Speaker 1: Welcome to the Game Informer Show, a weekly podcast covering
the video game industry. Join us every Friday for a
discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals,
alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from around the industry.
I'm one of your hosts, Kyle Hilliard. I'm definitely Kyle Hilliard.
Check the video version. That's who I am. I'm joined
by Charles Hart. What's up, Charles?
Speaker 2: I'm up? I'm up this time.
Speaker 1: I'm okay. Oh good, good, I didn't I'm sorry I
woke you up, I think? And Marcus Stuart, what's up?
Speaker 3: Marcuts plotswist, I never sleep?
Speaker 1: Oh cool? That seems like unhealthy, but it's the New
York Yeah, a person, Hey, and we are. We are
joined by one of those special guests I reference previously.
We are joined by Patrick sus Smelch. What's up, Patrick? Hello,
I've actually already been awake for like seven hours. Well
did I say your last name right, Susan? You did? Yeah?
Oh cool? Okay, so okay. Most people when you mispronounce
someone's name in person, they usually they jump on you
right away. Do you guys find that like ninety nine
percent of the time, people are like, I don't care.
I just I don't care. It doesn't matter to me.
Speaker 3: I would. I guess you wouldn't know. Rights If they
don't care, you'll never know.
Speaker 2: To me, it's how confidently you mess it up. Like
if someone's like, and this is Charles Hardy anyways, and
then they just keep going. I'm like, I don't need
to interrupt this conversation to whatever. But if they're like,
and this is Kyle Hillard, then you're like, it's crazy
to just not not confirm or deny that's how your
name is pronounced.
Speaker 3: Ye, Only it's like, do you go the other way
where you realize or you find out that you've been
mispronouncing someone's name, like for a prolonged period, Do you
feel the need to like apologize if it's been like
a year and you're like, oh, that's not their that's
not how their names pronounced. They never said anything like
do I need to tell them I'm sorry now?
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know if I've ever run into that
in my life. I guess unless you're planning to tell
me something right now, Marcus, we've known each other wrong time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I noticed there was a cane I've been saying
lile this whole time.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I interrupted myself, But Patrick, you are you are
a stand up comedian, and yes I am. And many
many years ago you when I asked if you wanted
me to introduce to you this way, you were on
last Comic Standing and you were like, that was like
a sc dade ago one hundred thousand years ago. I
was on the last comic standing. Roseanne bar really liked
my comedy, which is a credit that has aged perfectly.
That's so funny, that's hilarious what I got. But yeah,
these days you're a producer. You're you're making short films,
you're producing stand up comedy specials. Is that right? Yeah?
I was like, you know what, there's a lot more
money behind the camera than in front. There's actually not
there's I mean there's more, but it's like ten dollars
versus zero dollars. It's it's bad out here. It's bad
out here in La Guys, come save me. And not
even because of the warehouse fire you were telling us about.
I guess right, no, not well, I mean that certainly
doesn't help. But you know, everyone's like, we gotta we
gotta have more Ai in our in our movies, and
it's like, but why because I got there's so many
unemployed improvisers. Just go to UCB get an improviser for
like half a sandwich. What are you talking about? What
do you need to do you need You don't need
to train a lake in Arizona. Just go underpay some
college students. This is a great pitch. I like this.
This is like a better you know, this is a
better selling point than most. But uh my, my story
with you, Patrick is like, even with all those credits,
people might be like, well, I don't understand why he's here.
But many, many years ago, I guess probably about ten
years ago, Kamail nan Gianni was doing stand up in Minnesota.
This was before he was cool. This was like before
he was cast in a marble, before he was huge. Yeah. Yeah,
and literally like literally like literally yeah, and uh, which
you he We invited him to Game Former and he
played Castlevania four with us. You can look that up.
But Patrick, you opened for him. You did, like I
don't know, I did twenty minutes before him or something
like that. And you are very funny, but specifically you
had a lot of jokes about video games. Like, I
don't like it was. It really stood out to me
that if it was like, oh, this guy, like this
guy plays video games. You know this guy games, this
guy games, this is a thing a gamer.
Speaker 2: Kyle talks about sometimes that I've started to try to
slap my head of when you hear like a celebrity
or someone that's performing talk about video games, trying to
clock in your head of like okay, how much Like
not that it's bad if you don't play video games,
but like, can I sense from the things you're referencing
in the way you're talking about it, Like are we
the same kind of person? Yes, it sounds like you
passed whatever test Kyle said for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't remember any of those jokes, but I'm glad.
I'm glad they resonated. Yeah. I think they were about
the is it X and A? Do you know what
I'm talking about? Like the Xbox Live arcade? Xbox Live arcade? Yeah,
like you were getting real, like you know, if you're
making Xbox Live Arcade jokes on stage, like I'm gonna
look you up and try to connect to you on
Instagram and invite you. Yeah. I think I think there's
a period where I talked about Gone Home, a game
that every every everyone had a lot of strong opinions about,
and then went on to become nazis. I guess think
of think of all the gamer Gate people, and it's like, okay,
fascism because you didn't like Zoe Quinn. Sure, oh but yeah.
An extension of that is I did invite you to
Game Informers offices when we had offices, and we did
a video where we looked at those old Indie Xbox
Live games, some that you had made with friends and
stuff like that. So you can look that up. You
can find that video. Yeah, and I remember the games
cost like a dollar and you refuse to buy them.
You only played the Devil.
Speaker 3: I forgot about those. I had a period with my
college fronts where we had nights where we just download
a ton of those and just kind of just go
through them. See what stood out, See what was kind
of like, oh, this is just kind of funny. But
you've unlocked a core memory that I've not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's too bad. Twitch wasn't a thing back then.
That would have been a really like symbiotic relationship I think. Yeah.
And also final final sort of plug I guess you
could say is well two because we have a feature
in the new issue Game four magazine Halo on the
cover where Mike Drucker, comedian as well, wrote about comedy
video games, and you talked to him for a little while.
I did. We had a delightful phone call. It was great.
We talked about humor in video games. That's right, Yeah,
Charles has got it right there. And you also, this
is the truly fine, only final thing. You made a
game about being like a stand up comedian, like a
text based adventure. I made a text based game called
open Mic Simulator when I was at a really low
point in my career, roasting open my comedy. And it
is shocking how it's all just the same, has not changed.
It's been like eight years and nothing's changed. How do
you find that? What is that like? How do you
find that?
Speaker 3: What is it?
Speaker 2: Called?
Speaker 1: God? A great? Great question? Uh? Don't don't you dare
edit this out? How dare I put you on the
spot to tell us where to play your game that
you made. Yeah, yeah, I mean you can play it
on itch dot io. Just going to open mic Simulator. Okay, cool?
I think all right, Well there we go and that's Patrick,
who's a who's a big fan of video games, and
I think a very funny person and I've been wanting
to have you on this God, thank you so much. Yeah,
but hey, let's let's do a different plug Subscribe to
Game in former magazine Ladies, Jail gaminformer dot com slash subscribe.
I believe it's seventy bucks for a year of print magazines.
Right now, you can get ten issues sent to you
over the course of the year. Marcus and Charles are
showing off the Halo issue right now, which has quotes
from Patrick susmelch in it right now. Got me. Yeah,
that's John Halo on the cover. That actually is his name,
kind of, isn't it. This is John, Yes, John Halo,
John Halo. Maybe we have the last name wrong. There's
no way of knowing, but yeah, check it out. That's
what keeps us going, that's what keeps the lights on,
as Alex likes to say when he hosts but gaminformer
dot com slash subscribe. Let's dive into the show proper.
Let's start it off. The Starfox remake, which is just
called Starfox for switch To is out by the time
you're listening to this and maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't.
I'm using the augmented reality camera to be everyone's favorite
character Yaru from Star Fox sixty four. We all remember
Yau right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, until you have properly introduced yourself, I would bet
there was like a not insignificant amount of people that
I just thought you were like weirdly rocket raccoon. Yeah,
if you were not familiar with starf There's.
Speaker 2: Only so many sci Fi raccoons, that's true, you know.
Speaker 1: I interviewed the Exodus developers recently and they were sort
of teasing a really cool raccoon in their game two.
What is it about nice a raccoon? Yeah, yeah, new
Raccoon's about the drop boys. Now I got a pre
order New Sci Fi Raccoon coming into Fi Raccoon.
Speaker 3: Maybe we've almost got enough for a top five this over?
Speaker 1: God, we really do? Should I go through some of
these faces? I mean, the audio listeners aren't so I've
got I've got the whole Yeah, they got to go
to Patreon or whatever. Yeah, No, this isn't a Patreon, Patrick,
this is a legitimate I had a Patreon's legitimate. There's
lots of great stuff on.
Speaker 3: Oh look at you. You got some pep in your step.
Speaker 1: Let's see. Oh, we were playing around with it. Where
if I stick out my tongue, Let's see what happens
if I do slippy? Oh, I like it. That's like
not enough tongue for a frog. Yeah, it's surprisingly small. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Are are all the tongues the same? Can we see?
Can you just go to do it right?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: Top ten like list of best tongues in the Star
Fox avatars.
Speaker 1: I don't wow. I did not like the pigmo one.
Speaker 3: Oh I love how when you do it with one
of the dogs you just look tired.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's shockingly rob sixty four no tongue for sixty
four missed opportunity barely. Do you think they argued about
that when they were developing it, were like, should we
give them like a robo tongue?
Speaker 2: I would I would love to see the person like
passionately defending the rope.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just just just in the boardroom twelve angry men style.
Speaker 3: It makes us look cheap.
Speaker 2: Everyone else has a tongue.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm doing some of the now now I'm doing
the non ar cameras, but doing the augmented reality stuff,
right Kyle.
Speaker 3: Now it's like Kyle's face, but he has animal ears
kind of like almost like a phone filter.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Some of them are just hats. Yeah, just the
advice and hat. Now you've got just I kind of
want this hat. It's just got like the Star Fox
logo on it. That's cool.
Speaker 3: He could probably trade in some Nintendo coins and for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'm gonna stick with Yauru for this discussion
because he's a what I What I like about when
you do just like the ears, is this implication in
the Star Fox universe that sometimes there's just a guy
I love. I would love him, just like at the
end of the game, there's just like a dude and
no one interacts with it. It's like just like Bill
just in the middle of like like in the credits,
like there's like where there's the crowd, right is there
was there in sixty four? Remember, Yeah, it was just
a guy, just one guy. I mean, he's just an animal,
just like everybody. Just Jake Jillenhall. Is there, oh, specific
celebrity just Ja that'd be amazing. He might be game.
He was in the Prince of Persian movie. He might
be up for a Star Fox movie.
Speaker 2: It's Jake Jillenhall, but it's it's voice by Troy Baker
doing a great job.
Speaker 1: But yeah, weird, perfect Jake Gillenhall impression like somehow like indistinguishable,
like he's I don't know how he did that. But
what Charles and Marcus, I'm curious, what is what is
your guys' background? Star Fox sixty four specifically.
Speaker 3: I talked about this on the super replay I did
recently of the game. Where I didn't grow up with
a sixty four. I grew up a Nintendo kid, but
that generation was when I switched the PlayStation. So Star
Fox sixty four to me was always a game I
played at friend's houses because I knew a lot of
kids that had sixty four's. So I had played that
opening Cornaria stage so many times, but had never beaten
the game, despite it being so short, like I think
maybe the farthest I forgot was maybe two or three
stages in. So the super replay I did that you
could find on our YouTube channel was the first time
I'd ever actually seen credits in Star Fox sixty four,
And granted I technically didn't get like the true ending.
