Game Scoop! 787: Feeling Slug-ish

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 787: Feeling Slug-ish
Released on November 9, 2024 by IGN

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Metal Slug Tactics: A Nostalgic Revival

00:55 – 08:46

Host Damon Hatfield, alongside co-hosts Sam Claiborne and Justin Davis, kick off the episode with enthusiastic discussions about the long-anticipated release of Metal Slug Tactics. Sam shares her excitement, stating, “It's finally out and I'm just so pleased that it turned out so well” (02:02).

The hosts delve into the game's homage to the classic run-and-gun genre, praising its pixel art and sprite work reminiscent of the original Metal Slug series. Sam highlights the innovative tactics gameplay, explaining, “Every turn when you're placing your characters is kind of a puzzle of where you have to place everyone” (03:33). Damon adds his appreciation for the game's visual quality, remarking, “This just alone looks super cool” (02:16).

Despite their praises, Sam points out some UI challenges, noting, “Has very small text... Very hard to read when you're sitting on a couch” (04:23). Justin remains optimistic about the game's roguelike elements, discussing the procedurally generated levels and permanent upgrades, which he believes enhance the game's replay value (05:44).

Exploring Other Titles: From Dragon Age to Halo

08:46 – 22:53

The conversation shifts to Justin’s ongoing experience with Dragon Age, where he lauds the game's combat system and character development. He mentions, “I have actual true freedom and power to sort of like, build my rogue out in different ways” (10:15). Damon echoes this sentiment, comparing it to other RPGs and discussing the game's balance between story depth and action.

The trio also touches on Call of Duty’s latest installment, particularly the zombies mode and open-world elements. Damon shares his enjoyment of the new features, such as the grappling hook, while Sam and Justin discuss the game’s narrative and visuals. Justin remarks on the Halo 2 Remake, praising its graphics and sound design, stating, “I can play this game almost by sound” (18:04).

Industry News: Nintendo Switch 2 and PS5 Pro Launches

22:53 – 43:05

The hosts pivot to recent gaming news, starting with Nintendo’s confirmation that the upcoming Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with original Switch games. Justin expresses concern, “Why would anyone buy a Nintendo Switch game this fall if there's a new Switch coming in a few months?” (31:46). Sam counters by highlighting the strong Switch sales, noting titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have sold up to 64 million copies (34:06).

Damon and Sam discuss the implications of the Switch's success on the anticipated Switch 2, pondering whether Nintendo can replicate its hit with the new console. They also touch on the PlayStation 5 Pro, giving it a 7/10 rating. Sam summarizes the console’s value, “If you have a nice TV and you can afford $700. It's a nice way to play your PS5 games, but it is in no way essential” (45:12).

Sega Classics Delisting and Their Impact

43:05 – 49:38

Sam Claiborne brings up a concerning headline: Sega is set to delist multiple games from its Classics collections on digital storefronts starting December 6th (47:56). The hosts express disappointment, with Justin questioning, “Why would anyone want to delist such a comprehensive collection?” Sam defends the Sega Genesis Classics, emphasizing its value with titles like Shining Force 1 and 2 offering extensive gameplay (48:19). Damon reflects on Sega’s strategy, “They have all this IP that they say in the industry and they have all these different types of games that want to keep going” (37:33).

Listener Spotlight: Redefining Gaming Experiences

49:38 – 83:34

In a heartfelt segment, the hosts invite listeners to share gaming experiences that have redefined their perception of the medium. Curtis from Chandler, Arizona recounts his first encounter with Dragon Quest 3 HD 2D remake, drawing parallels to seminal experiences like Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Minecraft. Sam shares her formative memories of Super Mario 64 at a local video store, describing it as a game that "just nailed that in 3D" (54:50).

Damon Hatfield reminisces about Final Fantasy series growth and the expansive worlds that set new standards, while Justin Davis highlights the transformative impact of Super Mario 64 on his career aspirations, stating, “it changed the trajectory of my life when this game came out” (53:04). The conversation underscores how pivotal games like GTA 3 and Maniac Mansion have been in shaping modern gaming dynamics and storytelling.

Video Game 20 Questions: A Fun Challenge

83:34 – 81:17

The episode concludes with a playful Video Game 20 Questions segment, where the hosts attempt to guess "Redacted, but not a redacted". Despite multiple hints and queries about the game's release period, genre, platform availability, and licensing, the trio struggles to pinpoint the exact title. Ultimately, they reveal it’s a violently themed, non-Japanese, third-person game based on a public domain property, sparking discussions about the complexities of licensed games in the modern industry.

Curtis’s Final Clue: The game is based on Pinocchio, leading to humorous speculation about obscure titles within the genre.

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Key Takeaways:

• Metal Slug Tactics successfully revives a classic series with modern tactics gameplay but faces minor UI issues.
• Dragon Age, Call of Duty, and Halo continue to influence and engage the hosts with their evolving mechanics and narratives.
• Nintendo’s Switch 2 announcement with backwards compatibility is met with both excitement and strategic analysis regarding its market impact.
• Sega’s delisting of classic titles raises concerns among fans who cherish the comprehensive collections.
• Personal stories from listeners highlight the profound impact of games like Super Mario 64 and Dragon Quest 3 on individual gaming journeys.
• The Video Game 20 Questions segment showcases the playful and challenging nature of the podcast’s interactions with listeners.

Notable Quotes:

• Sam Claiborne on Metal Slug Tactics: “Every turn when you're placing your characters is kind of a puzzle of where you have to place everyone” (03:33)
• Justin Davis on Dragon Age: “I have actual true freedom and power to sort of like, build my rogue out in different ways” (10:15)
• Damon Hatfield on Super Mario 64: “This just alone looks super cool” (02:16)
• Sam Claiborne on Halo 2 Remake: “I can play this game almost by sound” (18:04)
• Justin Davis on Super Mario 64’s impact: “it changed the trajectory of my life when this game came out” (53:04)

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Stay tuned for more in-depth analyses, game reviews, and behind-the-scenes insights on future episodes of Game Scoop!

Transcript

[Damon Hatfield]

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[Justin Davis]

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[Sam Claiborne]

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[Damon Hatfield]

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[Sam Claiborne]

This episode is brought to you by SkinnyPop. Popcorn perfectly popped, endlessly delicious, oh so light and crunchy. Skinny Pop Original Popcorn is the snack you've been searching for. Made with just three simple ingredients, popcorn kernels, sunflower oil and salt.

[Damon Hatfield]

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[Sam Claiborne]

Perfectly popped, endlessly delicious. Give yourself permission to snack and pick up Skinny Pop Original Popcorn today. What's up everybody? Welcome to IG and Game Scoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield. Joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Damon Hatfield]

Hey. Hey, how's it going everybody?

[Sam Claiborne]

And Justin Davis.

[Justin Davis]

Scoop.

[Sam Claiborne]

And we've got a great show for you this week. Despite some deeply troubling current events. Allow us to help take your mind off things for just a little while. We've got some important information on the Nintendo Switch 2. Some news everyone's been waiting for. And we've got a great prompt from a listener who wants to know what were some of the games that redefined what we believed possible in this medium. Kind of a big topic, fun to jump into. But first, Metal Slug Tactics is finally here and guys, it's so good. It turned out so great.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, that's awesome news. I love it.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it launched day one to Game Pass, which is great. It's on Switch and PC and PlayStation as well. But I've been playing it on Game Pass and this was announced years ago and then there wasn't much information about it. We were just waiting and waiting, waiting. It's finally out and I'm just so pleased that it turned out so well. So first of all, Metal Slugs Run and Gun series, which is not a very popular genre these days, it's almost.

[Damon Hatfield]

Synonymous with Neo Geo. It's almost like the Super Mario Brothers of Neo Geo.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Or the Contra of Neo Geo. Sure. But you know, it's known for amazing sprite work and so it has the fantastic sprite work here that you would expect. Overall, the presentation is super cool. It's all pixel based sprites and I.

[Damon Hatfield]

Remember just from the start it just looked like everything was high quality and thought about and like it's going to be really pretty. So it did end up that way because like this just alone looks super cool. What we're seeing right now, this isn't even the pixel part.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, the levels and all your characters in the stages are all pixel art, but then it's accented by hand drawn illustrations of the characters that'll pop up to at certain key moments and during conversations and stuff. So great presentation and it's got some pretty interesting twists on the tactics genre. So kind of paying homage to the run and gun roots of the series. It's designed for you to make your characters run as far as possible across the maps. Because it's grid based. The more grids, the more squares you walk away from where your character started, they build up. They build up guard points and what is it called? Also adrenaline. So dodge points and adrenaline. So the further away you move, you build up dodge points and it's more likely that you will dodge the next attack from an enemy and then you spend adrenaline points to use special abilities. And then there's also sync attacks. So if you're in eyesight of another member of your party and.

[Damon Hatfield]

Damon, Damon. Hold on, hold on. Is that a mummy dog?

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah, that's part of. Yeah. There's all sorts of cool enemies in Metal Slug like zombies and aliens and mummies.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

So if you set yourself up to attack an enemy, if one of your allies is also in range and they're in their line of sight, they will also attack as a sync attack. So the whole thing that you're trying to do is you're trying to set up. You have three characters on a stage, you're trying to set them up so that they are all moving as far as possible and they're all able to attack an enemy and their friend, their allies will be able to sync attack. So every turn when you're placing your characters is kind of a puzzle of where you have to place everyone. It's a little bit. Takes some getting used to, but it's a very clever and cool sort of new feature in a tactics game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Awesome.

[Sam Claiborne]

Has very small text. Aside from that player turn that you saw, all the menu's text is very, very small. Very hard to read when you're sitting on a couch clear away from your tv.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. You're playing on tv. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

It'd be good to have this in your face. Maybe with a Steam deck or something.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, Steam deck or switch, maybe. Definitely. I think we know that games are developed by developers sitting right a foot away from their computer screen and sometimes they don't realize how small or how difficult to read their text.

