33] Versus like just being boring and it's like oh you can make this jump or just having the jumps be close together

[00:19:38] I'd rather it be the way it is then not be exciting. I guess I'll take a little bit of jank in

[00:19:45] Exchange for cool shit. Mm-hmm. So for me, it's like a really good trade off

[00:19:49] But I thought I'd mention it there is a lot of jank moments though

[00:19:53] Like getting caught on terrain or like a set piece misfiring almost in that sonic adventure way

[00:19:58] You know how where it's like you go off some like zip line or something like that

[00:20:01] You just fall off and it's like well, why did I fall and then you try it again?

[00:20:05] And then it works perfectly. It's like okay. Well, then why like what happened say good, right?

[00:20:11] Sometimes this game can do that so penny-spawn breakaway maybe takes a little too much from Sonic in a way that I

[00:20:18] Don't think they probably should you know was it wasn't meant for authentic authenticity. Yeah

[00:20:23] I mean look it's not Sonic 2006. Don't get me wrong

[00:20:27] It's not that level of broken at the same time

[00:20:29] There is some stuff that just doesn't work sometimes

[00:20:32] Here's the worst part of Benny's big breakaway and the reason why I can't put it in like masterpiece status

[00:20:39] The concept wears thin unfortunately, there's 12 worlds in this game

[00:20:45] With like three or so stages each sometimes some have two some have four and sometimes there's a boss and

[00:20:51] While they're not exactly like super long levels or anything

[00:20:55] They're not that short either and it's a lot of game

[00:20:59] Right and it doesn't exactly always support itself by the time you get to like

[00:21:04] World 8 you you know like you you start to see like recycled elements. Oh, I remember that gimmick from stage 3

[00:21:12] Oh, I remember this one from stage 7. Oh, they're doing the book thing again

[00:21:15] Or you know like they start to recycle stuff in a way that I don't think

[00:21:21] It it feels a little tacked on they probably could have shortened this to I think it would have been better if it were like 10

[00:21:29] Stages instead of 12 how long did it take you to finish?

[00:21:33] Not long

[00:21:35] It's a pretty short game. I would say less than

[00:21:38] Eight hours. Oh, okay. Yeah, so it's not a super long game or anything

[00:21:42] I just feels like almost it could probably have been a little it probably should have been more like Sonic Mania length

[00:21:49] Like a four hour like if you wanted to do it like front to back or something like that

[00:21:53] If if Sonic Mania even takes you that long it's probably more like three right if you want to sit down and play it in one play

[00:21:59] through almost like a almost that kind of length

[00:22:01] I feel like it probably should have been but honestly I might be complaining about too much of a good thing and I probably

[00:22:07] But you know, that's how I feel I'm not I will not stop talking about this game before I talk about the music

[00:22:15] Because Penny's big breakaway like Sonic Mania and a lot of these other projects is composed by T. Loops

[00:22:22] Oh

[00:22:24] My god fuck what can I even say about this guy anymore? What words are left for T. Loops?

[00:22:30] He's he does it again. This is as good as anything you've heard him in recently whether it's what's the turtles game Shredder's Revenge

[00:22:36] Whether it's Sonic Mania, whether it's Sonic Superstars

[00:22:40] He is reaching elevated status

[00:22:44] For me like when it's all said and done he might be one of the best to ever do this

[00:22:48] I think T. Loops's music is incredible and it's also incredible in Penny's big breakaway

[00:22:54] So if you played any of the other games that I just mentioned just know that Penny's big breakaway is just as good as those

[00:22:59] It's incredible

[00:23:01] Other than that. Yeah, I think I'm I'm good. This is a real 3d platformer

[00:23:06] This is to me

[00:23:07] This is like what this genre has should have always been and not the collectathon bullshit that I really

[00:23:13] Appreciate can he speak breakaway for that it did it reach like the super duper great

[00:23:19] Alzheimer's status that I thought it could be no of course not but this is a really good game. It's what 30 bucks

[00:23:26] I can't recommend it enough if you like this kind of thing if this sounds remotely fun to you

[00:23:32] Definitely give it a shot

[00:23:43] All right Andre brought one game to the table Kevin brought eight this week

[00:24:04] So if it's not a contest, but if it was I would win

[00:24:08] Eagle eagle eyed eagle eared listeners

[00:24:12] May have noticed that last week I brought nothing to the table and there was a reason for that

[00:24:17] I spent pretty much all of my free time in March

[00:24:22] Building a main machine and I don't have a lot necessarily to say about

[00:24:27] That process it was kind of a pain in the dick

[00:24:30] I don't really know a whole lot of boatwood working

[00:24:32] So I just kind of like stumbled my way through it. I think it turned out pretty well

[00:24:37] Aesthetically I definitely recognize if you are if you are real real

[00:24:43] Concerned about an arcade machine

[00:24:46] Fitting that 80s 90s aesthetic

[00:24:48] This is probably not something you're going to appreciate because it's like bright white and it doesn't have a fake coin door in the front

[00:24:54] It's got shelves. I think it turned out nice, but it's very much

[00:24:57] I mean in my mind this is a thing that's running on a raspberry pi that is playing emulated games

[00:25:04] It's not it's certainly not a like, you know, it's not a it's not a real man's arcade machine

[00:25:10] But I think it fits the bill for what it is for me. I think it looks fantastic

[00:25:16] I I'll retweet be after this episode. I will retweet it again the pictures your cabinet. Thank you

[00:25:22] Yeah, I appreciate that it's definitely I can I guess what I'm saying is if somebody looks at that

[00:25:27] I can see why they wouldn't like it coming from a certain perspective and that's fine

[00:25:34] Well, I'm old. I grew up in the arcade and I love it. So it has a good you are old so that means even more to me

[00:25:44] I didn't grow up. I mean, I definitely played arcade games here and there like at the bowling alley

[00:25:50] You know occasionally, but there was no local arcade where I grew up like in the middle of you know Farmville, Canada

[00:25:58] So it definitely wasn't part of my experience so what I told these guys

[00:26:03] Bo Steve and Andre was give me some games that I would definitely would not have just you know played throughout my life

[00:26:12] Accidentally give me something that I can educate myself with a little bit and they pulled through so I've got a list of eight games

[00:26:19] Steve gave me three and Andre gave me five. So I'm just gonna briefly kind of give some high-level thoughts for these

[00:26:25] So I'll start I'll start with

[00:26:28] Steve's three number one pig skin two or six twenty one AD

[00:26:32] So this is kind of a like simplified football game set in the Middle Ages

[00:26:37] If you've got the ball you passed your team leader and try and get in the end zone

[00:26:40] If the other team has the ball you try and beat the shit out of them and get the ball and then try and get to

[00:26:45] The end zone

[00:26:46] So your team lead is a suit of armor and then the other the other team members look like ruffians

[00:26:51] I guess until the ogres show up eventually

[00:26:54] So you're like a sentient suit of armor like I mean, I think you're you're a person in that suit of armor

[00:27:00] I think you can like, you know, you can tell there's a person in there, but that's how you know that like that's the guy

[00:27:06] That's the captain

[00:27:08] Okay, it is it's a cool concept

[00:27:10] You don't need to know because I don't have a fucking clue how football works in real life

[00:27:14] But I was definitely easy to it was easy to pick this up and play

[00:27:17] It's got really good sprites and really good animations

[00:27:21] The like when you see the characters running with their arm out

[00:27:24] Like they just look so fucking goofy and it like that in itself brings a lot to the experience. However

[00:27:31] Steve fucked me

[00:27:33] Steve Steve was like hey

[00:27:36] So out of those, you know, when you're playing pigskin 621 ask your son if he wants to try it with you

[00:27:42] So I did and he had a fucking blast too, but he beat me like so it was like 67 to 71 or something by like

[00:27:50] Three or five points and I got beat

[00:27:54] So this is the first time either of us had played this but also I've been playing video games for like 35 years

[00:28:00] And he's 10 so highly demoralizing

[00:28:05] But I won't I will only hold that against Steve not against the game it wasn't the game's fault

[00:28:12] His multiplayer is a little bit tricky because your care how much like it's a fairly wide field

[00:28:17] And there's you know, you can like fall in the mud or like run into like these obstacles and get hurt or whatever

[00:28:23] You definitely your lead character and multiplayer spends quite a bit of time off-screen

[00:28:29] So you you can attack with your other team members, but you can't directly control their movement

[00:28:34] So you're kind of like a mashing attack to what while they're like auto running towards the other team member

[00:28:40] That has the ball while you're trying to use your controls to like direct your team leader in in

[00:28:45] View of the screen definitely not a deal breaker, but it was a little bit finicky and multiplayer that way

[00:28:51] Actually never played this game by the way. This is something Steve is obsessed with I've never played this pig sting speak

[00:28:57] Yeah, I mean he brought this up a few weeks ago when we were asked about like

[00:29:02] You know your five arcade games if you could only play five or whatever and it was definitely

[00:29:06] Just hearing him name it

[00:29:08] It was very very different than what I had like envisioned in my imagination when I first heard the titles

[00:29:14] It was it was interesting to say the least

[00:29:18] The second game Wild West Cowboys of Moomesa

[00:29:21] So this is a side-scrolling run-and-gun that was actually based on a short-lived cartoon property that I didn't even know existed

[00:29:28] I'm sure Steve knew plenty about this

[00:29:31] I watch this it was a Saturday morning cartoon. I watch every week

[00:29:34] So this wasn't an early 90s, right?

[00:29:38] Really, I wouldn't say like 93

[00:29:41] Yes, maybe

[00:29:44] Maybe 94th the very latest

[00:29:46] I was cartooning in 93 94

[00:29:49] But yeah, I don't know maybe I did see this and it just completely escaped my memory because I was a little boy

[00:29:54] Saturday morning cartoons a thing up there or was it just a shirt?