I got like I think Brian Shay, who was like
my mentor slash abuser.
Speaker 2: Your pet was like your Peppee and I was your Falco.
Speaker 3: I would say character, Yeah, I could tell which one
of you is meaner, but we'll go for like the
age like analogy. I think that fits because Brian's older.
So yeah, like they he was not a fan of
my my performance in the game, but I mean it
got me through. But yeah, that's the first time I'd
ever really played it, and kind of my relationship with
star Fox, like I have beaten that first S and
E S one and weirdly enough, the only other Star
Fox I've ever beaten was star Fox two on the Classic.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, sure, yeah, but I think what Patrick
is kind of trying to say, Marcus be polite is
what's wrong with you? I think is what he's getting.
I mean, I guess it's just such a that's just
so random. I mean, I feel like it's like a
fun it's like a tech demo. It was like like
there's nothing, It's like it's like, oh, fly hit hit
this missile. It's like, okay, that took two seconds.
Speaker 3: I mean, it is a finished game, and I was
like it was such an odd I bought it any
as Classic, probably fifty percent of the reason. I was like,
it's got Star Fox too. I've always heard about this.
I have to play that now. It is the first
thing I booted up. It is technically impressive. I'll say
that for a Super Nintendo.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what about about whatever year came out twenty eighteen
or whatever?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what about you, Charles, because you were not a
sixty four kid either, You're You're younger than all of us, right,
I'm assuming I don't make I don't call that out enough,
and it.
Speaker 2: Never comes up. Somehow someone did. I can't remember what
guest we mentioned in front of Louis. We mentioned my
age and I was like, oh, I'm twenty six, and
alex Is like, oh, I thought you were still twenty
two because I started when I was twenty too, and
he's just been assuming I'm like still a baby. I'm like, no,
I'm aging alongside the rest of you. I'm not like
a high schooler. But I know I did not play
Star Procticity for my honest exposure started with the episode
of a New game Play Today when Marcus was playing
it on stream and I just sat in and watched him,
and he did really bad, and I had a lot
of fun. I had a lot of fun making fun
of him. I think my favorite roast was the point
where I was like, I couldn't tell if he was
stupid or incompetent, Like I couldn't tell his hand eye
coordination was bad, or if he was just consistently making
all the wrong choices at every turn. I shot down
my teammates a lot constantly, like he waited for them
to kill in front of your crossairs and then shot
at them. But then kind of like when you watch
like your younger sibling die in a game over and over,
like just hit me, just let me do it. I
after that just went and downloaded the switch online version
of Star Fuck sixty four, and then for like a week,
I was just playing Star Fucks sixty four. No, I
remapped all the controls so it felt more modern.
Speaker 3: Did you play with the pro controller or do you
have the N sixty four controller?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I just played on the switch handout, I think
most of the time. Okay, I made I made the
triggers shoot, and I made I inverted the I made
the flight controls not inverted, because I that's.
Speaker 1: Okay, you know good. The remake actually doesn't default the
shooting to the shoulder buttons, which I wouldn't have been
bad because like both shoulder buttons are just roll, you know,
are tilt. But yeah, that actually maybe that would have
been nice to have R one B shoot. Yeah, I
wonder if you could do that.
Speaker 2: So I did. I beat it on. I did both routes.
I played more of it the Marcus did. I abused
the rewind feature. I did like die a bunch, but
I'm genuinely I was. I did not care about this
remake at all. And then I played the Star Fox
sixty four there and I was like, oh sick, and
there's a new one coming out so soon because of
the fan is so easy and fun and exciting.
Speaker 3: Still you have fun with it. It sounds like you
enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did. I genuinely really did, and I was.
I say this all the times. Sometimes I'll go back
to older games, were like, I don't know what these
guys are on. I don't know why everyone still talks
about this game like it's good.
Speaker 1: And this is one when I was like, oh.
Speaker 2: This holds up. I can I understand why they would
remake this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, listeners, you don't notice. But like when we're just
like our everyday job off camera, Charles does like go
out of his way to stomp in our childhoods.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I do. I will often say like, don't
go back and play GoldenEye, right, like don't, no, no, no, no,
no no, it's that game is really important to me,
and it was like huge, but like you're not if
you play GoldenEye now, like you're gonna be like what
was wrong with you? You know? But I think Star
Fucks holds up because it's so simple and just sort
of like cinematic and like fun and Patrick, I bet
you and I probably have similar sort of Star Fucks backgrounds.
It sounds like, right, like we can't grow up with
it a.
Speaker 3: Little bit more.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I I grew I do. I got a
Super Nintendo for like my birthday, and I had that
first Star Fox and I was like, wow, the future
is here a second. I don't need more than five frames.
I'm a child, my brain barely works. And then Star
Fox sixty four. God, I played so much of that game.
I got like the metal on every level, which unlocks
expert mode, and I got the metal on every one
of the expert modes, which I think unlocks sunglasses. I
don't remember. And that was it. That was before game.
The games were just like here's sunglasses, I guess go outside,
and like I've played all of them. Like when two
came out, I was like, oh wow, I get to
play two. And then I played and I was like, okay,
so that's why they released this. Yeah, so what there's
what like fit thirty Star Fox games? Two good ones?
I mean, I there's a I would never go back
and play Star Fox Adventure, but I had a lot
of fun when it came out. I actually played that
for the first time. Sowhat recently? How do I hold up?
Uh not? I mean not great, It's not like awful
or anything. But when after the Mario Galaxy movie spoiler
for this movie that came out months ago, Fox McLeod
is in that movie, and I was watching the movie
and I was kind of like, what's okay? Like I
just does not feel like the character that I remember
from the sixty four game, because he's really like brash
and kind of full of himself in the Mario movie.
And I was like, well, let me go, what is
the what is the game where he's the most a character,
and it was I kind of landed on Star Fox
Adventure because he actually has like conversations and dialogue. But yeah,
yeah with Crystal, of course, you know we all remember Crystal.
Speaker 3: Is he is he brash in that game?
Speaker 1: Not really, He's just kind of like a He's a
very level headed like leader guy. Is how I feel
about Fox. You know, Falco's the brash one who's full
of himself, but you know whatever, and then whatever. The
other there was assault was that the GameCube one, which
has the great first level, and then the rest of
the games underwhelming. Well, the problem is that they keep
like Star Fucks is about constantly going forward, and then
they're like what if you were like a guy running
around and it's like I've already got those games like
give me a tank or a space Like I could
play all sorts of games where I'm a weirdo running
around with a giant gun. There's the DS Star Fucks.
I played a lot of that when I had a
terrible I had a terrible job where I was a
debt collector, so I would play on my lunch breaks
Starfucks just to feel something that we U one would
have been cool had they not chosen the god awful
motion controls that like constantly drifted and you'd have to reset.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we U one is basically a reimagining of
sixty four, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ah, I think yeah, I push against that a
little bit. I mean because it is like you start
at Cornaria, You're in the Lilac system, You're going against
and raws and stuff, right, like that element is the same,
but like it's the levels are all different and it's
not a remake. It's just like it's just a there's
a level called corn Area, you know, and there's a
level called Section X or whatever. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Is it like, is it like Star Fox sixty four
is the Star Fox zero, as Star Wars is to
the Force Awakens? Is it like a thing where it's
like it's kind of the same shape and similar premise,
but it's a little different.
Speaker 1: I like it, actually, Yeah, I like that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I just remember Nintendo talking at the times. I also
pushed against the idea of like they remat this game twice,
and I'm like, what was the second times? I thought
they were just talking about the thirty s one? Yeah,
And it was like star Fox here, and I was like,
I don't remember them saying that was a remake, And
I had to like look back at some old like
trailers and Nintendo blogs and it's like no, they just said, like, yeah,
we took some inspiration from sixty four and there's like
elements and I think it even has elements of Star
Fox two.
Speaker 1: Yes, there's like a bipedal tank. It's like a star
Fox two thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, like you said, they never said that, like, no,
we're remaking star Fox sixty four.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which, which you know leads us to star Fox
Parentheses twenty twenty six, which is the proper title, which
is which name takes place in? Well, it's another it's
another galaxy. We don't know. This could be happening somewhere.
It could be like you know, yesterday, in a galaxy
far far away, and that would be like relevant, you
know that I.
Speaker 2: Would be like that a talking raccoon with a baseball
hat on a podcast right now, I wouldn't even know,
you know.
Speaker 1: Or it's a human. He's got an augmented Yeah, it's
Jake Jill and all. It's just Fox complaining about how
expensive is our wing is? Because of the component price
has been So.
Speaker 2: I would love to put Star Jake sixty four.
Speaker 1: It's Star Jake. That's funny, good, good joke. I like that. Yeah, great,
it's a top tier joke. But I you know, when
they they announced this in such a weird way, I
don't know how close you're following, Patrick, but they were
basically like Mario Galaxy came out and everyone had Star
Fox fever. And then one day they were like, hey,
in fifteen minutes, we're going to reveal a new Star
Fox game, and we all like scrambled to watch it.
It was weird. It was weird. And then my reaction
was like, oh, they're they're like properly remaking Star Fox
sixty four again, you know, and I'm referring to the
three DS one, not the which is a great remake. Yeah,
I love that remake. I mean it's it's one of
those games where the stereoscopic three D is cool and
like relevant and like as to it. But and so
I was kind of like, I don't really this isn't
what I want from Star Fox. I love Star Fox
sixty four, but I don't really need to play it
again right now. And like I would rather have something
brand new. And then they released the demo, which lets
you play media medios I think, and I was frankly
embarrassed at how excited I was for it, Like it
totally like scratched. Have you have you played the demo? Patrick,
or you're waiting to so you can till you play that.
I didn't. I honestly didn't know there was a demo,
but no would I. I heard about it like on Instagram.
People were like making the jokes like they've remade it,
and I was like what, And I just as a
side note, I love I got so burnt out on
like video like ten years ago, and like they'd be
like E three or whatever, but like, check out this
sick game that you can play in eight years and
like I love that. Nintendo's like, check out this new game,
go buy it now, idiots. I'm like, great, thank you,
Like I don't care, like, don't tell you about a
video game until I can like buy it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, basically where I'm at.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's weird that they call us idiots, though I
don't care for that. Part of it is it is
very it is very patronizing, it's very aggressive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Kyle, I was gonna ask, like you said you
felt embarrassed for liking it, Why why is that? Were
you kind of like were you ready to poo poo
on this game?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: I I certainly wasn't that right. I'm not. I'm never
at least I do my best to never go into
something like with preconceived notions. But the thing that like
struck me about playing the demo, which is Medios, which
is like the second level where you're in the Asteroid belt,
was like, I just had this moment and the music
is so good, by the way, like that's that's kind
of of like my The thing that I probably love
the most about the remake is the music is so good.
It's like it's reorchestrations of the original score and they
were always good, but like, oh my god, this they
are just taken to another level. They're adding like choral
arrangements and choruses during the boss fights. It's so cool.
But like playing that level, which is like right now, yeah,
you got you got you gotta be hyped. Yeah, and yeah.
