Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone to the Game Informer Show, a weekly
podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Friday
for discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals,
alongside Game and Former staff and special guests from around
the industry. I'm one of your hosts today, Alex van Aiken,
and I'm joined by Marcus Stewart.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Marcus, Hey, I'm doing great, not as
great as yous. You came back from a whole bang vacation.
Speaker 1: I did, yes, I was gone for a while. We'll
get into it in a second. Before that, Charles Hart.
Speaker 3: How you doing.
Speaker 4: I'm doing great because when you love what you do,
you never worked day in your life, So I kind
of don't even need a vacation when you think we're
all a.
Speaker 3: Family, and when you're with family, you're always relaxed.
Speaker 4: I had I had a joke idea, or like I
was thinking about doing it for April Fools or something,
and it's kind of just the gist of it is
like when you work in the games industry, it's just
like that saying, when you love what you do, you
never work a day in your life. Mostly because we're
often laid off and looking for work in your life.
You'll love it.
Speaker 2: Almost sounded like you were throwing shade at Alex of like, well,
I actually didn't need a vacational like some people because
I love what I do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm good, I'm fine. Yeah, I love this company.
So I'm going to be here forever. Yeah, I will
never take a day off.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to think the best way says I'm better
than you. I guess.
Speaker 1: I guess that's kind of what I'm getting at, just
because just better than you in every way. Huh, and
got so much more work at that than you. Oh interesting, anyways,
how is your vacation, Alex? My vacation was good, Charles. I.
I went on a Royal Caribbean cruise. It was my
first cruise ever, and it is relevant to this podcast. Yeah,
because I went to the day okay, Royal Caribbean. I
was on a ship called the Adventure of the Seas.
It was my grandparents' fifty fifth anniversary, so like they
had some of us family come with them, and so
that's why I went.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Alex, but now said, this is your first cruise.
Have you ever been on a boat? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, great question.
Speaker 3: I love boats. I love.
Speaker 2: Okay, e question.
Speaker 1: You know, I had my boating license in the state
of Nebraska. Actually, I've never lived in Nebraska. During during COVID,
kayl and I wanted to get away and we went
to this like really nice lake and we went camping
and Nebraska and Nebraska. It's called Lake McConaughey, and it's
like one of those lakes that's like very beach like
you know what I mean. Uh, And we rented a
boat when we were camping, and so I got I
had to get my license for that.
Speaker 4: So it's a crazy lord drop. And if you ever
play two truths in a lie, a perfect two truths
and a lie, I have a license in the state
of Nebraska. Of case I've never lived in my life.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But you know cruise ships, you know, they're like, uh,
little cities on wheels or not on wheels crucially.
Speaker 3: On I took. Yeah, I was in Vegas.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, does a propeller count as a wheel?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess on propeller, No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: But they they have like all this stuff on board.
They had an arcade and I wanted to I'm having
to have to fill out this post cruise survey. I
want to do it, you know, give my feedback, but
I wanted to get your two's feedback on the arcade
based on the arcade cabinets that I that they had that.
Speaker 3: I took photos of. I want you to think, like,
what do you like?
Speaker 1: Let's start with like expectations, you know, I don't You
don't need to say what you're expectations are, but be
thinking about what you would think a cruise ship arcade
would be.
Speaker 2: Like, you know, so I have stayed in a couple
of like resorts in Orlando, and they tend to have arcades,
and generally they tend to be relatively small, but like
dense of like like how many machines can we shove
into like a relatively small space I would imagine for
a cruise ship, especially because I've also never been on
a cruise ship despite living in Florida all my life.
But every time I see a commercially look lavish and
like expensive, So I would imagine, like an arcade would
be pretty pretty big or at least like respectably sized.
So I think they can they have this space to
put some pretty like high end stuff. So my expectations
are pretty high.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 4: Okay, if I was making a cruise ship, to me arcade,
the arcade part of the cruise ship is way more
about this is going to look great in pictures. It
is going to be one of twenty five I have
bullet points of a thing to do on this cruise ship.
But I think it's gonna be way more about style
over substance. Like I think it will look really cool
from the outside. It's gonna have all the LEDs, and
then you go in and it's gonna be like arcade
one on one. That's my guess.
Speaker 1: That's that was my expectation, Charles. Okay, because I'm cynical
like you, I'm like, Okay, they just this is a
marketing point for like people that want activities for their
kids on a ship.
Speaker 2: But I would also say it because a cruise ship
has such a big, like a diverse clientele, it would
have to have machines that appeal to Like most ages,
you might have like your fruit ninja, your giant fruit ninja,
but then in the corner you have like your galaga
and your pac Man's for the older folks.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, I like this. Let's start with
going into you walk into the arcade, right, and one
of the first things you see are the prizes.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Okay, they don't have like a prize desk. Also, I
walk into this arcade, I'm literally the only person inside.
I felt like I was in like a liminal space.
There's no employees, there's no other people playing the games,
just a bunch of arcade machines turned on. I was
literally by myself.
Speaker 2: Resort resort arcades are kind of like that. There's no
one supervising them. You're on your own. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So they've got a claw machine with licensed Super Mario plushies.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm up.
Speaker 1: It'll be on screen for people. But you know, they've
got like Mario and Yoshi and all that. So I
was like, okay, we've got like we've spent some money
on like some licensing, who knows if it's legal, And
now going into the arcade, it looks a little underwhelming,
I'll admit, you know very much.
Speaker 3: But the deeper you go, we've got another stacker is.
Speaker 2: Yeah for audio listeners, the first photo look like a front.
It just looked like a line of claw machines.
Speaker 3: So you might not be able to see it.
Speaker 1: But on the stacker, which is like just one of
their like little game Mini Prime major prize.
Speaker 3: Games, you know, gotcha kind of thing.
Speaker 1: You can get AirPod Max's, you can get a Metaquest
three s. You can win an Apple Watch ten, or
you can win an Xbox series show.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 3: That's fair. That's fair. Okay.
Speaker 1: So there are a couple of more generic machines that
are inside the arcade, but then you get to a
ski Ball table that is Joker in Batman themed, full licensed.
I have never seen a sche Mall machine quite like it.
It's covered in Joker green, You've got the decals everywhere.
But I had nobody to play with, so I didn't
play that one of those games.
Speaker 4: That's like there's enough going on where like the theme
is ski Ball, you know, I hope I have seen
the licensed ski Ball, which.
Speaker 2: I have not. That's actually in terms of like the
overall great this this is like a few points in
his favor because I love ski ball, and if you
put ski Ball in your arcade, I'm already like looking
at it pretty favorably.
Speaker 3: And you will come.
Speaker 1: I came to realize I was like, holy cow, they
spent a lot of money on licensing or or at
the very least they love license games at this arcade,
I'll start with that. So moving over, once we get
into the main arcade proper, they had a cabinet of
a dimmed, dimly lit like CRT, the sort of arcade
like old style cabinet of Split Second.
Speaker 2: They're like, this is the nineties section.
Speaker 1: Yes, so that we had split second in the racing game,
we had dead heat unleashed.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, go back. I didn't know there was an
arcade cabinet for split Second. I don't know. Yeah, I
knew that.
Speaker 3: You can't see it very well on the photo I'm
showing on screen right now. Yeah, I've seen it. I'm
looking at it, but I am. And it seemed better days.
It was well loved.
Speaker 1: But then they've got a Plants for Zombies the Last
Stand machine. Okay, so you're playing Plants for Zombies with
like you're holding the like flower cannon, which was cool.
Speaker 3: They've got ski ball.
Speaker 2: You know that that has to be rigged in away
to be like unfair, because if someone is really good
at plants versus zombies, they are not leaving that station, Like,
no one will get a turn.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they had a Jurassic Park Onrail shooter classic.
Speaker 2: Gotta have you gotta have some sort of Jurassic Park shooter.
It's not the Jurassic Park Shooter, but it is one.
Speaker 1: Probably one of the highlights. They have a Mario Kart
Arcade GP.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, that's a classic. That one's you see that
in a lot of arcades. That's the Japanese one that
it's got a lot of Japanese characters that you don't
see in the kind of like globally released Mario card games.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I play.
Speaker 2: And the drum guy, the little drum happy drum guy. Yeah,
he's a driver.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they had one of those.
Speaker 2: Those are on.
Speaker 1: They had a they had a lot of racing cabinets.
They had two Sonic Sega All Starts racing arcade cabinets.
Speaker 2: Oh. I don't think I've ever played those.
Speaker 4: So this is a thing of like if the intent
is like I got these two rotten twelve year olds
and I can't deal with the you like could drop
them off at the arcade and they would do stuff
all day, like there's actually enough stuff to Yeah, I
think So was this like were they all like you
just entered because it's a cruise ship you can play
unlimited or was there like tokens you had to buy
or something, or it was.
Speaker 3: Just it was free.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, yeah, the cabinets were turned onto the free mode,
I believe, but there were some of them were the
prizes were the prizes were you had to pay to
play the prizes like you would put your resort card
on them.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, it would be like the games that would
normally spit out tickets are the ones they're charged, like
you probably at the pay right.
Speaker 1: I didn't play that, but like some of them were
were set the free mode, but you just like tap
your cruise card. You can kind of see on like
one of on this cabinet here, Yeah, this is the
this one was out of service. But they have a
Guitar Hero Arcade cabinet, which I don't know if you
ever played Guitar Hero Arcade. It's really fun. It's actually
it's one of my favorite ways to play probably my favorite.
Speaker 3: Way to play Guitar here. Honestly, it's a really cool,
cool game. Is it?
Speaker 2: Is it any different than normally playing Guitar Hero, which
also involves just standing in front of a screen.
Speaker 1: It's head to head to head mode. Yeah, but there's
also it's just cool because you're in an arcade playing guitar.
Speaker 2: I guess if you play well, you could potentially have
a crowd gather and be like guitar hero.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I don't remember. I remember it has a
pretty extensive library.
Speaker 1: They also had a like, you know how back in
the day, there was like you'd have a lot of
arcades where it's like a ride that like moves you
around and stuff.
Speaker 2: Remember the old River raft ride. It was like a yeah,
together to use the orea.
Speaker 3: So they've got one of those. But for Ghostbusters.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, now we're okay, all right, I've never
seen that. I'm a big Ghostbusters fan. I need to
know more about that. That looks cool. Yeah, you got
a book of cruise. You gotta go, you know, I did.
We talked about his off air. But I went to
MegaCon the week not too long after you came to
Orlando so that you could get to your cruise, and
I dressed up as I had a Ghostbusters outfit.
Speaker 3: Girlride outfit before. Yeah, and we.
Speaker 2: Found a Ghostbuster section and I got to take a
picture inside of an authentic ECTO one which is cool
bucket list for me of like they have inter like
do you want to get in? And it's like, yes, yes, please.
So I marked out when I saw the Ghostbusters, Uh
whatever that game was, it looks cool. Did you play it?
Speaker 3: I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't play most of the games. I was just
walking around. I was like it was my day where
I was just walking around learning what the cruise ship
was like because I never been on one, and I
was like, oh, there's an ARCHI.
Speaker 3: They're supposed to be arcade. Let's go see that.
Speaker 2: So I'm just picking and going up the random people
and just asking boat questions just excuse me.
Speaker 3: Of yeah, keep on me star ward or whatever, star.
Speaker 2: Side, starboards.