[00:29:58] Okay, yeah 100% yet the the fruit loops and Ninja Turtles and Batman animated series

[00:30:04] So yeah, okay perfect

[00:30:06] And then Ninja Turtles is this is this is Ninja Turtles with cows that are cowboys

[00:30:12] Yes, that's very much what this is

[00:30:15] First of all, this looks so fucking good. Have you played this one before? Yes. I played it arcade had this

[00:30:22] Oh, man, I watch a show and they had it looked incredible. Konami was really good at this stuff man

[00:30:28] When they got a property it looks great. Yep the animations are super good

[00:30:32] The pixel art is is beautiful the bosses are like, you know some take up the whole screen. They're very unique

[00:30:40] You know aesthetically and mechanically

[00:30:42] It's it's a very bright and loud and shiny and polished game

[00:30:47] Me and me and my son also played this together the whole way through

[00:30:51] You know, it's it's fairly breezy. It doesn't take a ton of time like like most of these style of games would

[00:30:56] It doesn't wear out its its welcome at all it

[00:31:00] It definitely didn't feel like, you know

[00:31:03] Quarter munchy to me. You know it seemed to balance enough

[00:31:08] One one slightly down side to this there's a section where you have to like swim up the river and like button mash to get up

[00:31:15] There and that felt like a like distinctly weak spot of this game

[00:31:19] But certainly not a deal breaker that that's a very like brief section

[00:31:24] To be honest out of all eight of these games

[00:31:26] I think I would probably pick this one is my personal favorite

[00:31:29] I'm surprised this isn't more well-known as

[00:31:33] Just specifically based as an arcade game

[00:31:36] Yeah, I think like the show was just sort of mildly popular and I guess this was popular enough to this game

[00:31:42] But it didn't hit. I mean like yeah

[00:31:44] And I guess out of all like the Konami games on the turtles engine whether it's Simpsons

[00:31:50] Whether it's sunset riders whether it's whatever

[00:31:52] I feel like Moomesa is kind of the pinnacle like graphics of that if you ask me

[00:31:56] I feel like out of all the games that run on that engine. This is like the best-looking

[00:32:00] Yeah, I don't know. I just like why aren't people like asking

[00:32:03] I mean we're talking about Cadillacs and dinosaurs a few weeks ago and you hear people saying like why isn't this on arcade archives

[00:32:09] Why aren't we getting this but like I never hear I haven't heard of Cowboys of Moomesa before

[00:32:13] I'm surprised it isn't in higher demand from the the old timers

[00:32:18] Yeah, I just think it's more obscure. It's almost like some of the licenses that

[00:32:24] Konami picked up some of them live off like people still like those tiny tunes games, right that they made yeah

[00:32:30] But then no one talks about like the bucky O'Hare game or like this one

[00:32:34] Right like so like you know, I guess like some of those licensed licensed games that Konami made

[00:32:38] Oh, we just kind of get you know, oh whatever

[00:32:41] Okay, well, I'm calling for it now. I want to justice for Cowboys of Moomesa me too

[00:32:47] Steve's third pick I feel bad about this one violence fight. I tried this. I was having insanely crippling emulation issues

[00:32:55] Like 10 seconds into a fight. This was dropping down to like one frame per second like so incredibly unplayable

[00:33:02] So I tried multiple times. I did not get a good good go through this one. So I can't provide a

[00:33:09] new opinion

[00:33:11] Well, just buy yourself a Taito egret too many on

[00:33:16] Japan for 300 bucks. So that's like like me and VIN did and you can play

[00:33:22] I'm fairly confident if we talked to my wife about this

[00:33:25] She's going to say the money towards arcade related items has been spent for the year. So

[00:33:32] So if you wanted to spend if you wanted to spend 799 an arcade archive survive violence fight right now

[00:33:38] You're not allowed

[00:33:41] I

[00:33:45] Keep in keeping track on her on my arcade spending spreadsheet of 2024

[00:33:51] Okay, I don't blame her honestly

[00:33:56] All right on to the Andre picks so Wonder Boy 3 monsters layer

[00:34:00] I think this is definitely more well known

[00:34:02] This is a cartoony auto scrolling platformer that's got like always shoot them up boss fights

[00:34:09] Great level in enemy design. It's it's it's

[00:34:13] How do I put this? It's like very varied throughout the game

[00:34:17] But it's got this like consistent fever dream type thing going on throughout does that does that make sense?

[00:34:24] I would say so for sure. Yeah, I don't know. It's it's got a it's got a it's yeah

[00:34:28] It's a varied throughout but it's got a cohesive like design language throughout

[00:34:33] and I

[00:34:35] Specifically noticed I'm sure that this almost at least partially made Andres less due to music because I would say

[00:34:41] Out of all five of his picks the music was was like really bumping here if you do you know me or do you know me?

[00:34:48] I mean like Jesus Christ

[00:34:50] I mean, I'm not even gonna talk about the turbo graphic CD version like don't even get me started on that music

[00:34:55] That shit. I'll be we'll be here all day. But yeah, the original arcade version. Oh

[00:35:00] It was it was good

[00:35:02] I cranked up the volume to max when I was playing this because it was I was it was definitely it was a good part of the experience

[00:35:09] I will say I thought on this one the bosses are maybe a little bit cheap sometimes

[00:35:15] The like platforming portions of the levels was not overly difficult

[00:35:19] You know and I'm playing this on emulation

[00:35:21] So it's fine because I can just keep telling it to feed in quarters

[00:35:24] But if I was playing this in the arcade, I would have burned through quite a few quarters

[00:35:29] Especially okay, there was one. I don't it was like maybe the second or third world

[00:35:33] There was like the big snake that comes in there and you've got to like hit each of its individual like snake sections of its body

[00:35:40] Mm-hmm. I felt like I got fucked repeatedly on that one. It was very tricky

[00:35:47] So good game, but yeah, I'm glad I was not I wasn't spending quarters playing that because I I'm also just like bad at some

[00:35:55] Of these games admittedly too so I

[00:35:57] Mean I was pretty young when this came out so obviously I wasn't good at it either

[00:36:01] I didn't have the dexterity to really get past more than one of the schmup bosses

[00:36:05] If that if I was lucky on like a quarter or two

[00:36:07] So, you know I was young but when this came out of the turbo graphic CD version came out on

[00:36:13] We virtual console back in the day and then that's when I re-evaluated and I was just buying it

[00:36:18] Basically, I was buying every trip or graphics game and then I got I bought that I was like, oh shit

[00:36:23] This game I used to play this game at the arcade and I fell in love with it again. Yeah, so yeah

[00:36:29] It's cool. It gets it gets tricky with the bosses for sure

[00:36:33] Second one second one Ray Force now. I was wondering there's a couple here

[00:36:38] I was wondering if Andre was trying maybe not not this one

[00:36:41] But I couldn't find this initially on my cabinet and I had to do some leg work

[00:36:45] It turns out so I do have the Saturn porch titled galactic attack on there

[00:36:50] So I played played that this is a vertical

[00:36:53] It's very it. I'm sorry. I just want to say because it's really funny

[00:36:57] so yeah, the arcade version is called Ray Force on

[00:37:00] Saturn here, it's called galactic attack on Saturn in Japan. It's called layer section

[00:37:06] So it has three different fucking names and it's really confusing because this is also on switch as one of like the

[00:37:12] Estra butte games or whatever like the Saturn emulator games

[00:37:15] And it says galactic attack slash layer section because they don't know what the fuck to do with it either

[00:37:22] I'll get there. I looked into that too. It was 40 Canadian dollars. So yeah, maybe I'll

[00:37:30] Give away the farm early here

[00:37:32] Unfortunately, I kept having emulation issues with this one too

[00:37:35] But I would like it play it fine for like four or five minutes and then I kept getting crashes

[00:37:40] Which it was a shame because I was really enjoying this and I'm not the like I'm not the schmup guy for sure as we all know

[00:37:47] That's why I suggested it to you because I thought you would like this game. So was I right?

[00:37:52] Yeah, yeah, I went I was going I was like, okay if this is on arcade archives and I'm gonna spend

[00:37:57] You know a few bucks

[00:37:58] I'll definitely get this on switch and then give it it to do so I can at least talk about it proficiently

[00:38:03] But yeah, it did so it's I guess to back up a little bit

[00:38:06] This is a vertical shooter where you play on two different planes

[00:38:09] So one is on your height of your ship and you got your like rapid-fire weapon there

[00:38:14] And then the plane below where you like line up lasers to drop the lasers

[00:38:20] so and I was

[00:38:22] specifically impressed that it's got this multi-plane thing and it's not

[00:38:28] It's not overt like okay

[00:38:30] This is the plane you're on and these are the lower planes to the point where it's like pushy and like

[00:38:35] You know they're they're not highlighting everything on the lower plane in red and everything on your plane in blue

[00:38:40] But it's also very intuitive to what you're supposed to be attacking on each plane

[00:38:44] And I feel like that was really important with this game

[00:38:47] Because if I was trying to shoot stuff on the lower plane or shoot the lasers to stuff on the plane that I'm flying

[00:38:53] On that would really fuck you up very quickly on this

[00:38:56] so it's it's

[00:38:58] The the design of it is done very well where everything looks cohesive, but it's still very playable and

[00:39:05] Yeah, it doesn't it doesn't trip you up and it doesn't get in the way having that multi-plane gameplay

[00:39:11] And yeah, I think especially early on for the first to five minutes. I was able to play

[00:39:16] The gameplay is fairly forgiving. I'm also assuming that's maybe why Andre thought that this would be appropriate for me

[00:39:21] This is this is definitely easier than

[00:39:25] Some of the other schmups that I've I've tried so yeah, it's easy to get into it does get hard later on

[00:39:31] Don't get me wrong

[00:39:32] But it definitely is easy to start and you know what you said about readability of what's above what's on your plane

[00:39:38] And what's not what's below you the issue with lasers. I never really thought about it that way

[00:39:42] But it's true the game doesn't like really

[00:39:45] Yell the game doesn't really like yell that at you you really you just kind of know and it's very intuitive

[00:39:51] If you want to play more of this game

[00:39:53] This is the first part of a trilogy

[00:39:54] There's there's Ray Force Ray storm and Ray crisis and they're collected on switch as raise arcade chronology

[00:40:03] Oh, well I seen that too, but that's also that was also right around 40 Canadian dollars. Yeah, it's it's a lot

[00:40:08] It's a lot. I imported it. I imported off the switch in Japan, so I paid a lot, okay?

