Fire Escape Cast #112

Summary

Fire Escape Cast #112 – July 28, 2025

Hosted by Dan Ryckert, Mary Kish, and Mike Mahardy, Fire Escape Cast #112 brings a lively and engaging discussion filled with personal anecdotes, gaming insights, and humorous banter. Although Mike Mahardy is absent this episode, comedian and gamer Lisa Wallen joins the hosts to keep the conversation spirited and entertaining.

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1. Introduction and Guest Welcome

Mary Kish opens the episode with her characteristic enthusiasm, taking the lead in Mike's absence.

Mary (00:07): "We're excited to get into lots of gaming stuff for you guys today."

Dan Ryckert humorously points out minor inconsistencies in their show’s naming conventions before introducing their guest.

Dan (00:28): "Technically it's Fire Escape Cast, but, you know, it's the Fire Escape cast."

Comedian and gamer Lisa Wallen joins the conversation, bringing her unique perspective to the table.

Mary (01:04): "So everybody please welcome comedian, gamer, cat enthusiast Lisa Wallen."

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2. Dan's Dental Implant Experience

Dan shares a personal story about his recent dental surgery, highlighting unexpected discomfort from a screw implant.

Dan (04:22): "They put a big bolt screw thing in my face… you can feel every turn of the fucking screw."

Mary and Lisa empathize with his discomfort, lightening the mood with humor.

Lisa (05:57): "Oh, you're like a dog who got his teeth removed. That's so sweet."

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3. Dead Mice Mystery and Pet Dynamics

Dan narrates his baffling experience of finding dead mice in his home, leading to a playful investigation into potential causes.

Dan (06:10): "So I went looking and found a dead mouse under my pimp suit."

The hosts discuss the roles of their pets in potentially addressing the mouse problem.

Mary (08:25): "I think they're killing the mice, I think."

Lisa (09:00): "My cats are sweeties. But, yes, they would be evil if I let them outside."

Dan reflects on his own struggles with trimming his cat’s nails, contrasting with Lisa’s ease.

Dan (10:24): "We're trying to, like, gabapentin and one of us holding it and it's…"

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4. Cheese Curds and Local Delicacies

The conversation shifts to regional specialties, particularly Wisconsin's famed squeaky cheese curds.

Dan (20:35): "Wisconsin is like nothing but cheese curds…"

Mary shares her amusing experience with expired cheese curds and the company's refusal to refund.

Dan (21:04): "Bonk bit into it and she didn't act like it tasted weird or anything."

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5. Shrooms, Microdosing, and Mental Health

The hosts delve into the topic of shrooms and microdosing, sharing personal experiences and benefits.

Mary (37:02): "Microdosing shrooms can take away all your anxiety, my dude."

Lisa (38:26): "I microdose shrooms, like for half the pandemic. It changed my life."

They discuss the advancements in shroom technology and the practicalities of microdosing in today’s context.

Mary (38:55): "They can microdose with full control…"

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6. Video Game Recommendations and Reviews

The primary focus shifts to video games, with Lisa introducing "Wheel World," a new open-world bicycling game combining elements of Breath of the Wild and Burnout Paradise.

a. Wheel World

Dan enthusiastically recommends "Wheel World," praising its art style and gameplay mechanics.

Dan (56:13): "It's like Breath of the Wild Burnout Paradise. I love this art style…"

Mary echoes the sentiment, highlighting her excitement for the game's mini challenges.

Mary (60:12): "I love little mini challenges that change it up all the time."

b. Peak and Hell Divers

Mary introduces "Peak," a game she spent extensive time playing, and Dan discusses "Helldivers." The conversation touches on game longevity, multiplayer dynamics, and the integration of modding for enhanced experiences.

Mary (61:53): "It's really fun... you get to hang out with them until 3:30 in the morning."

Dan (67:54): "We just can't find the time to do it."

c. Elden Ring and JRPGs

The trio explores their experiences with "Elden Ring" and other JRPGs, discussing their varying levels of engagement and the impact of game design on their enjoyment.

Lisa (82:49): "Final Fantasy 6 was a passion project…"

Dan (84:01): "If my main party character dies, I can still use up my backup characters."

d. Metal Gear and Storytelling in Games

Dan and Lisa delve into the legacy of the Metal Gear series, comparing it with modern titles like "Death Stranding," and discussing the evolution of storytelling in video games.

Dan (131:17): "It was the first thing that made games cinematic…"

Lisa (134:07): "Zelda is the Blink 182 of games."

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7. Listener Emails and Interactive Segment

The hosts engage with listener questions, discussing how they would teach video games in a classroom setting and their personal criteria for essential game titles.

Dan (136:14): "Mario 64 is one of those where it's like, this is one of the first big swings at 3D being gaming…"

Mary (139:09): "I would talk about Zelda and how it shaped gaming."

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8. Closing Remarks and Promotions

As the episode winds down, Mary encourages listeners to support the podcast through Patreon and plugs Lisa's own projects, including her podcast "Dork Souls."

Mary (153:47): "Thank you for sharing your nerd culture with us. Everybody go check out Dork Souls…"

Lisa (151:41): "I have a podcast called Dork Souls. It's bi-weekly with my friend Hector Navarro."

Mary wraps up with a friendly reminder about supporting the podcast and highlights the adorable cats Lisa has, leaving listeners with a warm, humorous note.

Mary (154:06): "I'm Mary, the best host in the entire world. See you on the next one. Bye."

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Notable Quotes:

• Mary (00:07): "We're excited to get into lots of gaming stuff for you guys today."
• Dan (00:28): "Technically it's Fire Escape Cast, but, you know, it's the Fire Escape cast."
• Dan (04:22): "You can feel every turn of the fucking screw going up there. And it turns out that's not an issue they need to stop for."
• Mary (37:02): "Microdosing shrooms can take away all your anxiety, my dude."
• Dan (56:13): "It's like Breath of the Wild Burnout Paradise. I love this art style…"
• Mary (60:12): "I love little mini challenges that change it up all the time."
• Lisa (82:49): "Final Fantasy 6 was a passion project…"
• Mary (139:09): "I would talk about Zelda and how it shaped gaming."
• Mary (151:08): "She was like, you have to give me a man with acne scars and like an aftershave."

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Conclusion:

Fire Escape Cast #112 offers a blend of personal stories, humorous exchanges, and in-depth gaming discussions, making it a must-listen for enthusiasts looking to engage with relatable content and insightful game reviews. Whether you're intrigued by Dan's dental woes, fascinated by their culinary adventures with cheese curds, or eager to dive into their comprehensive game analyses, this episode delivers rich and engaging content that resonates with both regular listeners and newcomers alike.

For more content, additional discussions, and to support the hosts, visit fireescapecast.com and check out Lisa Wallen's podcast Dork Souls.

Transcript

[Dan]

Foreign.

[Mary]

What's up, everybody? And welcome to Fire Escape Cast. I am not Mike Mahardi, who usually leads us in, but I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it. My name is Mary. We're excited to get into lots of gaming stuff for you guys today. I think he says that every week. I think he always says, get into the gaming stuff, Dan. Is that how he does it?

[Dan]

He says that. I do, but. But you said, welcome to Fire Escape Cast, which I've never heard it that way before. I think technically it's Fire Escape Cast, but, you know, it's the Fire Escape cast. Right. So do we. Do we need to restart?

[Lisa]

You're like, God damn it.

[Mary]

Yeah, I don't want to restart. I want to. Fool included. I'm not. I'm not a fool. Sorry. Okay. I think this is based on our Twitter handle, which is, like, I couldn't cram in all the letters. And so some of our social media is the Fire Escape Cast. Some of it is Fire Escape Cast, dude. I think on Blue sky, we're Fire Escape. Like, no. The no cast.

[Dan]

Oh, okay.

[Mary]

I'm pretty sure I've. I've mixed it up as a good social media professional. Will do. Dan, thank you for that insight. And you will also notice because there is no mic, we did need to find an awesome person to fill in, and I think we've done it. So everybody please welcome comedian, gamer, cat enthusiast Lisa Wallen. Thanks for joining.

[Lisa]

Everything. Actually, I think now that I've thought about it, I do too much.

[Mary]

Some of us say that. I feel like in this industry, it's kind of required to do too much or it's really difficult to, like, survive. Like, if someone was like, I only cover JRPGs, it's like, good luck, buddy.

[Lisa]

Yeah. I only have a podcast. Like, so you make $10 a week. Nice.

[Mary]

So you live with your parents?

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Dan]

What percentage of comedians have their own podcast, do you think?

[Lisa]

Too many. Including myself. I've had, like, I think this is my fifth podcast this week or. No, just. I've started.

[Dan]

Oh, okay.

[Mary]

Your individual.

[Lisa]

This one's gonna set you up. This one's really gonna stick, though, guys.

[Mary]

I got a good feeling about number five.

[Dan]

We are. We are missing Mike Maharti this week, and I was trying to think, like, is he the most, like. Because, Mary, you and I were talking before this about, like, to move the show along and, like, the. The basic things we have to do. Is he the most, like, organized adult of the crew, you think?

[Mary]

Shockingly, I will admit that I think Mike is the most organized of the three of us. I don't think that any of us are super duper organized by any means.

[Lisa]

I'm pretty organized.

[Mary]

You're in, he's out. We. We need, like, someone to keep us on track. I just. Here's the way I will put it too, though, is like, I feel like I'm the one who's like, hey, three weeks out, I'm gonna be gone. Or like, I need to record on a weird day of the week. Like, I feel like I look ahead, but I can also lapse and go, like, two weeks without talking to you guys. Mike is the consistent one who's like, we have an ad read. We have. You know, we have something to do. Who's going to packs? Like, he's like, he's actively thinking about what we're doing all the time and keeping us together. I think he's the blue of this.

[Lisa]

Do you know Hector Navarro? He's my. He's a comic book guy, but he's my co host, and we just go, when can we record this week? Can you record tomorrow?

[Mary]

We've done that.

[Lisa]

So we're very. We both travel a lot, and that's why we do bi weekly.

[Dan]

Yes. We did that to keep ourselves sane because we all have, you know, day jobs and stuff. So it's. Even the bi weekly becomes difficult sometimes. It is, yeah.

[Mary]

I think it's a lifesaver, though, because quite frankly, it's also a really good gap to play more games. I think if we did it weekly, I'd be like, oh, God, what did I play? Or, like, I need to play something right now. Whereas in two weeks, of course, I've played two to three games in two weeks. Right. Like, I've had weekends in there for us to like, to just muck around and do nothing. So I. I really have enjoyed the cadence that we've had, but it does not mean that on the occasional week we're like, who can record in three hours? Because that's all we have, is Mike's getting on a plane and I'm going on a drug bender. And Dan, is something going wrong with his house or his mouth?

[Dan]

Oh, speaking which. Both are going wrong right now.

[Mary]

What's wrong with the. Should we start on the inside or the outside?

[Dan]

Well, so the less weird one right now is the mouth yesterday. So if you see me recoil if I laugh during this podcast, it's because they put a big bolt screw thing in my face.

[Lisa]

Was that what happened at the Summer game Festival?

[Dan]

No. Were you there that night when I got shot in the fucking face? Yeah. Okay. No, shockingly.

[Mary]

Are you a witness?

[Dan]

I didn't get injured doing that. I thought I did. I thought I got concussed or knocked my teeth out, but no. This is just a lifetime of poor dental or eating too much candy probably. So I had to get an implant. So as far as I can tell, nothing wacky happened there. But it's still not pleasant to. I didn't get put under. They gave me the laughing gas and I had them crank it up as much possible. But it turns out, even if it doesn't hurt, you can very much feel a piece of titanium screw going up into your skull. And that's really not.

[Mary]

How high did they go? Did they go too high in your brain?

[Dan]

They said it was like 30.

[Lisa]

Did they go too high?

[Dan]

They said it was 30 millimeters. I looked it up and that's over an inch of a screw that went into my gums and into the bone. And I was kind of freaking out a little bit, even under the nitrous. So when it was going up, I was like. And I raised my hand and they're like, oh, God. Are you feeling that? Are you feeling pain? You shouldn't be feeling pain. And I thought about it and I'm like, I guess it's not pain. And I'm trying to explain to them.

[Lisa]

That this is pressure.

[Dan]

It's just weird. You can feel every turn of the fucking screw going up there. And it turns out that's not an issue that they need to stop for. So they were just like, ah, fuck it, and just kept going up there. So, yeah, I'm doing the whole soft food thing. I got the. Got the pudding and all that stuff.

[Lisa]

Oh, you're like. You're like a dog who got his teeth removed. That's so sweet.

[Mary]

Yeah. Where's your cone?

[Dan]

Oh, yeah, I should get that.

[Lisa]

You're eating soft kibble.

[Dan]

Yeah, no, I tried. I ate a little bit of cheese today, so that's looking all right. But. So that's. That's what's going on.

[Mary]

You can have cheese after mouth surgery.

[Dan]

I haven't. I have a surplus of cheese right now because I went to Wisconsin this weekend. But that's a different story. The really weird one is today. Okay, so I went to Wisconsin this weekend. My sister stayed in this room. I had a blow up mattress, put it in here.

[Mary]

This is. This is where I stayed when I stayed at your house. I stayed in your stream room.

[Dan]

Same situation. So I get back from Wisconsin. Kayla flies home, and I walk in here and it kind of smells weird. And I'm like, I've known Kayla her entire life. I've never known her to be a smelly person.

[Mary]

She's not stinky.

[Dan]

She's not a stinky person at all. I was like, why would it be stinky? She only slept in here one night, and it's been like four days since she was in here. And so I'm starting to think, like, is there something gross going on here? Did the cat piss on something? Is there shit somewhere? I got two dogs and a cat. It could be something like that. I'm looking everywhere. I don't see it. And then today, at least, we do a show called Blight Club, where we play terrible games and we have to dress up as the main character. And I'm playing Pimp My. My Ride. Yeah. I'm doing Pimp my ride for PS2 right now. So they naturally sent me a pimp suit for it. So I had this pimp suit that when I'm done with the stream, I just take it off and I throw it on the floor. It's not like, nice clothes, so I don't have to worry about if it's wrinkled or anything. We're 20 minutes before going live today, and I still haven't figured out where the smell is coming from. Pick up the pimp suit, dead mouse underneath it.

[Lisa]

Did she bring it in as a gift for you?

[Dan]

No, it had nothing to do with my sister, certainly. I texted her. I smell anything weird, like, there's a dead mouse in here. She's like, nope.

[Lisa]

You're just like, I don't know where to leave him, you know?

[Mary]

Yeah, no, I think he has everything.

[Dan]

I don't have that. Well, so now I'm thinking I'm new to the cat game here. I got a cat for. It's been like, two, three months now. Is it a chance? Do I either a have an infestation of mice? That's new. Or have I maybe always had mice and now I'm just finding corpses because I found two in the last week now? And is it because my cat is suddenly.

[Lisa]

You know what it is? It's because one mouse found out about your cheese collection and went to go ch the other mouse.

[Dan]

They heard we were going to Wisconsin. They knew we were coming.

[Lisa]

All coming in for the cheese.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

They know you're weak from your dental surgery, so they're taking advantage of you. Man time.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mary]

They don't know about the cat, which I think is probably killing the mice because a cat is a mouse killer.

[Dan]

I'm impressed, honestly. Like, I've heard, you know, you hear about cat and mice and stuff, but, like, last night, me and Bonk were watching a movie, which Mary, you recommended, and we can. We can talk about in a bit, but he was just locked in on this fly that he saw for, like, two hours. He was, like, jumping up near the screen and stuff, and he finally, after two hours, killed this fly. I had no idea that cats could do that.

[Mary]

Not only do they kill flies, they torture them. They, like, grab them and they, like, oh, yeah, bat them around a little bit. They give them concussions. They kind of like tear off their wings or their legs one by one. They, like, put them in their mouth and then spit them out. Cats are evil.

[Dan]

I think it's kind of cool.

[Lisa]

My cats are. My cats are sweeties. But, yes, they would be evil if I let them outside.

[Dan]

You have how many you have, Lisa?

[Lisa]

I have two. In fact, one's on the bed right now just waiting for me to feed him dinner.

[Dan]

It's doing the thing where it's turning its back to you, right like that. I heard.

[Lisa]

That's not like. It's not 7pm Calm down. Okay. That's like a cat tower. Because they just want to hang out with me all the time. It's very precious. But also they're very annoying. Like, I got two cats so that when I travel, I didn't have to worry about them as much. But then anything, like, human with me right now. Like, they don't bite or scratch or hiss, but they just love. They love attention. They want to be around everyone all the time. So I really got dogs is what I got.

[Mary]

That's what I have. Dude. They don't. But they wouldn't kill a mouse. If you had a mouse, would they hunt it?

[Lisa]

They would probably look at me and scream because they don't.

[Mary]

They.

[Lisa]

They share a brain cell, and it doesn't work very well.

[Dan]

Do you cut their nails?

[Lisa]

I do. I do. I used to all the time. I haven't lately. But when I do, they do. They just submit. They're like, no survival skills.

[Dan]

That sounds completely different from mine because, like, yeah, I think we were expecting almost more, like, dog, like, behavior and, like, easy to, like, grab the hands and do this stuff and, like, we cannot get shit done as far as, like, trimming the nails. We were trying to, like, gabapentin and one of us holding it and it's. I'm still trying to figure that out.

[Mary]

I think her cats are like permanently sedated because I couldn't imagine even Simone wouldn't allow such a thing. They'll allow me like very slightly to pick them up but at some point he's like, let me down. I'm too heavy for this. But you can't cut bosses nails or.

[Dan]

We tried once, I think we got. Yeah, boss, boss. Yep, yep. Absolutely. Yes. And we got. I guess they have 20 nails, right? Is it five each?

[Lisa]

You're collecting them. 20 nails so far.

[Dan]

Don't they have like secret ones though? They have like secret.

[Mary]

Are you assuming. Oh, the sixth one. Like their thumb is like in their wrist or something.

[Lisa]

Yeah, but you're not clipping their back nails, right?

[Mary]

Right.

[Dan]

I don't think so. We're just doing like the normal finger thing.

[Lisa]

So I assume the normal hands are fine? The normal paws?

[Dan]

Yeah, I looked it up. I know you don't go too close to the quick and all that stuff, but I think we got most of them. But he just gets really pissed off and not at all sedate. So we're, we're working on that.

[Lisa]

No, I mean I'm going to do a cat.

[Mary]

You're lucky. I think the more you do it though, the better. Like if you don't do it then the cat like grows up thinking that it's not allowed or like they don't need it and then they're going to be even more psycho and you do have to get it done. I, I think I've always been a bad dog parent where like I just never really yelled at my dog or like dealt with it. And now he's nine and now he's.

[Lisa]

Taking over the house.

[Mary]

He. You can't touch, you can't touch his paws. In fact, he yells at me if I like pick up his paw, he'll, he'll like suck it away.

[Lisa]

And you're like, you don't have a job at me. You don't pay taxes.

[Mary]

He does nothing for environment. But he is my darling baby boy and I live and work to give him a better life. So it's really on me for being the parent of an only child. I've given him too much and now he's a monster anyway. Do you think they're killing the mice? I feel like they're killing the mice, I think. Did you check them for tiny talons?

[Dan]

I didn't want to get too close but like I didn't see any like active gaping wounds or anything. But the one in the bathroom was fucking like alive and it Was squeaking and like, clearly injured. Like, at first I was thinking, like, is it. Did it starve or something? And it's like, no, it actually looked pretty, like plump and stuff. So I wonder if the cat just like, remained. Yeah, I mean, he's like, I got a picture on the phone.

[Lisa]

I don't know if he's eating all those cheese. He's eating all the cheese.

[Mary]

Yeah, he's eating all your cheese.

[Dan]

He looked healthy outside of not being able to move or do anything.

[Mary]

Like, so sad.

[Dan]

Yeah. So I think.