Speaker 3: I'm talking to the captain.
Speaker 2: Yeahs moving right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It's like, yeah, this guy won't leave me alone. He's
like in a meeting and you're just tugging on his
shirt sleeve of like how many knots are per hour?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna have to bat down hatches soon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard that's a protocol. But yeah, that's the
Royal Caribbean Arcade. So so I do I do need?
I need your survey rating one out of ten what
would you what would you rate it?
Speaker 2: Ten?
Speaker 3: Be in the highest based on what you've seen today.
Speaker 4: Felt felt like an eight to me, felt like it
was like it's got got everything you would want there.
It didn't seem it wasn't crowded, so you could just
kind of play what you want, had a pretty good variety,
didn't seem I don't know that seemed.
Speaker 3: Only one arcade out of commission.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, which game was it?
Speaker 3: It was a Guitar Hero arcade.
Speaker 4: The guitar Okay, you know I have a bad one down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, at least the guitars are there. I feel like
in other places guitars been ripped out a long time ago. Yeah,
but you know, I don't know. I have a pretty
high bar for arcades. I don't think I can go
in eight. That Ghostbuster's cabinet is is very like that
bumps it up quite a bit. I'll give it like
a seven.
Speaker 3: To five, all right, Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1: I think I would go seven to five as well,
seven five or and eight, depending on you know, how
how I was feelings.
Speaker 2: That would have helped a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And they also didn't have hydro Thunder.
Speaker 2: Which is like a big another big one. Yeah, or
like a beat them up like a like an arcade,
beat them up with some sore. Yeah.
Speaker 3: They didn't have any beat ups that I saw, Like, no, you.
Speaker 1: Got to have like a street fighter or TECHNI I
didn't see any.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 4: Okay, well I was clearly I was filling in the
gaps in my assessment. I assume there was lots of
normal arcades if you didn't take pictures.
Speaker 3: Of like, yeah, they didn't have a ton of fighting
games there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: If I can't challenge I guess you had the Jurassic
Park one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean it's not in the Jurassic Park one
though different. But it's like, if I can't challenge a
like retired Grandpa and a cruise to Tech and three,
then what are we doing? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Uh well, Marcus, uh, let's get to a real video
game that you've been playing. Life is strange reunion you've
been getting that you've been playing that. I know you're
you're almost done with the review before we do get
into that. I'd be remiss if I didn't say, if
you're enjoying this show, get a copy of game and
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in my area. Now one more place that you can
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we got to open a new location.
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Speaker 4: An ad real quick. We did announce our new cover
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If you haven't subscribed yet, you can get one just
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exciting because.
Speaker 3: We're trying to bring back the demo disc days.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you get to play the game helf, so
it's way better than a double dose, to be honest. Yeah.
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Speaker 4: Down to mail.
Speaker 1: But anyways, life is strange, Marcus. You've been playing what's
the setup for this? Or are Max and clothes this
like Max and Chloe are back?
Speaker 3: What's the kind of the reunion thing?
Speaker 1: I don't I haven't really kept up with with the game,
but the reunion tells me, tells me things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I finished this game. As you said, this
is the return of really Chloe because Max returned in
the previous game, Double Exposure. But yes, this is the
The big selling point is that Chloe, who was you
know in the first Life is Strange as well, as
they had her own prequel story before the storm. Arguably
the most popular character in the Life is Strange franchise,
besides Max, and who has been gone for the last
decade due to just narrative reasons, She's back in this one.
And yeah, I'm going to preface this by saying that
overall I like the game. I feel like the things
I'm about to say we're going make it sound like
I'm more negative on it then maybe I actually am.
But I do have some, like some significant problems with
this game. So I'm a Life a Strange fan. I
like that first game. I you know, it's not perfect,
but I did like that first game, and I liked
the weight it ends, or at least the ending that
I chose. And I actually liked Double Exposure last year,
which I know some fans had took an issue with
in regards to some of the narrative stuff, especially towards
the second half it goes some like wild places, But honestly,
I was I was probably a little bit on more
on board than anything. And I think Double Exposure is
a great start because this game is a direct sequel
to that game. It takes place nine months later, and
because of that, this is probably or not even probably,
it is the least newcomer friendly, Like this is as
direct a sequel as it can be, to the point
where it almost feels like if this was a movie,
this game and Double Exposure would have been filmed at
the same time and then cut in half and then
just part like it just picks up right from there
and becau because of that, like they do do like
a cinematic kind of like previously a Life is Strange
like recap video that kind of highlights the pivotal moments
from Double Exposure. But it's one of those recaps that
I think is more helpful if you did play the
game and are a little fuzzy about things than if
you were coming to this completely fresh, and I think
a lot of people are, or at least if you're
a fan, you might be coming to this little fresh
because Chloe's back, but I would highly recommend playing Double
Exposure before this one, just because this game doesn't really
go out of its way to re establish the cast.
It's very like a lot of my interactions kind of
felt like I either succeeded or failed because I already
knew how characters behave because I spend so much time
with them in the last game. And in some cases,
you spend less time with some characters that were mainstays
in the other games. So it's like you even you know,
you're not getting a lot of like new introductions to
these people. However, it seems it feels like Deck nine
developer still tried to find a way to get newcomers
to like the same level of familiarity as fans, because
one of my big complaints with the story is that
right out the gate they retcon or like they essentially
wreck con a very big part of the ending in
the previous game of Double Exposure. Of Double Exposure, Yeah,
there's a interesting and I don't know how much we
want to talk about explicit spoilers for Double Exposure. I
don't know if either of you played it or not.
Speaker 1: No, I didn't, Okay, So the life is a Strange
series feels very hard to get into. For me, I
feel like there's like so many spin offs and games
like Life Is Strange, Life Is Strange too, Life is
Strange Before the Storm, Life is Strange. True colors, Life
Is Strange, Double Exposure, Exposure.
Speaker 4: And Reunion, to me are the first ones that I
do think are hard to get into because for the
most part they're all like kind of anthology or like
even the other.
Speaker 1: Colors will stand alone, right, Yeah, two I think is
Life is Strenge.
Speaker 2: Two is also standalone. It's really yeah. I thought about
that where I was like, oh, yeah, I had the
knee jerk, like most of the series is anthologized, but
then I really thought it was like, actually, that's not
true because there's six games total and four of them
involve Max and or Chloe.
Speaker 4: It was only it was a minute where they were
almost all unrelated, and then they were like, nah, we'll
just go back and just make let's bring games in
a row.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So yeah, because of that, like Before the Storm,
I mean, outside of a Chloe's mechanic from that game
making its return, it's kind of not required. I guess
reading will say for this game, I do think the
first game because and they did this with double exposure
to One of the first things they ask you is
what choice did you make at the end of the
first Life is strange because the way that game ends
sets up Chloe's fate and how they're going to bring
her back in this game. Because I don't know if
we want to get into decade old spoilers at this point,
but basically, the end of Life is strange. One you
make a choice that either decides whether or not Chloe's
alive or dead. And because if you chose like I
did back then, Chloe has been dead for a decade
in this series, and.
Speaker 3: So they have to try to kill her. That's cruel.
Speaker 2: You don't first, you don't know if you knew the
way that game, I don't go.
Speaker 3: I don't go here. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: If you knew the game way that game ends, I'm
I was shocked how many people went the other way,
because it's I went.
Speaker 4: I went the other way. I did go the other
way when I played it. Yeah, I don't know why.
I was just like, oh, I don't want to that's
a whole It's all about Chloe. Why would I ever
kill Chloe?
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I could kill everyone I know, my parents,
her parents, the town, everyone else can die, but.
Speaker 4: Even two of Like I think the maybe I don't
know if we can do this in the edit. Maybe
we should go in and put a spoiler warning or
proper before this of just what we were talking about.
Speaker 2: But we can do it as we're gonna. We're gonna
get into slight spoilers for life a strange one A
decade out long or decade old.
Speaker 1: I had that game, I had the interne that game
sploiled for me in twenty fifteen, like I have done,
and I never played it. So I feel like that's
like one of the most uh at least kept secrets
of video game endings.
Speaker 4: Sure, I think it's interesting. I also don't know the
context that when it's going up. I think also the
interesting thing is I believe that like the romance between
Max and Chloe isn't it's expressed when you sacrifice Chloe
and when you don't, then they just like run away together,
but they don't like kiss. Like I think that's like
a whole weird thing. I remember being like, obviously these
two people would love So I'm gonna save Chloe and
then they like they're like, we're gonna go in our
van and explore.
Speaker 2: So that was It's funny because one of the questions
and when the when Reunion begins, they kind of give
you the there's a few questions they ask about the
original life is strange and double exposure, Like here's like
five really big decisions that are going to determine the
game state at the beginning of Reunion. Yeah, like, so
what did you it's Chloe alive or dead? What did
you choose at the end of the first game. And
then the other one in regards to the first game
is were they just friends or were they more than friends?
And they actually showed us still of them kissing earlier
in the game. I don't think they were ever a
couple in my game. I actually had to stop and remember,
like I actually don't remember. I was like, I think
they were just friends in my game as far as
I know. So they feel like I remember if I
if I'd gotten them together, and I don't remember that.
So I made it so they were friends, but it
looked like it did happen before the ending garles.
Speaker 4: There, I guess there's it's a moment where I can't
remember what the thing is, but it's a very like
teenage movie thing where I can't remember what the context is,
but it's like, come on, let's be crazy, just kiss me.
Speaker 3: You you know, you even leve loose.
Speaker 4: You could choose to kiss her or not to kiss her,
and I think when you do kiss her, she's like, WHOA,
I didn't think you would do that. But it's not
like a it's not like it's like yeah, but there.
It's it's played off as like a joke or like
a one off thing, but it's very obvious that it's
like clearly Max, Max is very into it that moment,
he clearly has feelings for Chloe when you select that
option anyway.
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, But basically, so for people who are like
picking this game up, do they have like a suggested
if you didn't play those games that it's like suggested
Chloe's alive for Chloe's dead.
Speaker 2: No, it's very much they or like whatever you want.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, I was those games. You're just like, I
don't know, I guess she's dead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Play this game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I's going to be people that do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I don't know why you would play this game,
if you didn't have any connection to Max or Chloe, Like,
if this is your first life, is strange? That just
be weird.
Speaker 3: It's in a humble bundle, you know, yeah, very.
Speaker 2: Least yeah, yees. So, or if you were, like if
you were a fan of the first game and somehow
skipped Double Exposure and then skip right, I don't know,
if you just really want Chloe and we're like, well
that their Max game is cool, but there's no Chloe.
So I'm going to get into the walm with Chloe
and it's like, well, you should believe that would happen. Honestly, Yeah,
there's there's an exception for everything, I guess, right, But
all it has to say is that because of that,
there's a big thing that happens at the end of
Double Exposure, which I'm going to try to talk around
it as best I can because that game is still
relatively new and I just told people they should play
Double Exposure first before they get into this one.
Speaker 3: But okay, spoilers for this.
Speaker 2: There is a there is a a revelation at the
end of the last game that affects multiple characters and
how they perceive Max, and that is pretty much thrown
under the rug in this game and a very narratively
unsettle like it kind of commits the one of the
worst narrative sins of how do we undo something that
we established earlier in a story and what's the quickest
way to do it? And there's probably like two or
three things or tropes you guys are thinking of right now,
and I don't know if I want to say exactly which.