[00:40:16] I

[00:40:19] Fucking she bastard. I also when I was looking into this and what my options were this is also on title legends, too

[00:40:25] So so my thought was maybe someday I do some archiving on

[00:40:30] PS2 emulation

[00:40:34] Emulate the ps2 to emulate like rave from like you're doing it's such a strange

[00:40:39] That's how I felt

[00:40:41] Upcoming in the later this summer we're gonna have a big bonanza of Namco museum and that's how I kind of felt doing the ps1 stuff

[00:40:48] I'm like I'm playing on my steam deck playing ps1 games that are emulating Pac-Man or whatever like it felt

[00:40:54] It felt so weird. Yeah, but hey, you know, I guess it works we're getting into emulation seption for sure

[00:41:00] Yeah

[00:41:03] Okay, I think part two of Andre trying to see if I could do some leg work

[00:41:07] He said he told me to play Baraduk and again

[00:41:09] I couldn't find this one and though like I've got two

[00:41:12] SD card images burned for the pie and one of them has almost 7,000 games

[00:41:16] So I was confident the stuff would be on there. I had to do some googling and this one was also released as alien sector in some regions

[00:41:24] So when I found that out to then I tracked it down. Oh, so you found as a alien sector

[00:41:29] I've only known it as Baraduk Baraduk Baraduk. I don't know how we said Baraduk

[00:41:34] I've only known it as that because it's Baraduk on Namco Museum volume 5 and it's also on arcade archives as Baraduk

[00:41:41] I've never known the name alien sector. So I wasn't trying to trick you

[00:41:44] No, no, I don't I don't know what regions that was or wasn't in but it's definitely the same game

[00:41:50] so you play you play as this little space woman kissy and clear out levels of

[00:41:55] Uniquely designed aliens and move down floors and then each each world will culminate in a boss fight

[00:42:01] So this was definitely fun the gameplay it just feels addictive here

[00:42:06] But sadly you cannot keep pumping lives and keep on from where you lost your lives here

[00:42:11] This is a little too old for that

[00:42:13] so even when you put in a new quarter if you didn't if you didn't if you lost your lives you got to start over at

[00:42:18] The start each time so even with the the quarter button you got to get good if you want to get it. Oh, yeah

[00:42:24] It's it's tricky. Yeah

[00:42:27] It's tricky

[00:42:29] Do me and then like the little alien that says I'm your friend and that very scratchy voice when you start each level

[00:42:37] Hey, don't shoot me fucker. You need to collect me. Yeah, he was he was cute. Yeah

[00:42:44] You want some you want some Namco deep lore for you? I'll tell you some some deep lore kissy is mr. Drillers mom

[00:42:53] Yes

[00:42:55] Because because as you know dig dug aka ties Ohori that's mr. Drillers dad

[00:43:00] So him the kissy is but so they had a baby and so soon they had to sue muhori mr. Driller

[00:43:06] Oh man, there must be there must be some fucking

[00:43:09] Wild porn out there that somebody's made of this dude dig dog port. Of course come on

[00:43:15] Please that has to exist

[00:43:18] I'm not googling that for for the record. Well. Yeah kissy is mr. Drillers mom now, you know, you know the name

[00:43:25] Oh

[00:43:27] Good when that comes up in general conversation when I'm at work someday, I'll be able to

[00:43:35] If that ever came up at a workplace outside of like an actual like video game development place and be like what the fuck are you even

[00:43:44] Barra do I'll make I'll make sure to keep that tidbit in my back pocket for when I'm at a wedding someday

[00:43:49] And I need to impress my peers

[00:43:52] Oh boy, but yeah, I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's a I do like that came once good. Yeah, it was it was fine

[00:43:58] I was surprised and I wonder if you have any specific thoughts on this

[00:44:03] I know we're getting back to mid 80s here

[00:44:05] But I think some background music would have would have added to this

[00:44:08] And I don't know if that was purposeful just to give it that real solitary feel

[00:44:12] But it's just sound effects there. There's no like ongoing music as you play through this

[00:44:17] It was purposeful. I mean obviously by 85 or 6 or whenever those came out the BGM was a regular thing

[00:44:23] So, I mean we you know, the kid and Namco was like the pioneer of that

[00:44:26] I think they have one of the first BGMs ever in new rally X that was 1981

[00:44:31] So obviously like but there doesn't seem to be a whole like cadence of like sound effects

[00:44:35] Like Pac-Man doesn't have music

[00:44:37] But it has the whole cadence of sound constant sound effects to have like a thing bar adieu doesn't really have that so yeah

[00:44:43] No, it was it was not noticeable for sure. Yeah

[00:44:47] Magic Sword so this is a like a fantasy setting hack and slash and some some very light platforming

[00:44:53] Again, really cohesive vibe with with this really good music and I really liked so you swap out your assist characters

[00:45:02] Throughout this and it was it was fun like finding them and just kind of experimenting them with

[00:45:07] experimenting with them and seeing the different

[00:45:09] Character designs and so I was reading about this on Wikipedia

[00:45:13] I found out that Splatoon might have some copyright issues because there's that one real big guy

[00:45:18] That comes around with you and his name is big man

[00:45:21] His name is big name is big man. He did it. He did it first

[00:45:25] You know what? I often chose him because like if I got him out of the door because like if I felt like if

[00:45:31] I had like the white mage or something they would die in like two hits or something like that

[00:45:34] They would just like get destroyed or something. He had some actual HP

[00:45:37] He's right. He's just tried to yeah, you could take some punishment big man could take some punishment

[00:45:43] I always wanted to let all of the characters out of the locked doors because of the excellent translation

[00:45:50] Where the characters would ask me things such as get me escape and get rid of me

[00:45:57] I also like take me out take me out was fun

[00:46:04] Yeah, get me escape was pretty good

[00:46:07] I

[00:46:09] Was because I seen get rid of me very early on before I like

[00:46:13] Realize exactly what's going on with letting these guys out of the doors with the keys

[00:46:17] And I was like what the fuck's going on

[00:46:19] Like I thought it was literally like he wanted me to get rid of him

[00:46:22] And then I eventually after get me escape. I trued clued into what's going on here

[00:46:27] You know honestly as a kid and I don't know if ever mentioned this there was so much bad English in

[00:46:32] In arcade games back then that I just kind of thought that was like the language of arcade because I that's the only time

[00:46:38] I saw people speak that way so I did obviously I didn't understand that these were badly translated from Japanese

[00:46:44] I didn't get that it was just like a thing to yeah, this is just how video games talk get me escape or whatever like

[00:46:54] Like there is there there was there was some some programming like issue where they couldn't put let me escape in there

[00:47:01] Yeah, I don't know what I thought I just thought that's like how you talked in a game because again

[00:47:05] That's the only place. That's all this stuff. So like I have my kid brain just thought oh, I guess that's just what you say

[00:47:11] I guess it doesn't make any sense, but whatever

[00:47:16] The violence fight is too black

[00:47:18] It's too bad you didn't get to play violence fight because that has some of the best bad English of all time

[00:47:24] Incredible so if you ever do get to play that tell me I'll try and try and find away one of these days

[00:47:28] And follow up on that one

[00:47:30] Magic Sword was fun. I did think it gets repetitive

[00:47:33] They they keep you posted on how many levels you had left and I got to about 30 out of 51

[00:47:38] And I thought okay, I think I've because probably after the first 10, you know

[00:47:42] And it's still it's still fun and engaging, but they don't there's not like there's not much

[00:47:47] Introducing new elements after a certain point

[00:47:51] Yeah, no that's true. It is it is 54s. They are not lying

[00:47:55] You will go through 50 levels, but they're not like super long levels, but man

[00:48:00] I whoo you want to talk about like early capcom shit that really

[00:48:05] That's really oh man magic sword for me was

[00:48:10] Was it now that to me that is like quintessential like essence of capcom right there? Yeah, you know, it's great

[00:48:18] And lastly but not least a demons world

[00:48:22] I

[00:48:24] Feel like I can almost only talk about the aesthetic because it's so striking on this one

[00:48:29] This is the most in 90s aesthetic. I've ever seen I looked it up

[00:48:35] This is released released in 89, but I will hear none of that

[00:48:38] This is 100% a 90s game. It has a 90s. Yeah, it has a 90s vibe

[00:48:46] Music and it's great

[00:48:49] It's it's so good. Yeah, I mean

[00:48:54] Sorry go ahead

[00:48:55] No, it's just gonna say that like you know like yeah the cars release their first two albums in the late 70s

[00:48:59] But that that's the 80s come on right KDO may have released in 79

[00:49:03] But that's the fucking 80s like let's be real right if you haven't seen this

[00:49:08] It is very worth just going in like googling and looking at a few screenshots because it's interesting how 90s it is

[00:49:16] Yes, so this is this is a auto scrolling run-and-gun with all sort of demonic monsters to fight

[00:49:22] Well you wear your very cool 90s sunglasses

[00:49:25] And I loved how the sunglasses would only come off your face if you take damage

[00:49:30] You kind of get that little like quick animation where they like lift up off your face when you get hurt

[00:49:35] Yeah, this is a very fun game too. I found this one to be tricky

[00:49:39] and not not because of the level design or

[00:49:43] Enemy placement or any enemy health or anything

[00:49:46] But it's got this jumping mechanic where you have a double jump and I never figured out

[00:49:51] So the second jump are you do you have a jetpacker?