[Damon Hatfield]

So your squad is always three, you said?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. But you unlock. Yeah. So you start with your three characters and then you unlock. New characters you go through. Oh, did I even mention that this is a roguelike game?

[Justin Davis]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

It is.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, I didn't realize.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. You go on runs, and then the levels are procedurally generated, so you go to an area and you can choose your path you want to go. You can choose what level you want to play. And there's different objectives, like kill all enemies or escort this person to the exit without them getting hurt. Or just kill. There's one particular enemy has a target over his head that you need to kill, so you can choose which mission you want to do. And then after you do three, there's a boss fight, and then you make your way to the next biome or the next area until you make it as far as you can, and then you start over again on your next run. And in between runs, at your home base, you can spend cash or experience points on new weapons and new abilities and whatnot.

[Justin Davis]

That's rad. That does make me like it a little bit less than if it was, like, a handcrafted campaign with the storyline, but, you know. But obviously we'll give it more replay value.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And any roguelite where you're unlocking permanent upgrades back at base is okay with me.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

So I have played very few tactical RPGs now, so I thought this would be more like an advance wars where you'd have, like, you know, 20 units on screen.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

You know, but instead. So the game I played like this would be like Mario Cross Rabbids, which is, I believe, a knockoff of. What's the game? X.

[Justin Davis]

What's it called?

[Damon Hatfield]

The game that Dan Stapleton likes the best.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, xcom.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I wouldn't say knockoff, but, like, yeah, they're similar.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. So I thought those were, like, right in line as, like, a genre, but I don't really know tactical, as I said. But. So is Final Fantasy Tactics like this, too? Do you only have, like, three characters?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, no. You can have a whole larger squad in Tactics.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, so this is like a smaller subgenre of tactical RPGs. Plus, the roguelite makes it sound pretty unique.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah. I haven't played a tactics game that's quite like this.

[Damon Hatfield]

Awesome. That's good news. That's innovation.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's just. It's cool that it turned out so well, because, like I said, it's a retro game series that isn't really represented today. It's changing genres, so it wasn't ever guaranteed success.

[Justin Davis]

It's also, even just watching this footage here, like, it's clear that, like, A lot of love and care and like, they didn't have to go this hardcore with Metal Slug tactics. Right. Like they could have. And like, I'm glad that they did. Like, that's awesome. And now I'm happy to be talking about it on the show, but like, I feel like a lesser studio or someone that cared less wouldn't be putting this much care and attention and artwork and sort of thoughtfulness into, you know, sort of a spin off game of a 80s 90s franchise.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah. And like just specifically with the character designs and animations, I want to point out, like people aren't watching maybe the video version of the show, but there was an era of Neo Geo and specifically Capcom fighting games, I think, and just a few other types of game where there is a pixel era where everything was moving and breathing and quivering and doing things, but within frames of sprites. So when you look at the sprites of like Ken, you know, just kind of standing and Street Fighter from that era, he's doing a bunch of like, it's like really interesting. It's like a bunch of frames just for that standing motion. And then that kind of evolved into, you know, very framey fighting games. But for games like Metal Slug, it just looked cool. Like people were overly wrought in pixel animation and it was a style. And to see that style come back, it's different than say Final Fantasy 2D HD remakes or live Live or like, whatever those are.

[Justin Davis]

Like just.

[Damon Hatfield]

They are, you know, beautiful pixel coats of paint. It's amazing. But they don't have this motion. And this is just like totally imitating Metal Slug, which is awesome.

[Justin Davis]

Everybody's bouncing around.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Lots of vital animations happening here.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's great. My only complaints are the small text and then I think just kind of the menu system in general. It's just kind of hard to navigate through. It's like you can. Certain words are highlighted and you can click the right stick to go into that word and bring up another menu or a little window and then you can keep going to read more about features and stuff. But then you're in a window within a window within a window and then you have to back out all the way to it. It's just not a great UI system system. But gameplay is great. Metal Slug Tactics turned out okay after all these years. Anything either of you are playing of note.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean, I'm still playing Dragon Age every night. Maybe I shouldn't say still, I don't know if I'd started it last week. On the show, but I love it. I don't know. I mean, I don't think the game is quite like Baldur's Gate 3 big, but it is definitely a very big. Like, I think I'm still in act one, but I'm many, many hours in, man. Like, we did talk about it on the show last week, and, you know, our review talked about it. It's like, I'm alone in this opinion, but, like, I don't think enough has been said about how good this game's combat system is and your ability to sort of develop your character. Like, I feel like I have actual true freedom and power to sort of like, build my rogue out in different ways. And it's got a really cool system of, oh, my God, now I'm forgetting the name of it. Of kind of like detonators and triggers. So.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I like that too.

[Justin Davis]

So it's got this sort of very natural combo system of, like, okay, this character is going to cast one spell, and then if this character casts this other spell, that will trigger it, that will detonate it, and then it will have this secondary effect. And, like.

[Damon Hatfield]

And there's some things that you can trigger with your own stuff, too. Like you hit somebody three times and then you can blow up the thing that you hit them with.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. And it's really satisfying and it makes you feel really powerful without making the game, like, super easy. Like, I'm finding it to be. It actually is. It's got that RPG problem where it's getting easier the more I play and the more powerful I get. But I love it. I would say it's a smidge below kind of like game of the Year territory for me. But I like all the companions. I think the voice acting is really good.

[Damon Hatfield]

Does it feel Bioware like, to you at this point.

[Justin Davis]

It feels 70% BioWare and then 30% MCU, 30% Marvel movie. It's very quippy.

[Damon Hatfield]

I agree. No, I completely agree. I was saying that about the Guardians feel before, and it is more Marvel than Guardians.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. And I wouldn't describe myself as a super hardcore Dragon Age lore person, but, I mean, maybe I am. I like the lore a lot and I feel like I know it and this turns out. Yeah, but like, it. How can I phrase. So this isn't a spoiler. This happens within the first hour of the game. It's like the premise of the game is these two Elven gods that were imprisoned are released, and that's the plot of the game. These two gods are released and they're evil. They're trying to do a bunch of evil stuff. And, like, Dragon Age has traditionally been a little bit like Game of Thrones in that it's trying to be a little bit more realistic and it's trying to, like, actually sit with, like, how would different factions react, how would different characters react if A, these Elven gods were released and you find out that they're real, and B, it turns out that they're evil? And, like, this game is a little bit too quippy and a little bit too surface level to, like, actually dig into that and, like, deal with that of, like, you know, these Dalish elves are like, everybody's racist against the Dala shelves. Everybody hates them in the world of Dragon Age. And now their gods are here and are trying to ruin the world. And no one really seems to, like. Like, the world doesn't seem to have that kind of, like, reactivity to it that, like, a Baldur's Gate 3 has, or, like.

[Damon Hatfield]

You know what's interesting about that, Justin, is that the common enemy is the interesting thing about Mass Effect, because it's like Earth either has to dominate everybody to save the world, or they have to collaborate with everybody to save the world from an existential threat. Right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

And so the existential threat in this game is like, Mass Effect, but it's more like a Guardians thing where it's kind of funny. We're gonna put together a squad and sort it out. And one of the alien gods, not aliens, Elven gods, is kind of our pal from way back, and we get to talk to him.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I feel like Dragon Age 1, 2, and 3. Cause it's like there's other religions, right? There's like the Chantry, and they have just found out that gods that they don't believe in exist. And so every other video game or movie just hand waves away, like, okay, there's some evil threat. Go defeat it. Don't worry about it too much. Whereas previous Dragon Age games would be like, one of your companions would have, like, a crisis of faith. And what does it mean that these other gods are real? And, like, how, like, it would really dig into that in a way that, like, Veilgard doesn't really seem very interested in telling that kind of story at all. It's like you're just going on adventures and it's a little bit more swashbuckling. So I think from a gameplay standpoint, like, I really like. It's one of the best RPGs. It's the best RPG I've played since Dragon Age. I love it. Wait, wait, wait.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, better than Baldur's Gate 3?

[Justin Davis]

Excuse me? The best I've played since Baldur's Gate 3.

[Sam Claiborne]

Gotcha.

[Justin Davis]

It's doing the lore and storytelling. I was gonna say doing it dirty. That's putting it too strongly. It doesn't seem as interested in digging into things very deeply. I would put it that way.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. It's about fighting and romance. And so I would call this genre clanging and banging.

[Justin Davis]

Well, you know, I couldn't have put it better myself.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, it's a clang and bang.

[Justin Davis]

It is beautiful, by the way. It's not the most technically impressive in terms of pushing polygons and whatever, but from an art direction standpoint, I feel like I'm constantly rounding the corner and just seeing something amazing, like some amazing vista. Yeah, it's really beautiful.

[Sam Claiborne]

Unfortunately, it's probably too late for me to change the headline of this episode. Declanging and banging. I wish I would have known about that ahead of time.

[Damon Hatfield]

Change it up. Change it up. I just made it up.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have to get a new thumbnail made. I don't. I don't. There's no time.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, think how fun that would be, though. I think. I think our fans will happily wait. Okay. Are you playing anything else?

[Justin Davis]

Justin, you can go. I have one more. At this time, maybe I'll have a short anecdote.

[Damon Hatfield]

I continued to play all these games, but I'm most into two right now. One is Call of Duty. I finished the open world area, the first one, which is great. And then it puts you in a. Actually like amazingly into a zombies area. And like the way the game explains that is really interesting. Well, I mean, it's. It's my. It's minor. They explain it is what I should say.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, it's just kind of the campaign puts you in a zombies area. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

And it's. And has like a bunch of like fantasy bosses and stuff like that. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, hold on. I want to know how. So can we just give a spoiler alert and then you can tell me?