Speaker 3: One may make us. I'm messaging you on slack? Was
that right?
Speaker 2: No, it's not that, but it's not far off. It's
another one in the the Unholy Trinity?
Speaker 3: Okay? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Is it? Is it based on uh? Like, like, does
does a decision you make affect the way that these
characters perceive you? Or is this like one of these
like linear moments that always happens in double exposure?
Speaker 2: I don't remember how it if it was, if it's
always going to happen in double exposure, or if it's
only because of what I decide. I can't remember, so
that could be a possibility. It only it makes it
seem like it was a like you were going to
be railroaded into it, because they really go out of
their way to undo it, you know, like like immedia like, yeah,
man can't believe such and such happened, and yeah, that's
why people aren't acting the way you want. But as
a fan, that was really like, Oh, that has a
lot of like major story implication. I can't wait to
see how they follow it up. And then the characters
are more or less reset to their state as they
were before the end of Double Exposure. That's kind of
a letdown because then you don't really see them evolve
past where the end of Double Exposure is, and you're
kind of getting more of what they were maybe like
in the middle of Double Exposure. So that's like disappointing.
So this game because Chloe is back, which I will
say because one of my biggest fears coming into this
was like, one, is it even gonna make sense the
way did they bring her back? And two is it
going to feel like she's kind of shoehorned into this?
Like is this like a breaking case of emergency get
Chloe back in here, because I don't know, keep interest
in the series alive. And I'm happy to say that
for me, it doesn't really feel like that. I think
the story justifies her presence both logically in terms of
just the rules of the world and also playing off
Max's actions in the last game, because in the last game,
she had the ability to travel between two different realities
trying to solve a murder mystery, and in one reality
her friend that gets murdered is dead and the other
one she's alive. So there's like two different sets of
the same character that you're interacting. Dratic game, and so
it's like it feeds into like sort of like the
multiverse stuff and actually finds a like natural way to
weave in both endings of the original life is strange
and combine them in one of like either outcome is
valid now because now we have opened the can of worms.
That is a multiverse.
Speaker 4: Uh gotcha.
Speaker 2: I think they do it as clean as you can
with you know, anything regarding a multiverse. And I think
thematically her presence makes shit sense because it's a lot
of like some of the most interesting conversation to game
are her and Sofie, who is one of the primary
characters in the first game, because they're they're in similar boats. Again,
I won't go too far into like why they are,
but they're they're kind of like they're in the same
boat of like supernatural existential crises, and like the moments
where they're like their fates are kind of like threaded
together because of that, and I think also even just
their upbringings, they have a lot of like similar stuff
that the game gets into that I think, like the
conversations those two have are like fascinating, and it's like
seeing that and also seeing Chloe interact with the new
cast is very fun, like seeing your interact with Moses,
who is like Alex's new best friend from that was
introduced in Double Exposure, and some of the other characters.
It's very much the feeling of like when you meet
like you bring like your childhood friend to meet like
your current friends kind of a thing, and you're like,
I don't know where this is gonna go. I don't know,
like I love them BO, but already gonna get along,
especially Chloe, because like you know, this is a Chloe
that's older and wiser, but she's still Chloe, so there's
a little volatile. It's like, oh, I was always interested
to see how she would behave around others, and I
think there's a few moments that are pretty fun, especially
to stuff with her and Moses. I think Chloe in general,
Like I really like her character this game because this
is Chloe now that as far as she knows, she's
never died. So this is more like, if you chose
the ending where she lives, this is the Chloe that,
as far as you know, this is your Chloe. Like
she has gotten to grow up. She's ten years older now,
like she's like pushing thirty, if not thirty years old.
She's had life experiences, she's matured, and she's kind of
she softened in a way that age does to you.
But she still has some of that rebelliousness that made
Chloe Chloe, but it's less. This is a little less
cringe than it was in the first game, because I
was some ofelar to like critician in the first game
of like, she's maybe a little too like Bart Simpsony
at times in a way that I don't know doesn't
always feel like not always maybe like a well written
like teenage drama, Like this feels like an adult trying
to come up with like a rebellious teen than like
someone that was a rebellious teen writing a rebellious teen.
Sometimes I think this feels closer to like she's an
adult that used to be that person and still has
some of that in there, but is now kind of
like become a lot more self reflective about her past
behavior and also like her feelings with Max and like
the broader. Like the broader story surprisingly isn't so much
Chloe dealing with her her sort of like wait, I
was supposed to be dead, but I'm not. What's happening
here and it's more about this this fire that they're
trying to prevent. So, like, you know, each one of
these games has like a big mystery you're trying to
solve this one. Max gets a vision early on where
oh my god, the school Calidoon, It's on fire and
everyone dies and I have one weekend to prevent that
from happening. So you have to go around and investigate
people and grill some of the students and faculty to
find out like who's going to be the one that
starts as fire and why where does it come from?
And Chloe helps you along with that. I think that
story or that mystery is a bit convoluted in a
way that kind of feels like, well, we need to
keep people guessing, So what if it was this and
this and this and to the point where I would
always have to There were times right at the stop
and go like wait, wait, wait, so what where are
we at right now? Like I need to review our notes,
Like I feel like the mystery gets a bit messy,
like it it kind of gets there at the end,
but the road there I was. I feel like I'd
play enough like detective games to where I feel like
the best detective games keep you in the dark, but
you're always still. You feel like you have a grasp
on like the evidence and where leads could go exactly,
and I feel like they they lost me a few
times here. And there's even points where because this game
you're going around, you know, collecting clues or investigating things.
You can inspect objects, which I couldn't remember if you
could do that in double exposure, but you can kind
of like Resident Evil style like rotate and then sometimes
if you rotate something you might like, oh, I didn't
see this little detail here, and you can miss you
can miss evidence, and you can miss items that can
lead to situations playing out differently than they whatever if
you add found them, which I appreciate. But then other
times there's evidence that the story just kind of gives
you that winds up being really important where I was like, like,
there's one moment until towards the end that really threw
me for a loop where you're kind of in your all, right,
here's everything we have. Let's put our heads together and
really start locking in who did this because we can't
once you choose, like once you're gonna about to make
an accusation, you cannot go back on it. Uh. And
then there was one there was like a couple of
piece of evidence where I was like, I don't remember
finding this, and then there's one that winds up being
incredibly crucial involving a character that they kind of treat
as if yeah, you knew this right, And I was like,
I don't remember reading this at all. I feel like
I would it because this is like pretty big, and
then it winds up being really important, and it was
kind of like, oh, I wish I wish i'd find that.
I think maybe the contextualize those like oh, no, Moses
found this, and it's like, can you find like something
less useful, like like yeah, like I feel like I
didn't really I gotta get just got lucky, like oh,
it was already here, you know, through no effort of
my own. And you're doing this as Max and Chloe.
You're splitting time between two of them. Max has her
time rewind powers from the first game, so she has
lost the reality shifting power she had in Double Exposure,
which I actually missed because the time rewind stuff in
the first game was never really that deep. It was
very much it was kind of like trial and error
of like, oh, I said the wrong thing to someone,
better rewind and then you just pick the right answer,
and then that's how you move on. And that's pretty
much the case in this game. Like there's multiple conversations
where it just goes sideways, either because you think you're
gonna say the right thing and then that person reacts
in the way you did not expect. But then Max
is like, Okay, I know that they're apparently in a mood,
so I'm gonna tailor my conversations to not set them off.
So then you just rewind and then and there's some
cases we have to rewind multiple times until you find
sort of the one correct thing.
Speaker 4: They'll be like, they'll be like, what are you my dad?
I hate my dad, And you'll go back to the
beginning of the conversation. You're like, so Dad's am I right?
Speaker 2: That's exactly how it goes, Charles. That is one thousand
percent how it goes, like, oh he said something I
can use, you know, like, oh man empathy? Am I right?
So yeah, So that stuff is just less interesting than
Double Exposure, which had the like, oh, you're splitting, you're
jumping between realities and you have to solve puzzles of
like you got to move one thing in one reality
and then it affects the other reality and like an
interesting way, Like I actually thought that was like really engaging,
kind of like puzzle design in a first game. There's
none of that here, and I just don't think the Yeah.
And also I don't know if they unless I'm forgetting.
I don't even know if there's a narrative reason for
why she lost her powers, like there's a big moment
that happens to be in the last game that kind
of like the culmination of her powers. I don't remember
if they they might have, and I'd just forgotten like
expressed like what, so why can't Max just do both now?
Like because in the first game or I guess the
last game, she didn't have her time powers because they
had evolved into the reality stuff and now they've gone
back to just the time stuff. And yeah, this might
be on me. I might just have missed or forgotten
the line of dialogue that explained it away. But yeah,
it's just mechanically less interesting. Chloe has the back talking
thing that she had and before the storm, which is
basically like thing. That's what they call it. It's a
backtalk mechanic thing.
Speaker 4: And that's like the combat sort of.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, it's a debate just talking back to
your superiors.
Speaker 2: It's basically a debate battle more or less, where you
get in certain conversations and usually it's like, Okay, I
need to get this guy to listen to me or
to do something I need them to do. So I
have to you know, we're gonna have a verbal joust.
And then I got to really say some I got
to pick the responses that are really gonna sweat a
conversation my way, whether there's some zingers based on information
I know about this person, like oh, I know this
guy has daddy issues, so I'm gonna mention daddy issues
and that'll that'll really like put some chinks in the
armor or I found a piece of evidence earlier that
I can cite and like contradict whatever they're trying to say.
But it's really just like you pick two or three
correct responses in a row and then you win, and
then they tell you what you want. I was not
super big on it and before the Storm, and I'm
still not really that big on it now, Like I
just think it's it's okay, but it's just not that interesting.
And there's also not a ton of them, surprisingly, like
there's only a handful of them in this game, which
is surprising. I think about how much time you spend
as Chloe, which is probably like a good fifty to
fifty split between Max and Chloe.
Speaker 4: Can I ask, then, Marcus, what you've prefaced it by
being like, it's gonna sound like I don't like this game,
but I had a good time, and it has been
mostly stuff you don't like. Is there what does the
game do well for you?
Speaker 2: I think like the performances are great, especially Max Chloe,
and like most like the core cast, they're all great,
which is not surprising. I think the soundtrack is strong,
which is another thing that these series has always had
kind of up its sleep. I do think there are
some really good, like emotional moments like this, Like pretty
much anytime Max and cl excuse me, Max and Chloe
are sharing a scene together, it's magical, like I kind
of relished a moment or like Okay, they're alone, we're
taking a break from the plot, and they're having like
some real conversations about one all my again in my
game where Chloe's dead, Like I have lived this life
where I have kind of moved on free me you
but not really and now you're back and I'm like
terrified of losing you again. And also like there's in
a theme of like inevitability around you know, Max has
tried so hard to bend reality to her whim in
order to save others. But it's also like, you know,
there's no free rides with that of like if you
fix one thing, that's at break five other things, and
are you even and how much of a burden that
would be of like if you have the ability to
redo everything, is that more of a curse than anything?
