Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Game and Former Show, a
weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us each
and every week for a discussion on the latest gaming news, reviews,
and exclusive reviews with Game and Former staff and special
guests from around the industry. I am your host Marcus Stewart,
and joining us all the way back from his trip
to Planet ViOS is Kyle Hillier. And how are you, sir.
Speaker 2: I'm good. I really had a moment there where I
was like, I didn't go anywhere but recently, but I guess,
but also I did, which you'll read about in the
next issue. But I was like, it was all it
was very confusing for me until you said the word Viros, and.
Speaker 1: Then the fog began to clear. Yes, Viros, which is
of course the location of Metroid Prime for Beyond, which
is the big talker for this episode. Kyle reviewed the game.
His review is live on the site, and we're gonna
or I'm gonna be picking your brain about the game,
telling us all about how good or bad or in
between it is. I will be talking about my review
of Marvel Cosmic Invasion as well, and later in the show,
we're gonna have Charles Hart hop on to talk about
Kirby Air Riders, as well as a fun little indie
game called, Oh my gosh, what was the name of
a Detective?
Speaker 2: Oh no, oh, no, hold on, I know.
Speaker 1: The name of this game. Detective something, Colon something Something.
I'm actually pulling it up now. I thought I could.
Speaker 2: Remember Detective something something.
Speaker 1: You know the ones detective Right here it is Detective Instinct.
Farewell might beloved, a Phoenix Write inspired indie game that
has kind of been his his jam lately. So yes,
stay tuned for all of that. But of course, first
and foremost before we jump into Metro Prime four beyond.
If you want to support game and Former magazine, you
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the video version Kyle Hilliard holding up our latest issue
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you can, alongside everyone in the US go to newsstands
and storefronts because beginning this month, Game Informer is appearing
and bookstores such as Barnes and Nobles and Books a
Million and others in the US as well as most
other countries will say it's a long list.
Speaker 2: It's a shock. It's like it's a long list in
a way that's like that's awesome, you know. It was
like I was very excited to read that full list.
I didn't realize how long it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't confirm Canada, the UK, several European countries
as well as Japan. So yes, there. We have an
article on our website that's kind of pinned there, sort
of breaking down every country that we will be appearing
on newstands and bookstores. So I encourage you to go
to a game Informa dot com and check that out
if you have any questions if we're coming to your country,
But yes, that will begin rolling out this month. In fact,
I went to my Barnes and Noble yesterday at the
time of recording, and I found the Dragon Quest issue
there and I was very happy to see. It was
very surreal to see a thing that I helped write
in a bookstore. It was very It was kind of
as someone that aspires you to write a book one day,
it was kind of my first taste of what that
kind of feels like to be like, Oh, I can
go in here and be like I wrote in that there.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to do it. Tomorrow at the time of
this recording, I think I'm gonna hit up my local
Barnes and Noble and see if I can see if
I can see it, because like, as long as I've
been a game informed, we were in game stops obviously
during that time and will be again. Weirdly because of.
Speaker 3: This, but.
Speaker 2: Uh, we've never been on like newsstands as a publication
despite being you know, the biggest video game magazine in
the world for a period of time.
Speaker 1: You know, we could probably appear in movies. Like maybe
like in the background of what if there's a scene and.
Speaker 2: We haven't that's happened before, Marcus.
Speaker 1: Well, it can happen again. I guess it can happen again. Yeah,
like Spider Man Brand New Day, the next Spider Man movie,
maybe there's a scene where Peter's in New York and
he's like looking at the Daily vehgle at a stand
and maybe in the background you see the faintest hints
of a game in Former magazine.
Speaker 2: We can make that Spider Man issue. We'll break the
cannon apart.
Speaker 1: I mean Morbius did it in that one trailer would
have the Spider Man graffiti that wound up not being
in a movie or being referenced in any way whatsoever.
Speaker 2: Actually, you know this is an important aside, but like
if there were there's there could be a Spider Man
video game in the MCU, like he's a public figure
that children admire, Like that wouldn't be that weird, right.
Speaker 1: It's gonna yeah, Like doesn't in Fantastic four First Steps?
Isn't there like a Fantastic four cartoon like in Universe
haven't watched that movie.
Speaker 2: I'll take your I'll have to take your word on this.
Speaker 1: Okay, she goes, see it's good, good movie.
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 1: I like the Fantastic Four.
Speaker 2: I don't have any affection for the Fantastic Four. Honestly.
Maybe a background Disney Plus movie in the coming weeks.
You know, I'm on Christmas break, Holiday break, I'm like,
you know, doing maybe playing something on my switch. Maybe
I throw Fantastic four up on the TV and watch.
Speaker 1: The I mean, they are the key to phase five six?
What are we in now? Five?
Speaker 2: I think that I think that explained at all, right there, Mark.
Speaker 1: Face through me off so much. But they are the
key to the current phase. According to Marvel, they are
the focal point. They are the epicenter of whatever's gonna happen.
Avengers Doomsday. It's gonna be about them, you know, Doctor
Doom and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: So I do I know I'm being dismissive. I actually
do want to watch it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It's it's fun, right, It's a fun superhero movie.
Speaker 1: It's Central Pascal. Come on. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Speaking of things that are fun and also involve space, Actually,
Metroid Prime four Beyond it's out this week. It is
out now at the time you're listening to this you
can finally after So this game's first announced in twenty seventeen.
I think it was the Switch to like reveal, wasn't
it or it was not too far after that?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, it was definitely a Switch one game
for sure, or Switch one.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I meant say Switched one, Switch one reveal.
Sorry I got this, Yes, but it was Switched one reveal.
It was.
Speaker 2: It was just declari because like the Switch was launched
in March, and then E three of that year they
shared a Metroid Prime logo.
Speaker 1: Gotcha, Okay, yeah, I know it would launch the year
of launch for this Switch.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which is also I think the same year
that Banett of three was teased, and that also took forever,
and I think there was a time when both of
those games were sort of lost in the wind. I
think it would ask people like, what do you think
we get first, Banetto or or Metroid And I kind
of put my money on Metroid a bit, maybe because
it was Nintendo internally making it. It's like, no, they'll
pushed out.
Speaker 2: The door that it never was. It was like pulling teeth,
but we did finally get Nintendo to admit that Bandy
Namco was making it.
Speaker 1: I remember it was like cyber Connect.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it wasn't it.
Speaker 2: Home Maybe I know it was Bandy Namco, but I
don't know if it was like a sub Bandy Namco company.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, you couldn't have called on when you were
taking those bets of right, like Bandetta versus Metroid you
would You never would have the idea that they would
just like start from scratch a few years into development,
like start over with retro you know. Yeah, but it's here.
It's it's it's been eighteen years since Metroid Prime three,
which is crazy. Yeah, that is so wild. Yeah, but
I mean it's my my headline for the review is
worth the wait because it is good. It is a
great entry in the Metroid Prime series. It is not
like it's not this like crazy innovative entry. It doesn't
like rethink the things that have been working since the
first Metroid Prime. It's just a really solid continuation of
that series. Like it retro the developer, like they made
those three games Metroid Prime one, two, and three, and
then like this feels like they haven't really you know,
lost their sort of rhythm, if that makes sense. Right,
Like it doesn't feel like they forgot how to make
a Metroid game.
Speaker 1: It seems like based on your review outside of this
kind of like the unique things that this game introduces,
this is a good like meat and potatoes Metroid Prime game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the big the big change, I guess
is like the motorcycle, and what that really amounts to
is like the best, the easiest, Like Shorthand is like
it is the Okarina of time structure where there's high
role field in the middle and you can ride Epona
from the points of interest that you need to get to.
That's basically what's happening in Metroid Prime.
Speaker 3: For Beyond.
Speaker 2: You have like your four sort of you know levels,
your four areas that you need to like explore in
depth and find upgrades and fight a boss and things
like that, and then you hop on the motorcycle in
the desert in between those areas to ride around, and
like there's a couple of things in that desert, like
some upgrades and a few little puzzles. But it's not
you know, we're not talking you know, shrines in Zelda
or anything like that, you know, like where they're just
kind of like there's just like I think there's like
four things to find. Otherwise it's just a hub area
and you're collecting like these green crystals. You're just driving
over them with your motorcycle. It's like it's like a
perpetual assignment throughout the course of the game, is like
collect these green crystals and like build this bank over
the course of the game. Which is one of the
things that kind of bugged me a little bit is
at the end, you'll hit a point where it they'll
be like, hey, you need to collect this many green crystals.
I know you've been collecting them the whole game, but
you're still like a little short, and so like in
order to progress, I had to like, I'm.
Speaker 1: Sorry, what do you need these four to? Like like
the progress Like it's not I mean.
Speaker 2: It no, just like I don't know, I guess it.
Maybe it's a spoiler to share it, but it's like
it is like it is the more as you collect it,
you do get some upgrades for Samus. But then it's
also like it's like you need to collect enough to
get the you know, the thing you need to go
finish the game, the mcguffin, the item you know that
like which is so like I hit a point at
myself where I was like, I was like, okay, I'm
ready to go beat the game, and I was like, ah, no, wait,
hold on, you got to go drive around a little
bit and collect more green crystals before we can let
you do that, which was, like I was. It didn't
take a long time or anything, but I was a
little annoyed by it. I didn't I didn't love that,
And then I actually immediately restarted the game on hard
after I beat it for reasons that I'll explain shortly.
But like I I when I was doing that second
play through, I've been very methodical about like, well, let
me make sure I'm collecting as much green crystals as
possible as I'm like pingponging between the four levels, you know,
just so I don't hit that sort of speed bump
again by the end of the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Going with your your analogy to or your comparison
operat of time, did you form an emotional bond with
your motorcycle the way you do with at all?
Speaker 2: No, I mean not maybe, I guess that's a you know,
I hadn't really considered this question. I mean, it's cool,
you know, I haven't felt the desire to buy the amebo. Oh,
Like maybe that's the sort of the line where I'm like,
do I love this thing enough to get that It's like, no,
it's cool though, it's fun to drive. It's like it's
it's it's fun, but no, it's not like it's not
like a like an emotional attachment kind of thing. It
is kind of fun that the coolest level in the
game I for me is like the first area you
go to is like this floating like factory in the clouds,
and it's just like being sort of hit by this
like never ending lightning storm and that's what powers the factory,
and the factory is building these motorcycles, and so like
you actually are like the process of.
