Mother & Luigi | The Big Deal

[00:00:00] Hey, it's your boy Dre, Off The Top here with a message to kick off 2025. I'm going to be totally real with you guys right now. I look around at the ratings and reviews our peers get on Apple Podcasts compared to ours, and we have dramatically less than them. And I just want to know, why are y'all letting them beat us? Why? Okay, let's just start rating the show. Let's start reviewing the show. Even just a sentence like, hey guys, love the show,

[00:00:28] along with your five-star rating, of course. Let's get these numbers up, okay? We can't let them hoes beat us. Yeah, I just call on my peers hoes. They'll understand. All right? Now that I berated the audience to start the year, let's start the show. Step into Video Game Land. Welcome to Fine Time.

[00:01:09] Hello, party people. Hello, 2025 people. It's your boy Dre. Dre, finally, we are doing our first show of 2025 Steve. What, do you think I have a calendar, Andre? I certainly don't. This motherfucker doesn't even have a calendar, Kevin. He doesn't have a red clock or a calendar. It's not going to be New Year, New Steve at all. I definitely don't have a calendar with my precious nieces on them,

[00:01:37] of all the activities they did throughout last year, hanging on the wall. That's sweet. I definitely don't have that hanging on the wall. That is nice. What a good uncle. I would never. He's obviously lying. He has like a filthy, like, hustler calendar or something. It's only 25. Where would I even get, okay, hold on. Where would I even get that? Are they still in publication? Free with your hustler subscription. Of course, that's where you would get it.

[00:02:05] Once you've been a subscriber for 10 years, you get the calendar. For that long? I thought it was like a new subscriber bonus. Like, you get the free calendar if you subscribe now. Oh, yeah, but I didn't even know they were still making the magazine. God. Yeah, they sure are. Okay. Okay, guys. Shit, it's good to be back. It's good to be talking to both of you again. Thank you, everybody who put up with me and Steve talking cinematic platformers for weeks and weeks.

[00:02:35] And also, sorry about last week where we had to ditch out. We were, it just wasn't the time to record. Everything went wrong. But now, a lot of things are going right, and we are here to do the big deal. Although, I do hope you enjoyed our music episode last week. The numbers showed that you guys did. So, thanks for listening, per usual. Also, here's something else I should mention before we get started proper. We are recording this on Monday, January 13th.

[00:03:04] Rumors have been flying that Nintendo is going to announce their new hardware either Thursday or very soon because obviously they're going to announce it before the fiscal year is out. They're running out of time. It's got to be soon. If we record the show and then they announce their new hardware in the next few days, we will tack on our reactions to the end of this show. Okay? So, we're going to record this per usual. And then, if we need to, we will make an addendum afterwards.

[00:03:34] What do you say, Steve? Wow. I can't believe it's running Xbox Game Pass on its own native app. Yeah. They're not going to show that in the... Kevin, can you imagine if they showed like, oh yeah, here's Switch 2 and we're going to show like new Gears of War? Like, I don't really... Well, I mean, there's definitely rumors that the Master Chief collection is going to come. But I also, I'm a little bit worried. And I know what you're trying to do by saying, okay, it'll be tacked on at the end of the

[00:04:00] show, but the rumors are so hot and heavy about a reveal on Thursday that I feel like if by the time Thursday comes, if it doesn't happen, they're just going to hear the end of the show. It's going to fall silent. And we're going to be just making people depressed. Well, here's the thing. If it comes after Thursday and we have to post a show, we'll do a bonus episode. We'll do an emergency short episode. Okay? It'll be our first emergency podcast ever in the history of the show. We got to do that.

[00:04:30] But yeah, that's our plan right now, everybody, for how we're on Nintendo Watch. Okay? And if it doesn't happen, I am sorry on behalf of Andre that he ruined it for you. I didn't do a goddamn thing. Hey, you know what? You're editing the show this week, okay? They've already found out Thursday has come and gone with no Switch announcement. Now they're sitting down to listen to Fine Time and they're like, oh, right. Thanks, Andre. Steve, are you going to help me here?

[00:05:00] You're just going to let him berate me like this? I don't. It's not really beratement if he's just being an idiot in Canada. So no, he's just making himself sound like an idiot. Damn. Okay. I guess we're going to annex them soon. So it doesn't really matter anyway. You guys are really trying to average out those penis metrics, eh? Yep. Andre's just, you know, doing due diligence. Like, hey, we might have to make a Nintendo addendum at the end of this.

[00:05:28] And Kevin's like, no fucking way. Like, come on, Kevin. Come on. Damn. Okay. I guess Steve is offended on my behalf. I thought it was fine. But, you know. Hey, Jesus Christ. And if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Then the episode ends. Who cares? Wow. No. Everyone cares. Okay. Everyone needs our hot takes on Nintendo. That's why we're here. And they get them like every week.

[00:05:56] No, they need the fresh up-to-date ones. This is the one thing we got to do. You know what? Shut up. Okay. You don't even understand your own show that you're on. If it doesn't happen, then you guys got to play. You got to play Donkey Kong Country Returns HD to make up for the lack of Nintendo hot takes. Yes, he does. He does. Oh, no. Not Donkey Kong Country. I would hate that so much. Yeah, well, does he me? I guess. Okay.

[00:06:23] After playing Battle and Wonder World, I would sure hate to play a good game. Fair enough. All right. Okay, fine. Everybody, let's simmer down. Enough about Nintendo. We need to talk about a game that is not made by Nintendo, and that is Astro Bot. All right, Kevin.

[00:06:51] You've been talking about Astro Bot to me for months, and you've been lamenting me, and rightfully so. No, I've been rebuffing you for months. Okay, are you going to play Astro Bot? No, I'm going to play this. No, I'm going to play that. I've been putting you off. Okay? And I'm sorry, because Astro Bot was fantastic, and I played it, and you've played it, obviously. And now we're going to talk about it here together on the fine and the time. What do you say? Yeah, and I think Steve should get in on it at some point as well.

[00:07:21] I really do consider this a must-play for most people who have a PS5. I do too. Steve should absolutely play this. I enjoyed Astro's Playroom when it launched. It's just, you know, a lot of other fucking games happened and other projects and real life. You know, things are going to slip. Other things have slipped. All I hear is excuses right now, Kevin. Yes. And I get things slip.

[00:07:47] I'm trying to say I feel like it's, and I kind of get it because I can see how something like Astro Bot could be on the slip list, but it shouldn't be. Once you play it, you will get why it shouldn't be on the slip list. Yeah, for sure. It should be up there. I didn't look. I didn't rate it highly enough myself. I didn't prioritize it. I wanted to play it when it came out. But again, stuff happens. Silent Hill 2 happens. And spoopy month happened. You know, things, right? Dragon Quest 3 happened.

[00:08:16] I just didn't get to it. But now I'm here. And I'm glad I'm here. Cinematic platformer paradise now live wherever your podcasts live. Don't tell everyone we played those in late summer. And then we recorded. Oops, is the secret out? Anyway, me and Kevin played Astro Bot. And we want to talk about it in as much detail as we can. But let's start here, Kevin.

[00:08:42] In what I consider a somewhat surprising move, Astro Bot won Game of the Year at the Game Awards. It beat out Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Metaphor and Boatro and even the Elden Ring DLC that shouldn't have been there in the first place, obviously. What do you make of this? Like, do you think that was deserved? Or were you surprised? Tell me your thoughts when you when that happened. I mean, obviously, I have not played all of those other games.

[00:09:09] But I think that a lot of that backlash it got was just simply because it's a platformer. And it does, by nature, lack the mechanical depth of some of the other nominees. And I mean, I cannot understand that take. I think it's insane to a degree. I do get where it's missing something. And I guess if you can't appreciate a game like that for what it is, you're not going to be able to see that.

[00:09:38] And I understand that. But it's so good at what it does that I think is very deserving. Yeah, I think it's just the ultimate in the tried and true being done absolutely perfectly. You know, like there's nothing in Astro Bot that we haven't seen before. And that is completely fine. Right. Right. You don't need to, like, knock us over with, like, complete newfound gameplay for it to be game of the year.

[00:10:06] Sometimes you just need to do what you do really, really, really well and as well as you possibly can. And that's Astro Bot to me. So some people kind of took it as a statement to, like, fuck all you triple A bullshit. Remember Sony came out the beginning of the year. It's like, well, we're not going to really have any big games this year. Remember that? Mm hmm. And Astro and Astro Boy Astro Boy. See, I did it. God damn it. Astro Bot. You didn't even let me do it. Well, I did. Sorry.

[00:10:36] I thought you were going to be the first one to say Astro Boy. Astro Bot comes out here and wins game of the year in the face of Sony being like, well, you know, don't get your hopes up for a last of us part three or something. And it proves that, like, hey, people don't actually care about that. They just want to play something that's badass. And I think I don't know if Astro Bot winning is a statement per se, but it definitely says, hey, maybe just make stuff that puts a smile on people's faces. Right.

[00:11:05] Well, I mean, I think it's important to to read like you can't look at that logic retroactively. You can't say Super Mario Brothers three isn't one of the greatest games of all time because it's a platformer. It wasn't like incredibly important and impactful at its time because RPGs existed at that same time. You know what I mean? And I feel like that. I feel like that same logic like completely carries forward. It's it's it's hard for me to wrap my head around it any other way.

[00:11:35] Yeah, I think I completely agree with that. I'm I'm glad it won. You know, obviously my heart's with Rebirth, you know, of course. But I was I wasn't thinking that was going to win. I and I'm glad it was Astro Bot and I'm glad it was not Elden Ring or, you know, whatever. Anyway, in the months that I was kind of quote unquote waiting to play this game while my schedule cleared out, I was starting to feel a little bit of that apathy setting.

[00:12:04] Because like all the praise Astro Bot was getting and you and you guys know me. I can be contrarian that way. Like I kept seeing a lot of Mario Odyssey and Mario Galaxy comparisons and you both know how much I think Mario is king. So that kind of stuff made me nervous as hell that Astro Bot wasn't going to actually be that good. But just, you know, a fine enough approximation of that on a Sony system. Obviously, I think it's it's obvious that I think it's a lot more than that.

[00:12:34] But Kevin, what was your expectations going into this? Were you kind of feeling like did all the praise scare you off to or no? No, and I played this like right at like on on day one at launch. So I didn't I didn't have that apathy. I don't think from for that period of time from all of that praise, I think going into it and out of the three of us originally, I had the highest praise of Astro's Playroom. I love that. And I think for the most part, I was just looking for more of that.

[00:13:03] This is a standalone retail release, you know, so I was I was probably looking for some more depth. But I in for all most intents and purposes, I was looking for more Astro's Playroom. And I think that's that's like really important to how much I to to be able to talk about how much I appreciate this, because I feel very strongly that that's not what we got.