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, I mean, it's not a spoiler. It's like you get you. There's the whole. The plot of the game, the MacGuffin is like some kind of hallucinogen.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

And your character gets a hearty dose of it and you play out almost another open world area. It's like. It's almost like a zombie mall, but it's like this like really cool, like, Soviet era CIA facility. So it's very call of Duty Zombies, right? It has that genre going forward. It's like mad scientists and cool CIA technology. You get a freaking grappling hook in this section. Oh my gosh, we have a Sami appearance. A big girl. I like the little white paws. Look at that face. How do you even live? Such a cute cat. So, yeah, it has all that going for it. And then I got past that part and the next part looks really fun too. But at the end of the open world campaign, there's also like a palace Infiltration. That felt like so cool, that game's. I mean, I kind of wish the campaign wasn't known to be short because I don't know where I am in it, but I really, really like it, so. And then the other thing is, I was like, man, like, I don't feel like this is like all the fall games got moved out of the fall. Like, that's, that's. I know we're talking about Dragon Age and Call of Duty right now, but like, what about for the next month? Right? It's getting a little quiet. And then there's also these kind of like games I like playing during the fall that I wish were kind of around still. And so I was looking like, well, 20 years ago in 2004, what came out this week, it was Halo 2. And I never played the remake in the Halo Master Chief collection. I only played the first game's remake because the second one, I think was staggered. I think it came out a little bit later, or at least it came out for PC later. I popped in Halo 2 last night, put it on Heroic. I was a little worried about playing on Legendary because I like Legendary. But it's a different feel for playing it right? Like you can get stuck in one room for a really long time, just like, okay. But I played for six hours. It was wonderful.

[Justin Davis]

Wow.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh my gosh.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. I was like, well, I gotta get past this part of it. I gotta get past this part. And then I was like, whoa. I mean, at this point I'm gonna get to my favorite area. Like in Halo 2. I think Halo 3 is my favorite Halo, especially campaign wise. Right? So even though the multiplayer was hearing that, but yeah, two absolutely unbelievable. An unbelievable game. And the remake, like it allows you to switch between the original, you know, and its sound and graphics. And like the remake is gorgeous. It is so good looking. Even I think the remake is from 10 years ago. It's from 2014. So like, it's incredible. And then when you go back to the old one, it's so funny. Like, all of the textures and everything come in. You're like, wow, this is amazing. It looks just right. And then the sound comes in and it's like, you know, do, do, do.

[Justin Davis]

Do, do, do do.

[Damon Hatfield]

Like, all that. You know, you hear the original stuff and it's just like, man, like, I can play this game almost by sound. Like, that's how good the sound was in Halo, you know? So, yeah, it was just. It's an interesting game. And like, you know, again, 20 years ago, like, 20 years before Halo 2, 1984, like, Qbert had been out the year before the industry crashed. Like, that's how early. You know, that's how far we've come from Halo 2. And it's still. Like, I don't think there's games that have better shooter campaigns than Halo right now. Like, I just. I think this game. Yeah, I mean, there's. There's great shooter campaigns. I just talked about one. They're out there. But, like, when you're taking out one of the scarabs and running alongside it, and finally you realize you can jump on it and go inside and mess with it. Like. Or you go to, you know, an open area, you get a warthog, and you're like, yeah, do I want a warthog or do I want a ghost? Because I can take a ghost way inside this building and just mess with it. Like, that stuff isn't. There's just not games like this. There just aren't. It's like games like Banjo Kazooie, there just aren't games like it.

[Justin Davis]

Halo's so good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, so now, real quick, I'm just curious to know, returning to Halo 2, does it change how you feel about Halo Infinite?

[Damon Hatfield]

I love Halo Infinite. I think it's so good. I want more. Like, that game could have been 100 hours long, and I probably would have 100% ed it. Like, I have no issue with it. It still has all this going for it. The things that Halo 2 that kind of make the difference is that Halo was new and all of these things are being introduced still. And it's still really. I mean, I remember playing these games and being like, I have no idea what's going on. I don't know what the story is now.

[Justin Davis]

I watch it.

[Damon Hatfield]

I get it all. I mean, I've played a million Halo games in Halo wars, and I've even read Halo books and stuff, so I know what's going on, but it is confusing. And maybe I kind of respect that type of storytelling where it's just throwing out things like Pillar of Autumn and, you know, regret and you're just like, I don't know what any of these things mean. Like, oh, that's a ship. That's, that's a space station. That's a plan. Like, it's complicated. I know it doesn't sound that way, but it was at the time. I swear it was. And I was really into it, so. But then this also, they did cinematics for the remake too, which again, like, it's, it's, it's criminal that they didn't do this for three, but like, the cinematics are like so good. They're, they're, they look amazing. Faces aren't the best, but like the planets and the ships and everything and like, you know, Master Chief is such a badass and like, they play that up a lot in this game. A lot of times you walk into an area and there's like cameras going and like, I forgot about this stuff. And they're like capturing Master Chief because he's a war hero, you know, or like you're with a squad, they're like, oh my God, the Chief showed up. And then they like rave about it while you're driving around in your warthog. Like, nice shot, Chief. You know, like, like, oh, he's still got it, buddy. Like, it's really funny. What a game. What a game. I just, I don't know, I just want to play this game now. I want to like sign off work today and play more Halo 2 and beat it.

[Justin Davis]

Watching this footage and hearing you talk about it, it's like, I don't know how much has come up on Scoop over the years, but I love Halo and like, to me it's the best that first person shooters have ever been. And like, everyone talks a lot about how it's sandbox based, right? So it's all physics based and if you throw a grenade and somebody else throws a grenade, they can bounce off each other. So it has all this like, yeah, all this surprising sandbox gameplay to it comp to other shooters. But the thing I like it. Just watching this footage, I'm reminded of. I really like the pace of the game. I like the time to kill other characters. And I like the trinity of you have guns, you have melee, you have grenades, and control of the area in multiplayer through grenades. And I like that you have to go out. You know, it keeps players moving in multiplayer because you have to go out and seek out the power weapons and so people kind of like fight over them. The push and pull on those multiplayer maps. Like, it's perfect. You know, I might go for. Maybe I'll go fire up Infinite, because I still have it installed and the multiplayer in that game was really great. And it is free to play, so why not?

[Damon Hatfield]

Another fun thing about the harder modes of single player that you reminded me of is that you need to make these, like, complex decisions about what weapons you're carrying at all times. And it's agonizing. Like, so much so that you'll, like, carry a plasma gun and a sword into an area and, like, take out all the Elites and then go back and swap all those out from where you dropped your weapons before, because you don't need that. Like, it's so funny. It's just. And like, sometimes you're coming across a rocket launcher, you're like, I know this is a bad idea. It has two shots in it, and I'm going to regret this, but I'm taking it, you know?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool. Justin, you had a short anecdote.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, no. I started playing a game called Brighter Shores on PC.

[Damon Hatfield]

You learn a lot about this one.

[Justin Davis]

It's a new MMO from one of the guys that created Runescape. And it is. I mean, he basically just made Runescape. I don't know, four. I don't know how many Runescapes there are. So I don't really have too much to share. I'm very early on. It's very peaceful. It's very chill. It does have combat in it, but the combat in it is very sort of Runescape. Like. Like your character and the other character just stands there and they bash into each other. And then mostly I've been spending my time, like we're seeing on this footage, you know, just collecting kelp and catching fish and then using those fish to level up my cooking skill. And, like.

[Damon Hatfield]

And there's just randos walking around.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah. The game world is full of randos. And, you know, it has a heavy emphasis on craf and just being kind of like a chill time. So it's getting savaged a little bit in early access reviews from RuneScape fans. And I think it's like half. It's half like, look, this game is clearly Runescape, right? But they're angry about some of the things that it did change. It's like, well, combat doesn't work the same as it did in Runescape, and that makes me mad. And then it's half just the way that you skill up and the way that your character progression works in this game. Granted, it isn't early access, so it's not too late to rework it.

[Damon Hatfield]

But.

[Justin Davis]

But people are kind of upset that your combat skill doesn't. Like if you go to a new area, you have to skill up your combat again. Like you're only skilling up your bow for this region and if you go to another region, you're back to kind of level one and it has to start over and people are saying that it feels like you have to. It's just an odd, odd design choice.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it looks dated to me. Is it just going for an older RuneScape look?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah. It's designed to run on any and every potato computer on earth. Got it. And it is. It's intended to be. This footage that we're watching now isn't really showing it off, but it's a little bit like board game. Like it's intended to have the feeling.

[Damon Hatfield]

Of like, oh, you got Spence. Awesome. Phew.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

It's intended to have the feeling of like when you're exploring the world that like you're clicking down new parts of a board game that all fit together. So that design, like it's dated on purpose for sure.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool.