[00:49:53] Where what's the because you definitely have something that's that's like pushing you when you do your second jump, right?

[00:50:00] Yeah, I don't think you have an apparatus. I think you can just double jump like like super ghouls and ghosts

[00:50:05] I think you can just jump twice, you know

[00:50:07] But you have to do it you can't you have to do it on your ascent

[00:50:11] You can't do it at the apex of your jump or anything. You have to like do it as you're going up

[00:50:15] That's yeah, and that second jump really changes like your inertia and the trajectory of your dump your jump

[00:50:23] And this is really interesting. So I when I say this is tricky

[00:50:26] This is not bad difficulty

[00:50:29] And and definitely while I was playing this, you know, I was I was adapting to it

[00:50:34] But I certainly was not like mastering this movement. There's you really would have to get the hang of this

[00:50:39] I think but the more you get the hang of it. It's very satisfying. It's just got a very

[00:50:45] It's not that it's not intuitive

[00:50:47] I've just really like I struggled to think of anything to equate to like how that movement is

[00:50:53] And it did it got frustratingly hard eventually I played this for maybe 25 30 minutes

[00:51:01] And that it eventually I was getting to a point where I was like over and over like burning through lives

[00:51:05] Just trying to get through the same section over and over so it got quite hard

[00:51:10] I thought but yeah, it's very very fun

[00:51:12] And I think this would be a great game if you wanted like a game like this to really sink your teeth into this

[00:51:17] Would be a very fun one to like get really good at I

[00:51:22] Think so as well. Yeah, this game is fantastic. I think I talked about it a little bit last year when I was talking about one

[00:51:27] of those toa plan

[00:51:29] Deewology of schmups. I think it was zero fire the one that has zero wing and hell fire

[00:51:34] And they always include a non-schmup thing as DLC in that time

[00:51:37] They included demons world or in Japan is on his horror story here

[00:51:41] We got it as demons world

[00:51:42] And I was really enjoying it because on there they have the arcade and the turbo CD version

[00:51:47] And I think maybe if you you should try the turbo CD version because obviously home ports of arcade games

[00:51:53] They go easier on you so you can really you know, they mean they're not trying to take your money anymore

[00:51:58] They already they're you already gave them your money. So, you know, I if you can I don't I honestly have never tried turbo emulation in my entire life

[00:52:06] But if you can emulate turbo graphic CD definitely or PC engine CD in this case definitely try horror story

[00:52:12] The Japanese version the home version. I think you would all if you want some further playing of that game

[00:52:17] I think you would enjoy that. Okay. I will try that

[00:52:19] I've got I've got that set up on my

[00:52:22] The retro eye pocket so I'll archive the home version of this. All right. Yeah

[00:52:29] Yeah, that was a lot of it was that was a lot of a lot of fun

[00:52:33] I was the I'm really you guys gave me some really really solid and like

[00:52:38] Diverse recommendations which was fun and it was a good way to break in that main machine. So I'm slightly

[00:52:44] Slightly more educated than I was I'm glad he had fun with my picks

[00:52:48] I wasn't sure you know, I just thought so I picked some stuff that I thought you would like

[00:52:52] You know that I also enjoyed at the time, but yeah, I think I really do once it becomes cheap sometime

[00:52:58] I definitely suggest

[00:53:00] That raise arcade chronology. I think you would have fun with all three of those games

[00:53:05] Yeah, I would I would like to get into a schmup like that because but it's

[00:53:10] Intimidating like a lot of those games are fucking hard and I just don't have the like it's not even just a time thing

[00:53:17] I don't have the like, you know when I was a kid if something was hard

[00:53:20] I could just sit there for fucking hours and like dick around with it and dick around with it

[00:53:24] And I don't have the attention span for that anymore

[00:53:27] You know, I like those games are fun and satisfying

[00:53:30] But if it's too hard and I'm not getting it soon

[00:53:32] Then I just don't have the the oomph to like stick with it. So this seemed like a good introductory for me

[00:53:38] I understand that that's why I would never suggest you play something like, you know

[00:53:42] I really like these are type final games recently and I absolutely would never suggest you play those right?

[00:53:48] Those are those are for sickos like me and Steve and then or whatever. I would never suggest you play that all right well

[00:53:54] We want to talk stellar blade, but first Kevin

[00:53:57] I know Steve isn't here and I know he has a feeling certain feeling about showers with only two people

[00:54:03] But I think we're gonna do it anyway without him. Oh, yeah

[00:54:07] How is that gonna make him feel?

[00:54:09] We're about to find out it's time to hit the showers

[00:54:39] All right, we're back

[00:54:42] You know Kevin, I don't mind sharing the luffa with you. Let me know Steve does I don't mind sharing the luffa

[00:54:47] Do we have to share the towel?

[00:54:49] I mean Steve he's lying. He's being provocative and I when we were on break

[00:54:53] I put my foot down. I said we cannot do this without without Steve

[00:54:57] He's saying this is a good idea. I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:00] I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:01] I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:02] I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:03] I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:04] I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:05] I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:06] I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:07] I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:08] I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:09] I'm gonna go for it

[00:55:10] I'm about Steve

[00:55:11] He's saying this for shock value

[00:55:13] No, we sourd together and we were naked and it was glorious Steve. It was glorious

[00:55:18] Glorious

[00:55:19] What's he gonna think of us?

[00:55:20] Uh

[00:55:21] Whatever he wants, I guess

[00:55:27] Well maybe he'll be driven to be extra enthusiastic for shower break next big deal

[00:55:32] Maybe yeah

[00:55:33] He's usually

[00:55:34] I know you can't.

[00:55:35] I got something to make up for now.

[00:55:36] I don't want Kevin and Andre getting too cozy.

[00:55:39] All right.

[00:55:41] Well, speaking of us being provocative, we need to talk about Stellar Blade or at least

[00:55:46] the demo of Stellar Blade because going back to our previous creative endeavor, I've been

[00:55:52] hot on Stellar Blade since it was shown off as Project Eve, I think it was called,

[00:55:58] at the PlayStation 5 reveal.

[00:55:59] What was that?

[00:56:00] Summer 2020.

[00:56:01] We're all still locked indoors.

[00:56:02] Nothing to do.

[00:56:04] I cannot give you a specific year.

[00:56:07] It was ages ago.

[00:56:10] Yeah, it was a long time ago.

[00:56:12] So when they announced this demo, I was like, OK, here we go.

[00:56:16] This thing I've been looking forward to for years is finally here.

[00:56:19] Just to set this for the people, what was always your feelings about Stellar Blade

[00:56:23] leading up to this?

[00:56:25] Yeah, I was not hot on it.

[00:56:27] I didn't find anything off-putting about it.

[00:56:30] It's just definitely not something that struck me as a Kevin game.

[00:56:33] And it is also worth noting I have a wife and kids in the area where my PlayStation

[00:56:39] 5 is set up, and there is an extreme level of jiggle physics in this game that is not

[00:56:47] appropriate for that setting, I guess.

[00:56:50] So even this demo, I honestly had to find time to play it in the last few days when

[00:56:56] there was solitude.

[00:56:58] Yeah.

[00:56:59] OK, I understand.

[00:57:01] So I can't be buying you a Cynron Kagura on PlayStation or something like that.

[00:57:06] You can't just be playing.

[00:57:07] There's no panty waifu games going on here.

[00:57:11] All right.

[00:57:13] Well, OK, so before we start talking about the game, I found this really funny in

[00:57:17] the options.

[00:57:18] Under gameplay, there is ponytail length, like short or long ponytail.

[00:57:24] Why was something like that under gameplay?

[00:57:26] That was weird.

[00:57:29] We didn't get a taste of everything, I'm sure.

[00:57:31] Maybe that literally maybe that does have a like tangible effect on the game at

[00:57:35] some point for some reason.

[00:57:37] The performance, maybe.

[00:57:38] Oh, there's too much hair.

[00:57:40] It's like knocking it down by a few frames.

[00:57:42] Like what do you cut off four inches of hair just to get a couple extra

[00:57:46] FPS out of it?

[00:57:47] Yeah. Too much.

[00:57:50] Yeah, Matt, you can apply those physics to everything.

[00:57:55] This is what gets cut.

[00:57:58] Yeah, just the hair.

[00:57:59] This turned out to be more interesting than we thought it would, I think,

[00:58:02] because this was not a straightforward demo and a gameplay experience as I

[00:58:07] thought it might be.

[00:58:09] And it turned out to be much more complex than I thought.

[00:58:12] But let's start with.

[00:58:14] Let's start with the good.

[00:58:16] And I think we can both agree with on this graphics on PlayStation

[00:58:20] five, baby, we're in full effect.

[00:58:24] That opening set piece was crazy impressive.

[00:58:28] It ran perfectly.

[00:58:29] Yeah, they cut some corners of the solve where they like, you know,

[00:58:32] fade out a few things in front of your face.

[00:58:34] OK, fine. But like that thing ran insane.

[00:58:38] What did you think of that opening set?

