Game Scoop! 793: Game of the Decade Watch Begins!

Summary

Game Scoop! 793: Game of the Decade Watch Begins!

Release Date: January 10, 2025 | Host: IGN

---

Introduction to Game of the Decade Watch

Kicking off the first episode of the new year, Damon Hatfield, Sam Claiborne, and Justin Davis welcome listeners to Game Scoop! 793, marking the beginning of the "Game of the Decade Watch." Despite challenges posed by ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles, the team adapts to remote recording with special thanks to their producer, Red.

---

Planning and Current Events Impact

The episode opens with a brief mention of the wildfires affecting the Los Angeles area, highlighting their impact on air quality and the IGN office's operations. Damon Hatfield shares, “[...] the Internet has been out from the IGN office all week” (02:00), emphasizing the resilience required to continue producing content under challenging circumstances.

---

Game of the Decade: Initial Nominations

The core discussion revolves around determining potential candidates for the "Game of the Decade." Damon presents his preliminary list of ten games, including:

1. Tears of the Kingdom
2. Baldur's Gate 3
3. Elden Ring
4. Hades
5. Resident Evil 4 Remake
6. Ghost of Tsushima
7. AstroBot
8. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
9. Balatro
10. Vampire Survivors

He explains his criteria: games with wide appeal, lasting impact, and ongoing community engagement.

Damon Hatfield [05:44]: "Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring... these games have made a real impact on the gaming community."

---

Debate and Refinement of the List

Justin Davis and Sam Claiborne engage in a thoughtful debate, questioning the inclusion of certain titles based on their influence and nostalgia factors.

Justin Davis [05:59]: "I don't think Final Fantasy Rebirth personally deserves to be a game of the decade contender. It's a great 8 out of 10 game, but not quite there."

Sam Claiborne introduces additional titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Animal Crossing, arguing their cultural and societal significance, especially in how Animal Crossing became a societal glue during global shutdowns.

Sam Claiborne [08:22]: "Animal Crossing was a glue of society when things shut down, which is so crazy."

The hosts also discuss the lasting appeal of remakes and their role in the gaming landscape, contemplating whether titles like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will gain more traction over time.

---

Emerging Trends and the Nintendo Switch 2 Rumors

A significant portion of the episode delves into the buzz surrounding the Nintendo Switch 2. The hosts speculate on its features based on leaks and mock-ups presented by third-party accessory makers like Genki.

Justin Davis [21:08]: "There are rumors of a Breath of the Wild running at 4K 60fps on the Switch 2... that's exciting but also makes me a little sad because Tears of the Kingdom needs the extra horsepower."

They discuss innovative features such as the potential inclusion of an optical sensor on the Joy-Con, enabling mouse-like functionalities for games like Civilization 7, and the incorporation of enhanced connectivity with existing Joy-Con controllers.

Sam Claiborne [46:20]: "The mouse mode is the cutest, coolest idea. It makes sense to have for games like Civ."

The conversation includes humorous speculations about future Nintendo features and the company's unique approach to hardware design.

---

Personal Gaming Break Activities

The hosts share what they've been playing during the holiday break, highlighting a mix of classic and modern titles:

• Justin Davis revisits SSX3 and Burnout: Takedown Hell, drawing parallels between the festival vibes of Forza Horizon and the mountain tournaments in SSX.

  Justin Davis [27:00]: "It's like a big tournament and festival, similar to Forza Horizon's celebration of cars."

• Sam Claiborne immerses himself in Indiana Jones games, grappling with intricate puzzles and appreciating the game's depth.

  Sam Claiborne [30:24]: "There are a bunch of puzzles that have to do with gears... it's really cool."

• Damon Hatfield engages with the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection, leveraging features like turning off random encounters and utilizing XP boosts to enhance his gameplay experience.

  Damon Hatfield [34:26]: "I can just turn encounters off and walk back out... while earning points on rent is now a reality."

---

20 Questions Segment

A playful segment where the hosts engage in a game of "20 Questions" centered around video games, incorporating listener suggestions and personal anecdotes.

Justin Davis [63:22]: "Is this a console exclusive?" Sam Claiborne [64:03]: "No."

The segment showcases their camaraderie and deep knowledge of gaming history, as they attempt to guess the game suggested by a listener named Marcus from Chicago—ultimately identifying it as Octopath Traveler 2.

---

Engagement and Community Interaction

The hosts emphasize the importance of listener engagement, encouraging fans to join their Facebook group and participate in discussions.

Damon Hatfield [56:23]: "We can never use him again."

They also highlight Greg Kelly's creation of a tool that links to random "20 Questions" segments from past episodes, enhancing listener interaction and content longevity.

Damon Hatfield [62:07]: "It's a simple site that anytime you load the page, it will link to a random video game 20 question segment from a game scoop episode over the years."

---

Closing Remarks and Future Outlook

Concluding the episode, the hosts reiterate their commitment to the "Game of the Decade Watch" and express excitement for future gaming releases and industry developments. They also extend well-wishes to listeners affected by the wildfires and acknowledge Red's contribution in facilitating the remote recording.

Damon Hatfield [71:06]: "If you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at gamescoop.com."

---

Notable Quotes

• Sam Claiborne [02:55]: "It's like a huge environmental catastrophe."
• Damon Hatfield [22:14]: "My personal pick would be Elden Ring out of the decade so far."
• Justin Davis [33:54]: "Once a video game is 20 years old, the keys to it are just given to the players."
• Sam Claiborne [55:42]: "It's a troll. I know exactly what you're talking about."

---

Conclusion

Game Scoop! 793 successfully inaugurates the "Game of the Decade Watch," offering in-depth discussions on influential games, engaging segments like "20 Questions," and insightful debates on industry trends and upcoming releases. The episode balances expert analysis with personal gaming experiences, ensuring both informative and entertaining content for its audience.

Transcript

[Damon Hatfield]

Planning any exciting trips this year. I bet something you might not be planning is learning the local language. Well, with Babbel you only need a few weeks to learn. This year, Speak like a whole new you with Babbel, the language learning app that gets you talking. Babbel's quick 10 minute lessons, handcrafted by over 200 language experts, get you to begin speaking your new language in three weeks or whatever pace you choose. And because conversing is the key to really understanding each other in new languages, Babbel is designed using practical real world conversations. Babbel's tips and tools are inspired by the real life stuff you actually need when communicating with with a focus on conversation, you'll be ready to talk wherever you go. I took a trip to Mexico last year and used Babbel to brush up on my Spanish. Babbel is useful for learning an entirely new language, but also for those who, like me, hadn't used a second language in many years and needed some refreshers. Need proof that Babbel gets you talking? Studies from Yale, Michigan State and other leading universities continue to prove Babbel works. One study found that using Babbel for 15 hours is equivalent to a full semester at College. With over 16 million subscriptions sold. Baker Babbel's 14 award winning language courses are backed by a 20 day money back guarantee this year. Get talking with Babbel. Now let's get more of you talking in a new language. Babbel is gifting our listeners 60% off [e-mail] Gamescoop get up to 60% [e-mail] GamesCoop spelled B-A B-B-E-L.com Gamescoop babbel.com Gamescoop rules and restrictions may apply.

[Justin Davis]

If you.

[Damon Hatfield]

Need three new reasons to love Jackraps at Jack in the Box even more. Here they are.

[Justin Davis]

Chicken fajita, Chicken Caesar and delicious starting at $3.

[Damon Hatfield]

Coincidentally, those are the same three reasons you should come to Jack in the.

[Justin Davis]

Box right now at Jack, every bite's a big deal.

[Damon Hatfield]

What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN gamescoop, the first scoop of the new year. So happy Scoop year to all of Scoop Nation. I'm your host, Scoopy Happier. Joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey happy scoopier everybody.

[Damon Hatfield]

And Justin Davis.

[Justin Davis]

Happy scoop scoop everybody.

[Damon Hatfield]

We've got a great show for you this week. In spite of the fact that as even as of this morning we weren't sure if we would be able to record a Show, you've probably heard there are devastating wildfires that are raging around large parts of Los Angeles right now. So thankfully my. I and my family are. Are pretty far south of the fires, so we're not in danger of the fires. It's completely effed up our air, though. Our air quality is just in the crapper right now and it's going to be.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. If you haven't been near a wildfire in your life, you learn this, you know, rapidly when you move to California. But when. When the air quality gets bad, you know, it's really scary and bad for everybody involved in the fire. But for the huge area around it, you really can't go outside. You can't do anything. If you bike to work or you walk to work, it's really difficult. You know, you have to wear a mask and all these other situations, it's like. It's like a huge environmental catastrophe.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. So we're all staying inside, windows closed. We've got multiple air purifiers running in the house now. The IGEN office is closer to the fire. It's not, as of now, it has not been an actual danger zone that has to be evacuated, but it's pretty close. And the Internet has been out from the IGN office all week. So even if we wanted to go into the office, we wouldn't be able to record the show. And several IGN employees have been impacted. Some have had to evacuate their homes and some. Some have had their Internet go out. So we only have one producer, exactly one producer right now capable of recording a podcast remotely from home, and that's Red, who's working behind the scenes right now. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Red, for stepping in to make the first game scoop of 2025 possible. Here we are. So, as I said, got a great show for you this week. We'll be sharing what we've been playing over the past couple weeks while we're on break. There's all these insane Nintendo Switch 2 rumors. It really finally seems like we're really just on the. The eve of this thing actually officially being announced by Nintendo. But first, let's check in with the listeners.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, hey, listeners.

