Fire Escape Cast #105

Summary

Fire Escape Cast #105: Navigating Nostalgia, Gaming Obsessions, and Generational Gaps

Release Date: April 21, 2025

In episode #105 of Fire Escape Cast, hosts Dan Reichert, Mary Kish, and Mike Mahardy delve deep into a myriad of topics ranging from nostalgic reflections on childhood and gaming to contemporary discussions about generational perceptions and the evolving landscape of video games. The episode is a blend of personal anecdotes, passionate debates, and insightful Q&A sessions, all seamlessly woven together to create an engaging narrative for both long-time listeners and newcomers.

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1. Personal Updates and Nostalgic Beginnings

The episode kicks off with Dan humorously addressing the absence of his co-hosts, Mary and Mike, highlighting the dynamic nature of podcasting:

Dan Reichert [00:12]: "Mary is working. She's a professional. She's doing traveling for work right now. But I've lost my co-host here. I've lost my good friends Mike and Mary."

This playful banter sets the tone for a conversation rich in personal history and shared memories. The hosts reminisce about their school days, particularly their experiences in Catholic schools, sharing quirky memories like Mike being reprimanded for doodling Mortal Kombat fatalities in class:

Mike Mahardy [03:19]: "What I did to pass time in mass was look around at all the stained glass... everything was Mortal Kombat."

2. Creative Projects and Religious Reflections

The conversation takes a creative turn as Mike and Mary discuss their high school projects inspired by religious themes. Mike shares his short film The Jesus Project:

Mike Mahardy [05:31]: "I wrote a short film called the Jesus Project, and it was about Jesus coming back, reacting to modern times."

Mary complements this by recounting her creation of Jesus to the Musical, illustrating their unique blend of humor and creativity:

Mary Kish [06:05]: "I wrote my own thing about Jesus coming back in high school. It's called Jesus to the Musical."

3. Generational Gaps and Evolving Gaming Landscapes

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to exploring how different generations perceive video games and societal changes. The hosts discuss the misconception that newer games lack the depth of their predecessors:

Mary Kish [17:54]: "I don't think a Minecraft movie is destroying art as we know it."

They delve into the passionate fan bases of classic games like Sonic the Hedgehog, contrasting them with modern titles and the role of fan-created content:

Dan Reichert [32:29]: "It's like, Star Trek to Star Wars, like Sonic to Mario."

4. The Intersection of AI and Pop Culture

Mike brings up a fascinating discussion about AI in The Simpsons, specifically referencing Hank Azaria's character Mo:

Mike Mahardy [16:10]: "Frank Azaria brought in and had him record lines into an AI thing as Mo."

The conversation highlights the challenges of replicating human nuances in AI-generated characters:

Mike Mahardy [16:32]: "They had the AI Mo read jokes back to Hank Azaria, criticizing it."

5. Handheld Gaming and Retro Enthusiasm

The hosts express their enthusiasm for Chinese handheld consoles, particularly the Anbernic devices, discussing the intricacies of loading ROMs and customizing interfaces:

Mary Kish [81:37]: "They have all sorts of best Master System games. There's two Mickey Mouse ones, two Donald Duck ones... they're all supposed to be good."

Mike shares his experiences with customizing handhelds, emphasizing their practicality for gaming on the go:

Mike Mahardy [84:06]: "The SP changed everything for me because the GBA didn't have a backlight. So the SP was a game-changer."

6. Deep Dive into Specific Games

A passionate discussion unfolds around Final Fantasy Tactics and its unexpected place in Dan's gaming repertoire. Despite a general disinterest in Final Fantasy titles, Dan reveals his love for the tactical depth of Final Fantasy Tactics:

Dan Reichert [122:43]: "I wish they would. That would get a special edition. They would edit all that stuff down."

Mary and Mike contribute by comparing it to other tactical games like XCOM and Into the Breach, highlighting their preference for strategic gameplay over more casual titles.

7. Engaging with the Audience: Email Q&A

Towards the middle of the episode, the hosts address listener questions, adding a personal touch to the conversation. Phil from Finland shares his intense commitment to an unannounced game:

Phil [First Email Section]: "This will most likely be the game I spend the next 10 years with."

Mary discusses her balanced approach to gaming, emphasizing the importance of integrating hobbies without succumbing to obsession:

Mary Kish [110:42]: "It's about how you sort of interact with the world around you. If you're shutting other people off, that's when it became a little rough."

8. Lord of the Rings and Storytelling in Media

A lively debate arises around the portrayal of hobbits in The Lord of the Rings, with Mike expressing discomfort with the depiction:

Mary Kish [158:12]: "It's something about the hobbits themselves just seem to suck so aggressively."

Dan offers a cinematic analysis, likening hobbits to underdog heroes akin to Luke Skywalker:

Dan Reichert [163:09]: "They have their own emotional core. Now I'm like, very excited to go watch that myself."

9. Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions

As the episode wraps up, the hosts reflect on their own growth and the enduring appeal of retro gaming. They also tease upcoming projects and encourage listeners to engage with their various platforms:

Mike Mahardy [165:11]: "Check us out on Patreon. That is fireescapecast.com. We also do more video stuff over on our channel."

Mary adds excitement about their involvement in Blight Club and shares anecdotes about community interactions:

Mary Kish [166:51]: "We started this whole Replay fan group on Facebook called 'I Want the Entire Overblood Super Replay.'"

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Mike Mahardy [55:50]: "I am still very much just that age."
• Mary Kish [80:58]: "Doing those SummerSlam and Survivor Series or something."
• Dan Reichert [120:11]: "How do they even get across the finish line."

Final Takeaways

Episode #105 of Fire Escape Cast is a treasure trove of insightful discussions, personal stories, and engaging debates. The hosts skillfully navigate through topics that resonate with both older and younger audiences, making it a relatable and enriching listen. Whether it's reminiscing about classic games, dissecting the impact of AI in media, or addressing the fine line between passion and obsession in gaming, Dan, Mary, and Mike offer a comprehensive look into the multifaceted world of video games and beyond.

For fans eager to dive deeper, the hosts advocate checking out their other projects and engaging with them on various platforms, ensuring that the conversation continues beyond the podcast.

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Connect with Fire Escape Cast:

• Website: fireescapecast.com
• Patreon: patreon.com/fireescape
• Social Media: Follow them on Twitter and other platforms for updates and exclusive content.

Upcoming Episodes: Stay tuned for future discussions on Blight Club, retro gaming’s resurgence, and more interactive Q&A sessions addressing listener curiosities and concerns.

Transcript

[Dan Reichert]

Foreign.

[Mike Mahardy]

Folks at home. As you can tell, this is not the voice of one Michael James Maharti. No, this is Dan Reichert. Mike Maharti, based on his most recent Instagram story, is looking at maps of the Champagne region of France. I'm not kidding. That is his most recent Instagram story as he got new books about the Champagne region of France and he is pouring over the maps. Mary is working. She's a professional. She's doing traveling for work right now. But I've lost my co host here. I've lost my good friends Mike and Mary. But you know what they say, when you lose your co host on a podcast, you look to your blood. You look to the click. You look to the Blight club. That's right. Well, Grub, that was. You're doing the NWO guitar. That was actually a DX reference.

[Dan Reichert]

Sorry. No, yeah, we're gonna mix our metaphors here, Mike.

[Mike Mahardy]

Mary aren't here. So my 50 wrestling rule is off the table. So it's wrestling bonanza. It's WrestleMania season. No, you don't. Don't stop. They're all scrambling in their cars to. To hit stop on this.

[Mary Kish]

Driving off of cliffs right now.

[Dan Reichert]

Well then that's the Fast Lane to WrestleMania. Wel.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's true. That's true. This is the roadblock, brother.

[Dan Reichert]

Okay?

[Mike Mahardy]

This is. This is the one respit people get from me talking about wrestling. And I will attempt to honor that on the fire escape cast here, despite it being literally WrestleMania week.

[Mary Kish]

How could.

[Mike Mahardy]

This is cruel and unusual, I would say, fellas.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, hey, don't. Don't blame us. We're not going to hold you to that. I don't care if you break your rule.

[Mary Kish]

There's still a part of me that's like, this is like really old growing up Catholic stuff. And I'm like, they could just do WrestleMania on Easter. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Like that's allowed about being, you know, many beautiful things about growing up Catholic. Yes. I think getting like 90 days off for Easter was good. That a lot. You got your good Fridays, you got your silly Saturdays, you got whatever Easter is.

[Dan Reichert]

They are.

[Mary Kish]

They all have names.

[Mike Mahardy]

Manic Monday. Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

Did you get a separate spring break?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Blended together. I don't know. There's all sorts of stuff. We just went to church one day a week.

[Mike Mahardy]

Tuesday was my mass day. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. I can't remember. You just kind of sat there and like it was, you know, church was pretty good compared to class. So you kind of took that in stride.

[Mike Mahardy]

It was tough for Me, because in class I would, like, doodle a lot. I got sent to the principal's office for doodling Mortal Kombat fatalities and stuff like that. And I kid you not. What. This is probably incredibly sacrilegious. What I did to pass time in mass was because I couldn't doodle. And I just had severe ADD as a child. And I would just look around at all the stained glass, and you would see, like, oh, here's all the signs of the cross. Here's this guy helping Jesus carry the cross. Here's, you know, these dudes putting them up on the cross.

[Mary Kish]

Was that the guy's name who helped Jesus with the cross?

[Mike Mahardy]

Was he the guy who wiped his face with the Shroud of Turin?

[Dan Reichert]

I think that was Derek.

[Mary Kish]

No, specifically the guy who, like. Who helped him with the cross.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm sorry, that was Cross Carl.

[Mary Kish]

You're right.

[Dan Reichert]

Derek was the other guy. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

So I would just look around at all, because I always thought stained glass looked cool as hell. And I was. And I would just picture all of them coming to life and jumping out and causing the scene. Like, if you've seen End of Days, it's almost like this huge, like, fight inside of a church with, like, all of these Catholic and religious figures and stuff fighting it out. And basically, it's just Mortal Kombat. Like, this is the period of my life where everything was Mortal Kombat.

[Mary Kish]

Right?

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

It's Simon, by the way. It was Simon, not Sam. I was close.

[Mike Mahardy]

There were. What were the signs of the cross? He fell down. He needed help getting up. He had to have his face wiped.

[Mary Kish]

Right. Well, where did it start? Did it literally start? We won't talk about wrestling, everybody.

[Dan Reichert]

Can we get back to what really matters?

[Mike Mahardy]

We got an email saying, hey, I listen to Fire Escape for games talk, not for political agendas, which confused me, but let's get into religion.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, Here we go. This is what they really. Let's rank the religions of the world.

[Dan Reichert]

Oh, that's my favorite. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Honestly. And I said honestly instead of for shoot. I stopped myself. Look at me. I. Disgusting. No, Jesus. Like, I went to Catholic school. I grew up in Catholic school.

[Dan Reichert]

You went to school with Jesus?

[Mike Mahardy]

No, I know it's the 80s, 1980s. I don't know. Like, Jesus got arrested. Right. Or like the Romans put to death. But, like, I couldn't. I'm trying to think right now what he got, like, arrested for. By the.

[Mary Kish]

Well, the big thing was he went into. So. So they turned the church into a market. Right, Right. That People were just selling something.

[Mike Mahardy]

He flipped the tables.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. So he flipped the tables and he freaked out and he got mad. So, like, they're. They were all real happy, like, well, we got him now. Yes, get. Yes, get the tables, Simon. It's like, okay, now we actually got him for. For a. For a real crime. I. I almost said, shoot, they got him for a crime. So they're real excited. That was still, you know, kind of bs. Had a pretty good point. Although I always laugh because so many churches now, mega churches, even some nice, just Catholic ones, have gift shops. And I'm like, man, this is specifically the thing that Jesus, like, got really mad at that one time.

[Mike Mahardy]

I. I remember during high school, I wrote. When I was really getting into my student films and stuff that I was making, I wrote a short film called the Jesus Project, and it was about Jesus coming back, and it was about just him reacting to.

[Dan Reichert]

I guess that was the name of Trump's political platform, I think, right?

[Mike Mahardy]

Jesus project. 2025. Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

2025.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. So. And it was about, like, oh, him just react. It was like a comedy, but it was about him reacting to, like, you know, it was like 1999 probably when I wrote this, and. But it was very, you know. Oh, he gets like. I think he gets addicted to heroin or something.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's like, I remember my mom. I was telling my mom about this, and despite the fact that I've never heard her talk about Jesus or church or anything religious whatsoever, she was very much just like, we don't believe that in this household. And, like, I'm very offended that you. But I think it's because she was married to a guy at the time.

[Mary Kish]

That'S very Catholic, oddly enough. I also wrote my own thing about Jesus coming back in high school. It's called Jesus to. It was called Jesus to the Musical.

[Dan Reichert]

I don't remember much.

[Mary Kish]

The one song went like, it's a wonderful morning for Jesus. Something like that. I still had that one.

[Dan Reichert]

Honestly, I think all of the weird that you both share starts.

[Mike Mahardy]

Here's not a lot of me and Mikey's. I don't.

[Mary Kish]

I don't know, man. Sure.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, you guys definitely are stand out, even from that crowd. But, boy, something happened there.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh. Oh, man. Other things about. This is a good guy. This is Dan. This is my dad's high school best friend. And Katie and Kayla, my sister's dad. I grew up with him. Great dude, but very Catholic. I just remember every once in a while it would come out. Even though we never prayed, we Never went to church or anything. I liked the movie seven when it came out. And he was deeply upset that I liked it. He's like, that is. It really disturbs me that you like that movie. And then the other one was we would always play Twisted Metal 2 campaign mode together. And at one point I learned the code. It was called sell your soul. And you would type in a certain. And you would sell all your weapons for health. And so I was like dying during the Minion fight. And I was like, I'm going to sell my soul. And he paused. Put the controller down, Danny. I don't ever want to hear you say that ever again.

[Mary Kish]

I was like, oh, oh no. Yeah, well, I remembered another song from Jesus 2, the musical. It's called Cult Terrific. It goes. It's called terrific. You know what we mean. It's called Terrific. Our heads are shaved clean. It's called Terrific. A barrel of fun. It's called Terrific. And a cachet of guns.

[Mike Mahardy]

So wait, Jesus comes back and starts.

[Mary Kish]

He starts a cult. He starts a new cult cuz he's unhappy with the current Catholic church.

[Dan Reichert]

Not enough guns in the Catholic church.

[Mary Kish]

Not enough guns. Yeah, right, exactly. So I forget what the. Yeah, something about him just starting a new new cult and it got kind of violent and weird. I think that's where the plot went.

[Mike Mahardy]

You're just talking about wake.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, it came out in a lot of weird ways.

[Dan Reichert]

Was Janet Reno, the main antagonist?

[Mary Kish]

Came out in a lot of weird ways because we also had a fake. We had to make a fake band for a different school project. And we called ours Last Rights. It was just mostly kind of weird religious songs. I. The one I wrote was a song about burning the Bible. It was called the Bible burns better. And that one was actually really catchy. I am still proud of the Bible burns better. The chorus was fire, fire down to every letter. In the dark of the night the Bible burns better it's your dark desire Be a trendsetter when your soul is cold the Bible burns better tonight it's pretty good, right?

[Dan Reichert]

Yes.

[Mike Mahardy]

But Mike. I have to ask for those listening to the audio. Whenever Mike is singing this, he's looking off to the left.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, he's reading a Google Doc.

[Mike Mahardy]

Do you have a document of the script?

[Mary Kish]

No, I don't know why. It's just this. No, I don't know why I'm looking. So I actually, I am. Despite what you might think, I am actually just slightly embarrassed. And I can't look at you while I do It. That's how it is.

[Mike Mahardy]

Shame.

[Mary Kish]

There is a little bit. No audible.

[Mike Mahardy]

No.

[Mary Kish]

I could probably do the verses for Bible Birds better if I want.

[Dan Reichert]

It's a. Not a Christian rock band, but like.

[Mary Kish]

No, it's not. I don't know if I'd call it anti.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, I wouldn't call it that either. But it's like it's, you know, somewhere in between project.

[Mary Kish]

We had to sing the one song called Heaven Ablaze where we just went to heaven and fought a bunch of angels. We performed that one in class and we got an A.

[Mike Mahardy]

Wait, not in Catholic class, right?

[Mary Kish]

No, this was public high school. I switched after fourth grade. I bet. I bet. Yeah. I bet if it was Catholic high school, they would not have liked it.

[Mike Mahardy]

That was the end of my singing career. Was Catholic school because we had to do the Christmas program every year and like the main thing they teach every time is don't lock your knees because you're going to pass out and make us all look like idiots in a church. So that's all I thought about every year at the Christmas program is like, don't lock your fucking knees. But yeah, a lot of silent night, a lot of this is the day that the Lord has made that type of stuff. And I remember first or second grade and at the time my dad was listening to a ton of Bob Dylan and he always had me listening to a lot of Bob Dylan and you know, doing impressions of Bob Dylan. So to kind of like pop the classmates and stuff. I was doing a lot of silent. And then I. The teacher made me stop and was like, Dan, what are you doing? Like, you're sounding like ridiculous. I said, oh, I'm doing a Bob Dylan impression. And she like, I got in trouble. And then I was like thinking my friends would think I was cool and they were like, who the fuck is BOB Dylan? Like 1992, a bunch of like seven year olds, like, we don't know who.

[Mary Kish]

Bob Dylan is good to. Said it was what Tom Petty, who kind of sounds like Bob Dylan anyways.

[Mike Mahardy]

I don't even know seven year olds in 1992.

[Mary Kish]

No, that was still probably pretty lame record.

[Dan Reichert]

But yeah, of course.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Mike, you. Janet Reno came up as she's want to do. Remember when that was like the craziest political thing in the world, like on snl, like the wackiest political figure you can.

[Mary Kish]

Satire, which you promised. You promised that email you weren't gonna talk about.

[Mike Mahardy]

I didn't get my political agenda across. That's why I'm on These podcasts.

[Dan Reichert]

We are so pro Reno. Janet Reno.

[Mary Kish]

Want her to come?

[Dan Reichert]

Just run Reno Mania on this country once again. Yeah, probably not.

[Mary Kish]

I do. Just think about the things that used to be big political controversies in the 90s.

[Mike Mahardy]

Let's do old man 90s.

[Mary Kish]

Blowjob was the best story ever. Bill Clinton had a blow job in.

[Dan Reichert]

The office of the 90s. Like, Obama wearing the tan suit. Like, that was like, a real.

[Mary Kish]

Well, like, the biggest things in the 90s that everybody in America was very concerned about was Bill Clinton's blow job, Ellen DeGeneres being gay, and O.J. simpson. Those were, like, the three things that we.

[Dan Reichert]

The holy trinity of the 90s. Yeah, right.

[Mike Mahardy]

What was the thing? It wasn't Watergate. It wasn't Water World. What was the Whitewater?

[Dan Reichert]

White Water.

[Mike Mahardy]

I was very young, and I basically just got my politics through MAD magazine, and White Water would come up all the time on Letterman and stuff. And I. It was like a land deal.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, right.

[Mike Mahardy]

I.

[Dan Reichert]

As a kid, I was just like, this doesn't seem like anything. So. Yeah, I think it was probably one of those ones where they were just trying to trump it up because they were so always trying to go after.

[Mary Kish]

When you said trump it up, what did you mean?

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, no, I didn't mean that one.

[Mary Kish]

I think that's a different meaning now.

[Mike Mahardy]

Have you ever seen the clip from, like, the 2000s where Norm MacDonald is on the View, and somehow one of the Clintons comes up and Norm, out of nowhere is like, oh, yeah, you know the story about, like, when the Clintons killed a guy. Right. Just seeing this daytime, like, Joy Behar and then be like, oh. And Norm's like, no, no, he killed a guy. Like, we'll not let it go.

[Mary Kish]

I. I was thinking the other day, like, it used to be like, this thing and all, like, the sitcoms and TV shows or just in general. Like, the biggest source of pride for a parent is if their child became the president of the United States. I'm like, oh, that's like, the last thing I would want. My kids just like, even if you were a good president, United States, you know how many deaths he would be responsible for technically your call. Like, no, I feel like, yeah, the.

[Mike Mahardy]

Bar for good is way warped if you're right. Like, I like Obama a lot, but he's definitely killed some people. Yeah, yeah.

[Mary Kish]

All sorts of people. And it's like, that's what makes it disturbing because you look at Obama, he's like. He, like, likes to lean into the memes, and he has A bit of this, like, warm figure. He's, like, still killed so many people.

[Dan Reichert]

But that. That thing when I. What I think of is Marge wanting Bart to be a Supreme Court. The Supreme Court justice, like, and. And then he fails in her dream and then has to become like a Supreme Court justice. Themed. A stripper.

[Mike Mahardy]

I think he's got that, like, stubble and they do that great thing where it's like his spikes on his hair are kind of like.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. He's got the big beer belly like Homer. It's very funny.

[Mike Mahardy]

Pistols or something.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

God. Oh. Love being on this podcast with people that appreciate the Simpsons. And Mary absolutely does. I'm talking directly about Mike Mahardi.

[Dan Reichert]

Well, we could probably. We could just edit some wine into it and then probably get him on board maybe.

[Mike Mahardy]

You know what? We were sharing some stuff today. We. We did find someone who was, as I put it, Mike Maherty, if he wasn't self aware.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. That's a fun thing.

[Mike Mahardy]

Turns out the self awareness is a critical. Critical.

[Mary Kish]

It does.

[Dan Reichert]

How you need that. You do. I need it important.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

God, I wish he had it.

[Mary Kish]

I think my hearty was doing. Trying to do my voice two episodes ago on here, and I want to do a Mike Mahardi impression, but he has a pretty normal voice, unfortunately.

[Mike Mahardy]

No, he's got. You gotta lean into. He always has, like, alien and trailer. And so he's a little.

[Mary Kish]

A little bit of JFK ish affectations.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, he's got that east coast fancy boy thing going on. Yeah, sure.

[Mary Kish]

It was very fan. There's got to be a Simpsons episode about wine, right? There's a zillion episodes.

[Dan Reichert]

I.

[Mike Mahardy]

They do go to us. Well, the Australia one is just like the frog stuff and everything. Like, I feel like there's the frog.

[Mary Kish]

And there's the bit about, you know, beer. Right.

[Dan Reichert]

Is there a lacrosse episode? I bet there's a lacrosse episode.

[Mike Mahardy]

I mean, at this point, I imagine anything we haven't seen happen between, like, seasons 12 and 116, you know, that no one has seen. And I don't even know.

[Dan Reichert]

It gets really good again at 112.

[Mike Mahardy]

I've been saying that.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. You see that it got renewed for five more seasons. Like a main cast. Like, I'm not gonna be morbid.