[Justin Davis]

But I like it so far. It's boring, right? Like it's very like if you like, the gameplay is like, okay, now I'm going to craft 20 potions and each one takes 30 seconds. So okay, I'm going to go get up and be back in five minutes. You know, like that's what the game is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. Did you know Cleopatra married not one but two of her brothers? And police in Victorian London had to wear their uniforms all the time, even when off duty? If you're an Assassin's Creed fan like me, then you'll want to know everything about the real history that inspires the games. And I have a podcast recommended for you. Echoes of History. Echoes of History, a podcast brought to you by History hit and Ubisoft, takes you back to the past to discover the real history behind the Assassin's Creed video games. Every three episodes they examine an era explored in the games. Historian and Assassin's Creed mega fan Matt Lewis talks to world leading experts to step into the shoes of the real historical people you meet in the games. To take an eagle eye view of iconic locations you can climb and to reveal the causes and events of the epic historical moments you get to relive in Assassin's Creed. Find out the true history behind the Assassin's Creed games by following the Echoes of History podcast on spot or wherever you get your podcasts. Dell Technologies Black Friday event is live and if you've been waiting for an AI ready PC, this is their biggest sale of the year. Tech enthusiasts love this sale because it's all the newest hits plus all the greatest hits all on sale at once. Savings on Dell technologies most popular PCs that accelerate AI with Intel Core Ultra processors are here, like the XPS 16. So if you're ready to step up all the things you like to do streaming, surfing, multitasking, whatever Dell technologies AI ready PCs are the perfect upgrade. And for the best of Intel Core Ultra processors, look for Intel EV Edition laptops engineered to do it all. Just visit Dell.com deals whether you're treating yourself or thinking of others, these Black Friday prices were worth the wait. But it's only here for a limited time. Shop [e-mail] deals men when we leave the house, it's phone, wallet, keys and how's my hair look? But if you're experiencing hair loss, you may not be so confident when you step out your door. It's time to get that mojo back and restore your hair with himz. HIMS provides you with convenient access to a range of hair loss treatments that work all from the comfort of your couch, so you barely even have to pause whatever game you're playing. HIMS makes treating hair loss simple with doctor trusted options and clinically proven ingredients like finasteride and minoxidil that can regrow hair in as little as three to six months. The process is simple and 100% online, so there are no uncomfortable doctor visits. Answer a few questions and a medical provider will determine if treatment is right for you. If prescribed, your treatment is sent directly to you in discreet packaging with free shipping. No insurance is needed, and one low price covers everything thing. HIMS has hundreds of thousands of trusted subscribers, and they can help you get your confidence back too, with visibly thicker and fuller hair. Search your free online Visit [e-mail] Gamescoop that's hims.com Gamescoop for your personalized hair loss treatment options hims.com Gamescoop. Results vary based on studies of topical and oral minoxidil and finasteride. Prescription products require an online consultation with a healthcare provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. Restrictions apply. See website for full details and important safety information. I love a great deal as much as the next guy, but I'm not going to crawl through a bed of hot coals just to save a few bucks. It has to be easy. No hoops, no bs. So when Mint Mobile said it was easy to get wireless for just $15 a month. With the purchase of a three month plan, I had to find out if it's too good to be true. Turns out it really is that easy to get wireless for 15 bucks a month. The longest part of the process will be the time you spend on hold waiting to break up with your old provider. Isn't that right Set? I am not going to lie.

[Justin Davis]

I was very pleased and very excited.

[Sam Claiborne]

To find out Mint Mobile works even for me in the middle of nowhere Maine. I was honestly expecting to be shut out from all the fun of Mint Mobile, but it worked. Awesome. I loaded in my code and to test it out I just drove out. I'm not even lying. It sounds like I'm making this up. I just drove out into the woods of Maine to see how far I could go without losing coverage. And I am happy to say I did not have any coverage interruptions whatsoever that I would not have experienced with any of the other providers. That alone is enough to sell me. Because look, Maine is a big state. There's a lot of woods.

[Justin Davis]

Stephen King is here.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it's haunted. There's ghosts everywhere. And everyone knows that ghosts hate 5G. But I am happy to say I have literally no complaints. It's inexpensive, there's no contract, I don't have to have all these weird hidden fees. And you know, best of all, it works in spite of ghosts. Thanks Seth. Say goodbye to your overpriced wireless plans, Jaw dropping monthly bills and unexpected overages, all Mint Mobile plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. Find out how easy it is to switch to Mint Mobile to get this new customer offer and your new three month premium wireless plan including the unlimited plan for just 15 bucks a month. Go to mintmobile.com gamescoop that's mintmobile.com Gamescoop cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com Gamescoop $45 upfront payment required, equivalent to $15 a month new customers on first three month plan only speed slower above 40 gigs on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details. Moving on to some news of the week. Nintendo has not announced the Switch 2, and I would not expect it to be announced until next year at this point. But it has confirmed that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with the Switch, which was a very important thing to a lot of people, a lot of current Switch owners. But what do you think about this, they said it's going to be backward compatible with original Switch games. They didn't specifically say cartridges.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean, I'm going to do that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe you assume it'll be able to take the same cartridges.

[Justin Davis]

I think that this is absolutely an announcement to not just completely tank and hose Nintendo Switch holiday software sales.

[Sam Claiborne]

Gotcha. Yep.

[Justin Davis]

Like, why would anyone buy a Nintendo Switch game this fall if there's a new Switch coming in a few months?

[Sam Claiborne]

Got it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. That's a good move. And I. We're doing a little bit of the game of the year assembling of like big lists right now. And like just we. I just was helping form these and the Switch list is so good. It from just this year, you mean? Yeah, it was a great year for Switch games. A lot of the games that you two liked a lot like Prince of Persian and Balachar are like also on Switch. Right. So you look at the Switch list and it's like, it's unbelievable. And when it was Switch exclusives and.

[Sam Claiborne]

Unicorn Overlord is on Switch and Unicorn Overlord.

[Damon Hatfield]

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So it just, it's really impressive. So it's like, it is funny that, you know, whatever Nintendo's strategy was for pushing the Switch into the next year and like, and like, whatever damage control this was, this fall, like, it hardly matters. Did you see the Mario Kart sales? Like, it's unbelievable. The Switch is unstoppable. They have no reason to release another Switch until they tell us why they're doing it, which has to be, you know, something big.

[Justin Davis]

You know, every single quarter we get a Nintendo sales update, which is what Sam's alluding to. Like, hey, here's an updated total on, you know, how many copies our games have sold. And every single quarter for years, Mario Kart 8 has been, you know, outsold. Most brand new games that just came out.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Justin Davis]

Like that quarter, quarter in quarter, they sell like a million copies of that game every three months. Forever.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I wanted to look up what's the actual most recent. Well, I'll wait till one of yours.

[Justin Davis]

And I know I've said this on Scoop before, but like, you know, I am more amazed. Like Obviously, Mario Kart 8 selling 54 million copies or whatever it is. Right. One of the best selling games of all time is a ridiculous statistic. But the statistic I like more is, you know, it's like, oh, arms sold like four and a half million copies. Like there's these B and C tier games that like, you know, that are punching so far above their weight, just because the switch was such a phenomenon. Like, you know, not that. Like, not that Pikmin is like a B or C tier game. Pikmin is amazing. But it's like, you know, Pikmin 4 outselling Pikmin 3, like, you know, 10 to 1. Just like, crazy stats like that. That's always my favorite thing in those sales updates.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is up to 64 million copies.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, my God.

[Damon Hatfield]

Wow. But that's not quite Minecraft GTA Mario Kart.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not quite one out of every two switches sold. It's a little bit less than half of all switches sold, because that's up to, like, 145 million.

[Damon Hatfield]

I like the situation with a game like Mario Kart. I mean, this is kind of. Well, it's not as true for other games like Minecraft, stuff like that anyway. It's the kind of schoolyard thing where it's like, there's still kids that go to their friend's house and they play Mario Kart, and then they go home and they're like, I have to get good at this because my friends kick my butt all the time. So everybody has to have a copy of Mario Kart. Yeah, you just have to.

[Justin Davis]

If you're playing against my daughter, she just talks smack the whole time.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, wow. In character, though. Only playing as one character.

[Justin Davis]

And then I had to, like. Then I had to. It's like, okay, well, you brought this on yourself. And then it was no more Mr. Neistat. She's like, how are you doing that? How are you going so fast? I'm like, you gotta learn. You started it.

[Damon Hatfield]

So you. So it's not that she was talking smack because she's younger and better than you.

[Justin Davis]

No.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's that she hasn't caught up to being able to beat you yet. She was just talking smack. That's great.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, I wasn't like. It's not like I was like, I'm gonna let her win, but I was taking it easy. Right? And then it's like, okay, well, you know, now we're going to see what's what. These kids got to learn.

[Damon Hatfield]

And you still have the Mario Kart chops.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, but I mean, you know, my kids are not like, the Mario Kart chops and air quotes is like, I know how to hop and do the little slide and get the.

[Damon Hatfield]

They just weren't doing that.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean, they're learning, but, like, yeah, they're not really doing that.

[Sam Claiborne]

You mentioned Pikmin, Justin, in the Same financial call where they share that they had to lower their projection for the Nintendo Switch sales because sales are going down for the Switch. Unsurprisingly, it's knocking on the door of the PlayStation 2 in terms of units sold. But anyway, they said that many Nintendo series that were less popular before have enjoyed incredible growth on Nintendo Switch. And they're comparing something like Pikmin, its sales on Switch compared to its sales on WWII U&3DS.WII U&3DS had sold 1.8 million and now on the Switch alone It's almost. Almost 8 million. Yeah, he's got it right there.

[Justin Davis]

So it's like Pikmin. And look, I want a caveat. Nobody get nobody right in and be mad. I love Pikmin. But it is absolutely like a lower tier Nintendo franchise. Right. Pikmin 4 is an incredible game. It's a dream sequel. Like this big really long campaign, really interesting kind of strategy challenges. It did exactly what I wanted it to do. Or it had big satisfying side modes and like a million sort of like side things to do. But like that game sold 9 million copies and it kind of just came and went like that's how huge the Switch is. Is that like, you know, for another developer this would be like. We've never had a game be this successful in our life.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And for Nintendo it's just like, well, that's our 25th best selling game on the platform.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And to be fair, the Wii U sold like 13 million units and then 3Ds sold half as many units as the DS.

[Damon Hatfield]

So they just hor. Oh no, don't ever do that. So there's just a bad plan too. Another bad plan.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's just a huge addressable audience on the Switch that Nintendo has that it's Pikmin. The Pikmin series can thrive when there's a big enough audience of people buying the system.

[Damon Hatfield]

Who is doing this footage?

[Justin Davis]

We gotta get this B roll off. It's driving me crazy.

[Damon Hatfield]

Wow. That was just three types of slaughter that were so.

[Justin Davis]

Oh man, that's all your blue Pikmin.

[Damon Hatfield]

Into the fire.

[Justin Davis]

That Spider ate so many flying Pikmin.

[Damon Hatfield]

That was the best day of Spider's life. So yeah, so the Pikmin stats here, like Justin's saying, like. So it's rounding up all the Pikmin games on Switch, which is 1 and 2 and maybe 3 that got ported to the eShop or whatever, or 2 were in a pack or something. And then it rounded 4 and it reached almost 8 million sold. That's like that's like an Assassin's Creed sale sell through. Like that's crazy for like a bunch of recycled games and a sequel that again, like.

[Sam Claiborne]

But what. Look at Kirby. Look at Kirby. Over 15 million units on the Switch for Kirby.

[Damon Hatfield]

This should be embarrassing for everybody. It's just. It's shameful. It's shameful because. Because you see this bar and the bar is. And I'm only saying that yes, I'm not actually bashing Kirby this time necessarily, but look at Metroid. I know there's five, three times as many Kirby games selling on Switch than Metroid. That's sad. There are.

[Justin Davis]

So it is the stat. It's a little bit. There's multiple Kirby games, right? So the stat is weird that it's like franchise sales and not game, you know, individual games.

[Damon Hatfield]

But they are showing that these are like their. Their B tier games. And again, Metroid is a B tier Nintendo game because it's never sold well. Right. Like, we're so lucky to sell Metroids because they're trying so hard to get them to stick, but they just don't. It was never a big, big series in Japan and American sales aren't enough to like, you know, do much but keep it going. But so anyway, you see all these and it's showing this. Like, even our. Even our, like, you know, off titles are doing well. So that's cool, right? Cause they have all this IP that they say in the industry and they have all these different, you know, types of games that want to keep going. They want to diversify and have that. But my joke I made to Damon about this is that it's pretty weird that they're comparing it to wii u in 3ds sales because they had a hit system before that with all of these on it. They had a Wii. And it's just really funny that they wrapped it, but I know it's their previous console generation, but it's arbitrary that they combine the two things. Even though that Switch. Like, I can see the logic here, but it's just interesting. I would. They will never release this. I would love to see the genre growth from GameCube onwards or super Nintendo. Like, it's just really interesting to see that with Wii because I think Wii struggled with even these games. Maybe not Kirby. Obviously it struggled with Metroid. I don't think Prime 3 or other M were huge hits. Xenoblade was. I think Wii U started. So I don't really know. Was there a Wii?

[Justin Davis]

No, I think. I can't remember either. But like I mean Metroid's the lowest on this chart. Right? Like 5 million units sold on the Switch. Like if those. If that's $50. Let's just assume that is $250 million spent on Metroid games on the Switch.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And that's the lowest. That's like their lowest performing franchise.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Keep them coming.

[Justin Davis]

And that was made by Mercury Steam. Right.

[Damon Hatfield]

That also reveals on 3ds and Wii U. So that's not an era where we had a lot of Metro games. So we did have, I think Samus Returns. Is that what it was called?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, the three DS one.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Under a million copies. Point 98 million total to Metroid games. Remember that was an era in which they released some genuinely evil games for Metroid fans. Like that one that was like Federation for. Yeah, keep the cutesy Federation Force multiplayer game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

They didn't sell well. Did not sell well.

[Sam Claiborne]

But the.

[Damon Hatfield]

So remember Metroid prime for you guys?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Remember that when they announced that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep, I do.

[Damon Hatfield]

It just missed the generation. It missed the generation.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh gosh. Other m the baby.

[Damon Hatfield]

Look at her cool haircut.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's such a weird look for Samus. So thinking about the Switch 2. The Switch has been more successful than I think anyone could have imagined. One of the best selling video game consoles of all time. I think that pretty much means. I think that pretty much dooms the follow. It's the Switch. To let me put it this way, if the Switch 2 is anywhere near as successful as the Switch, that would be a first for Nintendo. They've never had two hit consoles in a row.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's like well ness super nes. It's the curse.

[Sam Claiborne]

Super Nintendo did not sell as many units as nes in fact.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, you're saying. That's interesting. They've never followed a hit with a even bigger hit.

[Sam Claiborne]

If you're drawing a line in sales Numbers Starting at NES, it goes down through Super Nintendo, through Nintendo 64, through GameCube, and then spikes up again for the Wii.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

But then way back down again for Wii U. Right.

[Justin Davis]

It's never happened twice in a row of Star Trek movies. Like only even numbered Star Trek movies are good.

[Damon Hatfield]

So the PlayStation broke that only with PS1, 2 and 3.

[Justin Davis]

Well, and 4 and 5. I mean the PS3 was less popular.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh no, no, they're right. No, 3 did. I was thinking of 4. So it's just 1 and 2.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

So back to the first point though. I know we said contextually that they're only saying that you can have backwards Compatibility because they want to sell games as fault. However, it's great and I applaud them for it because I also realized that tucked in there was, we've solved the backwards compatibility situation for retro games, which is you have a subscription service now and we're not going to nuke that for the next generation, which they absolutely had before. They've regretted it and then they've made you pay like peanuts to update your downloaded games. And they even sit in this data like they're like, oh, you know, we couldn't figure this out before. I mean, they could have, they could have just given you free tokens for your games or something, but they definitely didn't want to do that.

[Justin Davis]

No, I mean, that's super true. Like, look, we've taken Nintendo to task over the years for like, you know, forcing you to buy and rebuy and rebuy the same Nintendo games over and over and over again with each new generation.

[Damon Hatfield]

And so I'd say Super Mario World World's the biggest offender. It came Game Boy advance and then Light Shop and then was in the Super Nintendo thing.

[Justin Davis]

If that's actually truly over, then, I mean, look, like that's incredible. I mean, you know, this is Nintendo we're talking about. So this is a company that I love, but they have a tendency to sort of. They like, they give you your wish, but in like a monkey's paw way where like, you know, I'm curious to see how it's implemented and like, you know, maybe you won't. Maybe they're all tied behind your Nintendo Switch online subscription or something and then you have to keep that subscription for life. You know, there's, there's, there's going to be some catch.

[Sam Claiborne]

We'll find out more next year when the Switch 2 is finally unveiled and released. Metal Slug PS5 Pro is out this week. We gave that a 7. It seems like it's a nice to have expensive console, not a necessary upgrade. I'm going to be very curious to see how this sells because it's not sold out at all. You can buy a PS5 Pro from anywhere.

[Damon Hatfield]

So I watched our video review and then Damon and I produced an episode of Next Gen Console Watch, but I haven't seen that episode yet. Was there any, any takes from that that are interesting? Because I've only seen our review and I haven't been to the office to check it out.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's just, it's. We, we basically just went over the points from Michael Higgins review. This is if you have a nice TV and you can afford $700. It's a nice way to play your PS5 games, but it is in no way essential.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, okay.

[Justin Davis]

I did not end up ordering one. Neither did I. I don't like the white colorway. I like a lot of people because there's so much fervor around the 20th anniversary edition that to me is a lot more aesthetically pleasing looking console. But not interested in spending $700 on that either.

[Damon Hatfield]

I can't wait to see the PS1 themed one in person. That one's pretty cool. However, I really wish they just made this into a little rectangle. Like, I think it'd be really cool if I could actually put this one inside my entertainment center. Which I actually did recently put my PS5 inside my entertainment center. And it's always like 30 minutes into a game or a movie where I'm like what's that sound? And I have to go open the door and then it heats up the whole house.

[Justin Davis]

Yep, I have to pull mine out. Yeah, look, software sells hardware and I'm not seeing any upgrades like the improvements in frame rates and running fidelity. Mode at 60fps to me is not worth it. I'm not like, look, I'm a pretty hardcore gamer and I have the disposable income, so I'm right in the target audience for this thing. But I just, there's nothing that makes me want to get one yet. So like GTA 6, like I reserve the right. Next year or whenever the case might be to change my mind, there's going to be some game that comes out that like I'm really going to be insistent on playing in the best possible way it can be played. Which, which would still be PC but on my couch in my living room. And I would reconsider them.

[Sam Claiborne]

Someone in the Facebook group said the next full Xbox console should be called the Xbox 460. With the selling point being it's the first console that plays all games in 4K at 60 frames per second.

[Justin Davis]

460, that's not the worst.

[Sam Claiborne]

Here's a little bit of a possibly concerning headline. I'm going to read this story in real time. We were just talking about all of Nintendo's classic games.

[Damon Hatfield]

I just want to point out there that that Hogwarts footage looked unbelievable. That game upscaled so well.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is a headline on GamesIndustry Biz. Sega to delist multiple games from Classics collections.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I saw that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sega is delisting select games and bundles from its classics collections on Digital Storefronts. Starting December 6th.

[Damon Hatfield]

And the subscription service Digital Storefront. Is that what it is?

[Justin Davis]

No. Like on Steam and places like that, they had collections of just Genesis games.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, there's also the Sega Genesis Classics, which was a game that I think I reviewed for ign and it's a great.

[Damon Hatfield]

I was thinking Sony. That makes much more sense. Sega. Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

The Sega Genesis Classics collection is a great collection of Sega Genesis games. It's almost everything you'd want to play on the system. And most importantly, it has Shining Force 1 and 2. Those two games alone will give you 100 hours of gameplay. But it says the Sega Genesis Classics bundle will be delisted from digital stores, I guess on December 6th. So I guess maybe they're planning something, maybe a new package. We also know that they're making new versions of Golden Axe and Streets of Rage.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is the Nintendo issue, right? It's like, how do you buy a collection and stay with.

[Justin Davis]

I do give them some credit for A, these companies aren't obligated to give you a heads up. So they told us a month in advance, like, look, if you want this thing in your Steam library, like, get it now. And B, I'm looking at it on Steam right now. It is on sale. It is 45% off. It is 55 Genesis games and it's $31.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's great. I really recommend it.

[Justin Davis]

So, you know, you can finally experience Kid Chameleon.

[Damon Hatfield]

Did they add to this since you reviewed it?

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't recall if they've added anything in there.

[Damon Hatfield]

If there was like 30 games and now there's 55 of them.

[Justin Davis]

Oh man, I have so much nostalgia.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's really, really good. Great collection.

[Justin Davis]

For as much as I kind of goof on Sega on this show, I was a Sega kid growing up. I didn't have a SNES till later. And so you know Kid Chameleon and Space Harrier and Golden Axe and Echo and Comix Zone and Ristar. Like those were the games that I grew up with.

[Sam Claiborne]

Bonanza Brothers.

[Damon Hatfield]

Crazy. Bonanza Brothers is so weird. I love decap Attack Vector, man.

[Sam Claiborne]

Great collection. Let's check in with the listeners.

[Justin Davis]

Hey, listeners.

[Sam Claiborne]

Listeners, remember you can always reach us at the email address gamescopyn.com just like Joey Hawkinson in Huntsville, Alabama, aka Rocket City. Joey says, I'm a longtime listener since 2018 and a first time writer. I wanted to show some love for the upcoming Dragon Quest 3 HD 2D remake. I have such good memories from playing the Game Boy Color port of Dragon Quest 3 as a seven year old back in 2001. It came with a beautiful pack I.

[Damon Hatfield]

Didn'T know that existed.

[Sam Claiborne]

Came with a beautiful pack in world map and an instruction booklet filled with character artwork from late manga master Akira Toriyama. It took me years just to get off the starting island. I would stare at that world map and dream of the places I would eventually visit. The reason this experience has stuck with me for so long is because it redefined what I thought was possible from a video game. That massive game world full of secrets, along with the wide diversity of monsters, equipment and spells was so much more expansive than this young gamer had ever experienced. I've only had this framework shattering experience a few other times in gaming. The freedom I felt when first entering the open world of Elder scrolls Oblivion in 2007 and the adventure of exploring a literally unique procedurally generated world for the first time playing Minecraft in 2010.

[Justin Davis]

Nice.

[Sam Claiborne]

My question for the Goose camp counselors is what experiences in gaming have redefined what you believed to be possible from this medium? It could be your first encounter with a new genre, multiplayer online experience, or a technical leap in hardware capability that left you stunned. Games have evolved a great deal over the years and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I started thinking about this one and I have a lot of examples, but the earliest one I can think of, I didn't realize that the reader had brought up the same one that I felt, which I had a little bit of a spin on, which is I really was Into Final Fantasy 1 and the Final Fantasy Legend games as a kid because they were like, well, you get these games that might be. You could play them forever, but they're Super Mario Bros length, which is like whatever, you can beat Super Mario Brothers In 30 minutes or something, but you could play them for a lot more. They'd. Replay value is what we used to call that. That. And. But then there's games like you get Final Fantasy and it was tens of hours long and that absolutely blew my mind. Like I just said like not only was it like open world feeling like Zelda, but it just, it just went on forever and ever and ever. And it just felt like games at that time were getting bigger and bigger in an exciting way. So by the time we got to Final Fantasy 4 and 6, I just, I couldn't believe that. Like. And I feel like games a little bit contracted after that. Final Fantasy 7 did not feel bigger than 6 to me. So, you know, it's really interesting. Yeah, there's lots of them. So that's my.

[Justin Davis]

That's a great answer. For me, the one that immediately springs to mind is Super Mario 64.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Justin Davis]

Playing a game in 3D like that, like, you know, if you weren't there for that transition.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep.

[Justin Davis]

From like 2D to 3D, it felt. It was unbelievable. Like, it felt like magic. The first time you were at a Toys R Us and you saw an N64 set up, that's where I was. You were running around and none of us knew. At least I didn't know because I was a kid. I didn't know you could jump inside the paintings and that's where the whole game was. I was just so happy to run around the castle. And Mario's movement and the momentum behind it felt so perfect and unbelievable. That it is absolutely. I was always a little dork that was at home playing video games. That's who I was as a kid. But until Mario 64 came out, that's when I'm like, I gotta do this for a living. Like, this needs to be like, my life. Like, it changed the direction of my career. Like, you know, I didn't have a career yet, but like, it changed the trajectory of my life when this game came out.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. That's the main one for me. That's probably the most significant one for me as well. We've talked about it many times on this show. You know, when that came out, I'd been playing Mario games for 10 years and I had never played a 3D game before. I didn't play it at Toys R Us first. I played it at Video Library in Lenexa, Kansas, which was an awesome video store that had a huge selection of, like, not only did they have a bunch of, like, anime to rent, but they had every video game system. And I was able to rent the Super Famicom actually before the Super Nintendo was out and played through all of Super Mario World from that store. But one day I walked in and they had Mario 64 up on a kiosk and that's the first time I played it. And like, just like Justin said that the cliche, it was mind blowing. It's just like, I can't believe they nailed that. The joyous feeling of moving Mario around in all of his other games. They just, they nailed it in 3D their first time at bat.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. Can you imagine what it was like to make this game?

[Damon Hatfield]

Right.

[Justin Davis]

Knowing that it followed the SNES like, it blows my mind.

[Damon Hatfield]

Plus, the computers you make this game on have to be more powerful than the system. Right. And so it's just like this really interesting inflection point in technology where it's just like what, like these people were using these tools to do the thing for the first time in 3D space, you know.

[Sam Claiborne]

And like we talk about how bad the camera is today, but back then, like, since I had never had to move the camera in a video game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Before, it wasn't even a thought.

[Sam Claiborne]

I didn't even think to move the camera. I just played the game and then the camera, you know, it was just itself.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's brilliant. They were so smart to not let you control the camera fully, I think.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. And to not talk about it. They like show.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just move Mario.

[Damon Hatfield]

You forget that right away. Yeah, yeah, just move Mario around. So I distinctly remember my first Sandbox experience, the GTA 3, where it wasn't, you know, about the mission, it wasn't about doing something, it was about just like causing trouble and running from that trouble or pushing the boundaries of something and trying to leave an area. And just like the idea of a sandbox, it was around in games like Mario 64, which were designed to be very on rails though. But like, you know, there's eight things to do in each world or whatever. Benji Kazooie is that too, like gta, like you, like a lot of people didn't play gta, they. They turned it on and drove around in it. Like that's, that's mainly what people seem to do in that game. And three was the first one I played for sure. I mean, I played Vice City.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. That experience of like, who? Like, I actually, I actually am not sure I played the campaign of GTA 3.

[Damon Hatfield]

Like my experience with it, what happens in it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, was it was me with my friends and we would pass the controller around and try to get to five stars without dying. And then, you know, and then the next person would take a turn.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, totally.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's a few NES games, I think. Along with Mario 64, Super Mario Brothers was also a big one for me. So I grew up. When Super Mario Brothers came out, I was seven or eight years old. There were still arcades and there are arcade machines everywhere I went. So I was well versed when the Pac Mans and Galaga and of course Donkey Kong and Commando and Xevious and Time Pilot and Defender and all those games. But when you like the first time I just, I saw Super Mario Brothers and there was a line to play it. And then when I finally played it, it was just like. And it's. It felt like so much more than every other arcade game I'd ever played, you know, like, that's exactly it.

[Damon Hatfield]

And I think that was the leap is that arcade games were meant to be these kind of short experiences about getting to the end or getting a score. And then Super Mario Brothers did what I know there were existing adventure games out, right? There was Zork and there was text adventures. There was also lots of CRPGs already. But this brought this kind of arcade joystick and button gameplay to a world that had secrets and a world that was worth exploring and worth slowing down in. It was a game about running and jumping that you didn't run and jump in for the most part. You slowed down and tried to figure out. And so that taught people that there was. I mean, every game came from this after that, every home game. And it brought, it solved consoles. Like consoles were arcade games. And then this was like, oh, there's a reason to have game consoles. This was the game. There just wasn't anything else.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then one day, watching cartoons, there was just a commercial for a new video game system, the Nintendo Entertainment System. And it was going to play Super Mario Brothers, the arcade game, perfectly at home.

[Damon Hatfield]

You're very lucky to have caught that in an arcade. I mean, the vast majority of Americans learned about Super Mario Brothers from the NES already being out and having. Being Trojan horsed into game stores via the rob that Christmas. And then the next year, Mario broke, right? It was after the Gyromite fall that it really started taking off. And it was word of mouth and it spread like wildfire.

[Sam Claiborne]

I remember I saw it at. It was at the Showbiz Pizza on Metcalf in Overland park, where a kid.

[Damon Hatfield]

Can be a kid.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. Is that Toys R Us?

[Damon Hatfield]

Anyway, Showbiz Pizzas. And then here in the west coast it was Chuck E. Cheese's. They both have the same catch. Your kid can be a kid.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then also on nes, we never had a computer growing up, but I was well aware of all these computer games and I was aware that they were bigger and more intricate and complex than NES games. And I would love to go to Babbage's and software, et cetera, and pick up the boxes of computer games and look at the back. And the graphics were so much more detailed. And I was really interested in Police Quest and all the Quest games, King's Quest, Quest for Glory. But then I get to experience some of those with good ports on the nes. So I talk about Shadowgate all the time. Shadowgate was a point and click adventure. I don't know that I'd played many first person viewpoint games before. I was totally enamored with just exploring that creepy castle. And then the other one is Maniac Mansion, the port to Nintendo. That's where I played that game. And that was also a much more involved, a lot more thinking involved than most of the mega mansions and the Binance commandos that I was used to playing on nes.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm trying to think of some of the kind of heightened moments for the craft which involve acting and writing. And I mean, this might not be the best example, but I remember the years that, and I don't know which one came out first, but Walking Dead and then maybe Red Dead Redemption, both those were like kind of like, like, wow. Like this. These games have a lot of dialogue and they have a lot of voice acting. And it's not totally embarrassing because that's what it was until 2008, you know?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Pretty much like you couldn't have, you couldn't over the shoulder, you know, if you had, if you were like dating somebody, you'd be like, well, I don't want her to see this because it's super embarrassing. But then, you know, like, you know, even Heavy Rain, you're like, oh boy, this is. Why are they saying origami that way? That's supposed to be like literature, you know. And then finally you get like Walking Dead where you're like, wow, this, this is just people just doing regular acting. Why did this take so long?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, we. I would say another big one for me. It's funny that it came up on the show this week, but is Halo 2. That was my introduction. I think that might be the first game I went to a midnight launch for. And so that was very exciting and fun to go to GameStop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And then like Xbox Live. Right. Like, I don't think it was literally the first time I'd used Xbox Live because I think I'd played Crimson Skies prior to that. But like, you know, so much to this day. Well, maybe not to this day in 2024 because they've kind of finally replaced a lot of these systems. But like a lot of what we think about of like join a party and like you are in a voice chat with them and like send a party invitation. Now this is a crew that goes from like, like game to game, like Halo 2 that came from Halo 2. Like a lot of that infrastructure of like, you know, prior to that, it didn't literally invent this stuff as is often the case. These concepts were around but like That a squad of people would play a match together and the match would end and they would stick together and go to another match with that.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's totally.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that was not as common back then.

[Damon Hatfield]

Intuitive once we all got used to it. But like boy, it's different than couch co op so they had to like really like couch competitive. So they really had to form that idea.

[Justin Davis]

And that was my. That wasn't the very first games I played online because I was already playing Starcraft online by then and some others. But like you know, party chat, like you know, wearing a headset and playing a video game and playing, you know, competitive ranked multiplayer and trying to be good at it and rank up. Halo 2 was, was my first time ever doing anything like that, you know. And then it obviously would improve and get perfected in Halo 3 and Reach. But yeah, I mean and then it barely working for a while too because it was so popular is also a memory. But like those multiplayer matches was a really seminal moment for video games and for and for me.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is a great topic. We could talk about this for the whole show probably and maybe we will do that at another time. But let's get to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from where's the name Curtis in Chandler, Arizona. And Curtis says as a little anecdote, I was up late last night scrolling through Kickstarter. I'm an avid board gamer and saw something you would be interested in. A full hardcover compilation of every EGM issue. We are excited about that. Yep, it's going to be very, very cool. But he also asked, have any of you ever backed anything game related on Kickstarter? Justin?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, what? I back like four things this week.

[Sam Claiborne]

I know you're kind of.

[Damon Hatfield]

Justin is Mr. Kickstarter. Yeah, he used to tip us off to stuff in the office all the time. It was like on Kickstarter. That was cool.

[Justin Davis]

That is where I got my copper sphere.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. So I did back the EGM Kickstarter if people haven't seen it. Do people have time if they hear this show? I don't know. I think it's closing soon. But it's just a hardcover book that goes through the history of EGM and a lot of the behind the scenes interviews with some of the cast and other people. And we've said on Scoop before that EGM was very formative and important to me and I grew up wanting to very much wanting to write for that magazine and that was my dream and that's how I ended up where I am. Today, that and Mario 64 made me who I am.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

And the top editorial executive was the IC of this magazine during its biggest.

[Sam Claiborne]

Run, John Davison, for the launch of the PlayStation 2. Or at least the dream. Yeah, that one. And the Dreamcast.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. Yeah, I mean, I back. So what are some notable video game Kickstarters? Yeah, Ukulele, Pillars of Eternity, Mighty Number Nine.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mighty Number Nine.

[Justin Davis]

Pillars of Eternity kind of re Kicked off the computer RPG renaissance. That's like still going now. I don't. It's too much to claim that Baldur's Gate 3 can be traced back to Pillars of Eternity, but maybe. Dude, I don't know if anyone's ever gone on record to talk about that, but that game, raising $10 million or whatever it raised on Kickstarter, showed that this classic RPG style still had life in it. Eiyuden Chronicles, the Suikoden spiritual successor. That was another big video game, Kickstarter.

[Damon Hatfield]

I still get Kickstarter updates from Ukulele. Some sometimes. What was the Tim Schafer game?

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah, Broken Age.

[Damon Hatfield]

Broken Age.

[Justin Davis]

That was a very similar story of like showing and proving that there was still a hunger and a belief in sort of like point and click. Old school point and click role playing games. So that, like, look, I like Kickstarter a lot. I'm happy to fund indie projects on it. But like back in those days, whenever it was, gosh, maybe a decade ago, it really was a little bit more democratizing. Like, oh, the publishers don't believe that there's enough interest in this thing so we can kind of prove it with our money. Right. And then it was really empowering to then, you know, creators could go forth and get their project made. It's a little bit different now. It's kind of just a marketing platform now, but that's okay too.

[Damon Hatfield]

And shout out to Chandler. I grew up in Phoenix and I don't think I've ever been there.

[Justin Davis]

Well, sorry, what's that? Oh, sorry. I know we're trying to do video game 20 questions. I do want to shout out. What I really spend a lot of my time and money on on Kickstarter is of indie publishing. Like indie magazines and prints and zines. There's a really cool video game magazine called A Profound Waste of Time that is being backed on Kickstarter right now. And I have every other issue and they're great. There's another lot smaller, very indie, a lot scrappier one called Forgotten Worlds. That's cool too. Those are two publishing projects that are on Kickstarter now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool. Curtis in Chandler says, I also have a suggestion for 20 questions. It's my favorite. Redacted, but not a redacted. And with that, let the questioning begin.

[Justin Davis]

Did the game come out in the 70s, 80s, or 90s?

[Sam Claiborne]

No.

[Damon Hatfield]

What if it's a Kickstarter game?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, could be.

[Damon Hatfield]

Was this a console exclusive?

[Sam Claiborne]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Was this game released within the last, I don't know, five years?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Pretty new.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, geez. Is this part of a series?

[Sam Claiborne]

No.

[Damon Hatfield]

Is it an indie game?

[Sam Claiborne]

Let's say we would probably not call this an indie game, and that's fine. Five? I don't know. Would you? I don't know. I don't know. Let's ask it. I'll give you that question back. And ask me something else. I don't know. We'll discuss afterwards.

[Damon Hatfield]

Is this game violent?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes. That's five.

[Justin Davis]

Does this game have 3D graphics?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Is this game rated M for mature?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Damon Hatfield]

Would you describe this as multiplayer focused?

[Sam Claiborne]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Are the Spider man games rated Mr. T?

[Damon Hatfield]

I have no idea. They're console exclusives, though.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah, you're right.

[Damon Hatfield]

Can you play this on Switch?

[Sam Claiborne]

No.

[Damon Hatfield]

Can you play it on Xbox One or series? I mean, series?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes. And that's 10. Okay.

[Justin Davis]

It's a one off. I'd kind of forgotten about that for a second. One off.

[Damon Hatfield]

Violent Xbox game from the past five years that you can.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah. Multiplatform game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Multi platform, but.

[Justin Davis]

But yeah, on the Xbox.

[Damon Hatfield]

Single player too. That's kind of unusual. Unclear if it's indie.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I guess.

[Damon Hatfield]

Why did a Japanese design a game?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, it is not a Japanese design game.

[Justin Davis]

Man. Cause then that eliminates all those souls likes.

[Damon Hatfield]

Is it based on a license?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

That's so good. Oh, man. What does that leave us with, though? That's weird.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, I'm not gonna ask this. We're just past spooky season. I wanted to ask if it's spooky, but it probably is. If it's violent. I don't know though.

[Justin Davis]

But it's not multiplayer focused, so it's not obviously any of the.

[Sam Claiborne]

The licensing question is also weird.

[Justin Davis]

Why? Why is it weird?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I'd love to discuss this with you. Hmm.

[Damon Hatfield]

Is this based on a franchise that has any comic books involved with it?

[Sam Claiborne]

Probably.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, wait a second. So what was the redacted again?

[Sam Claiborne]

It's my favorite. Redacted, but not a redacted.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, that's not helpful. We know it was relatively recent, like this console generation. What if it's like, I Don't know. I know it's not this because it's part of a series, But Space Marine 2 or something very new.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, maybe it's. That type of. That type of license is interesting also.

[Justin Davis]

I think, I think that's why.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I want to clarify. I think technically, Technically, it's not licensed, but it's licensed.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Maybe that meet. Maybe it's like. So maybe it's Cyberpunk 2077 or something like that. Is this game first person? No, it's not Cyberpunk very notably first person. Well, so could be Baldur's Gate 3.

[Damon Hatfield]

I think what he's saying is that it's. Yeah, yeah. It's made by. It's made and published or it's published by the company that they didn't.

[Justin Davis]

They didn't actually license that has the license because they didn't have to license that too.

[Damon Hatfield]

Right. And Wizards or somebody published Baldur's game. But that's part of a series. It's not gonna be that.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, Larian was the developer. Who is the. Did they sell. They might have self published.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's part of a series. This is a one off.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right.

[Damon Hatfield]

And I don't think it can be any of the Star wars games. I think they all have sequels. And Outlaws is not published. That's published by Ubisoft anyway.

[Justin Davis]

Well, why can't it be Outlaws?

[Damon Hatfield]

Because that's definitely licensed. It's not Lucas Games publishing it like some of the other games out.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I just feel like that was an out of game piece of information that Davin gave us. Okay, so hold on. So 3D, relatively recent multiplatform game, not made in Japan. Third person licensed, not part of a series. Does that about sum it up?

[Damon Hatfield]

Is this based on a sci Fi license?

[Justin Davis]

No, it's violent.

[Damon Hatfield]

Whoa.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's 15.

[Damon Hatfield]

That gets rid of so much stuff.

[Justin Davis]

And it was violent, man.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I'm realizing this is tricky. I'm trying to think how I can help you in a fair way.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's just, you know, without Nick Lamone here, it's difficult.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's easier though that Mark's not here, so that's nice.

[Justin Davis]

It's fine. He's not listening.

[Damon Hatfield]

He does a good job with the PlayStation era games. Let's see. Should we ask if it's fantasy? Because if it's not that, then.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I don't. Yeah, sure.

[Damon Hatfield]

Would you describe this as a fantasy game?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I Think that's. I think that is appropriate.

[Damon Hatfield]

So what are our licenses? I mean, we got D and D. We got.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I don't. I mean, I don't know, dude. Like, I'm having a hard time.

[Damon Hatfield]

What if we don't. What if it's like an anime game that was made here?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I don't. I don't. You know, sometimes we get boxed in with these questions and like, usually I have a good idea.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm coalescing around picturing comic book things, probably.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, that. There was probably comics based on it. I don't know. Cause it's like Dragon Ball Z or something like that, you know?

[Damon Hatfield]

That's why I'm wondering if it's like the anime spectrum of things. Something that big, you know?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I don't know. I don't have.

[Damon Hatfield]

Does this have. You know, is this based on animation and animated property?

[Sam Claiborne]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. When this game came out, was it 60 or $70? Would it have been like a normal full price?

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, big game we're at? I'm holding up seven fingers. Let me look at it.

[Justin Davis]

Like, I mainly just want to know, is this like a normal full price, big AAA game?

[Sam Claiborne]

What were. I mean, I don't know. Price that launched at. I can't answer.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, well, instead of that, I can look at the prices now, but was this game. Did this game get an 8 or higher on IGN?

[Sam Claiborne]

I can look that up.

[Damon Hatfield]

You don't know immediately. So it doesn't strike you as.

[Justin Davis]

A.

[Damon Hatfield]

Real turd or a real banger, as we say on game school.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did it get an 8 or above from IGN? That's the question.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes. That's 18. You have one question and a guess.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, no. Oh, God. Then we should definitely know what this is. I'm really thrown off by all the license games I'm picturing are superhero games and stuff like that. But that doesn't. That doesn't strike me as being right.

[Damon Hatfield]

I know. And like, it's probably somebody that made this game like a Marvel Studios made their own game or something. But, like, it's violent.

[Justin Davis]

And what about.

[Damon Hatfield]

What about single player?

[Justin Davis]

What about Suicide Squad?

[Damon Hatfield]

It's single player.

[Justin Davis]

Then that definitely didn't get Nate near higher. I don't know what I was thinking. What about Avatar? Frontiers of Pandora, made by Ubisoft.

[Damon Hatfield]

So not. That's a license.

[Justin Davis]

Why can't it be that?

[Damon Hatfield]

Because it's. It's definitely a licensed game. But he was making the kind of. The exception that it seems like it's the licensee. Just Put it out the game so it doesn't.

[Justin Davis]

So okay, so where does that leave us? That's like WB owns DC.

[Damon Hatfield]

What about Warhammer 40ek or whatever?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, they don't make their own games though. They all license them out. So like WB owns DC Comics. Yeah, WB also Hogwarts. Yeah. So it could be Hogwarts. What else is multi platform but would have their own license to make their own games? I'm having a hard time thinking of stuff because Marvel doesn't even make their own games. I think it's probably Hogwarts or I think it's probably Hogwarts actually. But like, you know, could also be a swerve and be like Batman or something. But, but, but that's not rated M. Shoot.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, and that does check the fantasy mark too. Like it's so close.

[Justin Davis]

You know, I really thought I was onto something there for a sec. Yeah. What? It could be that new Batman VR game. Maybe it's his favorite.

[Damon Hatfield]

There's no way it's rated M. That's for maybe.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe the redacted is. It's my favorite VR game, but not my favorite Batman or something.

[Damon Hatfield]

Is that published by wb?

[Justin Davis]

I mean, I don't know. Probably.

[Damon Hatfield]

We could just ask if it's published by WB and go from there because we're not going to get it.

[Justin Davis]

Well, and also, is that part of the Arkham series?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I think so. It doesn't say Arkham in it though, right? It's not called that. I can't remember. I don't even know what the name of it is, so it'll be hard to guess. Legacy of Darkness, Aria of Sorrow. Is this a WB published game?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, it's not. That brings you to your guests. Unless you want me to just reveal.

[Damon Hatfield]

Should we guess? Is this what's just a violent license that people play? That's like Warhammer?

[Justin Davis]

I don't know, dude. I can't think. I can't think.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, we got like, I don't know, Terminator, Predator, Killer Clowns, all those recent games. Those are all multiplayer though.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. What about RoboCop? I don't know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Maybe it's RoboCop.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Did we give that an eight? There's no way that was licensed. We can guess that. That's fine.

[Damon Hatfield]

We gotta have a guess. Justin.

[Justin Davis]

We can guess RoboCop, but I don't.

[Damon Hatfield]

Think the creators of RoboCop made RoboCop the vacation.

[Justin Davis]

Oh yeah? I don't know. I don't have a guess.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, I'm going to reveal. It's Batman. Arkham Shadow. No, no, no, no. I'm sorry. This is not Batman. I'm just telling you the title of that new Batman VR game is Batman, Arkham Shadow.

[Damon Hatfield]

Aria Shadow. No, Harmony of Batman.

[Sam Claiborne]

This game came out last year. It was made in South Korea, and it is a soulslike and it's based on a property that has passed into the public domain.

[Justin Davis]

Lies.

[Sam Claiborne]

Which is why. So based on a property, but there's no license. They didn't have to, like, sign a paper to do. You could just. They could just use it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, I think the good news is that Mark or Nick would have got that one.

[Sam Claiborne]

You think they would.

[Damon Hatfield]

They would have.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I think Mark probably had to work on it, for one thing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

And then Nick probably need it before. Anybody on staff.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, probably.

[Justin Davis]

I actually think we could have. What led us astray? I mean, the licensing led us astray, but what really led us astray is that this was not made in Japan, but it was made in Korea and so usually not made in Japan. We're picturing games made in Europe or in the Americas, but obviously there's a lot more games coming out of Korea and mainland China now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's his favorite. It's Curtis favorite souls. Like, but not a Fromsoft game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, it's sad because we usually ask too. Does this game have Edge Lord puppets as a theme? Yeah, just didn't ask that one this time.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Based on Pinocchio. I think the original novel is what it's based on.

[Damon Hatfield]

Geppetto. Nice. That's why Kratos doing Pinocchio.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, we got it. We were picking up what you were putting down. Picked up.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, well, nicely attempt. Thank you for the suggestion, Curtis in Chandler, Arizona. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions.

[Damon Hatfield]

Wait, did you explain what his cats.

[Sam Claiborne]

What was it his favorite soulslike, but not a Fromsoft game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, okay, okay, that checks out.

[Justin Davis]

You were already workshopping your God of War goof when David said that the first time.

[Damon Hatfield]

I totally was.

[Sam Claiborne]

Viewers and listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address. Gamescoopen.com. thank you both Sam and Justin. Thank you to Joe, Britt and everyone else working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. Let me grab this one.

[Damon Hatfield]

Jiminy Cricket.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, My name is Damon and this is. Oh, my name is Damon and this is Same. And we're out.

[Justin Davis]

Get it? Same.

[Damon Hatfield]

Was there a total complaint as you picked Same up?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, she did not. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Nothing is as it seems in liminal London. Hidden amongst everyday people are werewolves.

[Justin Davis]

You'll be the werewolf then.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, Megs. Wizards.

[Damon Hatfield]

Montgomery Archibald Barker at your bloody service. And those cursed by the fey monarchs of the city.

[Justin Davis]

Declan Buchanan, PI he has quite a large pair of antlers growing out of his forehead.

[Damon Hatfield]

Join the unlikely misfits of liminal London.

[Sam Claiborne]

As they work to take down the powers that claim to rule the city. I think the Queen doesn't like you very much.

[Damon Hatfield]

With incredible guest players like Johnny Chiadini.

[Justin Davis]

You say there's sludge?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Sludge. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm the sludge Love.

[Justin Davis]

Sludge boy.

[Sam Claiborne]

No again, I'm not that sludge boy.

[Damon Hatfield]

Grant Howitt.

[Justin Davis]

Isaac Newton didn't study in F. Putney, did he? Who's Isaac?

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, my God. And Sharmini Bundell.

[Justin Davis]

There's a magic community.

[Sam Claiborne]

There is. Yay.

[Justin Davis]

I'm in a magic community.

[Damon Hatfield]

Go to realmspod.com or search realms of peril and glory wherever you listen to podcasts to find this mysteriously magical actual play series.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hi, I'm Jennifer, a co founder of the Go Kid Go network at Go Kid Go. Putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce. That's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called the Search for the Silver Lining, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited.

[Justin Davis]

Young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot.

[Sam Claiborne]

During her journey, Isla meets new friends including King Arthur and his Knights of.

[Justin Davis]

The Round Table, and learns valuable life.

[Sam Claiborne]

Lessons with every quest, sword fight and dragon ride. Positive and uplifting stories remind us all about the importance of kindness, friendship, honesty and positivity. Join me and an all star cast of actors including Liam Neeson, Emily Blunt, Kristen Bell, Chris Hemsworth, among many others, in welcoming the Search for the Silver Lining podcast to the Go Kid Go.

[Justin Davis]

Network by listening today. Look for the Search for the Silver.

[Sam Claiborne]

Lining on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.