Level 62 - Not Your Dad's Tetris

[00:00:00] Hello everyone, just giving you a bit of a heads up of something new that I'm trying for Remember 64. Another way to hear from you, the listener and viewer of the show. VoiceCast.app slash Remember64. VoiceCast is a cool new thing that I found from a couple other creators that have been using them. This is a great way to send an audio message to the show. It's something that you can share about episodes, games, things you want us to cover.

[00:00:29] Any of the games that we have upcoming or have, and you have some thoughts about what you experience playing the game. I always ask guests and me and Jiggy Look Back always talk about it, but what do you think? Sure, social media is a way to do it, but this is a way to actually have your voice on the show. It is completely free. VoiceCast.app slash Remember64. Just make it anywhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes, something like that at the most.

[00:00:54] It can be very brief, no problem. You can just say hi. You can just say bye. You know, whatever you want. VoiceCast.app slash Remember64. Leave us a message. It's completely free. You can do it on your phone. You can do it on a browser and you can find the link on social media as well. And at the description of this episode on your podcast app of choice. All right. On with the show, everyone.

[00:01:23] Remember64 is part of the SuperPod Podcast Network. Oh, yeah. Check us out, SuperPod Network, on your podcast app of choice and SuperPodNetwork.com, where you can find all our shows, blog posts, videos, and more. A Calgary company is looking to hit it big with Nintendo. It's the only Canadian company to develop games for Nintendo,

[00:01:52] and they're available at a store shelf near you. Cody and Aaron just can't get enough of Nintendo. So they're pretty pumped to be among the first to try the brand new game. Holy cow. How's our website coming? And this is where the new game was born, an office in a downtown high ride. These are characters from the Tetrisphere game. It's the first time Nintendo has hired a Canadian company to design one of these games. It could mean millions for this small Calgary company.

[00:02:22] It's a very big deal. Nintendo is the world's largest video game manufacturer. So for a little startup company like ourselves that's been able to line up the world's biggest player, it's just a tremendous coup. I don't know if you're going to win this time.

[00:02:36] Welcome to Remember64, where this week we break blocks in a whole new way.

[00:03:10] Hello, everyone. Welcome to the show. And hi again for returning listeners and viewers. And welcome if this is your first time. Here on Remember64, we play and discuss the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between throughout the Nintendo 64's library. My name, of course, is David Petrangelo, and I spin this game round, baby, right round. When I drop blocks, things will go down, down. That's right. I'm not going to sing that because that would hurt everybody's ears even more than my voice already does.

[00:03:40] Anyways, Jiggy, look back. With me again. How are you, sir? Like, do we have to say that every time? Like, with you again? Like, yeah, I'm here. I'm here all the time. Hey. I'm always here. Hey, life happens, man. Life happens. As everybody knows, life happens. I was gone for like six, seven months. Oh, that's true. That's true. Oh, yeah. Remember when I wasn't, when we weren't doing this for a bit, Jiggy? Yeah, yeah. There was a time there. I forgot. I felt like we've been doing this for like ever. It is. Once a week, every week since the beginning of time.

[00:04:09] The beginning of our time. Time, there's, there's, remember 64 time and then there's the before time. That's pretty much it. Which is kind of like the pandemic, roughly. Anyways, how you doing, Jiggy? How's it going? How's things? Oh, I'm doing great. I'll be honest. I had no idea what I was doing with this game, but that's okay. Okay. All right. We'll get into it. Before we get into exactly what we're talking about, even though you probably saw it in the title already, but this time we are joined by a couple of guests.

[00:04:39] This is very exciting. A, a, uh, unofficial sister, brother, cousin at the show. Uh, Flashback 64 is with us. We have both Gooey and McKenna here. Welcome to Remember 64. Hello. Hello, thanks. Yeah, thank you for having us. Um, uh, I'll ask you guys as well. How's things? How you doing? Um, yeah, pretty good. Um, we are, you know, to be honest, we're, we're, uh, moving soon.

[00:05:08] So we're kind of just like in a, we have that sort of like, at least I do. I have sort of that pre moving anxiety where like everything's fine, but you're just, I'm just like, I'm the type of person that's like, what if, uh, everything goes wrong and it's horrible. It kind of in limbo, you know, like it's sort of a weird state to be in kind of thing. Yeah. I hear you. Yeah. We're, we're packing stuff up, but I'm leaving out the N64 and the CRT. Cause I'm like, we got, we got business to take care of.

[00:05:37] You got some to play. What a great game to play as you're packing up stuff. Actually. Perfect. Yeah. Get some practice. Yeah. We are. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a good little, uh, pick up and play kind of thing. I think you can do that with a lot of the, a lot of the styles of games here, but, uh, yeah, like I said, you may have seen it or if you're watching, you have the little title beside us right here. We are playing and talking about Tetrisphere this week.

[00:06:05] Uh, Tetrisphere is a new 3d version of Tetris ish. Um, we will, uh, we'll get into all the details of that, but before we do really quickly, um, let's talk a little bit about a flashback 64. If anyone has not heard or found you guys out there, what's, uh, we're sort of covering similar things, but you guys do it in a lot of different ways. It's not, you know, we're just going through titles and titles, but you guys do a lot of in between, um, sort of types of episodes and a lot of great guests and stuff. Let's, let's chat a little bit about that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:35] First of all, thank, thank you again for having us on and thank you for, uh, accepting us because I, you know, when we started, I did the thing where I was like, I Googled like, okay, there's nothing called flashback. Like, I guess there's like Atari flashback 64 thing, but I was like, okay, we're not. And then, uh, and then like right after we launched, I discovered your podcast and it was like, we're similarly named similar topics. And I was like, Oh no, cramping this guy's style.

[00:07:05] What have we done? But, uh, you basically were like instantly really nice to us and it's been really cool to know you. So I just wanted to say thank you. I'm glad I could publicly on the record. Thank you. Happy to happy to be able to be, uh, to be chatting and stuff. No, no need to, uh, no need to thank me. It's just, just good times. That's it. Just like, Oh no, we're going to be Canadian. I'm Canadian. I'm just, what can I say? Well, those guys are getting serious now.

[00:07:34] Yeah, that's right. That's right. We, yeah. Yeah. In the last, uh, last couple of months, uh, we've turned the page. Yeah. But, um, yeah, we cover similar things. So yeah, we're, we cover the Nintendo 64 library as well. Um, we, we do a new like main episode once a month. Um, mainly cause you know, we got, we have like, day jobs and stuff. And so we don't want to overwhelm our stuff and we want to take our time with the game.

[00:08:03] So we're like one a month, but we do find, you know, there are times where we have more time. And so in the intervening weeks, we still, you know, podcasts and stuff that we try to, you know, touch upon other things from the time period. We're, we're traveling chronologically through the library. So we're like, what, what else was going on in 1996? We're in 1997 right now. So we talk about what, what are some things we've done? Movies.

[00:08:31] Movies, shows, uh, games on other consoles. Yeah. And we also will take the opportunity, like, like we've done episodes on older Mario games and Kirby and stuff. We were like, we're kind of, uh, filling in, you know, some of the, the backstory of these. That's, I was just going to, the backstory is the first word that came to mind too. And you're about to say that. Yeah. The backstory, it like that time of, of gaming and media and stuff is, is right in the heart

[00:08:58] of a lot of people in our generation grew up in the mid late nineties and early two thousands of it being like, that's like seminal years of all that. So filling in those gaps and that backstory, like you said, is, is fun. I mean, like, it's just cool to, to be going that far back and kind of comparing notes and things with, with what would, what's on the 64 and what's not like, it's, it's all related. I find. Yeah. Yeah. We're trying to do that too.

[00:09:24] Like play some of the, you know, PlayStation games or, you know, we've covered tomb Raider and, uh, um, yeah, we're trying to hit on like stuff like that too. Cause you know, we, I think we both grew up like as like Nintendo kids, you know? And so we're, we're, yeah, we're just trying to like fill in the blind spots and explore the wider culture and stuff. Nice. Nice. Nice.

[00:09:49] And, uh, do you guys have, I mean, are you like me where your story of getting an N64 as a kid or when you're a little bit older is not very exciting or do you guys have like a story? How'd you guys get into it? Or, or, or was it, was it when you were a kid? Was it later? Cause everyone's got a different way of getting their console regardless of which one it is. For, for me, I got it. I, it's like, I got it when I was like six or seven. Um, and I, like, I have gaming memories before that.

