Game Scoop! 790: Indiana Jones & the Great Video Game

Summary

Game Scoop! 790: Indiana Jones & the Great Video Game – Detailed Summary

Release Date: December 6, 2024

Introduction

In episode 790 of Game Scoop!, hosted by Damon Hatfield of IGN, the panel dives deep into the newly released Indiana Jones & the Great Video Game. Joined by Sam Claiborne, Ryan McCaffrey, and Mark Medina, the hosts explore various facets of the game, sharing their insights and engaging in lively discussions. Additionally, the episode features the humorous segment "Nintendo Seal of Quantity," a look back at past headlines in "Game Scoop Head Scratchers," listener interactions, and the entertaining "Video Game 20 Questions" game segment.

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Review of Indiana Jones & the Great Video Game

The primary focus of this episode revolves around the review of Indiana Jones & the Great Video Game, which IGN has rated 9 out of 10. Both Mark Medina and Sam Claiborne have been playing the game extensively, providing comprehensive feedback.

• Gameplay Mechanics & Combat:

  Mark praises the game's addictive nature, highlighting the "slapstick" combat that mirrors the chaotic action of the Indiana Jones films. He notes, "[Mark Medina, 04:40] 'The combat starts to click and you realize the slapstick nature of what would be in the movies.'" The combat system encourages players to grab and bash objects, creating a dynamic and engaging experience.

• Story & Art Style:

  While initially lukewarm about the art style, Mark acknowledges its growth on him after a week of gameplay. Ryan emphasizes the impeccable voice acting, stating, "[Ryan McCaffrey, 05:14] 'The performance is uncanny. It is so good, and I'm shocked by it.'"

• Exploration & Open World:

  The game's open-world elements, particularly the Vatican setting, draw comparisons to Dishonored for their stealth and infiltration opportunities. Mark comments, "[Mark Medina, 07:33] 'Even in situations where you think, oh, I have to fight here... the game really discourages you by not rewarding you, but I kind of find the combat pretty fun.'"

• Puzzle Design:

  Damon highlights the inventive puzzles, such as torch-throwing mechanics, adding depth to the exploration. "[Damon Hatfield, 14:25] 'You have to look for a window to throw your torch through.'"

Overall, the hosts express high enthusiasm for the game's faithful representation of the Indiana Jones universe, seamless integration of action and exploration, and minimal bugs across platforms.

Notable Quotes:

• "[Mark Medina, 04:40] 'The combat starts to click and you realize the slapstick nature of what would be in the movies.'"
• "[Ryan McCaffrey, 05:14] 'The performance is uncanny. It is so good, and I'm shocked by it.'"

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Nintendo Seal of Quantity

In this humorous segment, the hosts critique a selection of poorly developed or nonsensical games, showcasing the "Nintendo Seal of Quantity" as a playful condemnation.

• Featured Games:

  • Cats vs Dogs Military Mission: An absurd military simulator featuring AI-generated graphics and over-the-top scenarios.

  • Cowboy Duel Red Wild West Massacre: A literal take on Wild West duels with mismatched game mechanics.

  • Guide to Personal Finance: Ironically presented as a game, despite being a non-game resource.

• Humorous Commentary:

  The panel mocks the lack of coherence and quality in these titles, emphasizing their inappropriateness as actual games. Mark humorously states, "[Mark Medina, 27:04] 'I need this game.'"

Notable Quotes:

• "[Damon Hatfield, 25:26] 'He's been to war.'"
• "[Mark Medina, 27:04] 'I need to know how long you play this game before it asks for something that is just a fishing attempt.'"

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Game Scoop Head Scratchers

This segment revisits old Game Scoop! headlines to evaluate their accuracy and relevance over time.

• Highlighted Headlines:

  • May 2021: 'May 2021 is going to be huge for games.'

  • August 2019: 'PlayStation 4 is about to become the second best-selling console of all time.'

  • February 20, 2014: 'A BioShocking announcement.'

• Discussion Points:

  The hosts reflect on the expectations versus the actual outcomes, noting instances where predictions fell short or transformed differently than anticipated.

Notable Quotes:

• "[Ryan McCaffrey, 35:12] 'Remember, we did expect E3. Still in 2021, there was a possibility that there would be an E3.'"

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Listener Emails

The hosts engage with listener feedback, sharing anecdotes and responding to questions.

• Featured Listener: Brandon Biggs from Arkansas

  Brandon shares nostalgic memories of gaming in the '90s, highlighting his early experiences with consoles like the Sega Genesis and Nintendo Game Boy. He suggests a spin-off podcast featuring "20 questions," which the hosts find intriguing.

• Featured Listener: Ryan from Kent, UK

  Ryan discusses the influence of parental attitudes on gaming habits during childhood, contrasting his own experience with more restrictive upbringing to the more lenient approaches of his co-hosts.

• Featured Listener: Warren G. from Kentucky

  Warren seeks recommendations for single-player Xbox One games not available on Nintendo Switch. The hosts recommend titles like Elden Ring, Resident Evil 2, and Psychonauts 2.

Notable Quotes:

• "[Brandon Biggs, 40:26] 'This game took me many weekends to beat. Haha.'"
• "[Ryan McCaffrey, 47:00] 'My parents are very video game like pro. They didn't like them, they didn't play them.'"

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Video Game 20 Questions

In this interactive segment, the hosts play a guessing game based on video games.

• Game Play:

  Listener Johan suggests Ice Hockey for the game. Through a series of targeted questions, the hosts narrow down the possibilities, ultimately identifying the game as Nintendo’s Ice Hockey from 1988.

• Discussion:

  The hosts reminisce about classic sports games and the unique features that made titles like Ice Hockey memorable despite their simplicity.

Notable Quotes:

• "[Mark Medina, 70:43] 'Hey, there we go.'"
• "[Damon Hatfield, 72:34] 'So it'd be a blue box game. It has that blue cover with just the goalie on it, right?'"

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Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, Damon Hatfield previews upcoming Game Scoop! episodes, including recordings post-Game Awards with potential announcements and the live reveal of IGN's Game of the Year. The hosts express gratitude towards their team and listeners, encouraging continued engagement and feedback.

Notable Quotes:

• "[Damon Hatfield, 75:21] 'Remember, we got some fun episodes coming up next week.'"
• "[Mark Medina, 75:28] 'As seen in this photo that I gave to Jobert.'"

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Post-Credits Spoiler Scene

In a brief post-credits segment, Mark Medina shares a spoiler about the Indiana Jones & the Great Video Game opening, revealing an iconic scene inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark. He humorously critiques the integration of familiar movie moments into the game, adding an extra layer of insight for fans familiar with the franchise.

Notable Quotes:

• "[Mark Medina, 75:56] 'He does not look like he belongs.'"
• "[Damon Hatfield, 75:56] 'There you have it. The Nintendo Seal of quantity.'"

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Closing Remarks

The episode concludes with the hosts encouraging listeners to submit their thoughts and game suggestions via email, maintaining an interactive and community-driven atmosphere.

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of Game Scoop! 790, highlighting in-depth discussions on the featured game, humorous critiques of subpar titles, nostalgic reflections on past headlines, engaging listener interactions, and entertaining game-related segments—all structured to provide a clear and informative overview for those who haven't tuned into the episode.

Transcript

[Damon Hatfield]

This episode is brought to you by Skinny Pop 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 popcorn kernels, Sunflower oil and salt. Snacking never felt or tasted so good. Perfectly popped, endlessly delicious. Give yourself permission to snack and pick up Skinny Pop Original Popcorn Today. Next Gen Console Watch is the Igen show discussing the latest gaming hardware. Whether it's the PS5 Pro, Nintendo Switch 2, or something new from Xbox, it's all fair game. A Next Gen Console watch hosted by myself, Damon Hatfield, a 20 year IGN veteran. I am joined by my co hosts, Ryan McCaffrey, host of ijin's Xbox podcast podcast Unlocked, and Max Scoville, host of Ijin's PlayStation podcast podcast Beyond. I will try to keep these console war discussions civil, but no promises. Listen to Next Gen Console Watch on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Friday. What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield and joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Are we actually doing this?

[Damon Hatfield]

We're doing it. Justin Davis.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, Scoop.

[Damon Hatfield]

And Mark Medina.

[Mark Medina]

I'm here, Damon, you are here.

[Damon Hatfield]

And we've got a great show for you this week, even though. So we're in a bit of a lull this week, but very few exciting weeks coming up. So after this episode we have three more episodes coming this year. Next week we're recording after the Game Awards and there'll be all sorts of announcements for us to talk about. The week after that, we're actually gonna reveal IGN's Game of the Year winner live on this very show with representatives from all the other podcasts.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

We won't be here.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, not these guys, but other people from the other podcast will be here. And then the week after that will of course be the Damie's, the big finale of the year. So lots of exciting stuff coming up this week a little bit slower, but we do have the return of the Nintendo Seal of Quantity this week coming back.

[Sam Claiborne]

Excellent.

[Damon Hatfield]

Along with a new segment that I call Game Scoop. Head Scratchers, please be excited for that. But first, I believe by the time this episode is out, our review of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be up, which I believe. Mark, we said we're giving a nine. We are nine out of ten. And both Mark and Sam have been playing it. I believe my code is supposed to come in this afternoon, so hopefully tonight I can jump into it, but I Want to hear your thoughts, Mark, when you've had it for what, like maybe a week? And when you initially got it, I thought you sounded a little bit lukewarm on it, but now it sounds like you like it a whole lot.