[00:13:32] This like truly ups the game in every way from Astro's Playroom, as far as I'm concerned, almost every way. But I'll get there. I I can't think of any way where it doesn't. I guess we'll get to. Yeah, I guess we will get to that later. Yeah. But I like I said, my expectations were kind of high. I also really enjoyed Astro's Playroom. And I wait. So Astro's Playroom is the one that came with the PS5 right now, like the VR game from like years.

[00:14:02] OK, OK. That was Rescue Mission. Rescue Mission. OK, that's that's where I get confused. OK, yeah, I did play Astro's Playroom, obviously, when the PS5 came out and showed off all them tricks and dual sense tricks and shit like that. I'm glad they didn't let up on that stuff. You know, it wasn't just like, oh, the launch thing is here. Let's do some some shit. So we've kind of already said our global thoughts to a degree, but let's really establish them now. Overall, big picture. Kevin, what did you think of Astro Bot?

[00:14:33] It's interesting. You're talking about those Mario comparisons. Since I really do personally think that this is PlayStation's Mario Odyssey for a few reasons. The polish and I will rant and rave about the polish until the dogs come home. But it's it's unbelievable how polished this game is. And I think the heart and soul is on par there as well. And the tight platforming.

[00:15:01] I understand how I don't think really anybody is going to have the same personal affinity for Astro Bot as you do Mario. But like to me, the high notes that that Odyssey hits, I think this hits that same high notes. Wow. Now, Kevin, you know what that sounds like to me? That sounds like to me, everybody in 1998 that says, oh, man, Crash Team Racing is so good.

[00:15:29] It's just like having Mario Kart 64 on my PlayStation. If I close my eyes and stick in the multi tap, man, you can't even taste the sawdust filling. I thought you were going to say aspartame for some reason. I get what you're saying. I do.

[00:15:54] And I just like PlayStation is never going to have that that like 3D mascot with that power of Mario. But I think Astro Bot is they've done as good as they can do in terms of of having like a 3D platformer that has its personal identity, like baked in with your brand. If that makes sense. I agree. I do agree with that.

[00:16:22] I but I just I think the comparisons I would do are like more stuff in recent years, like Sackboy Big Adventure or Penny's Big Breakaway. That kind of like push forward, like kind of tight. Yeah, it's you can explore a little bit around here or there and find a couple secrets, but it's not Mario Odyssey or even Mario 64. It's like, here's a playground. Go right. I feel like it's a lot more author than that.

[00:16:51] Like, I guess I would say it's a lot more galaxy than Odyssey in that regard. But even then, I feel like it does both games a disservice because I feel like Astro Bot kind of stands on its own. I don't even think it needs that kind of comparison to Mario. I feel like it's just a really good or a really great platforming experience. And like you said, that polish.

[00:17:13] That's the thing that's Nintendo like about it is that polish that and not just a polish, the relentless assault of ideas that this game has. Because, you know, I've talked about this before. My favorite thing about Mario Odyssey and quite frankly, Mario Galaxy is the fact that it feels like Nintendo just said all your ideas, every idea that you have, put them all in there. Every single thing you can think of, every weird little shit, every weird platform, every weird jump.

[00:17:42] And like, what if the level looked like this? What if an enemy looked like that? All of it's here. And that's what Astro Bot feels to me. That truly is like the spirit of like modern Nintendo anyway. And that's the thing I would say is the most Nintendo thing about it. Yeah, and I don't think any of those ideas that they implemented are B-tier ideas. And not only, I don't think any of them were implemented as if they were B-tier ideas.

[00:18:07] Like, I feel like everything had the maximum effort and love and care put into it. I'm almost, I just, I feel like you just to, I played the first couple worlds or whatever of Sackboy when it hit PlayStation. Plus, do you, do you feel like that's a fair comparison? Because I, and I'm not, I'm not shit talking Sackboy, but I, I do not think that it's, it's comparable to Astro Bot.

[00:18:33] I think that is, I think in terms of level structure and like game flow. Yeah, I do think it's comparable to Astro Bot. Astro Bot obviously does it like 10 times better. And mind you, I like Sackboy. I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to dunk. It's just that like, yeah, I do think they, they're very similar like ideas, especially when you get to the more like spectacle stuff in, in Sackboy. Like where you have like the licensed music, like the, like the, like the Britney Spears song or the David Bowie song.

[00:19:03] I feel like that's kind of Astro Boy, see a fuck Astro Bot like, right? Yeah. Okay. I get what you're saying. And I think even when I'm talking about like comparisons to Mario Odyssey, I'm definitely not making comparisons in terms of like the structure of the gameplay. Because they are definitely very different 3D platformers that this is, this is absolutely level based in a way that Mario Odyssey obviously is very much not.

[00:19:31] I think I'm thinking, you know, when I'm, when I'm saying like, you know, okay, this, this album is like this, this bands like fucking Led Zeppelin four or whatever. Like to me, this is like the Odyssey of the PlayStation five. It's not necessarily comparable as an experienced Odyssey really at all. Okay. I understand that. That makes a lot more sense to me, but yeah, if we're just talking about like game feel and level structure and stuff like that, I would definitely say Sackboy.

[00:20:00] Although obviously again, Astro Bot is heads and shoulders above that. But let's talk about that spectacle some more and let's talk about graphics because we have to talk about graphics on PlayStation five, right? That's what our, it's what this is. One of the founding pillars of this, of this show, isn't it? You go ahead first. Let's, this game looks fucking incredible. Okay. You know what? I'll put you on the spot like this. Is this the best looking game on PS five?

[00:20:30] Oh, in a way, in a way. Yes. I mean, obviously not in a realism way, but I think I went into this expecting it is going to look very good in like the nice Pixar esque way that you expect.

[00:20:45] But this game is truly, truly technically impressive where I had a few like, damn, I've had the PlayStation five for years and it blows me away that it can do this specifically in, in the areas where there are. Do you think it's fair to say thousands of small objects that you're jumping around in and realistically interacting with like a giant pool of skulls or gems or whatever.

[00:21:13] And they, without like the, the, without the PlayStation missing a single beat, like this shit is flying all over in, in the like physics way that you would expect it. Everything is tracked. Like nothing breaks a sweat at all.

[00:21:32] And, and I like, when I first noticed this, I purposefully spent a bunch of time, like jumping around in this pit of skulls, pushing them all over as far as I could, because I thought eventually the game is going to be like, oh, these are too scattered. I can't keep track of this. They're not supposed to be over there. Let's just, you know, like blur it for a second and reset the pit. And it doesn't do that. It's fucking wild.

[00:21:56] Um, also before I move on from the graphics, oh my God, the water, I, I, this is a big statement to make. I think this game might have the best looking video game water ever. Wow. Well, that is, that is, that is a big statement actually. Cause you know what? You may be fucking right. I really, I'm trying to think of something that looks better than this. Rebirth has pretty good water, but it's not like this. Um, damn. Damn.

[00:22:23] You might actually be correct, especially like the physics of it, because there's levels where you have to like dump stuff out of things and realistically like cascades out of there and shit. And it just makes you fucking thirsty. It really does. It's so blue and crystal clear. Um, yeah, I'm going to have to agree with everything you said. Remember for like, I don't, Steve, I think it was a mailbag show. Where someone asked me like something I want to see with graphics or whatever.

[00:22:53] And I said, I want to see how many things we can have on the screen. I want to see Pikmin on PS5. Like, can we have 10,000 Pikmin? Can we have a hundred thousand? Like, I want to know what the upper limits of that thing is. And it sucks that we're not pushing that. Right. Astro bot is answering my questions now. I know. And the PlayStation 5, it's like Kevin said, it did it without breaking a fucking sweat. Not a single frame out of place. Not a single screen tear. It was incredible.

[00:23:23] I feel like they made this game. Like, they probably spent like a year optimizing this. Don't you think? Because it feels like they made this game over the last, over like three years since they made Astro's Playroom. And then it's like, no, we're going to fine tune this shit to such a degree. And again, that's very Nintendo-like. Nintendo had Odyssey done in like the end. I think they said like the end of 2016 or maybe even a little bit before. And they just spent like nine months polishing it.

[00:23:52] Because even if you look at like the E3 2017 footage of Odyssey, there's stuff in there that changes too. There's text. There's like little level details. They were still fine tuning it all the way up to October. And that to me, again, that's what Astro Bot feels like to me. So just the stuff like that. I also really enjoyed the fact that the camera, yeah, you can like swing it around. But again, much like Mario Galaxy, and this is another comparison I think is apt.

[00:24:22] You don't really have to most of the time. It intelligently chooses the correct angle for like practically everything to the point where you don't even think about it. Which is incredible. And you think like, okay, yeah, we figured out platforming cameras so long ago. Guys, not always. They can still sometimes be a problem. And I think in Astro Bot, it's so effortless. It's pretty unreal. Tell the audience you play Sonic games without telling them you play Sonic games. Everyone knows I play Sonic games, Steve. Okay.

[00:24:51] Everyone knows what a sicko I am. The camera is very, very notable in this game because I think for the most part, the sign of a good camera is you don't notice it because it just works. But I like multiple times playing this specifically did notice the camera just because it's so good. It's like over and above good. Nothing ever feels even slightly jankier off about it. You're absolutely right.

[00:25:21] It's so effortless. The fact that you don't notice it. We notice bad cameras. We don't always praise good cameras because it's like, yeah, I guess it was good. I didn't even notice. It never got in my way, which is the way it should be. Um, I just, we don't have to, we obviously don't have time to go through everything, but just the spectacle of this game is unreal. Not just the amount of objects on the screen, but like there was like a construction site level, right?

[00:25:47] With like, you know, you're zipping through stuff and then it culminates in this, this gorilla boss. That's like insane. That shit was crazy. Um, God, remember the level with the tree? Like you have to water the plant and it turns into a tree and the tree starts singing at you and it starts singing a song. And it's like, bro, what even am I on drugs right now? Like what, what is happening? You know?

[00:26:13] And it's just like the, the way the game continually surprises you that way is just incredible. So spectacle, everyone knows I love it. Uh, Astro bot again, I don't even want to say too many more than that. Cause I don't want to spoil, but just spectacle to the nonstop. Minds this game. Incredible stuff. Yeah.

[00:26:30] I think we've got to hit on, on the downsize surprise level where you play as the little mouse because always like ever since I was a kid and played Mario three, that concept of being small in, in an area of big stuff really like captured my imagination. And this one, you know, this really, really nailed that feeling. Well, um, and before we move on from kind of tech stuff, I want to just go through like a quick, uh, hit list of a few other things. Cause I feel like they just need to be noted.