Then you're almost trying to like min max your life
and that's not fun. And maybe you just need to
learn how to let things go and maybe things are
just going to happen no matter what, even if it's
like a variation of that thing, And what do you
do then when you've just kind of lived your life
almost like untraining yourself to let fate be random. Like
I think there's some interesting conversations there, especially in regards
to Chloe, and then Chloe's sort of like like her
view on reality knowing that I'm like a lie, but
also I'm supposed to be dead in other versions of me,
and what does that even mean for me as a
character that already kind of had a very somewhat nihilistic
view in the world, especially when she was younger. And
then yeah, and kind of have living a life being
dealt to bad hand and then kind of when you
find out that maybe it's not bad lucky, you're just
pretty destined, Like this is just how things are supposed
to play out for you, and whether or not you
accept that or not, Like when it gets into that stuff,
and then when again it's just the life heavy stuff
and just like, hey, do we like each other? Like
where are we at? Are we are we just friends?
Or what? I like that stuff and like that stuff
can be so good that it kind of makes me
forget the the other like narrative hiccups with like the
I guess the main plot with the fire mystery, and.
Speaker 4: I do get it of like, it's like the series
is kind of like it has strengths other than this,
but it's primary draw for me has always been sort
of the vibe, Like it's just a game that like
you enjoy existing in the vibe of and the relationship
between the characters and I it sounds like that continues
to work for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I like the vibes of these games too.
I like these characters like this new these new characters
that they've introduced since Double Exposure, like the students, I guess,
and some of the teachers, like most of them come
back here. So it's like, oh, it's cool getting hang
out with you again. I wish you still were what
I thought you were going to be at the end
of the last game, but you know, it's still I guess,
kind of fun to talk to Loretta. They're like s
new be podcast girl or who you know Vin or whatnot.
But yeah, I and you know, going back to the
sort of the like it feels like these were the
same game cut in half. You are largely still exploring
that school from the first game, which is a little
disappointing in terms of like you're not there's a couple
of new spots you go to, but you are like
running around at camps again. You're going to the snapping
turtle bar again, so if you want it, like on
playing the location, it's like, oh, it's this again. You know,
there's some you're just kind of seeing the passage of
time of like oh, Okay, here's a poster I wasn't
here before, or something referencing what's happened in nine months
between this, but it's this again. So yeah, I'm still,
like I said, I'm still forming my final opinion, like
it's you're not wrong in charge that it does feel
like And I've written down stuff like is there more
that I dislike than I do like? And is the
things I do like like weaker than the things that
I have problems with? I'm still forming that conclusion in
my head right now. By at the time this airs,
my written review will probably be live on the site
so you can read my full thoughts. But right now
I'm kind of sitting at like the things I cared
about are most worried about, of like, are they gonna
botch the Chloe stuff. I think they pull that off,
and maybe that's why I feel higher on this game
than it sounds like. Is like, the one thing I
was nervous about they didn't screw up is just some
of the other stuff around it, and maybe suffers because
of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah okay, yeah, well cool, but yeah, well that is
life is strange Reunion. Thanks for getting into that, Marcus.
Speaker 1: Before we take our break, I do want to talk
about a game that I have been enjoying for all
of twenty four hours. I downloaded it yesterday, but I
have since sunk about four hours into it. It's called
rack Coin Coin Pusher roguelike. Are either of you familiar
with this one?
Speaker 4: Now? Was this? Was this a game? Was this a
Captain in your crew Ship arcade room?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, So this is a This is definitely for
It's published by the same publisher as Bilatra, okay, and
it's very similar in taking something that is traditionally, you know,
associated with gambling and adding a bunch of modifiers and
chaotic elements to just make it larger than life and
and and just ridiculous. Right, So, if you've ever been
in an arcade or like a bar and they've got
like one of those. They have several of them, like
in Minneapolis. The popular one is called Bonus Hole, and
it's where you put the quarter in at the top.
Speaker 4: That's the name of the game Bonus Hole.
Speaker 2: Yeston podcast.
Speaker 1: Bux I Love you Guys, one of those games where
you put the quarter in the top and you have
to time it to where there's like a spinning arm
and when you put the quarter and it shoots it
out and you're slowly trying to push there's like a
an upper platform of quarters that are that's going back
and forth against the back wall the machine, and you
want to put your quarters in the sides to try
to get the coins in a spot where they'll be
pushed off onto the bottom platform and you're slowly at
the very front of the machine is like a pit
and the quarters are slowly being pushed off and whenever
they get pushed off, you get the quarter.
Speaker 3: So it's a quarter machine coin pusher. Yeah, can I.
Speaker 2: Does in the real life version of this? Does anyone
genuinely like this game? Oh do you love push?
Speaker 1: My last birthday, I spent a kid, you not, probably
ninety minutes with my friends in front of one of
these things, and I was having the time of my life.
I only let myself do it like once a year
because it's like the most lizard brain.
Speaker 3: Activity you can do.
Speaker 1: But my friends were like, okay, it's your birthday, and
they were like going to the eight, going to the
ATM machine and like getting out another ten dollars out
for me and bringing me quarters back.
Speaker 3: And I was just sitting there halving the time of
my life.
Speaker 2: It just always seemed like, on one hand, it seemed
like the easiest, I guess, gambling game to win, but
it's also maybe the most boring to where it's like
it's so boring that I don't even care now I
think maybe deceptively easy. It looks the way I just
can never bring my.
Speaker 3: There is skill.
Speaker 1: There is a skill involved, because you're right, there are
deceptive ones and you have to be able to look
at the field and read the game, you know what
I mean, And there no where to put your quarters.
Speaker 4: Do the ones you go to do they have like
sometimes they'll like stack up a tower of quarters in there,
or sometimes they'll just be sitting in it.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's in this game. The coin tower. The ones
I go to are not like that. They don't have those,
but I have in my past, I have seen those.
Speaker 4: The nice part about when there's the coin tower is
in theory you will eventually win. It's unclear weather you'll
break even with the amount of quarters that you go
into it. But it is a kind of nice form
of gambling where at some point you, by the laws
of physics, they got you. That tower has to fall over.
Speaker 3: Yes, something about an analog gambling.
Speaker 2: Machine, you know what I mean? You know the ones.
Speaker 1: You know you see you see the game in front
of you. The stats can't be changed with like computer stuff.
Like it's an honest it's honest, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It's old fashion cheating.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like you look at them, you're like, Okay, clearly
I can see the evidence of all the people before
me and all the wins that they put.
Speaker 3: In the machine and didn't get out. But it's gonna
be different for me. I can respect that kind of.
Speaker 4: That's like going into like the like cyclops Is Layer
and seeing the dead bodies of all the adventures that
came before you, and it's like, I but I will prevail.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like a guy who loves to collect bones and.
Speaker 2: You're like, yes, do you feel like, as someone that
I guess is an avid enjoyer of this game, do
you feel like any of your skills have transferred over
into like how this game's logic works.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it is physics based, and I feel like
the strategies I think apply, I think and this one.
I do think this is a little more unwieldy and
harder to grasp at the start than maybe Bilatro is.
I just think that there's something about poker that is
I think Bilatra is a little more straightforward and simple
at the start when you're first learning it, whereas this
has like several different systems at play. You've got you know,
a spin wheel, You've got clips for like trinkets on
the side of that cabinet that alter those kind of
actor as you're bolotro jokers, right, So it's like your
score equals value of coin times score rate, which like
there's some of that stuff.
Speaker 3: You're like, what does that mean? I don't get it,
But once you just play a few a few games,
then you'll kind of start to get it.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, I really like this, uh this map
trinket because whenever I score a coin on the left, middle,
or right side. It changes based on the round sounds
that people will play. Bilotro will be like, oh, that
sounds like some cards from that game where it's like, uh,
you know if you play if you play red cards
this turn, you're gonna get bonus modifier, right, similar thing
but with positioning in this game.
Speaker 3: And then there's others that are like.
Speaker 1: That play more onto uh. There's different characters in the
game that you play as, So you can play as
like a raccoon guy who is very much all of
his special coins because everyone's playing with quarters gold coins
in the machine. But every character has their own suite of.
Speaker 3: Special coins.
Speaker 1: Think of it almost like a one of the characters
and slay the spire, right. Everyone has like their common
cards that everyone can kind of get, and everyone's kind
of playing the same rules, but everyone's unique decks are
a little different.
Speaker 3: Right uh.
Speaker 1: And the more that you play, the more you unlock
more of those special cards for that character. Very similar
concept with rat Cooin. I was playing one character last night.
It was probably the most unwieldy of the bunch, but
their special coins that were all about animals, and like, uh,
you would summon like bunny rabbit coins, and if you
summon multiple bunny rabbit coins, they will like be drawn
to each other. They'll hop to each other, and they'll
multiply and they''ll spawn more little babies.
Speaker 3: Baby.
Speaker 2: Is there is there any kind of like game master
character like Bilacho has the Joker guy? Is there anything
like is there a raccoon?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the raccoon. There's like the owner of the shop.
And he is very much like that character to laugh
at you. Uh, you know, he's not in the way
that the Joker does, but he does have like he's
got some personality right it gets the job done.
Speaker 2: Does he want you to succeed? I guess like is
he relishing in your defeat?
Speaker 1: I don't know if I know enough about him yet.
He's very strict. He's like, you're out of coins, but
he will let you. He'll often let you shake the
cabinet once before you before it ends. You get one
cabinet shake at the very end, and that that has
that has saved me on a couple of rounds. That
is also offensive, Charles, I, because just because you're right,
I do I Actually the alarm went off on my
birthday because my friends were getting a little too rowdy
and we started shaking the machine. Was like monkey's like
a munch of monkeys.
Speaker 3: Trying to get the banana.
Speaker 4: I just just the way that you've described liking this machine.
I can just be like, God, if I could just
shake this stupid thing.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, So in real life there are are alarms
on it, and the alarms will go off.
Speaker 3: Which happened on my birthday. But you know, you get
to usually get one grace, one grace alarm grace.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like you spent You've given us fifty dollars in
these machines, so you get one shake.
Speaker 3: And then Yeah, that's kind of the vibe of this
game too.
Speaker 4: You use the word unwieldy a few times. Would you
say it's like it feels bad? Or is it just
hard to grasp? Is it hard hard, hard to grasp?
Speaker 3: It always feels good, let me tell you, Trus, Even
if you don't know what's happening, there's this.
Speaker 4: Game to you. I don't like the way that you
like this game.
Speaker 1: I was playing it while Kayle and Caayla and I
were watching a near reality TV show last night hosted
by Gabby Wendy Shout Out to love overboard and I
had this plane on my laptop and she's like, thank
god that that that is a virtual game, and like
that is like a video game and not a real thing, because.
Speaker 3: I don't, like I don't. I'm glad that we essentially
have this version for you to play, never play the
real thing like this. And I was like, of course,
of course, I know my limits.
Speaker 4: In a very affectionate way. I love like playing this
game with reality TV on the TV is a very
like lizard Brain evening.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that was awesome.
Speaker 4: Let's just get messy and gamble, you know, yeah evening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yeah, I'm really enjoying it. I think like
the characters ad I was kind of talking about the
rat the coins. The biologist has like rabbit coins that
can spawn, and then you can summon wolf coins to
hunt the rabbit coins, and then you have modifier. You
have a stomach coin that you can play where every
every three hunts that you complete, you spawn a new
like an that the wolf can hunt or you know,
when the wolf uh you know kills or successfully hunts,
it creates a poop coin, and then you can add
a fertilizer coin to get rid of the poop coins
and it takes the value of that coin and multiplies it.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of that kind of.