[Mark Medina]

Okay, so here's the deal. Yeah, it's funny if you listen to the IGN extended universe. I'm sorry that you have to hear me twice, but sometimes at IGN these things happen where we get very limited codes. So then the one person who like, has played the game has to be on all the podcasts, and that's me this time. Yeah. So funny story. Oh, I don't like being full screen. I like seeing their reactions. Funny story. Especially to this.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I've never seen rolling our eyes.

[Mark Medina]

I've never seen Indiana Jones.

[Damon Hatfield]

Shocked. Shocked.

[Mark Medina]

I know, I know. So the intro of the game, I won't spoil it. But it is.

[Damon Hatfield]

And of course, Mark immediately proceeded to spoil the opening to Indiana Jones. Don't worry, I cut all that out. If anyone's interested in hearing what Mark was saying, I'll put it at the very end of this episode in the post credits scene. Okay, back to spoiler free discussion of Indiana Jones and the great circumstances.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I think. I think so. I was asked and I'd played the night before and I was like, okay, am I cool with this, like, art style kind of lasting forever? And Troy Baker does a very deep Harrison Ford. And I was it kind of. But the more you play, it gets really addicting and it gets really fun. And then the combat starts to click and you realize the like, slapstick nature of. Of, you know, what. What would be in the movies. That's what they're trying to recreate here. Like, it's really silly how the combat works. You're just like, like, you're like, why is everything falling apart? And it's like, because they want you to just constantly be grabbing things and just like bashing it over, but, you know, over somebody's head and then like running away and then like grabbing something else and no, it.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Mark, you're blowing past points really quick that I want to counterpoint. He sounds exactly fucking like Indiana Jones. It is not. It is not an approximation. He doesn't sound like Harrison Ford. He sounds like Indiana Jones, which is a character that Harrison Ford plays. And it is suspiciously spot on. Like, it is all the time. Maybe they did that, you know, in lots of things, right? They do some tweaking. I don't know though. I don't want to level that when it's like Maybe an amazing actor, Right?

[Damon Hatfield]

Sure, sure, sure.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Because whatever it is, the performance is uncanny. It is so good, and I'm shocked by it. And that means they had to write the dialogue. And yet you don't normally hear Indiana Jones muttering while he walks around a building. Right. Like, you don't hear that. So those parts are all great, but it's the cutscenes when they're using the Harrison Ford model and they're using. Which is like obviously lip syncing and everything is. It's a video game. Like, it has all those issues, but, like, it is this just the sound. Like walking in and out of a room and hearing the sound, you know, it's like, unbelievable. I can't believe it. I'm watching Harrison Ford's show shrinking right now too. So, you know, he doesn't sound like that Harrison Ford, but He sounds like 1980 Indiana Jones.

[Damon Hatfield]

As a side note, I haven't started season two of shrinking yet. Is it good, Sam?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

You know what? It's kind of like. It's kind of like it's took the first season, stretched the good parts a little bit skinny. You know, it's like a little everybody. Like, that show is about people making bad decisions and then like therapy induced good decisions, which I think is like a little bit weak of a plot, you know? But, like, the characters are great, and Harrison Ford is really good in it. He's the best character. Like, I was kind of ranting about this last night while we were watching it. I was like. I was like, ollie, I don't like a lot of these characters, but I love watching Harrison Ford every night. He's so fun. It's like what we do in the shadows. It's like you watch, like, these characters that you like so much. He's. He's great in it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. It's like with season one, it seemed like that's like the first role that Harrison Ford has really cared about in years, you know?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I know he loves it. You can tell. And Jessica Williams, I got to say, is great too. It's just like, there's moments where Jason Seagull and stuff is too much. I get these characters. They're over the top.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, back to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Have you beaten it, Mark?

[Mark Medina]

No.

[Damon Hatfield]

So is it.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It's a big old game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Big old game.

[Mark Medina]

I hear it's. I hear it's pretty long. They say it's their longest game. I don't. I don't want to reveal, like, how long it is, but they. Because. Because we do have an idea.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It's in our review.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, okay. Well, then. So people are beating it at around close to 20 hours, I think. I think depending on how much you do.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Actually, it was like a 17 main line and then going back to do the rest, there's a lot more to do. So that's pretty big.

[Mark Medina]

You will. You will just get locked in the. In the. So, like, the way the game works is like, you do a couple of like, linear missions and then you get to the Vatican, and the Vatican will kind of have you, like, running around doing main missions and stuff. But what you soon realize, it's not very obvious at the. At the start is that you're actually in like a little mini open world and you don't have to be doing the quest. You can just run around and do whatever you want and you'll pick up, like, side quests. There's tons of collectibles, and so you'll just get stuck there. If you're one of those people that are like, I don't want to leave until this is done, I mean, that's. That's probably going to be like six, seven hours of your time just right there alone. It, like, it holds on to you pretty hard.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Eventually, Mark and I, like, we're talking about how that vibe is like a dishonored vibe, right? Because it's like, yeah, you. You have this exploration area and there's an enemy set which in. In the Vatican, first of all. Like, 30s Rome Vatican. Like, it's awesome. Like, it's a really great set because it's just crawling with black shirts and fascists. It's crawling with fascists. And like, they're all dressed in these, like, uniforms. Just like machine games is really good at making. Right? Like, there's like, you start learning the classifications of their uniforms to avoid the officers. And you know, there's even like, thug level people because that's how the Italian fascists worked. And like, there's. And then there's uniform people and they're all enforcing, but there's areas that are off limits. This is all very, like, dishonored, right? Like, you can sneak through these areas and like, take out people and clear them out and then get all the secrets and stuff in it. Or, you know, you can kind of avoid those and go on the main streets and kind of be okay. Like, it has that. That great mix of infiltration and then your, like, action missions, which are a lot of. A lot of stealth and a lot of avoidance.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Sorry, Mark. As far as I can. As far As I can tell, you really never have to fight if you don't want to. Even in situations. Because I've done a lot of testing for this. Even in situations where you think, oh, I have to fight here. If you look around, there's almost always a way around, a way above them or something like that. Because you don't get anything for fighting. You don't level up from fighting. You don't. You get nothing from it. And so the game really discourage, like, discourages you in a way by not rewarding you. But I kind of find the combat pretty fun. So if it's just like, oh, it's just gonna be two guys, then I'll just. I'll just beat them up because. Just because it's fun. But yeah, no, I, I think.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

And there's no consequences for jumping and beating them up, right, Mark? Like, you can stay stealth and beat up two people in a room and be fine. Like, it's not gonna alert.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

All the, all of the stormtroopers like I did in Outlaws and those.

[Mark Medina]

Unless you use your pistol, then it alerts everybody. They. They highly. Luke. Our reviewer says that he basically just did not use the revolver at all. I've really not used it either because it does. You shoot and then it's just like exclamation marks everywhere. So it's just, you know, only do it if like a million dudes already on you and you just need to like thin out the herd. But other than that, you're just fighting with weapons and stuff. I'm just happy. I'm just happy Xbox.

[Damon Hatfield]

And this is it.

[Mark Medina]

I love.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is what they've been waiting for.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I love those moments where social media. I expect social media this weekend to be filled with people playing and enjoying and having fun and sharing moments about this game and like that. I'm glad that they finally like. To me, there's nothing controversial about this game. It runs great on xbox. It runs great on PC. I've seen almost no bugs. Certainly it's super fun. I mean, I can't see why anybody wouldn't like this game.

[Sam Claiborne]

I feel like this is such a. Like often with video games and look like games surprise us all the time, but generally we expect. I expect this game to be good or sometimes I expect this game to be shaky and not review as well. And it's not that often. Indiana Jones is an example of. Oh man, that one felt like it could have gone either way. Did they nail it? Did they get it right or not? It's one of the Ones where Star Wars Outlaws is another one in that category of. It felt like it could have gone either way. I'm so glad to hear that it turned out good.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

One thing that, like, I. So the history, by the way, we did a history of Indiana Jones games which is like 30 minutes long. It's really, really good, and I highly recommend people check it out. But the history of movies and games for this franchise is fraud. Right. Like, it has ups and downs. The ups for this series were LucasArts games. They were really good adventure games and pixel art from the 90s. That's basically, I think, what people nostalgically like the most about Indiana Jones games. This is in some respects a logical extension of that because it's about methodical exploration and solving puzzles and very, very rudimentary combat solutions to things. That's really interesting because the reason those games were made by Lucas was to make a game that felt like Indiana Jones. Right? And this. These. This developer is at the top of their game because they are taking something they clearly love, worked with it for what, a half decade, and, like, still came out with something that you can tell they just absolutely adore. They, like, love Raiders of Lost Ark and they wanted to make a video game that was like that because they probably thought about that every day since they were a kid. Like, you can feel that in this game. It is a special feeling to know, like, oh, somebody likes these movies as much as I do for the same reasons as I do, and distilled that into a completely different art form. Like, that's. That's special. That doesn't happen much. And as I said, it did happen with Star wars games more than the ones that just I mentioned. But those ones always stick out to me as the ones.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Medina]

McCaffrey put it best. He said, this is not an action adventure game. This is an adventure action game. Right? Like the exploration, the discovery. That is what this game is. That's how you level up is by finding things in the world you're not leveling up from. Like, there's no grind, right. When it comes to, like, it would be impossible to make a video, to be like. Or, you know, wiki or anything like that. Fastest way to level up. Like, that's not what this game is. You're not farming dudes. You're just exploring. You're. And it's so fun. You just like, you walk into, like, you're like an. In an enemy camp and you like, kind of sneak in and so then you're in their, like, Barracks. And there's just glowing things everywhere. Yes. And you just pick it all up and it's super fun. And then you just sneak back out. And they were never, they were never one the wiser.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

If they catch you, you run to a rooftop and get in a fetal position.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's so nice to hear. That turned out well. I'm very excited to jump into it.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Oh, and puzzles.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Oh, yeah.

