Ep. 133 - LoopyDoopyPissyPants | Influential Indie Games (ft. Kate and Emily)

[00:00:00] Do you remember when in movie theaters they used to play music videos before the trailers started? Like when people were filtering in, maybe it was just movie theaters in California. But like as people are going in, they're finding their seats, you're getting your popcorn and everything. They have the like little slideshow. They would also play music videos. I think Guster was featured for a while and that's how I knew about that one about satellite. I don't have anything like that in Iowa. That's cool. Most we have is...

[00:00:28] Yeah, or Maine. We don't even have movies in Maine. We didn't get the Barbie movie until like three months later. We're lucky to get movies in Canada, period. There's the pressing you guys. Do you see all the moving pictures? Have you guys seen Jurassic Park? We just got that one. We got the slideshow version of Jurassic Park. It's just like a McDonald's commercial or something. Like a Jurassic Park McDonald's commercial.

[00:00:55] Did you guys like the part when the Raptors ate the hamburgers? They did their own cheesy voiceovers for like that one Jeff Goldblum scene. They're like, it's just some random guy. They were so obsessed with whether they could or whatever that they could not. And he heard it exactly like that. Holy shit. Oh man. They gotta take a big swig and then we can start this thing. Yeah, swig it up, baby. What do you mean? Okay. What it do, everybody? My name's Aaron. Please leave a message after the beep.

[00:01:25] And I'm Jerry and I unironically love Limp Bizkit. Yeah, you do. And you're listening to Super Pod Saga. Welcome back, everybody. Hey, this is Super Pod Saga. It's the greatest collaboration of all time. And that's me plus Jerry equals Super Pod Saga. Jerry, what's happening in your neck of the woods?

[00:01:53] Yep, carve it into a tree. Damn right I will. Gary plus Aaron. A plus G. Equals Super Saga. That's really cute. Yeah, carve it in a tree. And then when we break up, I'll go and vandalize it. Oh no, I'm gonna TP my heart tree or whatever. Nah, I won't TP it. I'll just like chop the tree down. Damn, that's so sad. Yeah, like the giving tree. Oh no, I forgot about that book. No. Didn't they chop it down at the end? Do they? Wasn't that a thing? I think so. I'm pretty sure.

[00:02:24] I'm not gonna lie. I've heard of the giving tree, but I don't know anything about it. Go read it. Is it bad or something? It's Shel Silverstein book, right? I think so. I thought it was Dr. Seuss for a second. No, I think the art style is the lore. That's the lore. That's the lore. Also trees get cut down. Yeah. That's like green eggs and ham, I think. But like Shel Silverstein did the giving tree. I'm pretty sure. That sounds right. Dude, Aaron, I have not read the giving tree, but I sure as fuck knew that it wasn't by Dr. Seuss.

[00:02:53] Okay, my bad. Anyway, Jerry and I, hey, for any first time listeners, this is the podcast where Jerry and I are on a quest to discuss every single last video game topic in existence week by week. This week, we're talking about the most influential indie games or or basically any indie game that really sparked our interest in the indie gaming scene or got us to check out more indie games, stuff like that. But or influenced others to make similar games.

[00:03:21] Yeah, Lord knows there's a lot of copycat games, but some of them improve on on their, you know, their original ideas. Yeah, we've got a lot of good ones in this list. I was looking at everybody's picks last night and oh, there's some good ones there. Anyway, there's some bangers. Before we get to that, though. Hey, everybody. I need to stop saying hey. I'm all hopped up on caffeine. Hey, Aaron. Hey, guys. Hey.

[00:03:50] Rename our podcast to hey guys. Hey, super pod saga. Or let's go super pod saga. That's a good one. Yeah. Yeah. So you let fuck you listeners go ahead and support us. All right. I believe in you. I'm going to redo it. Before we get to that side, the actor studio. Yeah. Before we get to that listeners check us out on Patreon two or four dollars a month. Drop us a buck on Ko-Fi.

[00:04:16] Leave us a tip or like a small quote or something funny you want to tell us like a cool joke. Great to review the show on Spotify or whatever app you listen on. And also, you can check out super pod saga.com for all of our episodes, socials and all that cool stuff. But enough about us. Let's talk about the guests because we do have guests today. Uh-huh. We sure do. Yeah. We got both Kate and Emily from no small games. Hello. Hey. Hey, guys. Hey. Hey, guys. Hey, guys. Hey, guys.

[00:04:46] Super happy to be here. It feels like we've been on a call recording the episode this whole time since I hopped in. So thanks for making us feel welcome and comfy. Yeah. That's how we roll. No problem. That's our whole show is just hanging out and just being as stupid as well. I don't have to try very hard. I'm stupid as humanly possible. Yeah. Not that you guys are. Yeah. Anyway, yeah. Go ahead and tell us all about your sales and your show and plug away on your socials. Anything else you want to tell the listeners about yourselves?

[00:05:16] Absolutely. Hi, everyone. I'm Emily and I'm one half of no small games. We are an indie game podcast. We primarily recap and review indie games. A lot of our episodes are deep dive reviews. We cover indie games of all genre from cozy games to horror. Um, and we've been at it for just over two years now. Nice. Sweet. And we publish our featured episodes bi-weekly every Thursday.

[00:05:46] Kate's going to tell you about, uh, our monthly series and our website. Yeah. We also, also hi, I'm Kate. Also go by Kater Blossom, Kate Hunter. Those are all the things I think that I go by. Kate Kazoo today. Kate Kazoo. Um, yeah, we also met, um, streaming on Twitch. So I think that's fun to know like five years ago, four years ago. Yeah. So yeah. And we also do indie game roundups once a month, which are our episodes where we talk about new releases and indie game news.

[00:06:14] And we have a website, no small games.com where you can listen to all of our episodes as well as read our articles and reviews list style review style. Um, I think that's everything we have, we have a good time. We both stream on Twitch as well. And sometimes we stream together and we're just having a great time with the indies. Mm hmm. Hell yeah. I do also appreciate indies and I have a good time with them most of the time. Most of the time. We all have that in common.

[00:06:41] I feel like there's a lot of great ones out there and more every day. I, um, I've been saying for years that I think like, yeah, don't get me wrong. I like a triple a game here and there, but I feel like indie games have been pushing the industry forward. Oh yeah. It's always indie games. Some of the craziest games that have come out in the last 10 years are indie games. And so like, you know, they don't, it's, it's always this thing too, where you're like,

[00:07:07] imagine if these people, how talented they are with such small budgets and small teams, imagine what they would do with like the fuck you money of like a Sony backing them or like a Microsoft backing them. And sometimes they end up getting picked up, but like, yeah, it's, it's just wild how like, I think it, it plays in part two that it helps people to think outside the box because you're limited.

[00:07:33] And I feel like those limitations are like helping to make cool new games that aren't just like, yeah, you sneak around and you stealth kill people. That's it's cool. Like I, I'm, I, I hate Assassin's Creed, but go on dude. Or like, uh, with all the money they spend on gears of war or something. And it's just like, dog, it's another cover based tactical shooter with, uh, with, with aliens

[00:07:58] or whatever, or that, like that other pirate ship game that Ubisoft made that was supposed to be a quadruple a game and they spent, and they spent like close to a billion dollars on it. I'm pretty sure. But then you get little indie dudes over here that made Hades with the budget of like, I don't know, but probably a lot less than they spent on skull and bones, which ended up flopping. Cause like who gives a shit? Yeah. Go play Sid Meier's pirates, man. It's on gog.

[00:08:24] I mean, there's even stuff too now that like you see it and you're like, is this a triple a game? And then you realize like, no, this is an indie game. It's just so fucking polished. Yeah. Like look at, look at the, uh, what's his name? I can't remember. I can never remember the dude's name, but he made like, it takes two and like split fiction that just came out. Yeah. They're a small team. Like they're not, that's not like a triple a studio, but their games are very polished. Yeah. They feel like triple a games. Karma.

[00:08:54] The dark world is coming out later this month in March. And I think their team is like 12 people. And I, I don't know if I've ever seen such a gorgeous game, such a just like realistic, like immersive graphics. It's gonna be incredible. Oh yeah. 12 people. Oh, what the hell is that game called? I discovered this one game on Instagram last night. It was, um, it was a raccoon like riding a bike and you could do sweet tricks off of ramps and stuff.

[00:09:24] Oh yeah. Yeah. Um, I think it was a great Instagram story real fast, but it looked really, really cool. Uh, Tanuki something. Uh, yeah. I think he's like a mail carrier. Yeah. Oh, it's not saying the name. Tanuki Ren or Tanuki. Tanuki Ren sounds like something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Well, with, with any guests, we like to ask you a, uh, a nice neat little question. Just get to know you a little bit better for you guys. Brand new guests, brand new question. What's your favorite gaming memory? And of course you both get your own separate answers.

[00:09:53] So, uh, so hit it. Kate, do you want to kick it off? Yeah. Mine's pretty recent actually. Um, and for context, I've pretty much been gaming since 2020. So a little bit newer onto the gaming scene. Um, and I just finished Ibn Ab with my friend Disco Cola who hosts underplay podcasts. Um, and we, I just didn't think we'd be able to, to beat this game, but we beat it. It was one of the most challenging gaming experiences I had, but it was very fun. It's a co-op puzzle platformer.

[00:10:23] Uh, I don't, I don't actually know when it came out, but I think it's a little bit older, but beating that felt pretty awesome. Um, so that is my most, guess my most recent favorite gaming memory. Nice. Yeah. It was a great moment. I got to be there. They did incredible. Um, Oh God. I, I was torn between picking like a childhood memory or a more recent one.

[00:10:47] I think I'm going to go with, so I remember sometime circa 2001, maybe 2000 bringing over lip biscuit. That is, that's what I wrote next to this in my note. Actually. Yeah. Um, that's how I remember it. Um, inviting, uh, a mutual friend of mine and Kate's who's a childhood friend of mine, Cecily over for like a slumber party. And I had just recently gotten an N64.

[00:11:18] I was kind of behind my family. Didn't have, you know, a ton of money for all the like latest consoles. So I just got an N64. I was so excited. And I got to show her paper Mario for the first time. And I had played a little bit and I was like, you are gut. This is going to blow your mind. You are not ready for this. And we just had a blast playing. And it was, um, I just really miss that time where we weren't so seeped in like video

[00:11:45] game news and, and even like walkthroughs and stuff online. And just that kind of really like word of mouth experience, like bringing a friend over saying like, sit down on the couch. I got to show you this thing. Um, and we had a blast playing and I think we both have really fond memories of it. So yeah, that's yeah. That's a good one. Nice. I mean, it's funny that you mentioned that, like, you know, bonding with people over like

[00:12:10] these games as like kids, my, like, like my best friend who I have known since grade six, who like we were just hanging out last night, like we're still best friends. We became friends because of the water temple in Ocarina of time. Damn. Cause we both got Zelda Ocarina of time for Christmas. And we were just like in the hallway talking with like random people. We didn't even know each other, but we both like brought up that we had Zelda and we were both stuck at the water temple.

[00:12:40] And he was like, who was it? I was like, yeah, let's do that. And then, uh, yeah, we've been, we've been friends ever since then. Just wild. I love that. That's a great crucible moment in gaming or water. Yep. Aaron. Yes, sir. There's always super important breaking news happening. That's right. Be, be, be, be, be, be, be, be, be, be. What you got?