I've been listening to specifically the media's level, like on
the Nintendo Music app as well, because they released that early,
which is cool. But it was I forgot there's a
music app. Oh yeah, get with it.
Speaker 2: That's that's just the Mario Kart World stuff on there. No,
you can actually listen to the like jazz that randomly
plays in the open world in that game, which is
very exciting because that's like you had to like you
had to rip it off YouTube or just kind of
wait for the song you wanted to play.
Speaker 1: They got coconut mall. Do they have coconut mall on there?
Speaker 2: They have to, right, they have to.
Speaker 3: Wait til it hits alarmo.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, so the demo like totally got me.
And it was like you know that term that people
use nowadays, a key jingling, Right have you guys heard that?
Like the idea of like, oh, look at this cute
thing that you loved. Like that's why I was embarrassed,
because I was like, I I forgot how important this
game is to me. I forgot how many times I
probably played that game like once a week for like
two months, you know, like beginning to end, and so
like it it feels like Starfux sixty four, Like it
feels great and like when that when the music kicked
in and the visuals like they look great man, Like
it's it's great for like a space sci fi opera,
which is what star Fox is to have these like
awesome visuals and lighting and you're out in space, and like,
I just it totally clicked with me in a way
that I was like, oh, they they totally got me right,
Like I do love this game and this remake is good,
and which is to say that's how I feel about
the final piece. The full game is like it's good.
It's a starfuck sixty four is a good game that
I'm Charles, I'm god to have you back me up
that like holds up like I do think it's like
still a fun game despite being an old game, and
like they did a really straightforward remake like the sort
for better and worse, the the better being like it
does hit all those memory spots on my brain and
the music is so good and like you know, I
just it's it's wonderful to see these levels that I
remember so intimately, like in these new visuals. And then
the sort of the bad of it all is like
it is ultimately nothing new, right, It's not like they've
added new levels or anything. There's new cut scenes between levels,
which is nice because like the characters of Star Fox
have always been fun, and like it's nice to like
inject that personality and like get them out of the
sort of the cockpit where they're talking at you during
the levels and like those are cool, and like when
you take different paths, you get different cut scenes depending
on where you're going, So like all that stuff great.
Like if you love star Fox sixty four, like this
this will work for you. Like they did a great
job of just like bringing that game forward to twenty
twenty six. But it's but it is ultimately an old game,
right if that makes sense, Like it just doesn't. There's
like I kind of I've almost forgotten my experience with
it already, despite having played through it like four Like
I think I beat it like three or four times
for the purpose of my review and took all the
different paths and so all the different levels. But it's
just it kind of just like went in one ear
and out the other because it was just like familiar
and it was like, yeah, you nailed it. And then
it's like, you know, it will if I ever get
a craving to play Star Fox sixty four again, which
I do, and you know, throughout my life and have
like for many years, the three DS one was the
one I would go to, but like, this will absolutely
be the star Fox that I play moving forward. So like,
like it's good, but I just I don't know if
the kids who saw Mario Galaxy too and wanted to
know more about this character. I don't know if this
game is gonna like excite them, you know, or like
bring them into star Fox the video game outside Star
Fox's character, which you know, frankly isn't really my problem.
I don't really care about that because you know, I
it's they made this game for me, the person who
is very nostalgic for Star Fox sixty four. Yeah, but
I but it's all to say it's good. I gave
it an eight two five I think is where I
it's where I landed on my review.
Speaker 2: Okay, I did want to also just if if you're
like me and don't know much about the game or
hadn't played before, just like structurally the way it works
I think is interesting. Oh sure taking it into modern
day of Like it's a pretty short game. It's like
what hour and a half to beat all the levels?
Speaker 1: Probably very yeah something like that. Yeah, it's it's it's short, yeah.
Speaker 2: But you're it's meant to be like played over and
over again, and each level has usually there's two routes
you can do depending on if you like complete this
optional objective. And I think it's interesting having it exist
in like an age of like roguelikes, where I think
there's a version of this game that comes out. I
don't know. I guess it would be in the three
DS era people were more familiar with it, but just
the idea of it someone being like, oh, this game
is like two hours long, Like that's weird, that's not
that's hardly any game. And I think now being like,
oh no, we're used to just being like you're gonna
play this over and over again. You're gonna really master it,
and you're gonna want to get better scores, or you're
gonna want to find things you didn't find before. And
there aren't like the randomized elements of it, but it
is like a structure of game. I think that's the
thing that excited me most when I played the Nintendo
sixty four version on the Switch too, is that I
don't think I had played a game with a structure
like that. If ever, at least not in like a
long time. And I just thought that was cool. It
was like a refreshing thing of like who made this?
It's tight? Play through it as many times as you
want and get good at it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it does feel like if you wanted to do
like a more I don't know, dramatic remakeup this game,
that you would just make it a roguelike for those
like that.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: Always, Galactic Racer almost feels like a ropelike version. Yeah,
star Fox, like the single player mode in that game. Yes, specifically.
Speaker 1: Oh, I also I want to I know I was
saying like, oh, they didn't really add anything new, which
is which is true. But one thing I like, and
Patrick you might like this as just like a fan
of the original, is once you beat a level, like
there's a challenges menu and you can just go to
any specific level you want at any time, and there's
like a list of things you need to complete in
that level. And in that way, it weirdly feels like
Tony Hawk's pro Skare because because these those levels are
ultimately short, right, they're like two to five minutes or
something like that depending on the level there, and like
these challenges are like you know, destroy this number of enemies,
you don't get these three gold rings, make sure you
blow up these two robots that are really hard to hit,
and you can kind of like keep replaying those levels
to complete all the challenges. And that was cool, Like
I liked that. Yes, one who's just like I would
love to just jump to the train level and just
kind of play the train level, so that that is
one addition that I quite like. Yeah, that's a great addition. Yeah.
I wonder if they were just so scared of how
many bad Star Fox games that when they wanted to
they wanted to get the kids going for Star fucks
like just one to one remake. Man, we can't take
any chances because every time we do, we mess it up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels like the biggest chance they took was
giving it to Villain to make this because they're a developer,
and they didn't reveal that Velain.
Speaker 1: Was until what like a week or two ago. What's Vellain?
Speaker 3: So the thing from them I played the most was
they did knock Out City, the Dodgeball multiplayer rol Okay,
but they've also worked with Nintendo before because they made
Mario Kart Live Tour, the one with the RC car
that was kind of the ar racing You remember.
Speaker 1: That again, yea for like hassling pets or whatever. The
whole point of that game was.
Speaker 3: I feel like that is most videos I watch people
chasing their.
Speaker 2: Mario Kart live colon home circuit.
Speaker 3: Right, that's right. Yeah, so they did that, and I've
done some other stuff. I always think of them for
for Knockout City. But yeah, they're developer on this game,
which is like, oh, that's an interesting I guess other
games are like like none of them follow the same mold,
so they're kind of like a pretty versatile studio. It
looks like m But yeah, I mean shout out to
them for pulling off, like I said, a pretty one
to one remake of a.
Speaker 1: Yeah they did. They did a good job. It feels
like the original game. There's also stuff that, like the
voice barks like Charles and Marcus. You guys, these might
not be as important to you, but like the things
characters say, because you would replay that game so much,
are just like embedded in my brain, like I just
hear it, yeah, like perfectly. And so when they have
like all new voice actors and stuff like, it does
throw me off because I'm like, that's not how you're
supposed to say that line. You're supposed to sound like.
First of all, you're supposed to sound like crap because
this is an Endo sixty four Abe, and you and
and we don't understand how acting works in video games yet,
so you're putting way too much genuine emotion into this phrasing.
What's wrong with you?
Speaker 3: I couldn't tell wether you're upset with the performance or
the quality of the actual Like the sound qualities too good,
Like if they had the new performance but they spoke
through like a ten can with that be fine.
Speaker 1: That would be good. That's that would fix my issues
with it. But also I mean, I the voice acting
is is fine to be generous, Like for some reason
Nintendo can't figure out voice acting. I don't know why.
Like all the voice performances in all their games are
like are just like I just feel like they're bad,
Like even like my beloved Breath of the Wild and
Tears of the Kingdom, I feel like the voice performances
are really mediocre from actors that I normally like. Was
it like Matt Mercer playing Gannindorf? Right, Oh, you don't
let no I don't, and I don't. I don't know
if it's a fault of his or what, because like
I like him and lots of other performances, but I
just I don't know. I don't. I don't know what's
I don't know what's happening there. I don't know what
the disconnect is. But yeah, yeah, so, I mean it's
really every time it always sounds like the actors are
reading the line for the first time when and then
they're like, we're great, we got it. Let's keep keep rolling.
We only got this booth for an hour, So maybe
that's what it is.
Speaker 3: Does Slippy still like think you laugh when he's like
in peril, because I feel like that's a key part
of Sleepy's care, Like anytime he's like, oh, I'm in
trouble and you're just like haha, Like it does not
have the intended effect like I gotta help you.
Speaker 2: A male voice actor now, because am I wrong? Slippy
was voiced by a woman doing.
Speaker 1: Like a yeah in the original Yeah.
Speaker 2: Not like a Bart Simpson's style voice, but just a
thing where it's like adult woman doing younger boy voice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, that's what you're saying. Patrick. It was like
a female voice actor. It was it was in the
original it was a woman. I don't Yeah, I don't
know who. I don't. I don't know that there were
any big standout voice actors, like recognizable names, but I
don't think I looked at the credits too closely. But yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Guess Fox doesn't have like a I guess, like.
Speaker 2: You know, the way well I was gonna say, guess
j Gillenhall did South, But other than that, I'm not
really sure.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say that. I guess I just thought
of it. I'm like Fox doesn't have like a house performer, right,
like the way that Mario always had Charles Martine for
a long time and now has the current gentleman whose
name I always forget, but like there's never been like
a consistent like Fox guy, and granted don't make enough games.
I guess right, yeah, no, I think dear twitching right now?
Speaker 1: Wow, you're twitching? Crazy?
Speaker 2: Am I address twitch? Oh?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: What having a little aneurysm or something?
Speaker 1: What is that? Because I'm leaning forward because I was
looking at IMDb because I couldn't remember they were like
man Watch, Jake Jillenhall bit into no Glenn Powell was
the name Glenn Powell who plays him in The Galaxy
Who's Good. I like him as Fox in the movie,
But apparently leaning forward and hiding my face behind the
mic just throws everything into into the fan.
Speaker 3: I guess for audio listeners, his face, like his eye
is just going nuts right now.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, but do you need us to pause
the Okay, okay, you're bad, all right, okay.
Speaker 3: Right for some motion with that avatar like make like
the meanest face possible.
Speaker 1: You guys can't keep.
Speaker 3: From being mean. We've got we can do.
Speaker 2: We can do eyebrows up and down, in mouth can
open and close. But other than that, there's a lot
of represented.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, I'm going to hit on all of
you all at once. You're ready, Okay, it's working. I'm
feeling it's work.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 1: I do like that all the designs. I actually love
all the character designs. I know people were mad and
I was like, I'm not everything needs to be like
furry art. Like I love that they just look like
animals that just like got put in some sort of
evolution chamber and they're like, I guess we fly planes
now or they just look like animatronics, Like they look like, yeah,
these meats. Yeah, I like it too.
Speaker 3: I was also on like pro New Character Designs, Yeah,
I was.