Speaker 1: Like I'm sorry, I have so many questions. You say,
just say sky factory making motorcycles? Are these? Like are
there like people making these? Is it like a factory?
It's autonomous.
Speaker 2: Just it's an autonomous factory that has like over time
sort of turned off and and and Sam seems to
sort of reignite it. Like that's your first mission is
to like get the actory up and run again so
that you can get your motorcycle.
Speaker 1: This might be getting in the spoiler that I mean,
like who are these motorcycles for? Like are they just
are people waiting to get them?
Speaker 2: Like there, So you're not helping the Choso in this one.
You're helping a race called the Lamorne, which is like
an extinct race of ancient aliens, which is remarkably similar
to the Chosoh. And the idea is that they would
use these motorcycles to travel.
Speaker 1: Like this is a race of just like bikers, just
yeah enthusiasts alien bikers.
Speaker 2: It's like if you can imagine, like you know, when
humans die off in the next I don't know, what
do you think, like ten fifteen years or something there, Right,
we're going and it's like in a thousand years an
alien showed up and like turned on a Harley Davidson factory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well those are for yeah, those are running in perpetuity,
like they figured it out.
Speaker 2: Fit out motorcycles. Yeah yeah, but yeah that level is
really cool. And yeah, I mean the motorcycle is like
maybe the biggest like change. It's like the most unique
thing for Metroid. But it's like I do like it
because Metroid, to my memory, I could be wrong about this.
I don't think it ever has fast travel. I think
I could be wrong about that.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, I actually can't. I don't know why I
played every Metro game, and I say, I feel like, no,
maybe I just had my memory. I just remember to
save room, but I can't remember if you fast travel,
I'm probably conflating it with the elevators that are in
Prime games.
Speaker 2: Sometimes, yeah, like if you if you cause like there
is there can be a frustration with Metroid games where
it's like, Okay, I need to get to the southeast
to get that like one missile that I missed, which
means I have to go through like four different or
like you know sections, right, I have to go back
to section, and I have to go back through this
sort of underwater section or whatever where this sort of
sort of separates those areas and then connects them with
the motorcycle hub, which is nice, Like I do like that.
It means you're spending less time like reworking your way
through a maze to get to just that one thing.
It's like, oh, let me leave the lightning Storm factory,
get on my motorcycle and head to the east side
of town, and then I can go into the lava
area and go finish up when I need to there. Like,
I think that's a smart choice. Even if it doesn't
radically change the feeling of Metroid, I think it does
make it a little more convenient and less annoying when
you're just trying to get that last you know, missile
upgrade or whatever. Yeah, what did you think of the
psychic power stuff? Is that it's cool? It's again kind
of like it doesn't radically change Metroid in a big way.
It's all the sort of psychic powers are sort of
like wrapped in with Samus's regular powers, which is a
smart call because then it means you're not like switching
a lot or like you never have to change guns
or anything. But like, do you have that one ability
that lets you like remote control a can like a missile,
you know, And that's like the one that's maybe the
most unique to Metroid. It's certainly not unique to video games,
but it's unique to Metroid, and it's cool, Like you
use it to solve puzzles sometimes, and there's like a
couple of bosses where it's like you need to sort
of hit them at three points at the same time,
and like that kind of that kind of stuff is cool,
but like a lot of my sort of refrain with
Metroid Prime four Beyond is like really good but not
doesn't feel like it's trying to do a lot new
and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is
like it it doesn't feel like a revelation for Metroid Prime,
and that's the Psychic Powers kind of feel that way too.
Speaker 3: It's like cool works.
Speaker 2: I've done this in other games. That works really well here,
but it fits into the sort of Metroid Prime sort
of gameplay style that we've come to appreciate.
Speaker 1: Cool. Would it be something that if they do Metro
Prime five and they didn't have it, would you miss them?
Speaker 2: No? Honestly no, I'd like it like I would.
Speaker 3: I would.
Speaker 2: But that's not to say I mean, that's not to
say I didn't like them. It's just to say that,
like it didn't feel like like, well, I'll never be
able to play in Metroid without.
Speaker 1: This, sure, Like it's not like like it's cool, but
it's not some meaningful like when I think of like
if they do another sciene scrolling Prince of Persia, it's like, well,
I hope we have the photo taking mechanics it should
always be there now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like nothing like that? Yeah yeah, like even even
a follow up, like if we lost like the motorcycle,
I it would I wouldn't feel like it lost a
portion of its new identity, if that makes sense, Like
I would like the motorcycle to return it a.
Speaker 1: Potentially the motorcycle should just be Samus's epona going for
it's just it's her. Maybe give it a voice at
some point and have like some some conversation, like give
it like a sassy like motorcycle personality.
Speaker 3: God, which person we need in Metro?
Speaker 1: Well? I mean that my next question. There was of course,
a a talkative human companion shaped elephant in the room
regarding a certain Miles McKenzie, who, according to the internet
is your sort of companion. Who is I believe the
worst thing that has ever happened to Metroid based on
what video games reactions all line. Yeah, video Actually, Miles
mackenzie has killed video games. Nintendo is going other under
because of this new character that Samus is interacting with.
I want you to set the record straight, at least
in your personal opinion, now that you finished the game,
how much of an impact does this character actually have?
How often are you hanging out with this person? And
did you feel that Miles detracted from the experience in
any significant way?
Speaker 2: No, Miles is totally fine. He so I understand. I
completely understand the hesitancy that came out of like that
preview event, that recent preview event where people are like, oh, no,
who's this guy? Like is he going to be here
the whole time?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I agree with the takes of like I
like Metro to be lonely and it's sort of like
you're on your own mostly and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like so I understand that fear, but like great,
thankfully in the game, in the proper game, he's he's
fine because what he is is, like you do you
meet him early? He is obnoxious. He is doing a lot.
He is like saying a lot of uh sort of
just like benign nonsense that like you are like really
just doesn't feel very metroidy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you have an example. I have not seen
the trailer that I think kind of features him. I've
only read from just previews what but I've not gone
on my way to like seek this guy out. I
actually don't know what he sounds like, Like, does he
have like a like is his voice like like an easy,
like a gully Goshhin'm Samas or is he like a
like what what is his like like brand of annoying?
Speaker 3: He is?
Speaker 2: He's just kind of like an excitable guy. Like he's
just like nervous, like, well, I'm scared of everything.
Speaker 3: He is scared of everything.
Speaker 2: He's kind of like, you know, in this sort of
little band of soldiers that you meet during the course
of Metroid Prime, he is like the greenest and is
like like nervous about the situation. He is, yeah, yes,
kind of, and he is capable, and he's like really
sort of excited to be able to like meet and
work with Samus, and like he just will comment on
things like just kind of unnecessarily, like it's kind of
charming but also kind of annoying. It's like I scanned him,
you know, and he was like and he's like, whoa
did you just scan me? You know, which is like
I appreciate that, like they took the time to like
have a response to players doing that.
Speaker 1: But it's kind of.
Speaker 2: Right, right, But I mean he he kind of serves
as an early tutorial and then he you have a
home base that you revisit periodically to sort of like
turn in chips to get upgrades and stuff like that,
and he just hangs out there. He doesn't really call you.
You can call him, and I did occasionally when I
wasn't quite sure where to go next, which is convenient.
It's nice to have in a metro game of character.
You could call to be like, hey, I I forgot
where I'm supposed to go, like and he'll be like, hey,
He's like, you should check that volcano. That volcano over
there in the southeast, that might be that might be
worth checking out, you know. So that's helpful when you
don't want to just like go to every area and
hope you eventually find the one that has like the entrance.
But overall, he's fine. He doesn't interject much. He's there
early on and it's a little you're a little nervous
about him being there, but like, almost in the same way,
I'm like like to sort of role play Samus. You're
kind of like you're like, oh, god, do I might
have to put up with this guy for the rest
of his adventure? And then you're kind of like, you
know what, why don't you stay here at home base
and I'll let you know, if I need anything, and
that's that's basically it. So like, ultimately those fears, which
I understand having those fears are are are not you know,
they don't amount to anything. Miles is a little annoying
in the sort of you know, fifteen twenty minutes you
spend with him, but overall, he's he doesn't show up
otherwise very much, you know.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well that's good to know. Yeah, I was Yeah,
like I said, I I think those the fears around
here were valid, especially if you're like most Metro fans,
like you don't want to like even Prime three, which
I like Prime three even though I've never finished it,
but like the amount of talk of characters in that
game kind of threw me off too, of like, oh, yeah,
there's because Prime one and two are generally, like I said,
pretty pretty lonely experiences. So I was kind of wondering, like, oh,
maybe they got the wrong idea of up from Prime
three that we need to like surround Samus with a
bunch of chatterboxes, but it sounds like.
Speaker 2: They talk, but it's not. Chatterboxes is when they are
not bad, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Samu's doesn't talk. Still, I assume either.
Speaker 2: No, which at this point in this game, I do
think it's a little it has now become odd, Like
I find it kind of sort of unintentionally funny in
a way that I think hurts the sort of tone
of the game. How often characters speak directly to her
and she does, and she just stares ahead blankly, like
she will sometimes subtly nod her head, like to just
give the slightest little like uh huh, but that's like it.
And then you you know, she'll sort of yelp sometimes
when she gets hit by a rocket launcher or whatever. Right,
But I actually I'm at a place now, like I
know Nintendo is probably scared to ever give her a
voice after other M people really were did not like
other M when she was when she had a lot
to say, you know, yeah, arguably too much, inarguably too
much perhaps, But I would like a samist that that talks.
I just like just the occasional sentence or confirmation, just
I like, because at this and four it just feels
kind of weird, Like it just feels like, you know,
it's different with like like Zelda, for example, where Link
doesn't talk because outside of like cutscenes which generally don't
really feature link very much. Like it's all text based,
So something about that like doesn't feel so strange that
Link doesn't talk, because like you're you're reading sort of
conversationally everything. But when like you have cut scenes where
characters talk at Samus and she just looks ahead and
doesn't say anything, even though she like it would be
helpful if you said something here, Samus. Like that that
is getting a little comedic at this point, So like
I would really like her to just just talk even
a little bit, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think I want like monologues out
of her, but sort of the like just have her
be sort of like she she keeps her words short,
like like she doesn't talk all the time, but when
she does speak, it's like impactful. And also it would
just kind of fit her character what I've always kind
of perceived as a character as just being a very
direct person does not waste words, Like she says exactly
what needs to be said. So she'll just be like
I'm gonna go kill this thing and that's all. You know,
I'm not gonna really elaborate more than that or just
be like affirmative or understood when someone tells her something and.