[00:26:58] Um, just the structure of the world. Again, the Polish, like there's never any weird clipping, any weird boundaries. Everything feels like it is where it looks like it should be. We've already mentioned the control. It's, it's extremely tight and just feels good. Um, of course the dual sense support is every bit as good as you would expect.

[00:27:18] And, and something that was really notable to me, um, the way they've structured these levels where everything is choreographed as you go through the level, everything kind of seems like it should be in the place or interacting the way it should be when you get there. Um, but it still feels very organic as you go through them. And I think that really, that really just screams technical proficiency. Yeah. I like that.

[00:27:47] It feels very, and look, I don't think that's a bad thing when I'm about to say, but some games just feel like an obstacle course. Like super Mario 3d world feels like an obstacle course. You know, it feels just like here is a setup thing and here are these blocks that fall in here. And like, that's fine. I don't think that's bad. Right. Penny's breakaway feels like an obstacle course too. You know, and it has that sort of look to it. But Astro Bot feels a lot more organic, even though it's clear, like here are these platforms you have to jump on. Right.

[00:28:16] And it's, but it, the, the look of it and the way it visually comes together doesn't make it feel like an obstacle course, which is cool. It's just feels different. Again, I don't think obstacle course is like a bad thing. What I want to highlight right now is just how, and this is probably just my favorite aspect of the game.

[00:28:45] It's not one particular thing, but just the concept of maximum fun, the way the game just wants you to have fun at every turn and doesn't really try to stop you. Like, okay. So you can get that little like booster pack on, on Astro Bot, right? You can just keep boosting all you want. Like a lot of games I feel like would just try to limit you. Oh, you only have so much fuel before you come down, or you can only boost so many times where you get tired. This game doesn't do that. You just keep doing it. And it's great.

[00:29:13] That's, that's the fun part. The fun part is boosting. So let me do it. There's also little touches where it's like, if it feels like you should be able to do something, they will let you do it. I do, I do remember that bay level where you have to rescue the big robot or whatever from its shackles, right? There's like a turtle or whatever swimming around in the cove. You can just jump on the turtle, start surfing a little bit, just ride it around. Why can you do that? I don't know, but it lets you do it.

[00:29:40] And they made an animation for it and everything because they figured, oh, someone might want to try to jump on the turtle and ride it. Well, you can, you know? And I, I love stuff like that. I love that. Okay. You get a power where you can stop time, where it freezes stuff and you can jump on a bunch of platforms or the street is really busy. You need to freeze time. So the car stop or whatever. Right. But the thing is, and I don't know if you notice this, sometimes it freezes time completely. And then other times it makes stuff goes in slow motion instead.

[00:30:10] You notice that depending on the object. So it's like, I kind of thought that it always went in like slow motion, but, or, but only. You could only see the things moving that move extremely fast in normal time. Maybe that was the case, but I do remember like the boss that you, again, I don't want to spoil too much. The boss that you have to fight with this power. When you freeze time to damage it, that thing stops on a dime. It doesn't just move in slow motion. It just stops.

[00:30:40] But then the traffic I was talking about before, I think it moves in slow motion because it may be like you said, it move, you know, they're moving at such a pace where it's like, okay, you can only slow it down so much. But I think that's brilliant because they're not committing to either thing. They're doing the thing that feels the most fun at any given time, which is, which is good.

[00:30:58] And this is the thing I love the most about the fun factor is that all the actions feel very organic and there's no obnoxious tutorializing or handholding or telling you what to do. Not a single time does Astro Bot stop the action to tell you what to do or for someone to talk to you or anything like that.

[00:31:20] This is why I reject Steve, those defenders of the plucky squire, like the absurd amount of interruptions because people were going like, well, it's for kids. Well, Astro Bot is for kids too, you know? And it doesn't insult your intelligence that way. It's showing you through action what you're supposed to do and you get it. That's what a video game should be. Not stopping you every single second to tell you something. Wow.

[00:31:48] You mean the, you mean the way they used to make games where they showed us how to do it and then expected us to do it. They're doing here. Whoa. That still works. Amazing. No fucking way. And if you spend too much time in an area, a little video will pop up in the corner. It's like, hey, press this button to do whatever you think you're supposed to be doing with this, with this thing. And it's right. And that's all. And it goes away as soon as you press the button. That's it. That's all the tutorializing.

[00:32:15] I don't, again, I know, uh, Kevin, you weren't bothered by that stuff in the plucky squire as much as me and Steve were, but you have to admit this game does it super, super well. Oh yeah. Hands down. Yeah. Yeah. There's really, there's no, there's no like eat your vegetables design here. It's, it's all like cake and pie and melted cheese. It really is. It's just pure, pure, pure comfort food, pure fun. Another thing I like, uh, real quick is like the button economy of the game. I think that's also something I complain about in various games.

[00:32:45] Look, I love, both of us love Kevin. Uh, we both love horizon, uh, forbidden West and zero dawn. But sometimes it's like, okay, hold L two. And then you press square and then you hold another trigger to like use your grappling hook to like pull out the, you know, it's just like, why do I need three buttons for this? That's crazy. Astro bot of course is a less complicated game. Don't get me wrong. It's not an apples to apples comparison. At the same time, I really appreciate that.

[00:33:15] They don't do anything like that. I love that. It's just a few buttons and use the trigger. Sometimes that is it. I love it. Let's talk about the references and the cameos and the PlayStation history stuff, because of course, that was a big part of Astro's playroom. Um, and Kevin, some people consider like the constant cameos and references. They consider it like distracting or not like letting Astro bot be like on its own.

[00:33:42] I'll, I have my own opinion on this, but what do you think about that? For the most? I mean, I, it's fun. It's fun. I like it. Um, you know, they, they want to show off like these sometimes closer, sometimes further PlayStation related quote unquote franchises. Um, you know, and they've already done that with Easter eggs in, in, um, Astro's playroom.

[00:34:06] I, and I, and I don't wish it wasn't there, but there is a slight feeling, um, of maybe it limits Astro bot of standing fully on its own identity wise sometimes. Um, and I think on top of that, I just wanted to note, and, and this is further supported. If you watch the game awards, um, you know, they specifically like called out Mario.

[00:34:29] So, uh, there, there was a Mario call out as an inspiration, um, when they did their acceptance speech, there were a few times when I almost felt like they were on the nose references to, um, and I, and I won't go into detail to just if, if anybody wants to experience this on their own. Um, but for example, Metroid prime and Luigi's mansion, I'm sure it's especially the Metroid prime. You know what I'm talking about? Hey, Andre. And, and, and I feel like that, that to a degree had to be intentional.

[00:34:59] Um, you know, so not, not only like references to these, uh, like specific characters, but there was kind of these like, Hey, you know, this is really cool. We want to do our take on it. Yeah, I absolutely. I understand. I know the moments you're talking about, and I did pick up on those. Um, as far as the cameo stuff goes, I only think it's bad if the art can't stand on its own two feet.

[00:35:26] Like, and I, this is always my go-to example, but there was that Chippendale rescue Rangers movie a few years ago where the entire body of its content was just like, Hey, remember this? Hey, do you know what that is? And if you don't remember it, you were fucked. There's no humor in it for you. If you don't get it, it does. Then it's like, you may as well just turn off the movie. Astro bot works no matter if you know it or not. Like there's an entire level based on ape escape, right?

[00:35:54] You don't have to know shit about ape escape. If you're, your kids, I don't know. They probably don't even know what ape escape is. If they were to play this game, it's like, Oh, I'm just catching monkeys with a net, robo monkeys. That's fun. That was a fun level. That's it. You don't have to know what that is, right? You don't have to know all these like bots you're saving are based on costumes from God of War or the last of us or whatever, right? Or Metal Gear Solid. It doesn't matter. They're just funny. They're just funny little costumes. So I think Astro bot works in my opinion.

[00:36:24] It stands completely on its own. And if you get the references, it's just a bonus. It's not like the whole game. Well, the kids don't need to know that ape escape isn't that good. But they know I'll tell them. Are there that many cameos? I haven't played the game. We've all established this already. Are there that many cameos in Astro bot here? Because yeah, Astro's playroom had a ton of them because the conceit of that was, Hey, we're in the PlayStation five. This is what's inside.

[00:36:52] Here's a song about the GPU. Get it? Because we're in the PlayStation five. Are we are there still that crammed in there? In a word? Yes. Oh, boy. Yeah. That's that's that's where we're at. Of course, I'm not going to say what what it is. But yes, it's handled differently. It is handled differently. It is true, but it's there. Oh, dear. I think that's good, though. I think that's fun.

[00:37:17] I think that's like unique within itself that they're going that hard on it instead of just being like, hey, remember that guy who said I am error or something? Right. Like I, you know, I don't know. I feel like it's a lot more clever than that. Maybe what I worry about is if, OK, two Astro Bot games from now, if they still feel the need to do that, if that if that is now an intrinsic Astro Bot thing that needs to happen, then what do you do with it?

[00:37:46] I mean, eventually they're going to run out of stuff, right? So I don't know. That is a good question. Maybe they don't have to do that stuff in the future. I mean, look, I wouldn't mind if they I don't think they have to have that stuff, as I said. So let's say the next Astro Bot doesn't have any references or they tone that shit way down. That's OK. It's totally OK. Yeah. And I kind of hope they do.

[00:38:11] Maybe they find there a different thing where it's like there is this like identifiable collectible or reference that you find all throughout the game because that's what Astro Bot does. But it's not necessarily this like franchise thing. Yeah. I vote for puzzle pieces. Yes. Puzzle piece. Well, it does. It does have puzzle pieces. Puzzles are. Imagine if some asshole company copyrighted puzzles like nobody.

[00:38:39] Nobody else could make a thousand piece puzzle except for us. Right. Like don't don't speak it because some fucking CEO will hear that and get the idea. And then puzzles are gone. Unless you buy the Hasbro puzzle. That's going to be bad news for the new Professor Layton game. Oh, thank you. How can that game exist without puzzle pieces? I mean, Jesus Christ. Oh, my God. Or shit. The new I don't know if they ever make a new banjo or something. Don't they collect puzzle pieces? Right.

[00:39:09] Or. Well, that was my initial joke. But yes. Okay. Wow, dude. You could you could support your host and not just throw him in the fucking dumpster. Jesus Christ. Wow. Any fucking way. Okay. Well, we're going to move on to if we have any gripes. I have some Bryce with Steve now. But like, do you have any? Do you have it? Shut up. Hey, shush. Okay. It is not your turn.