[Dan Reichert]

They're just gonna go until one of them dies. Y.

[Mike Mahardy]

And then. Do you think they actually float the AI thing?

[Dan Reichert]

Yes.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, God.

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, did you see there's a clip. I don't know if it was the Verge or who, but Frank Azaria. They Brought him in and had him record a bunch of lines into, like, an AI thing as Mo. And they had it. Had the AI Mo read jokes back to Hank Azaria and him kind of criticizing it. So I'm just being like, no, you can make it sound kind of like the voice, but, like, the timing and all the human stuff is what you absolutely can't do, you know?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Oh, gosh, I hate so much that, like, I am, you know, getting her 40 and I am becoming a. Everything's kind of getting worse as I get older person, because I know every. Every generation has done that for so long, but, boy, some things are getting worse.

[Dan Reichert]

Like, everyone's like, okay, yeah, it's the broken clock situation. I think we happen to be right. Because like, that they, like. It's. One generation took all the wealth and kept it for themselves, and it made everything else worse and it wants to charge us rents for everything.

[Mike Mahardy]

Let's try to be good old guys about this, okay? Okay. I think it is coming for all of us. And. But I think, you know, I think when you talk about real world stuff and wealth and things like that, like, there's some very legitimate stuff there. But I feel like so much of the time it's like, oh, a generation thinks Elvis is going to corrupt the minds. Oh, it's right. Video games are going to rot your brain. And then the stuff like, you know, every white dude from The Midwest over 55 seeing, like, Kendrick Lamar and be like, this isn't music.

[Dan Reichert]

You know that it always goes down.

[Mike Mahardy]

Right?

[Dan Reichert]

It's always. The kids are ruining the things I like. And it's like, well, that's not what's happening.

[Mike Mahardy]

So can we parse out, like, what. What is objectively bad about the kids in the times with the youths?

[Dan Reichert]

Sure, yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Us being old.

[Mary Kish]

I mean, the AI stuff's bad. And unless people, like. I will say this, I don't think the Minecraft movie, or. Excuse me, a Minecraft movie.

[Mike Mahardy]

The.

[Dan Reichert]

A Minecraft movie.

[Mary Kish]

It's called a Minecraft movie. I don't think a Minecraft movie is destroying art as we know it.

[Mike Mahardy]

When I saw the Mario Brothers movie, the 90s one, I told my dad in the parking lot that that was the best movie I've ever seen. Like, kids have stupid taste and stuff. I'm sure the Minecraft objectively sucks, but I don't think it's a problem.

[Dan Reichert]

I think I said that about Double Dragon to my parents when me and Jason, my brother, were walking out and made my whole family go see it. When we were on vacation to see my brother, who was in the army, and, like, one of the few hours he had to spend with us, we made him watch Double Dragon in the theater. And we're walking. I'd be like, that ruled. And my family's just, like, in pain.

[Mary Kish]

When I saw Minecraft with because my nephew. Nieces want me to go with them, I was just like, you know, my parents had to see the Power Rangers movie. I'm sure they did not care about that.

[Dan Reichert]

That movie's pretty good, though.

[Mary Kish]

That wasn't bad, though. Got hit in the nuts at the end, right? That goo guy, he had that great light about missing the monsters reunion or something. Plastic armor. Yeah, that's pretty good, actually. They probably liked that.

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, I feel like I did that video a while back with my dad and me at the fire, talking about just everything. And he was talking. We were talking about, like, worst movies they've seen. And my dad was like, Shark Boy and Lava Girl. I remember I had to take the girls to that, like, when they were kids. And like, oh, shark. But it's like, clearly this is a movie made for kids. I'm sure it's.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

For my dad. But, like, Grub, if you had that experience with your kids where it's like, they're excited about a movie and you are just hating every second of it.

[Dan Reichert]

No, I. I think a big thing that has happened in the last. Well, I mean, your dad's not that open. Like, the last 20 years is the generation gap has gotten a lot smaller. Like, we just aren't shedding the things from our youth. And our stuff from our youth is, like, pretty similar to all the stuff the kids are into. Like, you know, my kids will go from one minute watching the. On YouTube, which is the strange stuff now. Like, the Shark Boys and Lava Girls are unboxing videos and little girls making stories with their toys and putting up on YouTube. And it has 15 billion views and stuff like that. I'm like, I don't know. All this stuff is kind of interesting. I think it'll give my kids cool perspectives and, like, cool ideas about how to create stuff. And then they'll go from that to watching you tonight. They're like, hey, I want to watch Kiki's delivery service. So, like, they're watching Miyazaki. I'm like, okay, yeah. And they're like, I kind of just let. Let them go where they want to. And they, they, you know, they oscillate between some real terrible bullshit that, you know, doesn't really bother me because I have a high tolerance for that stuff and then back toward something very cool. So like, okay, they got like a nice wide consumption here that I think is going to do them all right in their lives. Lives.

[Mike Mahardy]

I would assume that that's maybe not a common case. I'm sure a lot are just like, you know, garbage kid tastes. They're like, you know, like Dylan Bacalar is. Oh, well, yeah, is interested in blueprints and Zelda and stuff. I look, he's probably a smart kid.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, he's probably all right.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. That's why I said my nephew. Cities, I think are. They're kind of like that, Jeff. We're like, they'll still, you know, for us. Like, of course they have easy access to a lot of old Disney stuff and they'll still watch that and like it, but they absolutely want to watch their YouTube junk. And hey, I'm sure that that YouTube junk to me isn't too different than what early Nick tunes seemed like to my parents. Right? Like Ren and Stimp.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, Nick tunes. Or that you can't do that on television. All that stuff. Yeah. What is this weird gross stuff?

[Mary Kish]

Happy, happy. Joy. Joy. Yeah. Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

Seemed like nonsense.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, it seemed like it probably. They're probably were convinced even though they may not have really cared. We watch it and let us watch it. They're probably convinced this probably isn't good for them.

[Mike Mahardy]

Right?

[Dan Reichert]

I mean, even like the, you know, the, the he mans and the, the cartoon cartoons that are just commercials, it's like, well, that is a lot of stuff that the kids have now. And I'm like, I, I don't feel like that stuff really damaged me in any real way. Like, yeah, having commercial shoved in your brain non stop. That there probably was something. But they have way less commercials in their life. And then sure, a lot of the content they're absorbing is stuff that is made to sell them. Stuff that like, that's how those people make money. But we do limit their exposure to that somewhat. And then, yeah, they're just not getting regular commercials at all anymore. They don't have that at all at any point in their lives.

[Mike Mahardy]

That, that is one of my favorite weird. Like, you know, my dad has a million weird old man things. One of them is he's like bitter that the kids today and millennials don't know commercials. Because he'll ask me like, oh, have you seen that State Farm commercial with them? Be like, no, dad, I haven't seen like, oh, that's right.

[Mary Kish]

Millennials don't see commercials.

[Dan Reichert]

He's upset that they made Jake from State Farm black. Is that what it is? Giving Paul? Yep.

[Mike Mahardy]

No, he's just very bitter that we're not all smoking cigarettes and watching commercials all the time. What is it about? There was a shift between, like, our parents generation and our generation. Because, you see, like, with our parents generation, I feel like, you know, they're not obsessing over, like, fucking magilla gorilla in 2025. And there's not new, you know, like, Captain Kangaroo movies and stuff. I think with nostalgia, with our parents generation, you bring something up and you're like, oh, I used to watch that all the time. And like, us three on this, we all got CRTS and Genesis games and.

[Mary Kish]

Well, don't forget in the 90s, like, there was like, the Brady Bunch movie, the Flintstones movie, the Adams Family movie. Like, I, I. And I think we actually are cresting Chris. For a while in our, when we were in our 30s, they were really catering to our nostalgia. A lot of that stuff came back, was remastered, had new sequels, even things like Beetlejuice recently. I do think that that's going to maybe start dying down, where we're gonna be like, they're bringing that thing back. But I didn't care about that because that happened in the 2010s or whatever.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, I think they're trying to. I think that's actually the generation gap shrinking. I think they're finding more fruit from, like, video game adaptations because it hits us and kids, right? And so they can, like, get more, more juice from the squeeze there as opposed to, you know, the millennials are the biggest generation in the United States that's ever seen. And, and that we're gonna have, like, once you know, that previous generation dies, a lot of that wealth's gonna come down. So they are going to keep catering to us in a lot of really, like, awful ways that are going to be pretty gross because they're corporations. That's all they can do. But I think for now, they're like, oh, hey, these, this video game stuff kind of hits all these four quadrants and stuff. So we'll get a lot of that for a while.

[Mary Kish]

Some of it is just like, people have franchises and I guess they think they got to do something with it.

[Dan Reichert]

They do.

[Mary Kish]

When I saw the Minecraft movie. Excuse me? A Minecraft movie.

[Dan Reichert]

A Minecraft movie.

[Mary Kish]

The. A Minecraft movie. They had a trailer for a new Smurfs movie and that already had got rebooted in the 2011s. They made like three of them. There's now a new, new reboot and Rihanna is Smurfette, and it's just a cartoon again. I'm like, who cares about the Smurfs? But here it is.

[Dan Reichert]

What? What? Zendaya was Michi. What was that? What's her character in a movie? I think I just. Zendaya is Michi.

[Mary Kish]

That was some DreamWorks. That was a DreamWorks movie about, like Yetis or something. Right?

[Mike Mahardy]

Is something beyond the name of a character.

[Dan Reichert]

I know, it's just the name of a character. Okay. No, there was a guy that makes viral videos and he sang a song where he saw the sign. It's just like he thought it was a funny phrase. And so he's saying a whole song about Zendaya is Michi. And so, yeah, that's. That became a meme on its own.

[Mike Mahardy]

I see.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay.

[Mary Kish]

But the Smurfs, who cares? Like, how's that? But, you know, some things come back. Like Garfield had a new movie. Why? Why who cares about Garfield?

[Mike Mahardy]

Original run. Was that the 90s or was that already an old thing then?

[Mary Kish]

I think that was like a early 80s thing, maybe.

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, because that's weird because, like, some of the. That was actively on TV in my. You like in the late 80s, early 90s, like Looney Tunes was always on. Well, and it would be like copyright.

[Mary Kish]

1963, because we lived in the cable explosion, so there was suddenly a lot more airtime, air time to fill. And syndication was the way they did. So that's why we had Nick at night. That's why I grew up watching a ton of Flintstones and things like that. And I Love Lucy. Right. So it is why. I think it's why to the younger millennials, we do sometimes seem older than we are because we are very well versed in Happy Days for some days.

[Dan Reichert]

Mary Tyler Moore.

[Mike Mahardy]

I. I was weird with Nick at night because, like, I was obsessed with Nickelodeon. But when Nick at night came on, I think in my head I was like, this is old stuff. Except for I watched Bewitched because I had a crush on the witch.

[Dan Reichert]

No, she's a very pretty lady. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Seven year old. I was like, something's going on here.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, she did that thing with her nose.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I think I liked the genie more than the witch, I gotta be honest.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, well, she's great too. I also did the Gilligan's island for probably similar reasons. Sure.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, island was great. Then they had all those TV movies where they had to recast Marianne or something of Drama.

[Dan Reichert]

How many TV movies?

[Mary Kish]

There's three. And the last one was Gilgan's island meets the Harlem Globetrotter Doc.

[Dan Reichert]

Is this the kind of thing where if I search this on YouTube I'll find like seven dip, like eight hour long documentaries about these things?

[Mary Kish]

I hope so, cuz gosh, I think, I think the millionaire had died at that point. So he's just mentioned off screen because they had. The first TV movie is they get off the island, then they get stranded again on the same island at the end. And the second TV movie they get off for real and the millionaire opens up a resort on the island.

[Dan Reichert]

What can you guys think of film franchises that eventually got TV movie sequels?

[Mike Mahardy]

Film? Well, Mission Impossible.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, I, I got.

[Dan Reichert]

What are you talking about?

[Mike Mahardy]

That was a TV franchise that got.

[Dan Reichert]

Well, no, no, but I mean that started as a film franchise and then sort of dwindled to the point where like, eventually they were like, let's make a sequel, but let's just put it on TV.

[Mike Mahardy]

Series. You're saying just like a one off or something?

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. So like there was like, you know, several Revenge of the Nerds movies that were released in theater. And the first one made a lot of money even though it's a terrible movie. And. And then eventually they're like, well, we're still going to keep making these, but we don't have a ton of money. Let's just put this one on TV. And it had a 711 crossover where you can go to the gas station or go to the convenience store and get 3D glasses. And they had like 3D scenes or whatever.

[Mary Kish]

Dude. Problem Child, remember that? Those movies, There's Problem Child 1 2. There was a Problem Child 3. It was a TV original movie. I remember watching it when it came out because we loved the first two. We especially the second one. We watched it it all the time in my house. Yeah. The third one was just this sad direct to TV thing. I wonder. Gosh, can't even watch that now. It's got to be somewhere.

[Mike Mahardy]

Or direct to VHS like it used to.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, it's below that. Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put these all my Plex server.

[Mary Kish]

That was a whole thing though. Like the, the big TV reunion thing. Right. And it used to be a big deal.

[Mike Mahardy]

Saved by the Bell and Friends and stuff recently.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, it's a streaming thing. Oh really?

[Mike Mahardy]

There was.

[Mary Kish]

I remember the Facts of Life had a big one. Well, now it's like they do a whole new show.

[Dan Reichert]

Right, Right.

[Mary Kish]

It was like Fuller House. They Just made a whole nother show.

[Dan Reichert]

Legacy sequence for TV.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, right, right, right. Used to be like the TV movie reunion thing instead.

[Dan Reichert]

Mean Girls 2 aired on ABC Family in 2011. What is that?

[Mary Kish]

That's weird.

[Mike Mahardy]

The. The confidence to put the number on it and. Yeah, like colon, you know, the new class or whatever, you know. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I love what video games do that. Like Tony hawk's Pro Skater 5 song the Hedgehog 4.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's like you could never go back. You can't. Like, like we can. We all act like Tony Hawk 5 didn't happen, but like they couldn't. Like you could do a Super Mario Brothers 4 right now. Yeah. As like a. A downloadable. No, I mean, let's be honest. They would. They would charge a lot if they made us. Okay, let's say $80. 9. They did a Mega Man 9 for Mario and they called it Super Mario Brothers 4 NES style. How much does Nintendo charge for that?

[Dan Reichert]

Like for. Shoot, I think they charge 60.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Yeah, I think they still charge 60.

[Dan Reichert]

I pay 80.

[Mary Kish]

Are you joking? Yeah, like you're not gonna play the new bari. Yeah, well, Mega man did such a good job with it because Mega Man 9 is so good. And then I know everyone's like, well, we'll do that too, but it'll be bad, right?

[Mike Mahardy]

I was on, on the XBLA stream, I did where I played Sonic 4 episode 4 and holy, it is worse than I remembered.

[Mary Kish]

It's terrible. That was the most angry comments I ever got was sonic the Hedgehog 4 episode 2. When I reviewed that and gave it a bad score, of course. And Sonic fans are there just. And look, I'm kind of among their numbers in some way, but they are very, very interesting.

[Dan Reichert]

Sammy, Sonic fan come after you?

[Mary Kish]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

That was eye opening to me because like I grew up as a. I loved Sonic. I mean, Sonic 2 is one of my favorite games of my childhood. You know, I kind of fell off after adventure maybe. But I didn't realize how crazy the fandom was until I was at Game Informer. And Tim Turi was absolutely our resident Sonic expert. He like used to make his own ocs as a kid and stuff.

[Dan Reichert]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Every Sonic game throughout the the Wii era and the 3Ds era and all this. Like some decent ones and then some terrible ones if they weren't getting nines. Oh, Tim was hearing about it.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Oh yeah. Every time I gotta meet Tim have so much in common. And I have not met him like.

[Mike Mahardy]

You guys out of any friends I've met, you Were probably the two that are the most, like have the most obvious common ground.

[Mary Kish]

Because I love Sonic. I watched all those shows. The Archie comics were incredible for a while. I adored those. I was definitely sending in like badge not trace, but like eyed fan art to the comics, hoping that they would post it in there and stuff like that. At a Sonic doll that I bought from Best Buy on its opening day. Like, oh, Sonic was a lot for me. And then I think Sonic Heroes was my breaking point. Like Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. I was still pretty good with Sonic. Venture 2 was losing me a little bit because it was just so corny. And they would make you play as Tales of Robotnik in these 10 minute long levels where you're slowly walking around on a mech. Then you would play a cool Sonic level and it was 90 seconds long and it was back to tails. Just walking around and locking on to stuff and firing missiles at it. But then Sonic Heroes was like barely working. You would just fall to your death through solid ground constantly. And I just couldn't do it anymore. GameCube, Xbox in PlayStation 2.

[Mike Mahardy]

Kayla liked that one a lot. Sonic Colors was like the DS 3DS 1. Right.

[Dan Reichert]

Well, we could settle this when you played on Blake Club.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Colors is colors. Was we in ds, I believe.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, okay. That era. That's right. And it did have its defenders.

[Mary Kish]

People like Colors. Yeah, people. Although some the Sonic fans aren't happy with that remaster that happened or with some issue, I don't know. But there's a ton. I will say this for the Sonic fans. They have the best fan game scene out there. Like they know. That's true.

[Mike Mahardy]

Very good fan game for a long time now too.

[Mary Kish]

Right.

[Dan Reichert]

It's kind of like the Star Trek to Star wars, like Sonic to Mario, where it's like Sega kind of lets him go ham the way the Star Trek people do. They're like, no, we're not going to stop any of these fan films or fan, you know, TV shows or whatever. And that's always kind of nice to see. I prefer that to the way like Nintendo handles it, obviously.

[Mary Kish]

Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

And then we occasionally get a gym like Sonic Mania where it's like, oh, wow. And then they. They very quickly move off of that. Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

It's like you got Christian Whitehead right there. What are you doing?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. And then Christian Whitehead did that Penny's big breakaway game, which was like it. It's good. Okay.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's not like stellar, but it's good.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But God, I would kill for Sonic Mania too. That game was freaking. That was like one of my favorite reviewing a game experiences ever. Because again, I grew up with Sonic and it was a two player game. So I had my brother AJ come and play that with me. And it was this kind of wild. We're basically playing Sonic the Hedgehog, the real song. The Hedgehog 4.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

For so many other people. And experiencing all this wacky stuff like that, that boss fight where it just became Pollo Pollo Doctor of Bot. That was one of like the wildest things I'd ever seen in a video game. Like nothing like made me pop harder.

[Dan Reichert]

Than that moment of the year.

[Mary Kish]

God, we are just playing Dr. Robotics. Mean Bean Machine now. That's genius.

[Dan Reichert]

And then they follow that up with, what was it? Sonic.

[Mary Kish]

Sonic Superstars sgf.

[Mike Mahardy]

Right. And I don't think I played it.

[Dan Reichert]

After, after that I, I, I played it and I beat it because I said I would, I would beat that game before I could play Super Mario Brothers Wonder. And it's, it's rough. It's just like, I like, I love, I like Mania a lot. Someone who doesn't like a lot of Sonic games. Mania is so good, so much fun. And then they're like, well, we got it now. Don't worry. You guys go do something else. We, we'll take Sonic back. And then they did this. It's like those boss fights where you can't hurt Robotnik for very long periods of time after you heard him. One like initially it's just so bad and boring in so many ways.

[Mary Kish]

It's kind nothing of a game. I barely remember anything from it.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, it's nothing. The kids don't even ever bring it up. They like, they were playing with me for a little bit and they're like, sonic Frontiers, that's real. But get this out of my face.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, I still kind of liked Frontiers, didn't.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, Frontiers is fine.

[Mary Kish]

I like Frontiers. I hope that like the next one is basically just that, but refined. I thought they had something going on there. In fact, like, one of the things I didn't like about were those moments where they try to just put those boost style levels, like those kind of, you know, Sonic colors style levels. Like. No, no, actually the thing you got going with the open world, that's pretty good. Give me more of that, like weird.

[Mike Mahardy]

Puzzles and stuff in there.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, I think just give a little more refinement to like the look of the world and that then.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah, it did have that like default Unreal Engine look. And there was Draw distance problems and things like that.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, whatever.

[Mike Mahardy]

Mike, you mentioned sending in fan art and stuff like that and it made me. I was thinking like, have I ever like. Because I was the envelope art guy at Game Informer for years.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, wow.

[Mike Mahardy]

And which that was. That. That seemed like it was going to be a great deal at first because I loved envelope art growing up. But oh boy, the amount of you have to wade through. And every time you go through it, your hands are just a crime scene by the end with like, like paper cuts and just ink and pencil and it's just like. And you'll maybe find one usable thing out of every hundred things you open. And it's just like, what if Mario was Ezio and also smoked weed? You know, like.

[Dan Reichert]

So that's the usable.

[Mike Mahardy]

One all the time.

[Dan Reichert]

Sounds good to me.

[Mike Mahardy]

Master ke. What if, Master Chief.

[Mary Kish]

I was looking at the EGM compendium, the digital archives out. And like literally, I was literally looking at the fan art and it is. It's all just that. It's like Metal Gear Solid, but Sonic the Hedgehog is Snake. It's just Sonic versus Street Fighter.

[Dan Reichert]

And yeah, that's envelope art in some magazine is how I learned about Goku. It's the first time I ever saw Goku and I was like, yeah, yeah. Every issue would have like one or.

[Mike Mahardy]

Two Goku's and I'd be like, what the is this? Yeah, yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I remember getting really upset at envelope art on an EGM or something when I was a kid. It was a Nintendo.

[Dan Reichert]

Seems like something you would do.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, I got very upset because I was a bit. I was a bit more of a SEGA fan back then, obviously. And it was like. It was Mario and a giant Yoshi and he like stomped tails to death, right? You saw his tail coming out of Yoshi's like foot. And Sonic's like all scared. He's like, tails. And you see like the blood dripping out. And I was like, this is. They shouldn't have run this. I was. I think that's around the same time. Like, because I knew about Drs. Robotnik's bead bead Machine. And I saw something in a magazine about Kirby's Avalanche. And I didn't know Pollo. Pollo. So I was like, they just freaking copied and ripped off Sega. Why is nobody doing something about this?

[Mike Mahardy]

I remember I was so pissed off about PlayStation coming out. And I told you guys, remember, they're like Yoshi's Island. Oh, Crying, screaming. That's what the guys who bought new consoles are doing. Because Like, I just thought Super Nintendo would be all I need forever. So anyway, I went from being very pissed off about PlayStation coming out because I couldn't afford it to playing it at a blockbuster. I played Twisted Metal 1 at a blockbuster kiosk and loved it so fucking much that I went home and this is still in my mom's house somewhere. I've been looking for this notebook, but it's like a big drawing I did of Mario and Sonic standing in the foreground looking at each other and like sweating and shaking. And then in the background it's Sweet Tooth and Warhawk coming in shooting missiles at them. You are not ready. All over it.