Speaker 2: It can I mean, like Metroid Dread, I think did
it the best where they Samus does talk a little bit.
At the end of the game. She has like a
few lines of dialogue where she's speaking Choso, which is like,
which is really cool in that game because it's like
she doesn't speak the whole game, and then you have
that moment where she's like, I do have a voice,
by the way, I do have some autonomy here, you know,
And it's like I just would have I would have
appreciated something like that in Prime for It's like I
just I don't. I don't. I don't like her being
holy silent, but there's certainly a middle ground between other
m you know, and by middle ground, I mean you know,
way east of center. That's like not you know, on
the side of silence. Like but I would just love
for her to be like I'll take care of it
or you know something, you know what I mean, like
just like yeah, but anyway, she doesn't talk, so what
are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Samus needs a catchphrase, that's what she really needs.
She needs a classic saying where she when she's about
to start a mission, see's like it's time.
Speaker 3: To my name is Metroid.
Speaker 1: You think I'm some kind of Metroid. So I guess
if you play d Red maybe that's not well anyways, yes, yeah,
any uh any any other dots you want to share
about Metrod Prime four. It seems like or like, uh,
where do you kind of place it in the in
the CIA? I know you've said you told me you've
never played Prime two two?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I played two. Keep holding out for that that
switch release of Prime too. We'll see if it never happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, switch three, maybe we'll get it, but sort of,
I guess. And out of the Prime games you've played,
where do you rank this? Like do you do? You? Uh?
Pretty high? You think it's better than the original?
Speaker 2: Where you at? That's a good question. It probably doesn't
outdo the original. I do like it more than three.
And also, I you know, I was telling you recently
like I do prefer to d Metroid in general. Like
that is like, if I'm making my full list, I'm
gonna rank I'm probably got a Dread is going to
be number one for me. I think still, I think
Metroidread is still my favorite Metroid game. And then I
get into the Super Metroid and probably Fusion and then
maybe like Metroid Prime and then Metroid Prime four. I mean,
you know, I haven't really thought about this extensively, but
just to kind of give you an idea of, like
you know, where I'm at in terms of like Metroid fandom.
I like four a lot, but it didn't become like
my favorite Metroid game right away, which happens sometimes with
new releases, you know.
Speaker 1: Sure, Yeah, it does make me wish that I was
thinking about the other day, like I would love a
Prime version of like the Dread concept of like it's Prime,
but you're being pursued by this enemy that's like NI invincible,
like the images I think they were called in Dread
because I was like in first person that would actually
be terrifying of like you're just going around and you
open a door and it's just an Emmy on the
other side suddenly from yeah, kind of like the kind
of like residive a little bit like a persistent enemy. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 2: One last thing I want to call out, which is
almost like a warning and uh it's sort of a
big frustration for me with Metroid Prime four is I
love in Metroid games and Metroid inspired games. You know,
Metroid Vane is if you will or search action games.
Is that Like I like to go get like majority
of the sort of available items and things like that,
and go beat the game and then go back and
mop up everything. You know, go get that hundred percent.
Like that's actually sometimes my favorite sort of version of
the game because like you have the majority of your skills,
you're just going off through a checklist and you're sort
of like revisiting all these parts of the game that
you have fond memories of. Where in Metroid Prime four
there is a warning of a point of no return,
like there is like hey heads up, Like this is
you're heading into the endgame here. But what happens is
if you when you beat the game, you are essentially
locked out of your safe. At that point, you cannot
go back into the open world and mop things up.
So like either when you get that alert of like
hey heads up, you're heading into the endgame, like you
either that's when you go and get everything, if that's
what you want to do, or you make a backup
save right like and like it doesn't like it doesn't
encourage you to make a backup save or anything. It
just says like, hey, just heads up, we're heading into
the endgame here, like you won't you know, just just
know that, And I remember exactly what it says. But
so I was quite annoyed by that, Like I really
wanted to beat the game and then go back and
get a hundred percent, but I couldn It didn't let you.
It doesn't let you do that. That's not the structure
of Metroid Prime for so that's actually I sort of
alluded to it earlier. But that's why I immediately started
a new game, because you unluck hard once you beat
it on normal once. So like I started a hard
difficulty play through, and now with that knowledge, I'm knowing
that it's like, well, this is the say file I
want to get one hundred percent on, so I won't
go beat the game until I'm I'm done. So I'm
just like offering that as a warning to people who
maybe play Metroid games in that way, in the way
I do you know, Yeah, no.
Speaker 1: That's fair, Yeah I swear I don't. I don't even
know the Metroids normally let you do that, like just
jump back in.
Speaker 2: And I never replayed games, but certainly other Metroid inspired
games do that because that's how I play a lot
of them, you know, like I and like, I feel
like maybe I'm misremembering, but I feel like in Dread,
I went and beat the game and then like you know,
went back into my save, which just like puts you
back before the final boss or something and then lets
you sort of go off and get everything. I feel
like that's how I played Dread. But maybe I'm wrong.
I could be wrong, but I know I know other
games certainly, do you know?
Speaker 1: Okay? Yeah, I mean I I don't really really play games,
so when I beat a Metroid, I'm just I'm done.
Like I usually make a point to try to do
as much stuff beforehand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's it's kind of just this genre
is the where I do that. Well, I don't know,
that's not true. Actually, like Open World like I've been
I've been going for the Platinum and Ghost of Yota,
and that's a game where you beat it and then
it like it gives you. It gives there's like a
narrative conceit kind of for like why it goes back
before the point of no return and lets you, you know,
finish everything In Ghost.
Speaker 1: Of Yeah, Claire Skiers the same way. Actually you can
kind of yeah exactly, could beat the game and then
just reload right before the flight.
Speaker 2: To me, it feels like a pretty standard sort of
you know mechanics. Yeah, but not for Metroid Prime four.
So heads up if you're playing it.
Speaker 1: No, well you know it was the it was in
development before they invented that mechanic.
Speaker 3: Is that right, Okay?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so so yeah, Metroid Prime four, you gave it.
I think did you say to score? Eight seven five
at it's in good score. I'm excited to play it
this week. I'm gonna be I'm actually it's gonna be
my playing games. I'm traveling to LA next week for
the Game Awards and other stuff nice, so I'm looking
forward to uh spending the long flight across the country.
Speaker 2: If you see an Arcis at the TGAs, demand a
selfie so that we can grow our g I Spy library, much.
Speaker 1: Like Kajima scanning celebrities, we collect g I Spy photo Sweet. Yeah,
we are putting you in something, so it is similar.
It's basically the same thing as what we're saying. We
need a looting statue of our own. Just carry it
with you, yes, but yes, moving on to a game
that I reviewed now, I played and finished Marvel Cosmic Invasion.
This is the new retro style beat them up developed
by Tribute Games, best known for their last really good
retro beat them up, which was teenage mutant Ninja Turtle
Shredder's Revenge. They are also working on next year Scott
Pilgrim ex So they have they have kind of for
me as a as a beat them up fan, a
lifetime beat them up fan. They kind of emerged as
sort of like the premiere developer of doing like really
good modernized versions of sort of the old school style
of that genre. And yeah, they have knocked it out
of the park here too. This is a like I said,
it's a Marvel game, but it's got a cool sort
of like premise where Annihilist is trying to take over
the galaxy, probably like a lesser known villain outside of
like hardcore comic fans. Annihilis.
Speaker 2: I've never heard of it until this game. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and because he's a more kind of like the
name implies, a cosmic villain. The roster of playable heroes
includes probably like roughly half of sort of the Earth
based heroes, and then half of sort of like the
cosmic side of Marvel. So you've got your Captain Americas,
your Iron Man's, your Spider Man's teaming up with Silver
Surfer and Nova and Fi Lavel and as a comic
book reader. One of the things I really like about
this game is how diverse the roster is, because you
have that combination of sort of the two sort of
like types of Marvel heroes as well as just like
a nice, like nice representation from heroes that don't really
appear in Marvel games really, like Beata ray Bill. I'm like,
I'm sure he's in some like mobile Marvel thing or
something like that.
Speaker 2: He's probably got the guard in the card game probably.
Speaker 1: Right, probably, But in terms of like like the bigger
mainline stuff, this has to be, to my knowledge, his
first appearance. And he's been in Thor comics since the
early eighties when he debuted, and yeah, I was like strugglings, like,
this has to be his first real thing in a game,
which is almost acts. I think he's a cool character.
I've always kind of like Beta ay Bill.
Speaker 2: Kind of like a dinosaur alien thing.
Speaker 1: Kind of he's like an android too, but he's also
like he like co ops Asgard stuff. He's a weird
creature when you first look at him, like what is going.
Speaker 2: On there to learn about him? And then this game.
Speaker 1: Dinas you know, it's like dinosaur thor basically, but you
got him. You got a cosmic ghostwriter who was a
more recent thing. He's like he's the Punisher, Like it's
just the punisher with the spirit of vengeance and also
cosmic powers. You got like mentioned fi Leavel who is
the daughter of Marvel, the original Captain Marvel. So like
a she Hulk, it's like a good roster, especially because
so many of those characters could have easily been replaced
with her more like well known counterparts of like, yeah,
we could just use Hulk if we wanted a Hulk
like character, but let's why not do chea Hulk, because
why not? You've already got one.
Speaker 2: Always, I always appreciate that go for the obscure, you know,
like that's more fun, that's more interesting.
Speaker 1: What's also fun for She Hulk specifically is that she
breaks the fourth wall a lot in this game, which
is something that the character was known for, Like she
in the comic she was breaking the fourth wall before
Deadpool was Yeah, a lot of people don't know that,
and if you watch your Disney Plus show, you know
she does it a lot there too. It's kind of
a nod to that, but I kind of appreciated like
that attention to detail too, where she's like acknowledging that
basically this is a video game. Like she's like, she's like,
you'll find a bunch of Easter eggs and cameos in
this in the worlds and stuff, and she'll sh say, like, Oh,
this is a cool cameo.