[Mark Medina]

I just want to mention real quick, you go into Crips and there's torch puzzles. As in, like when you do your whip, you'll drop your torch so you got to throw it across the gap, then swing over. Or like you'll be going through a hallway, like squeezing through and the torch will unlight because like water is coming down, you know, extinguish. So then it's like you have to look for a window to throw your torch through. I love stuff like that. So even when you're in the crypts by yourself, there's still, there's still something to do. And you're just like kind of running around your. There's like braziers and you're lighting them as like a breadcrumb trail. So you can kind of see where you've been. It's awesome.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I did that under a spooky castle. Was really fun.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Hopefully I can dive in tonight. And this is probably the only thing that could tear me away from the game that I've been playing obsessively nonstop that I can't put down, which is Shogun Showdown, which I talked about a couple months ago. But now it's just like it's grown on me more and more. And it's absolutely made my shortlist of my favorite games of the year. This game has everything. This game has a Japanese setting, pixel art, tactical turn based strategy, a roguelike structure, five unlockable characters, each with different abilities. You take the skulls of your enemies and exchange them for new weapons. So you have an ever expanding arsenal. It's got great music. There are seven days to complete with each character. And the seven days represent seven difficulties. So to complete the whole game, you have to go on five, you know, seven different days with five different characters. So I've unlocked all five characters. I've beaten day three with a few of them. I'm still unlocking new weapons every run. And even though it's turn based that you get into like this great flow of moving back and forth side to side on the playing field, planning several steps ahead, because all of the weapons that you have have a Cool down. Each. Each one is going to take a few turns to before you can use them again. So it's just great. It's pure Damie fuel and I love it.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

What are you playing on?

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm playing on my steam deck.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Awesome. Perfect deck game.

[Mark Medina]

That does look fun.

[Damon Hatfield]

It is perfect. The game looks good, but what you're. Everything I'm hearing about Indiana Jones sounds great too. So I'm excited to get into that. And then, Sam, you said you're also doing the Vampire Survivors.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I hold intro.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Well, I'll just cut that part out. So, Sam.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

You wanted to share something with me?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Well, everybody gets so sad when you cut my dialogue out because they have to guess what I say? No. So Justin recommended that we make mashed potatoes this year with ranch in them. And first of all, that was awesome. Looked up recipe. Did it. It really, really helped. But that was great. But I enjoyed my Thanksgiving break. Also with a side of garlic.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I played Vampire Survivors for the first time.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I started it out. I started playing and I was like, this jazz is pretty fun. I'm going to check out the Castlevania stuff. And so now I'm. I don't know, 11 out of 15 characters unlocked in that. It's hard to unlock all of them. And I don't know if it's going to hold my interest, but I understand it now. I'm at the point where, like, I basically don't play a level without getting sick of living forever. So that's a little bit of a problem. But I know there's like hyper and some levels and stuff like that. But I think the Castlevania stuff, I think is, from what I've played, a lot more interesting and cool than the base game because some of those levels, like the library level, you just walk to the left or right forever. Like, that's not very fun. But the Castlevania level is like a 2D squished and sometimes not squished version of Castlevania. It's like as Dracula's castle and the environments and all the enemies and everything. So I thought that was a really fun way to revisit Castlevania. And yeah, totally get it now. Understand this genre and I understand why you want to unlock a bunch of characters and do a bunch of things. It's great. And level up the level up the.

[Sam Claiborne]

Weapons, which is big. That's exactly. This is exactly what I was going to invoke I also played the Castlevania DLC for Vampire Survivors.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Did you get Richter and try to sort it all out? It's difficult, man.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have. Yeah. So I, like, look, I think that there's Vampire Survivor goes from strength to strength. I think each DLC is just getting better and better. This is by far the best one. Like, it's incredible. It's the best Vampire Survivors has ever been. It is. I do have a complaint, which is. So the game has always been kind of secrets on top of secrets and unlocks on top of. And, like, some of it's easy and obvious, but then some of it's really oblique and, like, you know, hard to figure out. Yeah. And I do think they're leaning slightly too hard into, you know, the game being a wiki game now. Like, there's stuff that you'll just. You'll never figure out on your own anymore. And, like, a little bit of that is okay because it can make a game mysterious. But there's maybe, like, you know, 10% too much of that in this new DLC, I think. But otherwise, it's like, I don't know how many weapons are in this game. Dozens, you know, maybe 50. And like, every time I'm like, there's no more new weapon ideas. They can't come up with any new weapons. But then they do. It's like, it just keeps getting better and better.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I thought that when I had the first three whips and there's more whips ideas, you know, like, yeah, it's really clever.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's really good. And, like, the music, like, I often turn the music off in garlic likes or even just kind of like arcade games in general, I'm like, I don't need that. But, like, the accusation that Vampire Survivors kind of plays itself or it gets too easy or, like, becomes kind of like a light show with Castlevania music. Like, is true, but, like, that's kind of awesome. It's like, the tunes are so good. Yeah, the tunes are so good. And the pixel art's so good. And, like, you know, it's like, I don't really care that, like, you know, you do get so overpowered halfway through, and then the game kind of plays itself. It's like, I don't.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That's where the external goals, once you know what they are, become interesting. Right. Because you're grinding to level up a weapon or unlock a character all the time. And you can.

[Sam Claiborne]

The fact that in the base game. So it's like, there's these. You could play Just the Castlevania stuff, but everything is mashed together. So I have all the DLCs. So it's like sometimes I have a Castlevania character, but all my weapons are contra guns, you know, and it's like, it's just cool. It's become a lit. It's becoming a little bit almost like Fortnite, like, of like these different worlds colliding in interesting ways, which are fun and funny and interesting.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

How do you handle when you need a specific weapon to level up and they're randomly awarded and you have all this dlc so it never comes up.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, there are power ups where you can banish, like, if there's something. Yeah. But you eventually get, like, a lot of banishes, so it's like you can eventually be like, don't ever show me this, don't ever show me that. And then, you know, you eventually get to a place where like, yeah, you can kind of build the build you want to.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That's interesting.

[Damon Hatfield]

So my question is, can you just access the oats Castlevania content on its own?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah. And I barely played Vampire Survivors. Okay. So I basically played like two levels of it. Then I got the DLC or something like that. And then I. It basically adds. At the end of your. Your stack of levels, it adds the Castlevania level.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

And then I don't think it adds any characters because I think you have to walk pretty short in that level to unlock one of the coffins, and that starts your unlocking because every other character is predicated on that first character's unlocked.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, got it.

[Sam Claiborne]

The game has a very satisfying sort of tree of what unlocks what. Like this character unlocks that character, that character unlocks two more relics, and then once you max that relic, it unlocks another character. And kind of like, it is fun to tease that apart and figure it out on your own, but then only to a point.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, it is to a point. So the ultimate thing is that you can unlock the hardest character, which is Richter, which requires a bunch of complicated stuff, and then he can fight the final boss of the level and beat it. You can't do that otherwise. And it's kind of funny because you go. You can go to Dracula's clock tower, and like, you know, you just get, like, completely hammered by these, like, enemies up there and everything. But a boss never appears. But to Justin's point, it does not tell you why that is. It doesn't even do the Princess is another castle joke that it does everywhere else. It doesn't do Anything. It's like you would. You would never know how to do this. Like, I don't know how you would know how to do it. Like, even if you got Richter. Like, I don't know. I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know how.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Like, when I read some of the solutions for some of the things too, it's like you have to pick one character to fight one boss. Like, you could figure that out by, like, playing a thousand times. But, like, why would you ever want to do that, you know?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Well, cool. I will definitely have to jump into Ode to Castlevania and Vampire Survivors as well.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah. And you get. You get good characters early too. So you get ones that you like. They're like, oh, a bunch of Belmonts. And you can get Simon pretty early and stuff. Like, so that's fun. You get out the Alucard early.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

He's not good.

[Damon Hatfield]

Let's check in with a Nintendo Seal of Quantity. You know, I thought. I thought maybe this. I thought maybe this segment had run its course. The game started to feel a little bit samey. So we've been away from it for a while, but that has emboldened. That has emboldened these shovelware developers. And they thought it was safe. They thought it was safe to come back to the store. And when I saw the list of games that's out this week, I knew I had to pick up the kit, the cape and cowl once again and shine a light.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Do you think they bring out the shovel for Christmas?

[Damon Hatfield]

I think so. Before the holidays.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, they get all the gift cards and stuff. Right. So you gotta. That's Shovel's got a shovel.

[Damon Hatfield]

So let's start with the first one here. Jobert. Let's bring up the first one that we're highlighting today. First of all, we've got Cats versus Dogs Military Mission and Jobra. Go to the actual. The first image, the title image on here, what you're gonna see is just AI generated trash. Cats vs dogs military mission. Yeah. And if you look.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Have you guys seen. Just walking around that people now have these tactical pet vests for their dogs are pretty common. You seen those?

[Mark Medina]

Oh, no.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

They're all over San Francisco.

[Damon Hatfield]

I've never seen.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

So it's like you have a dog, right? And then you have like this khaki tactical unit vest. And they're not. I don't know if they're carrying treats in them or what, but they have pockets all over them and carabiners and stuff just like this doggo.

[Mark Medina]

Are those headphones because they're not on his ears.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

No.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, they aren't on his ears. This comes from the publisher Simulamaker. They're the publisher of Sports Supermarket, Jet Combat Cats versus Dogs Military Simulator and Anime Girls Military Strike. So good.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That checks out.