[00:39:39] I have the talking stick. I really don't have any gripes about Astro Bot. It's an extremely hard game to criticize. I think the only bad thing I would say is that like there's like a number of like mini levels, you know, where you do like a short platforming challenge and you rescue like one single robot and like that's the whole level. I'm not much of a fan of those. I don't really. I don't know. I think they're totally okay. I didn't really look forward to doing them. They're not bad.

[00:40:06] I didn't hate them, but they're definitely just not what I'm after. I guess it's kind of a shitty gripe because if that's the worst I could say. But, you know, did you like those levels? I thought they were just whatever. I. Okay. So that's kind of related to mine. One of my slight criticisms, the main because you don't have to do those. If you just want to mainline this game, it is fairly easy. Those are the optional challenging stuff. If you want to percent a hundred percent this and I did.

[00:40:35] I platinum this game because I like I felt like it was worth doing everything. Wow. But those those individual like harder challenges are they all have like kind of one consistent theming. And I felt like maybe that would limit it a little bit. But so to get like the bulk of the game that has a lot of variability and like interesting

[00:41:03] aesthetics and everything that stuff is is fairly easy. I thought, which in some ways maybe is good. But I wish there would have been a little bit more that was like, hey, here's the challenging extra that it's like really own unique. Like what's the what's the term I'm looking for? Like that has its own spectacle that you have to work for a little bit. Okay. And I mentioned at the start, there's one thing that I felt specifically that playroom did

[00:41:32] better. And I do think the music in playroom was better. The singing tree is great. I don't want to take anything away from that singing tree, but I still occasionally catch me singing. I'm your GPU to myself. And I don't want to I don't know. I do miss those like big musical numbers from playroom. And there was more of that there. I think I'll have to disagree. I think I like the music in Astro Bot more for sure.

[00:42:02] I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm your GPU is a banger, right? Like, you know, of course. But just overall, though, I would say the music in this game is better. Not just the singing tree, but just all the all the non vocal tracks to just this general BGM in this game, I think is pretty fucking good and lively and stuff. And I love the construction site one. I love the haunted house one. I like a lot of stuff in this. So I don't know. Overall, I get it, though.

[00:42:30] In a short game like Astro Asterisk Playroom, you can like stuff them in there, right? You can like it's like an EP full of bangers now filling it out to a full record. You know, you got to you got to approach it differently. I understand what you mean, though. I don't think that's like the worst opinion in the world. I will I will not give you a sorely for that one. Okay, thank you. But yeah, you got anything else? I think I'm Astro Bot it out. I only said Astro Boy twice and go go me.

[00:42:58] Yeah, I just can't emphasize enough. If you're like on the fence about playing this, I really think you like it's it's so worth it. Absolutely. Yeah, I got nothing else to add. Fantastic game. Give it an A. Go go play it. All right, Steve. It's been months. Kevin, it's been months. That shower might be growing mildew. I don't know. I might have to spray some 409 in there or something, but we got to get in the shower. We are long overdue.

[00:43:28] I can tell you this. I smell like shit. Okay, he smells like shit, Steve. We better scrub him up. He smells like shit, Steve. We better scrub him up. And I said. Fine, you don't want to talk? I'll talk for you. Let me tighten your nuts. Okay, thank you, Steve. We're going to go in the shower right now. What are you going to do in the shower with me? Let me tighten your nuts. Oh, thank you. We'll be right back, everybody.

[00:43:57] It's time to hit the showers.

[00:44:45] Oh, boy. Nothing like a good shower. Hey, fellas. Tell how I was crusty. I feel good. Yeah. How do you feel, Steve? Now that we dragged you into it, don't tell HR. Oh, I'm telling HR. Unfortunately, HR is you. HR is me. So you're going to have to tell me. All right. Well, it sounds like you're getting drug in there again for punishment. That's off the air. But okay. You know, shower. We're hanging out here in our towels. You know, we're drying off.

[00:45:15] Let's have a nice snack. Okay. Let's have something to eat. So right here in my hands and in Kevin's hands, Steve couldn't find them. We have Shaqalicious XL gummies. Extra large gummies. And it has three different Shaq faces and three different colors on this package. Shaqalicious XL gummies. We discovered. You're all making this shit up. I swear to God. I mean, like, I wish I was. This is insane. The fact that these exist. Gummies shaped like Shaq's head.

[00:45:45] Yeah. Okay. That's a real candy sold in the store. He's very smiley on them. He's very happy to be here. I was at a few stores today and I even asked somebody about them and they thought I was like filming them for a prank. They were looking for a camera. You asked a human person for the Shaqalicious gummies. No, I asked them for Shaq. I asked for Shaq candy. And now that I'm thinking about it, maybe that wasn't the best way to go. Yeah. Did anybody ask you to elaborate?

[00:46:13] And you had to say like, they are literally. I did elaborate. They're gummy candies that look like Shaq. Shaquille O'Neal's head. And they were like, no. I can't believe you actually asked the person. I would have just been. I would have been too embarrassed for that. If I didn't see it on the shelf. Well, I never saw these on the shelf. My mom sent these to me for Christmas in my Christmas bag. Oh shit. That worked out well. Yeah. She sent these to me. She must have just saw that.

[00:46:42] She must have saw that, you know, Kmart or something. Who has Kmart anymore? You know, Target or something. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what happened. I bet she listens to fine time and she knows that our listeners depend on us for reliable dietary food reviews. Mom, if you listen to fine time, I am so sorry. Like, don't do not. Do not speak a word. Where did you go wrong, lady? Yeah.

[00:47:08] She must be listening to this like, oh my God, I have raised a monster. Anyway, send that degenerate some Shaq gummies for real. They'll try these. So anyway, let's try them. Shall we? Unfortunately, Kevin's goblin children already opened his package. So I'm going to give you guys the proper ASMR. I am going to open mine right now. I have these kitchen shears. Okay. I'm going to open my package.

[00:47:38] Damn. Wish I got to do that. Yep. Oh, this is good. These are pretty big for gummies. I got to tell you. Damn. Are they detailed? Like, can you tell by looking at the candy that that Shaq said? Yeah, they look a little scary. They're a bit androssy. They're a bit frightening. But I mean, if he started opening his mouth and spinning polygons at me, I wouldn't be surprised. But yeah, you could tell a Shaq.

[00:48:06] If I didn't know beforehand, I would say this is Shaq. I think it's recognizable. I don't think so. I don't think if somebody handed you this and they said, who is this character? You would have said that Shaq. I think you could have as easily said it's Mr. Clean. You know what? You're right. You're right. It could be Mr. Clean. Shit. But look, I wouldn't say it's like any bald dude. I wouldn't say it's like Howie Mandel or it's like, you know what I mean? Like, it doesn't look like.

[00:48:36] That's definitely not Howie Mandel gummies. They smell good. And I have a. See, mine don't really smell because they are a little dry. Thanks to my fucking asshole children. Andre, where were these made? Does it say on the package? Let me see. Let me see. Manufactured. Broomfield, Colorado. Yeah. Colorado. Hey, he asked me. All right. Well, I still have my package. Okay.

[00:49:01] So, Broomfield, Colorado has a mold that vaguely looks like Shaquille O'Neal's head. And they're using it to make candy. What a life, huh? Okay. What a life. This is reality now. All right. Kevin, I'm going to try the blue one. Blue is the flavor I always go for. And that's fine. Before we eat them, I do. I need a little bit of help. And I've struggled with this since I first looked at them because mine were preemptively opened.

[00:49:28] When I put them all down, the blue is very apparent, which is blue. And the other two are different colors. And when I look at them, to me, the lighter one looks orange and the darker one looks red. And so I assumed the darker one was peach and the lighter one was orange. However, when I hold them up to the light, the darker one looks orange and the lighter one starts to look pink.

[00:49:54] And I literally do not know which of these two is peach and which one is orange. Can you help me? I think the darker one is berry. I'm going to say, or peach. Now hold it up to the light and hold it up to the light and see if you still agree. I still agree. No, I'm holding both of them up right now. No, I still agree. I think the darker one is the peach. And then the lighter one is orange. I could be wrong. I don't know. Regardless, I want to try the blue one. I want to try the blue.

[00:50:24] Okay, let's try the blue. Okay. Three, two, one. Okay. Mmm. Mmm. It's really good. Mmm. These are much better than like the cheap dinosaur gummies for sure. Mm-hmm. These are good quality. Mm-hmm. What's the blue supposed to be? Mmm. Berry punch. Berry punch. Berry punch. Mmm. I'm going to have another blue one.

[00:50:53] Does it taste like Shaq? Only Shaq knows for sure. It tastes like Miami Heat Shaq. It doesn't quite taste like Lakers Shaq. Definitely not Orlando Magic Shaq. Mmm. These are good. I literally only have one of each, so I can't have another blue. Mmm. You want to try the darker one?

[00:51:22] You want to try the berry? Or peach, rather? Now, I think the darker one is orange, but I got to hold on. Let me rinse. I need to cleanse my palate. Me too. Me too. I'm going to take some water. You mean you guys don't have oyster crackers? What kind of taste test are you guys running here? That's only East Coast, what I want to say, elite. It's obviously, I guess. Sorry. Okay. I think my palate has been cleansed.

[00:51:50] You just sent me some oyster crackers for Christmas then. I didn't realize we were doing such an oddly specific taste test. Actually, I did like a month ago. Letting everyone behind the curtain, huh? Okay. Let's try the darker one. We'll see what flavor it is. Okay? Okay. Let's go now. Mmm. That's orange, right? Yeah, that's orange. You're right. You're right all along. Okay. Mm-hmm. You're correct.

[00:52:17] I feel like if you would have said, no, that's peach, I would have started to get a complex. No, you're correct. Orange is fucking good too. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mmm. Okay. I'm going to try the pink one. Okay. I got to swallow my orange first. Okay. I'm savoring. Damn. You are so good. I was not expecting it to be this good. Yeah, I'll buy another. Well, I have diabetes, so I probably shouldn't. But if I didn't have diabetes, I'd buy another pack of these. Do you think Shaq actually tried any of these? Um, yes.

[00:52:48] Everything he licked, every one of them. Before he puts them into the package himself. He went to Colorado himself to lick them. Y'all remember the Shaq soda from like the early tins? You remember that shit on the shelf? It was like in the kind of like Arizona iced tea kind of like tall cans. Okay. I remember the signs up everywhere at 7-Elevens on gas stations. Nobody ever actually had it out. Really? Okay. I saw them at 7-Eleven.

[00:53:19] I am so sorry. I'm obviously in subconscious snack mode because I know we're supposed to be trying them together, but I just took a bite of the peach without intentionally doing it. It's really good. Oh my God. The peach is the best one. Steve, help me. I'm sorry. I'm being honest. Kevin, there are rules to this. Oh my God. I know. See, you guys didn't invite me to the taste testing for a while and I don't, I'm not as experienced as you. Because we didn't want to give you diabetes on the air, but now apparently you don't care.