[Dan Reichert]

That's when you. That's when you became a man and you stopped playing childish games.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, I got an erection and then.

[Mary Kish]

I. Yeah, there was in third grade for our spelling quizzes, like, like each kid had to kind of draw a picture and like design the paper for the spelling quiz that day. So you just like had to put the six lines for the words. But you can draw whatever you want. So people were drawing, you know, like Tommy Pickles or Mickey or all this stuff. And I drew the Sega Saturn logo on mine. I got into a fight with my friend because he had like, just played a PlayStation kiosk. He's like, mike, like, it's so much better than the Saturn. It's gonna blow it away. I was like, I'm hanging up. I did not want to hear it.

[Mike Mahardy]

I. I don't think I sent in any of my art. But at one point, and stop me if you've heard this, I don't know if I've ever told this in like John Bum, but like I was watching Smackdown back when it was on, not cable. It was on like not. You was UPN or whatever, like the cw. UPN or whatever. It was on like network.

[Mary Kish]

Smackdown was on up. It was called the cw. It was upn then became the cw.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, there was UPN and W. Work came together and became cw.

[Mike Mahardy]

Right.

[Mary Kish]

Smackdown was on UPN with all the Star Trek shows. I remember. Yes.

[Mike Mahardy]

And Shasta McNasty, of course. Of course. So it was on. It was over the air. So you could get like news break ins and stuff like that from local news. And living in Kansas, we frequently got like tornado watches and tornado warnings and it was some like, you know, some stone cold angle. And I just love stone cold so much. And like they'd been building up to something at the end. I'm sure it was, oh, I don't know, stone cold shits. And McMahon's coffee or something. But, like, I was just waiting for, like, this big payoff at the end. And then the fucking news broke in and it wasn't even a, like, hey, you're gonna die, tornado warning thing. It was just like, hey, tornado watch in Johnson County, Wyandotte County. And I'm like, okay, great. It's a watch. It's not real yet. Just send us back to smackdown. Stone Cold's about a shit and it's coffee. They didn't cut away. They just stayed there. And I got so fucking furious that I recorded. I popped in a VHS tape, and it was either WrestleMania 2000 or no Mercy. I created the fucking Weatherman for the channel with, like, a suit and everything, and I gave him an entrance. And I did a match where I played as Stone Cold and I just grab a chair. It's like a no DQ match. And I grab a chair and just. It's like 15 minutes of me whooping this weatherman's ass.

[Dan Reichert]

You start the video.

[Mike Mahardy]

I don't. Because I sent it to the station.

[Mary Kish]

He either thought that was really funny or incredibly disturbing.

[Mike Mahardy]

I don't think I gave any context. I don't think I was like, don't cut in with your tornado watches next time.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, there's no intro.

[Mike Mahardy]

VHS unlabeled.

[Mary Kish]

It's kind of a threat.

[Dan Reichert]

Oh, that rules.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, my God, that is such a good way to release Dragon.

[Mike Mahardy]

Just playing. God damn it.

[Dan Reichert]

If I get mad at people, I should just send them VHS tapes. No one would ever watch them.

[Mary Kish]

No.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, you would have to imagine it's like a Nick Cage 8 millimeter snuff film or something. I'm just going to give to the authorities here. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

God.

[Mike Mahardy]

Jesus Christ. All right.

[Dan Reichert]

Did you name it after the guy? So, like, at least if he did watch it, he would know it was him.

[Mike Mahardy]

I was. My head went to Brian Busby, which you probably. I think he's still the weatherman in Kansas City, but that wouldn't have been it because it was upn. Weirdly related to that, though, is Jonathan Coachman. You remember the coach?

[Mary Kish]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

He was the weatherman for KMBC 9 News growing up, the ABC affiliate in Kansas City. So when he showed up in wrestling, I was very confused as to why my childhood weatherman was in wrestling. And many, many years later, I think I was at WrestleMania 30 Access, their convention, and coach was there, and I went up to him, I go, kmbc9. And he just turned around, like, what the. Like the news, like, in Kansas City's like, yeah. My weatherman, he's like, holy. No one's ever brought that up to me.

[Mary Kish]

That's crazy. I remember how weird it was because he was just doing Sports center for a while, and I, like, always had on kind of a hard time not just being like, that's. That's the guy Vince McMahon peed on. Yeah, that one.

[Dan Reichert]

Well, that's most people on most TV shows.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, that was always my move with any celebrities. Like, always trying to like, okay, what's the thing? Like, there's the stuff they obviously get asked about all, all the time. And then there's like the obscure stuff. Like, you ever see that, like, Nardwar guy?

[Dan Reichert]

Oh, yeah, totally. I love that.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Like, super, super deep cut stuff. And that's why, like, I tried that even, like, when I would meet wrestlers in more recent years where it's like, like, first time I met Flair, you know, he was shockingly, at the JW Marriott bar with three gin and tonics in front of him. And I sat down next to him and I was kind of like, I didn't want to immediately mark out. I just ordered a drink. I'm sitting there acting like I'm not there because it's Ric Flair next to me. And then I turned to him, I was like, oh, hey, Rick. I was going a little bit of small talk stuff. He's looking at his phone with gigantic. I didn't know iPhones could have that big a font. I was like, hey, remember, Remember? I think I actually worked at Game Informer at the time. This is like, a while ago. And I was like, I work. I work in the video game world. And I thought it was really cool when. You remember when he did that Command and Conquer commercial, he did that Red Alert 3 thing and that series of commercials with you fighting a bear. A guy.

[Mary Kish]

They were great.

[Mike Mahardy]

And he was like. He didn't even, like, look up from his phone. He's like, what? And I was like, yeah, I remember the flare versus bear commercials. Like, you know, you fighting the bears. I don't know what you're talking about. Just absolutely. He's just. No selling everything I say.

[Mary Kish]

It's not, like, even interested that he, like, filmed commercials with a bear and doesn't remember.

[Mike Mahardy]

He believed me. I think he was just like, whatever, kid, kid. And then it wasn't until I just. I just pivoted to, like, the. I was like, oh, man, I've been watching some of those old 80s promos lately. And he, like, put his phone down, like, oh, we were running in the 80s, brother. We were going in the 80s.

[Mary Kish]

There you go.

[Mike Mahardy]

I started talking about, like, Dusty Rhodes and Greg Valentine or whatever, and he perks up.

[Mary Kish]

It's like us when people want to talk about the GameCube.

[Dan Reichert]

We were running in the GameCube era, guys.

[Mike Mahardy]

We were.

[Mary Kish]

You. You brought up, like, wanting to find an obscure thing to talk about someone. Drew Scanlon was on last week on the Flyski. Because you are out. And I do. I. I feel bad. I feel like a bit of a goof because the one time I ever interacted with him, I think it was on a stream and I was on a call and it was just you and him. It was the first time I ever was anything with him. And I think somehow within a minute, I brought up the blinking guy. I was like, what is wrong with? Why am I Chris Farley showing?

[Mike Mahardy]

That's also the thing you think about all the time with this. Like, don't be the Chris Farley Show.

[Mary Kish]

I know. And it's like, I'm usually so good about it. And I was like. Like, Drew probably thinks I'm some kind of a doofus.

[Mike Mahardy]

No. Because there's the nicest human being in the world.

[Mary Kish]

I know.

[Mike Mahardy]

He's just incredibly nice. He is. Yeah. Sort of like. God damn it. Yeah. He was awesome. Here he's flying planes now.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

I mean, more so than usual.

[Mary Kish]

More so than usual. I mean, he was talking about it on the show. I'm not all the way through last episode yet, but he was talking about flying planes.

[Dan Reichert]

So he stayed, like, he got, like, back on track with his lessons and all that stuff. That's great.

[Mike Mahardy]

He was talking about, like, renting planes and stuff. Stuff. So I assume he must be doing it like.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, he's.

[Mike Mahardy]

He's the type of guy, like, I'm definitely older than Drew, but, like, working with him, I would just be like, ah, that's like an adult.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Right.

[Dan Reichert]

That's when I know exactly what you mean. That's like someone who could figure out how to fly a plane.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, that's it. Don't and be. Well, I just realized that in this zoom call, I misspelled my name so that I am instead of Mike. So that's where I am.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

The W's right next to the E, Mike.

[Mary Kish]

It happens. It's difficult sometimes when you're in a hurry, you know, if you had to.

[Mike Mahardy]

Put an age on when you think. I'm not going to say when you. Because we've all continued to learn and grow as People. But like ultimately where the, the, the line kind of evens out. What do you think the age is for you guys?

[Dan Reichert]

Like, oh, like what age did I get to where I'm like, I'm still just that age.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Okay.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm thinking 15.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. I'm like, I remember a Bruce Willis would say 27 and that's way too old.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's like, oh, no, no, I was a. Yeah, no, no, I, I, I've.

[Dan Reichert]

Never really felt older than like maybe 22.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, I think like 15ish with when you sprinkle in the like, oh, I can drink now and I'm married.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, that's right. That's an average. Right. There's some things where I feel 15.

[Mike Mahardy]

Sure.

[Dan Reichert]

Some things where I feel 26. Like I've rented a car once and that like, like, yeah. I'm like, that was like okay enough to be like, okay. Yeah. You know, like planning a family vacation to Disney. That was like a whole thing. And Steph handled a lot of that. But I'm like, I contributed, did what I could and had some, you know, help there. Like, you know, I had connections and things like that that made me feel a little bit older. But it's an average it out to about 22.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's fair.

[Mary Kish]

God, it's hard to say like 23 was big because that's when I like started actually going out and trying to be more social. So that was a, a, an important thing. So maybe after like 25, I don't know. There's always weird little things. There's so, yeah, there's so many ways that I'm not that different from eight year old Mikey. Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay, let's say this. If you averaged out all the things you reference or think about, like, oh God, on a day to day basis, I feel like I'm like 8.98.99. So I'm like, it is.

[Dan Reichert]

And it's, it's totally like a bell curve too. Right. Because like as you get closer to today, there's fewer things from each year I'm probably thinking about.

[Mike Mahardy]

Ye.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I will say if you say, Mike, think of a year. 1998 is probably going to be the year I think of.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, that was a big one.

[Mary Kish]

That, that was the year for whatever reason. And like. Yeah, 98, like you show me those numbers and I feel good.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, yeah. Think of a specific time. Like I mentioned this before the weeks before Phantom Menace came out in 99.

[Mike Mahardy]

Sure. We're all a couple years apart and stuff. But like I Do feel like, yeah, that late 90s was hitting for all of us.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Good time.

[Dan Reichert]

I mean, N64 coming out. That was another time.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. 64 Dream.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, God, Dreamcast. I was so freaking excited for all that. Yeah, man.

[Mike Mahardy]

But then do we all agree that that next generation was objectively better?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, it was probably the best generation, but, you know, it had that whole 911 thing, souring stuff.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, here comes Mikey with his political agenda.

[Dan Reichert]

Distracted us from our video games.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Did change the tone of, like, even the fun stuff afterwards?

[Mary Kish]

It did, yeah. The tone of everything changed a bit. Of course. Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

Earlier, Mike, you mentioned, like, wanting to hang up on your friend because he was like, you know, talking bad about. Bad about the Saturn. Like, it wasn't directly because they were insulting the N64, but I definitely eventually fought the kids who, like, at first I'm like, hey, I got the N64 come over my house. Like, we ride the bus home together and we played the N64. And they were. They're like, this is amazing. And then a few weeks later, other stuff had happened and I was. I was probably, like, provoking them in some ways being kind of a little shit. But eventually they're like, oh, you know PlayStation so much better than the N64. And then a few weeks after that, we all just fought on the bus. It was these two kids and me. And yeah, I'm like, well, I did. I did not lose. Yeah, like, there was one kid I really beat up and the other one stopped me, basically, is how it went.

[Mike Mahardy]

We didn't really have, like a Saturn contingency. We definitely had PlayStation and 64 back then. Like, there'd be kids who owned them, but, like, nobody was like, Saturn's the winner.

[Mary Kish]

You know, I was definitely very lonely on my Saturn island. And, you know, it. It died pretty early. But that was. I never really, like, when the dreamy cast died, I was like, okay. Gamecubes weren't mitching my wagon. When the Saturn died, I would. I played PlayStation. I play 64. But it really. That was when I got into PC gaming. It was. I was doing like Half Life. One just happened. I was almost playing Griffin Dingo and a lot of those old Lucas adventure games, like those for that first wave of weird MMOs like EverQuest and Ashran's Call wasn't too long after that. So I was like. I was deep into that world back when it was still kind of weird in its own thing. It was still pretty interesting.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'd argue maybe More interesting when it was weird, but yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Dan Reichert]

Definitely.

[Mike Mahardy]

Speaking of that, do you want to talk about video games?

[Mary Kish]

Sure.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right. Video games, boy, it's just. It's a delight, you know, it's Mike and Grub. I've known you for a while now, and it's rare that we get to just sit down to talk about video games.

[Dan Reichert]

I know.

[Mary Kish]

If never for once.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, yeah. Like we didn't talk about everything we're playing yesterday. Which if you want to hear us three talk about video games on a many times a week basis, check us out [e-mail] subscribe to the Giant Bomb Cast. We're over there. Definitely subscribe to Blight Club. We'll touch on that in a moment here. But yeah, since people have probably heard us talk about, say, peepos, I got a lot of people around me right now.

[Mary Kish]

I don't have a single peepo.

[Mike Mahardy]

We'll get the people. Yeah, I, I kind of. Because I. I heard Mary is playing a lot of blueprints. I have not heard her thoughts on it yet and obviously she's not here this week. So I want to save a larger. Me and Mary blueprints.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, I want to hear that too. So definitely save some stuff for that.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Is my hearty gonna check it out?

[Mike Mahardy]

I think he said he's going to check it out. Yes. I don't think he started yet. I know Mary has been playing.

[Mary Kish]

I'm curious because they're like, you know, I think the people really love this game. Love it. But then there are some who. Some who I like suspect that would have. I'm not surprised they don't like it. But some I'm like, oh, you don't like this?

[Dan Reichert]

Okay, can I just tease a little.

[Mary Kish]

Bit for you guys?

[Dan Reichert]

Show. I'm just. I've seen her on. On Steam playing a lot. She's at 91.8 hours in blue.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, okay.

[Mary Kish]

I think she likes it.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right, that's. Well, I think she also leaves stuff on for a long time, so she.

[Dan Reichert]

Definitely left it on one night. Yeah. You could tell.

[Mike Mahardy]

But I. My thoughts are. She probably like, said, I feel like I've seen some people in blue sky be like, oh, yeah, you got Mary into it or whatever. So we'll. I'll need to talk to her next week about it. If you want to hear us three and Jan talk about it, listen to the last two or three bomb cast, probably.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

And we put up videos, like plenty of us talking about blueprints. It's an incredible game. We are all in camp. Pro blueprints, very plow blueprints.

[Dan Reichert]

Like, only slightly annoyed that people think that's like, this is one of those things where, like, oh, you just played a game early and you felt like, no, that's. I'm. I'm 42. I. That just doesn't happen anymore. I just. God love this game.

[Mary Kish]

It's like, I like, like, I still am appreciative of that sometimes for sure. And like, I can't be aware of it. But yeah, the. The point in life where that would have colored my opinion on a game is very long past, if ever. Like, come on. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

And. And I can't. I can't get mad at the folks that are not. It's not clicking with. Because, like, God knows there's been a million balers, gates and stuff like that that are universally beloved. And I just don't like to be like, look, not everyone's gonna like everything. You know, I'm not gonna take it personally if someone doesn't like a game I like, but.

[Dan Reichert]

Exactly.

[Mike Mahardy]

We'll like it quite a bit. Here I am, I guess, just to quickly touch on it. I think I'm done in that. I definitely saw credits a long time ago. I've played a good amount past that. I can see where additional things are and a lot of things that are very deep that I barely scratch the surface of. But, like, I'm at the point where I'm kind of fine looking stuff up or talking openly with you guys in, like, discord and stuff like that. Are you guys still actively playing?

[Dan Reichert]

I am, but I. I am feel myself kind of coming to an end as well. I. I think I have six of the eight red letters now kind of like finding safes I didn't even know were there, which is surprising. I am still also discovering new things to, like, begin, like, oh, I could spend time investigating this as well. That. That early meta puzzle with the, you know, the letters or whatever. Like, oh, okay, that did have a double meaning. And I didn't realize. I'm like. I thought I solved it and was like, had moved on. And then I went another room. It's like, oh, this relates to that too.

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay, sure. You sent a picture of that in our discord. I was like, oh, yeah, I didn't realize that.

[Dan Reichert]

Yes. So, yeah, it's that. And then, yeah, the other one. Exact. So I. I am still really enjoying all of that. I have very lightly begun, like, looking for hints. Not exactly. Just tell me straight out what's going on. But I'm like, you know, Chris person, tell me a little bit, put me in the right direction, that sort of thing. But it's definitely when I sit down, like, to think about playing the game, it's like, man, this is all I want to play still. I want to do another run, even if I don't have a goal. Like earlier for, like the last, you know, 50 hours it's been. I have set goals I want to do now. It's like, let's just see what happens. And then I definitely have some things I want to touch on, but I'm just happy to kind of like lay rooms down, see what happens. And then, oh, yeah, there is that one thing I can do now that I have this tool. I'll see if I can manufacture the RNG to get me there. And if it doesn't, oh, well, something else will probably happen.

[Mike Mahardy]

Sure.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. I. I feel myself also slowing down. I did have, like, the first puzzle that I just straight up looked up. And when I looked it up, I was like, I wasn't gonna figure that out. It was the gallery. Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's a. I look up and I was like, yep, glad I did that. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

I got. That's one where I got the tiniest hint from Chris where he's like a thesaurus is what he said. And so when I got the first one, everything else clicked into place.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. But it's like there is still stuff I would like to do and want to do, but it is it. I do sometimes eventually feel almost guilty, like I gotta play some other games and I can always come back to this. Like, I want to beat a Vowed especially. You know, there's rumors that that Oblivion remake could come out next week. And I. I know if I start playing that might be hard to go back to a vow. Something that's pretty similar. And there's some other games coming out soon, like, you know, Claire Obscure. I gotta. I want to make sure I'm playing that. So, yeah, I probably am slowing down here a bit. And I don't know if that means I just stop or if it means I go really deep on just looking stuff up and quote, unquote, trying to max out my save file, get those letters and whatnot. Probably the former.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. I think I could do the thing now where it's just. I just look up, like, the craziest puzzles and just watch it. Like, I think I'm probably done playing it. But that's certainly not an indictment. That's like, I Got long past credits on that game. I got hours, like 50, 60 hours or something like that, so.

[Dan Reichert]

And I think I've like at this point have like seen more than. Than either of you and there's still so much more for me to see. So it's like if you want to throw yourself in there, there's going to be so, so, so much. But you can have a satisfying experience without having to worry about doing all that at the same time. I think that's. I think that's good for a puzzle game like this.

[Mary Kish]

Yes, totally.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yes. One of the best. Mike, you are playing Tales of Graces. F. What the fuck is that?

[Mary Kish]

You know the Tales of games, right?

[Dan Reichert]

It's kind of similar to your. Your favorite franchise, the. The ease.

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, I'm a. I'm a big ease head, but yeah, but yeah. So tail, I've heard. Okay, can I guess Tails. How many Tales games are there? How many like different words are there at the end of Tales that are part of the same series?

[Mary Kish]

It's like 15 or something. Well, there's like a bunch of mobile ones that. No, nobody's really played. Say there's like 12 important ones, maybe mainline ones. There's one you have to know. I bet there's one that you know the name of.

[Mike Mahardy]

Wait, but who. Who makes them?

[Mary Kish]

Namco. Namco.

[Mike Mahardy]

Tales of Symphonia.

[Mary Kish]

That's right.

[Mike Mahardy]

Is that the one you thought I would know?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, because that was the big GameCube one.

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay. Tales of Arise.

[Mary Kish]

Tales of Arise. Yeah, that was the newest one.

[Mike Mahardy]

I already talked about it on here and I actually tried that out briefly. That's good. Tales of Symphonies. Tales of Arise is.

[Dan Reichert]

I'm trying to think of any other one.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, I think that's about all I got.

[Mary Kish]

There's Tales of Destiny, Tales of Vesperia. That's what I'm tells of. Bursaria. Tales of Zelia. Tales of Zelia 2. Tales of Fantasia was the first one. Tales.

[Dan Reichert]

Area bothers me.

[Mike Mahardy]

I was the same way.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, right.

[Mike Mahardy]

Metroid Zone.

[Mary Kish]

I'm a big JRPG guy. The gimmick with these ones is that they lean a bit more in the action RPG thing, but they still have. Have most of the trappings of traditional JRPG and that you have like a battle field, like the way you kind of equip items and the party setup and just the structure of everything. Very classic JRPG Ease is almost more of a straight up action rpg, I think. Because again, it's not. This is a. Oh, you touch an enemy in the field and then you go into like the separate screen, the separate thing going on there. So that's why this feels. Yeah, it's a bit more traditional in essence. And I played some of these and I really liked Sales Symphony. I played back on the GameCube, really like that. Tales of Vesperia was the Xbox 360 one. And they remastered that one not too long ago for modern platforms. And I love that one. That one is great. And I played like half of a Rise. The newer one that came out, this one, Tales of Graces, was the Wii one. Oh.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's a remake of a Wii game.

[Mary Kish]

So. Well, first they brought it over at the PlayStation 3 and that's when it became Tales of Graces is F. And no, I do not know what the F stands for. But then this is now Tales of Graces F Remastered.

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay.

[Mary Kish]

So it's a remaster of a PS3 version of a Wii game.

[Mike Mahardy]

What is the through line with the Tales series other than the Tails word?

[Dan Reichert]

It's like kind of.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, it's that gameplay set up, really. It's like.

[Mike Mahardy]

Not characters. It's not like a.

[Mary Kish]

No, it's a final fantasy. Things. I think some of them are tangentially related and like separated by eons. Right. But generally it's like a final fancy situation where most of them are completely different and separate things, but they have like always the same art style generally. And some other weird quirks. There's this skit system where at a certain point you can push select and you'll just see the characters kind of talking to each other about what's going on. It's completely optional, but they're usually kind of funny or cute. They just give you more flavor or something like that. Yeah, I've liked some. I liked Vesperia a ton. I like some funny a lot. This one is okay. Okay. Yeah, it. It is fine. If you are a big Tales of Like fan and you just want to play the new one that got remastered you haven't seen before, I think it's worth it. If you're curious about the series, please play Tells of Vesperia instead of this. Or play Tales of Arise, the newest one. Nothing super wrong with it. It's just all kind of normal. Right?