Speaker 2: That's fun.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 2: I like chea hop.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The other cool thing about this game to kind
of differentiate itself from most Fighters or beat them ups,
is that it's a tag team game in the sense
that you select two characters and you are tagging them
in and out in a very Marvel versus Capcom or
like Marvel Tag Fighter kind of way, which as a
fighting game fan, I really appreciate and I love how
like it is straight up like a more simplified version
of the Tag Fighters. You can tag in characters or
do assist attacks. Each character has a health bar, so
you only get a game over if they both go down,
but it is sort of managing the way you would
in those fighters, like, Okay, I don't want to maybe
put all my eggs in Spider Man's basket he's taken
a beating. I should probably try to like tag in
pretty frequently so that you know one character is in
full of health and the other one's like graying on
by a thread. But there's like tag team kind of
synergies that you can kind of figure out because each
character also feels mechanically distinct from each other in a
way that I really appree, like I said, in the
way that a fighting game roster does to where like
you will find your mains in the same way of like, oh,
I really like how Captain America plays, who controls much
differently from Phoenix, who controls much differently from Beta ray
Bill or Silver Surfer. Like you know, some characters can fly,
which is like a cool addition, like the characters that
canomically can fly into comics. You can double jump and
just have just straight up fly indefinitely throughout a stage,
which is really great for dealing with the flying enemies,
which have always been historically just annoying a deal with
and beat them ups because you us like to try
to like you're just trying to jump, kick and hit
them desperately, and it never feels like you nail it
on purpose, and god, it feels like you get lucky
because it's always hard to tell what plane they're on
when they're flying, like if you're on the same plane
as them. So just being able to be like, no,
I'm storm, I'm just gonna fly up there and punch
you in the face, like it's really satisfying. Yeah, yeah,
it's It also makes the game a lot more fun
to play by yourself, because like, like this is this
is still not a game that I would recommend playing alone.
It's not a genre that I would ever recommend playing alone.
These games are designed to be played with other people,
at least one other person with you, but at least
because of how kind of like like the mechanics are
much deeper, Like playing by yourself kind of helps you
figure out who who, like who is your main basic
like who do you gravitate to? And kind of figure
out the nuances of each character, because every character has
like their base attack, but they have like a launcher
because you can air juggle people like no tomorrow in
this game, they all have different special attacks. Some of
the special attacks are like have limited use to them,
like Spider Man's web shooters you can only shoot like
ten at a time before you have to wait for
them to recharge, or like Iron Manage Pulser Blast, and
then they all have like an ultimate attack that sort
of dictate them of cool down, which is really nice because,
like a lot of old school beat them ups, when
you use your special attack, it would like take a
chunk of your health and kind of punish you for using,
usually because it was an arcade game and they wanted
you to spend more money on those person yeah, whereas
in this game, it's just a cool down, which is
like infinitely better, and then also kind of challenges you
to kind of time your attacks in a more thoughtful
way and not in a I don't have enough money
to use this attack way. The enemies are also like
you can't get through this game by just kind of
button mashing wildly to an extent, but I think the
enemies also defend themselves well enough to where you do
have to have some kind of thought to how you
attacked them, especially because you also have like a decent
amount of defensive options where you can dodge, you can block,
you can perry depending on the character, like some carriers.
Some characters straight up just have a parry maneuver feels good,
Captain America probably being the most obvious one because of
his shield. And then some of the boss fights, who
I think the boss fights can actually be pretty tough.
They do kind of push you to play a little smartly,
like I think of like one of the early bosses
is task Master, and it's a lot more of a
tactical fight against him because he blocks so often with
his shield that you kind of have to pick your
spots with him and then try to position behind him,
and you for fighting him by himself, Like I fought
him alone the first time I ran through the game
with Captain America, and it became this very kind of
like Okay, I'm just gonna wait for him to attack
and then perry and then kind of get my licks
in and then but when he's blocking, I kind of
either try to get behind him or just wait for
him to stop blocking and come at me, and he's
gonna throw his shield and you can like knock his
shield away onto rebounds so that he has to go
and get it, and then you can kind of wail
on him while he's doing that, Like, like the bosses
have a lot of like a surprising amount of nuanced
them outside of just punched him until they die.
Speaker 2: So yeah, which I yeah, sometimes I got kind of
exhausted by that gameplay, you know, so it's nice to
hear that you have to do a little more here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the bosses you know almost splow you know all
of them, But there's nice diversity there. It's like a
mix of sort of like big sort of main event
guy and then some like fun deep cuts in the
same way that the hero roster ism, Like oh, I
don't know if this villain's ever been in a big
game before. This is a cool addition. And then there's
somewhere you're like, oh, wow, you're you're a big you're
an A plus marble villain and you're just one of
the villains on the way towards a nihilist like you
could probably be the star of your own game. This
is kind of a cool surmise. And then also the
the there's like a character progression that I like too
that you don't see in a genre, like characters can
level up, and like the more you play with a character,
the more you'll level up and earn like new upgrades,
like they can get increased attack damage, increase health, they
can get passive perks, and it's sort of like, again
going back to the fighting game analogy, it sort of
reward to you for like, if you find someone that
you're really gelling with, you can make them better. And
then it's kind of cool to sort of bring a
leveled up character into like another player's game and then
be like, Oh, I've got like a powered up iron
man I can use to help you with this ball.
But also it makes the sort of like the sting
of defeat a little less a little less frustrating, because
this game does the thing where when you lose, you
have to restart the stage from scratch, which can be annoying. Thankfully,
the stages take like at most ten minutes to get through,
if even that, but it's still like, oh, I got
to run through all this stuff because I got to
this hard boss and he keeps killing me. But at
least every time you die, you still earn XP and
level up, so when you redo that run again, you
are coming in with a stronger version of the characters
that you did the first time, so you're always still improving,
and it feels like, again, whereas the old arcade brawlers
actively we're trying to take your money, this game like
wants you to succeed and get through it. So it's like, hey,
you hit harder at least on this run, so hopefully
maybe that'll put you over the edge this time around.
Which there's also yeah, yeah, there's also like challenges like
stage challenges you can like that kind of helped teach
you moves too, because it'll be like, hey, do this
specific attack ten times. And there were times where I
even realize like a dudeo's attacks until I looked at
the challenges of like, wait, what is this move that
they want me to do with ghostwriter? Okay, and then
you're like, oh, that's a good move. I'm gonna keep
doing it now. And then because I had to do
it several times in a row, it's like, okay, I've
got it drilled into my memory. Now how to do
this move? That's that's good, And then you get rewards
for getting that you can unlock like character like skins,
which you like palette swaps, but a lot of them
are just kind of like cool sort of like costume homages,
to like other comics, like you can get Wolverines classic
blue and yellow outfit. You can get like different Spider
Man suits like the black suit and stuff.
Speaker 2: Like the Wolverine is a baseline outfit. Isn't the blue
and yellow one.
Speaker 1: No, it's the brown and yellow one, which is kind
of is like his other like kind of like mainline
color scheme. It's either depending on the air that you
read Wolverine, it's either the brown and the yellow or
it's the blue and yellow. Yeah. I think there's actually
in Deadpool and Wolverine. I think I think one of
the alternate Wolverines that Deadpool when he does like the
montageere he's seeing he's visiting the other Wolverines. I think
one of them is the brown and I think it's
the one that fights the Hulk. Actually, okay, yeah, so
I think it's like the one time you see it
in like a movie. But yeah, those are fun rewards.
You're on locking character files, though, I recommenduse. I was
talking to Brian about this where if you're unlocking the
character files and maybe wait till you finish the game,
because he's like, oh, I had some of the bosses
spoiled for me because I unlocked their file before I
got to this, so it it was just like, oh,
I guess this person's in the game because they have
a whole file about them. So maybe when you're unlocking
that stuff, maybe just save it till to the end.
You don't really need it immediately or anything to look
at it. So maybe just fun fact there. But yeah,
it's not. It's not like an overly deep package. Like
there's really just the story campaign, which is fun and
you know, it takes like a decent amount of time
to get through, and it's also a cool thing with
a story campaign where like each level they'll recommend a
specific pairing because canonically these are the characters that are
tackling this situation. So like on the character select screen,
they'body like highlighted, and those are the characters that appear
in like the sort of the still image cut scenes
in her voice like the games like fully voiced, so
they'd be like, oh, Storm and che Hulk are going
to the Savage Land. That's canonically to pairing. But even
if you pick out the characters, they'll still play the
same cut scene. But it's sort of like you should
use these two if you want to just treat it
like a purposeful story, I guess. But then there's an
arcade mode where you can just run through the game
and just do whatever you want, pretty much like that's
kind of more like if you want to just play
with friends and you have all the levels unlocked already,
you can do that. But be honest to MOS, that's
pretty much it. There isn't like a ton of the game.
This isn't a game that maybe once you've leveled up
either your chosen characters or all the characters, you're probably
not busting out until friends come over and you're like, hey,
let's let's do this together, which is fine, Like.
Speaker 2: I imagine it's not very long, right, it's probably a
super long game, right.
Speaker 1: Well, it's assuming that nobody dies, and it probably varies
depending on how many people you're playing with. If you're
playing by yourself, it'll take it a little longer. Some
of his bos fights are a little rougher when you're
by yourself, but if you're playing with at least one
other person, you probably knock it out in an hour
ninety minutes at most of even that, which is also
to say that the co op is unsurprisingly very fun
You can play up to four players locally or online.
The online has a really well implemented drop and drop
out sort of feature where even if you are the
host of the game, you can exit the session and
the game won't drop. So ever, like if I'm hosting
the game and I suddenly have to leave for whatever reason,
I can just quit the game and the other players
can keep progressing through the adventure and it won't just
bring the whole experience down with me. So I like
that a lot. So it's easy to you, Like, you
can actually quit as the host and then jump back
in the same session that you created if you like,
decide to come back, which is pretty cool, like I
was testing it, but yeah, it's a good it's a
good brawler, Like it's a very good one of these.
It's not necessarily like Shattering the Moon, but it's like
a a cool twist on a very like well worn formula.