[00:10:18] Like I had, uh, an NES and then we just, I was so young that it was like that, that was enough. You know, like super Mario brothers. One was like the perfect game. Um, and then, but I don't remember like exactly, it was probably a Christmas gift or something like that, but I don't have that. Like, oh, I, I waited all night for Santa and I came down and I, you know, screaming N64 kid. I just, you know, it just like became part of my life.

[00:10:47] Yeah. Uh, yeah, it just happened. And I think you're, McKenna's a little bit younger. So I feel like it was kind of one where you grew up. Yeah. We, we had one, uh, we, we got it in before I started having memories. So I remember having it, but I don't remember getting it. Yeah. Uh, and yeah, I didn't play a ton on it as a kid. So I was like, you know, five years old.

[00:11:18] Hard, hard to wrap your head around some of the games because it's just, yeah, anything more complex than Mario cart. Like, I think I was just running around in the game. Yeah. I, that, that'd be, I think that was probably me with me for me, it would be probably the superintendent with that sort of thing. Like I got it. And I remember, I have a story of how I got the super Nintendo. It was like a whole thing, but like, did I have more than a couple of games for the first couple of years that I knew what I was doing?

[00:11:47] Eh, probably not. That's, you know, and that's fine. And I still have it. It's in the other room beside me and it still works. It's the original one from, I think I got it 94 or 93. So like, no, that's amazing. Yeah. And it's still running. I have one working controller, not the second one decided to not, not work for some reason, or maybe it was the first. Um, no, I don't know. Well, that's okay. I'll find another. I also have the mini one, so it's fine. I'll survive. There you go. Uh, where's the mini 64? That's what everyone wants to know. Right.

[00:12:17] That would be nice. Yeah. Yeah. That would be nice. Um, okay. So we're going to talk some, what? Yeah. I want to ask because I'm dying to know, okay. What are your favorite, each of you, what's your favorite N64 game? There we go. Oh, well, okay. The reason the way we know each other the way, well, we're married. First of all, I'll say the way we met was through, we were also both contributors, uh,

[00:12:45] to the Zelda fan site, Zelda dungeon.net. And we, we, we met through that and we're both massive Zelda fans. So, um, for starters, uh, I don't know. Well, what's, what's your answer? I'll say right now, we still have a Zelda game. We haven't covered yet. Just saying. Oh, interesting. I had a feeling you were going to say Zelda because I saw the post, the edge of the poster behind you. Oh yeah. Like, oh, I just see Ganon looking at me. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Wow.

[00:13:14] Um, you know, it's hard to choose between Ocarina of Time and Majora's Pass. Uh, I, I definitely, uh, Hey, yeah, that's right. I definitely play Ocarina more just cause, uh, Majora's Mask gives me, gives me more, uh, anxiety playing. Yeah. I like Majora's Mask for, it, it fluctuates obviously.

[00:13:42] Um, but like Majora's Mask is like one of my favorite games of all time. Uh, but I do probably, I feel like Ocarina of Time is like a little bit easier to just kind of like go back and, um, explore. Like, yeah, you don't have to like, like do time management and stuff like that. But I do, I do think Majora's Mask is better. If that makes sense. One's more like of a chill game and one's more of like, like an experience. Like I, I gotta be in the right mood to play it. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:12] That's fair. I think I said when we, when we covered Majora's Mask, I was like, I, I played that, um, on the switch online when I had it at that time. And because of all the time management and stuff and because life's just busy and all that kind of shit that comes along with it, like without the safe States, I think I would have like torn some of my hair out. Cause it was just like, just like the time management part. I was just like, I can't, you know, and I, I don't, I had very little experience playing it before that. I thought it was great. I loved it.

[00:14:41] But I, you know, the, the, the modern way of playing it, I think gave it a little extra bump in my mind, but it's still a fantastic game. So fair enough. Um, yeah. I mean, Hey, can't go wrong with two very, very, very good Zelda games. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Big fan. Yeah, exactly. Um, okay. We're going to touch, talk, uh, Tetrisphere in just a second. I just want to let everybody know that of course you can support the show at patreon.com

[00:15:08] slash remember 64 show, uh, Jiggy's pointing and give me a thumbs up because I remembered. Um, uh, for as little as just a, just a buck a month, you can support the show. You can get episodes early. You can get pre-show chats. You can get some posts that I put up early as well. Be involved with polls, all this kind of fun stuff that I'm going to throw up. Um, and, uh, yeah, I can, I just keep sort of going through new ideas and trying to add more and more things in there for everybody to, to enjoy. You can also join for free if you want to, uh, free.

[00:15:37] There are posts that go up every once in a while as well, and also free polls and gives you a notification of when things are posted as well. And if you want to join after being free for as many months as you want to, um, I often throw up a couple of like promotions that come up on Patreon as well, which lets you pick a tier for 50% off for the first month that you joined as well. So those types of things are all part of the process, uh, as well. You can find us across all your podcast platforms, of course, and on YouTube, remember 64 as well.

[00:16:06] Uh, Jiggy, what do people do on YouTube? I don't really know what the cool kids do to sort of say like, follow this, do that. What was that? How's that word? Mr. YouTube himself over here. The, the cool kids like the videos, the cooler kids subscribe to the videos and the coolest kids do the notification bell. So they always get the updates and even cooler kids, uh, go harass Dave when he's streaming on the remember 64 channel. Yes. Um, I have, I have some plans to do that a little bit more.

[00:16:35] I know it's, it's very inconsistent timing. So just try to get those notifications. Like Jiggy said, I think that's a really good way to do it. If you, uh, if you subscribe to the page, it'll give you a heads up when I'm going live and then on a social media, pretty much Instagram and blue sky at this point. And that's probably it right now. Um, and I'll just say like, Hey, if you're around in six hours, Hey, if you're around in 24 hours, I'll be streaming. And it's usually a little bit of time playing a random game, my backlog, or it's going to

[00:17:04] be an upcoming episode and doing some of my quote unquote homework. Um, so that's usually the plan here and there, but just keep an eye out. Uh, always fun to have more people join and just sort of shoot the shit while I play some games. Um, okay. Um, let's, uh, let's finally get to the game. Everybody let's get to it. I want to try and get to the beginning of this so we can hear, tell me if you guys can hear this. I want to listen to the opening because this music is big. It's fire. Oh yeah.

[00:17:35] It's a vibe. Cool. Right? Like, yeah, there it is. It's, it lets you know this is going to be intense. This isn't your dad's Tetris. That's what it's telling me. Or I don't know.

[00:18:04] I was going to say grandfather's, but that makes this seem younger than we probably are. Oh, just when you thought it would slow down. No. All right. Yeah. That's the awesome music. Um, Tetris fear has a pretty sick soundtrack just so everybody knows. And it goes nonstop. It is constantly playing as we play this game. Um, Jiggy, I'm going to start with you. Uh, one, had you played this game before? And two, uh, what'd you think about it?

[00:18:34] And what was the experience like this time? Uh, nope. Never played this game. Never played this game growing up. Uh, I saw it. I would never be interested in this game growing up. This is one of those that I would instantly look at and be like, no, not for me. Um, are you, are you, have you ever been, or are you a Tetris guy person? I was never a Tetris person. Okay. Um, yeah. I don't know why. I don't know why. Cause I actually like, like Dr. Mario. And, um, what's the other one that like, there's a billion games of it.

[00:19:04] The different versions that I played, like Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is one of my favorite games. Oh, Puyo Puyo. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Those I've never played. Weirdly enough. Yeah. Played Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. I know. You've mentioned that before. Yeah. You said it was great. Yeah. I don't really, like, Tetris is fine to me. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, though. I can get behind that. Um, but yeah, playing this game, I, I had fun going in and kind of clicking through all the different modes.

[00:19:33] Rescue, um, puzzle. Puzzle was really interesting, actually. I think I could get behind the puzzle mode more than anything else, to be honest with you. Um, I liked, I liked all the little, little robots. I thought that was cool. Um, Trippy Backdrops. It, it's a pretty simple game at its core. But like, I will be honest, like, I, I think I teased at the beginning. I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing. I did figure it out. Like full disclosure. I did figure it out.

[00:20:02] But it did take me a minute because you have to think. That's a shame. I really, I was really hoping you're going to be like, guys, I still have no idea what I'm doing. No, I did figure it out. But it, it definitely was more complicated. Like it took me a while of trial and error of going through realizing, oh, hey, those purple circular blocks I can break by sliding. I did not do any training though, because that's, that's me as a kid. If I can't get into this game and play it within like, you know, 20 minutes, I'm not, I'm not going to do it. I'm out. I'm out.