[Dan Reichert]

Is this the one you were losing Steam with a little bit a few weeks back? I can't remember.

[Mary Kish]

I almost. I almost just dropped it and I was like, I think I'm so close to the end that I will go ahead and finish it. And I am glad that I did but it was like, it was a little bit of a push. Like, all right, let me just get through this. Like there's. I kind of knew how the combat worked. It wasn't really getting any more complicated. It has like a crafting system of sorts that's not very complicated. I was a little surprised because all the tail, those heads are like, oh, this one has one of the best battle systems in the series. I wasn't really getting that sense at all. It seemed there was definitely some complications to it and the kind of attacks you can do and some dodging stuff. But also it has that problem. I think a lot of these games sometimes do have where, because it's an action like real time combat system and you, you have a party of four, but you can only control one person. Like, and often you're not playing as the healer. It's like, well, the hero's trying to cast attack and it's getting attacked and there's like five enemies on the field. You're trying to deal with them. So you're spending a lot of time just trying to get enemies off the healer. But sometimes you can't and it's a bad feeling. In other JRPGs when a party member dies, you have to revive them, but you know you're controlling them. It's your fault. It's extra annoying in this when you're playing the kind of item menu game a lot of the time like, oh, someone died, let's get them up with the potion, let's get them up with the whatever this game called. Phoenix Down, Life Bottle levels, things like that. But again, it was all fine. It's weird how you could still tell some of the ways it's a Wii game. Like, there's zero controlling a camera in this game, right? Because like, oh, right. Because, Right.

[Dan Reichert]

Analog stick.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There wasn't a right analog stick when they first made this game. So also means no Overworld, which is something that Symphonia and Vesperia have. And I like that. And this is more just a bunch of kind of long paths connecting all the areas. So the world feels surprisingly small. Like the whole thing felt kind of small in some ways in a nice intimate way for a game that took me like 35 hours to beat, which is, I guess on the short end for a JRPG these days, but still felt like a pretty long game. There's actually even an epilogue, I think, that I think they added in the PS3 version. And I was like, I'm. I'm not playing that. That's fine. I'll read, I'll go, I'll go read a description of what happens there. I'm. I've had it enough.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's building a house at the end of Red Dead 2.

[Mary Kish]

No, I wish it was that good. I think it's like even Persona 3, which I love, has that, that episode IIS thing, right. That they added to the remake and it was originally part of that fest version of the game. As much as I love Persona 3, by the time I'm done playing that game for 80 hours, I'm like, no, I'm good. I don't need to see the playable epilogue. No, thank you.

[Dan Reichert]

Mike, you mentioned the, the, you know, we not having the right analog stick. You know, not to bring news into this show, Dan, but there was some headlines that went around this week because Shuhei Yoshida, who formerly a PlayStation, said Nintendo is losing their identity because the Switch 2 is not weird. And I like, I just kind of fundamentally disagree with that because it's like Nintendo has done just follow up consoles in the past and, and that has not stopped them from being very Nintendo. But how do you guys feel about that? Is there any part of the Switch 2 that feels like it's disappointing because it's not weirder?

[Mike Mahardy]

No, because my thought is like the gimmick stuff, like even the ones that were successful, the Wii, the games I like from the Wii are not because of the gimmick. You know, I like, there's a handful. I like Boom Blocks Galaxy. Yeah, Boom Blocks is fine stuff like that. But like, you know, it's not about the gimmick. And then they tried to do the gimmick follow up to the Wii. Instead of doing the same thing, they did a different thing and it's sucked. And there were great games on the Wii U, but there weren't games that you needed the gimmick for. You know, it's games that you moved to the Switch, to the gimmick. So like zombie you. Well, of course, yeah. And the Switch, I mean you can call it a gimmick, but I really don't think it is. I think that is just like an evolution of a console, you know, it's meeting a need.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's not, oh, waggle controls, not oh, I can swing the tennis racket or I got a gamepad, it's oh, I can take my game on the bus. You know, that's totally.

[Mary Kish]

It's so it's people like first off conflating the innovations with gimmick because when I was Kind of complaining about this. Piss about this a bit. People are like, well, like, you know, some of the gimmicks have been like D pads and things that they invented. I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm not talking about that. You know, there is weird stuff with the Switch two, like the mouse. But what is always so much more important is just software innovation and creativity. Like, the big thing with the Switch one wasn't HD Rumble or even the Wild Car. It was breath of the wild and.

[Mike Mahardy]

You could take it on a plane.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, right.

[Dan Reichert]

It's far more influential than any of the gimmicks.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, right. And look at Donkey Kong Bonanza. Look what they're letting us do in that game. Like, that's what's important. So there's a lot of things to criticize Nintendo about right now. I do kind of hate the Nintendo's not weird anymore thing. I don't, I don't. But I don't care about that at all.

[Mike Mahardy]

You know, it wasn't weird. The Super Nintendo.

[Dan Reichert]

Yes, like, exactly.

[Mike Mahardy]

Was that a problem for the super or the nes? Like, no.

[Mary Kish]

Wasn't weird weird either. This is kind of a relatively recent thing. It's, it's a holdover from the Wii era. I think everybody was, you know them with weirdness.

[Dan Reichert]

It was their expression of like the blue ocean strategy of like, let's go someplace where everyone else is not. And really what they ended up realizing, the reason it worked with the Wii is because it was less powerful. And so they saved a ton of money and so they could just focus on soft innovation. That's the thing that has survived from the Wii because that's the first time they did that. Like the. All the other gimmick stuff did go away, but staying a generation behind with their hardware so they could like put more money into making software that stayed and that's what mattered from that generation. So, yeah, they're, they're actually just as weird. Putting out an underpowered console is still weird. So, yeah, I'm, I'm totally happy with it.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yep. Yep. And I guess like, you know, you could argue that the DS and the 3DS were gimmicky, but like, again, the game, like, they did some clever stuff with the dual screen stuff, but they.

[Dan Reichert]

Did like probably top tier gimmick. You know, it's hard to define gimmick, but that's. I would put that one in S Tier.

[Mary Kish]

There's always so much like kind of revisionist history. People, A lot of people didn't like the 3D. I did, but they barely supported the 3D effect in games by the end.

[Mike Mahardy]

Of the 3DS consoles that didn't have the fucking 3D on it, you know? Like, it's telling, though, that, like, the best games you can still play without that, like, look. Yeah. You're not going to see that block in the foreground in Mario 3D land, but, like, you can play through Mario 3D 3D land, you know?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think there's Pokemon games that just straight up didn't use it.

[Dan Reichert]

The later Pokemon games straight up did not have 3D enabled at all.

[Mike Mahardy]

Crazy cool, Grub. You have mainly been playing the River Hill soft game Over Blood for the original PlayStation.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

You beat it. Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

Beat this one today.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

This.

[Dan Reichert]

This was our. This is my Blight Club game. I. You know, four episodes. Last couple were not too long episodes either. We kind of had a rush last week and rush this week, so. So you know what, Dan, you were right. Not too bad. Right?

[Mike Mahardy]

It's. It's. But. But also appropriate. Like, it's not too bad.

[Dan Reichert]

Oh, it's a bad game. I just mean, like, relatively speed.

[Mary Kish]

It's not like Katana.

[Dan Reichert]

Come on. Like, you know, that's terrible. And a gauntlet that never ended.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. And for those that I guess don't know Blight Club and just listen to Fire Escape, it is us three and we play to completion. The worst games of all time. We have done take turns. I did Superman 64 and Sonic 06. Grub's done Daikatana and Ride to Hell. Mike. Bubsy 3D, Mortal Kombat Mythologies. Oh, yeah. Bubsy 3D Mortal Kombat Mythologies. Fester's Quest, Mike just destroyed in one sitting, which was maybe one of the more impressive things I've ever seen. I beat ET after that.

[Mary Kish]

He's Fester now. Yeah, I am Fester. Jeff, here's my big question, because I've been kind of thinking about this almost all day. What genre would you call over?

[Dan Reichert]

Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, I. I would probably put it. Especially if I was working in a magazine back in that day and I had to review it, I'd be like, this is basically an adventure game. It's an adventure survival horror.

[Mary Kish]

It's barely survival horror.

[Mike Mahardy]

So horny to call everything survival.

[Dan Reichert]

Okay, you're right. You're right. If I was actually working in a magazine back then, I probably would have called it survival horror, but so now I would call it adventure.

[Mary Kish]

We joked at the beginning, when you're Playing. I'm like, oh, this is kind of just Grim Fandango down to the tank control trolls. And it basically was that there was some combat, but 90 of the combat was in like the last 10 minutes.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. To get into the combat you had to still. Still go into the item inventory, that Grim Fandango item inventory and bring it up. And even when combat started, you had to do that and the combat wouldn't pause. What a weird.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's like two combat encounters.

[Dan Reichert]

Yes.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. Resident Evil where you're like side stepping a bunch of stuff around, passing those. There's like two things in the game you have to.

[Mary Kish]

I was shocked how much it wasn't Resident Evil because I think they thought it was like Resident Evil, but it just really isn't.

[Dan Reichert]

Yep, it was. It's just a very strange game. It's, you know, disorienting. You do expect it to be a little bit more like Resident Evil. Even like Resident Evil 1 back on the PlayStation had some like context sensitive button presses. Right. Like you could walk up to a door and if you had an item it would use it. Or did you have to go in your inventory and you know, if you.

[Mike Mahardy]

Had the key, like if you had a key to a door, it would be like, do you want to use the club key?

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. Right. And so this is like, you know, just like a level above that in terms of being a little obtuse. And so you do. You have to kind of go through everything and just be like, okay, try everything on everything. And then, you know, it does present as a survival horror and it's never scary, it's goofy. And then, you know, it's a sci fi story and it's, you know, telegraphs everything from a mile away. It's, you know, it's very much the clones. It's, it's, you know, one of those games from gaming's 3D infancy where like they're just like, can we do even do this in a game? And it's like, well, you couldn't. But we will eventually figure this out.

[Mary Kish]

It was a ton of fun to watch you play. I have. It was one of the more fun play club games to watch somebody play. It is a lot of that story. And the story is so cheesy and hokey and stupid and the characters are so ridiculous and dumb. I don't mean like, like, like, oh, like this is, this is dumb. I mean they have low IQs. They are not very smart people. That whole aspect of it was incredible. Like, you know, there's that you had your little robot friend peo. And I genuinely feel good about people. I like imagining people and I, I think it's. It's that you're in a special club if you know who people is.

[Dan Reichert]

Exactly that. Right?

[Mike Mahardy]

That.

[Dan Reichert]

And now, like, knowing that, yeah, there's people right there for video watchers for, like, knowing that this does have so much love for people who watch that super replay. And like, now I'm like, very excited to go watch that myself. And like, we see in the comments of people on that being like, oh, doing another rewatch of this. You know, it's Christmas time. I'm gonna sit down, I'm gonna. I'm gonna rewatch it all the way from, you know, beginning to end. I'm like, I, yeah, I get it. That this game would be a fun thing to just, you know, it's very MST3K. It's that kind of bad game.

[Mary Kish]

Towards the end, I compared it to Space Mutiny, which is a classic Ms. T3K episode. And I'm like, yeah, that is exactly. And I said, I'm like, yeah, that is what this reminds me of. Those are my vibes there.

[Dan Reichert]

You know, we have gotten into some real rotten games at this point. I think recognizing that there should be a space in Blight Club for stuff like Overblood is. Is like, crucial, right? Because, like, hokey goofy bad. Like B movie bad. Like, no actual B movie bad is should be represented. And so, like, it gave me a.

[Mary Kish]

Bunch of ideas exactly what it is.

[Dan Reichert]

There's some games I want to recommend for the show going forward.

[Mary Kish]

Please let me play Blue Stinger. I've been a good boy. I know it's good.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, well, Grub has now seen what you're going to look like, and he knows what the game is. Grub.

[Dan Reichert]

I'm jealous.

[Mike Mahardy]

Have you. Are you familiar with the game Grub?

[Dan Reichert]

I'm going to make myself familiar. I got to find out what this thing's about.

[Mary Kish]

I gotta see.

[Dan Reichert]

Look like, I do know. That's why I'm jealous.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's not a particularly tough costume to wear, Mike. We've all worn way harder.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Oh, I. We've all worn. I've worn. I'm the one who always has to put face paint on or something like that.

[Dan Reichert]

And I think that's a rule now. You're the only one that ever will not infringement, brother.

[Mike Mahardy]

No.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, fantastic. Was it? You think it was the best bike club game you've played, Jeff?

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, I mean, you know what? It's not how I'm like, thinking about when I'm playing it, but it's like, it's. It was the least painful for sure. Like, I definitely was, like, happy to be, like, playing that rather than Blues Brothers or some of these other games we thought wouldn't be as bad. I'm like, no, Blues Brothers actually is that bad. This one's that bad.

[Mary Kish]

Bad. Daikatana had all those weird defenders, and they're wrong against. Terrible.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, they just don't. They played a literal. Different game than what I played.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yes, it's funny, like, in a weird way, like, Overblood is, like, really important to me in my career. And also, like, I don't know if Blight Club would exist in its current form if I had not pulled that out in, like, 2010. Because it was the thing that taught me that, like, you know, I've mentioned before, like, Super Replay was originally supposed to be, like, we're gonna do full playthroughs of, you know, first two. Or, like, Mario 3 and link to the past. And then, like, we just. I pulled it out of the vault one day, overblown, like, what the fuck is this? I'm gonna make Tim play this. And it was the funniest shit ever. And we played it and. But the running joke when we used to record Super Replays to completion before we even started airing them, before we were doing live stuff or anything, and I just made a running joke throughout where it's like, no one's gonna fucking watch this. This is such a bad game. And I started doing this, like, password system every episode. Like, all right, if you've made it to episode three, the password is Wienerless Steve. If you made it to episode five, the password is. And say in the comments if you know all the passwords. And, like, we were all just joking, like, yeah, there's gonna be, like, 10 people that watch this whole thing. And it was far and away the most popular one. They started this whole, like, Replay fan group on Facebook that I think is still active called I Want the Entire Overblood Super Replay.

[Dan Reichert]

Yep. People brought that up to me.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. So it was just this huge thing. And, like, you know, Navarro came up with, like, the Blight Club name and stuff back when. When he was a giant boss. But when I started playing Sonic 06, you know, it wasn't. I didn't have Blight Club in mind. I was just like, let's play this bad game. And I don't think I would have picked up a bad game to play in its entirety if I had not seen so Long ago that. That can be super fun for me. And also the audience likes it so, like, in a weird way, without overblood and obviously Alex, like, I don't know if Black Club exists the way. And I'm so glad it's still so.

[Mary Kish]

Funny, you know, like, club is like probably the favorite. My favorite thing that I do. Right. Professionally.

[Mike Mahardy]

Thing I look forward to every single week. It's the same. It's the thing I look at my calendar and I'm like, ah, we're gonna. We got two weeks until the next one. I can't wait till Mike sees his costume. I can't wait.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. If I do, I do for some reason think it's important also, weirdly.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

You know, we're learning things like we've talked before about like Superman 64. Everyone just talked about the rings. And we showed everyone that. Like a lot more going on than that. Exactly.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. You know, I think it's like, important. Like I feel like for me personally, where it's like, I. My perspective on games has widened, like playing all these bad games. And I always liked playing bad games, but I would just do the thing where I'll. I'll play the first level and I'm. I'm not going to actually beat this game. But being, you know, we commit to beating the game. That's the whole thing. And seeing the credits on so many of these really terrible things, it's like, man, I. Playing bad games is always fun. In retrospect, respect, having played a bad game is like, man, remember when we. That with that thing happened? It's like. And it's having that and be like, I don't always feel that way when I play a game that disappoints me. That it's like a big budget game that's like. And then it helps me identify, like, what's the difference here? Like, what is this game missing? And so when we talk about that stuff, I feel more informed because I've played Daikatana.

[Mary Kish]

There was. There was a part when I had to play that bad RoboCop game for the original Xbox. So I just needed to rant and I was screaming about like, look at this right now. This is a virtual world that was created with and zeros. It's a miracle. It's a magic. And I. And I hate it. Right. And I think about all the time that even these awful games are somehow miracles. And in some way they're almost more special because nobody cares about them.

[Dan Reichert]

Wait, I mean, like, yeah, how do they even get across the finish line. We know how hard it is to make games. Of course, it was easier back then than it is today in a lot of ways, but still, you know, it took a village to get these things done. And, you know, what was it like working there, like, to get it across that finish line? It must have been like Poland Heath. And somehow so many of these games actually did accomplish exactly that. Even the game Mike's gonna play next.

[Mary Kish]

Are we just gonna, after that, have dan play the 911 game?

[Dan Reichert]

Which one?

[Mary Kish]

The one with Osama bin Laden as the final boss again.

[Mike Mahardy]

I know I've got the beard, but I will not. I'm putting my foot down undressed.

[Mary Kish]

I want to be clear. Yeah, no, I want to be clear, Dad. I have zero interest in seeing you dress up as Osamo been lauded. I'm not even going to do the obvious name bun.

[Mike Mahardy]

I refuse.

[Mary Kish]

I do think I was at a Halloween party one year in, like, the 2010s, where it's like, Dan. What? What?

[Mike Mahardy]

Obin la Dan.

[Dan Reichert]

Is that the obvious name pun? I'm sorry. Me and Dan were about trying to figure it out.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right, I'll do it.

[Mary Kish]

I was. I was at a Halloween party at a bar, and it was like the costume contest, and it was like, oh, let's see, we go. We got the Ghostbuster and the Joker. Some guy dressed up as Osama bin Laden. And it didn't go over very well. It was real weird.

[Dan Reichert]

Although the number. Number three, most sexy fictional character, Osama bin Laden, right there behind Batman, of course.

[Mike Mahardy]

Of course. What's the one?

[Mary Kish]

God, I'm sure it's still like this. I remember going to a Comic con in, like, 2010, and half the guys were Deadpool and half the girls were Harley Quinn.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, of course. Yeah. I remember there's a big Steve Irwin year in college when Steve Irwin just died, and everyone thought they were hilarious by doing the stingray thing.

[Dan Reichert]

They have the stingray sticking out of their heart or whatever, just like Bill.

[Mary Kish]

Very cool. It should have all stopped because nobody was going to match norms. Steve Irwin, just how you do that.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's how you do that dark joke.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, there was like, oh, he died so young. I think he died at a ripe old age. For a Crocodile Hunter, he was attracted.

[Dan Reichert]

Tragedy at the time. Two days later.

[Mike Mahardy]

Please, please don't make me laugh at this.

[Dan Reichert]

Tragedy at the time is. I. I don't know, maybe the funniest thing anyone's ever said. I got. I think about it every day.

[Mike Mahardy]

Hey, who got Frank?

[Dan Reichert]

You're not gonna believe it. You don't even want to know.

[Mary Kish]

God, it's funny.

[Mike Mahardy]

We. We joke about Overblood or like, Blake love being important, but it really is. Like, we work for a corporation that has all sorts of ever changing ideas about how to make video games content. And I swear to God, the thing I'm like, no, you were not fucking touching. This is Blight Club. We aired the finale today and I was not kidding. I was specifically told, like, do not let Blight Club go late. You need to be in this meeting when it starts. And it was clear that we were running a little behind. And I was just like, look, if I get fired because I wanted to see the end of Overblood today, I'm fucking so bad. Way to go out.

[Mary Kish]

I guess that's how it happened. Happens. Yeah. And then tune in next week on the Game. Best channel for Bad Game Club.

[Mike Mahardy]

We'll just call it Black Club. I don't.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, they can sue me.

[Mary Kish]

I don't care.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, whatever.

[Mary Kish]

Just we've download the videos and upload them for real. I'll steal it.

[Dan Reichert]

I don't give a. I'm glad we're.

[Mike Mahardy]

All aligned on that. Okay. Yeah. Four lines. Yes.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Mike, you played Castle Illusion while you were taking a show.

[Mary Kish]

I did. So, yeah. I have received from Dan a Chinese handheld of my own. I know that you two love these things. Jeff gave me one to mess around with a little bit. Which one was that, Jeff, that you just left at my house?

[Dan Reichert]

That. I think that was an early Anbernic one. 2020 maybe?

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, the one that I had you play in the steam room. Grub. That was an.

[Dan Reichert]

You know what it might be. I think it might be. Yes, totally.

[Mary Kish]

This is the Ambernick sp. So it has that clamshell ship shape of the Game Boy advance sp. One of the best handhelds ever. Just the best form factor.

[Dan Reichert]

Yes.

[Mary Kish]

For one of these. The reason I asked Dan for this is because I. I knew he was like sort of preparing them and for. For family members. And I was like, I'll buy one of these from you if you still have one. I'm doing this Disney World trip soon. And it's funny because I used to always love having my Game Boy advance or my DS in my pocket. It. Because sometimes you're in Disney and you're in a line, there's not much to do. It's like an hour long line sometimes. So you just play something on there and it's weird that that's actually something I've lost now that you know, I, those aren't modern systems. I don't really have them ready to go like I used to. So sometimes I, I, you know, I'm not saying I can't talk to people or look at my phone. I'll do that stuff. But the phone you want the little.

[Dan Reichert]

Game Boy in your pocket.

[Mary Kish]

This.

[Dan Reichert]

I was like, yeah, of course. That's why I want them too. I imagine myself in a line at Cedar Point with my Game Boy Advance SP like that. It makes that feeling is. I don't know, something about. It's magical.

[Mike Mahardy]

I kind of go there. Hang on real quick. I kind of go the opposite way. Mike has such a, like innocent, like, you know, like I'll play it in line for Pirates of the Caribbean or whatever. I use mine a lot. But you know what I think about a lot about like why I'm glad.

[Mary Kish]

I have it on like the old.

[Dan Reichert]

Game Boy Advance SP ads where they're like having sex or whatever.

[Mike Mahardy]

No, it's because they say if you ever witness something unbelievably traumatic, that you should start playing Tetris and it'll help your brain process it. So it's like I will think like, oh, if I'm ever like at a mall and there's a mass shooting, I could just play Tetris real quick.

[Mary Kish]

There you go, Stan. What the hell?

[Dan Reichert]

I've never heard this. Wait, they say you should play Tetris.

[Mary Kish]

That is a thing.

[Mike Mahardy]

Something awful that. And I have. I've seen some up stuff and realized life that like, oh, I wish I could have just been able to play Tetris after seeing that body that just fell off that roof of New York City.

[Dan Reichert]

Okay. And then the next step of this is that's why you want a Game Boy advance with you.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's just a fun little bonus.

[Dan Reichert]

Okay.

[Mary Kish]

All right. All right.