Speaker 1: Stuff in this game, and a lot of wheel spins,
a lot of bonus coins that get dropped. There's a
lot of fun systems that I think if you know,
Balatrow was my game of the year in what twenty
twenty four, and you know, if if you like that game,
like if you're one of the Bilatrasikos, you're there, You're
gonna find something to like about this game. I think
the format is different, but the chaos and the you know,
the strategy.
Speaker 3: Really there's a lot of strategy at play as well.
Speaker 1: And while there are you know, roguelikes inherently have like
an element of to them, there is you do have
to have like a you develop a game sense to
really you know, that's required to beat a run and
I've beaten two runs so far. And whether you get
you get like new skins for your arcade cabinet, and
eventually I think you can like modify your cabinet and
add like special effects where like if a coin goes
down this ramp on the back platform, it's icy and
it's gonna slide a little you know, there's there's modifiers
like that at play, and you can also place gadgets
on the board, so you know, you can place like
little sort of like Tesla coils. They kind of like
look like Tesla coils coils, and every three you can
like there's a buy and sell system and there's like
a shop in between rounds, and it's like every three
items that you sell, the Tesla coil is going to
summon like a UFO and it'll either spit out more
coins or absorb coins for you and score them where
they're at. Or you can lay down a fishbone to
like block off part of the part of the board
and like are part of the cabinet and make the
coins push, you know, around it. It's it's really interesting.
It's a lot of fun. And I think I know
I gave you guys codes before we before we started
the podcast. I think you guys should really play it.
I think I think you'll enjoy it.
Speaker 3: It is verified as well, so this I.
Speaker 2: Ever enjoyed these kind of games, the coin pushers. This
will redeem it for all the.
Speaker 1: Other And then you kind of visit Minneapolis soon and
I'll take you out for the real thing. Yeah, to
the bonus al There are two Bonus Holl locations that
I know of in Minneapolis. Bus Yeah, and I bet
we can convince Dan Raicher to go out with us too.
I know he's a bonus Hole connoisseur.
Speaker 2: He told me about that.
Speaker 4: That makes perfect sense to me. I know I can't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3: Uh well cool, Well let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: We're gonna come back. We're gonna talk about a new
daily puzzle game that Charles was in playing. We're gonna
talk Damon and Baby, and then we'll close the show
out with conversation about the early hours of Super Meat
Boy three D. We'll be right back right after this,
Welcome back to the Game Informer show. Charles tell us
about parse word. I know this is a new he said,
this is from the guy behind Wordle. And is it
part of the New York Times stable of games or
is it separate?
Speaker 2: Is it part of the New York multiverse separate?
Speaker 4: I no, it's a I can't think of a good example.
So Josh Josh Wardle is the guy that created Wordle.
The name of the games a pun on his last names,
just Wardle with words so that's what it's called Wordle.
He sold Wordle to the New York Times, but he
is a separate game developer, so he parse word is
separate from the New York Times stable of games. Maybe
one day he'll sell it also for bigure deal or whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and did.
Speaker 2: He also make this game for his wife who was bored?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't think so. I think he's got more collaborators
on this one, and I think he's gotten more into
like I don't know, Yeah, I don't think so, as
far as I know.
Speaker 2: Okay, for as I don't know, he made Wordle or
originally the story was that he made Wordle to entertain
his wife, and then it just kind of blew up
from there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, super up, which I think.
Speaker 2: Is way to get rich being sweet to your wife. Yeah.
Speaker 4: There are some people that I think rightfully were like
mad when he sold it to New York Times because
they're like, it was a fun indie thing. It was
just for them. It was free, and then now it's
still free for the New York Times, but like there's
bonus stuff you can get for subscribing, and like just
taking it from a free independent thing to a corporate thing.
On one hand, I totally understand that. On the other hand,
like the like, I don't know, it's a it's a
great deal for him theoretically, like he made a lot
of money off of it, and I I that to me,
the happy ending of that story is I made a
game for my wife and then I made like a
million dollars from selling it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now, or especially if he didn't want to like
manage it like I didn't. I didn't sure was not.
I didn't get into this to manage a giant like thing.
Yeah yeah, so take it off hand, give me the money.
Speaker 4: Anyways, So I've I have been playing a lot of
different kind of daily word games, which is just kind
of a staple of the internet now of like just
every day there's a new little puzzle And one of
the ones I've been into is Minute Cryptic and it
has these cryptic clues. And the way that these work
is it's a sentence that's written out and it seems
just like a normal sentence, but then you realize that
the different words are telling you to do other things
to them. So, for example, if if a game it
had something like uh head scrambled or something, the word
scrambled implies to you that you're gonna take one of
the words around it and mix the letters up, and
the final answer is going to be something like that,
where there's all these words that kind of indicate what
you're supposed to do to the other words in the sentence,
and then some of the words in there are going
to be the definition of the clue.
Speaker 3: Cool.
Speaker 4: So if it said, for example, uh, scrambled lemon head,
this is not that's not that's all I'll come here
a sentence, but it would be scrambled lemon head, you
would know that the word scrambled means you're supposed to
change the letters of a word next to it. If
you scramble the letters of the word lemon, it means melon,
and melon's another word for head. That's like the structure
of these You have a word that says what you're
supposed to do. You have a word that has letters
you're going to mix around, and they have a word
that's a definition and it's usually frame and it's they
can get really crazy, really complicated depending on how it goes.
Parse Word is a new daily game where it takes
that concept and instead of it just being like you
look at the words and you figure it out, you
piece it together. Each word exists as a little box
you can click on and you can drag them to
nearby words to see how they'll affect different things. And
so it's a really way of like. It makes it
very accessible. It makes it a little bit more gamified,
and you can set it to like easier heart or whatever.
And I have just been playing it every day. I
think it's really cool. It's definitely way less accessible than wordle.
Like I think you could play wordle as like a
nine year old as long as you have a grasp
of like the English language and what letters go where.
This one is definitely a little bit more challenging. So
I'm just gonna walk you guys through today's puzzle real quick,
just as an example.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it.
Speaker 4: Is wanting thirty divided by six at first, wanting thirty
divided by six at first. Now I've already said this.
Speaker 3: We're gonna be dividing something into two.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I happen to know. And if I click
on the word divided, it has a orange line under it.
When you click on a word with an orange line,
that implies that it can do another thing. In this case,
wanting thirty divided by six at first. If I drag
six at first together, the first letter of six is S,
so six at first simplifies to S. So now our
clue is wanting thirty divided by S thirty. The word
thirty divided by S, meaning S is a letter that's
going to divide the word thirty in two means we're
going to put the S into the word thirty, which
makes the word thirsty, which is another word for wanting.
Speaker 2: Well, verbalize like the steps to solve one of these,
It sounds like you're giving an algebra lesson.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I get it. I totally get it. The
nice thing about this I already already did this clue,
So that's part of the reason I was walking through
it so quickly. But it's a thing that if I
was just looking at that, you'd have to put all
the piece together. Yeah, this one, you can drag six
at first as a phrase together and they'll be like, well,
that could mean this. It also could mean something else,
like if I open up, let me do it in
an incognito.
Speaker 2: We got to solve for X.
Speaker 4: If I do six at first, it says either at first,
so the first letter of six s, or.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to record this this this screen by
the way, for the podcast, the video version, So.
Speaker 4: You want to do it again just to have Yeah,
I'll just pull it up. Yeah yeah. The word at
also might might be like we're combining these two words
that are next to each other. So the options are
six at first is either the letter S or six
first as a word, And sometimes you got to go
through a lot of those projs. Anyways, it is hard
to verbalize, yeah, which is why I'm glad that there's
a video comodient in the podcast. But I find it
really fun. It's a more accessible way to do it,
and it's also kind of a gateway into other cryptic
stuff if you're into into that. They're cryptic crosswords, where
like every clue of the crossword is one of these
like super obscure things. Minute cryptic is like one level
more difficult than parse word, where you can get hints,
but it's not like a dragon drop type thing. The
one that I've been doing lately is pokey cryptic. Let
me make sure I got that, uh right, yeah, pokey cryptic,
which is, uh, it's these cryptic clues except the answers
are all Pokemon or Pokemon moves or.
Speaker 2: Bill On's Oh man, I would fail that.
Speaker 4: So this one is I avoided permanent marker initially drawing
or neatly or neatly detailed fish for never mind, I'm
not gonna explain it.
Speaker 3: The answer is shark.
Speaker 4: It's great. It's fun. So I think if you're if
you're interested, like a quick little word game, quick browser game,
they're free, they're available once every day and parse word.
That's good.
Speaker 2: Do you get the sense like, is it taking off
in a similar way that wordle bit or is this
a little bit more like under the radar?
Speaker 4: I thought I heard about this through like it was
a Polygon headline. Maybe, like I have not seen anyone
talking about this game. It has only been through my
normal video game news channels. So I do not think
it is taking off it a significant way. But I
also don't think it's intended to. Like there's very much
a community of this sort of like ward based puzzle?
Does it type deal?
Speaker 2: Does it let you post your your answer it like
you could word? But like, hey I did it? Look
everyone I saw it.
Speaker 4: You can there's a yeah, I can copy my results
and it has the number of partsword it is, it
gives your time, and then it's, uh, I got a
perfect on this. I don't know what that means if
I just didn't click on the wrong clue and it happened.
But and then also as the mode that you're in,
so you can set it to easier or harder, just
depending on how you're feeling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, make sure you post that you got a perfect.
Speaker 4: I should. And also this is this is parsword today
the day recording April second, Parswords sixty four. So there've
only been sixty four of these clues so far. It's
relatively new. I'm sure it will be that's more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you prefer to have these in the browser
or do you do you like having them as like apps.
Speaker 2: Like on your phone, played on your phone.
Speaker 4: I have a tab group on my Safari on my phone,
so I just have a tab group that's just daily games,
and I can just kind of cycle through all of
them really quickly. If it was like a New York
Times app, like, I think that would be fine if
that's where all the games are. But in this case,
because it's so many games from different sources, I don't
mind them in browser because they're all in the browser
app on the phone. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, cool.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm always fascinated when a new daily game comes
up and.
Speaker 3: I think, I think it's really fun.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that there's one that kind of getting your attention.
I pulled it up in a tab on my browser
to to check out.
Speaker 3: But well, cool, well Marcus, let's send it back over
to you.
Speaker 1: You've been playing Damon and Baby, which is what is
that a twin stick shooter? Yeah, of sorts. Yeah, yeah,
I remember the character design was very like striking and
kind of attention grabbing, and it's been on my list
to play.
Speaker 3: And is the game finally out?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it came out sometimes March some Yeah, in March
some point.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: This is a This is an ARC Systems joint too.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: You know, best known for probably their fighting games more
than anything. Yeah, Dragon Ball Fighters, the upcoming Marvel took on.
But yeah, this is them. I played this. Guilty Gear.
Guilty Gear and Blaze Blue are probably their biggest things. Nice,
but yeah, I played this during the Game Awards last year.
I took an appointment to go see the the pr
and play about an hour of it, and I liked it.
I like it was like just a fun just kind
of almost turn your brain off and just shoot things
and really like cartoony and almost Dyskaia esque kind of world.