[00:13:07] I've read, I've read this line and I was like, okay, did you pull this off of a time extension is, uh, Oh, totally. I, uh, I don't remember. I think we were eating dinner last night and my wife will. So super important breaking news is my wife says she'll divorce me if I don't find her, uh, a rock band set. So our, our, our goal today, our goal today is to go find a rock band set with drums, guitar, the whole shebang. Are you guys going to be like a whole like family thing?

[00:13:35] Like, are you going to do like a Jackson five thing or like the partridge family? Are you guys going to be like that? I don't know, man. It's all going to be like a traveling family band that just plays rock band. You just tapping away on the rock band drums. It doesn't sound anything close to, you just hear it. It doesn't sound drums in the guitar and stuff. Not even close to, to sounding like actual jump by Van Halen. It's just like, go, it's just me, go ahead and jump. That's a great song. That's, that's it for me for news.

[00:14:05] Well, yeah, I'll probably think of something else as you go along, but go ahead. What do you got? Uh, I don't know if anybody else seen it, but, uh, Silent Hill F actually exists. I saw this. And they showed it, they showed it off and that shit looks creepy, dude. Like that. It is looking real cool. It's really given me like, I mean, it's Silent Hill.

[00:14:28] Yes, but it's in Japan in like the sixties and it has a very specific, like Japanese aesthetic to it. But it also reminds, it was reminding me the whole time of like the look and feel of like siren. That's what I was thinking too, man. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, dude, this just looks like siren to me. This is awesome. Which is funny because like the Silent Hill, the original Silent Hill creators created siren. And it also kind of was given me just because of the setting, I guess too, was, um, Fatal Frame.

[00:14:56] I was getting same frame vibes from it. Same brain. Same brain. Yeah. Um, but it looks cool. Uh, they didn't, I don't think they slapped a date on when that's supposed to be coming out, but they just, they was pretty in depth. Like the, the whole, like they, I don't know what's going on. Like, I don't know how Silent Hill came back in the fold so heavy. Like for years, Silent Hill fans were just like, can we please just have another game? And now they're like, we're having a Silent Hill direct. Like they have like their own Nintendo direct.

[00:15:25] Now it's like the Silent Hill transmission or something. And they're just like, it's a good name. Always talking about. Yeah, it's. I, I, I mean, nobody asked for this, but I'm glad that we're getting it. I really wish we could get a new, like all these other dead horror games, like specifically from like the PS2 air. Well, I guess Fatal Frame went past the PS2, but I knew Fatal Frame. I feel like they could do a lot with that. Like real, because. Well, they're, they're still doing stuff with Fatal Frame.

[00:15:53] Uh, I think that's Koei maybe. Yeah, Koei Tecmo, I'm pretty sure. They're still doing things with it, but they haven't, there hasn't been like a new, new one for a bit because they've been re-releasing those, um, uh, Maiden of Blackwater and I don't remember what the other one was, but they were, it was like the Wii U one or something. They re-released those. Yeah. I think that was the Wii U one. Cause it was only in PAL regions, not America. Not America. Yeah, there was a Wii one and a Wii U. Yeah.

[00:16:21] There was, there was a couple of them, but yeah, they've been re-releasing those, but who knows? Maybe with the success of Silent Hill kind of having this massive resurgence, maybe we'll start to see some of those other franchises to start popping up. Bring back Cold Fear. That'd be cool shit. Dude, Cold Fear was cool. Yep. Oh, that was, that was Resident Evil 4 on a, on a boat. On a boat. The other, the other piece of news I had is, uh, I keep seeing this thing from time extension

[00:16:49] and other, other, other retro news, uh, websites where apparently SNESs are getting faster as they age. Like the audio processor is speeding up. Like it's, it's, it's not very noticeable. That'd be cool if that happened to all of us. Just like we get better as we age. Right? Yeah. Benjamin Button would be cool. Like if that's how it works. Meanwhile, I'm over here like, yeah, the warranty on my body has run out. It's a point as fuck. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:17:16] The, I forget what their name was, but they have, if you don't have the right equipment, you, you won't notice it at all. But yeah, apparently the audio processors are processing sound from the SNES faster than they did back when they were first manufactured and I think they tested it with like super Metroid and shit. I just picture them like taking these SNESs and putting them in like a complex, like in control and they're just like watching these SNESs as they like get faster over time.

[00:17:43] And they're like, one day they're gonna, they're gonna become sentient. Like these SNESs are gonna become sentient. They put one in like the Hadron Collider. You know, who knows what could happen? Oh my, it comes out with a voice. Kill me, please. Oh yeah. An SNES. SNES would sound like Mario, right? Yeah. Have any of you seen the movie Grandma's Boy? Yes. Oh my God. I don't think so.

[00:18:13] Is it an M. Night Shyamalan? No. Okay, then I haven't seen it. No, it's a, it's a, it's a comedy. It's not at all M. Night Shyamalan, but there's this scene where, um, Shama Llama. There's this scene where like some dude walks into JB, JB's office, the nerdy guy, and he's in like one of those desks that reclines all the way back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he's just blasting techno music and he like, he's got speakers covering his whole room.

[00:18:38] I expect somebody's doing that, but like testing the SNES audio acceleration or whatever. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's a quote from that movie. If you know it. It's a good movie. Go watch it. Yeah. I approve of it. You know, I could use something a little bit more like old school funny. I miss, remember when comedies came out like every like month. Yeah. There was always like an Adam Sandler movie or something like that.

[00:19:08] Another Seth Rogen movie. Like there was Pineapple Express and Knocked Up and other ones that I don't remember, but they were good. I feel like now it's just like rom-coms and like some of them are okay. But like, I feel like it's always like rom-com comedy, horror, comedy, thriller. And it's like, like, what about just like a straight up comedy dude? Like, give us, give us a little bit of comedy. I can, I can handle a comedy. Cause like, I mean, we just started, we just started watching baby reindeer and I'm like, that's a fucked up show. It's so good. Yeah.

[00:19:38] It's a good watch though. We, we binged like to episode four and I was like, you know, I kind of, I just want to, I kind of just want to go to bed. I think cause I don't feel good. It's heavy. Yeah. I was expecting it to be like comedic and like, it can be like duck. Like it's very dark. Oh yeah. Sometimes very dark, but like, holy shit. When that warning came up on episode four, I was like, oh, they don't put that on stuff that doesn't deserve it.

[00:20:06] When it was like the, the essay stuff. Yep. And I was like, oh boy, but yeah, such a good show though. Great show. Really good. Highly encourage. If you want to feel bad, go watch the show. Yep. Watch the, have some comedies on deck for afterwards.

[00:20:50] Yeah. Speaking of on deck, let's talk about our games. Let's talk about these cool, awesome, influential indie games. Yeah. Speaking of on deck. Yes. All hands on deck. Kate and Emily, since you're our guests, do you guys want to, do you want to, you want to start first or do you want us to, to start things off and set the pace and everything? I don't know. Kate, what do you think? I can start. I'll jump in. You want to start us off? Yeah. Okay. So I guess my first pick of an influential indie game is Ooblitz.

[00:21:19] Anyone here besides Emily familiar with Ooblitz? Oh yeah. I've heard the name. Yep. Oh yeah. Okay, cool. I might have to look it up. It's, um, so at first glance it's a farming sim, but it's actually so much more. Um, this is actually on my list because, you know, when I started gaming in 2020, I was basically just playing animal crossing and let's go Pikachu. And then I saw on Twitch, one of my friends that I was modding for streaming this game and it just looks so beautiful and it had really cool music and funny characters.

[00:21:47] And I was like, I'm going to buy a PC just so that I can play this game, which is literally what I did, you know, this early days of the pandemic. So why not? And yeah, it's a, it's a farming sim, but it's also a creature collector and it's also has like a deck building element to it or not deck building. But I guess you, you are using cards in your deck to execute, um, moves in a dance battle. So the music's pumping. It's really funky. The colors are bright.

[00:22:14] And if you win the dance battle, you get an Ooblitz seed and then you, you gotta win that dance battle. And then you, uh, wild like breakdown of what this thing is. This is not what I was expecting at all. It's pretty wild. Yeah. It's, and you can also, so similar to Pokemon, they have gleamy Ooblets like a shiny Pokemon. And so you can try to collect those gleamies. You can try to collect them all. They have very silly, funny names like Klomper and Clicky Claws. And what are some other great Ooblet names?

[00:22:44] Chicka, Chicka, Ding, Ding, right? Chicka, Chicka, Ding, Ding. Hell yeah, dude. That's not real. Is that real? No, it's real. Look it up. Cool. Glomper? Glomper? Glomper? No, what's the one with the legs? Loopy legs? Pants a bear? No. Well, that's one. Loopy long legs. Gloopy long legs. Gloopy long legs? Gloopy long legs? What? They're so adorable. You can't not love them. You gotta collect them all. And so when you, when you win the dance battles with your card based, turn, uh, turn based

[00:23:11] card mechanic, dance battle mechanic, then you get a new Ooblet seed and then you plant that seed in your garden and then it hatches the Ooblet after you water it. That's awesome. It's just such a cool game. It does have that like, you know, anti-capitalist theme. You're trying to save the town sort of, which is what a lot of farming Sims do, but they're just doing it in a better way that feels very like unique and fun. Um, and the music is one of my favorite things about it. I'm a big fan of, of indie game music.

[00:23:39] So, uh, yeah, Ooblet soundtrack rips and it really was one of the first indie games I ever played. And I feel like it's a little bit underrated for how good of a farming Sim it is because it does add all these other cool elements like dancing and card combat and the creature collecting. So big fan. I highly recommend everybody check it out if you haven't. I mean, when you said, when you said anti-capitalist, I, my brain immediately went to rage against the machine. I'm just picturing rage against the machine playing the entire time.

[00:24:09] Like, fuck you, don't do what you tell me. And like Ooblets dancing to rage against the machine. They would. The Ooblets would. Oh my God. Tom Morello's in the back just like doing the thing with a pencil against the neck of the guitar. Oh my God. And then yeah, you just got like loopy doopy pissy pants or whatever. Like that thing was just like dancing a storm up. I want everyone to Google all the Ooblets after this and let me know your favorite one because it's like really important to me. I'm a clicky clause. What's your glitter you? I'm definitely a clicky clause.

[00:24:37] So, and Emily and I also have a really, we both really love that game and kind of bonded over it. So really important to me. Erin, you're being such a clicky clause right now. It's a compliment. Oh man. Oh, I'm looking them up right now. Clicky clause is cool. There's dumb burb. Oh, dumb burb. Yeah. Oh yeah. Little dumb burb. Oh, there's, there's fucking Todd. Oh, and you pick at the beginning, you pick which Ooblet you're going to sort of like

[00:25:06] associate with like your starter Ooblet. So really similar to Pokemon. So it's, but I don't know. It's very, it's just funny to the writing. A lot of people don't like the writing, but I think it's very funny and clever. So, and silly. Did you just say that there's one named Todd? I don't think there is. T-U-D, Todd. Oh, Todd. Todd. I was like, that would be hilarious. There would be though. It was just like some guy named Todd. Yeah. Like got a loopy doopy. We got a pants a bear. And then there's Todd.

[00:25:36] The fricking Todd. Just a middle-aged man. Last man on earth. They have, he's got a name Todd in that show. That show. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Ooblets is a, that's what I've always wanted. I've never actually played it, but it's one that really probably would scratch my deck building creature collecting itch. That is always present. I've got this like big rash on my side from creature collectors slash deck builders. Yeah. I have that too. Yeah. Yeah. So I need a cream for that.