[Mike Mahardy]

Mangled corpse in the sidewalk. I could be like, I'll play a little Tetris.

[Dan Reichert]

Now. I'm going to be thinking about that too. All right, cool.

[Mary Kish]

So I bought it for, for, for Mickey's house.

[Mike Mahardy]

That' I like the. I'm not stuck on Chinese handhelds for.

[Mary Kish]

Preparation of corpses for the impossible pivot. I was excited you had this green one, cuz that's the one my childhood one was. I was like, oh good. Yeah, I did, I did immediately. So you pre ordered a lot of games on here already, which I appreciate. But I did immediately go and add ridge Racer Type 4 on the play.

[Mike Mahardy]

Right? Because the thing is you can, it can do PlayStation stuff, but it's a little picky because it doesn't have an analog stick stick. So I think I just put like Symphony the Night maybe and like twisting my.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, you put simple night Crash Bandicoot 1, Resident Evil 1. But. And I was aware of that. I'm like, well, I actually play register type 4 of a D pad. That's how I like to play it.

[Mike Mahardy]

So.

[Mary Kish]

And I already played a race on it and it worked great. So that's good. And I also.

[Mike Mahardy]

But yeah, they also take up the most space too. So that's why it's like I loaded everything up so full sets of like NES and Super Nintendo 7. Like.

[Dan Reichert]

Like. Have you explained your process of like, you know, imprinting the cards and stuff like that? And like how you do this and buying all these and how you done it once.

[Mike Mahardy]

And I've got the image saved to clone these SD cards, but I'm gonna have to redo it, I think because there are a couple settings and they're weird things where it's like, I don't know why Super Metroid's not on here or whatever. But I think the most important thing I did do it is when you get it just from the Factory, it doesn't do the SP thing where it's like if you shut it, it goes into like a.

[Mary Kish]

Can I ask you about that? Because it did do. I was like, is it gonna do that? And then it did. I'm like, oh, good, I hacked.

[Mike Mahardy]

It doesn't initially do that, but like, if you install it. Is this the one that has like mos? It's like MU OS or something. You put that on there and you can go into some power settings and it loads you straight to like the emulator list and all that stuff. So it's like. It's just a much cleaner, better interface than it comes with. And I just bought four more, so I'm going to have to like do this again. So I might go in and try to refine like this first batch like that you got Mike. That was in my first try, so I'll probably do it again.

[Mary Kish]

Well, it's already pretty good. The only other game I added right now is actually the. Is Mother three with the fan translation. Because I finally played Earthbound relatively recently after years of not being able to get into it and freaking loved it. And people go off about Mother three also and they're gonna love. It's awesome.

[Mike Mahardy]

So I actually excited after this. I have a couple questions related to that, but yeah, these things are awesome. I just love like, you Know, I was on an Xlander thing a couple days ago and I was talking about the. And Alex was like, oh, well, these things are probably really cheap and shitty, right? I was like, no, they're actually awesome.

[Dan Reichert]

Like, they started off cheap and shitty and then they. The competition of like all these companies working against each other forced them to make it better. And it's, you know, it's, it's awesome.

[Mike Mahardy]

Those good screens, good USB C charging, a lot of them will just come with the like, tempered glass screen protector. There's a million great YouTube channels and videos that just like, here's how to load this up the right way.

[Dan Reichert]

And I mean, it's all the manufacturing plants that make, make the expensive stuff as well. They're all made in China. So it's like, this is like when, like one of those products gets like, deprecated or whatever, someone just comes along and say, like, well, let's make, let's. What can we do with this place that makes a bunch of LCD screens? And someone has the bright idea, like, let's make tiny little, you know, Chinese handhelds. And it's, it's the same stuff. Just now it's being like, sold at a lower cost because it doesn't have the overhead of like an American corporation needed to get its cut. It's. Yeah, it's a good situation.

[Mary Kish]

I'm. I'm pretty excited that there's a bunch of Sega Master games on here because as much I love Sega, I never really played much Master System wasn't much of a thing in the US And I, I watch a lot of retro gaming channels and a lot of them will talk about best Master System games. So all these things I haven't played. There's a lot of Disney games on the Master System. There's two Mickey Mouse ones, there's two Donald Duck ones. They're all supposed to be good. Bunch of other weird stuff. So I'm like, probably going to play a lot of Master System games on this thing. And that's very exciting to me.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. And I've had people ask that, like, look, you know, I have an analog, analog pocket and it's fantastic. And like, you know, I've had people ask, oh, isn't that supposed to be the best one? Why don't you just use that? And it's like, I don't know, I like to play old games in any circumstance and I like to be able to take them on the go and stuff. And for me, it's like different use cases. Like the pocket is the One where it's like recently I've been playing through the Wario Land games and stuff where it's like I'm gonna sit down like while I'm sitting here at home watching Raw in the background. I'm playing on the app analog. But that is the more kind of high end expensive one. It's also a little bigger, a little heavier and stuff. So like something like this, like the SP where the screen is not exposed or I love the. The trim UI Brick. That one's actually.

[Dan Reichert]

Brick's awesome.

[Mike Mahardy]

That one's so awesome. And they're smaller. You can literally fit them in your pocket.

[Mary Kish]

So tiny. It's such a good form factor. The Clam show is so good.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. And if something. The worst case, which I've never had anything like this break, but like if it did, this isn't 200 bucks. Like the right. You know, you get these on sale for like 50, you know, so. So yeah, it's different use cases. Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

I've never bought any of the ones that are like 150 plus that can do like, you know, maybe PS3 games. And I know there's some people interested in that. But like whenever I get to that point, I'm like, steam Deck. I got my Steam Deck. I will just go back to the Steam Deck because the price is getting a little bit questionable at that point and the use case becomes a little like. Sure, I would like to be able to play, I guess PS3 games on the go, but those games aren't really made with that in mind.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. When I'm going to play Resistance.

[Dan Reichert]

Exactly.

[Mike Mahardy]

I play War anywhere. I'm playing Tetris during match two.

[Dan Reichert]

Right. 50 Cent blood on the Sand. I wait until I'm home. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

There's so many 8 bit and 16 bit games that I'm interested in. Want, like, want to play for the first time or Replay. That's. That's enough for me.

[Mike Mahardy]

They're the best ones for. Yeah. You got 20 minutes until your plane lands. Yeah. Boot this up for a little bit. Knock out a couple Wario. Wear chunks, you know, and if you.

[Dan Reichert]

Need something else, you can. Yeah, Tony Hawk will work great.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. Yeah. It's. They're. They're awesome. I love them. I get a lot of use out of them. And even just the rituals of like getting a new one and like looking up the videos on the best way to like switch out the UI and load up all the games. Figure out like, okay, I've got this much. I got 64 gigs. Here's what I'm going to put on this one.

[Mary Kish]

You know, like these things are only going to become more prominent as you know, I think consoles in general are going to become more and more of a hobbyist thing. Right. So it's good that we're all getting prepared for this reality, honestly.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yes. All right, well I think that covers. Like I said we. We're talking about the new games all the time. If you want to check us out on Giant Box and also Game Mess decides last the nintendogs. That's. Thank you for the plug that Rev Minati put out there. Great stuff. And I want to ask you maybe this is a different angle here I am about to spend dozens of hours on planes like in the next month. I have more than one overseas trip. I've got packs, I've got a lot coming up and I always as someone who doesn't like flying, I like to make sure I'm like over prepared in terms of getting games. But there is that like choice paralysis thing. So I have. I'm planning on bringing. The first one I'm going on is actually by the time this episode goes up I'll be in a different country. So I'm bringing the Steam deck and I'm bringing. I can't decide if I'm doing the analog or maybe the trim ui but let me. Here's. Here's what I'm looking at here and tell me what you guys would think in terms of like a plain game because I want to like I have a billion ready to go and downloaded but I want to be able to focus on something and be like oh, I'm going to beat this or I'm going to really spend.

[Mary Kish]

Sure, sure, sure.

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay. The dominance collection. I haven't gone through order of ecclesia.

[Mary Kish]

That's a. Oh, that's a no brainer.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's gonna be good. Crash 4 never really played through that.

[Mary Kish]

Crash 4 is great. I love Crash 4.

[Dan Reichert]

I like Crash 4. It's my favorite crash game.

[Mary Kish]

It's definitely the best one.

[Mike Mahardy]

Best crash game. Okay, that's good to know.

[Mary Kish]

It is.

[Mike Mahardy]

It is beyond good and evil. The 20th anniversary Mike told me about that. Said it was really good.

[Mary Kish]

It was, yeah. It's surprising good. I think that game falls off a little bit towards the end though. But still it's. That first hour is actually fantastic. Even if that's just what you play, it is magical. Just be like man, this was really good for. You know. Of course a lot of games were good back then but it almost feels like the first 360 era came to me. In some ways. I wonder if you'll agree when you play it, it's just. It's a little bit ahead of it.

[Mike Mahardy]

I played through it. I just haven't played through since the XBLA version.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. And I think it's really neat. And we're all gonna play the sequel here any minute now, right?

[Mike Mahardy]

That next month, I think.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, for sure.

[Mike Mahardy]

I've got a Hat In Time, which. Here, let me. I'll solve an old Giant Bomb mystery that people have wondered. At one point, you might have seen a Coming soon or later this week. Quick look of Hat In Time. And then it mysteriously disappeared. And there were some Reddit threads and NeoGAF things. What happened here? I don't remember the deal, but I did prep a Quick look for Hat In Time and I remember really liking it. And it was ready to go. We recorded it. I think I was at Giant Bomb east at the time maybe, and there was some sort of, like, Internet drama, some social media thing.

[Dan Reichert]

It was. What's.

[Mike Mahardy]

What's his name or something.

[Dan Reichert]

Like, what was his name? The guy that was on Game Corrupt. Jontron. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

It was, like, about the creator. No, that was. You're thinking. You're thinking of Ukulele in the Voice. John Tron did a voice.

[Mary Kish]

You're right there. What. There was. There was a drama with a Hat In Time.

[Mike Mahardy]

So, like, we're kind of fighting against it because I was. I don't think anyone knows about this because, like, I hadn't heard about this and I saw the guy popping up on other outlets and stuff. So it's like, it wasn't the thing where, like, this guy was, like, roundly canceled, but I remember not really knowing what the deal was. And I was like, let's just put it up.

[Mary Kish]

It's not like a Jontron wasn't. Jontron is also in a Hat In Time.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, is he? Okay.

[Dan Reichert]

I think it was John Tron, because John Tron said some white supremacist that.

[Mike Mahardy]

I would have understood. This was something about, like. Like, a creator, like, lightly doxed someone, like, years prior. I can't remember if it was accidental or something, but I remember it was so kind of obscure that, like, I tried to look it up and I was struggling to figure out what the thing was. And I remember being like, why don't. Why don't we just put this up? This isn't like some weird Nazi thing or something like that. But the call was made to, like, let's not put it Up. So for anyone who's.

[Dan Reichert]

I remember, I remember stuff with Hat in Time and I was so excited about it and then it happened and I'm like, I don't want to play it now. I remember feeling that way. I don't remember exactly the details.

[Mary Kish]

I'm curious what you think because like I love 3D platform cameras and I tried to place on Switch and it just, it ran very poorly on Switch so I just couldn't really stick with it. But if you, if you think there's something special there, I definitely would try to play it some other way.

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay. Yeah, I kind of want to go back in because I actually never went back after that quick little was recorded. And I remember thinking like, oh, this is pretty good. So I'm in a 3D platformer mood lately.

[Mary Kish]

Right, right. You, you started Spongebob Squarepants rehydrated.

[Mike Mahardy]

I did that quick stream and it was good. I didn't keep going on it. I should have that downloaded. Like it's just like on a plan especially. It's good to just have some like turn your brain off type stuff like that. I've got some obvious ones here that I've played before that I know will be great. You got into the breach. Picross 3D with the stylus on my phone cross.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, I, I, I don't know if you guys ever played pit cross, but I've been playing a. I played a ton of pit cross. I beat the game.

[Dan Reichert]

You know what's happening here? Do you know, do you know what's happening right now?

[Mike Mahardy]

Picross on the Switch online.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. After years of not just me, but primarily me being like, hey, Mike, Picross is awesome. Picross 3D, one of the best games ever. Ever. He's like, yeah, I don't get it. And then 3D. He has not done 3D.

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay, you gotta do that now. But like I'm glad you at least see Picross now because he loves it.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, I mean it was like it's not some short thing to beat all the puzzles in the Game Boy version. It was like 15 hours of gameplay or something. It was the only thing I wanted to do was play through Pick.

[Dan Reichert]

There's a great Konami mobile game. It has a bunch of, of those. Well, I forget what that like the.

[Mike Mahardy]

Generic pixel collection or something or it's. Yeah, Pixel puzzle.

[Mary Kish]

That they're great. Well, they have that Japanese super Famicom one on ns. I tried playing that but like I thought like, oh, this won't be a game where the Japanese matters Too much. But the very first thing I did was it was like a Japanese symbol was the PCross puzzle. It was clearly supposed to mean something. I was like, okay, well maybe, maybe not this one.

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, I I swear, Mike, try 3D. It is the pinnacle of everyone really likes enthusiast 3D.

[Dan Reichert]

You're gonna, it's gonna be, it's. If you like Picross at all, you're gonna be blown away by it.

[Mary Kish]

It's like at first I was like, okay, I just guys, I just only now understood Pit Cross. I'm not ready. And now I'm like, I'm ready.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm ready.

[Mary Kish]

I got this going. I'm. Let's go.

[Mike Mahardy]

O.B. you slay the spire is one of those games I started and I was like, this is awesome. I never kept going with it. Rogue Legacy 2. I never played past Early Access Mario Golf. I played a decent amount on the analog and I want to finish.

[Dan Reichert]

Oh, that'd be great.

[Mike Mahardy]

Do have Chibi Robo on here. But I think now I'm going to wait for the switch 2. Sure, sure should wait.

[Mary Kish]

I'm the opposite because I have a copy of GB Robo for GameCube and I'm like, okay, I want to maybe actually finally play that before the Switch two comes out.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, nice. I I so this is one here is Wario or no, sorry, not Wario land, Earthbound and Mother 3. So that's what I wanted to ask about was so those yes, those seem like they might be good playing games, you know, and I was asking Grub like, oh, would this be an analog thing? Or should I play on like Steam Deck? Think like probably go to Analog. Even though Earthbound was for Mother three for for sure.

[Dan Reichert]

I've not I've tried Earthbound a couple times and I got started and was really into it one time, but I have not played past that. I know that there are some quirks of it being an older RPG that that might make that better if you can have some save states.

[Mary Kish]

I I like, you know, that's just on nso. So I played it on Switch and I yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just on nso.

[Mike Mahardy]

I don't know if I'm bringing a Switch though. I mean I've got all this on on right?

[Mary Kish]

Because like Earthbound is surprisingly more of an relatively old school JRPG than you might expect. So that you're gonna do some things like grinding and you might have times where oh, I died to a random battle and do I really want to lose all that progress and go back to the safe thing or do I just want to rewind a little bit before that?

[Dan Reichert]

I'm not.

[Mary Kish]

So it's kind of nice to have rewind.

[Dan Reichert]

Make sure you have the emulator set up with rewind, which is.

[Mary Kish]

Should not be against that, to be clear. Yeah, that's why you want to do something that has rewind.

[Mike Mahardy]

And you know, I think the reason I could see myself going through this game instead of finally playing through Final Fantasy 6 or something is because, like, I think it might not so much be the JRPG menu stuff that I always thought. I think, I think the fantasy stuff might be.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

If that's your.

[Mary Kish]

If that's your hang up. Even like when I played through Earthbound just, you know, a few months ago, I still think it's whole suburban.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Weirdness kind of Twin Peaks thing is fantastic. The vibe and aesthetic of that game is still really freaking good.

[Mike Mahardy]

I love stuff.

[Mary Kish]

So good.

[Mike Mahardy]

Mario and Luigi and Paper Mario and stuff. I love those. And those are just turn based RPGs. I know they have the like timing stuff and everything, but like other three.

[Dan Reichert]

Has some time and stuff in it. That's what one of the things I like about it so much.

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay. So I do need to, I need to get that from someone.

[Mary Kish]

I may, I may have shot you a message, Dan, about a certain archiving site on the Internet.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh. Oh, cool. That's smart. Okay. Yes, I should play that. And, and the translation's good.

[Mary Kish]

People love the fan translation. They say it's amazing.

[Dan Reichert]

Early big emotional moments. And the best thing about Mar3 is all like, remember it was going to be like a. Was going to be a 64 DD.

[Mary Kish]

64 game.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. And like all the images of it as a 64 DD game were all these characters that had like looked really distinct. Well, it's like they took those characters and just put them into the Game Boy advance and then like made them Game Boy advance distinct. So they are all these really cool looking characters and they all like in a little village and they're all kind of getting along. They all know each other, but then something terrible happens and the characters are emoting and really affecting ways and yeah, it's. It's good stuff.

[Mike Mahardy]

Now here, here's the big question. If I know I want to do one of these, at least on the plane, can I just go into Mother three without knowing Earthbound?

[Mary Kish]

It's. It is, it is a. It is a sequel in some ways. Not a ton done. So I think you can. The one thing I think you're gonna Bristle against in Earthbound, even bother me a bit is the inventory management is kind of a nuisance. It's. It's the Dragon Quest style where each character has their own inventory and it's a max inventory and it's relatively small. And there's a system in the game where you, like, call your sister and she'll come and pick up items for you, but it's a little bit annoying. I don't know if Mother three does the same thing, Jeff.

[Dan Reichert]

Mother three's got a limited inventory story, but you're basically. You solve that just by feeling good about using items all the time.

[Mary Kish]

So, yeah, that's a big part of my problem. Yeah, I remember. Really?

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. I was seeing, like, Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 1. Just being like, how the, like, 8 is not nearly enough.

[Mary Kish]

With Jill, I still never beaten Resident Evil 1. With Chris, I'm always like, look, I think Joe's a better character and she's got way more inventory space. I'm just gonna play as her.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yes. Every time. I never play as Chris.

[Mary Kish]

No. Yeah. So part of me, like, maybe I should. I. I want to play that remake again. That remake is still so freaking good for Resident Evil. Like.

[Mike Mahardy]

Resident Evil game.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, God, no.

[Mike Mahardy]

No. 2 remakes are least favorite. Sorry.

[Mary Kish]

You know, like, now that you're so blueprints pilled, have you thought about checking out the Mist remake?

[Mike Mahardy]

I didn't really realize they remade it, but I would not.

[Mary Kish]

They remade that a bit ago, and then they remade Riven, the sequel to Miss Last year. People actually say that remake's great.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. Raved about that.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, I have to do that record roulette. Oh, wait, I don't think I have that anymore. Okay. Maybe I'll just play it for myself.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, we got our own Twitch channels. Whatever.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, we'll figure it out, I think. Yep. Okay. Well, then, yes, I will start at least one of those, like Earthbound or Mother 3 on the plane. Last question before we take a break for emails. Here is speaking on this plane stuff, fellas. I. This is a tough thing, and I want everyone to feel bad for me, but after going to the last. Last 12 WrestleManias in person, I will not only not be attending this year's Wrestlemania, but I will be on a plane during night two during Cody Rhodes versus John Cena. I will be home for night one, but I'm leaving at 10am the next morning. And I'm also flying that in a place that does not have wifi, so that's not Even a possibility. So my. Here. Here's my two options here and let me know what you think sounds better for me. I can either tell everyone I know not to text me for a week and hope that it's not spoiled and I can download it to my peacock app before the flight home. And that sounds like a sweet four or five hours on a plane is watching WrestleMania for the first time. Or I am going to a thing in Japan where I will have friends there that are also into wrestling. Jake. Beep. Where I said where I'm going.

[Mary Kish]

I guess.

[Mike Mahardy]

I guess that's not an embargo breaker. Whatever.

[Dan Reichert]

No, people go to Japan all the time.

[Mike Mahardy]

You're fine. Yes, I'm going to Japan for fun. Yeah. So all my several other friends are going to be there for fun also at the same time. And one of them, I was kind of dming like, oh, yeah, what are you doing about mania? What are you doing about mania? You're going to be on a flight during that too. And yeah. Yeah. And he said like, well, we got to do like a watch party at the hotel when we get there. And I was like, oh, that doesn't sound like a really interesting sound fun way. It's like watching WrestleMania.

[Dan Reichert]

Get some Japanese food, some Japanese beer, sit down and watch WrestleMania. That sounds like a hell of a night to. To me. Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Rather than just saving it just for the sake of like killing time on a plane. And I mean, listen, if things don't.

[Dan Reichert]

Work out, you could always save it on the other side.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Here's what I think. I think that instead of this stupid pity party for yourself, you should think about me, who was kind of confident, like, oh, man, Dan's gone to every WrestleMania forever, but he's gonna go to this one. And I'll probably get to go with him this time. It's gonna be great. Oh, he can't go. Oh, he has to go to Japan. Oh, that's real rough.

[Mike Mahardy]

Really boring thing that. I'm going to hate Mike, if that.

[Mary Kish]

Remember how much fun we had at all in. We went to all together.

[Mike Mahardy]

We went to SummerSlam together. We like.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, we have to at least go to a wrestling show this year together. We have to figure something out.

[Mike Mahardy]

We should. SummerSlam kicked ass with us three SummerSlam so much.

[Dan Reichert]

There's some stuff in the Midwest again this year.

[Mary Kish]

Right.

[Dan Reichert]

Aren't they doing a big show?

[Mike Mahardy]

SummerSlam is next year. Indianapolis got all this this year.

[Mary Kish]

Where are they?

[Dan Reichert]

Well, Indianapolis. Like, right, that's between us. So. So.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, right. That's that was the thing too. It's like this. WrestleMania's not even that far. It's like right in between us. It's not even that far away.

[Mike Mahardy]

No, WrestleMania is far.

[Dan Reichert]

WrestleMania is Vegas, right?

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, my bad. That's my bad. My bad. Royal Rumble was Royal Rumble. Part of me was like, oh, we should go. And then it was just kind of busy and happened.

[Mike Mahardy]

I think they got the SummerSlam and like Survivor Series or something.

[Mary Kish]

I also haven't been to Vegas in forever. I kind of want to go to Vegas again.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, we, we. We'll come up with an excuse eventually.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. Yeah. But yes, I would like to watch wrestling with you fellas again. But yeah, so maybe I should. Maybe I'm leaning towards watching it in Japan. It's.

[Dan Reichert]

I, I would, that's what I would do. That would be that.

[Mary Kish]

Get me a. Hey, get me a jacket from Rivera.

[Mike Mahardy]

I. My hotel is an eight minute walk. I already have plans with some buddies to go to Rivera. So that's going to be. Be great, man.