[00:20:32] Um, so yeah, I try to embody my, me as a kid, you know, that's, I always want to play RPGs. Like this is just a side tangent. I always want to play RPGs, but I get overwhelmed with how many dialogue boxes pop up, like explaining everything about the game to you. And it's very rare that I can find an RPG that doesn't do that. Yeah. Uh, it just, it's a turnoff to me. I'm just like, oh my gosh, I just want to play the game. You know what does a good job of that is, uh, uh, Sea of Stars is pretty good.

[00:21:02] It's not like, yeah, it's not an insanely deep game, but like for an RPG, that's, you know, trying to kind of emulate what it was in like the mid nineties or so for the, for the 2d RPG. It's got a great story. It's a good game, but like, it doesn't, you don't, it doesn't take three hours to get going. Like you're off to the races pretty quickly and it doesn't overwhelm you kind of, or at least that's what it was like for me anyways. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What was I talking about? Tetrisphere. I don't know. It was great. Tetris. Tetris-ish. It was fun. Yeah. Tetris.

[00:21:32] I had to look up though. I was like, is this actually like Tetris? Like it, like, you know what I mean? Like the brand Tetris or was this like somebody made a game and then called it Tetrisphere, but it is. This is a real deal. Yeah. It is a real deal. Yeah. I got, I pulled up a couple of notes about it too, about how they kind of, kind of got here and what they did, but I'll get to that in a second. Um, all right. Gooey McKenna, uh, when we were sort of chatting about a game to, uh, to cover, I like, you know,

[00:21:58] I, I think I, I said to you, uh, when we were sort of getting things going, I was like, I kind of like, you know, the guests kind of bring what they want to, what they want to play. I'm happy to play stuff, especially Jiggy knows this, especially if it's a game that I've never played before. I'm even more willing to be like, hell yeah, let's do it. Uh, and then you said Tetrisphere. So for both of you, what, why, why this game? I mean, like Tetris is like, to me, Tetris is like almost like this perfect puzzle game that is like ageless, but it is. Yeah.

[00:22:29] You know, I think, I feel like that's maybe not, and it's not crazy to say, but like, um, like why this game? Why, why specifically this game? The, the act, like the actual reason was like, I was looking at, you know, like all the games you covered and, and, uh, you know, I wanted, I also wanted to just cause I, I have the same sort of thing with our show is like getting people who want to talk about like the games

[00:22:56] that aren't Banjo Kazooie, perfect dark Ocarina of time, you know? So I was like, okay, maybe, maybe I want to help Dave out and like maybe pick a pick one that's like not the most immediate one. Yep. So I was looking at our, at our games we've covered and like, what, what are our favorites and like weighed that versus like, well, how popular is it? So I was like, this was like the, the, our favorite game that we've covered. That's not like one of the, you know, classic ones people talk about.

[00:23:27] Like the typical choice sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, but we do like that being said, like we've, we've covered like 30 something games and this is probably in like our top 10. But like I said, we haven't played like even some of the classics. So, but I mean, yeah, we, we both like love this game, but we hadn't played until we covered on the show. Yeah. Oh, it was the first time you played it. That was, I, I, I said this.

[00:23:56] So on, on our show, I told the story. I, I witnessed it once. I have a very vague memory of my band. I, I, I have some regrets about this. My band, I used to be play music. He's like, I don't really do that so much anymore, but, um, my band was on tour and it was one of those situations where we're, we're, it played, we played at some college and we're, we got a place to stay with some, someone who ran the show.

[00:24:27] And it was like with, at their apartment and there was like random people hanging out there. And it was kind of weird. And they were playing both Robotron 64. That's been brought up so much recently on this show. Yeah. That's crazy. That's so funny. That's, we've been playing that actually too. We're prepping for that. Uh, but they were also playing this and there's a connection, I guess they both have like these

[00:24:53] really trippy vibes and these guys were smoking. Like they were partying, they were out of their minds. And I have regrets about it because we were like, we were kind of like, um, we came here to like sleep. Like we were like a lame band, you know, we were like, I kind of want to go to bed, you know? And these guys are like hardying too hard. Like what the hell? So I didn't, I didn't play it.

[00:25:21] I was just like, ah, screw this game, this stupid game or whatever. But then, yeah, we picked it up for the show and, uh, we loved it. Well, yeah. What was your, um, we, we were just refreshing, but you know, what was your, I just played it for like an hour right before, uh, it's, uh, it's, it's Tetris on a sphere. Uh, it's, it's like, it's super vibey.

[00:25:48] Um, it's, it's one of the more unique games we've played up to this point of where about a year, a little over a year into the Nintendo 64's life. Um, so it's kind of, it's definitely a standout. Uh, it, it's, it sets itself apart, even though it's, it's drawing from another game. Um, like the most classic game you could probably think of almost.

[00:26:16] It's like Tetris's weird cousin. Yes. Yeah. That's true. Definitely to what you said, like Tetris that like we, we both love Tetris as well. Um, and it's like, it is this perfect game and this game, obviously I don't, I don't know if I would say it holds a candle to Tetris at all, but, um, I feel like it's distinct enough. You know what I mean?

[00:26:43] That it's like, I, I almost don't need to compare them, but I guess I can because it gives me, you know, we were talking about like playing it like right now when we're like moving and stuff, it is a really good, like de-stressor kind of game for me. Like I, I get a similar Tetris-y feeling where it's like at some points you kind of like just get into the zone, like the Tetris zone, or in this case the Tetris sphere.

[00:27:11] And you kind of just like, the zone can be a sphere. It doesn't have to be, you know, it can be whatever shape it wants really. Exactly. Yeah. I, uh, so I, um, I, I don't know that this was a game that I would have like said like, nah, I'm not interested kind of thing, but I just wasn't playing games like this at that time, you know, like I'm pretty sure I got my 64 for my birthday in 97.

[00:27:40] So it was around spring of 97 was probably when I got it. So that's like just before this game came out and I just got the typical stuff, which, you know, most people do. And I usually grew up with the typical, I grew up with the typical games that you would think of for the 64. Um, but the older I get or the more sophisticated, I like to say I get, um, different types of puzzle games or different types of iterations of other series or franchises or something. I love that stuff.

[00:28:09] And that's what this is, right? I, I had a great time. I played this way more than I thought I was going to. I like, and, and you just said like, there's a zone that you get into and I don't think it's the music. I don't, I mean, I like it. I don't think it's the music. I don't think it's a trippy backgrounds. Um, you know, I don't, maybe it's contributing. It's like a subconscious thing. It helps. It probably helps. It's kind of like, um, I don't know if you guys have, if anyone's played Blattro in the last year.

[00:28:35] Um, only a select few people have not, I think at this point, but, um, that has a similar like funky music and backgrounds and like, why you're just like kind of playing cards in a way. Um, but I think it adds to the experience and this is kind of has that vibe as well. Um, I, I, it was great. I played this almost exclusively on my steam deck. So, um, it was just the opportunity I had during the last couple of weeks of it. So I was actually playing this a lot on the train back and forth to work.

[00:29:06] And, um, that 45 minutes on the train just flew right by. It was great. Um, so I did that for like multiple days, like over like to and from, I'm like, all right, I'm playing Tetris. All right. I'm playing Tetris. Like that was just what I did. And I, and I, one of the, one of the things that kept me going and like, this isn't really, you know, the game itself didn't necessarily do this, but I'm not really like an achievement hunter person or trophy hunter guy. I've never really been like that person, but I have, and I've talked about it.

[00:29:35] I've put this before I signed up for, uh, retro achievements, which is basically a community that gets together and creates achievements for retro games. And you, you know, you attach it to your ROMs and like your, your retro arch and things like that. And that's what that plays out. This plays off of on your steam deck. So there's a whole bunch of achievements attached to this being like, Oh, you don't, you know, quote unquote die at all. When you do 10 levels in a row of, of stage one of stage two of stage. So I, it kind of kept me going more and more.

[00:30:03] And like, well, I wanted to finish those 10 stages in a run as opposed to, Oh, I'm just going to play one and put it down. Like I was like focused and like, I gotta, I'm going to get this shit done. So like, it was fun. It was a cool way to experience a game that I never played before. I personally don't know if it's Tetris. I think the shapes are just Tetris. Um, some of them, some of them are like, I, I don't know there, they had to make it work for this game. So they're like, we got to create some new shapes here. Yeah.