Like I think if if you're into this genre, and
especially if you enjoyed like Shredders Revenge specifically by this team,
I think you'll have a great time with this. I
had a blast as a comic fan as and as
a fan of this h Of beat him ups and yeah,
it's it's something I'll definitely like. It's one of those
games I will always be installed on my PlayStation because
it's just a fun party game. Like so, I actually
played it for players.
Speaker 2: It's probably a small file size too.
Speaker 1: No, it downloaded very quickly, too nice. But yeah, I
gave it an eight point five out of ten in
my review. You can go to Gameformer dot com right
now to give it a read. And yeah, we're gonna
take a quick break and when we come back, we'll
have Charles Hart on the show to give his expanded
thoughts on Kirby air Riders as well as Detective Instinct.
Detective Instinct Farewell might beloved. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2: Oh, also, Marcus, before we duck out, look in the
next segment, we're gonna make reference to Brian Sheha being here.
Just ignore that it was a technical issue. There was
there was no Brian Shay. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've always that's what we call Brian Shae a
technical issue. But yes, we'll be right back. Hey, welcome
back to the Game in Former Show. Brian Shay had
to exit, but in his place is a fresh Charles Hart.
How are you, sir.
Speaker 3: I'm good. I'm the new cast. You recast Brian, but
it's me. There's there's a show I was like, should
I reference this? I want to reference it. There's a
show on Disney XD called Pair of Kings about these
two twin brothers and then Mitchell Musso, one of the
two twins, got a dui and then got kicked out
of everything Disney Channel, so they brought in a third guy.
They're like, actually, this is the third twin brother and
these are the new pair of Kings now and it's
all fine and nothing ever happened. And that's me. I'm
the third I'm the third pair of Kings.
Speaker 2: First of all, So when you when you started, I
thought it was in the canon of the show that
the character got a dui, and I was like, got
a Disney And also, just so you know, just for
Game and former Cannon and Laura Charles, we established in
the last segment that you were born the year Metroid
Prime three came out, So just keep that in mind.
Really three, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I feel like that's the way after I came out. No,
that's fine, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Might as don't ask too many follow up questions. Just
know that that's you know you, and I'm.
Speaker 3: Pretty sure Prime three it does a pre date pair
of Kings, so that timeline does work out.
Speaker 1: Also on the on the subject of recast, random tangent.
But I'm gonna I'm gonna propose something you might agree,
But is the recast of Don cheatle as war Machine
from the original actor of Terrence Howard? Is that the
greatest recast of all time?
Speaker 2: Well? Hold on, are we like? And it has to
be like they did play the role once, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like someone start the role with someone else for
like a full season or movie whatever it is, and
then they change actors and it wound up being like, actually, no,
this is much.
Speaker 2: Better because I would say probably Michael J. Foxen back
to the Future, but like the version without him never
didn't come out. They just shot for like a month
without him doesn't count, right, that's a good question, Like
it like, yeah, I don't know, hmm, i'd have to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. I don't know if I can't think
of another time it happened that it was like successful,
like Capital s successful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was Fresh Prince, which I was like fine with.
I don't know when they changed the mom in Fresh Prince.
Speaker 2: Oh, or you're like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1: Aunt Vivian, this is a new Aunt Vivian. She's not
like she's good. But I don't know if it's like
Miles better. It's just like, oh, she's also five. But
like I guess if you asked me, I would rather
just keep the other actress just because she's not the
new actress. Isn't dramatically better? You know?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a good question. I'll have to think
about it. At the end of the episode, I'll suddenly
shout one and we'll forget the context.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you suddenly scream out chief for Sutherland and Metal Fear.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I would never put that on me.
Speaker 1: Charles, you are here because the last time we talked
about Kirby Air Riders, you had just started playing it,
and in the times between these episodes you have finished it.
You've posted a full review up on the website. You
gave it an eight point five out of ten. So yes,
now you can gush about Kirby Air Riders, give us
your full thoughts in this game. Yes.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, if either of you played it
just in terms of no little bit, just like a
couple of races, yeah, which I was termed by it.
Speaker 2: I'm all in on Metroid. We talked a lot about
Metroid in the previous segment. I'm still working on my
second play through, and I think I will spend some
time with Kirby after I'm done with that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, well okay, so that's just a framework for
how much to explain about the game. So I like
Kirby iritis a lot. It's a obviously racing game starring Kirby.
It is more of a like Smash Bros. Spiritual successor
than I expected it to be. I would say it's
like the main takeaway I had after playing. I mentioned
this like after playing a few races, but after doing
more of it, it's like kind of amazing how much
like saccer I DNA is in the game, from like
the menu style to the music, to the visuals, to
the like constant achievements you get. But it's also not
like I wouldn't say. I think last time we were
talking about like maybe this would be like my new
Mario Kart, Like maybe this would phase out because Marcott
World kind of is a different take on Mario Kart,
And it's like, if you just want to standard racer,
we're just going to play a few races with friends.
Maybe it's Kirby. I definitely don't think this is the
game for that. Okay, and I think that I mean
it in a complimentary way, but this game is definitely
less approachable than Mario Kart. It is less like flexible
than I expected it to be approachable. Use buttons, yes, well,
so there you only use two buttons. I think that's
like a deceptively simple thing about the game, But the
context in which you use those buttons changes what it does. Right,
So in Mario Kart, you never have to guess what
the button's gonna do, or you know, time a thing
perfectly to be Like, if I press this button at
the wrong time, it's not going to drift like I
want it to. There is an element of like strategy there,
and yeah, it doesn't I would say, like playing the game,
I'm kind of surprised when I think about it that
there's only two buttons, and it's really only one button.
The second button only comes up when you use like
your ultimate ability, but most of the time it's just
the one button. Yeah, there's the main reason I would
say it's not like super super approachable for everybody.
Speaker 2: Is that.
Speaker 3: The vehicles are so wildly different in how they impact gameplay,
and so what you pick is going to make actually
a huge difference on the game for you and just
sitting down and playing a co op game with people.
The character and machine select screen it doesn't have details
about any of the characters or any of the vehicle's abilities,
so you kind of have to already know what it
is or have like an elevator pitch for your friends
to be like, this one doesn't drift. This one just
stops and pivots, and you have to be ready for that.
This one, I can't figure out how to turn on it.
I don't really understand mechanics. I don't like that one.
This one turns so well, you won't drift, it won't work.
This one presses the drift button, but it doesn't. And
there's like a bunch of really unique quirks like that.
So when you're playing the game and you know all
the information about it, it makes for like a really fun,
like strategic kind of gameplay style, or like I'm gonna
try this cart and this like the racers also have
different stats and abilities. Marcus, I think if I had
to sum it up, The difference between Mario Kart and
Kirby aer Riders is that in Mario Kart, there's what
five stats per Kart something like that and maybe some
hidden stuff'd wait, and like Handling and Kirby aer Riders,
every character and Kart has nine stats, nine quantifiable stats
seen on the screen that will mix and match, and
that's separate from you know those things of like the
bulk Star has like a gas tank that charges up
when you press the drift button, and so if you're
not drifting or pressing the boost charge button often enough,
it just won't have gas and it won't accelerate at all.
Like really cool fun stuff like that is like awesome,
but like I couldn't. I just couldn't sit down and
explain it to like a party setting group of people.
Speaker 1: Sneaky making people think this is a little baby racer.
I mean, it's also that thing. Like but even just
playing it a little bit, which I've I've been kind
of charmed by it and I want to play more.
But like it's hard to put a racing game on
a Nintendo console in front of somebody and be like, okay,
so heads up. The way this game works is you're
the only button makes you break, and you know, it's like,
it's just weird. It's hard to wrap your head around
the idea of a racing game where like you're actually
not pressing and accelerate button. Yes, the instructor for like
a student driver where you just have your own break.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah yeah, And it's it's kind of it's kind
of hard to explain, but it makes more sense when
you're actually playing it. And like I played like two
or three races with my fiance and she was immediately
like I can't, I'm not. She was so excited she
could play as Guy and be on something called like
the Slick Star and just like those fun kinds of things,
Just like, oh, I never knew this Kirby enemy had
a name. There's so many characters playbook garriages in this game.
Speaker 1: Canna say which Cairby enemy is Gooey?
Speaker 3: He's a blue gooey ball with a long tongue. Obviously
we all know.
Speaker 2: A long tongue.
Speaker 3: Come on, we know and love good.
Speaker 2: There's blue gluey.
Speaker 3: What's dooey the Australian Blue Healer. No, the gooey is
blue uh lo lo. It is blue uh lo lo.
Speaker 4: Lo and La La La.
Speaker 3: Obviously that's two characters there were, that's one. I just selectors.
I like hearing the announcers say it.
Speaker 1: So you're not supposed to be able to say.
Speaker 3: It, you know, right? What what's the reference, Kyle?
Speaker 2: Yeah, which I don't remember what that is, but for
some reason, yeah.
Speaker 1: Something about vocal cords. You shouldn't be able to be.
Speaker 3: That's the code word in Metal Girl Solid three. I
want to say. Okay, anyways, yeah, that that's in the game.
A bunch of crazy stuff. There's like twenty something racers
in the game, which is like, I if we had
to sit here and collectively name twenty something Kirby characters,
we couldn't do it.
Speaker 2: We would fail.
Speaker 1: But if Charles, could you do it?
Speaker 3: After playing this game? Yes, before playing this game, I could.
Speaker 2: Blue Kirby, Green Kirby. Well, and I'm already out.
Speaker 1: I'm saying Meda Knight dd D Wattle wattle D gooey.
Speaker 2: I guess game Boy box art inexplicably Gray Kirby.
Speaker 3: It's gotta be.
Speaker 1: Isn't there a rick? Isn't there a rick?
Speaker 2: There is a rick like tree, a tree guy that
you fight, A happy tree is a race. Yeah, he's
not playable, but he does appear.
Speaker 3: In the game. He brush Girl from the sixty four game.
Speaker 1: It's a little pink thing with legs that it's not
like that is Kirby. It's like it's like Kirby with
less features.
Speaker 3: That's just a nightmare.
Speaker 1: Am I thinking of different game out of that?
Speaker 2: But maybe old TV show The Prisoner I think is
what you're thank you.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about the water Blue net kid was
strapped in one time in a two thousand on fire
entirely reference.
Speaker 2: We stalled out at seven sixties BBC show.