[Mary Kish]

We did, we did that show with Samoa Joe and that was amazing.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

And I kind of told my friend, I told my friends I was doing it and they thought it was really neat. But I didn't end up like sending them the link because we did end up. We ended up talking about my testicles a lot during it. I just, I didn't know how they were gonna react to that.

[Mike Mahardy]

Wait, do they not listen to any of your other stuff? Because I feel like your balls come up plenty.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. Your balls are main star in our shows.

[Mary Kish]

The one does listen to 90s Disney even though he's not that into it. But like, a lot of my high school friends and stuff were not very big into video games. Right. Which is, is. It's pretty weird. Like, I always in my head was like, okay, I like video games way more than the other people I know in my life. Even though other people seem to like video games. Fine. Yeah. Right. So no, like, you know, they're, they're very supportive of me and things like that, but they don't have any interest in listening to me talk about video games. Some of them do, but most.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's so interesting to me that, like, more than anyone I know you are the guy that, like, I feel has no shame whatsoever and like, you'll get up and belt out karaoke in front of everyone. You don't care. And like, it's. I look, it's genuinely quality. I think is fantastic about you. It's funny that Samoa Joe Talking about your. Your balls is a thing that causes you the two things. Samoa Joe, talking about your testicles and songs from your Jesus.

[Mary Kish]

Musicals are the a part of like, like, like the one's friend especially. And he is one of my closest friends, but he also, I. I had a lot of friends in like the advanced programs. They were like the smartest kids in the school and stuff like that. And this friend, he teaches classics now at university. Like, he also loves wrestling, right? It's not. He's like super hoity toity, but I know he would be like a little off put and like, not in some like weird way. He would like make fun of me for it. But I also, I don't want to have that conversation of him making me explain to him why it was actually okay that Samoa Joe talked about my testicles.

[Mike Mahardy]

So funny that that actually just happened.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, it's real weird.

[Mike Mahardy]

For me it's a normal thing because it did.

[Dan Reichert]

It'll be in the history books. Yeah, yeah.

[Mary Kish]

You think, you think Joe's the kind of person, like, if I ever did meet him, he's gonna remember all of that. We're just gonna like lead with the.

[Mike Mahardy]

Grape swallowing because he definitely. That made an impact impact on him.

[Dan Reichert]

This is the guy swallows grapes whole.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, this swallows grapes.

[Mary Kish]

Seen it.

[Mike Mahardy]

Look up Voicevale dump truck with Samoa Joe. Fantastic episode. He's the best man.

[Mary Kish]

I've got to do some fun things thanks to you two. In recent years, I'll tell you what it's been make it better. It's funny. I like, I've been doing this for a while. There's some reasons, like over on the Games beat sign, I had to kind of like look through some old stuff. It's like, gosh, I can't believe I've been doing this for 12 years or more than that. Because it's only like the last few years years where it's been this real whirlwind roller coaster ride of just constantly doing weird, interesting things. A podcast with Samoa Joe or oh my God, I'm in Germany and now we're at all in and just weird, weird fun stuff.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's interesting thinking about this stuff before. Yeah. Because like, I guess I was working for free from 05 until Game Informer hired me in 09. And I. I was going to E3, but I'd like pay my own way out and all that shit. And like I wasn't getting paid directly. It was just so I had like four years of just no big crazy stuff. And then Game Informer went crazy, right?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Because like you got. Yeah. You got into gay form relatively early. Jeff and I were low key at Games Beat for a long, long time there.

[Mike Mahardy]

Grub was like. I mean, I knew Grub's name and everything for so many years before, like, you know, we've talked about before. It's like the first time I ever saw you in person was you were on stage at that Greg Miller competition thing. And me, Mike and Mary.

[Dan Reichert]

That's right, you guys. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Before Fire Escape existed, me, Mike and Mary were brutally hungover. And we came up and we came.

[Dan Reichert]

In with sunglasses on and I'm like, sunglasses?

[Mike Mahardy]

Because we were unbelievably up. And then. Yeah, I remember seeing you there. I remember. Just give me a pat on the back because that was the first time I'd ever seen you in person. Right. I had hair at the time, I remember. And we didn't. I don't think I saw you afterwards or whatever because I think we got knocked out and then we just went and passed out of the hotel or something. But. And then it was years after that that. That we started working together. But like. Yeah, I feel like we were following each other back in the. Probably like early 2000s or something. You were doing chicken dinners and.

[Dan Reichert]

Exactly. Just kind of talking on.

[Mike Mahardy]

On.

[Dan Reichert]

On Twitter and stuff like that. For sure. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

But the weird thing with me was that I never used to watch Giant Bomb. Actually, Jeff was the one who liked it. He was. Jeff was the one who was following it up and was excited to do that.

[Dan Reichert]

I needed. It was like one up yours and then I needed something after One up went away. So I'm like, ah, Giant Bomb's pretty good. I'll go for that now. Yeah, that's kind of how it went.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I'm so glad. The first time I met Dan in person was in Disneyland.

[Mike Mahardy]

I was telling that story. That's right about the first time. Not only was it at Disneyland, but our first in person interaction was you giving me a stone cold stunner at Disney.

[Mary Kish]

Yes, of course. I had to.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's on video too.

[Mary Kish]

Uhhuh. It was recorded, right?

[Mike Mahardy]

There was no there. I don't think I've ever immediately hit it off. Off in terms of just joking around and like on. On and off content. Like it's like you two and like Tim Tur. Yeah. Mike and Mary and like this Rush. More people that. I'm like, okay, I just want to make videos of these people forever. This is. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Well, the f. The first thing we ever did was the We. You did that video game Jeopardy. Thing over on our. For our patreon, Jeff and I. And yeah, you were on there. And it was the first time. That was when you. The gimmick was you kept calling me every name but Mike, you pretended you were hot shotting me. And Mitch was the one you really liked for some reason. And now everyone calls me Mitch. And I love it. And I've always loved it.

[Mike Mahardy]

I heard it.

[Mary Kish]

People finally stopped with that. I was so annoying. I want to be like, do you guys understand, like, the literal dollars he has put in my pocket because of this Mitch thing? Do you understand how good that has been for me?

[Mike Mahardy]

Hall saw the crow and told Sting. Hey, brother, I got an idea.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, right. Exactly. Exactly. Like that got so over. That was such a bl. What a gift, you calling me Mitch. Oh, my God, it was okay. Plus, it's just more things that I could potentially rhyme into stupid puns now because if Mike doesn't work, if Tokoto doesn't work, I have Mitch.

[Mike Mahardy]

Now you got content ideas based around the Mitch name.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, it's so good. Yeah, a lot of things, surprisingly large amount of things rhyme with Mitch, not.

[Dan Reichert]

Just wow, you learn something new every day.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, it's fantastic.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right, well, I guess that's it for the games this week. Should we. Should we answer some emails?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, sure. I hope that they're mostly addressed to Mary and Mike.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, several of them are, yes.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, I'm a mic. I can answer those. I drink wine once.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right. Got a handful of emails here. Some of these might have had Mike or Mary in mind, but, you know, I got two fellas here that can play the roles if needed. So who wants to call dibs on. I guess, Mike.

[Dan Reichert]

Mike and I'm Mary.

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay. And we got Mary there. Okay, great. All right. They call it grubbing it. All right, here we go. First one from Phil in Finland. Howdy, partners. Since getting access to the deadlock ski one. Whoa. Early development build, I've put in almost 500 hours in a game that's not officially announced yet. And if I didn't have a dog and a girlfriend, that amount would probably be triple. This will most likely be the game I spend the next 10 years with. Before Deadlock, I probably had thousands of hours in Overwatch. And during my last few years of that game, I could feel it draining the life out of me, but didn't stop playing it since. These days, most AAA games do nothing for me, and maybe one or two indies catch my attention Every year. I love the depth, complexity and sense of improvement in competitive games. And while I haven't neglected my non existing kids because of a wow raid or put my mortgage into loot boxes, I've definitely turned down personal growth in other areas. I'm four games I'm mediocre at. I know. Mike, that's you. Mike. Yes. Has put an embarrassing amount into Warframe. But do any of you have firsthand experience or people in your life that have been way too into a game that it became a problem? Take care. That's Phil from Finland.

[Mary Kish]

It's. I was actually just thinking about this because I, asides from Warfare Frame, used to play a lot of kind of these Forever Live service games. I played a ton of World of Warcraft in my life. It's. It's not something that's come up a ton recently. I was, until pretty recently I was doing a ton of Final Fantasy 14. I did play a lot of Overwatch too when I was younger. Tons of Team Fortress Classic and early Counter Strike, like lots of Hearthstone when that was the thing. So I used to do these a lot. It's only pretty recently that I've actually kind, kind of backed off that a little bit. I think part is because I'm doing so much more retro gaming now too.

[Dan Reichert]

You're streaming?

[Mary Kish]

I'm streaming. Exactly. And a lot of those games, if you're like not a specialist in those kind of games.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh sure.

[Mary Kish]

Nobody wants to watch you stream an MMO actually. And I kind of get it. I kind of get it. So yeah, I'm not doing as much of those, but I don't know, it never felt like problem. I did have a friend who was really deep into World of Warcraft, but he like, he played so much of it that it was a problem. But he also found ways to kind of make it interesting. Like he made friends there that are still his friends. They're people that I know pretty well now and like saw at his wedding. And these are people he played with in vanilla days. He got married a few years ago. Right. And he would make like videos in there and whatnot. So I don't know, like when is it a problem? Right? It's not just the amount of hours that makes it a problem. It's how you sort of interact with the world around you. It's about if you're shutting other people off. Off if you're probably. I'll tell you if you're like doing like some of these hardcore things in these games, like rating and it's like, well, that is my obligation for the week, not seeing friends or things like that. That's when it became a little rough for me was the idea that even casual rating is two nights a week, nights a week. That's that I was like, that's time. I could maybe go out and see people or even stream and like, try to, like, make money off of that or just do anything else maybe. But generally I think you're probably fine.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's interesting because, like, when I first was hearing that you, you know, you would bring up Final Fantasy 14 and WoW and stuff like that. And I feel like most of the time when I know friends that. Well, I've said I don't know anyone that plays Final Fantasy 14. But, you know, like, they don't do anything but that they don't play other games, they don't do social things or whatever. And like, I did. You did always strike me as someone that, like, oh, you play these games and you play enough of them to like, you know, you really get good time out of it, but you still obviously are playing other stuff. You're doing things. You go out, you know.

[Mary Kish]

It's very important for me to like, be well versed in a lot of games. Like, I still feel bad sometimes. Like, there's. There's kind of a brand of AAA game that I'm not playing as much of because I really am not as interested I used to be. And I feel like I kind of have to force myself. Like, I didn't touch Assassin's Creed Shadows and I'm like, God, with my career, I should probably at least try Assassin's Creed Shadows, Mike, even if I don't want to too. But at least like the Blizzard stuff, Dan, before I met you, that was almost my beat exclusively. In some ways, I covered a ton of Blizzard. Like, Jeff knows, when I was working them, I was going to the blizzcons. I was going to a lot of their events. I was revealing Hearthstone cards like that. And it was like they were so popular at that time between World of Warcraft and Hearthstone and Overwatch, that like, that was my job almost covering Blizzard. And I kind of loved it for a bit. But that was a sort of unique, unique time and place for that sort of thing.

[Mike Mahardy]

There were, like, sites dedicated to it.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, right, exactly. And the thing is, like, those sites were always going to do better anyways, but it made some sense for us to do it. But, you know, like, Final Fantasy 14, as popular as it is, like, like, how much coverage Can I really get out of that anymore these days? A bit when an expansion comes out, but otherwise not a ton.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, I think there's a, you know, the guys who do watch football all day on Sunday and they go and do it by themselves in their basement like that. That seems unhealthy to me. I don't think that's the best way to do that. And I think if you're doing the equivalent for any game, it's probably unhealthy. But if you balance it out, you do find time for other people. If you are engaged in other hobbies or if you make the thing you're doing social and like, include the people who are like your partners in life and make it intimate in some ways, then you're good, you're, you're solid. Like, I, I, I've had the, you know, I put a thousand, a thousand hours in, like every Call of Duty, like, for Modern Warfare on for quite some time. The, you know, Modern Warfare was like, I think, two or two and a half thousand hours, something like that. Titanfall, a thousand hours. All these games where it's like, that's what I was playing. I was playing some other stuff, but I was just, every night was playing that with my brothers or whatever. And Modern Warfare there was definitely like, oh, this feels like a little bit of a crisis situation I'm in now. I got a, like, pull myself. You know, I'm in a little bit of a nose dive. Just got to pull myself up a little bit, look around, figure out what I'm doing. And that's what I'm like, well, I am enjoying this. I'm gonna look around, kind of figure out if I can make this games thing work and, and kind of made it into something productive. You got to have some recognition about making sure you're not diving down and becoming antisocial.

[Mary Kish]

I almost find it more satisfying to be like, okay, instead of just playing this one kind of Life service game for 100 hours, let's do a series playthrough of some random franchise. Right, right. Like back in, when I was in college, that's really when I fell in love with Final Fantasy. I was like, I'm going to play through Final Fantasy 1 10. Let's just do that. And I was absolutely love that. I think you see more people doing things like that. Like, I'm going to play through all the Resident Evils and I'm going to play through all the Legend of Zeldas. You know, there's so many franchises like that still, like, I still want to do Yakuza. I never really played those games. So at some point I'm just going to play through that series and in some way that seems more enriching to me. I'm going to gain all this experience and knowledge about, about this really unique and clever series. I think that's better.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, it's funny because yeah, I always pride myself on kind of playing everything and I usually say like pretty much everything except for like not a big RPG or sports game guy. But then like if you're meeting someone who's maybe from outside games. Yeah. What kind of games do you play? And I usually, yeah, I play pretty much everything. It's like, oh, I'm obsessed with. You must play. You must know everything about Escape from Tarkov and like no. And it's like I like. Or they'll name like Valorant or Escape from Tar Crops or like Hunt Showdown. These games that are like objectively huge. But it's so weird that like not as much in like our circles, right?

[Mary Kish]

Well, it is really weird like where we exist where like you know, Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to happen later this year and we're going to talk about it and whatnot, but the proportion that we talk about it isn't going to equal the proportion of how much it sells and how much like, like if it was a democracy and it's just like people voted for what game they're playing right now. Right. Cuz it'd be boring if we did nothing but talk about that forever. Like we talked about blueprints for two weeks and felt bad talking about it anymore today.

[Mike Mahardy]

You know, it's funny when, when I was backstage at Dynamite for the Smo Joe thing. Oh, we went to the bar afterwards and like, you know, I'm meeting a bunch of these guys for the first time and like, you know, like Uno knows me and Excalibur and stuff but like you know, like Trent Beretta and stuff. And it's like I didn't know he was a big gamer gamer. And so like all these guys are asking what are you playing right now? What are you playing? And I'm just like be heard of Blue Prince who loves blueprints now? Like nobody had heard of it. I'm like act like this big gamer. And then like I mentioned this thing, it's like I what the is that?

[Mary Kish]

My one friend teases me still because somebody like we were out somewhere and he told somebody what I did and was like, oh, what you're playing right now? And I'M like, I'm playing Shin Megami Tensai, Persona 5 Life. Guy just looked at me like, I play Candy Crush.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'll never forget getting to that physical therapist in. In New York. That was like, bending my leg up and, like, trying to make small talk and asking what I do. And he's like, all right, so real talk, like, what's. What's better? Halo or Mario? Oh, man.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. It's like we are so many degrees removed from that.

[Dan Reichert]

It does feel like. Does he have an earpiece? Is he being fed by Chat GPT? Like, what is impractical Jokers?

[Mike Mahardy]

What is this to the guy's question that he was asking about? Like, you know, getting way too into stuff. I do remember. And, like, I don't. Maybe this was part of why I never wanted to get into MMOs or anything, but I had one of my best friends through junior high and high school. We were in all these classes together. Talked about video games all the time. He was. He was awesome. So, like, we're in the gifted program together. He's this, like, super smart guy. He was in med school, school, in college. He had this awesome girlfriend. He was on the football team. Like, he was just like. And it seems like he's the guy you look at. It's like this guy just has all of his together. Super smart. He's gonna be a doctor. Everything's hot. Like, love this guy. And then, like, he got into wow. Because, remember, I went to college in 02, so, you know, you can imagine a couple years into college, wow, blows up. And he went from playing everything we played everything that came out together. He was a big N64 guy. Couple coming up and then Ollie play. Like, we used to go out and stuff all the time. And all of a sudden, no, we're not going out anymore. Oh, we're not. Oh, new games. New multiplayer games coming out. We're not meeting up to play Lego Star wars together anymore. Oh, we're not doing this stuff together. And his girlfriend dumped him. He, like, I don't know if he flunked out of school or quit or what the deal was, but he just like, withdrew and withdrew and withdrew. And, like, he had everything in his corner. And I'm sure it can't just be like, wow came along. And I'm sure there had to be other factors maybe people weren't aware of.

[Mary Kish]

But.

[Mike Mahardy]

But, like, to me, it's like that was the dividing line, was he got really into wow. And then it's like, oh, he kind of just like, all of us. All of his friends were just like man, yeah. He used to come out and then wow happened, you know. So like there was the cheap factor of like I don't want to pay every month. There is the fact that like I don't want to go all in on just one game. I want to play everything, you know.

[Mary Kish]

No, I mean I had another friend at that time. It was kind of a similar thing where he, he was playing so much. Wow. And keeping really weird hours. Like you'd go over there at like 3pm him and he'd be sleeping and stuff like that. No, no, we're not talking about. At what point his parents took away the mouse to try to keep him from playing. So he learned how to play World Warcraft with just the keyboard. Yeah, it was getting real weird.

[Mike Mahardy]

It was becoming like haha, good luck sucker.

[Mary Kish]

At one point like like what for was over there? Because like the college semester started kid and like this kid's mom was like oh, are you ready for. For college to start next week? And he's like what are you talking about? I've been going to classes. Because he just lied to her and say like oh yeah, I'm going to college, whatever. He's just playing World of Work. He ended up, he turned out okay though. He's fine though. He got married. He just had a kid a little bit ago. He recovered. I think there's a lot of people who had a really rough like 2005 even more recently.

[Mike Mahardy]

Like I mean that is why I'm terribly wary of stuff like MOBA stuff or like esports type stuff. I'll never forget Brad Shoemaker telling me dota like oh, for the first, you know, thousand hours you're not gonna have any idea what you're doing. It's like what the are you talking about? Like that's insane.

[Mary Kish]

I consider myself like somewhere down. Like I play a lot of video games and I played a lot of this live service stuff. I played some pretty hardcore things. Things. I played Dota 2 for a couple of matches and I was like this. And like it was like immediately like the toxicity and like the 15 sub systems you had to try to learn. And it was like 45 minute long matches where after two minutes you know you're gonna lose but you can't leave. It's. That is one of the things like okay, I get that there's an audience for this. I can't believe it's that big an audience for this thing. Thing.

[Mike Mahardy]

No, geez, it's a lot the Game I probably play the most is soul caliber one on Dreamcast. And that was like 500 hours, I think.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Oh, Final Fantasy 14. It just. It's either a wow or Final Fantasy 14 because it is. It is a lot. But again, like, my friend, like the one who may have had a problem, like, pretty early on, like, not too long after that game came out, it was like, yeah, I have a year of gameplay time in that game. A year. A year.

[Mike Mahardy]

I. It's weird though, because, like, I think there is a part where that can seem like, depressing, where it's like, oh, that much gameplay time. But then there's also like. I also see it as a measurement of how much I like a game. And I'm really. Black Ops 6, you know, it was the one where it's like, you know, because I. Not as much as like, Grub was just describing, but like those early Modern Warfares and stuff, I was definitely putting hundreds of hours and prestiging several times and stuff like that. And like, Black Ops 6 really blew me away by how much I got into it. And I would look like, wow, I got two days of in game time. I got, you know, two and a half. I prestige twice. Like, shit, I haven't done this since 2008 or whatever. And I kind of see that as like, sweet.

[Mary Kish]

All right.

[Mike Mahardy]

Wow. It really got me this time. I do feel like if we'd gotten to like, oh, I have months or a year of in game time, I think I would not look at that and be like, oh, sweet, you know.

[Mary Kish]

I'm kind of glad I got on that train so early. I think one of the reasons I didn't play a ton of those Call of Duty, I played a bit was because I did play a ton of Team Fortress classic in like 1999. Right, right. Like real early shit.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right, next one is coming in from Tom from London. Hi, fire escape crew. I was listening to the conversation with Mary, Drew and Mike about flying and had a question. The older I get, the worse flying becomes. It wasn't so bad until a few years back. On an internal flight in Thailand, I experienced one of those emergency flyaways where pilots readjust their landing line. For example, you're coming down from 30,000ft. We got to about 10,000. And the pilot flew up, up and away. Do not recommend these days. The worst part for me is the takeoff. I started timing it from the start of takeoff to when I feel relaxed and it's about three minutes. One thing I hope finds is find helps is Distraction. I look at the lights on the ceiling and count them going up and down above the passengers. I've tried playing my Steam Deck or Switch Vampire Survivors, but it's hard to concentrate on the game. Do you have any tips for getting through takeoff, turbulence, and landing? Keep up the great work. Thompson London.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, it's funny because none of those three people are on this episode, but still, I know what you're talking about. In fact, my last flight to Orlando just about a month ago, we were like landing, we were like, it felt like 5ft off the ground. We just started going back up, right? And every, it was like everyone's looking at each other like, what's this about? And it takes them a while for the pilots to tell us that, hey, there's just an updraft. We need to try it again. But you know, like, and they're busy. I get it, they're flying a plan. But for a while they're like, ah, what's going on? Yeah, here's my recommendation. Xanax pill. If you want some over the counter stuff, just get some Dramamine. It makes you sleepy. Like, don't feel bad about that. That's what that stuff is, is there for. I think if you go see a doctor and just say you get really anxious about airplanes, you could probably get a prescription. Like, like just, yeah, just get, just get some pills. It's. They're fine, you know, don't abuse them, just take them for flying.

[Dan Reichert]

You gotta like, you know, this doesn't work for everybody, but you know, your, what your body's telling you stuff. That's what anxiety is. And there's ways like you can improve that by having a healthier diet and stuff like that. Making sure your gut biome's in place. Because a lot of anxiety comes from there. But whatever, you can't control that entirely, especially based on the American diets. But you know your body's talking to you. Do you can talk back to your body, like verbalize it. You can tell yourself I'm safe. And your body might believe you. It won't always, but it might. And that can help a little bit. So like, just recognize that you're in a conversation with your body, your mind and your, in your, in the rest of your body. Those are all just senses informing your mind of what's going on. You could take control your mind and say, all right, senses, I recognize that. Thank you for telling me that you're afraid. But I'm going to tell you now, I think we're safe. Let's just kind of feel better about this and it, it becomes a feedback loop and, and can, and can help, you know, if you want like a little another trick. There's like a five, four, three, two, one thing where it's like, name five things you see. Name four things you can touch.

