Speaker 1: That's the wrong buttons. Just I don't do this anymore,
Speaker 1: Jan does. Hey everybody, it's not Tuesday, it's Friday, so
Speaker 1: that means BombCast Revengeance. I'm your host, Jeff Grubb from
Speaker 1: giant bomb dot com, joined by a great crew of
Speaker 1: dudes here, including Mike Manatti. How are you doing?
Speaker 2: We decided I was a bitch today. You're already confusing me.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 3: Oh, we got to tell our guests about the or
Speaker 3: we got to ask Hi about the origins of my
Speaker 3: Mitch's name.
Speaker 4: See if he can get it, if anybody can get it,
Speaker 4: it's him, all right?
Speaker 1: Oh okay, well for sure for for Tokoto. Sure absolutely.
Speaker 1: Dan Reiker's here as well. Dan, how are you doing?
Speaker 4: I'm doing great. How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm good. I'm doing you know. I really got in
Speaker 1: there with the theracane, so I'm feeling a lot better.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: I went to physical therapy this morning and it was
Speaker 3: a new one, new guy because my last one moved,
Speaker 3: and so he's like, oh, what do you do for
Speaker 3: a living?
Speaker 4: And I told him.
Speaker 3: He's like, oh, I want to listen to your podcast.
Speaker 3: So I don't play video games. I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: check out the voicemail dump truck what we did yesterday.
Speaker 3: We actually just started out talking about getting old and
Speaker 3: thehurricanes and thera guns.
Speaker 4: You's gonna hear all about Mike genitals.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's right, and then Mike Druncker is here as well.
Speaker 1: Mike Drunker tell the people about yourself. So, but I
Speaker 1: think most people are familiar with you, But go ahead
Speaker 1: and give people a little rundown.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Sure. I'm a writer and comedian. I've written for
Speaker 6: video games and television. I've written for Nintendo as well
Speaker 6: as places like The Tonight Show, and I have a
Speaker 6: book coming out about video games, come in April first,
Speaker 6: called Good Game, No Rematch, which is basically a bunch
Speaker 6: of funny stories about games and how I've humiliated myself
Speaker 6: with them.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I've been burning through this.
Speaker 1: He's been texting me frequently like little like snippets of it,
Speaker 1: and now I'm like, I want to read this so bad.
Speaker 4: If I did immediately pre order it, Drucker, I'm so
Speaker 4: much like not a reader that like, I liked the
Speaker 4: idea of it a lot, but like over a year ago,
Speaker 4: Vinny Caravella recommended the Stephen King Short story collection to me,
Speaker 4: and I like it, and it's still I'm still like
Speaker 4: not even halfway through it, and it's been over a year.
Speaker 4: This fucking thing I'm almost done with in like a week.
Speaker 3: The last book I actually like read to completion was
Speaker 3: Becky Lynch, The Pro Wrestler's Book, so basically pro wrestler books,
Speaker 3: and this are the ones that I can actually like
Speaker 3: go through. Well, these guys are gonna love it. It's
Speaker 3: one of my favorite stories is about Miss Read. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think Manati here will love this. I don't know
Speaker 3: if you want to give them a little teacher of this.
Speaker 3: Manati is a big Final Fantasy guy.
Speaker 6: So when I was in middle school, we had a
Speaker 6: teacher who we're calling Miss Read in the book because
Speaker 6: I did not want to use the teacher's real name
Speaker 6: because it's a story about how she looked exactly liked
Speaker 6: Eric from Final Fantasy seven. When Final Fantasy seven came
Speaker 6: out and we were all obsessed with it, and so
Speaker 6: there was like me and three other guys in that
Speaker 6: English class with this teacher, Miss Read, who were so
Speaker 6: in love with her and so obsessed with her and
Speaker 6: would volunteer and like make her little gifts and stuff,
Speaker 6: and she wasn't weird to us. She understood she was,
Speaker 6: She knew what our game was and was like kept
Speaker 6: us at a good arms like you know distance. But
Speaker 6: it was just these middle school students trying to like
Speaker 6: tell this adult woman being like, okay, so Final Fantasy seven,
Speaker 6: you don't need to play the other six to understand it.
Speaker 6: So if you want to play seven, we could loan
Speaker 6: it to you. Like literally, just the saddest people, incredible.
Speaker 6: We were so in love with her, so and when
Speaker 6: I say she looked like Erith, I mean like, if
Speaker 6: you cast a human woman to play Earth in a movie,
Speaker 6: it would have been this person in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 6: So it was it.
Speaker 2: Extra extra hard for you when Arith died in there.
Speaker 6: I don't remember if we told her about that part.
Speaker 6: I think that part we might have admitted, and I.
Speaker 1: Love the part.
Speaker 3: Two were like, all these years later, you get on Facebook,
Speaker 3: can you find her?
Speaker 4: And she was like, Hey, are you so obsessed with
Speaker 4: that weird game?
Speaker 1: I was like, no, not at all.
Speaker 6: No, I definitely don't own the album. I've spent years
Speaker 6: thinking about Final Fantasy, not at all.
Speaker 1: This is why I'm like, I've enjoying the little tidbits
Speaker 1: of Dan Vincinning because it's like, oh, I know that
Speaker 1: place in time, because also in it was junior high
Speaker 1: where I was at. In junior High, I had some
Speaker 1: friends who I'd go and hang out with them, and
Speaker 1: every time I would sit down, for like about a month,
Speaker 1: they would be talking about the same like the hottest
Speaker 1: girl in school who they just called Tifa, and because
Speaker 1: she looked like Tifa, and to them this did not mean, oh,
Speaker 1: you're going to cast a human woman to play this character.
Speaker 1: This just means she was the first girl to grow breasts, basically,
Speaker 1: and so like she's Difa, that's it. It's like, okay, guys,
Speaker 1: that's great.
Speaker 2: Breast from Tifa. Foun don't speak for all of us
Speaker 2: at wrestling and learned about it from Sonny.
Speaker 6: And so some of our parents did a bad job
Speaker 6: of storing adult material in a place that se to follow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, peruse a milk rate in the closet.
Speaker 1: Ye that reminds behind the cleaning stuff underneath the sink
Speaker 1: in the bathrooms where my stash was. Don't worry.
Speaker 2: My my nieces and nephews stopped over yesterday. They're very
Speaker 2: young and they're just walking around the house. And that's
Speaker 2: fine normally, but I forgot that. I bought an issue
Speaker 2: of Maxim magazine because it was the one that has
Speaker 2: the uh it's poker, It's Taylor with chips.
Speaker 1: Well describes this poker game stat.
Speaker 2: Yeah right now, well magazine. I never felt more like
Speaker 2: an uncle in my life.
Speaker 3: It's the one with Vanessa mar Still on the cover.
Speaker 3: Nicholas Cage's wife in the rock She's on the cover.
Speaker 3: And then that's got the stacked reviewing there.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm very proud, and I got to find a
Speaker 4: frame or something for it.
Speaker 1: Now, did you did you try to wait? Did you
Speaker 1: hide it from the kids or did they actually see it?
Speaker 4: I think they saw it.
Speaker 2: They walked, they did, They were doing laps around my house,
Speaker 2: and then I noticed it and just flipped it on
Speaker 2: the back.
Speaker 4: The back wasn't nearly as offensive.
Speaker 1: All right, good, Okay, So Mike you were writing this book,
Speaker 1: you were collecting these stories from your life related to
Speaker 1: video games. How did like what was the process like
Speaker 1: picking which things to put in the book and like
Speaker 1: what to leave out? And you know, what was the
Speaker 1: conversation with the editors?
Speaker 6: Like yeah, sure, well when I pitched the book, I
Speaker 6: essentially wrote three sample chapters and then created a table
Speaker 6: of contents where I wrote a paragraph on what each
Speaker 6: story would be. And for those of you listening or watching,
Speaker 6: each story is its own contained story for my life,
Speaker 6: like some might call back to others or anything, but
Speaker 6: it's not like a novel where it's building up to
Speaker 6: a conclusion. It's more like, here's how I humiliated myself
Speaker 6: trying to impress a crush by cosplaying as Mario from
Speaker 6: Super Mario three. Like that's like one story, and then
Speaker 6: you know, the Power Glove basically tearing my family aparts
Speaker 6: another story. So I kind of, well, I tried to
Speaker 6: think of, like, you know, video games that I love,
Speaker 6: but I also really wanted to link them all to
Speaker 6: life stories. I have one or two sort of short,
Speaker 6: funny interstitial bits, but I didn't want to just to do,
Speaker 6: here's a funny essay on a video game. But I
Speaker 6: also didn't want to do, here's me shoehorning a life
Speaker 6: story in there that has no video game attached. So
Speaker 6: I tried to like make a list of the games
Speaker 6: that were the most important to me, but also the
Speaker 6: ones that actually tied to life events, and then from
Speaker 6: there I kind of started shaping stories and working with
Speaker 6: my editors, and I would send them drafts of the
Speaker 6: chapters I have and they would give feedback, and over
Speaker 6: time sort of the book shaped up that way and
Speaker 6: some stories that I started with dropped away, some got
Speaker 6: added in. Yeah, it was sort of an organic process
Speaker 6: up until the very end.
Speaker 1: Is it like organic because like you already think of
Speaker 1: your life autobiographically, like through video games, because that's I do, Like,
Speaker 1: like I was doing this at that time when I
Speaker 1: was playing that game. Yeah, Like, is that what you
Speaker 1: already thought about life?
Speaker 6: It's definite, Definitely that's how I already think about life.
Speaker 6: And coming from a stand up comedy background, it's also
Speaker 6: natural to me to be like, Okay, I want to
Speaker 6: write a segment on this topic. So here's you know,
Speaker 6: two or three minutes on this video game in this
Speaker 6: part of my life. So that was a very actual
Speaker 6: writing process for me, and in fact, even I record.
Speaker 6: I recorded the audio version of the book a month ago,
Speaker 6: and it kind of felt like I was doing a
Speaker 6: bunch of comedy albums in a row.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very interesting, Mike.
Speaker 3: It's you know, I'm forty and grew up in very
Speaker 3: much similar circumstances with the same interest as you. So,
Speaker 3: like I I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this
Speaker 3: is the most relatable piece.
Speaker 4: Of media I've ever read.
Speaker 3: Like I had the exact same story with the Power Glove,
Speaker 3: where my dad tried for like an hour to set
Speaker 3: of that and we could not do it, and I
Speaker 3: wound up using like the Dpad to play tiny tune
Speaker 3: adventures like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it sucked. It sucked because you
Speaker 4: can at least one hand.