[00:30:32] Like it's, I get it. You're, you're, you're stacking and getting rid of things and you know, that sort of verticality that, that Tetris has that necessary verticality. Like it's there, but I don't know. Tetris to me just doesn't, it's, you have to see things fall. And I don't know. It, it's still Tetris. I get it, but it doesn't quite feel like, like, that's why when you guys are talking about it and saying like, Oh, this is like their weird cousin. That's it. That's what it feels like. It's exactly what it feels like.

[00:31:02] Uh, cause it's the, the personality of it that is there, the ideas of it are there, but I suck at like original Tetris. Like I'm just bad at it. I like it. I think it's genius, but man, you get me to like, I don't know, the double digit levels or something. I'm like the original one. That's it. I'm screwed. I'm, I'm, I'm losing for sure. Like, like, I don't know what it is. Like, I know what I need to do. I know how to do it. I just can't execute in this game. I can fucking execute. And it was fun.

[00:31:32] Cause I think it was actually good. It is not as demanding. Yeah. Maybe that's what it is. Yeah. There's a couple of weird strategies. Like, uh, we, we had a similar thing when we first started playing, uh, where, where like, especially there's like puzzle mode. Um, yeah. So there's multiple modes as well. Yeah. Yeah. And there, there are certain puzzles that require you to do like very specific strategic techniques that the game that are a bit more complicated.

[00:32:00] Not, not too much once you actually learn them, but, um, unless you do the training mode or like read the manual, it's a little, even the manual doesn't fully cover that stuff. No, they do like a little explanation at the beginning of some of the modes that tell you like, Oh, do this. And mostly it's clear, but sometimes I was like, wait, what do you, what do you mean? Like, I don't, I don't, that doesn't quite make sense to me. But, um, I, I think that part of the game is interesting though.

[00:32:28] I like how there's, it's not just, here's a sphere, try and clear the blocks and that's it. Like at least they're doing, they're trying to do something with it. Um, I appreciated that. So, um, what was the, the, your, both of you mentioned the puzzle mode. Is that the one where it's, um, it's like, it'll give you like a challenge. It'll, it'll pop like three, three blocks up and you want to get rid of them and you have to figure out within a certain amount of moves, it'll tell you like, Oh, you have two slides and a drop rights.

[00:32:58] You got to figure out how to get rid of all three pieces within that, those parameters. I like that. It's very, I really like that. Um, in it, it's giving me a vibe of, have you ever played the game echo Chrome? No, no. It's like a very cool perspective. Like you have to, you'll get like a scene with like a little guy walking right up, up like a ramp or something and you would like shift your perspective and then you can make

[00:33:26] the ramp like connect to another block. That's like out of right. It's a very interesting concept. Oh, I see. Go look up echo Chrome. I love that game, but the puzzle, like that puzzle mode, like that's the same kind of feel I get. I'm like, I just love being creative and like solving these in a, you know, within parameters. Um, I like the normal moves. Yeah. Like the normal single player mode. I wasn't like huge on. I was like, okay, this is, I mean, it's the base game, right? Yeah.

[00:33:56] I could see that if you were playing multiplayer and like going against each other or something like that would be a lot more fun. Which is essentially like the hide and seek one is, is kind of like the base mode where it's like, you just have to, the first person, if you did it in versus, or if you're playing a single player, you just have to clear enough space to get to the center of it. And then like, yeah, it's, it's pretty good. I mean, that's, that's fine, but it's, it's kind of interesting that even, even that is like the base, you know, like that's already different from Tetris in itself, which is kind of cool.

[00:34:25] I don't know. I found it anyway. Most of the modes too, other than puzzle are like built around doing, it's just kind of doing that, getting to the center. Yeah. But they just come up with a different, like there's the one mode where they're like, oh, you have to find the picture, but it's like really just get to the center. But I appreciate them trying to like do different things with it, even if it's kind of similar. Yeah. Use the drills and get to the bottom. The drill thing. Yeah.

[00:34:53] The one I played the most that I, like I said, it was playing, kept going and wanted to get 10 at a time. Or there was one where I had to do 30 stages in a row without failing. And I managed to do that. Yeah. I kept playing this game. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me. I kept playing this game. Nothing's wrong with you. It's a good game. I think it's genuinely a good game. Yeah. The one I kept coming back to was the one that gave you a different one every time, or potentially it was two in a row that you'd get the same, but like you do the rescue

[00:35:22] one and then you do the block one and then you do the tower. Okay. So like that, that's the one that kind of kept me because at least like by that point, I knew what all the stages were, but at least I was doing something different technically every few minutes. So at least it was a little bit more interesting that way. Kind of refreshed it, but you're right. It does kind of, you are kind of doing the same thing every time. Like it's just slight change. I love finding out like everyone's favorite mode to play. I think that's interesting. Like we've got puzzle mode.

[00:35:52] You mentioned, uh, what was that called hide and seek or hide and seek is like the basic one. The one, if you're anyone's watching the video, it's the one that we're seeing right now. That was the one, the thing that I'm talking about, the mode that I played takes you through 10 stages in a row where I got to the one where it was 30 in a row. Hide and seek was just one of the several ones that it did. It actually, it did pretty much every mode that is in the game except for puzzle. That's what it did. Oh, okay. Yeah. Cause that's like completely different than what the rest of it is. But yeah.

[00:36:22] I went through like the main mode cause it like would give you a little cut scenes. So I wanted to see those. Yeah. And then on, we had on our show, our pal Jay was on the show and he, he's into, well, he's in a lot of different games, but he's like a fighting game sort of guy. So he did, he focused a lot on the versus mode and he was dropping a bunch of stuff. He learned about like, like strategies you would do to succeed, like playing against the computer or other players and stuff.

[00:36:50] So I love like to this game's credit, there is sort of like, it can suit a couple different like types of gamer. What was your, what was your mode? I think it just depended on my, my mood or like with the, with like the main mode. I, well, before when I was playing, um, I had on, I had TV on the, you know, star Trek

[00:37:18] on it and I could just play it while kind of half paying attention to each one. Um, it's a good zone out game. Yeah. But that's good. The games there's, there's a place for those types of games. I agree. Absolutely. Yeah. But if I want to just like think then the puzzle mode, I really like plus, plus that helps you like learn how to play. Yeah. I really, that's true. That's true. You know, it's funny. All, all three of you have mentioned the puzzle.

[00:37:45] It's the, those types of modes just don't work for me in general, not just in this game specifically. I just, I want to be able to sort of create the, the combinations. Like I find it very rewarding in this game where it's not even just like, cause one of the, one of the sort of mechanics of it is if you connect a bunch of blocks together and I think it's 20 is the minimum. Maybe it's like 10 or 15, I think it's 20.

[00:38:10] If you clear 20 blocks, regardless, like whatever shape you've connected, you get an item that you can use like a bomb or a magnet or something that clears even more space for you. And then you can kind of go from there, regardless of how many I cleared. I just, I love like, okay, here's, here's like the stage starts. Here's three connected to each other. Oh, I'm going to turn that three into 30, you know? And I just, I kind of, it's really satisfying.

[00:38:37] And the game has a couple of like audio cues that kind of tell you like these little like swish noises and things like that, that are just like, oh, you've cleared, you know, you've gotten to the bottom or you've cleared a significant spot or something. And I'm just like, Ooh, that's, it's just enough to be said. Like it's really good sound and game design. And like, I don't know, it just, those little things are why I just kept playing this fucking game, man. Like, I don't know. And the puzzle one is, is very interesting.

[00:39:05] Like I, I understand why for the three of you and for any game, any puzzle game that has that, uh, that mode or that type of mode in it, why it works and why it's fun. They just have never been ones that I want to keep going back to because I actually find those to be the most stressful, which is maybe why I stay. No, I, I kind of am with you there. Like I, I really, I like puzzle games and I like the puzzle mode and everything, but it's, it's similar to what I was saying.

[00:39:32] Like when we were talking about Majora's mask where it's like, I got, I kind of got to be in the mood to do that. Like, cause you kind of do have to sit there and like, just look at it and think, you know, and I'm, I think I get such a like dopamine rush out of just like playing the normal mode that it's, that's sort of like the comfort food for it, you know? So I got to be in the right mindset to do that puzzle mode. Cause it does hurt your brain a little bit sometimes. Yeah.