[Damon Hatfield]

Lots of good stuff from them.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that one is quite the pedigree.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Cats versus Dogs Military.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Look at that other cat shot at the.

[Mark Medina]

Yes, very talented.

[Damon Hatfield]

Art created this again.

[Sam Claiborne]

Thousand yard stare on that cat. That cat's seen some stuff.

[Mark Medina]

He's been. He's been to war.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Oh, wow.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. Okay, let's move on to our next one here, Gilbert. This one is called Cowboy Duel Red Wild West Massacre. So they got red in there.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

We pick one of these games to buy each time too, right?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

At the end of it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, we gift. We gift these games to one lucky listener. They got red in there to maybe fool some Red Dead Red Wild West Red Wild Restrictions West Massacre. And if you go into the the character select screenshot here, Jo, you got some more good air. And like choose the cowboys type.

[Mark Medina]

This is Elon Musk's future. Like this is what he wants is how he's.

[Damon Hatfield]

He's gonna make making gaming great again. Oh, you can.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

You. You can't. You can't get your gaming select screen dialogue from an AI generator, but you can get the hunky protagonists.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, these are some hunky cowboys and cowgirls. I think some of the descriptions for these games are AI generated as well. Okay, the next one is just an odd duck. It's not even a game. The next one is a guide to personal finance. How to manage your money. And from the description, there's no game.

[Mark Medina]

I need this game.

[Damon Hatfield]

There's no game part of this at all. It just says the guide will help you plan for retirement, protect valuable assets with the right insurance, and navigate unexpected financial challeng.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

So I just want to point out that the jar in the image was a big jar of gold coins.

[Damon Hatfield]

Giant gold coins.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's what I was going to say. It turns out the answer is just get giant coins and put them in a jar. That's how you should manage your money.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

I need to know how long you play this game before it asks for something that is just a fishing attempt.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, again, I would recommend that they they rethink this title to be something more like a guide to personal finance. Red Cats Tactical Anime Girls.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, that's smart. Okay, I like this next one a lot. The next one is Dinosaur RPG Dino Survival Simulator Survivor.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wait, say that One more time.

[Damon Hatfield]

Dinosaur RPG Dino Survival Simulator Survivor. Are you surviving the simulator? I don't know.

[Mark Medina]

I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's a survival simulator. Survivors. Got it. Yeah. Understood.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Oh, there's a trailer.

[Sam Claiborne]

Blood violence.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, they got to use the Nintendo Switch splash screen. Must have gave a stamp of approval on this one.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I'm totally sold on this.

[Damon Hatfield]

This comes.

[Mark Medina]

What's the game?

[Damon Hatfield]

This comes by way of Go game.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, there it is. It's a. It's a dinosaur dog. Illegal dog. That's terrible.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Do you think that they have numbers? Is that what makes it an rpg? I can't tell.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, the numbers pop out when the dinos bite and claw each other.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

This looks awesome.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, pretty awesome. This comes from Go game. This is the same publisher.

[Mark Medina]

I'm trying to.

[Damon Hatfield]

The same publisher. Cleaning simulator.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, wait, are you kidding?

[Damon Hatfield]

The grandma has been featured on the Nintendo Seal of Quantity before. We were. Yes, your question mark. We're not clear. We're not clear if you're the grandma or if you're cleaning a grandma Power wash Grandma.

[Mark Medina]

I don't want to know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Actually, now that I've thought about it, best left unknown. Okay. The next one is Game Empire Tycoon Dealer Simulator. Yeah. So I wanted to enlarge, enhance this incredible AI image. First of all, look at the game that's next to him. What. What is this nonsense of not even. Not even letters that's on the game box.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

And what's he holding in his hands? Is his. In his right hand. Is that supposed to be a gun? But his left hand is kind of like a Wii controller.

[Sam Claiborne]

It just looks like a gun.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. This is a game where you start out opening a game shop and then you're supposed to grow your business.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Look at those polygons.

[Damon Hatfield]

I know. Bring up some of these screenshots, Gilbert, if you don't mind.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

In every model.

[Damon Hatfield]

I know. It's like. Like, how does it now with. How do people.

[Mark Medina]

How do you generate AI art? And then like, here you go.

[Damon Hatfield]

How do people release this stuff today?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Maybe it's an AI skybox. So what I don't get is that last game actually looked, like, pretty competent. Why did they have to slap the insane SEO title on it?

[Damon Hatfield]

It. Yeah, everyone's doing it.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I understand. Like, why.

[Damon Hatfield]

Like, it's developer peer pressure, Sam. Everyone else is doing it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well. And why did they put that much effort into their game when they could have just made this?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Just think this. And I love this screenshot.

[Mark Medina]

He does he does not look like he belongs.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

This thing doesn't look right about this.

[Mark Medina]

There's no wires going to that computer.

[Sam Claiborne]

And there's also no chance that that's photorealistic. Man is in this room that is made of literally four polygons.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

What if it is though? What if all the polygon count went into making this like derpy khakis wearing gentlemen? Yeah, and the rest of the game has to render around that.

[Mark Medina]

We have to fill this rooms with things. Or is it just unnecessarily large and empty?

[Damon Hatfield]

Uncle, I can't get over this man.

[Sam Claiborne]

They. They like. They like spent hours rendering his cargo pants.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I can explain it, Justin.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, I've got two more. The next one is called High Cars 2, the sequel to High Cars. And if you thought. If you look through some of these screenshots, if you thought the last game's environments lacked detail, well, you have not seen anything. And you will continue to not see anything here in High Cars 2.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, High Cars 2.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

High AF.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

Wow.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It's true though. They're high cars. They're cars.

[Damon Hatfield]

The cars that drive.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

This is a very literal game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

This doesn't look terrible.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, it doesn't. It looks like Monkey ball.

[Damon Hatfield]

It looks like.

[Mark Medina]

It looks like. It looks like Wipeout. But with cars.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Well, I mean they're up high in the air. I mean, it's just like Name don't lie.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is the real frame rate.

[Mark Medina]

Those loops do nothing. Those loops.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

No longer see Mark but you. It's your Mario 64 brain that's solving everything before you get. Because you were so good at this type of thing.

[Mark Medina]

Those loops were just. They were just decoration.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, they weren't even looping.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, and the last one, would you.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Like to play from that camera angle?

[Mark Medina]

I know. What was that like?

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, the last one is Zumba. Royal Marble Shooter Mania. And if you remember the PopCap game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wait a second.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I know, I know. If you remember the PopCap game. Zuma. That's what this is. It's just Zuma. So they changed it. They added a B in there to make it Zumba. But Zumba is like a trademark exercise routine. So I don't. I don't know how they can get away with this.

[Sam Claiborne]

Guys, guys, we have a perfect plan. We'll call it Zumba instead of Zuma and we won't get in any trouble.

[Mark Medina]

No one claimed that.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

You might think it's weird that in that concept that in the beginning a guy was barfing a marble. But sure enough, right here in the game, there's a guy right in the middle of the screen barfing a marble.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, he's doing it right there.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's like a mystical frog in Zumba. But here it's just a man with a disturbingly large marble.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep. Well, there you have it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, God, it's horrifying, that marble coming out of his mouth. Look at his eyes.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Why is he staring right at the player?

[Sam Claiborne]

He wants to stop.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

There you have it. The Nintendo Seal of quantity. Consider that a little bit of a warning as we head into the holiday season. And if any grandparents are listening to Game Scoop this week, these games are not the games your grandkids want for Christmas this year.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

No, honestly, even though my nephews might like the dinosaur one, even though the.

[Damon Hatfield]

Titles might contain some words that are in other games that they want, these are not the games that they're looking for. Okay. For a while I thought it'd be interesting. You know, Gamescoop is going on 19 years now. This is episode 790. And I thought it'd be interesting just to like, just to. Just to randomly pick out old headlines and without any context for any sort of investigation, just to see what did we think of the headlines of Game Scoops past. So I call this Game Scoop Head Scratchers. So here's the first one from February 5, 2021. Our headline was May 2021 is going to be huge for games.

[Mark Medina]

May 2021.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't think it was that. I mean, so was that. We did get Leisure Suit Larry Wet Dreams dry twice in May 2021. We also got Knockout City, if any remembers that. Battle Royale.

[Mark Medina]

No, I can't.

[Damon Hatfield]

And Nintendo Switch got Miitopia.

[Mark Medina]

So what were you referring to?

[Sam Claiborne]

That's why it's a head scratcher mark.

[Mark Medina]

Now I need to go back and listen to this episode, try to raise the view count because now everyone's going to like, hold on.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Remember, we did expect E3. Still in 2021, there was a possibility that there would be an E3. So maybe we were predicting and E3 would be crazy because we'd hear about a bunch of stuff that we were.

[Damon Hatfield]

Thinking we'd hear about. Maybe.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's sad.

[Damon Hatfield]

We did get Resident Evil Village and Mass Effect Legendary Edition in May, but that's all I can tell. And that probably doesn't constitute huge for games.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, you got to find out what was delayed.

[Mark Medina]

Classic.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. In August 2, 2019, our headline was PlayStation 4 is about to become the second best selling console of all time.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I remember that episode well.

[Damon Hatfield]

Today it's the third best selling console of all time because the Nintendo Switch leapfrogged over it.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, that was one where you dug up the numbers and we were all discussing like how crazy does DS and how small the NES numbers were, stuff like that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, it was a good time. And the last one for today, going back 10 years, February 20, 2014. Our headline was a bioshocking announcement.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, would that have been Infinite?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, I guess.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, Infinite was out the year.

[Mark Medina]

No, that would have been the. That would have been the collection.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, it was kind Levine winding down Irrational Games. That's what that was. We also talked about Cliff Blasinski's belief that disc based games are dead.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

So it's been 10 years since BioShock.