[Mike Mahardy]

Name three things you can sound you're hearing. And then four. Then yeah, that, that does, that's going.

[Dan Reichert]

To take you, it's, that'll take you three minutes for sure.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's a good plan. One for sure.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

I, you know, I've had anxiety. I've talked about it plenty for many, many years and I'm still working on it. And like lately, you know, I've alluded to all this flying stuff and like I'm not suddenly magically cured. That's not how anxiety works. But like last year I had a huge run of travel that I was terrified of. I remember I found out I was going to Gamescom and I just remember for like two months leading up to it, it's all I could think about. I couldn't sleep at night because I was worried about these international flights or Bach. And I went to go see Twisters and we were like going to talk about it afterwards. And I told her like, honestly, I don't think I took in any of that movie because I was just thinking about that flight to Germany and worrying about like freaking out and stuff like that. So it's so much time in therapy time trying to figure it out. And I used to like do like, I would just get tanked. I would just like show up at the airport bar lounge, like three hours early, drink a ton and stuff, drink on the plane. I used to, you know, bring little airplane bottles on there with me. I was, you know, that was, I would feel like then you land where you're going and it's like, oh, great, now I have a giant hangover anxiety thing for the next day and a half. I knew I couldn't do that, talk to the doctors about that. They gave me Xanax, like Mike mentioned. It does work. It absolutely does work. I've always been wary about it because, you know, it can be highly addictive and stuff like that. So like when I went to Tokyo last time, I took a 0.5 milligram Xanax on the way out there. And it's like a 14 hour flight and you know, kind of wears off after like four to six hours. And we're after four to six hours. I was kind of like, I'm doing okay here, okay. And I didn't want to drink because I had just taken a Xanax and I was like, I could probably just ride this out. And I wrote it out and I landed and I felt great about it. And then on the way back, I remember getting to the airport and being like, well, I should. I'm boarding in a half hour. I should take the Xanax. And I was like, well. And honestly, it was kind of fine coming out here. And I remember coming back stone cold sober the whole time. And now it's like, now I'm about to do all these international flights and, like, I get a little bit nervous. But I think by. It's the. What's the cognitive behavioral thing where it's like, you know, just by doing it, it kind of opens up your.

[Dan Reichert]

Exposure therapy.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, exposure therapies. Yeah, absolutely.

[Mary Kish]

I had the same thing. I mean, I used to take Xanax and then eventually, like, gosh, at first I was taking like, Xanax and Dramamine to get through the fight. Then it's like, well, maybe I don't need a drip Xanax anymore. I can just do the Dramamine. And like, now if I have to go on it cold, I can't. I like to take the drumming just because it makes me sleepy more than anything, right? So it's like, because I'm bored on the plane and I don't, you know, I'll just sleep. But like, yeah, I. Even if you do the Xanax, I don't think you're going to be using Xanax for the rest of your life. It is almost like a training wheels thing. Eventually, usually you may not need more. If you do need it still, whatever. That's what it's there for every flight.

[Mike Mahardy]

Like, no one's like, I mean, that's not bad. It's a problem if, like, you get home and you're taking it when it's just right.

[Mary Kish]

Exactly.

[Mike Mahardy]

Or whatever. But like, yeah, just on flight, you.

[Mary Kish]

Know, that's why you have to go through doctors and get prescriptions and things like that. To be clear, don't go getting Xanax off the black market or whatever.

[Mike Mahardy]

But if. And this applies to planes or anything you might be anxious about and all of my learning about anxiety and everything, the thing that, that works for me most now, and it's not, it's not, you don't need Xanax, you don't need alcohol, don't need anything for this is just when you feel it coming up, when you feel the heart. The heart, you Know, your hands get tingly, your feet get tingly, the breath gets rapid and everything. I, for so long tried to fight it, where it's like, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to distract myself. I'm going to do this breathing technique. I'm going to do this. I've done fucking everything you can imagine to try to distract myself or stop it. Don't do that. Just fucking realize that. Look, you've probably had anxiety before. You might have had panic attacks before. You've felt as bad as it gets, and you've been fine. And so what I do now is if I feel that, and I still feel that during taxiing and takeoff like you described, Tom, and once I start feeling it, I don't do anything to try to stop it. I literally just sit there, and I'll put my steam deck down, I'll put it in the. The little pocket, and I will just close my eyes and I'll be like, all right, I see you. I feel this. Hit me. Just give me everything you got here. Let's just show me. Just do everything you got and just get it out of my system, because I know it's not going to hurt me. And so you just let it do its thing. Don't try to fight it, because I think by resisting it, it does kind of leave this. Oh, no, I'm still feeling this. Oh, no, I'm slow. It's not doing enough. It's not working. Just let it do it. Do its thing completely and label it.

[Dan Reichert]

Even be like, just say that's what's happening.

[Mike Mahardy]

Here's the Brad, here's the heart rate. Here's that thing.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, exactly. Just call it out. And, like, it all just puts in, like, a little bit of compartment for you. I'm like, okay, I see it happening. I can. I. I've handled worse. What you said there, like, yeah, I've been through worse.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. Yeah. And, like, I'm not cured. Certainly I don't intend on, or I don't think I ever will be, but, like, I can do this stuff now and get through the discomfort, you know, because that's all it is. It's discomfort. Discomfort and weird thoughts and anxiety isn't reality. You're going to be fine. So, yeah. So, Tom, good luck with your future flights. I know how you're feeling. All right, next up, we got Ben from Lexington, Kentucky, says, dan, can you please explain how you came to love Final Fantasy Tactics? It is one of my favorite games of all time, but notoriously slow to build. And very talky in the beginning. So I'm always surprised to hear you say you loved it when it's brought up since it's well known you don't like Final Fantasy or other tactics games from what I know. Please answer this. It's been boggling my mind for like the past eight years.

[Mary Kish]

I'm so glad I'm here.

[Dan Reichert]

I.

[Mary Kish]

Look, I love this show, Dan, but I. I hate it. Anytime Final Fantasy comes up, I swear to God. At one point I concocted this giant plan the next time I'm on and we get to like, what? Like, oh, what are we playing? I was gonna be like, oh, I'm playing this game called Final Fantasy 1. And I was going to talk about that for a while. They're like, okay, Mike, what else? I'm playing Final Fantasy 2 also. I was gonna basically filib Buster the entire. And I was like, ah, that's probably not great content.

[Dan Reichert]

I would have enjoyed it just based on how much you would have been enjoying yourself.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, probably a world where I go through those. Cuz like, Look, I like 10 a lot. I like Tactics a lot. I like these games in the past.

[Mary Kish]

I mean, you know, it is interesting. Mean, I. I believe you that like, in a lot of way these games aren't your things. But you know, I was thinking like sometimes like, like, oh, I like, you know, really actiony games. Right? But then you love something like blueprints and you know, and you, I know that you know that you like a wide variety of games. I think you like an even wider variety of games than you realize. Sometimes that could be true.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. And it's like, look, I know I don't like talky games and Tactics can be talky, but it's also deeply like, I like thinky and strategic games and, and this, this email says like, oh, I didn't know you liked other tactics games. Yeah, I like XCOM a lot. I love into the Breach. I love, like chess. As a kid I had a Kasparov chess machine that it was like you'd play against an AI and it was like, you know, this is the early 90s. So it was just like two lights. It'd be like, okay, move the knight to B4. And like, I would just play chess against the next, you know, punishment.

[Dan Reichert]

I'm making Mike play Into the Breach so hard.

[Mike Mahardy]

Into the Breach.

[Mary Kish]

It.

[Dan Reichert]

Oh, you did play it.

[Mary Kish]

Okay, I played it and I liked. I don't know why I didn't. I actually, I don't know why I found it stressful. That's what it was. I don't know why I. I did. At least at that specific time every. Yes, exactly.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, yeah, it's. But honestly, it's a very time and place thing because I. It was 02 and I just got in the SP and I got. I got a blue.

[Dan Reichert]

We're talking about Tactics advance, to be clear, right?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

But I did wound up reviewing War of the Last Lions, the remake of the first one. But specifically, the reason I found out I loved advance was because I. It was my first semester of college, which means it was the only semester of college that I actually tried to go to class because I thought, oh, this is important, it's college. And. But all my classes were like these big, you know, 300 class auditorium. 300 person class auditoriums for like film classes and stuff like that. So it's very easy for me to sit in the back and just like, oh, it turns out I like portable gaming. I got a sp. This is.

[Mary Kish]

That's right. You're anti portable gaming.

[Mike Mahardy]

I was. I did. It's. The SP changed fucking everything for me because the gba, I knew it had good games, but the backlight situation, I didn't like. So, man, the sp, I just gotten that. I got Linked to the Past and Four Swords on that. And then I got like. It got great reviews. Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced. I was like, all right, people rave about this game. I'll give it a shot. And I would just sit in the back of class for that entire semester. And I don't think I did headphones, but I would just play it. And like, yeah, I got through the talkie beginning. Probably didn't love it. I remember like Snowball Fight or whatever, whatever. But that got me through that semester. It was like the one college class I went to regularly. I got through, survived because I had Final Fantasy Tactics advance and like, you know, one good fight of that game. 1. It's a chess match, you know, that'll last you 50 minutes.

[Mary Kish]

You know, I. I can kind of see the difference between that and normal Final Fantasy. There's a lot of inconsequential battles in a normal jrpg. Oh, oh.

[Mike Mahardy]

In normal.

[Mary Kish]

Normal jp Normal J, there's a lot of like, all right, you're gonna fight three wolves and you are just kind of pushing X X Attack. Attack.

[Mike Mahardy]

Attack.

[Mary Kish]

A lot for me. It's a flow state and it's relaxing and I enjoy it. I just kind of enjoy the progression and the exploration of it. But it's a very different from the game being dominated by this literal chess board and thinking about these kind of big battles where every decision really matters.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. And I feel like I'm, like, leveling up all these different things and everything versus, like, yeah, you talk about Final Fantasy. And I tried several times because FF7 was such a thing that people, like, it was held on. It's like it was like a Metal Gear Solid level of a pedestal back then. Oh, for sure. And I tried several times to play it, and it was like, as soon as the Overworld opened up, you know, I remember. I think the farthest I got in that game was the Golden Saucer, all the times I tried to play it. And because it would open up to that Overworld at some point. And it's just like, I remember every time it would. We go into the fight, I. God damn it, I'm just going to hit X. And, like, I got to wait for the load back out. And, like, I don't feel like I'm really playing, you know? But, like, Tactics was like, I'm thinking I'm doing things, you know?

[Mary Kish]

Yep.

[Dan Reichert]

Even, like, just seeing the tactics in magazines, I'd be like, yeah, that looks appealing. That just looks so much fun. I. I'm like. I imagined myself liking Final Fantasy Tactics before I ever played it. And then when I finally did, it's like, yeah, this super click.

[Mike Mahardy]

That. That's.

[Dan Reichert]

That is okay. We joke about Marvel Rivals. I did at red light, try to play some Final Fantasy Tactics and kept playing it for, like, 10 seconds longer than I should have.

[Mike Mahardy]

And I remember that on phone.

[Dan Reichert]

No, no. Way back in the day, I was driving to my job at FedEx, and I just remember being like, I'm like, I'm driving. What am I doing? I had to, like, close it and, like, throw it in the seat.

[Mike Mahardy]

That sounds like the worst driving.

[Dan Reichert]

It was terrible. I was like. I'm like, I just, like, brought it with me. I'll play it on my lunch break. And I think I just was like, well, this red light's taking forever. I'll just play some here.

[Mary Kish]

And I'm like.

[Mike Mahardy]

And I'm playing, like, Zone of Call of Duty at this red light.

[Dan Reichert]

And then it's like, I start. I'm like, I just gotta finish this thing. And then I just like. I'm like, this is terrible. And I closed it and I, like, threw it so I couldn't even reach it anymore.

[Mary Kish]

Out of sight, out of my. Dan, where are you with Fire Emblem? I. I can't remember.

[Mike Mahardy]

Liked it a lot on gba. I might have reviewed some of those GBA games. And then Battalion, like, I don't know. I played all the Battalion wars, the ones that don't really matter, no one cares about. The one that I really loved was.

[Mary Kish]

Awakening on Awakening's the best one.

[Mike Mahardy]

That one's so good. I played the shit out of that game.

[Mary Kish]

God.

[Mike Mahardy]

The actual, like, tactic parts of that and, like, the way that, like, certain characters, you know, working off each other and everything. Like, I loved everything about it like this.

[Dan Reichert]

I should replay that game.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's so good. And the stuff in between was not so dominant. It wasn't like, where they lost me was you go to the newer games and it's like, all right, half the game, if not more, is, like, in between. I'm walking around chatting to anime people and, like, okay, I can deal with that if it's like, two seconds between cool fights. But like, this, the switch ones and.

[Mary Kish]

Everything, I was okay with it in three houses. And then, like, Engaged did it, but worse.

[Dan Reichert]

And engage is like run around and go do five things every time. And a lot of it is toss. It's. Yeah. The tactics are so good. And Engaged, though, it's the best final. It's the best Fire Emblem's ever been in terms of gameplay play. But just everything in between, so bad.

[Mary Kish]

Everything is, like, the. The aesthetics worse. The characters are worse. That in between stuff is.

[Dan Reichert]

I wish. I wish they would. That would get a special edition. They would edit all that stuff down.

[Mike Mahardy]

Grab. You got me thinking about this stuff when you were talking about that advanced wars, like this week on the Bombcast, and it's like, man, just want to play more advanced wars. Like, if I bring my analog, maybe I'll just wind up playing Black Moon Rising or.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, there you go. That tiny metal 2 is pretty good. That is a good one.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, I downloaded it, so it's an option while I'm out there.

[Dan Reichert]

Okay.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. All righty. Okay. This is a quiz for YouTube.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, fun.

[Mike Mahardy]

From Piston Hyundai, who's a frequent. He's got a lot of good trivia knowledge, and we got one here, and it says, hey, gang. A remaster for the also ran 90s mascot platformer Croc Legend of the Gobbos came out recently, and while playing it, I learned it had far more success than you would think. Think with this in mind, I thought it'd be fun to have a quiz, one that cuts Mary a break. Because even though you have to be smoking dust to think that Diablo 2 is more important than Mario 64, dad.

[Mary Kish]

I was so with you. I love Mary. I got so mad at her listening to that.

[Dan Reichert]

I, I, I that sometimes you guys have arguments on this show where people are like, no, you need to go listen to this. I never listened to the Links Awakening one because I couldn't hear. Listen. Do you guys talk about that? When I heard that, I'm like, I can't. I can't even listen to Mary Harry talk this about Diablo being more important than Mario 64.

[Mary Kish]

While we're here, why don't we real quickly me and you say that Link's Awakening is one of the best games ever.

[Mike Mahardy]

Everybody knows on the flight. Maybe I'll put that on the list. Yes. Mike and Dan's nostalgia might be clouding their judgment of the N64's impact to a degree regardless. And so I asked the them which of these Nintendo 64 Classics sold more copies than a middle of the road PS1 game nobody under the age of 25 has heard of.

[Dan Reichert]

So. Okay, fair. But this is Croc's weird, but go ahead.

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, I have 10 games here, and if you will tell me what sold more, the game, I'm going to say or Croc. Legend of the Gobbos. Okay, it's going to be 64 game versus Croc for PlayStation 1. Are you ready? Yoshi's story.

[Mary Kish]

I think there's no way Yoshi story sold more than Croc, actually. Which is funny since Croc was supposed to be a Yoshi game, but that's like the very first original idea for it. Anyways.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yep. The winner is croc.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Kirby 64.

[Mary Kish]

Probably croc.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. No one. No one played Kirby 64.

[Mary Kish]

I bet. I wonder if Kirby 64 sold better than Yoshi's story. I don't know. Not. I bet not.

[Mike Mahardy]

So your answer?

[Mary Kish]

Both Croc.

[Mike Mahardy]

The answer is Croc.

[Mary Kish]

Okay.

[Mike Mahardy]

Perfect Dark.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, if it was going, I be gold.

[Dan Reichert]

I definitely sold better than Croc. But I'll just say perfect Dark because, you know, it should be. It should. It should have sold more, let's say.

[Mary Kish]

Per. I bet it somehow still is Croc. But I do for my own sanity say Perfect Dark.

[Dan Reichert]

There are so many games on the play that there's like a handful games on the PlayStation that sold weirdly well. Like that Frogger game. Like what are we talking about at a certain point?

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, the answer is Croc.

[Dan Reichert]

Okay.

[Mary Kish]

It's gonna be Croc for all.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Star Wars Shadows of the Empire.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, that was a big game too.

[Dan Reichert]

It's a launch game. It's like the One like the other game you could. Well near launch, right? It's like one of the other games you could have got. Yeah, I'll say Star Wars.

[Mary Kish]

I. Yeah, but it's still Croc. But I'm gonna say it's probably still.

[Dan Reichert]

I think it's gonna be Croc for all of them, but I'll say Star Wars Wars.

[Mike Mahardy]

The winner is Croc.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Turok Dinosaur Hunter.

[Mary Kish]

That's CROC.

[Mike Mahardy]

Pokemon Stadium 2.

[Mary Kish]

2. It's a late in town 64 game.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, I guess.

[Mary Kish]

Kind of like to really get the most out of that, you need to already have gold and silver and like the link stuff. I'm gonna say croc.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's Croc. Wwf. No more mercy.

[Mary Kish]

Ah, it's.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, it's crazy.

[Mary Kish]

It's insane. It's insane that it's Croc.

[Mike Mahardy]

Mario Tennis.

[Mary Kish]

It's cr.

[Dan Reichert]

Man, Mario Tennis is so good. But Croc.

[Mike Mahardy]

The winner is Croc Mario Golf.

[Mary Kish]

That's.

[Mike Mahardy]

Come on. The winner is the Croc of.

[Mary Kish]

Is what it is.

[Mike Mahardy]

And the final question. Mario Party.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, oh. Mario Party. It's a twist. Mario Party.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. Sneak it in at the end.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm gonna read this verbatim. The winner is Mario Party.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Just kidding. It's somehow Croc again.

[Mary Kish]

So the PlayStation fans do love to point this out. And then you have to ask them, well, how well did Croc 2 sell?

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, exactly true. Yes. But we have a bonus round and it could be a tiebreaker. I don't remember the score, but the bonus round is Croc is reported to have sold over 3 million copies on the PS1 alone. Of the 388 games released for the Nintendo 64, how many of them pass this mark? The closest wins.

[Mary Kish]

There aren't that many. N64s. That's like what they sold. 40 million? 50 million? I'm gonna say 5. I bet the only ones that sold better than it are Mario 64 of Time, GoldenEye, Mario Kart, and Smash Brothers 1. Maybe I'm at 5. Yeah, 5 sounds good. But I gotta do more. Maybe. Maybe like some other rare game did. Well, I'm gonna say six.

[Mike Mahardy]

The answer is 13.

[Mary Kish]

Thirteen. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, I win.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yep.

[Dan Reichert]

There you go.

[Mary Kish]

That's closer.

[Mike Mahardy]

Wild. The Croc.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

Like PlayStation just has a handful of those anomalies.

[Mike Mahardy]

And.

[Dan Reichert]

And it's. It's like, you know what it was? They wanted their Mario 64 and they were desperate for it. So it's like they were looking for it in anything.

[Mike Mahardy]

I mean, I was telling myself, crash was just as good as Mario, and that was not.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

And then it's like, no, the croc's like that, but it's got, like. It's actually 3D worlds. And you run around, say, yeah, okay.

[Mike Mahardy]

Have fun with that.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. You have a good time with Croc Piston.

[Mike Mahardy]

Great stuff.

[Mary Kish]

That was fun.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, I like that. That's. I mean, listen, we do that with Luigi's mansion, right? So. Taste of our own medicine.

[Mike Mahardy]

I heard that's too scary to play. It's for you, too.

[Dan Reichert]

That's my favorite kind of joke, by the way. Good one.

[Mary Kish]

That's a good.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right, next up. Hello. I am a 33 year old father of two. Love my family more than anything. Side effects include getting so little me time. Sometimes I get choice paralysis and do nothing instead.

[Dan Reichert]

Oh, hell.

[Mike Mahardy]

Let me tell you, wasting your free time when you often feel this way is quite regrettable. But what's not regrettable is using a few hours on a Saturday evening after a tough bedtime bath battle to soak in the goodness that is McGruber. My favorite part was when the spoiler warning nuke went off, killing the main antagonist. Well, and blowing up the warehouse. Some editing guy must have decided to play a tiger roaring during that really cool explosion. Bless that editing guy. That is staged. Yeah, it's. It's really, like, up there in the mix, too. It's like.

[Dan Reichert]

I love that movie.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Everyone check out the. The tributes to Val Kilmer that Will Forte wrote. And also, I think on the Lonely island podcast, they did a whole thing about it. I did not know that Will Forte and Val Kilmer were roommates for months after McGruber.

[Mary Kish]

That's wild.

[Dan Reichert]

You know that most interesting man in the world a bit that Dos Equis used to do? Val Kilmer is maybe in the running for that actual time.

[Mike Mahardy]

I read his autobiography, like, last year. It's like, he's like, just incredible. Like, incredible life. Yeah. So. Yes. Rest in peace, Val. All right, next up. Hey, fire escape. I had a friend this week tell me my taste in movies is too obscure. He provided several examples, including the Big Lebowski. In no way, shape, or form is that an obscure movie, but to him, it is. Would my family know what the Big Lebowski is? Would a random stranger on the street know it? It made me think about what obscure is. You all have what many would consider obscure and interests. Indie games, wrestling, Warhammer, et cetera. But within the realm of other people who engage in those hobbies, you may not go as Deep as others do. My question for you is what hobby do you consider yourself to have the most surface level understanding and or knowledge of? In which hobby do you have the most in depth understanding of? P.S. if people can brush their teeth in the shower, then Dan should be able to clean his butthole in the sink. Just saying. Much love, Nathan. From. I don't know if that was from last episode.

[Dan Reichert]

What happens on this show.

[Mike Mahardy]

I don't know what happened last episode. Just my butthole is just for the shower. Shower and.

[Mary Kish]

God.

[Dan Reichert]

And that's it.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. That's wild because like, like, you. You can understand there's some people just look at Big Leowski. You're like, that's some obscure thing. But if you are even sniffing the realm of being a cile, then the Big Wawski is like so common and so popular that it's last several decades, right? It's like, it's like in that Pulp Fiction like, zone or in a bar.