And yeah, I've been playing. I've probably played about the
first ninety minutes or so of the full version. I'm
playing it on my switch, which I think is a
good call. So it's a really good handheld game. And
the ideas that you play a demon name I think
his name's Damon, and he is trying to become like
the the Overlord, Like there's a whole demon hierarchy that
he's trying to climb, and for reasons unknown, you have
been cursed to be bound to this human child who
don't I wouldn't say, like it's like a baby baby,
but I don't know. It's like between a baby and
a toddler. And I know that's a very there's like
a year difference, but maybe it's because this little girl
has a full head of hair. I'm like, I don't
think it's like an infant. It's a little close to
the baby walk. She she kind of just hangs out
in your back the entire time until there's times you
throw her and I have to remember like when you
throw her, does she stand on her feet or is
she just laying there? That's a good question.
Speaker 4: I gotta fire it back up my head. Like toddler
like to toddle, I think is to walk kind of funny.
So I think a toddler can walk. Is that that's
the distinction between the two. I think. I think that's true.
Speaker 3: A cryptogram.
Speaker 2: Toddler to walk. Yeah, I feel like a toddler should
be able to say like.
Speaker 4: Short tottering steps in the manner of a young child.
Speaker 2: I do associate like some degree of of like mobility,
and like you should be able to say like a
word or two. I think when you're a toddler. This kid,
as far as I've seen, is not talked. So maybe
it's just the baby that it's just got a very
luscious head of hair, like a dumb baby. Wow.
Speaker 4: I mean, I was shocked the whole time roasting the
baby like not pull its weight.
Speaker 3: Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's crazy. Listeners, is that this is the first time
he said that. I was shocked when he told that
to Wes when he had his child last year, And
I just didn't call it out because I thought we.
Speaker 4: Were babies eating cake with her hands.
Speaker 2: Westy, what a little idiot. Yeah, I believe it was
your exact quote. But so, yeah, you're this lumbering demon.
You got a cute human baby on your back, and
you guys are trying to find a way to or
at least he is trying to find a way to
remove himself of this curse, and you're navigating this world
that like it's a cool world setup because humanity exists
and it's set in like present day, and but everyone
like humans are very much aware of demons to the
point of not really being particularly interested or like affected
by their presence. Like the first time you go to
like a human area with this baby, everyone's just kind
of looking at you, like, what's that demon doing with
that child? That's weird and not wanting to talk to you.
But you know, you are such an inconvenience to them,
or like a minor inconvenience, I should say, which I
think is like a fun sort of premise. You hook
up with this angel who is part of this like
heavenly insurance agency that you file acclaim with to try
to get this kid off your back, literally, and so
she sticks around because she's like well, I got I
gotta hang out with you to help kind of like
fill out this claim that you're trying, like I need
to be a witness to this, And she's like very bubbly.
She she reminds me if you're a Deskuya fan, or
specifically the first guy, if you remember Flawn, the angel
character in that game, how bubbly she is. She reminds
me of that, and almost even visually kind of is
reminiscent of her, which I like. But yeah, you're exploring this.
It's like an isometric game. You are wielding a bunch
of different fire arms, so you have like a pistol,
machine gun, shotguns, and you are just twin stick shooting
your way across these levels, blasting all these demons. The
shooting feels fine, there is some jank to it, which
is one of my kind of like one of my
main complaints. My biggest one is that you can't like
so you have to manually reload and whatnot, but you
also have to manually like holster your weapon, which I
don't like.
Speaker 4: Because of how interesting.
Speaker 2: Fast paced this game is. It's weird that I like
the moment I stop shooting, he doesn't just automatically put
his gun away and just keep it moving because when
you do have your gun, you move slower than if
you would if you didn't. And so like, there'll be
times where I clear out a room and I'm ready
to go, but then I forget to put my gun away,
so he's like he kind of creeps forward in full
you know, aim mode, and you have to remember like wait,
oh right, what's the button to put the gun away?
And it sounds minor, but it actually is it feels
like it there's it makes the game kind of hitch
you a little bit, having to stop that or stop
and do that so often that I really wish I
wasn't there. And it's actually it's bothering me more and more,
uh as I keep playing through it.
Speaker 4: But is that is that a thing that bothers you?
Like in a like I'm someone that like when I'm
playing like Jedi Survivor, I like put my lightsaber away.
I press the button to put it away after every encounter?
Do you just let it go?
Speaker 3: It? Is that?
Speaker 2: Is that?
Speaker 4: Does that feel different than this context? Because it's yeah,
because of the movement hamper.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because in Jedi Survivor it doesn't affect your
movement whether you have the lightsaber on or off. So
if anything, I'm putting it away more for like immersing
reasons of like, oh yeah, if I was in this world,
it'd be really dangerous to have this ignited all the time.
He would put that away to not frighten the people
around him and so that he can do this wall
round a little more effectively, whereas in this game it's like, oh,
like I just want to like sprint through this corridor.
Oh white the guns out? What's the gun button again?
To put this away? It's like, why can't this just
disappear in it sown again? I know it. I know
it sounds as like minute as you're probably thinking like,
oh my god, that's it. It's like in practice, it's
more annoying than it sounds, I promise.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The the enemies themselves are pretty fun to fight. They
kind of fly out, you fly when kind of like
bullet hell almost like isometric Gallica patterns a bit, which
speaks to me as a big Galica fan, like they're
coming in like little like circles and like fan patterns,
and you're trying to like clear them out before they
reach you. The enemies themselves are pretty wacky and fun,
which I like too. There's just like weird demon designs.
It's like one guy that like just carries a giant
coffin on his back and he uses the coffin as
a shield, so you have to try to get behind him,
or these weird like on Charles. I don't know if
you played this game out or not, but Charles, they
kind of like miniature versions of the weird aliens from
Thousand Times Resist, the like the floating guys with the
rings over their whatever they call I forgot. They look
like menu versions of them, like a lot, and like
they can and their whole thing is that they only
go after the kid, so they'll try to like separate
the kid from you in almost like a Super Mario
Brothers or like Yoshi Island kind of way of like, oh,
don't let them escape with your baby. Uh. But yeah,
every time I see them, I just think of A
Thousand Times Resists, which is funny because they're so totally different.
These games.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm like that sounds horrifying. It's like, yeah, Alex,
did you play a Thousand Times Resist?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: But I I've watched a lot of media and read
a lot about it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, just just like impossibly large aliens that speak in
such a like they're they are so like I think
I love crafty and horror to me in a way
where I'm like my brain can't come round that, and
the idea of shrinking that down and being like I
want the baby.
Speaker 2: It's like and there's like there's like five of them
in a room. Yeah, but yeah, so like I like
the creature designs, I like the like the tone in
the humors. It's like very funny. I'm still making my
way through it. I'm gonna keep playing because I like it.
It's like a fun sort of like mindless. Just I'm
gonna lay down my switch and just blast through some
levels and and interact with these weirdos. I just wish
that the combat was a little bit tighter, but it's fine,
Like once you get into like enough of a rhythm
you can kind of ignore maybe a little some of
the jank there. But it's like a totally it's like
it feels like junk food and like a like a
mostly good way, like this is just video game junk food.
Like I'm blasting on these environments. A lot of things
are really destructible, so you get that satisfaction. You're also
collecting a lot of ingredients to do a lot of cooking,
which is like an unexpected mechanic where like, oh, I
gotta you gotta find recipes and you're picking it like enemies.
You're you're blasting the thousand times with this demons and
they dropped like loaves of bread, which is very funny,
and it's like, yeah, that's what I imagine came out
of those guys, and you're just like, I need this
bread to make a hamburger, so the hamburger heal me,
or it can give you other like stat buffs that
you can bring into a fight. You're also collecting like
like there's like light loot stuff in this game, or
like oh, you're finding different guns that have different weapon properties,
so it's like it's not necessarily this gun's better worse
than each other. It's more like do you want to
sacrifice power versus fire rate? And you know that just
comes down to more personal preference than anything, and then
managing Like I've been playing so much Pacopia that I
have to kind of like remind myself of not playing
Pucobia because the menus are similar where I like, I'll
fill out my inventory slots with all the items and
then I'll immediately hit the like sort button in Pocopia
to try to get all in order. It's like, oh no,
it doesn't work here, okay, just because I'm it's the
same thing. We're like, yeah, I'm carrying a bunch food
around like I'm doing Pacopia, but you know you can
hide in and chest and whatnot just to get rid
of it. There's like some platform and like you're getting
platforming abilities, though they're doled out really randomly in this
game in a way that it feels like they'd be
easy to miss. But I don't know the level design,
at least in the in the initial area, it's this
like almost like a labyrinth of like an overworld where
you're trying to get to the main story point, but
there's so many paths that you can seemly go down
pretty freely. From what I like, you know, like you
ever played games that are more open than you expect.
We were kind of like, oh, sooner or later, we're
gonna funnel me where I need to go, Like, surely
I can't go left, And it's like, oh, yes, I
can go left, and I'm going farther than I ever
thought it would be. Should I even be allowed to
go down here this early? Because what if I get
lost and I forget where I was supposed to go
and then I find like a traversal ability. It was like, wait,
this is important. Would Day have told me to go
down here? Surely if I had not done it myself?
And what I have thought to like be this thorough.
So it's I It's like the design feels a little
all over the place there, So I'm hoping that doesn't
persist throughout the rest of the game, unless there's maybe
a little bit of like if I re ran that
whole section, I could see maybe what the intent was of,
Like no, no, no, no. If I had gone down, if
I had kept going where I was going, it would
have pointed me back there eventually. I don't know. But again,
going back to the video game junk food thing, it
is good at doing that of like mostly shutting your
brain off and enjoying some of the humor and these
weird conversations and these these weird characters and this cute
baby and just shooting a bunch of weird looking demons
and I think that's all I need from it for now.
We'll see how it evolves. I keep playing deeper, but
for now having like a decent enough time with it.
Speaker 3: Nice. Uh yeah, I wanna, I wanna.
Speaker 1: I think, like the the big draw for me in
this is the environments look really fun. I like the
kind of art style everything has, like this sort of
faded dusty look to it, like arid kind of look
to it, almost like a Western a bit to me
when I.
Speaker 2: Like very it's got a cell shaded look kind of
like it almost gives me like PS three era vibes.
Like it almost feels like this maybe specifically like the Vita.
I don't know, the vet upsy. There is something like
this feels like this would have been like a PSP
cult classic. It's got it's such a specific vibe. But
there's That's what I keep thinking of.
Speaker 3: That's an excellent comparison. Uh.
Speaker 1: It very much looks like like this is like the
Vita game, you know what I mean? Like if you
were to rewind the clock back thirteen years, that's a
great point of comparison.
Speaker 2: I would have been talking about this game alongside Genda
Arc and like man, no one talks about these really
goods games.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, one's talking about a skate plan, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 4: This the cell shadedness kind of adds to that too
in a way of like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I like the like the isometric camera like
adds to it as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's going to.
Speaker 4: Really be readable and like a small screen.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: I'm excited to play it.
Speaker 1: I did get a code for Switch, so I'm looking
forward to checking it out at some point once, once
I'm off the Po Copia wagon, I think I'll check
that out.
Speaker 2: Alex, you will never be off the Po Copia wagon
because you can always build more wagons. I know.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm like sixty hours in and I've beaten the game,
and I still am putting a few hours in every day.