[Damon Hatfield]

Since BioShock. It's been 11 years since BioShock Infinite.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Wow, that's crazy.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes, it is crazy. And Judas, his spiritual successor is not even out yet, but they are working.

[Mark Medina]

On some sort of BioShock something. So yeah, we might see more BioShock.

[Damon Hatfield]

In the future one of these days. This episode is brought to you by Dragon Ball Legends, the ultimate Dragon Ball experience on your mobile device. Dragon Ball Legends features action packed anime action RPG gameplay with Goku, Vegeta, Trunks and all your favorite Dragon Ball characters. Summon your favorite characters from popular Dragon Ball anime series such as Dragon Ball Zet and Dragon Ball GT to Dragon Ball Super. Fight in real time against friendly or rival Dragon Ball players from across the globe in live PvP battles. Enter ratings matches with your favorite Dragon Ball characters and earn rating points and rewards. Unite with friends to defeat powerful foes in co op. Dragon Ball Legends features the best anime fighting scenes on your mobile device. And now Legends Festival is on so you can get up to 300 free Summon tickets. Are you ready? Download Dragon Ball Legends today. Available for free on both iOS and Android devices, Cyber Monday is Alienware's biggest sale of the year. Don't miss these limited time deals on the latest gaming PCs. Get ready to stream, create and compete at the highest levels while pushing your gameplay beyond with Intel Core Ultra processors. It's the perfect time to upgrade your gaming setup. Because these are Alienware's lowest prices of the year. You can save right now and get free shipping no matter how big or small the order. And it's not just high performance gaming PCs on sale. Be sure to check out the wide selection of incredible gaming accessories for every extra advantage. Hurry though. Savings on leading edge gaming technology to conquer the competition are only here For a limited time, shop [e-mail] deals Again, that's alienware.com deals. No man wants to lose his hair, but for men, it's actually very common. And now with HIMS, the solution is simple. Try HIM's hair loss solutions and you'll be joining hundreds of thousands of subscribers who got their flow back with hims. 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 discrete packaging with free shipping. No insurance is needed, and one low price covers everything. HIMS has hundreds of thousands of trusted subscribers and they can help you get your confidence back too, with visibly thicker and fuller hair. Start your free online Visit [e-mail] Gamescoop that's H I M S.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.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

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[Damon Hatfield]

That's why they offer a tool called Auto Quote Explorer that allows you to compare your Progressive car insurance quote with.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

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[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, let's check in with the listeners. Hey listeners, listeners, Remember, you can always reach us at the email address [e-mail] Just like Brandon Biggs from Arkansas did. And he's actually replying to a question that Mark asked earlier in the year.

[Mark Medina]

All right. Oh my.

[Damon Hatfield]

I received this email on May 6th this year. So just as a reminder to everyone, if I don't answer your email the week that you write in, I may, I may answer it six months from now. I may answer it six years from now. Eventually the lesson is Listen to gamescoop every week and never stop listening. So Brandon says Greeting from Arkansas in the 90s Mark Medina made a comment that tickled my fancy on one of your latest podcasts. What were people in the mid-90s in Arkansas playing? It must have been 20 questions where the person was from Arkansas. Well, happily I was playing on the Sega Genesis trying to Master Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Joe Montana Football, and I had an old Atari 2600 that my late stepmother bought at a yard sale along with 25 games for 30 bucks. Occasionally I would get a weekend trip to the local arcade and drop $10 in quarters trying to play X Men and TMNT. Or I'd take a trip to my friends to play F0 on a Super Nintendo. My favorite memory is Christmas morning, early 90s when I got my Nintendo Game Boy and a brand new Metroid 2 Samus Returns. I had to beg a friend of mine to loan me his Nintendo Power magazine that just happened to have a complete mapping system for the whole game so I could make copies. That game took me many weekends to beat. Haha. So in retrospect, Arkansas in the 90s we weren't too far off from the rest of the world. I love listening to gamescoop as often as I can. IGN has been a staple in my game bloodline since the early 2000s when I stumbled upon it while playing late nights in Warcraft 3. Keep up the content. I will keep devouring each episode. I have one suggestion. You need a spin off podcast where you just do 20 questions. My kids and I listen intently playing along on car rides. A spin off cast would be much a much welcome addition. Hopefully. Brandon, you know about the 100 questions feast that was just out last week.

[Mark Medina]

In the 90s I lived in. I lived in Iowa and in California and it sounds like they were no different than Arkansas. Yeah, because I was also doing all of those things.

[Sam Claiborne]

I learned that was a very nice letter. Thank you for writing in. We love receiving your letters. I do have to say that that letter made me realize I very much do not like the idiom tickles my fancy. What's a fancy?

[Mark Medina]

Like how Damon says it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I just like I want to know. You know. It's like I always I also like hearing idioms translated from other languages because then you realize how insane they are. Like none of it makes any sense. Yeah, it's like ah, that's why you always kick the cat before you go outside. And it's like what are you talking about? That's just something we say in Germany.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That reminds me of a concept that the 90s had, which will never have again, which was really interesting. When I think of the early 90s and what I was doing with video games, it was rentals and like, you could play a different game every week because you'd go to the store, your family might get videos, your parents might watch some movies, but you would get a game, rent home, and then you get to play for the weekend. Sometimes those rental places will let you rent it from Friday until Sunday, basically, which is awesome. And then you go over to a friend's house and play the games that they rented. You rent a game together, do it. It was just like a really interesting time where you have to play a lot of things for low cost and there's variations of that now. There's obviously demos and there's free to play games and there's stuff like that. But the idea that you went over to someone's couch and played a game that might be total crap or really fun and you wouldn't be glued to it all weekend, you played it anyway. It's really fun.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Good times.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. This is Ryan in Kent in the uk. Ryan says, I was wondering if the panel's parents were a positive or negative influence on their gaming habits when they were younger. For example, I've heard many times that you went to arcades or pizza parlors with games as kids. This sounds amazing to me. I think you all got video game consoles when you were young. My parents were anti gaming when I was a little one, and when they eventually relented and bought me a computer, they insisted it'd be for educational purposes, not games. And so I got a ZX Spectrum with a keyboard instead of a Super Nintendo. Still, I played the heck out of that spectrum until I was able to save up and buy my own snes. I'm also not sure how big the arcade scene was in the 80s in the UK, but for sure my parents weren't ever taking me to one. So I'm wondering what your experiences were like and if they shaped how you are now as parents with your own kids. My parents were very lax and hands off with everything I played and watched. I could basically just play, watch whatever I wanted. And part of that is because my dad is super into horror movies and sci fi movies and action movies. And he showed me everything when I was way too young. The thing, the blob, the fly, alien. I was way too young when I saw all that. So they were fine with it.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, my mom was the same. Like what we could afford. My mom bought us a N64. My first console that was like, mine was a PS2. And yeah, she just kind of did whatever.

[Damon Hatfield]

Part of it is that I was a good kid and I got good grades in school. I'm sure if I was getting into trouble and getting bad grades, they would have wanted to step in, but that's a good point. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I mean, I made. I was doing video game stuff online and like writing. Not like making a lot of money or anything, but like, that was a part of like my identity as a teen pretty early on. Right. So it was, you know, like they kind of tolerated it for that reason. It was, you know, kind of like stair stepping into what would eventually become my career. I have. You just dredged up a memory of mine that I've not thought about for a long time, which is that I got Roller Coaster Tycoon, which is an all timer, by the way. Like, what a great game. You know, Played it a lot. Played it, played it, played it. Then eventually, like, it kind of ran its course and I put it down and my mom's like, oh, why don't you play that like, theme park game anymore? And I'm like, oh, I don't know, you know, I'm just playing other stuff. Then she brought it up like a couple more times, like, I never see you playing that rollercoaster game. And I kind of snapped at her a little bit. And like, I'm just. I've moved on to other games. Why do you keep bringing this up? And then like Christmas was like the next week and she'd gotten me the Rollercoaster Tycoon expansion.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, no.

[Mark Medina]

Awesome.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I felt so. I was like, oh, it's like my heart. I just felt like that feeling of just like she was. She was so excited. Like she paid attention to what I was playing and then I'd kind of like snapped at her and I had to explain like, no, like, because she's like, oh, I'm sorry. Like, did I get you? Like, should I not have gotten you this? I'm like, no, it's awesome. Like, it's new levels.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Probably really good too, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, it was awesome. So they were. They didn't. Other than that, like, you know, video games were like, I would. That's all I would ask for for my birthday and Christmas and I had to be strategic about, you know, trying to save up my money and stuff like that. But that was it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, I think parents of that era maybe were into the idea of like you're at least your kids are like in front of a tv, safe with their friends and not doing other stuff. My parents were really lax with, with adventure stuff Anyway. I grew up in Iowa City with a huge backyard ravine that would just disappear forever into. It was really fun. But my parents are very video game like pro. They didn't like them, they didn't play them. They had no interest in them personally. But they would have never stopped me from pursuing them as an interest. And they were like that. They're like supportive of their kids interests. My parents are also, they still are both college professors so had really good access to good PCs and Internet early. Like I was able from my house to look up Mortal Kombat codes on news groups and stuff like that. That kind of like taught me how to do that stuff. And then my grandfather on my mom's side had a Commodore 64 and a 128 and that's, that's my earliest gaming is I played it my. On my grandfather's computer which had like a billion games. He would get like floppy disks with like every arcade game on them. So I could go to my grandparents house and play Donkey Kong and Frogger and Congo Bongo.