[00:58:40] Yeah, I mean, even just the whole demo threw out.

[00:58:44] Like this is really was one of the best graphical showcases I've seen

[00:58:48] on the system, you know, and it's like, like I think the

[00:58:52] presentation overall helps because there's a very like strong art direction

[00:58:57] with this, you know, the settings are very well done.

[00:59:01] It's like the tech and the art direction really come together

[00:59:06] to make it some special in that respect.

[00:59:09] Yeah, I absolutely agree.

[00:59:11] It just has an excellent vibe in general.

[00:59:13] And this goes into like the world and art as well as the graphics

[00:59:17] bringing it to life is that like I am I am a sucker for anime

[00:59:22] post apocalyptic shit.

[00:59:24] You know that I that'll get me every time.

[00:59:27] So and Stellar Blade is that this game does it really well with the ruined city

[00:59:32] and you have overgrown vegetation, you have those like little streams

[00:59:37] of water splashing down over the place, which you can actually run under

[00:59:40] and they have like real water physics and everything, not just like a little plane.

[00:59:43] I mean, like that's fine too, if it's just something to look at.

[00:59:46] But the fact that you could like interact with those things is really cool.

[00:59:49] I don't know if you try to do that, like stand under one or whatever.

[00:59:51] And the and the force feedback on the controller, the dual sets really gives you

[00:59:55] that like water spot.

[00:59:58] It's great.

[00:59:58] I love that immersive type of shit.

[01:00:00] I think that stuff really matters.

[01:00:02] It's not just impressive.

[01:00:03] It really, I think it's immersive.

[01:00:05] I think it really draws you into that world.

[01:00:07] The music is great too.

[01:00:10] It's really lush and atmospheric.

[01:00:12] Maybe I don't know if you'll agree at this.

[01:00:14] It felt very like two thousands felt very like me to.

[01:00:18] Yeah, I had that like sort of like before we started using the term like

[01:00:25] chilled downbeat or EDM or whatever.

[01:00:29] Like it has an electronic vibe from the two thousands, you know, and I

[01:00:33] not not like 90s techno, right?

[01:00:34] Specifically like something from 2006 or something like if I found some obscure

[01:00:39] like PS2 game that I never heard of, I would expect to have music like this.

[01:00:43] Yeah, different.

[01:00:44] But I think you could probably draw some parallels

[01:00:47] between like this and the music in Metroid Prime.

[01:00:49] Yeah, absolutely.

[01:00:51] That's what I was thinking of, honestly, because I don't know if you remember

[01:00:54] last year when we were talking about Metroid Prime remastered.

[01:00:56] That's the one thing I wasn't prepared for when we were playing that game

[01:01:00] is that the music is so 2002, like very of its time in a good way,

[01:01:05] I think. And Stellar Blade is not it's not trying to be retro or something,

[01:01:09] obviously, but it just has that vibe and it's appropriate for the world

[01:01:14] and whatever. So that's the good part.

[01:01:17] Yeah. Well, and before we move on from the good, just when you're talking about

[01:01:22] you know, polish and kind of what they were able to do there.

[01:01:26] I wasn't I wasn't expecting this necessarily to be superficial,

[01:01:30] but I was surprised at how robust everything kind of seems to be.

[01:01:35] The upgrade system just kind of like going through those menus

[01:01:38] seems pretty robust and well thought out.

[01:01:40] You know, they've got the crafting system.

[01:01:42] They've got like the swimming and diving felt really good.

[01:01:46] It just seems like there's a kind of a level of refinement that I wasn't expecting.

[01:01:49] And especially so I had one specific moment that really caught me off guard.

[01:01:54] There is a section fairly early on when you're traveling across the like broken

[01:01:59] bridge and you've got to like hop across the gap in the sections

[01:02:02] and then you can like kind of go off to the side and there's

[01:02:05] there's a like chest with items in there or whatever.

[01:02:08] And I fell down in that area.

[01:02:10] And first of all, I wasn't expecting to be able to fall period.

[01:02:14] I kind of just expected there to be invisible walls around those areas

[01:02:18] other than like where you're jumping from to stop that.

[01:02:21] So not only, you know, and I was just like kind of taken

[01:02:23] aback when I fell down in a good way.

[01:02:26] And then when I fell, I fell on this like little outcropping of rock

[01:02:29] that's kind of like beside the pit under the bridge.

[01:02:32] And I was able to like jump out of there and looking at this area

[01:02:36] that I fell into it very much looks like something that that in really

[01:02:41] like any video game, I wouldn't expect it to be accessible, accessible

[01:02:45] or traversable, you know, and specifically on that moment,

[01:02:49] I got a lot of respect out of what they've done with this game overall

[01:02:52] because it kind of just like speaks volumes about how much

[01:02:56] like effort is put in here.

[01:02:57] That this game really isn't to just like, you know, A to B,

[01:03:01] like look at the jiggly butt game.

[01:03:04] Like there's definitely a lot of effort and love, I think

[01:03:08] that was put into building this.

[01:03:10] I got a lot of respect out of that for this.

[01:03:13] Yeah.

[01:03:13] And I don't want to be, I don't want to really give too much

[01:03:16] voice to the people being so fucking weird about this game online.

[01:03:21] But like, yeah, there's people who are like taking this as like,

[01:03:25] oh man, this game is anti-woke because there's a girl's butt

[01:03:28] or something like that, like in all that bullshit.

[01:03:31] And it's like, this isn't even that titillating.

[01:03:34] Like, I mean, yeah, she's like scantily clad

[01:03:36] and wearing a skin tight suit.

[01:03:38] But if you want that, I think you're better serve playing

[01:03:40] fucking Bayonetta or something.

[01:03:42] If you really want some like that kind of show, I mean, look,

[01:03:46] maybe that happens later on in this game.

[01:03:48] But for now, she's just a girl wearing what she's wearing.

[01:03:51] Right?

[01:03:52] Like, so I don't know.

[01:03:53] People are being so weird about it.

[01:03:55] Yeah.

[01:03:55] Come out and like to like claim this as like an anti-woke thing.

[01:03:59] I mean, to me, like looking at screenshots of this, like to

[01:04:02] me, it like looks like a modern version of PN03, right?

[01:04:05] This is not like something new.

[01:04:08] Yeah, I don't know.

[01:04:09] I don't know.

[01:04:10] But you know how those people are again, I don't want to.

[01:04:13] I don't want to give too much voice to that stupid shit.

[01:04:15] But I thought it would be remiss of me if I didn't at least say that.

[01:04:19] It's like, y'all, if you want that in your games,

[01:04:22] you can easily have that anyway.

[01:04:25] I think we agree so far and we might agree on this too.

[01:04:27] But here's the big problem.

[01:04:30] So all the good stuff.

[01:04:31] Here's the bad.

[01:04:33] I do not know if I like this combat.

[01:04:37] It feels confused and I'm confused by it.

[01:04:43] So it's I don't even know where to begin.

[01:04:46] So like, it's asking for this like very picky

[01:04:50] peritiming and dodging, you know, almost like a Souls game, right?

[01:04:56] Which is something neither of us are into on this show.

[01:04:59] Right.

[01:05:00] But then on top of that, it also wants you to scramble for your life

[01:05:05] against like enemy swarms, all sorts of little guys

[01:05:09] that they want you to chop up.

[01:05:10] But then they but they want you to dodge those two.

[01:05:12] And they but that goes against like the stick and move philosophy

[01:05:16] of like a Souls type of game.

[01:05:20] So and it certainly isn't trying to be like devil may cry

[01:05:23] because there's no guns or you don't have any like wildly agile

[01:05:27] movement or anything like that.

[01:05:29] And that also obviously brings it to Bayonetta.

[01:05:32] It's not trying to be that either because you don't have like the

[01:05:35] freestyle combos and like like combat solutions to certain types

[01:05:40] of situations.

[01:05:41] It seems like she can just do the thing.

[01:05:43] Now, again, maybe other stuff is unlockable as you go along.

[01:05:47] Yeah, you can unlock moves in Bayonetta and Devil May Cry,

[01:05:50] but you have so many moves at the beginning, right?

[01:05:54] You're just unlocking additional stuff you can do.

[01:05:56] You have the plethora of stuff you can do.

[01:06:00] You don't really have that in Stauerblade.

[01:06:03] And as a result, Kevin, I don't really know what this is like.

[01:06:08] So how did I know that wasn't a very great explanation?

[01:06:11] But how do you feel about this combat?

[01:06:14] I 100 percent wholeheartedly agree with everything you said.

[01:06:18] I also do not like the Perry and Dodge system.

[01:06:21] And I was very much actually I wasn't even going to bring it up.

[01:06:24] And then I seen you had it on the notes.

[01:06:26] I wasn't going to talk about it because it just seems like almost a cheap shot.

[01:06:31] But I was absolutely like thinking about that souls comparison

[01:06:34] when I was playing this as well.

[01:06:36] And it's faster and more fluid from that, but it's got that same foundation.

[01:06:41] And as far as the timing for that, like you can they make it clear

[01:06:45] when an attack is coming, but to know exactly when it's going to land.

[01:06:49] It doesn't feel intuitive.

[01:06:51] And that kind of killed it for me.

[01:06:53] I've said before and I really I really never ever changed the difficulty

[01:06:59] on on games and I put this on story on story mode when I was fighting

[01:07:03] that last boss, because I was getting fucking frustrated and just

[01:07:06] I just didn't feel good.

[01:07:09] It's not very.

[01:07:10] No, so it was no.

[01:07:11] So I think like because I just I was like, I just want to fucking get

[01:07:14] through this at this point.

[01:07:15] Also, I found it incredibly, incredibly annoying how long it takes

[01:07:20] you to use a health item.