[00:26:00] Once again, I've, I've made it known that I don't like a lot of different types of games, but then the more time goes on, I start realizing that I actually like a lot of these things. I just have had program my brain to be like, no, I don't like those. Like I didn't like deck builders at all. Then I discovered in description and that set me off. That's the marijuana of deck builders. That's the gateway. And like, I, I've stayed away from Pokemon for so long.

[00:26:29] I've played and beat probably a few times like red and blue when I was a kid, but like, since then nothing. And then just recently I just picked up crystal and threw it on and I couldn't put it down. And now I'm on to Emerald and I'm like, well shit. I like this now too. Like, God damn it. My brain fool me once. And I also, so here's the one though. Here's the one that I'm still not on board with.

[00:26:59] And that's farm Sims because I lost our fantasy critic draft from last year. And my punishment that Greg and Beth, my two co-hosts on super ghost, they were like, well, here's your punishment. You have to play because we always choose a game that we have to play. And they decided to make me play Stardew Valley. And they were like, I don't know why you're so upset. It's an award winning game. I'm like, yeah, it's an award winning farm sim.

[00:27:25] I don't like and but I have like stipulations like I need to get married. Greg said my farm has to make sense. That's hard. Yeah, this is like I don't think Stardew Valley is a good farm sim. I really don't like to start out with or even to just play like I love the game, but it's actually really difficult and not fun. I think when you start out like there's so many better ones out there. So yeah, like I threw it on and I was like, all right, I'm going to serve my sentence. I'll do what I have to do. Stardew Valley jail. I know. Yeah.

[00:27:54] And I threw it on and I was like, okay, like I like the look of it, but I'm just like I don't want to do this. Like I don't want to be doing these things, but like maybe something like Ooblets. Oh, yeah. Rope me in. I think you'd like it. Yeah. With the funky. I had to check that out. And the cool dance battles. That's got me fucking Todd. That's going to be my starter. All right. Who wants to go next? Emily, go ahead. I'll take it away. So I kind of cheated.

[00:28:24] I think a little bit with my net with my first pick and I'm going kind of chronologically. I will allow it. So my first are Torchlight and Torchlight 2. Yes. These are, I think maybe some of the first indie games I ever played that I was like actually consciously aware of them being indie and of kind of the narrative behind the development too.

[00:28:47] And my interest in them actually started because I started playing Fate in like the mid 2000s because I own my family only had Apple computers. We only had Macs. And so I was way limited on what, you know, PC games I could play. Fate happened to be on Mac. And, you know, years later, the designer of Fate, Travis Baldry gets together with a couple of the co-designers from Diablo, Diablo 2.

[00:29:16] They make Torchlight. And so I heard this like, okay, I poured a ton of hours into Fate, even though it wasn't that interesting of a game, to be honest, but it was what I had, you know, and I got super hooked, especially on Torchlight 2. So if you haven't played them, they are very similar to Diablo. They're action RPG kind of dungeon crawlers.

[00:29:38] They have, I think, an amazing like randomized loot system that really feeds these, you know, serotonin dopamine loops in your brain and just a great gameplay loop overall. But it was the first time that I was like, oh, this is different in some way from other games I've played.

[00:29:58] And I was aware of Max Schaefer and I think it's Eric Schaefer both left Blizzard because they were sick of the shit. I, you know, I don't know all the backstory, but they said, fuck this. They went off. And as a team under Runic Games developed Torchlight, which is very similar to Diablo. So it's like, this is really interesting. Okay. Like the economic. I should play some Torchlight because I've never played it. Oh.

[00:30:27] Oh, start with Torchlight 2. I think Torchlight 2 improves on everything that Torchlight was doing. And then Torchlight 3 is a different team entirely. I think so. That Torchlight 2 is the sweet spot to start with, I think. 3? Where did the Torchlight 2 come out? That was a while, right? Like we're talking like. It was 2012. I will add that Torchlight 3 has a cool like ghost train class that you can pick. And that's kind of, that's kind of cool. Ghost train. Yeah. That's cool. Torchlight 1 was just like.

[00:30:57] Mage. Wizard. Warrior. And then Torchlight 2 was like. Berserker. Gunman. And then you get to Torchlight 3. There's a dude with a little ghost train that zips around you all the time. And he's on tracks and shit. It's so cool. It's awesome. Well, Torchlight 2. It's a lot. Like Emily said, it's way better. But yeah, I just want to throw that out there. Sorry. So. You have the floor. Speaking of, you know, kind of that realization that you had when you were like, oh, this is like, this feels different.

[00:31:27] You know, like when you when you first play some of these initial indie games that started coming out, like it did. It did feel different. Like if it it wasn't that it didn't feel like it was polished or anything, but it was just like, oh, like this is doing something that all the other triple A games are not doing. Like, you know, at that time when you think about like when those the when I think about the first few indie games that started kind of streaming through, that's like Xbox Live Arcade. Yep. That era. Yeah.

[00:31:55] Like I, you know, when you started seeing like Castle Crashers and stuff like that showing up that that was like, oh, this is really cool. Like this is the kind of game that I want right now. Like nobody's nobody's making like these 2D like beat them up like kind of games with like, you know, world map that you go through and stuff like everything at that time was just cover shooters and every game had the piss filter.

[00:32:21] Like it just everything looked yellow and brown and shitty looking. And like, yeah, it was just I don't know. It was a breath of fresh air to see some of these like really colorful games. But like one of the things that I have on my list was like I've always loved horror movies and horror games. I'm a huge horror guy and I've I've always liked, you know, like the Resident Evils, the Silent Hills, stuff like that.

[00:32:46] But when I played Amnesia for the first time, that was when I was like, oh, this is truly terrifying. And I don't know if I can complete playing the entire game like I can't get through this because it's so goddamn scary that that was that moment of going like what like who came up with this game like that to me. I feel like Amnesia was one of the first of that type.

[00:33:13] And that set the stage for like fucking so many other like indie horror games from that point forward. It was one of the first ones that I remember that you just kind of you walk around and you kind of like read things and then it's like, what's that noise? And you got to hide and stuff like that to me was as far as I can remember, that was the first kind of moment of experiencing that type of horror game. And I mean, now look what we have.

[00:33:42] We have I mean, Jesus, you go on the Steam store page, click on horror, and there's just like a dime a dozen these like walking simulator horror games, which some are some are kind of cool. Some are most are really bad and just a cash grab for somebody to have you noticed like some of these indie games not to shit on any games, but like have you noticed like on like the Steam store page?

[00:34:06] Like if a game comes out, say like a new Assassin's Creed or like like this split fiction game, for example, that'll come out and it's like, oh, this is like the big new thing. Or like even like Elden Ring, then you'll just see like these games start popping up with like this crazy box art that's like, wow, that looks a lot like Elden Ring. And then like you'll click on it and it's just like, what the fuck is this? Like what? Like you're just putting you just threw something into RPG Maker and you put it up on Steam and

[00:34:35] made like a logo that looks very similar to the new hotness. And you're just kind of hoping that somebody accidentally like that's that's the perfect trap for like asking your grandma to get you like a game. And then that's what ends up happening. Like, oh, that looks just like the picture he sent me. And then it's like it's like Google Ring or something stupid. And it's just have you ever seen that video?

[00:35:04] This is really bad, but it's it's kind of funny. Have you seen that video of like these? It's like these parents at Christmas or whatever. And they're like asking their son to like unwrap this gift. And I guess the son asked for Minecraft and like their very old school German grandfather gave him. Oh, man, I knew exactly where that was going. Yeah. Gave the kid like the book and they were like, Grandpa, what the fuck?

[00:35:33] What is this? And he was like, he said he wanted this. And the kid's like, I want a Minecraft. Oh, God. It could happen to anyone. It is Minecraft. It is Minecraft. Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah. But anyways, amnesia is pretty scary. Wait, just don't. Nope. Don't leave it here. I know. I put it on my wish list.

[00:36:02] So what amnesia? Yeah. OK, you know, you know, also is kind of scary, though. Limbo. Yes. I forget exactly which year this came out, but it was around the time I was playing like years of war and burnout paradise, even like oblivion a little bit. And I remember having a gift card, like an Xbox gift card for like it was back when they used Microsoft points and it was like 500 or something stupid.

[00:36:30] And I was like, wow, what the hell am I going to do with this? And I saw Limbo there. And yeah, it's just this little 2D side scroller. And you don't the description on the Xbox store doesn't say a whole lot about what it is. It's just like, oh, your sister is missing and you have to go find her. Like, OK, cool. Just a little time waster game. And yeah, Limbo turned out to be a lot like it blew my expectations away with the cool puzzles and like the cool spooky physics and stuff, too, is really cool.

[00:36:57] And the different way this is going to sound macabre as fuck, but the different ways a little kid can die, like the little spider legs impaling him or like just getting crushed by a box like that's really cool. It's just it's not you didn't see that a lot at all around that time with other triple A games. It was a cool little kind of like palette cleanser in between cover based shooters and then racing games, because that's I feel like that's what all that entire generation was. Like Jerry said, cover based shooters and stuff. But Limbo is filters.

[00:37:26] I'm pretty sure almost everybody's played Limbo at this point. But if you haven't played Limbo, play inside. They're all good. The puzzles are just inside. Inside is good. So crazy. Yeah. The ending of that game. Yep. It had no right to go that hard. No, I don't want to spoil it. But yeah, the ending of inside is just it's a lot. It was a lot. Yeah. I feel like there are there are a lot of games coming out today, even that you look

[00:37:52] at and you you can immediately see the inspiration from Limbo, whereas I think a lot of those early. I mean, look, little nightmares, you know. Oh, yeah. Yep. That to me is so inspired by that. It kind of made its own. And that's that's the thing, right? Like, that's what I was thinking about when we were thinking about this topic. I was thinking about games that like I mean, after Limbo, there was there's a lot of games similar to Limbo and there still continues to be like it almost made like its own new

[00:38:21] like subgenre, you know, and like I hate using the term like souls like but like, you know, there's definitely a category whether it has an actual tag or not. But like Limbo likes, you know, like there's inside. Well, inside makes sense because it's by the same people, but like Little Nightmares, Planet of Lana, like all these like even though like Planet of Lana is not a horror game. It's more of like a sci fi like thriller kind of thing. But yeah, there's so many of these like platformer games.

[00:38:50] And I feel like in a way. Maybe I'm wrong on this. This is just a thought that came to my head. I feel like Limbo probably got inspired by Prince of Persia, like the original Prince of Persia. Oh, maybe. Yeah. Because like the platforming one. Yeah. 2D puzzle platformer. Yeah. Or even like. Yeah. Or even like the cinematic platformers like all of those ones that Dre and them talked about. It was there. There was Prince of Persia. Out of This World. Yeah. Out of This World.

[00:39:19] There's a few others, but that seems very, I want to say Limbo like. But Limbo came after that. Like Limbo does kind of feel like those a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Aaron, I'm picking one for you to talk about because I don't know what it is. Okay. Tell me what Charlie. What the fuck is Charlie Murder? Oh, okay. So another. I got to scoot back a little bit and table back it to talk about this game because I played the piss out of this. So another Xbox Live Arcade goodie, Charlie Murder.

[00:39:48] It's like a 2D, pretty much like a beat-em-up. It's almost like Guardian Heroes. If you've ever played that on like Saturn or even like Advanced Guardian Heroes, shit like that. It's like a beat-em-up RPG side scroller. And each character, just like Guardian Heroes, has a different class. Like there's one character who's supposed to be like a mage. There's like the drummer, the Rex Cutioner. He's supposed to be like a tank.