[Damon Hatfield]

Congo Bongo.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

And I had no context for those games. I'd never been to an arcade and I just play play them all on this computer. So through that my parents respected technology and had a. You know and had to work on mainframes for school. They had to do statistics on. There's these huge like room sized computers. So like that was always like a part of my life like tech and new stuff. My, my parents would always like having like a new computer and stuff in the house. And I gamed a little bit on that. So that, that made the bridge to like having an NES much easier for them. They went to Cedar Rapids, you know, Toys R Us in the snow or something to get my first nes. And it was always a family story to tell about how hard it was to get that Christmas and how excited they were. I don't remember asking for it. Like frankly like I was that young, you know, like I don't. But apparently I was very insistent they figured it out which is like that's an awesome parent move, you know. So that all that's really relatable today. Today still. Right. Like parents like they want to get good gifts for their kids and some of them are hard to get and I have so much sympathy for that now.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool. Okay, this is Warren G. From Kentucky. Warren says I recently came into possession of a used Xbox One console. I've been exclusively a Nintendo gamer for years, so now I find myself unsure of what games to check out. Can the Omega cops give me some recommendations for Xbox One games that are single player and are also not available on Nintendo Switch? Yes, this is easy, Warren. Personally, I would recommend Elden ring, Resident Evil 2 and Psychonauts 2.

[Sam Claiborne]

Those are Xbox series X games. Are they Xbox One?

[Damon Hatfield]

All of these are available on Xbox One.

[Mark Medina]

They're both. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, so good.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Single player Xbox One games.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean the entrance that also opens up the world. If you only had a Nintendo like any multi platform game, right? Like any Call of Duty, like anything.

[Mark Medina]

I'd say. I'd say like Gears of War, even Halo Infinite is on Xbox One.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah. Xbox One, yeah. And then Halo the Legendary or what's.

[Damon Hatfield]

Even playing right now.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Playing right now, yeah. It's just crazy. I actually got to play. I had friends in town for all Thanksgiving and different shifts and like one set of friends that was here. I played Couch Co Op halo with Halo 2. We beat it. It was so fun. Played on, you know, Legendary. It was so difficult. It was great.

[Mark Medina]

The thing about this generation is there actually isn't that many next gen only games. Right? So it's like you're actually not losing out a lot. Like yeah, you're not going to play Starfield and stuff like that, but it's a lot of. But like you can play Black Ops 6 and that game's a month old.

[Sam Claiborne]

So I'm really blown away by like, by him, you know, being mostly an exclusive Nintendo gamer. It's like, I like, you gotta get GTA 5. You have so many good games. Like the Witcher 3.

[Mark Medina]

I guess that's Red Dead.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, Red Dead, to be fair.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

But it's like it's not.

[Damon Hatfield]

Not the best way to play it, but sure, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Valhalla and those are good. And Origins.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I mean start there and you'll.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Be done in five years.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, exactly.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. PS4 and Xbox One really is like one of the best generations of consoles. Especially because they're still making games for them now. So you've got, you've got quite the backlog, sir.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's true. Happy hunting, Warren G in Kentucky. Okay. Extracurricular activities. I finally saw Alien Romulus.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Cool. How was it?

[Damon Hatfield]

It sucked. Has anyone else seen it?

[Sam Claiborne]

No.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I'm glad I didn't see in the theater though. Because I'll still watch a sucky Alien movie, but I want to watch it at home.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, so here's my review. Can I. How sensitive is. I don't want to like get. Can I do light spoilers?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, of course.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Justin, is that okay? You want me to completely sanitize.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Mark's never even heard of Alien.

[Mark Medina]

I know, yeah, I've heard of Alien. Like Aliens? Yeah, they're in movies. Oh no.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, so for viewers, listeners here, I will. I'm going to share some light spoilers. If you don't want anything, skip ahead to video game 20 questions. Okay, so I went into Alien Romulus not knowing anything other than it's supposed to be a pretty good new Alien movie. So I knew nothing about the plot or details. So in the opening shot, the cold open. Is that a Weyland Yutani ship? Weyland Yutani is the evil corporation behind every Alien movie. They return to the scene where the original Nostromo ship from the original Alien exploded, the one that Ripley, Sigourney Reaver's character blew up. And they find the alien, the original xenophobe, floating in space. And they bring it on board. And then you cut the title screen and there's a fast forward jump. So I'm thinking, well, are they gonna. They found the original alien. Is this about the original alien causing havoc again? Cuz that's pretty cool. And it turns out that is what happened off screen. So they fast forward again. We have our new characters and eventually they meet. They go to that ship and they meet an Android there who's like, still that. He tells them, yep, that's what happened. We found the original alien and it killed everyone on board. But then we finally killed it and there it is. And they show you the corpse of the alien. It's like, what? That's the movie I wanted to see.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

But the alien didn't die from being in deep space floating around. But it did die once. They did something to it on the ship once.

[Damon Hatfield]

Just finally, just like blew it apart basically. And then its acid is what destroyed the ship and caused everyone to die. So that was disappointing. But okay, whatever. That's not what the movie is. What the movie actually is, is it's about these five kids. It's a much younger cast, a much younger cast of characters than we're used to in an Alien movie. They're on this terrible mining planet and they're all like indentured servants. They're not allowed to leave. They're forced to work these mines and it's awful. But then they discover that there's this derelict spaceship floating above the planet. And it is this spaceship from the opening scene. It's the Weyland Yutani ship that was destroyed by the alien. They decide they're going to go to it and try to find some sleep pods so they can use that to leave the planet and go to the next planet. So they just do that, because apparently, even though this is like a mining planet where they're all being kept here, they can just get in a ship and blast off. They don't need clearance from anyone. They just go to the ship. Okay, so they do that and that's where they meet the Android and he tells them everything that happened. And then what follows is just the same old shit. In every Alien movie, there's a face hugger, there's a chest burster, there's a xenomorph, they have acid for blood. That's it. There's an alien or an Android on their side who may or may not be good. Oh, I don't know which one is it this time. At one point, he even kills an alien. He says, get away from her, you bitch. Which mark is a famous line from Aliens that Sigourney Reaver says to the alien queen. But it's like, what? It makes no sense for why the Android would say that here. First of all, when Ripley says it, at least the queen is like gendered somehow. And it makes like. That's what makes that iconic. But here it's just a random xenophobe that he just killed. And why would the Android say that? It's completely lazy fan service just being like, oh, he said the thing, he said the thing. So that's it. Oh, yeah. The other thing is that everything is contracted. In the original Alien, John Hurt's character is attacked by the facehugger on that planet LV426. And then they have to drag him all the way back to the spaceship in a storm, which would take a long time. And then when they get him on board, they try to get it off, but they can't get it off. So they just wait and they study it and eventually it comes off on its own and dies. And you feel like 48 hours has passed. But in this movie, Facehugger, chest burster five minutes later. It's just they take no time to, like, set anything up or build any tension. I don't know. It's a younger cast.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I can't believe they didn't tell the story of the Nostromo Destruction. That's really cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

That sounded so much better.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know. It's a younger cast. Maybe they're just singing. We'll get a younger audience who maybe isn't as familiar with the Alien franchise, so we can just do the same things over and over again because it's still pretty cool.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Alien kids with a Z. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

My first alien.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I mean, that sounds like what the Star wars show that it's on right now is, too. It's my first Star Wars.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, yeah. Skeleton Crew. Right? Have you watched that?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

No. I'm looking forward to it. Goonies in Space.

[Damon Hatfield]

I hear good things.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Elevate your bitches.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Saving it for Christmas break.

[Damon Hatfield]

Mark, you should watch Alien and Aliens, and then you should stop there.

[Mark Medina]

And then Never Nothing else.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, yep, yep.

[Mark Medina]

Okay. Is Christian Bale in any of them? Because I'll just watch.

[Damon Hatfield]

He's in a Terminator I know of. He's in a Terminator.

[Mark Medina]

That's the one. That's the only Terminator I've seen. So I didn't know if he did, like. I didn't know if he did a tour of, like, old franchises where, like, he's.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Remember, there's. There's aliens in Aliens movies and Terminator movies. There's Terminators.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. It's Bill Paxton. The late, great Bill Paxton. He's the only person that's been killed by an alien, a Terminator, and a predator.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Oh, they got the power, man. They're animals.

[Damon Hatfield]

Why don't you put her in charge? Oh, my God. Aliens is so good. Okay, does anyone else have anything to share that they or have watched?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I do.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I saw Wicked.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

So I don't want to. Yuck. Anybody's young, but I didn't have any fun watching that movie. However, I know that the people I went with loved it and had a great time. And I think everybody that will get dragged this movie will also love it. Oh. I mean, that voluntarily will go to this movie. It looks really good. Like, it has really good effects and stuff like that. The actors are all pretty good and the music is awful. So what's fascinating about it, though, is that it is Phantom Menace for Wizard of Oz. Right? And it's like, it's supposed to lend all of this, like, you know, like, dark energy to, like, why did the witch turn out this way? But, like, it manifests in things like, hey, you want to know how she got that hat? Do you have three hours? You know, it's completely. And it's like, it turns out she does. She has a. She goes to a dance and she. Nobody likes her and she's wearing that hat. So then she really sticks with it. Like, it's so bad. There's a. There's a. There's a famous person cast as the wizard of Oz at one point. I'm not. This is not an exaggeration.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't think it's a spoiler who that is, by the way. That was intriguing.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Well, then I'll just do it. So Jeff Goldblum. Goldblum is this entire scene where he has the main characters come up. He's like, oh, I'm thinking about making a road. All the roads lead to Oz. What color should I make it? And then he, like, brings out a device and they fucking flip through a bunch of colors until they pick one, and the green lady picks yellow.