[00:40:00] I have to think enough at work and at life. I don't know if I need to. It reminds me of like mobile games I would play. I would get like the, like wood blocks or whatever and like swipe through it. I get the same, same feeling, you know, I like those types of games though. Those are the games that I would just play. Like if I had this on a steam deck, I feel like I would actually like this game more than actually sitting down and playing it on 64. It is. It is. Just having a handheld up and would be cool. Yeah, it is.

[00:40:27] It's, it's a very, like I said, like, I think pretty much all four of us have kind of said is that you can pick up and play this. Like you don't have to go and sit here and play this for several hours. It doesn't need to be that kind of game. I don't think Tetris really is anyways, or at least not anymore. Maybe at the time, cause it was so revolutionary and whatever. But like when I was playing it, I was stuck on the train for 45 minutes. So yeah, I'm going to play it for as long as I possibly can and then run to the door so I don't miss my stop.

[00:40:55] But you know, like I, I, I, it was great for that. It was great to say like, Hey, I'm just going to play something that is, you know, McKenna, you mentioned sort of, you know, watching Star Trek at the same time in a way I was kind of on the train mindless, you know, like I was just sort of sitting there going, I'm just going to do this thing and I'm just going to get this right over with. I just want to get home, you know? And then it just, it flew by cause I was having a good time with it. And I think if, if Jiggy, you mentioned, you know, mobile games, for example, is like, you

[00:41:24] know, could be sort of like a little bit of a dirty word in some ways, but I think this would work really well as that, you know, maybe not, I don't know if touchscreen would work or whatever, but like, it needs a Game Boy port. That's what it needs. That would be cool. Oh, it's almost like it was made for it. Yeah. Yeah. Actually that would, it would work. Yeah. Or could they, it's almost like the original was made for it, right? Yeah. Yeah. Imagine if it came to NSO, like that would be pretty sick. That would be cool. Do verses against your pals. Yeah.

[00:41:53] We would go crazy on that. Oh my God. I would think it was so good until I played someone else. Like that's the problem with that. That's my issue with something like this. I'm good at this game. I'm actually good compared to the original. Nope. I suck. Nope. It's usually how it works. I have gotten some friends recently to play it. Like we've had, we've had friends visit, like friend Ramona visited and then our friends Rand and Cal visited.

[00:42:20] And, and most recently I, I like to both times our friends came. I was like, here, here, let's play this together. We're going on a podcast about it. Like I want to play, play some more verses with people. Nice. And Cal specifically, we played a couple of rounds and I was like, cool. Yeah, that was cool. And then whatever, we had lunch or something. And he was like, yeah, so can we put Tetrisphere? Can we play some more Tetrisphere? And I'm like, yeah, let's do it, man. That's awesome. Yeah. That's great. So this is like the games.

[00:42:50] Somebody walks in your house, you're like Tetrisphere. Yeah. I think really, I do want to kind of convince anyone who comes over. Yeah. To try it at least. I think it would. I think it's kind of cool because what's interesting is if you say like, hey, let's play Tetris together. It's like, you know, it's, it's not this, but it's almost like saying, well, let's play solitaire together. Like, what do you mean? Like, that's not solitaire is like literally a solitary experience. That's part of what that game is.

[00:43:20] You're playing cards solo Tetris. I think the average person would be like, well, that's just, you know, solo game on your handheld Game Boy, whatever it is that you had your experience with. This has more. It's deeper than that. It's got more. It's got more to it. You know, they're trying to do more. And I think, I think largely they exceed, they, they succeed. Um, you know, I, I had it. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I had a good time with it.

[00:43:45] But in, in terms of it, we were talking about it being Tetris, like some of the, even some of the followups to tech Tetris that even, uh, Alexi Pagetanoff, like designed himself are, are quite. Like wild departures, you know, like they, even the Tetris series itself, even Tetris two was kind of a wild. I was just going to say, I was just looking that up. Cause I have that for Game Boy.

[00:44:12] That was like the, that's the Tetris that I had because that was just the, the time that I got my Game Boy was when that came out. Yeah. I didn't know the difference to me. It was like, oh, that's Tetris at the time when I was younger. Right. So I have the cartridge here somewhere. Um, it is different because it's almost like there, aren't there like other, other weird blocks that you have to clear or something? There's like an added. Yeah. There's weird, weird shapes. Yeah. It's not your typical, they added new shapes. It's very weird.

[00:44:38] Oh, but even, um, even Pajitnov himself, uh, attempted a 3d Tetris. And if anyone has Tetris forever, uh, you can go in there and experience a lot of these old Tetris games. But, uh, yeah. Well, well, Tris, I think that was, yeah. Yeah. That was the first attempt at a 3d Tetris.

[00:45:00] And I would say that this, this game, I think gets, it's like, I think maybe the best attempt at making a 3d Tetris like game. And well, Tris is an interesting game, but I don't think it's like, I think it's all, it's harder to wrap your head around. Yeah. Yeah. Cause like Tetris is, is just like, you can play it immediately.

[00:45:26] Like there, there's, you're not doing like a ton of mental gymnastics to figure it out. Yeah. That's the charm of Tetris. Speak for yourself. Oh yeah. I just go as fast as possible. Just go, oh, just hope my brain can figure it out as it goes. It's been a right hand left. What the? Yeah. Oh, so that, that's another thing too.

[00:45:50] Like, you know, talking about sort of how this, this could be like the most successful sort of spinoff almost, um, of Tetris is, you know, they do different things. You can shift the blocks around and the shapes around. And the only thing is, unless I missed something and I didn't look at the manual, I just sort of just played it and stuff. You can't flip any of them, right? Like they're in fixed positions. Yeah. So that's. That's why there's gotta be L this way. Or, uh, line this way, line this way. It's like, oh, okay.

[00:46:20] Yeah, exactly. Um, you know, there's, there's a handful of shapes. I don't, I don't, I think these are all the basic ones. I don't think that there's any like added funky ones or whatever. I think these ones are all that. There's like the, there's like the randomizer one. I got a little frustrated with that one sometimes. Oh. I would always just wait. Like a wild card. Yeah. Yeah. It would just like cycle through all the different shapes. Oh, no, but you know what that is? That's the one that gives you whatever shape you want. So you just click on whatever shape. Yeah, but you gotta wait. No, you don't. I thought you did too. You don't have to.

[00:46:50] Wait, what? Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, yeah. You don't have to wait. It's just a little circle, right? Like the reticle, instead of it being the, instead of the reticle being the shape of the actual block itself, it's just a circle. And then it cycles in the bottom left corner. You can, unless I was just being lucky every single time I did it. What, but I think what could screw you up is that it doesn't like do the highlight thing. That's right. Where you're like, oh, it's safe to drop here. Yeah.

[00:47:16] And so you can only go off of the audio cue, which is not ideal. Or just like, you can maybe tell that there's a group. But that's, when watching my friends like play it for the first time, like that was a thing that I could tell like, okay, this isn't like the, they could have done a little bit more to like make it clear how this works to people. Like maybe highlight the blocks or, you know, whatever. Yeah. I thought it was the exact same thing, Jiggy.

[00:47:43] When I was playing it the first couple of times, I was like, oh, I have to like, this is like a, all of a sudden I'm doing like a timing based like skill thing here. This is weird. Right. Right. But no, it basically is like, uh, um, like a wild card. You can kind of just put it on whatever shape you want. Now I want to go back because I swear I just sat there and waited for the shape I needed and then. Which isn't, which isn't as fun, especially because there, you are kind of on a timer with every. I want to go fast. Got to go fast. Yeah.

[00:48:13] Got to go fast. Must go faster. It's like, yeah. When it does start to get close to the screen, it's like. Oh my gosh. Panic mode. Yeah. Panic is like, no, stop going closer. No, I got this. I swear I got this. Yeah. Oh man. So that's the thing is there's, there's no like actual, I mean, there is technically a clock. There's like a stopwatch almost in the bottom corner, bottom right corner. And you know, it looks like one of those, um, those chocolate, um, oranges. Like little.

[00:48:42] No, no, no, no, no. Not the chocolate oranges. I think they were a Disney. They had like little candies inside. They're not Kinder Droids. They're not the eggs, but they're like little chocolate balls. Oh, it looks exactly like that. They would split open like this. And they'd have like a little like a pocket watch to me. Demone and Pumbaa. Yeah. It does look like a pocket watch. Yeah. That's what it looked like. Um, so that sort of counts down, but there's no actual numbers. There's like some audio cues and stuff to tell you.