[01:07:23] And I think this was almost the biggest problem I was having on that

[01:07:25] last boss fight.

[01:07:26] I died multiple times when I had three health items in reserve,

[01:07:30] but I just wasn't able to use it in time.

[01:07:31] It feels purposefully delayed and to a frustrating level.

[01:07:35] There's nothing good to me about that if they want.

[01:07:38] And I understand the logic behind saying, you know, we want

[01:07:42] you to have to like plan out using your health.

[01:07:44] But it felt like it was incredible.

[01:07:47] It was the worst thing about the combat for me, honestly,

[01:07:50] was the time delay to use a health item.

[01:07:52] Again, that seems like a soul's type of philosophy, right?

[01:07:56] But it doesn't gel with the other like the way the enemies

[01:07:59] move or the way the combat goes.

[01:08:01] So it's at odds with each other, right?

[01:08:03] The health item.

[01:08:04] Yeah. OK, it takes if it's going to take a long time to use,

[01:08:06] they better take a long time to attack you too.

[01:08:09] Right. And they don't.

[01:08:11] So that's that's the shitty part.

[01:08:13] Those those two things are at odds with each other.

[01:08:15] And that's why I'm really confused about what they're

[01:08:17] going for, because like in Bayonetta or definitely cry,

[01:08:19] you just pause the game and use an item.

[01:08:21] Right. Yeah.

[01:08:22] So it's not a really big deal.

[01:08:23] This they want you to be active with it, which is fine.

[01:08:26] But at what cost?

[01:08:28] Right. Like what are we doing here?

[01:08:30] Yeah. And I mean, even in like, you know, soul's combat,

[01:08:33] I don't want to get into this now someday.

[01:08:36] Maybe I really like put a good effort into trying to get

[01:08:38] into Elden Ring a few months ago.

[01:08:41] And so I do.

[01:08:42] I in that game, it makes sense, you know,

[01:08:44] that like that delay to use a health item,

[01:08:46] you need to like use it strategically and intentionally.

[01:08:49] But this feels yeah, it feels completely different from that.

[01:08:53] In that game, I recognized the delay and why it was there.

[01:08:57] But it was never like it was never like frustrating

[01:08:59] and felt needless like it did here.

[01:09:02] One other thing, the movement when you're locked

[01:09:05] on to an enemy seemed like awkward and restrictive.

[01:09:10] But you need to be locked onto these enemies.

[01:09:13] And there were some cases with that boss, right?

[01:09:15] There's the light.

[01:09:16] I don't know if it's lightning, but you know,

[01:09:18] all of a sudden you can like see stuff like looks like lightning

[01:09:20] coming down from the sky and it'll highlight before it hits you.

[01:09:24] And I could very much see that coming.

[01:09:26] I intentionally wanted to dodge around that.

[01:09:29] And I feel like I made the proper effort to dodge that,

[01:09:33] but was still often hit because that movement in that situation

[01:09:37] felt so sluggish and restrictive.

[01:09:38] And it doesn't feel like that when you're not locked on.

[01:09:41] But I do not think that that boss fight is it would be unreasonable

[01:09:45] to try and do that, not having that boss locked on the entire time.

[01:09:48] So that was a really like weird dynamic

[01:09:51] because this game seems to like pride itself on that like fast and fluid movement.

[01:09:57] So yeah, but it also doesn't feel it doesn't feel like you actually

[01:10:03] are fast and fluid.

[01:10:04] I never felt that way while playing.

[01:10:06] I don't like, OK, we I played through Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

[01:10:11] You are playing it right now.

[01:10:12] That game also has dodging and perry timing and stuff.

[01:10:16] I have no problem doing it in that game.

[01:10:18] OK, and look, I'm sure the perry windows and stuff

[01:10:22] in that game are bigger than stellar blade.

[01:10:24] But what I'm saying is maybe stellar blade should have that

[01:10:26] because like if you if you want me to do this very precise timing for that stuff,

[01:10:31] we need to have very precise enemies and very precise gameplay.

[01:10:34] And this doesn't have that.

[01:10:36] So you can't ask me to like, OK, in a three frame window

[01:10:41] like perry this thing and then have like enemy swarms at the same time.

[01:10:46] I just feel like that's not very fun.

[01:10:59] But when you're when you're not locked on,

[01:11:01] like when you're just traversing the world, it feels fluid and fast then.

[01:11:06] And there's no there's no difference between like when you are in a battle,

[01:11:10] you can still move in exactly the same way.

[01:11:13] It's just that like lock on that seems to ruin everything.

[01:11:17] You know what I mean?

[01:11:18] Like you could be fast and fluid playing that.

[01:11:20] You're just not going to have a fucking clue where you're aiming.

[01:11:23] No, you're not.

[01:11:24] And again, go using rebirth as an example,

[01:11:28] because this is the last thing I played and I think it think it is a good comp anyway.

[01:11:34] That game is challenging.

[01:11:35] I don't think we could say that game is easy, right?

[01:11:38] It's not it's not like super duper hard, but it definitely gives you a workout.

[01:11:41] I'm sure you've been to a boss or two where you're like, fuck, right?

[01:11:45] So I was surprised at how challenging it was.

[01:11:48] Right. And then that's the kind of that's the thing I like about remake,

[01:11:51] whereas like remake was also challenging.

[01:11:53] But I think it was also a little picky or unfair.

[01:11:57] I think like rebirth really refines that to a large degree.

[01:12:00] And like stellar blade again, you can beach.

[01:12:04] I think what I'm trying to say is I think they were afraid

[01:12:08] that the game wouldn't be challenging if they didn't have that kind of timing

[01:12:13] to go along with it.

[01:12:14] And I just think that's untrue.

[01:12:16] I think the game would still be pretty challenging

[01:12:18] and the combat would still be fun if they if they loosened it up some more.

[01:12:23] I think they made it this way because it's like, oh, man,

[01:12:25] that's not very fun if you could just go through and try.

[01:12:27] Well, I don't think people are going to do that.

[01:12:29] So hopefully I don't know if they are,

[01:12:31] if they're taking feedback from this demo or something.

[01:12:34] And I hope they are again talking about rebirth.

[01:12:37] They took feedback from that demo and put in the final game

[01:12:40] because the demo was too hard and the final game is not.

[01:12:43] I didn't play the rebirth demo, so I don't know.

[01:12:46] But apparently that was the feedback.

[01:12:48] That was the same feedback about Bravely Default 2.

[01:12:51] I think like Japanese companies put out these demos for that kind of final

[01:12:55] tuning feedback before a game comes out.

[01:12:57] I really hope they can do that, the stellar blade.

[01:13:00] I really do because if they do,

[01:13:03] I think I will be more inclined to buy this because again right now,

[01:13:08] like I've been looking forward this for a long time.

[01:13:10] I don't know if I want to buy this anymore.

[01:13:12] I think this demo turned me off.

[01:13:14] I don't I didn't hate what I played here.

[01:13:17] I didn't. I really didn't.

[01:13:18] But at the same time, I don't know if I want to play

[01:13:22] a whole game of this kind of a combat for 70 bucks.

[01:13:26] I yeah, I mean, as far as like incorporating that feedback,

[01:13:30] I do wonder like I don't know if it's as much as like it makes

[01:13:36] it more difficult, but it almost feels to me like that was like

[01:13:40] intentionally by design to appeal to that market that likes those

[01:13:45] kind of games because that market is very much there.

[01:13:48] It's just not us.

[01:13:50] I mean, for me, that's fine.

[01:13:51] I feel like, you know, this is an interesting demo.

[01:13:53] I'm glad I played it and I've got respect for what it is.

[01:13:57] But it further reiterated that this isn't a game for me for you.

[01:14:00] You know, it's it's unfortunate that you like what this game is.

[01:14:03] But I do kind of feel like, you know, that was an intentional decision

[01:14:07] to appeal to those those souls like players that are looking for that.

[01:14:13] But are they looking for that from stellar blade?

[01:14:17] Right. Because I feel like most people who get this

[01:14:19] are just going to think it's fucking Bayonetta or something.

[01:14:22] That's that's what I would assume.

[01:14:24] I think there's definitely going to be a good chunk of people

[01:14:28] that are that aren't expecting that that combat from this game.

[01:14:31] Hopefully those people played the demo so they know what to expect.

[01:14:34] But I do also think, too, like that that market is probably bigger

[01:14:38] than than we as a show give it credit for sometimes that does like that.

[01:14:44] Maybe. But I feel, I guess I also and I could be wrong about this.

[01:14:48] I feel like the people who do like those kind of games

[01:14:50] also won't be satisfied by this because I don't think

[01:14:54] they're going to get what they get from playing Secky Rose Shadows

[01:14:58] Die Twice or something like that.

[01:15:00] I don't think they're going to get that from stellar blade

[01:15:03] because if someone if someone says to them, oh, this is a souls like

[01:15:07] and they pick up stellar blade, I don't actually again, I could be wrong.

[01:15:12] I just don't think like the Elden Ring set is going to

[01:15:16] like trans or lies of peer woe long or whatever that we don't like.

[01:15:21] Right. Or going to transfer over this

[01:15:23] and just be like, oh, yeah, stellar blade.

[01:15:25] It's another one of those.

[01:15:27] Yeah. And it's definitely it's definitely not.

[01:15:31] But I think one thing that people really like about those kind of games

[01:15:34] is the combat specifically so that possibly like, you know,

[01:15:39] gameplay outside of combat and then the combat of that as a hybrid,

[01:15:44] you know, might be might be quite appealing.

[01:15:46] But I don't I hope I'm wrong.