[Sam Claiborne]

Great. Good.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Not gold.

[Damon Hatfield]

Mystery solved.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

There's no reason for it. They just have to show why it happened. Oh, there's that hat.

[Mark Medina]

Wow.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It's like, you really wear that ugly hat.

[Sam Claiborne]

You're making it sound like solo is what it sounds.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah. A little bit like solo.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, yeah. You know, like, oh, you remember the horse of a different color. Hey, you guys remember how lions are scared in the series? Like, every single thing he said the thing. The big. Yeah. Then the big denouement is like, you know, how the monkeys get their wings? It is absolutely silly, you know, but, like, that doesn't mean that proceedings can't be fun. It's just. It takes itself really seriously in parts. And I think that's. That's a little much. So that all aside, get this, though. Get this. Are you ready?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

The name of the school that we're supposed to take, that's all this drama takes place in a school. Right. The name of the school is Shiz. So the whole movie, they're like, you know, having these deep moments. Like, I just don't know if I cut it at shiz. It is. So I kept on turning to my wife when I was like, just. I was like, are you listening to this?

[Damon Hatfield]

Like, it is so funny.

[Mark Medina]

Am I hearing this correctly?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, it's like I was just, like, cracking up. It was so funny every time they said shiz. Seriously. And then the movie ends with, you know. You know, oz will be. To be continued.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

And I'm like, oh, there's more.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah. It's. It's. This is only half the story, but.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It is a fun movie to watch, and I think that is a good like, theatrical, you know, thing. If you're gonna get stuck in a theatrical movie, it has all that going for it. Yeah, it's a big shebang. Yeah. You know, it wasn't made for me. I don't expect it to be made for me. But, like, it's certainly goofy, y'all. Y'all like goofy movies. Please, please. Oh, every. Everybody's a munchkin in it. Did I mention that?

[Damon Hatfield]

Everyone is.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Everyone's a munchkin. Yeah. Except for the witches. They're not munchkins.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It's not explained. Don't look into it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. Yeah, I haven't seen Wicked. I don't have an interest in it, but my wife did see it, and she absolutely loved it. Has been playing popular nonstop ever since then. So that's just in my head now forever.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

Although this week, we did show my kids the wizard of Oz for the first time, and they loved it. They sat through the whole.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Did they ask, how did that witch get that hat?

[Damon Hatfield]

They had no questions about the hat or the yellow brick road or anything. Why is the road yellow so good? Okay. Anything from Justin or Mark?

[Mark Medina]

I don't. I just don't want to follow. Yeah, I can't follow that up. You guys are. You guys are exacerbated by the things you were forced to watch this.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Mark, exasperated. Mark, are you. Have you seen wizard of Oz?

[Mark Medina]

Of course. Yeah. Great movie.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, you say of course, but of course.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Listen, I've seen everything up until 1970.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Her hat symbolizes an upside down tornado from which she was sucking.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah. No, it turns out that it doesn't, because it actually belonged to Glinda's grandma.

[Sam Claiborne]

Great.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That's the explanation.

[Sam Claiborne]

My very, very brief anecdote is that I'm still making my way through Star Trek the Next Generation, and my new favorite thing to do. I mentioned this the last time it came up is I read, you know, the fan Wiki after each episode, and the quotes from, like, the director or the producer and other people are so funny. It's always like. It's like, yeah, this episode was okay. We had trouble with the kid actor. And then I'm like, oh, like, maybe that's just that producer being really unguarded. But then they'll have another quote from someone that's like, yeah, like, the kids were pretty bad in this one. But otherwise I like how it turned out. It's like, where. Like, where are they giving these quotes? And, like, you know, one of them's like, you know, this one was mostly okay. But it's a Troy episode, and I don't like Troy. And it's like, that's something that one of the. One of the directors said the person for. Yeah, it's just like, it's. So now that's become my new favorite thing is like, these very, very honest and direct quotes about, like, you know, and half the time they're like, yeah, you know, we loved it. It was a lovely time working on it. So now it's like, afterwards, like, I thought that episode was pretty good. What did the people that made it think? And they're like, yeah, it was really. I think this is the worst one I directed at all of them.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Justin, have you kept up on Lower Decks this season?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, I haven't started it yet.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

The newest episode of Lower Decks is Peak tv. It is so good. It is so crazy. And it has a Next Generation tie that I don't. I don't even want to get you near it. Don't even get near it. All right. You gotta watch it. It's so cool.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, I am still watching what we do in the shadows. I thought the. The most. The couple recent episodes.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It's getting better and better.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm not caught up, but, like, that. I'm like, him.

[Mark Medina]

The director episode, like, where they're filming the, like, reality cop show or whatever.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That was good. But the B story where Nadja goes over to.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Colin Robinson's friend's house is amazing.

[Mark Medina]

That was. Yeah, that was weird.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

There's a lot of human juxtaposition this season, which is really always good. It's the vampires being like, well, you know, I'm gonna go hang out with these humans and do stuff.

[Mark Medina]

You know, that was her, like, thing from the start of the season. Right. Was that she wanted to, like, integrate with humans.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

It's so good. And. Yeah, it's.

[Damon Hatfield]

I just. I just watched the episode where the neighbor wants them to help him get a job at the railroad.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

And that was a good one. I like that one.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

See, I think this season starts taking off there.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that's good.

[Mark Medina]

They put in so much work. I. I love the shenanigans they just. They just get themselves into because it's like they'll. The. Yeah. They'll just do so much work for, like. It's like, you didn't have to do this, but they don't know any better.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Dinner party. And Colin Robinson's like, you want me to take a horror dressed like a Civil War ghost over these people's house? And he's like, fuck it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Wait, have you seen. Have you seen the Airbnb episode?

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't think I have seen them all. I don't think I have.

[Mark Medina]

Like, that's probably, like, the next one where it's just. They. They just. They can't grasp that other people are living in the house, so they think it's.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It's a. It's a vampire investigation episode, which is good. The vampires make a lot of assumptions and have to solve a problem that, you know, Guillermo's like, hey, this is the solution. It's very good.

[Damon Hatfield]

All right, that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Johan, who says, when I came home from the pub last evening, I watched the latest episode of Game Scoop with my cat. You think it. Oh. So I've always this. Back to this question. Final Fantasy 7. Is it Yuffie or Yuffie?

[Mark Medina]

Spelled.

[Damon Hatfield]

Spelled Yuffie, but I think yuffie sounds better.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It's Eufy. Now pronounce it Yuffie.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's Yuffie. Cast name is Yuffie. That episode that week really had something for both of us. As seen in this photo. As seen in this photo that I gave to Jobert. Okay. DVD on the photo's just furiously looking.

[Mark Medina]

For something right now.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

He's a. Is it Yuffie watching same.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's Yuffie watching same. Yeah, if.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Oh, no.

[Damon Hatfield]

We'll see if Jovir can pull that up. Johan says, anyhow, I'm a huge fan of video game 20 Questions. In the pub, I met up with an old friend from way back. We both grew up there. Zuffy watching Sami.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

So sweet.

[Mark Medina]

That's good.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

So sweet.

[Damon Hatfield]

Look at that.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That multicolored nose. So cute.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, but he's a looker. Trying to get there. There you go.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, no zoom.

[Damon Hatfield]

No zoom. Okay. So in the. In the pub, Johan met up with an old friend. Way back, he says, we both grew up with video games, but. But redacted. So My suggestion for 20 questions is redacted. And with that, let the questioning begin.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I'm so envious of pub life, especially this time of year. Right. Like, I wish I could go to a pub.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did this game come out before the release of the original Xbox classic, Phantom Dust?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes, it did.

[Sam Claiborne]

Great.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Did you see that? That's live online enabled, just in case.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it was an early Xbox Live game. Very early.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Okay. It came out before that. Huh? All right, so is this a game that came out on a cartridge?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Was it ex. Was it on a handheld?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. Was it originally on an NES cartridge?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Been a while. Been a while. We haven't got through the whole library yet, it sounds like. Was this based on a movie?

[Damon Hatfield]

No. That's five.

[Mark Medina]

Was it developed in Japan?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was it developed by Nintendo?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, Damon's trying to throw us a bone. Does this game have Mario characters in it?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Would you.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's sidebar. Would you count the referee and punch out as a. As a Mario character?

[Damon Hatfield]

I would have, yes. Okay, but does this feature in the audience?

[Mark Medina]

Does this game feature anybody that's on the Smash roster?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wrecking Crew. I think if they make another Smash. I think if they make another Smash game, Shy Guy should be a playable character. They gave us Piranha Plant.

[Mark Medina]

Mm.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I mean, Rob is in it. It's crazy.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it really. It really could be Wrecking Crew.

[Mark Medina]

Although.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is that Mario? That's not Mario, is it?

[Damon Hatfield]

Clue.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Cool Land is kind of weird. Is this from the before 1988?

[Damon Hatfield]

No. And that's 10.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

What. What were they called? The black box games.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah. That basically limited black box games dunking on junior math at all. Yeah. Let's see. Does this game have a sequel on the nes?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Does it have a sequel on Super Nintendo?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Has it ever had a sequel?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hold on.

[Mark Medina]

Three questions on sequels. It could be Wild Gunman.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wild Gunman. Or Hogan's Alley Golf.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That sounds like soccer sport game. Although Those are pre88 for the most part. Except for World Cup Soccer. That's a later one.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about Excite Bike?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, that's. That's early 686.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah, you're right.

[Mark Medina]

That's very early Skater Die.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

They didn't make that.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Is this a sport game?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know when they came out in the NES's lifespan.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Slaloms early. I think it's probably the NES Open Golf. Or that's Mario characters. I never mind. Golf does NES Open does. Golf doesn't.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Have we said the name of the game?