[00:40:13] And each character learns new moves and spells as you go along. And it's just, I don't, I think it's backwards compatible. I'm not sure. But I think the 360 store is dead now, isn't it? So you can't buy it anymore. I don't know if there's a way to play this game anymore. But yeah, it's just a really, really. Charlie Murder? Yeah. Let's see. I thought it was on Steam. Is this the Ska one by Ska? Yeah, Ska Studios. Oh, is it Ska Studio? Ska Studios. I think it's on Steam, yeah.

[00:40:42] I was looking it up. This looks cool, yeah. Yeah. Okay, if it is on Steam, that's awesome. Yeah, it's not very long being a side scroller. But yeah, it's good. Hold on. Let me just lie to Steam and tell them I was born in 1938. So I can look at this page. I have to do that every single time. It's like, I wonder if someone's actually keeping track of these analytics and just being like, man, there's a lot of 104-year-old people that- Why are there so many skeletons looking into Steam?

[00:41:09] The greatest generation really loves their side scrollers. Oh, it's only $250? Yeah, dude. It's worth $250 for sure. Charlie Murder is really good, especially when you have people playing with you. You can do little tag team attacks and stuff. It's 74 here in Canada. Sorry, my bad. Yeah, it's really, really good. The Canadian dollary-do. Yeah, I might check this out. This is cool, yeah. You and Dolo can play it, man.

[00:41:39] It's awesome. Cool art style. Yeah. Punk as fuck. Yeah. I think it's my turn. I can riff off of another. I have a beat-em-up on my list as well. Do it. Which is Super Crush KO. I don't know what that is either. It's like a brawler beat-em-up where you play as this woman who gets her cat kidnapped. No. And so you're going on a journey to save the cat.

[00:42:04] But also there's this weird other story where AI is going to take over the city. So you're also trying to save the city. But most importantly is your cat. Whose name is Chubbs, I think. Which is so cute. Yes. With a Z. Chubbs with a Z. Chubbs. So it really is just a beat-em-up brawler. But it's very girly pop. Like it's all pink and purple and bright colors. It's so, so fun. And it's a super accessible beat-em-up too, I would say.

[00:42:33] I'm obsessed with this game. I think I'm avoiding finishing it because I have a hard time finishing games that I really love. But I always, I use this game to warm up to play other games. So if you like beat-em-ups but you're looking for a more like fun, cute color palette and like a girly pop main character, this is the beat-em-up for you. The little cut scene images on Steam look really, really cool. Like the hand-drawn. She's like with her cat and there's little hearts everywhere.

[00:43:03] It's really cool. I just bought it, by the way. It's only three bucks. I mean, it also like helped me realize that I could enjoy. A lot of combat in games too. So that's why it's pretty influential to me because I was like, oh, maybe I do really like combat in games under the right like visual circumstances, you know? So I really, really like it. Yeah, the visuals look really cool. Like I just watched like the quick, like the first video that's on the Steam page. And yeah, it was very eye-catching.

[00:43:33] You get a double jump too and you can fight while you're in the air. So you have a gun so you can like shoot enemies while you're in the air. And you stay like elevated for a while. And then when you come back down to the platforms, there's some platforming involved too. You can like do a bunch of moves where you're like punching up or you have like a really devastating attack too that can kill a bunch of enemies at once. So you just get swarmed with enemies. But you have so many skills in this game that it just feels really good.

[00:44:00] It just feels great to play and kick those AI robots' asses. You sold already. All you had to do was a double jump. Right? I love a double jump. Who doesn't? Man. I love the relatableness of a story where like AI is taking over the world and everything is like dying. But also my cat. My cat. Don't worry about that. I love my cat so much. Yeah. How dare. They'd stole her cat. But yeah, it's really good.

[00:44:32] Emily, what do you got? What do you got for us? Well, so I'd like because Jerry and I have the same game on both our lists. So I think we should talk about the game. Best friends the second that we put Super Meat Boy on this list. Hell yeah. God damn. Super Meat Boy is I think one of the first like probably three indie games I picked up. Same.

[00:44:55] And I think just the speed at which you can go from like zero to like really in this like locked in playing is like zero seconds. Immediate. It's just so fast paced. It's a great precision platform. It is. Look, I'm going to be bold and say like this is the fucking precision platformer. Like every other precision platformer has to live up to this legacy.

[00:45:23] Celeste is the only one that comes as a close second for me. Very true. And is so different. Very different. In gameplay. You know, you're right. Meat Boy is like. The soundtrack. Yeah. The soundtrack is so good. It goes hard. There was so much content there. There was so much content. And like because of the game's difficulty, like I remember just standing up in front of my TV shaking. Yeah.

[00:45:49] And just like trying to beat like this one level in particular. And I'm just like yelling. And my wife is like, hey, like dinner's like, what are you doing? Like dinner's ready. And I'm like, I can't. I'm locked in right now. If I walk away, I'll never be able to beat it. I'm getting like a second, a fraction of a second further every single time.

[00:46:11] And like it just had it just grabs you so, so hard and just reels you in with like at first you're like, oh, fuck. Ah, shit. Ah, damn it. And like you just keep doing one of these. You're like, oh, my God. You're like biting your fucking knuckles a little bit. Like, God damn. I bit my controller. That was like the first time in my like adult, like young adult life that I was like, I bit a controller and threw it and was like, fuck this game.

[00:46:39] And then immediately came back to it like 15 minutes later. It's like, OK, well, it's not the game. It's me. I just got to get better at the game. I got to like you start to really like have a lot of internal dialogue with yourself. And you're just like, maybe I'm the problem. Like maybe, maybe, maybe I just need to be. It's a personal journey. It is. Well, Emily, you replayed it kind of recently, too, didn't you? I did. Yeah. Did you beat it? And I was really happy to see. I mean, yes, in that I got through all the levels. OK. I mean, like you said, there's so much content.

[00:47:09] And then every level has its like. The dark side or whatever. Infernal version. Yeah. So you could play this for hundreds of hours and just keep finding little things to do. And I just think the speed at which you go from dying to restarting is perfect because you don't you don't have to wait for a loading screen. It's just boom, boom, boom. And you do.

[00:47:33] I mean, it's the game that I talk to myself the most while playing because I'm just like, God damn it. Oh, fuck. I was so close. You know, like and you get tilted, but it does give you this sense that you are improving a little bit over time or you you can tell, OK, if I just do this, I just got to get good. You know, it's not mysterious in what you have to do. It's just freaking hard.

[00:48:01] You just got to get like the in a really addictive way muscle memory down for some of those things. Yeah. Oh, and then. Yeah. And then when you finish a level and you get like the what is it called? The playback or whatever of all your little yous dying. Oh, yeah. Going through the levels. That's cool. That's pretty clever. It's like, man, I really took like 2000 attempts to get through this level. Man, I'll do better next time or something. I like the bandage girl levels like watching those. I don't know. They're cute. Yeah.

[00:48:27] They're deceptive because they're all bubblegum pop and like the music is so fun and then they're brutally hard. They're way harder than anything else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some of those special the guest characters like there's that one guy from you have to win the game. Oh, yeah. His levels are pretty fucking difficult, too. Didn't they also have Captain Video or whatever his name is from the. Commander Video. Commander Video. There we go. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think he like floats. He could play as Isaac, right? I think so. From Mining of Isaac. Yes. Yeah. You know what?

[00:48:57] Oh, a head crab. Was this the first game that did like the indie like collaboration thing where it was like, hey, there's all these other indie games. Maybe. Bring all these characters. Because like you see that a bit now where like you'll see like Shovel Knight will pop up somewhere in like a fucking cart race or some shit. Like Smash Bros. Is that Smash Bros? Yeah. He is just like as an assist trophy, but that's it. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, like I feel like maybe Super Meat Boy was like the first one that did it that

[00:49:27] way. I think so. It might have been. I'm also now remembering, too, because like you said that Meat Boy was like one of the first batch of indie games that you picked up. Mine was Super Meat Boy Castle Crashers. And I cannot believe that I'm thinking of this now. Not one person put this on their list. Fucking Fez. Oh, yeah. I didn't play Fez back in the day. I didn't play it until it came to Switch.

[00:49:51] Fez was like rocks playing Fez at that time when like it first came out and I picked it up because I heard like Jeff Gertzman on Giant Bomb talking about how insanely good this game was. And I was like, OK, well, I got to pick it up. But like before all of the information was on the Internet, because now you just go look up and walk through. But like understanding that game and slowly understanding like the language it's trying

[00:50:17] to teach you in the game was like insane to just be like taking that all in and like talking with other people and be like, man, did you find this thing? Like, like, does this make sense to you? Like, like, did you did you uncover this part of it? Or like the black monolith at the very end or like everybody. Oh, my God. They had this gigantic forum trying to figure out like solutions to they're basically brute forcing different codes toward the end to figure out what the heck that all even meant. Yeah. God, that game was good.

[00:50:46] I think I don't remember any other game. It was good to be boy, but it was good. Yeah. Before we get to our next batch of picks, should we take an ad break and hear from our sponsor? Sure. I need to grab a bottle of water as well. That's fine. I need to grab a sweater or something because it's cold down here. A little chilly. You chilly, buddy? Well, bear back.

[00:51:16] Have you ever have you ever needed? Yeah. Have you ever needed transportation? Now, I guess on demand, like whenever the hell you need it, like like an Uber. No, this is quicker than an Uber. So an Uber, you dial you you text him. You're like, hey, don't can I get a ride to like KFC? And they'll be like, yeah, I'll be I'll be there in like 30 minutes. No, not anymore. Disposable cars. You got to take a car out of your pocket. It's like it's like a folded up like piece of paper.

[00:51:46] Like a dinky. I don't know what the fuck that is. All right. Yeah. Wait, you don't have dinkies over there. Is it like a hot wheel? Like hot wheels? Yeah. Okay. Like shrinky dinks. Oh, never mind. Oh, shrinky dinks are good, too. I'll get out of this. Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. So you take a little disposable car out of your pocket. You just kind of shrinky dink out. Yeah. You just toss it on the ground. Sprinkle some water on it or you can spit on it, too, I guess, if you want. And then give it on that thing.

[00:52:13] Don't bring spit girl into this. Spit girl. This episode brought to you by spit girl. Spit girl. Yeah. So, yeah, just add a little bit of hydration to this here little car and give it like maybe 30 minutes. And all of a sudden, you get a full-sized car ready to go. And whenever you get to where you're going, just leave it there. And eventually it'll shrink again. And then it's biodegradable. So, done. Yeah. It's kind of like they took the technology from – I don't know if you guys remember

[00:52:43] the – remember those like dinosaurs that you would get like in an egg and then you put it in water and then it would grow? It's kind of like that. It's just a car version of that. But you just have to make sure that you put it somewhere where it can dry out because if it's raining, it's just going to keep growing. And we have heard that there are problems on the street because these things just keep getting bigger and bigger. There's actually – Like your apartment building and the cars next to them and then – Yeah. There's a real problem with one in central Iowa right now.

[00:53:13] There's just a disposable car. I'm currently recording from inside of it. Yeah. It's a problem. But it's fine. You just got to make sure that you keep it dry. Like get it wet and then get it dry. It's kind of like – it's like a reverse gremlin. Reverse gremlin. That's the episode title. Reverse gremlin. It's a reverse gremlin. And for Christ's sake, do not feed it after midnight. Don't feed it at all. Please don't. Please don't. Yeah. The car will ask you. It'll converse with you.

