Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, Hey, everybody, welcome the game. Last Morning is
Speaker 1: with me Jeff Grub, your host from giant bomb dot com.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be talking about a fan favorite franchise getting a sequel,
Speaker 1: news out of EVO, and problems with a game that's
Speaker 1: been in development for ten years. It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: good one because we have John Martin on the show. John,
Speaker 1: how are you doing?
Speaker 2: Doing very well with Jeff, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: I'm doing good. Getting used to that new shorter intro
Speaker 1: is That's what I'm really doing. Actually, I'm obsessed with
Speaker 1: that wordplay game. So on Friday at UPF we did
Speaker 1: some fun stuff. We did that Paddle Paddle Paddle game.
Speaker 1: It was actually a good time. Me and Beckler got
Speaker 1: way farther than I expected us to get. And then
Speaker 1: we did one hundred Men Versus Gorilla. I actually can't
Speaker 1: remember the name of the game. I downloaded there and
Speaker 1: Men one we saw that, But then we played Wordplay,
Speaker 1: which is scrabble blatro and now it's all I played
Speaker 1: that all weekend. Actually, anytime I got like a minute,
Speaker 1: I'd kind of like was like, okay, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: grab something from the basement real quick, and then I
Speaker 1: would sit down for ten minutes and play some word play.
Speaker 1: It's really good, it's really solid. I've kind of been
Speaker 1: playing it NonStop, so and all I'm thinking about, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I could start coming up with some strategies. If I
Speaker 1: get Okay, two vowels next to each other get me
Speaker 1: a bonus. And if I have two letters next to
Speaker 1: each other, that also gets me a bonus. Oh, stack,
Speaker 1: I could do that. Okay, here we go. And so
Speaker 1: I've been developing strategies even when I'm not playing, so
Speaker 1: that that's where I'm at right now, John, I don't
Speaker 1: need a game like that to distract me from all
Speaker 1: the other games I should be playing. But here we are.
Speaker 1: How about you? I know you were spending some time
Speaker 1: watching EVO.
Speaker 2: How was it? It was a very good tournament. I
Speaker 2: loved all of them I watched. I did not get
Speaker 2: a chance to watch a lot of the top eights
Speaker 2: yesterday on the second stream. I was watching the mainstream,
Speaker 2: So like the Guilty Year, Fatal Fury, street Fighter six
Speaker 2: Tech in one. So I have some homework to do still,
Speaker 2: But it's an embarrassment of riches. The only thing with
Speaker 2: EVO this year is I felt it was a lot
Speaker 2: more corporate than it has been. A lot of advertisements,
Speaker 2: a lot of sponsored segments, so that was kind of
Speaker 2: dragging it down.
Speaker 1: So when Sony owns it now and there's probably a
Speaker 1: mandate for it to make money, and I bet, I
Speaker 1: bet the people who actually like do the running of
Speaker 1: EVO will do their best to find the balance there.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you know how that goes. The corporate
Speaker 1: overlord comes. The overlord comes in and say, hey, well
Speaker 1: look at this budget here, let's try to make some
Speaker 1: money on the other side. And then on the other
Speaker 1: side of that, the reality is there's probably some demand
Speaker 1: to speak to that fighting game audience. Right There was
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago where I think a lot
Speaker 1: of publishers have been like, look, we were not even
Speaker 1: going to try to figure out fighting games. And now
Speaker 1: fighting games are really hot again. You know, it's not
Speaker 1: like it's the world beating genre that it once was
Speaker 1: in the nineties or whatever, but it's grown and right
Speaker 1: now in this moment, they're like, oh, you can make
Speaker 1: money making fighting games and speaking to this audience. And
Speaker 1: this is the one place where we know they'll all
Speaker 1: be watching. So yeah, I think it kind of matches
Speaker 1: up in that way. Hopefully it doesn't like Sully it
Speaker 1: to the point where Ebo becomes unrecognizable. Is that a
Speaker 1: concern do you think? Or is it just like it's
Speaker 1: not as much as not as you know, from the
Speaker 1: ground up, as it once felt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it definitely doesn't have the same grassroots
Speaker 2: origin that I feel like it did back in the
Speaker 2: early two thousands, the Battle of the Bay era, but
Speaker 2: like it is a different feel. I don't know the
Speaker 2: in arena experience this year versus past years. I've actually
Speaker 2: never been and I do want to go, but so
Speaker 2: I don't know if they were getting the same chipottle
Speaker 2: ads you're getting every single segment. But I mean EVO
Speaker 2: is that big stage. There's a lot of money riding
Speaker 2: on it, like Fatal Fury and Street Fighter. I think
Speaker 2: at like each like at least like one and a
Speaker 2: half a million dollars seven billion million dollars in there.
Speaker 2: And I mean EVO is backing other tournaments that are
Speaker 2: were struggling, like CEO. They with the tariff stuff, they
Speaker 2: were having a hard time selling t shirts, was which
Speaker 2: was like one of the biggest incomes for that tournament.
Speaker 2: So there is good in the commercializing of it. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it does feel like a little bit is lost and
Speaker 2: it kind of just kills the pacing from going game
Speaker 2: to game to game.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that makes sense either way. It sounds like
Speaker 1: people were enjoying EVO this weekend and I'm glad people
Speaker 1: were able to get in there watch some good fighting
Speaker 1: games happen. Let's explain ourselves. This is Giant Bomb or
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Speaker 1: your support to make a lot of cool stuff like
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Speaker 1: That's giant bomb dot Com slash Join. As far as
Speaker 1: this show goes. Most weekdays I, Jeff Grub, will help
Speaker 1: piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news
Speaker 1: and maybe even some of our own original reporting. For
Speaker 1: all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona
Speaker 1: fide expert who will make me look smart. You are
Speaker 1: watching live on twitch Welcome. You can always listen to
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Speaker 1: Mess Mornings, or find the RSS feed on giant bomb
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also catch the show later with
Speaker 1: chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we
Speaker 1: have a lot to get into, so let's start the
Speaker 1: more Mess with Darksiders four continues the original game story
Speaker 1: after fifteen years. This is from Blair Marnell at GameSpot.
Speaker 1: When Darksiders hit consoles in twenty ten, it left gamers
Speaker 1: with the tantalizing cliffanger of the protagonist War, ready to fight,
Speaker 1: Ready to fight the forces of Heaven, Hell and the Council. Now,
Speaker 1: after fifteen years, the ending of the original game is
Speaker 1: finally revisited in the first teaser for Darksiders four. The
Speaker 1: announcement video recalls darksiders closing moments as War is joined
Speaker 1: by his fellow horsemen of the Apoca Apocalypse. Death Fury
Speaker 1: and Strife. The sequel is officially availed unveiled today. During
Speaker 1: THQ Nordick's online preview event that happened late last week
Speaker 1: or something like that, the publisher confirmed that Dark Siders
Speaker 1: four will continue the story directly after the first game,
Speaker 1: and allowed the four players to ride together as the
Speaker 1: Four Horsemen through co op. This is a long time coming,
Speaker 1: I guess a little surprising that they actually eventually did
Speaker 1: get here. They've done other Dark Sider sequels. In fact,
Speaker 1: they've done three, each starring a different like one of
Speaker 1: these horsemen. I think there was two three, and then
Speaker 1: there was Genesis, which started I can't remember who that
Speaker 1: started Strife maybe, but okay, so now they've all had
Speaker 1: their own game. That does kind of make sense. It's
Speaker 1: just weird to think, oh, this Dark Sider's franchise that
Speaker 1: has always been kind of a sleeper hit. It's been successful,
Speaker 1: but it also feels like one of those ones that
Speaker 1: if it went away, I wouldn't be surprised at all.
Speaker 1: And yet it's still here, and they're they're following up
Speaker 1: like storytelling trails that they put in place fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of excited about this this is pretty neat.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling about it?
Speaker 2: Pretty excited about it? Too great, truth be told, I
Speaker 2: kind of fell off a little bit after Dark Siders
Speaker 2: two came out. I think I think there was a
Speaker 2: big gap of time. I think it was like twenty
Speaker 2: nineteen or something, or was it earlier. I don't remember,
Speaker 2: but I remember that having a rocky launch three.
Speaker 1: That sounds right. God. Yeah, but it's been a minute
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I haven't played Genesis. Maybe I should go
Speaker 2: into that, but this seems like it is kind of
Speaker 2: returning to that like back in the PS three days,
Speaker 2: like that God of War Zelda Hybrid, or at least
Speaker 2: is doing a far more cinematic like action game with friends.