Speaker 3: We got to seven Kirvy characters and then jumped to
the prisoner because is that's how productive this name as
many Kirby characters as you can't think?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Sure? Uh anyways, that so the game itself, there's air Ride,
which is kind of what we're talking about. It's like
a pretty typical racer. Also, the visuals in the game
like it's really pretty and also can get like really
intense and like you'll be going through you know, there's
one where like it starts off and you're like flying
through a space station and it kind of turns into
like the Death Star run where like you leave and
then the race course explodes in the space behind you,
and you've got a land and all these falling stars
come and they make boost spots. Like it's a very
er gematic game that comes out of this explosion. I
don't think so, but there should be, because that's like iconic,
you know.
Speaker 1: Okay, they got to release a special edition.
Speaker 3: I guess that they got an ultimate yeah, thirty years Yeah.
And then so that's like the base race. Then there's
Top Ride, which is like a top down version with
even more simplified controls than the normal game, which is
something I kind of like wrote off at first, except
there's a lot of achievements in this game, and they're
all modes specific, and they all get their own like
board of like little grid squares, and you fill them
off by like finishing a race on this course, finishing
as this character using this item three times, and there's
like so many hyper specific achievements you can get and
they're all a mode specific. So I was like, oh,
if I want more characters, there's like one hundred and
fifty achievements for just playing Top Ride a little bit,
So I'm just gonna check that, and I like it
like races are done in like a minute. It's very quick,
but it's a fun way to like really distill down
the core elements of the game and get really used
to something about zooming it out and putting it top
down helps you kind of understand how some of the
carts handle a little bit better, like you can see
the arc of the turn. That's especially helped me with
like some of the like bike type vehicles. Then there's
City Trial, which is a mode that a lot of
people really love from the original air Ride that I'm
not crazy about. I think people love it because it's
very unique to that where you basically are dropped in
a big map. You ride around for five minutes, five
full minutes, just like smashing boxes and picking up little
individual stat upgrades, and at the end of it you
see which stat has the most of whatever, and so
you just know what your stats are and you can't
really specialize in a thing like you couldn't be like, oh,
I want to collect a lot of wings stuff, Like
you're just kind of driving around really fast. It's hard
to be picky about what you're getting. Yeah, you just
want to get as much as you can. And then
you vote on like a little challenge to do. So
for example, if you have a lot of attack, you
might be like, oh, let's do like offensive versus mode
where we try to like hit each other and knock
each other off the machines versus. Like if you have
really good flight, you might want to do like a
target practice mode because you have that. Even then, I
played with a list of my fiance and I picked
the target practice mode and I had really good flight,
and she was on a cart that just could not fly,
and she ended up beating me because on the lowest level,
they're like you go off a ramp and then she
just fell straight down. But there's still some options on
that bottom level, and she hit a fifty twice and
I missed the one hundred one time, and it was
just she ended up winning, So you never know, you
can always come back.
Speaker 1: And which character was she using.
Speaker 3: Up a name?
Speaker 2: Charles will believe you.
Speaker 3: I think I think she was Wattle d Okay, I know,
but I'm not I'm not sure this was. Yeah. I
got really excited. It's in my review. I got really
excited when I finally unlocked Wattle Do because I was like,
that's like one of the guys. You know wattle do.
There's wattle D and Bandana wattle D. I already have
both of those, but I need to Walld to do specifically.
She's keeping the series. And then the final thing is
there's a solo single player mode called road Trip, which
is really interesting. It's like a kind of a I
want to use the word RPG because you are leveling
up your stats and that's kind of how I define
RPG's if you have stats, nay increase when you level up.
But uh, it's like a story mode and in very
Kirby fashion, Kirby is like riding along on like a
star and it has like a smiley face on it,
and he's like making all these cute sounds, and then
it cuts away to like the depths of space, and
it's like.
Speaker 4: This rock has never known what it is like to
have its own free will, and it sat on this
planet for millennia, never moving and never having the will
to live, until one day it was detected by an
ancient and then like by the end, you're like fighting
a world ending robot. Spoilers, I guess, but not really
spoilers because you have no context for what that means.
Speaker 3: And it's fun. It took me two hours to beat,
so it's not like particularly time intensive, but it felt
like a lot longer because you're doing ten like worlds,
and each world has like these rapid fire little minigames
kind of like this. So sometimes it's the stadium things
that you do at the end of city trial, so
it might be like fighting someone or target practice or
diving down something, or just like a normal race and
you do like ten of those and they're pretty quick.
But like, by the end of the thing, I had
played like one hundred rounds of mini games, and even
though that doesn't take that long, it took me like
four or five sessions to get through that and then
like going back to the normal modes because it's just
very overwhelming. But that's like cool, Like it's cool to
unlock the carts over time so you can switch to
the one that like best fits the challenge, and it's
fun to be like, oh, I'm gonna spend my money
on this upgrade because I don't have enough flight and
I want to get better at that or x Y
s X.
Speaker 1: I see so awesome now that you've finished, and I
think I might have asked you this when you talk
about the game in the first time, but out of
you've got a complete picture of it. What do you
think it stands in the sort of like the Trinity
of cart racers with the Mario Kart World and Sonic
Racing Cross Worlds this year, so I haven't.
Speaker 3: Played Sonic Racing Cross Worlds.
Speaker 1: Oh okay.
Speaker 3: My understanding of it is that it's it's pretty much
like and correct me if I'm wrong. It kind of
like this is just what people want from a cart racer,
Like it just kind of feels good and hits all
the notes that you're looking for. Yeah right, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like, you know, it does its own unique
thing when like the the track switching sort of a mechanic,
which is really cool. But yeah, other than that, it
is actually compared to Mario Carr World, which was you know,
it took some swings and it's a very sort of
like meat and potatoes cart racer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say Kirby is like the most acquired
taste out of the three, and uh, just in a
weird way. Would I would recommend it to the fewest
amount of people, But it's but the people that like it,
it's going to be like their favorite Far and Away,
Like it just is a different kind of game that
is like it takes some to get everything you want
to get out of it. You just have to invest
yourself into it, and it really rewards you for doing
that with there's just a bonkers amount of like twists
on the same gameplay modes. But like you could play
this game for probably sixty hours and still have stuff
to unlock if you're just like really intense about it.
But yeah, I don't know. I don't. I don't think
it's like a clear winner. I don't, And like I
said at the top, it's like, I don't think that
if you are like like some of us are remarking
also Mark cart Roll is a good game. I think
we're just we're saying a good game. We haven't we
haven't gone back to it in the way we have
other Mario Kart games. For me, specifically, the way they
change the Grand Prix is kind of like I just
kind of get sick of it for whatever reason. But
I don't think if you're like, oh, I want like
a normal Kart racer run and Nintendo console, I don't
think Kirby aer Riders is it for the same reason
that if someone's like, can I get it into a
good fighting game, you wouldn't say like, well, super Smash
Brothers is the best option. Where it's like if you want,
if you want like a traditional quote unquote fighting game
that's like a Mortal Kombat or a Street Fighter or something,
and then Smash Bros. Is like, we're just going to
take it in a completely different, weird direction. That's that's
how I would describe.
Speaker 1: Kirber right, Like Sakarai only makes weird outliers in his
chosen genre.
Speaker 3: He really does. He really loves a mode. There's a
mode similar to it in Smash Bros. For three DS
where you're running around and you're picking up little boost
to your stats, and there's also definitely a Kidderpris Uprising
where you're just going around and picking up He just
loves a game where it's like, what if I could
increase my stats one by one with little brightly colored images,
that would be perfect. Then he just kept doing it
because he's like it hasn't failed me yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And he's walking around and he's just picking up
garbage and he's just thinking like, man, what if this
increased my stats like health raised because I did this.
That'd be cool. What if this increase my stats?
Speaker 3: I found Uh, I walked my dog most days and
there was a gummy worm on the on the sidewalk.
It's like, ah, someone dropped a gummy worm.
Speaker 1: That's sad.
Speaker 3: And the next day I came back and the gummy
worm was was still there, and I was like, whoa
gummy worms still there? Like no animals have picked it up,
that's wild, or like no one came to.
Speaker 1: Throw it away.
Speaker 3: And then I think I w on a vacation and
came back and walked him again, and the gummy worm
was still there, but now it was completely clear, like
all the it was still in its form. I hadn't
like melted, but all the color had just somehow been
leached out of it and it was unmoved from its
spot on the sidewalk.
Speaker 1: How does that even work?
Speaker 3: I feel like that would have increased my stats if
I had picked that up somehow, like I left it
just long enough to mature, apparently, and it would have
the trend eventually time you eventually it did, this was
months ago, eventually did disappear.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, this might be like your excaliper
like it's waiting for you to pick it up.
Speaker 2: I just had to wait.
Speaker 3: I waited a little bit too long enough. Someone else
is gonna save the world. Someone else is king. Maybe
it was a curse.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe if I touched it, I would have turned into
a worm forever.
Speaker 1: It's not so bad, iod, it's pretty It's pretty bad.
No more responsibilities, I have to pay bills. You live underground.
That's probably the safest place to be at this point.
Speaker 3: A worm, a worm with the life, experiencing consciousness of
a human. That sounds like a specific kind of hell.
Speaker 2: Like what happens next to bus.
Speaker 3: I can't watch it. I was also thinking, like my
family thinks on.
Speaker 1: Ye earthworm Gym seems to have it figured out, so
you can get it, get a suit and then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but he wasn't human source. He was a worm
giving given intelligence.
Speaker 1: I believe was that what it was like, I think
you're right, it's been a while. Yeah, my my worm
room model earthrom Jem. There's a lot to choose frohim,
I know, but he edges them out. Well, Charles, you
have another game to talk about, and let me make
sure I get this right. I have it written down.
It is Detective Instinct colon Farewell, my beloved. What the
heck is this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is a game. I learned about it
thanks to Hayes Madson oh Verse posted about this, posted
an article on Inverse, but also like posted on Blue Sky,
and then I was like, oh, this is completely up
my asle. It is an adventure game with like the
style of it looks like a DS game.
Speaker 1: So now it's Phoenix right one, yea thousand yes, Phoenix.
Speaker 3: Right, which is just my Phoenix right is like maybe
top three game series of all time for me. I
have been just really waiting for just anything new to happen.