[00:53:49] So we're going to have it. Don't make me bring up that sugar-free Coke again. This is really good. Damn. Peach might be my favorite. Yeah, the peach is my favorite. Mmm. If I had to rank them, I would go peach, then berry punch, then orange, but orange is still very good. Me too. And I usually don't like orange flavored things. So for me to say that is really, these are great. Everybody. Thumbs up. Shackalicious XL gummies. Extra large gummies.

[00:54:18] These are fucking excellent. Definitely go get them. Okay. We're going to get to some of the other game awards announcements we thought were interesting in a second because there were a lot and we, you know, yeah, it was like over a month ago now, but we want to recap. But before we do that, I think we have to start with the one that had the most implications because Capcom not only unveiled that they're making a sequel to Okami, but right after that

[00:54:48] big, beautiful logo appeared on the screen, they revealed that it's being directed by Hideki Kamiya. Oh shit. Then Jeff afterwards reveals that this new Okami game is being developed by a new team called Clovers, essentially a sequel to the original Clover studio from the 2000s that made not just Okami, but Beautiful Joe and, you know, other games. Didn't they under the skin, right? Didn't they make under the skin? Was that them? I think so.

[00:55:18] Am I wrong? You guys know what I'm talking about, right? That Capcom PS2 game for you. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, it's like you were an alien from outer space, like the 50s, like alien with the big eyes and head and everything. And then you're like possessing people. Steve knows what I'm, I think you know what I'm talking about, right? I know what you're talking about, but I don't remember if it's them or not. Okay, maybe I could be wrong. Anyway, point is, here's my question to you guys. In the days after the show, it was also revealed that Kamiya poached at least

[00:55:48] 20 people from Platinum Games to join him at Clovers to help make Okami. So, Steve, Platinum Games is dead, right? Like, that's it, folks? You know, Andre, we've been speculating on this for a while now. Listen to our Bayonetta 3 episode. But I'd say the writing on the wall is bleeding. I'd say it's only a matter of time before we start hearing about a buyout or other people

[00:56:17] start scavenging for pieces. Because I'm not an expert, but somehow I think Nintendo is going to want to go in for Bayonetta and Astral Chain, considering, you know, you know, the AIP rights, because they sunk in a fuck ton of money on both. Sure did. I know whole buyouts are more the style these days, but it's not wholly unprecedented. I mean, Ubisoft bought Prince of Persia and nothing else from Broderbund, however many long ago. Cinematic platformer paradise plug goes here. Oh, how many times am I going to do that today?

[00:56:47] Just once. That was that was your only one. It's over, Steve. They're done. We've been mourning the slow death of this studio for a few years now, probably since bullshit, probably since Babylon's fall. But certainly since Bayonetta three and then homeboy left. And then now he's doing this. Dude, it's over. Is poached the right word or like save people that were jumping off a sinking ship?

[00:57:15] Oh, I mean, I'm just using poach as like a general term here. I don't know if he literally did that or they just jumped off the sinking ship. Who knows? Regardless, they followed him there, you know, which is which is really what I'm saying. I don't know if poach is a correct term, but yeah. Potato, potato. They're gone. Yeah. What did you guys think of the original Okami? I I played it when it came to we I specifically waited for that version because I we all knew it was coming.

[00:57:43] We moat, you know, new system. We knew it was perfect for the brushstrokes like the whole bit. We we saw that coming well before Capcom announced it. They announced it. I waited for that version. And quite frankly, I don't think I liked it that much. I didn't hate it, but it's way too long. It overstates its welcome by like 20 hours. That's a 20 hour game that ends up being like 40 and it's just way too much. That's just my opinion.

[00:58:13] Kevin, have you ever played Okami? I played it when the HD version came out and I was I was very interested in it when it was out on PS2 specifically because I remember it allegedly being a better Zelda game than Twilight Princess that year. And it was it's very pretty. I could not get into it. Maybe I put six or seven hours into it and I felt like it just felt quite slow and aimless at times.

[00:58:39] And I didn't I didn't find it offensive, but it wasn't it wasn't hitting for me at the time, at least. Steve. Yeah, I played the Wii version however long ago and it was in a weird time and place where he probably I think that might have been around the time where the Wii shat itself and I lost the save and then I just didn't feel like starting all over again. I have the HD version sitting here. Maybe this will be coming soon. Now playing. Who knows? Hold on. Are you saying you had a Wii that went kaput?

[00:59:09] Oh, yeah. Hmm. Twice. But that's beside the point. Do you guys remember that tease? There was a tease. I want to say from 2020, like around the time when they had the wonderful one on one Kickstarter where Platinum released that vague trailer about like the third in a series of superhero games or Sentai Henshin, right? That kind of thing.

[00:59:35] Like so if you could assume the first one was beautiful Joe and the second one was wonderful one on one, this would be a third in that line of games, but nothing ever came of that. So do you see that being revived with Kami at Clovers? I wonder if that project is dead. Steve, do you remember what I'm talking about? I do remember that and I think it probably got shelled with everything else at Platinum

[01:00:01] because a lot of shit has gotten shelled to Platinum that we don't know about. And I think it's going to come back is very much come back is beautiful Joe three. And we're going to get the other beautiful Joe's as a bespoke set. And Andre is going to get mad at them. And I'm going to be like, and then I'm going to give them a proper reevaluation and see how much I really like them coming soon to find time. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe possibly. I'm not a fan of beautiful Joe.

[01:00:29] I haven't really dug into wonderful one on one, but obviously those are two very different games. But if he's just going to do another game like that, I am always here for it. And hell, I'm here for Okami part two. I'm here for a sequel, even though I didn't like the original that much. I'm definitely willing to try it. All right. Any other game awards announcements you want to cover real quick?

[01:00:55] Because there was just a million trailers there that I still even, you know, so long after, even though it wasn't that long after, it feels like a million years ago. It was last year after all. Ha ha. Can we start here? I think that was the best game awards ever. Wasn't it? Would you guys say so? Hands down. Hands down. Yeah. In terms of reveals. Sure. But I don't know. I don't know. That's not my favorite thing every year. See, I thought I thought in terms of everything.

[01:01:24] Everything like the the like pacing of the awards and the way like just the way things were handled. It felt more professional. I don't know. It felt more legit this year to me. For sure. Last year. Well, yeah. Last year felt kind of. I mean, look, some years are better than others, I guess. But, you know. Although every fucking year I bring on my campaign to bring back the shit hydro bot and it never catches fire. Jeff never tweets me back. Hmm. You do.

[01:01:52] You do directly tweet him, too. I do notice that you do that. Yeah. He doesn't. Yeah. Multiple times. We'll even talk to a fellow Canadian. I mean, Jesus Christ. Do you know who I am? We run fine time. The 33% Canadian podcast. You know why that is? Probably because we're all bearded gentlemen and you're trying to bring back shit hydro bot. It's like a conflict of interest. Yeah. I guess we're probably not getting a sponsorship.

[01:02:19] Yeah, but I guess I'll use a razor for the neck and like trimming up and stuff. I mean, you could still use a. Jeff, you bring back shit hydro bot next year and I will shave my face bald. Oh, OK. We have confirmation on fine time. We're locking it in. Locked in. All right. I separate the categories because we mostly want to talk about me and Steve want to talk about the same one.

[01:02:46] So, Steve, can you possibly tell people what Shadow Labyrinth was? That shocked the hell out of me. Fresh from 2008. It's a search action game with Pac-Man. Kind of. And it's dark and gritty because 2008. Look, Andre, good or bad. Namco already has my money for the bespoke special edition package that went on sale right after they showed it off. Oh, no.

[01:03:15] I can't believe we're doing dark, edgy anything, ironically, in 2025, let alone from Pac-Man. But you've heard me on the air about Pac-Man before. I fucking love Pac-Man. It's too fucking wild to ignore. Come back to me in April or whenever when I give it up, but I properly play it. I cannot believe this is saying. I think everyone's mind went to Bomberman Act Zero, and rightfully so. I don't know if you all know that.

[01:03:42] I think they're trying a bit harder here than that. Maybe. But, I mean, this has to rank up there as one of the most bizarre reveals of all time. I cannot believe this is a thing. And I also can't believe there was a secret level episode, secret levels, that tied into this. Like, all I got to say is that if this game is not rated mature, I'm not buying it. If you're going to do fucked up Pac-Man, go all the way. It better be fucked up.

[01:04:11] See, I want to believe you there. I want to be on your side there, but I just think Pac-Man himself just won't lend himself to M-rated shenanigans no matter how gritty they make it. Not a chance. They'll bring it to the ESRB, and no matter what they make him do, they'll be like, Oh, it's Pac-Man T. Well, Pac-Man getting a teen rating already seems extreme, Kevin. Come on, just go all the way. I mean, I think it would be super cool.

[01:04:40] I have all the hope for you that that happens. There is not a chance. I don't think this is going to be like, you know, Pac-Man's fucking prison days. I mean, it really should be. Look, man, mature or bust. That's all I got to say. Come on. They showed the Outer Worlds 2, which obviously we knew existed, and that's not really that exciting. What was funny, though, is that they just stuck the PS5 logo at the end of the trailer, which

[01:05:08] it's like because like the whole trailer is thinking, OK, I'll try it on Steam Deck. Maybe I can run it at 30 or whatever. I guess, you know, it's the best I can do. Oh, never mind. PS5 unceremoniously right at the end. Steve, I still need to play the first game. I have it on PS4. You know, we'll run fine on the PS5. OK, but I love how. Yes, we've been following the Xbox Chronicles, for lack of a better term on here on our show's

[01:05:35] lifetime, and I just love how, yeah, case by case basis for our releases here out has very, very quickly became Indiana Jones has five months exclusivity and Doom at the Dark Ages and Outer Worlds 2 are not exclusive at all. Real fucking fast. Well, you know what's funny? We never at any point ever assumed Doom the Dark Ages would be exclusive. It's like, oh, yeah, that's coming to PS5. Of course it is.

[01:06:00] We never, ever thought that it wouldn't, which is just the state of Xboxes. And since the Game Awards, they started in with this is an Xbox, but we're not going to I'm not going to get into that right now. I feel like that's a whole big question unto itself, honestly, especially since I think it's going to develop into other things. But you were impressed by something called Steel Paws, but I don't think I remember what the hell that is.

[01:06:25] I don't know if I was impressed so much as bewildered because they're saying you Suzuki presents Steel Paws. It wasn't even a real trailer. It was just like a animated whatever. It looks like it's going to be some kind of tower climbing roguelike situation. It's going to be included with Netflix subscriptions. So I'll let you people know how it is on my controller or my backbone.