Speaker 2: That gets me very excited about something like this.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think they've also done a good job at
Speaker 1: kind of keeping the genres varied from game to game
Speaker 1: while still maintaining a lot of that Dark Started the
Speaker 1: Dark Sider's elements. I do wonder it's like, Okay, so
Speaker 1: this is going to be, you know, another Dark Sider's games,
Speaker 1: but it's going to support four player co op. That's
Speaker 1: really interesting. I'm kind of I want to see how
Speaker 1: they're going to make that happen. But yes, at dark
Speaker 1: Sider's four will return to the franchisees third person perspective,
Speaker 1: and THQ Nordic states that it will have cinematic action
Speaker 1: that is fast paced and visceral oh good with melee
Speaker 1: and supernatural abilities. At Player's Disposal mentioned there that they're
Speaker 1: going back to third person. That means like behind the camera,
Speaker 1: behind the back camera perspective, where Genesis I think was
Speaker 1: top down the kind of and at that time I
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, this is cool. They're finding ways to
Speaker 1: keep Dark Siders going while doing what I'm assuming is
Speaker 1: a style of play that saves them money. And now
Speaker 1: that they've been able to figure that out, they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: now we can do come back with the big return
Speaker 1: of the series with Dark Siders four, culminate in the
Speaker 1: storytelling that we've been doing all this time, and get
Speaker 1: back to the roots of how the game plays, and
Speaker 1: then also have four player co op. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it just seems like a cool thing to come out
Speaker 1: of a tier of game publishing and game development john
Speaker 1: that we always like lament is doesn't exist or is
Speaker 1: deeply underrepresented in gaming, which is these mid size B
Speaker 1: tier games. Dark Siders has always been that, and it's
Speaker 1: always been one of the better ones. This give you
Speaker 1: hope that like somewhere along the line, along the lines,
Speaker 1: we're figuring this sort of thing out, or dark Siders
Speaker 1: the exception that maybe proves the rule.
Speaker 2: I think it does give credence to it, the fact
Speaker 2: that they were willing to change up the formula, even
Speaker 2: if some people were kind of like ostracized. Based on that,
Speaker 2: they've always seemed to find an audience. I think it
Speaker 2: is evident that if you have a very specific tone
Speaker 2: or you set the stage, keep things similar but different,
Speaker 2: and you kind of go back to what a lot
Speaker 2: of people are asking for. I think that's going to
Speaker 2: be huge. I think it really does. YE just focus
Speaker 2: on like if you have a vision for this, if
Speaker 2: it is crazy enough, I think it will work. We
Speaker 2: just need a lot of a lot more people to
Speaker 2: take chances on games like Dark Siders. I think it's
Speaker 2: super cool that it's back.
Speaker 1: Yep. Of course this is all under embrace. Srtage Q
Speaker 1: Nordic is part of the and it's like there was
Speaker 1: a moment there where I was thinking all of those things,
Speaker 1: all those franchises that they acquired. Nothing's gonna happen with
Speaker 1: any of that anymore. It does feel like, coming out
Speaker 1: of this THHQ Nordic Digital Showcase twenty twenty five that
Speaker 1: TCHQ Nordic at least has kind of figured out its
Speaker 1: role under all of that while being able to like
Speaker 1: survive the deepest cuts of that company. TCHQ Nordic was
Speaker 1: hit just like everyone else with layoffs and all that,
Speaker 1: but they you know, that resulted in a lot of
Speaker 1: like projects being canceled or Embracer trying to work with
Speaker 1: outside companies like Amazon to fund the game development like
Speaker 1: they were doing with tomb Raider. I think that was
Speaker 1: happening there for a bit. It was all weird, and
Speaker 1: I thought that weirdness was going to extend to every
Speaker 1: aspect of Embracer. But TCHQ Nordic seems to have figured
Speaker 1: some stuff out. Not that things are all sunshine and
Speaker 1: rainbows under Embracer, but they had a lineup of games
Speaker 1: this is everything announced that THQ Nordic Digital Showcase twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. From George Foster at the Gamer John the
Speaker 1: reality is I'm looking at a lot of these titles
Speaker 1: and a lot of them don't do anything for me,
Speaker 1: I don't even recognize some of them, even though they
Speaker 1: maybe they've been around. There are a couple of highlights
Speaker 1: I'll call out. If there's anything that you want to
Speaker 1: call out, feel free to do so as well. I
Speaker 1: guess one of the bigger ones actually is they're doing
Speaker 1: another SpongeBob game. After they brought back Bikini Bottom and
Speaker 1: that's that did really well for them. They did a
Speaker 1: sequel to that that was you know, received with a
Speaker 1: lukewarm like reviews and you know, appreciation for the fans.
Speaker 1: They did that Patrick Star game that I thought was
Speaker 1: a pretty decent like goat simulator like, and now they're
Speaker 1: doing this one weird. It was weird, but it's just like,
Speaker 1: you know, you basically just throw Patrick Starr around the
Speaker 1: world and he just interacts with things. It's a weird
Speaker 1: game and I like it. Actually, SpongeBob SquarePants Titan of
Speaker 1: the Tide finally gets a reveal. After many many leaks,
Speaker 1: SpongeBob's next game has finally been officially announced and it's
Speaker 1: releasing on November eighteenth. That's out this year. So, unlike
Speaker 1: Cosmic Shake, Patrick is actually playable in this one. Props
Speaker 1: to David Hasshoff. Also he was like he shut up
Speaker 1: in the trailer, so that was crazy. Yes, he was
Speaker 1: in the movie, right, I did he pop up in
Speaker 1: the show randomly? Orsi only ever in the movie. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I've only horse I watch a SpongeBob. It's
Speaker 1: playing on the DVD player in the back of the
Speaker 1: mini van, so I always just hear it. I don't
Speaker 1: see it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm not up to date on current SpongeBob.
Speaker 1: I guess sure.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he ever went in the show.
Speaker 2: I know they got Bowie, they got a lot of different,
Speaker 2: like crazy guest stars. But yeah, I don't think Casselhoff
Speaker 2: has been like in the project since like the movie, which.
Speaker 1: Okay, people are saying he was in two movies, all right,
Speaker 1: well there you go.
Speaker 2: Oh was he in the second one?
Speaker 1: Don't There's like a bunch of different movies. Now there's
Speaker 1: the first movie. Was obviously in that. I remember that
Speaker 1: joke like being a big part of it. I guess
Speaker 1: he's been in another one, fair enough, Okay, Recreation, which
Speaker 1: is a follow up to Reckfest, but it has an
Speaker 1: open world and so people are like it's like Reckfest
Speaker 1: meets Fortsa, which sounds great to me. I honestly, I
Speaker 1: think more of the herror genre should try to take
Speaker 1: on forts horizon and see if they can make that
Speaker 1: work for themselves. And Reckfest feels perfect for that because
Speaker 1: it has all that interesting modeling of damage and being
Speaker 1: able to have that play out in an open world.
Speaker 1: I think that could be really fun. So this is
Speaker 1: one that I feel like we've heard about this one before,
Speaker 1: but they give uself a little bit more on it,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I'm excited to see it. Let's see Tides
Speaker 1: of Tomorrow Sacred to the Eternal Life of Goldman. Actually,
Speaker 1: that one looked pretty good. This is when we've seen
Speaker 1: railer as well. Yeah, it looks pretty cute, right, Like,
Speaker 1: it's got really nice stylings to its visuals where I
Speaker 1: think you kind of play as an old you know,
Speaker 1: it's a cinematic platformer. That's the best way of explaining it.
Speaker 1: But what stood out to you about it?
Speaker 2: So that trailer, Like I think I don't know if
Speaker 2: we got the wrong impression because it showed up in
Speaker 2: like directs and like Nintendo directs, maybe like a Game Awards,
Speaker 2: but the trailer they point out, like I saw it
Speaker 2: was coming out I was watching EVO on Friday, so
Speaker 2: didn't get a chance to check it until like like
Speaker 2: this morning. Uh there's a weirdly sinister vibe to the
Speaker 2: trailer that really is getting me even more intrigued. Like
Speaker 2: I thought it was just a very pretty cinematic platformer
Speaker 2: with like Ducktails esque platforming and like cane customization. It
Speaker 2: looks like they're going for something with this, and I'm
Speaker 2: I employ a lot of people to just check out
Speaker 2: that trailer because it kind of came out of left field.
Speaker 2: There is there's like this weird like dark maternal figure
Speaker 2: and there's some child in the mix. I have no
Speaker 2: idea where they're go in this one, but it seems
Speaker 2: very interesting and uh yeah, one hundred percent on board
Speaker 2: and it's it's.
Speaker 1: Got the like the visual storytelling chops I think to
Speaker 1: pull off whatever they want to go for. So if
Speaker 1: they are holding some stuff back to kind of wallop
Speaker 1: us when we finally play the game, I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to pull it off and curious to
Speaker 1: see which which direction it goes. Titan Quest two is
Speaker 1: in early access right now. The Guild Europa fourteen to
Speaker 1: ten has been revealed Gothic remake is coming in early
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. People have always been been clamoring for
Speaker 1: the Gothic remake. Now here it is reannimle re animal.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it that way gets a release window.