[01:15:48] I hope, you know, what you're saying that they take take feedback

[01:15:51] and they, you know, just like increase those the timing a little bit

[01:15:54] and make this a little bit less like nuanced.

[01:15:58] You know, I hope that happens for your sake.

[01:15:59] And probably a lot of other people, I would I would guess the amount

[01:16:02] of people that are interested in this primarily

[01:16:07] are not looking for souls like combat.

[01:16:10] Yeah. And it doesn't feel and it doesn't do like souls like damage either.

[01:16:14] It's not like those little piddly guys can hit you in three hits

[01:16:17] and you're dead like you can like they can in Dark Souls or right.

[01:16:19] Like that doesn't happen. Right.

[01:16:21] Yep. You know, so it's also not that kind of difficulty

[01:16:25] or doesn't feel like it is until you get to that stupid ass boss. Right.

[01:16:29] But yeah, so it's again, it's very confused also.

[01:16:33] There just seemed to be and again, this could be ironed out by final release,

[01:16:37] but there just seem to be some things that were very like unpolished.

[01:16:41] Like, did you get killed by anything?

[01:16:43] This happened to me three times in a row where I got killed by something.

[01:16:45] She like staggers a bit and ooh.

[01:16:46] And then it's like you died.

[01:16:48] She didn't like fall over dead.

[01:16:49] There was like no death animation.

[01:16:51] She's kind of like, oh, and then it goes to you.

[01:16:53] Yeah, it is very abrupt.

[01:16:55] It's like, OK.

[01:16:57] I mean, if you're going to do that to me, at least give me

[01:16:59] like a low health warning or something, which this game does not do.

[01:17:02] I don't necessarily need one.

[01:17:04] But again, those are the kinds of like awareness things

[01:17:07] that like a game of that type would allow you to make.

[01:17:09] And I think they want you to make that here, but it just doesn't translate.

[01:17:15] Also, is it just me?

[01:17:16] Is it really hard to see stuff on the ground that you can pick up?

[01:17:21] It's like tough.

[01:17:21] You could definitely miss that stuff easily.

[01:17:24] It glows a little bit, but it's very missable.

[01:17:27] Yeah, I think they want you to use like do the touch

[01:17:30] and do the scanner thing, but I don't want to do that for every fucking thing

[01:17:33] I want to pick, you know, like that seems a little much.

[01:17:36] I wish they would that they.

[01:17:38] Yeah, they do go a little bit.

[01:17:39] I wish it was more like an MMO where it just have this big glowing

[01:17:42] like ping like up to the look like the fucking material on Final Fantasy.

[01:17:47] Yeah, that was easy to see.

[01:17:49] I ain't missing I ain't missing those.

[01:17:50] That's for sure.

[01:17:52] Yeah, man, I I think that's about it.

[01:17:55] I got to say about this.

[01:17:56] I just hope that they take some feedback into account

[01:18:00] and tweak this a little bit because honestly, this isn't far away enough

[01:18:04] for me to be like, I'm never buying this.

[01:18:07] I just think it needs a little bit of tweaking.

[01:18:09] Now, I don't know if it'll get that or if this is just what they intended

[01:18:13] and this is the game, then OK, all I can hope for

[01:18:16] is that this feedback is taking account because we can't be the only ones.

[01:18:20] We can't be. Yeah, did you struggle with that last boss as much as I did?

[01:18:25] How many how many attempts did it take you?

[01:18:28] Like three. Oh, OK.

[01:18:31] It wasn't again, it was not it was not easy by any means, but

[01:18:35] I wouldn't say I sat there for forever in like.

[01:18:38] I think I died five times before I decided to put it on story mode.

[01:18:42] And most of those times I had not gone through through my health.

[01:18:45] So how easy was story mode?

[01:18:47] Was it like hell?

[01:18:47] It was significantly easier.

[01:18:49] I mean, it wasn't. Yeah, it's it's not like baby's first game easy.

[01:18:53] But like it was I think I used like one one health out of like an abundance of caution.

[01:19:01] Yeah, so like by far much, much easier.

[01:19:05] Wow. OK. Interesting.

[01:19:08] Well, I knew this wasn't a game for you in the first place,

[01:19:11] but it thought it was for me and it still could be maybe.

[01:19:16] But it definitely isn't going to be like the knockout punch that I thought.

[01:19:19] But I'm again, I'll say it one more time.

[01:19:22] I'm still willing to spend 70 bucks on this if it gets a bit of tweaking.

[01:19:25] I'll give it more of oh, I'll spend money on it and give it a full game shot.

[01:19:31] Fine time.

[01:19:42] OK, I have something that I want to bring up with you and it might be.

[01:19:48] I know we have decided as a show that we didn't care about the Wii U

[01:19:54] and 3DS eShop or online services going away.

[01:19:58] And I still feel that way.

[01:19:59] Because I mean, I rarely play online shit to begin with.

[01:20:03] But I knew this was coming up

[01:20:06] and I've been thinking about the original Mario maker a lot lately.

[01:20:10] And I knew over the weekend I had to sit down and give it like one last goodbye.

[01:20:15] Mario maker was very much the most defining

[01:20:19] Wii U moment I had during during that console's lifespan.

[01:20:24] And I want to pour one out for the Mario maker levels.

[01:20:28] It's it I genuinely am sad, like literally just because of all

[01:20:33] that user made content is going away.

[01:20:37] And it was kind of crazy to go in and like, you know, sort by like most played ever.

[01:20:41] And there's these courses with hundreds of thousands of plays,

[01:20:44] you know, and you can tell some of these like some of them are like really cheap

[01:20:48] and stupid where it's just the like, you know, it just like pushes you through

[01:20:51] and plays a song or whatever.

[01:20:52] But some of these are so fucking incredibly well designed.

[01:20:56] I bet you those people that made a lot of those big ones

[01:20:59] have not even turned this game on in the last five years,

[01:21:03] you know, and they don't give a shit.

[01:21:04] But I do. I felt like, you know, I think out of anything,

[01:21:07] the biggest shame is all of this like user made content

[01:21:12] is just like disappearing and what really like what I hate about that

[01:21:17] because I always fall on the side, you know, with any of this stuff

[01:21:21] like shops going away or online services or whatever.

[01:21:25] Like it seems like the community always finds a way somehow.

[01:21:29] Never in my life have I got to a point where I'm like, God,

[01:21:32] this like thing that I really like am craving to play has been lost to time.

[01:21:37] It just I haven't run into that yet.

[01:21:38] I'm sure people have. There's definitely things.

[01:21:41] But like, you know, with with emulation and like just the like

[01:21:45] user community around that stuff, it's like 99 percent of our

[01:21:50] bases to date have been covered.

[01:21:52] But we're never ever getting back those Mario Maker levels.

[01:21:55] And like those are for that game like those are what made that game.

[01:21:59] You can still go in and like make your own levels and play them at home.

[01:22:02] And that's great.

[01:22:04] But, you know, you're never going to like, you know, 20 years from now,

[01:22:08] if you're if you're feeling nostalgic for the original Mario Maker,

[01:22:12] you're not going to be able to like recapture that experience as it was

[01:22:16] whatsoever. I'm saying, and I mean, I know this is not a new phenomenon,

[01:22:20] right? I'm sure fantasy online or fantasy star online players are

[01:22:24] like fucking screaming into their speakers at me telling me to get over it.

[01:22:29] You know me, PSO day one player.

[01:22:31] So yeah, you know, but yeah, you can't play that game anymore.

[01:22:35] Oh, you can play private server that game actually on PC if you want.

[01:22:38] But like not every game has that, right? I don't think I mean, it's not going to be the same.

[01:22:42] It's not going to be the same.

[01:22:43] It will never be the same. That's what I was going to say.

[01:22:45] Yeah, you can have you can play private server city of heroes or something.

[01:22:49] It's not going to be the same.

[01:22:51] I can play private server PSO.

[01:22:53] It's not going to be the same.

[01:22:54] So look, you again, you can get like a certain kind of enjoyment from it,

[01:23:02] which is fine. But like at some point, yeah, you know, I've been thinking as

[01:23:07] you were talking, I was thinking about myself and obviously I've made 100

[01:23:12] Super Mario Maker 2 courses.

[01:23:14] Eventually those are going to go away.

[01:23:17] I will have feelings about that.

[01:23:20] I will. I will want to immortalize those somehow.

[01:23:25] I mean, I've thought about sometimes just getting like a cheaper sort of

[01:23:29] captured device where I can just play my courses, all 100 of them and like

[01:23:36] save them somehow for posterity.

[01:23:38] Yeah, yeah, yeah, I wish I could do that because they mean something to me.

[01:23:41] I don't give a shit who ever plays them.

[01:23:44] And I never did.

[01:23:44] I was never like a super popular creator on Mario Maker.

[01:23:48] A couple of courses got trapped.

[01:23:50] They had a lot of work go in that this was not like slap 100 things together.

[01:23:56] No. And like, look, I still have them all saved on my system.

[01:24:02] I never once I once I completed a stage, I didn't like delete it from my, you know,

[01:24:06] you can save more than 100 courses to your like save file or whatever.

[01:24:11] So I have them all, right?

[01:24:14] But I would like to preserve them as played online somehow.

[01:24:21] About the only thing I have is that then I think once I made my 100th course,

[01:24:26] we did a long marathon stream where he played all of them.

[01:24:28] He beat 98 of the courses.

[01:24:30] He didn't beat two of them.

[01:24:31] And then he played the final course and I made my 100th course alive

[01:24:35] for the first time when he won the stream.

[01:24:38] So there is that, right?

[01:24:39] That that's that he leave any of my speed runs intact or has he obliterated

[01:24:44] all of my time, you know what?

[01:24:46] I think I think during that stream, he did beat one of them.