Speaker 1: I was somewhere in the middle when that, because I
think I was on min Max. I watched the live reaction,
which Ben Hansen was like like he immediately like had
to get like a vomit bag, and I was kind
of like, I think I like it, and I will say,
like I will stand behind this now now that I've
spent like I think I played the game for like
eight hours or something like that actually put in a
lot of time, which is a lot for like Star
Fuck sixty four because like Luke who said when you
beat it once, yeah, you've beat the game thirty times.
I mean I beat it a lot. I have come
to now quite like the character designs, like spending time
with them and seeing them and cut scenes and stuff
like that. It works for me. I think it looks
I think it looks really good. But that there's no
denying that. That first moment that I saw the new
Fox ma'cloud, I was kind of like, oh, I don't know,
I'm not sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, do I wonder now if they knew they were
gonna do this like face mapping avatar thing, but maybe
the realistic designs are better for that because you can
like maybe you like better than if they did like
the illumination style Fox, which is just like it's just
less detailed.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know what I mean. Yeah, I do want
to call it just quickly on the augmented reality stuff,
like the multiplayer stuff is significant. It's it's more than
I thought there would be. There's like online modes with
like like you can play like King of the Hill
and capture the flag like sort of like first person
shooter modes but with with Star Fox ships and arlings
and stuff, and it it plays well. Like I did
a couple online matches and had a had had a
decent time and was like there was more to it
than I thought. And like, I mean the augmented reality stuff,
like because the thing that I'm showing off here is
like this is the this is what appears like when
you turn on your camera and like your you, you
and your four pictures appear at the bottom of the
screen and you play and you can do you can
change your sort of character return stuff. That stuff is
silly and fun, like it's it's it's the right level
of dumb that it's like, you know, I might actually
hit that sea button on my switch to I might.
I'm thinking about it, you know, because otherwise I don't
think I've ever pressed it once outside of reviewing it
to console a couple of months ago. So but yeah,
but hey, you know what, we have spent a lot
of time on star Fox because it's a cool game
and it's and I like it, But I want to
hear more about other games that we've played. Marcus. I'm
going to start with you, because I think you've probably
been playing the most. You You've you've been doing a
lot of Steam Nextfest stuff, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I checked out a nice batch of demos over
the last week or so. We've got like a roundup
of a few standout ones that myself and Eric Van
Allen and Matt Miller played that you can check out
on the site, and I've checked out a few more
since then. Right off the top, this might not be
my favorite one of the bunch, but it's the one
I maybe thought about the most, and it's Penguin Colony,
which is by the developer that made Umrangkey Generation, which
I don't you guys played that game.
Speaker 1: That name sounds similiar, but I don't know what that is.
Speaker 3: It It was like a photography game kind of on
its face, but it's like a very weird, very abstract
photography game where you're kind of dealing with like the
end of the world and you're around all these like
weird characters and it's almost like kind of like, oh,
that guy a trip of a world. Yeah, So the
team behind that this is their next thing, and it's
set in nineteen thirty nine Antarctica, and you play as
penguins and there are humans that have called or are
visiting kind of in an expedition, and they are searching
for something and they have found something sinister. You don't
know what it is, at least the demo does not
reveal what it is, but it's got a The intro
title sequence is ripped straight from John Carpenter's The Thing Oh,
which was already like a hot start in terms of like, Okay,
that's a this is weird.
Speaker 1: Come in and.
Speaker 3: You're just in a big open Antarctica and there's penguins everywhere,
and you can occupy any penguin you want. You can
switch between them, and depending on the type of penguin
you have. It sort of determines one you're staminameter that
drains when you're kind of going uphill or if you
start running. There's certain areas that you can only access
if you're like a penguin chick, because you've got like
little nooks you can crawl through. You can waddle, but
that takes forever. So the game's like, hey, do your
little penguin belly slide everywhere? And that's a lot of
fun and for no real adequately explained reason, you can
slide uphill, like almost indefinitely. Yeah. I don't know how
that works, but I'll take it. But you're sort of
just like the game opens with like a expedition or
firing a flair in the air, and it just tells
you to go towards the light and you waddle over there,
and along the way you're just finding more and more
people and they're all behaving extremely strangely. And the game's
narrated presumably Yeah, humans, just human people that have visited
Antarctica for unknown purpose. I won't split who they are,
but they are. They are part of a group, a
not great group, okay, but yeah, these are not good
people and you realize that real quick but every person
you find seems to kind of be going insane in
some way, and some of them are like self mutilating themselves.
Other people are just like there's like a guy that's
just sort of like banging his head against the wall
and like a weird trance like it starts, it starts
going off the rails like pretty quickly, and again you're
just a penguin and you're just walking around observing this
and just trying to like just heading towards like checkpoint
the checkpoint, and like the demo cuts off right when
you reach sort of like a like a pretty big uh.
It seems like it's gonna be like the inciting thing
for like what this game's going to be. But it's
it's it's weird, like if you play to a Mauragi generation,
like that's a very weird and abstract game too, but
this doesn't feel maybe quite as abstract like this seems
like there was a little bit more directed and a
little bit more like, I don't know, maybe comprehensible for
lack of a better term, even though everything has just
said sounds insane, but it worked as a demo, like
I want to see where this is gonna go, because
just playing a penguin and watching all these weird dudes,
Like one guy was like I think like grading his
face off with like a knife or something like it. Yeah,
it's weird. It's got like kind of like the graphical
presentation is kind of very like PS one Era two,
So you got your kind of like almost like I
don't know why. My reference for PS one models is
Siphon filter, but like imagine just Siphon filters looking dudes
just like mutilating themselves. It's kind of what they're going on.
Speaker 1: Sounds like if Happy Feet had cosmic horror, kind of
which Happy Feet kind of does. I don't know how
well you guys remember Happy Thing. Yeah, but I mean
it's my favorite George Biller film. Wow. I mean except
for Happy Too obviously, but yeah, you guys, that movie
ends with humans showing up and then being sort of
really scary and like stealing away penguins to like zoos.
It's a weird movie.
Speaker 3: Wait, what does it end the way that Apocalypto ends.
It's like, yeah, you know, like, oh, this isn't gonna
be great for the natives, but it is.
Speaker 1: You watch that Happy Feet and like by the end
you're like, oh right, it is mad Max Fury Road
director George Hillery. He didn't make this a weird thing. Okay,
this kind of makes sense. But yeah, but that's cool that.
I like that it does it. It sounds almost like
what is the what is the Lovecraft story that takes
place in Antarctica?
Speaker 3: I just wrote about it recently. Yeah, kind of out
that game of Cenders Beyond the Peak is inspired by it.
Speaker 1: Right, but it almost sounds like that. But from the
perspective of Penguins, which is like a weird pitch, I
like that. That is cool.
Speaker 2: I would have assumed is the name supposed to be
like misleading? Like is it supposed to be one of
those like Penguin Colony. I was like, oh, I think
you guys mentioned it in Slack a few times, and
I was busy working on my Ventures of Elliott reviews.
I wasn't like paying attention. I was like, oh, this
must be like a Penguin home build, Like you're making
a little cute penguins.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like like timber Born or whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or like I was like, maybe it's a game.
It's like a Lemmings game, but it's penguins. It's like
it's a big puzzle solving thing. We have a bunch
of penguins. But I was not expecting ps one. Cosmic
horror face grading.
Speaker 3: My favorite genre.
Speaker 1: I'm reading the description. Okay, so like World War two
exists in this world. Yeah, yeah, you did say.
Speaker 2: I don't want to spoil it, but these guys are
from a bad group, and I think I guessed immediately
what the bad was.
Speaker 1: I mean, it says, it says, it says the description,
but the trailer shows a flag with a big old
Nazi symbol.
Speaker 3: There is a It just reminded me there is like,
am not a disclaimer or like something something across between
a disclaimer and a content warning at the top of
the game, where it's kind of like, hey, this is
based on historical events. There's depictions of fascism in here,
but you know, we're just it's for the story. You know.
Any resemblance to real life events is purely coincidental, that
kind of thing. Sure, yeah, yeah, but yeah, Peng Mcalny,
I want to play more. I think it's suppsed to
come out later this year at some point. But yeah,
the demo worked. I was like, I want to see
where this is gonna go. This is weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Another one I really liked is Virtue and a Sledgehammer.
This is I believe that the Volver published game, but you
play as this it's another one with PS one inspired
graphics actually, where he plays this very angry woman who
has a sledgehammer and is returning to her hometown after
being away for years and just starts smashing everything. You
find out over time that she and hers has had
some sort of like adversarial relationship with her mother and
specifically her older sister who she seems to be pursuing.
But the kind of the twist with her town is
that all of the all of her former neighbors, their
minds have been digitized and put inside of robots and
so like there's these machines but like nineties computer monitor
heads just roaming around as town and they react to you.
It's like and they just behave like normal people. But
this woman is so mad about like I guess it's
kind of like the idea is like she's confronting some
past trauma that it's kind of mysterious. But what's cool
about the game is how destructible everything is like you
can like charge your swings and when you hit like
the side of a house, it just like punches a
hole in it. And if you hit things the right way,
the entire building can just collapse on itself. And it's
just like a fun sandbox to go in and just
like I'm gonna tear down everything. It reminded me of
a lot of going to a rage room and just
like like just taking out your aggression and everything, and
you can hit the robots because some of them get mad,
the ones that are horrified runaway, but others try to
stop you, and you can just like hit them and
send them flying like bowling pins, and then you can
send them flying through walls, which can then make the
whole building collapse, and it's a it's a good time.
Speaker 2: You said this was called Donkey Kong Bonanza.
Speaker 3: That's exactly what I said.
Speaker 1: I know it's called Red Faction Gorilla.
Speaker 3: I did think of I had Red Faction Gorilla in
my head as I was playing.
Speaker 1: You think with all the processing power, we would have
more games where you can just blow stuff up, and
instead they're like, no, there's more chin hairs on Starfucks.
Speaker 3: Another quick rapid fire one I played Well Dweller, which
is the next game by the studio that did Crypt Custodian.
I think it was called It's a metroid venue where
it's set in this like dark fairy tale world where
this evil queen has she really wants a dress and
like a wardrobe made out of bird feathers, like that's
just her thing. So she has ordered her kingdom to
hunt every bird to extinction. Basically, so this is a
world where birds barely exist, and you control a crow
who is one of the last surviving birds. Like you
and your family live in a well, and that's how
you've evaded the gaze of all these hunters. And your mom,
who is sick, is like, hey, you need to go
out there and like bring food for your siblings. And
the crow doesn't really want to do it, like it says,
he's not really much of an adventure and it's kind
of cowardly, but your mom basically is like, oh, you're
the only one because your siblings are literally toddlers. So
you're exploring this dark man's who has got this really
really nice animated sort of like it reminds me of
like kind of like a fairytale story book. It's like, oh, whimsical,
but it's also kind of twisted and just kind of
unsettling too. You're fighting all these really bizarre enemies. You
fight with a match stick, like a lit match stick
that dims the more you take damage, which I think
is a fun touch, but just as a metric venua, like,
at least from what I played, it seems pretty standard.