[00:49:06] And then like he just said the anxiety of the camera zooming in the closer it gets. It's like, it's such a kick in the pants too, because it's like, you can see less. So I'm like, well, I'm getting less done now. No, stop getting close. So as the timer starts going down and down, if you don't do enough combinations, the timer hits a certain point where you just need to get something done. Otherwise it's, you know, your game over or you lose like one of your three hearts.

[00:49:34] Um, you have three lives, which is also something that's different. Um, yeah, yeah, I can see, like, I feel like with all the ways it's not like Tetris, I feel like I can understand the logic behind it. Right. Cause when I, when it, I feel like when I look at well, Tris, I'm like, okay, they tried to like, they tried to keep it too close and it, and it, that's what doesn't work. And I can see why they're like, okay, we can't, the main problem is you can't really

[00:50:01] see like the stack of blocks, you know? So they had to make it less reliant on like, like filling up the blocks, you know? Like, so I, I can see why it's like almost reverse Tetris where you're like, yeah. Digging your way down, you know? Mm-hmm. So I think the lives, I get, I get what they're going for there. Yeah. It's, it's a little bit more like forgiving in a way, you know, especially early on, like when you're trying to figure it out, you're like, oh, I screwed something up or, you know,

[00:50:30] I'm just trying to get my, uh, get my bearings here and stuff. But like those later stages that I was playing when I was going for like those longer runs and stuff, um, you gotta like, you gotta clip some, some stacks together. Like, and he can't just do like three, the camera starts zooming in on you. I was, I'm, I'm just screaming to myself on the train. Like, stop, stop, stop. Or maybe I did it out loud. I had my headphones on. I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised.

[00:50:58] Some guys on the train yelling about Tetris. Yeah. He's like, like, there's like a guy behind me. He's like, no, no, no. To the left, to the left. No shift that one. Someone who understands what's going on. Who automatically knows. Like, he's just the, the, the one diehard Tetrisphere guy just happens to be on the train at the exact same time. Yeah. Cause I'm, I'm always, whenever I'm playing this, um, our, our, our roommate will come out sometimes and see me playing.

[00:51:24] And he's, they'll say like, I've been like seeing you play this game for like a year now. And I have no idea like what's going on, which is how I felt when the, when I, when I saw those stoners in Oklahoma or whatever, I was like, I can't even, I think you have to be on something to understand this game. You, you don't, uh, you didn't know it till now, but you are now one of those stoners. That's what, well, I do know.

[00:51:52] Unfortunately, I have become, it's embarrassing. Yeah. You know what though? It's, it's, uh, it's fun to get to, to get sunk into a game. That's, that's a little bit different as well. I think like there's something to that, um, where it's not like this giant RPG that eats up a bunch of your hours and stuff. Like I just, you know, I already said it a couple of times. I'm just, I'm surprised that I was playing it so much as I, you know, constantly for a couple of weeks.

[00:52:21] And, um, yeah, yeah, it really, it really, there's, there's something about certain puzzle games or, um, you know, just even sometimes just basic single player games that are newer and stuff where it just, oh yeah, no, this just got to me at the right time. You know, it just sort of hit at the right time. It's got like just the perfect amount of difficulty for me personally, like things like that, um, that you can't predict. And this, I think this was one of them. So if I played this a year from now, would it be the same?

[00:52:48] I don't think it would be that be drastically different, but I think, um, there's something about just this like exact time right now. It was a good, like semi, semi mindless, uh, thing that I could, uh, uh, just sort of escape into, which was nice. Uh, it's very arcadey, very, once you learn the mechanics, you get in, you could play a couple of rounds, put it down, come back to it.

[00:53:12] I still like, I just, I can imagine in my head how great this would be like handheld. Yeah. Like it just, it just would, it would make it so much better for me. And it's really simple. The controls work with something like that too. Like with that aspect where you need A and B and you need, I mean, I, I use the D pad on the, on the, uh, steam deck. I'm not sure if, can you use the joystick? I don't even know if you can. I don't, I don't think so. Oh, okay. I didn't try after I figured out you couldn't use the joystick in the menu.

[00:53:42] I'm like, oh, well I can't use that, but I never tried in the middle of gameplay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, you can't, which it doesn't, I feel like it makes sense that it's the D pad. Yeah. And honestly, I'm happy to have an N64 game that really uses it. You know, we get it every so often, but, um, yeah, I think it speaks to the era. Like, um, just in general, like this, there's still like arcade style games, like that are, that are on the console.

[00:54:11] And I, I don't know. I actually appreciate those style of games. Like, yeah, I feel like, um, uh, N64 wasn't like the console for arcade gaming, I would say, but it, or at least that, but it at least had that style of games. Right. So I really appreciate that. Yeah, for sure. My, my experience with the D pad is always going back to the wrestling games because they always required that. Oh yeah. So that's anytime I have to use that as like the primary, it's just like, oh, now I just want to play no mercy again. Like that's, that's where I keep going.

[00:54:41] Um, I had to, I wrote down, um, I found this, I was sort of looking up, you know, like why did they decide to go this way with Tetris? Yeah. Like that's one of the first things I thought of, right. And we've talked about it a little bit, but, um, one of the interesting things I found was there was like this, I guess, I guess you would call it a blog post, um, a blog post from, uh, what's the name here? Christopher. Oh shit. I lost it. I'm organized.

[00:55:08] Christopher Bretz, who was the graphic artist on the game. Uh, oh yes. He's not, he's on blue sky. Oh, is he? Oh, there we go. I should, I gotta find him then. Um, so yeah, so this, uh, so in this, in this, he says that the original development of this, um, began in 95 and the whole thing was, this was not going to be Tetris and he related to it at all until Nintendo came in and said, well, Tetris basically saved

[00:55:37] us in a lot of ways, or like, that's why Game Boy was so successful. The whole history of all that is, is pretty well known. Um, and then they switched it over to this, that this is, this is sort of, they made all the shapes more Tetris like, whereas before it was going to be sort of moving blocks around on a sphere. Like that was the idea was a similar type of thing. Um, yeah. And it was called for some reason is a weird for, it's hard for me to say fear, but P H E A R.

[00:56:07] So like, just take away the answer. Yeah. Yeah. So, and it was supposed to be some like, say some side, yeah. Like so tubular man, like so cool. Um, it sounds like such a nineties type name that come here with a P H P H fear. Yeah. Like they always said fat with a P H. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not fat. I'm P H fat. Yeah. Um, the, uh, and it was supposed to be a title for, uh, the Atari Jaguar. That's what it was originally developed for. Yeah. On the initial thing. So, yeah.

[00:56:34] Um, which I have zero experience with, but that's not something that, you know, flew off the shelves, so to speak. So, um, this went in a completely different direction or sorry, different, um, console and stuff. And, um, what he said in this post was that he was mostly in charge of menus and the UI and sort of having sort of the layout that we see in it where like the lives are there and where the blocks are on the left side and those types of things and designing the colors and, um, sort of the depth of the shapes and all that kind of stuff.

[00:57:03] And the main thing that he had to do was make everything lighter and quote unquote more accessible. So for whatever reason, what they had before was something a little bit like darker and maybe a little less, um, easy to understand possibly, but early in development. So, um, and, uh, where's the last thing I said here? I saw here. Um, oh, and then, uh, what happened was this game was shown to the public at conventions and stuff like that.

[00:57:31] Um, alongside one of probably one of the best games on the console was side to side with Star Fox 64, uh, in 96 and 97. So if this was something that wasn't on your radar at the time, it's kind of understandable. Overshadowed. Yeah. It's kind of, I saw a couple like old shots. I don't know if they were at E3 or if they were at one of the Japanese shows, uh, at the

[00:57:56] time, but it was like this big Star Fox logo and then some kid playing Tetris underneath it. And it's like, well, you know, well, I, I had like back in the day, I remember seeing this game places and I, and I would be like, nah, yeah. Like I was not interested in it at all. Um, but I do like that there's little googly eyed robots. That's cool. There's little, I support googly eyed robots. Yeah. Yeah. That was a Nintendo note. I bet. Right.

[00:58:24] Like make the robots cuter. Yeah. So what, one of the other things, one of the other things this guy said, uh, the Brett's guy said was that, um, that part of the lighter aspect of it is to create not, not mascots. I don't think that's a word that he used, but, um, find a way to make these like small cut scenes to give it more personality. And that's one of the things that created. So there's like these little, there's what, like six different little sphere dudes. Yeah. Different designs. And I don't know, is there like a story there?