Speaker 1: It's coming out in Q one, twenty twenty six. I mean,
Speaker 1: like a lot of games that are like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess I kind of remember them showing that before,
Speaker 1: not all high on my radar, and then Fate Fate
Speaker 1: Keeper looks like Skyrim but with telekinesis powers or telekinetic powers.
Speaker 1: I should say anything else from the showcase stick out
Speaker 1: to you or grab your attention, groub.
Speaker 2: I saw a couple of things that looked interesting. Ties
Speaker 2: It Tomorrow looks very pretty, and I'm curious because I
Speaker 2: really thought it was all about that, all about that
Speaker 2: crazy multiplayer gimmick to it. But in recreation, seems like
Speaker 2: it's gonna be a lot of fun, like vehicular discussion
Speaker 2: that looks very fun to mess around with. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, besides the ones we kind of talked about
Speaker 2: in length, like I'm sure I get my kid cousins,
Speaker 2: the SpongeBob games, those those games, those platformers are always
Speaker 2: kind of like hidden gems. I feel like, yeah, ever
Speaker 2: since the game few days, but yeah, like not a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff I'm looking into. Fate Keeper seems interesting
Speaker 2: and I didn't get a chance to check that out,
Speaker 2: but yeah, I don't really have much to say. It's
Speaker 2: cool Dark.
Speaker 1: Sider's back, Yeah, it's it's uh. I think overall it's
Speaker 1: just like, oh, yeah, THQ Nordica has a lot of
Speaker 1: games that they're working on U and that's encouraging. At
Speaker 1: the very least. I'm glad that it wasn't good. I'm
Speaker 1: glad it didn't get to the point where it's like
Speaker 1: even THHQ Nordic was like we had twelve games and
Speaker 1: now we're just making two and it's it's SpongeBob and
Speaker 1: like one other thing. Enjoy that. It's like, no, we're
Speaker 1: making Dark Siders for and that, Yeah, the SpongeBob game
Speaker 1: is new and looks pretty promising, and here's a bunch
Speaker 1: of other stuff that could be any number of degrees
Speaker 1: of quality when we get when we finally get them.
Speaker 1: But at least it finally does feel still like they're
Speaker 1: mostly for It doesn't feel like they're phoning all these
Speaker 1: games in they're trying to make something that can do
Speaker 1: well and succeed, and yeah, like I said, that's encouraging.
Speaker 2: They're called TCHQ for a reason.
Speaker 1: The Toy Headquarter is back at it. Everybody, all right.
Speaker 1: The full list of all price increases for Nintendo Switch
Speaker 1: and everything else is here. We talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about this on Friday, the shocking announcement that Nintendo was
Speaker 1: going to raise the price on the original Switch, as
Speaker 1: well as a bunch of other accessories and even a mebo.
Speaker 1: This is from Nintendo everything. Let's go through, like we
Speaker 1: have the detailed numbers. Now, we had some stuff leak
Speaker 1: from Target, but now here's everything. So in the United States,
Speaker 1: the switch O LAD is four hundred dollars. It was
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty dollars. The standard switch was three
Speaker 1: hundred dollars. It's now three hundred forty dollars. Switch light
Speaker 1: was two hundred, it is now two hundred. Thirty. Joycn
Speaker 1: this is the original JOYCN were eighty. They are now
Speaker 1: ninety dollars. The pro controller was s it is now eighty.
Speaker 1: The nes controller pack was sixty, it's now seventy. N
Speaker 1: sixty four controller went from fifty to fifty five, and
Speaker 1: the Super Nintendo controller went from thirty to thirty five. Now,
Speaker 1: some accessories of the switch to also went up in price.
Speaker 1: The joy Con charging stand went from thirty to thirty
Speaker 1: five dollars, the pro controller went from eighty five to
Speaker 1: ninety dollars, and the joy Con two set went from
Speaker 1: ninety five to one hundred dollars, and then the dock
Speaker 1: set went from one hundred and twenty to one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty five dollars. It's basically two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: five dollars if you need to replace your joy Con,
Speaker 1: you and your docs. So if you go get hey
Speaker 1: switch to only on Craigslist, all I have is just
Speaker 1: the switch to and maybe the charger. You go get that,
Speaker 1: you're going to spend two hundred and twenty five dollars
Speaker 1: to complete your set. Now, the Amibo Amibo looks okay,
Speaker 1: sixteen dollars legacy Amibo. I don't know what that means,
Speaker 1: and frankly, John, I don't care to learn. It's twenty dollars. Now.
Speaker 1: Two pack Ambo went from thirty five or no, they
Speaker 1: were thirty, and it's gonna be thirty five or forty
Speaker 1: depending on which one, so summer thirty five and summer
Speaker 1: forty and then finally, and I know this is gonna
Speaker 1: be the most devastating for people. The Nintendo soundclock Alarmo
Speaker 1: was one hundred dollars. Is that it is now one
Speaker 1: hundred ten dollars. There's also price increases in Canada. I'll
Speaker 1: get this, I'll get the sum of those. I guess
Speaker 1: you know, let's do those real quick. Switch o lead
Speaker 1: is four hundred and ninety after being four to fifty.
Speaker 1: Let's see, Nintendo switch Online went up in price. The
Speaker 1: one month for an individual went up by one dollar,
Speaker 1: from five dollars to six dollars. The twelve month expansion
Speaker 1: pack family version is one hundred and ten dollars. It
Speaker 1: was one hundred dollars. And then finally, their Amibo also
Speaker 1: went up in price to like thirty and twenty three
Speaker 1: dollars depending on how many Amibo are in the pack. Okay,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I mean we a lot of these accessories
Speaker 1: previously got a price increase from when they were first
Speaker 1: announced at the switch to and then the tariffs happened
Speaker 1: that day, and then the prices for all those accessories
Speaker 1: went up, and then they're like, well, we're not going
Speaker 1: to raise the price of the switch to. They did
Speaker 1: it again, So the switch to console still has not
Speaker 1: gone up in price, but everything else has. And really,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the same story, John, Right. We know
Speaker 1: it's the market condition's tariffs. They can get away with it.
Speaker 1: All the things we always say about these things are
Speaker 1: true here. So what else do we say other than man,
Speaker 1: it kind of sucks. It just sucks that this is
Speaker 1: the situation that we're in. And if you want to
Speaker 1: engage in this hobby, sometimes it feels like you don't
Speaker 1: have a choice but to just take these price increases
Speaker 1: and do and then just say thank you very much.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling about it?
Speaker 2: Pretty rough? Overall, it's kind of a crazy circumstance that,
Speaker 2: like the OLED is only fifty dollars cheaper than the
Speaker 2: switch to. Yeah, for a company that was yeah, it's
Speaker 2: super weird. For a company that was really touting like, oh,
Speaker 2: this is like our most successful console of all time.
Speaker 2: Pretty much is like, well, are you gonna cut the
Speaker 2: momentum short by doing this or are you just trying
Speaker 2: to get people on switch too fast? There's a lot
Speaker 2: of people who you know, at this point, it's just
Speaker 2: like you're looking at four hundred dollars and you might
Speaker 2: as well just like save up a little bit more
Speaker 2: spend it on a switch to for four fifty without
Speaker 2: Mario cart Of course, I don't. I honestly don't even
Speaker 2: know what you're gonna do with the rest of the
Speaker 2: stock of the standard switch, Like you've gotta need to
Speaker 2: bundle Mario Carty and something else at this point. I
Speaker 2: maybe include a free voucher or something. But yeah, it's
Speaker 2: it's just rough overall. Not to mention, like people who
Speaker 2: are fine staying on Switch one, their joy Cons are
Speaker 2: out of warranty, so you're gonna need to buy new
Speaker 2: joy Cons, Like there is I think only a two
Speaker 2: year warranty on those things, and like, yeah, it just
Speaker 2: it just sucks. Man, it is not a great time.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Hrien and chat is asking. Like I said, most
Speaker 1: of the stock already and already inside of the United States,
Speaker 1: meaning it wouldn't have to be subject to any tariffs.
Speaker 1: Some is, but no, they're still manufacturing the Switch one.
Speaker 1: They're still making the Switch one, so and they try
Speaker 1: to keep a taught supply chain, so it's not like
Speaker 1: they're sitting in warehouses in the United States. That's for sure.