[01:24:51] And I don't remember which one it was.

[01:24:53] Obviously, it's one of the short, fast courses, but maybe you'll have

[01:24:56] to get back on there and do that.

[01:24:58] But yeah, I still check in on Mario Maker 2.

[01:25:00] Obviously, I can't make any more courses a matter of room, but I see

[01:25:03] how my course they're doing, so what people have been playing.

[01:25:05] I still get comments.

[01:25:07] I still, you know what I mean?

[01:25:08] And I still like to go see who is playing.

[01:25:11] People are still making new courses.

[01:25:13] It's a it's one of those communities that just will not stop.

[01:25:16] And so I get it.

[01:25:17] So when the second game goes down, which will again, eventually happen,

[01:25:20] I will be I will have a certain feeling about it.

[01:25:23] So yeah, I think what what really made me and I felt some emotions

[01:25:28] this this weekend about it.

[01:25:30] Mario Maker and I think a lot of people would disagree with me on this

[01:25:34] and it's fine, but I very much feel like Mario Maker and Mario Maker 2

[01:25:38] have very like distinct vibes kind of in the same way that you

[01:25:43] would like separate out like Splatoon 1, 2 and 3.

[01:25:46] Like they they've like very much, you know, it's it's very similar gameplay,

[01:25:50] but they each have very much their own distinct vibe.

[01:25:54] And I feel strongly about that between Mario Maker 1 and 2.

[01:25:58] So I know Mario Maker 2 is still there.

[01:26:01] But it was hard seeing Mario Maker 1 go away.

[01:26:03] But I'm also going to I'm going to pose this as well on the flip side.

[01:26:07] I think that in some ways, knowing that that stuff is going to go away.

[01:26:13] It like makes it's more special in some ways as well.

[01:26:18] Like I don't know.

[01:26:19] I mean, there's there's something to be said for that.

[01:26:23] Like, you know, like even that experience I had on the weekend going and being

[01:26:27] like this is the last time I'm going to do this is kind of like a living

[01:26:30] in the moment type thing, you know, and it gives it like this defined

[01:26:35] moment in time where you can only experience this one way.

[01:26:38] And that kind of makes it special in a way, right?

[01:26:41] Like if you, you know, there's a lot of like if you want to go play

[01:26:44] Link to the Past right now, you can go back and play it 100 percent.

[01:26:48] You know, really the same way that you played it when it was released,

[01:26:50] maybe not on original hardware, but the game is the same.

[01:26:53] Yes.

[01:26:54] You know, and that's that's great.

[01:26:56] You can do that.

[01:26:57] But I do think that because Mario Maker Fantasy Star Online, some

[01:27:03] of these games have this community element, like you're never going

[01:27:07] to recapture that anyways, even if a replacement service goes up.

[01:27:10] So that's something to appreciate.

[01:27:13] I think so as well.

[01:27:14] Yeah, because you know, there's stuff that I can't, I mean, like you

[01:27:19] can't play Overwatch anymore.

[01:27:20] There's only Overwatch 2, right?

[01:27:22] I've been an Overwatch player since, you know, beta or whatever.

[01:27:25] So I feel that now obviously Overwatch 2 is largely the same thing, but

[01:27:31] not really, right?

[01:27:33] There's stuff in Overwatch that'll never come back.

[01:27:35] There's there's characters that their entire kits have changed two or

[01:27:40] three times and you can never play that old version again.

[01:27:44] And if you because if you weren't playing back then, then you never

[01:27:46] experienced that one of my favorite characters, Symmetra, she's on like

[01:27:50] 3.2 or whatever, ever kid, like she's had so she's had totally

[01:27:54] different overhauls.

[01:27:56] And not a lot of people were around, you know, the original versions of

[01:28:00] those characters were, I mean, there was people around obviously

[01:28:04] Overwatch came out and it was a phenomenon, but you know what I

[01:28:06] mean? Like seeing it through time, not a lot of people have been

[01:28:09] playing like the entire time, like me, like I have or Vin has.

[01:28:13] So that is special in a way, right?

[01:28:16] Now that's not the same thing as like an entire game going down,

[01:28:19] but I do understand what you mean.

[01:28:21] And look, I've played like the Phantasy Star Online, the

[01:28:26] Phantasy Star Universe, both those games are dead again,

[01:28:29] unless you want to do like the private server thing.

[01:28:31] And like so unless you were there, then you can't experience that.

[01:28:35] I do think there is something special to that.

[01:28:38] But that conversation always becomes so fucked up when you come

[01:28:44] with the preservation people know we must preserve every fucking,

[01:28:48] you know, and it's just like, you know, that's not really possible.

[01:28:50] You know, you just can't do that sometimes.

[01:28:53] I mean, I don't think having like private servers available for

[01:28:57] these games in the future is a bad thing.

[01:28:59] It's just not going to be, it's not going to be what it was.

[01:29:03] It's not a replacement.

[01:29:04] That that's its own thing at that point.

[01:29:05] Even I remember you a few years ago talking about Destiny 2 and

[01:29:08] how much of that game had evolved from when it first came out,

[01:29:11] you know, and the way you spoke about it almost seems like it

[01:29:14] was that was like a different game at launch than what it was years later.

[01:29:20] You know, and that even like, I'm sure when you look back on Destiny 2,

[01:29:23] you can, you will always be able to like very clearly delineate

[01:29:27] the difference between those phases.

[01:29:30] Yeah. And yeah, you can still play the original Destiny right now,

[01:29:34] but I just obviously are not updating it.

[01:29:37] They're not maintaining it.

[01:29:38] It's it is what it is at this point where it's say to continues on,

[01:29:43] unfortunately, but anyway, it's funny that you frame this in the context

[01:29:49] of Mario Maker because that's again, I thought that about my own courses.

[01:29:53] I have what, 1300 hours in that game.

[01:29:56] I don't want to like lose.

[01:29:59] I know it sounds weird to say I'm going to lose that even though I'm not.

[01:30:02] My courses can be played forever.

[01:30:03] They're just not going to be in that format anymore with comments or whatever.

[01:30:08] Does Vin still have that video or like the like Twitch stream video

[01:30:12] of him playing through all of those? Is that? Oh, yeah.

[01:30:14] He backs up all his shit.

[01:30:15] He he he exports his entire streams as VODs on his channel,

[01:30:21] as well as like, I think saves them locally.

[01:30:23] So like, I'm pretty sure he has the entire thing.

[01:30:26] Yeah. So first comes first, but I would like a live on.

[01:30:29] Yeah, exactly.

[01:30:30] But I would like a almost like a no commentary, like

[01:30:35] purely this is the level.

[01:30:37] Yeah. And I do like a perfect run of it or whatever and showcase it in the right

[01:30:42] way, not like a speed run necessarily, but like just, you know,

[01:30:45] showing it in the best light possible.

[01:30:47] Hey, this is what this course was, right?

[01:30:49] I would be wish I could do so fucking cool if you could like

[01:30:53] export those courses as like a specific file.

[01:30:57] And then when those services go away, you could still share that file for somebody to play.

[01:31:02] You know, that would be really nice.

[01:31:05] I wish we I wish we could do that.

[01:31:07] If they if they could allow it to again, because again,

[01:31:10] it saves all that stuff locally, all that data unless you delete it.

[01:31:13] And I have like 10 to 12 unfinished courses that I have sitting there.

[01:31:16] You know, I didn't complete everything that I started, right?

[01:31:19] Because some stuff just doesn't work out or the idea didn't really come to me

[01:31:23] the way I thought or whatever.

[01:31:24] And like if I could still share those with people in a non-local fashion,

[01:31:29] that would be good. But yeah, I totally I give what you mean about Maria Maker

[01:31:34] and you're right, they do have different vibes.

[01:31:36] And if a Maria Maker 3 is ever made, that's going to have its own vibe as

[01:31:41] well and own community. It'll be it'll go from there.

[01:31:44] But yeah, other than that, I wasn't really, you know,

[01:31:47] people are mourning a loss of this Wii U and 3DS stuff.

[01:31:49] And I'm like, goodbye.

[01:31:52] It's all I'll stop wallowing in my nostalgia based sorrow now.

[01:31:57] I really liked the long, goofy looking Mario from Mario Maker 1.

[01:32:01] I'm so like, God, just I love to make fun of I love to make fun of people

[01:32:06] in. Fuck it.

[01:32:08] I'll just say it. I love to make fun of people,

[01:32:10] including our previous creative endeavor host who is like, oh, I fucking

[01:32:15] you can't turn yourself into Pikachu anymore.

[01:32:18] You can't wear this immo costume.

[01:32:20] And I'm like, I'm fucking sorry.

[01:32:22] You guys were so bored during that era that you had to latch on to like

[01:32:26] Mario Maker is like the shit.

[01:32:28] And don't get me wrong, it was the shit.

[01:32:30] But like, that's the that's it.

[01:32:32] That's the reason why you miss that stuff.

[01:32:34] I'm sorry.

[01:32:35] You remember amiibos and costumes more than a video game.

[01:32:38] Excuse me.

[01:32:41] Jesus Christ.

[01:32:43] Shots fired.

[01:32:45] All right, you want to get the fuck out of here?

[01:32:46] I think we've blabbed enough about the video game.

[01:32:49] Sorry for the unusual format today, everybody.

[01:32:52] I know I say that every time there's only two of us, but that's just how it works.

[01:32:55] We're used to being a three man show.

[01:32:56] Steve will be back next big deal.

[01:32:58] But until then, check the description of this podcast for our socials.

[01:33:02] And we'll see you next time. Bye.

[01:33:04] We'll catch you next time.

[01:33:06] This has been fine time.