[00:58:53] I don't know what's going on, but they're playing hide and see. These don't really make sense. And the one thing that, uh, that, that I thought was pretty good was that this sounded like a surprising number to me, but maybe it's just because this game was never really on my radar growing up, but it sold 430,000 copies. That's a lot. That's, that's quite a bit. Um, for just like when you said, you know, puzzle, puzzle Tetris game that was probably

[00:59:20] overshadowed by a lot of massive titles in 1997. Hmm. When you say that though, I was thinking like we're, we're moving chronologically. And one thing that comes up a lot was just at the time, like there weren't a lot of games coming out for the N64. Right. And 64 does not have games. So like there probably was not a ton else coming out.

[00:59:48] Like we, we paired this with what game do we paired it with, uh, dark rift, which was this really generic, uh, kind of cruddy fighting game. That's a fighting game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was not much else. Like there were some big games around it, but I could see like, like this, I never, I didn't do this, but this would be the perfect, like, this is one of those like rental games to me where it's like, you can pick this up and, and bust through it in a weekend or something. Yeah.

[01:00:18] Um, but I'm, I'm, I'm surprised it sold that much though, but yeah. So when I look at Star Fox and Mario cart. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's, uh, between March and let's say September, which is the sort of, you know, it came out in August of that year. Uh, March has doom 64 has hex in, which, you know, if you've played, if you played hex on the PC before that, maybe that was something on your radar, Star Fox, dark rift, Tetrasphere,

[01:00:48] golden eye, and then clay fighter. So like I could see it being lost in the shuffle, but over 400,000 is not nothing. So, um, you know, until that period of time, you're right. There really was, you know, Mario cart and super Mario and pilot wings and wave race, but like everyone would have had those. So what else do you add to your list a year later? You know, like that's, that's kind of it, right? This is basically almost exactly a year after it came out at least in North America.

[01:01:16] So what else are you going to play? You know, like it's gotta be something. I feel like probably our, our age, my guess is like our age people. It's like, I don't know about you guys, but it would, it would be like, I get like a game on my birthday maybe in a game for Chris, you know, like I didn't have a ton of N64 games. So I like, obviously this might not be the first choice, but yeah, maybe if you're like

[01:01:42] someone like a little bit older with more like income and you're, and you're more active and buying new games, like I, I could see this would be an easy pickup, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Like I was, you know, it was 97 was golden. I star Fox and Diddy Kong. Like that's, that's what 97 was to me. What else do you need? I mean, yeah. And that, that's exactly to the point, right? Like what else do you need? I think like it's, that's pretty much what the console needed and was.

[01:02:11] So yeah, I, I, I, I think this is, I think, you know, this, whoever brought it up before bringing this to NSO would be awesome. Um, I think this is a, that's a really good place for it for a lot of reasons. Um, and, uh, you know, it's always nice to have something that was like, it's still, again, regardless of, of whatever sales we're talking about here, I feel like it's still probably a relative unknown, a game like this.

[01:02:38] So having more, having more people be able to play it is great. That's, that's what it should be. I think, um, expose it to more people and do something a little bit different. It's not just Tetris, you know, that's not, that's not all you're getting here. Fear. It's fear. It's fear. Fear the blocks. Fear the Tetris. Um, NSO, it would be a good, it would be good for it. Cause people, you could just try it. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, just give it a shot.

[01:03:08] Give it a shot. And maybe you'll be like me and two hours later, like, oh shit, I gotta go to bed. Um, I don't know. My heart tells me we're going to get this before we ever get Diddy. Donkey Kong racing. So we're Donkey Kong 64. Right. Jesus. Like, I don't, I don't get it. I don't know. I, I gave up on NSO personally a while ago. So I was, well, I was happy that Banjo-Tooie came to it, but I remember being so salty about Iggy's wrecking ball coming before Banjo-Tooie. I was like, are you kidding me? Priorities, people.

[01:03:38] Priorities. What are you doing, Nintendo? Nintendo. Oh, the last thing I wanted to sort of, um, uh, mention about this is it took me way too long to realize that like those little sphere guys are like different characters you can select in the menus. No. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I had no idea. I was like, I'm just going to play. I'm just going to go. And is it, is it just for versus? Because I just hit play and just went. I don't even know. No, I think the different modes like the, you can play is different.

[01:04:07] You have like, you can change your character or something. And they have like different stats. But it doesn't really. Yeah. Didn't matter. There are different stats. There's, I think there's also, there's at least an unlockable character. Oh. I remember right. I never did that. Yeah. News to me. Oh, I go, I go immediately go Tetrisphere cheats. See what I got. There's a secret character. Okay. Yeah.

[01:04:36] When I, when I saw it, I was, I saw it after the fact, like I saw it after I sort of put it down the other day and I went, oh, there's different speed and like power and like power of what, like, what are you powering? I don't, I don't really get it. The fear. Like how hard they slam. The fear. They slam them blocks harder. I guess. Like you can move two at once. Like, what are you, I don't know. What are you doing that, that there's power? There must have, maybe there's more advantage to it.

[01:05:03] And, um, in versus, I have no idea. Um, but, uh, yeah. Uh, Gouy McKenna. Anything you want to add that we might've missed on the actual, uh, on the game itself or just play the game? Um, I wanted to shout, I do want to shout out the game was developed in Calgary. So shout out Calgary, um, H2O entertainment. They did two other games for N64. We haven't covered yet, but one was the new Tetris. I believe the other Tetris game.

[01:05:33] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then Aiden Chronicles, which I haven't played. That's quite a different game. That was the new. Oh, okay. I've heard of that, but I've never played that. Yeah. Yeah. I know of it. I know of it. So shout out to them. And you mentioned the soundtrack, Neil Voss, I believe is the composer. Yes. And, uh, I read that like, he was inspired by like, like prodigy and stuff like that. He even named one of the songs. It sounds like prodigy. It's exactly what it sounds like.

[01:06:03] So sick. And honestly, oh yeah. I have very strong feelings about it now. Cause we, we like, we'll sometimes drive around and like, well, we don't just drive around, but when we're driving around, we'll listen to soundtracks of games we're covering just to like, just listen to them. Yeah. And we were doing, we were doing that, um, on around the time it was February last year

[01:06:30] when, and we were on a trip where we, we got engaged. And so now I sort of, and, and we listened to this all, it wasn't the only thing we listened to, but we listened to it quite a few times. And so now I associate it with, uh, that part of our life. That's awesome. Tetris brings people together, together, everybody. That's the moral history. Yeah. Have a rave about it, I guess. But no, I love you. Let's have a rave. Let's get in the Tetris sphere together.

[01:07:02] Is that, um, is the ring a sphere like with different colors on it? I wish I'd planned it out that much. If only, right? You could, you could do it again. It'd be fun. Just you. Oh, I go into the game. I have the game. And instead of the robot in the middle, it's the ring. It's the ring. Wow. That would be extra. But, but is it, is it a puzzle level? Does she have to get through multiple puzzles? It's the last level too. You have to earn it. You have to earn it?

[01:07:33] No. She just gives up. She's like, I'm not, I'm done. Did you really have to make me do this at 10 PM? Like, come on, really? No, no, no. You gotta, you gotta do it. You gotta do it. I'm, I'm just sitting there like intently watching. Come on. Like, don't, don't you. No, you need to slide. I'm like bath seating. Okay. What are you doing? No. Game over. It's like, well, I tried, I guess. Maybe, maybe the next Tetris game.

[01:08:04] Yeah. Maybe a well, Tris. Well, yeah. Everybody gets to well. Tetris. Yeah. Or Tetris to base. Tetris too. Tetris too. I have nothing else really about the game. McKenna, do you have any, any final thoughts? I guess one thing I was thinking is like in, in comparison to Tetris. One thing I, I really like about this one is I feel like I have more agency in.

[01:08:32] In my success, like there are strategies in Tetris. You can, you can line things up, but a lot of times you just get the blocks you're given. And sometimes you get unlucky. Whereas here, I feel like I'm, I can really manipulate. I can move stuff around and drop stuff. And there's usually somewhere nearby. Yeah. Place the block. I feel like if I fail, it's my fault. Yeah.

[01:08:59] Well, yeah, because, because I guess like the, the scenario that you're in is kind of presented to you in a much different way. Like you're, maybe you don't, you, you can't see everything because everything's stacked obviously in like a 3D plane. But you're right. The agency is a good way to put it. I think that's, that's true. Which is kind of like why I was saying a lot earlier. Like I liked that I had control over setting off 30 blocks at once. Like it felt, it felt good.