Speaker 1: They are not doing that. They're not like making so
Speaker 1: many Switch ones and like let's just store them up
Speaker 1: in the United States. Or if they did that, they
Speaker 1: did it a little bit when the tariffs were at
Speaker 1: a certain level of uncertainty. That is not a normal
Speaker 1: thing that costs money. That's just a waste. They don't
Speaker 1: want to do that. So no, there's not a ton
Speaker 1: of those just sitting around. But also, I mean John's point, John,
Speaker 1: You're right, like the who's really in the market for
Speaker 1: one of these things, especially at an increased price. I
Speaker 1: guess you know that they will sell. I suppose especially
Speaker 1: that Pokemon game is going to be for Switch one
Speaker 1: and switch to this holiday, and you know there's going
Speaker 1: to be a certain number of people who will just
Speaker 1: get a Switch one to play that Pokemon game, even
Speaker 1: though that's an in same thing to do, because I'm
Speaker 1: sure it's going to run like crap on that, But
Speaker 1: they will, So they're going to sell a certain number
Speaker 1: of these. But I do I have to look at
Speaker 1: it and assume that a certain part of it is
Speaker 1: this helps them continue to step up prices everywhere else
Speaker 1: and make everyone okay with those switch to price, even
Speaker 1: though it was already pretty okay. I mean we are
Speaker 1: going to go into this holiday. We were saying, like, okay,
Speaker 1: the switch to pass the first test at launch, which is, hey,
Speaker 1: is this price going to hold it back at all
Speaker 1: for people who are super dedicated to Nintendo products? And
Speaker 1: the answer was, as we all knew what would be
Speaker 1: obviously no that price. We are all like many of
Speaker 1: us here did pay it. We got it. We obviously
Speaker 1: are okay with that price. If we bought the product
Speaker 1: at that price, we can argue that we could still
Speaker 1: yell at the company and say this is too expensive,
Speaker 1: but fair enough. It passed that test. The second test
Speaker 1: was going to be this holiday where okay, is the
Speaker 1: slightly more casual audience, the family that wants to get
Speaker 1: a switch to for their kids, are they going to
Speaker 1: accept the price? This does help with the storytelling of
Speaker 1: that though, where it's like, ah, the switch one is
Speaker 1: it's right there. It's like, I guess I don't remember
Speaker 1: it being that expensive, but I might. We'll just get
Speaker 1: a switch to for a little bit more. That seems
Speaker 1: like a fair deal. I think it's just the really
Speaker 1: the frustrating thing here, John, is we know once the
Speaker 1: prices go down for them, they won't necessarily go back
Speaker 1: down for us. Overall. Maybe a few of these products will.
Speaker 1: The switch one maybe may get a decrease in the future,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. What's more likely to happen to
Speaker 1: this point is they'll just stop selling the switch one
Speaker 1: before the prices go back down though, So this is
Speaker 1: another essentially another permanent increase, and that step up of hey,
Speaker 1: get used to this price for this product. That means
Speaker 1: the next product that is more powerful could be this price.
Speaker 1: I expect them to keep using that strategy to get
Speaker 1: as higher and higher as they introduce switch to variants. Right,
Speaker 1: The switch too variant is not going to replace the
Speaker 1: switch to standard and be like and then the switch
Speaker 1: to standards going to go down in price. We're just
Speaker 1: gonna keep going higher and higher.
Speaker 2: Right Yeah. I mean, even like a switch to light
Speaker 2: kind of seems like it's like kind of an Unstan
Speaker 2: and where they would even position that where you would
Speaker 2: price that we immediately already have like a bundle with Pokemon,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure yeah, a lot of people are just
Speaker 2: going to settle on that switch one version of Legends EA.
Speaker 2: So it's kind of a matter of time to see
Speaker 2: like if this even works out. But unfortunately, I feel
Speaker 2: like kind of the pricing fomo of like, well, they
Speaker 2: raised the price on all of this stuff, like surely
Speaker 2: the switch too will go up and pray sooner or later,
Speaker 2: which I mean it could, like there is a non
Speaker 2: zero chance. Yeah, it's just frustrating overall. It's hard, and
Speaker 2: it's hard to be frustrated just one party in particular.
Speaker 2: Like it's kind of a mix of like yeah, like
Speaker 2: kind of the world economic situation is rapidly changing, and
Speaker 2: like a company is trying to adapt but also seeing
Speaker 2: what they can get away with. So we'll we'll see
Speaker 2: how the sales work out this holiday. But Jeff, I'm
Speaker 2: not too hopeful about a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me neither. And you just mentioned the switch to light,
Speaker 1: which is something I think we can safely assume something
Speaker 1: along those lines will happen. And it's like, man, if
Speaker 1: I'm them and I'm trying to be as cynical as
Speaker 1: possible here while keeping in mind all the market realities,
Speaker 1: I think what they do is they release a switch
Speaker 1: light or switch to light at four fifty. There is
Speaker 1: no longer a four hundred and fifty dollars standard switch to,
Speaker 1: and you can only get the standard switch to with
Speaker 1: a bundle at five hundred, So it's like they kind
Speaker 1: of or they just straight up raise the price of
Speaker 1: the switch to, which is also also feels like that's
Speaker 1: on the table and a little inevitable. And people, a
Speaker 1: lot of people I've seen in chat over the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks as we discuss we've discussed a very
Speaker 1: various different price increases, and then more specifically in the
Speaker 1: last couple of days with the switch to and switch
Speaker 1: accessory price updates, people are saying, Yeah, one of the
Speaker 1: reasons I got my switch to so early is because
Speaker 1: I'm worried about the price going up. And so that's
Speaker 1: already in people's heads. And that's the companies have us
Speaker 1: right where they want us acting urgently to spend money
Speaker 1: to buy their products because we're afraid they might go
Speaker 1: even higher. And that's how bad we want them that
Speaker 1: we don't want to where we want to avoid that,
Speaker 1: but we want to, Yeah, get around all this stuff,
Speaker 1: all right. Price increases kind of across the board for
Speaker 1: everything except for the switch to consoles. We'll see if
Speaker 1: that comes about at any point in the future. We'll
Speaker 1: keep track of the story as it goes forward. Let's
Speaker 1: take a break. We got plenty more headlines to get into.
Speaker 1: If you want to skip this, you can always go
Speaker 1: to giant bomb dot com slash join get the ad
Speaker 1: free version of the show in the meantime that we'll
Speaker 1: be right back after this. This episode of giant Bomb
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Speaker 1: Now we're back. It's Game Best Mornings. That's John Martin.
Speaker 1: I'm Jeff Grubb. We're going to get back into the headlines.
Speaker 1: Let's do it with BioShock forors leadership replaced as two
Speaker 1: k insists it's committed to delivering a great game. This
Speaker 1: is from Andy Robinson at VGC. Take two has replaced
Speaker 1: the leadership behind the next BioShock game after it reportedly
Speaker 1: failed an internal development review. In a statement, a spokesperson
Speaker 1: for the publisher confirmed Cloud Chamber studio head Kelly Kelly
Speaker 1: Gilmore has left their role, while creative director Hogarth Dala
Speaker 1: Plant has moved to a publishing position. Plant was involved
Speaker 1: in the original BioShock game across multiple disciplines, including level design, art,
Speaker 1: and programming. According to Boomberg, the leadership changes followed a
Speaker 1: recent failed review by executives at two K Games, the
Speaker 1: publishing arm of Take two. BioShock four's narrative was identified
Speaker 1: as an area that was particularly in need of improvement
Speaker 1: and will be revamped. It's claimed, man, how bad could
Speaker 1: the story be? That that's what happened here? According to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's sources, two K also canceled plans for a remake
Speaker 1: of the original BioShock game earlier this year. In a
Speaker 1: recent all hands meeting Cloud Chamber, Cloud Chamber developers were
Speaker 1: reportedly told that the company needs to become more agile
Speaker 1: and efficient, leading some to to fear that layoffs could follow.
Speaker 1: I mean, god, those are what those words mean, right John.
Speaker 1: When you hear agile and efficient from executives in an
Speaker 1: all hands meeting, they're like, Oh, that's that's just them
Speaker 1: saying they're going to cut some jobs. What's your take
Speaker 1: on this, what's your read on this? Because I'm just like, man,
Speaker 1: BioShock four is a game that I barely ever think
Speaker 1: about and then it's like, oh, oh yeah, that's real,
Speaker 1: that's happening. And it's been in development for ten years.
Speaker 1: They've been making that game for ten years in one
Speaker 1: form or another. Of course, probably those first couple of
Speaker 1: years were you know, pre production whatever that looked like.
Speaker 1: But no, it's been in development. They've been making it
Speaker 1: for ten years. Man. I remember thinking at the time
Speaker 1: with BioShock Infinite that that was taking a long time
Speaker 1: and games, you know, they could sell, all right, but
Speaker 1: that game is going to sell so well to justify
Speaker 1: that long development period, and it just didn't, which is
Speaker 1: one of the reasons that there was this weird fallout
Speaker 1: from BioShock Infinite, with Ken Levin going on and doing
Speaker 1: something slightly different and then figuring out another team to
Speaker 1: start making BioShock four. And here we are again, and
Speaker 1: it's even worse this time in terms see the amount
Speaker 1: of time it's taken to get this game completed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's your read here?