[01:06:50] And whenever that drops backbone, well, we all know what you Suzuki is not doing. And that is the new Virtua Fighter that they showed at this Game Awards. And quite frankly, I thought they were going to show this last year. Remember Sega was sending out postcards to the press. Oh, make sure to turn to the Game Awards. But that turned out to be the Sega five. I thought that was going to be Virtua Fighter, but Virtua Fighter was for this year.

[01:07:17] But yeah, Virtua Fighter is back made by New God Gotoku Studios, RGG Studios, best known for the Yakuza games, aka Like a Dragon. Now, that's exactly the studio who I thought at Sega was going to do this. I don't think anyone has the expertise besides him to make a game like this. And it's been fucking 20 years, man, since Virtua Fighter five. So come on. It is time. I'm really here for this.

[01:07:45] They also showed besides Okami, Capcom also showed Onimusha Way of the Sword. And guys, they're just going to turn this into a Souls-like, aren't they? That's what they're going to do with Onimusha. I'm so fucking scared they're going to make this a Souls game because we don't make the kind of Resident Evil fixed camera perspective, like kind of games that Onimusha were before. We don't do that anymore, which is fine.

[01:08:12] But now what's the next evolutionary step with a guy with a sword in an Eastern, ancient, Eastern mythology setting? We turn it into Souls. And that trailer did have that vibe. Right. So. It would either be that or make a Dynasty Warriors. And do you really want that invitation? I would love Onimusha Warriors. I mean. Yes. I mean, obviously. But unless Team Ninja was directly invited to make that, do you really want them?

[01:08:42] The Koei Tecmo ninjas coming on your door to be like, hey, what the hell is this shit? Well, Capcom used to make Devil Kings, a.k.a. Sengoku Basura. Remember those? Like those were. Yeah. Remember that series? So I don't know. They've ripped off Dynasty Warriors before, albeit a very long time ago. But that was a thing. I don't know, man. I just don't want a Souls-like. If it turns out to be that, then I'm going to be pretty pissed. Kevin, what did you like from the Game Awards? Take your pick.

[01:09:12] I really liked Project Robot, which we didn't see any gameplay, but this is the new Eco Shadow of the Colossus spiritual successor. Yes. And I really thought it was interesting. Like, I don't like vague trailers that have really nothing substantial and nothing even close to gameplay. And that's what this was. But I really felt like I got this. Like the trailer had a very good, distinct, foreboding vibe to it.

[01:09:42] And I'm very keen to see what that is. Me too, obviously. Well, you know, I don't think we need gameplay on that because we know that guys work, right? So we can see what that's going to be like. So I think it works in this instance. Yeah. Well, and I think especially like the climbing on that, like really did scream Shadow of the Colossus is obviously a very different setting. But yeah, I'm very curious what's going on there. I'm a little embarrassed about this one.

[01:10:11] Game of Thrones King's Road. I feel first of all, like it just kind of looks like it's going to be a major letdown and they're like six years too late to capitalize on the popularity of Game of Thrones. But I still want to play this because I'm a sucker. What does it look like? Does it look like just a basic bitch action game or something? There's been, there was a telltale Game of Thrones game and there was another very cheaply

[01:10:37] made like early PS4 gen Game of Thrones game. It's very much, it looks like a very much a story focused single player type of game. Really, if you know anything about Game of Thrones, it's definitely very set at the wall, which I mean, yeah, I don't know. I am a sucker. This is going to be Gollum all over again, where I'm like, I know this probably isn't going to be good, but I'm going to try playing it anyways. And I'll lament it in a year.

[01:11:08] Dispatch. Speaking of telltale games, this is very much a telltale style of game. It had Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad. It's got the kind of superhero thing. And I don't like superhero stuff. But the vibe of this was just very well done. And I thought the humor seemed very fitting for it. And I mean, usually games like that are not a major time commitment. So I'm interested to see what goes on with that one. And Intergalactic the Heretic Prophet.

[01:11:39] The new Naughty Dog game. I'm not going to make any assumptions on what the gameplay will be like or if it will be good at all, because I think there is a very good chance this is not a Kevin game. But Jesus fucking Christ, based on the in-engine cut scenes, that was graphics on PlayStation 5. I feel like if this delivers for what they were showing, the promise of the Unreal Engine 5 Matrix demo will finally come to fruition like we've been waiting for for years.

[01:12:09] I feel like we're there, dude, between Silent Hill 2 and like, dude, I mean, I feel like we're just, I mean, Marvel Rivals goes for a different thing. Obviously, it's going for like very high frame rate, like 120. And like, obviously, it's going to look like more simplified. But that's UE5 and you got you got Lumen. It's it's it's impressive what we're doing right now. I think we finally figured it out. But yeah, I think I think we've been there. And this obviously looks like we're there.

[01:12:38] I God help me. I'm interested in this. I really don't like Naughty Dog games, but fuck if I'm not here for it. Not just because they played a Pet Shop Boys song at the end. I mean, maybe that helps, but fuck. I don't know. It just seemed to me like there was like just the slightest like we haven't seen this yet to me. I mean, and again, right.

[01:13:03] We're making a lot of assumptions about like actual like throughout the entire game graphics quality. But it looked amazing. I thought graphics wise. All right. Great game awards. Hopefully I'm not expecting this year's to be as good as this as last year's because what possibly could be. But wow. What a what a great bunch of announcements.

[01:13:37] All right, guys. Everyone's doing it. I feel like we should also talk game of the years for us for 2024. We're each going to pick three and let's just round robin it. You know, I like when we do this, when we all have a few different things and we just go take turns. So who wants to go first? I always I don't know. I guess I could go first. I feel like Steve should go first. Oh, me. Okay. Yeah. You're on the air right now. We're doing we're doing a show called Fine Time. Never heard of it.

[01:14:08] Is it any good? No, it's not. It's not that good, but it would be great if you could tell us one of the three games you have for game of the year. Well, I guess I'll lead off with MEO the Smiling Man, a game so nice. We did episodes with it twice more if we count news leading up to anyway. No, really. We went over everything about this game with a fine tooth comb. But, you know, in order to be as spoiler free as I possibly can be still.

[01:14:37] You know, it's just the best example of a visual novel it could possibly be. I mean, we, you know, developer mages led by Sakamoto worked their fucking asses off for everything from the visuals to the sound to even how the very dated back then and now. Famicom Detective Club interface operates just to work in concert with each other. And, yes, it's a slow burn. It's supposed to be.

[01:15:06] But, you know, I know Ace Attorney Investigations duology came out like a couple weeks after this did. And that was something more people were looking forward to. But, you know, if you're a little curious about this and they're especially since Nintendo's pumping out more, hey, play this game. It's really good trailers now. And, you know, you still haven't played yet. Just do it. Relax. Get a nice tea or something. It's going to be one of those. Take your damn time. It's worth it.

[01:15:35] Yeah, I think even as of this recording today, they put out a M. You know, the smiling man thing with Yoshio Sakamoto in it, like another one. Just just keep trying to trying to pimp this game. And they should. I think they saw all the accolades has been getting and it's just, you know, shit. I hope I hope it does well for them over time. I'm sure it didn't do gangbusters out the gate. But what a game. If we could if we could pick four or five, this would definitely make mine. But damn, it might anyway.

[01:16:04] But just in the interest of picking us, picking different games, I let you I let you have it. Oh, that's very kind of you, Andre. I let you have M. M. M. M. Congratulations. I would have I would have wrenched it out of your hands anyway, but we would have fought to the death over M. You know, the smiling man. I want to go last. Kevin, you go next. You say one of yours. Game of the year. Yeah, well, it's the alarm. Oh, it's round and red. And I love it.

[01:16:34] No, who doesn't? Um, I played Sonic X Shadow Generations over the Christmas break. No way. And man, like I loved that game. I dicked around with Sonic Generations a few years ago on 360. I spent maybe like 45 minutes and I like had fun with it, but I never like set out to actually play it. And I don't know why. I just kind of like pick this up on a whim on PS5 unboxing day sales.

[01:17:02] And this is my favorite Sonic game. Yes. Over Mania. Wow. The 2D Sonic is exceptional. The 3D Sonic is exceptional. It looks amazing. Um, and like fucking talk about spectacle. Like it's. But, but it would like retains meaningful gameplay at the same time. And here's what surprised me most, um, because I think like most people, I assumed that the,

[01:17:30] the shadow tie in was kind of like, you know, we've got the Sonic three movie. It's going to be a cheap movie tie in. Um, it's very meaty and extremely, extremely well done. It's equivalent to Bowser's Fury as, as its own standalone experience. It's got its own hub world. It's got plenty of levels. It's, it's very much worth doing on its own.

[01:17:53] Um, yeah, I, I, I certainly cannot claim to be, uh, as, as deeply ingrained, uh, with Sonic as Andre is, but I felt, I felt much more like closer to Sonic after playing this. It was exceptional. Okay. I'm glad you liked it. Um, as I probably said on the show, I never did like Sonic Generations very much. And I do want to play this, this, uh, re-release this remake, if you will, because I want to give it another shot. I, I wanted to see if it was just me or whatnot. It probably was.

[01:18:22] And that's why I want to give it another shot. See, um, I think you should. I have this on, I have this on, on disc. If you want to play it, I will mail it to you. On PS5? On PS5. Okay. Yeah. I'm here for it. Definitely. I'll borrow that and send it back for sure. Um, okay. Let me say one of mine and it is no surprise to anybody. My favorite game of last year was indeed Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, no doubt.

[01:18:48] And the biggest triumph of this game is that not only did it not skimp and all the things we expected it to do, it gave us more. It went above and beyond my wildest expectations of what a remake of this game could be. It does everything, everything and more. It's a dream come true, basically, to me. And I don't even care about Final Fantasy VII like that.

[01:19:16] And it feels like that to me. So if you do care about Final Fantasy VII like that, holy fuck, you must be in heaven. And I get it. Rebirth is not a game for everyone. And I completely understand why, right? I get people's issues with it. But for me, it's legitimately an all-timer. It's not just my favorite game of 2024. It's one of the best games I have ever played.

[01:19:43] And fuck, I mean, like, obviously, I don't want to, I could sit here all day and talk about it. But I'll just say two things real quick that make it like the best for me. One, this is the best action RPG battle system of all time. Hands down. That's not even up for dispute. Because I think you guys know like how I felt for a long time. I always felt Final Fantasy XV was the best of like the recent battle systems, even more than Final Fantasy VII Remake, even more than Final Fantasy XVI.