[Lisa]

I mean, it could have been. It's maybe. What's the difference between a mouse and someone's lost pet? That co.

[Dan]

I'm sure. For the audio listener, I'm showing a picture of one of the two dead mice I found. But. Yeah, no, clear. It's not a murder scene. There's no blood anywhere.

[Lisa]

It looks like a murder scene, but. But it does look. It's. You know what? It's content. You know, why not?

[Dan]

Yeah, but like, they're. This is the bathroom one. And it's like, that's a plump, normal looking mouse, right?

[Lisa]

Yeah, maybe. Maybe they just went on a honeymoon, you know?

[Mary]

Well, there's like giving them personalities.

[Dan]

I threw them in the woods behind the house.

[Lisa]

I'm a terrible bird. If there's a mouse in my house. I'm like, we should get at a cage. Like, that's how I would be.

[Mary]

They use a button for shields, plates, and they. Yeah, they have like, little hopes and dreams. I'm like, such a sucker for animals, Even mice. I went to New York City on a work trip and I saw a mouse in the kitchen. Apparently you can't avoid it, right? Like kitchens, especially in major cities.

[Lisa]

New York mice are built different too.

[Mary]

They're just gonna exist there. Ye. They are functioning in that space. And a little mouse ran through a restaurant as we were leaving. And someone like a passerby was like, ew. And stop. Like, stepped on it and it just kind of like sat there. And I thought it was dead. And everyone was like, that's the circle of New York life. Like, everyone move on. But it was cold and I felt so bad. And I was like, it's in the middle of the sidewalk. Like, I'm so not cool at this. And so everyone was like, leave it, don't touch it. Like, they're disgusting. And I.

[Lisa]

Diseases.

[Mary]

They are. And I was like, I literally can't help it.

[Lisa]

They have a criminal record.

[Mary]

I have gloves on because it's cold. It was like the winter I picked it up by its tail. And I walked over and I just put it in a pile of, like, garbage bags. And I thought, that'll give it a soft resting place to either die or have a nap, and then it can scurry away on its own. But I was like, I refuse to leave this, like, squished mouth.

[Lisa]

You should just put it back in the restaurant. Be like, you need to go back to work. You can't take time off.

[Mary]

Right now, I'm putting it in the butter tray. Until he feels better, everybody leave him alone.

[Dan]

You pick it up. Bare hands. You picked it up.

[Mary]

Glove. I had a glove. It was winner.

[Dan]

So I'm a baby, and I. Like, there's. Even if it's dead, and I know it poses no actual threat to me. Just the idea of, like, feeling this, like, corpse mouse in my hand freaks me out. So I have specifically for this purpose for gloves? No, I have the fucking. You know, the thing that they advertise for old people that need to, like, grab things from shelves and stuff.

[Lisa]

A grabber just for your rats.

[Dan]

I have a grabber for when there's.

[Lisa]

Like, a lady in the Midwest right now.

[Mary]

In many ways.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Yes. So, yeah, I grabbed it by the tail with the little, like, grabber thing, and I just take it and I just throw it in the woods.

[Lisa]

Wow.

[Mary]

And you said that the mouse you found in the bathroom was alive. So did it die in your grabber?

[Dan]

No. So, okay, there was the dead one in here, the pimp suit one. Pimp one was definitely dead. And that's just in a trash can. The. The one. The bathroom one, which was still squeaking and stuff. That was really sad. We actually did. Me and Bonk kind of scooted it into a box and then moved it out back and just kind of put it. But like, a hawk is probably taking it 10 minutes later, you know?

[Mary]

But at least it goes into the circle of life. I mean, like, I feel like a hawk eating, like, I don't. A mouse. And so sad.

[Lisa]

I let him go outside. Yeah.

[Mary]

And I don't like spiders, but I will pick up. Not with my hands. My God, never a spider. I will find a way to put them in a cup.

[Lisa]

See, I don't mind spiders. I just hate their webs because it's like, I don't consent to touching those. Like, you know, like. And they're always in random places where I can't find them.

[Dan]

My. My sister, the one that said, here, Kayla, she had a tarantula, like, one of those big fuzzy ass ones. And, like, she'd be sitting in her room growing up playing Dynasty warriors as, like, a little kid and just have this fucker crawling all over her head back and everything.

[Lisa]

I'm good.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

No, also, just like, people who own bugs, it's like, they don't live very long. So why is there, like, a tortoise.

[Dan]

Of the bug world that does live?

[Lisa]

I don't know. There's be, like, the big beetles, you see, they live, like, six months. So I'm like, how? Like, you just want to get your heart broken six months and then get a new one?

[Dan]

I don't think I realized. I think it was like, a year ago on a podcast. I think Jeff Bachelor came brought to my attention that, like, I didn't realize bugs were dying every winter. And I didn't realize that it was a thing that, like, he's like, oh, you never noticed that there's less bugs in the winter? I was like, no. I didn't even think about, like, here's the thing. I didn't think anything. Notice anything? Yeah. I didn't know if it's like, I didn't even notice they were gone during the winter or that they were more prominent in the summer. I just didn't clock it. I guess if something's not in front of my face, I'm not thinking about it, typically.

[Lisa]

So I definitely notice it more in California than I did back in Washington because it gets so hot here, and then the bugs are trying to get in the house to cool off, and I'm like, no, no, no. This is. I pay rent. Not. You get out California year round.

[Dan]

Like, bug issues.

[Lisa]

I mean, like, I have a ton of plants, and the only time I ever get bug issues is in the summer. They'll get, like, aphids and, like, fruit flies. I actually haven't gotten any fruit flies this year. Knock on wood. Shockingly. But it's always really hard between, like, June and, like, August. And I'm like, oh, even the bugs know. Even they know what's up.

[Dan]

Do you ever get one of the, like, electric tennis racket gimmicks?

[Lisa]

No, I just put, you know, eat. The solution for fruit flies is right.

[Dan]

What?

[Lisa]

You had a bowl of water, vinegar, and dish soap, and you just put it out, and literally the next day, they're all in there. It's disgusting. It's like crack for them.

[Dan]

I think I never had to consider the fruit fly stuff because I probably went a large chunk of my adult life without eating a fruit. And then now I'm married. But they love Plants.

[Lisa]

They love plants too.

[Mary]

He doesn't like those either. He's never seen a banana or a plant.

[Dan]

I have four bananas in a bowl upstairs now. Since I got married, I've eaten more fruits. I'm eating some veggies.

[Lisa]

That's why you don't notice bugs, is because you don't have any plants that will hoard them.

[Mary]

You don't have anything alive.

[Lisa]

Yeah. In the winter time, it's like my plants are dying, but there's no bugs. Summertime, my plants are thriving, but there's bugs. It's just a fruit fly.

[Mary]

Shockingly. Do not care about nerds. Rope. Like, they only want, like, fruit.

[Lisa]

Yeah. All I know is I have a very fruitful household. Okay.

[Dan]

I gotta get into the. Yeah. I keep telling myself I'm gonna get into the healthy food game. And then I just like, listen, if.

[Lisa]

You want a plant, just get a snake plant. This thing has been sitting on my desk for like, six months, and I don't do anything to it. And it's thriving. Look at it.

[Mary]

And that's a real thing called, like. They're called, like, mother. Mother. Mother's tongue or mother in law tongue. Probably can't be killed.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mary]

The idea is that it looks like that.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Mary]

And you. They're very difficult to kill.

[Lisa]

Yeah. You kill a snake plant, then, like, you should go to therapy. Like, that's. It's absorbing your bad mental health. That's. That's the only way you can kill a snake. Did it.

[Mary]

It did its job.

[Lisa]

Yeah, exactly. I do believe my plants are tied to my mental health because, like, when I'm not doing well, my plants will start drooping. I was like, no, no, no, no. You need to stay alive. Okay, fine. I'll be in a better mood.

[Dan]

Like, the symbiotic relationship.

[Lisa]

Yeah. I don't have. Hopefully my cats and my plants.

[Mary]

Hopefully. Dan's mental health isn't tied to the mice health near him because he. They're dropping like flies over there.

[Lisa]

They sense cheese and weakness. Yeah.

[Dan]

Well, there's plenty of both of that. Do you get a bunch of cheese curds? Like, cheese curds? Is that a thing? Like, Mary, you're Midwest. Lisa, I don't. Did you grow up in California?

[Lisa]

I mean, no, I grew up in Seattle, but even I know cheese curd. I mean, mainly because of poutine, but.

[Dan]

Not, like, fried ones. I'm talking about the squeaky ones.

[Lisa]

Oh, no. I don't know.

[Dan]

Okay. This is a Wisconsin thing. And like, every store, especially, like, along the highway going Into Wisconsin is just nothing but cheese curds. And they are squeaky cheese.

[Mary]

Squeaky look.

[Dan]

If you look up squeaky curds, like, that's. So we were looking up, like, how they're made, and it's. I guess they.

[Lisa]

Squeaky curds is a very cute name, though.

[Dan]

Yeah. Good cat. It's as you bite.

[Lisa]

It sounds like a jazz singer from the 30s. Give it up for squeaky curds.

[Dan]

Great saxophonist.

[Mary]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dan]

When you bite into it, it like squeaks between your teeth and it's probably super unhealthy, I would imagine. But yeah, yeah, I went into one and we bought a bunch of curds, but then they also sold us three week expired cheese, and we didn't realize until we were in the hotel blue cheese. That's the one cheese I don't like. Bonk bit into it and I looked at the thing and she didn't act like it tasted weird or anything. But yeah, it was expired, like three weeks ago and seemed okay. I went on a campaign of calling the company and everything and trying to get a $6 refund for the expired cheese, and they refused. So I did not get justice for the expired cheese, for the cheese. Curds themselves were very good.

[Lisa]

Really? Cheese.

[Mary]

I. I don't know a lot about curds, but when I lived in Australia, I had halloumi more than once, which is like one of the very few cheeses that you can put on a grill. Like, you can. You can grill it on a high flame grill and it won't melt. It just gets delicious grill marks on it. And then you can just eat it.

[Dan]

Is that what we had at, like, a brick fogo de chow in Boston?

[Mary]

Maybe. I love halloumi. I'm always trying. I'm always putting halloumi on. On my buds because I think it tastes so good, but it also squeaks like, so what's up with that?

[Dan]

I think that's a sign.

[Mary]

Halloumi squeaks.

[Lisa]

The cat has entered the back of me now.

[Dan]

Uh oh, what's on the chair?

[Mary]

They just get taller.

[Dan]

Aw.

[Mary]

Well, I'm sorry about all of the death in your house.

[Dan]

It's not like, people or pet death. It's just, like, gross stuff death for the most part.

[Lisa]

Listen, maybe you're like a Disney. Maybe you just don't realize that you're a Disney princess.

[Dan]

That seems unlikely, I would say.

[Lisa]

Yeah, yeah. Like a temu version. You get, like, rats.

[Dan]

I don't know how to play dead birds.

[Mary]

Remember when you got the basement lizards?

[Dan]

I had salamanders and a Swimming snake. That's true. Yeah.

[Lisa]

This sounds more like a Disney thing than anything, in my opinion.

[Mary]

Yeah, Dan the Disney princess just covered in dead mice and.

[Lisa]

And squeaky curds or whatever.

[Dan]

We. We went to. So the place we went to in Wisconsin was called Wisconsin Dells, and it's basically a city of water slides and water parks. Like, it's what they're. It's like the water slide capital of the world. So it's like all these resorts all.

[Lisa]

Isn't it freezing half the time? Is it indoors?

[Dan]

No, no. So that's the thing is they are prepared for the cold times because it's. A lot of them are indoors. The one, the resort we stayed at was half indoors, half outdoors. And we rode everything on both sides. And it had been forever since I've done a water park. Have you guys done the one where it's like you stand vertically and they just drop the ground out from under you?

[Mary]

Yes, I have done a water slide like that.

[Dan]

You.

[Mary]

It's like a coffin. You, like, have to be in it with your arms crossed. And then it just.

[Lisa]

This just made me realize there isn't any water parks in LA that I'm aware of.

[Dan]

The weather's all good there.

[Mary]

Like, the perfect place to have a water park. Right?

[Lisa]

We have Disneyland and Universal, but no water parks and Magic Change and Knott's Berry Farm.

[Mary]

I feel like in Ohio we're, like, notorious for theme parks and water parks because it's just like what you can do in Ohio. So I. I was kind of like, raised in water parks. The one where it drops, you like you're standing and the floor just falls. Terrifying. I saw a girl, you know, she was young. She was like, 13, but she was like, I got it. I'm going to go. I can't wait. I'm so excited. And then the door, like, shuts and they lock it. And she freaked out. She freaked out. She started crying. She was like, let me out right now. And the dad was like, you got it. And she was like, I do not fucking have it. Open this door. And she was. She lost her mind. And they had to unlock it and let her out. And she cried all the way down downstairs. And I was like, that is terrifying. Just to watch someone else lose their mind.

[Dan]

I mean, it is. Because normally you sit down at the top and you just kind of go at your own speed. But, like, you go into a vertical coffin, basically, and the floor is just going to drop out and it's like a complete. You don't know, drop it's fucking insane.

[Mary]

Which you don't know when I think.

[Dan]

I want a water park that is just stuff like that and no kid shit. Because, like, this has been notoriously.

[Lisa]

I'm trying to look up what this ride looks like. What's it called?

[Dan]

Just look up. God, there's got to be a term for it.

[Lisa]

Vertical water.

[Mary]

Water park. It's like a water park tube.

[Lisa]

Vertical water park Tube. Vertical drop.

[Mary]

Floor drop.

[Dan]

Coffin. Maybe do coffin.

[Mary]

Floor drop.

[Dan]

Okay, here I found one. Aqua Drop Water slide at. At Aqua park. Aqua colors on YouTube. AquaDrop water slide at Aqua Park. That's a lot of aqua.

[Lisa]

That's too many aquas.

[Dan]

This is in Croatia.

[Lisa]

Okay. Oh, my God, this is terrifying. Yeah, yeah.

[Mary]

See how they, like, make you. They make you stand like a dead person with your.

[Lisa]

I'm claustrophobic, so I can't do this. But I. You would love.

[Mary]

You would never make it.

[Lisa]

No, I would die. Oh, God, this is awful.

[Dan]

It's cool though, because, like, on those. You can't have like little kids on those. And all the other lines had little kids. And this has traditionally been a childless podcast. Lisa, I don't know if you have kids, but we're no only cats. I don't know if we're generally too many plants. I was thinking while I was there that we've all played Expedition 33, that I would love a situation if we could like institute, like a reverse gommage. So, like, you know how it counts down from 100 in the game one year olds. If I just paint one on a monolith and then everyone.

[Lisa]

I also just want old, old people to be gone, actually. Let's just leave people between.

[Dan]

Yeah, let's just do a double ended gommage. So there you go.

[Lisa]

Just close it in.

[Dan]

Yeah, 101 starts at the same time. And then we kind of close in until everyone's just cool.

[Lisa]

Yeah, exactly.

[Dan]

Freaks.

[Mary]

The old double G. Listen, I have.

[Lisa]

A story that I'm like working on as a bit because I thought it was so funny because it's like I have friends now that have kids and whatnot. You know, whatever. They live in areas, they can afford houses. But I went to like a family, like get together a few weeks ago and it was like 10 adults. I was probably one of the oldest ones there. And then there was just one kid, it was my friend's kid. And we were all standing around talking, and the kid, like beelined it to me and grabbed my arm. He goes, do you want to come play with my spider man collection. I was like, oh, my God, he thinks I'm a kid. Like, I am. I am not. I am not giving off adult vibes to children still.

[Dan]

Or do the kids just think that adults care about that stuff or.

[Lisa]

It was like. It was like 10 people between the ages of 30 and 40. So I'm right in the middle, and this kid, like, looked at every adult and just went to me and was like, that's definitely still a child.

[Dan]

Did you check it out?

[Lisa]

Of course I did. I was like, yeah, obviously.

[Dan]

What was the most interesting part of the Spider man collection?

[Lisa]

He just had a. He just had a spider. It was just Spider man toys. This kid doesn't know value, you know, he doesn't know. He hasn't been on Prime 1 studio to find like an 800 statue, you know?

[Mary]

Were you like, this collection sucks to me.

[Lisa]

Yeah, I was just playing.

[Mary]

Get yourself an actual.

[Lisa]

You want to see my $800 statue of Virgil from Devil May Cry? That is so Virgil.

[Dan]

DMC 3 or 5. Which one are we talking about? Oh, nice. I Love Virgil.

[Lisa]

It's 30 inches tall, taller than that kid. But it was just very in the moment, like, yeah, I. I do not give off babysitter parent vibes at all. I give off like, this is a giant child hanging out with these adults.

[Dan]

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[Mary]

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[Dan]

I was younger and I got fired, I guess because of two incidents. One of them was, I ate all of their boxes of Cheez Its during one thing and the mom got mad that I ate all the cheeses by myself. The other was, I guess you're not supposed to do this with kids. This kid Nick was really young and I was taking them all to the neighborhood pool. And he was terrified of bees. And I thought it'd be funny if as we walked to the pool, I was like, nick, there's a bee on your shoulder. And he freaked out the outfit screamed and told his mom, you're not supposed to do that. I guess if you're babysitting.

[Mary]

No. How old was this child that you, like?

[Dan]

Kid was probably, I don't know, six. I was probably 16.

[Lisa]

I love how you're holding the glass. I don't know. He was like 6.

[Dan]

Don't know kid ages.

[Lisa]

But I just water all of myself. I am not.

[Mary]

It's a child, Michael. How old could he be? Nine? Like, we don't know. We have no concept of, like, child age.

[Lisa]

I've never been, never babysat in my life. My first baby ever held was my niece five years ago. And I held her like this. I was like, I should not be around a child. Like, this is. Yeah, this is not how you baby.

[Dan]

I learned about the head thing where they like, you know, you gotta put a hand behind the head so they don't.

[Lisa]

Yeah. So I held her like this. I present to you, baby. So, yeah, no kids for me. Just if I have another kid, it's gonna be another cat. That's it.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mary]

I had a. I invited a girlfriend to. To get, like, basically to go to a club with me, but it had. It's 21 and up usually, and you can invite children, but you have to get it approved in advance. So I called and I said, hi, I'm meeting someone and I want their kid to be able to come too. And they said, okay, no problem. How old is the kid? And I was like, well, he's walking and he's talking and he's got like, little shorts with pockets in it. So he's gotta be like 10. And they were like, no worries. And so they write it down. And she shows up and they're like, hi.

[Lisa]

Hi.

[Mary]

Is this your kid? And she's like, yes. And they're like, we. We were told he was 10. How old is. How old is this kid? And she was like, he's three. And I was like, three year olds can walk and talk and wear shorts with, like, pockets in them. I had no clue.

[Lisa]

That's exactly what a toddler does. Toddlers have such unnecessary pockets.

[Mary]

Embarrassing.

[Dan]

Like our toddler do toddlers nowadays have, like, phones probably? Like, I feel like my niece has.

[Lisa]

Texted me and she's like, seven. I'm like, no, they can play Roblox.

[Mary]

I can tell you that. Maybe not legally, but they. They can.

[Lisa]

Maybe not legally, but they can play Untitled Goose game. I know that.

[Dan]

See that being a good game. Yeah. What was that thing? Untitled Goose game. People, they're making. Oh, they're the ones making that big walk game. That looks. Yeah, that looks great.

[Lisa]

Listen, my first cell phone, a. No, I got a Nokia phone when I was, like, in fifth grade because I played soccer, and that thing was a brick. That was a weapon. You could huck that.

[Mary]

I understand. Why did soccer give you a Nokia phone? Because I played gymnastics and I didn't get a phone until I was 19 and I paid for.

[Lisa]

My parents are drug addicts, and they were like, listen, we don't know we're gonna pick you up, so just call us.

[Mary]

My parents, that's so sad. But, like, to be your friend, you know?