Speaker 2: It's interesting, right, because like when you think about Take
Speaker 2: two and you think about some of their big franchises,
Speaker 2: the ones that are come close to mind are just like, well,
Speaker 2: you got to the sports games, and BioShock is one
Speaker 2: of those prestige games.
Speaker 1: So like.
Speaker 2: It is an unfortunate place to be in. But like,
Speaker 2: I mean, those remastered games still sell. I still see
Speaker 2: them on the charts of PlayStation Steam and Switch and everywhere. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I do you think it's because Ken Levine left. I
Speaker 2: mean we also haven't seen Judas in a hot minute either.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was like a like a
Speaker 2: toxic relation sort of situation and they broke up, but
Speaker 2: then they're just I.
Speaker 1: Think that was that was a little I think it
Speaker 1: was a little bit of a can we can't trust
Speaker 1: you to lead a big team again sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But that's just that's just my guess. I really, I
Speaker 1: don't know now, I haven't looked into it too much.
Speaker 1: I've never been a huge bioshot guy, so it was
Speaker 1: always just kind of like, yeah, you guys, tell me
Speaker 1: what's going on over there, And Jason did exactly that. Okay,
Speaker 1: this narrative aspect, do you what do you think is happening?
Speaker 1: Kind of Okay, here's what I think is happening. Uh,
Speaker 1: the executives think the game is too woke. I legit
Speaker 1: think that's what happened here, is that they think it's
Speaker 1: too woke, that the game is not in line with
Speaker 1: the current best practices of executives, which is bowing down
Speaker 1: to Donald Trump and the game that criticizes figures that
Speaker 1: are similar to him, and they don't. I think that's
Speaker 1: what happened. And they're like, look, you're not GTA, You're BioShock.
Speaker 1: GTA gets to do that, you don't. That's look, I'm
Speaker 1: completely guessing here, but sounds right to me. What do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 2: I honestly think that actually is a pretty good idea.
Speaker 2: I mean a lot of those games were just looking
Speaker 2: at how, you know, capitalism kind of ruins a society
Speaker 2: multiple times over, how we're going to exploit the working
Speaker 2: class and kind of destroy stuff. I think you're probably
Speaker 2: onto something there, and it is narrative, right, Like I
Speaker 2: feel like so much of the gameplay is probably set
Speaker 2: in stone and maybe has been for a while, but
Speaker 2: like you need to like fine tune it to meet
Speaker 2: what the story is and kind of like shape things
Speaker 2: around that. Yeah, I don't know. I'm also not the
Speaker 2: biggest BioShock guy, but it just from what I have
Speaker 2: played in one an infinite, I think that actually is
Speaker 2: a pretty good call.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I just can't imagine what
Speaker 1: else it could be, like, like, let's do our best,
Speaker 1: Like what else could be wrong with the narrative? I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess the opposite where it's like, why do you
Speaker 1: have so many like racist jokes in here? Like, but
Speaker 1: I don't think that's what it is. Like that doesn't
Speaker 1: say people making games these days, especially gonna go work
Speaker 1: on a bioshot game. You're probably like, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: use this power of this narrative to criticize some strongly
Speaker 1: held ideals by society, Like that's you know, the power
Speaker 1: of that gives you the ability to do exactly that.
Speaker 1: So I think just naturally it would go toward being
Speaker 1: too woke in the eyes of the executives. But I
Speaker 1: don't know if you have any other ideas what it
Speaker 1: could be in terms of a narrative issue that they
Speaker 1: are so unhappy with that the game failed its check.
Speaker 2: I mean it could be something alongst the line of
Speaker 2: like leadership kind of failing a population. And it did
Speaker 2: get a bit meta for the exacts. They're like getting
Speaker 2: caught with like egg on their face, and I mean
Speaker 2: it has It's crazy. It's been ten years, Like I
Speaker 2: feel like those were masteries kind of just like kept
Speaker 2: it in the public consciousness, but I had no idea
Speaker 2: it was like, actually that long.
Speaker 1: It m's been a while, Yeah, I guess. Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: BioShock Infinite, for people that you know, did not pay
Speaker 1: attention to the discourse that happened with that game over time,
Speaker 1: deeply criticized for doing the both sides thing of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, oh, all this authoritarian person is bad, but
Speaker 1: so are the people fighting back against him, and so
Speaker 1: who can you really trust? And that criticism has been
Speaker 1: so ingrained in the story of BioShock Infinite that my
Speaker 1: assumption for BioShock four has always been this will be
Speaker 1: a response to that, that BioShock four story and narrative
Speaker 1: will respond to that and take a stronger stance, And
Speaker 1: maybe that's exactly the problem that two K leadership has
Speaker 1: with it. I don't know, we'll we'll see this game eventually.
Speaker 1: If it's at this point where everything else is done
Speaker 1: and they just have a problem with the story, they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to release this, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully you would hope.
Speaker 1: So that's what's totally sranchise. Yeah, so a weird thing.
Speaker 1: But that and I guess Judas from Kim Levin is
Speaker 1: supposed to be out next year. So both of those
Speaker 1: launch in twenty twenty six. We'll see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, yeah, that could happen.
Speaker 1: Whatever you say. Ken, All right, let's keep going here.
Speaker 1: We have a rundown of EVO news. I did have
Speaker 1: some stories here, but you know what, let's go to
Speaker 1: this games Game Spot story. Ebo twenty twenty five. Everything
Speaker 1: announced at the annual three day Fighting Game Fest. This
Speaker 1: is from Jason Finelli. A weekend of World Warriors in Vegas,
Speaker 1: the super Bowl of fighting games, has once again left
Speaker 1: its mark on Las Vegas. As EBO twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: saw over thirteen thousand unique entrants make their way to
Speaker 1: Las Vega to the Las Vegas Convention Center for three
Speaker 1: days of furious fisticuffs along with the comp edition, however,
Speaker 1: came multiple reveals for multiple current and upcoming fighting games,
Speaker 1: including new characters, fresh new gameplay footage, and more. Capcom
Speaker 1: Arc system Works and Skybound were among those who dropped
Speaker 1: a new information during Ebo's Grand Finals Day on Sunday,
Speaker 1: while S and K Shadow dropped its next big update
Speaker 1: in front of the unsuspecting EBO crowd. Next up for EVO, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: is EVO France and Nice from October tenth through the twelfth,
Speaker 1: while EVO Vegas was confirmed to return June twenty sixth
Speaker 1: through the twenty eighth. In twenty twenty six yeah, put
Speaker 1: it closer to Summer game Fest. That'll make it easier
Speaker 1: for me to go. Yeah, bastards. All right, let's say it.
Speaker 1: Some of this stuff we talked about like Friday. We
Speaker 1: might have mentioned this because this guy announced early on
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection adds Mortal Kombat Trilogy. That was
Speaker 1: cool to see. Virtual Fighter five Revo World Stage. The
Speaker 1: recent Virtual Fighter Virtua Fighter five Revo will take to
Speaker 1: the World stage as is set to be ported to
Speaker 1: Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation five and Nintendo Switch
Speaker 1: to While the which to release date is not yet
Speaker 1: set in Stone. The others are coming October thirtieth. They
Speaker 1: did show footage of the new Virtual Fighter project, which
Speaker 1: I thought looked really.
Speaker 2: Good, super promising. Yeah, right, especially when you've been when
Speaker 2: Virtual Fighter has been on ice, and by ice I
Speaker 2: mean basically just only in Yakaza Games for the greater
Speaker 2: part of a decade. It it honestly looks incredible. I'm
Speaker 2: super excited to see how Jackie looks when that game
Speaker 2: actually does come out. But yeah, just I don't know,
Speaker 2: there's just something about seeing just pure like martial arts,
Speaker 2: like from across the world that's just super satisfying, and
Speaker 2: I think Virtual Fighter has always nailed that. What's a
Speaker 2: what's your take on the story mode? Because I know
Speaker 2: a big part of Virtual Fighter five, this new version
Speaker 2: of Virtual Fighter, what is focusing on maybe having a
Speaker 2: bit more story to it to kind of get people
Speaker 2: connect to the game in the way that I feel
Speaker 2: like a Street Fighter or a techn hasn't done with
Speaker 2: the recent releases.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, so this is RGG right that's doing this,
Speaker 1: and they have the chops to pull something like that off.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not going to like put that
Speaker 1: on this game or like the game needs to have
Speaker 1: that for to justify itself. To me, no virtual fighter
Speaker 1: can just still be a virtual fighter. That would be fine.
Speaker 1: And if they have a story mode that is lackluster whatever,
Speaker 1: I would never hold a lackluster story mode against a
Speaker 1: fighting game. That is to me, that's silly. But it
Speaker 1: could help. And I think that they could do something.
Speaker 1: I think they could do something that the other studios
Speaker 1: working in the space would really really struggle to do,
Speaker 1: And so why not take advantage of your capabilities as
Speaker 1: a studio. That's how I would feel about it. And
Speaker 1: then I think the answer to that question would be
Speaker 1: the reason why you don't do it is it costs
Speaker 1: a lot of extra money and is that juice worth squeeze.