[Damon Hatfield]

No. And that's 15. 15.

[Sam Claiborne]

We got overconfident.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

No more burning questions. So we got. Now we're getting into serious mode.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It's just a dumb sports game that Nintendo made.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's surprising, but we've named so many of them.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, there's tennis.

[Sam Claiborne]

We named. I thought we said tennis.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that's pretty early, though.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Tennis and volleyball.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about, like.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It'S not.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not balloon fight. Not pinball. Those are too early.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

And Duck Hunt is, you know, clay pigeons of sport. Oh. What about World Class track meet I.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was gonna say they made a track and field game, right?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah. Yeah, that's probably it because that's from 89. When the power. Power Pad came out. Was this controlled with a wacky device?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about.

[Mark Medina]

The appropriate question would have been, have we now said the name of the game?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

No. No, no, no, no.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sam. What about. I don't even know the name. What about the hockey game?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah. I don't think Nintendo just made one called Ice Hockey.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right. They made. They made one.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Mm. That's just called Ice Hockey. Yeah. They didn't do Blades of Steel. That's Konami.

[Sam Claiborne]

No. Right.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

So it could be Ice Hockey. That's a little bit later for them. That could be that.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about Startropics?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, it's a good sport. Sport. Classic sport.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah. Do we know it's a sports game?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, he said sports.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

We confirmed it's sports.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. What about. There's a wrestling one, right?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah, there's Nintendo wrestling. I think that's pre 88, though. I think ice hockey is a really good guess, you know? Is this. Is this a hockey game?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Hey, there we go.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Yeah. Is this. Is it ice hockey?

[Damon Hatfield]

It is. Ice hockey. 1988 from Nintendo.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Nice.

[Damon Hatfield]

88.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

See, it cuts out the black box games, but doesn't cut out ice hockey, which is early. Yeah, not a black box game.

[Damon Hatfield]

So it'd be a blue box game. It has that blue cover with just the goalie on it, right?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Very.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is the one that I had. I didn't have Blades of Steel. I always like to play as the skinny guys.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I love how it has just the three body types in it. It's very clever.

[Mark Medina]

This game looks fun. It looks fun.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Why isn't this a Smash character? You could be the big boy, the hockey guy.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's a pretty good. That's my favorite thing in Smash, there's always two or three characters that are just so weird.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

What if it was the whole ice hockey team? So you played as the three characters and some jumble, like you do with a lot of the characters.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Or like you can swap between small, medium, and large.

[Mark Medina]

It's like they put Little Mac in there. So it's like you would think that they would figure something out.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

This guy was going to a pub and playing ice hockey.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, what he said is in the game. I met up with an old friend. We both grew up with video games, but he stayed with the retro side of it. Still playing the stuff we played as kids. As I've never stopped keeping up, I'VE been doing so for decades now. My suggestion for 20 questions is a game we started talking about at that publisher and a game we both loved as kids, ice hockey. Personally, I think it doesn't get the respect and attention it deserves when it comes to that specific genre. Still to this day, it has a great mix of easy to get into gameplay, but also depth to make it fun to keep playing even to this day. It also has a connection between your country and mine. Thanks for your great show and greetings from Gothenburg, Sweden.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Oh, from Sweden. That makes sense. Okay, okay, okay.

[Mark Medina]

Look at that audience, man. It's just a million of the same audiences.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I love the tangles you can get in. Look at everybody piles on. Yeah, that's so funny. Yeah. This game is. This type of game is just a really fun game. What is happening there? Are you getting sidelined?

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, yeah. He's being sent a timeout in the penalty box.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Nicely, Job. Thank you for the suggestion, Johan. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the address gamescoopijin.com and that is all the scoops for you this week. Remember, we got some fun episodes coming up next week. We're recording on Friday so we can talk about the game Awards. So the episode will be going up a little bit later probably on Saturday night next week. The week after that will be IGN's Game of the Year awards episode. And the year after that will be the Damies. Please be excited for that. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Mark. Thank you to everyone working behind the scenes here in the LA studio to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN gamescoop. And we're out. There it is.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

What a good boy.

[Damon Hatfield]

A very extremely talented artist drew this with their own hands.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Putting something up there for Yuffie this week.

[Mark Medina]

Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

Here you go, Yuvi.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like a hectare of rainforest was burned down in order to fuel. Provide the fuel.

[Mark Medina]

As an army man, I like that.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

The rain is happening. And there's also like, there's actually wet effects on the shoulders and everything. But you know, if you pan down, that cat would have human hands with six fingers.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, and viewers, if you want to hear the spoilers that Mark tried to share about Indiana Jones, just stay tuned about 10 seconds from now and you can watch them in the post credit scene. Okay, we good?

[Mark Medina]

For the record, I didn't want to show him. Jobert didn't care. Ripped apparently directly from one of the movies. And it's A bit odd to see in a game, I guess. And I was like, this is weird. I was like, what's up with this? Like, super dramatic, whatever. And my coworker, our co worker Mitchell, goes, well, blame Steven Spielberg. He's the. And I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, that's a one for one shot of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was like, oh, I didn't know Mark's over there.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, why is there this giant boulder chasing him?

[Mark Medina]

No, I know that from Disneyland.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That's where it came from. From Disneyland.

[Damon Hatfield]

Y.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That's why Mark's describing is the coolest thing I've ever seen done in an intro of a game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Awesome.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

It is so cool. They take a scene and they have you play through it and every single thing that you want to do as a kid where you're like, I want to see what's around that corner. I actually want to see what the sequence of events is more like. You can. Because you can just walk around and peek around every corner and watch everybody's reactions. Or not. Because it's first person for a lot of it. It's not. It's not like anything I've ever seen. It's so cool. And it reminds me of the first time I played Rogue Squadron 2 on GameCube, where I was like, whoa, these Star wars places are being explored in a cool way. And you know, I was like that for. What was. What was the Nintendo 64 game? Force Rebel.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, whatever.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Oh, I know.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I can't remember what it's called right now.

[Mark Medina]

There's just a stormtrooper on the COVID Cover?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

What's that?

[Damon Hatfield]

It's not Shadows of the Empire.

[Sam Claiborne]

Shadows of the Empire. Jinx.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

That one has some stuff like that, right? You're in the. You're in the Hoth base and you can run around it and let the, you know, ice monsters out. But this is. You know that when you did that in Rebel Squadron or, you know, it was really amazing because you got to see the flying around parts and then there's some on the ground parts and the Death Star parts. And like, they were rendered really well. They looked really good. And you're like, this is a really cool way to explore a great movie. And this game does that and then it becomes its own game. And it continues that feel, though, because you get to see all these other things that are set up parts of Indiana Jones and see what they're like and like walk around them. It is absolutely mind blowing. I mean, like, I Love Raiders of the Lost Ark and the first three movies I like a lot. So, you know, just, I know every.

[Mark Medina]

Show, seeing it now, seeing it now in the B roll, I'm like, oh.

[Damon Hatfield]

You'Ve got to watch.

[Mark Medina]

I get it now.

[Damon Hatfield]

You've got to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yeah, Raiders of the Lost.

[Mark Medina]

Mark look, makes me want to.

[Sam Claiborne]

Raiders is a perfect movie and there's very few that are like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mark Medina]

It's so cool because he's like, I assume he's going to pour out the sand and it's like in the game you do that and stuff like that. So I actually wouldn't want this moment spoiled for a lot of people. But by the time people watch the show, they likely will have already seen this. So it's fine.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

I mean, I didn't want to spoil it either, but here we are.

[Damon Hatfield]

But yeah, maybe that part would be a post credits scene.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

We were talking about it in general terms until the descriptions started happening.

[Damon Hatfield]

Hey, folks, we're the hosts of Comic.

[Mark Medina]

San, the podcast about comics for those who are Sansk Knowledge. I'm Yan, a reader, writer, liver and breather of comic books.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

And I'm Nat.

[Damon Hatfield]

I used to know absolutely nothing about comics, but now.

[Mark Medina]

So actually I've got a quiz for you.

[Damon Hatfield]

I still have a lot to learn about comics.

[Mark Medina]

Thank you. On Comic Hans, I make Nat read some of my favorite works in the.

[Damon Hatfield]

Medium, including Saga, Daredevil and the Flintstones. And Yen talks about what makes that comic special. Sometimes it's a story, sometimes it's channeling, gutters, page turns, colorings, lettering, semiotic structures. Okay, professor, save it for the episodes.

[Mark Medina]

You can listen to Comic Sans on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

You can binge.

[Damon Hatfield]

Our first two seasons, that's over 20 episodes on 20 different comics. And we just launched season three. New episodes every two weeks.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

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

[Sam Claiborne]

You'll be the werewolf then.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

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

[Damon Hatfield]

Declan Buchanan PI he has quite a.

[Sam Claiborne]

Large pair of antlers growing out of his forehead.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Join the unlikely misfits of Liminal Lund as they work to take down the.

[Damon Hatfield]

Powers that claim to rule the city. I think the queen doesn't like you very much. With incredible guest players like Johnny Chiadini.

[Sam Claiborne]

You say there's Sludge?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, Sludge. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

I'm the Sludge boy.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

F ing love Sludge Boy.

[Mark Medina]

No, again, I'm not that sludge boy.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Grant Howitt.

[Mark Medina]

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

[Sam Claiborne]

Who's Isaac?

[Ryan McCaffrey]

Oh, my God. And Sharmini Bundell. There's a magic community. There is.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yay.

[Mark Medina]

I'm in a magic community.

[Ryan McCaffrey]

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