[Lisa]

Like, I still hang out with them. They come to my shows. Like, no, Like, I'm going to Elisa's house.

[Mary]

Her parents were always loaded, and they don't give a what I.

[Lisa]

All my friends, they're just like, Dan, they're just holding a drink. Like, just call me when you want me to pick you up.

[Dan]

Mary.

[Lisa]

But that was my first phone, and that was a brick. That was a freaking brick back then. And I was like. But I wasn't allowed to text until I was in high school, which was really annoying. So I had a phone for.

[Dan]

Just for calling.

[Lisa]

Yeah. I had a phone for, like, eight years of my life and didn't get text messages until I was like, like a junior in high school.

[Dan]

I was afraid that the text stuff would, like, per text charge you. So I think for the first, like, year or two of having a phone, I was afraid to text.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Mary]

In the beginning of the world, they did.

[Lisa]

It was like 20 cents a text. Can you imagine how big our bills would be right now?

[Mary]

No, I mean, you just send, like, one really long email text, right? Like, hello, Dan, it's been so nice to talk to you.

[Dan]

Sucked, like, writing anything I was gonna say.

[Lisa]

What I forget about is when you travel internationally, I'm like, am I allowed to message and call people and whatnot? And it's like, oh, yeah, you just use, like, WhatsApp or Wi Fi calling and it's like, free. Like, it's like, oh, yeah, we live in 2025.

[Dan]

I just don't need WhatsApp with, like, I've only used it when I've gone to, like, gamescom or Japan or something with, like, a group, and they're like, oh, just do WhatsApp Like. Like, is that a much bigger thing overseas than it is here?

[Lisa]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

I used WhatsApp and Telegram to buy shrooms. Like, that was. That was the only time I ever used it. And now everyone who lives. Yeah. And everyone who uses, everyone who's, like, in Europe and, like, asia, they use WhatsApp.

[Dan]

Give the Shroom guy a plug.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Dan]

What's the number?

[Lisa]

Shout out to my shroom guy. Scott.

[Dan]

That's a shroom guy's name, right?

[Lisa]

It's been a few years, in fact, when we used to. Because, you know, Northwest people, like, it's easy to find shrooms. And I. When I came home a couple years ago and I was driving around our whole town, my dad was like, oh, man. Like, I just hate how they keep building these apartments everywhere. I was like, me, too. He goes, you used to be able to pick good shrooms right here. And I was like, oh, that. You don't care about gentrification. You just care about losing your good shroom piles. Okay.

[Dan]

Wild like mushrooms.

[Lisa]

Oh, yeah. I mean, come on, man. The climate. There you go.

[Mary]

Are you legal there?

[Dan]

I thought they were legal in, like, Oregon and Washington or something.

[Lisa]

They're decriminalized now.

[Dan]

Ah, gotcha. Okay.

[Mary]

You can still order them, but I could not imagine picking a random shroom on the ground and chomping it up. I buy everything, and it's like, this is 100 milligrams.

[Lisa]

Listen, my shroom guy went to college for organic chemistry, okay? I trust him.

[Mary]

You're really hyping up this shroom guy.

[Lisa]

It's like when someone's like, okay, so I. I studied psychology or I went to school for communication. It doesn't mean anything to me, is what I'm saying.

[Dan]

Curious about shrooms again for a while. Because, like, I've done stuff harder than weed three times, and they were all first semester of college, and the first two were shrooms.

[Lisa]

You did weed, too?

[Dan]

I. I did the weed. I did the weed advice. So I'm okay with weed now, even though I'm a very anxious person. Typically. Like, weed I can typically deal with. But, like, mushrooms were, like, my first panic attacks ever. Like, I never knew what a panic attack was until mushrooms. But I remember that first half being like, this is the best feeling I've ever had. I want I should do these all the time. And then it was like, I'm in hell. So I. I was.

[Lisa]

I mean, that's me every day. So.

[Dan]

So I.

[Mary]

Right around noon is where I freak out every day.

[Lisa]

I'm Like, I'm tackle this day and the other day I'm like, I want to die.

[Mary]

Actually, this is what the.

[Dan]

With mushrooms or just in general?

[Lisa]

Just in general. You know, I've eaten four cookies on the stream. I'm going to regret it the minute we're done.

[Dan]

So I do have a curiosity about, like, okay, I'm 41 now. It has been. It was over half my life ago. I did them the last time. I think I'm in a much better spot mentally and everything than I was back then. So, like. But I still, I've always. There was that period after I had the panic attack mushroom stuff that like, any, like, I had my wisdom teeth taken out. I didn't take any pain medication or anything for it. I was like, shrooms. Yeah. Well, the idea of being high freaked me out so much. So, like, all my friends smoked weed all the time and drugs and like, I was just so terrified of, like even getting a whiff of it. But I am curious because it was really fun for that first half and I'm. I wonder if I would be able to, like, enjoy them now if I kind of ease myself in.

[Lisa]

I think the shroom technology has advanced in the last 20 years.

[Mary]

There's been great advancements in shrooms. And in fact, I think what's mostly interesting about like, like, my partaking in this type of stuff now is that you can micro dose with like, full control and I don't know your micro dose experience. But, like, it's so fun to essentially have like, so little that you're not actually high, but you'll be like, my mood is elevated and I feel so great in a social situation. Microdosing shrooms can take away all your anxiety, my dude.

[Lisa]

Well, I'm selling you. I microdose shrooms, like for half the pandemic. And then I started streaming. I was like, it changed my life.

[Dan]

Question about that because, like, my understanding was that that was something you had to do like every day for a period of time. Whereas, like, my mom told me she.

[Lisa]

Started doing, oh, yeah, I had like 100 shroom caps.

[Dan]

Okay. And did you do it every day, like consistently?

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Okay. Now the way my mom describes it, and I don't know if she's really following the label correctly is she will just do it like, oh, we were at the lake this weekend and I microdosed.

[Lisa]

And yeah, you don't have to do it every day. I just did.

[Dan]

Oh, okay. So you can just do it.

[Lisa]

I think I did try microdose every day. For.

[Mary]

For, like, three doctors would recommend that you don't micro dose every day. It wasn't that long.

[Lisa]

I literally did it for, I think maybe three weeks. And then I, like. Because I was, like, not working, and I was like, it. I got a bunch of shroom caps. Like, had a bunch of Burning man friends. They'd come back and they'd be like, do you want any leftover drugs? Like, it was like a gift to me. And so someone gave me a bunch of shroom caps, and it was really nice. It was very relaxing. You know, get a little bit of a body high. And then now I would just take them occasionally when I was, like, hanging out with people.

[Dan]

Is there a down to. Like, why wouldn't you just do it every day? If it's like, is there any downside to it?

[Lisa]

I mean, not really, but, I mean, maybe I was like, maybe I shouldn't be going through all these shroom caps so quickly. I would just take a lot of baths. That was really it. I was just like, every time I was on shrooms, I was like, you know, it sounds great as a bath.

[Mary]

Your water bill is through the roof.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Mary]

I honestly don't think that there's, like, many downsides to micro dosing, personally, like, even for someone like me. Dan and I, you and I have talked about this before, but sometimes, like, if we do get high, you can get too high, and that's actually very stressful.

[Lisa]

I'm glad we can talk about the stuff on this podcast. Like, no.

[Dan]

Really?

[Lisa]

Yeah, we're really talking about boring nerd stuff.

[Dan]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Lisa]

Doing shrooms is boring nerd stuff to me.

[Mary]

This is, like, to me more controllable than smoking pot. Like, when I get high, I still am like, oh, don't go too hard, because you'll get paranoid and you'll get really weird. When I microdose, I'm like, nothing bad can happen to me. Well, also, as long as you know your dosage.

[Lisa]

Yeah, yeah. Well, weed's weird too, because at least with shrooms, you're like, oh. Like, I know exactly what this type of shroom will do to my body and how much of it to take. But even shrooms, even weeds, like, do you want Indica or you want Sativa? And then you're like, okay, what percentage of it is this? Like, sometimes I'll get like a. A mixture or a hybrid, and I'll be like, okay, this made me. This made me nauseous. This one gave me a head. Like, it's like, same thing with Gummies or, like, any kind of edible. I'm like, I'm always very wary of it because I'm like, I don't know how this. My body's gonna react to this. And usually it's always a good time, but sometimes I just get a headache or sometimes it'll smell really bad. Like, I'll smoke. The weed will, like, stick. The smell of the intensity of the weed will just stick. And I can still smell it the next day, and it just smells like a fart.

[Dan]

That gets you high.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Shroom doesn't smell like a fart.

[Dan]

Okay. That's a plus.

[Lisa]

Like, if I get really strong weed, I can smell it when it's in the container still.

[Dan]

I've been having that. Like, my stuff's all like. Like, I have half of this left now, and it's, like, all crusted in there, and I can smell it. So I can hear it bubbling and I can smell it, but no smoke comes out of there. And I feel like I'm going to warm it up if I search for it. Yeah, I do. I hold the thing and it's. I can hear a bubbling, but nothing comes out. I shoved a paperclip in there. Tried all this.

[Lisa]

I boiled the top in water. I'm like an old person.

[Dan]

The top of the cartridge.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Just the glass part. Getting hot water to loosen it up. It worked. Maybe you don't listen to my advice.

[Dan]

But, I mean, I've tried a lot of other stuff.

[Mary]

You practice. Like, I'm a doctorate in shrooms.

[Lisa]

It's like, honey, you gotta. You gotta decrystallize it. You know what I mean?

[Dan]

I'll try that. Yeah.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Then you're gonna blow your house up because. Exploded. There you go.

[Dan]

Take all the mice down with me.

[Mary]

There'll be at least six mice at your funeral. He was a good man. I'm not gonna like so much.

[Lisa]

I'm not gonna dox my Shroom guy, obviously. But the reason why I use telegram and WhatsApp is like, somebody, like, created a website where you could buy acid and shrooms and like, all sorts. Dmt, all sorts of stuff. And they would sell it as, like, T shirts. And then you go on the Telegram and realize the T shirt was actually this thing. This thing. So you'd order these T shirts online and it would be actually shrooms.

[Dan]

That's pretty smart, actually.

[Lisa]

I know. And that's. And there's a lot of them. Like, this is like one of probably millions out there. But I was like, all I can think of Is. Wow, that's beautiful. Drug. Drug dealing has really gone far, you know.

[Mary]

Evolved. Yeah. Did you get a T shirt too?

[Lisa]

No. And, like, the shirts were, like, nice. They were, like, tie dye shirts with, like, designs on. And obviously they were just created as, like, a front. But then you'd have to venmo some weird guy. And then in the mail, I would just get a box of shroom chocolates and, like.

[Dan]

So you don't get a T shirt.

[Mary]

No.

[Lisa]

And I would be like, great. Shrooms. Lack of T shirt, though, you know, it's very strange.

[Mary]

It just makes me, like, think of every time when you watch, like, Super Troopers or something like that, and they're, like, opening up the truck and there's, like, jars of applesauce in these boxes or something, right? Like, something that's like, yeah, I'm just a. I'm just an applesauce salesman. Like, leave me alone. Underneath the applesauce sauce is a ton of drugs, you know? And it's just like, in this front situation, they were like, we got another T shirt sale and a guy, like, Chuck some shrooms, and the guy's name.

[Lisa]

Is, like, squeaky curds or whatever.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mary]

He does sound like a mushroom guy who also really rocks the sax, which.

[Lisa]

Is so funny when you go. But sorry.

[Dan]

Oh, I was gonna say. Yeah, make sure you go to fire escapes, that merch store and get our T shirts.

[Mary]

Definitely not a front.

[Dan]

No drugs. No.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Dan]

I just sent you dead mice.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Mary]

And in the dead mice, a bunch.

[Lisa]

Of shrimp shoved into the mice. Though technically, fungus can grow. Fungus does grow from dead things, so technically that could be a shroom at some point in its life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mary]

Plant the dead mouse in a pot of soil, and from the dead mouse, the shrooms will grow. And then you get mad high. I actually think that's a little beautiful. Like, it is morbid and maybe fucked up, but, like, another part of it is like, my dude. Like, if you're gonna.

[Lisa]

I love that we're not even halfway through this and we're talking about planting dead bodies to grow mushrooms.

[Mary]

If you're gonna have dead mice in your house, why not start a shroom farm out of their corpses? In fact, I actually think that would be a really good will. And, like, last will and testament is like, don't burn me. Which apparently takes a lot of fuel.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Mary]

I've been, like, learning about this for some weird reason, which is, like, you know, like, when you get. What's it called? Like, flamed up into ashes, cremated, whatever.

[Lisa]

Cream when you get flamed up into ashes, that sounds like a euphemism for getting high this weekend.

[Mary]

If you get flamed up in ashes, they have to do it at a really high temperature. Or you. You smell like you. Your body stinks like, burning flesh, and it, like, disrupts the town and the people nearby.

[Lisa]

Listen, like, yeah, it creates a void down.

[Mary]

Yeah, it smells like dead Dan. Like the dead body factory.

[Lisa]

It's the talk of.

[Mary]

So they incinerate you at a very high, high temperature so that you go up real quick. And there's no. I mean, dead, like, burning skin smell.

[Dan]

That makes sense. I would rather. If I probably get cremated. I'd rather they do that than, like. Like, sous vide me, you know?

[Mary]

Right. But what I'm saying is, is that that takes. Those are only two options. That is like, a really high temperature costs a lot of fuel, so it's not very environmentally friendly. But neither is burial, because they put you in this, like, fucking box, and they'll be like, nothing can get in here. But it's like, isn't that. The point is that, like, eventually you decompose?

[Lisa]

My dad. This is so random, but my dad, he works at a Muslim cemetery. He's white and Catholic, but he works at a Muslim cemetery as, like, his retirement hobby. And he, like, digs 20, 25. Yeah, he digs graves. That's his thing. He's an honorary Muslim.

[Mary]

That's his thing.

[Lisa]

It's literally his thing. It's like a. It's crazy, but he's like, yeah, I buried a baby today. And I'm like, all right, cool. Happy Tuesday. My parents are very morbid, but he. He was talking about how, like, Muslims, like, they don't use coffins. Like, they just wrap the bodies in blankets and then they put them in the ground. And I'm like, that's better for the environment. It is, but it's also like, this is what dad, do you go to therapy? And he's like, no, I just like doing this. I'm like, okay, all right.

[Dan]

Doing it.

[Lisa]

Yeah, he's been doing it for, like, 10 years now.

[Dan]

You said hobby, and that kind of weirded me out.

[Lisa]

Yeah, it is his hobby. He volunteers because, like, the guy who owns a cemetery is, like, very old and has dementia. My dad helped him out one day, and now 10 years later, my dad's on the board of directors for Muslims.

[Mary]

And my dad, I helped out this guy with dementia. Turns out I was born to dig graves especially.

[Dan]

So he volunteered this. He's not getting paid for It.

[Lisa]

I mean, I think he gets paid.

[Dan]

Sometimes, but, like, this is more sweet or concerning?

[Lisa]

It's a little bit of both. It's endearing, but also spooky. But I also have very morbid way of thinking, so I'm like, this makes sense. He's just acting out on this.

[Dan]

Would it be environmentally good to, like, just, like, if they just threw your body in the ocean and let fish eat it? Like, that wouldn't cost any money, right? Like, I mean, eat it.

[Lisa]

I mean, it's always fascinating how. It's like, you guys watch Dexter.

[Dan]

I've seen the first, like, four.

[Lisa]

Yeah. He would just throw them in a bag in the ocean. And it always bothered me because I'm like, God, what a waste.

[Dan]

Like, just versus what.

[Lisa]

I mean, here's the thing. No one found the bodies. They found the bags. So it's like, if you're already gonna. If you're planning on nobody seeing the bodies, why not just throw the bodies in there?

[Dan]

Oh, right. So what's the point?

[Lisa]

So the fish can eat them?

[Mary]

What's point of the bag?

[Lisa]

Yeah, what's the point of the bags? Is it for weight? Like, it just like, if you knew no one was gonna find them because it's like they found a bunch of bat. They found the bags because bodies float.

[Mary]

Because the, you know, oxygen in the lungs and it's like the concrete shoes.

[Lisa]

Just throw it with rocks. It's fine.

[Dan]

Just shove a bunch of rocks down their throat.

[Mary]

You gotta pump them full of rocks before you throw them in the ocean.

[Lisa]

The rocks, it's fine. I don't.

[Mary]

I agree, though. I mean, I think that is also much more environmentally friendly than, like, putting them in a bag. But that's the thing.

[Lisa]

That's just where my mind went, is like, God, what a waste of bags and plastic.

[Mary]

What a waste of bags. Always hated the environment.

[Lisa]

He was murdering people. And I'm like, oh, what? All these bags, man, you're just polluting the ocean. Yeah.

[Dan]

Some duck's gonna get caught in that.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Mary]

They've got, like, one of those.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Some turtles gonna go live in that.

[Mary]

Coke bottle things on them.

[Lisa]

I know.

[Mary]

You're murdering.

[Lisa]

You're. You're also creating environmental waste. Okay.

[Dan]

Wow.

[Mary]

I think the most environmentally friendly thing is probably just dumping your body in the ocean because the animals will get you. They will. They will pick at you, and the crabs will get you, and they will. They will, like, eat your bones. Like, every part of you will go back.

[Lisa]

Aris, remember Aristocats, the cartoon, how she said she just wanted.

[Mary]

Doesn't.

[Lisa]

Yeah, she just want to give her house to her cat. Cats. That's the thing. When I'm like, 70, like, these cats will be dead before I die, hopefully. But if I'm like, 70 years old and I have new cats, I'm like, just give them to my cats. My cats could eat me now. Give them food. Cats will eat your dead body.

[Dan]

I used to do a podcast with a wrestler named Biggie, and he was. He was adamant that when he dies, he wants to, like, just drive out to, like, a rural road and just, you know, two people grab the arms, two people grab the legs and just kind of like, toss them into a ditch and just like, he's dead. He doesn't give a shit. Would that be illegal? Like, if it was. Like, if it was requested by the.

[Lisa]

Deceased, if it was in his will? I don't know.

[Dan]

Yeah. Like, can you just.

[Mary]

Even if it's in their will, you can't do something illegal. And I have examples of this.

[Dan]

Right, but is it illegal to just put a body on the side of the road? Yes, if it was.

[Mary]

Yeah.

[Dan]

You didn't kill them. He dies of natural causes.

[Mary]

It's not about the fact that it's what he did or did not want. It's the fact that, like, society cannot have dead men on the sides of society.

[Lisa]

Because think about how many people. What if a lot of people require requested that then we just have so many dead men.

[Mary]

Society does not allow for dead men to just be chucked over a bridge. Even dead women, though.

[Lisa]

That's different.

[Mary]

We never question it. They have two thirds of a vote. Like Chrome in the ditch. I think, like, Niagara Falls is like, this really famous place that I grew up near. And I was always told as a child, a lot of people want to have their ashes scattered in the falls. Like, they basically, when the.

[Lisa]

When the breeze is breaking, bring them back up.

[Mary]

They're like, put me in a tin can. Chuck me over the edge. That's how I want to go. They want to be cremated and then thrown in. Just for the record, not the body, but, like, the remains.

[Dan]

That's like.

[Mary]

And yeah, it's illegal. And it's like on the website, like, you cannot put ashes in this water. Stop it. And they, like, basically prevent family members from throwing their loved ones ashes into the water.

[Dan]

That's. That's the code grandma thing. Do you know about that?

[Mary]

That?

[Dan]

I only know this because of Mike Manati. I now work. I now own a company with the biggest Disney adult possible. And Code Grandma is a thing at Disney World where, like, people want to.

[Lisa]

Be cremated and left on, like, the.

[Dan]

Haunted Mansion riot or whatever. And so, like, if you hear Code Grandma at Disney, that means someone spread their ashes in the park.

[Lisa]

That's disgusting.