Speaker 3: But then the one about even like showing up at
Speaker 3: the girl's house dresses Mario, the exact same fucking thing
Speaker 3: for my friend's tenth birthday.
Speaker 4: You know, I never was able to talk to girls ever.
Speaker 3: And there were these two sisters that lived in the neighborhood,
Speaker 3: and I wrote a Mortal Kombat play for my friend's
Speaker 3: tenth birthday and I was a Scorpion, but we needed
Speaker 3: Katana and Malina, and of course, cockingly, there weren't any
Speaker 3: girls coming to this party. And so that was the
Speaker 3: one time I went to this these sisters how and
Speaker 3: I was like, ooh, can you guys play guitar?
Speaker 4: And Molina from wortld Combat and they're like.
Speaker 2: Now it be got sports about it.
Speaker 3: I swear almost every fucking story in Drugger's book, I
Speaker 3: was like, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. It's if
Speaker 3: from going to sports games and talking about the light
Speaker 3: leaving your dad's eyes when your dad's trying to get
Speaker 3: you to love sports and you're just wanting to play
Speaker 3: game boys. Like It's just like, holy shit, this is
Speaker 3: an incredibly relatable and hilarious book.
Speaker 4: I can say enough about this.
Speaker 6: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you like when when people read it?
Speaker 1: What do you hope and they kind of take away
Speaker 1: from it?
Speaker 6: I mean, honestly, I just wanted to be a good
Speaker 6: time I I think, you know, when I first pitched
Speaker 6: the book, it was twenty twenty three during the writers strike,
Speaker 6: and I was kind of like, you know, I was
Speaker 6: in a bummer place. The world, you know, kind of
Speaker 6: generally feels like it's in an ongoing bummer place, and
Speaker 6: I really wanted to write something about video games that
Speaker 6: was super funny and fun I think, you know, I
Speaker 6: myself fall into the culture warhole so much of like
Speaker 6: being angry about this or being mad at someone that
Speaker 6: I want to be like this is like a beautiful
Speaker 6: art form that I love, and I wanted to write
Speaker 6: something that like how it influences our lives. Like there's
Speaker 6: a lot of books that are about the history of
Speaker 6: games that are like beautiful bitmat books that are like
Speaker 6: you know, coffee table books that show you all this
Speaker 6: amazing imagery. But I hadn't really seen a lot of
Speaker 6: like you know books that you see about movies or
Speaker 6: music where people are like, here is how this art
Speaker 6: form informs our very lives. And that's what I wanted
Speaker 6: to do. I really wanted to celebrate and write a happy,
Speaker 6: funny book, and I kind of hope I did that.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, very cool.
Speaker 4: I'm laughing outloud on almost every page.
Speaker 6: Thank you not kidding?
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, Like I said, really looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: I let's get people the call to action, like when
Speaker 1: can they get it? Where should they go to get it?
Speaker 1: All that good stuff.
Speaker 6: Absolutely. So this book is called Good Game, No Rematch,
Speaker 6: and it is available anywhere you can buy books. So
Speaker 6: you can get it on Amazon, you can get it
Speaker 6: on you can get it at Barnes Noble, you can
Speaker 6: get it on bookshop dot Org if you're if you
Speaker 6: want a shop indie. It'll be available digital, hardcover, and audio.
Speaker 6: I read the audiobook and it's all available April first.
Speaker 6: I know that it sounds like a bit and it
Speaker 6: sounded like they were messing with me when they told
Speaker 6: me that, but April first, So if you if you
Speaker 6: want to get something very exciting right before the switch
Speaker 6: to news, Michael comes out.
Speaker 1: Out there, compete with the switch to man.
Speaker 6: When they when they when they said switch to news
Speaker 6: April second, I was like, motherfuck, Like, couldn't have been
Speaker 6: like the fifth.
Speaker 1: Was there any discussion of someone else doing the the
Speaker 1: audiobook or where he was like, oh, no, of course
Speaker 1: I'm always going to do that.
Speaker 6: It was sort of they sort of we sort of
Speaker 6: had decided early on that I was going to do it.
Speaker 6: I had pitched and as a joke having Keith David
Speaker 6: read a chapter as a bonus check.
Speaker 1: It's very good. Yeah.
Speaker 6: Their response was basically like, do you know how much
Speaker 6: that would cost us? And I was like no, when
Speaker 6: they were like, we're not going to do that unless
Speaker 6: you paid for him, We're not doing that.
Speaker 3: I always had there something inherently weird about like an
Speaker 3: autobiographical thing being read by someone other, because like I
Speaker 3: did the Anxiety book and a company reached out to
Speaker 3: me being like, hey, we will make the audiobook for you.
Speaker 3: We have professional voice actors, we have all this, and
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, I want to do the audiobook,
Speaker 3: but can I do it? And like so I went
Speaker 3: into a place in New York and recorded. Mind Like,
Speaker 3: how did you find that process? Because like it's so weird,
Speaker 3: like you have to be so aware of your voice
Speaker 3: and clearing throats and it's such an au natural way
Speaker 3: to talk, like it just like hours and hours and hours.
Speaker 4: It was odd.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, it takes hours and there's take after take
Speaker 6: after take. I'm lucky in that I had a really
Speaker 6: great uh director and sound engineer who also really enjoyed
Speaker 6: the book, so they got what I was trying to
Speaker 6: do with it. I'm sure like if I had someone
Speaker 6: who was just confused by it, it would have been worse.
Speaker 6: But I think what I struggled with was, you know,
Speaker 6: you can hear this in the way I'm talking right now,
Speaker 6: and if you ever listen to my stand up, I
Speaker 6: talk pretty fast, and so I had to really work
Speaker 6: hard to slow myself down yeah yeah, and be more
Speaker 6: deliberate with the way I read but while still keeping
Speaker 6: Joe Cadence in my voice and emphasizing the right words,
Speaker 6: you know, uh, slowing down but not making it sound
Speaker 6: like I'm reading a report in high school. Yeah, and
Speaker 6: that was like the most work was like, you know,
Speaker 6: reading it but in my head being like, okay, talk
Speaker 6: at a more normal clip. You don't have to bum
Speaker 6: rush all of your words out. But it was also
Speaker 6: it was super fun and again the crew of the
Speaker 6: sound engineer and the director were like really supportive and
Speaker 6: really fun, and they also like gave me great reads.
Speaker 6: Like at one point I was stumbling and he was like,
Speaker 6: how about you try it this way, And it made
Speaker 6: the joke better than it actually just reads in the
Speaker 6: book itself. So it was a really good process. But yeah,
Speaker 6: it took like a week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've just always been and I've told you this personally,
Speaker 3: but like I've been in awe of your career because
Speaker 3: it's just like, you know, not just like the you know,
Speaker 3: the video games with Nintendo and everything, but also you're
Speaker 3: a late night guy. And so I remember the first
Speaker 3: time we got drinks in San Francisco, probably a decade
Speaker 3: ago or more at this point, and just like I
Speaker 3: was just kind of marking out, just asking about like
Speaker 3: the process of right monologue jokes intern at SNL and
Speaker 3: all that stuff. Like so you've been like the one
Speaker 3: guy I know that's like done, like the Late Night County,
Speaker 3: the stand up com thing and the video game stuff,
Speaker 3: and now you're writing for TV.
Speaker 4: And it's just always been very very in awe of your.
Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you. I've been very lucky. I feel
Speaker 6: like I've, like mister magoot, into a career, like I
Speaker 6: stepped on a banana peel that hit a pie cart
Speaker 6: and like walked onto a construction site and I have
Speaker 6: a career.
Speaker 1: Hey, mister McGoose, the one old reference I think we
Speaker 1: could still get away with. That's like the old man reference,
Speaker 1: Like no, we get that, we get what you're going for.
Speaker 1: I don't. I mean they know them.
Speaker 6: I think they know like the tropes of the Three Stooges,
Speaker 6: but they probably don't know like they know like whoa
Speaker 6: whoa whoa wall and like an eye poke, but they
Speaker 6: might not go off.
Speaker 2: To a child and try to poke them in the
Speaker 2: eye with like you know, the two fringers out and
Speaker 2: if they.
Speaker 3: Another thing I'm in awe of is Mike Manatti's longtime
Speaker 3: handle on the Internet, and I now I want to
Speaker 3: see if Mike Drucker can can guess what this is Manati,
Speaker 3: do you want to explain?
Speaker 2: Okay, sure, yeah, yeah. My my handle is told koto
Speaker 2: e O l k O t oh. Do you have
Speaker 2: any idea what that?
Speaker 4: Possibly?
Speaker 1: Can we say that it's a portmanteau?
Speaker 4: Well you did?
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 6: What sucks is? I feel like once you explain it
Speaker 6: to me, it'll make all the sense in the world.
Speaker 6: And I'm just not thinking of.
Speaker 1: This way nerdier than you're even thinking.
Speaker 3: Okay, something you would definitely get the reference of druggery.
Speaker 6: Just give it to me because I'm gonna be mad
Speaker 6: no matter what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I thought this was very cool when I
Speaker 2: was fourteen, came up with this. It's a combination of
Speaker 2: Tolkien and Mia Moto.
Speaker 1: Every time we tell somebody.
Speaker 2: This person is surrounded by funny people. I don't know,
Speaker 2: because it's so cool, right, that's the.
Speaker 6: Coolest thing ever. No, yeah, that's bring up on a date.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I been what he got to that.
Speaker 2: Everybody else like gets rid of their handles once they
Speaker 2: start doing these shows. I'm like, please don't call me Tolkoto.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of those.
Speaker 6: I think you could be the fan that would actually
Speaker 6: break the real Miamoto if you told you I'm not
Speaker 6: doing this anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm going back to my garden, my band. I never
Speaker 1: want to see you again.
Speaker 2: I've heard too many stories of like fans disappointing. I
Speaker 2: don't know if I could bear that.
Speaker 1: All right, I think it's time to talk about some
Speaker 1: video games. Let's do that, all right? Uh, who's been
Speaker 1: playing something? And what god do you want to talk
Speaker 1: about that we can talk about. I've been playing a
Speaker 1: game and turn me onto. I can't mention yet, which
Speaker 1: is all I can think about. Keep tearching it for everybody.
Speaker 4: Well, I guess'll tease a little bit.
Speaker 2: Are you uh?
Speaker 4: Are you enjoying it?
Speaker 1: I'm frigging in love.
Speaker 4: With you right now.
Speaker 1: This is killing I'll just tell you right now. I
Speaker 1: know I'm sorry. I really do hate the tea, but
Speaker 1: it's just all I can think about. So I'm a
Speaker 1: bad person trying to kick.
Speaker 4: Us coming out.
Speaker 6: It's embargoed for another like wild Is there a portmanteau
Speaker 6: of it you could do?
Speaker 1: That would be yeah? The Tolkien and hawk Hogan actually.
Speaker 4: Okay, yes, not bad coin. Yeah, sure it sounds like
Speaker 4: a sounds like to Boggin, But yeah, ET, I beat
Speaker 4: Et the Extraterrestrial from the Attorney twenty six hundred. Oh weird,
Speaker 4: what it sucks. I watched you play it. I knew
Speaker 4: what to do. It still took me longer than you.
Speaker 4: Oh my god. It's yeah.
Speaker 3: You were giving me ship when I was playing it,
Speaker 3: and it was it was cathartic to watch you play it.
Speaker 3: So Drukker, the three of us we do a show
Speaker 3: called blight Club where we play two completion the worst
Speaker 3: games of all time. Yeah, and uh, we just did
Speaker 3: a blightening round, which is we did shorter games and
Speaker 3: so Grub played Blues Brothers two thousand for the sixty
Speaker 3: four Minati beat Fester's Quest in uh three hours.
Speaker 1: I think three hours.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I beat Et on Wednesday in about an
Speaker 4: hour and a half. Have you played Et?
Speaker 6: I have, but I've never beat it.
Speaker 4: Did you understand like the mechanics or.
Speaker 6: Anything, not even a little not even a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So my understanding was that, like I guess, Gub,
Speaker 3: what was the deal with the instructions? Like nobody back
Speaker 3: then actually read the instructions.
Speaker 1: Yes, so so you know, games came with manuals, but
Speaker 1: no one read them because all Atari games were so simple.
Speaker 1: It's a control stick, it's a one button. So all
Speaker 1: kids back then, for the most part, were accustomed just
Speaker 1: putting the game in and you make the plane go
Speaker 1: up and down, or you move the tank around and shoot.
Speaker 1: It was so self explanatory that people were not used
Speaker 1: to reading the manual. And et is the one game
Speaker 1: where it's like, no, there are like five six, seven
Speaker 1: icon and context specific buttons that will change and it's
Speaker 1: really to one button, but it'll change de pitting where
Speaker 1: you're standing on the map, and so figuring that out,
Speaker 1: like is what the real reason so many people hated
Speaker 1: that game was. But also then it's just a bad
Speaker 1: game underneath as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, even once you understand what you're doing, it is
Speaker 3: absolute dogshit, right.
Speaker 2: The whole joke about how most of the game is
Speaker 2: you just falling and getting out of holes is one
Speaker 2: million percent correct, and it feels so terrible every time
Speaker 2: it happens.
Speaker 1: I did, I did, like what kind of like look
Speaker 1: into the game a little bit more since you guys
Speaker 1: both finished it and I played the easy version there's
Speaker 1: actually three difficulty modes. It defaults to the most difficult one.
Speaker 1: So I've only been on level one, which does not
Speaker 1: have the enemies like walking around, like coming to take
Speaker 1: you away. But there's still this common sentiment among like
Speaker 1: people are like, no, this is not as bad as
Speaker 1: people said it was, Dan, Mike, how do you respond
Speaker 1: to that wrong?
Speaker 3: Well, the thing, the thing I see people use to
Speaker 3: defend it is that like, oh, the guy had five
Speaker 3: weeks to make it, And I'm like, yeah, I get
Speaker 3: that's not a great spot to be in, but that
Speaker 3: doesn't mean the game is any better it is. It
Speaker 3: is significantly worse than I think I had expected from
Speaker 3: reputation because I thought it was just a thing where
Speaker 3: it's like, oh, everybody bought it because it was et
Speaker 3: and it was licensed and it was just kind of
Speaker 3: boring or no. No, it's just confounding and makes you
Speaker 3: feel awful as you play it. So yeah, I would
Speaker 3: say it's significantly worse the next one.
Speaker 4: Look, we're not saying that the guys should go to jail.
Speaker 2: Or something, right, Fine, we're not mad at them, but
Speaker 2: the game is not good.
Speaker 4: I do not like playing it.
Speaker 6: I think the guys should go to jail. And that's
Speaker 6: what I'm for.
Speaker 4: I like it exta.
Speaker 1: I did play a Half Life two RTX. You guys
Speaker 1: get a chance to look at this. It's the RTX
Speaker 1: update for Half Life two.
Speaker 6: How is that I want? I want to set that up?
Speaker 6: I mean I keep I always want to set up
Speaker 6: these RTX and these like new demos, and I never
Speaker 6: do on games I've already beat and I need to
Speaker 6: do that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think this is definitely one where it's
Speaker 1: worth it because it's, uh, it's right in that sweet
Speaker 1: zone of it's Yeah, it's a simple game. Geometrically speaking,
Speaker 1: there's not like a million polygons, so they can get
Speaker 1: this running and do like the full path tracing for
Speaker 1: people who don't know. Basically, it's just the computer calculating
Speaker 1: how light will bounce around a room so they can
Speaker 1: make the light look the lighting look very realistic and
Speaker 1: so then but then on top of that, it's like
Speaker 1: still got really good art and the way that they
Speaker 1: do put everything together looks really just nice. And so
Speaker 1: the actual visual effect of a fire being around a
Speaker 1: corner and the light from that bouncing around off the
Speaker 1: off the wall, and then refracting around the corner and
Speaker 1: creating a shadow, and then the light from that wall
Speaker 1: that's reflecting there down on top of that shadow, so
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of a layer of light on
Speaker 1: top of that is enchanting. It looks so good now.
Speaker 1: It is a kind of a community made it. The
Speaker 1: community made this as like a mod on top of
Speaker 1: Half Life too, so people have to own Half Life too,
Speaker 1: which I think everyone does. But it's a little crashy,
Speaker 1: like it was crashing on me pretty frequently. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people are experiencing this as well. So
Speaker 1: don't maybe go into this thinking this is the way
Speaker 1: I'm going to play Half Life two. But if you
Speaker 1: want to like see Half Life two in a new way,
Speaker 1: you can go in there do that. It gives you
Speaker 1: the full RTX sort of module on top, so you
Speaker 1: can turn off all the features individually, so you can
Speaker 1: kind of go back to see what it used to
Speaker 1: look like, turn on just some of the archaects features,
Speaker 1: or turn it all on. And yeah, it's worked really
Speaker 1: well for me. Now, I was running on a fifty
Speaker 1: eighty and so it was running pretty well for me.
Speaker 1: People were like on thirty sixties were saying this is
Speaker 1: just like, I could not play this game anymore. It's
Speaker 1: twenty frames per second, so maybe you have to we
Speaker 1: might have to have some pretty beefy hardware to take
Speaker 1: advantage of it. But I think it's worth it to
Speaker 1: like just see what this technology can do. And at
Speaker 1: the same time, I'm not like going around and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is the future, because it is still pretty tough
Speaker 1: for most or most PCs to run this stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm plugging in your computer tonight. So you know,
Speaker 2: I love Half Life two. Half Like two is still
Speaker 2: one of my favorite games, so it definitely would like
Speaker 2: to at least see what this looks like. So it
Speaker 2: might be one of the first things I install on
Speaker 2: the thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I, oh, do you have a question?
Speaker 1: Dan there?
Speaker 4: Oh no, we're moving on. I was gonna miss another game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead please.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you were talking about PC stuff and it's like, man,
Speaker 3: I'm doing that. We saw connect Plus for Assassin's Creen Shadows,
Speaker 3: and it is like, you know, even on the five Pro,
Speaker 3: you know, it runs fine, it's got the different modes
Speaker 3: and everything you can do on Assassin's Creed. But boy,
Speaker 3: I switched over to the PC and that Ubisoft Connect
Speaker 3: stuff works really really well. Immediately there's my last save,
Speaker 3: and it does look just a million times better on
Speaker 3: the PC. But as I play that, it's like, I think,
Speaker 3: I said this on the BombCast earlier this week, that like, you.
Speaker 4: Know what, I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 3: Fine, I'm enjoying it more than I've usually enjoyed Assassin's
Speaker 3: Creed games. But I knew that once I came across
Speaker 3: something else they grabbed my attention, i'd probably bounce off
Speaker 3: pretty hard. And mystery game that Greb and I are playing,
Speaker 3: I started playing that, and it's like, well, okay, I
Speaker 3: have not touched Assassin's Creed.
Speaker 4: Since I started playing that.
Speaker 3: And it's also a hard one to imagine myself going
Speaker 3: back to because even like a better Assassin's Creed and
Speaker 3: one that I've enjoyed more than the.
Speaker 4: Past, is still pretty dry to me. Yeah, and the
Speaker 4: fact that like just the story and it's just it's
Speaker 4: it's so wait you talked about.
Speaker 1: It's a revenge story. Those are your favorite and only
Speaker 1: stories you like.
Speaker 3: But I like it when it's with like fun characters
Speaker 3: and stuff, and like everyone's boring an Assassin's Creed and
Speaker 3: they always have.
Speaker 1: Characters are the enemies that you kill basically as you
Speaker 1: find them, right, So it's like I thought that there'd
Speaker 1: be a lot more of the like the cool Murderers
Speaker 1: Row that they showed off at the beginning of the game,
Speaker 1: being like, Okay, they're going to be like interacting in
Speaker 1: the story, and I'll intersect with them over and over
Speaker 1: and it's like, no, you just track them down, and
Speaker 1: when you do, you kill them, So you don't get
Speaker 1: much more of the of the fun stuff of them
Speaker 1: looking really neat with their cool masks and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking I'm in a pretty similar boat. I'm
Speaker 1: enjoying it still, but you're right, it's going to be
Speaker 1: pretty easy to peel me away from it now, you know.
Speaker 1: Not that that doesn't mean it's not a good game.
Speaker 1: It's still pretty good.
Speaker 4: Yep, yep.
Speaker 1: I also got the Ambernik, the RG thirty four whatever
Speaker 1: it was that that game it's the game Boy Advance
Speaker 1: one that it is not the sp and been playing
Speaker 1: that more and more. And I mentioned last night on
Speaker 1: another show that I really don't like the face buttons
Speaker 1: because because it's so dedicated to looking like a game
Speaker 1: Boy Advance. What it does is it has the A
Speaker 1: and B button as full size you know, gray buttons
Speaker 1: right there, and then it puts X and Y equivalents
Speaker 1: above those, but directly above them, not in the diamond format.
Speaker 1: So just imagine no imagine playing like Tony Hawk, right
Speaker 1: this is this isn't for me. If you're controller maybe
Speaker 1: this is like kind of an obsessive thing, but I
Speaker 1: love Tony Hawk. If you can't play Tony Hawk with
Speaker 1: the with the face buttons, I think you've messed up.
Speaker 1: And it's not very good. It's very similar to the
Speaker 1: setup of the face buttons on a duke controller, but
Speaker 1: actually kind of worse because they're even more mushed together
Speaker 1: and the top the buttons are a little bit smaller,
Speaker 1: so it all just feels wrong under your thumb. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of at a point where it's like, I think
Speaker 1: I might only be able to play game Boy Advance
Speaker 1: games with this, really and maybe like game Boy games
Speaker 1: another two button controller games now for that it's really good.
Speaker 4: Well even like GBA, would you ever take it over?
Speaker 3: Like you know, we've got the the trem Ui brick
Speaker 3: and then you've got the sp one from Ambernick. Like
Speaker 3: if you're gonna play like an Advanced Wars or something like,
Speaker 3: wouldn't you pick one of those first?
Speaker 1: Or even I mean, you know it's it's uh, I
Speaker 1: mean analog pocket. Yes, probably, Yeah, you're right, but I
Speaker 1: still like the form factor of it being, you know,
Speaker 1: the long candy bar version of the Game Boy Advance. There.
Speaker 1: I still have a nostalgia for that, even if I
Speaker 1: did love the sp more. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: In this moment, I'm playing Mother three on there. It
Speaker 1: does the really good filter of making the LCD screen
Speaker 1: look like a Game Boy Advance LCD screen with like,
Speaker 1: you know, the lines between the pixels, like the very
Speaker 1: h you know, segmented look of that screen. And so
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm feeling good about this in this moment.
Speaker 1: But if I like put them all in a drawer
Speaker 1: in and I had to like, Okay, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: play a game Boy Advance game and I have to
Speaker 1: pick one to do that with, You're right, this probably
Speaker 1: would not be the first pick.
Speaker 3: It's interesting how they all because you know, we have
Speaker 3: the same sickness, and I'm sure it's the way with
Speaker 3: you certain games you just decide like, Okay, So if
Speaker 3: it's something you're really like, you know, I'm playing through
Speaker 3: these Warrior Land games now, and those are ones that
Speaker 3: I want to sit down and actually really play. The
Speaker 3: Analog is what I'm doing, you know, because it's like
Speaker 3: that is going to be the best form factor. It's
Speaker 3: going to look great and everything. And then like the
Speaker 3: trim Ui brick is now my go to for like
Speaker 3: fits in a pocket easily. It's when I can throw
Speaker 3: in a bag and not worry about it because it's
Speaker 3: a little cheaper and I put a glass protector on
Speaker 3: the screen everything, so that's fine. So it's either like
Speaker 3: the SP or the trim Ui is the good Like
Speaker 3: on the go, it's fine, it's you know, it's not
Speaker 3: gonna get I wouldn't want to put an Analog in
Speaker 3: a bag that's gonna get you know, thrown around on
Speaker 3: a trip or something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then the SP is the one that I bought
Speaker 3: a few of when they were on sale and just
Speaker 3: cloned my card with all the RUMs so like I
Speaker 3: can give out on like you know, birthdays and stuff
Speaker 3: like that, because I think that's such an easy one.
Speaker 3: Like everyone loves that form factor of the SP And
Speaker 3: those were like fifty bucks or something from Ambernick at
Speaker 3: least when they were on sale.
Speaker 2: And I really need to get one of these clamshell ones,
Speaker 2: I think, because one I want to play Mother three
Speaker 2: and it seems a good way to do it too.
Speaker 2: You know, I was at I had a theme park
Speaker 2: experience recently, right, and I was in lines one time.
Speaker 2: I was actually just in this like hour long line
Speaker 2: by myself. And I mean, you know, back in the
Speaker 2: day when I still have a three DS on me
Speaker 2: all the time, that was fine, and that was nothing.
Speaker 2: But these days, you know, like the Switch is my
Speaker 2: main portable system, and I can't really put the switch
Speaker 2: in my pocket to really bring it around with me
Speaker 2: in a theme park. So I do miss having my
Speaker 2: actual pocket handheld for situations like that.
Speaker 3: You know what I loaded up on the analog this
Speaker 3: week since I was reading the Drukker's book is I
Speaker 3: was obsessed with Mortal Kombat as a kid, but I
Speaker 3: was you know, the Arcade and then the Genesis version,
Speaker 3: so Mortal Monday it was just the Genesis version. And
Speaker 3: then eventually I got the game gear because I wanted
Speaker 3: to be able to play Mortal Kombat on the go,
Speaker 3: and that was a pretty shitty version, but I never.
Speaker 4: Played the game Boy version. Oh hearing Drucker describe it, and.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, you're talking about the first one is
Speaker 3: terrible and the second one's pretty good, and the third
Speaker 3: one went back to terrible.
Speaker 4: And I played him like, oh, you were dead on
Speaker 4: with that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's it's bizarre that like when
Speaker 6: you play Mortal Kombat two in the game where you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 6: this is like a reminder that fighting games could be
Speaker 6: on the Game Boy and be pretty good, but one
Speaker 6: in three are like it. It feels like they're making
Speaker 6: fun of you. Man, especially three, after two is pretty good,
Speaker 6: like the first one, you're like, okay, they improved. Number
Speaker 6: two is better. They did their job, and then three
Speaker 6: is just such a kick in the nuts. It is
Speaker 6: the worst game, and it's and it's not like Ultimate
Speaker 6: Mortal Kombat three, So it's Mortal Kombat three with even
Speaker 6: fewer fighters than are in Mortal Kombat three.
Speaker 4: I planned the first one.
Speaker 3: I've planned it on the analog, and I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't know if like I know, this game is
Speaker 3: supposed to be bad, but I don't even know if
Speaker 3: this is running properly, because this is like it's not
Speaker 3: just oh I can't do sub zero freeze. It's like
Speaker 3: it's not registering my kick.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it'll do like a punch at like when I say,
Speaker 6: after you press the button almost like it's almost like
Speaker 6: when it lags on a real emulator, when you're like, oh,
Speaker 6: this punch is happening after I'm punching. But that's just
Speaker 6: the way. No, it's running correctly. Like, it is running correctly,
Speaker 6: like I have, you know, I have one of those
Speaker 6: you know, mod retros, and I have an analog and
Speaker 6: it runs terribly on everything.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: It was worse than I expected, for sure, I remember.
Speaker 2: But the g our Mortal Kombat Advance was also terrible. Ye, yes,
Speaker 2: you think they would have figured it out at that
Speaker 2: point and that was just also a travesty. But boy,
Speaker 2: all those deal Geo Pocket Color fighting games, those were
Speaker 2: those amazing.
Speaker 4: They were so good.
Speaker 6: Those are amazing. I think that that the the Neo
Speaker 6: Geo Pocket Color Cap Converse s MK to me is
Speaker 6: the best of the fighting game series, of that fighting
Speaker 6: game series, it's the best one good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I played so much of that while I was
Speaker 2: dragged to high school basketball games or something. Just doing
Speaker 2: the arcade mode with Terry and Ken over and over
Speaker 2: again felt so good.
Speaker 4: Oh, Mike, can I spoil an anecdote from uh? Okay?
Speaker 3: Can I let you the way you disappointed your father
Speaker 3: while accidentally accomplishing his dream at a sports game?
Speaker 6: So I would uh back as a kid like my
Speaker 6: dad would. My dad really wanted me to like sports.
Speaker 6: He didn't really care if I played sports or not.
Speaker 6: So he wasn't like a dad who's like, my son's
Speaker 6: going to play football. It was more like my dad
Speaker 6: was only interested in sports. So the only thing he
Speaker 6: could understand that I could be interested in with sports,
Speaker 6: And so he would force me to go to Miami
Speaker 6: Dolphins games. Back then it was called the Florida Marlins,
Speaker 6: called the Miami Marlins now. And one time we were
Speaker 6: at this Florida Marlins game and my death throat his
Speaker 6: whole life. Had always brought a baseball glove to baseball games.
Speaker 6: Had always talked about wanting to catch, whether it be
Speaker 6: a foul ball or a home run or just a
Speaker 6: you know, player throwing the ball because he felt bad
Speaker 6: for you and he'd never done it. He always wanted
Speaker 6: to do it. And I would bring a game boy
Speaker 6: to these games because they didn't care back then. And
Speaker 6: one time I was playing like I was playing, and
Speaker 6: I heard like a big commotion behind me, and I
Speaker 6: was like, Okay, something's going on. And what had happened
Speaker 6: was someone had hit the ball and it had like
Speaker 6: gone near my section, and while I was not paying attention,
Speaker 6: it basically went like through layers of people trying to
Speaker 6: catch it before it landed right in my chair. Like
Speaker 6: I was bent over playing and my back sort of
Speaker 6: was away from the chair and the ball landed in
Speaker 6: that Oh my god. And then I sort of shot
Speaker 6: back up because I understood what was happening by this point,
Speaker 6: I shot back up, kind of hit the ball and
Speaker 6: waited for the commotion to die down, because you know,
Speaker 6: if you've been to a sporting if you've been to
Speaker 6: a baseball game, like people are really trying to get
Speaker 6: that ball. And once everyone gave up, I turned to
Speaker 6: my dad and I was like, hey, Dad, I caught
Speaker 6: the ball. And he was so so disappointed, like so
Speaker 6: and he wasn't like mad. It was almost like it
Speaker 6: was almost like I had sarcastically lived his dream.
Speaker 1: This is what you've been waiting out your whole life
Speaker 1: for this shit sucks.
Speaker 6: At Have you tried like bringing War of the Worlds
Speaker 6: to a baseball game and reading.
Speaker 4: That I can't like it?
Speaker 1: Landing right there between your back and the Seaton is
Speaker 1: the funniest place he could have gone by far. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: what were you playing on your game Boy? Do you remember?
Speaker 6: I have no. I don't member at all. I don't
Speaker 6: I mean knowing knowing me. It was probably something like
Speaker 6: for some reason, I was really in the lock and Chase.
Speaker 6: I don't know why that sure, I don't know it was.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 6: It was also around the age when like you would
Speaker 6: get one or two game Boy games a year, and
Speaker 6: so it was like you're either playing Alleyway or you're
Speaker 6: playing nothing. And I think it was sort of like
Speaker 6: that time.
Speaker 3: My mind were ones that I never had a game
Speaker 3: Boy pocket or anything until my mom. She was a
Speaker 3: waitress at Macaroni Grill at this point, and it was
Speaker 3: like lost and found, like stuff would stay there for
Speaker 3: like a year and then we got to clear this out,
Speaker 3: and so it's like, oh shit, I got a green
Speaker 3: game Boy pocket and bugs Bunny Crazy Castle and bus
Speaker 3: Bunny Crazy Castle, God.
Speaker 6: Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle. Bugs. Bunny Crazy Castle is like
Speaker 6: the game Boy equivalent of like a Night's Tale, where
Speaker 6: everyone had that on DVD for some reason, like it
Speaker 6: just insisted everywhere.
Speaker 4: We're talking about with a Fester's Quest. Everybody, yes.
Speaker 1: But my my weird game Boy game that I had
Speaker 1: was it was a weird version of in f felt football,
Speaker 1: where like when you would punt it over, the other
Speaker 1: teams are like, oh, that's a turnover. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: the people that made this game did not understand this
Speaker 1: story at all. I played that so much. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: go ahead, Mike.
Speaker 2: I had Simpsons like bart Escape from Camp Deadly something
Speaker 2: like that. It was just that was a camp krusty.
Speaker 2: It was called Camp Deadly in the game. We had
Speaker 2: nothing to do with that. It was just all those
Speaker 2: Simpsons games were pretty bad back then. This one was rough,
Speaker 2: and I remember desperately trying every game Genie code hoping
Speaker 2: that one of them would make the game fun.
Speaker 6: So it's never.
Speaker 3: Punishments for if we ever quit a Blake Club game,
Speaker 3: which has not happened yet. We all have too much
Speaker 3: pride in beating these terrible games. But one of the
Speaker 3: punishments is you have to just play Bart versus the
Speaker 3: Space Mutants to completion. All of us have that thing
Speaker 3: of like, we all rented it because it was a
Speaker 3: Simpsons game on any as, and no one's ever gotten
Speaker 3: past that first level.
Speaker 6: I don't think I have. I've definitely played it and
Speaker 6: could not tell you what happens after that first level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's impossible, complete nonsense. My my sports game Boy
Speaker 1: story is my I was like okay with sports, but
Speaker 1: I definitely preferred video games. My dad wanted to take
Speaker 1: me on like some father's son. We're gonna go to
Speaker 1: the Sweet sixteen for the March Madness, and it was
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis, another city, and it was like this
Speaker 1: whole thing, and he got us like a helicopter tour
Speaker 1: around Saint Louis and stuff like that, and that was
Speaker 1: really cool. But the thing I was most excited, but
Speaker 1: he's like, we're gonna get a game Boy game, and
Speaker 1: I got Kirby's dream Land and I was playing that
Speaker 1: the whole trip. And then I assumed that he like
Speaker 1: didn't really notice what game like he got me. So
Speaker 1: a few months later when I was like, okay, I
Speaker 1: haven't had a new game of quite some time, and
Speaker 1: I've played through Kirby. I'm not going to play that again.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, Dack, can we go to this. They're
Speaker 1: doing this new thing where you could trade in games
Speaker 1: and get new games, and I could trade in this
Speaker 1: and this Kirby game. He's like, isn't that the one
Speaker 1: I got you in Saint Louis? And I saw how
Speaker 1: sad he was and I felt bad. So I still
Speaker 1: have that copy of Kirby's Dreamland to this day. That's
Speaker 1: how I disappointed him. Actually I did not respect the
Speaker 1: fact that he got me a gift.
Speaker 6: That's actually sad.
Speaker 1: I felt terrible, and I still have carried that trauma
Speaker 1: this whole time.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I was, I shouldn't even tell I have
Speaker 2: a similar, similar traumatizing story about kind of it was worse.
Speaker 2: I was a brat because there's some kind of like
Speaker 2: birthday thing and I said I wanted Super Mario Land
Speaker 2: three Warland, and my mom got me Mario Land two instead,
Speaker 2: which I already had, So of course I was like, oh, mom,
Speaker 2: I had this one, and she was I could immediately
Speaker 2: see how sad she was. I was like, why did
Speaker 2: I just not pretend I didn't did I do, what's
Speaker 2: wrong with me?
Speaker 4: Why am I a bad person?
Speaker 3: I went to Earthworm Gym two for Genesis, and my
Speaker 3: grandma got me Earthworm Gym one, and it was like
Speaker 3: I didn't want to, Like I was like, oh, yay,
Speaker 3: you know at the thing.
Speaker 4: But then we got home and I was like, Mom,
Speaker 4: what do I do about this? Like I this is
Speaker 4: not the one I need.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna make a note right now, call mom again
Speaker 2: because I am am still motif.
Speaker 4: I was such a dumbass.
Speaker 3: And when it came to Christmas games, because like I
Speaker 3: thought that like for some reason, the quality of the
Speaker 3: game would increase the odds of me getting it as
Speaker 3: a gift, when like my grandma didn't give a shit,
Speaker 3: she didn't know what any of this stuff was. But
Speaker 3: like I remember specifically wanning Star Fox for Super Nintendo
Speaker 3: because I remember every Christmas I could ask for one
Speaker 3: game and my grandma would get it to me and
Speaker 3: I would like try to sell her on it, and
Speaker 3: like again I could say anything and she'd been fine,
Speaker 3: that's the game. This year, I faxed her an EGM
Speaker 3: review of Star star Fox. Like everyone on the review
Speaker 3: crew liked it. I'm like circling it and like fax
Speaker 3: the Star Fox review to my grandma and like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm sure that put her over the edge.
Speaker 1: Of you had a fax machine in the home.
Speaker 4: We had a fax machine the home.
Speaker 3: And I would also when I wanted to see movies
Speaker 3: that my friends weren't super interested in. I remember the
Speaker 3: Kansas City Star gave like a three and a half
Speaker 3: star out of four review for Sergeant Bilko remake with
Speaker 3: Steve Martin, faxing my friend Jeff the Sergeant Bilco review
Speaker 3: be like, see you, we gotta see this.
Speaker 4: That was my move.
Speaker 1: Did it work? Did you see Sergeant Bilko?
Speaker 4: Which you had to seeing it solo? I don't.
Speaker 1: The other bad time with the gift was I got
Speaker 1: a Vice Project Doom like way after I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want Super Nintendo games now, and that was an
Speaker 1: NS game. And a friend came my birthday party, someone
Speaker 1: I don't even like remember inviting, so they brought me up.
Speaker 1: They bought me a video game, brought it to me.
Speaker 1: I did it was not like you need to bring
Speaker 1: me a present. They were like, no, we're doing this
Speaker 1: because we want to. And I was just like, oh great,
Speaker 1: any S game and I'm like I did not sell
Speaker 1: it as the way I needed to. And I also
Speaker 1: carried that this whole time and apologized kids sucked. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just we're all just little shits.
Speaker 4: Just reminded me of me being a shit thing. I
Speaker 4: don't know if you guys have heard this one.
Speaker 3: I wanted the Dreamcasts so fucking bad when it was
Speaker 3: coming out, but I definitely did not have the money
Speaker 3: for it, because I think I just traded in everything
Speaker 3: to get like the sixty four or like a year
Speaker 3: or two prior.
Speaker 4: And it was like a few weeks before.
Speaker 3: The Dreamcast came out ninety nine, and it was preseason football,
Speaker 3: and I remember my mom was upstairs, like getting ready
Speaker 3: or something. She wanted to watch the Chiefs preseason game.
Speaker 3: And I'm downstairs in the living room. I've got it on.
Speaker 3: I've got the pre show on. And she's like, what
Speaker 3: channel is the is the game on? I want to
Speaker 3: put it on up here while I get ready, And
Speaker 3: I was like, Oh, it's on CBS, and she's like, no,
Speaker 3: can't be on CBS. It's it's not on CBS football
Speaker 3: doesn't it's I say, Mom, I'm looking at it's got
Speaker 3: the eye logo. It's you know, I'm fourteen, at this
Speaker 3: point where I'm like, yeah, it's on CBS, because Dan,
Speaker 3: there's no way it's on CBS. I said, do you
Speaker 3: want to bet me? And she goes yeah. I said,
Speaker 3: all right, if I'm wrong, I will do all my
Speaker 3: chores for free for the week or for the month
Speaker 3: or something if I'm right. She was so confident that
Speaker 3: she was right. I said, then you you have to
Speaker 3: get me a dreamcast when it comes out in a
Speaker 3: few weeks. She's like, fine, Okay, I know I'm right,
Speaker 3: and I was right, and I was like, ah, I
Speaker 3: was just celebrating up and down the halls in stead
Speaker 3: of screaming and stuff.
Speaker 4: And I remember my stepdad later that day pulling me
Speaker 4: aside and being like, Danny, I know you won that bet,
Speaker 4: but like that's two hundred dollars and I don't know
Speaker 4: that's going to be a lot right now. So if
Speaker 4: you could just kind of you know, And I was like, no,
Speaker 4: I but she's buying me a dreamcast. She bought me.
Speaker 4: I would not back down. Wow, I won Barren Squares.
Speaker 6: She knew the terms.
Speaker 4: I won.
Speaker 1: Yes, of course, football so on CBS. I wish I'd
Speaker 1: go back in time and help your mom.
Speaker 4: Why would she so.
Speaker 6: TV not on CBS, and it will never be on CBS.
Speaker 4: You lose her.
Speaker 2: I'll be deep in the cold cold.
Speaker 4: The Chiefs preseason game is on CP.
Speaker 1: Just deserve to have that two hundred dollars. I should
Speaker 1: have it.
Speaker 6: I have no son.
Speaker 4: Uh you know that's a little shitty.
Speaker 6: Damn.
Speaker 2: Dreamcast is pretty good bet to bet?
Speaker 4: Do it today to my mom?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it be somehow better today. Would also be more
Speaker 6: expensive today.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm looking for our Dreamcast.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, because there was a time there where just
Speaker 2: new Dreamcast, like they marked them down to fifty bucks
Speaker 2: or something because they couldn't, you know, they couldn't sell them.
Speaker 2: I was like, man, I wish I just bought like
Speaker 2: four dream Cats and just to have them.
Speaker 4: God, what a time.
Speaker 1: All right, here's what we'll do. Now, we'll take a
Speaker 1: quick break. We'll come right back for live viewers, and
Speaker 1: we'll get into our mount rushmore of video game first levels,
Speaker 1: which we'll dis we'll discuss exactly what that means right
Speaker 1: after this. All right, we are back, and I so, okay,
Speaker 1: whose idea was? Damn? Was this your idea? Mike? Your idea?
Speaker 4: Who Who's like, Hey, it was probably minor yours and
Speaker 4: we immediately forgot grubbed. That sounds I'm sure of that,
Speaker 4: so it's one of ours. We'll just say it was mine.
Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough, the works for me. Uh, this is
Speaker 1: gonna be like first levels, but also maybe like first
Speaker 1: introductory areas, right, what do we want to like cut off?
Speaker 3: I think we will as we if there's a question
Speaker 3: about it, we'll we'll decide on.
Speaker 2: People should be pretty strict about I don't know, level,
Speaker 2: like if you're trying to tell me like oh, getting
Speaker 2: up in metal gear Sola and you're walking our around
Speaker 2: those first blocks or something.
Speaker 4: By the wise a level or something like.
Speaker 3: I don't think this is gonna be on there by
Speaker 3: any means, but like a Glass Joe fight, you know,
Speaker 3: does that count?
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe that's a yeah, Glass Joe, Yeah, it's What
Speaker 2: about something like a Mega Man where it's like, well,
Speaker 2: everyone does Metal Man first, Like I don't think that
Speaker 2: I can pick. I think that's the beauty of Mega
Speaker 2: Man is that there isn't a first level. So what
Speaker 2: about it's just not Mega but Mega.
Speaker 6: Man has the first level because Mega mans introductor.
Speaker 4: Yes that is true.
Speaker 1: Okay, So like the village from Resident Evil four. Is
Speaker 1: that a first level?
Speaker 4: That's a great.
Speaker 2: Question I'm asking, Yeah, like what of an opening sequence?
Speaker 2: I think games eventually at opening Swiss sequences pretty often.
Speaker 4: You can't saying. You can't say the Tanker of Metal,
Speaker 4: your solid two, you know, like right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So but we go through someth we think
Speaker 2: about ones that are definitely first levels.
Speaker 4: Then we see if we need to be so wiggle
Speaker 4: roomy with it anyways.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, there's gonna be a Mario, right, well, I
Speaker 1: mean it's gonna be one one, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, one one's yeah, one One's great.
Speaker 2: I think the other Mario one that would maybe compete
Speaker 2: with it is bomb bomb Battlefield.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, bomb Battlefield.
Speaker 1: Mostly Mario on this list, if I'm being honest, All.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, but bomb Battlefield and one one are good choices.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Like what one one is the first level? Right,
Speaker 2: it's the George Washington, Right, you say first little video
Speaker 2: game even even has all those ones in it. If
Speaker 2: you say, there's lots of games that actually have a
Speaker 2: level called one one. But if you say one one,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna think about Mario. I'm gonna think about those
Speaker 2: first blocks and that first goomba you jump over, and
Speaker 2: then you get that mushroom, the secret pipe of course,
Speaker 2: uh first u Piranha plant. Just so many things they're
Speaker 2: just setting up. What not just Mario, but video games
Speaker 2: are gonna be for a while.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting that three despite being like one of
Speaker 3: the best Mario games, Like, you know, the first level
Speaker 3: is a good level, but it's not like this iconic thing, you.
Speaker 2: Know, right, yeah right, and then yeah, even world like
Speaker 2: the first of all is really good. That one's weird
Speaker 2: because I think one where there was actually the second
Speaker 2: level you can yeah yeah, yeah, so with.
Speaker 4: A weird little Yoshi hut the first level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but then god ba bomb Battlefield is just so
Speaker 2: great because it does it has that kind of critical
Speaker 2: path that you should follow, but it encourages you immediately
Speaker 2: to go off in these different directions and that becomes
Speaker 2: very important for finding other stars. And then just the
Speaker 2: way it remixes that level for different goals, like the
Speaker 2: race of Koopa the Quick but you know, the first
Speaker 2: time just scaling that mountain and actually going up and
Speaker 2: fighting King Babomb and immediately finding little secrets like the
Speaker 2: little shortcut when you're going up there or just you
Speaker 2: know how you could be a little sneaker and grab
Speaker 2: the ledge a bit early to get to the top
Speaker 2: instead of running all the way around.
Speaker 4: Feels so good and very first level ends with this
Speaker 4: memorable boss.
Speaker 1: Light right yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh the music is a huge part of it because yeah,
Speaker 2: both of those right uh? Jan in the chat does
Speaker 2: mention Warehouse Tony Hawk won.
Speaker 1: Oh I like that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, that's a good Tony Hawk has a lot.
Speaker 2: I think the first three Tony games all have amazing
Speaker 2: ones with the warehouse hanger and then found the Yeah,
Speaker 2: Warehouse might be the most iconic of all of them. Still, Yeah,
Speaker 2: because even when I played Tony Hawk one again is
Speaker 2: a part it's like man where euse is the best level?
Speaker 2: Still maybe all the levels just be a bit smaller
Speaker 2: like that. I love how sort of tight and compact
Speaker 2: it is. You know, all the goals are so close
Speaker 2: to each other. It almost feels like you could do
Speaker 2: it all in one run.
Speaker 4: Boy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think about the Warehouse a lot.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm still writing these down on this list
Speaker 1: for everybody so that the chack can watch along. So far,
Speaker 1: we have Super Mario Brothers, one Dash, one Super Mario
Speaker 1: sixty four, Bob the battlefield, and then where are we
Speaker 1: gonna go with Warehouse?
Speaker 6: I think, yeah, yeah, Warehouse on there.
Speaker 3: I think first level of Sonic Green Hill Zone, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I love Green Hill Zone.
Speaker 4: I mean the first time you do the loop and
Speaker 4: stuff like, that's that's huge. Yeah, you go in the tunnel.
Speaker 2: Gosh, that there's another one of good music and that
Speaker 2: was that was so vibrant and colorful right on the Genesis.
Speaker 2: I still love the way that Greenhills Zone looks. I
Speaker 2: mean it's so good that Sea honestly brings it back
Speaker 2: way too often. It's like in every Sonic game sometimes yeah,
Speaker 2: one way or another.
Speaker 3: That's one whenever I'm setting up like a new emulation device,
Speaker 3: like I will like to test, like, oh, I'm just
Speaker 3: gonna load up Sonic and check it out, like it
Speaker 3: looks awesome.
Speaker 1: Still is the escape sequence from Super Metroid or like
Speaker 1: the setup of Castlevania simply and night are those introductory sequences?
Speaker 2: Those are more like sequences, And I mean, I'm honestly
Speaker 2: for Castlevania, I was thinking of just the first level
Speaker 2: of Castlevania one totally okay right there with them, you
Speaker 2: have that intro going from the castle. Then you have
Speaker 2: Vampire Killer, which is an all time a great song.
Speaker 2: You're outside for a bit, then you're in the castle,
Speaker 2: you're you know, you get the mermaid Man encounter ends
Speaker 2: with you fighting.
Speaker 4: That giant bat. Uh. Yeah, I think about that first
Speaker 4: level all the time.
Speaker 6: And here's uh, here's another one great deco tree.
Speaker 4: Oh okay for the first dungeons count for level. I
Speaker 4: think that's fair fucking good. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 6: Because, like I think the opening of the game is
Speaker 6: like we're saying an opening sequence, like there's tasks, but
Speaker 6: you can't really fail them per se. But the great decutree,
Speaker 6: I feel like, is the first time you're like, oh,
Speaker 6: this is a I'm playing and I can fail. I
Speaker 6: am outside of just like talking to people trying to
Speaker 6: block me from leaving this exit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not the tutorial anymore. It's like you're actually
Speaker 4: playing the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think that Mike had a pretty good point earlier
Speaker 4: of Mega Man x.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 2: That Highway intro level is really cool, especially because you
Speaker 2: know the Megman games at that point were all, hey,
Speaker 2: pick your first level, and here you did have this
Speaker 2: intro sequence and it's a perfectly set up to teach
Speaker 2: you some of the new mechanics here with the dashing,
Speaker 2: especially the wall jumping. You have those memorable fights with
Speaker 2: those giant b robots. You're dodging the cars, you can
Speaker 2: even ride on them, get the introduction of vile, and
Speaker 2: then zero.
Speaker 4: It's a perfect little intro love it.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, I see what you're typing.
Speaker 1: One M one. Yes. Yeah, that's kind of like doom man.
Speaker 1: Yeah you kind of just yes doom exactly. You kind
Speaker 1: of just this is a canonical first level in my brain.
Speaker 1: When I think of first levels, I go to doom
Speaker 1: E one M one.
Speaker 6: That's one of those levels.
Speaker 4: E one M exclamation mark because you yeah, there we
Speaker 4: go fixed it.
Speaker 6: That's like a level of played so much in my
Speaker 6: life that I feel like I could complete it with
Speaker 6: my eyes closed. And I'm not the person who could
Speaker 6: do that easily with something, but like I can imagine
Speaker 6: the entire map just hearing E one M one.
Speaker 1: Yep, I've built a mental map of that absolutely, And
Speaker 1: you're right. I'm the same way where it's like I
Speaker 1: don't do that with most levels, but that one. It's
Speaker 1: just like I know that turn, I know where to
Speaker 1: get that thing and then yep, absolutely all the secrets
Speaker 1: walk back at the shotgun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I'm usually a bit of a hater
Speaker 2: on this one. Wasn't what you all think of of God,
Speaker 2: I'm forgetting damn. I forgot the word for damn for
Speaker 2: a second and gold.
Speaker 3: I was considering that, but then I was thinking, like,
Speaker 3: I kind of like as far as the first little
Speaker 3: like facility, I think is better than DAN. So I
Speaker 3: was thinking out of those games Perfect Dark, the the
Speaker 3: like Skyscraper because that's you got the kind of played
Speaker 3: runner cars going by and everything. You know, you're running
Speaker 3: your way down the elevator, and like that Perfect Darks
Speaker 3: first level is better than Golden Eyes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I do like Dan, but yes, I
Speaker 1: agree with you that Perfect Darks is better. What's it
Speaker 1: called facility?
Speaker 3: Uh no, no, no don't. I don't know the name Perfect Darks.
Speaker 3: That Golden Eye was the facility was the second level,
Speaker 3: but that that's not.
Speaker 4: I'll find out for you, Jeff, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Than I gotta get a keyboard that isn't so loud,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Uh okay, let's.
Speaker 2: Uh a collection central calling defection data dyning, Central calling
Speaker 2: defection are dying.
Speaker 4: In the chat.
Speaker 2: That's what this thing is called data Dine. It's it's
Speaker 2: the first the day of Dina's lowercase. Importantly, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: get this uppercase.
Speaker 1: All right, camel cap, no regular cap.
Speaker 4: There you go. There's no colon yet, there's no yet.
Speaker 1: Sorry for the errant colon.
Speaker 4: Colon uh defection. There it is.
Speaker 1: Okay, we got it.
Speaker 4: Everybody killed it there, buddy, thank you. Chad mentions contrast
Speaker 4: stage one.
Speaker 1: Oh that's that's good.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, the one we've done a billion times and
Speaker 3: then died, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Someone in the Chad also mentioned Shadows of the Empire
Speaker 6: hath level, which I.
Speaker 3: Actually think absolutely fantastic because I mean that is especially
Speaker 3: good for this because that's like the part everyone played
Speaker 3: in light of that game.
Speaker 6: Yes, that was what inspired like eight other games after
Speaker 6: that was more like they just want haf.
Speaker 1: I mean like a whole genre of like those kinds
Speaker 1: of like Arcadie flight sim games from especially from Factor five,
Speaker 1: Like we're just gonna keep making that stuff based on
Speaker 1: what they did over there with that.
Speaker 2: Yes, that is it too similar to do the uh
Speaker 2: attack on the death Star opening from a Rogue Leader,
Speaker 2: because boy was.
Speaker 4: That an amazing. Hot is I think hot.
Speaker 2: It's just like here's the movie and then you do
Speaker 2: the trench run and it basically just looks like the movie.
Speaker 4: I guess, yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean I literally can turn this TV on right now,
Speaker 1: we could play that. So yes, I feel very similar
Speaker 1: about that level. But I think it's off between those
Speaker 1: two and we probably just have one of them. That's yeah,
Speaker 1: let's see how I had one. What was it? Oh,
Speaker 1: Star Fox sixty.
Speaker 2: Four, Cornarian sixty four, especially secret change you can do.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, that boss fight's fun.
Speaker 6: Half of the dialogue is iconic, and it's just like
Speaker 6: twenty lines.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Che's is crazy taxing, but like that's just the level, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's a little bit against the spirit. I
Speaker 1: guess the first level.
Speaker 4: I guess.
Speaker 2: I don't know if there are enough there's a level
Speaker 2: of Tetris Tetris. I don't know if there's enough other
Speaker 2: piz here, but one and two a very good first levels.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great chat suggestion, Metal of Honor, front Line Normandy Beach.
Speaker 3: I remember of Saults also was like Salt Console Boys,
Speaker 3: so I remember Frontline, but like I spoiled PC Bratt,
Speaker 3: I desperately wanted to play alight of Sult I remember was.
Speaker 4: Very I mean I think it's in the demo. Maybe
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 2: I can't remember if I actually owned the game. I
Speaker 2: just played the demo over and over again.
Speaker 6: All right, what about Final Fantasy seven bombing of the
Speaker 6: Maco Reactor?
Speaker 4: Is that a level? Excuse me.
Speaker 2: If you if you tell me about this level and
Speaker 2: a j RPG, My first instances like, what is you
Speaker 2: talking about level and a j RPG?
Speaker 4: Again, I think that's more of an intro to me,
Speaker 4: that intro sequence.
Speaker 1: Right, and and honest, I think maybe we could return
Speaker 1: to this with best intro sequence because like you know, BioShock,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Rapture things like that, that's and that was
Speaker 1: not first levels. They are something else.
Speaker 4: Chap Bering is a pillar of Autumn. Halo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was wondering if you I was gonna ask
Speaker 1: you guys about Halo if that's uh cool?
Speaker 3: But there, Yeah, there's so many better levels in that,
Speaker 3: and that one's just so kind of like claustrophobic.
Speaker 4: I mean sets the tone very well, it's gonna make it.
Speaker 4: I don't think it quite hangs.
Speaker 7: Yeah, all right, oh yeah, I was gonna say like similar,
Speaker 7: like better levels a portal, its first test chamber, which
Speaker 7: does establish a lot of cool stuff, but as that
Speaker 7: builds on.
Speaker 2: Top of itself, I mean, you know, I wouldn't have
Speaker 2: the first world gun yet, right yeah, yes, yeah, Like
Speaker 2: both Halfway games have amazing intros, but I really want
Speaker 2: to call them the first levels.
Speaker 1: Right, Yes, Half Life's intro is a different thing, yes, yeah.
Speaker 4: For sure. I don't uh, I don't think it's going
Speaker 4: to make it, but I think the first level of
Speaker 4: the First Crowd Bandicoot is probably the most I haven't
Speaker 4: enjoyed that series. You know.
Speaker 3: Sure it's got all the grush stuff there and it's
Speaker 3: not obnoxious, but I don't think it's gonna make it.
Speaker 4: Uh, Jeff, what about the first level shoots screached too?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 4: Sorry, sorry, Mike, I mean no.
Speaker 6: No, no, please go with that. But then I'm gonna
Speaker 6: say Papa the Rapper. Oh yeah, it's a dojo.
Speaker 4: That's the one everyone remembered. It's the best level in
Speaker 4: the whole series.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's a great and it's it is a full level,
Speaker 6: it's not just a sequence.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 2: I think I think the best video I've ever seen
Speaker 2: on the internet. Still, if somebody like made that mod Parapa,
Speaker 2: the Rapper level where it's Batman and PaRappa and like.
Speaker 4: This is where I watched my parents die. This is
Speaker 4: where you watch. Yeah, they can't they can't get it up.
Speaker 1: It all right. The first level Parapa is called chop
Speaker 1: Chop Master onions wrap.
Speaker 4: All right, there we go, Oh yeah, are we counting
Speaker 4: the village? No? If too much stuff to think about. Anyways,
Speaker 4: it's a.
Speaker 1: It's a it's an intro sequence, I guess. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean it's got like a beginning and end to it,
Speaker 1: like it like ends, but like it's a transition into
Speaker 1: the rest of the game. So yeah, I'm okay with
Speaker 1: calling it a sequence.
Speaker 2: It's like my question if you went to somebody and said,
Speaker 2: what's your favorite level in resume before and they're like,
Speaker 2: what do you mean level?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 1: Do you mean area because like that's yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: just is a different thing.
Speaker 3: I guess, like Devil mccry has levels. I don't think
Speaker 3: Resident Evil necessarily does, you know?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Okay, chapters and it's different too, it's weird.
Speaker 1: Do we want to read what we have so far
Speaker 1: and then see if we have any other last thoughts?
Speaker 4: Sure? Sure, all right, by the way, the first level,
Speaker 4: Oh thank you? All right, on me add that real quick,
Speaker 4: saying that the discount link to the past. I mean,
Speaker 4: what would that would that be? Just going to the
Speaker 4: castle and getting out with the first or the first Yeah, Palace.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's really good. I mean, that's like
Speaker 3: my favorite game ever. But I don't know if I
Speaker 3: called the castle. I mean, that's just kind of setting
Speaker 3: the tone.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: Here's what we have so far for the Mount rushmore
Speaker 1: of first levels, Super Mario Brothers one to one, Super
Speaker 1: Mario sixty four's Bobam Battlefield Warehouse, Antniok's pro Skater, Green
Speaker 1: Hill Zone from Sonic, the first level from Castlevania, Great
Speaker 1: Decu Tree from Ocarina of Time, the Highway Stage from
Speaker 1: Mega man X E one M one from Doom Data,
Speaker 1: Dine Central Defection from Perfect Dark, Stage one from Contra
Speaker 1: Hath from Star Wars, Shadows of the Empire, Cornaria from
Speaker 1: Star Fox sixty four, Normandy Beach from Metal Vanner Frontline,
Speaker 1: and also World War Two Streets of Rage two Downtown,
Speaker 1: and Perappa the Rappa Chop Chop Master Onion. There's a
Speaker 1: lot here that I'm like, oh, I could go for
Speaker 1: any of these on this list. This might be tough
Speaker 1: to little down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, soup Adam hit Man. The first level isn't really ye, Paris,
Speaker 2: it's like that sort of intro stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, god man, if we could count Paris though, Paris
Speaker 1: is one of the best ones.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but no, I think it's that Boat one is
Speaker 4: enough of an actual level.
Speaker 1: You know, it's tutorial mission, but it is a level.
Speaker 3: You're right, let's to take stuff off. I think I
Speaker 3: don't think Medal of Honor is gonna hang. It was no,
Speaker 3: but there's too many heavy hitters here. The first level
Speaker 3: of Sonic Adventure with the Whale.
Speaker 4: He look, I thought about it. People are gonna help me.
Speaker 2: But that level was actually the best Sonic has maybe
Speaker 2: ever felt in It's the most exciting I've ever been
Speaker 2: about Sonic. Yeah, yeah, that was pretty good. Mm hmm
Speaker 2: that level. What's Sonic at one level?
Speaker 1: Dude?
Speaker 4: I mean everybody remembers that killer Whale of course. Yeah,
Speaker 4: that's like an iconic video game moment.
Speaker 6: God.
Speaker 1: I mean, I like, I could just like throw out
Speaker 1: my four and then you guys could tell me where
Speaker 1: I'm wrong.
Speaker 4: It's called Emerald cuss By the way. I don't even know.
Speaker 1: I think I would go with Bob on Battlefield, hath
Speaker 1: E one M one, and then god maybe Chop Chop
Speaker 1: Master Onion.
Speaker 4: I know one.
Speaker 1: I think think I'm gonna go you guys, I was
Speaker 1: listening to your conversation. I mean, listen, one one should
Speaker 1: probably be on there, but yeah, I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to finish, like a weird part of me that
Speaker 1: that's like one one and be there because so important.
Speaker 1: There's so many good but there's only four slots, and
Speaker 1: it seems crazy don't to do two for.
Speaker 2: Mario, but they're also so fucking good. Yeah, let's assume
Speaker 2: we put both of them on there. Let's if you
Speaker 2: only had to let two other ones in there, which
Speaker 2: two would it be?
Speaker 4: I like Warehouse a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Wareouse. Actually, I'm looking at that more and more.
Speaker 1: That would be fantastic.
Speaker 6: Actually, I would.
Speaker 3: Say Warehouse, perfect Dark, one and one yeah for keeping,
Speaker 3: for keeping, Yeah.
Speaker 4: That's a contender.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think one and one like clears
Speaker 2: some of the other Shooter ones here, like yeah, definitely
Speaker 2: Metal of Honor, definitely Perfect Dark.
Speaker 4: I don't think I do like Casylvania first level I
Speaker 4: don't know if the Caslvani first level is gonna happen.
Speaker 4: Don a quiet hang.
Speaker 2: It's very good, doesn't quite hang, And maybe Contra has
Speaker 2: a little bit of the same problem.
Speaker 4: I would say, yeah, yeah, I like it a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, God, I think if we're a big
Speaker 1: part of all these first levels, is also really good,
Speaker 1: like Songs and Contra and Streets Rage two Both and
Speaker 1: Star and Casylvania and.
Speaker 4: Green Hill Zone and.
Speaker 1: Well of course Tony Hawk. Yeah, yeah, goss.
Speaker 4: It's really good. I think out of Tony Hawk might
Speaker 4: be my next one. Yeah, I think Tony I think
Speaker 4: Whereholse might have to be a lock. I don't. There's
Speaker 4: no way I would be okay with it not being there.
Speaker 6: I could, I could, I could agree with that, Okay.
Speaker 1: So I mean, right now we have one one Bob
Speaker 1: on Battlefield Warehouse and one m one leaving God. I
Speaker 1: don't leaveing off Hawk is tough.
Speaker 4: That's such a first level. It's tough.
Speaker 2: But like the only thing I would be one to
Speaker 2: get rid of is one of the Marios, and it's just, yeah, God,
Speaker 2: leaving both of those off seems like a lot. What
Speaker 2: what's the I will say the one that I would
Speaker 2: get rid of the most out of these left, maybe Decautry,
Speaker 2: just because there is so much game before there's very
Speaker 2: hour probably Yeah that's fair.
Speaker 4: Yeah, jeez, I doom. The thing is I the music
Speaker 4: is I remember more than actually the level. I mean,
Speaker 4: I think it's it's cool. I'm really blown up.
Speaker 3: The barrels and stuff was cool, but like I'm not
Speaker 3: like Drunker in that, like I can't picture, like I've
Speaker 3: beaten that level a million times, but I think something
Speaker 3: about the actual playing with Maybe it's because I played Wolfenstein,
Speaker 3: you know before the act, I wasn't already shocked by like.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, you know, like I don't. I mean it
Speaker 4: might have been the case with you too, Mike, but.
Speaker 6: No, no, no, it's fair.
Speaker 2: I have a pretty photographic memory level, like yeah, especially
Speaker 2: that part where there's like the zig zaggy path and
Speaker 2: is the guy on the top left up there and
Speaker 2: down Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: The little because over the top there.
Speaker 2: We always like play do on everything right, and sometimes
Speaker 2: you're not going to get very far in it, but
Speaker 2: you're always going to play that first level.
Speaker 3: Sombo in the chat says there's like five minutes before Decutrie. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the sword in the shield and the rupees and everything
Speaker 3: it's gonna be. There's a lot of cut scene and
Speaker 3: stuff there too.
Speaker 6: It's a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the Decu tree talks for five minutes
Speaker 2: when you eat it.
Speaker 1: Like, let's yah, I guess let's keep cutting actually, so
Speaker 1: we can at least talk about some of these other ones,
Speaker 1: Mega man X and Sonic where What are you feel
Speaker 1: about that?
Speaker 2: I would get a Magma before Sonics, but it hates
Speaker 2: to I think that's I agree, it's good, I really
Speaker 2: do you know.
Speaker 4: I think that Mega Next Level is so good at
Speaker 4: introducing mechanics stuff. It's great. If it was a top ten,
Speaker 4: it would be in there for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: This it is four. It is just four, and that's rough.
Speaker 6: I will say. Someone in the chat made a good
Speaker 6: point of do we have any games that are from
Speaker 6: after two thousand and five?
Speaker 3: Well, I think is that, like, you know, the idea
Speaker 3: of games having levels were like that was like almost
Speaker 3: every game back then. Now you still have them, but
Speaker 3: it's not as much broken into levels, you know, right,
Speaker 3: even the games that do have levels, it does almost
Speaker 3: feel like, you know, some of it is that we
Speaker 3: are much better about easy people into games.
Speaker 2: Maybe that the first levels can often feel maybe a
Speaker 2: bit tried and forgettable these even in.
Speaker 4: A lot of the retro ones.
Speaker 1: True, and it's and like, when I do think of
Speaker 1: like a modern first level, I'm like, well, Shovel Night's
Speaker 1: pretty good and an old game too, and it's at
Speaker 1: art or whatever, so yeah, my bad. Yeah. And then
Speaker 1: turble Shot says nobody knows what the fuck Parpa is
Speaker 1: and that's just cultural malpractice there, but rude that maybe
Speaker 1: doesn't actually make it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's fair, it makes it not my personal list,
Speaker 6: but not on the world.
Speaker 2: I love how different it is than these other ones too,
Speaker 2: though you know, it's a I know, I agree.
Speaker 4: But Tony Hawk's pretty different too, you know. Yeah, times
Speaker 4: pretty different.
Speaker 1: Okay, so here's what we have left right now. It
Speaker 1: was some bolded but nothing's finalized. One one Bob on Battlefield,
Speaker 1: Warehouse E one M one, Green hill Zone, and hath Okay,
Speaker 1: and actually I could take any four of those as
Speaker 1: long as ye yeah, there's no I don't really think
Speaker 1: it needs to be on there. I don't think Green
Speaker 1: hill Zone does either, but I would rather see it
Speaker 1: on there than that. I'm pretty good with the four
Speaker 1: bolded honestly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will say every one of them, but HATH
Speaker 3: I have gone back to and played numerous times within
Speaker 3: the last year.
Speaker 1: You know, I've done that with HATH, So yeah, but
Speaker 1: for me, like the I guess the argument of HATH
Speaker 1: would be, it really was that thing where that came
Speaker 1: out and it was like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: what we can do with three D and it was
Speaker 1: so like inspirational to so many developers immediately, like more
Speaker 1: so than a lot of other things happening at that
Speaker 1: the exact same time.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I would not I would not make a strong
Speaker 6: argument about it, but I feel like HAF is better
Speaker 6: than the warehouse for the list. But I am not
Speaker 6: going to put up a battle about this. I'm not
Speaker 6: going to fight anybody. That's just my personal opinion.
Speaker 4: Here's here's a thought. I think it's funny. Would it
Speaker 4: be if we replaced one one with green Hill Zone
Speaker 4: crazy stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I'll fla and lease most things with you,
Speaker 1: but not that one.
Speaker 4: But true, I try.
Speaker 1: I mean god, I would I would actually swap out
Speaker 1: one m one for HAF, even.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't personally, But what if we could do one
Speaker 2: or HOFF vote with the panel with that and with
Speaker 2: the knowledge that all of these are great.
Speaker 1: At this time, Yeah, yes, these are, like, but we're
Speaker 1: struggling because I want to put all of these.
Speaker 2: Would maybe do a call for votes on HAWF versus
Speaker 2: even Okay?
Speaker 1: So am I doing in the chatter? Are you asking
Speaker 1: or here? Okay? Okay? Well yeah, could like I just
Speaker 1: figure we just did it because Dan said he was
Speaker 1: okay with that and okay, and then I would replace
Speaker 1: one one with ha. So, Mike Drucker, how are you
Speaker 1: feeling about?
Speaker 6: Oh, that's a tough choice. That is a tough choice. Uh,
Speaker 6: you know what, I'm going to stick to my gut
Speaker 6: and say E one m one stays on the list
Speaker 6: as my vote. But I'm okay if I'm.
Speaker 4: Overridden, right, Okay, well I'll vote for hath yes on
Speaker 4: that accomplished nothing speaking part time though.
Speaker 6: There's a tough vote. It's a tough choice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it really is. I mean we could put it
Speaker 4: to chat now if we.
Speaker 1: Want no, ye, okay, So then HAWF instead of Warehouse
Speaker 1: is not good? Is that not gonna get anywhere?
Speaker 4: I'm taking Warehouse ten times out of ten.
Speaker 6: I would take I would take HAF on that one.
Speaker 1: I would take off on that one too, but I.
Speaker 2: Make no o, no way. I'm definitely Warehouse.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, I think I think haw has had
Speaker 1: its chance, and I think even though you know it tied, sure,
Speaker 1: but I think really we didn't bowlt it first for
Speaker 1: a reason. Okay, So uh that I think that means
Speaker 1: both Sonic and hawth go over to the right. Then.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think what we got is good. I think
Speaker 4: this is pretty good. That's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right. Well then in that case, Mike Minatti,
Speaker 1: why don't you go ahead and read our Mount Rushmore
Speaker 1: of First Levels.
Speaker 2: Mount Rushmore of First Levels. The George Washington Super Mario
Speaker 2: Brothers one one, the Abraham Lincoln doom E.
Speaker 1: One M one that's what everyone always says.
Speaker 4: Yep, yep uh.
Speaker 2: The Thomas Jefferson that's Super Mario sixty four BAM Battlefield,
Speaker 2: and that young upstart there Teddy Roosevelt Tonyhawk's pre Skater Warehouse.
Speaker 1: Is that the most recent one on the list?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: City O game on there for wow, guys. So no,
Speaker 1: that's good.
Speaker 4: We're right right, We're right, We're not all right, and.
Speaker 1: This is just it. Go start carving the mountain all right, Well, uh,
Speaker 1: that was that was good work there. We'll get that
Speaker 1: posted so people can yell at us on social media
Speaker 1: for a change. You all have anything else we should
Speaker 1: bring up. I think that's a show. I think we
Speaker 1: could just get out of here again. Yes, one more time,
Speaker 1: Mike Drucker. What's the name of the book? Where can
Speaker 1: people find it? When's it coming out?
Speaker 6: It's called Good Game No Rematch. You can find it
Speaker 6: anywhere books are sold Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Bookshop dot Org,
Speaker 6: or any independent bookstore available hardcover, audio and digital. And
Speaker 6: I read the audio. If you happen to like the
Speaker 6: voice that you're hearing.
Speaker 1: Well, thanks for coming on the show Mike again, I
Speaker 1: am I cannot wait to read this book.
Speaker 2: I'm everyone in chat accusing us being boomers. And oh okay,
Speaker 2: what post twenty ten first level would you put on here?
Speaker 4: I bet it's my great Roadblocks? Where's versions? You're John at?
Speaker 1: Both Minecraft and Roadblocks are more than sixteen years old.
Speaker 4: That was new reference?
Speaker 1: Yeah, those are your new references.
Speaker 6: Whe's the first one.
Speaker 4: With the last of us were watched? My daughter gets shot?
Speaker 5: Also super notes, Uh, Mike ni Dan are all cut seeds,
Speaker 5: all both so much i'm gonna hit I'm gonna think
Speaker 5: I'm gonna hit the button.
Speaker 1: We'll just play the music to get us out here. Actually,
Speaker 1: I got to turn the audio on for you all again.
Speaker 1: There we go, all right, Thanks for watching everybody. Until
Speaker 1: next time, I have a good one, take care of yourself,
Speaker 1: and goodbye.