But even the newer games, they've gone with more of
a three D aesthetic, and I do kind of miss
the old Pixley day, so this is like a fun
nostalgic kind of I bought it purely based on the
art style. I'll be honest, I didn't they really look
into what the game was.
Speaker 1: I can tell this is a flashback in this screenshop
because it's drawn in a gray scale sketchbook style, Yeah,
which is very Phoenix right.
Speaker 3: Uh And yeah, I mean it's it. So the I've
played like an hour so far, I would say the
the so the difference is you're you're playing as a
college student on a trip to like a European tree
of which I can't remember. It's starts of the V
It's maybe like vid Straka or something like that. Fake
fake country, Okay, fake country. Yeah, And there's a murder
that happens, but you're unrelated to it as far as
you know. But based on how these games go, I
imagine somehow you will be related to it. But I
played like an hour of it, and it's it's interesting
because it's at a point where it's not like, hey,
you have to solve the murder. It's just like the
detective is nearby and he's like, ah, hoping to figure
out who did this murder. But oh well, I'll keep
talking to you and giving you some updates in case
you're curious. And uh, the main mystery I'm dealing with
is there's a woman who was on a train and
she disappeared and we're trying to figure out what happened
to her. So it's not like high stakes, but it
is still like charming and amusing outside of the.
Speaker 1: Marketing styles, not high stakes that woman has a family.
Speaker 3: To assume she might have turned into a worm.
Speaker 1: I might have just.
Speaker 3: Spoiled the whole game. It's it's not that high stakes
because the character only had like one conversation with her,
and now we don't know where she is and we
don't we don't really know anything about her. She's just
like I have a bad feeling that sucks, I guess, yeah,
and just talking to people and they're like, I don't
know what you're talking about, and that's that's. That's basically
the games so far. So it's not like one thing
I really like about murder mysteries in general, or like
Ace Attorney is particularly good at it, is I really
like feeling gripped by the feeling of like I have
to know what's going on, and I, the player, am
really invested in like diving into this and seeing what's
going on. I have not really felt that in this game.
But I'm such a fan of the genre and the
aesthetic that that's like what's keeping me going. But I
was gonna say, outside of the like Ace Turning inspiration
and like the art and stuff, the writing I think
is also I wouldn't say is as funny as Nace attorney,
not that that's like a pretty high bar to hit,
but is very much like lighthearted characters in serious situations
and people would like very stream weird personalities. Like the
bartender is like a mad scientist who's like trying to
get people to test his concoctions, which is just like
a strain of tea, and he makes it sound really
creepy and it's unclear if it is creepier if it's
not creepy, and just a lot of stuff like that
where it's like, yeah, but I like it, and I
think it's a fun kind of game. I get the
impression that it's just this one mystery, this one case.
So I don't know how long of the game it is,
but I'm like an hour or so in and.
Speaker 2: You're comparing it to Phoenix, right, which they're usually like
five or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, yeah, much longer games. Also, I'm getting the
Census is like relatively bite sized, and yeah, you're talking
to people, You're you're not like collecting evidence, but you'll
I guess one my biggest pet peeve with the game
is you'll be in a room and you'll have a
menu of options, and one of them is talk, one
of them is speak to, and one of them is discussed,
And I keep forgetting how each of those things are,
but they're different. Talk is if there's a person right
in front of you, and then you can pick options
to talk to them about. Speak to is picking a
different person in the room that you want to summon
to talk in the talk function, and discuss is when
you talk privately with your companion about what's going on,
kind of to like to get a hint of which
way to go forward, which is all separate from think,
which is where you just think to yourself about what's
going on, which way.
Speaker 1: To go forward. I feel like the one where you
pull someone aside privately, like you could maybe use confide,
it's like a better there's.
Speaker 3: Better picks for all of them. Yeah, but yeah, but
I don't know, I figure it out.
Speaker 2: It's cool, Like I I've always dabbled in Phoenix Right,
but my family all loves the Phoenix Right game. So
this is one that I will sort of give to
them and be like, this looks like it's up your ally.
Speaker 3: Yeah, switch to and it is running well on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is a Steam demo. I don't know if
there's a demo and switch. Looks like this is only
for PC and Switch, but yeah, if you want to
try it out, there's a demo and Steam.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's just like just a fun little bite
sized game. I want to give a shout out to
I have bite Size. I don't know if it's bite size,
but I've never heard of this developer before. I just
like being like, this game looks cool and I'm playing
it and it is cool and think thanks to Hayes.
Speaker 1: Yeahs a developer is r Monica kind of Harmonica without
the H. As far as I can tell, this is
like their first game. At least. They don't have any
other games on the Steam to their names besides this one.
But yeah, I want to check this out. I too,
am a Phoenix righte fan, and this kind of to
your point, kind of looks like it hits the notes
mostly of it of the older the OG trilogy of
Phoenix games, which I like.
Speaker 3: It's It's also like I get in a mood sometimes
where I'm like, I really want to play like a
really meaty like visual novel, like a Dongan Rampa or
an Ace Attorney or something like that, and I just
know that it's like they're just so long and I
never want to do anything else. I like cannot touch
it unless I'm prepared for that to be the only
thing I play forever. And so this is a nice
way for me to like stave off the craving basically
and be like, Okay, I play this and it feels
like I'm even productive. I don't know, I'm playing a
game I haven't played before. Yeah, yeah, oh go ahead.
Speaker 2: You you first met.
Speaker 1: Oh, I wonder if we're gonna ask the same thing
I was gonna ask, like have you tried the Seance
of Blake Manner yet?
Speaker 3: I played a little bit of it.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: I didn't continue one because, uh the timed investigation element
kind of stressed me out, where like if you're looking around,
you only have so many like every time you look
at something, it costs a minute of time. Yeah, and
that was like, ah, I don't I don't want to
feel like pressured like that. And also I'm not as
into Horse, so I think it was it was kind
of spooky, and I was like, maybe I don't feel
like this vibe right now. But it wasn't like I
hate this game. It was just I opened it up
and I was like, not the vibe right now?
Speaker 1: Sure? Were you gonna ask Kyle?
Speaker 2: And I was gonna ask different medium if you had
watched Wake Up dead Man?
Speaker 3: Yeah no, I really want to. But it's like they
it was like a limited theater run and it's not
in any theaters near me, Like the closest one was
an hour away.
Speaker 2: Me and my daughter went, but I love yeah, and
we went.
Speaker 3: I love the Knives Out movies?
Speaker 1: Is that like a detective thing too?
Speaker 3: It's a third in the Knives Out trilogy?
Speaker 1: Oh that's I keep forgetting the name of the third movie.
Every every time I hear it, it's a surprise of
that's right.
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, okay, let's go out now. Yeah, it's
it's at least here in Minnesota. There are a few
theaters playing it until Wednesday, but I think it's on
Netflix now right, Okay, it's on Netflix December twelfth. Okay,
oh it is Okay, I thought it was out okay
right away? Okay, cool, Well yeah I didn't really. I
really enjoyed it a lot. I like those movies. I
like Ryan Johnson a lot, and this was also a
very good one, so nice.
Speaker 1: Like it more than Glass Onion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I I know some people are kind of
down a little bit on Glass Onion.
Speaker 3: Like it certainly.
Speaker 2: I think it's most people's least favorite. I like Glass Onion.
I like I I will I also like it.
Speaker 3: I like the original is such a high bar that
it's like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I think the Original is still my favorite, and then
Wake Up dead Man and then Glass Onion. But the
gap between two and three I think is closer for
me than than most people.
Speaker 1: That's how I.
Speaker 2: Would define it. Anyway, you guys should watch it or
go see if you can find it in theater. It's
it was really good. I liked it a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I assume as he watching the other cerebral detective
movie that was Zutopia.
Speaker 2: Too actually, which I also saw. And it was funny
that those are both like, yeah, detective movies.
Speaker 1: You know. On ironically, both this or Zutopia Too and
the original genuinely surprising twist, they both got me. I
like movies a lot, was not affecting the change here
revelations in those movies.
Speaker 2: Not to go down to a movie rabbit.
Speaker 3: Hole, you know, rabbit hole yep.
Speaker 2: But uh, the last I loved, you know, I'm a bit.
I like Disney animated films, I you know, and like
the last handful have just been awful, like Mawana Tu
I watched for like five minutes and I was like,
I'm out. I watched Wish, which was like what happened here?
This is just like interminable. And then there's the other
one that I always forget the name. It's like it's
about like a it takes place on like a different planet.
Speaker 1: It was like Strange Strange Journey, Strange talks about.
Speaker 2: It has kind of some interest that the most interesting
part of that movie also like spoils the entire twist.
But it's like not a great movie. So like to
go see Zoutopia, it was almost like, okay, they have
they haven't forgotten how to make a decent movie. That's
that's really sure.
Speaker 1: I haven't see Topia is the first Disney movie that
I've seen in theaters in a long time, Like I've missed.
I've not seen any of the ones you named. Then
I forgot that two of them existed, those being Wish
and Strange Journey.
Speaker 2: Wish and I have not seen Disaster.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was sad because that was like a that
was like an anniversary movie right, Like it wasn't it.
They were like it was like to commemorate Disney's Like,
I don't know, well, fifty I sixtieth.
Speaker 2: Just kept saying we need to have an anniversary movie,
and they just kept saying it to each other until
some a movie emerged and they were like, oh, if
we forgot to put any of the creative people that
work here on this thing.
Speaker 1: I had a nice art direction. I like that. I
was like, oh, it looks different than the other stuff.
Yeah it's bad, but yeah, I've not even seen the
other sequels, like like Mahana and I haven't even seen
Frozen two yet. Utopia two is the first sequel I've
seen from them in a while.
Speaker 3: See in Kanto? Was that?
Speaker 1: Wait?
Speaker 3: Was that in Kanto? That's the other way.
Speaker 1: Recent actually saw it recently. I missed it when it
came out. I remember hearing it was good. I washed
it on a plane this year for one of our trips,
and it was like, oh, okay, this is good. I've
heard good things about this.
Speaker 2: I like in Conto. But then that was like in
Conto and then it was just like a dip for
like four years.
Speaker 1: And after the pandemic happened. They were like, we don't
care anymore. People to go out and see these things
and is like solid. It's I'm not even saying like
we're it's a new Disney up.
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, it was good.
Speaker 3: It's a nice follow up too.