[Dan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Lisa]

Like, listen, just put my ashes in front of a Taco Bell. I don't care.

[Mary]

Like, no ashes.

[Lisa]

I'm going to dead corpse. Listen.

[Mary]

Yeah, I'm dead.

[Lisa]

Figure out what you want to do. You want to, like, plant me as a. Smoke me out of a spliff? I don't care. You know, just do whatever you want at this point. I don't care, man. I'm out of here. I've done. I'm done making decisions like.

[Mary]

Well, what's interesting is if you guys don't have a last will and testament, this can actually be used in testimonials to make sure that you do get what you want, because it's time that we've officially said it.

[Dan]

Oh, you can point to this.

[Mary]

Yeah, yeah, Chuck me in the ocean. No cremation. And, no, don't just put me in a box. Like, let me be decomposed. I want to give back to the earth, for God's sakes.

[Lisa]

Yeah, somebody put me in Elon Musk's tea so I can haunt his body. How about that?

[Mary]

Your whole. Your whole dead corpse is.

[Lisa]

Sadly, that man is going to come up with the tech. I think the reason why his chest is so barreled is because he came up with the technology to stay alive for too long. So I'm gonna be like, he's gonna be, like, 200 years old when I die. And I'm like, can someone please let me haunt this?

[Mary]

Like, he's. He's got a blood void.

[Lisa]

If I die, just make my ashes somehow affect billionaires. That's all I want. Just put me in their tea. Let me hot. I'm sure I can haunt them in some way. Leave me on their front porch. Let a rat get to it. Something. Just put it in something.

[Mary]

Maybe stick that.

[Lisa]

You.

[Mary]

You. You upset somebody.

[Lisa]

Stick it in what you do. Put it in their water pipes. So when they turn on their bidet, my ashes go right into their. That's it. That's what I want. There you go.

[Mary]

I'm gonna put your dead corpse in one of their, like, yacht engines. That way, when they turn it on, you'll just get mangled in there.

[Dan]

The actual corpse.

[Mary]

They'll be like, wait. So hard to get her out of there. There's chunks everywhere.

[Lisa]

It's Also, all of my hentai can. Mary can have it. There you go.

[Mary]

Thank you.

[Dan]

Physical hentai.

[Lisa]

There you go. You can have my Virgil statue. There you go.

[Dan]

Thank you. Excellent. Yes.

[Lisa]

Hell yeah.

[Dan]

Mary can have the hentai. That's fine.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Perfect.

[Mary]

You guys sure.

[Dan]

Let's talk about video games.

[Lisa]

Sure. Let's talk about video. Let's do the thing.

[Dan]

Mike and Mary. A new era of power has arrived with the Alienware Area 51 gaming laptop, intentionally engineered to push more power to the CPU and the GPU for maximum performance. This otherworldly power, paired with the game changing AI capabilities of Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs with DLSS4, amplifies performance and image precision for ultra smooth, stunning gameplay. And with the new cryo chamber design, airflow is focused exactly where it's needed most. Fused with Alienware's enhanced thermal solutions, it creates a higher power output without raising noise levels. This allows you to play with confidence even during the most demanding marathon gaming sessions.

[Mary]

So no matter what you're playing, Alienware ensures every game runs precisely as its developers intended. A new era of power is here. All you have to do is take it. Discover Area 51 [e-mail]. welcome back. We are getting into the gaming section of the show, which we usually do. That's, that's. I believe this is also exactly how Mike does it. I believe it's the gaming section of the show.

[Dan]

Yes, yes.

[Mary]

And we're gonna get into it. But Dan, you also came in and you were like, mary, we gotta talk. What did you want to talk to me about?

[Dan]

Wait, when did I say that?

[Mary]

Literally when you came in, you were like, I got something. I got something.

[Dan]

Oh, no, it was one of my games that I. It's a game I want to. We'll. We'll get to it. I want to suggest something. Yes, yes, yes, we'll get to that.

[Mary]

I understand. Well, if you want to start with.

[Dan]

That, I can do that yet.

[Mary]

I thought you found a third mouse.

[Dan]

Quite frankly, no, no, I just have a game I know. Like with confidence. I know you're going to like.

[Mary]

Ooh, okay, let's start with it. I'm really cool. So you got, you got a game for me.

[Dan]

Wheel World.

[Lisa]

Have you heard of this wheel? Like a driving wheel?

[Dan]

Wheel? Yes, it's a. It's a bicycling game called Wheel World.

[Lisa]

Is it. Is it real world for bicycles?

[Dan]

So I don't know if that was an intentional thing, but every time I've been telling friends about this they've been like oh, the Wheel World, you know it sounds like that but no, it's just called Wheel World. And it is. The best way I can describe it is Breath of the Wild Burnout paradise. Which I don't know if that does anything to your brains like it does to mine, but I like the sound of that a lot. And it's a shorter game. It's like five, six hours. Ms. Seven or eight if you want to like you know, 100.

[Mary]

I love a short game.

[Dan]

It is Mary, look it up. Look at the the art style. It's a really nice cel shaded art style. I love this art style is incredible. Just this very kind of like lo fi really chill art style. It is open world bicycling game where you are going around and the Breath of the wild thing is apt because you are going around to like bell shrines. So you're finding these shrines. You go up, you ring the bell. It you know, kind of fills in part of the map like in Breath of the Wild and it'll show you different, different races and things. You can meet characters that will show you where different bike parts are. So basically you're just going around. You're kind of like outfitting your bike with different gear and things like that. There's only like four stats. It doesn't go like too deep into it or anything. But yeah, it's just really chill races. You know, you'll find like riders on the road and certain ones will be glowing and if you ring your bell you can do on the spot, one on one race against them. And it is just this kind of Breath of the Wild expanding the map, exploring open world situation where you're always on the bike you can hit. Why to kind of get off and walk your bike and talk to NPCs and talk to like you know, shop owners and things like that. But it's sure very, very straightforward. It's by the mess off the team that did Nidhog and Nidhog two.

[Lisa]

Oh it has.

[Mary]

It's not out yet.

[Dan]

I came out as of this recording. It came out. Oh. So yeah it's out now. So it's.

[Mary]

And Anna Perna produced published it. Wow.

[Lisa]

It looks good.

[Dan]

It's awesome. It's really, really good. And like you'll get like certain like legendary parks parts for your bike that will give you things where it's like well okay, you've got a boost meter which I like. Any game with a boost meter and legendary parts will make it so you like kind of Passively are always getting boost and things like that. And during the races and stuff. Your name is Kat. You're this girl named Kat Kat. And like, you know there's like four objectives per race where it's like, okay, beat this time, get top three. And then it's like get all the floating letters and finish and the floating letters or it's like a ton of thing.

[Mary]

Yeah, that's exactly though like what I was telling you I really liked to do in the Mario Kart open world, which is I was like getting those power up things and then I was doing whatever it is that they said I had to do, which was usually get to the end in this much time. It was very difficult and challenging and I would have to do them like three or four times to get. Get them done in time. And it gave me a time too, which I loved. This sounds like I love little mini challenges that change it up all the time. So I'm never like getting bored or stagnant with the gameplay. It's just like, yeah, we're mixing it up. Get your bike to this area, go through these hoops or rings in time. Like this is absolutely up my alley. Dan. It's so cool.

[Dan]

And it's one of those games too where it's like the soundtrack is. It's not just great for like while I'm playing the video game. It's like I actually want. I was like looking up the artist and stuff who, who did the soundtrack. The main one I think is June J O O N. It's a songwriter from I. I forget where but just incredible. Really. Just chill soundtrack. Just a great kind of before bed and just relax. Get a little higher or something. Ride your bike around. Mary, you shrooms? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna. I'm gonna macro dose eat a dead rat, you know. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Have a night. Mary.

[Mary]

I think this looks great.

[Dan]

You will love this game. I think this seems like a Merry Monday night special. Special.

[Mary]

This is a Merry Monday special for sure. I also love that you can customize your bike. It looks like you can get like little silly bikes that look like a horse or one of looks like a person.

[Dan]

Yeah. And there's stuff too where it's like one of them's a banana. But like, you know, if it looks really cute, it's awesome. So you'll outfit your bike based on like this is more of a downhill race. This is one that's got more kind of hairpin turns and you can like kind of mix and match the Parts as needed. Again, short game, but just a delight for every moment I've played it. So cannot.

[Lisa]

Oh, they did knit hard enough.

[Dan]

Yep.

[Lisa]

Yep. Nice. Sweet.

[Mary]

That's great. Thank you for this rec. I actually. Maybe just because I've. I've worked with Annapurna for so long, I actually got a little package in the mail and it was a Wheel World package.

[Dan]

This one.

[Mary]

It is that one with like, with the bottle and the chocolates and stuff like that. Did it have a code in there?

[Lisa]

They sent you chocolates?

[Dan]

I didn't see the code. I just got that.

[Mary]

They sent me real world chocolates. Like they have chocolates on.

[Lisa]

They stop sending me pins and send me chocolates. Those are more useful. Okay.

[Dan]

I haven't tried them yet.

[Lisa]

I agree.

[Dan]

I have to wait till my. My face is not fucked up. But I'm looking forward to the chocolate.

[Mary]

You can't just mung on them. Like, you don't have to chew chocolate. Yeah.

[Dan]

Mung on them. What does that mean?

[Lisa]

Yeah, melt them.

[Mary]

Sit in your mouth.

[Dan]

I guess I could, right? I don't know if you're supposed to get like chocolate particles in your open wound.

[Mary]

Yeah, you probably don't want to get chocolate.

[Lisa]

I will melt chocolate. If I can't, I'll melt chocolate. My coffee.

[Dan]

Oh, that sounds pretty good. This game, I guess. Check it out.

[Lisa]

I. I want sugar and be on crack at the same time, you know?

[Dan]

Yes.

[Mary]

This looks great. Thank you for the recommendation. I love, I love especially just like a nice indie game, Merry Monday game, so that this is something I probably will play. It's hard to have so many. There's so many games right now to play on Merry Mondays. I do feel a little overwhelmed with how many games that I'm playing right now. I spent my weekend playing Peak and I absolutely love it and I fully recommend this game. After playing it for like, I want to say like 14 hours literally in a weekend. I just played it for almost eight hours each day. It was so much fun.

[Dan]

It's tremendous. I've done a couple. Have you done it with the mod that lets you like uncap the. The player count? We did it with no players on. On Giant Bomb recently.

[Mary]

So fun.

[Dan]

It's incredible. It's like one of the better, like Prox Chad multiplayer games.

[Lisa]

I think I have to play it finally. I have friends that keep asking me to play it and I'm like, one of these days.

[Mary]

It's really, really, It's a joy. And what's so fun about like having so many people play Is like, you'll be climbing and maybe your friend will take a different route out, but I'll hear them in the distance scream, and I'll watch their body, like, kind of just pass by, and then they'll just disappear and you know that they fell to their death. It's extremely funny.

[Dan]

Or you'll hear the, like, you know, for those who haven't seen it or played it, it's basically like, you know, by default, four player co op, you know, prox chat and climb a mountain. Climbing a procedurally generated mountain that changes. Is it every week? It's a new mountain.

[Mary]

24 hours.

[Dan]

Oh, every 24 hours. And I think it's like, has four biomes or it's numerous different biomes. And it's just you have a stamina meter. You got different things you can eat. And the fun part is it doesn't tell you any of that stuff. So every time I've played, someone has seen it like, oh, what does this, like, green cris berry do? And then you eat it. It's like, oh, I'm poisoned. Oh, I'm dying. And then when they die, vomiting. Yeah. Their voice cuts out and it's like, well, I guess I carry this corpse with me up the hill and try to revive it.

[Mary]

So funny.

[Lisa]

I don't have enough friends to play video games with. With. I've always been. It's. No, I'm dead serious. I've always been, like, a solo gamer. And then I get really.

[Mary]

No, it is sad. I'm just laughing at it, like, well.

[Lisa]

It looks like you have to be my friend now. Okay. Like the. I mean, because I never really played multiplayer games and really got into them the last few years, obviously from streaming. But, like, almost every person I know, like, my friends are playing Peak a month ago, and now I'm like, okay, I'm done with Night Rain. I should play this game now. They're like, oh, we're not playing anymore. More.

[Dan]

Yeah. Is the shelf life of this stuff like, you know, does it go up and down, like, shorter than it did before? Because I feel like, specifically with some of these playing Helldivers too.

[Mary]

Okay, yeah, Hell Divers is multiplayer. You need friends for Hell Divers.

[Lisa]

No, I play with random Chinese kids now because nobody plays it anymore. Everyone's like, I'm playing Marvel Rivals. I'm like, I'm not playing Marvel Rivals. I'm playing Helldivers.

[Mary]

I refuse to play marble Bibles.

[Lisa]

Marble bibles do things like repo.

[Dan]

Like stickers around. Like, I feel like among us stuck around For a while. But like Repo definitely had its like moment in the sun. But like is that still a big thing or do people just kind of move on to the next?

[Lisa]

I think so. I think mainly for like streaming. I. Not so much for that. Yeah. I mean I feel like that's when most people want to play games is for streaming. And I'm like, I don't always want to. I'm high as and I don't want to show my face. So how about you guys stream and I'll just not.

[Mary]

I would join somebody else's stream to play Peak especially. I just think it lends itself. I don't think this would be a very fun solo experience. The joy of this is.

[Lisa]

No, it sounds like reaching out to.

[Mary]

Your friends, helping them up, getting them. You can have different facial expressions. It's so. It's just so silly to me.

[Lisa]

Is it only on Steam?

[Dan]

I think it is right now. I'm sure it'll come to consoles. That's interesting.

[Mary]

Loved it.

[Dan]

What we all do. Obviously it's good to have a game that is great for streaming but like to just the general populace, you know, like. Like people that are not streaming, they're not recording, they're just playing to hang out with their friends. Do these things have legs or is it just kind of like are we kind of in this bubble and we're seeing it because of what we do?

[Mary]

I think that they have short shelf lives. I will admit, like I don't think people played Lethal Company for more than six months and I feel like that kind of did fall off among us was this unique thing that just like lasted for years, but it was also during a pandemic and you have to keep that, but you have to keep that in perspective that we were looking for people during that time.

[Lisa]

Also the games aren't in depth enough to last for that long. Like the problem with Helldivers that they didn't really offer a lot and now they're like, oh, now we have all this DLC and. And it's like, well now no one cares. People are gone.

[Mary]

Yeah. You like have to like they move Night Rain that I.

[Lisa]

It's like I beat all the Night Lords. Now what do I do? It's like, like games like Fortnite Marvel Rivals, they have like seasons and like they're constantly putting out new content. But all these like little one off indie games, it's just they're not meant to be played for years.

[Mary]

Yeah. Why aren't you making six rounds of DLC Peak So that I can constantly evolve as a hair.

[Lisa]

Yeah, yeah. Give me more peaks.

[Mary]

Give me. There's. I mean, the biomes help. I will say the original biome is like really simple. And once you get through it, it's usually like. Imagine just like, honestly, like any, any standard rock mountain. It's not special. It doesn't have anything fancy. But. But the second biome was jungle, thorny vines and thorns and it had different trees and it had just different stuff like that it had rain. So you do like, if you climb when it's raining, that's not good. And like, way more stuff to interact with. And then the third biome is snow. And so you can freeze to death and you can get cold and the wind blows like crazy. It's really fun. Experience the different biomes.

[Lisa]

I'm gonna be really mad if you don't invite me to play now.

[Dan]

We. I feel like every time there's one of these games, I feel like, Mary, you're always the one that's like, hey, we should do this together. We should play this. We should do a Patreon bonus. And we're like, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. And then we just can't find the time to do it.

[Mary]

The scheduling is really tough with this.

[Lisa]

It's like one, it's like, if I would make a joke about being single and it's one of you, my DMs, like, I'm single too. I'd be like, that's great for you.

[Mary]

Bye.

[Lisa]

Anyways, I'm gonna go be single over here and you can be single over there. Like, oh, you're not offering me. Okay.

[Mary]

You have to make an extra effort to do it. And like, for my peak at least, like, I'm. I'm around streamers all day long and I wasn't invited to peak. I had to schedule it and organize it myself. I like, texted some people, my Helldiver buddies that I haven't talked to in a bit and was like, hey, let's play Peak. They downloaded it that night because that's the kind of people they are. And we had so much. We played this, honest to God, until 3:30 in the morning. I couldn't not stop.

[Lisa]

How many people can you play?

[Mary]

So tired. 4. But it sounds like you can hack it.

[Dan]

Yeah, maybe I can just.

[Lisa]

Maybe I should just do one stream of it when I'm done with Clear Up Scare. Because I'm almost done with that game, unfortunately.

[Dan]

Oh, I want to hear about that.

[Mary]

Yeah, yeah, we're gonna get to that.

[Dan]

Yes.

[Mary]

But, Dan, what were you gonna say?

[Dan]

Oh, yeah, it is four. But, like, the mod is apparently super easy because only one person has to install it. Because, like, I've done, like, the lethal company stuff and everything where everyone has to install a thing and put a folder in a drive or whatever. But, like, one person, like, the host has to get the character thing. And you can do with, like, up to at least eight people. That's what we did last week and Tribe on. And it's a blast.

[Mary]

Yeah, I think it's an absolute. It's an absolute blast. Even without that, just four people hanging out trying to get to the tippity top of this mountain. There's, like, a couple things that I don't think they're, like, mistakes or anything. I do think, like, it's intentional, but I think it's a little frustrating because the items that you get are also randomized. You really genuinely will need a rope or you will need, like, some ability to climb a space that you don't. You can't really get up without it. And it's. And because the items are randomized, you might just get flares, which are the most useless, worthless item in the entire game. And so it's like, sometimes I will, like, open up a suitcase and get a worthless item that I don't want. And it's like, all right, should we just, like, start over and, like, die? Because this is not a good round.

[Dan]

Have you found a use for the trumpet outside of it being funny? No.

[Mary]

It's so funny, though.

[Dan]

Really funny. Yeah.

[Mary]

Does it have an actual use?

[Dan]

No. That's what I was asking you because, like, I love seeing it just because it's funny, but, like, I've never seen an actual use for it.

[Mary]

That one at least its use is that it's funny. Like, the flair isn't funny to me. And I don't think it has, like, any joke purpose. I have never laughed so hard then to watch my friend fall down the cliff while playing their trumpet and it was like.

[Dan]

Death rattle.

[Mary]

So funny. And, like, try saying to, like, all your friends, like, don't worry, guys, I got this. And you're the one that, like, takes the leap of faith to get top only to, like, fall to your death. I think what's. What I really enjoy about this game is there's other games I played where, like, dying is really frustrating or it's annoying and you feel like you've, like, wasted time time. But this game has a really nice death sequence where you just become a ghost that floats near everybody. And so you still get to hang out with them and possibly even annoy them. And I just think they've, they've solved and they still haven't Goofy.

[Lisa]

That's why I never got in the games like any of the big like third or first person shooter games is that they're not goofy enough for me. And when I'm dead I'm like, oh, I'm just hanging out. Okay. I think that's what Helldivers got for me is that it was so goofy and then on top of it you would just keep getting respond until you're like oh yeah. You never just not play the game game.

[Dan]

But with this it's like the perfect mix of like it is goofy because when you die you wear this like floating tadpole sperm looking thing with like the face, your custom face on the ghost. Yeah. But then you can also like, you know, if people are separated. I was doing the thing where like I would die and I would go talk to Jan and he'd be like, tell Grub I'm stuck here, I need the rope. Okay, I'll be right back. And then my ghost will fly over to Gran. Needs a rope. Go over. He's over there. Go on. Look to your left. You know, so you, you could actually kind of contribute as a ghost.

[Mary]

Still, you're such a useful ghost that I feel like it doesn't feel like you've wasted your time Useful. And if you can convince your friends like get to the top, you can do it. You can do it. You can bring back everybody at the top of the mountain and then you can do the next biome together. And so like because of that, as long as one person makes it and that's happened so many times, we were able to see like I think is the final biome, which is like the lava biome. And it's really fun and scary and I, I just think it's fantastically constructed and it is silly. And the devs were saying that it was like one of those games where they were just like making it during a game jam but they thought it was so fun and I was like that's a good game studio. That's a good developer group that are like this is silly and fun. Like let's build this, let's build this bitch out. Like I think that's awesome.

[Dan]

I've seen the devs posting that like they made another crab's treas and like that's more like almost. Yeah, it's almost like a souls like, you know, it's like a real ass game and there's like lol the stupid we made.

[Lisa]

Did you ever play it?

[Dan]

Yeah, it's good. I like it.

[Lisa]

Did you ever use the gun?

[Dan]

No, I never got that.

[Lisa]

You could just put a handicap on the game where you just have a gun and you one shot everything. And it's like a huge gun. So you're just tiny little crab and the gun's like this big and you're like not even holding. It's just floating on you and you just one shot everything in the game.

[Dan]

Like a human gun. Like a Glock?

[Lisa]

Yeah, like an actual human gun gun. And it looks so stupid and so ridiculous. It's just one click in the menu. You're like, the souls part's too hard. Just give me the gun and you just one shot your way for the whole game.

[Dan]

I think they get it. I think I like that team.

[Mary]

I think they get it. I think they understand. So they also. That's a good one.

[Lisa]

But Going under one, right?

[Mary]

Going under.

[Lisa]

Yeah. That was the. That was the. The. The first of their studio game that I knew about where you're the girl and you're in the office and you got to basically fight your boss. Boss.

[Dan]

Oh, I've never seen this.

[Mary]

I didn't play this, but I. I did see this, but I didn't play it.

[Lisa]

That was. Yeah, that's how I knew them. But you know what game I'm talking about.

[Dan]

I've not seen this before.

[Lisa]

No Going under game and pretty sure it's what it's called. Yeah, no, yeah, called Going Under. Yeah, it was like a. Kind of like a platformer, but you're like an office worker and you'd use like pencils and erasers to like fight like little evil office workers.

[Dan]

I'm gonna write this down.

[Lisa]

Very. Just very goofy. Yeah.

[Mary]

I bet you they made this like while they were working at their like official studio and they were like, I hate working a desk job. I hate companies. Let's quit and make some crap.

[Lisa]

I really like their. Basically like their art style. Yeah, they got that. The Nickelodeon vibes to me. Yeah.

[Dan]

Yeah. Pigs definitely got that too.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Mary]

Like another crabs. Treasure was not that long ago. In fact, I'm looking at it. Released last year. 5th 2024. Like they made this game within a year of their last game. That's crazy. Good for them.

[Lisa]

Going under came out I think in 2021 too. Genius. Yeah, they're. They're building it.

[Dan]

Nice.

[Lisa]

Yeah. I knew about Going under because my friend David, who did my Anime sticker art. He did the official art for them too. So he would. He worked with the art director and then that's how I played the game. And his game was really good. Good.

[Mary]

You're obviously very well connected in the game space. Lisa, I have to talk to you about a game that Dan and I have been playing for some time now, but you've been also talking about it. Claire Obscure. Sounds like you've been digging into this game for a little bit. Tell us about your experience with cla Obscure.

[Lisa]

Well, we're.

[Mary]

I think we're.

[Lisa]

Dan, have you beaten it?

[Dan]

Yes.

[Lisa]

So Mary and I.

[Mary]

But. But we won't do spoiler cast because I haven't.

[Lisa]

Because Mary and I3, we're in Act 3. Yeah, I was immediately. I. The whole reason why I even usually start games is because I like to learn about weird gaming history. And someone's like, you should play Claire Obscure. Because I've been playing a lot of turn based games lately, unfortunately. But also they were like, the soundtrack is phenomenal because they found this guy off Reddit. And I was like, what? Like someone told me that. And they're like, it's a French studio was their first game. It's like. And I remember seeing the trailer like months ago, but like within the first hour of the game I was crying and I was like, okay, I haven't cried from a video game in a very long time. And obviously I'm. I'm known as the Perry Queen, which I hate that. But when I have people that I don't even talk to message me saying, you have to play this game because you'd love the combat system and it's turn based. I'm like, okay, we hate each other and you're texting me. So I guess I need to play this game. And yeah, I've been obsessed with it. And now I'm at a part where it's like, I'm getting close to the end, but I don't want to get to the end yet. So I'm just doing all the side stuff and it's like I haven't been locked in like this in a very long time time now.

[Dan]

Are you. Because I wanted to do that when I got to act three. Because you know, you definitely can spend your time going around leveling up and all that stuff. But like all those chromatic bosses and everything, I would go to them and I was probably around like level 50 ish with all my characters, they would still just whip my ass like first turn, like, what? How are you Approaching those things in Act 3.

[Lisa]

Yeah. When they were one shotting me, what I did is I went to the Dark Shores. I learned the pattern of those big spooky guys because you'd get like, like 500, 000, like, experience point. And I would just fight them like, four times, and I'd level up 10 levels, and then I'd go to the endless Tower and learn the patterns of all those guys. And then from there, now I'm just, like, able to do most things.

[Dan]

Okay. Yeah. So it's like, I feel like I didn't with much. Like, I'd probably be a good place to grind.

[Mary]

I mean, you don't have an RPG history to you, but, like, the classic is. Is like, if you can't kill stuff, you have to grind.

[Dan]

Sure.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Mary]

And. And like, you know how to grind.

[Lisa]

And I hate grinding. But I was like, where can I go where I get like, I. And I'm also like, an anti Googler. Like, I'm very, like, pretentious. Like, I'm not gonna look anything up. But I was playing, and it's weird because the difficulty curve goes way up in Act 3. But all you have to get is to level, like, 60, which is really fat. You can level up really fast in that game, which I think is fascinating because usually once you reach, like, a high level in an RPG, it's like I have to kill like, 30 enemies to get to the next level level. But yeah, once you get to, like, level 60, then you're like, oh, I can actually play comfortably now. The danger signs start to go away when you start to visit places, like.

[Dan]

At that vortex, when it tells you the danger thing.

[Lisa]

Yeah, yeah. I would go to the. The last part of Act 2, and I would just go and just do a couple grinding in through there, and they come out and be like, now I'm killing it. And my builds are insane at this point.

[Mary]

Who's like. Who's like your damage dealer? Who's like your defender? Who's like your tank?

[Lisa]

Think. Well, I got all the pictos that are like, second chance, double heel. Like, play first. Mine is Looney Looney Maille. Are the two, like, big power doers? But then I started eating everyone out, and now all of my characters have, like, a good they move set, except for Verso is shockingly my least favorite. Monaco is probably my second favorite.

[Dan]

Oh, I hated Monica Go. I. I never used.

[Mary]

Can't unlock anything.

[Dan]

Just the collecting legs thing and all that. Yeah, I never really messed with him. What I did first I Got verso to a good spot where it's like all of his base attack stuff. It'd be like, oh, you do a double attack and go again afterwards. But it was just.

[Lisa]

You gotta do the elemental hits, and then you gotta do the elemental damage and. And then with. With Myel, you got to do the void attack, and you got to get her in the. In the. What was the stance?

[Dan]

Virtuos.

[Lisa]

The virtuoso stance. Yeah, virtuo. I don't. I'm not French anyway.

[Mary]

But when I really do try to cram the French into you.

[Lisa]

Yeah. So I would have them in my party, and then I would have Monaco as, like, the third character, just to get the leveling up and then unlock all the skills. And then once you get enough skills, I think I'm only missing one skill. I'm like Monaco. That's all I gotta say.

[Dan]

Okay, with the wheel thing and everything, is that like.

[Lisa]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just make sure you got one skill in there for each part of the.

[Dan]

Wheel, so whatever it lands on, you can just. Yeah.

[Lisa]

And then you start to realize, like, oh, like. Like his big, like, elemental damage, if you have it on the right wheel, it does some. Does some good. But, yeah, I'm evened out with everyone now.

[Dan]

I like the CL a lot. Like, it. At first it seemed a little overwhelming with the foretel stuff and everything, but once you figured out. It's not that bad, though.

[Mary]

Once you figure it out. She's pretty powerful also. She does damage no one else does.

[Lisa]

All the girls are. They're like the badasses. Monica is more like a support character, but he has a lot of attacks that can attack all characters. So it's like, oh, you just find one elemental of each, and it's like, oh, this. This enemy. He don't like earth damage. So you just put, like, heavy earth damage on all enemies, and then there you go, like. So.

[Mary]

I couldn't agree more. This game is, like, truly, like. Like badass. Ladies. The game. Everybody in this game is just, like, so powerful and so important and so badass. As a girl, it's really cool to, like, go through these phases with them and watch them, like, do these incredible things together.

[Lisa]

And there isn't a har. There isn't a harem of women going after Verso. Verso's trying. And they're like, no.

[Mary]

Yeah. What's that? There's, like, a trope for that where. Yeah. In, like, anime, there's, like, a dude.

[Lisa]

With three girls, and it's like the Harem.

[Mary]

Harem. Yeah.

[Lisa]

And it's like. And that's like, I don't like Final Fantasy. I'm gonna be that person. He's like, not a Final fan. I did play.

[Mary]

No, you fit in really well here. Keep going.

[Lisa]

Listen, I just played Final Fantasy 6, and it was great. But then I realized it got to a point in the game where I thought I beat it, and I only went halfway through, and I said, this game. But I beat Chrono Trigger for the first time this year. And that does everything I love about JRPGs or turn base. Like, I don't have to grind. It's very easy to understand. Like, if my main party character dies, I can still use up my backup characters. Like, that's why I hate about Persona 5 or Persona is that if he dies, so does everyone else. Like, that's. But in, like, cla Obscure, it's like, if your party dies, you can use your backup party to try to save the day. So that's why I made sure everyone was even leveled. Yeah.

[Dan]

I'm curious. You mentioned Final Fantasy 6 and, like, growing up, I could not stand JRPGs. And as I got older, I wanted to, like, go back and, like, everyone talks like they're the best game ever. I've started Final Fantasy 6, like, three times, and every time, it's just slow as hell to start. I always bounce off really quick. But like, Chrono Trigger, I. I reviewed the DS version back when it came out, and I was like, oh, shit. This game's actually, like, I really liked Chrono Trigger. Trigger. What is it that. What am I missing about Final Fantasy 6? Or, like, what is the thing that, like, Chrono. You've played them recently. Like, what does Chrono Trigger do better than Final Fantasy 6? Chrono Trigger?

[Lisa]

It's like a passion project of, like, three incredible, like, game developers. And, like, Toriyama, too, is involved with it. And then Final Fantasy, like, people are gonna hate me for this. I never played Final Fantasy 7 growing up. I was a Nintendo person, so I missed out on a lot of PlayStation games games. So I played the remake as my first Final Fantasy. And I was like, this feels very corporate. Like, I was like, that was the word I came up with. And everyone's like, you understand? Like, this is the most amazing. They put so much. I'm like, this feels gross after a while, and it's so long. And I was like. And I don't really like Cloud and, like, Tifa's relationship with him. And, like, Aerith's relationship. I was like, I was not a fan of. I don't like cat boys that much either. Like, wait, you're a child. Like, I had to grow up from anime. I'm like, listen, you're a child's soldier. Why do you look like you work at Hollister? Like, I just.

[Dan]

Is Cloud a cat boy? What are the defining.

[Lisa]

He looks. He looks like a cat.

[Dan]

The face.

[Lisa]

Yeah. It's like every. Even the old people in Final Fantasy 7 look like male models. Babies, like, babies like, the old people. It's just like. They're just like Botox. You know what I mean?

[Dan]

Like, is like Goku a catboy?

[Lisa]

No, to me, the word twink is what I'm trying to say.

[Dan]

Wait, twink equals Catboy.

[Lisa]

Like, I love Claire obscure because, like, everyone is like, beat up and like, dirty.

[Mary]

Like, it's like obviously every animation after a fight, and it looks like they're about to die covered in blood.

[Lisa]

And like, my only exception is like, like, Leon from like, Resident Evil. Because Resident Evil's so goofy where he's like, I gotta go kill some zombies now, you know? But like, Final Fantasy, it's like Cloud is like, I'm just so traumatized that I can't be nice. Everyone. I'm like, okay, but you still put gel in your hair every morning for 30 minutes. Like, I'm not taking you seriously.

[Mary]

I'm traumatized.

[Lisa]

I'm just so traumatized. And he has like, eye patches on. Like, so it's like, it's a hard sell for me. Like, I loved Final Fantasy 16 because it wasn't turn based. And like, Clive was just like a dirty catboy, but he was like, hot and like, burly and like, beat up. But like, like, yeah, like, it was. It's just hard for me to get a Final Fantasy because I'm just like, you guys just all look like K pop stars.

[Dan]

Like, like, outside of 16, did the series, like, has. Have they gone outside of that, you think? Or is it all really.

[Lisa]

No, that's why I don't play anime style games. Like, I liked Persona 5. Like, that was the whole reason why I got a PS4 to begin with. But it's like I knew they were like, in high school and it's got way more of like an anime vibe to it, which I was okay with. But like, most of the the time it's like, I can't listen. I want my. I want Snake. I need my man to look like he smells like the dead rats in your apartment. You know what I Mean, like, yeah. Or your house.

[Dan]

Sorry, what you're saying.

[Mary]

I want them dirty, I want them filthy.

[Dan]

I feel the exact same way. Like that.

[Lisa]

I give. I give Looney, you know, the benefit of the doubt. She does have those la lip flip. They did give her that in the game. And I was like, listen, she's about to die in a year. She can look as hot as she wants. Okay?

[Mary]

Like, she got work done because this is her last.

[Lisa]

Every time I see her, I'm like, this big has work done. Okay.

[Mary]

I. She chose to serve. Yeah.

[Lisa]

I think it's cool. We gotta stop the gamache.

[Mary]

They do look good. I mean, I don't want them to look too fucked up. I just think they like clareb's gear. Like, rode the line between, like, let them be dirty, let them be disgusting. But they're all super cute. Like, they're all, like, cute little characters. And I think they did a good job making everybody fun to look at. Even ska is like, super fun to like.

[Lisa]

I love that. I want ski. I want to ski tattoo. I'm like, I love him.

[Mary]

Oh, I'm gonna get a tattoo of a rock and then we can just hang out together.

[Lisa]

Yeah. I just think Claire Obscure and also having, like, the ability to parry and dodge. I haven't dodged once in the game. I've just been pairing everything. I think having that ability, like, makes it more interactive because turn based. The reason why people hate is that every fight feels like a drag. But at least in Claire Obscure, it doesn't feel like that because it's just so interactive and because you have the option to actually block every attack, it's like, oh, it gives me something to do and a pattern to learn.

[Dan]

Because most Mario and Luigi games, like those RPGs, like the.

[Lisa]

The. Like the Super Mario RPG.

[Dan]

Yeah. Like the DS and GBA. Like Mario and Luigi ones.

[Lisa]

No, I mean, I have. I did play the Super Mario rpg.

[Dan]

Like that one. That one's great.

[Lisa]

But, like, from Super Nintendo, but not the Mario and Luigi ones.

[Dan]

No, those are so good. And even though I hated JRPGs growing up, those are the ones I like because of the same reasons you were just mentioning. Because they are giving you, like, kind of in the middle of battle, you're not just selecting something from a menu and watching something happen. It is very. Like, you can dodge stuff. You can make things do more damage and everything. Like. And they're funny as hell. Like, those Mario and Luigi games are incredible.

[Lisa]

Yeah, there is a much, much. There's a little bit of Humor in Claire. Obscure, but I don't care about it.

[Dan]

There's some. It picks its spots. It's mainly just, like, random, like, NPC interactions and stuff.

[Mary]

Yeah. French. French. The French aren't known for their comedy. I feel like they're like, everyone will die.

[Lisa]

And everyone's like, I make fun of it. But they do have mimes and they do have baguettes, so.

[Mary]

I hate that mime. I hate that mime. I hate that enemy. It's so hard to kill that mime.

[Dan]

I never killed a mime, and I never saw the.

[Lisa]

I learned the attack attacks. I learned the patterns.

[Dan]

It was the first enemy I ran into, and it just whipped my ass. Like, I feel like every time I saw mime, it would just, like, jump out from behind a tree. One shot me, and then I would avoid him the rest of the game. I never killed him.

[Mary]

Miserable. And even if you learn the attacks just to defend myself for a second, I did learn his attacks, and he is so hard to just take down.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Mary]

Because he put. The first thing he does is put up a shield. He puts up this, like, fake brick wall because that's what mimes do because they're so funny.

[Lisa]

And.

[Mary]

And everything I was doing did, like, 50 damage. As you guys know, everything in that game is, like a million health. So it just. It took 40 minutes for me to wear this mime down. I just hate them.

[Lisa]

Monaco gets a move where you can damage through shields, and it's a high in physical damage. It does six. Yeah. See? Aha. You got to be like me and just unlock everything and just study it and then be like, I'm still bad at the game.

[Mary]

That's why I don't like these types of games. But I. I do like Claire obscure. But, like, oh, these games are so exhaustingly, like, where it's like, well, you have to know that, like, you need to get her to burn them. And then that puts what's your face in virtuos mode. And then the guy has, like, a mark that, like, if he burns and he does, like, extra. It's like, that's so, like, read a book. Like, just let me hit them.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Also, I'll just show you what I got, because one time, like, I figured I was like. Like, that was nice about streaming. It is. I'd be like, I'm allowing some backseat gaming, and they'd be like, equip this move and this move and just use those. I'm like, what the. Like, I did the. The Stendall move of. Of My L. It's the toughest move in the game. It's like it just like one shots these chromatic enemies and I'm like what.

[Dan]

You put on the, the thing, the lumiere that makes it so you can go over 9,999.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Oh, that helps a lot.

[Lisa]

I don't think you can do. I don't think.

[Mary]

God. Yeah.

[Lisa]

You can't play the game without that.

[Dan]

That, that one's great.

[Lisa]

And then the.

[Mary]

You're obviously lovely and a really good gamer, but I also think that you know this game too much and I think you're kind of. You're a bit snotty about it.

[Lisa]

Well, here's the thing. I'm. I'm. I'm like there is a time like this year has been really rough as far as like I've been traveling so much ever since I moved to la it's been tough to like play a bunch of games. Like I wish I was up to date on game now that I do like more journalism stuff I do. But like I'll get locked into a game and I'll just, just like that is my goal is just I have to do everything in that game and then I ruin my life.

[Mary]

Presenting Claire Obscure is crazy.

[Lisa]

I'm getting there.

[Mary]

I can't believe it. I mean I'm very impressed by you and that's probably. I don't know if jealous. Deep down inside Mike and Mary, a.

[Dan]

New era of power has arrived with the Alienware Area 51 Gaming laptops intentionally engineered to push more power to the CPU and the GPU for maximum performance. This otherworldly power, paired with the game changing AI capabilities of Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs with DLSS4amplifies performance and image precision for ultra smooth stunning gameplay. And with the new cryo chamber design, Airflow is focused exactly where it's needed most. Fused with Alienware's enhanced thermal solutions, it creates a higher power output output without raising noise levels. This allows you to play with confidence even during the most demanding marathon gaming sessions.

[Mary]

So no matter what you're playing, Alienware ensures every game runs precisely as its developers intended. A new era of power is here. All you have to do is take it. Discover Area 51 [e-mail] but you're also very addicted to a couple games. Like obviously Claire Obscure takes a lot of hours, but I think one of the of the games that takes like the most hours is Elden Ring. And you've been telling me that you've been burning through Night Rain, which is psychotic as well. So tell me about your experiences through Elden Ring.

[Lisa]

I, I mean, like, I. Did you play Night Rain?

[Mary]

I am not a good enough gamer for Night Rain. I'm just going to admit that very openly and take a slice of humble pie.

[Lisa]

Listen, I kind of cheated with that because I, I love Elden Ring. But I started playing the game, I was like, I'm terrible at this. And then I got hired to do like a Night Rain, like sport casting thing. And it was like six Night Rain professionals. And I just watched what they did and I mimic it every time.

[Mary]

That's cool. That's actually a really cool story.

[Lisa]

Oh, they go here and then they go here. Because it's like, it's not. You're not playing it like Elden Ring, where you're like skilled at a specific build build. You're playing it like, like, kind of like Fortnite. Like you're like, we gotta get this thing because this, this enemy will give you this power. This enemy will use power. It's like you have 15 minutes until the first Night Lord. And so you're just rushing. But the problem is, is that I have to play with a lot of randoms because from software hasn't done cross platform yet, which is insane to have a multiplayer game. What are you, Nintendo? But it's just like, it's like, how are you gonna have, have this cross platform, this, this multiplayer game not be cross platform. So all my friends are playing on Steve and I'm playing on PS5. Right.

[Dan]

Are they adding that? Have they said they are?

[Lisa]

I don't know. But there's also no voice chat. So every time I play with Randos, it's like the Spider man meme where it's like, who's the leader? Who's leading us?

[Dan]

Like a moat.

[Lisa]

Yeah, yeah. And it. So it's like you just wait for someone to mark the first castle and then you're like, that person's the leader. But sometimes they take you places you don't want to go, go. And now I've gotten really good. The problem is, is like every run is just randomized. So it's like you may think like, okay, I just got to get like a good electric weapon or lightning weapon. I got to do fire weapon. You don't know exactly what weapons you're gonna get unless you have like a rune that tells you what treasures in what areas. But yeah, it's a lot. I mean, it's fun because it's like 45 minutes, like a basic multiplayer game, this 45 minute run and then it's like, cool. I got my souls fixed for the day and now I can move on with my life.

[Dan]

I just, I, I've been, I have not touched it yet. Despite Elden Ring being like one of my favorite games ever. And I think it's. And tell me if I'm way off base here because like the thing I love about Elden Ring is like I've never been that like Sekiro guy that can, you know, parry and I'm really good at these games. I'm not that guy at all.

[Lisa]

You don't parry at all in this game. It's impossible.

[Dan]

Oh, okay. Well, I mean I just to say that like I'm not good at problems. I like them, I respect them deeply. I. But like Elden Ring, the thing that I loved about it was the discovery aspects. It's the same way I liked Breath of the Wild where it's like I'm kind of plopped into this world and I just stumble into like, oh my God, Caleb, this is up. Or like I opened this treasure chest and I'm across the map and like that type of stuff. And seeing the breadth of the game, it's not the moment to moment combat because I'm not great at that, but I can cheese it. I can level up and stuff like that. Is this game not for me if that's what I like about Elden Ring.

[Lisa]

I think the discovery part of this game is the best part.

[Dan]

Oh, okay.

[Lisa]

Yeah. But it is all the same map. Map. You just have to find the right treasures and the right builds. And I, and I like that that it's kind of like just Elden Ring packed into this tiny thing. Everyone's at the same level when you start out and you're just like, okay, don't kill any little enemies. Go for the great bosses. Kill a great boss, you get the option of three different weapons or one like power up, grab that one, go to the next boss. And so it's really just like a mini boss rush. But the discovering part of like being like, oh, in this cave. Let's see what you can get out of here. Here, that's the cool part. And they do like Shifted Earth where it's like discover the secrets of the underground city. And so you run through. But it's definitely like you have. There's no time to parry and learn how to play the game. It's like you're just going in, you're just slashing and the Difficulty is, like, matched with your level, too. Like, the highest level you can get is 15, and you start at level one.

[Dan]

So is that a persistent thing, or do you start at level one every time?

[Lisa]

You start at level one every time. Like, you always start at the same level. So you just have to make sure you. You have a good team. Or you just have to be able to know where you want to go and where to go. And I like it. I don't know. It is weird. It's hard to explain because it's not like Elden Ring. It's not like a souls game where it's like, I'm gonna start off with my little katana and do a Dex build. It's like, no, you got six characters. Each one of them has a certain build. You just gotta choose one of these characters and stick with their, like, big art arts. Their character arts is the big thing. Wilder and his thing is he does, like, a big stagger attack, and then he can, like, grapple to an enemy that's too far away or bring him towards him. So it's a lot.

[Dan]

I need to try it. It's weird that there's, like, a new Elden Ring adjacent game and I haven't played it. Like, I gotta try it.

[Mary]

It is.

[Lisa]

I think it's worth checking out, but I definitely think you should play with people that, you know are playing. Playing with randoms is very hit or miss, and it's been a lot more miss lately than hits for me because I can tell when I'm in a run with someone, they just want to test out a new weapon or test out a new character, and they're not, like, following our path. And then I'm like, God damn it. Yeah. And then you can quit the game. And then, like, you might be in, you know, penalized for this. I'm like, why? What did I do? This guy sucks, you know, anyways. But that's.

[Dan]

I have to throw that on the pile of games we should play. If we ever.

[Mary]

Not me.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

I'll play with you guys. I'll. I'll download it for Steam.

[Mary]

I will disappoint you. I just, like. I know my limits. And I'll be gonna be like, this, too. Big, big of a boss. And I just like playing my little. I'm playing maze mice right now, you guys.

[Lisa]

She's like, I have been settled into comfort. Is what you're a comfortable person. Person.

[Mary]

I have a comfort. I do play, like, horror games. And, like, that will, like me up. But, like, I just don't like playing games that make me sad. Was it? Did your cats knock something over?

[Lisa]

No, that's me trying to grab a chip and I knock something over. You could have blamed my cats are right here.

[Mary]

Can you see that? Really could have. Yes, I can double trouble triple if you consider you grabbing chips and knocking over.

[Lisa]

Listen, I can't but I suck at other games. Like you're like you're good at video games. No, no, I'm good at the games that I'm willing to be good at. I'm terrible at most games. I'm also a bad liar. So among us did nothing for me.

[Dan]

It was funny like twice.

[Mary]

Yeah, I agree. I fell off. But it had its moment. Anyway. I like legitimately am playing a game called Maze Mice. It is a rogue light that is a little bit Vampire Survivors because it is an auto shooter so you don't have to attack. Right. Like every time you get a power.

[Lisa]

Vampire Survivors.

[Mary]

I think it has its. It's, it's interesting. It's. It's done in a very different way. And let me try and do my best to explain it but I do think if you like look it up, you can see a trailer that will help. But like you're in a pre selected maze. Right. Just like Pac Man. Okay. And I actually think this game has Pac man inspiration for sure. You need to collect these blue balls which are like how you level up and get. I know. I think I'm gonna put it on our game of the year list for best balls. Dan. And you have to like, you have to get these balls that you can level up your experience. That way you can get more stuff. But the balls are always by these sleeping cats. Now once you walk past a cat, the cats are going to chase you and they auto. Yes. And so you have to like do a path consistently. Here's the key part that I think I like about this game. Time only moves when you do. So if at any point in time. Yes, just like super hot. Super hot. Pac man and Vampire Survivors.

[Dan]

Okay.

[Mary]

Anytime I want to take a break, I just don't move. And time is still. I can pee or make a drink or have a think about stuff. And then when I move, everything moves too. But it doesn't mean that you're safe. You have to be like constantly thinking about your next move. Because the cats don't just follow you, they're sleeping cats. Before you get them block paths. So this is kind of like the designer of whoever made this is like you have to wake up these cats because they will block your path and then you will get blocked in also maze mice. As time progresses, there will be a secondary enemy that goes through walls and does not follow your path. It's like a ghost ghost and it just floats and can find you. And so you have to start thinking strategically of like how you get past the cats that follow you, the mice, or sorry, the ghosts that don't follow you.

[Lisa]

This would be really fun on mobile.

[Mary]

It's. I think it's very casual and fun. This is like a simple, casual, but addictive gameplay mechanic. The art to me leaves something to be desired. I wish they put a little bit more, more TLC into the. To the style of this game. Min Max even stopped by when I was streaming it and was like, what do you think about the art style? And I was like, no, I mean.

[Lisa]

It'S a smaller game.

[Mary]

Yes. It's not expensive. This is an indie ass. Indie game.

[Dan]

Good Steam deck game. Good flight game.

[Mary]

I, I think you could enjoy this on a flight, especially with your experience of liking both Vampire Survivors and Pac Man. You and I, I had a Pac man and flights. Dan loves a flight.

[Dan]

Oh yeah.

[Mary]

I, I think you get into this for a couple hours. Do I think that this is the game that you're going to come back and be like, Mary, oh my God, I'm so glad. No, I don't think so. But I think this would eat up a flight. Yes.

[Dan]

Okay.

[Lisa]

Hell yeah.

[Mary]

I'm like hot and cold with this game. I don't think it's bad or anything. I actually think it does. I think it does stuff mechanically that I wish Vampire Survivors did like. I think it plays with the map more. The fact that the sleeping cats actually prevent you from taking certain pathways is smart. I think it's like this is a developer ass developer game. You can tell the dude was like, mechanically, I want to evolve this genre, not just make another vampire survivors. And I respect that. But I just think, like, it's also ultimately a little simple. And so it did get repetitive. After three hours I was like, all right. I think I've seen this game, generally speaking, and I don't think it's like amazing to look at that. But that being said. Oh, it also has nice jazz music, which I like. So some, some jazzy tones as you were playing anyway.

[Lisa]

Some. Some squeaky curds playing. I'm never gonna end that. Sorry.

[Dan]

I'm gonna popularize this phrase. Yeah.

[Lisa]

Yep.

[Mary]

Squeaky curds was. Lighten it up.

[Lisa]

I was gonna say, speaking of Pac Man, I played Some Shadow Labyrinth.

[Dan]

What the is that game?

[Lisa]

Have you heard about it? Right?

[Dan]

I've heard about it, but it's like a Demon Pac man, but it's a Metroidvania.

[Lisa]

It's like Emo Pac Man. It's is. You watched the secret level episode, right?

[Dan]

No.

[Lisa]

Did you watch it, Mary?

[Mary]

What's a secret level?

[Lisa]

Do you never watch? Oh, okay. It's weird Amazon thing. Listen, I only watched all of them because I had to review them, but it was Amazon Prime's Love Death and Robots. Director made secret level. And it's like 15 minute, like, episodes.

[Mary]

Like don't tell Andy Jassy that I have not watched Amazon Prime.

[Lisa]

Amazon prime video secret level, which is like, they have, like, a Mega man episode, a Warhammer one. They had a Spelunky one.

[Dan]

It was a Concord one.

[Lisa]

Yeah, it was most random.

[Mary]

I Was it, like, 20 minutes long?

[Lisa]

They're like. Yeah, it was longer than the game's release is what it was. But they did a secret. They did a Pac man one, and it was, like, horrifying. It was like this, like, guy wakes up in, like, this prison. He's, like, eating all these monsters. You can tell he's, like, getting sick from it. And then Puck, like, this giant yellow ball was like, you gotta eat or be eaten. You know, he didn't have a Brooklyn accent, but he was just like, you got. Hey, you got eat or beaten, you know?

[Mary]

But, like, at the end, he, like.

[Lisa]

Turns his horrified, get out of the bed.

[Mary]

We gotta go beaten.

[Lisa]

And then everyone was like, what the was that? And then they found out they made a game out of it.

[Dan]

Is it good?

[Lisa]

It is. Is interesting for sure.

[Mary]

Not an answer. It is not bad.

[Lisa]

It's not bad.

[Mary]

Give me. Give me a number out of 10.

[Lisa]

Depends on how you read the number ratings. A 6.5.

[Dan]

Good.

[Lisa]

7.

[Mary]

Skirt around it, I will say, because.

[Lisa]

It'S like a Metroidvania, which I'm like, okay, that's pretty smart to make a Metroidvania Pac man game. And, like, you can turn into Pac man and, like, go along the walls and, like, jump and jump to, like, discover new areas. But, like, there's mechs. There's, like, cute anime girls. There's, like, monster. It's like the ghosts are called G hosts, and they're like giant Gundam with, like, gooey heads. And, like, the. There's, like, hot anime girls and you have to discover their secrets. And, like, Puck is like, you're. It's the. What the. They went off the wall and they Were like. And they're so like, yeah, we did. We're proud of this weird unhinged thing. And I was like, you know what? Good for you guys. I respect it.

[Mary]

Is unhinged. What? What? What doesn't do it for you?

[Lisa]

I think it's the art style, really. Because Metroidvania wise, it's very basic. It's very easy to figure out, but, like, I feel like it's almost, like, too funko poppy. Like, where it's like, they almost nailed it, but in, like, it's not a cool character design. They have, like, a bunch of, like, other bandai, like, arcade references in there. They got, like, Doug reference. It's like an MCU type thing, but it's just a little too, like, if you're gonna go full spooky, full Metroid dread on me, like, go full spooky. Don't, like, add in hot anime girls.

[Mary]

And, like, it's like it doesn't know what it is. There's like.

[Lisa]

It's just like. They were like. They went all edge. It's like full edge.

[Dan]

Lord, I should say it sounds to me like Bomberman act zero when they suddenly.

[Lisa]

It's almost like Pac man himself is gonna say a Slurpee halfway through the game. Like, that's the kind of vibe I got from it.

[Dan]

Is Puck ever addressed as Pac Man? Do they say Pac man in the game at any point?

[Lisa]

I didn't play long enough to find out. But Puck is technically Pac man and yellow.

[Mary]

He's got the thing, like, cigarette half out of his mouth.

[Lisa]

He's more like a.

[Mary]

He's more like a. These balls are every.

[Lisa]

The game would be way cooler if he was like an old cook from, like, Brooklyn, but instead he's like a.

[Dan]

Redditor, but also Pac Man.

[Lisa]

Yeah, but the combat, like, if you like Metroidvania, like, if you like basic Metroidvania. That's.

[Mary]

I do.

[Lisa]

I'm still trying to wrap my head.

[Dan]

Around the Pac man part of this. This seems so nebulous.

[Mary]

I know. And isn't Metroid Pac man also. Because it's also ball form, I guess. Yeah.

[Lisa]

So instead of the spider ball, you turn into Pac man and does the walka walk a sound. So that's the one I like. I was like, oh, you can.

[Mary]

Like, he makes the walker.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Yeah. Can you turn into Pac man at any point or is it just specific?

[Lisa]

Yeah, you. On certain lines or whatever, you can turn to Pac man and collect the dots. And the dots help you, like, level up your sword. Blah, blah, blah. And then during, like, boss fights, you just sword fight them. It's very, like, Hollow Knight. And then when you kill them, Puck turns in this, like, giant grotesque creature and, like, eats it. And it's like, you gotta eat to figure out the secrets of this tunnel and the hot anime girls. And I'm like, okay, fine, fine. Whatever you say, Mr. Pac Man.

[Dan]

I think 10 minutes ago, I was somewhat curious about what this game is, and I think after hearing more about it, I think I'm less interested in checking.

[Lisa]

You should definitely watch, like, gameplay of it. Like, it's it.

[Mary]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

If you like basic Metroidvania, it might hit the spot, but I feel like it's just a little too edgy for me.

[Dan]

Yeah, there's a lot of really good Metroidvanias that don't do.

[Lisa]

If it wasn't Pac Man, I think it'd be fine. But the fact that is Pac man is, like, like.

[Dan]

Weird choice to make it. Pac man adjacent.

[Mary]

Very strange. It does get us talking about it, though.

[Lisa]

Yeah. I mean, like, people are like, what the. Did they do the Pacman? Like, to be fair, there is no story to Pac Man. Like, you're so you got married, they had kids. Yeah, but it's like, I always thought it was Ms. Pac Man. Like, it's actually Mrs. Pac Man. Like, she's divorced in my head. Okay.

[Dan]

Oh, sure.

[Lisa]

Oh, or Mr. Pac man and Ms. Pacman could be the same thing. You never know. Ms. Pacman could be the drag Pac Man. You never know.

[Dan]

I would play drag Pac Man.

[Lisa]

That's why they have, like, a bow tie and a In the lip duct. This is drag makeup, you know?

[Mary]

Right. That does help me. Like, because it's not just Disney fied. It's not like we slapped some eyelashes on her. Now you're a girl. It's like, there's, like, an actual concept behind it of a dude who's just had enough ball balls and haven't we all?

[Lisa]

The secret level episode, I think is worth watching. I actually liked it. And then they're like, oh, they actually made a game out of this. Oh, okay, never mind. It's like, oh, you were serious type situation.

[Mary]

It's pretty neat, though.

[Lisa]

But.

[Mary]

Yeah, maybe not. It's a hard sell. But I, like, think, like, generally speaking, there's probably, like, some interest in there. I genuinely do love a Metroid.

[Lisa]

So, like, like, listen, it. It was. It was ch. I checked it out just to check it out and was like, all right. I played a few hours, got through a few Bosses. It's fun, but it this. It has to have some kind of cool level design or artwork or character design for me to really catch on. And it does not like Hollow Knight was so simple. How is the Pac man team not following something like that?

[Mary]

Everybody else has copied Hollow Knight to death because such a genius piece of art. Art. Dan, you've been playing Donkey Kong Bonanza. How's that for a transition? Mike Maharti.

[Dan]

It is just. It's one of those games where I feel like a bunch of people were in a room and they put a picture of me on the wall and they said make a game for that guy. And every thing this game does is just lighting up my brain, making me happy. It is the most like in terms of time to fun. It is the fastest I maybe ever seen because you get a 5 or 10 second cutscene just showing like, here's ingot aisle. And then it's like you're Donkey Kong. And there's no. It doesn't pause for tutorial stuff. It doesn't explain anything.

[Lisa]

You're just beating the out of stuff.

[Dan]

Yeah. Four, three out of the four face buttons are just for things up. So it is just, you know, things up forward, things up up, things up down, and then jump, which. That's like the ideal face button assortment for me. And you can just dig through. I would say like 90% of the environment. Like they will occasionally gate things with like, here's a steel wall or something like that that you have to figure out your way around. But everything can be climbed and not like Stamina Meter, which look, I love Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, like my favorite games ever. It makes sense why they would have stamina. But if you're Donkey Kong, just this big dumb idiot. The idea of being able to infinitely climb up every wall and destroy every piece of the environment and chuck enemies. Chuck things at enemies. Turn into a zebra. Turn it like. It's just. It is complete controlled chaos. Like I am jamming on the face buttons in a way that I have not done in games in a long time, where I am just leveling these areas. And at any point you could up an area so much that it's like broken. You can't get from point A to point B. And you can always reset the terrain, which is kind of an insane thing on the tech side. It is. It's got so much personality. It's got a lot of Mario Odyssey DNA. Like especially like in the boss fights, things like that. A lot of stuff like the, the Fonts. Just that idea of like in, in Mario Odyssey where everywhere you walked there was something and it's like, hey, what's that thing? That's weird. Oh, that's a moon. Okay. That's a challenge for a moon. Same way here where it's like whether you're digging through a thing or helping a weird blue crystal with eyes. Find his children. Children. Like there's just everywhere you look and I, I have not been bored for a second. I'm probably like 10 hours into this game, I have hundreds of bananas and I'm going to be sad when this game is over.

[Lisa]

It is so, so jealous that everyone got a switch too.

[Dan]

Oh, it is. Do you like Lisa, are you into like Breath of Wild?

[Lisa]

Oh my. I'm. Yeah, I was a Nintendo fan. Have every Nintendo console ever made.

[Dan]

So you know how like Breath of Wild, like you know, you, you get past that tutorial area and it's just like kill game Ganon. Yeah is the thing. And like I love that open endedness of just like figure it out. I don't know. Kill Ganon. Like it basically does that with Donkey Kong where you get past the very early tutorial level and it's just like get more bananas. That's the whole fucking goal. Makes a lot of fucking bananas.

[Mary]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

Did you get a switch too?

[Mary]

I do have a switch too, but I haven't played this game yet. And I actually saw some like negative reviews which I'm confused by who just.

[Lisa]

Donkey Kong wasn't hot enough. That's what they all say.

[Mary]

I will not dox the people who disliked this game. But I, I think I actually like got a negative original perception and you are completely changing my mind on it.

[Dan]

Well, so I'm curious, what did you hear as the negative thing?

[Mary]

I heard some people just say it's like crazy repetitive where it's essentially like you hit everything. You basically just smash everything.

[Lisa]

It's like Louise Mansion.

[Mary]

I mean I think that's like a fair defense though, which is like some people like that. I, I also heard like maybe that it just doesn't evolve. Like you don't actually ever. Like it doesn't expand.

[Dan]

No, it does, it does. And it's not a one trick pony. Like obviously the main mechanic is just like beating through mountains and like that and destroying the environment. But like 10 hours in or wherever I am, I, you know, you get a zebra power where it's like, okay, I'm in this creamery, I'm in this like ice cream cream factory. And it makes these Ice bridges. And if Donkey Kong tries to run across them, he just falls through. But if you can unlock the Zebra Bonanza skill, you can turn into Zebra Kong and he can run really fast and fast enough to where he can run over water. He can run over, you know, the ice cream bridge or whatever. So like, and there, I can tell there, there's a skill tree. Donkey Kong has a skill tree. He never has that. And so you can choose which Bonanza form you want to take for each. And I. I have two out of what looks like four or five. And I think it's going to be those things where it's situational, where it's like, okay, you got to run fast, be a zebra. You need to beat the. Out of some stuff. Be this bonanza gorilla thing. So I. I didn't get to play a ton because I was in Wisconsin this weekend. But like, so I'm fairly early. There is clearly going to be a lot of stuff that it's going to introduce. I've heard some frustrations about like, later levels and things like that. So can't speak to the whole game. But. But everything I've played so far, I have not been bored for a nanosecond playing it. I've just been smiling and having a great time.

[Lisa]

I've been. I played like an hour of it at like a Nintendo event and I just stayed in the first area and they're like, you should move on. The next area was like, I can't stop punching things. I'm stuck here.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

If this whole game was this one level, it'd be my favorite game.

[Mary]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Yeah, I. I would play it until I destroy every part of this level. And I.

[Lisa]

My OCD in me was like, I must get everything.

[Mary]

Yeah, I feel like on a Switch too. It's going to be really fun to just play that. Like, play a couple, like, fun levels where you just smash stuff in between, like work or flight or whatever has you. So it just seems like it probably lends itself really well to the person on the go.

[Dan]

Yeah. And I've heard like some complaints about, like, frame rate drops and stuff like that. Anyone who's complaining about that is just a dumb, weird baby because it is doing incredible shit with like. Like the Switch 2 is in the most powerful hardware in the world. The frame look, I love a good frame rate. It doesn't. It drops very briefly sometimes when it goes into a cut scene or something like that.

[Lisa]

So who cares?

[Mary]

It's a dumb weird baby.

[Dan]

Being a dumb weird baby.

[Lisa]

You're not watching a movie. You're playing Donkey Kong.

[Dan]

Yes. And you are doing incredibly leveling entire areas of this map. And it performs very well. So I, I love this game. I'll report back once I've beaten it and things like that. I can't imagine all of a sudden. Certainly not like this thing I've loved every second of. But this is the killer app of the Switch 2. I love Mario Kart World, but this is. This is the one for this year.

[Lisa]

It's also setting up success for a better Mario game coming out at some point.

[Dan]

God, if they do like the Bowser's Fury style, like.

[Lisa]

Oh, I think that's one thing I love about Nintendo is like every game they play, like every franchise game, the next one you're like, they added this thing. Oh, that means this game's gonna be off. Awesome. Oh, they did this thing to this game. Oh, this next game's gonna be awesome.

[Dan]

Yep.

[Lisa]

I need to get one. I need mine.

[Mary]

I gotta get one.

[Dan]

It's good.

[Lisa]

I know. I'm scared of my, my wallet and my mental health. If I, I'm like, I gotta like, do stuff and like go places. Oh, you can bring your switch too. I know I can. And you don't tell me that. I got a 10 hour flight in three weeks. Can I get a switch? Two by three.

[Dan]

Then you have to get it before then. For a European flight, you have to get done before that.

[Lisa]

Let's do at least.

[Mary]

You'll never survive without your Switch 2. Get on that international flight.

[Dan]

You'll be so happy during that credit card.

[Lisa]

I'm. I'm planning to pull an all nighter on that flight too. So maybe I should get one. Are they easy to get now?

[Dan]

Switch shoes. Warrior 64. If you follow him, like, he'll post like, oh, best buys. Got him. Targets. Got them. Or whatever. Like, they're not that hard to get now.

[Lisa]

Yeah, they're not like PS5s when they came out. No one can get one for like three years.

[Dan]

No, no. You could probably calm down.

[Lisa]

Okay. Do it before your flight. Okay, let's do the. Listen, London's gonna be expensive, but I guess I'll just spend my London money on a switch too.

[Dan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Lisa]

There you go. Perfect.

[Mary]

Yeah, yeah. I played a. These are like quick ones. I played Uma Musum, the Pretty Derby. I think you played that, Dan. I played Horse Girl. I didn't play it for very long. I actually quit. This is like my. This was my kryptonite. It just doesn't work. For me.

[Lisa]

Is it just a meme game?

[Dan]

It seems like. It seems like a meme game or a, like, pervert game.

[Mary]

People tan. I do think it has deep gaming built into it and people play a lot of hours into it. And like, especially some people who are.

[Dan]

Too into this game.

[Mary]

Well, there's like, deep gameplay of like, actually growing these.

[Lisa]

Would you call them Bronies?

[Mary]

Brony. Those. Aren't those the people who are into My Little Pony?

[Lisa]

Yeah. Are this, like, Is this We Brony? Is this anime Brony?

[Mary]

We Bronies? You're, like, growing their skill sets. You're training them, you're educating them. You're making sure there's something uncomfortable about.

[Lisa]

Training girls horse race that I just can't get past.

[Dan]

Right.

[Lisa]

I'm not. I hate anime games.

[Mary]

Strong position.

[Dan]

I'm with you, Mary. You need to rethink your life.

[Mary]

I like the occasional anime experience, and I love anime in general. But like, this game to me is just so obscure and it's really tough. And then after you, like, beat a race, they actually do like a little dance. Like, they actually do like a K pop pop style item dance. Yes. And that one no. And you get to choose their little outfit.

[Dan]

This isn't in their hair.

[Mary]

So I can be like, I want you to have, like, red hair and pigtails and I want her to have like a short bob. And you're all going to wear the same cute little dress. And then I was like, I don't know. Like, this isn't probably what I want out of my video game. And so I quit.

[Dan]

I mean, I guess I'm like, dressing up Donkey Kong.

[Lisa]

I also think. Think it's. Oh, sorry.

[Dan]

Well, yeah, like, the dressing up stuff. Like, I guess I'm dressing up Donkey Kong, but his. His pants have abilities like his swimming britches help me swim.

[Lisa]

But Donkey Kong's hot. Okay. I'm more attracted to Donkey Kong than a horse racing anime girl.

[Mary]

All right, I'm gonna back out of this whole thing. You had me for a second being like, oh, I think these anime girls might be for, like, little weirdos. And I was like, that's unfair. But, like, I can also.

[Lisa]

Man with a job.

[Mary]

Donkey Kong Lisa. That's weird.

[Lisa]

Girls are definitely high schoolers or junior high. Donkey Kong is a family man. He is a. He is a taxes.

[Dan]

He's probably never been married or had kids.

[Lisa]

He's still a family man. He's very close with his. His brothers. He's very close brothers. Ah, Diddy Kong and all that.

[Dan]

I think Diddy's a nephew, and I think Cranky's a girl, so.

[Lisa]

See, he's a family man. In fact, he's so family, he's close with his nephew.

[Mary]

You're both perverted.

[Lisa]

Donkey Kong is of age, okay?

[Dan]

Oh, that's.

[Lisa]

This isn't about consent.

[Mary]

This is not. That is also.

[Lisa]

They did not have to give Donkey Kong a juicy ass if they didn't want me to thirst over it.

[Mary]

Okay, you can't just say that because he's caked up, you're allowed to bang. That's just not how it works.

[Lisa]

I mean, I would ask.

[Mary]

Stop bringing up consent. I appreciate your consent, Queen, but that's not why I. That's not the problem. I have.

[Dan]

Do we have confirmation that Donkey Kong knows English? Could you. Could he answer consent?

[Lisa]

You know, I'm googling. How old is Donkey Kong actually?

[Dan]

They say, oh, banana.

[Lisa]

Yeah, he's 44 years old.

[Dan]

24.

[Mary]

Say oh, banana.

[Dan]

He's 24.

[Lisa]

He's 44.

[Dan]

44 that I'm younger than Donkey Kong. Hell yeah.

[Lisa]

Wait, no, I think this is AI telling me the games are 44 years old. No, they're not.

[Mary]

That's on, right?

[Dan]

One that might be close to right.

[Lisa]

He's 28 years old in human years. I'm saying 40. I'm seeing consent consensual.

[Dan]

Donkey Kong is three years for sure.

[Lisa]

The USO Mume girls, they're 12, okay? And if they are like 500 year old vampires, they're still 12 year old girls. Okay?

[Dan]

I'm in agreement.

[Lisa]

Wow. Everyone get mad at Lisa because she thinks Donkey Kong's hot. Okay? I'm not.

[Mary]

I'm not mad bad. I'm concerned. I think you guys both know too much about Donkey Kong. I think that there's just a lot of descriptors going on about his butt cheeks. And I just think we should take a chill pill for a second and really think about what we're doing here as a podcast.

[Dan]

Donkey Kong is an adult.

[Lisa]

I'm gonna get in trouble from this podcast. They're like, we can't hire you because you want to fuck Donkey Kong. I'm sorry.

[Mary]

And then you won't be able to buy a switch too, which means you won't be able to goon Donkey Kong.

[Lisa]

You've seen the meme of him with the butt where he's like, no.

[Dan]

Is that from the TV show? I have seen too much of that.

[Lisa]

His cheeks are just sitting on there.

[Mary]

I have seen do that. You know, it's funny, you know, like, we just have different vibes when it comes to big fat cheeks.

[Lisa]

Lisa.

[Mary]

What?

[Lisa]

What? Big fat cheeks and video games. Do you want to. There you go.

[Mary]

I like them flat as a board. Lisa.

[Lisa]

You gotta come back with something. Okay.

[Mary]

Well, you're known for liking juicy butts. You have a. An emote on Twitch. That's Snake with a big fat butt.

[Lisa]

Oh, yeah. Oh, Snake. What a dream. Like Snake and like Mel, you're solid in yakuza games. Thank you. Give me a man with acne scars and like an aftershave. Like I. That's. That's. That's. That's what I want, you know?

[Dan]

Does Snake have an ass?

[Lisa]

Of course he does. Have you not? Come on, Metal, your Solid four, when he's doing the worm, that's all you see from.

[Dan]

Wait, when he's in the microwave hallway.

[Lisa]

All you see is Snake's ass the entire game.

[Dan]

I. I really don't think I've spent a lot of time noticing snakes ass.

[Lisa]

That's how we know you're a straight man. Okay, good.

[Mary]

Congratulations, Dan. You've passed the test. You're straight as an arrow.

[Dan]

Oh, wow.

[Mary]

Yay.

[Lisa]

You've seen David Hayter. He has cameo and he's like been doing the memes and he's like, oh, the. The clap of my ass cheeks is alerting the guards.

[Dan]

So is it just middle years like old man Snake doing the crawl thing is that when you notice the butt.

[Lisa]

I mean, it's pretty. I mean, I played the game two years ago and it's like what you notice most of the game. It's like, I can't take this game seriously because I just see his little lumps on the ground just like, wrong. While there's like war happening everywhere. It's.

[Mary]

You guys had such a different an.

[Lisa]

Experience playing this game. Didn't you notice, like, there was a huge thing in Fortnite when they put Snake in there that they like d. Asked him. They gave him like the flat for. Yeah. And. And like, I mean, look at his super. Look at that Snake ass right there.

[Dan]

Is that Smash Brothers Snake?

[Lisa]

They caked him up, man. He's caked up and most of them.

[Mary]

Maybe I should. Maybe I should play Metal Gear.

[Dan]

You should Mary you. You. I would love to hear your thoughts on Metal Gifts. Metal Gear.

[Mary]

I just kind of want to review that fat cake. That's crazy.

[Dan]

It is weird because, like, you're talking about Metal Gear Solid four, Lisa. And he's doing the crawl thing, but like, he's like an old ass man in that. But he's like, oh, that whole game is just like, ripped old dudes.

[Lisa]

Yeah, you should absolutely play Metal Gear Solid. It's just ripped old dudes that are very vulnerable. They're taped up.

[Mary]

I'm listening thing.

[Dan]

Beating the. Out of each other on top of a submarine.

[Lisa]

They all. They all smell bad, but, like, in a sexy way. Like, that's the west way of explaining it.

[Mary]

Mary, I'm listening.

[Dan]

You have not played. Have you played a metal here?

[Mary]

Not a one.

[Dan]

Oh, God.

[Lisa]

It's okay. I was late to the game. They're so good.

[Dan]

Lisa, so your history here, you were telling me before we recorded fairly recently. You went through them all right?

[Lisa]

Yeah, like, within the last four, three years.

[Dan]

Generally, big thumbs up or.

[Lisa]

Oh, my God. They hold up. Even the, you know, PS1, PS2 graphics, they still hold up because they're so silly. And they're not, you know, they're stealth games. So I'm not. I don't usually play stealth games, so to get used to that. But it was just like, you know, the stupid things where it's like, give yourself a massage and you have to, like, shake the controller. I'm like, what is this warrior wear shit that's going on?

[Dan]

Hold the dual shock up to your arm. Yeah.

[Lisa]

I had a bar borrow someone's PS3 so I could play three and four. But like, I remember in like, Metal Gear Solid 2, when you're fighting God, who is the guy where it's like, he hacks your game.

[Dan]

Psychoana.

[Lisa]

Behind me. Thank you. Yeah. Where it's like you're trying to figure out a kill him and you have to like, switch your controller to a different port. And I was like, because he hacks your game. It's. There's so much silly things in there that are like breaking the fourth wall that are like, oh, and. And also, like, I don't care about the story as much. Everyone's like, oh, the lore. I'm like, I don't care about the lore.

[Dan]

I'm a lower Dirk with it.

[Lisa]

Yeah, I. I've had to watch so many videos and I'm like, this is like Dark Souls. I just don't understand it, but I still enjoy it. You would love them. And they're great reaction games. I think, like, I had the most viewership I had playing Metal Gear Solids.

[Dan]

Yeah, it is Metal Year. Fans love seeing people experience it for the first time. I. I did that with Drew Scan Giant Bomb back in the day. I did. My sister played through them all, like, a year or two ago. And like, it is just so fun because there's so much nonsense, but like the best kind of nonsense that happens where it's like, yeah, I gotta see how my sister reacts to the end of metal gear solid 2. And that whole AI kernel stuff and everything. And the fight with the end, it's just you. You can't predict where it's going next from a gameplay sense, from a story sense. The timeline of that game is insane. Lane. It's. I think it is my favorite game to watch people experience for sure.

[Lisa]

Yeah. And they. And I. It makes me get FOMO that I wasn't like into them when they came out because of the way they marketed the games too. Like, that was a big part of like, like metal gear solid 2. They didn't say Snake was in the game you play as write in and everyone was mad about that. But Snake is actually in the game. His name's Iroquois, which means snake in like some Native American language or something.

[Dan]

Plissken. And Plissken was Snake from Escape from New York.

[Lisa]

Yeah. And I'm just like, this is so dumb. Like he's just some guy, but looks just like Snake. And he's voiced by David Hayter.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

And then I love five. Five was just like best gameplay wise.

[Dan]

That's the thing. Five is weird because it's like I love the lore and so five is like definitely the best gameplay wise, but the weakest story wise. So it's like I. I kind of rate it the lowest of the Metal Years for me, even though I enjoyed playing it the most.

[Lisa]

Mary, you play them. If you play them. I will. I will watch all of that.

[Dan]

Oh well, we did it on the Giant Bomb with Drew Scanlon.

[Lisa]

Pay attention to you.

[Mary]

I will watch all that. Yeah. Dan played through them with Metal Gear Scanlon and basically played them with my. My co worker Drew. And they're. They're pretty funny. I've seen some of it, but I've been. I've been. I haven't watched all of them because it's spoilers too if I ever want to play through it. But.

[Lisa]

Yeah, yeah, you're not going to remember the story anyways.

[Mary]

I heard it's maddening.

[Dan]

It took me years to kind of like figure out what was happening in the story. But like, you know, Lisa, to what you said, like, I was very much like I was a 14 year old boy when the first one came out, the first Metal year solid, which I cannot imagine a better age to be for that.

[Lisa]

And now you're a 15 year old boy.

[Dan]

That's right. Emotionally, yeah. But the second one with like all the previews and everything being all Snake, you didn't know about the ride and stuff. I was working at a Funko Land, which became Gamespot later.

[Lisa]

Wow, what a throwback.

[Dan]

Yes, yes. And I had not been spoiled at all. And like, metal gear solid 2 was the most excited I've ever been for a game. And my manager Kevin at Funko Land, we got the strategy guides in before we got the game in. And he was like looking through it and he was like, huh? I don't think you play a snake in this game. I was like, what are you talking. I'm not gonna fall for this. What the are you talking about, Kevin? He's like, no, you're some blonde guy. Guy. Like, I've seen the trailers. I've been following this obsessively. It's metal gear solid 2. You're Snake and just showed me the strategy guide. And every screenshot was this blonde guy. And I was like, what the is this? And so it was kind of spoiled for me. I still love that twist. But I definitely, you know, Kevin forever for that.

[Lisa]

But I. I mean, that was the whole reason why I started playing Destreaning because I was like, like after that I was like, well, since Kojima left Konami, I gotta see how Death Stranding is like. And it had a little bit of Metal Gear elements in it. Like when you did like the fights against Clifford or whatever his name is, does the thing. It's a thing that I did you play through Death Stranding? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It does a thing that I do not like with Metal Gear where it's like this whole cutscene could have been an email mail.

[Dan]

That's very K.O. yeah.

[Lisa]

Like the whole last two hours of the game I was crying out of hysteria because I'm like, can I go to bed now? And it was just like, sorry, 45 more minutes for this whole scene that we explained seven hours earlier. But now you get to see it from a new perspective. And it's like I. I don't defend.

[Dan]

That with destroying one one. Like I generally am just such a mark for Kojima that like in the middle your stuff. Yeah, give me a two hour cutscene. Because it's like I'm really care about every piece of information. Death Stranding is so just abstract. Da da. Just out there where it's like, I. I don't love those long ass cutscenes as much. I will say Death Stranding 2 does a better job with that. Like the. The last few hours of two have some long ass cutscenes, but they are much better than the ones in one.

[Lisa]

I have a. I don't know if you guys feel the same way about this as I do. My problem with games like Death Stranding and a lot of modern games, when they use real actors as like Mo Cap with their faces and everything, I can't get into the story or like the. The characters as much emotionally because I associate them with the actors. Like, Snake is his own character, his own design. So it's like, okay, this is Snake. Snake. This is a character how I want to be. And then I'm like, here's Norman Reedus. Like, it feels like I'm watching a movie rather than sucking myself into the game, getting sucked into the game.

[Dan]

Yeah, I. I kind of agree with that because like in Metal Gear I always loved like, you know, Kojima's always used that Yoji Shinkawa art. And it's like always these like unique characters for Metal Gear. Yeah. That are not based on the. Okay, this is a guy's clearly kind of Kurt Russell ish or whatever. But like a snake is his own guy versus the Shinkawa art for destroying is like, well, that's just Shinkawa drawing. Norman Reedus, which still looks really cool, but I see Norman Reedus, you know, I see Troy Baker, Leia Sedue. Like, very cool. But I. I do prefer them. Like, I love Death Stranding. I very much prefer Metal Gear Solid.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Is Destiny. I do have a question. Is desk training 2 more Metal Gear Solid 5 gameplay or is it still very heavy in the stranding?

[Dan]

The actual, like connecting the roads and delivering stuff is still like that stranding. The going up to the enemy bases and combat stuff is way more Phantom Pain.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Not all the way, but it's like for someone who sucks itself like me, you can kind of just go in with like. Because all the guns for most of the game are like tranq guns. You can go with that.

[Lisa]

Oh, I just ran everyone over.

[Dan]

Yeah, you can do that. Like. Like you don't have to worry about void outs or anything unless it's very specific circumstances. Circumstances later. But like, it's way more Phantom Pain. So I think that's part of why I love two a lot more than I liked one.

[Lisa]

Okay. That maybe I'll play it.

[Dan]

It's very good, Maryland.

[Lisa]

Maybe I'll convince Mary to let me play peak with her.

[Mary]

I will do peak and then I will have to be convinced. For everything else you guys just discussed.

[Lisa]

I really think you would love Metal Gear Salt. I think it's a game everyone should play.

[Dan]

At least one is like the most important series. No Mario, but it's my favorite.

[Lisa]

Pretty high up there.

[Dan]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Lisa]

If you're in Super Smash Brothers, you were in some sort of important game.

[Dan]

I think the most important thing though is it was the first thing that like, made games cinematic. You know, games had cut scenes, game had voice acting, voice acting, things like that, but nothing was even remotely first caked up protagonists. Exactly.

[Lisa]

For sure.

[Mary]

I respect that.

[Lisa]

Yeah, a lot. They really did. They really did the cake good. You know, even the PS1 cake, it was like Laura cross titties on his butt.

[Mary]

Tony and everything.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mary]

You little freaks. You guys want to read some emails?

[Dan]

Sure.

[Lisa]

Hell yeah.

[Dan]

Mike and Mary. A new era of power has arrived with the Alienware Area 51 Gaming laptops intentionally engineered to push more power to the CPU and the GPU for max maximum performance. This otherworldly power, paired with the game changing AI capabilities of Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs with DLSS4amplifies performance and image precision for ultra smooth, stunning gameplay. And with the new cryo chamber design, airflow is focused exactly where it's needed most. Fused with Alienware's enhanced thermal solutions, it creates a higher power output without raising noise levels. This allows you to play with confidence, even during the most demanding marathon gaming sessions.

[Mary]

So no matter what you're playing, Alienware ensures every game runs precisely as its developers intended. A new era of power is here. All you have to do is take it. Discover Area 51 [e-mail] all right, welcome back. I know that we talked about. About Snake Plissken's butt. Is that what his name is? For, like a really long time.

[Dan]

Snake Plisskin's the Kurt Russell. This is just solid.

[Mary]

Which one came first? Is this a chicken and egg situation?

[Dan]

No, no, no. John Carpenter one came first.

[Lisa]

Definitely based off of Kurt Russell.

[Dan]

Yes.

[Mary]

That's crazy. He just stole a character.

[Dan]

Oh, yeah. 100.

[Lisa]

Oh, yeah, it's Kojima.

[Dan]

Yeah. I mean, Sean Connery was big boss and like the first one. Yeah.

[Mary]

Oh, that's crazy. Cool. Well, that was a long convo about butts, but I'm glad that we were all back. Don't forget, y', all, we're gonna go through some emails. We love when you send us emails because we get to hear a little bit about you and your lives. And we can also answer some of your burning questions. Dan, do you want to read the first Email from Nathan.

[Dan]

Yes, a fire escape. If you taught a class about video games and could only feature five games, games, which ones would they be? Would you focus on the history of games and choose the most important titles like Mario 64, Portal, Tetris, or would you choose games that you love that are more modern, like Blueprints, Breath of the Wild and Balatro. Thanks y'. All. That's from Nathan.

[Mary]

That's a really good question. And it like probably requires a little bit more research. It also depends on like what. It depends on the goal. Right? Because if this goal is like, I could teach this class for years and never get bored. Board, it would probably be games. What games do you think we could talk about forever and not get tired? Would it be Metal Gear for you? Because you can talk about it year after year after year, like, what's your goal as a professor?

[Dan]

I think it's ones that you can point to, like, okay, after this game things were different and I do think middle, you're solid. What I was saying before about like the cinematic storytelling stuff or whatever, but like, I think Mario 64 is one of those where it's like, okay, this is one of the first big swings at 3D be gaming, not just platforming. You know, it was like 1996. We had not really done this much before, had a user controlled camera, things like that, the idea of a hub world and like it did a million different things that they didn't have before in games. So yeah, Mario 64, I think, you know, they mentioned Tetris as well. I think if you're going to talk about just like pure distilled gaming, you're not going to do much better than Tetris. I do think if we're talking more modern, I would go breath the wild wild, because I do think that was forever. It was 2017, that was fucking what, eight years ago now. And I still don't think anyone's come close to Breath of the Wild's open world design outside of like Tears of the Kingdom. I think everyone's still trying to play catch up on that. I think Outer Wilds is one where the idea of just like information being the progress and yeah, you know, I'm sure there are other like, there are adventure games and stuff like old lucasarts or Sierra stuff, stuff back in the day that kind of did a similar thing. But for me Outer Wilds was the one that really clicked where it's like, oh my God, like you can beat this game in 20 minutes if you want to, but you have to have the knowledge, so. And then it just distilled video gameness. I would say warioware. I love warioware so much. And that is just the purest. Just like, go, go, go, go. Play a thing, play a thing, Play a thing, play a thing. That. That would be up there for me too.

[Mary]

I think if I were to do this, it'd be actually something I'd be, like, really educated on and feel really strongly about. Like, something I think I could, like, talk a lot about and would do a class about would be horror genre video games and, like, how impactful they are to us as like, a society. Like, what makes a game so scary and so addictive? To watch someone be scared or to be scared yourself. Right. Because, like, as people, we've kind of evolved past the fact that, like, we don't really have. We don't have things to be afraid of in the traditional sense or in the animalistic sense. Right. We're not being hunted. We're at the top of the food chain. So the things that we want to do if we want to be scared is like, to be hunted. Right. Like a lot of games. Capitalize that in that. Even old games. Amnesia is like, one of the scariest games to this day I have ever played. And it does it so well because it recognizes what it's like like to. To be unable to defend yourself in that game. You can't attack, so you just have a weapon survive. Yeah, yeah. It's. It's so useless. All it can do is, like, defend your mental health. Like, it actually can't do anything for, like, protecting you, really. It's just buying you time so that I think, obviously, Silent Hill, just as a collective of, like, psychosis and, like, what's happening inside of our brains, it does a lot with, like, also, like, just. Why also? Like, trying not to, like, spoil a really old game here. But, like, also, like, what is a protagonist? Like, can they also be bad? Can we. Can you play a bad person? I think that's really interesting, like, how it plays on that. So Resident Evil, obviously, which is also about being hunted in many senses, especially Resident Evil 3, because you're. You're being chased most of the game. So a brilliant series. And I think. I think you would even add modern games in there as well. Well, Phasmophobia, Dead by Daylight is a brilliant cinematic experience that I think I could talk about a lot. P.T. jesus. Like, such a good storytelling experience. It's terrifying and really well done. Yeah, I think I feel like I could talk about that forever and have so much to say and so much to, like, learn. So, yeah, that'd be great. Horror games in general is, I think, where I would go. Yeah. What about you, Lisa?

[Lisa]

Definitely. Anything Zelda. I can just talk about Zelda forever because that's all the Zelda games. I talk about the lore of it and how it got me in the lore of video games. I mean, that's how I have a whole fraking Twilight Princess sleeve, which people hate on. I don't agree with it at all.

[Dan]

The game best 3D dungeons in the whole series.

[Lisa]

Thank you. Okay. I wish more people agreed. I'd also probably. Honestly, it would be more like, like, Like I love Metroidvania. So I talk about the Metroidvanias that I really love because I grew up, obviously, on Metroid, and then I moved on to Castlevania, and then it was Hollow Knight and then all those dungeon crawlers as well. Obviously, Souls games. I also. I don't know. I think that's a really interesting question because it's like, you can. It's like, do you want me to talk about games specifically or history games or talk about genre of games? Because I'm like, if we're just talking about video games, I'm gonna talk about my favorite ones because those are the ones I can talk about the most.

[Mary]

Because you'd want to. Because you'd want to spend your life talk games that you think Zelda is.

[Lisa]

I like, you thought Mario was the most important, I guess, video game franchise. I agree that Mario is probably the most recognizable character and I think for platformers. Yes. But I'm like. I'm like. I think Zelda is, like, when you look at, like, greatest video game of all time or, like, games that have, like, shaped how games are made now, it's always like Ocarina time, you know.

[Dan]

I mean, Ocarina even before that. The first Zelda on any.

[Lisa]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Dan]

100%.

[Lisa]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Or Link to the Past, which, like, set like, the whole formula for future Zelda games. And it has all the aspects of, like, dungeon crawling, RPG and all sorts of things. And so it's like, oh, I would just talk about Zelda. But then also, I obviously got really into the Souls games in the last few years. And so it's like, well, that is more recency bias. And that's obviously what I'm going to focus on because, like, that taught me how to be, like, really good and strategize the video games. Because Zelda's always been like, oh, you get this weapon in a dungeon. You just use that weapon for the boss.

[Mary]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

Versus it's teaching you. Yeah, it like, teaches you. And then it's like, I remember in high school, like, the guys I used to hang out with used to call me, like, a fake gamer because I never got on Xbox and never played Halo. And so I was always, like, ashamed of, like, my game knowledge. Yeah, right. And then now they're all pieces of shits, and now they're all dead to me. Okay, and then who's fucking good now?

[Mary]

You? Gama your ass. And I'm playing Elden Ring.

[Lisa]

Yeah. And then I played, like, Sekiro and, like, Dark Souls. All those. All the knowledge I got from gaming came from Zelda. So it's like, if it wasn't for my playing Zelda from a childhood growing up, I would not have as much of, like, the knowledge. I'd have to be like, oh, there's something hidden behind this wall. Or, oh, this boss is going to have three phases. Or you got to hit this thing. Like, it taught me so much about video games, so. So it's like I would teach a class on, like, these are the video games I think that you need to get into or that you need to have knowledge on to really understand how video games work. And even arcade games. I grew up on a lot of arcade games, and arcade games are very simple. Like, did you ever watch the Tetris movie? Oh, my God, it's so good.

[Dan]

Really?

[Lisa]

Yeah, I know. Which is everyone's react. It's really good because it tells you how good of a tet of the game Tetris is is, and how hard it was to get the licensing for Tetris in the US it was like a whole government thing with the Soviet Union. It was like a heist. And so just talking about video game history, like, I got into Earthbound because of the history of Earthbound. I got into Claire Obscure because of reading about the studio and how they found the composer and how they became, like, this dream team. So I don't know. I think I just would not shut the up.

[Dan]

I think you could do a whole thing about Zelda for sure.

[Lisa]

Like, yeah, oh, Zelda for sure.

[Dan]

That's the thing. Like, there's so many tent poles there where it's like the first Zelda and what that did and then link to the past, how that established the format and Ocarina time, how it brought it.

[Lisa]

To three Awakening too.

[Dan]

Yeah. And Majora, how it went way out of left field there. And Then Breath of Wild. How it completely reinvented the way, how.

[Lisa]

It started, the timeline. Everyone associates me with Souls Games and Yakuza, but I'm like, Zelda's like my. I just have played all them, so obviously I'm not streaming them. You know. Know, I've restreamed a few games, but, like, obviously it's like, that's just who I am as a gamer.

[Mary]

They were foundational to you?

[Lisa]

Yeah. Like, Blinkway 2 was the band that got me into rock music and metal and punk and emo. But they're not any of those genres. They're just the first one that was like, this introduced me to a whole line of. Of whole new part of myself that I didn't know I had.

[Mary]

Are you saying that Zelda is the Blink 182 of games?

[Lisa]

It is. Zelda is the Blink 182. I love that. The only thing Link can say is diarrhea when you kill Ganon. He goes, I'm a. Your mom. And that's all Link says for the whole series. Such a shit on your grandpa.

[Mary]

Anyway, Tom, let's play this song. All the small things.

[Lisa]

It's. It's so funny how predictable and adolescent they still are. But they're all in their 50s.

[Mary]

They're just stupid children forever.

[Lisa]

Children in their 20s, if they were.

[Mary]

At a park and there was one child, the child would bring their Spider man toys to Blink one.

[Lisa]

Exactly. Callback. Squeaky Curds.

[Mary]

Squeaky.

[Lisa]

Name of the episode.

[Mary]

Thank you, Nathan. I think that answers your question. I will read this next one, although I don't see a name in it. Can you double check? Dan, the name?

[Dan]

Yes. 1.

[Mary]

Unless it never had one.

[Dan]

It probably did. Let me just search.

[Mary]

Okay, I'm going to read it. Really?

[Dan]

It's a sultan. Sultan Abbasi.

[Mary]

Okay, I'm going to read it fast now. Hi, Peoples. How does Dan feel about Child, Pauline and DK Bonanza after proclaiming his disdain for children characters in video games. Love you. Y' all take care.

[Dan]

I mean, I. I have a general disdain for children and I. But I think with games, it is mostly I don't want to have to play as one. You know, like, that's the thing with, like, JRPGs and stuff like that. I don't want to be some teenager or something like that. I think in DK Bonanza has not bothered me. It is. I am playing as Donkey Kong. As far as I'm concerned, Pauline is basically a navi or a fee or something like that. Like one of these, like, Zelda companions that will occasionally have an ability or something or whatever. Like, but I'm. I'm Donkey Kong. I'm playing as Donkey Kong, you know, I hope Pauline does well, but I don't really care. So. Yeah, no problem. No problem with it.

[Mary]

I feel like you're afraid to be put on a list because you're a sweet boy and you would never do that. And so you're just always like, listen, if there's a child involved, I don't want to talk to them. I don't want to be around them. I don't even want to, like, be associated with them.

[Lisa]

Those kids don't even show me your Spider man collection.

[Dan]

No, I don't give a shit.

[Lisa]

Timmy.

[Mary]

Get away from.

[Dan]

I'm an adult. I want to play as adults. I find kids annoying. I don't want them around my games. I don't want them in my games. But if it's just she's sitting on Donkey Kong's shoulder and occasionally she'll sing to break a purple door, that's fine.

[Lisa]

I'm here to traumatize the kids.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

Here to put the kids in their place.

[Dan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Lisa]

You know? Yeah.

[Dan]

You got to grow up sometime.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Mary]

I love children. I don't think I want to, like, raise any, but I just absolutely love being an aunt and, like, showing them all the games that I loved and, like, watching them, like, go through them and teaching them all my best tips and tricks about games. So we have different vibes going on here.

[Dan]

I like being an uncle, but all, like, my niece and my nephews are all, like, very young, and so, like, I'm looking forward to them being old enough for me to traumatize them.

[Lisa]

I will say I have a few. I never post them because they're my nieces, but I have videos in my phone of my niece playing Elden Ring. And she plays it like a cozy game. She's seven years years old. She'll ride around the horses and grab, like, flowers. And then the minute there's an enemy, she'll just throw it at my. My. My sister, the controller, brother in law. She loves it. She's obsessed with Elden Ring.

[Dan]

What if a dragon comes down and, like, she's just done.

[Lisa]

And then she's like, get it, dad.

[Mary]

Get it.

[Lisa]

Get. Hurry. I want to play like. And she. He'll, like, sitting there in the plane, she'll be like, you got to get a key for this room, dad. You gotta get a key. And it's very precious.

[Mary]

That's adorable. It's A really hellish word world.

[Dan]

It's.

[Lisa]

But she picks flowers and she's just on her little horse.

[Mary]

Give her animal crossing.

[Lisa]

What's going on? She. But they. My sister's like, you know what you Lisa now my kids play Elden Ring. They won't play their switches anymore. They still play Elden Ring.

[Mary]

You've given her the wrong universe to be endearing and sweet in.

[Lisa]

It's very precious.

[Mary]

You sound. That's a good kid story. At least. At least they're open to to it. Well, thank you for the emails. I know that was a bit shorter, but we went so hard on gaming content that we wrapped up all of our time in games. Sorry, you know, sorry that we talked about games for so long. As always, we absolutely love for you guys to help and support us. You do not have to this. This podcast is free 99. You can listen to it at your leisure. But if you like what you hear, you can always go to our Patreon and you can tip us, which is awesome. And it helps pay for games and other things that help us make sure we do this podcast. You can also get the video and ad free tiers which I love. That way you can enjoy us without any ads interrupting us annoyingly. And you can just watch Lisa's cats. There were two of them. I bet you don't even know what they look like. They were really cute. She held them.

[Dan]

They are really cute. Or a couple times you hold them up and like that's a really chill cat.

[Lisa]

Yeah, they're annoying.

[Mary]

Sounds like they're little babies and you get to see them in the video version. So I hope that you consider it. If not, I hope you enjoyed listening. And with that I would really love to plug Lisa. I know you are an incredible comedian. You're very funny. I just have loved seeing you at so many different conventions and cons. You're busy. You're a hustler. Please tell people where they can listen and find more of you on the Internet.

[Lisa]

Yes, I semi tour and travel for shows. So checking out my Instagram, my link, trip, tree tick, tock, Twitter, whatever, you'll find my shows but also I stream on Twitch and I have a podcast called Dork Souls. It's pretty new. We're about 10 episodes in. It's bi weekly with my friend Hector Navarro. He is a big comic book nerd, I'm a big gaming anime nerd. So we just talk about nerd stuff and would. We'll probably have Dan and Mary on there at some point so you can check that out on everything on YouTube and all the things I'm on. Everything. I'm too online.

[Mary]

I love that for you. I think you are perfect for us in this space and I don't really care. We, you know, we're not here to judge how healthy anyone's lifestyle is. Look at Dan.

[Lisa]

I want to. I just admitted to Donkey Kong in my dreams, so it's okay.

[Mary]

Dan, what's in your dreams?

[Dan]

Oh, a lot of plane crashes.

[Mary]

What?

[Lisa]

Powered by anime horse girls.

[Dan]

I'm gonna answer it. Yeah, I don't know. I'm always on a plane and there's always a crash. I don't know.

[Mary]

What are you doing outside of this podcast that's so stressful?

[Dan]

That was the honest answer. I do giantbomb.com check it out. We are 100 independent now. I think we're doing some great stuff. I've been playing Pimp my ride for the PS2 over there. I'm about to finish up up and Jeff Grubb is about to start playing a game for Blight Club that I think everyone is going to enjoy quite a bit. So check out giantbomb.com Amazing.

[Mary]

I also stream on Twitch. Usually every Monday I stream an indie game or whatever I've got down the pipe. Real world. Good stuff. Yeah, I. I think I'm gonna. I think I'm gonna do it. I will do it for you, Dan.

[Dan]

Do it for you. Do it for you, Mary. Mary.

[Mary]

I'm gonna do it for the Dan that believes in me, which is an anime reference that you won't get.

[Lisa]

Gurren login.

[Mary]

Thank you, sweet, sweet angel. And that's how you pass the Beshdel test. Well, thank you guys for listening and enjoying this experience with us.

[Lisa]

Thank you for having me.

[Mary]

Oh, we're so happy to have you, Lisa. Thank you for sharing your nerd culture with us. Everybody go check out Dork Souls and we'll see you on the next episode of the Fire Escape Cast. As it said in its entirety, I'm Mary, the best host in the entire world. See you on the next one. Bye.

[Dan]

Bye, Sam.