But like I must it is two d's okay, cool, Yeah,
it's two D. But you're going around, you're finding you know, abilities,
and you're bringing stuff back to your to your well
while also in the background you see you like the
humans who are like gigantic, just kind of lurking in
the background. There's like a very weird chase sequence that
it's honestly, it's a little bit nightmarish, like there's like
a giant, like overly long arm that pursues you towards
the end, and it's like, if I was a kid,
I would have had nightmares about this, like just reading
like a story book that I don't think the author
intended to be as scary as it is. That's kind
of the vibe I get from this game. But I
liked it a lot. That's another one that's supposed to
come out this year. Well dweller, Well dweller, Okay, gotta cut, Yeah,
and I guess real quick. The last one I'll shout
out is Dusk Fade, which is again you wrote about
Kyle in the New magazine is.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, right, yeah, you couldn't see my expression, but
I was like, dusn't like I was like thinking of
it as two different words. But yes, yeah, yeah, okay, yes,
I wrote two pages on that book and talk to
the its writer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's the you know, now we're upgrading. Now.
If this isn't a PS one inspired game, this feels
like a game from the PS two as a compliment, yeah,
kind of. When people see this game, the first thing
they say is that just looks like Kingdom Hearts because
the little character has a key blade looking sword and
he holds it over his shoulder in the same postar
that so does. And the just the aesthetic has a
lot of chains and clocks in a way that is
evocative of Kingdom Hearts. But like reading your feature, Kyle,
I learned that apparently they were more inspired by everyone's
favorite two thousand and two animated Disney film, Treasure Planet.
Speaker 1: Yes, classic, a classic film that's still talked about.
Speaker 3: And made Disney a lot of money.
Speaker 1: So much money. It's like Iron Giant made Warner Brothers
a bunch of money.
Speaker 3: See that's more sad.
Speaker 1: Because that's actually a good movie. Vin Diesel's best work.
Treasure Planets pretty good. I mean, Iron Giant is a
great movie, but it's cool. Everyone be nice to Treasure Planet.
Speaker 2: Okay, Iron Iron Giant's just better. I think that's just you.
Speaker 1: Know, everybody's agree with that. Everybody download Treasure Planet right now.
Speaker 3: Let's go to Disney Plus, it's probably there.
Speaker 1: Maybe, but listen to that Google Doll song or at
least the lead singer Goo Dolls. We all know it.
Speaker 3: Actually don't. But anyways, I say PS two because this
feels very much like the first two Kingdom Hearts and
sort of gameplay or like like an old third like
third person character action game like a Jack and Daxter,
or even like a dark cloud, like you just go
around these kind of like open hubs. There's like heartless
looking enemies roaming around and you just swing up big
sword at him and it feels really good, and you
got like a chatty little robot owl with you that
reminds me of like a DreamWorks version of the one
from Clashing the Titans, and that thing helps you in
combat too, like it just attacks it and he's automatically.
But it's very much like, Oh, you smash things and
you're you're collecting all these little coins or whatever they
are just scattered around the world. You see a collectible
up on a perch and you're like, how do I
get to that? And then you just spend time going
around what feels like a bunch of like jungle gym
like biomes, just climbing around and grinding on chains. And
the character is like Sacharine and how much of a
good person he is and just wants to because the
whole game he just wants to rescue his sister and
he's like, man, I just love my sister. I gotta
to get my sister. And she's stuck in this volcano
that's like at the center of the world that's erupting.
We got to get there, my talking sassy robot bird friend.
And yeah, it just it just feels like comfort food,
Like you're just like, oh, we don't get games like
this anymore. And this used to be like most of
the video games he's in high school like mascot games. Yeah, exactly,
and it plays well and it looks nice, like the
aesthetic looks nice and it captures like that feel of
that era. So yeah, that's another one that's also coming out. Uh,
that hasn't a date, that's like August something.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's close.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I liked I played a little bit of it and
talked to the lead writer. Yeah, and I'm looking forward
to that one for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, August thirteenth, that game comes out sweet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah playing it. Time to watch Treasure Planning
and then go play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm still here. It is the song. You guys
know this song. Everyone loves the song. It's their favorite song.
Speaker 2: We're gonna take from if you just went what's the
name of that Googoo Doll song? Yeah, just like information,
Like I couldn't tell what emotion you were expressing on
the other side of that thing where I was like
he is he joking?
Speaker 1: So okay, Yeah, yeah, I think it's just a lead surgery.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, is that a character trait of
that raccoon is his eyes twitch? And that training cut scene,
is it like if you do badly? It just really
upsets him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. It's it's been a while. Well,
actually you are required to play it in the new
Star Fox the training, so you actually do see him
but see the eye twitch yeah, and I think, oh yeah.
You can unlock like text about him. That's another big
thing about the remake because you can unlocks. Yeah, lower
you can read about Bill and his time in the
academy with with with Fox.
Speaker 3: I would love to be the person in charge of writing, Laura.
Speaker 1: Charles, you reviewed The Adventures of Elliott, which I've been
playing to I've actually I've been having a decent time
with it. But tell me about it. What do you
like about Tell me about your review of Adventures Value
You played the whole dang thing.
Speaker 2: I actually actually want to un a reverse card. Well,
I'll throw it over to Patrick. Have you played the
demo of this game too?
Speaker 1: Kyle told me that I was yeah, it okay, I'm sorry,
Kyle lied.
Speaker 2: I had a very intention and then totally fine.
Speaker 1: I got I told him to, So I hope I
get credit for that. You did you did? You called
me at like three in the morning. You were like,
you better play that game?
Speaker 3: Sowitch.
Speaker 2: Now I want to ask you guys, what your impressions
are earlier in the game before I get into all
my late game impressions, because I'm just curious of like
how far are you and Marcus are, like how many
hours in, and just how you feel about it so far.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm probably I'm only ninety minutes and I
only started playing it yesterday. So I did like the
first couple dungeons I guess, like the tutorial dungeons we'll
call them. It seems fine, like it's it's very zelday.
So I never played the demos, so this is my
first time actually getting to play the game. I kept
hearing that it was basically Zelda, but now playing it,
it's like, oh yeah, yeah, pretty much. I like the combat,
like that's such a simplistic style of combat. So I
kind of appreciate how at Elliott's combat, Like it feels
good to hit things with his sword. I like that
there's little combos or like like what do they call him,
Like like if you kill a bunch of nym succession,
you get like bonuses, like oh you can the drop
rate is increased. It's like, oh, that's like a fun
incentive to go hit everything. Uh, looks nice, Like, you know,
I like the HG two D stuff. Everyone No one
is interesting to me so far, like, no character whatsoever
has made me go, Man, what a like Elliott's It's
he seems like a nice person. And that's that's like
the extent I can say. It's like he seems okay.
The I'm you know what I'm waiting for because I've
heard you both Kyle and charleson as well as others
complain about the princess and how much she I guess
she talks, and so I have purposely left the Chatterslider
at the defaults. I kind of want to see if
it bothers me the way it's bothering everyone else, And
so far, I'm still early. It has not reached the
critical yet, but I am seeing they're like, oh yeah,
she does comment on on things quite a lot, Like
she says things as they're happening too, like yeah, I'm like, hey,
you found a chest when I'm like looking inside the chest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's explained to you what a chest is and
that they're good, And You're like I've already opened that
and walked away, like we're good here, you know. Yeah,
I'm I'm further. I like, I'm out, I'm beyond the
demo at this point. And the thing that I've like
locked into that I'm enjoying in sort of a simplistic way,
is it is it feels good to explore and beat
up monsters, and it's not. It's not Zelda and correct
me if I'm wrong, Trails. It's like it doesn't really
feel like Zelda in the sense that like, oh, you
go into a dungeon, you get an item that helps
you complete the dungeon and like defeat the boss, but
like the dungeons are sort of Labyrinthian and they're fun
to explore and get lost in. I don't see it
doesn't like, you know, you kind of note a certain point,
like it doesn't feel like a game that's gonna totally
like grab me and and like pull me all the
way to the and in a big way. But like,
but I think like the basics of it are like solid,
and I like the way it looks. I know, HD
two D is kind of like some people don't seem
down on it, but I'm still I'm still kind of
a enamored word and i still kind of like it.
Speaker 3: So sorry, yeah, I did one assence you both at further,
like do the dungeons like because I I did notice that.
So I bought a boomerang almost immediately because it's being
sold at the store. And I was like, oh, okay,
maybe you don't just find it in a dungeon like
you would and Zelda and like solve the So I
was wondering, like, does that ever come into play in
a dungeon where it's like, oh, you need an item
to get through this.
Speaker 2: Yes, you'll find most of the rest of the items
in the game organically, items meaning like weapons specifically. And
there are parts where it's like you can't get through here,
Like there's these big like they kind of look like
big wooden nails you can't walk past. You just need
to get the hammer first and can smash those and
the walk over them. And then there's a uh a character.
It's not really a spoiler, but just just the concept.
You haven't met her yet, Marcus. There's a fairy named Faye.
She's the one that has the annoying dialogue.
Speaker 3: Oh so it's not the princess.
Speaker 2: Okay also talks a lot, but Fay's voice is worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you can imagine all that talking with a
more annoying voice. That's yeah, which is that's like the
majority of the game, right, Charles, Like, that's like your
permanent companion.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, Bully a treasure chest. I wonder what's inside.
I don't like the look of this villain. Oh us,
use your shield every once in a while. That's the
worst one. You get hit by an enemy. It's like, ujit,
use your shield every once in a while. Like, yeah,
I know, I'm trying, it's been thirty hours.
Speaker 3: It's her, it's her performance. Like did you ever play
Ginsen Impact? Do you know pime On from Ginsen Impact?
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't know enough to o. Kyle's nodding.
Speaker 3: She's like your little fairy buddy, Like she's like basically
the protagonist characters, not basically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's the situation here.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah. Like her voice is similarly just kind
of insufferable and like high pitched.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, this is this is the character you can
like turn down or something or what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but no, there's a setting. There's a setting in
the game of it's like partner chattiness and you can
have it default.
Speaker 1: Or like reduced, and can you like, crank it up.
Speaker 2: There's only the two sets. Yeah, Honestly I turned it
down and I was still like, good lord, this fairy
won't stop talking. Yeah, I think. I think the difference,
if I had to guess, is that, uh, when you
approach certain items or environments or encounters, she will respond
and comment on it. And also if you're just kind
of idle in the world, she'll say stuff. And I
think this cuts out the idle stuff and only keeps
the like environment triggered stuff. So she'll say something if
you walk up to a torch, she'll be like, hmmm,
I wonder how we could light that torch or stuff
like that to kind of like if you're stuck or whatever,
not that that would really happen, because she comments on
stuff before you can even process it with your eyes.
Speaker 3: But she is she like, because there's one thing that's
just comment on things in the world. But is she
like solving puzzles before you can do it.
Speaker 2: No, it's not like a treyis pre God of War
Ragnarok patch.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, like, it's not alloy and Forbidden West.
Speaker 2: No, it's yeah, but she's like, it's also like the
puzzles aren't They never get so complex that she could. Really,
it's always just you have to light this torch, go
make your way over to it, kill the enemies or whatever.
It's not super complex. I asked you guys about your
thoughts on the demo because I would say the game
has like a pretty decent opening five hours or so,
because that's the part where you are, you're starting to
explore the world, You're getting a bunch of different weapons,
You're kind of like getting your footing. The world is
being established. And the thing the games stowsrugg with is
the full title is The Adventures of Elliott the Millennium Tales,
and it is a game that is told across four
different ages, which are just different time periods, and you
find these doorways of time you can time travel back
into these like earlier periods. The main fault this game
has besides the like generally kind of mid story, Marcus,
your point of the characters being boring is correct.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's a I don't think there's one
interesting character in this game.
Speaker 3: I was like, so they don't get better from where
I'm at.
Speaker 2: No, the the main flaw is that the world, the
overworld is like the same map. Like you'll go from
one age to an earlier age and it's like, okay,
that cave is in the same spot, and it looks
the layout is the same as it was in the
time before. Sometimes the colors are a little bit different,
or sometimes there's like some ruins where like if you
go back far enough, like this wall wasn't collapsed, so
you can go into this area now, but it's never
drastic enough, like it was to the point that I
was exploring the world the Second Age, and you're going
backwards in time. So I explored the Second Age a
lot and quickly realized like, oh, I did all of
this stuff already basically, And like the spot where I
found a bow, now there's just a chest with like
five hundred rupees in it or whatever. Oh Kyle's glitching out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry, I didn't, but I was because like, look
at him, right, he doesn't he just.
Speaker 3: Okay, audio listeners, it's really going to do.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. I guess I could
just clean it like that for the rest.
Speaker 2: We've committed too hard to bail now and change characters
like that. That just is your face.
Speaker 3: The the lip.
Speaker 2: Terrifying.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I'm sorry to totally derail you, Charles,
and also for the audio listener. But like I, it's
the the switch camera just like stopped focusing on my
face for some reason. I don't know why. I don't.
I don't know how to. I could unplug it and
plug it back in.
Speaker 3: Maybe just had like a gallon of expresso.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Sorry, but yeah, so it's uh, okay, all right, Okay,
there we go. I fix Okay, maybe I should, maybe
I should. Anyway, so you're distracted, Yeah you were. You
were talking about how like it diminishing returns and also
how like the level the world layout is consistent to
a fault, right, yeah, I ask like.
Speaker 3: What's the How big are the gaps between the ages?
It's like hundreds or thousand years.
Speaker 2: I would estimate. I don't think they tell you, or
if they do, I didn't really catch it, but I
was often wondering that. I think it's it's the Millennium tale,
so I think it's like over roughly a thousand years.
I would say there's like two hundred and fifty years
between each age, so it's like a long time you're
not meeting a character and then meeting their parents. You're
meeting a character and then meeting like their ancestors, and
you can like kind of tell the lineage. It's not
always said explicitly, but like you find you meet the
king and then you meet the guy that becomes the
first king of the kingdom later and you're like, Okay,
that's probably his great great grandpa or whatever.
Speaker 3: Is there any leaps in like technology, Like, am I
meeting an ancestor who just has like a gun?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Not gun, but it is like the general like
world is. I think they tell you this upfront, So
I'm just gonna all lay out the basic timeline because
you find a lot of I do like that. This
game has a lot of document you can find and
kind of piece together the history of the world before
it happens. But there's humanity is humans, and then there's
the beast tribes, which are just like animals that kill you.
They allegedly have a society and they work together or whatever.
You never see any of that. They're just basically enemiesnow world, Yeah,
Kyle's a member right now exactly. Honestly, it is like that.
So there's the age of Budding, which comes first, which
is just a bunch of basically cave men like people,
and then all the beast tribes that are hunting them down.
Then humans learn to harness magic, and then there's the
Age of Magic, and that's like that's like a final fantasy,
kind of like high tech magic city where they like
invent robots with how high tech their magic.
Speaker 3: Magic tech armor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have, they have like force fields around the city.
There's like colleges that are studying magic. Then at some
point something happens where humans lose all their access to magic.
Then you have the Age of Reconstruction, which is kind
of like a post apocalypse. People don't have magic. They're
all wearing like rags and living in the ruins of
the past society. And then the current age is the
Age of safe Keeping, which is more like medieval times.
And the whole thing is that Princess Huria, the main princess,
is like praying to cast a bell to like keep
the beast tribes out of the kingdom. So you're seeing
all these Uh, the time travel is just not utilized
very well, so you get to go between them and
the main story is like mildly interesting, but you're not
like affecting stuff between time periods all that much. Like
someone asked me this on Blue Sky and it almost
put in my rear of like there's never a point
that I played where you plant a seed and then
come back later and it's a big tree. Like that's
the kind of travel puzzle I want of, Like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or this isn't a thing of like you need
to go back in time and like kill someone so
that they don't become a problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not like that. That never happened time.
Speaker 2: There's yeah, I wish, Yeah, I wish it was a
thing of like I went back in time and I
built a dam, and then two hundred fifty years later,
it's like, oh, this has been a desert for our
whole lives something like that. It's a lot you're a
much more of a passive uh influence. It's a more
it's more of a forced gump situation where it's like, oh,
Elliott was at all these pivotal moments across these time periods,
but he didn't seem Yeah. It's like it's like, uh,
you'll see like you'll hear about a big battle and
then you're you'll participate in the big battle, but it's like, oh,
and that was always supposed to happen, Like the cannon's
not altered. You have always done this throughout time, which
is interesting at the very end of the game. Also,
there's there's three endings. There's the first ending where if
you beat the boss and you don't know what's going on,
they're like, dang, you didn't really solve it. Oh well,
here's credits, and I was like what, and they're like,
maybe there's a little bit more to the game. And
by maybe there's a little more, it's just go to
one of the main towns and you'll get more cut scenes,
and then there's more to the game. Then you get
the second ending, which is like you figure out how
to actually beat the boss, and it's like, okay, I
beat the boss. Interesting, I wonder what else is going on.
And then the third ending, which is similarly like just
go to there's not there's one town. There's not multiple
towns through all the ages. There's one town. Go to
that one town and see a cut scene that comes there.
Then it's like, Okay, here's who all these characters are,
here's how there's related. Here's a thing that you did
that altered the timeline and how these things are connected
and how time travel is laid into the you know,
patchwork of the game. So it's the thing of like,
if you play this game, you get the first ending,
you have eight hours left, and you should keep playing
those eight hours because so the game will not feel
complete at all.
Speaker 3: These aren't optional endings. You're going to see these false
endings that gets it a real ending.
Speaker 2: I think you can avoid them, like I think in
the review guy they were like you can just if
you know what to do, you can get these alternate
endings in advance. But I wouldn't have thought to. I
didn't realize that that's how the different endings worked. I
just kept getting the bad ones. But then it just
be like, also you can you can just go back
as soon as you get the ending. It just loads
you into the save right before you fought the Okay.
So I didn't know if it was like a like
a near automa of the situation of life. No multiple endings,
but they're baked into the they're they're all there's all
one actual real ending. Yeah, basically, yeah, yeah, and yeah.
I all that to say, the story, the setting is
kind of made. The character's not interesting. The combat is
fun and stays fun. I'd say for the whole game.
You get a bunch of Zelda like weapons. You have
like a full arsenal. You get a sword, a hammer,
a spear. My favorite thing is a chain and sickle
do you spin around and like you can't hit people
right in front of you. It has like a radius
that you have to be a certain amount far away
from them, and they all have like a charge attack,
and the charge attack I got like buffed up with
a bunch of magic site, which is the thing that
the game has, which is like little enchantments that can
put perks on your weapons. So it'll be like if
I do a charge attack, it'll freeze people, or when
I throw my boomerang, it's bigger and slower so it
hits people more times. That sort of thing that's cool.
So that's like where the game is fun, is that
I like fighting people. I liked the common up to
the end. I wish there was more enemy variety, but
overall it was it was an enjoyable enough experience. It
was entertaining. It wasn't like game of the Year. I
think I gave it a seven point twenty five. It's
a little repetitive. It took me twenty five hours after
I got the the true ending. But if you were
the thing, I was glad when I started this is
because I started playing mean to the hollower, and I
had thought that would be a lot more Zelda e
than it was, and I was like looking for something
a little more light that I wouldn't have to pay
attention to as much and minas a little leans, a
little more dark souls. This did kind of scratch that
like Zelda combat style of itch that I was looking for.
So if you're looking for that, I think it's good.
If you're really into the HD two D style, I
think it's good. And if you're just like I want
Squary X storytelling in my life right now, I think
it's fine. But you want mediocre square X storytelling, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
But I don't think this is uh, this isn't a
clear clear your schedules. Everyone's got to play Adventures of Vlliott.
I think it's more of a If it's the vibe
you're looking for, then go for it. Walk don't run,
walk walk don't run. It can add it to your backlog,
but it can go to the bottom.
Speaker 1: That's fine, got it. Well, you can find Charles's review
on gameforem dot com. Of course you can find my
Starfux review there too. I don't think I mentioned that, Marcus.
Do you want to tell us a little bit about
Dark Scrolls.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is the next game from Donksoft, who, at
least for me, the thing I think about from them
is a Gotto Roboto, which was yeah, very Metroid two
inspired side scroller where he plays a little cat in
like a basically a Sama suit. They also did Gunbrella,
which is another game I never finished, but I did
like what I played a Gunbrella, amongst other things. But yes,
this is their new game. It is as the name suggest,
it is a not so much the dark part, but
the Scrolls part does a lot of the heavy left thing.
Because this is an auto scroller. It's a two D
action game. You can play alone or in co op,
but you choose one of like three available characters. You
can unlock more later, and you're just going through these
auto scrolling levels and each character is basically like like
they all shoot some kind of projectile like they almost
feel like human versions of like a ship and like
a vertical like ship, like what would we call them
like bullet hell game kind of Oh yeah, because like
one character can just throw axes NonStop and they kind
of arch in almost the Castlevania kind of way. You
have a wizard who can just lob these like balls
of magic that bounce around, and then you have a
rogue that just fires like twin daggers, and they each
behave differently like some can move faster than the others.
They can all jump, but they all have like unique
sort of like like aerial moves, like the the axe
guy can do like a button pound that feels really good,
whereas the wizard has like can basically shoot himself upwards
and forwards and like a like a rocket, so you
can like damage enemies like that. And then the rogue
can throw knives downwards to just kill people beneath him.
But you're trying to get through multiple stages in one run.
It's a run based game and kind of kind yeah,
because you are, like you're earning currency that is then
converted into gems, and you spin gems to unlock new
perks that you can then use in game. So the
way to combat works is like every time you kill
enough enemies in succession you earn stars, and every star
unlocks a different perk that you can assign to it.
So you'll reach a point where it's like, Okay, I've
unlocked the ability to add fire to my weapons, but
I've also got the ability to move faster, and the
order that those are unlocked depends on where you arrange
them in the star kind of upgrade. So like an example,
it's like, oh, I've killed enough people, I've hit the
first tier of stars, I've got zero stars, so that
I've decided to put haste in that slot. So once
I get to that slot, I can move faster. And
then the one star slot, I'm going to put the
ability to have my projectile split into two. I think
I'm going to put that there. And then it's just
sort of like lets you customize basically your power escalation,
like just what do you think, Yeah, like what order
do you want to unlock things based on like your
play style or just also just what you have available
that I think that's actually pretty neat, just the idea
of sort of like customizing your own like a skill
tree for lack of a better word. But the stages
are fun, like the enemies the way they move around
are very like devious, like like the most challenging enemies
are just these frogs that hop around NonStop because you
can die and only a few hits. You can upgrade
your overall health with a few different upgrades, but you're
really just trying to like blast your way through everything
try not to get hit as best you can. There's
bosses at the end of each stage, Like the first
stage is like because the first stage in the forest,
and at the end you just fight this like evil
tree that's just shooting energy bullets at you, and you're
just jumping around trying to dodge those while just firing
your weapon NonStop. It seems like there's also different paths
you can take, like it's it's funny we're talking about
star Fox. It's almost got like a star Fox like progression.
The routes can diverge based on what you do in
a stage, Like there's one split. All right, I'm listening,
the reccoon face is losing. It's it's so excited to
hear about this. There's one split where you need a
troll and it splits the path into either an upward
path or a downward path. And the upward path is
locked unless you pay the troll a toll as he
would the troll. So you have to try to if
you want to see that upper path, you have to
try to save as much money as you can before
you get to that point, because along the way you
are finding shops that you're like, oh, I need to
buy upgrades or just whatever. But do I do I
want to do that now? Or do I want to
save to see what's in that upper path because maybe
it's easier than the default path, which is the below path.
So there's stuff like that too that I think it's
pretty fun. But it's a game that when I fired
it up the first run, it didn't really click with me,
maybe because I didn't know was an auto scroller, and
I'm always kind of like like I'm a huge platformer guy,
but a lot of that is like I kind of
like having control over how fast I can move and
not maybe be at the whim of a scrolling stage.
But the more I played, I started to kind of
get what the game was trying to do, and I
started getting into it, like it's just like okay, like
you know, like now that I've gotten further, now it's
like the the hook of like, well, can I can
I go further next time? Like the game doesn't seem
like it's incredibly long, if the world map is to believe,
like it seems like there's maybe four destinations, but maybe
there's just different legs to each of those journeys, Like
you're making your way towards a big.
Speaker 1: Castle at the end.
Speaker 3: But it's also like really challenging, like they start throwing
a lot at you, even from like by the time
he gets at a second stage, and it just becomes
a game of trying to master your character, figure out
which character kind of speaks to you if like this
guy shoots faster, this guy shoots lower, but he hits harder.
Which one do I it just my best with and
then just trying to unlock as many upgrades as you
can so that you can have more options to assign
to your sort of like power escalation star system. And
at least the upgrades I've seen so far are pretty cool,
Like one I unlocked recently I'm excited to get is
the ability to shoot behind you, which would be pretty huge,
And I have one where your feet are on fire
and so like when people are below you, you just
like like your your feet are basically a volcano where
it's literally just viewing like a comically large amount of
lava that just drips down and just kills everything that
it touches. Like there's fun little things like that. But yeah,
I'm like, like everyone, I'm like digging get a little
bit more and more, and it's like I kind of
I want to see the end. I've not gotten past
the second stage. I've gotten to the second stage boss,
but I have not beaten him yet. But it's fun
for just like it's like a perfect game of like
I just want to fire it up and do a
run or two and then maybe move on to something.
Meteor but it like the music's good and yeah, it's
it's cool.
Speaker 2: Is it is it out?
Speaker 3: It is out as of this week. It came out
of the twenty second Monday.
Speaker 2: I believe cool.
Speaker 1: Cool. Yeah, Dark Scrolls is that one which is a
really which is a good name that they're getting away
with good on that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're getting away with it.
Speaker 2: I do want to They did it call out real quick,
just just for Patrick just to kind of que him
in on this because Kyle did it very subtly. But
Kyle asked if this was a rogue game because Kyle.
Kyle's been doing a thing where he doesn't like roguelike
or rogue light as a genre.
Speaker 1: Name things as a genre.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he doesn't mind the concept of genre. He's
just like, we should just be calling the rogue. I
should just be calling them rogue, like that should be
the name of the genre. And so he's been just
just he's like, you know what, it's not gonna happen
unless we just start saying it. So he just started
saying it there, And I want to know how you
felt about that as a designation. How do you feel.
Speaker 1: Dropping getting rid of the light and like just they're
just rogue games, Like, oh, it's it's a I guess
if you just said it's a rogue game, I would
think like, oh, like it's like it's loose, like it
broke out, it broke I feel like that's that's just
a Yeah, you're just that's just a word now, you know. Well,
here's my question. Would you would you describe Metroid as
a Metroid venue? Yes? I would. I would describe it
as a Metroid Switch it out?
Speaker 2: Yea impossible to read behind just start like just like
into different people.
Speaker 1: Everyone in the lava I mean, and to be fair
when it comes to Metroid, I tried this strategy that
where I just don't where I just don't drop I
dropped their like in the light and just try to say, gosh,
what a search action is? What sort of the Japanese genre?
But like I don't know, people don't like that, so
I feel like so like so like, yes, go ahead.
Speaker 3: No, I was gonna say. I think it was heart
Machine that was really pushing that because I remember possessing.
They were like they were like, no, no, no, it's
search action, Like they just refused, like.
Speaker 2: When that game was going to come out, they were
trying to use explore action. Okay, never came out, but
they were like they were like, if you guys want
a portmanteau so bad, we'll do explore action.
Speaker 1: But the game, I guess, I'm just curious, what are you?
What are you fighting against with with just calling it rogue,
Like what do you? What's the Hilu're on right now?
Because the difference, the difference in light versus like it's
like I I always say the wrong one. It's like,
oh this is a rogue light. No, that was actually
a like and I'm like, oh, it's a rogue like
and they're like, no, this is a light with tea.
And then it's also like, wait what did you say?
Did you say light? Or like did you which one
did you say? I can't tell?
Speaker 3: Serious, like your inability to get it right is the
reason we all have to change.
Speaker 2: I think he's saying the fact that you could get
it wrong it means it's an inefficient genre name.
Speaker 1: There we go, see Charles's coming back.
Speaker 3: I guess that's a nicer way to say it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure that's a nice one.
Speaker 2: I support I support the movement. I just I always
I've made a point to not call it out, and
I just wanted to call it out this one moment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did the whole idea here is I just
subtly injected where we just eventually just stopped dropping it.
But instead you're like, Kyle did that thing?
Speaker 2: The thing a good transition, and everyone's like that was
a great transition. That was a really let's actual stop
from an acknowledge how good that transition was and then
a transition.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Kyle just wants he's trying to be the change
that he wants to see in the world exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean I've always was like why rogue, Like who
were no one's played rogue? Like why did that bec
the genre? Like you know, yeah, it's a spunk Spolenkle
likes somebody Splunkle.
Speaker 2: Like Spunkle is fun.
Speaker 3: There's at least I like Spunkle like better than explore Action.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exploraction was just a dud.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 3: No more we're saying it.
Speaker 2: The more I've gotten into exploraction.
Speaker 1: Well maybe one day, maybe a good podcast topic in
the future will be like we just we try to
come up with a name for like you know, search action, right, or.
Speaker 3: You know, let's rename every genre. Let's straight it out
for the whole industry.
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember when when the first person shooter
was just a doom clone. That's how right. Eventually, and
then eventually they were like, what if we we can't
just keep calling them doom clones. And they're like, I
don't know, first person shooter, I guess them we just
call them Halo killers.
Speaker 3: And every team that made a shooter and was like,
this is going to be better than Halo.
Speaker 1: Yeah you remember Halo, Well that's that's idiots come play
Fortnite Hayes. We all remember Hayes Fracture. Come play Hayes.
Speaker 2: I did. I had a really good conversation with This
is a tangent, but I'll look it back into that
really good conversation once. That was a great Monday.
Speaker 1: No, it's with Robbie Ismael.
Speaker 2: We were talking about he made he made up a
genre name for his game Australia did it. And I
was like, so you're inventing a genre. That's pretty bold,
Like what was that about? And He's like, you know,
I was inventing a genre and uh. We had a
We had a conversation about at what point is a
mechanic a genre and vice versa? Like is if I'm
saying a horror game versus a first person shooter? Like
those mean different things, describe different parts of the game.
It can be both of those, but they both genres.
Like what does that even mean? At one point I
want to do I haven't figured out a good enough
angle for it, but I would love to like write
a piece that is just interrogating like what is genre
versus mechanic? And why does it matter?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Did you ever play Fear? I mean, what is
that is? That is that a horror game or are
we going to go first person shooter on fear?
Speaker 2: I feel like when you get a horror or like
even Kit is another one where it's like what does
that mean?
Speaker 3: Like there's genre? Is that more revocative of here's the
vibe of this game? And then underneath that umbrella is
the mechanical genre?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: Anyways, on the note of genres and rogue games, Patrick,
have you played Sorrows? Oh?
Speaker 1: Buddy? Hold on, I just want to pause for a
minute here and compliment Charles on that transition that was
as that was a pretty good transition. But yeah, you've
been listening to us a lot of Patrick, So we're
going to end on you tell us what you've been
playing and what you like which Charles just guessed Sorrows,
So I don't know where he just like just wow,
just off the dome. It's yeah. I mean, certainly Kyle
didn't asked me yesterday what games I've been playing about
this twitching out? I hate it.
Speaker 3: When he's found out.
Speaker 1: Hold On, I want to ask you guys, something, does
this Does this look like I'm asleep? Because like I
close my eyes and I can't see so tell me
if I look like I'm asleep, yeah, kind of.
Speaker 3: Like you're.
Speaker 1: All right, sorry, back, I've been playing. I've been playing
a lot of Sorrows. I really liked Returnal House Marquis
previous game, but it was like just a little too
like hard for me. Kind Of the problem is that
sometimes like I can't play a game for like a
couple of weeks, and then I come back and I'm like,
it's it's I'm out. The games need to like have
like some sort of time stamp, but they're like, oh,
it's been a while, did you want to like ease
back into it or And I felt like for a
while games would do that, or they would be like, hey,
here's a story recap, and I'd like, thank you so much.
But yeah, no sorrow So I like that, you know,
you can like upgrade stuff, so it's not so much
to like get good. It's now like, oh, you can
actually just grind and get more powerful. And I think
it's a little less obtuse than Returnal I mean as much.
Speaker 2: Yea.
Speaker 1: I ended up just watching my friend play Returnal and
I'm like, this game gets insane and sorr Well. Sorrows
is based on I get what is the Yellow King,
the King and yellow or whatever? Speaking of penguin colonies,
speaking of speaking of a cosmic horror from the from
the nineteenth Let.
Speaker 2: It let's hand it back over to Marcus. Let's just
do another penguin colony segment real quick?
Speaker 3: Yeah, can we do?
Speaker 1: Yeah, do more penguin stuff.
Speaker 3: Have you heard about these bad people in nineteen thirty nine?
Speaker 1: Knowing where they are?
Speaker 3: But they're pretty terrible?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 2: Well I guess.
Speaker 1: What they did? What how many of them? But I
mean I'm also like I talk about it on Instagram.
I've been on some like mental health leave from work
and having like a difficult game. Really it really hits
when you're like trying to stop some ruminating. True, Yeah,
you know, I I had just yeah, I got laid
off right when elden Ring came out and it was
like it was perfect. They couldn't have released it.
Speaker 3: Game exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like Secoro came out like the day that
a friend had passed away, and so I was like,
I guess I do Scaro now. And to the point
now where when from Soft like it's like, hey, we're
releasing a game, I'm like, hey, you're not gonna kill
one got kill on my friends. It's like you know,
they're like we need that, we need that Patrick money.
Speaker 2: So the next find out the next the next game
is coming out. It's called like Dark Patrick, Like, huh.
Speaker 1: Is this a game about me? I mean how I
would I would play Dark Patrick?
Speaker 3: Was gonna ask Patrick, how how deep are you into
Sorrow is like I guess without spoiling, but like how
many biomes have you reached?
Speaker 1: It's hard to talk about without spoiling, but I think
I'm close to the end. Okay, all right, we'll trust you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've I've picked it back up recently cause I
haven't had time to really dig into it. Like I
would do a run once every couple of weeks just
because I was traveling and other games. But like this
past weekend was like I need to sit down and
like commit to this. And I finally hit a flow
with this game where I'm like I killed the first
two bosses like back to back one really nice, and
now I'm in the third zone. I believe, like when
I look at the little wheel where you can fast travel,
but yeah, I have Now the game is it's hooks
and me is like, oh, Okay, now I'm cooking. I
feel like I'm good at this game now and not
just having to constantly regain my like muscle memory of
like how do I do shield again? And I'm getting
right in the face by bullets.
Speaker 1: No, sometimes the game goes crazy and I'm just like sorrow.
So I appreciate you believing in me like this, But
what is happening on screen right now? It's just green
and yellow and red balls floating around. Things are hitting
me from behind. I'm like, come on, man, I'm just
come on. I'm not actually like good at fighting. This
is a video game, Like.
Speaker 3: Why do you guys attack like this? Like why why
all are your tacks in these beautifully elaborate patterns of energy?
Speaker 2: They worked really hard on those attacks. You don't You
don't see all the parts where they're like crafting, like
and this one's going to be in a Y shape,
but then it's going to be an X shape. It's
going to be.
Speaker 3: It's like being attacked by someone that like blows smoke
rings at you.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they do. They do like vape tricks. Play
that game, someone makes someone make that where you go
to a vape conference, just just like an r Wing
flying through vape rings. Hold on, we're coming star.
Speaker 2: Either starve Ape sixty four? Is that anything, dude, I.
Speaker 1: Would play star Vape sixty There's probably definitely there's a face.
Speaker 3: This guy just looks like an r wing out there, right,
Someone someone's done that, like with a three D printer
or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's do it. The library near me has a
three D printer. I'm gonna make a rwek fa U.
Sorrow Sorrow is so good. I think it's my game
of the year so far, and we'll see. I actually
I really been loving it, but I feel like no
one talked about. Like it came out and everyone's like okay,
and then I feel like no one talked about It's
a weird time.
Speaker 2: I feel like I felt I didn't get I never
like caught on the Sorrows wave because I feel like
we moved on something else pretty quick. But I don't
know what that is.
Speaker 3: I think maybe is it like, oh, they did returnal again,
Like I felt like Return when that came out. That
hit harder because it was like a little more novel
of like Housemark doing a big story game, and then
Sorrows everyone acknowledges like this is really good, but I
don't know. Maybe it's because, like Kyle, you can speak
this a beater to beat it, Like I see, the
story's cool, but maybe is the story just not as
impactful as Returnal. I feel like everyone walk away from
Returnal like, oh my god, what a story.
Speaker 1: I yeah, Returnal was insane. Yeah, I think even though
Sorrows is mechanically the better game, I think ultimately I
do prefer Returnal, which is like a tough place to
be for Sorrows because it's like more emotionally impactful, where
Sorrows is more like wow, this is really just like
solid action and I and I love it for that,
and the story is interesting and there is really some
good like mystery and intrigue there, but yeah, it's they
did not They did not one up themselves in terms
of the narrative of Returnal, which I love is like
like really truly, like you know, I'd really have to
think about it. But maybe maybe in my top ten
favorite like video game stories, just because it like uses
the medium of video games in a way to tell
it's like narrative and uh, it's yeah just really moving
an incredible Yeah, so tough to beat that they set
a high bar for themselves. But I but all that said,
Sorrows fantastic. I love Sorrows.
Speaker 3: Where does Argent Rake on your characters of the year?
Speaker 1: This is an open question. He's cool. Yeah, I don't know.
I feel I feel like, I mean, I love his
like insane, like, like, dude, what I had to do?
It's like, okay, man, that's you're definitely the good guy
for sure. You talk like you I'll do do it again.
I had to do it. It's like, okay, man, so
you did some really cool guy stuff. I like, you're
definitely the good guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sorry. Your impression is so good.
Speaker 1: Can you do? Uh?
Speaker 3: When you die and he immediately pops back at the base, God,
I forgot.
Speaker 1: What he says, like, oh, I'm here again. Okay, here
we go again.
Speaker 2: Patrick. What's what's your game of the year so far?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, either either from games that have come out this
year or if you're not like us and you know,
play recent releases for a living, just your favorite game
you've played in the year twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: You're free like us?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm free. What have I been really gaming lately?
Now you did say you you replayed Star Fucks one
and two ahead of the remake of sixty four, right,
so you can count one of those if you want.
Like two days ago, Star Fucks two favorite games so far,
Star Fucks two favorite game.
Speaker 3: Why didn't they put this out?
Speaker 1: I mean, what was the game that I was Sorry,
I want to pull up my Steam library. What was
I playing so much? You can you can edit this out?
It was a damn it is megabunk. I played a
lot of Megaga that came out. No sure, sure. You
also mentioned the ball pit. The other one a ballpit
I like as well. The other one that you mentioned
to me was was it Perfect Tides Station station?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, the Perfect the station station. It's a very
like It's kind of one of those games where I
was was like, I don't know how this is going
to hit for other people, but like having like a
point and click adventure game about like two thousand and
three college life, I was like, this is this is hit.
Anytime a game has like a depressed protagonist, I'm like, okay,
tell me more.
Speaker 3: I've heard a lot of good things about that game,
Like it's been on my my wish list to get
to at some point. This year, like I think it
just got not just got, but it was ported to switch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm playing it on the switch. I like, I don't.
I very rarely actually play games portable, but I like
I like knowing that I could. Yeah, I'm almost always
just on my TV.
Speaker 2: It's always when you can't that you're like, oh, like
now I want to play it in bed.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're like, I got to go get my old change. Man,
it'd be great to have this on a thing I
could play while i'm doing Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, then then it then it goes Oh, then you've
been end up not waiting, which is like annoying. If
you bring your switch with you one time fast, we
can beg this out. Yeah. Oh actually I'm doing I'm
doing a run on a on a rogue right now,
and they're like the original rogue. You're playing the original
rogue is what you're playing like, they're just they're just
popping out from under the power like you play the
original rogue.
Speaker 3: It's a twenty five year old twenty five.
Speaker 1: Hey, you know what, that's a great place to end
the show. I think that from the oil getting ready
to chat you up about rogue. But yeah, Alcline thanks
so much for listening. Thanks for being with us today. Patrick,
do you have anything specific you want to plug? And
follow you and follow you on social media?
Speaker 3: Maybe?
Speaker 1: What what do you like? Yeah? Follow me on social media.
I'm the Underscore, Patrick Underscore sus Milich. I made my
Instagram before I learned that putting the in front of
your name is like considered very rude, and I'm too
lazy to change it, so just just hit hit me up.
See what I'm up to. It's wacky. Yeah, we're having
a great time and you're gonna and you and you
also mentioned that you have a show in Los Angeles
that if you listen to this episode right when it
comes out, Yeah, you can go see Patrick Fule if
you just constantly refresh iTunes or wherever you listen to
podcasts and this comes out and you listen, like absolutely Monday,
I'm gonna be at the Elysians, so you know, pull up,
tell him, tell him Kyle sent you, and then then
I'll treat you right. Yes, that's the I don't know
how dates work.
Speaker 3: Patrick. Since you're in LA, have you seen or are
you planning to go to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Hurdles
theme the pizzeria that opened up in Santa Monica like
a couple of days ago.
Speaker 1: This is the first I've heard about it.
Speaker 3: It looks incredible. I watched the local news station like
they it was like a huge event, like a line
of TAM and T fans and he did like a
full tour. The pizza looks genuinely great and the interior
looks insane. But yeah, there's a an officially licensed TM
and Te pizzeria and Santa Monica. I'm glad it opened
up after I left from there because I would have
made the pilgrimage to go.
Speaker 1: I pull they have a website. I pull it up
and it does like I'm on ironic. I love this.
It turns your mouse pointer into like a little slice
of pizza. I love a little custom house pointer that anytime.
That's like a little gauntlet while you're clicking on stuff
like it's warcraft. I'm like, absolutely, change my cursor.
Speaker 3: All right, Well you're like I'm holling a newbern now
to get.
Speaker 1: There, and Marcus, you didn't realize you're doing this, But
I'm sorry, but that was your plug. Was the Ninja
Turtles restaurant in Santa Monica.
Speaker 3: So Charles, if this was a med Max I was
might get a load of this.
Speaker 1: Yes, Charles, you still have a plug. So where should
people follow you on social media?
Speaker 2: Oh? I'm at Chucked Up through six y five. And
I'll also plug the Black Box Improv Theater in Dayton,
Ohio because I from this sometimes. And also I just
I just like them even if I'm not there, you
should go there. They're funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, this is We're becoming like comedy bang bang
here and putting the plugs at the end for like
just sure, which is great.
Speaker 2: Give me have a sandwich. You can have me on
every week, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: One of these days, Charles, like, behind your back, I'm
going to arrange a field trip for all the editors
to go see your perform. Like you're gonna come out
on stage and you're just gonna be all the front
with no no warning.
Speaker 2: The worst, uh god, the worst night in terms of
been pro performing I ever had was I was a
I was a regular Thursday performer for like a six
month chunk, and it was one Thursday I think we
had the podcast go kind of late and I just
wasn't feeling it. And I was like, you know what,
I'm just gonna call off. I'm not gonna go there today.
There's plenty of people that are there. Found out my
parents had drove an hour up from Cincinnati to surprise me.
Texted me three minutes before the show, so it's like,
are you performing tonight? And then they just saw other
people do it prov, which is a fate worse than hell.
Speaker 3: I would even say that's a great Yeah, what an
unfortunate reverse. The surprise was on.
Speaker 2: Not again, not that the theater is bad at improv,
but if you go expecting to see someone do improv
and then it's strangers, could never be as enjoyable as
you're hoping it'll be. So yeah, I'm going. If you're
hoping he'll.
Speaker 1: Either yeah and text you three minutes beforehand is all
you ask at least, Marcus, I'm sorry, I was just kidding.
Where can people follow you on social media?
Speaker 3: The team and tea themeed pizzeria and Santa Monica. Just
go there and you'll automatically follow Marcus Hey dressed up
like Donatello, but I've had a blue sky Marcus Stewart seven, Yeah, and.
Speaker 1: I'm a Kyle Hillary dot com on Blue Sky, and
of course you know game former dot com. Check out
our website, subscribe to the magazine game form dot com,
slash subscribe. Thank you, Thank you everyone for being here today. Patrick,
thank you for coming. I will probably have you on
again in the PETRU I want to have you back.
Oh excellent, Yeah, yeah, I got I'll be honest, I
got nothing else going on right now, so hit me
up whenever. Okay, cool, all right, but thanks so much
for listening and we'll see you next Friday.
Speaker 3: Thanks everybody.
Speaker 1: Bye,