[01:09:27] And maybe that agency, like you said, is exactly the better word for it. Because it's, yeah, I don't know. It's great. It's a good way to put it. Yeah. Even when you're setting up, like we were, when we were playing versus, like you can be like, oh, we only want like two types of blocks to show up. Or you can say like, let's get all the blocks. Right. It's, it also just has a nice, like, like sort of, you can make your own sort of difficulty curve to the game and stuff too. But yeah, it's, it's a pretty accepting game in that way.

[01:09:57] I think like even, even single player, like you can, you can start out with the, with the early levels and kind of stick with that or just sort of mess around with different things. I think it's got a pretty good difficulty curve as well. Like I think later on as with a lot of puzzle games and stuff, things ramp up and you have to do better combinations and all those types of things. But like, I don't really feel overwhelmed until I got much later and that's fine because that's what I was signing up for the more I played. Right. And that's, that's, so I think that's, that's helpful.

[01:10:26] And like you just said, McKenna, like the difference between that and regular Tetris, like I feel anxiety right away when I play Tetris. I don't have any, I don't have any in between. I'm just like, I know I'm going to fuck this up. Like how quick is it going to happen? You know, that's pretty much it. How quick is it going to happen? I swear. I don't know what it is, man. I don't know. I feel like I'm okay at puzzle games until I play the classic puzzle game and it just beats, beats me up. I just, I don't know.

[01:10:55] I don't know what it is. Yeah. I don't know. Jay, what part of it might be. Oh, no, no, go ahead. Sorry. Tetris, like the end game is like, it's trying to kill you the whole time and it, and it will eventually unless even, even, even the best player. It's like, you know, there's a lot of players in the world who do the playing with the controller upside down. Yeah. They roll it like, yeah, they're going to die eventually in the game. Is there like one person that like survive?

[01:11:25] Beat Tetris like sometime in the last. Yeah. Yeah. It was like a kid. It was like a 13 year old kid or something. Yeah. Yeah. That was wild. That was a wild story. Yeah. That's. That was recently. Like that was like within the last couple of years. Oh yeah. Even, even. That was around the time we were covering this, I think. Oh yeah. Yeah. There you go. It was, it was popping off then. Yeah. That was pretty cool. Yeah. But then like the only small group of people are going to ever do that. Yeah.

[01:11:54] Here you get the satisfaction of like, oh, I beat it. Yeah. I was like, that's why I like Dr. Robotnik's mean bean machine because I can fight back, you know? Yeah. It's perfect. This is, this is a game that, you know, if there was renting sort of available right now, this is great for that. I, I, I always look, I should look up sort of what the actual cartridge goes for, but

[01:12:23] you know, it wasn't too bad. I don't think. Yeah. I want to say it was like around 30. Yeah. So pretty average. Yeah. It was a pretty, pretty average price. Yeah. Let's see if I look it up just randomly. I say you can try, try it out on the, you know, using a different method that, you know, I don't know. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. As all the legal methods would make it very easy to play it on the go. Like I did. So you do that. Yes. Yeah. Definitely do that.

[01:12:50] But if you like it, I would, you know, and you want to play it on the N64. I think this is, this is a cool game to have in your collection. You can be, be like how we get to be like, Oh, try this out. Like you, cause you know, most people you get to show it to like probably haven't played it. And right. Yeah. They'll get, they'll get something out of it. I think so. Yeah. Like if you, yeah. Okay. So yeah, it goes for about, I'm seeing a range from 22 Canadian, at least 22 to 55,

[01:13:18] depending on, you know, wherever that eBay list is going at the moment. So, um, yeah, that that's, and you're right. It's sort of like, yeah, it's Tetris, but it's still a unique title. So if you have it in your collection, it's kind of a different, different thing to have. It's not the typical games like I have on the shelf behind me or anything like that. Like there, it's something different, um, which is fun. Uh, I, I really liked it. I think people should check it out. Uh, regardless of what method I think it's worth it.

[01:13:46] And I think you'll get a lot out of it, even just playing it solo. I wish I had some experience playing it versus, uh, like against someone, but Hey, maybe one day I'll have the cartridge and I'll be able to like, you know, actually play it with someone and stuff. Cause it's, it's good. It's a solid time. Jiggy, I assume you're, are you going to go back in and try your, uh, your, the reticle thing that you couldn't. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I am. I think I'm going to go back and play it a little bit more, um, just to experience it a little bit more and kind of dive in, um, get a good feel for it because I,

[01:14:16] I could see myself playing this a lot more again. I'm like, I do think I'm going to say it again. I do think in handheld, this is something that I would like really play a lot. Like if this was on my switch, I would totally be playing this constantly. Just pick it up and just pop in, play a few rounds, pop out. Like I could really see that being a lot of fun. Yeah. When you're playing like the, the earlier stages, it, you can definitely just like sit in bed and play it, you know, like it would actually, it would, it's very easy to

[01:14:43] get to, you know, 15 minutes, you play it, you get a couple of things done and you feel accomplished and you're like, okay, that was a good way to sort of end the day and brush things off. And that's it. And that's, uh, sometimes hard to find with, with, uh, some games, at least, especially games nowadays. But like, this is one of those games you could definitely do that with. Um, maybe we could get a Tetris forever DLC. Oh, they throw this in there. Maybe that's the only way it's going to happen. Yeah.

[01:15:10] Maybe that's, that's like the, yeah, uh, we'll just, we'll just pick up the, like I say, on one of the other podcasts I do, just, you just pick up and, and instead of talking to Mr. Hollywood, like we say, just pick up and talk to Mr. Video game. They'll, they'll make it happen. That's it. I got, I got the line. I got the red landline right here. Just like the Batman phone. Um, it's ready to go. We'll make it happen. Um, okay. Tetris fear. Check it out. Everybody. Um, definitely a fun and different puzzle game.

[01:15:36] Uh, even if you're really bad at Tetris, the originals, like I am, uh, you'll get something out of this. So give it a shot. Um, flashback 64. Where can everybody find it guys? Um, we're on blue sky flashback 64. And then, uh, yeah, we're in all the, all your podcast feeds and stuff. And we, we put our shows up on YouTube as well. Um, flat, just flashback 64. Um, and we also on YouTube, we have some archives of like streams.

[01:16:06] We do, we stream like every Monday, typically with our friends. We'll big feature of NSO. We like is actually the ability to like change, like play online and like pass the controller around. So we'll stream, we've streamed like N64 games with our, our friends and we take turns and stuff. And it's got a real like old school pass the controller feel, but virtual. Um, so we stream on Twitch. I think on there though, we're flashback 64 pod, right? Yeah.

[01:16:36] So yeah. Gotcha. Check that out. Nice. Nice. Uh, Jiggy keeping busy. Oh yeah. I'm keeping busy. We talked Majora's mask at the beginning of this, this episode and I just dropped a mysteries of Majora's mask video on my channel. So yeah. And I've been playing through wind waker every Friday. So I think this Friday is going to be the last wind waker stream. And then I'm done with Zelda for a while. I'm just gonna, I doubled up now let's move on.

[01:17:06] And, uh, and you've been sort of, uh, doing a couple of like a couple of PlayStation games and stuff or like sort of, you know, dipping your toe in that pond. Oh yeah. I recently bought a PS one. I got like every single crash bandicoot game. Uh, I just started, I'm really excited. I just ordered symphony, symphony of the night. Oh man. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to playing through that one. I'm going to do some, some stuff on that. And, uh, the original resident evil as well. I'm kind of like, I don't know why I'm in this like horror game kind of mood.

[01:17:37] Uh, I also just picked up on steam silent hill to the remake. I'm just like, man, I'm just so like in this mood. I want to play scary games and it's, you know, it's March. I don't know. Let's, let's do it. Scary games for scary times. I feel like, you know, there you go. Maybe those games are scary or well, maybe those games are less scary than reality right now. So maybe that's what it is. That's actually not a bad way to go through it. Yeah. I should, I should do that.

[01:18:07] Tetris, Tetris. Let's go kill some zombies or something. Yeah. Yeah. As I mentioned off the top, you can, uh, catch the show and support us on Patreon, patreon.com slash remember 64 show as well. That is the same, uh, handle you can find on social media, mostly just, uh, blue sky and Instagram. Of course, uh, subscribe and all those fun dealios on your podcast app and on YouTube and, uh, tell your friends about us and flashback 64.

[01:18:36] Why not get more 64 in your life, more gaming in your life. Let's do it. Um, until next time, everybody pick up a puzzle game, play some Tetris and play some 64. We will talk to you soon. Goodbye.