Speaker 1: We just don't know, because no one's really ever borne
Speaker 1: it out before. But we'll see Hunter Hunter nexton Impact
Speaker 1: Season Past. The three v three tag fighters starring characters
Speaker 1: from the popular popular Hunter Hunter anime franchise, unveiled its
Speaker 1: first season past during the finals of its side tournament.
Speaker 1: Neferpito will be the first character added to its roster.
Speaker 1: There's people out there that understand that under Ninth under
Speaker 1: Night in Birth to cis Celeste ads in Zoomie Man,
Speaker 1: they just just keep adding words to names. Sometimes there's
Speaker 1: a lot of yep, Grand Blue Fantasy Versus Rising Ex characters.
Speaker 1: There's new characters there. Invincible Versus showed off Omni Man
Speaker 1: and it looked pretty gruesome the way that that comic
Speaker 1: is gruesome and the show is gruesome. So yep, looked
Speaker 1: pretty cool. Marvel to Con Close Beta has been announced
Speaker 1: that is starting on let's see here September fifth through
Speaker 1: the seventh, and that'll be the Close beta test. Players
Speaker 1: who sign up for the PlayStation Beta program on the
Speaker 1: PlayStation website will be eligible to join the beta, though
Speaker 1: access to signups is not guaranteed. I should go do
Speaker 1: that as soon as we're done here. Yeah, this was
Speaker 1: the game that like really was kind of continue to
Speaker 1: pop off all weekend every time anyone showed it off anywhere.
Speaker 1: It looks astounding. I think it looks really good. What
Speaker 1: are your feelings on Tocan?
Speaker 2: It looks pretty incredible and it kind of is carving
Speaker 2: its own niche Like I mean, when you find out
Speaker 2: it's going to be a four v four game, your
Speaker 2: mind immediately goes to what is Marvel vus capcom what
Speaker 2: did Dragon Ball Fighters do? But it really is a
Speaker 2: unique spin on the tie thing. Yeah, yeah, I think
Speaker 2: there's like a similar King of Fighters game back in
Speaker 2: the day that did something similar, But this is just
Speaker 2: so flashy, and I think it's going to break down
Speaker 2: a lot of doors in the way that Dragon Ball
Speaker 2: Fighters kind of opened the fighting game landscape to just
Speaker 2: because it's a big ip like Marvel, but also because
Speaker 2: you have those auto combos and you have those simple
Speaker 2: to learn mechanics to really get people excited. This was
Speaker 2: probably the most exciting thing. I think we saw just
Speaker 2: tons of gameplay out there. If you're hesitant to start
Speaker 2: a fighting game, I think this is a great shot
Speaker 2: to see if you are interested.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it looks really good. It looks like, you know,
Speaker 1: I see echoes of was it Marvel versus Capcom three
Speaker 1: or Infinite at three, and it just it's like, No,
Speaker 1: this is like take that really amp up the style
Speaker 1: and all of like sort of the sanded off edges
Speaker 1: that were in those later Marvel versus Capcom games replace
Speaker 1: that with just even more style. And so I'm into
Speaker 1: what Arc system Works is doing with this game so far.
Speaker 1: Although Tag Fighters have always been kind of too hectic
Speaker 1: for me. This one, like you said, doing its own thing.
Speaker 1: I think I can wrap my head around this one
Speaker 1: a little bit better. We'll see Guilty Gear Strive adds
Speaker 1: Lucy from Cyberpunk Edge Runners. That's a WI one trailer,
Speaker 1: but it's a good trailer. Pretty interesting to see Guilty Gear.
Speaker 1: Guilty gear Strive two point zero is coming in twenty
Speaker 1: two twenty six. Ken Ken Masters is joining Fatal Fury
Speaker 1: City of the Wolves. While we knew that Ken Masters
Speaker 1: from a Street Fighter was heading to Fatal Fury City
Speaker 1: of the Wolves at some point, we didn't know exactly
Speaker 1: when that would happen. S and K not only made
Speaker 1: the announcement, it shadow dropped the Shota Kan Shota Con. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Shota Con Ken is available in Fatal Fury. Now. I
Speaker 1: haven't really played that game all that much, and I
Speaker 1: heard it plays all right, but I just got bummed
Speaker 1: out by all the weird Saudi Arabians of it all
Speaker 1: when it was launched. But I like Ken a lot.
Speaker 1: I kind of like want to play every game that
Speaker 1: has Ken in it, so I'll probably go check this out.
Speaker 1: Kind of can't help myself, but that was interesting to see.
Speaker 1: But this game is one of those ones where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: it clearly did not work the way that they that
Speaker 1: S and K was hoping it would. Did you did
Speaker 1: you notice any change in the vibe around this game
Speaker 1: over the weekend or is it kind of where it was?
Speaker 2: I think it is kind of where it was. It is.
Speaker 2: Fatal Fury has always been like somewhat much more smaller
Speaker 2: franchise compared to even just King of Fighters proper. I
Speaker 2: think people who watched it, myself included, I had not
Speaker 2: kept up with how this game looks because again, like
Speaker 2: I was, those first two betas were kind of discouraging
Speaker 2: and then yeah, like the the Ronaldo and Salvador Ganacci
Speaker 2: stuff versus like actual Fatal Fury characters not being in
Speaker 2: the base roster did sour me really heavy. But I
Speaker 2: mean people were excited for that. But I think it
Speaker 2: will be both a game that has a core, dedicated
Speaker 2: audience but also be something in the future people look
Speaker 2: back on and be like, oh, yeah, that actually does
Speaker 2: have a lot of cool mechanical depth to it. Some
Speaker 2: characters look really cool, like Ken, like Chunley, and we'll
Speaker 2: see where it goes. But yeah, I don't think there
Speaker 2: was really a mood shift. But you know there's always
Speaker 2: some Terry Bogart diehearts out there, and I respect them
Speaker 2: because he's a cool guy.
Speaker 1: Yep. And if people are wondering why, like, well, exactly
Speaker 1: my issues with the game. You know, Ronaldo was definitely
Speaker 1: in some of the pools in Vegas, So just google
Speaker 1: Ronaldo Vegas charges and you'll get my reasons for that's
Speaker 1: a crazy weekends, crazy weekend. Yes, exactly, He's a charge character,
Speaker 1: you see. So yeah, that's all right. And then finally,
Speaker 1: Street Fighter six reveals new swimsuit costume and teases Sea Viper.
Speaker 1: The final two reveals of EBO twenty twenty five came
Speaker 1: from Capcom, who not only teased its next roster member
Speaker 1: see Viper. It looks amazing, but also revealed new summer
Speaker 1: themed costumes for seven current fighters. Yeah, they're all in bikinis.
Speaker 1: And unless keen eyed Street Fighter fans may recognize Chun
Speaker 1: Lee's and Cammy swim sweat some swimsuit off outfits from
Speaker 1: a classic piece of Street Fighter art drawn by Kenyo
Speaker 1: Nishimura during the Super street Fighter two era. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: this like classic poster of all the characters at the beach,
Speaker 1: and yes, Chun Lee's and and Cammy's outfits are from that,
Speaker 1: including that's where Cammy's like insane tan lines comes from.
Speaker 1: It's from that. Yeah, Art, it's man, it's buck while
Speaker 1: to see that. It's definitely one of those things where
Speaker 1: I will never forget seeing Street Fighter on ESPN and
Speaker 1: one fight it was I think it was Mika Armika. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was like in her like skippiest outfit for one fight,
Speaker 1: and then they came back from break and was in
Speaker 1: like the least revealing outfit after that, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I know what happened. The producers are like, what are
Speaker 1: you doing? You have to put more clothes on this character,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what happened. So yeah, of course street Fighter,
Speaker 1: all these games lean into this. They're gonna keep doing it,
Speaker 1: swimsuit outfits for every fighting game. Character. Would you think
Speaker 1: of Steve Viper?
Speaker 2: See Viper looks really cool? Yeah, I mean, she's she's
Speaker 2: got that diamond. But honestly, it's a character that I've
Speaker 2: been always interested in checking out again, I mean, she
Speaker 2: hasn't been in a game since, or at least playable since,
Speaker 2: like I think Marvel three, which is kind of crazy
Speaker 2: because that game is coming up on like almost twenty
Speaker 2: five years old next year. It might have been twenty
Speaker 2: twelve for all to it. But yeah, I mean she
Speaker 2: looks really cool. Obviously, we didn't get to see a
Speaker 2: lot of gameplay because she's a lot further out, I
Speaker 2: think in autumn, Sigott coming out, I think tomorrow. But
Speaker 2: I honestly think she's a really cool get. She adds
Speaker 2: zev to the world Tour mode. I'm I'm getting really
Speaker 2: I've been really into the World tor mode, just learning
Speaker 2: about the characters, learning the lore, just exploring an open world.