[Mike Mahardy]

In Iceland a couple years ago, and there's a big Lebowski bar in Iceland.

[Mary Kish]

Like, there's a big Leowski festival. Like, my. My bar has Big Lebowski Day. They sell mugs for it. It's not. Yeah, come on.

[Dan Reichert]

No, it clearly. You're clearly right. But I mean, I have had those friends who are like, every paycheck I. Like, this is a long time ago. So this story is going to sound out, David. Every paycheck, I'm just gonna go bomb. I'm gonna go to Best Buy Buy, and I'm gonna buy a bunch of DVDs. He's like, oh, this guy must really like movie. And he's like, yeah, come in my room. And it's like, well, that sure is every Police Academy movie and every Mike Myers movie. And like, hey, man, no, hate school for sure. Yeah, old school for sure. Like, like maybe two copies. And it's like anything else. It's like, no, literally nothing else other than here are like the corporate comedies. And like, again, I love these movies. I'm not like putting them down by calling them that, but. But it's like, here's the movies corporations have made for me. These are the movies I like. And that's as far as they think about it. And I've seen it, so I get how this happens.

[Mary Kish]

Some people just have. I don't want to say simple taste. We had. We had a friend in my circle and we kind of like always laugh because the Hobbit movies came out, right? And we were like, man, those movies are so bad. And she Couldn't understand why we thought they were bad. And she was like, right. But. But they had the biggest battle. It was like, the biggest battle ever in the movies. The battle was so big. And, like, to this day, with, like, basically, we're talking about slop. We're kind of like, yeah, but it.

[Mike Mahardy]

Had the biggest b. I remember I was doing a watch party on a Twitch night or something, and it was like, after me and Kayla had been streaming something, so she was like, on the call on Discord, basically, and the movie was Big Lebowski. And I remember we hit the thing, and me and Kayla finished playing the game, and I'm about to start Big Lebowski, and I'm like, Kayla's like, I'll stick around. I was like, I don't know if this is going to be a Kayla movie. She was like, no, watch it. And we watched, like, the first, like, 40 minutes, and, like, I'm cracking up. The chat's loving it. Kayla is just like, I. It's not even, like, registering how it's a comedy, you know? And it's like, I think there's just a certain. But she's not a movie person at all. She's not like, I don't know if Big Lebowski is, like, a comedy snob movie or a movie snob movie, but, like, it's.

[Dan Reichert]

It's a. If you are not into on its level, it's like, oh, you have to watch it three times before it becomes funny movie. Like, for sure.

[Mary Kish]

I think I actually hated it the first time I saw it, especially because I didn't.

[Dan Reichert]

I didn't get it the first time, but I watched it as a teenager, and it was like I needed a little bit more under my belt.

[Mary Kish]

Plus, my brother was one of those people who really liked even before I saw it, so I was just kind of, like, going in already thinking it was obnoxious. Then, like, when I saw it for the third time five years later, I'm like, this is pretty. This is pretty freaking good.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Pretty. Pretty fun.

[Dan Reichert]

Well, it's a perfect script.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. It's so good.

[Mike Mahardy]

One of the most perfect. It's maybe the comedy that's aged the best. Best ever.

[Dan Reichert]

Yes.

[Mary Kish]

In terms of, like, hobby. I am in the deepest weeds of. It might be the Disney theme park stuff, even more than video games.

[Dan Reichert]

But what's the most surface level? I. I do keep music at a distance. I just. It's like, I enjoy hearing music. I like listening to it. But, like, I. Like, I talked about with you the Other day. Mike. I don't really try to learn the tracks names. I don't like. I know the song when I hear it, and I'll try to find it. I'll bring it up every once in a while, but I'll be, like, searching for some random lyric to try to find it. And I. I, you know, don't even, like, know the names, the tracks of some of my favorite bands biggest songs. So it's like.

[Mary Kish]

But it's.

[Dan Reichert]

It has not been a detriment to my enjoyment of music. But I don't pretend to be someone who's like, a music guy.

[Mary Kish]

I've def. I'm kind of similar with music a lot of other things. If I like it, I do kind of, like, get into it. And I. I want to know, like, how. How was this, May? Like, I. I can't just drink scotch. When I got into scotch during the pandemic, I did want to learn about the different regions and why, why, what makes Petey Scotch Petey, what is Pete, like, what are we doing here? And things like that. So, yeah, music's probably a similar one. And it's, you know, it's always kind of funny because I just don't know certain things, especially about the Wu Tong group or whatever.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's funny how you can simultaneously feel, like, on both sides of, like, you know, being an expert or not about something. Because, like, with movement movies, I know it's a common joke where it's like, you know, I went to film school, but, like, I don't get symbolism and I didn't. Haven't seen this thing or whatever, but, like, talking about, like, you know, Big Lebowski and stuff like that, like, I think a lot of people on the Internet don't know enough normies because it's like, yeah, true normal people. I have definitely watched way more movies and no way more about movies than most folks. But then it's like, there are times, too, where it's like, know, I fucking love Rocky. And I remember it was, you know, a couple years ago at this point, Jess on a podcast was like, oh, how do you not know this thing about, you love Rocky. How do you not know that he, like, sold his dog or whatever to Rocky1 or something? Like, I never went deep on the making of Rocky really. But, like, I thought about Rocky every day of my life and seen him all a million times. But that, like, makes me think, like, oh, wait, am I just, like, a fake movie fan or something? But then you meet, like, normies, and it's like, oh, you don't know who Scorsese is or something, you know, like, that type of thing. But, like, there's always going to be different levels to that. And I think the Internet is always going to be super skewed, like, super online. People are always going to be like, oh, this guy doesn't know anything. And then it's like, no, just go talk to your neighbors. You know, they're going to know.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, go. Go read them your letterbox reviews, and I promise you they'll get their shotgun and ask you to leave.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, they probably have their phones out during a movie.

[Dan Reichert]

Fucking heathens.

[Mary Kish]

That's disgusting.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right. Oh, yeah. Surface level. Did I say? Okay, I'm trying to think, like, because I feel like I only kind of go super deep on stuff where it's like. Like the most has got to be wrestling for me.

[Mary Kish]

I mean, I. Yeah, you got wrestling more than. Than anything.

[Mike Mahardy]

Especially now that I've, like, you know, have worked there and know people that, like, I have to. That has to be maybe more than video games, because I don't know anything about really, like, making video games games, but, boy, I should tell you about a couple guys putting a match together, you know?

[Mary Kish]

Right, Exactly. No, for sure.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right, final question of the evening. Hello, all. I'm about to be an. But I need to ask, does Dan understand why the hobbits are the heroes of the Lord of the Rings?

[Mary Kish]

Oh, God.

[Mike Mahardy]

Like, the whole point is that it's the smallest, the physically least impressive people who mostly love eating food and smoking weed. Weed. And staying at home and minding their own business that are the only ones capable of saving the world. And maybe that message continues to have relevance in 2025. To put a very fine point on it, he gets that he himself is way closer to a hobbit than he is to Viggo Mortensen. Yes. The Midwest is his shire. Okay. Love you all. Even though you make me shoot hot on a regular basis. That is Nate from Bloomington, Minnesota. Soda. Okay. Yes, of course. Of course I'm closer to a hobbit than I. But I also don't think I'm, like, a strong, cool hero.

[Mary Kish]

Okay. But like, Dan, I 100% would much rather see a movie starring you than, like, I don't know, Mr. Tuffy McTuff guy, whoever that would be these days. Right, Right. Like, you are an interesting character who would be out of his element and would have to rise above kind of like John Cena. Right. Like, that's what's interesting about it. And there's something more beautiful and inspiring about you facing incredible odds and kind of being inserted into this battle amongst gods. And here's just Dan Rert. And actually. Actually, he's the one who's going to make the biggest difference. You don't have an eagle. That's why it's great, because you're humble. You wouldn't, but you do. Because small things can create greatness in this world.

[Mike Mahardy]

Is that a Rocky thing? Like, yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

Yes, it's Rocky. It's Luke Skywalker. Right? Luke Skycore. Skywalker does long to be a hero. Hero. But everything in his life has told him he can't be. His situation has made it impossible. So even when confronted with the possibility of being a hero, Ben's like, come with me ever. Like, you got to come with me to Alderaan and help me out. Luke's like, what? No, I can't do that. So then when he finally does agree to go and do it, it's like, oh, he's. Now he's got to actually deal with the consequences of believing in himself, and he's got to overcome that.

[Mary Kish]

And that.

[Dan Reichert]

That's what makes the whole arc work.

[Mary Kish]

Like, Rocky would not be a good movie. If Rocky actually was the number one contender in a popular box.

[Mike Mahardy]

Like, it wouldn't be. Yeah, no, no, you.

[Mary Kish]

They picked him because he had a fun nickname and he's a schlub and his life is depressing.

[Dan Reichert]

Right? And he like lost the Spider Rico and.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, he speed, but he beat Spider Rico. Now, come on, let's be clear here. About.

[Mike Mahardy]

Can't be as simple as the differences. Rocky seems real life. And Lord of the Rings.

[Mary Kish]

I think it is. I think. I do think you have a hang up about fantasy. And I'm not sure what it is.

[Mike Mahardy]

I like. I like Game of Thrones. Fine. I read that whole first book.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, I don't know. Like some. For some reason you get past it. But there's something about this more in a way, I don't want to say sincere, but archetypal fantasy that does have its roots in Lord of the Rings that bristles against you. And I. I don't know why. And look back in the day when.

[Mike Mahardy]

I would hear Led Zeppelin songs and I'd be like, these are the coolest dudes in the world. And be like, in the mountain. More door. And I'm like, shut up, dork.

[Dan Reichert]

Led Zeppelin, Famous dorks.

[Mike Mahardy]

This must just be some deep seated Paul Reichard stuff. Like everything I have.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Because like, in My mind though, like, it's like, would I root for Al? Like, am I more excited about an Al Snow match or a Kenny Omega match match? And it's like, well, yeah, I'm closer to Al Snow, but Kenny Omega is way cooler to watch.

[Dan Reichert]

You know, it's a dichotomy because like, right. Like everyone's claims to like an underdog story, but you know, the number one basketball team in most states is not the team that's in that state. It's the Los Angeles Lakers. It's like they're, they're people like front runners too. So yeah, I think in a storytelling con, like context, usually we like the underdog.

[Mike Mahardy]

I love, I love the Dan Bryan story leading of WrestleMania 30. Like the little Max story.

[Mary Kish]

That's what that is. Yeah. Who does Brian Danielson remind you of? Perhaps a little bit. Would you say Little Mac? Yeah, he's a little hobbit ish. If you ask me that Brian, in.

[Mike Mahardy]

My life, he is the most hobbit.

[Dan Reichert]

Ish wrestler that's ever existed.

[Mike Mahardy]

Do they have beards? Can hobbit grow beards?

[Mary Kish]

Actually not usually. But besides for the beard thing. Come on. It's kind of a short.

[Dan Reichert]

Like he's like earthy and.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, he's very earthy. The hemp belt.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

There was something about the hobbits and because again I went into those movies, I can't say this enough. I went into them wanting to love them so bad. I got the first book. I thought it was going to be the Star wars of my generation. I was so ready for it. No, no.

[Mary Kish]

Whether you like it or not, it is the Star wars of our generation for sure.

[Dan Reichert]

I don't like it either, but the prequels certainly weren't okay.

[Mike Mahardy]

So it's just something about the hobbits themselves just seem to suck so aggressively.

[Mary Kish]

Do you like, not like, like agrarian like lifestyles, like the farming, cultural societies.

[Mike Mahardy]

I like Stardew Valley.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, like, like, I mean like I think a lot of people, they see like they're like, oh wow, these people are like of the earth and they have this kind of simple life and they find something. They kind of yearn for that.

[Mike Mahardy]

Awesome. I want. I want to be an old weird hippie just smoking weed on a farm or something. That sounds awesome.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

I want to live in the Shire so. Goddamn.

[Mary Kish]

And then it's. And it's contrasting.

[Mike Mahardy]

Would get along with the hobbits great.

[Mary Kish]

Yes, I agree.

[Mike Mahardy]

I don't want them as the protagonist of my action movie.

[Dan Reichert]

Right.

[Mary Kish]

It's not like, calling it an action movie again is missing the point, Dan. It's not an action movie, not an.

[Mike Mahardy]

Action pitch to me. What makes Lord of the Rings special? You have like, four sentences max.

[Dan Reichert]

Handle this, Mike.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, that's rough because I like Lord of the Rings.

[Mike Mahardy]

Do you like the grub?

[Mary Kish]

A lot.

[Dan Reichert]

But I. I don't. Like, I wasn't in love with them, but I think when I rewatched the extended edition quite a few years ago now, like, these are really good. But, like, I. I like.

[Mary Kish]

I like Avatar more.

[Dan Reichert]

So that's who I am.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. There is good in the world, and it wants to help you, but you still have the greatest power to inflict change on the world. And also the trees can move and attack things, and that's cool, you know?

[Mike Mahardy]

Like, I think the message. Okay, let me just. I'll get real with you here. I think the message is when you put it that way, like, yes, even the smallest, you know, little guy can make big change in a big, scary, evil world. Yeah, that works for sure. I wonder if this is one of those things that when we're talking about when my opinions were formed and calcified about the Lord of The Rings was 2002 to what, 2007. When did Return of the King come out?

[Mary Kish]

2001, 2003. It was just one year apart, all three of them.

[Dan Reichert]

Bang, bang, bang.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, just December. December.

[Dan Reichert]

They filmed all at once? Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

I mean, I can't think of a span of time where I was a bigger than those ears.

[Mary Kish]

Maybe.

[Dan Reichert]

It's probably part because that's like. When you weren't playing. You weren't playing kitty games, right?

[Mike Mahardy]

No, I'm not playing my Ratchet Clank Jack Kitty.

[Mary Kish]

I play.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah, it's that. It's just that.

[Mary Kish]

When was the last time you've seen.

[Mike Mahardy]

Them in the theaters? Yeah, I saw them all once and was like this. And I just. Every time it's come up since then, I've been like those. I really like. I am a. I feel like I'm a totally different person than I was. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

You'd probably be able to get something out of them now.

[Mary Kish]

I don't think you're gonna love it.

[Dan Reichert]

Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

And Nate here is in Minnesota. Maybe we'll have a trilogy night.

[Mary Kish]

Listen, they'll.

[Dan Reichert]

They'll be playing in a theater sometime again soon. I would love to see.

[Mary Kish]

Talking about being in the Weeds, There's a part. There was a time where I was really, really into it. Like when the movies were coming out, like, I was reading The Silmarillion, which.

[Mike Mahardy]

I don't, I wouldn't have guessed by the pictures of you dressed as Peter Jackson going.

[Mary Kish]

That was, oh, that was like my, that was a, that was kind of like, that was me at my most in that era. Era was the night we saw Return the King on opening day and we were all dressed up and I dressed as Peter Jackson. I was kind of leading. Incredible.

[Mike Mahardy]

Honestly, every picture of you from like high school and stuff, like, it just. I, I, I'm not kidding. I look at that with deep respect.

[Dan Reichert]

Yeah. Yeah. He's got like this pride.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

It's funny.

[Mike Mahardy]

A man with no reservations about who he is and knows what he loves and he doesn't care where the world thinks from. And that has persisted to this day. And I have deep respect for Michael.

[Mary Kish]

Oh my gosh. The Rising. It's funny. Is like Jeff and high school. I wonder if, you know, if we would have been friends. I don't think we would have been enemies or anything. But like, yeah, you know, his circles were. Seemed a little intense to what I was doing in high school.

[Dan Reichert]

Maybe I would have much, I would have been much happier being friends with you than my friend.

[Mary Kish]

I think me and Dan would have been in similar friend groups. If you're in this, I would have.

[Mike Mahardy]

Totally like done my dumb.

[Mary Kish]

That you find a fantasy, my magic and stuff.

[Mike Mahardy]

But like, we would have hung out out all the time.

[Mary Kish]

Oh yeah. I mean, I have friends like that. Yeah. Like, look, I liked Star Trek a ton in high school. That's a ton of material for teasing. That was my favorite. Oh my God. I liked a lot of that. Nerd God you got.

[Mike Mahardy]

I really do think at this point, like maybe, I guess I have never really considered it until now, but like, maybe I should just watch those again.

[Mary Kish]

Like, I mean, you know, do what you want to do. I think, I think probably would like more.

[Dan Reichert]

You know, there's a cool dude sitting in the corner of a bar sm, like wearing a hood, smoking a pipe. And everyone's like, what is that guy? And he's a cool dude. And V. Morton's character and that is, you know, he's gonna be the hero throughout the three films eventually. Even though everyone really doing the super hard work are the hobbits and they're the emotional core. There are plenty of cool dude things happening in that movie.

[Mike Mahardy]

But I, but I think I, I want to push myself beyond the comfort zone of like, oh, cool dude killing guys.

[Dan Reichert]

You know, got that.

[Mike Mahardy]

But like, yeah, maybe expand a little bit there.

[Dan Reichert]

I mean I just view them all as Luke Skywalkers.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's. Honestly, Rocky is the closest me to, like, something. Yeah. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

God, that was so much fun when Creed 3 came out. You did that Rocky wheel, and I just. I hope they make a another Rocky so we can do that again.

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, my next thing is that I didn't talk about the movies I downloaded for the flight to Japan, but. Hajime. Hajime. Hajime no Ippo. Have you heard of this?

[Dan Reichert]

Oh, yeah, the boxing anime.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, I remember. I remember me and Gerstman did an anime panel at that Anime Con once, and we were talking about anime and the same type of conversations here where it's like, here's why I never watch this. Blah, blah, blah. I liked Rocky. I like blah, blah, blah. And somebody in the crowd literally screamed, like, hajime no Ippo is literally Rocky and, like, screamed it. And, like, people have recommended that forever. And it's like, I as much like, talk anime and stuff. Like, the few anime things I've seen, I thought, pretty cool. So, like, I. I downloaded. It's all on Netflix, so I downloaded, like, so much Hajime no Ippo, and it's like, oh, cool, because. Oh, you know what? Kenny Omega and Takeshi, they had a recent match and awesome match, and they dressed in, like. It was a homage to this. Like.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, wow.

[Dan Reichert]

Okay.

[Mike Mahardy]

So it's like, I should watch that.

[Dan Reichert]

Sports animes apparently are all very good. I've been meaning to watch that. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, I. I like conventions. We should do more. There's. There's that Midwest gaming classic in Milwaukee. It happened.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

April 5th, and I'm like, yeah, why wasn't that on our radio? But that was fun.

[Dan Reichert]

Too many games in Philadelphia is apparently a pretty popular one. Look into that one. Maybe.

[Mike Mahardy]

I. I've always wanted to do the. The Midwest gaming classic thing, but it's always, like, WrestleMania weekend or whatever, and this year it wasn't. But I was in New York, so it's. Yeah, it's just next year, let's keep.

[Mary Kish]

That on our radar.

[Mike Mahardy]

I would love to do that. It's like retro sores and stuff.

[Mary Kish]

It's. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right, well, that's a podcast. God damn it. I talk to you guys all the time, every week, and I never run out of stuff to talk about.

[Mary Kish]

Still, always a pleasure.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yes, folks, if you're. If you're just learning somehow of. Of Jeff Grubb and Mike Manic Naughty. Let's just plug everything, fellas, please.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan Reichert]

What do we do?

[Mary Kish]

Well, Jeff and I, we do game as the size. That's kind of our big weekly show where we catch up on the news. We always play a game of some sort, like the Mount Rushmore of, of apes and video games or fun things like that.

[Dan Reichert]

They do that one.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Donkey Kong, George Washington, of course. Okay.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, yeah, of course. And then we have a Nintendo Focus podcast called Last of the Nintendo Dogs. We do that on Tuesdays. We have a Patreon for that stuff and it gives you some bonuses. Like our show about Colombo because we like that in the 70s detective show a lot. That patreon [e-mail] game mess. We are all on giant bombs. You brought up. I also do a show of my brothers about Disney. I, I love Disney. I love theme parks. So we talk about that on 90s Disney Nine 0s Disney, if you have any interest in that world. It's a very, very. I love that world because even less so than wrestling, I feel like there's a big crossover of wrestling and video games. Right. Disney is kind of off in its own island. There's a bit of it, but it's it, it. I like how separate it is from the video game fandom sometimes.

[Mike Mahardy]

The podcast you guys do are excellent, and it took this long, but there's finally a video game podcast I like to listen to and it is you two guys. I join in while you guys are doing the live show on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Excellent, excellent stuff.

[Mary Kish]

Well, I, I, I really do love this show. I listen to this. I look forward to it every two weeks. I think it was like a couple weeks ago, like, Mike's like, oh, Mike listens. You're like, oh, yeah. And I was in my car. I was like, oh, yeah, I do.

[Mike Mahardy]

I know.

[Mary Kish]

He's great. It's great. So, yeah, and it's always fun when we get to hop in here. But looking forward to hearing from Mike and Mary again soon.

[Mike Mahardy]

Absolutely. They hopefully will all be on an episode the next time. Uh, but in the meantime, check us out on Patreon. That is fire.com. wait, fires. Oh, yeah. Firescape.com Usually Mike does this, so this is my first time. Firescape.com or patreon.com fire escape, you can join in as an ad free tier for the audio video tier. We've been doing more video stuff and Mike and Vinnie from nextlander have been doing a warhammer gimmick over there that's really fun. And you can also give us a smaller pledge amount as a tip jar if you'd like. It goes directly to the three of us. Yeah, that's about it. Check out Fire Escape on Socials. Check out Mike and Grub on Blue Sky. Twitter. Anything in particular?

[Mary Kish]

Blue sky these days, Tokoto. I'm tocoto everywhere. No, I'm not going to tell you what that means. Ask Samoa Joe.

[Mike Mahardy]

He knows Mojo does actually know Joe with a signing at, like, WrestleCon. Like, what's Tocoto mean?

[Mary Kish]

Did you hear about the penguin, Dan?

[Mike Mahardy]

What's that?

[Mary Kish]

Somebody, a listener, like, is working at a zoo or something, and they're trying to. They have to name a baby penguin and he floated out to. And apparently people like it. So maybe a penguin's gonna mean name to.

[Mike Mahardy]

As long as they don't know the context. I think that sounds like a great penguin name.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, I'm gonna go visit this penguin. If that happens.

[Mike Mahardy]

You have a picture with the to.

[Mary Kish]

Penguin with my son.

[Dan Reichert]

The. The family name lives on.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right, Grub and Mitch, thank you so much for joining.

[Dan Reichert]

Thanks, Dan.

[Mike Mahardy]

Always a pleasure. And thanks, everyone for listening. We will see you all in a couple of weeks. Bye. Bye.