[00:53:42] It does have like smart technology. It'll have a computer thing inside of it. It'll ask you like, can I have a sandwich? But in like a robot voice like, can I please have a sandwich? Beep, boop. And then you'd be like, no. Which is horrifying because it knows how to talk normally. But it does that because it thinks that it'll trick us. But we just have to be smarter. We have to be smarter than the disposable cars. That's right. That's right. So yeah. If you ever – you can buy them in a six-pack, like a blister pack kind of thing. We also have little like the Altoids mints.

[00:54:12] They have like tins full of them. You can buy one for like 30 bucks. Just, you know, again, toss them on the ground. Please, for the love of God, put – they come with like a little cover as well too, like a little capsule. So when you're done, you just shove them into the capsule. Well, no, I guess because they'd still be – they'd still be big. Anyway, Emily, Kate, what do you guys think about disposable cars? I mean – I think I got to get one. I want the pack in the Altoids tin. Like what if we all just used these instead of our normal cars? Like what kind of a difference would that make in the world?

[00:54:42] Would it be better or worse? I don't know. A big one. Yeah. No more junkyards. No more junkyards. No more rusted metal sitting around. It's just – the car will just dehydrate and then it'll just – into dust. Are there different flavors of the car? Like could one of them be a PT Cruiser with wood paneling or no? Kate, I'm glad that you asked this question.

[00:55:02] Listen, I'm very pleased to say that if you do use the checkout code at the disposable car website, which is SuperPodChristAlive, if you use that code at the checkout, you will get the DLC pack for this offer. And what it is is it comes with a couple different flavors. And if you pour those flavors on the car, they kind of – they will turn into different things. There isn't one for a PT Cruiser. PT Cruisers have been banned. With wood paneling was what I wanted.

[00:55:32] PT Cruiser with wood paneling. As somebody that used to drive around in a PT Cruiser, for real, not joking, they should not – like – I think we probably could. We could talk to the developers and say like, hey – The developers? Whatever. Don't try to eat them though. Yeah, definitely do not try to eat the disposable. I was going to actually – that was going to be my next question was you can't feed it, but can you eat it?

[00:56:02] And no to both? Only with alcohol. Only consume with alcohol because the alcohol, what it does is it dehydrates it as it's going through your digestive system. I don't know if that's what alcohol actually does, but it does for the disposable cars. So make sure you consume tons and tons of alcohol when you're eating a disposable car. Perfect. Perfect. It's just what the doctor ordered. Yeah. Yeah. Or I guess when it's a grown car, like a fully grown adult car, you could maybe take a bite out of it.

[00:56:31] It's just disposable. Yeah. It's biodegradable. Just eat like one of the side mirrors or something. Oh. That would be a good snack. Yeah. Is there anything in the glove compartment? Do you – The owner's manual. That's where it eats. That's where you don't want to – Don't touch the glove compartment. That's the mouth. Like it flaps down. It's talking like, hey, Jerry, give me a sandwich. If it asks you to put something in its trunk, don't do that. Don't. Don't.

[00:56:59] It doesn't have a trunk, if you know what I'm saying. But there's something there. But if it's like, hey, please put your suitcase in my trunk, don't – it's got a backseat for that. Don't do it. Okay. Don't let it fool you. But yeah. I mean, I would also encourage people to try out different things to pour on it. Like, I mean, you could throw a liquid IV on there. Maybe it runs a little faster. Ooh. Okay. Protein shake. Protein shake. You get that nice buff.

[00:57:28] They'll turn into a Hummer. That's just a Hummer. That absolute yoked disposable car. Yeah. I mean, there's other things that you probably could put on it. Coffee if you want to go fast. Coffee if you want to go vroom vroom. Ooh. There you go. That's good. Yeah. That's good. You could put holy water on it, and it literally makes like that Popemobile that has like the bulletproof glass. Disposable Popemobile.

[00:57:56] We were also talking about the disposable cars being edible because they're made of biodegradable materials, which – I mean, kind of biodegradable. Kind of equals edible in our book on Super Pod Socket here, folks. Yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah. I mean, if you're hungry, you take a bit out of like the dashboard and just like gnawing it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. The thing is like you're already seeing there's a turnover because people are starting to discover

[00:58:24] the disposable car, so they don't need like these smart cars. So, like I don't know if you notice like people have been burning Teslas and stuff lately and like just trashing Tesla because we don't need them anymore. We have disposable – Oh, and that's why. That's why. Yes. I don't know if you guys are – It all makes sense now. Like the disposable car is far more intelligent than any smart car out there. It learns. It actively learns as you drive it. That's why they're disposable. So, they don't learn too much. We have to kill them. And then become fully sentient. I'm here to say that. And take over the world. Yeah.

[00:58:52] They are meant to die at the end of that car ride. That's the slogan. They're meant to die. Disposable cars. And then like a graphic like, born to die. Yeah. Now, is that superpodcrystalive.com or is it superpod.crystalive? Superpod forward slash Christalive forward slash – Meant to die. Meant to die.

[00:59:22] Born to die. Here to serve. Born to die. Drive me, please. Feed me chicken. That sounds like the New Hampshire license plate almost to a T. Thanks, chicken and disposable cars for sponsoring this episode.

[00:59:52] Jerry, are we back? Yeah. Yep. We are. We all drove our fleet, our convoy even, of disposable cars. Back to the studio. We're back. Yep. I need a breather after – oh, my God. Meant to die. Really ruined my insides. Oh, who wants to go next? I don't know. I think – I feel like, Aaron, it's your turn because we heard Super Meat Boy last, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay.

[01:00:22] So, Shovel Knight was another – What's that? Another really huge one. Another really huge one that got me into indie gaming. I don't recall if this was ever on 360, but on the days of the Xbox One, I don't think I played – like, when it first came out, I think all I played was, like, Titanfall almost religiously and just a bunch of other games. Did you not play this on 3DS? That's where I first played it. No, I didn't have a 3DS back then because I was a console man. I was an Xbox man. But I've since changed my ways.

[01:00:52] But, yeah, Shovel Knight played it on the Xbox One at first, and I could – I played it over and over and over, and I could speedrun the first level like nobody's business. None of the other levels, though, because they were too hard for my little baby brain back then. I was, like, 22. Shovel Knight was just – it had that whole NES aesthetic, but without the, like, the jankiness that comes with most NES games, they had all the cool characters like Specter Knight. Oh, what was his name?

[01:01:22] There's Polar Knight. King Knight. King Knight. Yeah, the king. I forget who, like, the potion-making one was. He was really, really cool, too. And then they were just slapping out DLC after DLC after DLC. Like, they added – you could play us all these different characters. And they had the cool fucking card game, Joustus. It's really, really good. And, yeah, Shovel Knight is just one of my favorite games ever. It's just – it's way too good. I really wish that they would make, like, a straight-up Shovel Knight 2 or something.

[01:01:52] Because, like, they've been – yeah, I feel like they've been just doing DLC – even though those DLCs are, like, kind of games in and of themselves. But I would like to just see, like, a new – like, Super Meatpoint. Shovel Knight. Like, I want to see a Shovel Knight 2. Show me the Shovel Knight 2. That'd be cool, man. Make it 16-bit. Yeah. Put them in the 16-bit world. Oh, and the soundtrack for Shovel Knight is – Oh, it's insane.

[01:02:21] Just one of the best. As a Mega Man enjoyer, it was really – it was doing it for me. It's got that really hype Mega Man energy. Yeah, that – I mean, that intro stage, like, the – you just hear that song kick in, and you're like, oh, shit. Dun-dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. Am I taking you there, Jerry? Nailed it. Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun. Yeah.

[01:02:47] Right as soon as you pop into a stage for Shovelry, and then those little scenes in between where he's at a campfire, and he's dreaming about rescuing Shield Knight or whatever from – I forgot what the witch's name is. Those were really, really cool. Just to – and the – oh, man, all the cool side shit that you could do on the world map. Like, you could fight the – oh, I'm blanking on every single character's name. There was, like, the bigger guy you could fight. There was the tiny, like, Dark Knight, I think. I don't know.

[01:03:17] It's just a really good game, man. Shovel Knight is just so good. It really got me going back into indie games on the Xbox One, and really good. It's a good example, too, of, like, how that game takes cues from so many other games. But at the time, it was like, no AAA studio is going to make a game like this. And that's why I think it's so important that these games keep coming out, because it's like, when some of these companies started realizing, like, oh, people want this shit?

[01:03:45] Like, they want, like, an 8-bit 2D side-scrolling game? And, like, it borrows from, like, DuckTales on NES of all things. Oh, yeah. With the downward, like, hit. And, yeah, it was just – I love indie games so much. Shovel Knight's so good. Shovel Knight's so good. Game step. So I missed it back in the day. I played a bunch of the games that kind of, like, you know, surrounded it in the little pantheon of, like, 20, you know, late 2000s, early 2010s indie games.

[01:04:14] Is it worth now going back to? Do you feel like it would hold up as a new player getting into it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Especially if you enjoy, like, a 2D side-scroller. Like an action platformer. Yeah. If you're into that kind of thing, it's, like, among the best. Again, I'm a huge Mega Man, like, fanboy. And it's up there with some of the best Mega Man games. Like, it's that sort of type.

[01:04:44] And it's not, like, it's not a Metroidvania. There's a little bit of, like, you can backtrack and stuff and find secrets and stuff like that. Oh, yeah. Because there's different suits of armor that you can get that do different things, whether it increases your max, like, magic points or makes you immune to spikes. There's different shovels you can equip that do different cool things. There's all sorts of different, like, secondary weapons you can get. Like, a wand that shoots a fireball, I think. And then there's one that encases you in a bubble, I believe.

[01:05:14] No, I'm probably thinking about the wrong game, I think. But, yeah. There's a lot of customization to it. And there's lots of really cool characters. You can tell the game is just chock full of cool characters. And, like, all the DLC, too, you play as different knights. So, like, some of them feel very similar to playing a shovel knight. But then, like, there's another, like, who's the Reaper one? Spectre. Which one is that? Yeah, Spectre. Spectre of Torment.

[01:05:43] That's a completely different, like, you're... Yeah. It's a completely different moveset. You have to think about how you play these levels with this character, with their moveset, differently than when you would with Shovel Knight. And it's a... They operate differently. It's a full-blown extra game, too. Because, like, just original Shovel Knight, you have, like, I think six or seven worlds to go through. The DLC ones, I mean, you don't have, like, six or seven.

[01:06:10] There's probably five, but it's still enough to feel like an entirely separate game with a whole new character, with a new moveset, even new characters. Like, they have their own different hub world as well. And, yeah, it's... And the card game on the King of Cards expansion, I think is what it's called. It's so good. The card game is so good. Yeah, it's never a bad time to jump into Shovel Knight. Yeah. I'd try it, for sure. Hell yeah. Do it. Yeah. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it now!

[01:06:36] So, Kate, Emily, do you, both of you, enjoy horror games? Oh, yeah. Big fans of horror games over here. Have you played or seen Visage? Yes. I haven't played it myself, but I've watched most of a playthrough. I haven't played it, but I looked it up when I saw it on your list. Looks really scary. It is terrifying.

[01:07:03] I was going to put PT on this list because PT was, like, the start of something new, again, with, like, horror games. But then Aaron was like, eh, it was developed by Konami. Like, it's not an indie thing. And I was like, ah, shit. But then I thought about it and I was like, well, Visage is pretty much, like, the first full-length game that came out that was like, we're going to do the PT thing.

[01:07:27] Like, we're going to make something extremely scary with, like, hyper-realism. And yeah, this game, I mean, it starts off and sets the stage with, like, probably one of the most disturbing intros to any game I've ever seen. Like, it is rough. I would preface this by saying, if you're into horror games, but, like, there's certain things that, you know, you might feel a little triggered on.

[01:07:54] Like, there's some heavy shit in Visage, but it's a really crazy game. Yeah, I was going to, like, kind of clump that and, like, Slender the Eight Pages together because, like, I feel like Slender also kind of started this new, like, that walking simulator, like, not a walking simulator, but, like, just you're walking and collecting things before something comes and gets you. Like, that was one of those first ones. I leapt over the back of my couch playing Slender the Eight Pages. Whoa.

[01:08:24] Yeah. Oh, God. I want to have that experience. You're just like, holy shit, that's scary. It wasn't on my list, but, I mean, if I'm thinking about recently, and I mean, I'm fairly desensitized to a lot of horror stuff because I put myself through torture and I watch really fucking crazy movies and stuff, and, like, I try to play a lot of the games, but I have

[01:08:51] not been as scared in my adult life as I have been playing the mortuary system. Yeah. Yeah, man. I cannot finish that game. I'm so scared of that game. You know what? I don't like the not knowing. Thank God for indie devs and them. Yes. Thank God for them making all of these cool horror games because I can't recall a good,

[01:09:19] like, AAA horror game from around that time. They're really, because, I mean, Silent Hill was going pretty downhill at the time with, like, Homecoming and Downpour. Like, they were, we had Resident Evil 6. I like those games, but they're not good. Resident Evil 6 around that time? Resident Evil 6. Oh, my God. That was going downhill. But, yeah. Slender, Amnesia, Visage, or I guess I don't remember when Visage came out, but, yeah, games like those. That's how long ago. A couple years. They really kept horror games going.

[01:09:48] Oh, and, like, Outlast. I think that was an indie game, wasn't it? Oh, dude. Outlast scared the shit out of me when that came out. Like, the Handycam stuff? Yeah, dude. Oh, shit. Someone made a found footage game. Yeah, dude. Indie devs. Doing what the big AAA boys won't, and that's, I think that's why I enjoy indie games so much. Have any of you seen that game that you can't make a sound? Oh, what is that one called?

[01:10:17] It's called, I think it's called Don't Scream. Yeah. Don't scream. Yeah. It's, like, hyper-realistic looking. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It looks like a body cam or something. That, I don't know if I could do that shit, man. Like, that's so above. I mean, I even go as far as saying, like, I am pretty good with horror games, but some of these horror games are just. Have you not seen this game, Aaron? No, I've never heard of this, but I'm looking at it now. Microphone required in all caps. Yes.

[01:10:48] You have to turn your microphone on. I think you can set the threshold, but, like, the default threshold is pretty quiet, too. Like, you really have to not be making this. You have to not react to what's happening, which, obviously, then they set the challenge and then try to meet it. So, it gets pretty intense. I just feel like indie games and horror go together so well. And I think that's true in film, too, right?

[01:11:14] Like, indie film and horror film have been, like, besties for a long time. Yes. To do such good things. I think the fact that, you know, devs get to pick the niche that they want to focus on, whether it's the narrative, whether it's kind of a, I don't want to call don't scream gimmicky, but it is like a really specific, narrow mechanic, right? That they're kind of after. And just pursue that. And it doesn't have to be a long game.

[01:11:43] It doesn't have to be, you know, particularly complex. But then through word of mouth, through, like, holy shit, this is the craziest thing I've played. You know, like, it spreads. And I think it just produces, like you said, stuff that AAA is just never going to, they're never going to let a studio either get so niche and focused or take such a, like, innovative idea and expand it into something that's going to be like a full-fledged AAA title. Yeah.

[01:12:11] And it's just, I think they're, like, indie and horror are so intrinsically tied to me. Yeah. For sure. It's a good place to be. Well, I can take us to a, oh, sorry. Go ahead, Emily. I was going to say, I'd love to hear Kate talk about Firewatch. That's where I was going to take us next. We're so in sync. Oh, yeah. I was going to say that or Dream Daddy. I've never heard of that before. That sounds cool. Dream Daddy, yeah. I forgot to put the full title of that game, which actually it's called Dream Daddy, the Dad Dating Simulator. Oh, I have heard of this.

[01:12:41] Okay. Yeah, it's pretty. It's my Game Grumps, right? Yes. Who also did a great horror game called Home Body. Home Body. Which everyone, did you play that? I just recently played that with Beth. She watched me play it from start to finish and we were like, this game has no right to be this crazy. Like, this is a wild. It's so scary. Yeah, it's creepy as hell. Yeah, it's a great game. Such a cool, like, time loop thing, too, going on there. Yeah, a real big departure from Dream Daddy for them.

[01:13:07] But I can talk about Firewatch because we are on that horror walking sim, which I feel like Firewatch is not a horror game, but it does have moments of tension. It goes places. Oh, Emily would like to say. I would like to say I felt like it was. It is like, I mean, the reason why it's on my list is because it was one of the first indie games I played. And I remember being like, whoa, a video game can be like this? Like, that's kind of wild. And I was so sucked in.

[01:13:37] And we were talking about this earlier, but it just feels different. Like, you're having an experience and you're like, this feels different from something else that I've experienced before. I got so sucked in that I played the whole thing, I think, in like two days over a weekend, which is fast for me. But yeah, great, great game. I'm assuming everyone here is familiar with it. But I just think its depictions of wilderness are really beautiful. But more than that, like very simple story set up and mechanic by just being able to communicate via walkie talkie with your coworker.

[01:14:06] Also some really great coworker flirting going on in that game. Tensions rising. But there's just a lot of mystery as well. And it's a mystery story that I was really invested in, which is kind of unique for me. Yeah, I don't know. What do y'all think about Firewatch? Any Firewatch fans in the house? I loved it, yeah. I've only played it once when it first came out. But I do remember really, really enjoying it.

[01:14:34] The storytelling in that game is really well done. And the acting is fantastic. The voice acting is really, really phenomenal. And yeah, I feel like it's just one of those things that once they give you a little bit of information, you just have to keep going to figure out what is actually going on. And it's a beautiful, beautiful walking sim. I think it came out, I want to say 2016, but I could be wrong. Holy shit, has it been that long? I feel like it, yeah.

[01:15:04] It was either like 2016 or 2018. And I know they're- 2017? Maybe. Yeah, somewhere in there. They're working on their next game right now and it's coming out in like 2029 or something like that. It was February 9th, 2016. 2016, yeah. Yeah, February 9th. So like pretty much 2015. Like it's like 10 years old now. Which I don't think it- I mean, I didn't grow up gaming, but it doesn't feel that old to me when I play it. Because we replayed it recently for our show or like a year ago.

[01:15:34] And I just think it's a great- I think it's an indie game classic, really. I think it's a great game. Yeah, it is really good. I would highly encourage- if anybody's listening to this and you've only ever heard of Firewatch, but you haven't actually played it, it's not a terribly long game. Like you can probably finish it like over a weekend. I think Emily played most of it in one night. And maybe that's also why it felt really scary to you.

[01:16:01] Look, if you're in the woods and you have this feeling of being watched, that's horror to me. You do kind of get that feeling playing the game. Like you're like, I'm being watched. And then you can stumble upon some really sad and horrific things in this game. So it's- but it's also got a lot of like heart and kind of slice of life almost. So it's got a lot going on. They do a lot really well. Yeah, it does really well.

[01:16:27] I've never actually played this game, but my old co-host Tommy, he talked about this game all the time. And he kind of spoiled the whole story for me. I don't know if it was on accident or if I gave him permission or not. But either way, I mean, yeah, I've heard a lot about it. It sounds good. The story sounds good. I've heard like the choice that you can make toward the end or something like that. There's some choice regarding the co-worker. I don't know. I'm not going to say anything about it, but yeah, it sounds good. Yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah.

[01:16:55] It's funny, Emily, you said that you sat down and played this thing like straight through. Yeah. On stream too. So cheer me on. The last time that I did that with an indie game was with mouth washing. Also did that all in one stream. I wasn't streaming. I was like one evening, Beth was like, hey, want to hang out? Like throw something on that you want to play and I'll watch. I was like, all right.

[01:17:23] I've heard picked up this mouth washing game and keep hearing how crazy it is. Fucking love mouth wash. And I we were like halfway through and I was like, I want to go to bed. I, I, this game is fucked. Yeah. The story in that. And like, she got like hooked instantly because of the way, like the storytelling and like all the vignettes of like going back and forth and being like, what, like what timeline are we on right now?

[01:17:50] Like there was so much crazy shit going on. But like, as I'm playing, she's looking things up, like not to spoil, but like she's looking little details up and like going, oh, you know that when they said that thing, it was actually, it meant this thing. And it's because of that thing. And I was like, what? I know that's super vague sounding, but like, I don't, I don't want to give anything away from mouth washing. Cause I haven't played it yet. You haven't. No, I remember I bought it, but I haven't played it yet.

[01:18:20] But you didn't have it spoiled for you, did you? No. You should do that. It's good in one sitting for sure. Like I think I played it over two days, but yeah, you could definitely play it in one sitting. I would, I would recommend doing it in one sitting. It's only like two hours long. Oh, it's not terrible. No. And yeah, there's just so many jaw dropping moments in that game. Like happy birthday. That, that was something else. Holy shit.

[01:18:51] Tomorrow. Maybe. No, you fucking play it tonight. Okay. Fine. All right. Hey, so sorry. Dream daddy. Oh, we want to get, we'll get, we can get right into it. Yeah. It's really, please, please. There's not much going on here, but it is one of, again, so one of the first indie games that I played and I've always wanted to be a dad, like literally. And I always wanted to be a hot dad that dates other dads.

[01:19:18] And this game gave me the ability to live out my, my dreams of that dreams. My dad dreams. Um, it's also got a great theme song by baths, who is one of my favorite, like indie, uh, artists. Um, so in this game, you, like I said, play as a dad dating other dads, but what's so cool about it is you get to build your dad. So you get to build like this ideal hot version of yourself and you can also name yourself.

[01:19:46] So I feel like I was in a stream where we named, it was either my dad or my friend's dad, where we named him Mike Hawk, um, M I K E space H A W K. So you get to name your dad, you get to, to, yeah, I feel like it's just, and the, the character design options are also very inclusive and cool. Um, this is obviously a, a LGBTQ plus friendly game, but the, the other cool thing is like, there's this actually like really heartfelt narrative.

[01:20:15] Like you're a single dad and you're just trying to take care of your kid and you move to a new town. So the other dads are kind of helping you to like, um, acclimate to this place that you just moved and you can choose between like whatever flavor of dad you want to date. Like there's a goth daddy. There's a goth daddy. Right? Give me that goth daddy all day. Hey, barista coffee shop, um, indie rock band daddy. Damn it. Wait. There's, um, jock daddy. Preppy golf. Preppy golf dad. Nah.

[01:20:45] No, you sold me a barista. Preppy golf dad can get fucked. I don't want that in my life. There's all flavors. There's something for everyone to enjoy. So that's why I like the game so much. Choose your flavor of dad. Come, come taste our dads. We have so many selections of dads that you can come taste. Just like disposable cars. It is like, it is great because it has the like hot funny stuff going on, but it also is just such a sincere and cute story about a dad that's just trying to find his way.

[01:21:13] So yeah, it's a great game to stream too. If you have a Twitch community because they get really into like the narrative and helping you design your dad. It's some great character customization. So this was actually the game that got me into the dating sim genre, which I'm quite a fan of. Not so much anymore, but kind of my roots all started with dream daddy. Have you played coffee talk? Yes. Or the KFC one? Emily's played the KFC one. Yeah. Wait, I thought you, I thought that was just like an Aaron off the cuff joke.

[01:21:43] There's a KFC coffee talk. Yeah. It's like, I love you. Colonel Sanders. KFC. No, it's not. It is. What? It's free on Steam. What? It's free on Steam. It's called essentially. I love you. Marketing material. It's essentially a big long ad in the form of a dating sim. Is it called? I love you, Colonel Sanders or something like that? I love you, Colonel Sanders. That was, that came around. And you're trying to date the colonel. Holy shit. That came out around the time. He looks good. He does look good. Hot.

[01:22:12] He does look lazy. Fuck. I think that was around the time all those rumors about the KFC. console were coming out too. But yeah, it's pretty cool. A finger licking good dating simulator. Damn right, dude. Holy shit. Play it on stream. It's pretty cool. Publisher. KFC. What the fuck, dude?

[01:22:40] What other games has KFC published? Oh, just that? Big surprise. Guys. I didn't know if they were backing Silent Hill F or anything. They put the F in Silent Hill F. Silent Hill Colonel or something like that. It's for fried. Fried. Silent Hill fried chicken. You want that Silent Hill extra crispy? Oh my God. Silent Hill fried chicken would be disgusting, right? That we would like have bugs and stuff in it. I don't know. You could try it.

[01:23:10] I don't know if I would. I mean, if I was stuck in Silent Hill, maybe I would. But like, I don't think I would travel to Silent Hill to try their fried chicken. Fried chicken. No, I don't think I'd do that. That one kid got pizza that one time. And what? Silent Hill 2? He had a pizza somehow? Yeah. Yeah. What's his name? What was his name? Why? It's escaping me right now. Randy? I knew it was a Y name. God damn it. Yeah, he was a troubled soul.

[01:23:39] Kind of a piece of shit. He loved pizza though. Eddie, what are you doing? How could you just stand there eating pizza? Oh God. Yep. Should we all go out on like our last one? Yeah. Let's do one last one. I've said all mine, but one. Emily, I feel like I didn't. You did Super Meat Boy last, right? God, I've been calling audibles to my little list here, so I've added several more.

[01:24:09] I'm cheating again with my last one, which is Octodad. And so I'm actually going to shout out two games here because my first exposure to Octodad was not Dadliest Catch, which came out in 2014. It was actually the student game, which came out in, I think, 2010? What? Yes. So Young Horses, the original, I think part of the original crew of Young Horses met at

[01:24:38] DePaul University and they put together this game, Octodad for a Game Jam. And they also put it out for free. And so I was like in college in 2011. And I think I discovered it on Reddit and played it on my little laptop in my dorm room. And I was just like, holy shit, this is a video. I had one of those moments like Kate was describing where I was like, this is a video game too?

[01:25:07] Like, interesting. I felt like that was a time where all the AAA developers were so focused on like kind of catching up with the technology advancements of like, we can make things realistic. We can make things run faster performance, you know, optimization. And this was just so just going against that so strongly and like, let's make something that's fucking weird. That's intentionally difficult to play. You have to control all four functioning limbs, essentially, of this octopus man in a suit.

[01:25:37] And what are you trying to do? You're trying to serve your kids like their breakfast cereal. But it's so goddamn hard because you have to like, maneuver your squiggly little arms all over the place to like open the cabinet. It's like quop on like fucking steroids. Oh my god. Yeah. But I think with so much more personality and charm and everything. So I remember playing that in college. And then I was just really delighted when they got together and like made a full game.

[01:26:07] Dadliest Catch was so fun. And like they improved on a lot of things. They polished everything up. But you can actually go and play the student edition for free on Steam. Oh, really? So, yeah. So if you want like a little time capsule of an indie game, it's a really fun one to go check out. I agree. Nice. It is good. Finger looking good even. Stir rope KFC back into this. It always comes back to the KFC.

[01:26:40] Sorry. Kate, your last one here? Yeah. I've been meaning to play this. Oh, dude. It's so good. It's really good. Our homeboy Mae loves that. I'll just say like, yeah. Sayonara, Wild Hearts, Spice and MoGo. I feel like I don't remember when this came out. I want to say 2019. 2019. It is a indie pop video game album. And so really you're playing through each track in a fantastical world of hearts. And it's kind of like Mario Kart, like a lot of it.

[01:27:09] It's actually not like Mario Kart at all. I don't know. You're driving. You're driving on motorcycles. You're and it's kind of all telling you this story of a woman who had her heart broken. And this is kind of like her fool's journey. There's a lot of tarot card symbolism within it, which I'm not even super into. Honestly, it's more just like I like to go fast and collect little hearts. And I like the sound that it makes when you get the hearts. This is a cool game because it's a one button game. So it's a great introduction to indie games.

[01:27:39] I've shown this game to a lot of people to be like, hey, did you ever think that this could be a video game that you could play? Well, here you go. And yeah, super accessible. But if you want to make it really challenging, it's wicked hard to get the gold ranks, I feel like. So it has the potential to be quite challenging. But I just love the music. I listen to the soundtrack of this game once a week at minimum. So I think it's best played going in not knowing anything and just like plug it into.

[01:28:06] If you have a big TV, like dock the switch, pull it up on the PlayStation, whatever. Turn off all the lights, turn the volume up and like go to town. It's a it's a really wild experience. No pun intended. And you can finish it within an hour. Like you could pretty much play through the whole game within an hour and a half. So if you want to keep playing it, though, it's really hard to get all the ranks and 100 percent it. So I love it. Do you both enjoy a good short game as much as I do?

[01:28:37] It's my bread and butter. Yeah. I mean, I play lots of long games, but lately I'm just like, you know what? Give me that nice tight two to three hour game. I want to be able to just sit down on a weekend, get up, have a cup of coffee, throw this game on and beat it. And then yeah. You can do that with Sayonara. You got to report back if you play it soon. Report back. I expect a full report on my desk tomorrow morning, Jerry. Homework.

[01:29:06] It's funny. When you were talking about Octodad, I thought about something that I kind of missed for this entire episode. And that's VR indie games because I love VR games. And there's a lot of really crazy VR indie games. One of the ones. Have you guys ever played What the Golf? No, but I love What the Car more than anything. It's one of my favorite games.

[01:29:35] There's a What the Car? They. Yes. They made a VR game called What the Bat. And your hands are bats like baseball bats. And it starts off like those other games do. You know, you're just hitting a ball. But then eventually it's like, oh, I got to make breakfast and put the toast in the toaster with my bat hands. And then you're like trying to fumble with your bat hands. And then like you have to like brush your teeth with a bat hand.

[01:30:04] And like you're looking in this mirror and you're like, I don't understand what I'm supposed to do. And then you realize that like this elephant that's behind you in this mirror is only showing up in the mirror because if you turn around, it's not there. So you got to like reach back. But look at the mirror and brush this elephant's teeth. It's wild. But yeah, I don't know why I completely dismissed VR games from the conversation. But there is a lot of really cool indie VR games. I would say. Yeah. Super hot. That super.

[01:30:34] Oh, my God. Super hot is amazing. All of these remind me of. Have any of you ever played Manuel Samuel? No. Oh, my God. So make that up. No, it's a game. Look at Manuel Samuel. It's just like you're this like rich, spoiled kid. And you die. And then the devil or whatever, the Grim Reaper. I forget who they send you back. And if you can live a whole day by controlling everything manually, like your breathing, your walking and grabbing shit. Oh, my God.

[01:31:03] Your individual fingers and shit. You can come back to life. And there's just all this stupid shit you have to do, like take a shower, drive a car. I think you have to control your breathing manually, blinking your eyes. Whoa. Making coffee. It's like Weekend at Bernie's, I guess. Yeah. It's wild. Emily, you have to play this one so I can watch. It's good. It's stupid. And the Grim Reaper, he's just this like skater, bro. He's like, whoa, what's up, man? Looks like you fucking died or whatever.

[01:31:33] And he's just watching me do this sick kickflip. And the entire time he's trying to get you to watch him do a kickflip, it's the funniest shit ever. That's all he wants. Yeah, I would check this out. Emily, please play this. Oh, that's great. I will. The last game that I had on my list, though, is Spelunky. Ooh.

[01:31:57] And I don't know if I've ever had more fun with a couch co-op game than I have with Spelunky. Hmm. Just because it's so unpredictable and like so chaotic. And it's I mean, if you get good at this game, you can you can do a run like in an hour. And there you go. You got to beat.

[01:32:20] But like it takes so long to figure out all the little tricks and like, oh, we're in this biome now. And so like we have to be careful of this whole thing and got to be careful. Like, you know, like then you always got like one friend. Like I play with one one friend of mine who's like so fucking hasty. And he's just always running around whipping shit like he'll whip. He'll be like, oh, shit, a bat. And he hits me. I go flying like a pot breaks. He dies. Something blows up.

[01:32:50] We fucking piss off the shopkeeper. Like the shopkeeper is chasing us with a fucking shotgun. Oh, the shopkeeper. Oh, but I didn't die. I fell almost to my death, but I didn't die. He's dead up there. Now he's like, hey, get me back. I'll find my cough. And I'm like, dude, you fucking did this. And then I'm down on the bottom. And then it's like, oh, time's up. Ghost is coming. It's just it's so chaotic. I love that shit. It's so much fun. Yeah. Like, I don't know what else I could say about Spelunky, but. I feel like.

[01:33:19] Like for me, it's definitely one of the most influential indie games for me. That said, when I kind of went into this, I was thinking of things that were like visage is like one of the newer ones on my list.

[01:33:34] But then I was like, you know, if I was to say probably one of if I were to pick the best indie game that I can think of off the top of my head in like the last little while, it is fucking tunic. It's tunic. Oh, yeah. Every single goddamn day. And I have never experienced that childlike joy from playing a game the same way that tunic made me feel.

[01:34:01] Because if you don't know about tunic like you it's it's very much like a Zelda type game. But the instruction manual that's in the game is so much of the like what makes that game so magical because kind of like Fez you're you're learning as you go. And it's in a language that it's not English. It's just like glyphs. So like you have to learn by doing and like seeing and just kind of picking things apart.

[01:34:31] And like you get pages of this book that like you'll see like one page and it'll be like to do this thing. Just do this continued on the next page. And you're like, well, fuck the page is missing. Like I don't know how to do that. And like there's mechanics in the game that are right in front of your eyes the entire time. And we don't know how to do them until you're like you read like you see a page that's like, oh, yeah, if you hold this thing on this thing, this thing happens. And you're like, well, what the I could have done.

[01:34:59] I could I've could have done that from the start of this game. But you don't know that you can do certain things. So like the limitations are it's just such a. Have you have either of you played this game? I know the music. I love the music, but I've never played the game. The ending is insane. Please play Tunic, please. Is it on our list, Emily? I don't think it's on our featured game list. It might not. We should add it. It might not be on our list yet. Yeah. Yeah. It's been on my wish list for forever.

[01:35:29] I think it's one of those games that I'm kind of like just waiting for the right moment to play. I'm kind of having that problem right now with Animal Well, which I started last year and I've got a few hours in. But I'm like, I have this image in my head of what I want the experience to be playing it. And I just haven't had a moment that I can craft around making that happen. I feel that too. Yeah. I have those times where I'm like, oh, I really want to start this game. But I'm like, it's not it's not the moment. This is not the this is not the moment.

[01:35:58] Usually it's with RPGs, though, because I'm like, I don't want to spend 45 hours playing something. Here I am playing fucking Pokemon. Oh, you can just fly through that and like maybe maybe 10, 15 hours. If you just if you just you're out of your mind, you're out of your you're out of your mind. The Battle Frontier is really good. Do the Battle Frontier. No. OK.

[01:36:22] So before I move on to my last pick, I want to give a huge shout out to Spelunky because that was one of the I want to say like one of the first indie roguelikes that really like started the roguelike genre because that was back on the 360. And I can't recall any other kind of roguelike back then other than Spelunky and Spelunky is what got me really. I'm a huge roguelike guy deck builders more than anything. But roguelikes, I just I love them so fucking much. That's my bread and butter.

[01:36:51] Shout out to all those roguelikes I love so much. But my last pick, I'm going to lump them all together into into the one dev, the behemoth who made Castle Crashers, Alien Hominid, Battle Block Theater. All of those are blocks. So good. It's so fun. I love a good puzzle platformer. But Castle Crashers was the one I wrote down first because it's just it's nuts.

[01:37:14] It's it's so it's so fun to play, especially if you have friends, because like after you beat after you finish a stage, you'll do it out with your friends to see who gets I forget what the fuck you get. Don't you get like a special award if you kill your. Is that what you get? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Whoever wins gets to kiss the princess. And then there's all sorts of wild characters you can unlock, like the pink knight who their spell just shoots out this rainbow that arcs and arcs and arcs. And that's really cool. They have like I think it heals also.

[01:37:43] You can unlock the alien from Alien Hominid. All sorts of cool unlockables in there. The bosses are nuts like the catfish. It's just this giant gnarly cat chasing you while you're floating on like a log or other debris or something. And then Alien Hominid is just an insane, just wacky, fast paced run and gun game that I love so much as well, too. All of those games that that whole that whole studio is just so good.

[01:38:09] I've played, I think, a little bit of Pit People while it was in early access on Xbox. But oh, yeah, I forgot about that game. Didn't play a lot of it. But yeah, their games are always so good. The Behemoth is really cool. And it's cool that they started off as a like they were just on Newgrounds with Flash games, which is wild. Very Newgrounds vibes. Remember Newgrounds? That was a wild time going on Newgrounds. Yeah.

[01:38:38] Have either of you played Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers, or at least Battle Block Theater? I played a tiny bit of Castle Crashers like back in the day. I've never played any of them, but I've watched a lot of Castle Crashers. I have it on my wish list, so. Yeah. It's real fun. We'll have to play it all together sometime. I'm pretty sure it's on Steam. Oh, my God. That would be great. Oh, my God, yeah. It's a four-player call. Four-player, yeah. Hell yeah. What are we doing? What are we thinking? Let's play it right now. What are we doing? I'm sorry. Fucking close us off, Aaron.

[01:39:28] It's time. You know, it's the saddest part of the show. Every time we have to do this, we have to say goodbye. But it's the most generous time of the show, too, because we always like to give you our random recommended games. Hit it, Aaron. Random recommended games. Games. So, guests, this is where we throw out just a little random game that you highly recommend people play.

[01:39:56] Right now, as soon as they stop listening to this show, stop what you're doing and play these goddamn games. All fire picks. Solid picks across the board, by the way. It's so good. So, we'll let the guests go first. You guys can fight each other on who goes first between you. Just like Castle Crashers? Just like it. Kate, do you want to go first? Sure, I'll go first. I recommend Downwell.

[01:40:21] This is, if you like pain, if you like to be disappointed, if you want to suffer, play Downwell. But, yeah, if you like UFO 50, too, and if you like Velgress, you will love Downwell. You know how long it took you to finish Velgress. And it's really cheap. It's hard. Downwell is like $3. Oh, yeah, sorry. Again, another affordable pick. Downwell is $3, I'm hearing. It's 97 cents, actually, on Steam right now. It's 75% off. You're doing yourself a disservice by not buying it. Absolutely.

[01:40:51] I love it. It's my current addiction, so you just jump around and go down the well. I don't know if I'm supposed to explain the game. Just go get it. You explained it all. That's all it is, yeah. Can you beat this game? My friend actually just beat it. So, yeah, I know that it's possible. It did take him a really long time. Because it's run-based, right? Yes, yeah. I think, yes, it is. And it's just like Velgress, where when you die, you have to start all the way over. There's a certain number of levels, I think.

[01:41:20] By the way, I am so happy that somebody else besides myself has brought up UFO 50 on this podcast. They have a whole episode about it. I'm pretty sure, right? And so do you guys. I listened to your UFO 50 episode. Oh, I did too. Yeah. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, that was fun. Oh, we'll have to talk about Mooncat later. Mooncat, no. Mooncat, no. I feel validated. I feel very validated listening to you guys talk about that. Emily, your pick. Oh, God damn. I love this game also.

[01:41:50] Well, you just mentioned loving roguelikes and deck builders. If you like Slay the Spire, if you like roguelikes, but you're like, I'm tired of cards. Too many deck builders. Where I'm working with cards. Die in the Dungeon just came out a few weeks ago in early access. Adorable little frog, man. It's essentially Slay the Spire, but using dice. Yeah, you get to be a cute little frog guy. The frog's cute. He's awesome.

[01:42:15] The die rolling mechanic and how you use the dice to attack and block and stuff. It's kind of wild. So it's not just a matter of just rolling dice. You kind of have to arrange them on a board. But it's really fun pixel art. Really cool concept. And it gets fucking hard. This frog looks amazing. He's looking at this video now. This frog looks amazing. I don't know if... Yes, that's Die in the Dungeon. I don't know if my brain can...

[01:42:43] Like, I always look at these types of games and I'm like, oh, I bet you this would be fun if I wasn't so stupid. Felt. I feel that so hard. Yeah. This next one's for you, Jerry. We're continuing... Holy shit. We're continuing on the roguelike train. Choo-choo! Evo-lings. It's like Pokemon, but it's a roguelike. So you start off by picking one of three or four... No, I think it's three Evo-lings. And at first, you're like... The pool of Evo-lings you can choose from is kind of small.

[01:43:12] But as you go through the game and beat more bosses and continue on, you'll unlock even more. And it's all simple at first. You have... I forget what the UFO one is called. But you have Peppermint, who is like a peppermint candy. And then you have this other guy who is like a little flame. This one guy's a UFO. This other guy's a rock. One's a stick of dynamite. You start off with just the base versions, but then you can combine two Evo-lings of the same type, like two peppermints to make a candy cane.

[01:43:38] And then candy cane and the goo guy to make a poison candy cane thing. And you can teach him new attacks. There's lots of strategy involved in combat because you can see what moves enemies are going to do before they do them. Kind of like Slay the Spire. So you can plan ahead. Make your guys defend. And attack them afterwards. Stuff like that. The music is like the same track over and over. And I hate it.

[01:44:06] But if you play with headphones and just put on some like, I don't know, Fear Factory or something or whatever your favorite music is. It's awesome. So Evo-lings. I think it's also on Steam. It's dirt fucking cheap. It's like three bucks. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's seven or eight bucks on Switch. But either way. Yeah. It's really good. I would really recommend Evo-lings. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Check it out. That's cool. So my random recommended game this week is a little game called Crow Country.

[01:44:36] Hell yeah. And this game speaks to me on so many levels. Number one, it's an indie game. Number two, it's a horror game. Number three, it looks like a fucking N64 game somehow. Hell yeah. Which to me is amazing. It's got like just like such good 3D assets, like nice chunky, like everything is so chunky looking in this game. Yeah. And like just has this really awesome old school aesthetic to it. And it's kind of creepy.

[01:45:05] Like it's actually kind of a creepy game. Like there's really cool like enemy designs and stuff. And like the gun combat and stuff is all very like Resident Evil in a way. Like clunky kind of? It's like a yes and no. I think it's tank controls, right? Yeah. You can put it on tank controls or you can have it as the free move. There's a part of me that almost wished that this game had fixed camera perspective because I actually enjoy tank controls.

[01:45:35] But because you can move the camera around, like I don't know, that was my only real gripe with this game is that you can move the camera around, which is a weird thing to have a gripe about. But like, yeah, I just I would have rather it been like because a lot of these like environments when you look at them, they almost look like the what's the what's the word I'm looking for, like in Final Fantasy seven, you know, you have like these. Oh, the pre rendered backgrounds. They look amazing and like all 3D and stuff. But it's almost like this game.

[01:46:05] Everything in this game looks like a pre rendered background. Like everything looks like it's pre rendered, but it's all like 3D. Yeah. But yeah, it's a it's a really cool game. It's not very long. And yeah, you just there's so many mechanics in this game that scream like classic survival horror. I mean, even the pause screen looks like a Resident Evil game. And yeah, there's like you get your map. You're crossing things off on your map as you're going to different places. There's like inventory management.

[01:46:33] It's it's it checks all of the boxes. If you're a fan of horror games and indie horror games, I would highly recommend this. Like if you're a fan of what was that other one? What was what was that one that the other top down one that like was sort of signalless signalless. Yeah, yeah, it's very much kind of in the same realm as that signal. This is a lot creepier and I think a little bit harder, but yeah, it's definitely check it out. Go go play these games right now.

[01:47:01] Turn this turn this podcast off and go play these games. But before we do that, before you turn this podcast off, you just just hang on to just two more seconds. You got to hear Emily and Kate tell us where you can find them and check them out on the internet. We are on the internet. Yeah. Get on the internet. We are all kinds of places. Should I go first, Kate? Okay. Once again, I'm Emily Merritt.

[01:47:27] You can find me online as at a specific egg. Most places. We're also online at no small games on blue sky. I'm personally also most active on blue sky. Hell yeah. Instagram. Kate, is no small games any on what are other socials? Is that it? Yeah. Instagram. Blue sky. Instagram.

[01:47:52] You can check us out at nosmallgames.com for all of our written content and all our episodes. We're also on Patreon, patreon.com slash nosmallgames. Nice. Yeah. And I'm cater blossom everywhere. K-A-T-E-R blossom. Yeah. Mostly on Instagram and blue sky as well. And I stream on Twitch. Sometimes we both stream on Twitch. If you want to find us at a specific egg and cater blossom on Twitch. And yeah, I think that's everything.

[01:48:21] Just thank you guys for having us. This was super fun. And I can't wait till we all get to play castle crashers together sometime. Oh, that's happening. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I have dibs on the red night though. So. Totally fair. Oh, okay. No. No. You don't just automatically get the red night. Fine. That's like, man. I used to fight kids in kindergarten over who like fucking, I'm going to be the red ranger. No, you're not being the red ranger.

[01:48:50] You can't just come out swinging, being like, I'm being the red ranger. Can't just pick that. Yeah. No, I'm on. You got to have a game of pogs or something in order to settle that argument. Oh boy. All right. That's it, everybody. Thanks for hanging out. Be sure to check out the Patreon again. Two or four dollars a month. Early access. Bonus episode or bonus blogs. They do blogs now. All that stuff. Check out superpodsocket.com for all of our stuff. You can find the guest stuff there too. We'll put in the show notes. All that. Listen to Super Ghost Radio too. Be sure to leave a review.

[01:49:20] Yeah. I did it one time. Yeah. Leave a rating review. Yeah. Be sure to tune in next time where Jerry beats a kid in pogs, takes his money, and it gets to be the red ranger or whatever. You hit too many childhood things. You just hit on way too. Fuck man. Did I unmit the crime? Yeah. Fucking. And then Aaron's going to be nicer to me next time. Next time on Super Podsocket.

[01:49:49] Everything's going to be nicer to me. Fucking asshole. I will be. That's it, everybody. Everybody say bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.