Speaker 2: It's been kind of a perfect like switch to game
Speaker 2: for me, just like sitting down like end of the Night.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think she looks really cool. They continuously
Speaker 2: just redefined characters and make them look brand spanking new.
Speaker 2: It's it's super cool to see.
Speaker 1: Yep. I think they do a pretty good job of
Speaker 1: mixing in characters and bringing them back and like giving them,
Speaker 1: giving them time off, giving us a chance to miss them.
Speaker 1: I know a big part of that is they need
Speaker 1: to focus on a handful of characters to make the
Speaker 1: game good in the first place, and they can add
Speaker 1: stuff and so stuff just gets left off that reason.
Speaker 1: But I think just the byproduct of being like, oh,
Speaker 1: yes see Vipers back a street Fight or Force standout.
Speaker 1: But it's like, oh, you know, for when you come
Speaker 1: out with Street Fighter six, I want to see this character.
Speaker 1: This character cea Viper is probably on that list, but
Speaker 1: maybe not super high for some people. And now I
Speaker 1: think the demand is there and it's like, yeah, definitely
Speaker 1: bring her back, let's see it. And then she looked great,
Speaker 1: so very cool to see. All right, let's get to
Speaker 1: the rest of the headlines. And Nintendo wants to know
Speaker 1: your thoughts on its divisive game key cards. This is
Speaker 1: from Darren Bontius at GameSpot and if this story sounds
Speaker 1: familiar to people who listen every day, they did a
Speaker 1: survey in Japan. Now that survey question, or a form
Speaker 1: of it, has gone worldwide. A new survey by Nintendo
Speaker 1: has gone live as the company wants to know what
Speaker 1: its users think of physical and digital game ownership. While
Speaker 1: there are a few general questions mixed into it, the
Speaker 1: survey primarily focuses on which format customers prefer when purchasing
Speaker 1: games for the switch to There are various questions asked
Speaker 1: in this survey on this topic, specific asking which factors
Speaker 1: determine if a digital game will be purchased instead of
Speaker 1: a physical one, while users can respond with multiple replies
Speaker 1: like physical games provide a stronger sense of ownership, or
Speaker 1: I like collecting physical games when press for answers. Game
Speaker 1: key cards have been controversial since they were introduced, as
Speaker 1: the vast majority of Switch two games have adopted this
Speaker 1: new medium for a physical release in essence their key
Speaker 1: authentication cartridges that will still require you to download the
Speaker 1: full game. Everyone knows how they work here, thish there
Speaker 1: was I'm trying to remember were one of these games
Speaker 1: that we talked about announced for I know a game
Speaker 1: just got announced John, What was it? It was like
Speaker 1: fifty dollars on was it Mortal Kombat?
Speaker 2: It was the Mortal Kombat Collection. Yeah, Atari and Digital
Speaker 2: Eclipse announced that it is going to be fully on card,
Speaker 2: which is amazing.
Speaker 1: But it's also ten dollars more on the switch to
Speaker 1: than on a PlayStation Xbox. So I think it's fifty
Speaker 1: on those and it's sixty on switch too, but it's
Speaker 1: all going to be fully on the card.
Speaker 2: But I mean, I guess that's a good comp Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a good comp right, great.
Speaker 1: The compromise of like, okay, you are using a more
Speaker 1: expensive medium. I get it. I mean, is this the
Speaker 1: compromise people will be okay with? Is it like it
Speaker 1: actually is gonna It's gonna be like the N sixty
Speaker 1: four days where the cartridge is more expensive and now
Speaker 1: the cards are more expensive here maybe I.
Speaker 2: Think so, And it's weird, right, Like I think people
Speaker 2: who are physical collectors like myself for the most part,
Speaker 2: like switch To is kind of sadly is becoming the
Speaker 2: beginning of the end of that. There are still games
Speaker 2: I'm picking up. I'm going to pick up Mortal Kombat
Speaker 2: collection and I picked up Cyberpunk on switch To like that,
Speaker 2: just to show support to that stuff. Yeah, so it
Speaker 2: is really cool when companies do that. But yeah, when
Speaker 2: you are releasing this game on so many different platforms,
Speaker 2: like you are releasing it PC, switch, PS five, Xbox,
Speaker 2: just another expense of having to buy this more expensive
Speaker 2: card mass produce them. I can definitely see why a
Speaker 2: lot of third party companies are discouraged in doing this. Nonetheless,
Speaker 2: it's sucks to see I already filled up this survey
Speaker 2: and if game Cay cards like upset you to you
Speaker 2: definitely fill this out let your let both your wallet
Speaker 2: and your voices be heard, because that's the only way
Speaker 2: you're gonna see stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I just I think what most people are
Speaker 1: even asking for here is like you don't have to
Speaker 1: get rid of game key cards. We understand that some
Speaker 1: that's gonna make sense for some games, but why is it?
Speaker 1: Why does it feel like ninety five percent of the
Speaker 1: games are game key cards? Nintendo, can you do something
Speaker 1: to just even and out a little bit and get
Speaker 1: most of the games that collectors are going to want
Speaker 1: to target back on real cards where those games will
Speaker 1: just be playable for as long as the card doesn't rot.
Speaker 1: And I think most people would be happy with that,
Speaker 1: just to see some movement back toward this physical game
Speaker 1: feels like the games that we used to have back
Speaker 1: in the day and continue that somewhat. All Right, let's
Speaker 1: hit this one quick. EA is interested in turning Apex
Speaker 1: Legends into a film or TV series. Is from Ben Lyons,
Speaker 1: a game reactor. Yeah. I mean, they just said they
Speaker 1: have a lot of they want to make this happen.
Speaker 1: I guess I can see why. But also this feels
Speaker 1: like one that when they say it, even if it
Speaker 1: gets announced, then there's a writer and a director attached.
Speaker 1: Apex Legends feels like one that never actually gets released, right,
Speaker 1: we don't actually get a movie or TV show based
Speaker 1: on this?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you would really hope, uh that people
Speaker 2: do find a way of turning this into a theme
Speaker 2: for that demo. I mean, like Apex Legends has been
Speaker 2: kind of on a doud swing for a good long
Speaker 2: time now. I mean, it's a beaten to death dead horse,
Speaker 2: but like, I mean, a titan Fall show would also
Speaker 2: be kind of cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, get Tony Gilroy to make a titan
Speaker 1: Fall show, oh man, or for me everybody, and then
Speaker 1: we're we're fucking cooking, let's go.
Speaker 2: That would be incredible.
Speaker 1: Actually, yeah, I think that could be some good stuff
Speaker 1: Apex Legends. I get that's the bigger name brand, but
Speaker 1: I wonder if that means like we're gonna tell the
Speaker 1: story of I guess, I guess it's like a game
Speaker 1: show kind of thing, or like a galactic competition. Is
Speaker 1: the story of Apex Legends. It never really mattered when
Speaker 1: I was playing, so I never paid all that much attention.
Speaker 1: It's like I don't know. If I need another thing
Speaker 1: that is, like the Squid games or whatever, we'll see them.
Speaker 1: Starfield reportedly targeting PS five release in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: following quote unquote week sales of first expansion. This from
Speaker 1: Tom Ivan at VGC. Microsoft is reportedly planning to release
Speaker 1: Starfield for PlayStation five in twenty twenty six. That's according
Speaker 1: to MP first sources. And that's I guess as a
Speaker 1: direct result of the expansion not doing what they needed
Speaker 1: it to do. But also they're at a point now
Speaker 1: where it feels like, yeah, of course all the other
Speaker 1: games are going to PlayStation, why wouldn't this. You know,
Speaker 1: Force is on there, so anything can go on there.
Speaker 1: Basically we're talking about Halo and Gear. I mean, Gears
Speaker 1: of War is going to PlayStation five, so if Gears
Speaker 1: of War can go there, clearly Starfield can. Even though
Speaker 1: there was definitely a time when they were saying Starfield
Speaker 1: wouldn't never come to PlayStation. That was I saw the
Speaker 1: paperwork John where they like did the math on why
Speaker 1: they would never release it on PlayStation, and that was
Speaker 1: their internal position on that. Obviously a lot has changed
Speaker 1: since then. Yeah, this game's come into PlayStation right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of just a matter of time. Like
Speaker 2: there's not a lot of games in their catalog that
Speaker 2: I feel like will not come at this point, especially
Speaker 2: games that are just like consistently releasing.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Bees is a big name. People like
Speaker 2: have fond memories of Bethesda. I mean, it was pretty
Speaker 2: controversial in the first place when they were talking about
Speaker 2: Starfield being exclusive, which might have made sense at the time,
Speaker 2: but now in hindsight, maybe it would have been better
Speaker 2: to play this game up a little bit more. But
Speaker 2: it's it's funny how Microsoft makes all these games and
Speaker 2: they come out sometimes they come out hot, some of
Speaker 2: the times they come out cold. And now when they
Speaker 2: launched the next year, I'm assuming I haven't really played
Speaker 2: the DLC, that Starfield's PS five debut will probably be
Speaker 2: a better experience than there to hape you on Xbox,
Speaker 2: which is something to say.