But yeah, I speaking of another game. Closing out the
show with this game, but a game that you know,
I have complicated feelings on. You know, It's like there
are parts of it like really kind of scratching a niche,
and then there are other parts where you kind of
just turn your brain off. Super meat Boy three D
is out. I have played about three hours of it.
I first starters. I love three D platformers, especially challenging
ones as a precision platformer in the same vein of
the original where if you get hit or if you
hit you know, an obstacle, you die in one shot
and you have to restart the level, and similarly to
the first game, or I guess there's multiple games, but
the I guess similar to the series. It's got like
that end of level screen where it shows all of
your attempts via you know, the meat boys running and
getting killed, and it's always.
Speaker 2: Which actually looks cooler in three D, maybe because this
technically impressive to see a bunch of three D models
all just un routes.
Speaker 1: I think the game looks really good. It's got a
really good art direction. I think the the lighting and
like the more it's a stylized look, but they've crammed
a lot of detail into it in a way.
Speaker 2: The boys style. But yeah, which.
Speaker 1: They got really great lighting artists working on this thing.
I mean, in the best ways. I think three D
art three D platformers, excuse me. One of the big
draws for me always is like that, what's that art
look like? How are they building out these worlds? You know,
it's a very playful format and you can really kind
of stretch and bend concepts to make fun.
Speaker 3: Levels, and I think Super me Boy three D does
that well. I just think there it's a little unwieldy.
I know, I've used that.
Speaker 1: Term for rack Cooin with With Super me Boy three D,
I think the controls work great. However, I think the
camera at times, the camera it's weird. It's really the
level of design that is like really hot and cold
for me. There are some levels I'm like, that was excellent,
Like that was an incredible level and really feels like
it's making full use of the three D, and then
there are levels where I wish that they had fixed
the camera and like fixed the level to like a
two D plane with three D art. And I think
other games like I think you ukul Lateen The Impossible
Layer does this a bit. Other I don't know if
Crash Bandicoot four does it. I don't recall, but Mario Odyssey,
for instance, where like you'll have these three D platforming
sections and then the camera wal transition and you're suddenly
in like an old two D style, you know, and
they play up the nostalgia Mario with you know, the
old art. But I think that this game would benefit
from that kind.
Speaker 3: Of variety, but like it's almost like a constraint. It
needs a little constraint to it.
Speaker 1: Because there are certain sections where that are worse because
it is three D and that you're kind of moving
to and from the foreground and the depth of field
or not the depth like your depth perception is not
always it doesn't feel accurate to what you actually need
to do. And there's some some level parts where it's
like I just ran off the level because I thought
I was supposed to go that direction, but yes, the
other direction. Yeah, And that is like the way that
like you need to like very much signify where I'm
supposed to be going, because it's really frustrating to be
like I'm like playing this thing pose level perfect, and
but there's like mixed signals on where I'm supposed to
go next, and I die and have to restart and
that doesn't feel good. So I think it's like, yeah,
there are some levels that it's like it works great
and it's like I'm moving forward. I know I just
need to be moving forward, and I think that's when
it's at the best, or if it gives you like
a diorama level almost where it's like, Okay, I need
to scale the left side of this cliff and then
I'm gonna jump here and scale the right and go
up top and come back around.
Speaker 3: And it's like it almost feels like a Mario.
Speaker 1: A Mario level, right, And that feels really good. But
it's when it's it's when it combines the like very
intense sequences and like with a lot of obstacles and
like enemies that are shooting you and that kind of thing,
and then it wants you to like it presents you
multiple paths, but only one is correct, and it's like
that doesn't work in this sure for me. Yeah, but Marcus,
I'm curious what you think about the game. I am
enjoying it, to be clear. I just think it's like
a little hot and cold depending on the level.
Speaker 4: For me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't played nearly as much as you. I
played the first like several levels of it, so I'm
still early. But I felt that immediately, like I adore
Super meet Boy, the original one. I think that is
I think that is in the running for like an
almost perfect two D platform, or just because of how
tight and like well designed those levels are, for like
especially for the style of game, and even though it's
like difficult, it's it's so good at just alleviating that
pain because of the instant respawns and just how like
how quickly it just throws you back into it. And
this game has all that. But yeah, to your point
about the camera, sometimes it makes it a little hard
to sometimes even tell if you're making contact, and they
do do things to try to communicate it of like
I mean, you got the little ring under Meat Boys,
you can always tell what that one. And when he
does the wall run, he has little blood trails here,
like Okay, I guess I'm touching it. But even then,
sometimes the camera and I did feel this the most
with the wall running sequence where I would jump at
it at an angle and I would think I was
close enough to the wall and you just fall and
I was like, oh, do I need to like jump
like I guess like more to change my trajectory, Like
it looked like I was fine, but just maybe because
the camera's pulled a little too far back and I
can't I couldn't tell quite like because met boys kind.
Speaker 1: Of small far back so you can see what's coming
next exactly like.
Speaker 2: What you mean and yeah, and in regular two D
meat Boy, that's so much easier to communicate, like it's
easier to to tell distance and in trajectory, whereas in
a three D game it's again because the there's just
so much more space to play with. And yeah, it
is a it is a tricky thing of like how
close do you pull in? But then you would obscure
this buzz saw that's coming ahead that you need to
be aware of because you gotta like you gotta run
and then jump at the right moment to dodge that
thing or whatever. So there, Yeah, there was frustration, and
it was it was like when I was still learning
a game, and I'm thinking, like is this just me
just getting a grasp on, because like it is the
just the meat Boy controls. You're doing all the same
things that you could do in meat Boy, they haven't
I mean.
Speaker 3: Running, you're dashing, yeah, dashing, jumping, running, Yeah, Like a.
Speaker 2: Lot of that muscle memory is transferable here, same versus
just exactly, but it's just applying it to this space.
It did make me go like maybe it's the level
I feel like, I I know how meat Boy behaves.
He's got the same floatiness that he end in that game,
and I was wondering, like does it just does it
not work as good in a three D space to
have that floatiness.
Speaker 1: Or I think it runs when when everything when the
objects are offset from the what would it be not
the z maybe the Z axis. I don't know, when
it's like off set and you can see that depth
and you can there's like background when it's not when
you're not looking at a ninety degree angle. How about
that it's much easier to tell when you are making
contact with the.
Speaker 3: Walls, and.
Speaker 1: You know there are Most of the time, I don't know.
It's tough because there are some moments where I'm like
this game is benefiting from being three D and I'm
glad that it's a three D platformer in this moment.
Speaker 2: And there are moments in the loves Eye played ors
like oh this is this is really cool, this is fun.
Like it's not every level I didn't play and go like,
oh what the hell?
Speaker 3: It was just like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Like one a few, like a small handful of those numbers.
Speaker 3: Other time I feel like a heavier hand.
Speaker 1: Whoever was like kind of curating the levels, like stamping
stamp up approval. I think they could have been a
little harsher, you know what I mean, Like, Okay, this
level isn't working. Let's shift the camera angle or let's
shift the asset the game objects orientation a little bit
so that we can kind of see it better.
Speaker 3: Whenever there's like a little forward momentum.
Speaker 1: When you are going along that Z axis into like
away from the camera, the game feels better because you
have like this orientation of like, Okay, I'm going forward
and I can kind of see see things a little
more clearly. At least for me, it feels that way.
And there are boss fights in the game that they
do really well where you have to ask, like how
the bosses are you know, I'm I really like the
boss fights. I think everything is really clearly clearly sort
of displayed, like when there are missiles coming, there's very
similar to like how meat Boy has his you know,
his little orientation red circle. So you know, it's kind
of like the contact shadow, right for like Mario, when
you kind of know you can orient yourself in three
D space with it more easily. The the like missiles
and stuff that bosses are shooting at you are very
clearly flagged as if you're in this spot, you're going
to get hit right, and there's a lot let less
guessing work, and I think that they handle the bosses
well because of that. I think sometimes there's like some
weird timing issues where like the boss destroys part of
the level and it creates like new terrain for you,
and sometimes when you're like kind of in your flow,
you kind of get to it a little too soon
and you kind of have to stand there for a
second and wait for the boss to to catch up
and do their thing, and that feels a little funny.
But I think so far I've killed I've beat two
bosses so far, and I'm at the third one. I've
been enjoying them for the most part. Yeah, I was.
I was curious how they were going to pull it off.
And it's a mixture of The first ball is very
much like there is a scrolling level and the boss
is very agro and like sweeping his arm at you
and throwing missiles, and it's all about managing where you're
at in that scrolling level, making sure that you're not
getting killed by the bounds of the level, and then
also jumping and dodging the boss's movements and that feels
really good. And the second boss is very stationary. You're
in the single arena, a circular arena, and you're jumping
from between platforms. It's the boss like you know, it
swipes expanding rings of damage. Yeah you are you are, no,
actually not in that boss. It's very much like there's
a pit in the center and you don't want to
fall into the pit where the boss is, and so
you're kind of jumping from the outer platforms.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: Well he's playing rec coin yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And so I'm I really enjoyed that aspect of it.
I wish this soundtrack was doing a little more for me.
It's they kind of make a joke in the in
the Steam page about like the soundtrack is just like
the guitar center employee yelling at you for playing the
same old metal songs. I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what
the soundtrack is. And I don't know why you would
want it to be that is it annoying?
Speaker 4: Like what is what is?
Speaker 3: It's not annoying.
Speaker 1: I just it's it's kind of forgettable a little bit.
And say and I feel like one of my favorite
parts about three D platformers is the music, you know,
there's always like or usually the best ones have like
really great melodic tracks that like stick in your head.
Speaker 3: And I feel like.
Speaker 1: Super me Boy three D is just kind of like
the same old garage rock band, just rhythm, guitar, drums
and du yeah yeah, and it's like there's not really
anything for me to grab onto. It's all kind of
like just it's like a wall of noise a little bit,
but like it's not annoying, Like it's slow enough in
the mix that is kind of there, you know.
Speaker 3: It's like, oh yeah, there's.
Speaker 4: Just like the level design, it's a wall that's hard
for you to grab onto.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, put that. Put that in your review, Marcus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, okay, Yeah, it's like Grant Grant her Coke
can't compose every three D platform.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: Or I think like it would have been great to
get like I feel like this game would really benefit
from like distorted drum machines almost, like uh, I want
every game to have the same soundtrack as Grindstone, like
Grindstone like a grimy like like.
Speaker 2: I thought of, like, do you just want like jazz
every time something you get a simple crash.
Speaker 1: And yeah, no, I just feel like it needs something
to like differentiate.
Speaker 4: It's like a bigger decision.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's doing give me some more keywords in the
music choices of like you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, auto tune, meat Boy, Yes.
Speaker 3: Please God, mumble rap.
Speaker 1: In the building with the it's like British underground rap.
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly meet like like a mumble rapper, like mumble.
Speaker 3: I would love British grunge rap.
Speaker 4: I love uh jumping the game like a bat point.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's perfect. That sounds that just makes
it sound like just the it's just the buck mumble
guy pop from the building boys in there. Because Yeah,
the meat Boys series is such a weird trajectory, right
because they're Super meat Boy, like the I mean, if
we want to go back, there's like Regular meat Boy,
which is what like a flash game I think, ariginally Yeah,
and then they're you know, Super meat Boy, which was
just the glow up of that and became one of
the greatest games ever made. Never And it's wildly when
you think about we've never gotten like a true sequel
in a game that was like, yeah, we got Super Forever,
but that was an auto runner yeah, yeah, like it
was that game, but it was it would be like
if Mario brother like Super Mario Brothers came out and
then the next game was Super Mario Run the mobile game. Yeah. Yeah,
we've never gotten like a proper two D follow up
to the original, and that too. I was gonna say,
there's a reason for it, like you know, Edmund and
and Tommy split up. But like, it's just fascinating to
me that this is kind of the closest thing because
like they've only just kind of done weird spin offs
because there was that what was it? The Doctor Feed
is like like the the Mean Bean Machine kind of
like homage that they did with Doctor Feed.