[01:20:12] I would have said XV is better than that. Rebirth blows all of those out of the water now. It's the best. Combos, dodging, spellcasting, strategy, team-up attacks, summons. All of it works in concert better than anything else I've ever played. So that will never, that will probably not change for like a long time unless Final Fantasy VII Remake Part III comes along and blows that out of the water, which I can't imagine it will. Secondly, the music.

[01:20:43] Like, the answer to the question, oh, what's your favorite RPG soundtrack? I've said Grandia 2 my whole life. I think I might have to start saying Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It's that good. I did a whole episode on it earlier. Me and Vin did a whole episode on it rather. Not just about the music, but just all that kind of stuff about it. And if you want to hear that very spoiler podcast sometime, definitely go back and listen to that where we talk about it in detail.

[01:21:10] But yeah, the absolute galaxy brain level of the music in Rebirth is, yeah. What else can I say? My favorite game of the year, one of my favorite games ever. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Who do we start with? Steve. Yeah. Let's have another one of your goaties. Yeah, I'm going to be a little vague here still, but I'm glad we did this in January because if we did this right before we left this year, I would have missed the cutoff. Mario and Luigi Brothership.

[01:21:40] Hmm. Yeah. After the Super Mario RPG remake and Thousand Year Door came out last year and remade my, you know, my favorite Mario RPG games, an original Mario and Luigi game, not by Alpha Dream. Mario and Luigi game was going to be a tough sell. Well, not a tough sell because again, of course I was going to buy it, see how it is. But guys, in a series of spinoffs that had some high highs and some very embarrassing 3DS

[01:22:10] outings, the new people at a choir of Octopath Traveler fame met somewhere in the middle. They got a back to basics Mario and Luigi and no one fucking else adventure, but with a healthy mix of all things we like from back when it was good, but with a bunch of new elements peppered in to keep it fresh. Like, you know, a ship, you know, a brother ship you use to navigate the game world to find islands.

[01:22:40] There's, there's a titular brother ship. Okay, cool. I don't think they, I don't think they call it that, but you know, it's obviously what it's supposed to be. It's the brother ship. Of course it is. It's the fucking brother ship. It makes the game feel quasi episodic because you know, that's, it's one of the ways it feels like the Octopath influence may or may not have seeped its way into the game. I have lots of thoughts on this and other things, but I do, well, we collectively have

[01:23:09] a super post game show planned for this one. So I won't say too much more other than Mario and Luigi brother ship has a fishing mini game guys. Come on. I know. Of course this was going to be on the top three. It's your, it's your favorite thing. I know. Of course it is. I mean, it didn't need to have one, but it's Mario and Luigi and they're going fishing on the brother ship. Um, all right, Kevin, uh, next goatee for you. I'm going to start calling him goatee.

[01:23:39] Um, you know what? My second place is Astro bot and we already talked about that enough. So I'm going to be real quick here. I do briefly just want to say if I had four picks, number four probably would have been the Pokemon trading card game pocket on mobile because I'm still playing it like every single fucking day. Um, I, the amount of time I've put into that game for being a phone game is, and, and like personal investment. Um, so I'll leave it at that.

[01:24:08] But, um, yeah, if, if, if we hadn't already talked about Astro bot for, uh, 40 minutes earlier, I'd rant and rave about that for five more minutes. Wow. Okay. I didn't know you felt that. Well, I mean, I guess I kind of knew you were playing it a lot, obviously, but I didn't know you felt actually that strongly about it. Okay. Interesting. Um, okay. I'll go next year. My, my next goatee is UFO 50 any other year without a final fantasy seven rebirth. This would have been my game of the year.

[01:24:37] And I did a whole episode on this game, uh, this fall. And thank you if you've listened to that, but I almost don't even know how to talk about UFO 50 in, in totality, because I, how do you encompass 50 games? And I want to stress that to people. Maybe that's the way to go about this. It's 50 games. They're not mini games. They're not WarioWare micro games. They are legit 50 video games in a compilation.

[01:25:06] For those who don't know, it's basically, um, the premise is there was a, it's a fictitious console from the eighties that this one company made these 50 games for. And so they even have like fake release dates and everything. You can order them chronologically. They start in like 1981 or whatever. And it goes all the way up through 1989, you know, their output. Right. And God, I mean, that kind of sets them up, right? If they ever do like a UFO 52, they could just cover the nineties or whatever.

[01:25:34] Although that would probably be a lot more complicated in game style and whatever. Right. Cause you have to start doing 3d point is it's impressive. Through dedication to the era. You guys both know, I really rail hard on indie games that try to be eight bit or 16 bit or pretend that through this or that. And I'm very harsh on those games because in my opinion, if you're going to claim that kind

[01:25:58] of authenticity, then you better be that you have to be that don't try to make a mega man like, Oh, it's kind of like mega man. No, you better be as good as mega man. If you're going to do that and you're not. So I'm going to judge you very harshly for it. UFO 50 doesn't try to do anything like that. They're just making 50 cool games that could have existed in these years. Right. Obviously some influences are stronger than others, of course. Right.

[01:26:28] But they're not out here doing like, Oh, here's our Mario game. Here's our fake Zelda game. There are a lot more original than that. So if anyone was on the fence about this game, I cannot recommend it enough. Whether you like retro games, whether you're new to them, or even if you just run the indie circuit that I mentioned, everyone, every single person out there could get something out of UFO 50. And they're all good. They're almost all good. There's like two games that I think are bad. That is an incredible hit rate. You know what I mean? Like, it's just what a value.

[01:26:57] It's like 25 bucks, man, for 50 games. Go get it. Can't say it enough. I know. And Steve, I know you're going to wait for console here. Whatever it comes out on first, you have to. I know. I want to add quickly that of all of our side shows last year, that was one of my favorites when Andre did a solo show and went through all 50 games. It was a very engaging lesson. So if anybody's interested to this, I implore you to check it out. Thank you. I worked my ass off on that.

[01:27:26] It came about really, really quickly. I remember texting these guys incessantly in our Discord channel. Just, hey, can I do this? Can I really do this? I bet all of you guys are like, just shut up already. Just fucking enough already about the UFO 50. But thanks for letting me just talk at you, if not talk with you about it, for those two weeks while I got that shit together. It was a lot of fun to make. All right. We're coming back around to Steve. Give us your third goatee.

[01:27:56] It's going to be the thing that almost won game of the year, in my opinion, anyway. Blatro. It's a very late entry for me. I only got it after the Game Awards, actually. Yes, I heard the murmurs. I saw the things online of people like, man, there's this card game and it's a roguelike. Oh, yeah, not right now. Not this second. I'm going to play Peglin instead. And I hit the wall on that because that ends up doing the worst possible thing it could do, even though it's... Why am I bringing up Peglin right now?

[01:28:25] Because it's sort of that same gambling type situation where you're playing Sword of Pachinko and it just ends up being slow when you start hitting the wall and it looks for certain exact situations. The best way to explain how Blatro works for the two people that haven't played it yet, I know Andre's one of them is... Yep. Well, Andre's already going to know how it works because you ever see video poker? That's mostly how it works. But with lots of goofy jokers that change the rules.

[01:28:55] That's Blatro. Just keep playing hands of poker. Again. And again. And again. Get the points. Break the rules. Just keep playing it. I played a weird mini-quest in Dave the Diver masquerading as a Blatro demo and then that ended up with me getting a royal flush and I guess I'm getting this fucking game now. $10 only on my cell phone telephone.

[01:29:25] I guess I could swing that with my pretend Google money. I'm surprised this went so mainstream. Like people who don't play video games are playing Blatro. I'm surprised. I guess I could just keep playing hands again and one more time and there's how many fucking decks to play with different rules sets? It's incredibly addictive. Like how long are you playing this at a time? Because I can sit there and play this for two hours until I like feel guilty about not spending time with my kids.

[01:29:54] I don't have children but I've lost some time. I've won a few of the decks already. I've hit a small snag on the black deck. Oh, me too. I'm also stuck on the black deck. But I'll figure this out. I know I will. That's the thing. It preys on your worst gambling instincts. I know I can do this.

[01:30:20] But since I already paid my $10, I'm not paying real microtransaction money. So you don't feel that bad about it. Y'all are making me want to play this. I've had no interest in this game until now. I know we try not to listen to all the trends of what other people thought about things. But it's like sometimes the mob is right on that. And I think the mob was right about Bellatro in this situation. It's genuinely very good. Okay. I might have to then.

[01:30:50] All right, Kevin. What is your last goatee? Yeah, I got a weird one. Mario versus Donkey Kong. First of all, I almost didn't even pick this up. This was kind of a last minute bought it on a whim. And I think right after I finished it, I liked it. But when the three of us talked about it, I feel like I was probably the most critical of it. I, at the time, maybe thought it was a little bit shallow. And I very rarely ever talk about the price of games. But I had some thoughts about it being $50.

[01:31:21] Which me and Steve quickly rebuffed you. It's like, nah, it was a $50 game. Yeah, and that's, well, you know what? And I have regularly thought about this game. Throughout the year, ever since finishing it. And it's weird. I look back on that playthrough more and more fondly. I 100% retract my thoughts that I shared about the price. And you could argue at face value this is a basic game.

[01:31:50] But it's very worth the price of admission. Yeah, I don't know. I know that I still had some, like, quote-unquote post-game content to do. And I definitely will do that at some point. I'm kind of waiting for the right time. But I keep thinking about that game very often. Wow, that's cool. I'm glad you came around. So you had a fuck I was wrong about the price. I had a fuck I was wrong when I thought it was better than Donkey Kong 94. And then I realized I was wrong.

[01:32:18] Steve, do you have a fuck I was wrong about Mario vs. Donkey Kong? Not an offhand. Man, there's nothing. Just like, man, that music was more slapping than I thought. Perfect Steve, write about everything on Mario vs. Donkey Kong. Every single thing. Okay. My last goatee is Dragon Quest III HD 2D remake. Like, what a massive, beautiful game.

[01:32:46] Just an incredible game. The approach to non-Octopath HD 2D games has been mostly good, I think. But Dragon Quest III is the only one I would say stands right up there with Octopath, visually. This game is, like, stunning. I played it on Steam Deck. It was beautiful. And the reason why Dragon Quest III is incredible is the thing that usually makes Dragon Quest games incredible. Is that it's never about the plot.

[01:33:16] It's about the journey. Or I guess sometimes it could be about both, as, you know, Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest XI are kind of about both. But typically you're not there for that. You're there for the setup. Or, in more video game terms, the scenario. And Yuji Horii is the best scenario writer of all time. He just is. He's the reason why Dragon Quest has persisted all these years.

[01:33:42] And I legitimately do not mean this to respect the two dead legends here. But it wasn't because of Akira Toriyama and Kueichi Sugiyama. Well, like, I guess I don't care about disrespecting Sugiyama. He can rest in piss for all I care. But his music was iconic. Right? But it's replaceable. Iconic but replaceable. Same thing with Toriyama. You can find other cool character designs, right?

[01:34:13] I'm not sure you can find other people to do scenario writing as well as this guy does and the way that he does it, Yuji Horii. So, again, no disrespect meant. But the fact that two-thirds of his team are now passed on and Yuji Horii remains, I think Dragon Quest will still be Dragon Quest as long as he's alive. And Dragon Quest 3 is a grand testament to that.

[01:34:39] Now I absolutely cannot wait for the one and two remakes. I don't think they're going to go as hard in it as they did these. But, Steve, I think we all know Dragon Quest 2 could use some definite fixing upping. So I hope that finally happens. Of all the ones that need help, 2 is the one that needs it the most. Yeah. Even more than one. Of all the things I regret not playing last year, it's 3 HD. Like I keep saying, there's just too much to do. Yeah, dude. It's like I said, I haven't even gotten to East 10 yet.

[01:35:09] I haven't played. It's right there. Not East. Dragon Quest 3 HD. I got it. It's right there. I just got to start. You got it on Switch, didn't you? What else would I get it on? You fucking asshole. All right. Next segment. Do you guys feel like you got some deep pockets today? Oh, I might. Tell me how much money I have, Kevin.

[01:35:39] Yeah. Do you want to play some bets? Yes. I love betting. Some little back alley betting. We love betting on this show. Yeah, fuck. Me too. All right. Well, I'll tell you guys how much money you got in those deep pockets. Andre is sitting on top with $15.50. I have $6.95 and Steve is at $4.49. He replenished to $500 earlier in this year and he's still down a little bit. So tread carefully, Steve. Before I give you a recap of what we have left outstanding, let's close off a few of these

[01:36:09] bets. But interestingly, we can't close them all off. A few months ago, Steve was given a bet that the Switch successor's official name includes the term super. However, at the time we made these bets, assuming that we were going to know the answer to that fairly quickly, which obviously we don't. So we're going to leave that one in limbo for now. That's going to be a real mess if they actually announce it and we have to do the addendum to the show. Oh, no. Then we're going to have to do the addendum to the bet.

[01:36:39] You know, I think I think we can safely clean that up in three months when we have our next betting. Okay. Andre had Star Wars Outlaws doesn't make its August 30th, 2024 release date and put $50 on three to one odds. That did not happen. It did make its release date. Yeah. I just had to throw 50 bucks at it just in case. I didn't. I didn't think it would get delayed, but Ubisoft, right?

[01:37:06] Yeah, that's I was going to say that was the phrase I remember was because Ubisoft. So and I also had avowed averages over 85% on Metacritic, which you guys gave me four four to one odds. And I put $250 on which in retrospect seems like it was way too much. I guess there's no going back. So I believe February is the release date now for avowed. So we'll wait and see there.

[01:37:32] Yeah, it's weird that we have like two bets that are just basically delayed. We thought the Nintendo thing would happen and then about got delayed. That is really weird. But yeah. Jokes on us. Womp womp. Now we did also have, and this was on September 11th, we made these bets that we would get official Switch 2 news before the end of October. We were all given this with two to one odds. Here we sit in mid-January still without that news.

[01:38:02] Steve put 200 bucks on that on two to one odds. Oh, man. So Steve is going to live his 200. Andre put 100, which he will lose. And I put 150, which I will lose. Yeah. I again, I had money to spend. So I was just like, fuck it. Let's just try it. I wasn't super confident in it, but I'm up. I'm playing with house money. So I'll give you a quick recap of where we're at before I give you our new bets. Now Andre is sitting at 1400.

[01:38:31] Steve is at 249 and I'm at 545. After we had another little illegal betting round, which we actually put our dates for which we thought the Switch 2 would be released. And so we all have $100 on three to one odds for this. Steve said April 11th. Andre said June 27th. And I said April 4th. I think at this point, Andre is probably looking like he's got a pretty good chance.

[01:39:00] I mean, I don't I wouldn't count yourself if they announce it soon. I think you guys still have a pretty good shot if they announce it like in the next week. But do we have? I mean, I guess we did say we did say like the closest. It's not prices right rules. So if we hit like mid May, I guess we're going to have to do some math to figure out who's closest. Steve has April 11th. So I feel like my April 4th is at a disadvantage, but it could happen. It could happen.

[01:39:29] And I yeah, I've always felt like this is a summer console. So I'm sticking with it. In fact, I didn't have the balls to say like August or something. I kind of wish I did. But we'll see what happens. All right. And then we've got three more bets that will resolve at the end of March. Steve has Final Fantasy 16 is announced to be coming for Xbox, which he put $50 on two to one odds. Andre had Microsoft announces a pro console, which he put $0 on two to one odds.

[01:39:58] And I gave Wiz makes it to Super Nintendo Switch online, which you guys gave me 14 to one odds. So I put $40 on that just to be safe. Did you remember going that high? I don't remember that at all. I remember. Okay. I'm not saying he's making it up. It's just like, I just, it's just not happening. I based it on how many levels were in the game. That's right. Okay. Well, I'll tell you what.

[01:40:25] I think we can all agree that Wiz getting on to the Super Nintendo app is a long shot, but I have a very consistent theme for today's betting. Okay. And I've wanted to do this for a while. I haven't, I haven't had the balls to do it, but we're doing it today. These are long shot bets. So I'm giving both of you hands down the best odds we have seen on this show to date. Wow. And they are all related to switch to now.

[01:40:53] I feel like I might need to rejig the wording on these a little, but I'm going to share them with you and then we'll come to a common consensus. These are all games that we're talking about being announced along with the switch to announcement. Okay. Now I do think we should be able to include if, if we get a trailer for hardware similar to like we did with the original switch. And then before it comes out, we get an announcement that is still preemptive to the console coming

[01:41:22] out, but is more software related. It would still count. Is that agreeable? Yeah, I would, I would, I would say that's cool. Okay. Okay. Um, you guys are each getting a 20 to one odds for these. Um, and I, and, and the rule is always that you guys give me, uh, you guys give me the odds for mine, but I feel like 21 to 21, 22, one would be fair. Yes. Um, Steve 20 to one odds, a new 10 80 snowboarding game is announced along with the switch to

[01:41:52] announcement. Oh, that's good. Steve. Cause NST is revived. They're back. Yeah. That's good. Are they working on a 10 80? That's 20 to one too rich for this. Am I getting a little, I mean, that's ready to be shown. Oh man. Kevin. $25.

[01:42:21] $25 on 20 to one odds. All right. Steve has the opportunity to make $500 on his 25 bucks. Let's lock it in. All right, Andre 20 to one odds. A new wave race game is announced along with the switch to announcement. Oh no. It is T again, Steve. He's doing it again. They did make both back to almost back to back on GameCube.

[01:42:48] You think they're like pumping that shit out all over again? Oh man. The repeat of 20 years ago. I would love it. 25 years ago. Oh, my heart. Um, how much money do I have again? 1400. 1400. You have $1,400. How can I not put a hundred bucks on this? Huh? How could I not? I mean, you got money to burn. Yeah. And you put a hundred bucks. You could make two grand. Fuck it. Fuck yeah.

[01:43:18] A hundred bucks. A hundred bucks. I'm locking it in. A hundred bucks. All right. I knew somebody had deep fucking pockets. It was me. All right. I feel like mine is slightly more of a long shot. I've got a new golden sun game is announced along with the switch to announcement. No fucking way. No way, dude. There's no way. I would give you a 50 on that one. If you want to take it, there's no way.

[01:43:47] I know Grezzo's doing work, but I don't think they're doing golden sun right this. I don't want Grezzo to do golden sun. Quite honestly. Camelot still. That's got to be a Camelot game, right? Yeah. And they're, they're still around. Mario tennis aces happened. Right. And I, man, you think they're playing with new hardware? Yeah, of course. I think they're still going to be doing Mario sports. It's shocking. We haven't got a baseball game this cycle, right? I feel like that's. Well, that's Namco.

[01:44:16] I know, but like they, they still do the Mario. They do the Mario sports. I feel like they're kind of in charge of that. Yeah. I know they handed it to Namco. Mario tennis and Mario golf has both been a while at this point, right? Yeah. I mean. Camelot's been doing something for years and I'm not saying I think this is going to happen. I don't, but I think it's slightly in the realm of possibility. Tennyson golf both got switch entries. That's usually one per system.

[01:44:46] I, but they were both pretty early switch. Yeah. Well, aces was, but, but golf wasn't that long ago. Was it? It was golf 2020, 2021. Maybe. Okay. God. Yeah. That is a while ago. Shit. I, what is the Rona anyway? Um, yeah, I, man, shit. Yeah. 20 to one. You, you put whatever you want on that golden sun. I, I do not see that happening, but you, you want to vote with your heart, I guess. Oh man.

[01:45:15] I don't know what to say. 20 cents is almost too low. Let's give them 35. Let's give them 35. Oh. See a 20 to one. I was going to throw 25 bucks on just for fun, but. Now do 35 for a 35 to one. Yeah, exactly. Let's put $35 on it. Okay. The math checks out. Lock it in. All right. Uh, for a new 10 80 snowboarding with switch twos.

[01:45:44] Steve has $25 on 20 to one odds. New wave race, uh, old deep pockets. Andres got a hundred dollars on 20 to 20 to one odds. And on new golden sun with switch two, I've got $35 on 35 to one odds. Perfect. Let's see how they pan out. None of these things are happening, but I guess we have a chance to win some money. I guess you weren't kidding about the highest odds ever on the show. Wow. Yeah. We're, we're doing. I've really, I've wanted to do that.

[01:46:10] I want to like have some like real pie in the sky bets, but you got to like have the stakes to justify. Of course. And if they hit, Ooh, baby. Yeah. All right, guys. I think that is about it. We've had a big deal here. Steve, we need to come up with some dialogue. Like, you know, like we, like we always, when they name drop the name of the game, right? Well, guys, you could really say that was a big deal, huh? That sure was Andre.

[01:46:44] Oh man. Thanks for joining us guys. We're glad to be back. We will be back every week for the people. We will never stop. Check the description of this podcast to find our links on social media and we'll see you next time. Bye. We'll catch you next time. This has been fine time.

[01:47:19] Say too much more other than mother and Luigi brothership has a fishing mini game, buddy. You said mother and Luigi, not Mario. Let's just let him go. No, no, I can't. I'm sorry. I'm exhausted guys. Let me give me a, yeah. Let me thank you. Sorry. Thank you.