Speaker 1: You are like when Thunderbolts came out and you're like,
Marvel's back, baby.
Speaker 2: I should probably watch that.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: It's fine.
Speaker 3: I like it, but it's fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was. I think the reception was
a little overblown, but it is. I mean, it is
one of the better ones. But it wasn't like in
game or anything. It's just like, yeah, I like this
more than some of those other ones.
Speaker 3: The man, I do wanna This is still a non
games related tangent, but I want to bring it up
because it's kind of relevant to our our earlier movie discussion.
Ryan Johnson directed these dives up movies. Kyla, have you
seen poker Face?
Speaker 2: Yes? I fell off the second season, but I enjoyed
season one.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Did you hear the news about poker Face Season three?
Speaker 2: It has been canceled and Peter Dinklage may come in
to be the protagonist for the third season.
Speaker 3: So it's it stars Natasha Leone as a character named Charlie,
and it got canceled after season two, and Ryan Johnson
is now trying to shop season three around at a
different streaming service with Peter Dinklage playing Charlie and has
the same ability of can't you can tell if someone's
lying and is saying he wants to make it like
an anthology show now where it's two seasons with an
actor at a time, and then you swap out and
there's just a different Charlie kind of like kind of
like a doctor who. It's unclear how this Charlie and
the first Charlie would be related at all, but it's
like such an interesting pitch, And I was going to
ask uh a game. This year, they've made news they're
making a sequel, but Peter Dnklage is now cast as
the lead. Remember that, Peter Dnkle. Yeah, that's why, that's why,
that's why I brought it in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh you're talking about destiny.
Speaker 2: No, remember your question at the beginning of the segment,
you're like recasting.
Speaker 1: Oh I thought you were, because it was like Peter
Dnkle was.
Speaker 2: Also Yeah, that's actually no, Actually That's.
Speaker 1: What I thought. Yeah, I thought you're referencing that whole
thing that was.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well now, but now I'm now I'm I'm bringing
it back around to video games. I'm saying, let's say
if news was announced one of the games from this year,
they're getting a sequel, but Peter Dnkle is playing the
main character now instead of whoever it was before. What's
what's the best game in this scenario.
Speaker 1: Uh, Claire Skier, it's uh Peter Dnklage as Verso Ben Starr.
Speaker 3: Has been should actually be really good?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Or you know, because he's like so good an answer? Yeah,
actually yeah, verst So as Peter Dnklage be good.
Speaker 2: I mean Dick Glitch is I I enjoy. I mean
he's sort of notably was not good in Destiny, which
was you know, they say it was just his availability
was why they was.
Speaker 1: Fantastic, said that wizard line with such conviction.
Speaker 2: But I do like Dnklic as an actor. So I
was trying to think of, like, what was a game
with like a bad performance where Dnklich could come in
and like fix it.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I don't trying to think like
he modern game?
Speaker 3: Has he been in a Kajima game. I don't know.
Speaker 1: He hasn't been scanned. He's avoided the scanner.
Speaker 3: Because he's the type of guy that would show up
in a Kajeba game out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: It would be like a weird scientist person or something.
He played game.
Speaker 2: You guys remember that movie Pixels. It was like Adam Sandler.
He plays like a billy what's his Billy Mitchell? He
plays basically, it's like a billy Mitchell. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I still have never seen that movie. I've seen clips,
but I've never because I like myself too much. Good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're fine, You're good. Last last, Ryan Johnson thought,
before he potentially sign off. Okay. Ryan Johnson noted pokemon
fan plays Pokemon Go obsessively loves Pokemon Go. Directed a
Pokemon commercial at one time. I believe it was for
Pokemon Go. He directed a Pokemon commercial. He said, while
he was riding knives out, he put up a bunch
of noir movie posters in his office to help inspire him,
one of which was Detective Pikachu. So as much as
I and I said, this is a post I made
on Blue Sky. So I'm repeating myself, but I would
love for I like him to make like original movies,
original Ryan Johnson written direct movies.
Speaker 3: Keep doing that. That's great.
Speaker 2: But the Pokemon Company, I bet you could get him
to make a Detective Pikachu sequel. I bet you could, like, oh,
you could probably get him to do it, and it
would be it would be really good.
Speaker 1: So I bet he sits by the phone waiting.
Speaker 3: For that call to I mean, that's play his road
on phone.
Speaker 2: He would get that joke, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: He would, He would, he would, Yeah you think.
Speaker 1: I mean they were supposed to do a sequel to
that movie, right like is it made a bunch of
money and then they say we're gonna do another one
and it's been how many years.
Speaker 2: Now, I don't know they were. They were waiting for
Ryan Johnson to finish making all his Knives Out trilogy.
Speaker 3: He's not.
Speaker 2: He's out of contract now and I don't know. Tlgy
has just like disappeared. So now he's available for Detective Pikachu.
Speaker 1: Oh he should. I would like a Knives Out mystery
that is in the poke, like just Detective Pikachu but
with his mystery child.
Speaker 2: And he's still just had his his sensibility. But with
Pokemon in it would be great.
Speaker 1: But it also like it has to still be a
Knives Out branded movie. So Daniel Craig's character is in
the movie, but he's in the Pokemon world and.
Speaker 2: He's like Daniel Craig another he loves video games. I
don't know if he's a Pokemon fan, but he's a
weight gamer, Daniel Craig.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that either.
Speaker 3: I thought, you, I really, I want to do an
episode of the podcast where you do a g I
ot to know. But it's a bunch of celebrities and
whether or not they fall into your bucket of like
celebrities that are actual gamers or not. I remember have
to guess whether we think they supposedly.
Speaker 2: I remember reading a story that I think it was
on the set of Casino Royale. They brought him a
build of the Golden Eye remake, which.
Speaker 3: Has him in it, and he refused.
Speaker 2: To give it back, like he's like, I keep being
filled because I want to play it.
Speaker 1: I'm in this game, which means it belongs to me.
I assume that's how it works. But see, I thought
if he was a real gamer, if he was a
real real gamer, he was gonna like give it back
because it's not a good game, like this is. This
does not live up to my childhood memories of O. G. GoldenEye. Actually,
this is just what were you.
Speaker 3: Guys doing here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, anyway, let's get both on the podcast. Let's talk
video games with dand Craig and and Ryan Johnson. That
was amazing.
Speaker 1: Let's skit Ran Johnson, Daniel Craig, and Cody Rhodes also
video game also a big Zelda guy, so you would
have a lot.
Speaker 2: To talk about with him.
Speaker 1: Star of the Naked Gun. I watched that New Naked
Gun recently. He has a whole scene in that I'd
forgotten he was in the movie, so I was delighted
to see he's the bartender. Oh Liam Neeson when he
goes to that bartender and the whole thing, Yeah, that's
Cody Roads. When he spun around, I was like, oh,
that's right, you're in this. Look at you, Kyle. Did
you know there's two wrestlers in Utopia as well? No?
Speaker 2: I did see this is I know what celebrities or gamers,
Marcus knows where all the wrestlers are. This is somehow
we can monetize this I don't know how, but.
Speaker 1: It's the Zebras. That's Roman Rains and CM Punk Zebra.
Yeah yeah, I mean they only say the same thing
over and over, but.
Speaker 2: They have a revelation that's a pretty good bit later.
Speaker 1: And it is a good bit. Yeah yeah, all right everyone,
we're gonna in this podcast so you can go watch
Zotopia two and I have forgotten the name of a
third Knives Out movie again, got dead Man Man?
Speaker 2: Come on, so you two song that we all know
and love.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big it sounds like a suit of
fifty one game as it does, it does, but yes,
thank you all for listening. We are gonna sign off
game form dot com slash subscribe, get yourself a magazine
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at Chuck duck three sixty five, Charles, does your cat
have a social media handle where you can follow your
cat that you're holding right now?
Speaker 3: Kit, do you have anything to say? She's not gonna
say anything. I don't even know I'm holding it up. No,
she's off the grid. She's fully off the grid.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, no one will ever know of her crimes.
And Kyle is that Kyle M Hilliard? Uh streaming schedule
or rather, you know, if you want to follow our streams,
you can do so. Gameformer dot com slash or Twitch
dot com Slash game Reformer, as well as our YouTube channel.
You can watch all of our streams from every week.
We stream twice a week Wednesdays and Fridays, Charles, our
super replay still going on or hopefully, I don't know,
by the time you listen to this, maybe it's finally over.
It's maybe we are in the midst of the final
scenario at the time.
Speaker 3: Unless unless there's some a fourth enemy we discover with
some kind of one hit killed mechanic will probably be fine.
Speaker 2: I ask you, guys, I know we're signing off here.
A quick question about that. I was very encouraging of
you guys playing that like I track happy of the
game and send it to you. Yeah, are you guys
mad at me? It's been it's been a good it's
been watching. It's been an enjoyable ok yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: No, and I mean there are some like bs in
that game, mainly because like the reason we're still going.
I don't know if you've tuned into any of the episodes.
Speaker 2: Not extensively, like I'll hop in on the stream sometimes
and but not not. I haven't been following the sort
of the full narrative.
Speaker 1: You know. Okay, Well, when you die in a scenario,
you have to replay the scenario again. Like there's no saves,
there's checkpoints, no checkpoints, so like, realistically, if there were
like traditional checkpoints, we would have finished this whole long
time ago because you could just keep resuming our progress
what you can only do with quick saves. But the
saves delete themselves as soon as you reload them, so
you can't. Really they're not good for preserving progress. They're
just for like stopping until next time.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, it's been fun. It's been fun.
Speaker 2: If you insist.
Speaker 3: It's our crazy one hit killed deaths have all been
absolutely hilarious.
Speaker 1: Okay, and it's like been confined to this last scenario.
Speaker 3: We've been swallowed whole twice and then found like a
really scared a guy who just ran up and punched
Marcus once and he died even though he had a
lot of health. And that hasn't happened since. What happened that.
Speaker 2: One super replay stuff right there?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's just a mutant man and a speedo
that jumped through a window, just punched me one time.
That's how goes man. We've all been there. But yes,
like I said, you can cash that. Streams our super
replays on Fridays. Wednesdays are general streams for newer releases,
and yeah, visit gameiformer dot com check out all of
our stuff over there. But thanks for watching, guys. We
will be back next week with an episode of the
Game and Former Show. Until then, bye,