[Damon Hatfield]

All right, listeners and viewers, remember, you can always reach us at the email address gamescoopgn.com just like Eric Orduno in Apple Valley, California did. And Eric says now that the 20s are halfway finished, can we look back at what your game of the decade is so far? We just went through Game of the year watch for 2024 and yeah, I guess we are halfway through the decade now, so it's time to begin Game of the Decade. Watch. We'll add it in post. As always, Eric says, personally I have Tears of the Kingdom at my number one, but I'd love to hear what the Omega cops. In the last five years, 2020 through 2024, which games have, have been your favorite? Now I took it upon myself to put together a short list of what I believe would be likely nominees. I have 10 games that could, I think potentially be nominees. I think if the wider gaming community were voting today and what the best games of the past five years are. Let me, let me run this by see what you guys think. I think this makes sense for games that have, you know, really wide appeal. Amazing games that people are still talking about today and will be playing into the future and have made a real impact on the gaming community. I think those 10 games might be Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, Hades, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Ghost of Tsushima, Astrobot, Final Fantasy VII, Rebirth, Balatro and Vampire Survivors. What do you guys think about that?

[Justin Davis]

I mean, I'm glad that you did that because I did absolutely no homework or prep of any kind. To be fair. I was traveling for work, so I have an excuse. I don't know. I mostly agree. I think, I don't think Final Fantasy Rebirth personally deserves to be. You know, that is a great 8 out of 10 game. It's not a game of the decade contender in mind.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about if it's combined with remake?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, well, that could be coming. That full package is probably going to be out someday, right?

[Justin Davis]

Wouldn't that be something maybe by the.

[Sam Claiborne]

End of the decade?

[Damon Hatfield]

Obviously there are a lot.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have some additions and some, some questions too. Okay, go ahead.

[Damon Hatfield]

Do you have questions about this list that I've.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, you're. I think I feel like your list is very contemporary. Like it may be it has fewer 2020 games than I would expect or 2021 games and more of the more.

[Damon Hatfield]

Modern Ghost of Sashima. And which is the other one? Hades?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I would definitely add, like speaking of 2020, that's a good reminder, Sam, because I would definitely put Cyberpunk on my list.

[Sam Claiborne]

One of them.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I think I could see a case for that for sure.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think sometimes I think that's a decade defining game because five years on it's the good game that it is now. Like, I think it's really interesting and, and like in terms of quality, it's a great game and Everything. But I just think in terms of talking about a game of the decade. Boy, we spent a lot of this decade thinking about and playing cyberpunk because it just stays around, you know, it's.

[Damon Hatfield]

Like Witcher State, which is like Red Dead 2.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. Yeah. Red Dead 2. Was that 2019 though? Technically, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not in this past five years.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I mean some of the character work in that game, some of the, you know, just the animations, the. I don't want to call it like level design, but like world design, just the urban landscape that they created and just the layers of sort of fiction that built up to make what that game turned into. It's incredible.

[Sam Claiborne]

Plus it's still the game that Nvidia shows new graphics cards with. Like what is happening? That's how long Crysis hung in there. Remember how for like 5 years Crysis was the canon.

[Damon Hatfield]

Run Crysis?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Can it run Crysis? Like that was longer than you think. It was like it went from like 2001 to 2005 or however long. This 5 years worth it. After it came out, I would add a really important 2020 game to this list which is Animal Crossing. I feel like it was, it was kind of a. It was an era defining game, a decade defining game and just a world changing game. I mean it was a glue of society when things shut down, which is so crazy. Which is. I mean that's five years ago next month, man. How nuts is that?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Completely crazy. And I think I reviewed this game too, so I have a special place in it. Not knowing it would be anywhere near anything but like a. Oh, follow up to the Wii Animal Crossing, which was like kind of a departure from 3DS and it was like contextualizing that. I remember finishing the review. I can't wait to see what people create with their islands. And I really meant that like I thought I was like. But then people are probably won't share them. We'll never see them. Boy, did we see them.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's a game that's impossible to sort of extract, extricate from like, you know, the events of the world in which it was released. Right. Like the tour will forever be, you know, will forever be linked. And yeah, I mean, you know, I. It was just the ability of, oh, you can't just customize, you know, your kitchen, your bedroom and your living room, but everything in the entire game and remake it all exactly in your own image and like. But you don't really unlock that until the very, very final end game. And then it Just hands you the keys and it's like, go nuts, do whatever you want. It's very cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, totally.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I totally acknowledge the importance of Animal Crossing. I just often forget about it because it's not a Damon game.

[Sam Claiborne]

It wasn't a daemon game. I know, I know. Did you. And you put a Resident Evil on there. It wasn't villagers 4 remake. Right. Which I think is the right choice.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I think for a remake.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I think that's really cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

I think that and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth are just, you know, gamers are very nostalgic. You know, they love revisiting games of their. Of their youth and what. And those are just like two examples of just their, you know, near their perfect remakes of games that were already beloved and near perfect to begin with. So, yeah, you know, it was beat. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was beat by Metaphor for our game of the year last year. But I think five years from now, I just think gamers, you know, they just tend to be more nostalgic and I think they'll have more a lasting love for Final Fantasy than Metaphor.

[Sam Claiborne]

The PC version could hit hard too. Like, I think that's going to be kind of a big deal. I mean, that brings up the Spider man games that have come out last five years too. Those have been good, but I don't know if they can make a deal list. So then Moving on to 2021, I had some. My personal list. I don't think any of these would break your top, but maybe would replace Balatro for some of us that would never play Balatro. But I really thought the Halo Infinite was a big deal and really. But it's really fallen off, so I'm not going to fight for that one. Deathloop I thought was super, super great. Like the more I think about how fun that game was and how unexpected it was and how bad they were at selling and I'm like, oh, that was a really cool one. I don't think it would quite make it, though. However, I still think about Metroid Dread a lot and I think about.

[Damon Hatfield]

I thought about that one too.

[Sam Claiborne]

That game is as like a horror Metroid game. And the problem with Metroid Dread is that it's going to be overshadowed by hopefully more Metroid games. Right? Yeah, maybe this is prime four. Maybe. You never know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I did consider Dread. I just. I feel like it. It had a moment and it came and went.

[Sam Claiborne]

It seems like it went faster than I would have expected. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's too bad. And boy, 2022 is the next year is pretty rough. Like, Elden Ring was clearly the biggest game of that year, but God of War Ragnarok was that year. And for a lot of people, I think that's their game of the decade. You know, I think Elden Ring.

[Damon Hatfield]

Is that what you're saying?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, no, I think Ragnarok was. I still think people look back on Ragnarok as a. Oh, I would be very.

[Justin Davis]

I don't think so.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't think that made as much of an impact as the first as God of War 2018.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, it's hard to tell. I mean, it's all part of the same game for me, too. That's just like Final Fantasy where I'm like, it's hard for me to separate this.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I'd. I'd be super surprised if that many people would pick God of War Ragnarok as their game of the decade. Not that it's a bad game by any means. It's a great game, really.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know. I think. I think it's a decade game. I think last. Every time I'm surprised to hear that Last of Us is people's favorite game of all the all time, then it makes me think that God of War Ragnarok is more popular than. I think that's like, you know, I think about Sony and how many more systems there are out there and how much that mattered, and I think that affects Final Fantasy, too. Right. Like, that's a similar thing. Well, I think. I think Ragnarok is probably more beloved than Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't. Wow. I don't know. Where is this coming from? I don't think so at all.

[Justin Davis]

I don't. I don't think Ragnarok is that well liked. I think it came and went and people said, yeah, okay, that was a good game. And then that was it.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about that squirrel, though?

[Justin Davis]

Squirrel was. He was very fluffy and funny.

[Sam Claiborne]

Speaking of squirrels, Tunic also came out that year, which is one of my. I would. It would make my list of games that, like, I found most enjoyable past 10 years that nobody played. Yeah, that's okay. That's okay.

[Justin Davis]

Tunic was cool. Tunic and animal, well, belongs to this subgenre of Metroid. Brainias of the secrets were there the whole time. If only you knew how to do it and what it all meant. And that's such a cool trend that's happening in games these days. And Tunic maybe is an example of the game that did it the best.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And then if either of you Beat Indiana Jones. I am playing it every day still. I'm 100% that game. Would that make the list without the recency bias that obviously necessitates.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. It's only being. I don't even know if it's a month old yet, so I didn't include. Just for. Just. Just for that reason. It's so, so new.

[Sam Claiborne]

I can't wait for PlayStation players to play that game. Like, y'all have something to look forward to. It is. It's an incredible game.

[Justin Davis]

It is an incredible game.

[Damon Hatfield]

It is an incredible game. Justin, did you know that you're in the game?

[Justin Davis]

I'm in the game. Oh, Pear showed me. I like, I see it, but I don't, you know, look. I like. I know my face very well, and I can, like, yeah, there's a character in the game. It's like, yeah. Pear thinks that I have a very striking resemblance to the. The British archaeology assistant that you have to keep rescuing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, the boy.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah. And I do, like. I do see it, but I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah, but it's funny.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have to look again.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm deep into the game in, like, the jungle area with the giant thing, and I've never run into that character that looks like Justin.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, that's funny.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I saved him twice, I think.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did you do a side mission with another character that accompanies you that's not your main lady, but a different lady?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes, I did that.

[Sam Claiborne]

I thought that one was really cool. The ending of that one is wild.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Yeah, man, what a game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Plus, there's a couple of, like, moments now where he's done the He's a Nazi thing. You know, it's so funny, like, from the. You know, when he's talking to his dad sleeping with a Nazi woman, and he's like, wow, she was quite beautiful. She's a Nazi dad. So great.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's good. Okay. Did you have more to add on to that, Sam?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, because then it gets us so modern. And I think your list was 2023 is.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Baldur's gay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I think I only have one. And I had. I looked it up while we were chatting here because it's one of those games that was in early Access for a long time, but technically it came out in early 2020. And that is factorio.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, there you go.

[Justin Davis]

Obviously, the most Justin of Justin games that there could be combines my love of, like, spreadsheets and just little guys running around. That's all I really want is just like lord over a bunch of little guys that are running around in a game. That's why I love Tropico so much. That's why I love Dwarf Fortress so much. And you know, so factorio A. I think, like, whatever. I've talked about it on the show before, so we won't talk about what makes it so great and so fun, but like game of the decade, in my opinion, it also has to have some kind of like, influence to it. Like there's a before and after. Like it changed the shape of like.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or you associate it with that decade more than any others because. Yeah, you like, it's like that, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, like factory games and automation games and like that's like a real thing now. Like, it's kind of everywhere in factorio. You know, a lot of that can be traced back to, you know, this lineage. And so like, I don't know if this was like, I was only half paying attention, Damon, when you told us we were doing this segment. So I don't know if this was supposed to be our personal games of the decade or.

[Damon Hatfield]

I want to hear it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. So like, anyway, the point is for me, factorio is both like, I think it deserves to be on that list from like an influence and, and just games industry perspective. But for me personally, I have over 400 hours in this game, which that's, that's gotta be a record for anything that's not an mmo. Like, besides, you know, World of Warcraft.

[Sam Claiborne]

And Latch, that makes me think, were there any live service games that have had such an impact in the last five years that weren't out and that were out in the last five years? Like Helldivers right now, you know, like, I'm just trying to think of like, what, what games like, are we going to look back on that? Are the fortnights of right now? It's really hard to say. Like, will Marvel rivals last that long? Like, I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, we'll see.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's really crazy to think that, like, it's just so hard to break into that space. Right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, everybody's trying my personal and just because the, the commenter that wrote in, you know, named like, I don't want to gloss over, like my personal top three would be factorio, Baldur's Gate and Tears of the Kingdom. Those are my games of the decade so far. So by the way, Baldur's Gate to the Kingdom. What? They came out a couple months apart. Like what? Wow, like what? You know, what a period for Bangers that was. And they're interesting, you know, they're a game of contrast. Or like Baldur's Gate. Like, look, I love it. It's one of the best video games I've ever played in my entire life. But it's not really, it's like, it's not really trying to innovate or do. It's just like taking this formula that exists and being the absolute best possible version of that thing that they could ever imagine there being just like a really capital C CRPG of just like, you know, you're going to get a party together, you're going to go on adventures. It's going to be really crunchy D and D rules and that's kind of it, right? And then just like polish that to a degree that's never been done before. Whereas Tears of the Kingdom is, you know, it's like, no, we're going to show you a different vision for like what video games can be and what's possible for them. And so I don't know, I love their kind of different takes on how they're going to drive the medium forward.

[Damon Hatfield]

I think Baldur's Gate 3 is like a lot of people's first time with a game like that. With the classic, you know, CRPG style game.

[Justin Davis]

It's really accessible. I mean, it does a lot to respect, like player choice. It's way more reactive. Like, I only played through it the once and I want to go through it again because like the amount of like 20 hours later, some character that you sacrificed or saved or whatever, like they come back around in weird ways where it's like, it just feels like one of those kind of impossible games of like, how did they do this?

[Sam Claiborne]

I've still not even touched this game. I cannot wait.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. When's that gonna happen?

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know. I need a. I need a bigger break to be able to do this stuff.

[Damon Hatfield]

You need a long Runway with when you're not going to be playing anything else coming out.

[Sam Claiborne]

I know. I still gotta play UFO 50 though. Which one do I choose?

[Damon Hatfield]

Very different games.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Sam, did you share your personal pick for game of the decade so far?

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, your list was really overlapping, so I just wanted to throw in that, that the metric game and then Tunic and then I think prime remake is really amazing too. I wrote out a list and so a lot of them were overlapping. But for me, Tears of the Kingdom is of course the top. People don't want to hear this stuff because it's like boring. So I was like, Trying to shake it up by like, putting in some, like, new things. But like, yeah, I obviously love Tears of the Kingdom. I was probably more of a Halo Infinite fan than other people, the single player. So that still comes back around me. After playing the other Halo games again recently too, I just played a lot of Halo 3. It was great. I went straight from Halo 2 into Halo 3. Could not believe it. It's in 4, 3 in co op, which is really funny. We talked about that on the show.

[Justin Davis]

The. The Tears of the Kingdom has performance issues on the Switch. Right. And so there's all these. These heavy rumors that the switch 2. There's rumors of a Breath of the Wild. I don't know if you want to call it a remake or upgrade or whatever. Like. Like that Breath of the Wild, that, that. Again, I don't know if there's any truth to this, but the rumor has it that they've been demoing Breath of the Wild, running at like 4K 60fps on the Switch 2 or, you know, whatever, some resolution higher than what it runs on on the original Switch. And like a. That sounds amazing and exciting. But then it also makes me a little bit sad because it's like Tears of the Kingdom, like, that's the game that needs the extra horsepower, right? Yeah, like, that's the game that, like, you could really feel it stretching the Switch to its limit.

[Sam Claiborne]

So I think that this year and whatever gets pushed out just of this year into next year will give this list, you know, possibly a third or half of the games on it. Like, I just think there's amazing stuff to come from whatever Nintendo's launch titles are, you know, Grand Theft Auto, you know, there's just a bunch of things about to come out which I think could be really, really amazing. So I can't wait to see what those are.

[Damon Hatfield]

Obviously GTA 6 and we've even got, you know, the sequel to Ghost of Tsushima.

[Sam Claiborne]

I know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Can that live up to the original?

[Sam Claiborne]

Whatever is going on with Assassin's Creed? I hope every month makes it better.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that came out today. That's delayed again by another month.

[Justin Davis]

One month is going to fix it.

[Damon Hatfield]

I know.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know. I don't know what that type of delay does. You know, I like Story is going to be amazing coming out of that game someday.

[Damon Hatfield]

I like Assassin's Creed. I. I want to play an Assassin's Creed set in Japan. It's just. I just. There's just like no positive momentum behind that game. Or at least that's what it feels like. So.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I agree. What happened?

[Damon Hatfield]

My personal pick would be Elden Ring out of the decade so far. My journey with that game is well documented on the show. I think the game is just unparalleled. Unbelievable in. In the scope and the sense of freedom and the creativity that it offers the player. And I'm starting to get a little sad because I feel it could be like once in a lifetime game. I don't know. No one else is. Seems to be capable of making a game on that level. And Fromsoft doesn't seem to be interested in working on a direct sequel right now. And who knows how long that would take anyway.

[Sam Claiborne]

So have you ever thought of doing a vegan run through and play without cheese?

[Damon Hatfield]

No, that's not.

[Justin Davis]

No, you could. I mean vegan runs really good. You could go through. You could try to go through Dark Souls. Damon or like Bloodborne.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I thought about Bloodborne is like remake that. I know, I know.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's just like play through blood porn.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, it only runs. It like doesn't run very well or something. Something like that. I don't know. I could check them out. I just don't think they're going to be as. They're just not gonna be as like open as eldering is right for sure. A couple other games I think are worth mentioning so far. There's Half Life Alex, which by all accounts is a worthy sequel to Half Life 2 and the best VR experience ever. It's just trapped on a sort of a limited platform that not a lot of people have been able to experience it, myself included.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did that ever get. You guys probably wonder the answer to this, but did you know if it got ported to just the Oculus platform?

[Justin Davis]

I don't.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't think so.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. Because I had to. When I was starting to play that I had got. I had borrowed a PC from work and then got an Oculus 2 as just the. You know, you can use it as a viewing device, like a screen and then it works with it. But now like, if I wanted to go play that, I was hoping by now it would just be in a shop that I could get. But I don't think it is. So it'd still be a real pain to get that game going, which is sad.

[Damon Hatfield]

There's Also Forza Horizon 5, which was our game of the year in 2021.

[Sam Claiborne]

But what were we thinking?

[Justin Davis]

Well, it's more reflection of 2021 than it is Forza Horizon 5, which by the way, I love the Forza Horizon. I did too, but it kind of like, it just kind of like snuck in there a little bit. Yeah, I, I was just thinking about. I think we're gonna. Are we going to talk about games we gamed over holiday break?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

So it's like, you know, I, I just a little preview I played through SSX3 over holiday break and then that made me think about Forza Horizon a lot.

[Sam Claiborne]

SSX3? Is that a new game?

[Justin Davis]

No, no, it's an extremely old game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. So there's SSX that's like at the. There's SSX Tricky. Is that what it's called?

[Justin Davis]

I played Tricky as well. But like the, but three has the vibe of like you're on a mountain and it's a festival. It's a big tournament and festival and it's taking over this mountain and it's the exact same vibe that the Forza Horizon games have. There's this big Forza festival and like a celebration of cars and like, you know, everyone descends on whatever location the festival takes in and like it, it, it, it's, it's just, it feels so good and it's so accessible and it does what I love about every sports and racing game where it's like, it's like 60% racing and then 40% just shenanigans. Just like, you know what kind of like crazy jumps and hoops and stuff can you get. Well, I'm talking about Forza now but like you know, SSX is the. Is the same and so are there anyway Cube games. I played them on the GameCube and then I replayed it over break on the PS2. So. But that's.

[Sam Claiborne]

They were also on other platforms. I think they're like exclusives for some.

[Justin Davis]

Reason that was EA or big.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, what's, what is it? 1080. That's an exclusive to.

[Justin Davis]

That was. That was made by Sony or made by Nintendo? Made by ead. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Crazy. Yeah. I've never played those. I want to play that. And is that the same thing as like Wave Race? That's a EAD game also, I think.

[Justin Davis]

I think so. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. The first 1080 I thought had amazing. I thought the snow looked incredible at the time on the N64.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I wonder what it looks like now.

[Justin Davis]

The same.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well anyway, the decade is only half done, so this game of the decade conversation is only just beginning. So I invite everyone out there in Scoop Nation to join the conversation. Even on, even in the Facebook group, which I like to give a shout out to. So you have not Joined the Facebook group for Game Scoop yet? I invite you to. It's a good time.

[Justin Davis]

Good people. Damon, Dewey, what episode number is this?

[Damon Hatfield]

793.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Wow. Wow, we're that close to 800.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Yeah. Seven episodes away.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I was gonna. I. I asked because I was gonna guesstimate that we'd be close to 1000, but we'll be way over that by the end of the decade. We'll be at, like, almost 1200 or maybe we will. Well, okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, maybe see what happens with this fire situation.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, we did want to share what we've been playing over the past break. Justin, you said ssx.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I went on a real journey, so I played through all of SSX Tricky. And then I moved on to all of SSX3 and I went through and beat that. And now, like, I'm right at the.

[Sam Claiborne]

Very, like, four by three with the GameCube controller and everything.

[Justin Davis]

Well, no, I am playing them in a way that lets you play them in widescreen with some sort of modern. That's.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's amazing. I mean, you own the games, but, like. Yeah, but that's nice, though. I mean, that's what always stops me. Right? Is that, like. Yeah, if I'm not playing on a. I, you know, I have CRTs and stuff. I can play on those, but, like, I want to play in my living room or whatever. I hate the four by threes.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I know. It's very jarring going back and then. And so then ssx. SSX Tricky to three. And then that led me to Burnout three Takedown Hell yeah. And I'm at the very, very end of that now. I guess. The game doesn't have an official end, but, like, I've. I'm on, like, the final few races of that game. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

As seen on 20 Questions.

[Justin Davis]

It's been awesome. Like, if you ever want to know. It's like I'm. I'm a video game fan of a certain age that grew up, you know, in the Midwest. It's like, if you're ever, like, what's Justin thinking about? It's probably like bombing down some mountain in SSX with, like, finger 11 playing in the background. And, like, I don't even like that band. But, like, when it's in the context of, like, you know, doing Sweet Kickflip and Tony Hawk, it's like, that's what it's all about, right? Like drinking Mountain Dew with the buds, taking turns passing the controller around.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's a cool holiday plan, too, to like, get back into that, you know.

[Justin Davis]

That'S, that's exactly what, like, absolutely. And then my daughter's like, are you playing that snowboarding game again? I'm like, leave me alone.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

So dorm room.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Cool.

[Justin Davis]

That was my whole break.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool. Sam, what have you been playing?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I mean, I, I, I've really been playing India Jones the very most. I, I, it, there's a lot of game there. And I know it sounds crazy to say that two weeks after we last recorded or one week or whatever, but it's just that's, that's been my life. I, I, I, I have some other games that I put on my like to do list for the holiday break. I had. I want to play World of Goo. Remember when that came out? Yeah, yeah. And then I had UFO 50 and then a few other games that I really wanted to get to. And I have them, they're all ready to go. I just need to find time between. I, all I want to do is play ninjas. This is just what I want to do. And I was out of town. I didn't have a game system in front of me, but when I was in town and had a game system in front of me, that's what I was doing. And like, hardcore doing it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Like, are you still playing through the story or just doing all like, I.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mean, the thing you were just talking about? Like, I did that, that part, it was like the most recent story stuff I've done. I've done so much like backtracking because you get, you get an item that you can, like Metroidvania into old areas with. And so doing that, I totally looked up a puzzle that was driving me crazy. And the answer made me even angrier. And so now I'm realizing that I have to apply what I learned from that to a bunch of other puzzles that I have to go back to, which I'm okay, so this is helpful. I'm not going to spoil anything, but if you don't want to hear anything about any puzzle solutions, you know, skip 30 seconds ahead. So there's this one area in the Sukhothai. Is that, is that the Thailand area? I forget what it's called.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I think so.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. They you. There's a bunch of puzzles that have to do with gears. And like, I spent a long time trying to make this one work in a side quest. And like, you actually have to go back to the place where you get these gears in a main quest area and take them with you in your inventory and then walk around the map and implement them to all of these other side quests. And I did. I. There's no, there's nothing like that in the game, you know, so it's really interesting. But that's. Once I realized that, I was like, oh, now I will solve all these on my own. It's all gonna be fine. But boy, did that stump me. And I feel stupid in hindsight. Like, I guess I should have realized because they do go in your inventory. But like, you know, I don't use my inventory. I just like, switch clothes.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's what I use my inventory for. But if you go in your inventory, you do see there's a bunch of other crap in there. And one of the things blew my mind that. Brent, I'm not gonna talk about it, but Brendan just told me if you like, look in your inventory, like one of those things has to do with like an end game puzzle. You're like, oh, I forgot I even collected those. And like, it matters later. And it matters for something you see early. And it's really cool. And it's kind of a troll. So that's the type of game this is.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's 100%. It's a. It's cool, but it is a troll. I know exactly what you're talking about. I think so. Indiana Jones. I said it before break. It was and remains my game of the year. I do think out of the three main areas of the game, I would rank them 1, 2, 3. Like, I think. I think the game goes from a 10 out of 10. An area one like a 9 out of 10.

[Sam Claiborne]

I like each of the best.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Then it's like the third area is like an 8 out of 10. Both from like a game design standpoint, but it also feels it's. There's more friction. It's a little bit. It's a little bit less polished at the, at the. In the final section.

[Damon Hatfield]

So there's only three main areas then. Because I'm already. I'm already in the third one.

[Justin Davis]

So there's three big main ones. And then I don't know how spoiler you want to get. There's. There's. There's more linear, like Uncharted esque areas that you go to. But yeah, three big open zones.

[Damon Hatfield]

Interesting. I guess I'm closer to the end maybe than I thought if I wanted to just power through it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I actually got a game for Christmas. I got the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection.

[Justin Davis]

That's fun.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's what I've been playing I started three, actually, from that collection. Just walking into the snow, listening to that music, playing through the first couple villages. Six. Yeah. Sorry. American. Three.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Japan. Six. It was so awesome. That was one of the Christmas, like, feels that I dipped into. Just similar to what Justin did.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. I've actually never played 2, 3, or 5, so those would be fun to play. But I've just been playing the first one, which has been really fun. It's cool. Like, the package is made to revisit the games in a frictionless way that, you know, so you don't actually have to play through the whole game from start to finish as you would have on the nes. It's like, you know, you can. There's a run button when you're in towns and dungeons. You can just turn encounters off. So it's great. I can just go into a dungeon and be grinding and then like, whoop, I'm out of magic and items. Let's just turn encounters off and walk back out. Unless I have the exit spell, I.

[Sam Claiborne]

Feel like I need to get a hard copy of that. I have a digital copy and, like, I just kind of want the disc or the Switch cartridge. Like, it's just like, that's the type of thing. Like, I want to be able to play those games for forever. And, like, those are really good versions of them.

[Justin Davis]

I think it should be a law. I'm going to call my congressman. It should be a law that once a video game is 20 years old, the keys to it are just given to the players of, like, okay, here's. Here's God. Like, here's Chapter select. Here's all the stuff. Like it's.

[Sam Claiborne]

Turn off random encounters, Right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, exactly. That's what I just said. Yeah. Once the game's 20 years old, like, you know, you can turn off random encounters. Here's Chapter select. Here's God mode. Here's, you know, restarts, whatever. It's fine. Like, we had 20 years to sort of have the, you know, you had. We forced you to experience it in the way the developer intended you.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then you can go to that elf forest and then turn on the random encounters and fight all those ogres.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, there's. There's one hallway that. Yeah. That had. Is that where it is?

[Sam Claiborne]

That's the. That's the giant hallway.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

The hall of Giants and Dragons. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Love those grind zones. And they made that as a grind zone. Like they knew what they were doing. So cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

And I didn't even realize this. There's an XP boost. You can just turn on. And there's several options. You can boost it by 2, 3, or 4, or 0.5. So, yeah, I just turned it to times 4 for XP boost. So then when I would get to a new dungeon, I just turn encounters off so I could find out where I actually had to go. Because that's so annoying when you're, like, fumbling your way around a dungeon and just you keep encountering. Encountering battles.

[Sam Claiborne]

Power they sent. So they sent out a free strategy guide.

[Damon Hatfield]

So then when I finally figured out the path to the boss, well, then I can just turn encounters back on, have an XP boost, and in a few battles, I've, you know, leveled up enough that I can take. Take down the boss. So all the bosses were super easy except for Tiamat, the wind dungeon.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, you got far.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that's right. I'm at the. I'm in the final dungeon now.

[Sam Claiborne]

You know what's cool about that area is that that's like a futurism area. And it's like, that's the. That's the taste of the Final Fantasy series that you get that is that Final Fantasy has future stuff in it. And, you know, I guess the underwater has a little bit of that, but it's really that Tiamat area, which is like that.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

So Tiamo was hard, huh?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. This diamond was really, really bad. I had to level up, like, 10 levels in order to be able to defeat her.

[Sam Claiborne]

I remember that marsh cave being really, really a wall in the beginning of the game, only because the enemies, I think, can paralyze you or something. And so, like, doesn't really matter if your leveling is going great because they can wipe you off. And then there's another cave where the Cockatrices, or whatever they're called. Cockatrice. That they can alternate stone.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

The game's just so mean sometimes. It's like they attack first, and then you get stoned, and then it's like, well, okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

I love how you get, like, what you're getting all these cool things in that game, like a ship to go, like, explore the whole world. And you're like, then you get the canoe.

[Damon Hatfield]

I know. You get the ship first and then the canoe.

[Sam Claiborne]

The canoe.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. So, like, I'm in the final dungeon, and even though I've been using the run button, I've been turning encounters off. I've been using the XP boost. I still put 13 hours into it. It's crazy. Like, it's crazy that this game was an NES game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did you get the Masamune Dagger for your white mage or whatever. Final dungeon.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, I have Excalibur from my knight.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's a good one.

[Justin Davis]

That's the second best one.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did you take that rat tail and evolve all your characters?

[Damon Hatfield]

Did you say, oh, no, I did that. I did that for sure. But then I have the monk. I think he's completely useless. I shouldn't.

[Justin Davis]

Do you have a weapon equipped to. The monk?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Or, like, just like nunchucks.

[Justin Davis]

So don't, like, use the monk. The monk does way, way, way more damage with. No.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. All right. I'll try unequipping just their fists, but.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't think the monk is in the original game. I think the black belt becomes something and then something else. Ninja who becomes the monk, who starts as a red mage.

[Justin Davis]

I guess I assumed when you said monk, I was thinking black belt.

[Sam Claiborne]

Black belt becomes the master.

[Justin Davis]

Well, that's what I was picturing.

[Damon Hatfield]

Something like that, anyway.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I think they changed them. I think they changed the classes. So it's confusing.

[Damon Hatfield]

An amazing game. Like, think of how many enemy types there are. Like, throughout the game, you're like. There's just. You're always constantly encountering new enemies. There's so many different weapons to find and spells learned. It's just incredible that they made that as their first Final Fantasy way back on the Famicom and nes. They also like how, as you progress through the story, you. You explore the world map kind of in a spiral.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's just cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's just cool and clever.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right, all right, all right. Here we go. Ready? Warriors to knights. Thieves to ninjas. There's the ninjas, the thieves.

[Damon Hatfield]

I should have done that. Should have done that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Monks to masters.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's. That's what I've got now.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't think it was. I don't remember them being called monks, though, originally. And then the red, white, and black mages become wizards.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

So I think. I think you'll like your monk master more when you unequip their weapons.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. I'll try it anyway. That's what I've been playing.

[Sam Claiborne]

What a cool game to play. And maybe one day they'll make another final Fantasy that's as good as that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Maybe. You never know. And I was surprised. Kingo wanted to see what I was playing. And I was told him. I mean, I'll show you, but you might think it's kind of boring. It's so old. But whatever. He wanted to watch it, and he's, like, totally invested. He, like, got it right away. You walk around, you bump into monsters, you. You choose to attack them or use a spell or whatever. And he like totally likes sitting with me and watching me play the original Final Fantasy. So I don't know, I might have a hardcore gamer.

[Justin Davis]

What a shocker that would be. How disappointed would you be if he was really into sports? You'd be like, no son of mine is gonna be on the. On the first squad basketball team.

[Sam Claiborne]

You gotta test him with the Matoya's cave riddle. See if you can solve it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, my daughters call those ancient games. Dad, are you playing one of your ancient games?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep. Here's a scoop for anyone who rents. Earning points on rent is now a reality. When you pay rent through Bilt, you don't even have to check with your landlord to start earning points that you can use toward flights, hotel stays, fitness classes, or even your next rent payment. Let me break it down for you. There's no cost to join bilt, and as a member, you'll earn valuable points on rent and on your everyday spending. Built points can be transferred to your favorite hotels and airlines and even the ones you haven't heard of. There are over 500 airlines and 700,000 hotels and properties around the world. You can redeem your built points toward. Points can even be redeemed towards a future rent payment or unique experiences that only built members can access. So if you're not earning points on rent, my question is, why the heck not start earning points on rent you're already paying by going to joinbuilt.com gamescoop that's J O I M B I L T.com/gamescoop. Make sure to use our URL so they know we sent you. Join bilt.com gamescoop to start earning points on your rent payments today.

[Red]

A new year means new opportunities. And if you've been thinking about starting your own business, let this be your sign to take the leap. Of course, this decision comes with a lot of questions like how do I get started? How do I come up with a brand? How do I sell stuff to people? What am I even going to sell? Well, if you have all those questions, you can take a deep breath because Shopify's got you. Shopify makes it simple to create your brand, open for business, and get your first sale. With Shopify, you can get your store up and running easily with thousands of customizable templates. No coding or design skills required. All you need to do is drag and drop. Their powerful social media tools let you connect all your channels and create shoppable posts to help you sell everywhere people scroll. And Shopify makes it easy to manage all the details like shipping taxes and payments from one single dashboard, allowing you to focus on the important stuff, like growing your business. The best time to start your business is right now, and with Shopify, your first sale is closer than you think. Established in 2025. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com realm all lowercase go to shopify.com realm to start selling with Shopify today. Shopify.com realm.

[Sam Claiborne]

Welcome to the ultimate social deduction game, Blood on the Clock Tower.

[Red]

The evil team must stalk the streets at night, hunting down members of the good team one by one. Meanwhile, the good team must outmaneuver the evil team using their unique abilities.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'd like to kill kick things off.

[Justin Davis]

By telling you all that I'm possibly the Demon.

[Red]

Our players can mislead and manipulate others with absolute freedom.

[Damon Hatfield]

I didn't like hearing my name in the same sentence as demon. That was very upsetting for me.

[Sam Claiborne]

Emily and I will be your storytellers, guiding you through every labyrinthian twist and turn.

[Red]

How are there so many evil players in this game?

[Damon Hatfield]

What's happening with guests from no Rolls, Bard, the Pandemonium, Inside Institute, and Oxventure?

[Sam Claiborne]

You won't be able to stop listening. Go to realmspod.com clocktower to find out more.

[Damon Hatfield]

Hi, I'm Laura Cathcart Robbins and I am the host and creator of the podcast Only One in the Room. Every week, my co host Scott Slaughter and I invite you to join us and lose yourself in Someone's Only One Story. The Only One in the Room has a wide variety of guests, from prisoners to abuse survivors to swingers. With 21 seasons and counting, we guarantee that only one in the room will have a story that you'll connect with. This podcast is for anyone who has ever felt alone in a room full of people. Which is to say that this podcast is for everyone. Okay, Justin is just back from Cesar.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

In Las Vegas where he did not see the mock up of the Nintendo Switch 2.

[Justin Davis]

No, I mean, other people at IGN did, but I didn't get to see it. I did see a robot. I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Explain the robot.

[Justin Davis]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did it make pizza?

[Justin Davis]

No. Well, I. I actually. Okay, let me rephrase. I saw multiple robots, but specifically I saw several pool cleaning robots. Robots. CES is a weird show, y'all.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, you were saying before the show, like why Are there so many different companies making pool cleaning robots?

[Justin Davis]

Yep. And then, and then everything is AI.

[Sam Claiborne]

They're, they're, they're basically Roombas, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Underwater.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, I had, growing up, I had a pool robot. It was hooked up to a hose, though. And I think they're hose free now, which, I don't know, it looks like. Would you empty out all those bees into the ground?

[Justin Davis]

I, I did get to go hands on with. I feel bad because I can't remember. I can't remember the company or the name of the product. But yeah, like, it was it. So there's all these handheld gaming PCs now. The Steam Deck's a hit. So, you know, Asus and Lenovo and every company has to have their own, Razer has to have their own. And one company is making one where the screen is like 11 inches. It's so silly. You're just holding this gigantic, like, monitor in your hand that has, like controllers bolted onto the side of it. I mean, it was awesome. But like, I'm like, who is this for and what is it for? But like, it's a cool product. It's a cool product to experience, not to put for sale and sell to customers.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, there is this apparently real mock up of the Nintendo Switch 2 at CES from this gaming accessories maker, Genki. They're showing it off for their booth. So, you know, allegedly they have seen the device because they're going to be making accessories for it and they created their own mock up, which somehow they're allowed to do because Nintendo didn't force them to sign an NDA. I'm just.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, they basically 3D modeled it. You can go to their site and look at the 3D model and then they like, I guess like 3D printed the, you know, stuff so they could put their components around it on the show floor. So we did. We just sent Josh Du over there with his measuring tape and got to hold it and check it out and do everything with it. And we published a story about it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Why would Nintendo allow this to happen? Nintendo's known to be a pretty secretive company. I would think they'd want to reveal the Nintendo Switch on their own.

[Sam Claiborne]

It must have to do with the shifting pushback date and how early manufacturers had to get this to make their stuff. And then you just get this big gap where it's like, well, they had to know the specs to be able to do this. They wanted to have it at ces, but Nintendo had pushed back their announce date. And so how do you Control that, like, Nintendo let their own cat out of the bag and probably had a really strict sense set of, you know, rollout dates and stuff, but they couldn't stick to them, so how can they enforce other people to.

[Justin Davis]

It's getting. It's becoming. It's getting very strange, obviously, with each day and week that goes by. But, I mean, like, look, this is speculation on our part, but that's. That's absolutely undoubtedly what happened, right, is there's a Switch to reveal scheduled that got delayed, and then it waterfalled down into all this craziness with third parties. We're like, but I have cases and accessories I need to sell. Like, now you've. Now you've messed up things for me at ces because you haven't announced that this console is even real and exists yet.

[Sam Claiborne]

And they seem pretty innocent about this. Like, they're not trying to be like, hey, we're leaking all this stuff.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, they genuinely said, like, oh, we thought this information was out there already, just from leaks and stuff, which was funny. And then they, like, generally they genuinely want to make a product and, like, nobody's stopping them either. It's not like they got like a cease and desist on day one. Like, we heard about it day one and then sent somebody the next day.

[Justin Davis]

It's very silly.

[Sam Claiborne]

And it's still there.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, we knew. Again, rumor, speculation. Allegedly. But allegedly, the Switch 2 has been in mass production for months. Right. Like, the Chinese factories that were making Nintendo switches have switched over to making Switch two. So it's like, once those rumors ramped up in, like, the fall, then it was like, oh, man, the floodgates are going to open. Right. Because you can have things on lockdown as much as you want, but when you have thousands of people making millions of these consoles, getting them ready for a launch, it's like, it's inevitable.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, they only made a thousand Wii U's total, so. And those leaked, too.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I do. Somehow it's. So it's either that or it's like that meme where, like, you know, with each leak, Nintendo's like, well, we were going to announce our console, but now we don't want to.

[Damon Hatfield]

They're gonna take their toy and go home.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Some of the other things that didn't come from necessarily cs, but from looking at the controller and people speculating about it, like, the mouse mode is the cutest, coolest idea.

[Damon Hatfield]

I like this idea a lot.

[Sam Claiborne]

Obviously you gotta have a coffee table or a desk and, like, there's all These issues with it and stuff. But like it's just cool. And like Civ is coming out for Switch. Right. So it's like it makes sense to have mouse mode for this stuff. And I don't know, it's just, it's just really neat.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. So to expand on that in case anyone hasn't heard some. Another leak from last week from a Chinese photos from a Chinese factory. The right Joy Con seems to have an optical sensor on it. And the theory is that you could face it down on a surface and use that as like a mouse to play games.

[Sam Claiborne]

Exactly. Like the optical laser emitter collector on.

[Damon Hatfield]

A mouse to play games like Civ 7 like Sam said, or first person shooters, you know, And I think it's. I love it. Like, what's such a cool idea? And it's so Nintendo.

[Sam Claiborne]

Think about how many years we've been idiots and we could have broken off the side of a stupid PlayStation controller which now looks exactly like a mouse. It's just like a PlayStation 5 controller. Snap off that side and use it like a mouse. Like we've been idiots this whole time. It's so stupid.

[Damon Hatfield]

I hope, I hope that one's true. I hope that's what it really is.

[Justin Davis]

It's going to imagine we're going to.

[Sam Claiborne]

Be playing with that thing on our knees so much and I've done that with a mouse.

[Justin Davis]

Don't get me wrong, guys, it's going to be so much dumber than that. Like look like, and I say this with love, but like this is Nintendo we're talking about. We're like this thing that, like, well, obviously that support for an optical sensor for a mouse. It's like. No, it's for taking your temperature 100%. You hold it up to your temp, your temple and then it's. Yeah, like you have a fever.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, you put it in a strap and wear it around and it just faces your wrist all day long and tells you your heartbeat. You know, never mind that everybody has a thing that can do it.

[Justin Davis]

It's a blood pressure monitor.

[Damon Hatfield]

The vitality sensor.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

But now that that idea is out there, maybe PlayStation can just have it for free. Yeah, because seriously, half that controller could easily be a mouse. It'd be so fun to be able to snap that thing off and just put in your freaking password.

[Justin Davis]

It is a really good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Still not a good solution to that.

[Justin Davis]

Like the more time that passes, the more I'm convinced that like the video game console is a little bit of like an old man concept of like Young kids. So it's like, you know, the video game console's been really middled. Right. Like you can have a high end PC or you can just play casually on your phone where you don't really care about your performance as much. Right. And like having a dedicated gaming device that costs a lot of real world money. They're expensive. Expensive. It's like, no, thank you. Like, I would like to play games on my laptop, on my phone, these two devices that I already have. And so Nintendo seems to sort of be very prescient and like, figure like, you need to have a reason for existing. This console needs to have a reason to exist other than just like, well, it's the only place to play the games that we make, which is what it is for Xbox.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's. It's brain temperature is the reason.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. So, you know, like, that's your brain temperature. Your brain fluid's looking a little low. Yeah, so. So that's what, that's what has me excited about the Switch 2 is like the form factor and the features and the functions, you know, and look, I like my PlayStation 2, I like my Xbox, but like, you know, it's a. They're. They're PCs. Like, that's, that's what they are and that's how they feel when you're playing video games on them. And the Switch doesn't. The Switch is its own thing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Damon, were there other. Well, let me. There was something. They said that it. I think Genki said, oh, the old Switch joysticks will totally. Joy cons will totally work with it.

[Damon Hatfield]

They're assuming that they will be able to.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I don't know if that's true or not, but I just thought that was a, A funny touch. They're like, well, there's nothing on here that would prevent them from. You know, that'd be interesting. I, I think, like, what would you do with that, though?

[Damon Hatfield]

You wouldn't be able to like slide them in because the joysticks are magnetic now and they snap on.

[Sam Claiborne]

You couldn't.

[Damon Hatfield]

You can sync them to it for multiplayer gaming for, you know, so just bring your, your joy, your old joy Con over to play Mario Kart, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. But you'd have to charge them in an old Switch, which is really funny.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Or have a charging stand or something.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What? Were there any other rumors to comment on that I might have?

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, Genki says it launches the Switch to launches in April.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, they wouldn't know that. So Nintendo does even know that.

[Damon Hatfield]

You don't think Nintendo knows now. If Nintendo announces this next week, I think they know.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, Ubisoft doesn't know when their Assassin's Creed game is coming out. Like it's impossible. It's just impossible right now to do this stuff. But yeah, who knows? So that's another one. Was there any other hardware stuff though? I mean, it's all pretty samey, right? How's cartridge slot?

[Damon Hatfield]

That's there. Yeah. As. As a. As a console, it's a little bit wider and taller than the originals, but I think they're the same width though.

[Justin Davis]

There's Micro sd. So it uses Micro SD cards, but not probably the one that we all have a million of, unfortunately, but a newer standard that has fast.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, are you kidding me?

[Justin Davis]

So it' the same form factor but like faster read, write speed. So like, you know, it's not kind of for no reason, like we'll get good use out of it, but like, you know, sort of the more modern Micro SD card stand.

[Sam Claiborne]

I was really hoping just to pop my. My card in my new switch and just have it work. That would be so cool.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, it's a rumor, but like in. In terms of rumor roundup. That was one that's.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's a C button. Nobody knows what that does.

[Damon Hatfield]

There's a C button. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Not a C stick.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, a C button. So Wind waker. Wind wake. A launch game.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

Because of the C button on the GameCube.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not an sea button. That's the letter C button.

[Damon Hatfield]

I know. GameCube met a C button.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it did.

[Justin Davis]

It was.

[Sam Claiborne]

Remember when it was used for camera and it snapped back to the center is so weird. Yeah, yeah, I saw. I think Genki did the speculation, which I don't. I don't think anybody knows. And so that has something to do with. They believe. They said it had something to do with a camera. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. They've had cameras forever though.

[Damon Hatfield]

I have gotten a glimpse into how kids play the Switch because Kingo Santa got Kingo Kirby in the forgotten land for Christmas, which he loves. He's super into. And since, you know, he's out of school, he's. This is his first game and he's gotten for himself as a gift and he's out of school and we have to entertain him somehow. So we're letting him play for a little bit longer periods, like an hour or an hour and a half. And kids, I've. I've come to see it begins. They'll just he'll just. He's like, laying him the ground with, like one leg up on the couch and holding a switch like this. Or he's like half on the bed with his legs, like, dragged on the ground. Just look at the switch this way. Or at the. At our table where we have a bench. He's like lying on the floor on his back, looking up and one leg is up on the bench. Like, wherever they can flop themselves down. They're like a rag doll. And however they fall, that's how they're going to play the switch.

[Justin Davis]

That's funny. Yeah. They have no body. Like, the mind body connection is not there yet. It's like, you'd be more comfortable, buddy, if you, like, didn't have your back all twisted up. And he's like, no, I'm good. Yeah, I thought. What I thought you were going to say, Damon, something that I observed with my kids is their willingness to play and replay and replay the same section and same thing over and over and over again. It's almost.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's what?

[Justin Davis]

Almost.

[Damon Hatfield]

If the game starts to get a little too tough, he'll just start it over again. Yep, he's fine with that. It'll just start over.

[Sam Claiborne]

Exactly how NES games worked for us, but by necessity. That's really interesting. Yeah, the. The original Joy Cons. And I think I mentioned this on Game Scoop and people were like, yeah, duh, does that. But it still blew my mind when I played a Warioware game. And you take the JoyCon and it has a freaking infrared camera thing on it that projects infrared so you can see your hand shapes on the TV if you point the Joy Con at your hand.

[Justin Davis]

So few games.

[Sam Claiborne]

And it uses that in the game. Like nothing uses that. Right. It's like, yeah, that's in there.

[Justin Davis]

I know. Like, for as brilliant as Nintendo is as a company, they're clearly just like, making stuff up as they go along. Like, yeah, this is the future of, like, what video games are going to be. It was used once and never again.

[Sam Claiborne]

I hope you can take these Joy Con and blow into them and they play like a little harmonica sound.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that'd be good.

[Justin Davis]

How many Joy Con can you fit in your mouth? That's going to be in the new Wario. Eh? That's what the IR sensor is for.

[Sam Claiborne]

But wear your wrist strap.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's going to be like a minigame collection of 100 different games called Harmonica Games. And it's called Harmonicade.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes, there you go. And then I think it'd be really funny if they're like, well, too many people are going to scratch table surfaces with this mouse function. So you always have to use it with the strap attached. Nintendo mouse pad. Which has a precedent because their mouse for Mario Paint came with a mouse pad.

[Damon Hatfield]

A plastic mousepad. Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Plastic mousepad. Did you see how people jumped immediately to Mario Paint?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

As being the.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, that'd be great.

[Justin Davis]

You can only use it as a mouse if you rub it. If you're rubbing it on your own chest and belly, it doesn't work on any other surface.

[Sam Claiborne]

At first you have to do a scan with the infrared and it's like. Yeah. Justin's chest accepted. Oh, man.

[Justin Davis]

One out of the ten things we just goofed about is true. We'll find out which one.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah, I wanted to say that. So first of all, yeah, please somebody help us fact check this. But I would in five years love to hear what our decade list was five years in. And I was going to say, Damon, if you just put that on a post it note and just put it up, then we'll remember to do it. You just need one post it note in your life and that would be it. Otherwise our fans could do it. There you go.

[Damon Hatfield]

Got post it notes right here.

[Sam Claiborne]

Put a blank one up and then you'll just remind you. You ever do that?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

What is that? Blank post it note. I'm too lazy to write the note.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, speaking of being reminded of things we've done in the past, we do have our. Your 20 question stats for 2024.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I was gonna ask. I thought you were gonna kick it off with that. Which Miyamoto has sent over our stats for the year.

[Damon Hatfield]

It doesn't come from Miyamoto AKA Big Tony style. This comes from Greg Kelly.

[Sam Claiborne]

Thank you, Greg.

[Damon Hatfield]

Else together says Greg says let me.

[Sam Claiborne]

Thank you after I hear the stats.

[Justin Davis]

Actually, I feel it.

[Damon Hatfield]

I present to you the video game 20 question stats for 2024. Here are some highlights. I declare Justin to be the overall winner based on number of games played and win rate.

[Justin Davis]

Really? Man, I was just gonna say I feel like we. I had a rough year. We had a rough year on 20 questions, but I'll take it.

[Damon Hatfield]

It says honorable mention to Nick who played about half the games but has the best win rate.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow.

[Damon Hatfield]

Your quickest win was. Was just 10 questions.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's because you always put me on with Mark. It's not fair.

[Damon Hatfield]

You got Balatro in 10 questions. That was your quickest win last year.

[Justin Davis]

Nice.

[Damon Hatfield]

Me and this year's hundred questions. It was your best one ever. Only you only took you 74 questions to get all five games. Your previous record was 78 questions in 2021.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, but we broke Justin and we can never use him again.

[Damon Hatfield]

Now you are currently on a nine game winning streak, and that's including the five games from 100 questions. So if you keep it up, you could beat the longest winning streak of 14 wins in a row. And coincidentally this. This was the very first 14 games I chose for 20 questions.

[Justin Davis]

What?

[Damon Hatfield]

When we started, you got the first 14 right.

[Justin Davis]

It was probably right around that point that we stopped taking video game 20 questions seriously.

[Damon Hatfield]

Or I was probably picking, you know. Yeah, it's the Legend of Zelda. It's Super Mario brothers.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

So here's the side.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did we successfully mention Prince of Persia? More than any other game this year, he.

[Damon Hatfield]

Greg failed to provide stats.

[Sam Claiborne]

That was the. We've tried so hard.

[Damon Hatfield]

So let's see. Number you played 47 games total this year, and you won 38 games. That gives you a win rate of 80.9%.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, that's really good.

[Justin Davis]

That feels good.

[Damon Hatfield]

Pretty good. Pretty good. Eight out of ten.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a great. Your average would say close to failing.

[Damon Hatfield]

Average questions for a win is 70.2 questions. Oh, and Justin, by the way, your win rate for 2023 was 79.2. So you actually improved last week.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, man. All right, that's good. I feel like that's a good. Like, Damon, you deserve some. Some credit for like, you know, four. Like we're winning four out of five. Like that feels, you know, dangerous enough. That, like, you know, it's not a given, but it's also not too tough. It's a good one.

[Sam Claiborne]

Damon screwed us. And I don't think I retract my.

[Damon Hatfield]

Thank you. Yeah, I'm not trying to pick completely obscure games that you'd never pick. I'm on your side. I'm trying to help you guys.

[Sam Claiborne]

I know.

[Damon Hatfield]

I've heard these things. Let's see, currently on your nine win winning streak, your longest losing streak was three games. You never went more than three weeks losing. Justin played 43 games, won 37 of them. 86 win rate for Justin. Sam, 42 games. 42 games played, 33 games won. 78.6%.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yikes. That's rough.

[Damon Hatfield]

You know who had 100 win rate? Rachel Weber. Rachel Weber. She played two games, won two games.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, man.

[Damon Hatfield]

100. Undefeated Mark played 18 games. 113. So he's. He mean, he's not that far behind you Sam with 72.2%.

[Justin Davis]

That is, that is remarkably behind though. Like, that's like, that's like 7%, 6, 7% behind.

[Sam Claiborne]

The easiest time in school in the Hatfield house.

[Damon Hatfield]

Mark is listening to this joke. Listen. Just trying to, not to hurt his feelings. Okay.

[Justin Davis]

I just like your response of like, ah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Also c is passing.

[Justin Davis]

Cs get degrees.

[Damon Hatfield]

So Greg Kelly did something amazing. He created a tool, an add on. He says this is actually pretty unbelievable. He says, I created this simple site that anytime you load the page, it will link to a random video game 20 question segment from a game scoop episode over the years.

[Justin Davis]

Whoa.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it links to the minute, the minute mark of it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. To the timestamp of a random video game 20 questions segment.

[Justin Davis]

And that's going to outlive us. That's going to be around forever.

[Damon Hatfield]

I know. So it's a, it's kind of a confusing. It's not an easy to remember URL. So I'll post it in the Facebook group and on my socials. But Greg, that's, I mean I was playing with it earlier. It's really cool. You click it and it's like, all right, here's a random 20 questions from 2019.

[Sam Claiborne]

May of 20 ends with. And that brings us to 20 questions exactly.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, it's really good. Very, very cool. I'm impressed.

[Sam Claiborne]

What year did it start in?

[Damon Hatfield]

I think 2015. I want to say.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, we all dressed so funny then.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I might be wearing the same hoodie I was wearing 10 years ago.

[Damon Hatfield]

Remember? Skinny jeans. Okay. And our suggestion this week comes from Marcus in Chicago. Marcus says my recommendation is the game I played over the holiday break.

[Justin Davis]

It's ssx. Tricky like me.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

It could be freaking anything.

[Damon Hatfield]

Then with that, let's let the questioning begin.

[Justin Davis]

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

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Darn. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe it's Indiana Jones. That's what everybody played over break.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Was this game, did this game get an 8 or higher?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, I like that question. Is this game, Was this game's price $70 when it came out?

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sounds like a recent game.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a console exclusive?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Was this game developed in Japan?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Can you play this game on the Steam delivery service?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes. That's five.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe it's Elden Ring. Was Elden Ring $60 or $70?

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, it was 60, but it maybe has an edition that's come out since then. 17.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I like it.

[Justin Davis]

And it's multi platform, so. Okay. So we Know it's multi platform. We know it's not new, but newer.

[Sam Claiborne]

Not every game is on Steam. That's a thing.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Can you play this game on the Switch?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. It's not Elden Ring.

[Sam Claiborne]

Would you describe this as an indie game?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Not a lot of Japanese indies.

[Justin Davis]

But there are some Cave story.

[Sam Claiborne]

He would know it wasn't $70.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Didn't that just have an anniversary? Did we talk about that? It's like 20 years or something.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know. Did he ever. It was, that was. That was, you know, many, many years before guys working on the sequel. Well, that's what's gonna say. Like that was made by one guy maybe, you know, maybe got some help with the music.

[Sam Claiborne]

But like, remember they got a 3D remake.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. And like, but like a game made by a single R2 auteur. But like, well before, you know, Stardew Valley and Balatro. Yeah. Undertale.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Back when it was impressive.

[Justin Davis]

I. When I. We're on a tangent now, but like I played Cave Story, you know, on an old, old computer and then had to. It was sketchy as hell. I can't believe my computer wasn't filled with viruses. But like on a Windows computer, like downloaded Cave Story, then downloaded some English patch that like patched over all the Japanese text to play it in English. And that's how I played that game first.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, so Switch and Steam developed in Japan maybe from the last few years. Well, because of the Switch.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was this, Was this a. Does this game have blood in it?

[Damon Hatfield]

It. If it does, it's, you know, negligible. That's. That's not. Let's. Let me put this way.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is not the focus of the game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mortal Kombat.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm not like booting this game up when I want to see a lot of blood and guts.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Interesting.

[Sam Claiborne]

Shirts from Japan.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, I was gonna say like, I don't even know where to like. So like a stellar blade. The blood question. That's a really interesting. Yeah, you're right. You're right. That's an exclusive.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you play as a human in this game? Yes, definitively.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Are you? Well, I don't know. I'm having a hard time picturing what this. I need to know what kind of game it is. The blood question really trips me up. Like every game I'm picturing now is like. No, a lot of shooting and stabbing and.

[Sam Claiborne]

Now how about this? Is this a retro styled game?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes. That's 10.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. Okay, so it could be like a River City game or like a Brawler or.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's one of the Castlevania or Mighty Number Nines or like, you know, one of them.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Retro style game. I mean, do we know. Okay, so is this game. Is this. Does this game have Maybe it's a mini shoot?

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, that one doesn't have blood in it.

[Justin Davis]

That might not be Japanese either.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, you're right. You're right. It's not.

[Justin Davis]

I think it's a European, but it could be.

[Sam Claiborne]

Also, it's indie though, too. It's like, what's. What's a major label that's making retro style games? That's like gonna be Sega or Capcom or something, right?

[Justin Davis]

Does this game have 2D graphics?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I think.

[Justin Davis]

I think. I think. Yeah, I think it's an HD2D game. I think it's, you know, Octopath Traveler.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this an HD2D game?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, so we have enough questions just.

[Sam Claiborne]

To guess them one at a time.

[Justin Davis]

Well, but that's against the rules. If you guess the wrong game, technically.

[Sam Claiborne]

We lose your new rules.

[Justin Davis]

That's a new I. Have we ever. A, I'm not sure. I mean, Damon, you're. You're a very kind, you know, taskmaster. I don't know you've ever strictly enforced that rule. But B, I'm wondering if we've ever lost that way. So I guess in the wrong game, the newest one.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Oh, go ahead.

[Justin Davis]

There was triangle strategy. There's the dragon.

[Sam Claiborne]

The newest one was the Dragon Quest.

[Justin Davis]

3 Dracoi 3 remake.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then that might be the most likely.

[Justin Davis]

So there's only four of them or. No, there's. Was it Live Alive Live A Live.

[Sam Claiborne]

And two octos.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, and the two octos. That's all of them. Right. Okay, so is this a draw?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Is this a remake of an older 16 bit game?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this an octo?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes. That's 15.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't like the first of its series.

[Damon Hatfield]

Nope.

[Justin Davis]

All right, all right. Is it Octopus?

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you remember the full name?

[Justin Davis]

Does it have a subtitle? It doesn't have a subtitle.

[Sam Claiborne]

No. No, I don't think.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Journey of the Cursed king.

[Justin Davis]

Octopath Traveler 2.

[Damon Hatfield]

It is. Octopath Traveler 2. Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

You got to 2D 3D HD remake really quickly.

[Justin Davis]

Well, Damon, there's a little metagaming going on where it's like. It's hard to figure. Like, hard to answer. Is this a 2D game or not?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I mean, yes, but also I didn't want to.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right.

[Damon Hatfield]

Don't want to give you the wrong impression.

[Justin Davis]

It's in the name of the genre.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep. This is the name of the graphic style. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. You're sure not genre.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Marcus in Chicago played this game over his holiday break. This is an amazing game.

[Justin Davis]

I never played it. I feel like it kind of came and went. Like the first one obviously, like took the world by storm, but which is.

[Damon Hatfield]

Weird because I think the first one is only on Switch or maybe got ported to other platforms afterwards. I think it's on and this one's available on everything.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, maybe this was super popular. Maybe I'm just projecting because I didn't get around to it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I need like a D make of this where they take out 60 hours and then let me play through it. I need the Final Fantasy one version of it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Wait another 17 years when they release the. The cut where you can just do whatever you want. That's right.

[Sam Claiborne]

You can just fast forward through the battles and then.

[Damon Hatfield]

Or turn them off. Yeah. Well, nicely job. Well, thank you for the suggestion, Marcus in Chicago. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address. Game Scoop.com and hey, now you guys are on a 10 game winning streak.

[Justin Davis]

I don't. Don't you gotta jinx it?

[Sam Claiborne]

Hold on.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is just.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't want to count five games from 100 questions. That's not a streak.

[Justin Davis]

I was gonna bring that up too. I don't know that I agree that with that methodology, but.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

It sounds like we're on a six game winning streak.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. Yeah. If you took those 100 questions, I'm.

[Sam Claiborne]

Not sure unless the other one, the 14 before, also included that, then it would be an acceptable stack comparison. You gotta do apples to apples here.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, sure. Well, in any case, you're off to a good start. And that is. That is all the scoops that we have for you this week, if any. By the way, if anyone in Scoop Nation is being affected by the fires in. In Los Angeles, I hope. I hope you all can stay safe and definitely thinking about you out here in Scoop Nation. Absolutely wishing you the best there, but thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Red, for stepping in to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN Game Soup. And we're.

[Justin Davis]

Sa.

[Damon Hatfield]

Sa.

[Justin Davis]

Sa. Sa.

[Damon Hatfield]

Foreign, ladies and gentlemen.

[Justin Davis]

What are you doing?

[Damon Hatfield]

What do you mean? Keep it simple. I'm making the promo. Just keep it simple. Just say, hey, we're the Brav Bros. Two guys that talk about Bravo. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we're the Brav, bro. No, dude, stop with the voice. Just keep it simple. I've seen promos on tv, dude.

[Justin Davis]

This is how you get the fans engaged.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is how you get listeners. We're trying to get listeners here. If we just say, oh, we're two dudes that talk about Bravo, people are.

[Justin Davis]

Gonna get tired of it already.

[Damon Hatfield]

We need some oomph. All right, then, fine. Let's try to do it with your voice.

[Justin Davis]

Brav bros. Good job.

[Damon Hatfield]

What's up, everyone? It's Noah Daniels.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, y'all. I'm jj.

[Justin Davis]

Hey, guys, it's Kat, and we're your.

[Damon Hatfield]

Host of the Real Hauntings podcast, where we bring on guests to share their firsthand encounter, ghost stories, and supernatural experiences. Now on to the trailer.

[Justin Davis]

I've been warned to not tell this.

[Damon Hatfield]

Story, but I think because of the way it ends, it's okay to tell this story because some people say that with certain entities, to, like, speak of them or talk about them or in.

[Sam Claiborne]

Any way, like, portray them as powerful.

[Damon Hatfield]

Will attract them to other people. The creepiest thing about it to me.

[Justin Davis]

Is a lot of times it would.

[Damon Hatfield]

Wait for me to notice it.

[Justin Davis]

Like, it would just lay its arm.

[Damon Hatfield]

Out like this, and then I'd be like, where is it?

[Sam Claiborne]

Where is it?

[Justin Davis]

And then I'd see it, and then.

[Damon Hatfield]

It would just slither back. For more information on the Real Hauntings Real Ghost Stories podcast, make sure you check out Real FM to learn more about our podcast and many other amazing podcasts.