Speaker 3: I don't remember this.
Speaker 1: I feel like they got a really good got that
was really recognizable, and they're like, all right, let's make money,
you know. And I would have thought that meant super
Mute Boy too, you know, but instead of that's what
merchandise you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they wanted it, and Edmund said, no,
it's boring, no, yeah, but butcheck in respect, you know. Yeah,
I know I get that. I understand his reasoning for it,
and just see one of something more creatively interesting. But
it's such an interesting franchise, Like it's one of the
greatest games ever made, especially of the last ten fifteen years.
And it's when you think about, like, oh where did
it go after that, you're like, it went some weird
places if there was never the obvious sequel, and it's
just kind of just a lot of like side quest.
I guess we'll say, we'll see how this one turns out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'm going to keep playing it. I am
enjoying it. People were asking me on this. I did
a stream earlier in the week and people.
Speaker 3: Were like, is it worth it?
Speaker 2: I'm excited to keep playing.
Speaker 1: Such a hard question to answer, Like, if you have
disposable income and you like to check out new games,
I do think, yes, it is worth exploring this more.
You know, comple complicated version of this thing that has
some good ideas, has some less instellar execution in some places.
But at the end of the day, yes, it's fun.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: If this is the only game you're picking up in March,
I would say, or April, now, I guess go play
Slight the Spire to play po Cope.
Speaker 3: Uh, you know you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Likes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when you're into those thing kind of things.
Speaker 1: If if you are just like dying for a new
platform and you're like, Okay, I played Big Hops and
you know I really want another platformer, I say, pick
it up, you know, like it's it's fun. You know
you're gonna have a good time. Probably, I think there
are some frustrations that you're gonna have to deal with.
Speaker 3: I believe it is.
Speaker 2: Yes, Okay, I just feel like, you know, it's funny,
like when when Brian asked me what platform I wanted
this on, Like I still associate meat boys so much
with the Xbox that I have a I have a
PS four bro PS PS four, bro PS four PS
five Pro that I recently purchased ahead of the now.
As of today as we're recording, the price has now
gone up on all PlayStation platforms on April second, and
I bought a PS five Pro, Like they forced my
hand to finally upgrade before it would cost more money.
So I should really be trying to play everything on
it as possible to justify this one.
Speaker 3: I'm waiting for the next gen.
Speaker 4: I did want to ask this. This was a podcast
topic we had floated and I think forgot about. But
now that you brought it up. I did want to
ask just as a quick if we're done with Super
Meat Boy, if it's a transition, I just wanted to
ask you real quick, Marcus, like, have you felt a
different I think the thing about my PS five that
has surprised me, but not even surprised me, just compared
to other platforms I've had. I've never felt while playing
a PS five game like I wish this thing was
more powerful, Like it's never felt inadequate for the game
that I have on it, Whereas like the PS four,
I had a base PS four and I would play
God of War twenty eighteen and that thing would sound
like a jet engine like it was. It would heat
up my bedroom? Was how hot that game made my
PS four And to the point that I kind of
got a PS five because I'm like, I can actually
play this game without headphones because it's not louder than
the freaking TV.
Speaker 2: Right now, it's not a safety issue. I don't feel
like this is gonna explode and burn my house down, right.
Speaker 4: But is the PS five pro or you are you
being like, oh wow, this is amazing and I feel
like it was a notable clear upgrade or is it
more feel like it's a this is a niche product
if you want to, you know, get those extra frames in.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's both for me. I So I'm gonna
I'm gonna preface this by saying this is not the
impulse purchase. That it sounds like I'm grateful to say
that I could, I could comfortably afford this. That said,
I do not, or rather, I cannot tell the difference
because I don't have a TV that can take advantage
of what it is doing. Because I have a ten
year old four K TV that you know, it's good,
but it doesn't have the like and I'm not a
tech guy, but it doesn't have like one hundred and
twenty hertz or you know, o lead stuff or any
olead or anything like that. So it's probably like a
hurt screen. Sure why not, I don't know, probably your
cap Yeah yeah, so it's like it can't get the
full I guess might of this thing. I need to
upgrade my TV, which I've been planning to for a while.
But I'm I'm like a I think you.
Speaker 1: Will notice the difference just between sixty frames a second
and one hundred and forty four And that's not that.
Speaker 3: Not every I don't know if every I don't think
that's the default for games.
Speaker 1: I think it's just kind of like one of those.
It can go up to this. Some games will, some
games won't. Yeah, but I do notice a significant difference
when I'm playing games with my PC between sixty herds
one hundred and forty four hertz.
Speaker 2: I also notice a difference. Yeah, I haven't played maybe
like the I haven't played like the craziest games on
Indian Like I just reviewed Life is Strange on it.
I don't think Life is strange, just like the Horsepower
showcase that it's gonna be like, man, look at it.
I could see every follicle of Chloe's hair. This is crazy.
And then the only other game that I've fired up
in it just because I've been so busy with review
games was Re Animal because I've been making my way
through that nice and Your Animal already looks really nice
on its own, and that would be a good game
because there's so many like blacks and like like lighting
is such a big thing in that game. It's a
very dark games, a lot of shadows and various black
yes contrasts, and you got a little lighter that really
pops in that game because the lightings yet so I
I but you know, because of my display, it probably can't.
I don't know how much. But I don't even know
if that game does any like tan any like tangible
PS five pro dancements. I would have to like look
up a list to see, like, what are the games
that actually take advantage of this I know that's out there,
and then see like, oh do I have any like
I I thought about finding a President Evil again because
I have heard that that looks nicer on a pro.
Speaker 4: That's the first one that uses the PSSR, the improved PSSR,
which is the thing that.
Speaker 1: Right, you know, I only want to play games with
d L S S five so until they've got that
on there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's your other stance is d L S
SI did I? I don't even know what the letter?
Speaker 4: What is it?
Speaker 3: De DLS five, d L.
Speaker 2: S S five it's your stance PRO five.
Speaker 4: Hate Oh, Alex, I would love to see that on raccoil.
Speaker 3: What do you even do?
Speaker 2: The raccoon just looks like Rocket from Marvel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then it.
Speaker 4: Does take you to the bonus hole like in your home,
but it's really real.
Speaker 1: Yeah, everything is like sweaty and like moist, and it
was like, there's too much.
Speaker 2: The window.
Speaker 3: Let's dial down the jen a I slop how about that?
Which yeah, yeah, anyways, I.
Speaker 2: Like that and smaller the system. It's a little so
skinnier shots, it's smaller. Yeah, did you have a dramatically so?
But I had never never get rid of do they.
Speaker 3: Get rid of the angel wings? Like alien wings?
Speaker 2: The smaller the collar not the collars still going strong.
They just added ridges to it.
Speaker 3: Now, okay, so like it's got the.
Speaker 2: Black I think. I guess their fans. I guess I've
had assume like there vents, but now those are like
on the side.
Speaker 4: That's when they fit the extra frames.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's where Kai holds his deck to. That's where
three of his blue eyes are. But it is like
it was like, well, this is like slightly less unwieldy
if I needed to travel with this at least because
it also doesn't have a disk drive. Well, actually, you
know what, I forgot that it doesn't have a disk drive,
And I'm this is really this really makes me confront
my habits because I'm I was always taunting like I
need a disk drive despite not being a physical game
purchaser in very long time. But there's no other part
of me that's like, but what if I do get
a disc, I should have it just then I think
that's fair. But then I was like, so I said,
I would still need to buy one of those, and
I'm afraid to look at how expensive they are because
of how crazy everything is with tech. But then also
the thing I did have to buy that I forgot
about was a stand. I forgot this stupid thing didn't
come with a vertical stands by being like a gajillion dollars.
It's like, you can't give me a stand.
Speaker 1: It's like when you buy like a new phone, it
doesn't come with the wall charger.
Speaker 3: It's like, come on.
Speaker 4: Dude, yeah yeah, It's like where's this?
Speaker 2: So I had to buy that on Amazon. I think
it was thirty bucks first, the stand.
Speaker 4: That's wild. Can't it simply can't be. I don't know
enough about manufacturing, but I don't. I don't believe that
that costs thirty bucks.
Speaker 2: And it's like there's nothing Sony could tell me that
could I would believe them. It's like, why couldn't we
include this in the box, like we did with the
BASEBS five.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my fiance got me a three D printer for
Christmas that I look at plastic things. I'm like you
someone someone could I could make you. I could make you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's there's like weird cloning vibes, Like I feel
like he would go to a parent and say, like, yes,
I have a job having a baby. I could make
one for you.
Speaker 4: Can I can perfect the.
Speaker 2: Form you're expecting. It is like you want to see
the pinnacle of the human being. Can make I can
make you blue my machine.
Speaker 4: I am one going to make a British rap theme
for Super meat Boy three D because it's all I've
been thinking about this entire podcast My lunch. That'll be
my lunch song for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Send it to Team Me and see if they patch
it into the game.
Speaker 4: But yeah, hey guys, I haven't played your game. I
just heard some of my friends talk about.
Speaker 3: It's also going to be a licensing nightmare to get
this song approved.
Speaker 4: Imagine it was British here you go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, But I want to shout out that
I did not make the PS five pro Plunge alone.
I took Kyle Hillier down with me. He was also
on the he was on the fence and then when
I told him I did it, and then he texted
me a picture over the weekend of his new PS
five Pro Pro box and was like, grit it together.
Now we both had our ants for.
Speaker 1: We both made poor purchasing decisions, and now we're both.
Speaker 2: Saying like they better not announce at PS six next year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to stick it out. But I'm glad
that you got it before the price went up. That
is a that is a win.
Speaker 4: I did say that dollars is crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and no vertical stand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's ridiculous by a PC, y'all. You know, borrow
your friends, borrow your friends. PS five flowing, I do
exclusives come out.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No.
Speaker 1: Anyways, I think that's gonna be the show for this week, fellas.
Thanks for thanks for making it a good one. I
feel I felt like I had a lot of fun
talking with you all this week. I needed it and
you know what, back but that landlo it feels great.
Kayla unfortunately has landsickness, which is where she still feels
like she's.
Speaker 2: On a boat.
Speaker 1: To her many years ago, and she had it for
like three weeks where she felt she was like swaying
on a boat.
Speaker 3: It's like an.
Speaker 4: I'll spend the day in the ocean as a kid,
and I would be in the waves and I would
come home and.
Speaker 2: It still feels like, you're.
Speaker 3: She's had that and it's driving her nuts.
Speaker 2: But oh, I always kind of.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, it's opinion of you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't forget Peter to pick up a copy of
Game Informer magazine. Uh, gameformerre dot com slash subscribe has
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It is a thing that separates us from other other
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gonna do it. Enjoy the show, enjoy your week, Thanks
for being here.
Speaker 3: Goodbye everyone,