Speaker 1: Yep, man, and that's how it's gone repeatedly now, but
Speaker 1: especially in Starfield's case, you could see that being how
Speaker 1: it goes down. Apparently they're going to try to time
Speaker 1: this with the next expansion, So there's another expansion they're making,
Speaker 1: they'll try to time it with that. So yeah, it
Speaker 1: could be really a definitive version of Starfield when it's
Speaker 1: all said and done. I don't know how much they
Speaker 1: can improve that game in most people's eyes. I thought
Speaker 1: it was fine. I thought it was a fine game.
Speaker 1: I think that was a disappointment at the same time
Speaker 1: that it was just fine. So both are true. It's
Speaker 1: a disappointment, but it's fine. That's not I mean, people
Speaker 1: spend a lot of money on these games. They don't
Speaker 1: want to settle for something that's a disappointing fine, And
Speaker 1: like I said, I don't know how much they're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to change the fundamentals of that game to
Speaker 1: get it to a point where it plays the way
Speaker 1: people expected bees the game to play and has all
Speaker 1: the possibility space going as well. It's just kind of
Speaker 1: a lackluster game overall. All right, we have a poll
Speaker 1: question that we never got to from the Thursday that
Speaker 1: we never posted, but I posted it a little bit later,
Speaker 1: and it's what is your grade for the Nintendo Direct
Speaker 1: As always, because YouTube dropped our options, there's only four options,
Speaker 1: ABC or D, but we can assume D is equivalent
Speaker 1: to failing in this case. All right, So in that case,
Speaker 1: three percent gave it an A. Almost no one loved
Speaker 1: this direct, and it's a partner direct, so I think
Speaker 1: that that's fair. But seventeen percent gave it a B.
Speaker 1: The vast majority of people, or the plurality here, I
Speaker 1: should say, is forty eight percent at C. And then
Speaker 1: thirty two percent gave it a D. Uh. So yeah,
Speaker 1: most people in the lower end of the spectrum, and
Speaker 1: I think that's fair. There were a lot of games
Speaker 1: in there. For me, I gave it a C as well. John.
Speaker 1: It was just kind of a a ho hum direct,
Speaker 1: even though we knew what a partner direct could be.
Speaker 1: Even for a partner direct, though, I think it was
Speaker 1: a little lackluster. Is that where you end up?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I forget. I forget what I said
Speaker 2: last Friday when you posted this. I am in the
Speaker 2: C maybe lower C, high D range. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of cool franchises there, but like Katamari coming back, really cool.
Speaker 2: I'm happy with the people who like, uh the Octopath games.
Speaker 2: I've just bounced off all of them, and I like RPGs.
Speaker 2: I play a lot of them. I'm playing through the
Speaker 2: Dragon Quest one right now. But yeah, there wasn't a
Speaker 2: whole lot of big standout ones. I think there was
Speaker 2: someone saying this morning that there were a couple of
Speaker 2: games that just were supposed to be but we're not in.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, so I didn't. I didn't include that. I
Speaker 1: had that story I was considering. So Chris Dring over
Speaker 1: the weekend said that he there were three games that
Speaker 1: he heard one we're going to be in the direct
Speaker 1: and they weren't in there. And he he said, like,
Speaker 1: so show goes to show you how much these things change, which, yes,
Speaker 1: everybody they do. It does change that crazily from time
Speaker 1: to time, which is why this is stupid job I
Speaker 1: found myself in of trying to predict these things for
Speaker 1: people is a pain in the ass. But I don't
Speaker 1: I like, what could those games be there? I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a partner showcase, so it would have been a
Speaker 1: bunch of third party games. I'm assuming. I don't know.
Speaker 1: So yeah, maybe that means uh, maybe that means games
Speaker 1: comp is going to be really hot. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Do you think that we are overdue for a lot
Speaker 1: more announcements even though we just got that partner direct
Speaker 1: and I'm talking specifically about like switch to announcements.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so too. There was kind of a
Speaker 2: general vibe at EVO itself that a lot of switch
Speaker 2: to games kind of were dateless and like games that
Speaker 2: I think would make a lot of sense to be
Speaker 2: on switch To, like Teching eight, like with some DLC stuff.
Speaker 2: It's kind of crazy that no announcements were there for
Speaker 2: that Fatal Fury.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be a combo of games Com
Speaker 2: and Tokyo Game Show. I might be leaning a little
Speaker 2: bit more to Tokyo Game Show, kind of to like
Speaker 2: squarre inex Capcom Konami. We'll see what's there. I when
Speaker 2: when they said three games, I I'm probably thinking that
Speaker 2: maybe they originally were going to announce some of the
Speaker 2: Resident Evil remake on there, but maybe it just got
Speaker 2: pushed for whatever reason, like a lining up with marketing
Speaker 2: or something. I don't know, but yeah, I think we
Speaker 2: are due for it. Uh. There's not a lot of
Speaker 2: games in the latter half of the year with like
Speaker 2: concrete dates yet, so it's it's kind of just a
Speaker 2: guessing game at this point.
Speaker 1: I'm chidding my vote to a bee because I remembered
Speaker 1: Philip Bildia shut up. Yeah, Phil, a big deal man,
Speaker 1: that's a hard thing say. Actually, yeah, all right, that's
Speaker 1: the pole question from last week. We will have another
Speaker 1: new poole question here in a second. Before we get
Speaker 1: to that, John, let me tell people were they can
Speaker 1: find you on the internet what you have going on?
Speaker 1: All that good stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, you guys can find me. John Martin
Speaker 2: on Blue Sky I post about my goings on. I
Speaker 2: am going to be streaming later this week. Dear me,
Speaker 2: I was. I've heard it's a tear jerker. It seems
Speaker 2: like a really good visual earth like watercolor story by
Speaker 2: the Hotel Dusk people. Seems like it's gonna be a
Speaker 2: good time. But yeah, besides that, not much. Just still
Speaker 2: cooking on videos, making sure everything's perfect. But I keep
Speaker 2: saying that every time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the job though, and that's how it always goes,
Speaker 1: all right, new poll question? Have you played a Dark
Speaker 1: Siders game before? Yes? Or no? Interested to see like
Speaker 1: the general you know, our more general audience. Did you
Speaker 1: play Dark Siders back on Xbox through sixteen? Then try
Speaker 1: to keep up with the series over time. We'll get
Speaker 1: the results of that. We will talk about it on
Speaker 1: Game mess Mornings here on Giant Bomb tomorrow. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: Wednesday Tomorrow's bomb cast in fact, and so speaking to
Speaker 1: Giant bomb yep tomorrow BombCast today, it's Monday. Mitch owns mondays,
Speaker 1: I think he's back. People were asking where's Mike and Dan.
Speaker 1: They should be back now. They were traveling last week.
Speaker 1: You saw him on some kind of funny stuff. We
Speaker 1: got some other stuff in the hopper that will happen
Speaker 1: because of that. Super cool, but just hold your horses
Speaker 1: on those. And in the meantime, we should be back
Speaker 1: to a mostly normal schedule this week. So I think
Speaker 1: we're doing Riven. I think I guess I should let
Speaker 1: Mitch tell us. Yeah, let me see here. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take the calendar, and it's on the calendar, so I
Speaker 1: think that means it. Uh, So we'll do that Monday
Speaker 1: morning's missed with Mitch. You know, the sequel Riven will
Speaker 1: get started today and then he'll do Mega Man tonight.
Speaker 1: We'll have some other stuff happening as well, and then
Speaker 1: the rest of the week, Yeah, look out for Blake
Speaker 1: Club returning. We should be able to finish up Pimp
Speaker 1: My Ride with Dan Riker My Riker on Wednesday voicemail
Speaker 1: dumb Truck a whole bunch of stuff happening, so look
Speaker 1: out for that later this week. In the meantime, though, John,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for hanging out with me today
Speaker 1: and talk about video games. Man, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: It's always a pleasure. Jeff, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Yeap, thanks for coming on. It's great stuff. Thank you
Speaker 1: all for watching and listening. You're the best audience in gaming.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, is there something?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think Mike said something on Thursday. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: play Fighters. That's cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna try to get Blake Club in on Thursday.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's we got thanks happening. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: so it's gonna be a mess again this week, but
Speaker 1: we'll figure it all out and put some fun stuff
Speaker 1: out for you. It worked last week with just me
Speaker 1: and Bakalar, so we'll figure it out again. Yeah, definitely
Speaker 1: is still happening. All right. Thank you everybody for watching
Speaker 1: the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a
Speaker 1: good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye.